The News Roundup For April 3, 2026

24:12They were all longer. This one is shorter. That's right, yes. How long each of them had taken, as if to say, you know, so far, as he's put it, this is some kind of excursion and it will be over soon. Now, you know, by the midterms in November, we've seen often enough in the Trump cycle, things do move very fast. You know, maybe the price of gas will be back down by then, But for now, this, I think, is alarming a lot of Republicans on Capitol Hill. Olivier, I've seen a lot of economists warning that oil shock isn't even here yet, that it's coming because of the way oil and hydrocarbon delivery works, that the worst of it is yet to come in terms of prices.

24:49Yeah, that's certainly something I've heard as well. I mean, there's a reason the United States has lifted sanctions on Iranian oil and on Russian oil, that they're desperate to try to keep the supply shock from deepening. There are a bunch of other problems. I mean, we get a lot of fertilizer for agriculture from the Gulf, and we get helium, which is necessary to some high-tech manufacturing from the Gulf. So those are other ways in which the conflict is going to squeeze the U.S. economy. And it's not, I mean, yes, gas prices could in theory come back down. But remember that Iran is damaging infrastructure in the Gulf.

25:26There's a Qatari natural gas facility that experts expect will require five years of repairs. So that's a long, that's a pretty long energy shock. And, you know, the conflict's not over. Iran appears willing to strike its neighbors and its neighbors' energy infrastructure. So I think in terms of economic shocks, this is just the beginning of the ride. Speaking of Pete Hegseth in the Defense Department, Janelle from Ohio points out that Hegseth also just allowed servicemen and women to have personal firearms on base and in the barracks. Another change. I don't know if anybody wants to comment on that change.

26:01I've seen several former officers say from their perspective, it's a terrible idea to have live firearms in the barracks, but I'm no expert. Does anybody want to comment on that change at the Pentagon? Not right now, coming from Janelle. Well, it's a good point, Janelle, and news that Pete Hegseth made yesterday in his many changes at the Pentagon. Alana, sure. Meanwhile, we have new jobs numbers this morning, a bright spot for the economy. We're going to talk about pressures of the Iran war on people's personal economy. But the Labor Department says the U.S. economy added 178 ,000 jobs in March.

26:39That's a big number. Um, economists have been warning Alana that the Iran war is putting downward pressure on a labor market that is slowing overall. How do you look at the numbers today in that context? 178 ,000 jobs in March. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's better news than the Trump administration was probably bracing for, but I don't think this is going to substantially change the narrative of what they call a low-hire, low-fire labor market. I mean, you're seeing big exceptions, right? Like big layoffs at Oracle and other companies, but generally people are kind of stuck in place. Like when you get a great interest rate on your mortgage and you don't really want to get 6%, you just kind of stay where you are.

27:17That's the way this labor market has been perceived as, and it will probably continue to be so, even more so with war stress. So, you know, better than expected jobs report, but keep in mind, they also ratcheted down February's estimate, which was kind of devastating for the administration. Yeah, those numbers can be revised down later, and we will be following that. One more example of mass layoffs before we take a break, not necessarily connected to the war. This time at software giant Oracle, mass layoffs, up to 30 ,000 people notified they were out of a job via email. And that company, as of May 2025, employed 162 ,000 people.

27:53Oracle isn't the first tech company firing people by the thousands. Amazon laid off as many as 30 ,000 white-collar workers last year. David Smith, what does this say about the state of the tech sector and jobs in the tech sector? I'm not an expert in that, but when you were talking, my first assumption was, oh, is this AI related? Because the answer is yes. How did I guess the way AI is just taking a scythe to so obviously so many information jobs, but especially coding and software as a service. It's this huge rupture, which of course could be a canary in the coal mine for other sectors of the job market as well.

28:32And I think always interesting to see what will be the political effects downstream. Pressures on the job market. We'll talk a lot more about it. And we'll talk about maybe a deal to reopen DHS. It's a dodgy one. More in a moment.

28:52Welcome back. It's the News Roundup. Back in December 1968, Apollo 8 became the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit and reach the moon. The three-man crew circled the moon 10 times over the course of 20 hours. Well, Apollo, it turns out, had a twin sister, and her name was Artemis. And now, in 2026, Artemis, well, she has a mission. Four, three, two, one, booster ignition, and liftoff. The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity's next great voyage begins. A picture-perfect launch for NASA's SLS rocket, and now the four-person crew of Artemis II is coasting toward the moon as I speak.

29:41They're expected to reach orbit on Monday night. No moon landing on this mission, just like Apollo 8. It's a flyby. It's a test mission and a dress rehearsal. Astronauts are testing out equipment like service module thrusters, known as the RCS, navigation programs. Also, what astronaut can bear to be away from Earth on a 10-day mission and not be able to check their email? And I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working. If you want to remote in and check Optimus on those two Outlooks, that would be awesome. Yep, Outlook went down for a little while while the Orion crew capsule was in orbit.

30:17But that's the point of this lunar orbit mission, to work out the kinks for future moon landing. The mission will also send the astronauts 5 ,000 miles behind the moon. That's a lot further than Apollo 8, which was in a 60-mile orbit in its 10 orbits around the moon. 5 ,000 miles around the back of the moon. And that means it'll set a record for the furthest distance human beings have ever been from this planet. About 252 ,000 miles, if you want to know. Now, in astronomical terms, that's not much. It's just a step out the door. But it's something. And it's something important. Here's to many more millions of miles in the future.

30:58Well, back on Earth, a new deal between President Trump and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill is supposed to defuse the nearly 50-day standoff and the shutdown of DHS, the Department of Homeland Security. But, David, the issue of funding ICE is fractious. Republicans right now are arguably even more fractious than that issue. what's the deal? Will it work? Can it work? Yeah, I mean, it does seem very messy. We're seeing here how the sausage gets made. And one of the battles seems to be between House Republicans and Republicans in the Senate. And I mean, my understanding, the current compromise is a two-track process where most of DHS would get funded in a new bill.

31:49And the Senate came up with that. and at first the House was unenthusiastic. Mike Johnson described it as a joke. Sure did. Yeah. Then they seemed to be back on board, but apparently yesterday there were still concerns being raised. And then separately ICE and board patrol would get done through the reconciliation process. I think Democrats are feeling quite good about all this. I mean, they're certainly harnessing some of that energy, the backlash against what happened in Minneapolis. They've remained united on this front and they're watching Republicans kind of at each other's throats. And again, it's probably good for the party ahead of the midterms.

