Up First from NPR

March Madness is here. The high-stakes, sudden-death college basketball tournament is a beloved tradition in American sports.  For the players, it’s a chance to showcase the skills they’ve developed through years of hard training of the body and mind. In many cases, that push produces incredible feats of athletic performance. But an investigation by reporters Julia Haney and Elizabeth Santos has f...

More strikes against Iran, including an island crucial to the country’s oil exports. Three separate domestic attacks in the U.S. do not appear to have direct links to Iran. President Trump signs two executive orders geared toward making housing more affordable, as Congress works on legislation.  See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and t...

Israel struck central Beirut overnight and issued the first ever evacuation order for part of the capital, as Israel vows it will not stop until Hezbollah is defeated and nearly a million people are displaced in Lebanon alone. The FBI is investigating two separate attacks as acts of terrorism — an armed man drove a car into a Michigan synagogue, and a gunman with a prior ISIS conviction opened fir...

Three commercial oil tankers were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz as U.S. and Israeli airstrikes continue on Tehran — Iran may be losing the war in the air, but it is strangling one of the world's most vital waterways and shaking global markets.  President Trump, who campaigned on bringing gas prices down, is now tapping the strategic petroleum reserve as the war drives prices up. And the Pentago...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised the most intense strikes yet on Iran as residential buildings in Tehran come under fire and Iranian forces target naval ships in the Gulf. A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds a majority of Americans oppose the war and President Trump's approval rating on the economy has hit a record low, raising questions about what the conflict means heading into the midte...

President Trump declared victory in Iran at his first press conference since the war began, but said the U.S. could still go further and compared the endgame to Venezuela, walking back earlier calls for unconditional surrender. The war is widening as Israel keeps striking Tehran and Beirut, Iran continues to hit back in the Gulf, and Lebanon's president publicly accuses Hezbollah of betraying the...

Israel struck Tehran's oil facilities as Iran named a new supreme leader, the hardline son of the Ayatollah Israel killed on day one, and a senior Israeli military official tells NPR the war needs three more weeks. President Trump reversed course on Kurdish fighters entering Iran, and Iraq's Kurdish deputy prime minister tells NPR in his first interview with western media since the war began that...

For years, India was thought of as the Wild West of the fertility industry. But in 2021, a new law in India made it illegal for women to sell their eggs or serve as paid surrogates. That law clashed with a growing demand for human eggs within the country. The result: a thriving black market for human eggs. Today, some of the most marginalized Indian women and girls are supplying reproductive mater...

More countries in the Middle East reported incoming fire from Iran over the week. Oil prices spike as shippers avoid the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump is attending a summit for Latin American leaders. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

President Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and named Senator Markwayne Mullin as his pick to take over, in the first cabinet shakeup of his second term. The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is widening again, with Israel striking Beirut’s southern suburbs as Lebanon says tens of thousands have been displaced. And two months after U.S. forces seized Venezuela’s president, Washington an...

Iranians are fleeing as Israel and the U.S. keep striking Iran, the fighting continues in Lebanon, and the war’s spillover is rattling Gulf countries. President Trump is offering shifting explanations for why the U.S. struck Iran, as the White House tries to line up its message and Americans remain wary about what the war is meant to achieve. And China says it will send a special envoy to the Midd...

The Middle East war is in its fifth day as the U.S. and Israel keep striking targets across Iran and Lebanon, Iran retaliates into the Gulf, and funeral preparations begin for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. President Trump is offering shifting explanations for why the U.S. struck Iran, as the White House tries to unify its message and Americans remain wary about what the war is meant to achieve. And...

The State Department is urging Americans in the Middle East to leave as Iranian attacks continue, including a drone strike on the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed Congress on the war and lawmakers walked out split, as both chambers prepare to vote on measures that would curb the president’s war powers. And voters in Texas and North Carolina are casting ballots i...

It is day three of the U.S. Israeli war with Iran as the fighting widens with Tehran launching retaliatory attacks across the Middle East, and Israel trading fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon. President Trump says the strikes will continue “at full force” and warns Americans there will likely be more U.S. casualties, as the White House still hasn’t spelled out the war's objectives or how long it coul...

The rise of prediction markets means you can now bet on just about anything, right from your phone. Apps like Kalshi and Polymarket have grown exponentially in President Trump’s second term, as his administration has rolled back regulations designed to keep the industry in check. Billions of dollars have flooded in, and users are placing bets on everything from whether it will rain in Seattle toda...

The U.S. and Israel launch a joint attack on Iran. Iran responds with a missile attack on Israel, Bahrain, the U.A.E. and Qatar. Iran says a girls elementary school suffered a direct hit.  See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

The U.S. may be on the cusp of striking Iran, even as President Trump has not laid out clear objectives, asked Congress for authorization, or made a full public case for military action. Hillary Clinton sat for a six-hour, closed-door deposition in the House Oversight Committee’s Epstein investigation, and now Bill Clinton is set to testify as Republicans say they still have unanswered questions....

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt leads a state that gave President Trump 66% of the vote in 2024. He is also charting his own course and has publicly differed with the president. Stitt sat for an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep and talked about his vision for the Republican Party’s post-Trump future. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe t...

U.S. and Iranian officials are meeting in Switzerland for another round of high-level talks. The talks will focus on Iran’s nuclear program, but the U.S. also wants ballistic missile restrictions. Harvard professor and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is resigning from his university positions over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Also, Cuban border agents shot and k...

President Trump touted the beginnings of an American revival during his State of the Union address.   He talked about a “turnaround for the ages,” in a record-length speech filled with exaggeration. And a bipartisan aviation safety bill failed to advance in Congress after the Pentagon withdrew its support. Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun?  Subscribe  to...

Republican strategists say President Trump needs a reset in his State of the Union tonight, with new NPR polling showing 60% of Americans think the country is worse off than a year ago. Mexico is still reeling from cartel violence after a military operation killed the country's biggest drug lord, El Mencho, and triggered a wave of retaliation, raising questions about whether the government can tak...

President Trump says he’s raising global tariffs to 15% under a different authority after the Supreme Court blocked his emergency tariff power, forcing Congress to decide how closely they want to own the policy in a midterm election year. China is weighing what the court ruling actually changes on the ground for exporters and how it could reshape Trump’s leverage ahead of his trip to Beijing in a...

Two of this year’s top contenders for the Academy Awards were filmed using a technology from the 1950s: VistaVision. Filmmakers are reviving this visually stunning yet finicky film format at a time when movie theaters are struggling to get audiences back into theaters. Today on The Sunday Story , NPR’s culture correspondent Mandalit Del Barco tells the story of the changing movie industry through...

The Supreme Court says President Trump cannot use the economic emergency he declared as a rationale for his import tax regime. The U.S. military buildup in the Mideast over the past month gives Trump options for striking Iran. The U.S. and Canada will compete Sunday for the gold medal in men's Olympic ice hockey. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for...

President Trump says he will make a decision in ten days on whether or not to attack Iran as the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East is now large enough to support a sustained bombing campaign. President Trump is widening the scope of his new Board of Peace after a Gaza-focused gathering, pitching it as a tool for other global conflicts as world leaders warn it could sideline the United Natio...