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Right this moment’s high tales
The battle within the Center East exhibits no indicators of slowing down as Israel introduced new strikes on western Iran yesterday. Iran’s international minister has denied President Trump’s declare that Iran requested for a ceasefire. The Strait of Hormuz stays closed, slicing off 1 / 4 of oil and pure gasoline provides from the remainder of the world. Trump is pressuring international locations to assist reopen it. New Israeli floor operations in Lebanon are additionally heating up a second entrance within the struggle.
Israeli air protection system fires to intercept missiles throughout an Iranian assault over Tel Aviv, Israel, early Sunday, March 15, 2026.
Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
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Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
- 🎧 NPR’s Daniel Estrin tells Up First that one main query in regards to the struggle is whether or not it should finish with Iran nonetheless in possession of its extremely enriched uranium, which it may use to construct a nuclear weapon. Iran says it’s buried underneath the rubble of final 12 months’s struggle. Whereas Iran’s navy is weakened, the regime stays intact and able to inflicting world disruption. In the meantime, Israel’s plans proceed to shift. Right this moment, a navy spokesperson revealed that operations in Iran are set for the subsequent three weeks. In Lebanon, Israel is ramping up its navy presence and making makes an attempt at diplomacy. An individual briefed on the matter tells Estrin that Israel is pushing for direct ceasefire negotiations with Lebanon.
- 🎧 As gasoline costs soar, world markets wrestle and polls present that Individuals are skeptical of the struggle, Trump’s administration is pushing a message of victory. The administration at first struggled to supply clear justification for U.S. involvement on this struggle, leaving it politically susceptible, NPR’s Franco Ordoñez says. Jenny Stromer-Galley, who research political messaging at Syracuse College, tells him that the deal with profitable goals to shift the narrative in the direction of a theme of collective energy and imaginative and prescient. The president is repeatedly utilizing easy, robust language as a branding software, which Stromer-Galley says is an try and persuade individuals of one thing their eyes can’t see. His criticism of the media has additionally intensified. The FCC chair has threatened to revoke broadcast licenses over stations’ protection of the struggle.
Senate Republicans are getting ready to vote on the president’s controversial SAVE Act this week. The invoice goals to handle a hot-button difficulty that is near Trump’s coronary heart: non-citizen voting. Trump stays adamant that it is a widespread concern within the U.S., regardless of a scarcity of proof.
- 🎧 The invoice would require a photograph ID that proves U.S. citizenship, like a beginning certificates or passport, so as to register to vote. Tens of millions of Individuals do not have easy accessibility to these paperwork, NPR’s Miles Parks says. Because the vote approaches, it’s more and more seemingly that Trump will likely be upset with the outcomes. Senate Democrats are firmly against the invoice. To cross the laws, it wants 60 votes to interrupt the filibuster threshold, however Republicans solely maintain 53 seats. Trump has insisted he would not desire a watered-down model of this invoice. However Parks says that if it have been narrower and presumably centered solely on photograph ID, it might need garnered extra help from each events.
Linda Holmes, Pop Tradition Comfortable Hour host, joins the Up First publication right now to supply key takeaways from final night time’s Oscars.
It was an excellent night time for finest image winner One Battle After One other, in addition to for Sinners, on the Oscars final night time. There have been a number of surprises (a uncommon tie), plus some politics, too. Listed below are our takeaways from the night:
- 🏆 Celebrated director Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After One other) lastly gained finest director after three earlier nominations. He additionally introduced residence finest tailored screenplay.
- 🏆 Michael B. Jordan gained a uncommon finest actor award for what could be very a lot a style movie — the vampire horror drama Sinners. He beat performers from way more historically awards-friendly movies.
- 🏆 Amy Madigan gained finest supporting actress for her deeply unsettling and completely singular efficiency in Weapons, which is much more absolutely a horror film than Sinners.
- 🏆 Cassandra Kulukundis gained the long-overdue, first-ever Academy Award for casting, for One Battle After One other. The most important downside within the class was that everyone could not win.
- 🏆 Autumn Durald Arkapaw, who gained finest cinematography for her work on Sinners, was solely the fourth girl, and the primary girl of coloration, to be nominated within the class. She is the primary girl to win.
Take a look at photographs from the pink carpet and see the complete record of winners.
Keep popular culture savvy by subscribing to the Pop Tradition Comfortable Hour publication. As soon as per week, you may get NPR’s information to films, TV, books, music and extra.
Life recommendation
It may really feel tough to reclaim your time and a spotlight out of your cellphone when it is designed to maintain you scrolling. Life Package spoke to specialists in behavioral science, psychology and expertise for real-world recommendation. Take a look at these expert-recommended methods to successfully keep off your cellphone:
- 📱 Strive “urge browsing,” which is the follow of using out the urge to select up your cellphone with out doing something about it. The extra you do it, the much less you’ll really feel you must give in to the urge.
- 📱 Make your machine much less visually engaging to lower your motivation to make use of it. Flip it black-and-white or arrange a easy residence display with solely an inventory of apps and no photos.
- 📱 Holding your cellphone out of the bed room cuts down on cellphone time by eradicating the temptation to scroll earlier than mattress, in the midst of the night time and if you first get up.
For extra recommendations on how one can higher keep off your cellphone, take heed to this episode of NPR’s Life Package. Subscribe to the Life Package publication for professional recommendation on love, cash, relationships and extra.
Image present
Actors gaze as much as the sky throughout JJ’88’s “ROOT” within the hip-hop artist and former inmate’s documentary/visible album Songs from the Gap. Earlier than the music begins, protagonist and producer James “JJ’88” Jacobs describes meditating on his and others’ redemption whereas incarcerated and in solitary confinement.
Courtesy of Netflix
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Courtesy of Netflix
Songs from the Gap is a strong visible album and documentary that tells the story of James Jacobs, referred to as hip-hop artist JJ’88, as he displays on life inside California’s jail system. In 2004, at age 15, Jacobs shot and killed a 20-year-old at a celebration. By 2021, Jacobs had spent extra time in jail than outdoors it. After assembly and befriending Contessa Gayles whereas she was on task for CNN, Jacobs and his producer, Richie Reseda, approached filmmaker Gayles with a daring imaginative and prescient. They wished to create a visible album that Jacobs had written throughout his incarceration. The movie intertwines Jacobs’ letters and recorded cellphone calls with Gayles and Reseda, showcasing scripts, shot lists and lyrics. The documentary delves into themes of Black boyhood, household ties, religion, crime, forgiveness and redemption, making a compelling narrative of resilience and hope. Take a look at these photographs from the movie.
3 issues to know earlier than you go
A screenshot from the all-out winner of the forty sixth annual Razzie Awards, Conflict of the Worlds, starring Ice Dice.
Amazon Prime Video
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Amazon Prime Video
- The remake of the basic sci-fi novel Conflict of the Worlds starring Ice Dice cleaned up on the forty sixth Annual Golden Raspberries, or Razzie Awards, which parody the Academy Awards.
- German thinker Jürgen Habermas, an influential thinker on modernity and democracy, died Saturday in Starnberg, Germany, at 96.
- Trump introduced Friday that Richard Grenell is stepping down as head of the Kennedy Heart earlier than it closes for scheduled renovations in July.
This article was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

