Israel thought it could strike Iran and walk away unscathed. It was wrong.

In this explosive episode of MintCast, Tehran-based professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi joins Mnar Adley from the heart of a city under Israeli bombardment to deliver a stark message: Israel is not in control—and the tide is turning fast.

Marandi says Israel’s attacks have only strengthened Iranian unity, while the Trump administration’s betrayal has shattered any future for diplomacy. “There is more solidarity now than at any point since Saddam’s invasion,” he explains. As the U.S. inches closer to full-scale war, public support at home is collapsing—60% of Americans oppose getting involved.

Marandi exposes the West’s wishful thinking, the media’s imperial spin, and why Israel may be walking into the biggest strategic mistake in its history.

🔊 Hear it straight from Tehran—where the war is real, and Israel is losing.

🎧 Guest: Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, University of Tehran
 🎙 Host: Mnar Adley
 📍 Recorded during active Israeli strikes on Iran

▶️ Watch the original video: https://youtu.be/UNrXxCqBFzo

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MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

On this week’s edition of The MintCast, host Mnar Adley speaks with British-Iraqi trauma surgeon Dr. Mohammed Tahir about his harrowing months working in Gaza’s hospitals, the trauma he witnessed, and the global awakening to Israel’s atrocities. 

Dr. Tahir describes operating on a “sea of mangled people” under nonstop Israeli bombardment, and shares how his experience forged unbreakable bonds with fellow medics resisting death with every operation.

From Greta Thunberg’s “Freedom Flotilla” to Iraq’s steadfast solidarity with Palestine, Dr. Tahir explains why he believes the tide is turning against Zionist propaganda—and why Israel’s brutality has permanently changed how the world sees it.

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

In part two of our exclusive interview, American ICU nurse Willy Massay reveals a disturbing pattern of Israeli attacks on Gaza’s medical system and children. 

He says Israeli soldiers deliberately shot boys in the penis to prevent them from having families. Massay recounts treating patients with no anesthesia, no gauze, and no electricity—forced to manually keep children alive as bombs shattered hospital walls. 

With over 1,400 healthcare workers killed and nearly every hospital damaged or destroyed, his testimony is one of the clearest indictments yet of Israel’s genocidal assault.

Missed part one? Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/284746/episodes/17104827

Watch the YouTube version: WAR CRIMES IN GAZA: Unfiltered Hospital Testimony from ICU Nurse Willy Massay

🎙️ Truth Has Enemies. We Have You.🎙️

For over a decade, MintPress News has been at the forefront of exposing Israeli apartheid, occupation, and war crimes, when few dared to. We've been censored, smeared, and blacklisted for telling the truth. But we haven’t stopped.

Independent journalism like this isn’t just important—it’s under attack. If you believe in reporting that defends the voiceless and challenges the powerful, we need your support.

👉 Support Us on Patreon

 👉 Or make a One-Time Donation

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

In this powerful and deeply emotional episode, MintPress News Director Mnar Adley sits down with American ICU nurse Willy Massay, who has just returned from Gaza after volunteering on the front lines of Israel’s war on the civilian population. Having worked in some of Gaza’s most devastated medical facilities—including Al-Aqsa, Nasser, and Indonesia hospitals—Massay offers a chilling firsthand account of the deliberate targeting of health workers, the systematic destruction of hospitals, and the devastating toll on Palestinian children.

Massay shares how Gaza’s hospitals function under siege: with no real shifts, medical professionals work 24/7 under the constant sound of crying children and explosions. According to Massay, the injuries he treated—many gunshot wounds to the head, chest, and groin of young boys—were too precise to be anything but intentional. “Their reproductive organs were completely dismantled and destroyed,” he tells Adley, calling it “ethnic cleansing at its worst.”

The interview also addresses the Israeli military’s targeting and imprisonment of doctors, including the death of Dr. Adnan al-Bursh under alleged torture in Israeli custody. Since October 7, 2023, over 1,150 health workers in Gaza have been killed, among them 165 doctors and 260 nurses. According to the World Health Organization, Israel has damaged or destroyed 33 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals.

Massay’s reflections are not just professional—they’re personal. He speaks with anguish about the U.S. government’s unwavering support for Israel’s actions, including billions in aid and military assistance. "Looking into the eyes of a Palestinian child," he says, "it is a terrible feeling to know that my money and my taxes just killed you."

This exclusive interview is a rare and urgent testimony from someone who witnessed the atrocities firsthand. It challenges listeners to confront the human cost of political choices and the moral consequences of silence.

Trigger warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence against civilians and children.

🎧 Don’t miss this searing account from Gaza’s medical front lines.

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

While the destruction in the Middle East has been fierce, the media war surrounding who controls the narrative of events has been no less intense. And MintPress News has been caught up in it. Our investigations into Israeli attempts to manipulate public understanding of the genocide in Gaza have drawn the ire of The Jerusalem Post, who recently attempted to cancel us, labeling MintPress as part of a network of Iranian, Russian and Syrian-backed extremist websites pushing antisemitism.

