UpFront – July 22, 2026

Good morning. It's Wednesday, July 22nd, 2006. This is up front. I'm Brian Edwards-Tieker. On today's show, a new front in the U.S. war with Iran. Houthi forces have announced their closing the Babelmandab Strait, exiting the Red Sea to tankers that stop at Saudi ports. We'll speak to Aisha Juman, President of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, about what's happening inside that country. In the second half of the program, what's happening inside Iran? As the U.S. threatens to bomb civilian targets, if Iran fires on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, we'll speak to Nangma Sarabi, professor of Middle East history at Brandeis. All that and more coming up next. After the news. I'm Sharon Sabota with these KPFA news headlines. The U.S. military says it completed the 11th night of strikes on Iran as attacks across the Middle East overshadowed diplomatic efforts to salvage an interim ceasefire deal that has collapsed. U.S. Central Command said the targets of the strikes into the morning hours included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites. The barrage came after President Donald Trump telegraphed that strikes would be intensifying. Before the strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskander Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hermuz. Trump said the U.S. had no interest in talks. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. War Against Iran cost $37.5 billion so far. Pete Hegseth faced fiery questions and protests over the U.S. war against Iran at a Senate hearing Tuesday. Pete Hegseth and other officials appeared after it was announced that three more American service members had died in the conflict. KPFAs Christopher Martinez has more. The hearing was chaired by Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican who's facing a re-election fight in November. There are certainly divergent views on this committee. Those divergent views that Senator Susan Collins mentioned were on full view, and not just from senators on the committee. Some of those views came as Pete Hegseth was beginning his opening remarks. The supplemental funding request is not a substitute for the president's full $1.5 trillion base budget request. 1.5 trillion.

Pete Hegseth was interrupted by protesters at least three times. During the question period, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois asked Pete Hegseth for a new estimate for the cost of the war on Iran. So the new number you've given me is what? 37.5 billion. And that represents the cost of the war through what period of time? Through now for certain aspects of it, but also mill pay, O&M, other anticipated costs through September 30th. Senator. The ranking Democrat on the committee, Senator Patty Murray of Washington, had some harsh words about the war on Iran. The people I represent worry Trump thinks this is all a game and has sent men and women into harm's way without any sort of plan. And now that he's driven that car into the ditch, he wants taxpayers to bail him out. She says Americans want an end to the war, not money to keep it going, and she says she won't rubber-stamp a request to bankroll a war, or whatever misadventure Trump gets the country into next. Reporting for Pacifica Radio News, KPFA, I'm Christopher Martinez. The U.S. military has confirmed that a third service member is believed to be dead in Friday's attack on a base in Jim Jordan and identified them as Sergeant Angel S. Ramspar said, who's 28 and from New York. The confirmation brings the death toll to 18 U.S. service members killed since the war began. President Donald Trump released a 100-page report, tying left-wing advocacy groups in the United States to Cuba. Al Jazeera reported that the document released by the State Department on Monday portrayed the Caribbean nation as an ideological threat to the United States and its interests. They likened the language and concepts back to the Cold War. The document argued that Cuba, which is led by a communist government, is trying to subvert the U.S. from within. Here's Medea Benjamin Netanyahu from Code Pink. The report claims that this tiny island is a threat to the U.S. a staging ground where Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and U.S. activists supposedly converge. And it says nothing about the U.S. oil blockade that has plunged Cuba into a nationwide crisis, doubling infant mortality rates, imposing devastating collective punishment on the entire island. Instead, the report names organizations like Code Pink, Democratic Socialists of America, Pastures for Peace, the People's Forum, the National Lawyers Guild, smearing us as anti-American groups with imaginary links to Russia, China, and Iran. isn't about national security folks. It's about silencing dissent. President Trump announced that he would allow the resumption of direct flights between the United States and Lebanon that had been suspended since 1985. This comes after President Trump met with Lebanese leader Joseph Ayun on Tuesday. The meeting was intended to promote long-term peace after months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. After it concluded, Lebanon said that it hopes that the talks that are being mediated in Washington will lead to Israeli troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon and increased support for the Lebanese military. U.S. Representative Andy Briggs has won the Republican nomination for Arizona governor. Andy Biggs is a fierce ally of President Donald Trump and former head of the House Freedom Caucus. He will take on Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs in the fall.

Andy Biggs was endorsed by Trump and says he aims to unite the party. Both parties had contested primaries for the first congressional district, a battleground for congressional control. The Council on Islamic Relations, California, condemned death threats tweeted by former FBI agent John Guandalo on X against Muslim American civil rights activist and CARC CEO Hassam Aylaesh. He read a portion of it. In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria. and other such countries, American military men would end disturbed. In America, he's on CNN. So basically, he's dwelling that I haven't received a bullet in my head yet. And then he signals that... You know, this is how patriotic American be with such what he describes as terrorist. I luge says that he believes Donald Trump has normalized Islamophobia and hateful rhetoric, which has emboldened people like the man who implied that he should lose his life. The president tweets a picture of schoolgirls, students in Minnesota, you know, and gives the impression that somehow Somali, you know. immigrant-looking or hijab wearing students, you know, girls who go to school, public schools, somehow they're outsiders. It is not the impact that, yeah, every student is going to be impacted. But what it does, it creates a climate of authorization. It creates a climate where people in America are told there are two classes in America. You know, everybody's equal, but some are more equal than others. Ayash says he intends to keep doing his get-out-the-vote work in spite of the threats and the weather forecast. In the San Francisco Bay Area, partly sunny today with highs in the low 70s, in Fresno, hot and sunny with highs in the mid-90s. I'm Sharon Sabota. I'll have more headlines for you again at 7.30. 708 in the morning. The show is up front. My name is Brian Edwards Teakert. On Monday, Ansarala, commonly named the Houthis in U.S. media, announced that they are closing the Babelmandab Strait exiting the Red Sea to tankers that have stopped at Saudi ports. That threatens one of the main export routes that Saudis have used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the U.S. Israeli war with Iran. Ansarala is the de facto government for about... 80% of Yemen by population. They are still at war with Yemen's internationally recognized government. That official government gets heavy military support from Saudi Arabia. Ansarala gets military support from Iran. Although they haven't fired on any ships transiting the Red Sea yet, the threat has turned at least two tankers around as of this morning. So we thought it would be worth diving into the situation in... Yemen. We're joined by Aisha Juman, who is president of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. Thanks for speaking to us again. Thank you for inviting me, Brian. Why don't you start with the situation in Yemen right now? We've gotten precious little coverage of it since the start of the war in Iran. What is the war in Iran meant for the situation in Yemen?

So things deteriorated quite a bit. And this whole thing started when a delegation from Sana'a wanted to attend the funeral of Ali Khamenei in Tehran. And of course, as you may know, Yemen has been under a Saudi-led blockade since 2015. So no flights to Sana'a airport also, the ports of Yemen, nothing can get in without Saudi approval. And so when they wanted to go for the funeral, there was no way out for them. And so Iran sent a civilian aircraft, aircraft, to pick the delegation. And it brought in... people who were out in Iran treated for injuries from the war. And that created a lot of anger in the Saudi camp. And they, when they tried to return, the delegates after the funeral, the Saudi-led coalition bombed Sana'a airport. And so that meant the truth that had been in effect, the ceasefire. was no longer effective. And so there were some negotiation with the Qataris and the Umani mediating to lift the blockade on Sunai airport and also live the blockade on the sea ports, but the Saudi refused to do that. And then they suddenly had. Jordanian air say that it will fly to Yemen. or to Sana'a, and the Sana'a government refused that because they know this was a directive from the Saudis, and with a phone call, they can cancel those flights. So they want an unconditional lifting of the blockade on Yemen. The negotiation that were mediated by the Qatari and the Umani didn't work, and that's when the Sana'a government, Ansar Allah, decided that... You know, what they basically said is an airport for an airport and seaports for seaports, implying that if you are going to be, you know, blockading our seaports, we will also blockade yours. And blockading our airports, we also blockade yours. And they are going to be going incrementally. So the Babel Mende closure to Saudi ships, whether they're...

Coming to Saudi or leaving Saudi is only one aspect of it. And that's where we are today. Unfortunately, as I said, the mediation failed because the Saudis fail and defused to lift the blockade on Yemen. Has Ansarallah ever tried to impede shipping through the Red Sea before? Yes, of course. Al-Saharlah stopped Israeli ships from passing through the Red Sea before. And this was during the genocide in Gaza, and they did that against the Israeli ships. And of course, they were the U.S. under Biden and then under Trump. bombed Yemen extensively along with also Israel bombing Yemen extensively when they stopped the Saudi Israeli ships. And once the U.S. started bombing, they also prevented U.S. ships from passing through until President Trump decided to have a ceasefire with them and then They allowed U.S. ships to pass through, but they continue to block Israeli ships despite all the bombing and the destruction that was inflicted on Yemen. And they just continued until the ceasefire was announced in Gaza. So this is not the first time. And this time when they announced it, they announced it to the ships through a shipping system and ship owners and knew exactly what this would mean for them because they had fired in the past when they, you know, impose a blockade on Israeli ships. So people know they are very serious. And I know I heard you say there were two ships that were returned. These were ships carrying Saudi oil that were returned. But there were four other ships that tried to enter Saudi ports. They also had to be rerouted. Oh, turned around before they entered the Red Sea? Yes. I see. How is it best to think about Ansarala's relationship with Iran? Would a closure like this be coordinated with Iran or completely independent of Iran's prosecution of the war? Here is the thing. I think all of this started because of the Saudi bombing Sana'a airport and not allowing the air flight that came to bring the delegation into Sana'a. I think, as we say in the U.S., the proof in the pudding, the Saudi could lift the blockade.

