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The U.S. and Israel carried out a massive military campaign over the weekend against Iran. The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Malsin breaks down the operation.
Lawmakers were briefed on the Iran attacks but the strikes were carried out without congressional approval. NPR reports on how that has put new urgency into an effort to reign in President Trump’s military powers.
Los Angeles is the home to the largest population of Iranians outside of Iran. Corinne Purtill of the Los Angeles Times joins to discuss how they are reacting.
Plus, a mass shooting in Austin left three dead including the gunman, OpenAI is stepping into a bigger role at the Pentagon, and how one Planned Parenthood location is offering spa-like treatments to generate revenue.
Today’s episode was hosted by Cecilia Lei.
Good morning, over the weekend, a monumental shift in Iran.
This is a very unpredictable situation.
In some ways, this situation was unthinkable just a few months or a few years ago, and
now you have a U.S. military offensive against Iran.
The Wall Street Journal walks us through the weekend's events.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill want to reign in President Trump's war powers after the attacks.
Observers say the efforts are a long shot.
Andy Rodney and residents of the U.S. react to regime change into Iran.
It's Monday, March 2nd.
I'm Cecilia Lay.
This is Apple News Today.
It's been an extraordinary few days in the Middle East.
We have hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including revolutionary guard facilities, Iranian
air defense systems just now, with the announced that we knocked out nine ships plus their
naval building, all in a matter of literally minutes.
That's President Trump in a video address posted on True Social Sunday afternoon.
Over the weekend, a joint U.S.-Israeli operation killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Hamaneh and several other senior officials.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed and five more were seriously wounded during operations against
the Islamic Republic.
Trump gave condolences to the families of those who died, but also warned more casualties
are still possible.
We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude
to the families of the fallen.
And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends, that's the way it is, likely be more,
but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case.
Iran retaliated with strikes in the Gulf in Israel, despite losing a significant contingent
of its military and political leadership.
President Trump decided to launch the campaign in Iran after the latest diplomatic talks between
the countries failed to produce a major breakthrough.
The weekend's strikes represent a stunning change for Iran's 90 million-plus population.
This is an absolutely seismic series of events that we've seen in the Middle East in the
last 48 hours or so.
Jared Malson is a Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal who spoke with
us Sunday.
You have the Iranian regime now facing a kind of existential challenge to its authority,
lashing out in response, launching waves upon waves of missile and drone strikes across
the region, both on Israel and on Gulf Arab countries that has caused chaos.
It has shut down the airport in Dubai, one of the world's busiest, and also caused a
surge in oil prices and really just created a lot of uncertainty about what comes next
in Iran in the region and globally.
The publication Haaretz reported that at least nine people were killed after an Iranian
missile hit a bomb shelter in central Israel.
And Iranian health officials in state media reported that a strike that hit a school in
Iran killed at least 153 people, including children.
Malson said that as of yesterday, it was unclear how long this conflict and the United
States involvement in rolling it would continue.
What we know is that Trump said this would be a major military operation that he says
is aimed at dealing a severe setback both to Iran's nuclear program.
He said he wanted to raise Iran's missile program to the ground.
He said he wanted to quote annihilate Iran's navy.
What we're hearing from sources is that this is expected to continue for days beyond that.
We don't really know what we also don't know is how long either side can sustain this.
President Trump also rallied Iranians who have protested in large numbers against the
regime to take it upon themselves to push for longer term changes.
I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment, to be brave,
be bold, be heroic, and take back your country.
America is with you.
I made a promise to you and I fulfilled that promise.
The rest will be up to you, but we'll be there to help.
Yesterday, Iran formed a provisional leadership council to hit the country after Hamine's death,
but an eventual long-term successor would be determined by an elected body of senior clerics,
a task that has only been carried out once since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
The New York Times reported that Hamine, who was 86 years old, had already delegated many
responsibilities to the country's top national security official.
According to CNN, Hamine did not have a declared heir.
The extent to which the strikes will lead to meaningful long-lasting change in Iran remains to be seen.
There's basically no president in modern history in which a government has been overthrown
through airstrikes alone, and that's what experts, military officials, and security analysts
who follow these things will tell you is that it's basically never happened,
and so it's an open question going forward as to what will this campaign of airstrikes accomplish,
and what will the Iranians do whenever it's over?
President Trump said Sunday he is open to new negotiations with Iran telling the Atlantic,
quote, they want to talk, I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.
Meanwhile, it appears conflict in the region has begun to expand.
Israel announced it carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut,
breaking a ceasefire with Lebanon that started in late 2024.
Hezbollah said in a statement it launched attacks in Northern Israel early Monday
in retaliation for Hamine's killing.
Hamine was a key supporter of Hezbollah.
Shortly before the attack on Iran, top congressional Democrats and Republicans,
a group known as the Gang of Eight, were reportedly notified by the White House
that a strike was imminent.
Democrats and a handful of Republicans have since raised alarms
over what could end up being a broader war that is carried out
without congressional approval.
The House and Senate were already set to vote in the coming days
on whether to halt further military action in Iran.
Democrats like Representative Roh Khan of California expressed frustration
that the strikes took place before those planned votes and with Congress out of session.
He called it a quote, slap in the face.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration will reportedly hold briefings
for the House and Senate on Iran.
Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee,
told CNN yesterday that he hadn't seen evidence that justified strikes
like the ones carried out over the weekend.
I think the president has started a war of choice.
There was no imminent threat to the United States.
So the decision to put our service members in harm's way
and bases around the region in harm's way was entirely based upon
the president's decision not an imminent threat to America.
Warner called on the president to come before Congress
and request a declaration of war.
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Ted Cruz told CBS's face the nation
that he had encouraged Trump to take this opportunity
because, quote, the Iranian regime has never been weaker.
Though he also said he hadn't seen indications
that the country was close to having nuclear weapons capabilities.
I don't have present day intelligence
on what progress they had made towards rebuilding nuclear weapons
since we bombed their facilities.
I have no indication that they were anywhere close to getting nuclear weapons
because our bombing was devastating.
In an interview on NBC News' Meet the Press,
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham justified Trump's decision
to order military strikes without a congressional sign-off.
This is a military operation designed to eliminate threats
that have existed against our country.
What are the threats?
Ballistic missile programs that were getting bigger, not smaller,
an effort to re-establish a nuclear program
that could threaten us in the region,
an effort to keep the proxy network alive
that has American blood on its hands.
He was justified doing this every present before him,
talked about doing it.
He actually did it.
He has the legal authority to do it.
And these operations will continue
until the threat is no longer there.
The plan votes to curb Trump's war powers
would be the latest test in a largely democratic effort
to prevent the president from further military action
across the world without congressional authorization.
It will also be a long shot.
For years, it has been a challenge for Congress
to pass such a resolution because in 1983,
the Supreme Court ruled that the president could veto them.
That's what happened when two similar resolutions passed
during Trump's first term in office.
Some Iranian Americans across the country
are feeling conflicted about this weekend's military strikes
and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Hamane.
While there's uncertainty and anxiety,
for many, there is also hope and cause for celebration.
That's the sound of Iranians in the streets
of Los Angeles on Saturday as they welcomed the news
that Iran could be on the doorstep of significant changes.
My reaction to this attack is excitement and hope
for the Iranian people, for freedom and democracy in Iran.
Every single people in Iran knew that the only way
that this regime is gonna go away
is that to attack them.
That was Mike Kazeruni and Sagar Fani Salek
speaking to USA today in CBS News in Los Angeles
as they celebrated.
The Iranian community in Los Angeles
is the largest concentration of Iranian immigrants,
people of Iranian descent outside of Iran.
Karen Prattell is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.
She notes that by 2019, more than half of Iranian immigrants
to the US lived in California and about 30% of them
are in LA County.
The bulk of that community was established here in LA
in the late 1970s or late 1980s,
immediately before, during, and after the Iranian revolution.
But there have continued to be waves of immigration
to the Los Angeles area from Iran.
Much of LA's Iranian American community reside in Westwood,
a neighborhood that's been dubbed tarangeless.
There are recent immigrants as well as those
who have lived in the country for decades.
Residents in the area spoke to Prattell
about how they are feeling in this moment.
