Media Storm - News Watch pt.1: The ICE killings you didn't see, and how do we help Iran?

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Content warning: sexual assault, mentions of suicide, gunshots Welcome back! Since we were last here, presidents have been abducted, Greenland became the pride of Europe and millions of Epstein Files flooded the matrix. Believe it or not, we’re only one month into 2026! But we simply couldn’t fit it into a single episode. So here’s part one of a double-whammy News Watch, in which we round up the looniest headlines of the longest January ever. We start with the deadly ICE circus unfolding in the US: if the government tells you not to believe your own eyes, should the newspapers reprint their orders? Plus: there’s two ICE-related deaths you’ve surely heard of… but did you read about the other seven? Or do only white citizens deserve headlines? Over to Iran where the flailing government’s brutal repression and internet blackout has made it difficult to hear the voices on the ground - at a time when Iranians urgently need the international community. But others are also doing a good job at drowning them out: some very loud and very polarising pundits dominating the debate. We do our best to navigate the world’s moral dilemma of How To Help Iranians, by tuning into the quieter voices. And just listening. The episode is hosted and produced by Mathilda Mallinson (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@mathildamall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) and Helena Wadia (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@helenawadia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠)  The music is by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @soundofsamfire⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bluesky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok ⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yes, hit record. It's been recording for ages. How many years? have we've been podcasting. Welcome back to Media Storm. Yay! It has been months and months, as many of you have been reminding us

in our Patreon, passive-aggressively. But bring on the passive-aggression because it's just one way of showing love. It's nice to know people care, honestly. To be fair, it's actually kind of hilarious we thought that we could take a holiday at all with the world in this state that it is. We decided to both go away in January

and then like World War III broke out. That is what we get for trying to go away. We cause this. Have I ever told you about how I feel like I cause the pandemic? The COVID pandemic. Yes, because literally like the week before the lockdown, I went clubbing for the first time in ages because, you know, like I'm a bit old. So I was like, oh my God, yeah, clubbing.

And I was like, clubbing is amazing. Why do we not go clubbing anymore? I'm going to go clubbing every week. And then bam, pandemic. Bam. Wow. Guys, you heard it here first. It wasn't Wuhan.

Media storm can exclusively reveal. It was me who caused the pandemic. So, anyway, over the next two days, Helena and I will be summing up January in a double-wammy series launch, exploring what you might have missed amid this year's massive media storms. From coverage of ice in the US,

that ranked lives according to citizenship. To a stifling media debate on Iran as it's caught between revolution and war. Then tomorrow, Grok's serial sexual abuse and, oh yeah, the unmentioned men behind that abuse. And Western media hype about Trump's new world order that most of the world saw as the order all along. It truly was the longest January ever.

We won't even get on to, There are millions of Epstein files linking arms dealers, CEOs, state leaders and spies to a convicted child sex abuser. Actually, I think we should cover that at some point. But we were also bringing some positive news with our new feature, holding onto home, featuring a couple of media storm investigations that have since had happy endings. Ice officers have shot yet another American citizen. This domestic act of terrorism to use your vehicle to try to kill law enforcement officers is going to say. Ice? Get the fuck out of Minneapolis. There's another beautiful armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now.

If a foreign country bombed our air defense missiles, would that be considered an act of war? Welcome to Media Storms News Watch helping you get your head around the headlines. I'm Matilda Malinson. And I'm Helena Wadia. This week's Media Storms. Ice and Iran. So I'm sure everyone has been hearing a lot about ice. Ice stands for the immigration and customs.

enforcement agency that exists in America. Ice was actually formed as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which was a response to the 9-11 terror attacks in 2001. But since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, he has massively expanded their powers. ICE agents can stop, detain, and arrest people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally. So all they have to do is suspect you of being an undocumented immigrant, and they're can detain you. It's pretty obvious that if you have brown or black skin, an accent, you're under threat. And we've seen countless examples of this. Why are you asking for my paperwork? Because of your accent. I still, you have an accent

to. Where were you born, sir? Where were you born, sir? Where were you born? You're breaking my window, guys. I'm a US citizen. It's insane. I was raised in the city. I was racist. I was racist. Now, of course, it's impossible to work out who is undocumented just by looking at them. And naturally this has meant that ICE has also arrested US citizens. And this is the line that much of the media has chosen to criticise ICE for, that US citizens are being harmed. Here's a couple of headlines for you. US citizens said ICE forced him from his home without clothes in sub-freezing weather. Madness, two US citizens violently detained by ICE in Minnesota officials say. Editorially, I understand why they think that this is a legitimate line to

take because ice is a body designed to tackle what is seen as illegal immigration by many, and therefore if US citizens are being targeted, they are failing to meet that remit. However, what we're talking about here is someone being forced from their home in sub-freezing temperatures without clothes. That's not a breach of someone's immigration rights. That's a breach of their human rights. And so when you attach that condition of citizenship to outrage about a breach of human rights, what you were doing is saying that human rights are conditional.

And that is such a dangerous road to go down, but that is exactly what we see all the time being done with migrants being dehumanized and having their rights demonstratively revoked. Once you allow that, it becomes such a slippery slope. Already we're seeing Trump trying to revise the American constitution to make citizenship itself conditional. That's just, I mean, that's even that is like a cynical analysis of why you should never let someone else's human rights be revoked

because, oh, first they come for them, then they come for you. It's also just morally abhorrent on its own. Exactly. It's really important to show that ICE powers harm everyone, but there are ways to do this without being horrified that even US citizens can be harmed. This shock horror they arrested a US citizen thing is really just rooted in racism.

Let's be clear, a white US citizen called Alex Pretty was murdered by ICE. But if he had been an undocumented brown man, it would have still been wrong to murder him. If you accept the logic that it is sometimes okay to murder someone dependent on their characteristics like immigration status, then you have just simply accepted the logic of fascism. Just for context, you mentioned Alex Prattie.

He was an intensive care veteran nurse. He was filming law enforcement agents with his phone. At one point, he stood between an agent and a woman whom the agent had pushed to the ground. He put his arm around that woman. He was then pepper sprayed, and wrestled to the ground by several federal agents with around six surrounding him when he was shot and killed. Agents appear to have shot him at least 10 times within five seconds, continuing after he lay motionless on the ground.

Alex Prittie's death was the second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis in less than a month. The other one is Renee Good. Renee Good was a 37-year-old poet and a mother of three. Renee Good was at the scene of an ice raid in the south of Minneapolis as a legal observer. And she was actually steering her car away from an ice agent, trying to drive away when he shot her three times. Now, these shootings accelerated ongoing protests against US immigration forces locally and nationally. We all know the names of Renee Good and Alex Pretty, and we should. We fucking should.

But there have been nine ice-related deaths in 2026 so far at the time. of recording. We know of two well, and therefore we also know that the world, the media, do not react in the same way when the victim is not white. On New Year's Eve, an off-duty ice agent shot Keith Porter, who was black, to death in Los Angeles. On January 3rd, a Cuban man named Geraldo Lunas Campos died in an ice facility. Contradicting details have emerged about his death from ice. They said he became disruptive and was segregated, before later changing their story to say Campos had tried to kill himself, but an autopsy report found that he was killed by someone, with the cause of death being asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.

According to an eyewitness inside the facility, Campos was choked to death by guards at the facility. And the other five stories are similar. Victor Manuel Diaz, who was Nicaraguan, Paradee La, who was Cambodian, Louis Beltran-Yannes-Cruz, who had been in the US for more than 20 years. Heva Sanchez Dominguez, who was Mexican. and Louis Gustavo Nunes Kassarez, all died in ICE detention this year, and their families are demanding more transparency

due to discrepancies in the reporting of their deaths. Where is the mainstream media outrage? Did you know about these names? Helena, I'm ashamed to say, I did not. I didn't know. The thing is, I don't blame you. Like, to everybody else listening who had only heard the names Renee Good and Alex Prissy,

like, I don't blame you. How would you know those? names, they have barely made any press. But we can know them now. You know, we can learn their stories now and we can learn how we can help. It all comes down really to how we see people and value people. We know why some names get headlines while others are buried. When the media only provides the context and the family demands for certain victims, they are telling us whose lives matter. Who is humanised and who is ignored is a direct reflection of who is valued in our society. And if we are only outraged when a white person dies, then the change that we are demanding from that

outrage will only ever extend to white people. Fascism thrives on your indifference. So we can get to know these names now and we can learn how we can help. Something else that hasn't got as much media attention as it deserves is the type of people who become ICE agents. Yes, and I think that this is best summed up by hearing exactly what Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who murdered Renee Good, said the second after he killed her. Get out of the fucking car. Get out of the car. Oh.

