Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 3/25/26: Trump Begs For Ceasefire With Iran, Israel Pushes To Conquer Lebanon

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Ryan and Emily discuss Trump begs for ceasefire w/Iran, Israel demands conquest of Lebanon. Christopher Rabb: https://www.chrisrabb.com/      To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.comMerch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. Because I was a spy. Listen to the secret world of Roald Dahl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here. Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show. This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.

So if that is something that's important to you, please go to breakingpoints.com, become a member today, and you'll get access to our full show. those unedited, ad-free, and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you at breakingpoints.com. All right, good morning. Welcome to Breaking Points back here on the land of the free. I was going to say Ryan is back from Cuba, and we have a whole block prepared. We're going to go through some of the pictures and reporting that Ryan, pictures took, but also reporting Ryan did an interview, actually with what the third top official in Cuba with a big scoop.

Yes, and so, and what you guys don't know is that back before the internet and Instagram, when people would come back from trips overseas, they would invite all their neighbors over to literally watch. Yes. They kind of slide should they put up on the wall of their house or something. I still do that for my parents. Yeah. So that's what you guys are going to have to suffer through today. There you go. But it's actually, it's not going to be suffering through.

It's super interesting. And Ryan was on Newsmax last night. got into a fun tussle with the host. So we're going to break that down. More immediately, though, new updates, actually recent updates from both U.S. negotiators and Iranian negotiators towards a potential ceasefire peace deal over there. We are going to break all of that down. And there's a lot to get to. Donald Trump was making remarks in the Oval Office yesterday saying all kinds of crazy stuff. Did you watch this presser? I watched a lot of it. It was Trump in normal form. And Hagseth?

Hagseth, oh my God. We're on the throttle. And Trump giving him the eyebrow raise when he's talking about the hard throttle. Yeah. Trump's still Michael Scott. That's what she said as like his war secretary is talking. Basically what happened.

Trump is so kind of amused and confused by Hegseth, but kind of loves him. Yeah, because you're right. It's sort of, I think it was similar with Christy Gnome until it wasn't. It can happen quickly. If Trump wasn't bringing so much death, destruction and despair to the world, we could just sit back and kind of laugh at his antics.

And he really, another thing I hate him for is depriving us of that joy. Because you can't, it's, with what he's doing, you can't even laugh at him. It's like, that was the best thing about him. It's just how funny he is. Yeah, now we're at war with Iran. And just, yeah, and like just trying to strangle Cuba and doing mirror. It's like, come on. Well, we also. We also get back to the jokes.

I am not optimistic that will happen anytime soon. We also have updates from Lebanon where we're looking at some significant, significant incursions from Israel, new updates from... What did the New York Times get hammered for calling it? What did they say? New York Times said something like Israel may decide to continue to control some of the territory that it has grabbed. What? Yeah, invading and occupying. Lebanon is the word you're looking for.

They should have just went with Trump. I believe I'll have the honor of taking it soon. Honor of taking Lebanon, which does not have a right to exist. Yes, we should have just went with that, apparently, from the New York Times. Lots, lots of stuff on Cuba, because that's moving very quickly. Ryan, you can tell us more about this. But this is what the government calls Operation Total Extermination. It's the Pentagon title for Western.

Hemisphere. That's not great when you're in the Western Hemisphere and you find out that the operation directed at you is called. Say it again? Total extermination. Yeah, that's not good. No, not great. But Ryan is going to tell us what's really happening on the ground and what we could see happening very soon. Democrats, I mean, we have new Gavin Newsom footage here. Democrats are squirming over Apex. Some are sort of that we could use that as an intro for every show. But some are apparently leaning into saying, I'm not taking any money from A-PAC as though it's a badge of honor. But we'll see what that actually means at the end of the day, whose money they will and will not take. But there's some new clips. Gavin Newsom. Corey Booker, this is him saying, we don't have a clip of this, but he said he's not taking A-PAC money.

So lots to get to on that front. And Ryan's the guy for it because he's been reporting on this for years. Yes, indeed. Unfortunately, it's not even the thing I wanted to report on. I was just reporting on progressive campaigns. And all of a sudden there's $100 million from this outside group in these campaigns. Like, I thought this was about, like, where you are on the Green New Deal. No. No. It never is.

All right. Also, AI blackouts, possibly coming in the future, not possibly, probably, coming in the future. New reporting on college graduates, the plight of college graduates this spring. Many of you are probably experiencing that right now, and I'm sure you'll let us know in the comments. It's bad. It's bleak.

And Jensen Wang says, we've reached AGI. New clip of him on Lex Friedman. Finally, Ryan, we have a guest to go through some horrible economic updates. Looking really rough. Christopher Rob. Yes, he's a state legislator in Pennsylvania. Recently, after we booked him, was endorsed by Justice Democrats. Maybe they knew we were booking him.

They're like, let's get in before he's on, I guess, the breaking points bump. Yep. He's running for an open congressional seat, which would represent, you know, most of Philadelphia. Interesting. We'll talk to him about, you know, this state of the, national in Pennsylvania economy and how that's playing into the race. There you go. All right, and as a reminder,

breaking points.com, that's where you can go to get a premium subscription. We appreciate your support. So many new members of the Breaking Points Premium family that gets you the second half of the Friday shows. As a reminder, those are totally paywalled. We're throwing around with, you missed this last week, a potential new name for the second half of the Friday shows.