32:23Alana, sure. I mean, this deal on the face of it appears to give Republicans what they wanted, funding DHS, funding ICE and Border Patrol with no reforms, right? Democrats have been gunning for big reforms to ICE after the killings in Minneapolis in the crackdown. So why are House Republicans so darn angry about this? Well, a lot of it traces back to the fight over what Trump calls Save America. and I just call it voter ID and citizenship verification for voting, which is a huge Trump priority that he's basically still pushing to break the Senate filibuster over. And House Republicans are kind of champing at the bit to force the Senate to go their way on this voter ID bill.

33:03And now instead they're being told, don't worry, don't worry, we're going to smush this Trump Act voter bill in with reconciliation, even though, let's be clear, the rules of reconciliation won't allow for that. Essentially, although on paper House Republicans are getting what they want, But in practice, telling them to do this through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process feels like kind of an insult because it's going to be really hard and basically impossible to get everything they're being told to get done done. They've spent the last several many years, Alana Shor, abrogating their power to the executive.

33:36And now the executive's telling them what to do with their appropriations votes. And all of a sudden, they don't like it. Well, it is a little bit ironic, isn't it, that now they're starting to assert their power at their lowest possible point. But that is more or less what's happening. Back on the issue of jobs numbers, which we talked about just a couple of moments ago, strong jobs numbers in the latest Labor Department report, 178 ,000 in March. But we got this question from all over the country. Candy in Cape Cod. Tom asks. Kit asks. They all ask the same question. Can you actually believe job numbers from this administration and from this labor department right now?

34:13Olivier Knox, a lot of people are asking that question, whether they can trust some of the driest numbers that usually come out of the U.S. government. The short answer is yes. You've got a lot of career people who are getting – putting these numbers together. The trust issue comes in more just concerns about future revisions, concerns about accuracy of these numbers, but not because of political tampering, just because of statistical noise, which is what we've seen in a lot of the revisions. Just remember that over time, the jobs numbers have gotten more and more and more accurate. So even when you see some dramatic revisions, still historically, these are fine.

34:50But again, even when they're led by political appointees, this process is really driven by a lot of career people who care a lot about being accurate. The career people still care about being accurate inside the Bureau of Labor Statistics, says Olivier Knox from U.S. News & World Report. Now, as we wait to see how, if the House will handle that DHS funding bill, the shutdown continues. TSA is now getting paid thanks to an order from President Trump. two full paychecks now after missing one part, missing one partial and two full paychecks now getting paid. Um, unclear now though, whether ICE agents who were placed in airports will remain there even after the shutdown is older.

35:33Here's the borders are Tom Homan on CBS's face the nation earlier this week. Look, we're going to continue a nice presence there and until the airports feel like they're in 100%, you know, in a posture where they can do normal operations. If less TSA agents come back, that means we'll keep more ICE agents there. Olivier, is it clear what ICE agents have actually been doing at airports and what they would be doing if they remained after the shutdown? The short answer is no, it's not clear. ICE agents are not trained the same way as TSA agents. So one of the big concerns when this deployment was announced, is just what can ICE do?

36:10The theory of the case was that ICE would take over some security features like guarding certain doors and things like that so that more TSA agents could be put on reading scanners, x-raying bags, etc. But as Tom Homan alluded here, what we don't know yet is how many TSA agents decided that this shutdown was a bridge too far for them and they're just going to leave the agency entirely. We saw some really spectacularly high call-out rates. I think the airport in Houston had as many as 40 % of TSA agents say, you know, call in sick, call in just not showing up for work. And we have to wait to see whether the end of this shutdown, the TSA getting paid, and then maybe the end of the shutdown, whether that brings these folks back or not.

36:54One note on the apparent interaction between TSA and ICE, a New York Times investigation this week revealed that TSA is sharing the names and birthdates of travelers believed to be undocumented with ICE when they pass through airports. Now, ICE doesn't have to be in the airport to receive that information, but that sharing apparently is going on. Well, while we're talking about the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, as reflected through new cooperations between ICE and TSA, let's go to the Supreme Court where Trump's idea of who can be a citizen of this country, was on trial this week.

37:31The president has spent years challenging the language of the 14th Amendment. It says all persons born in the United States, with narrow exceptions, are American citizens. It's called birthright citizenship. And in a first for any president, Trump went to the court to sit and watch oral arguments. Again, it was the ride to the court where Pam Bondi apparently was informed that she was out of a job. Here, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer laid out arguments against birthright citizenship. The conservative-leading court appeared skeptical, including the chief justice, John Roberts. We're in a new world now, as Justice Alito pointed out to, where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who's a U.S.

38:11citizen. Well, it's a new world. It's the same constitution. It's a new world, but it's the same constitution. A lot of people took that as the takeaway, David Smith. What did you take away from the arguments? Where do you think this is headed? Yeah, that for me was the standout line as well. And the overall takeaway was that the questioning from the justices suggested they were skeptical about the government's argument here and were not going to be intimidated by Donald Trump's presence. I mean, I think it's the first time we've known about a sitting president to actually attend a Supreme Court hearing like that.

38:44And certainly some critics compared it to a mob boss trying to intimidate people. but it seemed that the justices were not having anything of it. And there was an idea that put politics aside, put what happens in other countries aside, their job is to stick to the Constitution on this one. And it would appear Donald Trump is going to lose the argument. Well, also this week, a panel in charge of urban planning in D.C. gave President Trump's$400 million White House ballroom the green light, architecturally anyway. But in a lot of ways, that doesn't actually matter because in court, a federal judge ordered the entire project stopped, saying Trump has no authority to build on the site without the approval of Congress.

39:30U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said, quote, the existence of a large hole beside the White House is, of course, a problem of the president's own making. Alana Shora, a federal judge says no ballroom without Congress. Congress is Congress interested in exercising its formidable power now to grant Donald Trump his ballroom? Well, I mean, let's assume that Republican leaders, because they enjoy giving Trump what they want, would say yes to that question. How are they going to do it, given the fact that they also have this reconciliation bill we discussed, incredibly huge lift that Trump wants done by June 1st?