Fucking good. Fucking bitch. Fucking bitch. You know, this man knew that he wasn't in danger, right? This man knew that Renee didn't pose any threat to him. My reading of it is that this man was pissed off that an outspoken woman and her wife, had got in his way, had tried to stop him exerting his power. And he used that anger to shoot her three times,

essentially to just feel like some kind of big man. And there is a huge undercurrent of deep and dark misogyny that is running through almost every story about ice. And that's partly because pretty much anyone can become a masked ice agent, walk down the street and terrorise community. And who do you think is going to be attracted to that role? violent, misogynistic, racist men. I mean, it's essentially inevitable

when you think about the fact that Donald Trump has almost doubled the size of ice in the year since he's been in power. So it makes sense that the vetting has become incredibly compromised, just by that alone. But talk us through the proof that we have that the vetting has actually become basically non-existent. There was this really interesting story,

a journalist and military veteran called Laura Jadid, who reports for Slate. as an experiment applied for a job at ICE. By the way, her anti-ice views are very easy to find online. ICE marked her background check as completed, even though she never filled it out. According to Laura, her entire interview lasted six minutes. And some weeks later, when she logged into the hiring portal,

she discovered that she had already been listed as having joined ICE. Wow, I wish that they were as like thorough with their background check, checks for Esther applications, USA. And I mean, like, it is a little bit funny that ICE hired an anti-ice journalist, but basically only a little bit funny for a second, because when you realize that ICE could hire Laura, you start to wonder how many people with domestic violence histories are being armed and deployed. How many people with records of sexual violence or crimes against children are being placed in detention facilities? Essentially, ICE vetting is going down.

as recruitment is going up. Now, this reminded me of something. Back in 2023, we did an episode called Police Behind the PR Machine. It was about uncovering why there is so much sexism, racism, and violent offending by police officers. People inside an institution who we're told are there to protect us. Now, during this episode, we spoke to Leroy Logan. He's a founding member of the Black Police Association and one of the original officers to testify

to institutional racism during the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. we were talking about the nature of the men who are drawn to policing. Now, obviously here we're talking about the London Met Police, but listen to this in the context of ICE. It's about trust and confidence, because police are not seen as approachable because of this testosterone-driven-driven, a militaristic person,

and I don't need you unless I call on you. So back off. And they will escalate everything they go to. They're not trauma-informed. They're not trauma-re-responsive. You know, it's all robocop. stuff and until such time they understand it's not a control and power thing and you're there to be a public servant to show people that you're a human being and you can understand this situation

even if you've had to arrest them for for certain things you still respond in a professional way and don't stereotype them try and help the situation that their police constable or sergeant or whoever is there for them are not there to do something to them. And that's what these sort of headlines about, let's do things to people and not be there for them. Right. I wonder does or why does the police as a job, police officers as a job,

attract those men who are testosterone-fueled, who want power and control? Is that a fair thing to say? Does it attract people like that? White supremacy. White supremacy is drawn to public. policing because of the control and power. When you think about the power of a police officer,

you don't have any, not even the military have that unless you're in martial law. To take someone's liberty away just on sometimes you've had a bad day. It's got nothing to do with intelligence, got nothing to do with information you received. It's because you failed the attitude test. The nature of policing, if you are into the control and power, is an automatic attraction for white supremacists. Right. That was Leroy Logan.

I think because there's so many horrendous acts happening when it comes to ice, that stories that would typically cause outrage are falling through the cracks. Like this story of an ICE officer called David Corvell, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a Nicaraguan woman who was in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. Genuinely, Matilda, did you hear about this story? Again, no. Because if somebody as plugged into the news as you are,

has not heard these stories, then where are they? Then where are they? Yeah. The sickest part of this story is that over the course of several months David raped and sexually abused this woman in exchange for bringing her letters and pictures of her daughter

and he coerced her with promises that she would be able to see her daughter. And this is not a one bad apple situation as these systems of power never are. This guy had look out while he raped the woman in an ICE detention facility. Oh, God. There are deep layers of misogyny at every stage of ice.

