What comes next after massive strikes in Iran

Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Apple News Today
Date: March 2, 2026
Episode: What comes next after massive strikes in Iran
Host: Cecilia Ley (for Shumita Basu)

This episode unpacks the unprecedented developments in Iran: a joint US-Israeli military offensive that has killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among others; the immediate military and political fallout in the Middle East; the reactions of US lawmakers and the Iranian diaspora in America; and what might come next, both in Iran and globally. The coverage includes on-the-ground journalistic analysis, notable reactions from politicians and community members, and reflections on the regional and international impact of this seismic event.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Strikes and Immediate Consequences

• Massive US-Israeli Offensive: Over the weekend, coordinated US-Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials ([01:14]).

  • President Trump: “We have hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard facilities. Iranian air defense systems ... knocked out nine ships plus their naval building, all in a matter of literally minutes.” ([00:55], Donald Trump)

• Iran’s Retaliation and Chaos:

  • Iran launched missile and drone strikes on Israel and Gulf Arab countries, shutting down Dubai’s airport and causing a global surge in oil prices ([02:38]).
  • Violent escalation resulted in civilian casualties in both regions: at least nine killed in Israel, and 153 in Iran, including children ([03:12]).

• Seismic Change:

  • Jared Malson (Wall Street Journal): “This is an absolutely seismic series of events that we’ve seen in the Middle East in the last 48 hours or so.” ([02:26], Jared Malson)

2. US Political Response

• President Trump’s Statements:

  • Condolences for fallen US soldiers and a warning that casualties may continue:
    “Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is, likely be more, but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case.” ([01:41], Trump)
  • Call to Iranians:
    “I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom... be brave, be bold, be heroic, and take back your country. America is with you.” ([04:16], Trump)

• Congressional Concern about War Powers:

  • Lawmakers criticize the strikes occurring before Congress could vote on limiting presidential war powers ([05:42]).
  • Senator Mark Warner (D-VA): “I think the President has started a war of choice. There was no imminent threat to the United States...” ([07:16], Warner)
  • Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX): encouraged Trump, saying “the Iranian regime has never been weaker,” but doubted imminent nuclear capability ([07:41]).

• Legal and Historical Context:

  • Congress trying to vote on presidential war powers limitations, but success is unlikely due to Supreme Court precedent and historical Presidential vetoes ([08:58]).

3. Regional Fallout & Succession in Iran

• Uncertainty Over Iran’s Political Future:

  • Provisional council established after Khamenei’s death; ultimate successor to be chosen by body of clerics ([04:37]).
  • There is “no precedent in modern history in which a government has been overthrown through airstrikes alone...” ([05:14], Jared Malson)

• Potential for Broader War:

  • Israel struck Hezbollah in Beirut, breaking a ceasefire; Hezbollah retaliates ([05:42]).
  • Concerns in Congress about escalation and lack of justification for US strikes ([07:16]).

4. Iranian-American Reaction

• Celebrations Amid Anxiety:

  • In Los Angeles (home to the largest Iranian diaspora outside Iran), many greeted the news with hope and celebration ([10:10]).
    • “My reaction of this attack is excitement and hope for the Iranian people, for freedom and democracy in Iran.” ([10:01], Mike Kazarouni)
    • “The only way that this regime is going to go away… is to attack them.” ([10:10], Sagar Fanisalik)
  • Community reporter Corinne Pratel:
    • “The mood for many hundreds if not a few thousand people who came out publicly yesterday … was overwhelmingly a positive one.” ([11:12], Corinne Pratel)
    • Noted generational impact: Even US-born, non-Farsi-speaking children were enthusiastic:
      “We’ve been raised our whole lives in preparation for this day… this is something that we have been waiting for.” ([12:09], Pratel)

• Broader US Sentiment:

  • Celebrations extend to Iranian enclaves in Houston, Chicago, and New York; anxiety remains due to fears for family in Iran ([12:43]).
  • Anti-war protests against US actions held in DC, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and more ([12:43]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the unprecedented nature of the strikes:
  “This is a very unpredictable situation. In some ways, this situation was unthinkable just a few... years ago. And now you have a US Military offensive against Iran.” ([00:09], Jared Malson)

• Trump, rallying Iranians:
  “Be brave, be bold, be heroic, and take back your country. America is with you.” ([04:16], Donald Trump)

• On limitations of military action alone:
  “There is basically no precedent in modern history in which a government has been overthrown through airstrikes alone.” ([05:14], Jared Malson)

