Up First from NPR - Middle East At War, Congress Briefed On War, Texas and North Carolina Primaries

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

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 primaries that could offer an early read on where both parties are headed in November’s midterm elections.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Kelsey Snell, Padma Rama, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ana Perez and Nia DumasOur director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.And our Supervising Senior Producer is Vince Pearson.(0:00) Introduction(01:55) Middle East At War(5:51) Congress Briefed On War(09:35) Texas and North Carolina PrimariesTo manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The State Department warns Americans across the Middle East to depart now. Israel is sending troops into Lebanon as the scope of the war grows. Israel and the U.S. say they are prepared for weeks of fighting. I'm Amey Martinez, that's Leila Fadl, and this is up first from NPR News. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the U.S. attacked Iran because Israel was going to attack Iran, and Iran would retaliate. We went proactively in a defensive way. to prevent them from inflicting higher damage. He gave a briefing to Congress before they prepared a vote on a measure to curb the president's war powers.

And its primary day in Texas and North Carolina, too closely watched Senate races could tell us where both parties are headed in November's midterms. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. The war in the Middle East continues to expand. Israeli warplanes this morning are striking Iran and Lebanon. And the U.S. is calling on its citizens to evacuate more than a dozen countries across the the region as Iran retaliates. NPR's Daniel Estrin has been in Tel Aviv covering the war since it began this weekend. Daniel, are a few days in.

What stage is everything in right now? Well, yesterday Israel focused on targeting regime symbols in Iran. So it bombed the Iranian intelligence ministry headquarters, the state broadcaster, the presidential office, the building of the National Security Council. Today, Israel's military says its focus is on Iran's missiles and missile launchers. And already Israel says it has destroyed hundreds of ballistic missiles and dozens of missile launchers in Iran. And you really see a huge drop in the number of missile attacks on Israel, which could be because of all that degraded infrastructure. It also could be because Iran may be rationing its munitions gearing up for a long war.

Now, President Trump spoke yesterday about maybe this lasting, what, four or five weeks or maybe even a little bit longer. what's it looking like there? I mean, what are people thinking about how long this might last? Well, the Israeli military today said is preparing for weeks of war. I spoke with an official in the region who spoke on condition of anonymity, who told me Israel thinks it can achieve its war goals in two weeks total. But the question of war goals is a key one. We are hearing a lot of mixed messages about the goals. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Fox News yesterday saying regime change is the goal. We're going to create the conditions first for the Iranian people to get control of their destiny, to form their own democratically elected government, which will make Iran a different Iran altogether. U.S. officials, however, are walking back the idea that this is a regime-change war. They're saying only that that outcome would be nice. On the ground in Iran, we are not seeing Iranians under bombardment pouring into the streets,

protesting against their government trying to take it over. And Israel today said it's not planning to send ground troops to Iran. So there is a question of whether regime change or allowing the conditions for Iranians to overthrow their government, whether that's possible. And didn't President Trump just a few days ago tell people in Iran to stay sheltered to not go out quite yet? I do remember him saying that, right? That's right. Yeah, bombs will fall. And then afterwards he called on Iranians to take over their government.

And now we're hearing a very different message from the U.S. Yeah. And then, of course, the war is also expanding all over the region. Yeah, Hezbollah and Lebanon opened fire at Israel, and Israel is striking back. Israel also says it's sending ground troops across the border into Lebanon just along the border to patrol that border to prevent Hezbollah infiltration. I should say this is very low-grade warfare so far between Israel and Hezbollah. We're not seeing Israel taking out major Lebanese infrastructure.

You know, the U.S. supports the Lebanese government. Hezbollah fire is not at its most intense. What is happening in the Gulf, however, is huge. Iran is pounding U.S. positions in the Gulf. Several U.S. service members have been killed. The U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia was hit by Iranian drones and causing minor damage there. Qatar says it shot down Iranian warplanes. This is the first known instance of Iran sending warplanes toward Qatar. and the first instance we know of of a Gulf Arab country actually attacking Iranian aircraft. That is an expanded role for a Gulf Arab country, what Qatar did attacking Iranian warplanes. And so now we're going to be watching for whether Arab countries being attacked by Iran now will actively join the war.

SMPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thanks. You're welcome. Trump administration officials brief top lawmakers in Congress on Monday about the U.S. and Israel, war against Iran. Now, reactions split along partisan lines. Here's the House Speaker Mike Johnson. They gave us operational details. They gave us the rationale for what was done. And I was very satisfied with the briefing. And here's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. That briefing raised many more questions than it answered. Now, this comes as both chambers are expected to vote on measures to limit the president's ability to intervene further without congressional

approval. Here to talk through this is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprint. Hey, Barbara. Hey, Leila. Okay, so let's start with the briefing. What did we learn? Well, Secretary of State Marker Rubio told reporters the reason for the attacks was what he called an imminent threat to the United States. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. Now, we just heard from Senator Schumer that the briefing raised more questions than answers for him. What else are a Democrat saying? Well, one thing that really stood out to me was hearing from Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on Senate Intelligence after the briefing.

He came out and he said that he thinks the administration has kept shifting the reason as to why this happened now. A week ago, it was about the Iranian nuclear capacity. A few days later, it was about taking out the ballistic missiles. It was then about regime change. And now we hear it's about sinking. the Iranian fleet. Warner and other Democrats have made a point of acknowledging the human rights abuses and nuclear ambitions of the Iranian regime, but say the administration hasn't given sufficient justification for this military action or explained what their plan is going forward.

