The State Department is urging Americans in the Middle East to leave as Iranian attacks continue, including a drone strike on the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed Congress on the war and lawmakers walked out split, as both chambers prepare to vote on measures that would curb the president’s war powers. And voters in Texas and North Carolina are casting ballots in two expensive Senate primaries that could offer an early read on where both parties are headed in November’s midterm elections.
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(0:00) Introduction (01:55) Middle East At War (5:51) Congress Briefed On War (09:35) Texas and North Carolina Primaries
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President Trump says he foresees an Iran war extending four weeks or more, while the White House offers conflicting justifications for military action. The Pentagon readies for inevitable American casualties. And midterm primaries begin in Texas, Arkansas and North Carolina.
On Saturday, February 28, the United States and Israel launched a massive military assault on Iran that resulted in the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with much of his senior command. This came less than two months after the United States military captured Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, in an overnight raid.
The president seems to believe that he can decapitate these regimes and control their successors without events spinning out of his control. Is he right?
Ben Rhodes is a New York Times Opinion contributing writer and a co-host of “Pod Save the World.” He served as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and worked on the Iran nuclear deal.
In this conversation, we discuss the ongoing conflict in Iran, how Democrats should respond, and whether Trump’s “head on a pike” approach to foreign policy underestimates the chaos of war.
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris with Mary Marge Locker, and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.
Today, Trump officials brief all of Congress on what, exactly, the administration’s objectives are in Iran. Until now, the Trump administration has given conflicting accounts as to why the U.S. attacked Iran on Saturday, and there are many questions members of Congress need to ask. But will they ask them, and will the answers even matter? Nicholas Wu, a congressional reporter for Semafor, explains what Congress is likely to do – and not do.
And in headlines, First Lady Melania Trump presides over a United Nations Security Council meeting about protecting children in conflict, a House committee releases videos from the Clintons’ Epstein testimony, and it’s primary day for voters in three Southern states.
The Trump administration struggles to justify its new war with Iran, while Democrats struggle to effectively explain why Americans should oppose it. Jon, Tommy, and Lovett react to Trump's first live remarks following the killing of six American soldiers and dissect the administration's conflicting comments about the war's rationale, objectives, and timeline. Then, they discuss how Democrats are talking about it, why not even all of MAGA is on board, the Department of War declaring Anthropic a "supply chain risk," and the Ellison family's impending takeover of CNN. Then, Lovett talks to Senator Ruben Gallego about Iran and the Democratic Party's Senate primaries in Maine and Texas.
Last year, roughly 40 data centers in Virginia suddenly dropped off the power grid, threatening to crash the system. A WSJ exclusive from reporter Katherine Blunt details this growing threat to power grids as companies across the country build infrastructure to power the AI boom. Plus, WSJ reporter Sean McLain joins to discuss Amazon’s strategy for catching up in the AI race. Peter Champelli hosts.
If you’ve been on the internet in the past few weeks, chances are you’ve seen him: a tiny gray-brown monkey dragging a big, stuffed orangutan around Japan’s Ichikawa Zoo. His name? Punch-kun, or Punch for short. His story? Early abandonment by his mother, careful treatment from local zookeepers and instant social media fame. But are all the (human) primates jumping to Punch’s defense justified? And what’s normal for Japanese macaque society, anyway? To find out, NPR’s Katia Riddle chats with psychology professor and animal expert Lauren Robinson.
Interested in more animal science? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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Paramount Skydance is making a $110 billion play for Warner Bros. Discovery, and with it intellectual property like Harry Potter, Batman, and subsidiaries HBO and CNN. On today’s show, who is the man behind the deal? Does he really want to make movies? Will any regulators try to stop it?
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