I think we just make it free. It's typical. Typical. I'm pretending I'm a newsmax host. And sorry if you paid for it, because you're like, what I really want is the second half of the Friday show. And so that's going to be the thing that puts me over the top. I think we should just give it to everybody. It's too good to keep from the public. But the thing that you do get, if you're a premium member, is the show right to your inbox every single day with no commercial breaks.

Really how the show's meant to be watched. Yes. So. How is my going to afford these luxury hotels in Cuba? That's right. That keep the power on. On top of that, we should add. you also support our independent journalism like sending Ryan to Cuba helping said Ryan to Cuba we put you like on a milk carton or something yes sponsor this sponsor this journalist yep

Canadian women are looking for more more to themselves their businesses their elected leaders and the world are out of them and that's why we're thrilled to introduce the honest talk podcast I'm Jennifer Stewart and I'm Catherine Clark and in this podcast we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You know Roll Doll, the writer who thought up Willie Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of

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Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age. What can we learn from all of the first? the new F1 romance novel suddenly popping up every year. He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Wagageddon change the paddock forever? That day is just seared into my memory. I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on no grip, a Formula One Culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets

of the sport. In each episode, a different guests and I will go deeper into the wacky mishap, scandals, and sagas, both on the track and far away from it, that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's get into the show. New updates in negotiations that apparently are happening, according to the U.S. government. Well, let's be clear. Negotiations require two parties and require one party to respond to the other.

Exactly. Iran, to this day, has still not responded to the U.S. So there's a lot of WhatsApp being used for these communications. If you use WhatsApp, you know, you get those two little blue checks if it's been received. And you're just like, okay, they got it. Like, are they going to respond here? And so Whitkov has been left on these two blue checks for like more than a week now. Now he has just sent, he's like, eff it. And he just sends like an entire ceasefire proposal. that Iran has not formally responded to yet. Although the Wall Street Journal has a story about Iran's response. We'll get into that. Let's get into the, so the reporting from, it's important to understand that the reporting first emerged out of Israel and from Israeli media. And I was talking to my colleague Jeremy Scahill this morning.

He was saying that we should take the specifics with a grain of salt, according to his sources in Tehran, but it is indeed true. And actually, we can just, we can put up with Jeremy, Jeremy's post here. It is, it is indeed true that the U.S. has sent, has sent an offer sheet, basically, for a 30-day ceasefire. Iran is reviewing it. Iran is extraordinarily skeptical of the seriousness of the United States because twice they have entered into negotiations and,

killed the negotiators and then launched wars with Iran. They killed Hamas negotiators after delivering a peace deal to Hamas. Like, the Trump peace deal they met to discuss it. It's not a good omen. Yeah. So they're like, yeah. So until they're reviewing it and there's been no formal response yet, according to Jeremy's sources. And until then, the retaliatory strikes will continue. The war is on until it's off. Like there's no pausing on the assumption that this is serious. But it's still worth us going through the terms. Just understand that some of the details are probably shaded a little bit that were released out of Israeli media.

Yeah, so let's put them up on the screen screen. This is A0, the 15. You want to go through these since you have better eyes? Yes. I remember my glasses, although I don't always. This is from, as Ryan said, Israeli media, this is Israeli Channel 12 being cited. One, 15 clauses here. One, automatically cancel the threat of reimposition of sanctions.

Which is incredible, by the way. Let's just, that's opening bid from the U.S. I had to think about that one twice. Like lifting Iran gets its sanctions lifted. Like, incredible. Okay, good. That's, yeah. Two, dismantling Iran's existing nuclear capabilities.

They already agreed to that in February. Three, agreement with Iran. Iran vows never seek nuclear weapons. Agreed to that in February. Preventing the enrichment of any nuclear material on Iranian territory. That is probably a misreporting or misinformation from Israel. I would suspect that the details are not that tight. Yeah, okay, interesting sticking point there.

That would be a total prevention. Five, delivery of enriched uranium to the IAEA. Iran basically agreed to some version of that. they even agreed to allow U.S. companies to operate the Iranian program in February. So just because Iran, by the way, agreed to these things in February doesn't mean they will now. They're in a better position than they were, ironically, in February. Anyway, go ahead. Delivery, oh, I just did that one.

Six, decommissioning and destroying the sites of Natanz, Isfahan, and Ford O. Seven. That's probably a little bit, not exactly how it reads. Well, that's an interesting one, too, because we basically have. claimed to destroy the tons of spawning. Right. No, we already said that. That was Midnight Hammer. Yeah. Check. Okay. Grant the IAEA full access to all information.

Check. Iran abandons proxies approach. Well, that's interesting. Maybe this is the kind of thing Iran agrees to and then just doesn't live up to. Yeah. Like, which is a very Israeli slash Middle East thing to do sometimes. Stopping funding and arming militias in the region. So similar. Yeah. Keeping the Strait of Hormuz open without any closure. Yeah, I don't think they're going to open as long as you pay them. I was going to say they've learned. Postpulment of decision on ballistic missile program.

In other words, cool. Yeah, get off our jock about the missiles. A few more here. Ballistic missiles are only used for defense. According to them, that's all that they're used for. And actually, they have never, as far as I'm aware of, and correct me if I'm wrong out there in the comments, I'm not aware of them ever launching a ballistic.

missile strike against any country where they weren't hit first. Lifting all sanctions on Iran. Incredible. From the U.S.? Yeah. This is, again, this is the summary. This is a real, like, blow to the, like, the Trump is winning the war crowd. We're going to lift all sanctions in order to end this war, but we're definitely winning it. And we're going to tell you to destroy the sites that we said we basically destroyed. All right. Last one. or two more, support for the development of a civilian nuclear program, automatically canceled the threat. They agreed to that basically in February, but the U.S. refused it.