Now, the Constitution, that gives Congress the power to declare war, but in practice, presidents increasingly have very minimally consulted Congress on military operations. How is that dynamic playing out this week? Yeah, I mean, this is a bigger theme of the seeding of ground from the legislative branch to the executive branch. And although President Trump is ramping that up, it's certainly not new. And this week, the House and Senate are expected to vote on measures to require congressional approval for more military operations in Iran. And it may feel a little like deja vu because back in January, there was a separate war powers resolution to pull back intervention in Venezuela. that failed. The resolution this week faces similar challenges. We expect the votes will largely

fall along partisan lines, despite broad disapproval from Americans more generally about this war. But there are some outliers here on the Hill, a small number of Republicans who say they'll vote to curb the president's actions, and some Democrats who say that the resolution could actually restrict the flexibility that's needed to respond to threats in real time. And this is all happening as the Department of Homeland Security is still shut down. What's the latest there? Well, negotiations are slow. Not much progress seems to have been made since there was this shutdown in mid-February. We'll hear from DHS Secretary Christine Nome today and tomorrow on the hill. Some Republicans are actually tying this to Iran. They say that because counterterrorism falls under the broad mandate of DHS, Congress should fund the department as soon as possible. But I haven't seen any movement from Democratic. indicating that that is forthcoming. They are still pushing for changes to immigration enforcement. That's NPR's Barbara Sprunt. Thank you, Barbara. Thank you.

Voters in Texas and North Carolina are weighing in on some of the first contests of this year's midterm elections. Today is the last day of voting in those states. Both have expensive and closely watched Senate primary races that can tell us a lot more about the direction of each party. Here to talk to us about all this is NPR's political correspondent Ashley Lerner. Lopez. Good morning, Ashley. Good morning. Why is there so much attention on these two Senate seats? I mean, a big reason why is that there aren't really that many competitive House races. That's true most years, but because both these states redistricted last year, there are even fewer competitive seats this time around. So the Senate races are really where the fight is and ultimately where you can

maybe draw some insights into what voters in each party may be looking for at the start of this midterm season. Okay, let's start with Texas where both parties see the Senate contest as a kind of litmus task. What should we know about the Democratic race? Sure. So the frontrunners in that race are Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico, who is a state lawmaker from the Austin area. Going into this Crockett was perhaps the most well-known candidate of the two in her time in Congress. She's been known for verbally sparring with Republicans in the House. A common complaint about the Democratic Party from its base voters is that party leaders have been weak in their response to Trump since he took office again. And Crockett has positioned herself as a fighter.

Okay, Crockett has positioned herself as a fighter. And Telerico? Yeah, well, Tilarico has said he sees himself as a fighter too, but his style is definitely different. When he was first elected to the Texas House, he flipped a traditionally Republican seat. And a big part of how he campaigns is trying not to alienate independent and even conservative voters in some cases. He's a seminarian, so he invokes his Christian faith a lot, which could appeal to some voters. Democrats don't typically speak to. So I think just in terms of personalities and the way these two candidates talk are pretty different. but I don't think what they are actually saying is all that different because when it comes to most issues and policies, Crockett and Talleygo largely agree.

Okay, let's turn to the Republican side of this. Incumbent Senator John Cornyn is running for re-election. What kind of argument are his opponents making? Yeah. So this primary is centered around the question of which Republican is the most Trump aligned. Cornyn was elected in 2002, which his opponents say make him like a conservative from a different time. Although Cornyn often points out that he votes with Trump consistently. Paxton, Texas's Attorney General for the past decade is his most formidable opponent, and he has been mired in legal troubles for years. But he has said that like Trump, most of that has been political. The other Republican running is Congressman Wesley Hunt, who has been polling third in the race, but garnering enough support that, I mean, it is likely this race could head to a

runoff. Okay. Let's quickly talk about North Carolina. What should we watch out for there? So this is an open seat in the Senate being vacated by Tom Tillis. Tillis has been one of the few elected Republicans in Congress who has openly criticized Trump. In response, Trump had threatened to get someone to primary Tillis, but the senator chose to retire instead, which I mean at this point has become a common story in the Trump era. So this has presented Democrats with a decent shot of flipping a Republican seat. The frontrunner is former Governor Roy Cooper. He's got a lot of name recognition and has proved he can win statewide multiple times. The frontrunner for Republicans is former R&C Chairman Michael Watley. The last time a Democrat won a Senate seat in the state was

in 2008. So it's been a while. But if Democrats want to win back power in the Senate, this is one of their better shots as well as a must win for them. That's NPR's political correspondent, Ashley. Lopez, thank you, Ashley. Yeah, thank you. Before you go, if you want more of our coverage and analysis behind the news, download the NPR app where you can listen to our radio show, Morning Edition. And if you want more NPR content, please consider joining the community of public radio supporters today by signing up for NPR Plus. Your money goes to support. reporting reporters on the ground in your community and around the world. And that's up first for Tuesday, March 3rd.

I'm Leila Faldon. And I'm Amey Martinez. Today's episode of Upburst was edited by Miguel Macias, Kelsey Snell, Padma Rama, Mohamed El Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zad Butch, Anna Perez, and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines. Our technical director is Carly Strange,

and our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow.