The News Roundup For September 11, 2026

26:10We also saw the Trump administration saying this week it no longer plans to cancel temporary protected status or TPS for more than 170 ,000 Salvadorians, at least for now. David, this move is only for the time being the administration canceled TPS for 350 ,000 Haitians in July. Why is it keeping it for Salvadorians? It's a good question. I think the most likely explanation is President Trump's close relationship with Naive Bukele, the president of El Salvador. He has been such an ally in the efforts to accelerate deportations so far. And of course, in spring last year, he helped detain more than 200 migrants deported from the US in a maximum security prison there.

27:00So he's got some diplomatic goodwill, perhaps with Trump, we will have to see how long that can be sustained. Certainly, I think, still, for Salvadorians, there's a great deal of uncertainty. Obviously, with this, they've seen what's happened to Haitians, for example, and some reports of Salvadorans self-deporting or preparing for the worst and very little indication from the Trump administration right now on when a final decision will be made on this. Two more immigration headlines for you. A new report released this week from the University of Illinois Chicago looks at the economic cost of Trump administration's immigration crackdown and found that ICE raids in Chicago caused local businesses to lose$1.26 billion last year.

27:51And this week, the Department of Homeland Security posted a fake movie poster on X announcing a phone line to, quote, report illegal aliens on American roads, end quote. The since-deleted poster features a transformer facing off against a sick driver involved in a fatal traffic accident with the tagline, get off the roads, you don't know how to drive, Mr. Singh. Steve, this poster obviously upset the Sikh community, especially the timing as they remember the first hate crime death post 9-11, a Sikh man being mistaken for being Muslim. It was also disowned by Hasbro, the owner of the Transformers franchise.

28:28What has the DHS had to say in response to the outrage over this? Well, what they've done right now is they've taken down the poster and the action video not out of remorse but out of potential legal action from Hasbro. said you can't use transformers and the image of them this way. But it does remind many in the Sikh community about how they were misidentified and labeled as part of the propagators of the 9-11 attacks 25 years ago. Lots of hate crimes and harassment happened to that community. So the timing is awful. But on top of that, there's no evidence that immigrant drivers are any more dangerous.

29:07They're trying to sort of impose that, oh, these immigrant drivers in the United States are somehow undermining the safety and security of Americans. And there's just no evidence that that's the case. More to come after this short break. Stay with us.

29:24This week on the NPR Politics Podcast, the Republican Midterm Convention was basically a two night MAGA infomercial. He has told voters, I want you to pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot. Just come out and vote and show up for it. We break down President Trump's midterm strategy, including that$5 ,000 promise, this week on the NPR Politics Podcast. I haven't seen my son since 2012. This is Deborah Tice. The disappearance of her son, Austin, is one of the biggest missing person cases in the world. What do you want from me? I should solve the mystery. I know that my son is somewhere alive. Listen to Where Is Austin Tice from NPR's Embedded and BBC Radio 4 on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

30:12This week on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, we talk with our panel Mo Rocca, Shane Torres and Annie Rowarda about the latest trend in dating, smelling bad on purpose. This pheromone maxing is just not bathing. Yes. Yeah, so this is like when Uber came out and they're like, it's not taxi, it's ride share. Don't miss our full conversation and the rest of our games. Listen to the Wait Wait Don't Tell Me podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from BetterHelp. Imagine carrying a backpack every day. It is easy not to notice how heavy it is until someone asks if there's a desire to put it down.

30:47Therapy can help lighten what has been carried. Visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR. It's the Friday News Roundup. I'm Naila Boodoo. Today marks 25 years since the September 11th terror attacks. that killed nearly 3 ,000 people in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. And we're hearing from you about your remembrances of those days. Susan Galbraith from Earlsville, New York, says she headed for Ground Zero when she heard the news about the Twin Tower and emailed us to say, on September 11, 2001, I was working as a massage therapist. When calls went out for health professionals, I called to volunteer, but no one ever says it's an emergency where the massage therapist.

31:26So I just caught the first train to New York City. Within a couple of hours, I was at Stuyvesant High School. I gave massages for 20 of the next 36 hours. We listened to stories from people searching for lost friends, relatives, and colleagues grieved and stressed beyond words. I'd like to think we offered some relief. Susan, thanks for sharing that. Denise Pauly in St. Louis, Missouri says, I remember with great sadness, the confusion, horror, and fear. Our work in the hospital couldn't pause or stop, but we kept checking the news. The entire nation remained in shock and mourning in the dark days that followed.

32:02One incredibly bright moment was hearing of the solace and comfort gander Newfoundland had provided for Americans and people of other nations on diverted flights. We very much appreciated the gentle strength and support from our northern neighbor and friend, Canada. Denise, thanks for sharing that. This morning, survivors, mourners, and politicians, including Vice President J.D. Vance, gathered at the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City for a commemoration event. Family members read the names of those killed that day. David W. Bernard. William H. Bernstein. David M. Bray. David Shelby Berry.

32:44Joseph John Berry. William Reed Bethke. Yanayne Betrue. Timothy D. Betterly. Carolyn Mayer Bugue. Edward Frank B.A. Paul Michael Baer. Anil Tahiram Baravani. Bella J. Bucan. Shimmy D. Beagleyson. Peter Alexander Bielfeld William G. Biggert Brian Eugene Bilcher Mark Bingham Carl Vincent Beeney And my grandfather, Edward T. Keene Before we get to some significant 9-11 developments this week, I first wanted to ask your reflections on this extraordinary event in American history that we're remembering today, Jeff. I think all of us remember where we were. I was living abroad at the time. I was in Germany.