The last one is just automatically canceled the threat of reimposition of sanctions. Same thing as number one. So you're promising multiple times that you won't sanction them. Right, in different ways. Let's then, Ryan, talk about the story that broke overnight from the Wall Street Journal. And again, this is pretty new. According to the Politico summary, their peace proposal demands, include, quote, the closure of all American bases in the Gulf, the payment of reparations

for missile attacks on Iran, plus the lifting of all existing sanctions. They want to collect fees for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, to the point you just made, an end to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah and permission to start its missile building program without limit. Ryan, the question, though, is how legitimate is this Wall Street Journal summary of the Iranian peace proposal? According to Jeremy's sources, they have not formally responded. So it got leaked to the journal or someone is manipulating the journal with a fake peace proposal?

The journals, sources in general, tend to be on the American and Israeli side. And so typically throughout this conflict, if your sources have been on the American and Israeli side, you're more likely to get incorrect information. There may be some kind of informal back and forth that's happening and that the U.S. or Israel gleaned from that back and forth that this is what they want. I can say for sure that Iran's position is that it is a very high priority of theirs, that the U.S. bases be dismantled in the region. And they have said from day one that they want reparations. Like, I don't think people, and people might laugh at that. We know that it is a horrific war crime that we started the war by killing at least 165 little girls. We know that intellectually, and a lot of us kind of feel it

in our bones. It happened to Iranian girls. Like, it is that much more real to the Iranians. They're getting pummeled in a way that Israel, the UAE, Kuwait, et cetera, are not even getting pummeled. Like, they're getting hit really ruthlessly. You saw the images of black smoke that could cause, you know, cancer among the Tehran population for decades. They feel like they've been wronged that they did not start the war, they've been pummeled, and they deserve reparations for this. Whether they actually get that, and what form that takes, we'll see, but I'm just, my point here, it's strengthened the results. And they are serious. Like, they feel, we did not do anything to you to deserve this.

You did this. You're now losing. Pay us. Let's listen to the Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump in the Oval Office at this was the swearing-in for Mark Wayne Mullen at DHS yesterday. He had a couple of interesting moments, A-1. Because they're going to make a deal. They're going to make a deal. They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present, and the president arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money.

And I'm not going to tell you what that president is, but it was a very significant prize. And they gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it. So that meant one thing to me would deal with the right people. Is that nuclear-related? No, it wasn't nuclear-related. It was oil and gas-related, and it was a very nice thing they did. But what it showed me is that we're dealing with the right people. So a couple more clips that we're just going to...

Well, we've got to speculate first about what it was. Well, Menaker said it was a large wooden horse, possible. It's a great tweet. My sources say that Trump got an email from somebody who said that they were the Ayatollah's nephew and that he had access to trillions of dollars in reserves, but he needed just a few thousand dollars in Bitcoin to unlock those reserves. And they're going back and forth right now. Trump accidentally is now apparently locked out of his devices.

So they're trying to figure out. Because once they can get those trillion dollars in reserves, it's going to be smooth sailing. He's going to give checks to every American. It's going to be incredible. Did you see the moment in Bill Clinton's Epstein deposition where he was asked about sending emails? No. Oh, I'm going to send it to you. It's amazing.

He boomer maxes. I think that's probably where Trump is on emailing to. You've got to text it to him and probably like really big font. But he continued. He continued. We learned about his plans for an. electric plant, A2. You know, if you read the papers, you think we're tied.

You think we're in a tough battle. We are roaming free over Tehran, the city, Tehran, as opposed to Iran. We're roaming free. We can do whatever we want. And as you know, today we're going to have the privilege of shooting down a very big electric generation plant, one of the biggest in the world. And one shot to the right location ends the plant that comes. collapses, and we held off based on the fact that we're negotiating.

So much to unpack Tehran, not Iran. I like sometimes how he gives insight into how his brain works. You see Tehran, you think Iran, but no, it's the city, Tehran. I love to be there the first time he learned that the capital of Iran was Tehran. Yes. It's blue in his mind. It's clever. Now, also.

And then there's Esfahan. One of his criticisms of Barack Obama and many people on the rights. is they were often telegraphing plans, military plans. Here, Trump freelancing at a DHS swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office, says, today we're going to have the privilege of shooting down a very big electric generation plant, ostensibly before it happened, Ryan. Yeah, except he didn't end up doing that because Iran threatened to escalate if he did that, and he back down.

