On the show this week:

• How the Strait of Hormuz landed right at the centre of the US-Iran info war

• The rift between Israel and its European allies

• The warped representation of Iranian voices in Western media

• Hungary’s new PM moves to “de-Orbánise” the media

▶️ youtu.be/AVp80QJMy0Y

Israel’s relations with its allies are fraying. Increasingly sharp rhetoric from European leaders is playing out in messaging and on media platforms.

@meenakshirv.bsky.social reports on Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of European ties and instances of real anger towards Israel in European media.

In this special episode, we examine the US mainstream media in Trump’s second term - as ownership concentrates in the hands of a small group of billionaires, putting journalism itself at risk, and as the White House aggressively reshapes its relationship with the press.

Watch ▶️ youtu.be/dCL553JcYuk

Despite constantly getting fact-checked and drawing sharp criticism for its content, the Israeli government’s official Farsi-language account on X has become a crucial part of its propaganda efforts.

Tariq Nafi reports on the other front in Israel’s war.

On the show this week:

• With conflicts on multiple fronts and intensifying apartheid, Israel’s war fever shows no sign of easing

• Israel is taking its messaging and mockery to Iranians in their own language

• Iran’s Info-war strategy: An interview with Trita Parsi

▶️ youtu.be/Wz0TOnt3M0s

Many of Trump’s most ardent supporters are challenging the president because of his war on Iran.

Ben Lorber and Jamal Abdi spoke with us about the fallout and what comes next.

Full report ▶️ youtu.be/igxhDWkVF5U

On the show this week:

• A deep split in the MAGA movement threatens Trump’s Iran war

• How Israel's potential death penalty bill has been promoted in the media

• A closer look at the online memes coming from the US and Iranian governments

Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/igxhDWkVF5U

With the eyes of international media firmly focused on its wars on Lebanon and Iran, Israel has moved a step closer to legalising the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

Ryan Kohls reports.

“All wars empower authoritarian tendencies… US society could move to look more like our adversaries than ourselves.”

Arta Moeini, Branko Marcetic and Mouin Rabbani spoke with us about information control in the US/Israeli war on Iran.

Full report ▶️ youtu.be/Et9-CbYtLl8

On the show this week:

• The fight to control the narrative from Washington to Tehran to Tel Aviv

• The coverage of Israel’s assassination spree, negligible attention to the question of legality

• Journalist Jean Kassir on how Israel is unleashing the Gaza model on Lebanon

▶️ youtu.be/Et9-CbYtLl8

Coverage of Israel’s killing of three more senior Iranian political leaders this past week followed a familiar pattern - awe at the Israeli intelligence operation’s ‘sophistication’ and little scrutiny of the legality of the actions.

@meenakshirv reports on how these killings have been reported.

If Iran could raise the price of oil to $100 a barrel, it inflicts equal or more damage to the US than American bombs do to Iran.”

– Vali Nasr on how Iran is waging asymmetric warfare against the US

Full report ▶️ youtu.be/yD91rm3QdZU

On the show this week:

• Censorship and propaganda are making Trump and Netanyahu’s chaotic war harder to track

• Israeli media’s disinformation drive to pull Gulf states into the war

• AI warfare isn’t new, but it’s becoming far more lethal — we speak with Matt Mahmoudi

▶️ youtu.be/yD91rm3QdZU

On the show this week:

• Chaos, contradiction and Trump’s incoherent messaging on his war with Iran

• Which Iranian voices are getting amplified in Western media and why?

• Ameed Shehade on journalism under occupation in the West Bank

Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/C8uzx9vuoeM

The US-Israeli bombing campaign has divided Iranians at home and abroad - and across much of mainstream Western media, one side is being significantly amplified.

@meenakshirv.bsky.social reports on how wars get justified and legitimised through media.

On the show this week:

• Trump's Iran gambit: is the chaos a strategy or is it just chaos?

• What Modi’s trip to Tel Aviv meant for Netanyahu and the Indo-Israeli alliance

• How Brazil’s young, evangelical influencers are becoming powerful force in politics

▶️ youtu.be/TRmW2phMkSE

On the show this week:

• Big AI, the hype machine and what major tech companies stand to gain from all the fear mongering

• The smear campaign against Francesca Albanese for speaking out about Gaza

• The campaign to shape coverage of Israel in African media

Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/Y7W9Sbu1lYQ

“This idea that because these two monsters are now one is locked away and one has died, that the entire apparatus has been brought down. It hasn’t. It did not just disappear… We know that somebody picked up the mantle.”
– Danielle Moodie on the Epstein files cover-up

Watch ▶️ youtu.be/g1nj0clWEMY

On the show this week:

• How the US Epstein class is evading accountability

• The renewed wave of repression in Iran

• How the Super Bowl became the US military’s ultimate propaganda showcase

• “The world is in peril” - Former Anthropic employee’s stark warning about AI

▶️ youtu.be/g1nj0clWEMY

In the month since Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protesters, authorities have raided and arrested scores of journalists and reformist politicians.

Tariq Nafi reports.

“It’s a way then for Americans to feel patriotic without seeing the ugly side of war.”

– Retired Lt. Colonel Gregory Daddis on the patriotic spectacle of the NFL.

Full report ▶️ youtu.be/X9KOyRlyQlM

Also featuring Kavitha Davidson and Howard Bryant.

On the show this week:

• The most significant stories missing from the mainstream media in the Epstein files

• No eyes on Gaza: How selective framing and restricted access are helping turn the media’s attention away from the ongoing horrors in Gaza

Watch now ▶️ youtu.be/JQ5vqgPbeAs

While mainstream media downplays Epstein’s numerous links to the Israeli government, more tenuous links to Russia are becoming increasingly conspicuous.

@meenakshirv.bsky.social and Drop Site News’s Murtaza Hussain take us through the story.

Mexicans are currently witnessing the latest showdown between President Claudia Sheinbaum and media mogul Ricardo Salinas Pliego - who has accused the government of “political persecution.”

Elettra Scrivo reports.

On the show this week:

• The lies following the ICE killings in Minnesota

• TikTok under the control of American owners is as censorious - maybe more - than it was under Chinese ownership

• Disinformation-driven violence in Bangladesh ahead of its elections

Watch ▶️ youtu.be/nmqjsZWMGa0

Days after Trump allies took control of TikTok in the US, users have reported widespread censorship of content that mentions sore subjects for the administration like ICE, Palestine and Jeffrey Epstein.

Tariq Nafi reports on the allegations, the backlash and the rise of UpScrolled.

On the show this week:

• Trump's imperial tantrums spiral beyond all control - the rants, the posts and the delusion

• Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ initiative and the colonial vision for Gaza's future

• The unconventional team of investigators digging into the Epstein files

▶️ youtu.be/dfh_QCFijnk

On the show this week:

• Internal revolt and external pressure collide in Iran and the battle of narratives intensifies

• The White House is using AI bots to respond to the ICE killing of Renee Good

• Cory Doctorow on how scrutiny has taken a backseat in the AI arms race

▶️ youtu.be/RQc5WhffayY

On the show this week:

• How Trump flooded the media zone with their Venezuela talking points

• Iranian protests spread like wildfire and Trump says the US is “locked and loaded” to intervene

• José Luis Granados Ceja on the abduction of Maduro and the future of Venezuela

▶️ youtu.be/bnKw8jPTuLo

Richard Gizbert reports on the major news outlets being locked out of military briefings and the US’s brutal act of war in Venezuela.