Special Series Up First Newsletter All Up First Stories Up First Podcast Morning Edition LISTEN & FOLLOW NPR App Apple Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music iHeart Radio YouTube Music RSS link Sign up for the [TITLE] Newsletter Get perks with [Podcast Title]+ Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.
By
Brittney Melton
Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.
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.
Two women and a child holding an Iranian flag walk toward the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque to attend Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, on Friday. Vahid Salemi/AP hide caption
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.
by Adriana Gallardo, Morning Edition editor
Cesar Chavez, a farm worker, labor organizer and leader of the California grape strike, is seen in a California works office in 1965. George Brich/AP hide caption
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.
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.
The Food and Drug Administration is backtracking on stricter regulation of tanning beds. Adventure_Photo/E+/Getty Images hide caption
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen and Treye Green.
Sponsor Message
Become an NPR sponsor