Author: Matt

The repercussions of the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran continue to be felt across the Middle East. However, Lebanon has become the most active second front in the continued conflict between the US, Israel and Iran. 

Israel began its military assault on Lebanon after the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel as a show of solidarity with Iran.

The U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran is not just a regional crisis. It’s reshaping political dynamics across the Middle East, with global repercussions.

Kim Ghattas, journalist and author of Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East, offers her view from inside Lebanon, and the changing dynamics across the region.

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Reporting from NPR’s Hadeel Al-Shalchi contributed to this story. This episode was produced by Daniel Ofman. It was edited by Michael Levitt, Sarah Robbins and Hannah Bloch. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Reporters here at NPR noticed the name of a highly respected youth camp popping up repeatedly in the Epstein Files – Interlochen Center for the Arts.

When intern Ava Berger and other reporters started combing through the documents, they learned how Jeffrey Epstein used his wealth to gain access to the campus and prey on girls.

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This episode was produced by Gabriel Sanchez. It was edited by Tinbete Ermyas and Adam Raney. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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For the last week, Israeli and US bombs have devastated Iran. And the conflict has widened to include multiple countries in the Gulf.  

How is the conflict reshaping the world order and impacting Trump’s popularity here in the United States?

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This episode was produced by Connor Donevan, Elena Burnett, Alejandra Marquez Janse and Erika Ryan. It was edited by Barrie Hardymon, Tara Neill, Dana Farrington, Jeanette Woods and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using a variety of tools to surveil folks they want to intimidate and apprehend. 

That web helps federal agents find people to deport. But it also allows them to identify U.S. citizens who criticize the federal government and its policies.

NPR has compiled dozens of stories of people caught up in the surveillance web. Some were monitoring ICE activities and found themselves in interactions with agents who identify them by their names and home addresses. NPR’s Scott Detrow talks with Meg Anderson and Jude Joffe-Block who have been collecting the stories, and tracking ICE’s surveillance tactics.

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Reporting from NPR’s Kat Lonsdorf contributed to this story. This episode was produced by Gabriel Sanchez and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane. It was edited by Alina Hartounian, John Ketchum and Sarah Handel.
Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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This past weekend, the United States went to war.

The president didn’t present his case in a primetime speech from the Oval Office or the White House’s East Room, but rather, in an edited video posted at 2:30 a.m. on the social media platform he owns.

And that video post came between others where President Trump has falsely claimed that elections were rigged and stolen, called for the prosecution of people who have opposed him, and lobbied to put his face on U.S. currency.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser has been tracking it all, week by week, since 2018. She talks about the myriad ways the presidency, and the norms surrounding it, continue to change under Trump.

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This episode was produced by Erika Ryan, with audio engineering by Becky Brown and Damian Herring. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Sarah Handel. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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The future of Iran hangs on an important question: Who will be its next leader? We’ll look at how succession could unfold.

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This episode contained reporting from NPR’s Ruth Sherlock. It was produced by Connor Donevan, with audio engineering by Becky Brown. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Regime change, nuclear weapons, terrorism …Why is the U.S. at war with Iran?

In the days since the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran, the Trump administration has given a wide range of reasons why the US is now at war. On Saturday, Trump seemed to indicate the U.S. and Israel were trying to clear the way for regime change. On Monday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the conflict in Iran was not about regime change.  A couple of hours later in Trump’s first public comments, not prerecorded on video, he listed four objectives. Regime change wasn’t among them. 

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This episode was produced by Lauren Hodges and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane.

It was edited by Andrew Sussman, Patrick Jarenwattananon and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Senator Mark Warner tells NPR that the families of sailors in the conflict area that he has met with “have no idea why their sons and daughters are being put in harm’s way.” Warner says that the president should appear before Congress and ask for a declaration of war.

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This episode was produced by Henry Larson. It was edited by Patrick Jarenwattananon and Sarah Robbins. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khemenei is dead, according President Donald Trump. This comes after US and Israeli forces bombarded targets across Iran. Iran has retaliated, launching attacks throughout the Middle East.

Given these historic events, we’re dropping our National Security Podcast “Sources & Methods” into the feed today.

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This episode was produced by Erika Ryan, Karen Zamora, and Kai McNamee, with audio engineering by Neil Tevault. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Andrew Sussman. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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President Trump issued an executive order to increase domestic production of glyphosate, commonly used as a weedkiller. It’s the active ingredient in the weedkiller, Roundup.

That order immediately ignited an uproar in the Make America Healthy Again movement. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his supporters have long believed glyphosate is a health risk. But now, Kennedy says he supports Trump’s order.

Helena Bottemiller Evich, founder and editor-in-chief of the Food Fix newsletter, calls MAHA’s response a “marital spat” with the Trump administration, and explains how it could affect Trump’s base going forward.

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This episode was produced by Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane. It was edited by Sarah Handel. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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