The News Roundup for August 14, 2026

24:21The problem there is that that has been tried before, and I think it's been proven not to work. Iran wants to inflict maximum political damage, it seems clear, on the Trump administration at this point by drawing things out. And the closer we get to the midterms, the clearer it becomes that that is happening. So, I mean, I liken it to Groundhog Day, right? We see a return to escalation, then a return to focusing on economic isolation. And the cycle continues. But at a certain point, the rubber will meet the road. And the president's team is going to have to start accepting some concessions. Already what we heard in terms of a deal on the Strait of Hormuz would have been a concession because it would have given Iran revenue from that strait, which it didn't have before.

25:07Well, I mean, I also think that the Iran war is increasingly being wrapped up in the economy. And people view high gas prices and other high prices as being not only because of the president's tariffs, but also because of a war of choice that the president launched in Iran. Certainly, the Democrats are making that case. And I think a place you really don't want to be as a ruling party heading into a midterm is with the president prosecuting a highly unpopular war and with prices very high that can be tied to some of his policies. So I think beyond everything else, the war presents the Republicans with a very difficult challenge in the midterms that are really not that far away anymore.

25:46Let's talk for a few minutes about some exclusive reporting from the Washington Post revealing that the president secretly swapped planes leaving last month's NATO summit. The White House said he flew out on the old Air Force One. Instead, the Post reports he slipped off that plane via a catering truck and boarded a smaller military jet in secret. Officials say it was a response to a credible threat from Iran. Reporters traveling with him weren't told he'd left. Naftali, this has been a big story in Washington, D.C. this week. Yeah, I think it's a big story for a lot of reasons. I mean, obviously, there's a whole sort of cloak and dagger element to it.

26:23But more important, the decision to be misleading about where the president is and not to even correct that after it was all over and didn't matter anymore was a very unusual decision and not sort of the way these things are usually handled. Secondly, I think for a lot of people, what was striking is that Air Force One with the crew, the pilots, Trump staffers, reporters took to the sky as a decoy plane. And so it raises the question if they had credible information, credible enough to remove the president from the plane, that this plane could be shot out of the sky. Why did they then go ahead and send it on its way with a lot of people still on it?

27:02So I think for a lot of people, and particularly Trump's critics, you know, really crystallizes some of their views of the Trump administration and the way it is purportedly very focused on the president to the exclusion of anyone else. You know, Naftali, back in July, the New York Times reported that the new Air Force One they gave from Qatar had security gaps compared to the old Air Force One. Where does this latest reporting fit into that story? I mean, it really muddies everything. I mean, the concerns about the Qatari plane are security concerns, and it's being retrofitted now. No one knows how long it's going to take.

27:36The purported reason for the president taking the old Air Force One from Turkey is that the new one wasn't safe yet. But now it seems like the old one wasn't safe enough either. So I think what this does is it underlies the extent to which there are real security concerns, potentially with both planes in a modern era when a lot of places have drones, a lot of places have missiles, and it's a pretty hostile world. More Trump administration news. You've heard her voice on 1A a lot. Caroline Levitt, the White House press secretary, is leaving her role at the end of the month to focus taking care of her two young children.

28:08She's 28, the youngest press secretary in history. The president says she'll stay on as an outside advisor. Amanda, what did you make of her time at the job and her exit surprise announcement this week? I think from the administration and the president's perspective, her tenure was a success. I mean, she is someone who speaks fluent MAGA. She seems to have a genuine understanding of kind of the president's reasoning and positions. She completely upended operations for the White House Press Corps. I mean, she took over the pool. That is the group of reporters who travel with the president and kind of sit in the briefing room.

28:47She decided who got to travel with the president on Air Force One, who got to get into events, which outlets, which reporters sometimes specifically. She added conservative podcasters and people from non-traditional conservative media to the briefing room and gave them assigned seats. So I believe she's also the second longest serving press secretary for Trump across both of his terms. So I think this is from the president and the White House's standpoint, a very successful tenure. More to come after this short break. Stay with us.

29:22This message comes from Schwab. With the new Schwab Teen Investor account, teens can gain hands-on investing experience and build positive money habits. It's an account co-owned by you and your teen, so you can monitor and engage with the account while your teen learns how to invest and manage money. Learn more at schwab.com. This week on Sources and Methods, for a year now, members of the National Guard patrolled the streets of Washington, D.C. Might they be tasked with patrolling polling places this November? You know, the military may be going to some states and seizing ballot boxes. I know that sounds outlandish, but there is that concern.

29:59Why some election experts are worried, that's this week on Sources and Methods, the National Security Podcast from NPR. For years, black capitalism has been sold as black excellence. One of its biggest proponents is Jay-Z. He's asking us to say, you can't knock the hustle. And I'm sorry. Like, I just I feel like I can. Listen to NPR's Code Switch podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

30:30Let's get back to the News Roundup. This week marks an anniversary for us here in Washington, D.C. Those of us who live here have been tracking firsthand. It's been one year since National Guard troops started patrolling the city streets. That deployment has now grown to around 4 ,700 troops, and it's now extended through Inauguration Day of 2029. The administration says the city is safer, but D.C.'s own numbers say violent crime overall is actually up slightly from last year. Naftali, we were just talking over the break, you and I, about this is a daily occurrence. I look out my window every single day and I see armed troops walking by.

31:12what has been the real effect of the National Guard here in D.C.? Well, it's complicated in the sense that crime has gone down, but also that crime was going down already. And so trying to sort of disaggregate what of it has to do with the National Guard and what of it was just part of a national trend of falling crime everywhere for the past few years is hard. There's been a couple of recent studies that suggest the presence hasn't had a huge effect, certainly on violent crime. There is some indication that it's had an effect on property crime. But by and large, it's just not clear that it's had much of an effect at all.

31:45The second point, though, that's, I think, important is even if, for the sake of argument, it was reducing crime, what is the lesson here? We can't send the National Guard, presumably, to every single city in the country. So if it turns out that sending armed troops does result in a reduction in crime, I just don't know how that's scalable or financially how it's supportable. So to me, it's not really clear what the larger takeaway is here, even if it were to turn out that they caused a major reduction in crime. And to this point, there's no evidence that that is the case. Alana, the nonpartisan watchdog, the Project on Government Oversights, projects that this deployment will cost close to$3 billion by the time it's set to end in 2029.

