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At this time’s prime tales
The battle within the Center East reveals no indicators of slowing down as Israel introduced new strikes on western Iran yesterday. Iran’s overseas minister has denied President Trump’s declare that Iran requested for a ceasefire. The Strait of Hormuz stays closed, chopping off 1 / 4 of oil and pure fuel 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 conflict.
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 concerning the conflict is whether or not it should finish with Iran nonetheless in possession of its extremely enriched uranium, which it might use to construct a nuclear weapon. Iran says it’s buried beneath the rubble of final 12 months’s conflict. Whereas Iran’s navy is weakened, the regime stays intact and able to inflicting international disruption. In the meantime, Israel’s plans proceed to shift. At this time, a navy spokesperson revealed that operations in Iran are set for the following 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 fuel costs soar, international markets battle and polls present that Individuals are skeptical of the conflict, Trump’s administration is pushing a message of victory. The administration at first struggled to offer clear justification for U.S. involvement on this conflict, leaving it politically weak, NPR’s Franco Ordoñez says. Jenny Stromer-Galley, who research political messaging at Syracuse College, tells him that the give attention to successful goals to shift the narrative in the direction of a theme of collective energy and imaginative and prescient. The president is repeatedly utilizing easy, sturdy language as a branding device, which Stromer-Galley says is an try to persuade folks 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 conflict.
Senate Republicans are getting ready to vote on the president’s controversial SAVE Act this week. The invoice goals to handle a hot-button concern 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 an absence of proof.
- 🎧 The invoice would require a photograph ID that proves U.S. citizenship, like a beginning certificates or passport, with a view to register to vote. Hundreds of thousands of Individuals haven’t got easy accessibility to these paperwork, NPR’s Miles Parks says. Because the vote approaches, it’s more and more possible that Trump will probably be disenchanted with the outcomes. Senate Democrats are firmly against the invoice. To move the laws, it wants 60 votes to interrupt the filibuster threshold, however Republicans solely maintain 53 seats. Trump has insisted he does not desire a watered-down model of this invoice. However Parks says that if it had been narrower and presumably centered solely on photograph ID, it might need garnered extra assist from each events.
Linda Holmes, Pop Tradition Glad Hour host, joins the Up First e-newsletter right this moment to offer key takeaways from final evening’s Oscars.
It was an excellent evening for greatest image winner One Battle After One other, in addition to for Sinners, on the Oscars final evening. There have been just a few 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 received greatest director after three earlier nominations. He additionally introduced house greatest tailored screenplay.
- 🏆 Michael B. Jordan received a uncommon greatest 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 received greatest supporting actress for her deeply unsettling and fully singular efficiency in Weapons, which is much more absolutely a horror film than Sinners.
- 🏆 Cassandra Kulukundis received 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 received greatest cinematography for her work on Sinners, was solely the fourth girl, and the primary girl of shade, to be nominated within the class. She is the primary girl to win.
Take a look at images from the pink carpet and see the full listing of winners.
Keep popular culture savvy by subscribing to the Pop Tradition Glad Hour e-newsletter. As soon as every week, you will get NPR’s information to motion pictures, TV, books, music and extra.
Life recommendation
It may possibly really feel tough to reclaim your time and a focus 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:
- 📱 Attempt “urge browsing,” which is the apply of driving 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 it’s important to 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 house display screen with solely a listing of apps and no photos.
- 📱 Retaining your cellphone out of the bed room cuts down on cellphone time by eradicating the temptation to scroll earlier than mattress, in the course of the evening and if you first get up.
For extra tips about tips on how to higher keep off your cellphone, hearken to this episode of NPR’s Life Package. Subscribe to the Life Package e-newsletter for knowledgeable 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 tune 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 robust visible album and documentary that tells the story of James Jacobs, often called 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 exterior 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 needed 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 pictures 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 traditional 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 Middle earlier than it closes for scheduled renovations in July.
This article was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.