Iran’s top officials keep dying. This is how the regime is surviving.

0:00Good morning, Israel kills Iranian officials in a major blow to the country's leadership. But the Wall Street Journal explains why an uprising remains unlikely, at least for now. The government has made it very clear that if anyone takes to the streets during the war, they will face intense violence. Trump's pick to run Homeland Security faces the Senate. The Atlantic looks at a major challenge coming his way. And what happened when all the lights went out in Cuba? It's Wednesday, March 18th. I'm Cecilia Lay. And I'm Gideon Resnick. This is Apple News today. Iran suffered major losses at the top yesterday. After Israel killed the leader of the country's volunteer paramilitary group, as well as its security chief, a man described by Reuters as Iran's ultimate backroom power broker. The country's intelligence minister was also reportedly killed overnight, and Iran retaliated

1:01with strikes that killed at least two people in Israel. The deaths of these officials raise more questions over who is making the decisions on Iran's war behind the scenes, as the world waits for its new supreme leader to make his first public appearance. Since the start of the war, Israel has strategically targeted the regime's senior decision makers. Some say their aim is to destabilize the very top, in the hopes of stoking a revolution from below. We are ready for this. In the end, Iran is going to die, and this is not going to happen. Announcing the strikes yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his military was undermining the regime to give Iranians the chance to take fate into their own hands. But despite heavy losses from U.S. and Israeli bombardment, Iran's new rulers are cracking down on dissent. That's manifesting itself in a variety of ways, including widespread arrests, but also threats, making sure that people know that if they do rise up, they will be faced with

2:02lethal force. Margarita Stankadi is a foreign correspondent with the Wall Street Journal. She's been reporting on how Iranians have been responding to the conflict. On the very first day of the war, our people celebrating the killing of the late supreme leader Ali Haminei, obviously many people were upset that he was killed, but there were some public shows of celebrations, because some people were definitely happy that this happened, and there was a lot of hope among opponents of the regime that this could be the beginning of the end of the Islamic Republic. We have not seen mass protests in the same way that we saw them in January. Stankadi said that's partly because of the immense danger facing protesters, as strikes continue to rain down on Iran. And even if they could organize in those conditions, severe threats have been issued on mass. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the kind of paramilitary force that is de facto in charge with much of what's happened in day to day during the war in Iran, they sent messages to Iranian mobile phone users saying that they will face violence like they did on January

3:048th. So drawing a clear link between what may happen to them and what happened in January. And we've also seen threats in television broadcasts, another revolutionary guard commander saying that there's a shoot to kill order in place for anyone who rises up. Internet blackouts in Iran largely remain, and the BBC reports that checkpoints have started appearing in the capital to deter protests. All of this undermines what the US and Israel had initially said it wanted to achieve, creating the conditions inside the country that might fuel a popular uprising, and ultimately regime change. But Stankadi reports that the regime's crackdown is perhaps evidence of their stress under bombardment. I think the fact that the government is flexing its muscle and cracking down domestically today doesn't mean that it hasn't weakened. And I think a possible scenario is that if you week, if you monster even a year from now, we will see another popular uprising. So I think it does make a difference in terms of what's happening in the short term, but in the long term, we may still see large scale popular demonstrations depending on what

4:09happens. Because the underlining populous content is there, and the regime is weakened. You can find more coverage in the Apple News app. Cecilia has more news coming up next. The man poised to take on one of the most powerful jobs in Washington heads to the Senate today for confirmation hearings. McWayne Mullin and Oklahoma Senator is President Trump's pick to replace Christy Nome as head of the Department of Homeland Security. It's expected to be a straightforward confirmation process, but what comes next is a different story. It's a job with sprawling responsibilities and historically large budget, and as of late, it's been mired by controversies. Even some Republicans have characterized DHS as having major problems. Nick Meroff covers the department for the Atlantic. He says a lot is writing on Mullin's appointment.

5:10It's really an open question as to if he has some kind of idea to take DHS in a different direction, or how he might run the department differently from Christy Nome and her team. Meroff said that Mullin is a strong proponent of the MAGA agenda, so we shouldn't expect big policy changes at least to begin with. President Trump, who was looking to replace Christy Nome with someone I think that he believed he could trust to have been a loyal defender of his, who has been outspoken on some of the Homeland Security issues, like the border wall, like defending ICE agents for the course of the last several months, amid various controversies. Right out of the gates, Mullin will face big questions about the future of immigration enforcement tactics, the disaster relief agency FEMA, and how he will fill the leadership void left by Nome's sudden departure. And of course, DHS hasn't been functioning properly for weeks, it's been shut down until the two parties can agree on some reforms for immigration enforcement tactics.

6:13Meroff has been looking into the issue of immigration as Mullin prepares to step into his new role. In particular, he reports on the administration's plans to spend $38 billion to make over the nation's detention system by converting warehouses into large-scale immigrant holding centers. This moment of transition could also provide a chance for some reflection as to how this all might work. There's an expectation that there's going to be a pause now, that things have been kind of going off the rails, and that the arrival of a new secretary is an opportunity for a reset, and particularly to try to do some of the groundwork that wasn't done in advance to get local jurisdictions, get them on board with ISIS re-engineering plan. Obviously building new detention centers are a key component of the administration's plan to detain and deport millions of people. Upon confirmation, Mullin will oversee the largest expansion of U.S. immigrant detention in generations.

7:14But it's no small task to retrofit warehouses that were built for storing products and to centers to house people. The strategy has also run into opposition from some Republican lawmakers who have said that the rapid build-up would strain resources in their jurisdictions. Miraf said the warehouses purchases came quickly after the White House pressed DHS on its promised detention capacity. ICE has really just went out and bought these 11 warehouses, in some cases, at above market rates, creating a lot of doubt and uncertainty and raising a lot of questions in these local jurisdictions. What is the government doing in my county, right, in my backyard? And as Miraf notes, the questions over DHS' management and contracts were a key part of why Nome was fired. It's worth pointing out that all of this is occurring basically under a cloud of suspicion around the way DHS contracts have been awarded. Let's keep in mind that when Kristi Nome really got in trouble with the White House, really kind of like the last straw for her were these questions from Republican senators about

8:18Nome's media contracts, you know, spending on this glitzy ad campaign with her as the star in addition to her plans to acquire these jets. The future of the warehouse contracts will come down in part to how Mullin wants to handle it. Miraf said that he might give his fellow senators what is often a safe answer in confirmation hearings. I don't know yet. Cuba was plunged into darkness this week after its entire electric grid collapsed, leaving 10 million people without power. Cubans were out on the streets Monday night in darkness, hitting pots and pans in protest. The island nation is facing its biggest crisis in decades after Trump effectively cut its people off from its main energy source, Venezuelan oil.

9:19Speaking to rotors, one man described a situation of total scarcity. It's not just a blackout. There is no water, no electricity, no gas. There is no water because there is no electricity to run the pumps. There is no electricity, no food, no oil, no fuel. All of this is really very bad. Let's say that Cuba's electricity is coming back gradually, but their crisis remains acute. This week, Trump has raised the prospect of, quote, taking Cuba in some form without explaining what that actually means. Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose family has roots on the island, said the country needed a new leader. The bottom line is, the economy doesn't work. It's a non-functional economy. It's an economy that has survived on subsidies. From the Soviet Union and now from Venezuela, they don't get subsidies anymore, so there in a lot of trouble. Kermans has seen rights for NBC News and has been reporting on Cuba's crises in recent days. Cuba's electrical system is very old.

10:20It's very outdated, and it needs a lot of work to keep it going. Because of the embargo, because of the shortages they have and the lack of money, they find it hard to keep the system going. On top of that, it requires oil. They're oil-fired plants. So with the lack of fuel, that's been going on for years, but even more so now, with the oil blockade, they just don't have enough oil to fire up their power plants and give power to people. Sassin told us her colleague, based in Cuba, spoke to one 33-year-old man who lives in Havana with his wife and two children. He's in construction, but told NBC the work is inconsistent. Sometimes his income is $40 a month, and sometimes it's $0. That means he's not able to afford groceries. So he resorts to buying staples like rice and beans from neighbors. Inconsistent power makes it that much harder to plan. And yes, sometimes it's at 2 o'clock in the morning when the power comes on, and then he and his wife have to scramble, get out of bed, charge their phones immediately, start

11:25cooking because they don't know when the power is going to go out again. And obviously, they can't keep anything in the refrigerator because it'll go bad. It'll go bad in just a few hours after the power going out. Here this week, Havana announced some reforms to open up the national economy, allowing Cubans living abroad to invest and take a stake in private companies on the island. Rebeo described that change as not dramatic enough. And finally, a few other stories we're following. Three families with teenagers are suing Elon Musk's XAI over explicit images generated by Groc, the company's chatbot. Police informed the families that a man was arrested for taking photos of minors and using an unnamed app to remove their clothing and manipulate the images to make them sexually suggestive. Lawyers for the family say that if XAI hadn't licensed its technology to app makers, this

12:29harmful content would have never existed. They also accuse Musk in the company of deliberately designing Groc to make money off of sexually explicit content. From late December 2025 to January 2026, a research group estimated Groc generated around 3 million sexualized images, about 23,000 of them depicted children. In the past, Musk has defended what is known as Groc's spicy mode, calling it a business decision. The family is seeking damages for emotional distress caused by the images. The House Oversight Committee yesterday officially subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify on the Epstein files. Republican Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduces subpoena, saying it's unclear whether the DOJ has released all documents required by a recently passed law mandating their disclosure. In a statement, the DOJ called the subpoena unnecessary and that the lawmakers have been invited to review unredacted files at the Justice Department.

13:30The Hill News site notes congressional subpoenas are compulsory and carry the risk of a criminal referral if they are ignored. And finally, are you an online shopper or someone who likes to browse in person? For the traditionalists out there, you might be in for a little disappointment next time you head out. The Wall Street Journal reports the US now has more spas, gyms, and other service-oriented businesses taking up retail space than actual stores where you buy things. For the first time ever, service-based tenants leased a little over half of the total retail square footage in 2025 according to the data firm CoStar. The owner of One Boxing Gym celebrated the change telling the journal that this is the new happy hour. That is, if you don't get knocked out in the ring. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app, and if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. The Atlantic explores what the human body goes through when it's struck by lightning and

14:33why it can be excruciating for some but metaphysically transformative for others. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus narrated to find that story, and I'll be back with the news tomorrow.