Alan MacLeod, senior staff writer and podcast producer at MintPress News, will join the MintCast host to discuss this. Alan’s investigations, which revealed a network of former Israeli spies and lobbyists working in newsrooms across America, went viral and were read by hundreds of thousands of people.

His report, entitled: “Revealed: The Israeli Spies Writing America’s News,” discussed how former agents from Israeli spying group Unit 8200 have found a home in some of the corporate media’s most prominent outlets, including Axios and CNN.

Unit 8200 is the centerpiece of Israel’s surveillance state and has been the source of many of the most controversial spying and hacking scandals of the last decade. Former Unit 8200 agents developed the Pegasus spyware, which was used to snoop on activists, journalists, world leaders and royals around the world.

His second investigation cataloged hundreds of ex-Israel lobbyists who went on to work in newsrooms across the country. One example of this is the NBCUniversal network. CNBC’s lead work report was, until 2011, a commander in the Israeli Defense Forces before moving back to America to work for the Friends of the IDF. This group raises money for supplies and support for Israeli soldiers, as well as encouraging Americans to enlist in the Israeli military. This pro-Israel bias goes straight to the top. MSNBC’s executive producer, Moshe Arenstein, is a former IDF intelligence commander.

The traction that these groundbreaking stories were receiving clearly put MintPress in the Jerusalem Post’s crosshairs, the Israeli newspaper publishing an attack against us.

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

2025 is promising to be a crucial year in the history of West Asia. Just weeks have passed since the ouster of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and his replacement with pro-Western leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. 

Syria was a key member of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” – a coalition of actors opposing Israel and its actions. What will Assad’s departure mean for the resistance against Israel, especially given Jolani’s overt friendliness with Tel Aviv? Given their new government, what is in store for Lebanon and Hezbollah now? And how about Iraq and Yemen?

To discuss all of this and more is returning guest, Ghadi Francis. Ghadi is an author, journalist, and war correspondent who has covered the situations in Syria and Palestine in great detail. Born in Lebanon, she is the author of the book “My pen and pain: One hundred days in Syria” (2012). 

Last month, Ghadi joined The MintCast to discuss the fallout of Israel’s attack on its neighbors. During the interview, she set her sights on the Erdoğan administration in Ankara, stating that “Türkiye is as expansionist as Israel – and it is not new!” 

We lived in a nation that was called ‘Greater Syria’ that was occupied by the Ottomans for around 300 years. And it stretched from Lebanon to Syria to Iraq. Nineveh, Aleppo, all of that was occupied by the Ottomans. We were part of the Ottoman Empire. We were ruled by them in a dictatorship and in an occupation.”

Francis recently returned from a trip to Iraq, where she was impressed by the rebirth of the country after decades of occupation. Unlike Yemen, she assessed, Iraq is not in a position to face down the might of either the U.S. or Israel. “If the Iraqis continue to resist on their own and they get attacked by the Israelis, nobody is going to protect them,” she said. “So if they refrain for a while from being in active resistance operations and, rather, being a good and strong community…this itself is a great achievement.”

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

It is the album the Israel lobby tried – and failed – to kill. “Soundtrack to the Struggle 3” by MintPress News’ Lowkey is released today.

It is the rapper’s first album in five years and is already receiving critical acclaim. Today on “The MintCast,” Mnar Adley sits down with Lowkey to discuss his new offering, the attempts to shut him down, and why good music is often political.

A tireless fighter for justice, Lowkey’s tracks have become anthems in the anti-war movement, particularly in the struggle for Palestine liberation. “Soundtrack to the Struggle 3” is no different and provides a political snapshot in time, taking on issues such as the genocide in Gaza, the persecution of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, and the pervasive surveillance power of our smartphones.

If the Israel lobby had its way, this album would never have seen the light of day. Last year, the pressure group, We Believe in Israel petitioned music giant Spotify to remove his songs from their platform, citing non-existent anti-Semitism concerns. We Believe in Israel works hand-in-hand with the Israeli government, which has been monitoring Lowkey closely for over a decade. The Jewish Chronicle newspaper once noted that the rapper’s skill and worldwide fan base constituted a “nightmare” for the government in Tel Aviv.

“Pro-Israel groups had me no-platformed at different shows; I’ve been canceled in at least four countries so far, thanks to their maneuvers,” Lowkey told MintPress, adding: “They have recorded meetings I have been at, taken pictures of me in public, and I am sure there is a lot more we do not know about…I’m sure this album will make them very angry and unhappy… They certainly won’t want people to listen to this album.”

“Soundtrack to the Struggle 3” is available to stream for free on major music platforms such as Spotify. You can also watch official music videos on YouTube. Lowkey is currently on tour in the United Kingdom and will be playing live shows in London, Birmingham and Manchester this November. The album is available in hard copy for purchase at his shows.

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

The United States is socially, politically and economically in crisis. As an increasingly large number of people are priced out of the economy, fewer and fewer buy into the sham of electoral politics. On the world stage, too, the U.S. is suffering. Countries everywhere are beginning to drop the dollar as the standard unit of exchange, and Washington’s prestige has been severely shaken due to its relentless, unequivocal support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Ben Norton joins MintCast host Mnar Adley to discuss all this and more. Norton is an investigative journalist and founder of Geopolitical Economy Report, a news source dedicated to looking at the world and seeing the big picture. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Beijing, China.