33:48We were both at Reuters, right? We were, exactly. It was the beginning of my career at Reuters. Beginning of our careers at Reuters? Yeah, exactly. And there was a car show, and I had just had an interview with the CEO of Porsche, and I was really excited about it because I loved cars and I was interested. And I walked back into the office and someone said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. And I got my story out. And then, um, I was, you know, we all initially thought that the plane was not a commercial jet. And then of course the second plane hit. And, um, that was the end of anything related to Porsche, obviously for me that day, because the much more important story and world event was, was what was happening in New York.

34:29But the reflection that I wanted to share is living abroad at that time, I experienced what I think many Americans here did, which was solidarity and solidarity from Europeans and others who just came out and showed so much support to the United States and to me as an American living abroad. And that sense of, of we're all in this together was very strong overseas, just as it was here. That ended up not staying that way once the war began. But on that particular day, amidst the intense grief that I and everyone felt, there was a sense of community that was very strong. Yeah, it was the first month of me being working for Reuters here in DC.

35:20Steve, what about you? So I was in a very memorable place. I was in the United States Capitol that morning, 7.30 a.m. I started hosting the trade minister of the Netherlands in a discussion about trade policy. And as the event was going on and some people were arriving later, they had anguished looks on their face. I was at a podium and did not know what had happened. And then finally we were evacuated out of the building. And we began hearing rumors about bombs in the State Department, et cetera, et cetera. It was a horrible, horrible emotional moment. I remember changing into my running clothes and jogging over to the Pentagon and seeing the gaping hole and the massive smoke and fires of the Pentagon and just feeling that in my lungs that morning and cried.

36:15David, what about you? I was in Britain, where I'm from, just out on a routine news story. And I remember hearing the first descriptions of it on a car radio. Less than a month later, I went off to Pakistan to cover some of the fallout in some of the Taliban-controlled areas and spent five weeks there. And indeed, I mean, my reflection really on the 25 years is, you know, how did the US respond? And sadly, it could be argued a lot of that unity and goodwill was lost. And I interviewed some experts over the last week or two who said things like 9-11 is when things began to go wrong for the United States.

36:58On September the 10th, it was at the height of its power after the Cold War. But a lot of missteps and misjudgments have undermined its power and its credibility. And some of those experts, you know, traced a line from the Iraq war, for example, to the breakdown of the rules based international order, the rise of Donald Trump claiming to be an anti-war candidate and exploiting arguably a breakdown of trust in institutions and in government, which the war on terror perhaps accelerated. We had a surprising moment during this morning's reading of the names. One family member calling for Saudi Arabia to be held accountable for the terror attacks.

37:45And my husband, Tom Strada. You are missed more with each year that passes. But how can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder? It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through. Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today. Please carry that message back. Steve, a reaction to that as well as the fact that the trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, has been scheduled for 2028?

38:36So two elements here. One, there has been long-term efforts by some family members of victims in 9-11 to pursue Saudi accountability given that was the home country of Osama bin Laden. Many of the hijackers were Saudi, but the broader connection of that is known by our intelligence services of some of the charities out of Saudi Arabia. Officially, the U.S. government has said and viewed that the Saudi government was not liable or responsible for this. But there's ongoing legal action by this. Peter Bergen, a very well-known terrorism analyst with a new book out called All the President's Wars, the Global War on Terror over the last 25 years, goes into this about the Saudi question, the legal actions, et cetera, and says it is a box still unchecked to look at.

39:27And so one understands the anguish of this person. But at the same time, the arena there of – there's always a difference in the official and the unofficial responsibility. And she's trying to basically hold accountable some of these others. But there were real questions about how money was transferred, the charities that were involved in the Middle East, and that's an unresolved issue. And the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has taken over 20 years to do. And, you know, in a sense, Peter Bergen, again, was called to be a potential witness in this case and because he is such an expert on this, has interviewed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others.

40:02But I think what's interesting about this case is that he was waterboarded, i.e. tortured, 183 times and that in our legal process, none of that material has been able to be used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They almost got a plea deal with him and was able to do – which was reversed because it would have taken the death penalty off the table for him. So it's one of these legal purgatory issues, the whole Guantanamo detention of people, the renditions of people beyond legal lines. And it's been an unbelievably terrible experiment in what happens when you go out of a rule of law system into a purgatory where the rules in North Star of how do you bring justice to a system works.

40:48So that's where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will basically create a regurgitation, if you will, of many of the horrors and nightmares of, I think, U.S. law and how we dealt with those many, many people after 9-11. many innocent people in addition to real villains. This week, New York City Mayor Zoran Mondani this week released 170 ,000 pages of records on air quality following the attacks. It revealed that toxic contaminants like asbestos were found up to 10 months later, as much as half a mile from ground zero. That's despite city officials telling New Yorkers the air was safe to breathe at the time.

41:30Mayor Mondani spoke at a press conference on Tuesday announcing the release of the documents. The devastating truth is that the suffering did not end once the smoke cleared and the dust settled. People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air. David, how significant are these documents? What do they tell us about the air quality New Yorkers were exposed to? Yeah, I think they're very important because we've been getting reminders the last few days that probably more people actually died after 9-11 from this toxic air than on the day itself.

42:10And these are 170 ,000 plus pages of records that Mamdani released showing that officials knew there were serious contaminants in the air and the buildings. As you mentioned, asbestos was widespread in those buildings in lower Manhattan. And one of the memos from October 2001 suggests that officials were worried about the health consequences, even as they were publicly reassuring people. You know, they were conscious of the legal consequences here. So it does at least have the appearance of a cover up. And I think there'll be great demands for further investigations into this. Jeff, I've been doing a lot of reporting this week for my new podcast, Oh God, Now What, and for Religion News Service about how American Muslims have been affected by the past 25 years.