32:27Is there anything that would make the administration pull back on this? I mean, no, not in my view, particularly since the incoming mayor of D.C. is someone who's been more oppositional towards the president than Muriel Bowser, who's the outgoing, right? I mean, a political opponent is just going to, I think, make this administration dig in. Let's turn to the economy. Some not great news for Americans with home and car loans. More people are falling behind on payments than at any other time in the past decade. That's according to new data from the Federal Reserve of New York. Amanda, what does this trend tell us about the broader state of the economy and how it's affecting American consumers?

33:05Yeah, so the data out this week showed that a greater share of people in the country have gone at least 30 days late on their mortgage payments in the second quarter. And that is higher than in any quarter since 2015. Now, they are saying that this is very uneven, and it just reflects how, you know, mixed the experiences are of people in this economy. You have some people who are doing really well, and they're saying they feel good about everything. They feel secure in their jobs. Life is great. Then you have other people who are really struggling because there's a challenging job market right now.

33:40Prices are still high due to inflation, although inflation does seem to have cooled a bit over the last month. But this really reflects the uneven experience that Americans are having right now financially. Absolutely. Naftali, Amanda was just talking about inflation. We did get new inflation numbers for July. What did they tell us about where consumer prices are right now? It seems like inflation did moderate in July. Inflation was very high a couple of months ago. It was lower last month, or I should say June, and then also lower in July. But it's been really up and down. To some degree, it depends on President Trump and Iran.

34:16You know, prices shoot up when there seems to be hostilities going on and less so when there's more talk of peace. But this whole economy overall has just been, I think, rocky, spotty, bumpy, whatever word you want to use. It is certainly not collapsed. We're not in a recession, but there's a lot of trouble spots. And I think that puts President Trump kind of in the situation that President Biden was in, actually, ironically, which is trying to tell Americans that the economy isn't as bad as they think it is. And I think that's never a place you want to be as the president. And President Trump exploited it very well when President Biden had that message, but now he finds himself in the same situation.

34:52Alana, how could this play into the Fed's decision making? Does it make an interest rate raise more likely? You know, I was actually surprised to see after the most recent Fed meeting the odds of a rate hike kind of have stayed the same for the September meeting, around a third, you know, the even money being obviously on leaving rates intact. Now, I don't think that's going to hold necessarily. It really just depends on whether inflation continues to show signs of maybe dipping back down. We're in like a mini roller coaster situation with inflation, right? So, you know, I don't think it actually changes the Fed's dynamic much in the near term.

35:29However, a lot depends on Kevin Warsh. You know, I've been really struck by the degree to which President Trump, you know, really jawboned and pressured Jerome Powell, his predecessor, so fiercely to actually cut rates, which is now really just never going to happen, and now seems to be giving Warsh enough room that he probably could successfully raise rates if he had to without political pushback. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shared his thoughts about the economy. Let's hear that. I got sick of hearing about this K-shaped economy. I can say here definitively the K-shaped economy is over, and we're seeing more of a C economy where the lower end of wage earners are finally calling it back, just like they did in President Trump's first term.

36:12I'm telling you, what is a K-shaped economy? I'm not sure I've ever heard of a C economy. It maybe speaks to what you're talking about, about how rocky everything is. I think that's right. I mean, a K-shaped economy is where the economic well-being, and particularly the income of higher earners, is shooting upward, and that of lower earners is shooting downward. And hence, in theory, that creates something of a K-shaped graph. And I suppose a C-shaped economy is where people at the lower end are doing a little bit better. There's some signs that that's happening. But like everything else, it's up and down and it's uncertain.

36:49Secretary Bessett isn't completely wrong. I'm not sure he's completely right. But I think for most consumers, they don't know from K. They don't know from C. I mean, all they know is they have a lot of economic anxiety. Gas prices seem high. Food prices seem high. They're worried. And telling them that they're now in a C instead of in a K, I don't think it's going to make a lot of people feel much better. Amanda, what are you hearing from your reporting, particularly from your readers about this? Yeah, so I spend a lot of time, obviously, here in Ohio. We have two very competitive statewide races this year for governor and Senate.

37:20Both Dr. Amy Acton and former Senator Sherrod Brown, the Democratic candidates, are really just hammering affordability in their campaigns. And that reflects that when you look at the polling of the greatest concern of voters this year, including swing voters and centrist voters, it is affordability. And that brings in gas prices. That brings in concerns about the war in Iran that are related to gas prices. That brings in the high cost of food. You know, you have people paying more for berries and vegetables and then having to throw them away because they're worried about getting, and I can never pronounce it, cyclosporia.

37:56Yeah. And so, you know, this is the number one issue for voters here in Ohio and in many places in the country. So, you know, this is what you hear from anyone you interview, essentially, about what they're thinking about headed into this year's elections. I want to go back to some things that our listeners have been saying about things during the hour. We get this email from Emily regarding the White House plane story. And Emily says, I do see an argument for letting the decoy Air Force One depart as planned. If it was known that the president had left, then potential attackers would know to look for a different plane.

38:30If a bunch of people were evacuated, I don't trust the so-called journalists he's invited into the press pool to not stupidly tweet it out or something. Maybe Pete Hegseth would like to announce it on Signal again. Thanks, sir. You can keep the emails coming for the next few minutes. It's 1a at wamu.org. Naftali, I want to ask you about this because actually there are past administrations where this is actually similar stories have come up. Well, the one that I really know about was I was covering President Clinton. I think it might have been in the year 2000 when he visited Pakistan, which at the time was a pretty scary place.

39:05And there was a similar kind of bait and switch situation where President Clinton was not on the plane that they said he was going to be on, also for security reasons. However, they didn't send up a decoy. It just wasn't clear sort of where he was or what plane he was on. And they did brief the press. Now, I will say this is before the era of social media and phones. And so in fairness, maybe they had more confidence that it wasn't going to leak out. But they certainly were not secretive about it in the way that this administration is. They told everybody what happened afterward. And again, they didn't send up a plane that the president was ostensibly on that, you know, if they thought it was a target, would remain a target with the people who are on it.

39:45We're getting quite a few emails as well about TPS and Haitians. And I just want to read a few of those from Brian in Detroit. the administration's attitude and actions for TPS protectees and all immigrants looks a lot like Germany in the 1930s. How long until the next solutions to Trump Miller's immigrant problem? Susan says, I continue to be outraged as to what is going on in this country as it increasingly becomes more racist in its actions from the top. I don't really know what to do to voice this outrage other than to pray and write to my congressional representatives, which I have done and continue to do, but now to dehumanize them with these ankle monitors.

40:24It is, you know, it's said we need to look out for what's going on with these people because you may be next. Last email about this from Stewart, who says, the Haitians in Springfield are not only here legally working, raising families and enriching their communities, they're also paying taxes. Are those pushing for deportation considering how these taxes will be replaced? Many of the jobs left behind by those deported will no doubt go unfilled. Amanda, can I ask you about the economic impact of this to Stewart's email? Yeah, so I mean, it's going to depend on the area. But in some places, you know, Haitian TPS holders have been in critical health care settings.

41:04They've been home aides. So this could have an impact on people's ability to access health care going forward and get kind of the staffing levels that some facilities need. In Springfield, which is the area that I'm most familiar with because that's where I've spent a lot of time, Um, Haitian TPS holders, well, Haitian immigrants generally, no matter what status they're on, because some are on asylum, um, represent as many as one in four or one in five residents of Springfield, which is a city of about 60 ,000. Um, you know, companies have opened headquarters there because of this, because there was this readily available workforce.

41:39They have, you know, created second outposts in Springfield. and this group of immigrants has really helped revitalize that economy. And, you know, Republican Governor Mike DeWine, that's part of what he's worrying about, is that when you take away the ability of either, you know, a fourth of a city or a fifth of a city to work, or they're not there at all, and now potentially, you know, they don't have that income, which is farther stressing kind of like the charities and the nonprofits that are providing aid to people in that area, this could have really devastating economic impacts for some of these places.

42:13Let's go to everyone's reporter's notebooks about stories that we missed or what they're watching next week. I will start with my favorite story this week was the White Sox fans flocking to Raitt Field in Chicago for a Pope night this week. Thousands donned pontiff-style hats with the team's logo to honor Pope Leo, who's an Illinois native and a Sox fan. The hats were the biggest promotional giveaway in White Sox history, more than 40 ,000 given away. And I will say, as a former Chicagoan, it was a delight in all the messages I got from friends in Chicago and videos of this this week. Naftali, what stories did you want to mention?

42:51Well, the thing I'm really going to keep an eye on, I think, in the next weeks is Todd Blanche, the new attorney general. He's under tremendous pressure from all sides. President Trump, of course, will probably continue to want him to prosecute people he sees as his adversaries. but he also got real pushback during his confirmation from Republican senators, notably, who want him to rein in the president a little bit. And how he navigates that in the weeks to come, I think, is going to be incredibly important. Alana? I'll be watching primaries in Florida, specifically Corey Mills, who I'm seeing House Republicans in the MAGA camp turn against.

43:23He has huge ethical problems, and I think his colleagues want to see him taken down. Amanda? I, as always, will be continuing to track the immigration situation here because it changes day to day in terms of the Haitian TPS holders, but also really paying attention to kind of Blanche's first weeks on the job. In addition to kind of the concerns that the president wants him to deliver on, he does have the potential to satisfy kind of some dissatisfaction within the anti-abortion movement that has grown really frustrated with the president and his administration not acting on some of their priorities.

43:56So they see him as kind of a potential reset. And I will be looking at that very closely. Have we seen any of that come up, Amanda, as we're talking about primaries? Abortion, the issue of abortion? Yeah. So it's not having an impact in the Republican primaries that I have noticed so far because, you know, the Trump candidates are still winning in some cases and not in others. But I do think it just speaks to kind of a larger enthusiasm issue of are they going to work kind of to turn out the president's people in the same way they did in past elections? Big thanks to our panel today. That's Amanda Becker, national reporter for The 19th News.

44:35I want to thank Naftali Ben-David, politics and government editor at The Washington Post, and Alana Shore, senior Washington editor for Semaphore. Have a great weekend, everyone. We're just getting started with the week's headlines. When we come back after the break, we'll have a new panel and all the news from around the globe. Stay with us.

44:57This message comes from Schwab. Self-directed investing, trading, full-service wealth management, automated investing, financial planning, thematic investing, retirement planning. And to think that's just a small taste of what Schwab offers. Because Schwab knows that when it comes to your finances, choice matters. No matter your goals, investing style, life stage, or experience, Schwab has everything you need all in one place, so you can invest your way. Visit schwab.com to learn more. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. It's the international half of our weekly news roundup. This week, a top Iranian advisor says the U.S.

45:37military is, quote, weaker than what we perceived. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could last indefinitely. We will get the latest. Plus, Israel's ambassador to the U.N. defends illegal settlements in the West Bank. And in Russia, Ukraine hits key targets, including oil and grain depots. We're going to cover all of that and more with our expert panel. Asma Khalid is here with us, co-host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Great to see you, Asma. Thank you. Thanks for having me back. Joyce Karam, editor-in-chief of El Monitor, also in studio with us.

46:11We're always happy to have you, Joyce. Great to be with you, Naila. And joining us on the line, James Kitfield, senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Congress and author of In the Company of Heroes, the inspiring stories of Medal of Honor recipients from America's longest wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. James, welcome back. Great to be back. Asma, Joyce, and James are here to answer your questions about the week. You can email us your comments as well to 1a at wamu.org. Let's start this hour in Colombia. On Monday, the Pacific coast was hit with a 7.4 magnitude earthquake.

46:47More than 280 people have died. Nearly 4 ,000 have been wounded. The earthquake brought down 170 buildings and left nearly 50 ,000 homeless in Cali, in Choco, about 150 miles from the capital, Bogota. These survivors described the ordeal. I heard the alert on my phone and I shouted, Earthquake! Earthquake! It was getting stronger and stronger. Thank God we survived and didn't suffer more. I thank God I saved my children. If I hadn't run out of the building with them, We would all be like those who are still trapped in the building. The earthquake comes just weeks after a massive earthquake killed more than 6 ,000 people in Venezuela.

47:29This week, Colombia's geological service documented more than 150 aftershocks since Monday's quake. James, the State Department says that disaster response teams from the U.S. are in Colombia, and the Trump administration has pledged more than$15 million in aid. The areas most affected have faced ongoing crises of poverty and civil warfare. What else are rescue crews up against in these areas? In a word, they're up against time. There's really a window after these horrible earthquakes like this where people are buried under rubble and you have to get them out within two or three days normally to have a good chance of survival.

48:12So this happened Monday. Here we are on Friday. So the main thing they're up against is the time clock and also getting all the international aid into the country. As you said, the State Department's moved, you know, has pledged$15 million. I think it'll have to go much higher than that eventually. But a lot of other countries in the region are pouring in, you know, search teams, et cetera. But it's a race against time. The new Colombian president, Abelardo de la Espriella, was sworn in only three days before the quake. He's never held public office since the presidency and rose to power on promises to crack down on criminals and resurgent armed gangs.

48:50He was also endorsed by President Trump. De la Espriella said he would personally lead the disaster response. You are not alone. Colombia has a president who cares about the people and who will do everything in his power to help them in the most difficult moments, strong for the homeland. and firme por la patria. Asma, how much will management of this disaster be a test of his very new leadership? It's very much a test of his leadership. I mean, I think there's something very universal about the idea that when natural disasters happen, regardless of where and what they are, this is not unique to Latin America, that they are often seen as key tests for elected officials.

49:31We did an episode recently, one month on, after those deadly quakes in Venezuela that you mentioned. I mean, those were the strongest earthquakes we've seen in neighboring Venezuela in about a century. And a month on, the interim government is being tested in Venezuela over how things are being resourced. The fact that there's not a temporary housing hasn't been allocated. People still haven't found relatives. And that does hold up. I mean, we're seeing that in Venezuela. I think the other thing I'll mention about the new leader, Esprea, is that he is on the right end of the spectrum. He is a right-wing politician who was, as you say, clearly endorsed by President Trump.

50:08But he also comes after four years of a man who governed Colombia from the far left progressive end of the spectrum. And so I think how he is actually able to steer his country out of this earthquake, people will in the back of their minds be able to compare him with his predecessor. And I would just add to Esma's point, this is a guy who on the day that the earthquake hit, he went ahead and recognized the Golan Heights in Syria, the occupied Golan Heights as Israeli territory. So he already unleashed a different kind of political disaster in the Middle East where governments are coming out. Arab governments are condemning him.

50:47The Syrian government lodged an official complaint at the United Nations. So at a time when Bogota needs all the resources, all the support from the international community, this guy seems to be bent on just a different set of priorities. But worth mentioning still that, you know, this is not as bad as Venezuela. It didn't. It actually hit deeper geologically, which means the impact is less. And they do have in the western side of Colombia, you know, they have more resources. This is the coffee-rich area. So hopefully we will see a quicker recovery. James, beyond the financial pledge from the U.S., has any other help?

51:33What are we seeing about international help being offered to Colombia? Well, we've seen, like I said, search teams. I think it was Mexico has pledged two military aircraft. They're bringing in 20 tons of food and medicine as well as security people. There's Colombia itself. I'm sorry, El Salvador has also offered two planes loaded with aid. So there's the response you would hope for from the region. But, you know, as has been mentioned, this has been a devastating earthquake, and it's coming after the region's already dealt with the Venezuela earthquake. So it's a difficult position for a new leader like him.

52:14Let's move now to developments in the Strait of Hormuz. on Tuesday at Joint Base Andrews, President Trump said this. I don't trust Iran. Why? Are you saying I trust Iran? I'm the last person to trust Iran. They've lied to me constantly. We have total control over the Harmo Strait right now. They don't have control. We have total control. We own it. And at some point, maybe they'll do something and then they get blown away. But we right now, we're in a very good position. On Wednesday, the president doubled down, posting on his true social platform, quote, the USA has total control over the Strait of Hormuz.

52:49I think we will keep it, end quote. Within minutes, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority posted on X, claims and repeated posts by U.S. officials that the Strait of Hormuz is no longer blocked do not change the reality. The Strait of Hormuz remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran's conditions are accepted. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority is the agency set up to manage transit through the strait and collect tolls soon after the war began. Joyce, we're looking at eight vessels just navigating the strait, the lowest daily count since August 5th. That's according to data from the analytics from Kepler.

53:27Despite what we're hearing with the president, who's actually in control of the strait? It's a very good question. And Naila, it depends what we mean by control. Our national security correspondent Jared Zuba had a good piece on that this week. If it means the ability to influence the flow of commercial traffic through the state, then Iran is pushing the control of the Strait of Hormuz. As you mentioned, it's now the number is eight, nine ships on a good day. Before the war, it was 100. So for the U.S. to claim that it controls the strait, I think Trump might be talking about naval, overwhelming naval force over there.

54:08But all Iran needs to do is just fire a drone, hit a ship, and that just scares the heck out of insurance companies that are trying to find different routes. So the control is contested at best, we can say here. And Iran is in a very good position of extorting traffic through the strait. Meanwhile, Pakistan's defense minister says the U.S. and Iran are closer to a deal than ever. James, there's so many mixed messages here. Can you help us sort through the noise? What is the status of Pakistan? Also, Qatari-mediated talks between the U.S. and Iran. Is there any movement on either side asking for compensation?

54:52You know, Iran has been asking for compensation for U.S. violations for the now-lapsed interim peace deal that was agreed to in June. You know, you played that clip from President Trump, and it really just drives home hearing it again, which I've heard it before, which is that we don't have a reliable narrator of this conflict. We certainly can't trust what the Iranians say, and we can't trust our own president. Clearly, we do not have total control of the Strait of Hormuz. That is obvious to everyone who's looking at the situation. But he'll continue to say that because he thinks it plays up his hand in this deal-making.

55:27What we know is that the Pakistan-Qatari talks, they are saying positive things, but again, they are incentivized to say positive things about a deal being on the verge of being agreed to. On the Oman-Iran negotiations, the last word on that was a critical point on that. But that discussion was really about how Iran and Oman will jointly manage the Strait of Hormuz. There's been talk about, you know, maybe the traffic comes in on the route next to Iran and goes out on the route next to Oman. But unless, you know, as long as there's a toll being charged in that international waterway, there's no way the Trump administration can play this as a victory.