40:03They have to, you know, suss out government funding writ large, which is quickly going to become a mess. I guess my answer to that is maybe, but not really, because they have no time and it's just going to start the biggest fight. I mean, this is a party that's really vulnerable in the midterms and they don't want to be defending this ballroom. Well, some bad news for the GOP on the political front this week. It came from Florida. That state's been deep red for years. Republican control of the state legislature, the governor's office, the state Supreme Court. Of course, Democrats won two special elections in Republican-leaning districts this week.

40:38Democrat Brian Nathan, he's a union leader and Navy veteran. He nabbed the Hillsborough County state Senate seat. He's one of a number of working class Democrats this past year who've run successfully on pocketbook economic issues, affordability, housing. He told NPR station WUSF he isn't so sure, though, that it's the start of a blue wave. If there is one, it's only going to be the result of hard work that, you know, Democrats stay disciplined on message. make sure they're addressing the needs of their constituents or potential constituents. The voters actually address the issues that voters have, and the voters will reward you with their trust.

41:16At the same time, quick polling notes this week. Donald Trump's poll numbers, YouGov Economist has Trump at 35 percent approval, the lowest of his presidency, 58 percent disapprove, and only one in four say the country is going in the right direction. So David Smith, digest for us these special election results in deep red Florida combined with poll numbers and where the country is at politically right now. Yeah, I think if you go back to November 24, that election night, absolutely devastating for Democrats. But then if you run their election campaigns, you maybe woke up the next morning and thought, oh, great, now we're going to win a lot because incumbent presidents, especially in this era, get a lot of backlash against them.

41:57And Trump's honeymoon did not last long. His approval rating is very low. And now Democrats are on a tremendous winning streak in these special elections. And as you say, Florida, Iowa, many others. We saw the No Kings protest brought millions to the streets. There is huge anti-Trump sentiment. Here's a little bit of what that sounded like. This is what our freedom looks like. Show me what our people look like. This is what our people look like. Organizers say about 8 million people came out on the streets, the largest of the three protests so far. And it's interesting when you talk to the organizers of No Kings, they ultimately divide the Democratic Party right now between fighters and folders.

42:33They say that's actually more important than whether you're a so-called centrist or progressive. And certainly both centrists and progressives can coalesce around this message of affordability, as we saw in last November's elections. Here's one protester named Sarah Carlson explaining why she was on the streets. I'm here because I'm worried about my children and my grandchildren. I'm tired. We're exhausted. this brings me hope. I have so much hope here. And we can change this. Our government is not going to do it. It has to be we, the people. Now, a White House spokesperson said protests have little public support and, quote, the only people who care about these Trump derangement therapy sessions are reporters who are paid to cover them.

43:15That's a statement from the White House. Before we go, we're talking about Artemis. You know, let's all take a breath. I would just like to get some impressions. You guys watched the launch this week? You watched that SLS clear the tower? Alana Shore, did it give you thoughts? It certainly gave me some. How'd you feel about it? I mean, as somebody who was like very tiny when, you know, the 80s was the heyday of space travel. It did give me like a nice nostalgic rush that was welcome. Olivier, how about you? Two conflicting feelings. One, I looked at that launch from every conceivable available angle, and I had two thoughts.

43:53One, you know, how great. And the other is, as someone who watched Challenger Live on television, the minute they started talking about tech problems, I got a little uneasy and I was relieved to discover that the tech problem, the toilet was fixed. My impression, there is a, when you listen to comms from ground control to the capsule, there's a new relaxed tone. Old Apollo, very crisp, very militaristic. This is a new form of communication. Relaxed, informal. I love it. There's a new modern feel, at least on comms. How did you feel about the mission so far? I agree with that. And let's hope we don't get Houston.

44:33We have a problem. But I think the whole thing was tremendously inspiring. I interviewed those astronauts a couple of years ago. Of course, first woman, first person of Kalona. A big moment for America. All the division strife that we see, but also World Cup 250th anniversary. and Artemis II coming right up. Artemis II heads towards the moon. We can't wait to follow it around the dark side. I want to thank Alana Shore, David Smith, and Olivier Knox. And we're just getting started with the week's headlines. When we come back after a break, we'll have a new panel and all of the news from around the globe.

45:06Stay with us.

45:12Welcome back to the 1A Podcast. I'm Todd Zwillick. let's get into the international edition of our weekly news roundup. The president says the war of choice in Iran is won and that he's met all his objectives, but also that the fighting will go on for another two weeks. Iran's enriched uranium buried so deep underground, it's no longer a problem. And the Strait of Hormuz, well, now that's someone else's problem. Traders who set the world price of oil, disagree. And that price keeps rising. Shifting objectives and shifting results. Does the president know how to get out of the war in Iran? Let's get to all of that with our expert panel.

45:55Felicia Schwartz is here. She's the diplomatic correspondent at Politico. Hi, Felicia. Hello, hello. Robbie Grammer is also here, national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Robbie, always good to have you. Great to be here. And on the line, Nick Schifrin, foreign affairs and defense correspondent for PBS News, our host of the International Affairs Program, Compass Points, frequent guest on the Roundup. Hi, Nick. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me. And we want to hear from you, of course. What do you want to know about this week in international news? What do you want to say or learn about the war in the Persian Gulf and the war in Iran?

46:29Email us, 1a at wamu.org. All right. For the first time since he and the leaders of Israel started the war 35 days ago. The president addressed the nation on Wednesday in prime time. We are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly. We're going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. The president did not announce any new policy to end the war. He repeated several familiar falsehoods during the speech and seemed focused Based on convincing a skeptical American public that the war was necessary and has been successful.

47:12The president's text, his words, Robbie Grammer, were mostly things he said before. So what about the subtext? What did you take away from what he said, when he said it, how he said it? I mean, it just goes to show how much pressure this administration is under from its MAGA base. I mean, Trump came into office. One of the common rejoinders against Harris in the 2024 campaign was, a vote for Harris is a vote for more wars in the Middle East. And that really resonated with parts of the MAGA base. And here we are in an after war in the Middle East. So Trump really seems to be on the defensive at this point, saying, this is not going to be another Iraq.