43:06And this moment is, of course, so different. Muslims have so much more political power than they did in 2001, Mayor Mondami being a prime example. How have Islamophobia and reflections on life in the U.S. for Muslims following 9-11 come up this week? Well, it's tough, I think, for Muslims related to 9-11 because they became in many ways, like other minority groups did in other parts of U.S. history after big conflicts or during big conflicts, they became an unfair focal point for people's anger. but you're right to note that the political situation has changed dramatically and yet it's still, and this was evidenced to some extent at the Republican convention this week it still can become an easy target and you saw the vice president for example picking on or attacking El Saeed from Michigan as one of his primary attack objects in his speech.

44:13And that was not over 9-11, but it was other. And in that sense of other-ness remains a political weapon that some politicians continue to use today. We got this message from Aaron in Leesburg, Virginia, who writes, I was working in New York City on the morning of September 11, 2001, from our 44th floor office window. My coworkers and I watched with horror as the Twin Towers fell. I remember clearly that one Muslim colleague, a young woman just out of college like myself, said to herself more than anyone, this is going to be very bad for people who look like me. I'm saddened to hear that her words came true and that people, many Americans, seem to have developed hate in their heart following that day.

44:58We got this message from Nikki in Illinois who writes, I was in sixth grade. The teachers rolled TVs in on carts as they did back then, and we watched in horror for hours. I'll never forget the footage of people jumping from the towers and trying to process what was happening. I went home, watched more coverage into the night, and still to this day, it sits heavily on my mind. May we never forget. Thanks to all of you for sharing your remembrances of that day. Very much appreciated as we think back on 25 years now. Thanks also to our domestic news panel today. David Smith, Washington Bureau Chief for The Guardian.

45:35Steve Clemens, Editor-at-Large for The National Interest. And Jeff Mason, Washington Correspondent for Bloomberg News. We have to take a quick break, but we're just getting started with the week's headlines. When we come back, we'll have a new panel and all the news from around the globe.

46:00Take a daily curiosity break with Shortwave, NPR's science podcast. Let your mind wander to the edges of outer space or wonder about what's lurking in the depths of the seafloor all in under 15 minutes. Shortwave, your daily mental reset. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. It's the international half of our weekly news roundup. Yemeni officials have announced Houthi control of the port city of Mocha and the Red Sea coastline. With Iran-backed rebels now controlling a major shipping route, what does that mean for Iran's leverage in the war? In a quarter of a century after 9-11 and the war on terror, how has the world changed?

46:41We're going to be talking about all of this this hour in the WAMU studio with me, Elizabeth Hagedorn, diplomatic correspondent for Al Monitor. It's great to have you here with us, Elizabeth. Good to be here. And we're also happy to have Asma Khalid with us, co-host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Asma, thanks for being here. Always wonderful to be with you. Thank you. Let's start with did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignore warnings about the October 7th attack? A new book by two Haratz reporters allege that Netanyahu was personally alerted by the president of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, a week before the attack.

47:16The authors of Hostages, 843 Days of Abandonment say their account is based on dozens of sources in Israel and around the world. In the lead-up to this reported call, Hamas and the Israeli government had been negotiating the lifting of Israel's blockade of Gaza, increasing food shipments there, and a prisoner exchange. Hamas fighters killed more than 1 ,200 people and took 251 hostages on October 7, 2023. 166 hostages made it out of Gaza alive. Israel's retaliatory war on Hamas left the Gaza Strip in ruins and killed more than 73 ,000 Palestinians. Here's Shlomi Eldar, one of the authors, speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper about his reporting earlier this week.

48:01Now we can see that Netanyahu got the messages, got the warning before 10 days before the war. And I think if he just acts, anything is doing something to prevent this attack, I think that we have more mayoral people alive today in Israel. And in Gaza. Elizabeth, what else did we learn from this reporting? So as you mentioned, about 10 days before the October 7th attacks, the president of the UAE, Mohammed bin Zayed, called Netanyahu to personally warn him that Hamas's then leader, Yahya Sinwar, was planning a major operation to attack Israel and destabilize the entire region. And according to the reporting, Netanyahu did not pass on that warning to the Israeli security services, the Shin Bet or Mossad, that he did nothing with that information.

48:52And he has always blamed the attacks, the lack of warning on his security services. He said they didn't wake him up the night before. Now, what I think is interesting about how this has played out is that the UAE is not denying the report. It put out a sort of generic statement about having open lines of communication with which it shares intelligence with Israel. And this is noteworthy because the UAE, if it wanted, could have firmly pushed back on this report. It could have. It chose not to. Of course, Netanyahu is denying the report. He says he plans to sue the Israeli newspaper that published it for libel.

49:30And this lands at a very sensitive time for him politically with elections just over a month away and accountability for October 7th being a very sensitive issue. Elizabeth, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the story, quote, false. What are we hearing from Israeli opposition party leaders about this? Well, they're seizing on this. Obviously, a group of four centrist and right-wing Israeli opposition leaders issued a joint statement, including Netanyahu's main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, calling for an immediate investigation into the Haaretz report. And, yeah, this comes as we've seen Netanyahu consistently try to shift the blame onto Israel's security establishment.

50:16And he's also rejected calls for an official government inquiry or commission similar to what the United States had after 9-11. And that's something that polling shows a majority of Israelis want. So this is obviously a huge political liability for him. Asma, a reminder that we're about six weeks out from the election in Israel. We know that hundreds of Israelis have been killed in continuing fighting from the war in Gaza, the ongoing fighting in Lebanon, the U.S. and Israel's war in Iran. What does this report do amidst all of that for Netanyahu's elections chances? It's an excellent question.