So is it a taco or is it him negotiate? Like actual question, because I think this is one thing that people get wrong. about Trump is that it's sometimes called a taco. And it's like, I see where you think it's called the taco. And he takes a lot of L's on these things, rightfully so. Other times, he's clearly just negotiating in public and wants to set the parameters in a certain direction. Taco in this case implies that he was going to do something and then he chickened out. Right. I'm not convinced that's true. I think it was market manipulation beginning to end, that the front end threat was market manipulation and the back end fake chickening out was was more market manipulation and if anybody's

watching by the way there is a lot to subpoena in 27 when when democrats are probably going to take the house they should have subpoena power so we should like we need to like write down all the things we want to know because we're going to forget because there's so many things so we need like 2027 subpoenas.org or something like that and put on the list who are these investors, these, these, uh, Nostradamus like traders. I'd love to know. Who went in and, uh, bought, made the perfect oil trade right before, you know, he came out with his, um, we're actually in fake negotiations with Iran. And who, who bought all of these S&P futures? Like, uh, because there's, there are a couple of traders that are making these massive trades that are

perfectly timed with Trump's fake moves. Oh, the Monday was insane. So we need to put it on the subpoena list for 227. Absolutely put it on the subpoena list for 2027. Speaking of our negotiations, here's Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, A3. The air campaign that we've conducted, that Israel's conducted alongside us,

was one for the history books, truly. And it's because we have a president of the United States that when he sends his warfighters out to fight, he unties their hands to actually go out and close with and destroy the enemy as viciously as possible from moment one. And that's why we see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs. You have a choice as we loiter over the top of Tehran, as the president talked about,

about your future. The president has made it clear that you will not have a nuclear weapon. The War Department agrees. Our job is to ensure that. And so we're keeping our hand on that throttle as long as as as is hard as is necessary to ensure the interest of the United States of America are achieved on that battlefield. We negotiate with bombs.

Yeah. As we are also negotiating, apparently, peace plan, point by point by point. And if you have a second and you're like a juvenile, like, roll back and watch Trump's eyebrow raise. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. It's pretty good. Yeah. Also, if you are the guy that started the war killing 165 plus little girls, would you really keep celebrating how Trump untied your hands? Like, he keeps talking about how there were all of these stupid political rules of engagement that kept the U.S. from waging war the way that Pete Hagsah thinks that we should wage war. And the first chance he gets to put those rules into place, he double taps in elementary school.

Well, I mean, he would probably say successful Venezuela operation, civilian harm mitigated. The first time he got the second time. The first time he has a war against an actual war. A Middle Eastern country. Yeah. That was a raid that, who knows, you know, what happened politically behind that. Yeah, truly, we don't know. Yeah.

So, yes, he did not double-tapped in elementary school in Venezuela. I will give him that. There it is, yes. A very high bar for our war department. Here's Donald Trump talking about, maybe the right word for this is cavalierly, talking about a launch of missiles at a U.S. aircraft carrier. Next thought. with our great Patriot missiles. Think of it. They shot 100 missiles at one of our aircraft carriers.

Abraham Lincoln, one of the biggest ships in the world, actually. And out of 101 missiles shot, every single one of them was knocked down in the sea. Think of that. Think of what that means. A hundred and one missiles, highly sophisticated, very fast missiles shot. At of 101, all 101 was shot down. And now, for the most part, lie at the bottom of the sea. It's pretty amazing, right? Pretty amazing. Our military is amazing, Pete. You know the attack I'm talking about recently?

101 shot. I said, wow. I saw it. You can see we have sort of pretty good equipment that we see. It's called the red line. Those red lines were thick, right? I said, that's a lot. And then we saw them one by one just get shot.

And these guys are due the shooting, the coolest cucumbers ever. You know, most people. don't have a lot of time when a missile is going at 2,500 miles an hour. He also just did the Shane Gillis bit there, Ryan, where Gillis' Trump impersonation, he explains by saying, I walked into a room, I said, wow, it would it be to the room? He literally just did that in the middle of a conversation about war. Yeah, and this is the kind of information that the Department of War keeps under a very tight lid. they do not let the public in on the amount of volleys sent at the Lincoln carrier group.

The fact that they had to expand, and they're not Patriot missiles, they have other missile defenses on ships, but whatever. I get details wrong too, me and Trump, it's fine. But for him to reveal that is very interesting, as we did not know that. And now people are speculating, oh, that might explain why we're seeing the, Lincoln Carrier Group kind of shading further and further away from Iran, which makes it more difficult for us to project power back. And so if, okay, great, good, I'm glad for the sailors that they shot down the 101 missiles, but it shows how vulnerable the carrier group is. Yeah. And how scary the situation is. Yeah. And in a way that the U.S. is not used to.

Like the U.S. and Israel are used to just flying over Gaza dropping whatever bombs they want and then just landing no no stress at all nobody's shooting back at them We're now getting we're now getting shot at and we are kind of retreating in in significant ways that the Ford carrier group they're like cooked they're done This this like supposed somebody didn't clean the lint drawer and the and there was a big fire and the dryer and area, and now that whole carrier group is out of commission. For a trillion dollars a year, we can't keep our carrier groups close to Iran even. It's amazing. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them.

And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Why hasn't a woman formerly participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade?

Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age. What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Wag Agetten change the paddock forever? That day is just seared into my memory. I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on no grip, a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets of the sport.

In each episode, a different guests and I will go deeper into the wacky mishaps, scandals and sagas, both on the track and far away from it, that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is It Girl. You may know me from my It Girl series I've done on the streets of New York over the years. Well, I've got good news. I am bringing those interviews and many more to this podcast.

Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work with the women's shaping culture right now. As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated. So you have to work extra hard, and you have to push the narrative in a way that doesn't compromise who you are in your integrity. You know, I like to say I was kind of like a silent ninja. Each week, I have unfiltered conversations with female founders, creatives, and leaders to talk about ambition, visibility, and what it really takes to build something meaningful in the public eye. because being an it girl isn't about the spotlight, it's about owning it.

