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Good morning. Hold the rose! ABC has canceled Season 22 of The Bachelorette, set to premiere Sunday, after a video leaked of the show's leading lady attacking her ex. Here’s the news we’re following today: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel acted alone when it struck an Iranian gas compound earlier this week. President Trump said he wasn't informed in advance of that attack. But a person briefed on the matter tells NPR that the U.S. and Israel are coordinated on all targets. Netanyahu said Trump has asked Israel to hold off on future attacks. As the war nears the end of its third week, the Pentagon is requesting Congress' approval for an additional $200 billion to assist U.S. defenses. Vahid Salemi/AP 🎧 NPR’s Carrie Kahn is in Tel Aviv, where she tells Up First that the mood is tense, even though many in the Middle East are observing the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Tension within Israel has risen after police deployed tear gas against Muslim worshippers heading to the Old City in Jerusalem. Authorities closed the Al-Aqsa mosque at the beginning of the war, citing safety concerns due to incoming missiles and lack of shelter. Mustafa Abu Sway, a member of the mosque's managing authority, argues these claims are a guise for increased Israeli control over this sacred site. 🎧 Trump yesterday met with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who joined five other U.S. allies in supporting a coalition to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Takaichi did not offer any military support to aid Trump's goals. The near-total halt of traffic through the strait has had a catastrophic effect on the global energy market. Here's why it's so hard for world leaders to bring down oil and gas prices.   ➡️ Foreign policy often ranks near the bottom of U.S. voters' concerns. But military action that goes badly has often imperiled presidents and brought irreversible political consequences. The longer the Iran war goes on, the worse it could be for Trump, based on past presidents' history. Three major reports this month reveal that Trump has rapidly harmed American democracy since returning to the White House. Bright Line Watch, which surveys over 500 U.S. scholars, concluded that the U.S. now falls nearly halfway between liberal democracy and dictatorship. The organization's co-directors spoke to NPR exclusively ahead of the survey's publication next week. An annual V-Dem report dropped the U.S.'s democracy ranking from 20 to 51 among 179 countries. A Freedom House report released yesterday said that among free countries, the U.S. recorded some of the largest declines in political rights and civil liberties last year. Mediators have presented Hamas with a formal proposal to surrender their weapons, a senior U.S. official told NPR. The plan calls for Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza to relinquish their weapons, placing the responsibility of all arms in the hands of a new governing authority. A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the written document a "take it or leave it" offer and said that the group will wait to see the outcome of the war in Iran before making a decision. The Trump administration announced a three-phase transition yesterday to shift significant management of the nation’s federal student loan portfolio from the Education Department to the Treasury Department. The interagency agreement obtained by NPR shows that in the first phase, the Treasury will resume control of collecting on defaulted student loans. The announcement marks the latest move in Trump's effort to close the Education Department.

Behind the story by Adriana Gallardo, Morning Edition editor George Brich/AP My phone kept going off on Wednesday afternoon with texts from different friends — each wanting to trade thoughts on what felt like the second death of Cesar Chavez.  His first death happened on April 23, 1993. He was 66 and died of natural causes. Over 50,000 people attended his funeral in Delano, Calif. At that time, I was in elementary school in suburban Chicago, far from California. It was then that I first learned of Chavez and his movement’s hard-fought efforts to secure better wages and improved working conditions for farm workers. As a daughter of janitors and a factory worker, I knew what better pay and the right to a union meant for people like us.  Chavez’s second death landed on Wednesday after a The New York Timesinvestigation revealed he had been accused of sexual abuse and rape.   https://adamfoxie.blogspot.com/2026/03/a-civil-rights-icon-paedophile-she-was.html