There's obviously going to be a diversity of opinions,
but the mood for many hundreds,
if not a few thousand people,
who came out publicly yesterday,
just in this one area of Los Angeles alone,
was overwhelmingly a positive one.
Prattell says she was reporting from a cafe
in Westwood on Saturday when people began learning
about what was unfolding in Iran in real time.
I was ordering my tea and, man, it's burst of the door
with this phone news ear, like fist and ear screaming,
many's dead, all pumped.
I sat with a group of men who had heard the news
and then decided to gather at this cafe
to be able to just kind of catch up with one another
and say, can you believe this?
And everybody's phone was just rattling all over the table.
Text from friends, family, all over the world,
just in shock is very much for this community,
very much of a mood of celebration.
This was something that people had been waiting for,
hoping for for a very long time.
It wasn't just older Iranians that were excited.
Prattell says younger generations were celebrating too.
A lot of people I spoke with yesterday
were really pleasantly surprised by,
was how many of their children,
their adult children who are born in the United States,
who are Americans who don't speak far sea,
who have never set foot in Iran,
how enthusiastic their children were about this news as well.
I spoke with a young couple yesterday,
both of whom grew up in Jewish, Iranian families
here in the Los Angeles area.
And they said, we've been waiting,
we've been raised our whole lives in preparation for this day.
That this is, even if you have never set foot in the country,
this is still something that we have been waiting for.
Iranians gathered to celebrate in other cities also.
The Washington Post notes that enclaves and places
like Houston, Chicago, and New York
all shared in their happiness,
despite still feeling some dread about the future
and their loved ones still in Iran.
Meanwhile, several anti-war protests
against U.S. actions in Iran
were also held across the country
in cities including Washington, D.C., Milwaukee,
and Indianapolis.
And finally, a few other stories were following.
A mass shooting left three people dead,
including the gunmen and 14 others injured
at a bar in Austin, Texas
in the early morning hours Sunday.
Austin police chief Lisa Davis said,
a man drove a large SUV around the block near the bar
and then opened fire through the window.
He then parked, exited the vehicle
and opened fire in people as he walked.
Police confronted the man then shot and killed him.
Authorities say he was originally from Senegal
and has been a naturalized citizen for more than 10 years.
The shooter wore a shirt that said,
property of a law and another shirt
with a new Iranian flag on it
according to the Austin American statesman
citing unnamed officials.
The FBI joined the investigation
and as of Sunday, we're exploring whether the shooting
was an active terrorism but said it's too early
to make a determination.
Open AI stepped into strike a deal
with the defense department just hours
after the Trump administration banned federal agencies
from working with the AI company Anthropic.
Anthropic's model was the only AI approved for use
in classified US military systems.
Open AI now appears ready to fill that role.
Anthropic CEO wanted greater safeguards put in place
and said it wouldn't allow its technology
to be used for domestic surveillance
or fully autonomous weapons.
The Pentagon insisted it should be given
unrestricted use of NEAI deployed for military applications.
On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Higgseth
announced Anthropic is now a supply chain risk
meaning any business that contracts with the Pentagon
is barred from working within Anthropic.
Open AI CEO Sam Altman posted on X
that safeguards were included in their agreement
with the defense department
though it's unclear how those measures differ from Anthropics.
Planned Parenthood Mar Montet,
the largest affiliate of the National Health Care
Provider in Northern California in Nevada,
is hoping a new slate of unconventional services
will help them attract a new clientele
and confront a substantial revenue gap.
The Wall Street Journal reports
those services include offerings like Botox,
IV hydration for hangovers, cosmetic fillers,
and a paramedic puzzle concierge care program.
Mar Montet leaders say the soft-launched offerings
similar to those available at a med spa
help promote a larger mission of bodily autonomy.
They're also hoping the new business model
can serve as a framework for others to follow.
Last year, Trump's spending bill eliminated
federal Medicaid reimbursements
for the organization's non-abortion services.
Last year, more than 50 Planned Parenthood clinics
closed nationwide.
You can find all these stories and more
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are drinking much less,
a lot of people still consume alcohol
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But with research showing that no amount
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many are wondering if it's time for all of us
to give up booze for good.
If you're listening in the podcast app,
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