47:48This is not going to be another Afghanistan. This is a short war with some really concise, finite objectives. Now, there's open questions about whether Trump can meet those objectives. He said they've almost achieved it, taking out Iran's Navy and missile program. But at the same time, there are now reports that U.S. intelligence suggests that only a third of Iran's missile program has been hit or taken out of the fight. The other question, I mean, Trump talked about potentially targeting civilian infrastructure, you know, talked about sending the regime back to the Stone Age. You heard it there.

48:21Targeting civilian infrastructure, water plants in the Middle East, which are so important, energy grids, that's potentially an international war crime. And we're going to talk more about that. Yeah. And so it brought up a lot more questions. If Trump was trying to answer every question that a skeptical American public had, he brought up a lot more questions than he had answers for. Nick Schifrin, on the Strait of Hormuz, the president's latest tack here is other countries that rely on that oil should take care of it. the U.S. doesn't need it, not our problem, because we're the world's largest producer of oil.

48:53We have enough oil, so it doesn't matter. That is a fundamental misunderstanding of how world oil markets work. There's one world price. How long can the president tell the American people that Hormuz doesn't matter because we drill ours in Alaska and Texas? I mean, Todd, your point is fair, but I also think that there's a public versus private division here, right? So Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, or went to Kayakalas, went to other European officials last week, the G7, and said specifically, we want your help after the war is done. That's the actual diplomacy behind the scenes.

49:27That's the actual work that is happening. So, you know, I don't want to dismiss the president's public threats. Let's call them what they are, right? And dismissals of the strait and all the statements that he's making. But what are they actually doing? The Americans are asking the Europeans and the Arabs to come up with a plan to help secure the strait. after the war is done, or at least after whatever this level of violence is going to go down. And so what does that look like? That looks like an effort in the Security Council right now to try and get a resolution passed that at least has a phrasing like defensive means.

50:01It's not clear China and Russia will allow that, but that effort's going alongside a British-led effort that we saw Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary in London, organized yesterday, diplomatic efforts to try and get the Europeans and Arabs on one page. So yes, there are the public threats and the public dismissals, but what's actually happening is the Europeans and Arabs are trying to respond to the president's pressure because they know that lots of other things like Ukraine aid is at risk if they don't. And how difficult has this been, what Nick is describing there, Felicia, how much more difficult has it been by the run-up to all of this?

50:40Greenland, right, threats to invade Greenland, undermining and insulting NATO, undermining and insulting European allies, then going and doing the diplomacy for their help. They now have public constituencies in their own countries that aren't in a mood to clean up America's dirty work, even if it's necessary for oil supplies through the strait. President Trump has been very dismissive of America's allies and partners and is getting a crash course in exactly why you need allies and partners. They are so, I mean, first and foremost, Trump did nothing to socialize this idea with any of the countries that would, one, be super affected by his action, and two, as Nick laid out very well, are essential to cleaning up this mess and helping the U.S.

51:27to secure the Strait of Hormuz and wind this down. So it's made so much harder, And yeah, the European public doesn't want to see their leaders bend again to President Trump. Keir Starmer, for example, he's someone who's really gone out of his way to accommodate the president, who basically just keeps criticizing him in public, calls him not Winston Churchill. So, you know, there's really nothing in it for these leaders to bend to Trump's will. And they are seeing that. Well, Nick Schifrin and Felicia Schwartz put our eyes toward diplomacy, the secretary of state and the Europeans. Iran has become a major stressor in this relationship that Nick Schifrin is describing.

52:05Here's Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News. We're going to finish the job here. As I said, we're very, very close to achieving our objectives on all of these things that I've outlined. But I do think, unfortunately, we are going to have to reexamine whether or not this alliance that has served this country well for a while is still serving that purpose. Or is it now become a one-way street where America is simply in a position to defend Europe? But when we need the help of our allies, they're going to deny us basing rights and they're going to deny us overflight.

52:35Now, Felicia Schwartz just mentioned the president has repeatedly lashed out at allies over their reluctance to deploy military assets or provide security for the Strait of Hormuz. On Wednesday, he called NATO, quote, paper tiger in an interview with The Telegraph in the UK. Italy and Spain have blocked the use of their bases for U.S. aircraft involved in the war. Other European countries have also restricted airspace. And now here's the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, speaking to reporters while traveling in Seoul, South Korea.

53:07Organizations like NATO derive their value from what is left unsaid, namely the trust that underpins them. And that is often the case, moreover, with military and strategic matters. If you so doubt about your commitment every day, you drain it of substance. We've been here before in a way, but things may be getting more dire. Felicia, you report that the president could keep the U.S. in the NATO alliance but starve NATO of high-level attention and military assets. How real is that possibility? What are you hearing from European leaders now about this new tension and this new idea that a failure to step up in the Strait of Hormuz would cause the president to further weaken NATO?

53:47I think they are somewhat relieved by, you know, there are checks and balances in place in the system. It was Marco Rubio who actually wrote and supported legislation to make sure that the president would have to consult with Congress before pulling out of NATO. But I think as Macron made the point, just by calling NATO into question, you know, I was I was reading one analyst said NATO is a religion. You have to believe in it. So if the belief, you know, isn't there that that the U.S. wouldn't step up, that's a real problem. And so Trump's already sent a ton of signals, but he could do more. He could recall the U.S.

54:22ambassador, pull other personnel from NATO, cancel American involvement in military exercises like tone down intelligence sharing programs, delay military aid. I mean, he has so many more things he could do to sow doubt on this alliance. But I would argue he's already done a lot. The secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte, will be in Washington next week. Now, Robbie Grammer, he gets a lot of criticism in Europe because he's a Trump whisperer. And I think he called President Trump daddy at one point. He kind of knows the type of language Donald Trump likes to hear to get on his good side. Europeans don't like to hear that.

54:58I think the secretary general knows, hey, it can work. What do we anticipate with this visit? Well, you're absolutely right. I mean, Mark Rutte came into as the new leader of NATO with this one strategy and one strategy only, and that is to give Trump a big bear hug and give this veneer of everything's good the alliance, you know, ignore the angry true socials, look at the fundamentals. We're doing great. It's really rubbed Europeans the wrong way. But it's clear he's coming up to clean. It's clear he's coming to Washington to clean up yet another diplomatic mess caused by Trump. Trump's triggered an extraordinary crisis in trying to annex Greenland from NATO allied Denmark.