I think the negatives need to be discussed and they need to be told to people who maybe don't do this every day, just so they know what's really going on. I feel like pulling the curtain back is important. Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Meanwhile, let's put up the next element. This is A5. Sentcom told stars and stripes yesterday that a total of 290 service members have been wounded so far in Operation Epic Fury. The majority of those, 255, have returned to duty.

The number of seriously injured remains 10. We also then should go to the next element from Barack Ravid, who reported yesterday, a senior U.S. official tells me the 82nd Airborne Division headquarters has received an order from the Pentagon to deploy to the Middle East, along with several infantry brigades of thousands of soldiers. Ravid says why it matters, this is a significant addition. reinforcement to the US force structure in the region ahead of a possible ground operation in Iran.

Ryan, when you look at the news, this is the escalation spiral in action that you go back 10 years from now, 10 months from now, and do an autopsy. You know, we'll see the military analysts go back 10 months from now an autopsy what just transpired or what's transpiring at the moment. and they'll say, these are the precipitating factors of escalation. We're watching it happen. Yeah, and I can confirm that. We heard the same yesterday that the 82nd Airborne is being dispatched from Fort Bragg. There are, I'm sure, all sorts of plans being drawn up for Delta Force in these special operations types. The Karg Island, which is this island that Trump keeps getting pushed to seize and, you know, has a plays a,

very crucial role in Iran's oil production and shipping is constantly kind of on the target list. And there was this incredible, I think it was a paragraph in the Washington Post that said, you know, Defense Department officials are, you know, game planning out what it would take. And they believe that they could seize Carg Island. Probably true. We have like the most impressive like special ops and Delta Force guys and all hopped up. on as Seth Harbis written, the best drugs that they can ship into our country. So they could take it. But then they had a line that said they would, for as long as they're there, they would have to,

you know, fend off a relentless volley of drones and missiles. It's like, yeah, yes. Like in perpetuity. That's right. Like, guys, so you're going to put a whole bunch of guys on an island right next to Iran, which is part of Iran. And what are they going to do about the missiles and drones raining down on them. How are you going to offend those off? You can be the baddest special operator

on the planet. You can't just get rained on by drones and missiles in perpetuity. You need to get resupplied constantly. Again, it's escalation spiral. You have to not get blown up, which is hard when you're getting missiles

rained on you constantly. So it's just not a thing that you can do. Unless you completely like just vaporize Iran. Like as long as Iran exists and can fire off drones. Yeah, right. Those, then those troops can't hold Karg Island. Yeah.

A couple of polls to get to here. This one is actually, people started picking up on it. How does the public feel about this? Well, people started picking up on this one yesterday. It was actually a UGov poll that was done in mid-February. We can put the next element up on the screen. This was just looking at a real news article pulled out by Adam Johnson, who said a new UGov poll shows 20 of Americans falsely believe Iran possesses nuclear weapons and 45% believe that also false

claim Iran has an active nuclear weapons program. And I went back and followed the poll. It was taken in mid-February. I'm sure you would get very, very similar results if you conducted it today. Meanwhile, though, even with that, so just keep that in your brain. Let's go to the next poll. A-8. This is genuinely a new poll. CBS News, taken March 17th through 20, 90th, 92% of Americans want to end the conflict as quickly as possible. 80% say they want to make sure Iran's people are safe and free. 73% say permanently stop Iran's nuclear programs. 68% say stop Iran from threatening other countries. Predictable results, but 92% saying end the conflict as quickly as possible, Ryan. Yeah, I remember in our poll there were some interesting

kind of contradictory thoughts. People desperately wanted the war to end, so I find that to be a very credible number. People also, in our poll, we asked about the ballistic missile program. They overwhelmingly American people do not want Iran to have a ballistic missile program. I'd like to try to square some of that for people. Like, okay, well, what are you willing to do? Like, how much war are you willing to engage in?

do you want to engage in to make sure like just as a should this country that we believe is scary have a ballistic missile program I can imagine of course

like most Americans be like no why would we want a dangerous country to have dangerous weapons but then it's like well okay the only way we're gonna

stop them from that is forever war so I want to stop on this point just briefly because it's been driving me insane we remember when Diego Garcia was hit or was they fired

at Diego Garcia several days ago there were people all over X from the right, taking dubs, being like, you're telling me Iran doesn't pose a, quote, imminent threat. Look at what they just did. Their missile range is double, what we thought it was. If you go and look at the countries that have full, we're not even talking about nuclear weapons, if you look at just ICBMs, how many countries can cover the entire globe with their missiles,

do we think that we should be going to war with North Korea? Because if you're using your justification that this is an anti-American death cult, and it needs to be taken care of because they have a ballistic missiles program that can hit much of Europe. And it's true, they do. That's absolutely accurate. North Korea's is bigger.

North Korea's range is bigger than Iran's. So if that is your justification, now I'm not saying it's everybody's only justification, but the glibness that was being projected after the Diego Garcia incident was mind-boggling because it's a justification to go to a war with other countries, but particularly with North Korea. And if you want to put that idea in Donald Trump's head and have America first Donald Trump,

then after he finds some type of peace, he's already said that we won the war, go on and say we're going to win a war with North Korea. Enjoy that. Yeah. Now they've got nuclear tips on those ICBMs, which also plays into how we're like, you know what, we're going to pick on, we're going to go pick on Cuba, I think, actually. Cuba's the problem. Yeah.

