What comes next after massive strikes in Iran

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.

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many are wondering if it's time for all of us

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