• On community celebration in LA:
  “This was something that people had been waiting for, hoping for, for a very long time.” ([11:33], Corinne Pratel)

• Younger generation’s reaction:
  “Even if you have never set foot in the country, this is still something that we have been waiting for.” ([12:09], Corinne Pratel)

• Political critique:
  “A slap in the face.” ([05:42], Rep. Ro Khanna, paraphrased)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:05 – 01:14: Introduction; Trump announces strikes on Iran
• 02:26 – 03:12: Jared Malson provides context on the scale and consequences of events
• 03:35 – 05:14: Goals of the US military operation and deep uncertainty about its long-term impact
• 05:42 – 08:58: US political response and debate over Presidential war powers, regional conflict broadening
• 10:01 – 12:43: Iranian-American community reactions from Los Angeles and beyond
• 12:43 – end: Mention of antiwar protests and subsequent unrelated news stories (not detailed here)

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Summary Flow & Takeaway

This episode delivers a thorough, measured glimpse into a foundation-shaking moment for the Middle East, blending immediate facts with expert analysis, political debate, and voices from communities most affected. The language reflects the uncertainty and gravity of the situation while also capturing the real hope and relief expressed by many in the Iranian diaspora. Despite celebration and anticipation of change, both laypeople and experts underline how unpredictable the aftermath will be—whether regime change translates into true transformation, and what consequences await the wider region and world.

Transcript

[Cecilia Ley]

Good morning. Over the weekend, a monumental shift in Iran.

[Jared Malson]

This is a very unpredictable situation. In some ways, this situation was unthinkable just a few months or a few years ago. And now you have a US Military offensive against Iran.

[Cecilia Ley]

The Wall Street Journal walks us through the weekend's events. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill want to rein in President Trump's war powers after the attack. Observers say the efforts are a long shot. And Iranian Residents in the U.S. react to regime change in Tehran. It's Monday, March 2nd. I'm Cecilia Ley. This is Apple News today. It's been an extraordinary few days in the Middle East.

[Donald Trump]

We have hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard facilities. Iranian air defense systems. Just now was announced that we knocked out nine ships plus their naval building, all in a matter of literally minutes.

[Cecilia Ley]

That's President Trump in a video address posted on Truth Social Sunday afternoon. Over the weekend, a joint U. S. Israeli operation killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several other senior officials. Three US Soldiers were killed and five more were seriously wounded during operations against the Islamic Republic. Trump gave condolences to the families of those who died, but also warned more casualties are still possible.

[Donald Trump]

We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is, likely be more, but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case.

[Cecilia Ley]

Iran retaliated with strikes in the Gulf and Israel despite losing a significant contingent of its military and political leadership. President Trump decided to launch the campaign in Iran after the latest diplomatic talks between the countries failed to produce a major breakthrough. The weekend's strikes represent a stunning change for Iran's 90 million plus population.

[Jared Malson]

This is an absolutely seismic series of events that we've seen in the Middle east in the last 48 hours or so.

[Cecilia Ley]

Jared Malson is a Middle east correspondent for the Wall Street Journal who spoke with us Sunday.

[Jared Malson]

You have the Iranian regime now facing a kind of existential challenge to its authority, lashing out in response, launching waves upon waves of missile and drone strikes across the region, both on Israel and on Gulf Arab countries that has caused chaos. It has shut down the airport in Dubai, one of the world's busiest, and also caused a surge in oil prices and really just created a lot of uncertainty about what comes next in Iran, in the region and globally.

[Cecilia Ley]

The publication Haaretz reported that at least nine people were killed after an Iranian missile hit a bomb shelter in central Israel. And Iranian health officials and state media reported that a strike that hit a school in Iran killed at least 153 people, including children. Nelson said that as of yesterday, it was unclear how long this conflict and the United States involvement and role in it would continue.

[Jared Malson]

What we know is that Trump said this would be a major military operation that he says is aimed at dealing a severe setback both to Iran's nuclear program. He said he wanted to raise Iran's missile program to the ground. He said he wanted to, quote, annihilate Iran's navy. What we're hearing from sources is that this is expected to continue for days. Beyond that, we don't really know. What we also don't know is how long either side can sustain this.

[Cecilia Ley]

President Trump also rallied Iranians who have protested in large numbers against the regime to take it upon themselves to push for longer term changes.

[Donald Trump]

I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom and to seize this moment to be brave, be bold, be heroic, and take back your country. America is with you. I made a promise to you and I fulfilled that promise. The rest will be up to you, but we'll be there to help.

[Cecilia Ley]

Yesterday, Iran formed a provisional leadership council to head the country after Khamenei's death. But an eventual long term successor would be determined by an elected body of senior clerics, a task that has only been carried out once since since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The New York Times reported that Khamenei, who was 86 years old, had already delegated many responsibilities to the country's top national security official. According to cnn, Khamenei did not have a declared heir. The extent to which the strikes will lead to meaningful, long lasting change in Iran remains to be seen.

[Jared Malson]

There is basically no precedent in modern history in which a government has been overthrown through airstrikes alone. And that's what experts, military officials and security analysts who follow these things will tell you, is that it's basically never happened. And so it's an open question going forward as to what will this campaign of airstrikes accomplish and what will Iranians do whenever it's over?

[Cecilia Ley]

President Trump said Sunday he is open to new negotiations with Iran, telling the Atlantic, quote, they want to talk. I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. Meanwhile, it appears conflict in the region has begun to expand. Israel announced it carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, breaking a ceasefire with Lebanon that started in late 2024. Hezbollah said in a statement it launched attacks in northern Israel early Monday in retaliation for Khamenei's killing. Khamenei was a key supporter of Hezbollah. Shortly before the attack on Iran, top congressional Democrats and Republicans, a group known as the Gang of Eight, were reportedly notified by the White House that a strike was imminent. Democrats and a handful of Republicans have since raised alarms over what could end up being a broader war that is carried out without congressional approval. The House and Senate were already set to vote in the coming days on whether to halt further military action in Iran. Democrats like Representative Roe Khanna of California expressed frustration that the strikes took place before those planned votes. And with Congress out of session, he called it a, quote, slap in the face. On Tuesday, the Trump administration will reportedly hold briefings for the House and Senate on Iran. Virginia Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN yesterday that he hadn't seen evidence that justified strikes like the ones carried out over the weekend.

[Senator Lindsey Graham]

I think the President has started a war of choice. There was no imminent threat to the United States, so the decision to put our service members in harm's way and bases around the region in harm's way was entirely based upon the President's decision, not an imminent threat to America.

[Cecilia Ley]

Warner called on the President to come before Congress and request a declaration of war. Meanwhile, Republican Senator ted Cruz told CBS's Face the Nation that he had encouraged Trump to take this opportunity because, quote, the Iranian regime has never been weaker. Though he also said he hadn't seen indications that the country was close to having nuclear weapons capabilities.

[Senator Lindsey Graham]

I don't have present day intelligence on what progress they had made towards rebuilding nuclear weapons since we bombed their facilities. I have no indication that they were anywhere close to getting nuclear weapons because our bombing was devastating.

[Cecilia Ley]

In an interview on NBC News Meet the Press, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham justified Trump's decision to order military strikes without a congressional sign off.

[Senator Lindsey Graham]

This is a military operation designed to eliminate threats that have existed against our country. What are the threats? Ballistic missile programs that were getting bigger, not smaller. An effort to re establish a nuclear program that could threaten us in the region. An effort to keep the proxy network alive that has American blood on its hands. He was justified doing this. Every president before him talked about doing it. He actually did it. He has the legal authority to do it. And these operations will continue until the threat is no longer there.

[Cecilia Ley]

The planned votes to curb Trump's war powers would be the latest test in a largely Democratic effort to prevent the President from further military action across the world without congressional authorization. It will also be a long shot. For years, it has been a challenge for Congress to pass such a resolution because in 1983, the Supreme Court ruled that the president could veto them. That's what happened when two similar resolutions passed during Trump's first term in office. Some Iranian Americans across the country are feeling conflicted about this weekend's military strikes and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While there's uncertainty and anxiety for many, there is also hope and cause for celebration. That's the sound of Iranians in the streets of Los Angeles on Saturday as they welcomed the news that Iran could be on the doorstep of significant changes. My reaction of this attack is excitement

[Donald Trump]

and hope for the Iranian people, for freedom and democracy in Iran. Every single people in Iran knew that the only way that this regime is

[Corinne Pratel]

going to go away, it's that to attack them.

[Cecilia Ley]

That was Mike Kazarouni and Sagar Fanisalik speaking to USA Today and CBS News in Los Angeles as they celebrated the

[Corinne Pratel]

Iranian community in Los Angeles is the largest concentration of Iranian immigrants, people of Iranian descent outside of Iran.

[Cecilia Ley]

Corinne Pratel is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She notes that by 2019, more than half of Iranian immigrants to the US lived in California, and about 30% of them are in LA County.

[Corinne Pratel]

The bulk of that community was established here in LA in the late 1970s, early 1980s, immediately before, during and after the Iranian revolution. But there have continued to be waves of immigration to the Los Angeles area from Iran.

[Cecilia Ley]

Much of LA's Iranian American community reside in Westwood, a neighborhood that's been dubbed Tarongeles. There are recent immigrants as well as those who have lived in the country for decades. Residents in the area spoke to Patil about how they are feeling in this moment.

[Corinne Pratel]

There's obviously going to be a diversity of opinions, but the mood for many hundreds if not a few thousand people who came out publicly yesterday, just in this one area of Los Angeles alone, was overwhelmingly a positive one.

[Cecilia Ley]

Prattel says she was reporting from a cafe in Westwood on Saturday when people began learning about what was unfolding in Iran in real time.

[Corinne Pratel]

I was ordering my tea and Manchester burst through the door with his phone to his ear like fist in the air, screaming like Khomeini is dead, all pumped. I sat with a group of men who had heard the news and then, you know, decided to gather at this cafe to be able to just kind of catch up with one another and say, like, can you believe this? And everybody's phone was just rattling all over the TABLE Texts from friends, family all over the world just, you know, in shock. It was very much for this community, very much of a mood of celebration. This was something that people had been waiting for, hoping for for a very long time.

[Cecilia Ley]

It wasn't just older Iranians that were excited, prattel says. Younger generations were celebrating too.

[Corinne Pratel]

A lot of people I spoke with yesterday were really pleasantly surprised by was how many of their children, their adult children who are born in the United States, who are Americans, who don't speak Farsi, who have never set foot in Iran, how enthusiastic their children were about this news as well. I spoke with a young couple yesterday, both of whom grew up in Jewish Iranian families here in the Los Angeles area. And you know, they said we've been waiting, we've been raised our whole lives in preparation for this day, that this is even if you have never set foot in the country, this is still something that we have been waiting for.

[Cecilia Ley]

Iranians gathered to celebrate in other cities also. The Washington Post notes that enclaves in places like Houston, Chicago and New York all shared in their happiness, despite still feeling some dread about the future and their loved ones still in Iran. Meanwhile, several anti war protests against U.S. actions in Iran were also held across the country in cities including Washington, D.C. milwaukee and Indianapolis. And finally, a few other stories were following A mass shooting left three people dead, including the gunman and 14 others injured at a bar in Austin, Texas, in the early morning hours Sunday. Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said a man drove a large SUV around the block near the bar and then opened fire through the window. He then parked, exited the vehicle and opened fire on people as he walked. Police confronted the man, then shot and killed him. Authorities say he was originally from Senegal and has been a naturalized citizen for more than 10 years. The shooter wore a shirt that said Property of Allah and another shirt with an Iranian flag on it, according to the Austin American Statesman. Citing unnamed officials, the FBI joined the investigation and as of Sunday, we're exploring whether the shooting was an act of terrorism, but said it's too early to make a determination. OpenAI stepped in to strike a deal with the Defense Department just hours after the Trump administration banned federal agencies from working with the AI company Anthropic. And Anthropic's model was the only AI approved for use in classified US military systems. OpenAI now appears ready to fill that role. Anthropic's CEO wanted greater safeguards put in place and said it wouldn't allow its technology to be used for domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon insisted it should be given unrestricted use of any AI deployed for military applications. On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Anthropic is now a supply chain risk, meaning any business that contracts with the Pentagon is barred from working with anthropic. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that safeguards were included in their agreement with the Defense Department, though it's unclear how those measures differ from Anthropic's. Planned Parenthood Marmonte, the largest affiliate of the national healthcare provider in Northern California and Nevada, is hoping a new slate of unconventional services will help them attract a new clientele and confront a substantial revenue gap, the Wall Street Journal reports. Those services include offerings like Botox IV hydration for hangovers, cosmetic fillers and a perimenopausal concierge care program, Marmonte leaders say the soft launched offerings, similar to those available at a med spa, help promote a larger mission of bodily autonomy. They're also hoping the new business model can serve as a framework for others to follow. Last year, Trump's spending bill eliminated federal Medicaid reimbursements for the organization's non abortion services. Last year, more than 50 Planned Parenthood clinics closed nationwide. 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. Esquire reports on how, even though Americans are drinking much less, a lot of people still consume alcohol a few times a week. But with research showing that no amount of alcohol is good for you, many are wondering if it's time for all of us to give up booze for good. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Narrated to find that story and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.