50:53And thus far, some of the reporting I've seen out of Israel suggests that it hasn't really fundamentally shifted the course of the election. I will say that Netanyahu has been facing pressure in this election cycle. The election is going to take place at the end of October. And the polls suggest he is looking at some really stiff competition, as we just heard specifically from Gadi Eisenkot. I think what's interesting here is Gadi Eisenkot is a former Israeli defense official. He is also somebody who lost his own son during the war in Gaza. And Netanyahu, I would say shortly after October 7th, began facing a mounting amount of criticism from within Israel around whether he had indeed acted quickly enough to address what had happened on October 7th.

51:38And, you know, we have heard again and again that he has resisted these independent public inquiries. I imagine that that is going to fuel this latest report criticism of him. But I don't see and we have not seen indications that it is fundamentally shifting support away from Netanyahu amongst his core base of supporters. Elizabeth, can we take a step back and can I just ask how Netanyahu's image has changed at home and abroad after not just the security failings of the October 7th attack, but the wars in Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon? Netanyahu might argue that they brought military success, but I wonder how other people are seeing this.

52:15I mean, Netanyahu has always branded himself Mr. Security. And yet, polls show that a majority of Israelis, as much as I believe 80 percent in some surveys, hold him personally responsible for the security failure that allowed the October 7th attack. And there is plenty of dissatisfaction with the way the wars, not only in Gaza, but also in Lebanon and against Iran, have gone. And then just, you know, internationally, there has been the isolation of Israel has only deepened the longer these wars have gone on. And it's because of that branding of him being Mr. National Security that I think that the relevance of Gadi Eisenkot, who is his former Israeli defense chief, is really posing a realistic threat to his electoral chances.

53:01Because when he has presented himself, Netanyahu is often being the security guy. But now here he's facing a man whose security chops rival Netanyahu's himself. I think that poses significant challenges. The one last thing, and I know we're going to talk more about this, is that this report in Haaretz came out the same day as a major move by a number of European nations. It made headlines as well, and that was to limit and sanction trade with Israeli settlers in the West Bank. And that, in many ways, I think also could be viewed as having domestic political consequences for Netanyahu. In fact, here is British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband addressing Parliament about this issue.

53:37Asma. ethnic cleansing is defined by the UN as a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas the british government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of palestinians in areas of the west bank perpetrated by settler terrorists and all too often the israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians. Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, I recognize the gravity of saying this, but the truth is, the least the people who face such suffering deserve, and it should be the prelude to justice.

54:27Again, that's Ed Miliband. After the UK government announced a ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the sanctions came in response to the Netanyahu whose government's decision to move forward with a new settlement in the sensitive E1 area, which would divide the West Bank and present territorial continuity with any future Palestinian state. The Israeli foreign minister hit back at the UK. The British move is morally distorted and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and its electoral process. Elizabeth, Israel has been building settlements in the occupied West Bank for decades.

55:11Why is the E1 a new red line here? Well, because as you mentioned, this plan would effectively divide the West Bank in half and further undermine prospects for this contiguous, independent Palestinian state that the Palestinians have long sought. But the E1 settlement plan is only part of the picture. The trade restrictions come as we've seen settler violence in the West Bank reach record levels in 2026. And critics say Netanyahu's government has done very little to rein it in. We've even seen criticism not directed, I should note, at the Israeli government, but directed at the settlers from the U.S.

55:58ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who is himself pro-settlement. He went as far as calling the settlers causing violence terrorists, which was very strong language from the Trump administration anyway. Asma, France and Canada also announced plans for sanctions on Israeli illegal settlements. It was a coordinated move with the U.K. Axios reports that British Prime Minister Annie Burnham did brief President Trump ahead of the sanctions announcement. What response, if any, have we heard from the Trump administration on all of this? After the announcement came out, we've heard a very muted response from the Trump administration, which is uncharacteristic.

56:32Usually, I would say President Trump or someone within his orbit will make it known generally on social media if something is not to their liking. We heard a very muted public response. In fact, we did an episode of the show on this on Wednesday. And I remember sort of late into the night checking to think if we're going to need to update the show. But ultimately, what we heard is that there is a sense that this was such a coordinated move. I mean, it's not just France and Canada and the U.K. There were, in fact, a joint statement that was issued by 11 other nations. This was a very coordinated effort.

57:03The most we heard is from the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who made it be known that obviously the United States is not going to follow what these European nations did. Let's bring a new voice to our panel. James Kitfield is senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Congress. And he's the author of In the Company of Heroes, the inspiring stories of Medal of Honor recipients from America's longest wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Welcome back to 1A, James. Good to be with you. So let's talk about another major escalation this week with the U.S. war in Iran, with both sides resuming heavy strikes.

57:34On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in retaliation for attempted strikes on a Navy warship. Tehran said it launched the strikes at a base used by American forces in Jordan in response. It's noteworthy that it's Iran's first known attempt at striking an American military vessel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will not allow Iran's attacks to go unanswered. At the end of the day, they continue to fire our naval ships. And when they fire out our naval ships, they pay a price in tankers. They lose a lot of tankers. They don't hit our ships, but they lose five tankers.

58:08They lost five more last night. Four were damaged. One was sunk. So they'll continue to pay a price for that. In the meantime, we're going to continue to strangle them economically. James, the Trump administration has announced more sanctions targeting more than two dozen commercial and private Iranian airlines, as well as foreign cargo service providers. Iran has mostly been able to handle the U.S. military strikes. But James, where are we? Is this economic chokehold forcing Iran to up the anti-militarily? Yeah, in a word, yes. Basically, we're in a race against time. The Iranians know that their leverage is at a maximum right now before the midterm elections in our country.