The system, the lack of vetting, the actions, the detention centres. But why are you guys talking about the US so much? That's what's going on over there. At least we don't have ice over here, right? Wrong! Wrong! Listen, if you were to go on TikTok or Instagram right now, there is an account called Secure Borders UK.

I know it sounds like some weirdo right-wing bot account, but it's actually an account created by the UK Home Office, our Labour government. It follows in the style of much of the hard-right US media on the topic of immigration, as this account brags about the operations taking place to deport, their term, illegal immigrants. It's all part of the Border Security Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, designed by the UK government to, again, their terms, restructure the UK's border security. Performative cruelty is not a fucking policy. According to the government's website, Secure Borders UK have already deported 50,000 people. And if you think that they've managed to do that without holding anyone in a detention centre, think again.

The UK operates a network of immigration detention centres, officially known as immigration removal centres and short-term holding facilities, to hold people who are awaiting deportation. And by the way, the UK does not hold people in immigration detention short term by necessity. We are one of the only countries that actually has no term limit on how long we can hold people under this kind of administrative detention. You might have heard of that in the context of Israel, one of the other countries who does that. And there are people who have been held in these centres for upwards of a decade. And we have an election coming up with a candidate who reflects many of the exact values of the Trump administration. Exactly. We don't have to dig very deep to see what 9. Fajaraj, leader of the Reform Party, thinks about ICE. Already he has said that if his party gets

elected, they'll be deporting over 600,000 illegal immigrants in the UK by creating Operation Restoring Justice, a UK deportation command designed to detain and deport illegal immigrants. And by the way, Kemi Badock, leader of the Tory Party, also promised to create a British equivalent of ICE at the Conservative Conference in October. We must not get complacent. We are seeing the effects of so-called mass deportation play out on the streets of Minneapolis. And we need to know the very real risks if we don't want that to happen here. Also, to say something positive, because God knows we need it right now, I also want to draw attention to the absolutely amazing ice out protests and marches and strikes and resistances that took place in Minnesota. In sub-freezing

temperatures, we're talking like minus 20 degrees Celsius. Schools closed, businesses, closed and hundreds of thousands of protesters joined together to say that ice should be abolished. To end this segment, this is Media Storm, so just a little refocus on the media. Both when Renee Good and Alex Pretty were killed, the Trump government took very hard lines to defend ICE. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly insisted that Renee Good was a domestic terrorist who aimed her car at the ICE agent and that the officer who killed her was forced to fire in self-defense. With Alex Priti, they said the officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted, and that an agent fired defensive shots.

Alex Prity was a licensed gun holder. He was carrying a gun on his belt, which was taken from him before the ice agent shot at him while he was lying on the ground. We need to talk about how the media covered these deaths, because even in the face of clear video evidence, there were still headlines that led with the Trump administration's version of events. And even the outlets that didn't lead with a Trump line still sanitised what happened. This is from a BBC news article. In Minneapolis, US Citizen Good was killed while behind the wheel of her car.

The Trump administration says the agent acted in self-defense, but local officials insist she posed no danger. In my opinion, this is not strong enough to explain what actually happens. This still leans so hard into both. sides of them. It's bordering on being complicit. And I wanted to play this clip, which actually you pointed out to me, Matilda, it's wild. So during a press conference about ICE with White House press secretary Caroline Levitt after Renee Good's death. Here's what happened when one journalist, Nile Stanage, a White House columnist for The Hill, said very calmly that he felt the ICE agent

who shot Renee acted recklessly. Thanks, Caroline. Earlier you were just defending. I ICE agents generally. And earlier on, Secretary Nome spoke to the media and she said, among other things, that they are doing everything correctly. 32 people died in ICE custody last year. 170 US citizens were detained by ICE and Rene Good was shot in the head and killed by an ice agent. How does that equate to them doing everything correctly? Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed? Are you asking me my opinion? because a nice agent acted recklessly and killed it unjustified.

