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Today's top stories
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel acted alone when it struck an Iranian gas compound earlier this week. President Trump said he wasn't informed in advance of that attack. But a person briefed on the matter tells NPR that the U.S. and Israel are coordinated on all targets. Netanyahu said Trump has asked Israel to hold off on future attacks. As the war nears the end of its third week, the Pentagon is requesting Congress' approval for an additional $200 billion to assist U.S. defenses.
- 🎧 NPR's Carrie Kahn is in Tel Aviv, where she tells Up First that the mood is tense, even though many in the Middle East are observing the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Tension within Israel has risen after police deployed tear gas against Muslim worshippers heading to the Old City in Jerusalem. Authorities closed the Al-Aqsa mosque at the beginning of the war, citing safety concerns due to incoming missiles and lack of shelter. Mustafa Abu Sway, a member of the mosque's managing authority, argues these claims are a guise for increased Israeli control over this sacred site.
- 🎧 Trump yesterday met with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who joined five other U.S. allies in supporting a coalition to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Takaichi did not offer any military support to aid Trump's goals. The near-total halt of traffic through the strait has had a catastrophic effect on the global energy market. Here's why it's so hard for world leaders to bring down oil and gas prices.
- ➡️ Foreign policy often ranks near the bottom of U.S. voters' concerns. But military action that goes badly has often imperiled presidents and brought irreversible political consequences. The longer the Iran war goes on, the worse it could be for Trump, based on past presidents' history.
Three major reports this month reveal that Trump has rapidly harmed American democracy since returning to the White House. Bright Line Watch, which surveys over 500 U.S. scholars, concluded that the U.S. now falls nearly halfway between liberal democracy and dictatorship. The organization's co-directors spoke to NPR exclusively ahead of the survey's publication next week. An annual V-Dem report dropped the U.S.'s democracy ranking from 20 to 51 among 179 countries. A Freedom House report released yesterday said that among free countries, the U.S. recorded some of the largest declines in political rights and civil liberties last year.
Mediators have presented Hamas with a formal proposal to surrender their weapons, a senior U.S. official told NPR. The plan calls for Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza to relinquish their weapons, placing the responsibility of all arms in the hands of a new governing authority. A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the written document a "take it or leave it" offer and said that the group will wait to see the outcome of the war in Iran before making a decision.
The Trump administration announced a three-phase transition yesterday to shift significant management of the nation's federal student loan portfolio from the Education Department to the Treasury Department. The interagency agreement obtained by NPR shows that in the first phase, the Treasury will resume control of collecting on defaulted student loans. The announcement marks the latest move in Trump's effort to close the Education Department.
Behind the story
by Adriana Gallardo, Morning Edition editor
My phone kept going off on Wednesday afternoon with texts from different friends — each wanting to trade thoughts on what felt like the second death of Cesar Chavez.
His first death happened on April 23, 1993. He was 66 and died of natural causes. Over 50,000 people attended his funeral in Delano, Calif.
At that time, I was in elementary school in suburban Chicago, far from California. It was then that I first learned of Chavez and his movement's hard-fought efforts to secure better wages and improved working conditions for farm workers. As a daughter of janitors and a factory worker, I knew what better pay and the right to a union meant for people like us.
Chavez's second death landed on Wednesday after a The New York Times investigation revealed he had been accused of sexual abuse and rape.
For several years before joining Morning Edition as an editor, I covered sexual violence for ProPublica, an investigative newsroom. My work there was often not about catching the bad guys but rather about listening to the people they hurt. Consistent with statistics, the perpetrators whom I wrote about were often family, bosses, clergy or others in positions of power.
This week, many of the voices of the victims I spoke with hearkened back to the experiences that the New York Times's investigation revealed in telling of the sexual abuse that Ana Murguia, Debra Rojas and Dolores Huerta shared with the publication. I was grateful to learn Murguia's and Rojas' names alongside the much more familiar one of Huerta, the civil rights icon in her own right who co-led the United Farm Workers movement that made Chavez famous.
I've learned that justice for many means the world recognizing the harm done to them — and the difficult work they have done to no longer live defined by it. And I've learned that sometimes sharing their stories is one way to prevent future harm.
My friends and I may be down a hero this week. But, we gained two new heroes in Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas, who, alongside Dolores Huerta, showed us it's never too late to speak up. In fact, it might be the only way out for them and others.
Weekend picks
Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: Cillian Murphy returns as gangster Tommy Shelby in the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. In this movie-length sequel, Shelby decides to break his self-isolation when his son's recklessness forces his hand.
📺 TV: Steve Carell stars as an unlucky writing teacher at a small college in the comedy series Rooster. His daughter, also a teacher, is the subject of campus gossip because her husband just left her for a student.
📚 Books: Roger Bennett's We Are the World (Cup) is a love letter to the game that explores how past World Cups met cultural and geopolitical moments.
🎵 Music: R&B singer Jill Scott's first full-length album in over a decade, To Whom This May Concern, embraces various iterations of herself, including her current role as family caregiver and her eighth-grade self.
🎭 Theater: The Martha Graham Dance Company celebrates its 100th anniversary this year with an international tour. Graham founded her company in the 1920s with the revolutionary idea to use dance to tell American stories.
❓ Quiz: From food-centric news to a soccer star's milestone achievements, a great memory of this week's events, along with some good guesses, might take you far in this week's news quiz.
3 things to know before you go
- The FDA abandoned a long-running proposal this week that would have banned tanning beds for people under 18 and required users to periodically sign forms acknowledging skin cancer risks.
- Planned Parenthood of Illinois will pay $500,000 to end a government investigation into discrimination charges tied to its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
- Twenty-five years ago, Julia Labes was in severe pain in the emergency room. A woman in the waiting area recognized Labes' signs of shock and demanded that the receptionist get her immediate care. The next morning, her doctor told her that if she had waited one more hour for treatment, she would have died. Labes credits her unsung hero with saving her life.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen and Treye Green.
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