56:11So we're kind of at a stalemate, I guess would be the short term way to put it. Let's pick up on U.S. and Iran negotiations. This week, a top advisor to the overall commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, spoke to PBS NewsHour, saying that the U.S. military is, quote, weaker than what we perceived. We have not yet reached our final objective. This is clear. Up until now, we are victorious. In the future, we will continue to be victorious. The longer this war lasts, the more experience we gain. We had never seen a real war to gain real experience, to learn how to fight with America.

56:49In these five months, we have learned how. We have also seen how the American military is weaker than what we perceived. It has been a long-running policy of Iran's Revolutionary Guard to never speak to American media, which is why this interview was so surprising. I was very absorbed in watching these nine minutes. Joyce, why now in your reaction to this interview, first of all? It's fascinating. unusual interview, as you mentioned, Naila. To me, this tells me this regime feels emboldened. They feel they want to address Western audience, specifically American U.S. audience. They've mentioned Congress.

57:29They've mentioned that the slogan of death to America does not mean death to America as a nation, but just American leadership and the political trajectory of American politics. But this is, I mean, what we are seeing play on the ground in Iran is the effectively the third iteration of the Islamic Republic. This war was very good for them. They've managed to consolidate their control, especially the IRGC, and they don't want a ceasefire. They feel they could win in a war of attrition. And this is what the IRGC commander was telling me, yes. I mean, this interview was fascinating. I was riveted because, as you say, it's a perspective that we just don't often hear.

58:14And to me, one of the most insightful moments was when he said, one way to prolong this war is wait. We said one way is to prolong this war till we get to the next term of the presidency. I mean, that is a shocking thing to hear out loud. And look, we don't know how accurate that perspective is writ large or whether Iran has the capabilities to do that. But there were multiple moments where he seemed to be very astutely aware of some of the internal domestic political tensions. Oh, even saying, if I were a member of the American Congress, this is what I would be asking. And talking about the strategic decisions of when to strike and the messaging and stock purchases.

58:51I mean, that is a very live, active debate in domestic politics of how President Trump has navigated this war and some within his administration. And so I just thought it was insightful to me of the Iranian government, the Iranian leadership is aware of our domestic politics, is trying to speak to somewhat of an American audience. And yet the reverse, I don't know. I don't know how accurate it is to me. I mean, I don't think the average American, I certainly don't even as somebody who follows foreign affairs, have a great pulse on what is going on inside Iran. I think for many Americans, Iran seems very closed off, a bit like a North Korea situation.

59:26I found it fascinating that the Iranian government seems to be trying to pay attention to what's going on. And in this instance, actually trying to speak to an American audience. I mean, and I just don't think they want this war to stop. This was a regime before February 28 that was facing domestic pressure, reeling economy. The economy is still reeling for sure, but it was politically very weakened. Now they're using this war to claim not just regional supremacy, that they're fighting the big aggressor, the United States and Israel, but also consolidating internally. Right. James, can I ask you about this?

1:00:07Iran's regime announced this week it will replace its top national security advisor with longtime military commander Mohsen Rezaei. He's a prominent hardliner, close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mujahideen Khomeini. What is the signal about how IRGC hardliners are consolidating power, James? Well, it's a clear signal that they are consolidating power and that they are more hardline. I don't think that we really understood this than the theocratic government that we have and the Israelis have basically decapitated. It's led to the military being in charge now. They're very hardline. And I second what has already been said that you can't really trust what the Iranians say, but if they act like they are talking, then you have to believe that they do think that they are going to be victorious in this because they think time is on their side and they can take more pain than we can dish out.

1:01:05And we've seen all the reports about the strains of this operation on our aircraft carriers, on our munition stocks, and they think that time is on their side. And that's a big problem for us as a country and for this administration. And I think, you know, let's hope that some of these talks lead to some sort of modus operandi where we can, because there's nothing but bad escalation sort of choices ahead unless we reach some sort of agreement. And if it's an agreement where Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, it will be a very hard narrative to sell as a victory for the Trump administration. I mean, that's what I was going to say.

1:01:42I mean, ultimately for President Trump, this is not a war of survival. It is, in fact, a war, I would argue, that for domestic political reasons, he would very much prefer to wrap up before the midterm elections. For the Iranian government, it increasingly appears this is very much a war for survival. And they will just have different, I think, equations and in terms for that. The one last thing I want to mention real quick on the Strait of Hormuz, though, I think what is fascinating is how frequently we continue to talk about this as being part of the discussion to end the war. because it was not even part of the initial engagement to go to war.

1:02:18And to me, that shows that the United States does not have all the leverage at once. And it was not the intention we heard of going to war. It was open before the war, right? There were no tolls being charged. No tolls being charged. Iran was playing, you know, with all regional countries. Now they're firing on regional countries and the strait is closed. So the goals have moved during the course of this war. Entirely. I mean, there was a good piece in Politico by Nahal Tusi on this. The crisis that the Trump administration faces is similar to Bush with the Iraq war, but where Bush had to, you know, boost troops, do a counterinsurgency campaign.

1:02:56But this is not feasible for this administration. I want to ask you all about some exclusive reporting from The Washington Post that found a possible Iranian threat towards Air Force One after the NATO summit. The warning prompted the president to be secretly thrown, flown out of Turkey on a different plane, sneaking onto a catering truck while Air Force One flew separately. Asma, as a former White House reporter, I would love your thoughts on this. The Global Story did a great episode about this that I was just listening to. The president just, first of all, also the president has repeatedly asserted that Iran's military has been defeated.

1:03:35What do we know about how serious this threat was? Okay, so what we were told, and in fact, the president himself acknowledged this after the Washington Post broke the story, is that there were credible threats. And he says it was a Secret Service decision to move him from what we were told at the time. He transferred planes actually a couple times in this story. So this was after the NATO summit. He, remember, had the Qatari jet. That's what he flew in on. The new Air Force One. The new, yes, to some degree. Yes, the Qatari jet, I would say. And the traditional old Air Force One that people might recall seeing in photos with the blue coloring on the side, that is what he was supposed to fly out of.

1:04:12And that's what everyone thought, even including the reporters who were on the plane. Including, yes. My understanding is journalists were not told, nobody was told, and frankly, until this publicly, until the Post broke this story, is that the president ascended the staircase of Air Force One, went out the back, went into a catering truck, which is just wild to imagine, right? like is in this catering truck and then moved to another... uh, aircraft to fly to the UK. and but left everybody behind a couple of people were on that aircraft carrier with him but cabinet officials was with him but other cabinet other cabinet officials and the entire white house staff and the white house press pool and and look the white house press pool there have been moments where a president might go into a war zone i mean i'm thinking of when joe biden went into ukraine via train that is a very close hold but usually the white house correspondence association is told The reporter or the small pool is told in this occasion, the journalists were not in the loop.

1:05:08And you can make the argument we're on a plane that was effectively being used as a decoy. And the last time this happened to Esma's point where the president goes to an undisclosed location and the press doesn't know about it was after a September 11 attacks with George W. Bush being being moved to undisclosed location. But that was almost a state of war. So the whole incident raises many questions. The Turkish intelligence authorities, they are not able independently to corroborate some of the intelligence. We know some of it came from Israel. The Iranians are using the episode to mock the U.S.

1:05:52administration yet again with silly memes about the catering truck and all of that. I'll also note that the Post broke this story. The Post also had an update saying that the CIA had some doubts about the veracity of this intelligence and that it was relayed by Israeli intelligence. And I should say some officials within the CIA had some concerns about how accurate this intelligence was. I mean, that being said, there have been incredible threats against the president of the United States in the past from Iran. There have been threats against John Bolton, who was his national security advisor in the first term.

1:06:24And much of this stems from, I think many listeners will remember, a top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, was assassinated by the Trump administration in 2020 during the president's first term. And since then, there have been some threats against Trump himself and Trump administration officials. And he rushed the use of the Qatari gift. That's what, James, I wanted to ask you about that, right? Because there's been repeated security questions about the new plane. I don't know what we're calling it, the Qatari plane. What does this incident show about those questions that were raised months ago?

1:06:58Well, it shows conclusively that although they retrofitted it with a lot of security measures, it is not close to as capable as the old Air Force One, especially, I gather, from, you know, defense against surface-to-air missiles. Then he wasn't on the old Air Force One either. Right. So, which leads me to believe, and apparently the intelligence suggests that someone had been seen with a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile, you know, in the region. Around the surrounding area of NATO, but that sounds strange, too. If you've been to a NATO summit, they're locked down. I mean, I'd had multiple security badges.

1:07:31I was also, like, a mile of a perimeter to get into a NATO summit, right? Like, yeah. But this was in the Middle East. You're not going to take a chance with the president of the United States. I don't care if he's a mile away or two miles away. that doesn't strike me as being that uh i think the secret service will always understand err on the side of caution but what it does it does show that you know i think we should all think about if iran was serious about this and apparently was a very serious intelligence to let him to do this and the secret service to do this what would have happened if they were successful that's why that's how fraught this issue is if they had taken down the president of the united states we would be all-out war with iran and maybe its allies which include Russia.

1:08:12So it just goes to show you how fraught this period is with so many conflicts and so much disruption in the sort of global international order. Before we move on, on Tuesday, a court in Damascus sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia. He was sentenced for murder, torture, and crimes against humanity committed before and during the country's 14-year civil war that left about half a million dead. Assad fled to Russia, where he and his family are living in asylum. Joyce, what's the significance of these convictions in Asimsa? Huge. This is really a watershed moment, not just for Syria, but for transitional justice across the Middle East.

1:08:54Syria particularly, you know, this is a regime, Naila, as we've covered so many times, this is a criminal regime, ex-regime, hands soaked in blood from the minute they came to power in the 70s through the Hama massacre, where they killed 20 ,000 in cold blood through the occupation of Lebanon, through the Syrian civil war. Killing their people was there, how they survived and how they stayed in power. So sentencing not just Bashar, but his brother Maher, his security guy, Atif Najib, is really enormous. The thing though, however, it will remain symbolic unless Russia decides otherwise. Bashar, his wife Esma, the family, the brother are all enjoying their time in Moscow.

1:09:45They've been seen at, you know, restaurants. His former UN ambassador was just seen celebrating a birthday party in Moscow. So they're very much sheltered in Russia. But if Russia decides otherwise, would they deal with a Syrian, new Syrian government to hand him over, then we will see real justice. Let's move to the future of Gaza now that Israel has rejected Donald Trump's plan for the territory. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his parliament he will not commit to any withdrawal in Gaza until Hamas disarms. Israel controls more than 60 percent of Gaza right now, with the militant group Hamas in charge of the rest.

1:10:24James, Hamas has long refused full disarmament. the Trump plan for Gaza grew out of a ceasefire from October that Hamas agreed to. What is behind Israel's position, especially when we think of the fact that the U.S. is pushing for this? Well, it's two facts that are really relevant here, one of which is Bibi Netanyahu is facing an election in October, and he has a very hard right government that's looking at him to, be very strong on the issue of Gaza. And he also, it was his administration was in charge on October 7th when that horrible terrorist attack from Hamas came. So that'll be reminded to everyone who's voting in Israel.

1:11:07So he has to be very hardline on this. And also shows that we've seen recently is that US and Israeli interests are diverging, and primarily from this Iranian war. or, you know, Bibi has an election coming up. Gaza, you know, Hamas is not ready to give up all its weapons until the Israelis, you know, withdraw. And the Israelis say they're not going to withdraw until they give up their weapons. The Hezbollah in Lebanon, we've seen where Israel wants to keep that conflict going and keep denigrating them, but it's not working for Trump because he wants a deal on the Strait of Hormuz. And then the West Bank is, basically the settlers are run amok in the West Bank.

1:11:47and that is causing a lot of consternation, not only with the U.S. administration, but, you know, around the world. And Bibi Netanyahu has no reason to clamp down on those settlers because he's facing this election in the fall. Asma, can I just ask, would we possibly see a resumption of attacks that have devastated the Gaza Strip, given what Israel has said? I think it's really hard to predict what will happen now in Gaza. I mean, I would argue that ever since the ceasefire was first announced, attacks have continued. There has been a consistent, steady number of strikes in the interim as well.

1:12:25In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, violence against Palestinians has continued. On Wednesday, Israeli troops were deployed to control Jewish extremist settlers emboldened by Netanyahu's right-wing government. In the Palestinian village of Kisra, Jewish settlers threw tear gas at Israeli troops and tempted to break gates to gain entry to Palestinian homes. That's according to footage reviewed by Reuters. The Israeli troops left shortly after clashing with settlers and two Palestinian families remain trapped in their homes. Asma, what is the latest on this situation? So the latest, and I will say it has been an ongoing moving story to the point where we actually wanted to do it as our Monday episode and thought we need to just wait a day because it has been really, really uncertain as to what will happen.

1:13:09But the latest that we have heard is that the mayor of Khosra, which is this village in the West Bank that is at the center of this story, that mayor told the BBC that it's been declared a closed military zone. And so our understanding is that Israeli forces said that they were going to vacate the area, that they were going to vacate Palestinian houses, apparently as barracks. The Israeli military has said that the aim was to protect the residents. I will say at the same time, there has long been a history of settler violence in the West Bank. And so understandably, I think people are very nervous about whether they'll actually be able, the Palestinian residents, to return to their homes.

1:13:49You know, I think this story has been at the center of people's attention because there has been CCTV footage. The man who owns one of these homes, he is a Palestinian-American who built this home. He owns a chain of gas stations in Ohio. Yes, yeah. And so he was able to watch, he said, what was going on via this footage. In fact, he talked to us at the BBC and told us about what, you know, how he's been sort of witnessing this all from afar. Our understanding also, though, is that when the Israeli military came in, he said that the footage, the security cameras were removed. And so that tracking does not not longer does no longer appear to be going on.

1:14:29I will also say the other reason I think that this has risen up to the attention that it has is because Mike Huckabee, the ambassador of the United States in Israel, did speak out about this. He referred to the folks as Israeli terrorists. I mean, that being said, I also want to contextualize this and say, Mike, I could be as somebody who has in the past supported settlements in the West Bank and referred to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria. So I think that's all in mind. Right. We actually talked last week about how he visited the West Bank and did not visit these settlements in the U.S. citizens there.

1:14:58But on Thursday, he did say Israeli settlers were terrorists. Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Dannen, defended the settlements on Wednesday during a Security Council meeting. And he said, quote, we are not going anywhere. James, if we have the Israeli army unable to control settlers, we have Israeli officials defending the Israeli presence in the West Bank. What does this mean for the future here? Well, it means – I guess the two-state solution has been on life support for many years. And that's on purpose on Bibi Netanyahu's part. this is looking like the you know the the last rights for the two-state solution because this government has absolutely zero interest in in making that happen uh and i you know if if you sort of just extrapolate out from this you know israel is going to stay in gaza israel is going to you know expand its settlements in the west bank and then i think i guess they hope that the millions of palestinians will just disappear or go you know go away but it starts to look a lot like apartheid if there is no solution to Palestinians who do not have civil, you know, full rights under an Israeli government, you know, in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in some, you know, in some degree, even in Israel itself.

1:16:18Right. We have 18 Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year. That's more than all of 2025, according to UN data, Joyce. I mean, to James' point, this is beyond hoping that the Palestinians would actually leave. This This is a planned push by these extremist settlers to push the Palestinians out of their land. We're seeing on average five attacks a day. Since 2023 till now, we've seen 3 ,700 attacks by settlers on Palestinians. So forget the two-state solution. It's just they're making life unlivable for the Palestinians in the West Bank. And without the West Bank, there is no Palestinian anything.

1:17:02I mean, Gaza is completely occupied. So this is the crisis. This is the problem why Mike Huckabee, even somebody like Mike Huckabee, is calling this terrorism. But it happens beyond Qusra. We've seen it in Qusra because of the media coverage, because of the footage that came out. But it's happening daily everywhere else. Where else? And, you know, this administration did not pressure Netanyahu at the outset on the issue of settlements. And now beyond lip service, there is not much coming pressure on this government to stop these attacks. And as we've mentioned many times, this is an election time for Bibi Netanyahu.

1:17:45He needs these votes. He needs Danny Dannen knows what he's talking about. The Likud, they need the settler support to win in a very close election in October. Let's move to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is headed into its sixth winter when Putin invaded in February of 2022. His aim was to take Kiev in days. Ukraine hit several key Russian sites this week, including grain export terminals on the Red Sea and a hub for oil refinery far from the front line, about 750 miles east of Ukraine. Russia exports more grain than any other country, James. So what do these attacks mean, not just symbolically, but on the ground for Russia?

1:18:26Well, and it's also should be noted that the Ukrainians have hit Russian grain storage facilities as well as Russia hitting Odessa, which is where Ukraine exports its grain. So we're kind of back to 2022 when, you know, there was a blockade on, you know, Russia had a blockade on Ukraine's grain exports that caused 70 million people to basically be under food insecurity concerns. And it's looking like we're right back there. So this conflict, I mean, Russia is taking full advantage of the fact that everyone knows that we cannot give Ukraine our air defense systems anymore, the patriots, because we've run so low of them ourselves in Iran, you know, in the Iran conflict.

1:19:11And to its credit, Ukraine has become the absolute Jedi Knights of drone warfare. And they have figured out ways to attack Russia, as you mentioned, more than 1 ,000 miles from their own border. So this conflict is at a stalemate as well, but it shows sign of great escalation recently. And I think we'll talk about that later in the show. But it's a huge concern. We talked about the PBS NewsHour IRGC interview this week. Another important piece of journalism came from the BBC. Russian journalist Dmitry Miratov told the BBC this week the war has been so bloody it can never be called a victory. It seems to me that the situation with Ukraine now is this.

1:19:55You can destroy it, but you cannot conquer it. What do I mean by destroy? Continued escalation all the way to nuclear war. Miratov won the New Vault Peace Prize in 2021 along with journalist Maria Ressa for, quote, their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. Joyce, Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky says Putin is escalating the invasion as Ukraine runs low on missile interceptors. Russia plans to deploy up to 50 ,000 North Korean troops. What do we know about this plan for North Korean troops and how it could change the war? This is just yet another page of Russian North Korean cooperation in this war, which is, you know, going to very expanded military levels.

1:20:46So the 30 to 50 ,000, that would be roughly double what was, you know, 14 to 15 ,000 troops. It would actually give Russia continued breathing room to push into Ukraine at a time when Ukraine is taking the fight to Russia. We're seeing much more drone attacks come from Ukraine into Russia. We're seeing also Zelensky go to South Korea to try to balance that North Korean support. But this is really just another indication how closely Russia has sought help from North Korea in its Ukraine war. And the grain, you know, the attack on the grain hops that James was mentioning, this is happening at the height of the harvest season.

1:21:39So the Russians are trying to just do a replay of 2022 when you remember all these attacks and the prices of bread and the wheat exports were just paralyzed. So they're trying to do the same thing. They haven't been able to get to that point yet, but it's definitely something to watch. James, we also saw in this news this week about Russia's so-called shadow fleet, the EU putting pressure, Putin threatening retaliation. What is that? Why is the EU involved? Well, if you remember, when Russia invaded Ukraine, there were really strict international sanctions that we mistakenly thought would bring it to its knees because it relies so much on its oil exports.

1:22:19And since then, Russia has developed this shadow fleet of tankers that export its oil under third nation flags. And the EU has recently gotten more strict about stopping those ships and even confiscating their contents. And that has caused very, very severe concern for Mr. Putin. And he has said that if you dare sell that oil, then we'll start intercepting EU fleets. So another escalation point on the global stage right now. But to his credit, the EU basically has cracked down, just as we recently cracked down by passing this Lindsey Graham's final bill to try to increase U.S. sanctions on Russia.

1:23:08But Russia is pushing back. We got this email from Phil who asked, with Russia waging war in Europe and forcing NATO countries into defense mode, Iran battling the U.S. and the Middle East and depleting U.S. weapon reserves, are we at the beginning of World War III? James, I wonder if you want to tackle a little bit of that, and particularly I'm just curious about the idea of weapons reserves as well. Well, you know, I've been thinking a lot about this, and the dashboard of the international order has been blinking red all over the world right now. I mean, you see Russia and Ukraine in an escalation phase.

1:23:43You see the U.S. and Iran in the Middle East in an escalation phase. You see well-reported articles about U.S. weaknesses in terms of our aircraft carriers have been deployed too long. There's been fires on them. There's shortages of food, even sailors jumping over the edge because they've been away from shore for so long. and you have Trump administration that is very much a disruptive actor on the world stage with tariffs, with all these military operations. And I think our allies are afraid and I think our enemies are emboldened. So I and many other analysts look at this world situation and it's the most disruptive I've seen and the most dangerous in four decades almost of covering defense.

1:24:29I mean, I hope it's not World War III, but these two theaters of war are also connected. You still see Iran provide Russia help with Shahid drones, with weaponry that it uses to bomb Kiev, to bomb other cities in Ukraine. And you're seeing Russia firsthand publicly offer, you know, Iran intelligence that it's using to attack so-called partners of Russia and in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia and UAE and Kuwait and Bahrain. Some of this satellite intelligence is coming from Russia and from China. So these two theaters are not independent and the U.S. has failed on both fronts to achieve a permanent ceasefire.

1:25:17Tomorrow marks the five-year anniversary of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, a UNESCO report found that 2.4 million girls have been barred from secondary school. By 2030, the UN agency says that number could approach 4 million. A report from Human Rights Watch found that under the Taliban's rule, Afghanistan now faces a humanitarian crisis and more. Afghans are dying from a lack of health care, among other effects. Joyce, how else have we seen Afghan lives changed in these past five years? This is, you know, a mixed picture of this anniversary for the U.S., for its allies. This is a, you know, security accomplishment.

1:25:55The prolonged occupation of Afghanistan has ended. But on the other hand, it's, you know, girls being barred from school, from theaters, from universities. So to the Afghan, to the people of Afghanistan, this is, you know, just they're saying, you know, we want something more than security. We want people to help us determine our future, to help us with malnutrition, with other areas that we are very much lagging behind since the war. If I can disagree a bit, I don't know that I see Afghanistan nor the folks that I've spoken with see it as a security win, to be honest, after all these years or a security achievement.

1:26:36I think to many folks, it appears like it was a loss on a human rights front and a loss on the security front. You can talk to folks who fought in the wars for many years and sort of wonder what was it for. I've heard from folks that there's very limited actually insights into what is happening in Afghanistan nowadays compared to when the United States actually had some insights into what was happening in terms of intelligence. There's limited intelligence into the region. There is the Taliban, which is not a friendly government with the United States. And so I think ultimately we have far less insight into the country than we did for those 20 years.

1:27:09But I think the other question I have is that, you know, it's not just hospitals. Girls cannot go to school. They cannot become doctors. They cannot become nurses. Foreign aid is a fraction of what it used to be even compared to last year. And USAID has also cut off much of its funding. So I think at this point, to me, I think many Americans wonder what was the point of this all for 20 years. And now here we are five years. after the Taliban took over. And it's been a fairly dire situation for many people in the country. James, I'll let you have the last word here. We just have a few seconds left before the show ends, but I want you to weigh in.

1:27:47Well, as someone who reported extensively from Afghanistan, we sacrificed the Afghan people when we got out of there. And that's on us. And that's been a reputation hurt for us for the last five years. Al-Qaeda has not reconstituted in Afghanistan. I think the Taliban have other fish to fry. So that's on the good news story. But it's a pretty dismal chapter in American national security. That's James Kitfield, author of In the Company of Heroes, the inspiring stories of Medal of Honor recipients from America's longest wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He's also a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.

1:28:25I want to thank Joyce Karam as well, editor-in-chief of Al Monitor and Asma Khalid, co-host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer. Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our senior managing producer. Alexandra Bote is our senior supervising producer. Aileen Humphreys is our senior producer and editor of 1A On Demand. And Thomas Liu and Matthew Simonson produce our podcast. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington, distributed by NPR. I'm Naila Boudou. Thanks for listening. This is 1A.

1:29:18The midterms are coming, and that means the news cycle, which is already intense, is about to get more intense this fall. So this summer is a perfect time to make sure your news diet is calibrated. I'm Leila Fawdell. On Up First, we unpack the three biggest stories every morning so you can stay informed and get on with your day in less than 15 minutes. Follow or subscribe to Up First today wherever you get your podcasts. The fatal shooting of a teenager at a protest in Seattle has gone unsolved for six years. This is open in your face. How are there no answers? Our investigation has uncovered new evidence and witnesses who say they've never talked to police.

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