55:36He's cast out on NATO against the backdrop of this massive Russian invasion in Ukraine and these fears that Russia could look toward NATO territory next. So Root is coming here for another diplomatic cleanup mission. We'll see how many of those he can get under his belt before this all falls apart. At this week, the Kremlin said that they're ready to contribute to resolving the war in Iran. But let's just take a step back for a moment. What has Russia gotten since the war in Iran started? Oil at over$100 a barrel, an easing of sanctions so it can sell more of its oil at a higher price than before, much higher price than before, to fund the war in Ukraine.

56:14And maybe best of all, new, deeper fractures in the NATO alliance, Putin's lifelong aim. Nick Schifrin, talk about where Russia stands now, given what I just laid out there. Well, you just laid it out, right? I mean, there are certainly tactical or short-term games, what we want to call it about. So that's selling oil, right? So lifting of sanctions, That's higher oil prices. That's well back to Cuba, right? With the U.S. distracted, you could get Russian oil into Cuba that the U.S. has allowed. And obviously the hope is the more strategic longer term that you suggested, which is, well, you could have another NATO fracture.

56:57Obviously, Mark Rutte, Alex Stub, the Finland president, you know, talk to the president, talk to President Trump. Like all of them are trying to prevent that longer term fracture. But yes, very much Russia is gaining on this. And also, if they block this Security Council resolution that we talked about earlier with the Chinese, you may not be able to get European countries, European leaders to say that there's a legal basis for a military or at least contributing to a military operation to open the strait, which would further exacerbate the president's threats and fears. So I definitely think that, you know, when it comes to the endgame here, the political endgame, the strategic endgame that the U.S.

57:39and Israel are in, there's real, real challenges. Despite all of the tactical gains inside Iran, there are real challenges to convert this moment into a positive moment for the Middle East and for U.S. interests, both in the Middle East and Europe. Now, back to tactics and back to the war in the Gulf itself. U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian cities have intensified over the last 24 hours. Strikes in the capital Tehran, in Isfahan, and in Karaj. U.S.-based Iranian human rights organization puts the civilian death toll in Iran at more than 1 ,600 people now. Now, 13 military service members have been killed as far as we know.

58:19But on Friday, Iranian state media claimed and U.S. and Israeli officials confirmed that Iran shot down an American F-15E fighter jet. Iranian outlets published photos of the crash, metal pieces of what looked like a jet with markings in English. The United States said the status of the crew is unknown, but a search and rescue operation is underway. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said they were also searching for U.S. pilots. Felicia, your reaction to what I think would be the first American jet that we know of down by hostile fire in this conflict. Put it into context for us. This has the potential to really take the war from, you know, Category A to Category Z.

59:04Things could really escalate this way. It opens up a whole host of potentially unintended consequences. One thing that I just kind of saw on my way in is that Senator Tom Cotton, who the administration put out as a kind of, you know, someone to speak on behalf of the administration at the beginning of the war, he said that if an aircraft—he said, I'm quoting him here, Obviously, one risk of the kind of campaign is an aircraft could be shot down. The president would never leave a pilot behind. So they could have combat. They have combat search and rescue operations and they could go in and extract a pilot.

59:41So we might be talking about, of course, it's very early. We don't have a lot of information. We don't know the status of the pilot or I believe there might have been another person in the plane with him. But you might have American forces on the ground looking for pilots. I mean, this is a very. We don't know, but it shows how in war events, Robbie Grammer quickly overtake planning. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely right. And I mean, I think that's the through line of everything the administration has faced in its criticism of this war is, you know, they bristle at the Iraq 2003 analogy here. But, of course, the Bush administration didn't expect Iraq to blow up, to derail in the way it did.

1:00:18And so this was supposed to be a quick, clean campaign to eliminate Iran's missile threat, its navy, its naval capabilities, its drone threats, you know, help target its nuclear program. This could spin out of control and turn into a long, protracted conflict in a way that the administration didn't anticipate. Well, this week, as part of his campaign to up the pressure for talks, the president, again, not for the first time, threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure in Iran. Some has been destroyed, a bridge destroyed this week. But the president extended it, electrical grids, oil wells, and desalination plants for drinking water.

1:00:56The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Cain, responded to questions about the potential targeting of desalination plants at the Pentagon on Tuesday. We have numerous processes and system to carefully consider the whole range of considerations from civilian risk to legal considerations with any target. And as targets come before us, we run them through the same process that we always do and always strike lawful targets in accordance with the normal procedures that we use. We always strike lawful targets, says the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Now, on Friday, as I mentioned, the U.S.

1:01:32airstrike destroyed a major bridge that links Tehran to Karaj. And Iran damaged a desalination plant in Kuwait with a missile strike. Earlier in the show, Robbie, you brought up the legal ramifications of the president's threat of attacking electrical power generation and desalination plants. Dan Cain, the chairman of the Joint Chief, knows it. He made a point to say we do legally justified targeting. Where's the tension here? I mean, the tension is between U.S. law, U.S. rules of conduct and international law. I mean, the U.S. has very justifiably condemned Russia's continual targeting of the energy grade of civilian targets in Ukraine in recent years during the war in Ukraine.

1:02:17If they start doing that in Iran, they risk, you know, the type of criticism that we're being hypocritical. Maybe they risk losing some support among the Iranian population that the U.S. was hoping would rise up again in hatred of the regime. And the other real worry here is the practical effect. There seemed to be a detente after the first U.S. strike or the first, sorry, Iranian strike on Kuwait desalination plan of if you don't strike our desalination plants, we won't strike yours. Does this lead to an escalation spiral of starting to target this really critical energy infrastructure for these Middle Eastern countries that rely on these desalination plants for the drinking water, for their livelihoods on their energy grids?

1:02:59There's a whole host of really worrying questions here that we have to consider. We got this comment from Sarah who says, why do we keep talking about war crimes but nothing is done about them? Zero accountability equals zero deterrent. Sarah, thanks for that comment. Nick, I want you to react to that because there are concerns about accountability and the law of war all throughout the Pentagon because of the attitude of the secretary of defense. He criticizes rules of engagement, big things and small things, excused a couple of pilots who appeared to violate flight rules so that Kid Rock could make Internet content.

1:03:34They're let off scot-free. He's criticized the Geneva Convention. Sarah voices a real concern, even if it's bluster from the president about desalination, about war crimes and what rules this military will follow. It's fair. And obviously we have to take the secretary at his words. You know, he has said rules of engagement or these rules of engagement or prior rules of engagements are stupid. We also, though, have to acknowledge the professionalism of the U.S. military and its officers who take an oath not to follow through on any order that they or their lawyers would deem illegal. And so I'm not a lawyer, but when we talk to experts and talk to lawyers, they describe, you know, a gray area, right?

1:04:18So there are targets that are obviously civilian. Let's say a desalinization plant. There are targets that are less, obviously, civilian. So a bridge, right? That could be dual use. And so the lawyers will go through these things. And yesterday, the CENTCOM statement, the Central Command statement about the bridge, described the bridge as a potential or future path through which the Iranian military would reapply. So that's the kind of thing that they're going to be saying. And so I think we just need to be a little bit careful. But yes, of course, the president's threats do suggest a willingness to go beyond where the U.S.

1:04:58military has gone in the past. The secretary's statements suggest publicly that they are willing to go beyond. And I will say that some of this is about not only how the U.S. wages the campaign in the future, but is also how Israel has already waged the campaign. And a lot of, you know, Arab officials who want this war to succeed are frustrated because they see Israel taking or targeting certain civilian targets that the U.S. might not even do today or tomorrow. But the whole effort is being wrapped up by some of these Israeli decisions. And that's going to complicate getting out. Well, Debbie emails this.

1:05:40Would someone please address why the Middle East Gulf states are not expected to defend the Strait of Hormuz? We hear a lot about Europe, but nothing about those being attacked by Iran, which leads us back to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, appeared on Good Morning America on Monday and said that American and Gulf Arab allies are in sync about Iran. All the destabilization in this region tracks directly back to the Iranian regime. Those things have to be addressed. And if Iran had been willing to address those in the past, we wouldn't be having this interview on this topic right now. Their refusal to do so and their continuing move towards one day acquiring a nuclear capability.

1:06:19These people are lunatics. They are insane. They are religious zealots who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future. And all of their neighbors know that, by the way, which is why all of their neighbors have been supportive of the efforts we're doing. Strong statement from the secretary of state there, Robbie. But none of that opens the Strait of Hormuz. The president has not called on Gulf nations to take part in offensive operations. There were some reports this week that Saudi drones may have been over Iran. It's suggesting they may be participating in some operations.

1:06:52A little bit unclear. You might know more than I about that. But where are the Americans and the GCC, the Gulf states, united? Where do their interests diverge right now? Yeah, well, the Gulf states, you know, you can't paint them all with a broad brush. They all have different interests, different views on this. But broadly, they're united on two things. First, they're privately pretty angry at Trump for starting this war, for triggering this war that led to all these Iranian retaliations on places like Kuwait City, Abu Dhabi, Dubai. that were these thriving, peaceful economic hubs there. But also, they're angrier at Iran for targeting them, for dragging them into this war, for holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage.

1:07:35So the UAE has actually come out in front, and as my colleague Summer Saeed reported earlier this week, suggested that it would join a coalition to forcefully keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Others, Nick mentioned this effort in the UN. And Bahrain is helping lead this effort in the UN to try to get this legal justification for some sort of coalition to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. And so there is a sense amongst some of these Gulf countries of we didn't like that this war started. But the United States, now that you've started it, you can't let Iran win or rather not lose or continue this threat and maintain this constant barrage of drone and missile threats.

1:08:14You have to finish the fight, and we will find a way to help you, even if we were reluctantly, unhappily dragged into this war of your choice. Felicia, what have we heard from Oman? They've been trying to play broker here. Geographically, I mean, Oman has a direct stake. They have territory. The south tip of the Strait of Hormuz is, in fact, Oman. They have a little island of land at the tip of that peninsula, right? That's Oman, and Oman has a direct stake in oil shipment. What have we heard from Oman? They were leading negotiations before February 28th. So the relationship between the U.S. and Oman is at a low point, I would say.

1:08:51Trump in his primetime address singled out all the Gulf allies except for Oman. Basically, Oman feels like they were blindsided because it's twice now that Trump has bombed Iran in the middle of diplomacy. and, you know, the administration on the flip side thinks they over-exaggerated the prospects of diplomacy. So now Oman has taken a step back. They're talking to, according to reports in Iranian state media, they're working with Iran on some sort of protocol to reopen the strait. Maybe that is the kinds of tolls that Iran is charging. We don't know. And they've described themselves as neutral.

1:09:29So definitely they are between a rock and a hard place, I would say. Meanwhile, Houthis, backed by Iran and in control of parts of Yemen, joined the war. The group is claiming it launched their first strikes against Israel this week, their first strikes of this particular conflict. They've launched missiles into and over the Red Sea in the past. Nick Schifrin, is Yemen now officially another frontier? What are the Houthis' objectives? So Israeli and U.S. officials both agree that the Houthis restrain themselves for a while trying to figure out how best to play a role, frankly, on the day after.

1:10:06That's at least the assessment for, you know, for a few weeks until they did start engaging, although in a very minimal way. The Houthis could, you know, play a much bigger role if they started hitting ships and started trying to threaten the other side, right, the Red Sea, through which Saudi Arabia and some of these other countries are trying to get their oil out while the strait in the east is closed. And so, you know, I think there's an overall judgment that Abd al-Malqa Houthi, the head of the Houthis, is trying to figure out how best to position himself moving forward. Obviously, he has felt enough pressure from Iran, according to U.S.

1:10:44officials, to launch at Israel, but is a little bit restraining themselves, trying to figure out where this is going and, frankly, trying to figure out how to support Iran, but also figure out their own domestic issues because they're under pressure because they haven't been paying their own people. So there's a lot of dynamics there. Robbie Grammer, your look at the Houthis and how they could expand the war into the Red Sea if they chose. I mean, this is the other strategic maritime choke point. And the U.S. actually clashed with the Houthis early into the Trump administration when they were harassing maritime trade on the Red Sea there.