58:47And so they are trying to do everything they can to get back to a negotiating situation where they have the leverage. And the Trump administration, I think, has basically settled on this is not going to be something they can do immediately, but Iran can't indefinitely keep going when they can't export any of their oil. They have got fuel shortages at home. They've got a currency that is plummeting, really high inflation. So I think the Trump administration decided time is on their side and the Iranians think time is not on their side, so they're escalating. And, you know, I would just add, you're hearing, especially in the hardliner camp in Iran, calls for a tougher response, the argument being that by escalating now, Iran can raise the costs on the United States as well as its regional partners before the pressure on Iran becomes unsustainable.

59:41Because yes, the Iranian economy is well accustomed to sanctions, but this naval blockade and the newer sanctions on its trading partners will eventually bite. They will feel it. And I think that's why you're seeing Iran really step up the firing of its ballistic missiles at U.S.-linked bases in Jordan and elsewhere, as well as this ramp up by their partner, the Houthis in Yemen. And as I see it, there are a few indications right now of a diplomatic off-ramp. James, to your point about the American elections, here's the president speaking to reporters ahead of his appearance in Texas this week.

1:00:17I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer. They're desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice, weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapon. Asma, this week's escalation led global oil prices to rise briefly above$100 a barrel for the first time since last July. Iran has warned that it could further target oil and gas interests in the Gulf. Is that something U.S. allies have an appetite for now that we're seven months into the war and we're just another just almost two months until the midterms?

1:00:57Not just a matter of U.S. allies' appetite. I would say many American voters don't have an appetite for that. And we keep hearing these estimations from Trump administration officials about when gas will be lower to$3,$2. And these are also levels that we haven't heard in a long time, right? Exactly, exactly. I mean, look, I think Elizabeth mentioned a moment ago the Houthis. That is something to keep an eye on. I mean, the Houthis are this military political organization in Yemen. They do not control the entire country of Yemen. They are aligned with Iran. And I think many listeners will remember over the past several years, the Houthis posing real severe challenges to ships that were coming through different maritime points.

1:01:37There was some reporting just yesterday that they were able to capture a key port city along the Red Sea. And I think we have heard far more than most listeners would have ever anticipated about the Strait of Hormuz. But the significance of that is how much oil and gas goes through if indeed an Iran-backed group ends up able to control another maritime area and create a chokehold there, that will pose significant ongoing challenges. Right. So I do want to get to that information, the news that we got this week about the Houthi rebels. But James, can I just ask you about traffic in the Strait of Hormuz right now, especially because this week Tehran announced plans for a, quote, exclusion zone outside of the straight aimed at vessels it believes are attempting to transit the waterway?

1:02:26Yeah, I don't think that they have a capability to really affect what is outside of the Strait of Hormuz. But, you know, of course, they are very upset that the U.S. Navy is getting some ships through near the Oman side of the Strait of Hormuz. And that's been the problem. They want to control the entire Strait. And I think that they are the reason they've started attacking U.S. warships is because those warships are escorting a certain amount of oil. It's less than a third of what it was before the war. But some oil is getting out under Navy escorts. And they see that as their leverage again slipping in their stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

1:03:08But I also say that this – I have been in that area of the chokehold of the Babel Mandab because we have a military base there, the Horn of Africa command that we set up during the war on terror. And it is even narrower than the Strait of Hormuz. and then now they so when you say even more narrow james how do you know have a sense of how narrow what how many how much we're talking about i just looked at it on a map that in in the command center of that of that command we have in jibouti and it's very narrow i can't tell you what it is in miles but they have captured an island in the middle of that uh strait and uh with from that island and from this new port that they've got uh i can guarantee you there is a lot of nervousness because that's what Saudi Arabia, that's the path they were using to get around the Strait of Hormuz.

1:04:01So if the Houthis, an Iranian-backed group, cut that straight, Saudi Arabia is in real trouble. And the world knows that it's the number one exporter of oil. So let's talk about, so what James was just talking about, Yemeni officials have announced Houthi control of the port city of Mocha and the Red Sea coastline. That's a strategic island at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, a new front in the Iran war, further threatening one of the world's key shipping lanes. This follows an earlier attack by Houthis on four cities in southwestern Saudi Arabia targeting oil infrastructure. Riyadh has said it will retaliate.

1:04:42Elizabeth, first, what could these recent Houthi gains mean? Well, to start, we've seen a shattering of the four-year truce between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government in Yemen. And their fighting threatens to restart a civil war that was not only incredibly costly for Saudi Arabia, but incredibly deadly for the Yemeni people. And for the first few months of this Iran war, the Houthis, to I think some analysts' surprise, actually sat on the sidelines. And we didn't see them firing into the Red Sea the way they did after October 7th. But what we're seeing now from this Houthi offensive appears to be an effort to expand their territorial control over Yemen's coastline and take control of these vital shipping routes that James mentioned.

1:05:36And the real concern to your question is that Iran and its proxies are now closer to controlling or at least the ability to disrupt two vital choke points for Western shipping. The Bab al-Mendeb on the southern end of the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, of course, in the Gulf. And combined, this creates really an unprecedented risk to global shipping. And James, let's just talk about the Saudi Arabia side of this. Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis in Yemen for more than a decade, as Elizabeth was just talking about. According to U.N. estimates, the civil war has killed at least 150 ,000 people, at times pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.

1:06:19The war had calmed in recent years. As we're talking about, this 2022 ceasefire has broken down. Why did the fighting between these two start up again? And what are the fears about this broader conflict and escalation here? Well, we've seen, I mean, they fought for a decade. And like, and as has been explained that, you know, the result of that was tens, if not more than 100 ,000 people dying in that war. So Saudi Arabia and the Houthis at some point were exhausted and reached a ceasefire a few years ago. You know, basically it's the Iran issue that has got, I mean, the Houthis depend in their sort of civil war in their fight against the internationally recognized government in Yemen, the Houthis are dependent on Iran.

