Israel Bombs Beirut, Attacks In Michigan And Virginia, Housing Bill
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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 classroom, killing one person.
And the Senate passed the largest housing bill in decades with bipartisan support, including a ban on large corporations buying up single-family homes, but it faces an uncertain path with President Trump.
**Correction: In a previous audio version of this episode we mistakenly stated that car that drove into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan was packed with explosives.
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 Hannah Block, Cheryl Corley, Julia Redpath, Kara Platoni, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.
Our director is Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange
Our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.
(0:00) Introduction
(01:54) Israel Bombs Beirut
(05:30) Attacks In Michigan And Virginia
(09:44) Housing Bill
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Israeli forces struck central Beirut. They ordered people to evacuate parts of Lebanon's capital |
| 0:07.7 | and conducted airstrikes on areas that weren't hit before. Israel's military chief says the operation |
| 0:12.4 | in Lebanon will quote, not be short. I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is up first from |
| 0:17.6 | NPR News. |
| 0:24.2 | Two acts of violence commanded attention on Thursday. |
| 0:29.2 | A man drove a car into a synagogue in Michigan, and a shooting at a Virginia university left one victim dead and two injured. |
| 0:31.8 | Our investigators thinking about those attacks. |
| 0:34.2 | And the Senate passed the largest housing bill in decades with both Republicans |
| 0:38.0 | and Democrats, for the most part, on the same page. It would ban large corporations from buying |
| 0:42.4 | up single family homes. Will it get the president's support? Stay with us. We'll give you |
| 0:46.9 | the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:54.1 | Israel hit central Beirut last night as part of its renewed offensive in Lebanon after the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah launched rockets into northern Israel. |
| 1:03.0 | This has been a couple of nights of some of the fiercest fighting yet between the two sides since the beginning of the war in Iran. |
| 1:09.5 | Israel says it will not stop until Hezbollah is completely |
| 1:13.5 | defeated. MPR, Sadil al-Sholchi is in Beirut. Tadil, what happened last night? So this was the third |
| 1:20.2 | Israeli strike in central Beirut since the war in Iran began. But last night, it came with the first |
| 1:26.0 | ever evacuation order for a part of central |
| 1:28.7 | Beirut. The Israeli military told people within a 300-yard radius of a building in the Bashura |
| 1:34.7 | neighborhood to leave the area. Now, that neighborhood is a busy residential and commercial area, |
| 1:40.6 | about a kilometer from where I am. It's very close to the Prime Minister's |
| 1:44.3 | office, the UN building, and some foreign embassies. And you know, ever since I arrived two |
| 1:49.9 | weeks ago, there's been this constant, loud buzz of Israeli drones overhead, but it stopped |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.