1:11:22So it really is something that could turn a simmering crisis on the global oil markets into a full-fledged crisis. We got this message from Risa who says, what happens when Trump decides that we're done with the war and Israel isn't? Are they going to press Trump to continue because they need our help and support? Or do we actually leave and just supply them with more munitions? Well, in southern Lebanon, Israel is now expanding what it calls a security zone designed to prevent attacks by Iran backed by the militant group Hezbollah. This is another front in the war with Iran, at least from Israel's perspective.

1:12:02Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon began days after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel at the start of the Iran war. Since then, Israel's military campaign in Lebanon has displaced over 1 million people and killed more than 1 ,300, according to the Lebanese Health Authority. Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is establishing a security zone in southern Lebanon. more than a million people displaced or fleeing the capital to the capital of Beirut. Robbie, Israel has been in southern Lebanon before. It's gone wrong before. What's different this time? What's the objective? I mean, the objective is exactly what Netanyahu said.

1:12:40They want this giant buffer zone to keep northern Israel safe from continued Hezbollah rocket attacks. What's different this time, of course, is this massive war in Iran, this massive question mark hanging over whether Hezbollah's primary backer, Tehran, the regime in Tehran can survive or not. And Lebanon's government is in this precarious position where it has, for the first time after Israel's really devastating strikes that crippled but did not totally eliminate Hezbollah after the October 7th, 2023 attacks, Lebanon's government is weak, It's precarious, but it's starting to stand up to Hezbollah.

1:13:20Its own army, which is very weak, is incapable of confronting Hezbollah on its own. So Israel here is saying we need to take matters into our own hands to protect our own people. Lebanon's counterpoint is, of course, you know, we've got this moment here where our government can come together and maybe finally stand up to Hezbollah. Stop invading us. Stop triggering these wave after wave of humanitarian crises that our unstable government has to deal with. And in Lebanon, there's this real fear that if the U.S. and Israel push the army to confront Hezbollah, it could morph into a full confrontation with Lebanon's entire Shiite community.

1:13:54So there's a lot of difficult questions here. But one thing is clear, a lot of people, a lot of officials in the region fear that this war, this Israeli-Lebanon war as it's burgeoning will outlast any sort of U.S.-Iran peace deal. Well, a lot of the more than one million people displaced from southern Lebanon are Shia Muslims. Israel has expressed a concerted policy of trying to move Shia Muslims out, reassuring Christian and Druze communities that they can stay. Nick Schifrin, can you describe the, I don't know if I want to call it the ethnic tension or the ethnic engineering, what it means on the ground in Southern Lebanon, in reality, what Israel's actually doing here?

1:14:35Yeah, it is quite interesting. So what Israel has been trying to do is reduce the number of Shia Muslims in the south, especially south of the Latani River, which has historically been kind of the border that Israel has been looking at. But now there is some space even north of that that Israel is trying to clear. And as we've been talking about, and Robbie very, very well described the strategic situation on the ground, what Israel is simply trying to do is create a buffer zone. And in this case, you know, it has, let's just say, you know, made calls into communities, suggested that the Shia are not welcome or that the Israelis will try and push them out.

1:15:13But, you know, maybe some of the Jews, some of the Christians can stay. Nick, people are interpreting that, as you well know, as ethnic cleansing or a policy tilting toward that. Is that fair? I mean, look, I'm not a lawyer. I can't judge on these things. But, you know, that's what Israel is doing. I was just in Israel. I was just on the northern border. And, you know, I've been there quite a bit since the October 7 terrorist attacks. I mean, what's interesting about this moment from the Israeli perspective is a couple of things. One, you know, there's a different expectation post-October the 7th from the people that there's just no acceptance of what was a Hezbollah with 100 ,000 rockets on the northern border.

1:15:53There's just the threshold for the border tension is this way lower. And so you're going to get an enormous amount of political grassroots pressure on the military, on the government to do more on the border. And yet simultaneously what is happening, and I spent a lot of time in Matula, which is Israel's northernmost border just about 10 days ago, is that the Israeli government has realized that residents won't leave this time. They have not evacuated northern Israel. And so northern Israelis have a very high expectation for their safety post-October 7th, and yet they're still there. And so, you know, the Israeli military is doing these, you know, pushes into Lebanon.

1:16:32It's an invasion of southern Lebanon. Let's call it what it is. And there's this dynamic that's very politically difficult for both the IDF and the Israeli military to deal with because all of these Israelis are still living in their villages every day. And so that's what's happening on the ground. And I'll leave it to the lawyers to judge or to decide what these are called. Well, while Israel fights in Iran and in Lebanon, on Monday, Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a new law in Jerusalem. It makes death by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians convicted of murder in denial of the state of Israel.

1:17:10That's basically terror, effectively terrorism. But since Israelis face no such standard, rights groups say it creates a de facto two-tiered standard for capital crimes. Far-right Israeli figures like National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gavir celebrated the vote by passing around a bottle of champagne.

1:17:35History, history, they're saying. Felicia Schwartz, Benjamin Netanyahu leads an ultra-right-wing coalition government. At least some of the important members of his coalition are ultra-right-wing. Now that this law is passed, his coalition partners will likely push for the government to use it, to implement it, to make those celebrations we just heard on the far right more real. Why are the far right doing this now and making a spectacle of celebrating this law of hanging for this type of capital crime? Well, one thing I want to note is that I think it will be pretty challenging to actually put this law into practice.

1:18:13I believe it hasn't happened yet, but it will almost certainly go to the Israeli Supreme Court, which has been, you know, generally does strike down laws like this. So that's one thing. But I think we have to kind of take a step back. This is an election year in Israel. Israel has to have elections by October. And I think Nick made a good point about that there's a lot of pressure on the military. You know, politicians in Israel don't have a ton of tools to kind of control what is a spiraling security situation. And so this is, you know, the far right politicians want to show their base that they are, you know, hardliners taking actions.

1:18:53Well, Paul in Wichita says this, the simple fact of a death penalty specifically just for Palestinians demonstrates that Israel is a radical theocracy, no different than Iran. It's time for America to cut support for Israel. Israel does not promote democracy. Paul, thanks for that comment. Now, Palestinians across the West Bank took part in a general strike on Wednesday to protest this new law. And prisoner advocacy groups organized protests in cities across the territory. Here's Dania al-Bargouti, whose son is in prison, as people also protested 9 ,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. We die a thousand times per minute because we don't even know anything about our children.

1:19:38I mean, since the last court session, I know nothing about my son, and it's the same situation for all the mothers and families of the prisoners. Rabi, how wide is support across Israel for actually implementing this law? We get that the far right likes it. Netanyahu's coalition is not polling well. Generally, we've reported a million times about his need to stay in power once war and confrontation winds down if it ever does. The broad Israeli electorate is responding how to this two-tiered punishment? I mean, it sounds like there's an incredibly intense debate right now. And as Felicia said, this could be challenged in courts.

1:20:16And just to push back on Paul's comments, drawing the comparisons between Iran and Israel right now, Israel is run by a coalition that includes some far-right members. It's drawn a lot of criticism, including inside of Israel. But some of these criticisms, some of what's coming, the debates about the law are coming from a relatively free press inside of Israel. And so there's comparisons. We should also note that Israelis protested this week, protested this law as well. Palestinians, of course. Israelis also protest. Correct. And when Iranians went out to the street to protest their regime, they were massacred by the thousands, estimated maybe tens of thousands of those injured and killed.

1:20:55So, you know, this is a really worrying development for human rights watchers, even for allies of Israel in the United States who worry about the direction Israel is heading. But drawing that comparison and trying to say Israel and Iran are the same here just does miss the mark even as Israelis are debating this law. Now, at the same time, more attacks and more violence in the occupied West Bank by ultra-right-wing Jewish Israeli settlers against Palestinians this week. The U.N. estimates there were 16 settler attacks on average every day in March. The attacks displaced at least 1 ,600 Palestinians from their homes this year.

1:21:34There were confrontations with journalists this week. MS Now's David Noriega, my former colleague at Vice News, chased by a group of settlers in the West Bank. soldiers from an IDF battalion intimidating other journalists, a CNN crew pointing guns at them. One put a photographer in a chokehold. That battalion, according to the IDF, suspended on Monday for their behavior, a spokesperson for the IDF saying that behavior doesn't represent our soldiers and how they should speak or act. But Nick, why has violence flared again, settler violence. It's not new. There's a flare up now. Far right religious Jewish settlers seem to feel emboldened that they can strike their enemies in their neighborhoods or in Palestinian neighborhoods, I should say now.

1:22:24Why? They're emboldened. And I was just in the West Bank. I'm actually doing a story on this tonight. They're emboldened maybe in part as or in part because, but regardless, they are emboldened as Israel fights wars elsewhere. So post-October the 7th, we've seen a spike across the West Bank of violence, mostly by settlers, but Palestinians say that the soldiers are either more reflective of the settlers or the settlers are within the IDF and they are committing attacks. And that's what calling out Jeremy Diamond's brilliant conversation in Hebrew with an IDF soldier this week was so revealing because the IDF soldier says we are going to help the settlers achieve this, which is what Palestinians have been saying.

1:23:10And so anyway, so zooming out, you've got post-October 7th, post-Lebanon war, the first one, post the first Iran war. You have this emboldening of settlers. And, of course, it's about violence. And we've seen horrific violence, very personal violence. One story I'm telling tonight is essentially sexual assault by settlers of a Palestinian. But this is about land, right? This is about pushing Palestinians off of land that Palestinians want for their future state. Settlers want it to be Swiss cheese, not cheddar cheese. They want it to be ungoverned. They want it to be separated. They want it to be split up.

1:23:48And the official Israeli government policy, whether from Netanyahu or the IDF, is that we do not support this. We crack down on the legal outposts. It's slightly different than settlements that can be authorized by the Knesset. Illegal outposts. They used to be evicted. They used to be ripped out, and sometimes they still are. But increasingly, Palestinians say these outposts are being allowed to stay, and the settlers are very violent and very aggressive. And that's where Ben Gavir comes in, right? That's where his defense of the settlers is pushing these, the death penalty law, which only applies in the occupied West Bank, by the way, is so important.

1:24:24So that's kind of the overall story. And Palestinians are just worried that as this keeps going, this chips away at their ability to have a contiguous state in the future. We will continue following the multifaceted and complicated story in Israel, in Lebanon, in the occupied West Bank, in places like Nablus and Hebron, in Iran, and around the Gulf. Before we leave, I do want to pull back from all of this and take just a minute and make sure that we don't forget about Cuba and Russia and oil. Because something remarkable happened in the last week. A large Russian tanker. Cuba is under an American blockade for oil, starving that country of oil, its electrical grids down, putting pressure on Cuba.

1:25:09Along comes a Russian tanker and gets right to the island. Robbie Grammer, did a Russian oil tanker run an American blockade? What happened? It happened with tacit American approval. Trump has said even as he stepped up this blockade, he's okay with some humanitarian aid getting in. So this was clearly sorely needed for the Cuban government as it goes through all these widespread blackouts. It's important to note that these blackouts happened before and not directly caused by the U.S. blockade. It's just chronic mismanagement, chronic corruption by the Cuban government. So this offers them a brief lifeline, but it's obviously very interesting given the dynamics between the U.S.

1:25:50and Russia right now and Trump and Marco Rubio's focus on pressuring Cuba. Last question to Susan, who's not alone with this concern from Tampa. I'm concerned that Trump and Putin may be working on a secret trade. The U.S. gets Cuba. Putin gets Ukraine. Subtle and not so subtle actions on both of their parts indicate this would be an easy way for them to wash their hands of problems that no longer interest them. A sort of sort of gilded age carving up of spheres of influence. Felicia, what do you say to Susan and her concern? I've done some reporting on this. Russia has made offers like this in the Ukraine instance, for example.

1:26:26But so far, the U.S. has said no to all of them. So we'll see. So, Susan, Russia would love to take you up on your concerns. So far, the United States saying no. I want to thank our amazing guest this hour, Felicia Schwartz, diplomatic correspondent at Politico, Robbie Grammer, national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal, And of course, Nick Schifrin, foreign affairs and defense correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, also host of the international affairs program, Compass Points. Don't miss it. Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer. Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our acting executive producer.

1:27:03Alexandra Botee is our acting senior managing producer. Aileen Humphreys is our senior producer and editor of 1A On Demand. And Thomas Liu produces our podcast. Special thanks to Matthew Simonson for additional on-demand support this week. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington, distributed by NPR. I'm Todd Zwillick. This is 1A.

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