Up First from NPR

Up First from NPR

NPR's Up First is the news you need to start your day. The three biggest stories of the day, with reporting and analysis from NPR News — in 10 minutes. Available weekdays at 6:30 a.m. ET, with hosts Leila Fadel, Steve Inskeep, Michel Martin and A Martinez. Also available on Saturdays at 9 a.m. ET, with Ayesha Rascoe and Scott Simon. On Sundays, hear a longer exploration behind the headlines with Ayesha Rascoe on "The Sunday Story," available by 8 a.m. ET. Subscribe and listen, then support your local NPR station at donate.npr.org. Support NPR's reporting by subscribing to Up First+ and unlock sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/upfirst

Episodes

March 18, 2026 13 mins
Iran is retaliating for the killing of its top security chief with strikes across the region overnight, and Iranian are crossing into Iraq just to buy food they can no longer afford at home.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Cuba needs new people in charge, raising questions about what the Trump administration is actually planning for the island.
And the Federal Reserve meets today facing a scrambled economic outlook with...
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Israel intensified its air and ground operations in Lebanon overnight, with airstrikes hitting southern Beirut and millions displaced as the war shows no signs of letting up.
President Trump is scolding NATO allies for not doing more to protect the Strait of Hormuz — as European leaders remain hesitant to get involved in the war with Iran.
And Trump says he expects to "take Cuba" just as the island suffers another catastrop...
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Israeli officials say the man who attacked a Michigan synagogue last week had family killed in an airstrike in Lebanon, Israel says they targeted a Hezbollah commander in the home.
President Trump is repeating one message as the war enters its third week  'the U.S. is winning', even as gas prices soar and Americans grow more skeptical of the Middle East war.
And Senate Republicans are pushing a bill to require proof of citize...
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March 15, 2026 45 mins
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 found instances in which athle...
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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. 

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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 fire in a Virginia university class...
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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 Pentagon has determined the U.S. is...
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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 midterm elections.
And in Georgi...
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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 country while signaling he's re...
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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 the Kurds will not be part of th...
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March 8, 2026 30 mins
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 material, often with little com...
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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.

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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 and Caracas are suddenly cuttin...
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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 Middle East as Beijing’s annual “...
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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 first midterm primary re...
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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 in two expensive Senate primar...
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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 could last.
And Iran’s retaliatio...
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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 today to whether the US will take over ...
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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. 

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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.
And Warner Bros. Discovery ab...
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