Total extermination. That's the name of the operation. We'll get to that in just a moment. Ryan, Pakistan getting increasingly involved in this particular conflict. Go ahead throw the next element up on screen. This is Pakistan's prime minister saying this just yesterday, Pakistan welcomes and fully supports ongoing efforts to pursue dialogue to end the war in the Middle East and the interest of peace and stability in the region beyond, subject to concurrence by the U.S. Pakistan stands ready and honor to be the host of facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict.

We roughly already knew that, Ryan, but can you maybe since you've covered Pakistan pretty closely in the last several years, explain to us the significance. According to our reporting, Whitkoff has been there in Islamabad for two days. They weren't returning his text messages, so he's like, maybe if I go to Islamabad, they'll just meet me at the bar. They haven't yet. And so Pakistan is trying to become the new Oman here. The Iranians are quite skeptical of moving the brokering from Oman over to Pakistan. Pakistani generals and the Pakistani military in general are known like internationally as in a world of untrustworthy people, like the least trustworthy people.

So if you were trying to pick a trusted intermediary to negotiate these talks with an adversary who is already not trustworthy because they have gone to war with you twice in the middle of negotiations, Pakistan doesn't raise your confidence level that this is on the up and up. So we'll see if Iran is a lot. Like, whatever, fine. Whitkoff's already there. Lzambah's beautiful this time of year. Pakistan apparently is almost out of LNG. Like the, and I think the Arab Spring and other pro, like there were this wave of protests in the early 2010s around the world.

A significant and misunderstood or under understood role in those protests was the spiking of energy and commodity costs that flew out of the great. financial crisis of 2007 and eight. And it made bread fuel very expensive for people around the world and they went out to the streets. I think we're going to see a lot of that in the next couple of years. And Pakistan is a place you could very easily see it. Like this place that's like always just kind of on the brink, getting pushed over it. So anyway.

So we'll say if maybe they'll maybe they'll. allow Pakistan to be the place. Let's talk about Iraq. This is drop site reporting yesterday. Baghdad clears PMF, so the popular mobilization forces to defend themselves after a deadly strike on militia headquarters. This decision you all wrote follows air strikes on a PMF command headquarters. Let's put up A15 for the context. Sorry to jump around. Yeah, in control rooms. And Anbar province. So, yeah. So A15, yeah, so this was yesterday or two days, this is Monday. Air strikes in Iraq on Iran-backed paramilitary alliance, kill at least 15 fighters. So this is, the U.S. is basically at open war with these Iranian-allied Iraqi militias.

But these militias are not just freelance militias. They are a part of the security service, the actual government security service. We can go back to A-10, as Emily was saying, the Iraq's national security councils, As Emily said, like, they're now authorizing these military, these militias to strike U.S. forces. So that's state sanctioning of Iraqi aggression. Not aggression. They would call it defense because they were just 15 of them were just killed. It was always disproportionate when you look at the numbers of people killed and wounded on the other side versus us.

But yeah, so the Green Zone is completely evacuated. We need Iraqi airspace. We invaded Iraq and spent trillions of dollars to, like, control it. I didn't think I knew this. Maas was telling me all of the kind of oil proceeds from Iraq live in the New York Federal Reserve, and we just send them pallets of cash, basically if we approve their budget, like a total colonial structure there. Yet, despite that, they're shooting at us.

Yeah, despite all of the American troops that died over the years, they're shooting at us. And now, speaking of which, task and purpose, A11, is reporting that the Army's enlistment age has been raised to 42. They also eased marijuana restrictions. That's huge. How are you going to find somebody that's going to pass that test? Yeah. Now, I will say people are just, like, does it, does it sound like Ukraine a little bit? I will say the age limit for recruits being bumped from 35 to 42 in 2026. That actually might be long overdue, just given how much healthier people are able to stay into their 40s. I don't know if it's related to a recruitment crisis because of this ongoing war may well be. We'll learn more about it. But it also, like, people are staying much more healthy into their 40s, thanks. so all kinds of different things.

Manosphere, keeping people fit for service. Yep, that's right. It's all the bros. Let's jump to A-13 real quick, because that relates to this Iraq conflict, the Iraq-U-S conflict. It's a VO, so you can just roll A-13. This is an FPV first-person-viewed drone

that is attacking Camp Victory, which is the U.S. base right off of the Baghdad airport. And what's unique about this one is that it identifies this like extremely expensive radar, attacks it, destroys it, and then keeps going. So hits that. Or I guess gets footage of, it's like there's, I guess there's two of them and one of them gets footage. And then they go, they're like, all right, what else should we blow up while we're here? this is mostly evacuated base and so there they find a helicopter and boom there goes like a

extremely expensive helicopter notice that they blurred that out apparently what they blurred out is the they i guess maybe they realized in post-production they had blown up a medical evac helicopter which is less cool for them um you know they're still happy to destroy any you know military hardware that we have, but I think they would prefer to get one of those like helicopter gunships. And then probably somebody was, as they're like editing, they're like, oh, shoot, I think this is a evak, medical evac helicopter. But either way, the point is, the Iraqis are just making mincemeat of our hardware that we've left behind because there was a ceasefire that was agreed to with the militias so that we could evacuate these bases of persons.

And then right at right I don't even know if we announced that we were ending the ceasefire that's when we bombed These officials in Anbar province classic US this like oh Seasfire did we say ceasefire? We meant you just you sees fire at us so that we can leave the base and then we kill you And so that's that I think duplicity contributed to the broader Iraqi government saying you know what go ahead You want to hit these creeps, hit them. Let's wrap on this news. This is going to be A-14. Senior House Democrats telling Axios that the Iran-war power's resolution is set to pass, quote, most, if not all, of the four defectors are expected to flip and vote for the measure this time

because they were, quote, subject to intense criticism from the party's grassroots. What do you make of that? So I think that means that breaking point. viewers have basically bullied these Democrats who are pro-war into supporting this war resolution. And the way you know that it very likely has the votes to pass in the House is that Jeffries and Gregory Meeks are now saying that they want to postpone it. And as I've been reporting from the very beginning, Democrats secretly like this war because they think it hurts Trump and they think it, you know, that helps their ideological project of

helping Israel and degrading Iran. Like a lot of Democrats support that ideological and imperial project and all Democrats want Trump hurt. This is obviously hurting Trump. And so now that the House is on the precipice of a historic war powers resolution vote that looks like it would now pass on the floor. and put real restrictions on Trump. Now, what the Senate does and whether Trump abides by it is a different question.

But having the House go on record against the war would be a consequential act. So now that we're on the cusp of that happening, Meeks and Jeffries are like, you know what, maybe we'll pause this and come back in like mid-April and put it on the floor in like three weeks. Because there's a recess coming up. So Meeks has basically today and tomorrow to man up and put up and put it. put this thing on the floor. Otherwise, you have no choice but to believe what I've been telling you, that Democrats secretly want this war to continue.

And what does that mean? That means not only they find with the Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish, like all, Israeli, all the people who are dying as a result of it, all of the pain that you're suffering and will suffer economically as a result of it now in the weeks ahead, months ahead, and years ahead. Democrats are okay with that because they might pick up an extra couple seats in the midterms. What are they going to do with those seats? Nothing. Vote to go to war?

Yeah. Then we're already taking the House, probably. I like the Massey idea of introducing a declaration of war and seeing exactly who's going to vote for it. I would love that to happen. That would be like kryptonite. That would be the worst possible. Don't think that would pass. Yeah. Canadian women are looking for more.

More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on I Heart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Why hasn't a woman formally participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age. What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023-year-olde, event called Wag Ageddon, Change the Paddock Forever. That day is just seared into my memory. I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on no grip, a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets of the sport.

In each episode, a different guests and I will go deeper into the wacky mishaps, scandals, and sagas, both on the track and far away from it that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willie Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been.

Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roll Dahl, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe. either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy. Did you know Dahl

got cozy with the Roosevelt's, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman, and then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit James Bond film? How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author

ever, and what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And let's move on to Lebanon, Ryan,

because new developments, we can start rolling B1. This is footage from Tyre. And, man, we're looking at civilian neighborhoods here. If you're listening to this, you're just seeing smoke rise from what does clearly appear to be. A 5,000-year-old city. Yeah, it does clearly appear to be a civilian. neighborhood right in the middle of what just looks like houses and office buildings and the like.

Well, what we learned yesterday, B2, is that Israel's defense minister said the military will occupy southern Lebanon up to the Latani River, marking the first clear statement of intent to seize the territory Reuters reported. Ryan, what does that mean? What are we looking at here? as the Iran operation continues, Lebanon being in the shadow of that, I suppose, Israel feels as though the time is ripe to move in. Well, quote-unquote, Greater Israel has always included, at a bare minimum, all of this Lebanese land up to the Latani River. And for many, you know, much beyond that as well.

it is you know it's just preposterous like it's 2026 like the world has kind of moved we thought beyond this kind of thing where you just you know take what you can

we're constantly told Israel has a right to exist don't you believe Israel has a right to exist does Lebanon have a right to exist does it like Syria have a right to exist like it was it's not just that Israel like every other country has a right to exist. Israel unique among all other countries has a right to

exist. And the rest of your existence is negotiable based on Israeli impulses. Now the problem, when you put up B3 here, the problem for Israel is that people don't want them there. It's, the Lebanese are still resisting them. So there's this quote that was circulating, how can we as Christians in this area not be with Hezbollah? Yeah, this was from the Telegraph had this. The Telegraph had an article that was actually titled Christians in Hezbollah unite against, quote, Epstein Empire. And southern Lebanon is mostly Shia territory, right, Ryan. Epstein Empire, that's even better than Epstein class.

Well, they're taking straight from Iran the Epstein Empire, Epstein class, Epstein propaganda, although this one is sort of a gimmie. Yeah. Sort of forgive me as far as propaganda goes. But Christians and I mean, well, actually I'm sure it's true of a lot of Muslims in Lebanon as well, there's previously this tension, or not previously, but kind of always the simmering tension where even if you're Shia, you're Lebanese Christian, you have a little, like there's friction with Hezbollah among a lot of Lebanese who say you're being controlled by Iran. You're a puppet of Iran. Well, guess what happens when? When these attacks start ratcheting up, you once again risk driving people closer to Hezbollah. And I guess as an effect of that, closer to Iran, to the extent that Hezbollah and Iran are connected.

Yeah. And so far, the Israelis have found southern Israel a little bit more difficult to take. Southern Lebanon. I'm sorry, southern Lebanon, northern Israel, as they would like to see it, A little more difficult to take than they thought. They thought that they had completely annihilated Hezbollah. It's one more blow to their strategic approach that suggests that they're just one round of bombing and one round of assassinations away from a paradise of peace in which they are able to just seize other countries' territory and just keep it indefinitely. turns out people are pretty attached to the land that they've been living on for any thousands of years.