Oh, okay. So you're a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion. What do you want me to do? Yeah, because you're a left-wing hack. You're not a reporter. You're posing in this room as a journalist. And it's so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people in the media who have such biases, but fake, like you're a journalist, you shouldn't even be sitting in that seat. But you're pretending like you're a journalist, but you're a left-wing activist.

And the question that you just raised and your answer proves your bias. You should be reporting on the facts. You should be reporting on the cases. Do you have the numbers of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying to remove from this country? I bet you don't. I bet you didn't even read up on those stories. I bet you never even read about Lake and Riley or Jocelyn Nungray

are all of the innocent Americans who were killed at the hands of illegal aliens in this country and the brave men and women of ICE are doing everything in their power to remove those heinous individuals and make our communities safer? and shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view and pretend like you're a real honest journalist. Journalists are not to ask a question.

How dare you? How dare you a journalist ask us the government a question? Not only this clip, but the Trump administration released AI-docted footage of the murder of Renee Good. What?

Trump posted on Truth Social, which places the ICE agent in front of her car, not to the side, which he was. But you know it's AI generated because the AI agent they've made stand in front of the car isn't even holding a bloody gun. What? I just want to leave it with this quote from George Orwell's 1984. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. Investing is all about the future. So what do you think is going to happen?

Bitcoin is sort of inevitable at this point. I think it would come down to precious metals. I hope we don't go cashless. I would say land is a safe investment. Technology companies. Solar energy. Robotic pollinators might be a thing. A wrestler to face a robot, that will have to happen.

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So, Iran is on the brink of both Revolution at Home and War with the USA. Remind us of the situation at home. In Iran, nationwide protests rapidly swept out of Tehran after the country's currency collapsed on the 28th of December. But what began as an outpouring of economic unrest rapidly grew into calls for the end of Iran's theocratic and repressive government. What followed was brutal. Iran's supreme leader Ali Khomeini unleashed the full power of the regime's security forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp or IRGC. For now, the protests have been largely quelled

and the country remains under an internet blackout. It also appears to be under de facto martial law. Despite the government's best efforts to suppress information, footage and testimonies trickling out of Iran have enabled global media to put together a picture of events since. Here are a few interviews coming directly from Iranian protesters. In Tehran, there were people everywhere, everywhere in Ali's main streets, and they were moving and they were chanting. And everybody was really excited.

And we were all surprised, all of us were surprised to see these many people out on the streets. People of Iran have been protesting for a long time. And at least for myself, I can say that I've always dreads. of these many people coming out supporting each other. Yeah, how did it compare to previous demonstrations over the years? I've never seen anything like this. We were chanting, everybody was so calm, and then out of nowhere there was around 13 motorbikes,

and then they made a line in front of the whole group. Without any warning, they straight to the face of people, started shooting. So did you see people people dropped to the ground I did. I couldn't stay silent. Everything we have witnessed in our small villages

or town or districts around us has happened in every inch of the country and it's a massive massacre. We just need to know the real number who we killed. All of us need to know what has truly

happened to our country and our people. Whether the bodies of each and every week will be returned to their families. Nothing matters more to me right now. I haven't actually heard many first-hand testimonies like that, despite searching for them as well. If anything, almost all the Iranians spoken to I've seen have been Iranians in the diaspora, which makes sense with an internet blackout, and also they are essential voices.

But there's definitely been a notable absence of voices of Iranians who live in Iran. Really, really, that is the case. If you just have a look trying to find those voices, it is really, really hard. And yeah, I would say that that is what a lot of the problem with this coverage comes down to. But before we get into that, remind us about the international situation and the risk of war with the US. Yes. Okay, so in mid-January, weeks after the protest began, Trump told protesters, quote, help is coming. This indicated possible US military intervention. He also ramped up sanctions on Iran, which is one of the factors that contributed to its crippled economy and sparked those early protests in the first place. So these two issues, right? Military intervention and economic sanctions, these issues have been at the heart of the media debate unfolding around this world news event. At first, it seemed like military intervention was taken off the table. Trump quickly backed down and he said that he did so because Iran had decided not to execute protesters. Iran says that this isn't the case.

More likely Trump backed down because US allies in the region persuaded him that bombing Iran would lead to mass instability and displacement. But then two weeks later, Trump suddenly announced he had sent a, quote, massive armada towards Iran and it was ready to attack at any moment. The thing is, his threat of war, which was posted on Trump. social. It didn't mention the protesters once. Instead, Trump called on Iran's leader to make various concessions to US geopolitical interests, like negotiate a new nuclear deal or cease support for proxy militias overseas. Okay, so these are the key debates unfolding in our media. Should the

US bomb or sanction Iran? Yes, and this is where it gets very, very difficult to report in a way that feels representative of what the local population of Iran wants. Because as well as being suppressed by the Iranian government, their voices have, I feel, largely been drowned out by very loud external commentators trying to impose their binary geopolitical narratives onto the myriad lived experiences of a highly diverse local population of over 90 million people. Helena, have you, by any chance, seen criticisms on your social media scroll that people who've been really outspoken about Gaza have suddenly gone all quiet on Iran? Yes, absolutely. And look, there is possibly some truth to it. It definitely made me introspective. But honestly, it's been very hard because the loudest voices on each side of this debate have not just been advocating for their views as they have every right to do.

they have also been smearing anyone who disagrees and also condemning journalists like us for platforming anyone who disagrees, anyone who doesn't follow their unilateral narrative. And that's just not something that journalists can comply by. So I will probably piss off both sides. Here, but let's go. Okay, outline for us what the two binary viewpoints are. Okay, so there's not much debate about the fact that Iranians by and large want to be liberated from the country's tyrannist theocratic regime. The debate is about how they want to be liberated and whether foreign intervention should have anything to do with it. Now, which commentary you saw probably depends on which bubble you're in. And I'm going to borrow the wording of an Instagram real I saw by a communications expert who's

working in the humanitarian sector. And I just felt like he captured it really well and better than I could. If Persian princesses who were silent about Gaza for two years are crashing out at you from the inside of their Mercedes in Studio City, while the most ardent communists that you know are defending theocratic clerical fascism, it can mean only one thing. Iran is in the news again. You are told that you only have two options. The first is to support imperialism to overthrow clerical fascism, and the other is to support clerical fascism in order to combat imperialism. I saw this clip and I did think that he raised some good points, but I didn't like a lot of his terminology, especially the scathingness for Persian princesses.

Yeah, I mean, I very much knew I was going to get the scathing from you and it would be totally deserved and that would be the only way to acceptably use this paradigm he sets up. But it is very helpful, so bear with me. This guy's name, by the way, is Charles McBride. Look him up. Okay, his group one, the sort of L.A. Persian princesses, sorry to Helena and all of the beautiful Persian princesses of the world. Group one includes those who say regime change in Iran must come whatever it takes, even if that means leaning on imperialist Western foreign powers, even if it means sweeping sanctions that have disproportionately starved working-class Iranians or US, even Israeli bombs that may be dropped with ulterior intentions.

It also probably means the restoration of the Shah or the monarchy of Iran. And here we need a little history. Iran's current ruling body, a hardline Islamic, theocratic autocracy headed by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei came into power in 1979 after hijacking a people's revolution that toppled the monarchy, also known as the Shah, that had come into power. A couple of decades before, thanks to a CIA-backed coup. The Shars, who have the family named Pahlavi, were becoming increasingly autocratic. They presided over extreme wealth inequality and were seen by many as more loyal to their Western allies that put them in power than to their own people.

They enabled massive arms purchases and oil exploitation. But it should also be said that the Pahlavi dynasty ushered in rapid modernization for Iranians, and relative secular freedom, and for one thing, they didn't brutalize women for not wearing headscarves. It's also true that Iran's current repression means no viable opposition has been allowed to emerge besides the son of the last Shah, Reza Pahlavi, who some Iranians refer to as the crown prince today, who is currently living in exile in the US, and whose name, more than ever before, was heard, chanted by protesters in January on the streets of Iran. And look, group one, those who want sanctions, bombing, the Shah, whatever it takes, they may be right.

Iran's January protests were a monumental moment. That moment will pass. Perhaps tragically, it has. Perhaps military intervention is the only way to help Iranian people. But even if this is the case, it doesn't mean that anyone who disagrees is to literally quote comments that have been posted on interviews I've done. A regime propagandist. It doesn't mean that they are, quote, either on the payroll or brainwashed. Yes, because I think both of our instincts, Matilda, is to be hugely wary of the kind of sanctions that the US has placed on Iran.

And it's not because of covert Ayatollah propaganda. It's because we have interviewed real people from multiple countries whose economies have been crippled and thousands of people killed as a result of foreign sanctions. Exactly. Actually, at the same time as this was all happening, a report. report on Afghanistan was published in the new humanitarian, and it's about the devastation wreaked by US and EU sanctions that were imposed when the Taliban took over again in 2021. This involved the seizure of $9.5 billion of central bank assets, as well as foreign aid cuts, and it strangled Afghanistan's economy exacerbating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. So if you want to argue against sanctions in Iran, it cannot be by bulldozing,

real life experiences, because that's not going to persuade us. Okay, so that's binary one, the Persian princesses who are in favour of the Shah. Now, the other side of the binary includes the lefties and the hardline Palestinian activists. Who? What? Where? These people typically may say, US imperialism is the ultimate evil. Sanctions serve them at the expense of the most vulnerable, and regime change is no one's remit but the Iranian peoples themselves. Therefore, any external military intervention is unacceptable. Also, the USA's interests include Israel's in the region.

Currently, that's pretty genocidal equals bad. And there are also relevant history lessons here. The US actually has multiple examples of intervening in the Middle East on the back of local protests. Just one example is Libya in 2011, when Arab Spring protests led to civil war and brutal repression by the 41-year-strong dictator Muammar Gaddafi. To many onlookers, it felt similar to Iran today. Every moment mattered, and the longer the world waited to act, the greater the human cost.

Obama, then president, said that the resulting NATO operation would last days, not weeks. It actually lasted seven months. It killed thousands, including Gaddafi, who, yes, violated his citizens. human rights, and who was also, like Iran's leader, hugely uncooperative with Western regional interests. And so critics say that NATO's true intentions were to overthrow Gaddafi not to protect Libyan protesters. There was no viable follow-up plan. A power vacuum took hold, and Libya today remains fractured by militia rule and poorer and deadlier than it was under Gaddafi. So again, I get Group 2's thinking.

Any regime change brought about externally would almost certainly be manipulated to serve Western and Israeli interests. Trump has already used his armada to call not for regime change in Iran, but for his own geopolitical interests. But even if these things are true, it doesn't mean that anyone who does want foreign intervention is, to quote comments I've seen, a Zionist or a Mossad agent, a Western stooge, or actually a Persian princess, who has no greater cause than restoring the crown prince. The USA does not have a monopoly on imperialism. Iran is pretty down-dodgy too, and frankly, I've seen Group 2 commentaries that border on atrocity denial, downplaying the likely protester casualty in a bid to resist Western narratives of the regime. I guess the moral of the story here and a moral that we don't see on social media due to often, you know, loud binary voices is that many things can be true at the same time.

Shocking. Right. I think it's time for some Iranian voices. Very good point. So, yes, in trying to speak to Iranians who were not necessarily the loudest ones online, I have found most views to fall somewhere in the middle. This man told me that Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah, probably would win in a nationwide referendum today, but many would vote for him as a temporary fix, not a permanently restored monarch. Not getting into discussing the Shah's track record. The fact is, Iranians today are desperate for a change of course.

I think probably 85, 90%, if not more, can see that this regime has lost his way, want to change course. If you could convince them that you can go back to 1979, I think you in a referendum will get a majority voting for that. But the problem is they're not convinced that it can be that easily. Or they're not convinced that you can have this orderly transition without bloodshed, without chaos. And in that sense, what he needs to do is to sell himself more, not as a king in waiting, but as the most capable transition leader that can help take Iran from what it is today to something different and make sure that transition. as orderly as possible with few Iranians dying and certainly making sure the country doesn't descend into chaos. This woman felt sanctions were as culpable as Iran's corrupt rulers for causing the suffering

of working-class Iranians. There is mass corruption in Iran. There are people who have extreme wealth in Iran and there is a disparity that has worsened and a lot of this is tied directly to sanctions as well as government mismanagement. Many areas of Iran that have been seeing. stained protests are more working class areas, more communities or areas that have a majority of ethnic minorities. And a lot of the statements that have been coming out from these areas are just that people

have nothing else to do but to die. And they are willing to die to fight to get out of poverty. The economic situation in Iran has just become so dire and obviously tied to political and social conditions that people are willing to, for the first time, I think, come out in mass and are willing to die for change. This protester, speaking on BBC Radio 4, said in very clear terms that Trump's promise of help had in fact given many Iranians the courage to join the protests. In the first days, many of us were waiting for foreign attack.

Not everyone agreed with it, as we knew there could be serious consequences. However, the consequences of a foreign attack could not be worse than the consequences of the internal repression. Today, any statements coming from the United States or from President Trump make people furious. It feels as if public trust has been betrayed. The US president must be responsible for what he said, because thousands of people found the courage to go into streets because of his words. But this former Iranian political prisoner told me he did not.

trust what that American help would look like. When I challenged him, however, he did admit that many anti-interventionist Iranians were beginning to change their tune. When it comes to Iran, we have different players. We have the United States. They are concerned about Iran's nuclear program, Iran's missiles program, Iran's proxy groups for the United States bringing democracy to Iran is not an objective. Israel is a big player here. Israelis, whether we have an Islamic Republic in Iran or any other government in Iran or it was the Shah. Israelis prefer a weaker Iran. There are so many concerns. There are so many unknowns in this area. You know, I hear that there's a lot of concerns here about hypothetical futures, whereas we have a very unhypathetical reality right now in Iran.

Thousands have been slaughtered. You yourself said that the regime has proven incapable of reform. It's been 20 years since you were imprisoned and the repression today appears to be even worse. That's very true. We are seeing more and more Iranians inside the country and outside of the country advocate for a humanitarian intervention. We have scholars who have been teaching nonviolence for the past few decades. Now they are saying that there should be a targeted military intervention. I hope you feel a little closer to understanding

the reality on the ground and that debate. For my part, as a journalist and as an outside onlooker, if US intervention is to be supported by the global public, that support will come from allowing us to listen to lived experience, not forcing narratives down people's throats or morally coercing them to comply. Time for a new closing segment we're calling Holding On to Hope, a nugget of positive news. Back in 2024, OG Media Storm listeners may remember that we did an investigation here in the UK, featuring rape and sexual assault survivors who had had to pay thousands of pounds to find out what happened in their own court trials.

After being advised by police and prosecutors not to remain present in court, they were handed bills for thousands of pounds if they wanted transcripts of what occurred during their trials. One of our sources was given a 22 grand fee for her own court transcript. The final versions also came heavily redacted. These survivors told us that it made it really hard for them to get closure and also to believe in the court's accountability. I wanted the transcript because I really wanted to see.

what had gone on and why my daughter was suicidal after giving evidence? I wanted to understand the questioning that would make somebody feel so bad about themselves. How much did your transcript cost? We were quoted 22,000. I want to have my court transcript because the judge apparently said that I was unreliable because I waited eight months to report the crime and I want to hold her accountable for such misconception. I want my court transcripts to be able to even understand what went on during the trial. I have no recollection. It was such a traumatic experience. I was so nervous. I was so stressed.

I was next to him. The emotional charge that comes with being in a trial where you have been the victim of a crime is just daunting. For me, the court transcripts would be essential to process everything that happen and get closure and move on. Well, we are happy to update to you that after relentless campaigning by survivors, they achieved a significant victory last year that means victims will be given free access to the judge's sentencing remarks for their trial. They continue to campaign for free access to transcripts of the whole trial preceding sentencing for all sexual assault survivors.

Follow Open Justice for All on Instagram. Thank you for listening. tune right back in tomorrow for the rest of January's mega newswatch. If you want to support MediaStorm, you can do so on Patreon for less than a cup of coffee a month. The link is in the show notes and a special shout-out to everyone in our Patreon community already. We appreciate you so much. If you enjoyed this episode, please send it to someone. Word of mouth is still the best way to grow a podcast, so please do tell your friends

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