MONITOR PROTESTS

“Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had just been killed in an airstrike. Many of the people I spoke with were critical of the regime, like the vast majority of Iranians. Their spirits seemed high. Many of those people were grieving. But others were angry and pledged to fight against the American and Israeli invaders. One Iranian who supported the regime said he heard people chanting death to Trump.”

“The officials are leading the crowd in a chant of, Death to America, Death to Israel, and the responding chant is, Death to Palestine. This is happening in Iran right now, which is just crazy. I think the Iranian people are finally waking up to the fact that their leaders and their governments focusing so specifically for so many years on destruction of Israel and America has now led to the Iranian people's demise.”

“He urged the Iranian people to rise up against the government. 'Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.' But then bombs started to fall. People did not rise up. And so I wondered, what did Iranians think of this new war and the president's call to action?”

“Iran is literally falling apart. Its military has been devastated by Israel. Its nuclear sites are destroyed. The scientists have all been assassinated... and now Venezuela has been captured. So Iran's stronghold over like everything, their entire axis is falling apart, and people are saying, what is this about? This was all to destroy Israel, and Israel is emerging like a lion.”

“Bibi and Trump came out from that on a very united front, telling the media we're aligned 100%. And then within what, two days, the operation in Venezuela happened and the US goes in and take them out. So there could be very good speculation that Israel and the United States did this in coordination with each other, for sure.”

“One of his favorite things to watch was an anime adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. She was an outsider just like him. And he noticed other things. Like in the school scenes, the boys and girls weren't separated. They were together, sitting side by side, interacting with each other. He wished his school was like that. So much so, that before going to sleep at night, he would imagine himself sitting in that classroom.”

“The Iranian government had effectively cut off the country from the rest of the world. The number I kept seeing was 99%. 99% of Iranians who normally had access to the internet now didn't. I was trying to reach the remaining 1%. These would be people with workarounds like VPNs or enough money to afford satellite communications like Starlink that could get them online for even just a few minutes.”

“When it came to Trump's call to overthrow the government, many of those opposed to the regime said it didn't make sense to take to the streets and protest. It was too dangerous. One source told me her friend's daughter was shot and killed on the street by what she described as pro regime forces. Because our neighbor who was a civilian was killed in an attack. Another told me her neighbor was at work when he was killed by an airstrike.”

“We have Russia now evacuating their embassy, reportedly evacuating their embassy from Israel, including all their families. There's reports that the Russian army is evacuating the staff of the Russian embassy along with their families in Israel and returning them to Russia. They've taken multiple flights out of Israel to Russia in the past couple of days here.”

“The number one funder of American universities from outside the country is Qatar. That, by definition, is a long game. They've been funding universities, they've been buying off influencers, they've been bribing politicians, because they realize that it's a war of ideas. They realize it's a spiritual battle. It's like, no, I have to influence the culture, I have to influence the ideology, I have to really get into the hearts and minds of people.”