“The dollar is – even more than the military – the strongest weapon the United States has,” Norton told Adley, explaining that, because of the exorbitant privilege it enjoys in printing the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. can simply export many of its economic problems. It also means that Washington can print more money to pay for its military misadventures around the world. Thus, the dollar system has allowed the U.S. to preserve its global empire and avoid inflation despite running a massive global trade deficit for decades.

“I hate when countries go off the dollar,” Donald Trump said recently, adding: “I would not allow countries to go off the dollar because when we lose that standard, that will be like losing a Revolutionary war. That would be a hit to our country, just like losing a war. And we can’t let that happen.”

And yet that is precisely what is coming to pass, as even U.S. allies in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have taken steps in that direction. Previously, if any country defied Washington’s orders, it would be sanctioned into oblivion. Indeed, U.S. sanctions are powerful enough to destroy the economies of relatively small countries, such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Cuba, or Venezuela. However, as Norton noted, Russia, and especially China, are simply “too big to sanction.”

Join us for a fantastic conversation where Ben Norton stitches together the fabric of the world’s top political news stories, allowing us to see the big picture.

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

It sometimes feels like the world is on the brink of war. Israel has just escalated the conflict in the Middle East with a massive attack on Lebanon, implanting bombs in hundreds of pagers and other electronic devices, killing many and injuring thousands.

Around the world, the action has been condemned as an act of terror.

Today’s guest, Scott Ritter, unequivocally denounced the move. “This is something that is unjustifiable under any circumstances. There is no element of the law of war that would allow this kind of indiscriminate attack,” he said. Ritter is a former United States Corps Intelligence Officer and UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq. He is an author and a geopolitical analyst, whose work you can find at ScottRitter.com. He has closely followed the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The attack, he said, will have widespread implications, not least for Western corporations, who were caught unaware. “This is going to create a crisis of confidence among consumers that could end up costing Western companies billions of dollars,” he explained, adding:

Anybody with any shred of common sense will immediately throw away their Western-made electronic device and source one from a country such as China, where Israel is not going to be able to infiltrate and corrupt the integrity of the electronic device to achieve either intelligence collection goals or assassination [goals].”

While the Israeli military is vastly better armed and funded than Hamas, Ritter claimed that it was actually the Palestinian force that has come out on top after 12 months of fighting, stating:

Hamas right now, in my opinion, is winning this conflict. They are winning it strategically. They are paying a horrible price for it. But on October 6, nobody was talking about the creation of a Palestinian state. Today, it is on the tip of the tongue of so many people around the world. Why? Because the world has seen the truth about Israel.”

Not only that, but Israel is eating itself from within. Its military is seriously depleted; its economy has been shattered by rocket attacks, and by 12 months of war economy; and its society is beginning to fragment.

Whatever happens, it is clear that October 7 fundamentally changed the situation for Israel and Palestine forever.

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.

No matter how bad the attack on Palestine gets, Israel seems to find a way to make it worse.

With a series of high-profile assassinations that threaten to spark a regional war, Israel has raised the stakes once again. On July 30, it targeted Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr in Beirut. One day later, it killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ lead ceasefire negotiator, while he was in Tehran.

The killings sent shockwaves throughout the world, and both Hezbollah and Iran have vowed to respond, the former declaring that the war had entered a “new phase.” Could we be hurtling towards a wider, regional conflict?

To discuss this, MintCast host Mnar Adley is joined by Sharmine Narwani. Narwani is a Beirut-based journalist and political commentator. She is a columnist at The Cradle, a publication covering West Asia that seeks to represent millions of voices not heard in corporate Western media. Before joining The Cradle, she was a senior associate at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford.

Quoting Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Narwani told Adley today that “Israel is crossing all kinds of red lines now,” and is acting in an increasingly “unhinged” manner, actions which fundamentally come from weakness and vulnerability. “Israel very clearly cannot fight its wars by itself. Facing just one adversary on one front, Israel required the active assistance of three Western nuclear powers and one regional Arab state (Jordan), to thwart the [recent] Iranian attack,” she said.

If Israel is indeed reliant on foreign powers, then that raises the worrying question of increased Western involvement in the region and the war. Already, NATO nations launched Operation Prosperity Guardian – an attempt to secure Red Sea shipping lines from Ansar Allah attacks.

This has largely failed, as Ansar Allah has held firm and managed to overcome incredible odds. “Yemen is the surprise of the Resistance Axis, and their unity of fronts,” Narwani said, adding:

Who would have thought that war-torn Yemen, severely depleted, with shortages of food, energy, medicines and basic supplies, without access to their ports…that they would rise up and become the star of the Axis, by just having the absolute nerve to hit the Americans, the British, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Israelis.”

Narwani said that they have managed to do this because Yemenis do not read Western media and have, therefore, not been tamed into displaying “good behavior” toward the United States. Instead, they display an entirely different attitude.

Support the show

MintPress News is a fiercely independent. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.

Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube and subscribe to rapper Lowkey’s new video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog.