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Today’s top news
Iran fires missiles at Israel after two top officials confirmed deadAli Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani. The Revolutionary Guard announced today that it had launched multiple warhead missiles targeting the Tel Aviv area. Israel attacked central Beirut overnight, resulting in the deaths of 10 people. The Israeli military said it aimed to target Hezbollah militants and their installations.
Volunteers clean up the rubble of a residential building damaged Friday in a US-Israeli strike that damaged a nearby police station in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday.
Wahid Salemi/AP
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Wahid Salemi/AP
- 🎧 NPR’s Arejou Rezvani says First up He crossed the Haji Omeran border and spent a few hours interviewing people Those who were leaving Iran and entering Iraq. At the time, she says the most striking thing she noticed was how scared people were to speak up. Rezvani spoke to a woman in her 60s from a border city in Iran who asked not to be named for fear of government reprisals, even outside the country. The woman avoided talking about the war, but she told Rezvani that the airstrikes on her city had killed her, expressing how unbearable her life was. Iran has been under a severe internet blackout for the past two weeks, making it difficult to contact people inside the country. Iranians who managed to get online report seeing increased checkpoints in their cities and towns, where security forces are checking phones for apps used to bypass the blackout.
- ➡️ Yesterday, Joe Kent, head of the US National Counterterrorism Center, became the first A senior Trump administration official has resigned over the conflict with Iran. Kent is an Army veteran who completed 11 combat deployments in the Middle East and elsewhere. In his resignation letter, he said he could not “in good conscience” support the war, that Israel had pushed the US into conflict with a pressure campaign to “deceive” Trump, and that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
Federal Reserve policymakers today are gearing up to keep the benchmark interest rate steady Amid undeniable signs of a softening job market. Meanwhile, the ongoing war in Iran continues to drive up prices. Policymakers find themselves in a tight spot, balancing the need to stimulate hiring against the pressure to curb inflation.
- 🎧 The labor market initially seemed stableBut that changed when the February jobs report showed a loss of 92,000 jobs. Normally, that would prompt the Fed to lower interest rates to boost the economy, but stubbornly high inflation complicates that decision, especially with the energy shock triggered by the war in Iran, says NPR’s Scott Horsley. Today’s Fed vote on interest rates, like previous meetings, may be unanimous. At the last meeting, two out of a dozen policymakers pushed for lower rates a quarter point, citing concerns about a weakening job market rather than rising prices. Today’s vote will reveal whether the Fed’s risk balance has shifted in light of the disappointing February jobs report and the recent rise in gas prices.
Oklahoma’s Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin will be answering questions from senators today at his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Trump picked Mullin after removing DHS Secretary Kristy Nome from the agency’s helm. The leadership change follows months of intense scrutiny of DHS. A surge in immigration enforcement in Minnesota sparked protests and led to the deaths of two US citizens at the hands of federal agents. The agency is currently closed as Democrats push for reforms to how immigration officials operate.
Arizona’s Attorney General is accusing Kalshi of running an illegal gambling businessMarking the first criminal charges against a popular futures market site. The site’s users wager billions of dollars each week on everything from the number of rate cuts the US will see this year to what politicians might say during public appearances. State prosecutors claim Kalshi, based in New York City, operates without a gambling license, allowing residents to bet on sports and elections without approval from Arizona regulators. Sports gambling is regulated by the Arizona Gaming Commission, and gambling on elections is illegal in the state.
Deep dive
The Trump administration endorsed Colombian President Gustavo Petro (left), Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese.
Oliver Contreras, Evaristo Sa and Bastian Ohier/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
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Oliver Contreras, Evaristo Sa and Bastian Ohier/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
After Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the US attack on Iran as a violation of international law, Trump tasked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant with addressing the criticism, telling him to “cut off all business with Spain”. Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albarez said targeting his country through the Treasury “makes no sense” and would harm the entire European Union. Since Trump began his second term, his administration has imposed and lifted Treasury sanctions in a departure from historical norms, former State Department officials said. Traditionally, the Treasury Department imposes sanctions on individuals who pose serious threats to the US and their own countries.
- ➡️ Under Trump, the agency has lifted sanctions previously imposed on former US ambassadors accused of crimes and corruption, citing a lack of clear evidence of a change in their behavior.
- ➡️ Sanctioned aliens may face severe consequences. Their US assets could be frozen, they could be barred from entering the US or using US financial services, and US companies could be barred from dealing with them.
- ➡️ Trump’s Treasury Department has lifted sanctions against people whom US ambassadors and senators did not trust to address the agency’s initial concerns, including Milorad Dodik, the former president of Republika Srpska. The US previously sanctioned Dodik for “undermining the stability of the Western Balkans region through corruption and threats to long-standing peace agreements”. Dodik used his renewed US entry to meet with a Trump administration official.
Ask today
Rebecca Gayheart-Dane speaks on stage at the 16th Annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball on June 3, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.
Alberto E. for the chrysalis butterfly ball. Rodriguez/Getty Images
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Alberto E. for the chrysalis butterfly ball. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Actor Eric Dane, Dr. Starring Mark Sloan Grey’s AnatomyDied last month at age 53. Dane was diagnosed last April with ALS, a disease that attacks nerves in the brain and spinal cord, stealing a person’s ability to walk, breathe and often speak. His widow, Rebecca Gayhart Dane, told NPR she was devastated to see his voice fade. Now, he has partnered with ElevenLabs, an artificial intelligence company that creates artificial voice software. The company developed a program to help people with permanent voice loss, including Eric, re-create their voices. All things considered Host Juana Summers interviews Gayheart Dane about her caregiving role with her late husband, how she remembers Eric, and her complicated feelings about artificial intelligence.
3 things to know before you go
A US Postal Service worker sorts packages behind a mail truck in Los Angeles in 2020.
Kyle Grillot/AFP via Getty Images
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Kyle Grillot/AFP via Getty Images
- Postmaster General David Steiner told lawmakers this week that the US Postal Service could run out of cash to pay its workers and vendors in about a year, forcing it to halt deliveries.
- About 3,800 workers at a JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., the largest in the US, began a strike on Monday, according to union representatives. The strike marks the first walkout at a US beef slaughterhouse since the 1980s. (via CPR)
- An extensive review of cannabis studies over the past 45 years found little evidence that the drug helps with anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.
Edited this newsletter Suzanne Nguyen.