And so that's going to be a problem for them because they've so far not been able to dislodge as below. And Ryan, there's this Heretz report that we want to talk about as well before the starvation case. So the headline from Herat says, Palestinian minor who died in Israeli prison was, quote, likely starved, but the case was closed. This just happened yesterday. Yeah, and I want to highlight this

because Jasper Nathaniel had written about this boy who was in prison, in detention, not charged with anything, and his roommate was the American child who Jasper had been reporting on relentlessly to get him to get him, and eventually got him released. He was accused of throwing stones,

if you remember that kid's case. And that kid is now free, but he told Jasper the story of his roommate, who was in horrific condition and died in prison without ever being charged or any explanation of why he was even in prison. And now this judge has said that that likely is what happened. And reading what...

reading what happened to this boy in prison, I think we shouldn't let his, we shouldn't let his life pass without recognition of it. So Muhammad was, Muhammad Ibrahim was, he was the 16 year old American that was with him. We can put this next element up on the screen. This is 17 year old Walid Ahmad, who was his kind of cellmate. And so he writes here, one of his cellmates, 17. year old Walid Ahmad, whom he quickly grew close to, was visibly sicker and weaker than the others when Muhammad arrived. Skin and bones, Muhammad told me. He had severe diarrhea, couldn't keep food down, and shivered constantly. His skin was covered in scabies, which was ripping through the prison,

leaving all the boys infested and scratching themselves raw. The boys worried about Walid, begged the guards to let him see a doctor. They refused. On March 22nd, 12 days after Muhammad arrived at the prison, Walid collapsed during their daily trip. up outside the cell, falling face first and splitting open the bridge of his nose. A pool of blood formed around him. The boys rushed to help and were pepper sprayed. Boys went to help this boy who'd fallen on his face and were pepper sprayed, which means Walid, with whatever consciousness he still had left, was also pepper sprayed. He goes on, a pool of blood formed around him. Sorry, Muhammad said, Walid remained conscious for about two minutes, looking around, scared, before losing consciousness again.

A guard then arrived and drag Walid's motionless body across the floor by his hair. So they saw a 17-year-old child smash his face on the pavement due to malnutrition that they were forcing on him, pepper sprayed him, and then dragged him. away by his hair. And then, so Jasper goes on, if we can put the next one up. Four days later, the boys learned that Waleed, who was never charged with a crime, was dead. Back home, this is in the U.S., Muhammad's family heard that a teenage boy had died in Magidot and spent an entire, unbearable day trying to determine whether it was him. Instead, they learned it was a boy from a neighboring town.

An Israeli surgeon who observed Walid's autopsy reported that the 17-year-old showed signs of prolonged starvation, extreme weight loss, and muscle wasting, along with untreated colitis and scabies. A prison medical report also revealed that he had complained to the prison about inadequate food since at least December. His body has still not been returned to his family. That's from Jasper Nathaniel's substack a while ago. The news now in Horat's is that a judge is a judge is a person. basically confirming all of this, that this is all accurate. And according to Heretz, Israel is still keeping the body. Remember that Israel kept bombing Gaza and had refused to move to the next phase of the ceasefire? Because there was one remain of an IDF soldier that they had not been able to

find, and that Hamas said they weren't looking for. Because Hamas was like, we think he's over there. You control that area. They went weeks without even looking for it because they didn't want that body back because they wanted to continue the attacks. But the point is, the priority that they placed on getting those remains back, setting aside all of the depravity

from beginning to end here, they still won't even give his body back. And the case was closed. And the judge says, we don't have enough evidence here. It likely looks like he was starved to death. But the autopsy is not definitive enough, so we're going to close the case. I mean, we covered, what was it just last week?

The rape case. Right. They dropped the rape charge. They said there also wasn't enough evidence. There was CCTV footage that was, you know, you watch that. You pretty much know what's going on there. And a medical examination. Yeah.

And before we departed this segment, I did want, we can put up B5. did want to just pay our respects to Hussam Shabbat, dropside, our dropside colleague who, one year ago yesterday, was assassinated by the Israelis. I remember we were actually on the show together around the time he was killed. And when I left the studio, getting the news that he'd been killed, they targeted him, they put his picture up, they said they were going to kill him. they hunted him they flew a drone over top of him dropped a explosive device

on him split his body apart 23 years old yeah he had his whole life ahead of him extremely talented journalists we collected his stories onto one page

you can go check over it over a drop site so it didn't want that didn't want his anniversary of his assassination to go without remarking on that. I became a millionaire overnight and lost everything that actually mattered.

Hold on, Sophia. Did you just say they lost everything after becoming a millionaire? That's right. And it gets worse. It's narrating too much drama week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, I just inherited a fortune after losing my mom, and now my girlfriend's entire family is coming out of nowhere with her hands out. And my girlfriend is already giving my money away. So the girl he wants to marry is already sending me

money out the door. Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is It Girl. This podcast is all about going deeper with the women's shaping culture right now. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work behind it all. As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated. So you have to work extra hard in a way that doesn't compromise who you are in your integrity. You know, I like to say I was kind of like a silent ninja. Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been.

Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy. Listen to the secret world of Roll Doll on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.