Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning. Israel kills two of Iran's most powerful officials in a major blow to its leadership. But The Wall Street Journal explains why an uprising remains unlikely, at least for now. The government has made it very clear that if anyone takes to the streets during the war, they will face intense violence. Trump's pick to run Homeland Security faces the Senate.
The Atlantic looks at a major challenge coming his way.
Chapter 2: What recent events have led to the deaths of Iran's top officials?
And what happened when all the lights went out in Cuba? It's Wednesday, March 18th. I'm Cecilia Ley, and this is Apple News Today. Iran suffered two major losses at the top yesterday after Israel killed the leader of the country's volunteer paramilitary group, as well as its security chief, a man described by Reuters as Iran's ultimate backroom power broker.
Their deaths raise more questions over who is making the decisions on Iran's war behind the scenes as the world waits for its new supreme leader to make his first public appearance.
Chapter 3: Why is an uprising in Iran considered unlikely despite recent turmoil?
Since the start of the war, Israel has strategically targeted the regime's senior decision-makers. Some say their hope is to destabilize the very top in the hopes of stoking a revolution from below. I hope to give the Iranian people a chance to take it. It won't happen at once. It won't happen easily.
Announcing the strikes yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his military was undermining the regime to give Iranians the chance to take fate into their own hands. But despite heavy losses from U.S.-Israeli bombardment, Iran's new rulers are cracking down on dissent.
That's manifesting itself in a variety of ways, including widespread arrests, but also threats, making sure that people know that if they do rise up, they will be faced with lethal force. Marguerite Estancati is a foreign correspondent with The Wall Street Journal and has been reporting on how Iranians have been responding to the conflict.
On the very first day of the war are people celebrating the killing of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Obviously, many people were upset that he was killed, but there were some public shows of celebrations because some people were definitely happy that this happened.
And there was a lot of hope among opponents of the regime that this could be the beginning of the end of the Islamic Republic. We have not seen mass protests in the same way that we saw them in January. Stankati says that's partly because of the immense danger facing protesters as strikes continue to rain down on Tehran.
And even if they could organize in those conditions, severe threats have been issued en masse. the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the paramilitary force that is de facto in charge with much of what's happening day to day during the war in Iran, they sent messages to Iranian mobile phone users saying that they will face violence like they did on January 8th.
So drawing a clear link between what may happen to them and what happened in January. And we've also seen threats In television broadcasts, another Revolutionary Guard commander saying that, you know, there's a shoot-to-kill order in place for anyone who rises up.
Internet blackouts in Iran largely remain, and the BBC reports that checkpoints have started appearing in the capital to deter protests. All of this undermines what the U.S. and Israel had initially said it wanted to achieve, creating the conditions inside Iran that might fuel a popular uprising and ultimately regime change.
But Sankati reports that the regime's crackdown is perhaps evidence of their stress under bombardment. I think the fact that the government is flexing its muscle and cracking down domestically today doesn't mean that it hasn't weakened. And I think a possible scenario is that a few weeks, a few months, or even a year from now, we will see another popular uprising.
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Chapter 4: How is the Iranian government responding to dissent during the war?
And obviously, they can't keep anything in the refrigerator because it'll go bad. It'll go bad in just a few hours after the power going out. Earlier this week, Havana announced some reforms to open up the national economy, allowing Cubans living abroad to invest and take a stake in private companies on the island. Rubio described that change as not dramatic enough.
And finally, a few other stories we're following. Three families with teenagers are suing Elon Musk's ex-AI over explicit images generated by Grok, the company's chatbot. Police informed the families that a man was arrested for taking photos of minors and using an unnamed app to remove their clothing and manipulate the images to make them sexually suggestive.
Lawyers for the family say that if XAI hadn't licensed its technology to app makers, this harmful content would have never existed. They also accuse Musk and the company of deliberately designing grok to make money off of sexually explicit content. From late December 2025 to January 2026, a research group estimated Grok generated around 3 million sexualized images.
About 23,000 of them depicted children. In the past, Musk has defended what is known as Grok's spicy mode, calling it a business decision. The family is seeking damages for emotional distress caused by the images. The House Oversight Committee yesterday officially subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify on the Epstein files.
Republican Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a subpoena saying it's unclear whether the DOJ has released all documents required by a recently passed law mandating their disclosure. In a statement, the DOJ called the subpoena unnecessary and that the lawmakers have been invited to review unredacted files at the Justice Department.
The Hill News site notes congressional subpoenas are compulsory and carry the risk of a criminal referral if they are ignored. And finally, are you an online shopper or someone who likes to browse in person? For the traditionalists out there, you might be in for a little disappointment next time you head out. The Wall Street Journal reports the U.S.
now has more spas, gyms, and other service-oriented businesses taking up retail space than actual stores where you buy things. For the first time ever, service-based tenants leased a little over half of the total retail square footage in 2025, according to the data firm CoStar. The owner of one boxing gym celebrated the change, telling the journal that this is the new happy hour.
That is, if you don't get knocked out in the ring. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. The Atlantic explores what the human body goes through when it's struck by lightning and why it can be excruciating for some but metaphysically transformative for others.
If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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