Middle East At War, Congress Briefed On War, Texas and North Carolina Primaries

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 USA are prepared for weeks of fighting.

I mean, Martinez, that's Leyla Faddle, and this is up first from NPR News.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the US attacked Iran because Israel was going to

attack Iran and Iran would retaliate.

We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from flricting hard damage.

He gave a briefing to Congress before they prepared a vote on a measure to curb the President's

war powers. And it's primary day in Texas and North Carolina to closely watch 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.

This message comes from Rinse, who knows that mastering the perfect house party table

spread takes time. But so does laundry. So Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your

door, expertly cleaned. And you can take the time once spent sorting and waiting, folding and

queuing to finally pursue your real passion. Rolling delicate roses of Capacola alongside

meandering ribbons of Amon Serrano, transforming a humble plank of weathered barnwood into a show

stopping charcuterie spread. Rinse, it's time to be great. This message comes from Amazon

Business. Every business starts with an idea. How can you go from daydreamer to industry leader?

Amazon Business accelerates your journey. With smart business buying tools,

get everything you need to grow in one familiar place. From office supplies to IT essentials and

maintenance tools, Amazon Business takes the familiar Amazon buying experience and adds tools

that help you save costs and make inside space decisions. Ready to bring your visions to life?

Learn how at amazonbusiness.com. The war in the Middle East continues to expand.

Israeli warplanes this morning are striking Iran and Lebanon. And the US is calling on its

citizens to evacuate more than a dozen countries across the region as Iran retaliates.

NPR's Daniel Estrin has been in Tel Aviv covering the war since it began this weekend.

Daniel Ari, 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. US 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 US. Yeah. And then of course, the war is also expanding all over the

region. Yeah. Hasbala 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 his Bala infiltration. I should say this is very low grade warfare so far

between Israel and his Bala. We're not seeing Israel taking out major Lebanese infrastructure.

You know, the US supports the Lebanese government. Hasbala fire is not at its most intensive.

What is happening in the Gulf, however, is huge. Iran is pounding US positions in the Gulf.

Several US service members have been killed. The US embassy in Saudi Arabia was hit by Iranian drones

and causing minor damage there. Qatar says it shot down Iranian war planes. This is the first

known instance of Iran's sending war planes toward Qatar. And the first instance we know of a

Gulf Arab country actually attacking Iranian aircraft. That is an expanded role for a Gulf Arab

country. What Qatar did attacking Iranian war planes. And so now we're going to be watching

for whether Arab countries being attacked by Iran now will actively join the war.

That's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Daniel, thanks. You're welcome.

Trump administration officials briefed top lawmakers in Congress on Monday about the US

and Israeli war against Iran. Now, reactions are split along partisan lines. Here's a 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 or

expected 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 Spratt. Hey, Barbara.

Hey, Leila. Okay. So let's start with the briefing. What did we learn? Well, Secretary of State

Mark 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 Democrats 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 power's 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 Democrats indicating that that is forthcoming. They are

still pushing for changes to immigration enforcement. That's NPR's Barbara Spron. 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 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 contests as a kind

of litmus test. What should we know about the Democratic race?

Sure. So the front runners in that race are Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and James

Talleriko, 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 like

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 Talleriko? Yeah, well, Talleriko 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 Talleriko largely agree. Okay, let's turn to the Republican side of this incumbent

Senator John Cornin is running for reelection. 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. Cornin was elected in 2002, which his opponent say make him like a conservative from

a different time, although Cornin often points out that he votes with Trump consistently.

Ken 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 Had to has been pulling

third in the race, but garnering enough support that, I mean, it is likely this race could

have had to run off. 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 front runner is former governor Roy Cooper. He's got a lot

of name recognition and has proved he can win statewide multiple times. The front runner for

Republicans is former RNC chairman Michael Wattley. 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 supporting

reporters on the ground in your community and around the world.

And that's up first for Tuesday, March 3rd. I'm Layla Faldon.

And I'm Amy Martinez. Today's episode of our first was edited by Miguel Macias, Kelsey

Snail, Padma Ramma, Mohamed El Bardici, and Alice Wolf. It was produced by Ziyad Butch,

Ana Perez, and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from

Nisha Hainas. Our technical director is Carly Strange and our supervising senior producer

is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow.

This message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills,

bogus fees and free perks, Mint Mobile might be right for you with plans starting from 15 bucks a

month. Shop plans today at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three month

five gigabyte plan required. New customer offer for first three months only.

Then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.

This message comes from Jerry. Are you tired of your car insurance rate going up,

even with a clean driving record? That's why there's Jerry. Your proactive insurance assistant.

Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and helps you switch with ease.

Jerry even tracks market rates and alerts you when it's best to shop. No spam calls,

no hidden fees. Drivers who save with a Jerry could save over $1,300 a year. Switch with confidence.

Download the Jerry app or visit Jerry.ai slash NPR today.