on Yemen. And if Ansar Allah continued to blockade the state of the, not the state of Vermont, the bubble manda, then we will say, yeah, this was coordinated and this is discussed with Iran. So for me, it really is a very... fair process, respective of what's happening with Iran. Yemen has been blockaded for, you know, right now 12 years. And I will tell you, I myself cannot go to Yemen very easily. And I go every year, and it takes me over 48 hours to reach Sana'a, because I have to fly to... Cairo or Jim Jordan, those were the only two areas that fly to Yemen, and then I have to fly to Aden, and then I take a 16-hour road trip with, you know, practically about 100 checkpoints. to reach where I need to be with my parents. So we know how hard this is. People who need medical evacuation die because they cannot leave the country. Our ports are closed. And so everything is expensive in Yemen because they all ships have to stop and be inspected by the Saudis before they come into Yemen. And they have a list of items that can get into Yemen. And the Saudis change this item, the list of items, hundreds of items just to make it very difficult for the people in Yemen, including solar panels. They're on the list of items. items that should not get into Yemen. You know, that's 12 years. And the ceasefire agreement that was signed in April 2022, stipulated that all of this would be gone. And they actually had a roadmap agreement in which the blockade will be ended. They will pay a reputation for the Yemeni people. They will also, you know, release the funds in Saudi Arabia that are Yemeni funds to pay for salaries. Yemeni civil servant have not been paid salaries since August of 2016 because the Saudi moved the bank out of Sana'a. There is a huge economic hardship for Yemen. The Ministry of Health just yesterday released a report in Sana'a that 17 million people.

in Yemen cannot afford the meal a day. So there is a lot of hardship because of the blockade, because of the moving of the bank, and all of that are in the hands of the Saudis. So they are punishing the Yemenis. And I think in their mind, you know, they're expecting that all these punishing factors would lead to a rebellion against Insanahullah. So the thing they could not do militarily after, you know, 10 years of daily bombing that they're using the economic aspect of it. So I think, to be honest, the Yemeni and Ansar Allah have been extremely patient, waiting four years for all of these measures to be lifted. And that didn't happen. On the contrary, they just, they don't want even one flight to leave out of Sana'a. So they've had. the leverage to inflict a lot of pain on Saudi since the start of the U.S. war with Iran, since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year. What's restrained them from closing the Red Sea to Saudi traffic up to this point? Again, I think part of it is when the only time they closed it was to support Gaza. And they didn't even close it when we were blockaded. And we are still blockaded. I think the reason they and the reason they haven't done anything before is they really were honoring the ceasefire agreement. And once the Saudi broke. that ceasefire agreement by bombing Sana'a airport, they were free. They had a free hand to do this. Of course, and I know there have been a lot of reports in the media, including from Iran, suggesting that we will close Babel Mendeb. They didn't do that. And this is the third time Iran gets, you know, attacked and bombed. I think, Ansar Allah, are very cognizant of their independence, although I know everybody said they are, you know, funded and supported. And I think there's some truth to this, but it's not as big as people make it to be. And there were times... They're often described as an Iranian proxy force in U.S. media, which is a label that does not... fit the circumstances or behavior you're describing. No, it is absolutely. How would you describe the relationship to Iran? I think it's, you know, when everybody, when all embassies and Sana' are closed and then all airlines weren't allowed to get into Yemen, Iran was the only country that said it's going to start flying to Yemen.

And that is when the relationship really started. So it is a relationship where, you know, the Iranians were trying to help. And, sara Allah had no other hand that reached out to them and they accepted that hand. But they continue to have a very strong independent decision making. So there were a lot of reports where, you know, the Iranians were trying to advise them, and they always rejected that advice. And they even came out when Iran would make a statement about Yemen. They will go out and, you know, confront the Iranians for making such statements on their behalf. So I think right now Iran is the only hand that's extended to them. And they are taking it. They're not saying no, but they're maintaining a very independent decision-making process. Do we know militarily what capacity they have to enforce a blockade? I think they wouldn't say it if they did not feel. comfortable and able to do this. And I think I will also refer to what happened when they blockaded the Israeli and the American ships. They took a lot of hits from, you know, and there were a lot of other countries, including Germany that was in there and Holland and a lot of military ships that were there. And they were able to actually hit even at American military ships. And I don't know if you remember, I think about two F-15s were. were hit on whether directly or when they were trying to, you know, maneuver to get away from Yemeni fire. So I think judging from the response from the marine time and ships, they take them extremely seriously.

Aisha Juman, we will leave it there. Thank you so much for speaking to us. Thank you. Aisha Juman is president of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. And again, the news this week on Monday on Sir Allah, which is the de facto government for about 80% of Yemen by population, the territory they control, it's right along Yemen's coastline with the Red Sea, announced that they are closing the Babel Mandab Strait, the strait that connects the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea, the shipping route to Asia, to... traffic by vessels that are coming from or headed to Saudi ports. This has been the principal route through which Saudi Arabia has routed fuel and oil exports since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Ansarala has been in a long conflict with Saudi Arabia as part of Yemen's civil war and been under effective Saudi blockade for much of the past 12 years. It takes us to 724 in the morning. The show is up front. My name is Brian Edwards Teakert. We're going to continue on the conflicts in the region in the second half of our program, and we speak to Nagmasarabi, a professor of Middle East history at Brandeis University, who devotes a considerable amount of time to translating accounts from Iranian media for an English-speaking audience. Before we do, though, I have to ask for your help. I think bringing conversations like this to the airwaves is incredibly important. I've been watching U.S. media coverage of the prospect of a blockade in the Red Sea. And it just seems to really miss the mark in terms of describing what's going on. Describing what Ansar al-A's grievances are with Saudi Arabia, often dismisses them as a proxy force for Iran, which, as you heard, is not accurate. And it doesn't actually help you understand the politics of the situation and doesn't get to the real... suffering that people have experienced in Yemen as a consequence of the Saudi blockade and intermittent Saudi bombings over the past 12 years. We take the time to try to get to root causes of conflicts and developments in war here and root them in the experiences of day-to-day people, not the military maneuvers of states. And if you think that that is important, We need your help to pay the bills. Since KPFA went in the air since 1949, we have lived or died by your choice to donate during Fund Drives. We're the world's first successful listener-supported radio station, and it makes it possible for us to cover things in a different way, I think, in a more honest way. It makes it possible for us to go into more depth because we're not trying to squeeze our coverage down between commercial breaks.

And I hope it gives you some reassurance that our priorities are intact, or if not intact, uncompromised. It also very frequently leaves us broke. And right now, we're doing something that we haven't done for years. We are starting a concerted effort to shrink the length of time we spend fundraising and impinging on our regular broadcast schedule. Our development staff worked overtime between fund drives to raise extra money so that we could lower the goal for this fund drive so that we could hopefully cut several days off the length of the fun drive. We are shooting to reduce its length by at least 20%, but we will still have to get to $150,000 raised by Wednesday at the latest. To do that, we need your help. I have just three minutes till the news break and then Iran coverage, and I'm asking you to be the first show of support for this program up front and for KPFA this morning. KPFA.org. 1-800-439-5732. And that's it. I don't have any fancy thank you gifts to dangle in front of you this morning. We've been working on arranging coverage of Yemen and Iran for a couple of days. It seemed like too important a topic to derail the switch to our fundraising format. If you care about the coverage, if this is what you tune in for, if this is how you think KPFA does good in the world, I certainly do. Then we're asking you to just give as generously as you can. And if you need a thank you gift, pick something out off our website.kfa.org, 1,800-439 5732. Two minutes left. The one inducement I have to give. is that one of your fellow listeners, Greg in Saratoga, has just put up our first sustainer challenge of the fun drive. Greg is offering to give KPFA an extra $1,000 towards our goal if we can sign up $100 a month in sustaining donors, people who sign up to make a regular automatic monthly contribution to the radio station. The fact that we've been growing our sustainer base is one of the reasons we were able to reduce the goal and shrink the length of this fund drive. I think it's one of the most hopeful developments at KPFA in recent years, and I've been around here for 23 of them. And we only have 31 minutes to take Greg up on his challenge before the end of the hour. So if you can find it in your budget to sign up as a KPFA sustainer at 10 bucks a month or 20 bucks a month or 50 bucks a month or to increase your monthly sustaining amount, then you can have a very big impact for us now. If we get to $100 a month.

In its Southern California contract with NUHW members signed last year, Kaiser agreed that the use of new technologies, including AI, quote, is not to replace, but to assist bargaining unit employees in providing safe, therapeutic, and effective patient care and support. But now Kaiser is refusing to agree to that language in Northern California. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors invited Kaiser to send a representative to explain its practices, but Kaiser declined. Mediation between Kaiser and the Union is set to begin in August. Reporting for KPFER Radio, I'm Annetta Felix. And the weather in the San Francisco Bay Area, partly sunny today with highs in the low 70s, in Fresno, hot and sunny with highs in the mid-90s. I'm Sharon Sabota. I'll have more headlines here for you at 8 a.m. 7.33 in the morning. The show is up front. My name is Brian Edwards Teakert. Still looking for our first donation towards that sustainer challenge at KPFA.org? or 1-800-439-5732. Only have one more chance to ask at the end of the hour. We're going to move on to the situation in Iran. President Trump launched a series of threats on the social media platform that he owns this morning. saying that the United States would strike bridges and power plants in Iran, civilian infrastructure, if Iran's forces fire on any more ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. What the president's threatening would be unambiguously war crimes under international law. And this is the kind of rhetoric that he has sometimes engaged in and the U.S. military has not always followed through on. But we thought it would be worth focusing on what we can discern about the actual situation, life under bombardment in Iran. We've invited back Nagma Sarabi. She's a professor of Middle East history at Brandeis and devotes a considerable amount of time to translating and publishing in English accounts of what's happening from inside Iran. Her substack is entitled, These Are the True Things. Thanks very much for speaking to us again. Thank you for having me. Since the ceasefire plan kind of fell apart and the U.S. stepped up bombardment of Iran, what parts of the country have felt the strongest impacts? So far, it's primarily been the south of Iran.

roughly there are four provinces that line up the south, which borders the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz is also in that area. There have been some other provinces that are further central. And last night, people in the capital Tehran heard anti-aircraft missiles, though it didn't seem to have been very intense. And what do reports from Iran say about life under bombardment? Well, it's a difficult situation in some ways, partly because the way in which, much like many other countries, Tehran, the capital really is the heart of the country in terms of when news is being reported and in terms of impact, there is a lot of... information but a lot of sympathy internally coming towards the people of south. I will say that one of the main things that is happening in addition to the bombardments, the temperatures down south and Iran reached last week about 120 Fahrenheit. And people have been dealing with these bombardments. They've been dealing with extreme heat. And I wanted to say something when you said infrastructure, which is related to your, but to the question you asked. which is that while, first of all, bridges have been bombed, so saying that we're going to bomb bridges is not a new thing. But when people say infrastructure, we tend to think of these big buildings or electricity grid. But because of the variety of things that are going down south, people have really, life has been disrupted in many ways. Schools like people have been, the students have been going to school primarily online. Exams have been canceled, which is something that I wrote about in my last substack, about the way in which final exams being canceled in these provinces is not just a small thing like kids can't go and have to take their exams, but it means that a whole year of their life. is being delayed because to take these exams then allows you to take the entrance exam to the universities. And all of that has really been disrupted. Also, there has been bombings and effects on water supplies. So several villages in these provinces that are already deprived economically. These are Some of them are actually very poor provinces. Some of them are oil rich, but that oil does not get distributed amongst the population. And so these are four provinces and a bunch of the other ones that have been dealing actually with a variety of hardships. the bombing, but also the downstream of bombing, if you want to call it, which doesn't, maybe it's not a building that is being destroyed, but it's a school that is no longer in session. It is the daily lives of people that has been affected. The fact that they have to live with 120 Fahrenheit degree temperature as electricity goes off and goes on, water supply is cut off.

And those are some of the news that is coming out of it. But I would say in general, in terms of the country, a lot of people that I talk to today seem to be expecting that bombing to happen in the capital in the near future, whether it's true or not, it's hard to say. Who runs emergency response and relief in the South? Is this a top-down government affair? Or is it something that's organized on more of a mutual aid basis? It's both. It's provincial. There is some central, but for the most part, it's provincial, meaning the province, is in charge of it. But there are in Iran in general a lot of also neighborhood-based help that happens, community-based helps, and city-based emergency services. But it's important to remember that... as i mentioned for example education there are things that communities and neighborhoods can't replace electricity obviously is one of them water is obviously another one or just emergency services in terms of the dead and the wounded so there is a community-based help happening to make life happen for a lot of people down south but a lot of these are also organized by the provinces. And there was this interesting story that I read the other day. Somebody was writing about it. It was a narrative on Instagram where they were talking about calling up in the municipality and just basically saying, why did you cut off the electricity? Because it was a campaign. And this was to answer your question, a campaign that it was organized that brings basically community and government together where they were like, hey, it's other people who are not being bombarded. would turn off their air conditionings for an hour, we can ensure that people in the South who are living in this extreme heat also get their electricity, but electricity was still cut off. And this person calls the relevant services and says, why did you cut off the electricity? You guys promise that the government is not going to do that. And the guy actually says, ma'am, I don't know. I'm not in charge and just hangs up. So who's in charge is... what's on paper and what is actually happening are two different stories really. Politically, what is the South's relationship to Tehran? In what sense? Well, in the sense of how much dissent, how many minority communities are there, like how does the Iranian government relate to this part of the country? Well, it's a complicated question. First of all, it's ethnically diverse. So, and it's very different. You know, Iran, Iranian racism, like many other places, is also color-based. And famously, people in the South have, you can't make these general statements. But I would put it this way, culturally for the longest time, Iranians understood that the North, which is.