1:07:05And so they're coming to their benefactor's aid at this moment that Iran is in really dire straits. So this conflict shows every sign of escalating and spreading. And it's something that I'm sure that the Saudi Arabians right now are feeling caught in the middle of. In terms of escalation, if I can just bring the conversation back to what we started with around sanctions? Because that is a question that has been on my mind. We keep hearing from the Trump administration that they are putting, in their words, these D-Day sanctions on Iran. Later this month, we're going to see Xi Jinping visit the United States.

1:07:39And by all estimations, these sanctions will not work unless China is on board. China is, to my knowledge, the biggest source of oil revenue that Iran has, and China has not indicated that they are on board. So for all we hear from the Trump administration about the economic pressure it is putting on Iran, there is one big hole in that plan. We're rounding up the week's international news. That's the BBC's Asma Khalid. We're also with Elizabeth Hagedorn from El Monitor and James Kitfield for the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. One more update from the week. This week, Nepal put out a call for climate justice in compensation to the United Nations after the devastating recent floods in the country and China's Tibet region last month.

1:08:21More than 1 ,300 people died. At least 5 ,000 people are still missing. Nepal plans to position its$5 billion rebuilding need as a climate justice issue. Lawmakers say the disaster is an example of the disproportionate impact of climate change on poor countries. Let's go to another war that's recently ignited, the Trump administration's trade war with Canada. The White House announced Tuesday a new set of bans on the importing of certain Canadian products like alcohol, wood furniture, and aluminum products That's after the U.S. slapped 50 percent tariffs on more Canadian goods and after Canada retaliated.

1:09:01Elizabeth, why are the two parties not negotiating here? What have we seen this week? I guess what we've seen this week is how far apart the two parties are from negotiating. Right. Well, as for why they're not negotiating, both sides would say the other moved the goalposts at the last minute. And as far as this week's moves from Canada and the United States, both are framing it as a defensive and proportional response to the other. And both are warning that further escalation is possible if the other side doesn't back down. The White House says Canada chose senseless retaliation. They're treating this not as a negotiation but a real reciprocity fight.

1:09:43And meanwhile, the Canadians, their prime minister, Mark Carney, says the counter tariffs were unavoidable. And this is about matching U.S. actions dollar for dollar and protecting Canadian workers and companies. And I think, you know, as what to look as far as what to look for next, I mean, Trump has threatened to double Canadian auto tariffs to 50 percent starting in January. And this is a move that could more meaningfully disrupt American supply chains, North American supply chains, that is. Meanwhile, Carney's government and the EU Commission are working on a new all-encompassing trade and security deal.

1:10:20Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission's president, is expected to announce a deal next week. Asma, to what extent could Europe replace the U.S. as a reliable trading partner for Canada? It could possibly help fill some of the gap. I do not think that there is a world that it can replace the United States. Just to put this in numerical terms for people, the United States and Canada have a massive bilateral amount of trade that they do. It's over$800 billion a year. The EU is Canada's second largest trading partner, but that amount of trade is less than$200 billion. So you're just talking about a fraction of the amount of goods that they get currently from the EU than they get from Canada.

1:11:02And look, the relationship is bilateral from the United States and Canada. So I know that there is a sense that Canada is looking for possibly other trading partners. But this trade war, if I can call it that, also hurts the United States because we get a good amount of goods, certain products, lumber, steel, from Canada. Let's go to South America, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited three U.S. allies this week, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. started with a visit to Colombia's newly elected right-wing President Abelardo de la Espuilla. Elizabeth, what's on Rubio's agenda with leaders in these three countries that have partnered with the Trump administration?

1:11:42Broadly, I would say this was part of the Trump administration's effort to cement a right-leaning bloc in this region and turn it into a security and economic counterweight to China, which has been expanding its footprint there. And those three countries, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, they're all backing a tougher coordinated fight with the U.S. against maritime drug trafficking. But they differ as far as how far each of them is willing to go. Ecuador being the furthest directly helping the U.S. as it intercepts and sinks these vessels off Ecuador's coast. whereas Colombia and Peru, on the other hand, have signed on to coalition efforts, but they have stopped short of directly endorsing these unilateral U.S.

1:12:31strikes in what would be their territorial waters. Right. We're past the one-year mark of those strikes. The U.S. military has killed more than 220 people in that time in strikes the administration has claimed without evidence that those votes carry drugs. James, the Pentagon says it's expanding its campaign and changing who it targets. What do we know about that? Well, it started targeting these large fishing boats that they are calling floating fuel stations. In other words, they're saying that these drug boats, the small drug boats are coming to these fishing boats, refueling and then going on their way.

1:13:08And so they're now capturing, they've boarded a number of these fishing boats. They take the crew off and then blow the boat up. so they're not killing as they are with these drug boats they're attacking. It should be mentioned as we talk about this that under international law, this is totally illegal, what they're doing. I mean, they're killing people who they just say, well, they're narco-terrorists because they can use the terrorist label from the global war on terror to basically use kinetic activity that kills people. and that is absolutely outside of international law, but they're expanding it now with these fishing boats.

1:13:49At least the fishing boats there so far have been taking the crew off before they blow the boat up. But they're expanding this whole operation and they're getting a lot more cooperation, as has been mentioned, with some of these more right-leaning governments that are coming out in Latin America. So it's all part of the Don Rowe Doctrine, which really harkens back to 19th century gumbo diplomacy in Latin America, the like of which I haven't seen in my lifetime. One headline from Sudan. This week, Doctors Without Borders warned that Sudan's health system is on the brink of collapse. The country is in a civil war that erupted in April 2023 between the Army and the paramilitary rapid support forces, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world with more than 33 million people needing medical assistance.

1:14:40Doctors Without Borders says global funding cuts have led to the closure of healthcare facilities across the country and organizations have been unable to find alternative funding after the U.S., the largest donor to Sudan, closed USAID last year. Let's move to Germany. The far-right AfD party's victory in a small eastern state has the country in Europe on edge. The AfD, or Alternative for Germany, party won 44 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt. It's now poised to become the first far-right party to govern a German state since the end of World War II. The AfD's leader, Alice Wiedel, taunted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Parliament on Wednesday.

1:15:24In Sachsen-Anhalt, people didn't just punish you. They pulverized your party, the CDU. The CDU is the center-right ruling party in Germany. Weidel said it's on its way to becoming a minority party. And here's what German Chancellor Mertz had to say in response. The voters have spoken quite clearly. They gave us and me as well a clear message. But you don't have the absolute majority and you won't achieve it in Germany. You won't get majorities anywhere in Germany with these policies. You are and remain is vital, a destructive force. James, turnout was very high in this election, nearly 80 percent.

1:16:03What's at stake for Germany? Well, there's been a firewall in Germany where I was once stationed for a number of years against right-wing parties that have Nazi sort of roots. And the AfD is one of those parties. And so the fact that it's actually come into power and will have control of one of the German states is incredibly worrisome to a lot of the German body politic. And it should be said this is a relatively small state in eastern Germany, and they've always been far more conservative and right-wing than the mass of Germany. But in coalition governments, if they can find coalition partners, they could come in and they are polling much more popular than the CDU.

1:16:50That really does raise warning signs in Germany that a very right wing party could come into into serious power nationally in Germany. Right. Especially as we have two more key regional elections this month in Germany. What is Mertz doing to reassure his party? You know, I think Mertz is saying that he's obviously moved somewhat to the right to defuse some of the appeal of this party. He's also trying to tell other coalition partners that this break should still hold. You should not be willing to form a coalition with a right-wing party that has some Nazi roots in its history. But it seems like it's a defensive action.

1:17:34I think that they're very concerned, as well as the rest of the coalition partners in Germany, that it's going to be hard to ignore a party that has a state government. Elizabeth, what role are foreign political forces playing in the AfD's rise in Germany? Well, certainly the biggest drivers are domestic. It's economic frustration in eastern Germany. It's frustration over immigration policies. But foreign influence has played a role. It comes as far right and nationalist parties in Europe have advanced. So there is this shared sense of momentum. And you look at, you know, Russia, for example, the AFD's platform of lifting sanctions on Russia and ending aid to Ukraine certainly aligns with Moscow's interests.

1:18:23And that's why you've seen Russian officials praise the AFD. And here in the United States, it's received public support from figures like Elon Musk, MAGA members of Congress, and then, of course, President Trump this week on his Truth Social platform celebrating the AFD win and calling for, in his words, to make Germany great again. Asma, the AFD hopes to make the state's next government a showcase for its ideas on immigration, education, and culture. How big of their position on those policies do they represent from the German mainstream? I don't know that I can say how big of a percentage they represent, But what I can say is that while Saxony-Anhalt is one state, smallish population, let's say I think it's around 2 million, the reason this is being seen as such a seismic win is that the AFD does lead national polls in Germany.

1:19:14And this will be a test case for them if they do indeed take power as is plausible, right? I mean, it's a bit tricky because it's a coalition government. They need to figure out if they can with a minority take power and form that coalition. But look, they have been rather clear around some of their policies around what is dubbed re-migration. The idea that rejected asylum. Mass deportation programs. Mass deportation programs. And sending people out of the country. The German chancellor has been really critical of remigration. And that is something that the AFD supports and champions. The other thing that I think is really, really significant, in fact, we did an episode on this this week, is they want to lean into changes in Germany's what's known as memory culture.

1:19:57And this is the way that Germans think and remember the Holocaust. And I think so many of us here in the United States look at Germany as kind of a model of how they've retained and remembered their past. They say they want to focus less on teaching Hitler. More Bismarck, in their view, less Hitler. It's not clear exactly how, but they believe Germans need to take greater pride in who they are, and this is part of a patriotism agenda. And local government would control aspects of education. James, we got this question from Kevin. You can join the conversation by emailing 1A at WAMU.org. Kevin asks, what do you feel the far right win means in the context of Germany's decision to grow its military?

1:20:40Well, this is one thing that's going to be of great concern to the European Union. There has been a move, and Trump administration is partly responsible for this, for European allies to spend more on defense as a backstop against Russian aggression. But if a Germany, which is the biggest economy in the European Union, starts to be led by very right-wing parties, it's going to cause concern to its neighbors again. No one's forgotten World War II in Europe, I can assure you that. So a Germany that's remilitarizing and is also turning to the right and trying to erase memory of the Holocaust, as has been mentioned, becomes a very scary prospect, especially at a time when America is basically pulling back from Europe and from NATO and looking to Asia.

1:21:30So Germany is in a position that's going to cause its neighbors a lot of concern if it keeps heading in the same direction. Let's move to Ukraine. Vladimir Zelensky is asking Europe for$27 billion to cover its military budget. The EU already agreed earlier this year to loan Ukraine more than$100 billion for the next two years. James, where is that budget shortfall coming from? And how did European officials receive this request for more funds? It was a surprise to the European officials. I mean, Zelensky visited some of his European allies and said, basically, thank you for the$100 billion, but I'm going to need$27 billion more.

1:22:10And they're asking a lot of difficult questions about, so why do you need this? Why was, where's this shortfall coming from? Now, Ukraine has been hammered in the last few months to the degree we haven't seen since the early days of this war, you know, that's gone on for more than four years, because we cannot give them interceptors anymore. So they have zero defense against ballistic missiles, and they are raining down from Russia. So that destroys a lot of infrastructure. The winter is coming. Russia is targeting its energy infrastructure. So I assume that that is a big part of it and maybe also crash programs to build their own interceptors along with some of its European allies.

1:22:54I assume that's where it's coming from. But that's a question that's been raised by the EU that has not been adequately answered yet. Elizabeth, can I ask, the FT reported this week that CIA Director John Ratcliffe is getting ready to play a bigger role in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine. A CIA spokesperson has denied that report. The president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have led the talk so far. They were just in Kiev this week. What do you make of this report? Well, as you mentioned, the White House and CIA are denying it. But it would align with what we know, which is that Ratcliffe recently visited Moscow in secret to discuss the war.

1:23:32And his visit comes as the Trump administration is looking to jumpstart diplomacy. Their efforts to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine faltered back in February. And while Witkopf and Kushner recently met with both Zelensky and Putin, there appeared to be no signs of a breakthrough from those meetings. And as for Ratcliffe, I think there is probably a strong case to be made that someone in his position as an intelligence officer would be more, would be better positioned for this role than Kushner and Witkopf, whose experience is primarily in real estate and business. Before we wrap, we're almost to the end of the hour.

1:24:18I just want to take a look back actually this week as we mark the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks and ask you all how you're reflecting on that day, how you feel like that moment changed the U.S.'s relationship with the world today. James, can I start with you? Sure. Well, I mean, it changed everything. And I think, you know, I've been talking to some friends of mine and people who are in journalism and sort of official positions. And it's, you know, we feel kind of like we made some missteps after we reacted to 9-11. As horrible as that was, I think we kind of got ourselves overextended.

1:24:58We've loosened the U.S. government's sort of control over things like saying if you're a terrorist, we can kill you with no judge, jury, or we're the judge, jury, and executioner. So there's that aspect of it. And one other thing I will say very quickly is when I was covering the 9-11 attacks and the aftermath, the comment was made. There were a lot of red lights blinking, and we didn't pay enough attention to them, i.e. the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa by al-Qaeda, the attack on the USS Cole in Africa by al-Qaeda. And we didn't really connect the dots. Well, I am seeing more red lights blinking on the global stage right now than well beyond what we saw before 9-11.

1:25:43So I'm worried that we're in a really volatile global geopolitical situation and we're not able to focus enough on how brightly these warning lights, Russia's war in Europe, our war in the Middle East, China's alliance with Russia. Yeah, there's a lot of lights blinking on that dashboard, James. Correct. Elizabeth? Well, you know, I always come back to the story of United Flight 93 and how the passengers and crew came together to shove that food cart into the cockpit and thwart the hijackers. And they did so after taking a vote. And I think, you know, in this moment where our society is so polarized, to me, that story I've always loved because that moment of shared decision making to me just seems so profoundly American.

1:26:32That's really beautiful. Really beautiful, Elizabeth. I've been thinking a lot about this because I don't think there's a world in which we can look at, you know, how 9-11 didn't change so much of the United States. It changed our collective psyche. It changed our sense of safety. Let me be honest and personal here. As someone who's Muslim and a very sort of prominent reporter, I think it changed collectively how my own country saw me. And that is a really, really hard thing to wrestle with. and I would say now as I look at the sort of long legacy that we have after 9-11 around the war on terror, I have been really wrestling with the idea that I did not think here we would be 25 years later with sort of a patriotic inheritance of Middle East war that I now see my children having.

1:27:17It seems like we are unable to quit war in the Middle East and I am well aware that Iran is a really different dynamic than Iraq But, you know, those who study history could argue that in many ways Iran was strengthened after Iraq was weakened. And it seems like we have been unable to quit. And I don't really see a clear insight to how we end the situation in Iran at this point. A big thank you to our panelists for sharing all of that with us for the entire hour. I want to thank Asma Khalid, co-host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC, Elizabeth Hagedorn, diplomatic correspondent at El Monitor, and James Kitfield.

1:27:54author of In the Company of Heroes, the Inspiring Stories of Medal of Honor Recipients from America's Longest Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before we go, it's a once-in-a-millennial moment. The Bayou Tapestry is on public display at the British Museum in London for the first time since it was created nearly 1 ,000 years ago. The 220-foot-long 11th-century embroidery depicts William the Conqueror's invasion of England in 1066. I am so excited when I went online to get the ticket there were 41 ,000 people ahead of me so I wrote to all my friends saying we're never going to get tickets and a friend of mine said oh well I've got some and you can have one just so wonderful to have it visible in the UK and really excited to be here on opening day it's fantastic the tapestry beautifully displayed the full length of it, amazing The tapestry is viewed in 58 scenes, which historians believe were stitched by English women in the 1070s.

1:28:59Biofever is on until July 2027. Tickets, as you heard, are already sold out, but at least two more sets of tickets are going to be released in October and next January. Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer with help this week from Kellen Quigley. Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our senior managing producer. Alexandra Bote is our senior supervising producer. Aileen Humphries 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.

1:29:37I'm Naila Boodoo. Thanks for listening. This is 1A.

1:29:58How do products end up on big box shelves? Well, we at Planet Money pitch the Planet Money board game. I'm trying not to think how much of a big deal it is and how much work has gone into. It's really big. Is it helpful if I remind you how big it is? It's sort of the whole thing. We go inside the minds of the people who decide what goes on store shelves. Listen to Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Tanya, I think you did the best interview that I've done. Seriously. Oh, that's a great question. I think I want to think about that question for the rest of my life. Good question.

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