the Caspian Sea area, people have wider features and that people in the South have darker features. You have more Arab communities and more diverse ethnic communities living in the South. And there is, there has been and still continues to be a kind of racial hierarchy between people in the North and people in the South. But putting that, that's a cultural aspect of it. But talking about the South in general, there is, so it's connected if you wanted to think about it a little bit more academically and not nationally in terms of Iran. You can think of the southern provinces of Iran as being part of the Persian Gulf region so that their lives is determined. by social factors that are not just from the central part of the country, but also from what they are getting in terms of relations with neighbors right across the Gulf, which is the Arab states of the Persian Gulf region. It has its own music, it has its own dialect, and there has been a lot of films actually made in Iran, but at the same time, what has happened there is a sense with this current war that there is a the way people have put it that there is a sense of there's not a really good translation of the word but this sense that that the people in the south kind of carry so much of the burden of not just war, not just this war, but a burden of so much of the violence, let's say, that is happening by the state, but also by external factors, and also by climate change. Lives down in the South, as I mentioned, has deeply been affected by environmental factors that is part of a larger violence of states, but it's not just the way we think about it. Oh, the Islamic Republic is. is repressive, but by mismanagement of the environment. And I would add to that at the same time, economically, of course, it's a crucial part of the larger country, right, in the sense that these are on some level very oil-rich provinces. And there is actually a lot of oil infrastructure in some of these provinces. I mentioned to you, I said some of them are economically deprived and poor provinces, but some of them, if you just look at numbers, do have a lot of money, but this money is then being funneled into the central state and is distributed in different ways. So it's a very, but it's traditionally and historically had had a very complicated relationship to the central state. It's not just a... Islamic Republic story, but it actually goes before the revolution. And also a new focus of military strategic significance because it is military installations and fortifications along the southern coast that make it possible for a run to close the straight of foremost.

Yes, absolutely. And I would take your excellent point and say, and that story also goes to the Iran-Iraq War. So for eight years, the war between Iran-Iraq, which was a long and very bloody war, the south was the southern border of the war. So the war was basically fought in the southern border and then on the western side, which is what borders on Iraq for longer, much more directly. And again, for a lot of people, for an older generation of Iranians today, what is going on now is an echo of eight years of that part of the country being under direct attack. All right. Nogma Sarabi, we're going to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us again. Thank you so much for having me. Nung Miserabi is Professor Middle East History at Brandeis University. Her substack is entitled These Are the True Things, where she frequently translates for an English-speaking audience reports from inside Iran about what daily life is like there under bombardment. That takes us to 746 in the morning. The show is up front. My name's Brian Edwards Teakert. I'm in a bit of a situation. We decided that the news was too pressing today to pursue our normal fundraising format, where we build an hour up around a thank you gift and then ask you to donate for a copy of the book or documentary or whatever other thing we're doing an interview about. I'm proud of the work we did that we got to speak with Aisha Juman at length about Ansarala in Yemen. their politics, their 12-year conflict with Saudi Arabia, how that's culminated in the threat to blockade the Saudi passage of ships through the Red Sea today. And I'm proud of the fact that we just got to have that conversation with Nagu Sarabi about life under bombardment in southern Iran. This is not, however, typical fundraising fair. And at the end of the day, KPFA needs to pay its bills, and we have to answer for how we have helped KPFA pay its bills. The most pressing thing facing us right now is that one of your fellow listeners has put up a $1,000 sustainer challenge. an unusual type of challenge. It is an enormous opportunity for KPFA. If we can sign up $100 a month in sustaining donors, people who sign up to give automatically monthly, we will get an extra $1,000 for KPFA, which is a lot for a place that operates on a shoestring. So far, although we have raised more than $2,000 for KPFA, We have not yet seen a single sustaining gift that will count towards that challenge. So if you care about this place, the single most important thing you can do, especially if you haven't already, is make an ongoing commitment. Firm up your relationship to KPFA. Sign up to give KPFA money the same way you give Netflix money on a monthly basis.

KBFA.org, just hit the monthly button at the top of the page or 1-800-439-5732. If you can do 10 bucks a month. You get us one-tenth of the way towards making that challenge. If you can do $20 a month, you get us one-fifth of the way. I know there are several people who can do $50 a month out there because you already do it for your cable provider or your cell phone plan or something else. And if you can do $50 a month, you will get us halfway towards that challenge. Whatever you do, you have 12 minutes to do it. The best place to donate is KPFA.org. Hit the monthly button at the top of the donations page and you will become a sustaining gift or get on the phone lines. Every single phone line coming into the building is free right now. 1-800-439-5732. Tell us you appreciate the coverage. It'll send a signal to us that we can do more, even when we're in the midst of Fund Drive. And most importantly, tell us that you're with KPFA for the long haul, and you want to see us succeed in our efforts to cut the length of this Fund Drive and build up ahead of steam that will hopefully let us cut the length of our Fall Fund Drive as we approach the midterm elections. KPFA.org, 1-800-439-5732. That's 1-800, Hey, KPFA. And because I have not yet brought in our first sustainer. I am going to bring in KPFA's sustainer queen. Kat Brooks from Law and Disorder. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Brian Edwards ticket, my favorite dollars to raise, sustainer dollars. Why? Because they literally sustain the station. They allow us to take a deep breath and inhale and exhale, actually, not just hold our breath because we're worried about where the next dollar is coming from. If we're going to have to make cuts, is this show going to be here by the time we get to the next fund driver? Are we going to be able to defend ourselves from the attacks that are coming from the federal government? Are we going to be able to keep our community informed well enough that the community can defend itself? Are we going to be able to continue to be a public service as we have for 77 years in partnership with the community? The only reason why. KPFA has been here for seven plus decades is because the people have invested in KPFA. That's the model. There is no model for corporate funding. There are no commercials for corporations, like lots of them that we don't. patronized because of the horrible things they're doing in Palestine, like say, like, I don't know, McDonald's and Palestine, Starbucks, right? You are who we are accountable. You are the folks that keep this station alive. You are the patrons. This is your station. The station does not belong to Brian. It does not belong to me. It doesn't even belong to the people that Brian and I report to. It legit 100 belongs to you.

The only way that keeps up, the only way we don't go away, the information doesn't go away. The show up front doesn't go away. When I look at the comments, when I come on to join Brian Edwards Teakard for these last few minutes and urge you all to either go to KPFA.org or call 1-800-439-5732 and give all of the comments. thank him for being so amazing thank him for being here thank him for um this person from danville said uh the hard things for some folks to understand or simply make us uncomfortable brian edward teakard brings that to the airwaves right monday through friday during drive time critical hours howsome ever y'all How some ever, you have to put skin in the game. What you do not support will absolutely go away. We can look all around us. I live in Oakland, California. This town does not look the way it looked when I got here. Things that were not supported went away and continue to go away. We are not in a political moment where we can afford this station, this show, this programming, your station, our community, y'all, we've never, not in my lifetime needed community as badly as we need it now. Pick up the phone. Call 1-800-439-5732. 1-800, hey, KPFA, if you need to remember the number, or the fastest, simplest way to give that will cost us absolutely nothing. We'll get the full amount of your donation is by going to KPFA.org. I am a sustainer. I walk this talk. I every so often, I bump up my sustainer amount, right? Just not so that it breaks my back. I'm putting a kid through college. But enough that I don't notice sliding out of my account and into the station, the community that I believe in so much. So if you can do five bucks a month, a couple people did that yesterday, do that. If you do 10 bucks a month, right on. If you do $50, $100 a month and there's a lot of you out there listening, now is absolutely the time. And I'm going to holler right quick before I give the reins back to Brian at the folks that are already sustainers. You heard me say every once in a while, I bump up my sustaining pledge. This is not the time for you to sit out and go, oh, while I already sustain the station, right on, thank you. We are so grateful. We are so deeply, deeply grateful. And can you do $2 more? Can you do $5 more? Could you do $10 more like legit? Could you put another 10 on the 20 that you give 30 bucks out of your account every month and not notice it if the answer to that is yes?

Say that yes out loud by calling 1-800-439-5732, 1-800, hey, KPFA, or going online. Like I said, if you give online, it's fast, it's easy, and it means that we get the totality of your hardened dollars that you were giving to your station. You do that at kpFA.org. Brian? All right, we've got exactly seven minutes left in the hour. And Eugene in Richmond has just become our first sustainer who will count towards the challenge. He wrote, thanks for being here. We're bringing the news. The truth is the prime directive. Thank you, Eugene. And Rosa in Oakland has joined him. Between the two of them, we're at $20 a month in sustaining donations towards our challenge, which is to get to $100 a month. in the next six and a half minutes. There's a color on the line. Hopefully they're signing up as a sustainer. We'll find out in a few minutes. We need you to join them. KBFA.org, 1-800-439-5732. This is it. We have abbreviated this fund drive. By this time next week, we will be either done or finishing. You will have precious little time to give. This is a good thing we want shorter fund drives at KPFA, but it raises the stakes for every second we spend fundraising. And the single most important thing that we can do to continue the momentum. to shrink the length of our fund drives is to build that base of sustaining donors. Right now, we have a grand total of 4,876 people who are monthly KPFA sustainers. And we want to get that to an even 5,000 by the time this fund drive ends this time next week. So if you care about this place, if you haven't already made it official, by signing up this sustainer, you can effectively give more to KPFA than you are digging out of your own wallet by helping us make this challenge before the end of the hour. 5 minutes and 25 seconds to go. KPFA.org, 1-800-439-5732. We focused on news coverage this hour. I'm proud of the work we did. Our producer, Kimya Akpuri, like, shines in moments like this. However, at the end of the day... We need to be able to justify to the people whose unfortunate job it is to figure out how to pay KPFA's bills, how our decisions support the station's fundraising efforts. So if you appreciate the coverage, the way we do news, the fact that when there's important news, we cover it even in the midst of fund drives, then we are asking you to show that. We have four and a half minutes left, still $80 a month left to raise.

I am slightly terrified because my dashboard shows zero callers on the line right now. KPFA.org, 1,800, 439, 5732. That's 1,800, Hey, KPFA. It's a really simple question. Can you do 10 bucks a month for this station? You know, if KPFA plays a regular part in your life, if we are like the sonic wallpaper of your morning or your commute or your cooking dinner in the evening, surely it's worth $10 a month. Can you find two minutes in your morning to commit to that $10 a month as a sustainer while we have a chance to make this challenge? We have four minutes left on the clock. It would take eight people doing $10 a month or four people doing $20 a month. We're two people doing 50 bucks a month, but time is almost up. KPFA.org, 1,800, 439, 5732, 1,800, hey, KPFA. Kat. KPFA.org, 1,800, 439 5732, 1,800, 439 5732, 1,800, hey, KPFA. So the sustainer matches work the same way the other matches do. What do I mean by that? I mean by, I mean by that, that if we don't make it, we have to call your fellow listener, your comrade, your community member, and tell them that we were not able to rally people. enough people to make a monthly love tap to the station and we have to offer the money back. Now, I keep it a buck. Not everybody says, yep, give my money back, but sometimes they do. Sometimes they're like, no, right? You said this is the way this worked. I played the game by the rules and you have to play the game by the rules too. I know something that doesn't happen very much in our society these days. So this is not on the second. Yeah, it depends on you are. I think they got the nod I was making. If I knew geography, I could say what direction that places in. But anyway, I'm wasting time. Brian Edwards Tickert may actually actually have to call the listener back and say, I'm sorry, I wasn't able to make this match and have to offer the money back. And that listener might say, yeah, give it back to me. And in a time where we are both trying to shorten fund drive and hit our financial mark, right, we have to raise 150. racks this fund drive. That's not something we can afford to do. And it's certainly not the energy that we want to start fund drive of. I'll put myself out there vulnerably. I didn't make my match yesterday. That feels like not great. That feels awful, especially the first day of fun drive and the anxiety because we are clear as hosts our job.

Our job is to encourage you to sustain the station. That's part of our job. It just is. And so if we don't do that job, then we know that we're putting the station that we all love so much in jeopardy. So there's a lot at stake. in this match, beyond, right, beyond just the financial amount. Put some skin in the game. Support that, which I know you love, support this show, support Brian, support public radio, support freedom of speech and information, right, which they are desperately trying to clamp down on. So we should get it in, you know, while we can do it above ground. KPFA.org, 1-800-439-5732. Brian. That's 1-800. Hey, KPFA. We're in our final minute in 20 seconds. So we're almost certainly going to go out in a note of suspense here because it takes a couple minutes between when people complete their donations and when they are visible to us. If you care about this place, this fun drive is short. That is a good thing, but it raises the stakes. Every minute we fundraise, every challenge we try to hit, there is $1,000 hanging on the line for your radio station, and that is hanging on your decision to sign up as a monthly sustainer. We got to get to $100 a month by the end of the hour, which is less than a minute from now. KPFA.org, 1-800-439-5732. Adriana in San Mateo has just gotten us 15 bucks a month closer. We are now $65 a month away from making it. 30 seconds left to ask you to join her. KPFA.org, 1,800-439-5732. That is 1-800. Hey. KPFA. You are tuned to KPFA, 94.1 FM in Berkeley, KPFB 89.3 FM in Berkeley, KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno and online at KPFA.org. Sustaining donations that coming in the next 10 minutes will count towards that challenge, but this is the last time I can ask you to give at KBFA.org. Stay tuned.