Polls open on Super Tuesday; U.N. report finds attacks on Israel likely included rapes

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Today's top stories

Today is Super Tuesday, the single biggest set of elections of the presidential primary season. Votes will be tallied in 16 states and one territory. More than a third of the delegates will be assigned to determine the Republican nominee for president.

• The earliest President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump can clinch their parties' nominations is later this month, NPR's Don Gonyea reports on Up First. But voters overwhelmingly tell him they're "already looking toward a 2020 rematch." In addition to the presidential race, Gonyea says he'll be closely watching the battle for the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a North Carolina gubernatorial race and whether Democrats will win a seat in Alabama under redrawn congressional districts.
• Stay up to date on poll results with our Super Tuesday live blog, and listen tonight for NPR's special coverage on the radio.  

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday to restore Trump to Colorado's primary ballot. The justices said the state lacked authority to disqualify Trump from its primary for his actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The ruling also affects Illinois and Maine's decision to remove Trump from their state ballots.

• Though the ruling was unanimous, the justices disagreed on some points, according to NPR's Carrie Johnson. The conservative majority said Congress alone has the power to make Trump ineligible for office. It's unlikely Congress would vote on such a measure before the November election. Three liberal justices accused the majority of overreaching and violating the principle of judicial restraint. 

A new United Nations report has found "reasonable grounds to believe" that the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel included sexual violence and that some hostages experienced the same while captive in Gaza. U.N. investigators conducted dozens of interviews with survivors and witnesses of the attack and reviewed some 5,000 photographs and around 50 hours of video footage. Other U.N. bodies are also investigating reports of sexual violence by Israeli security forces on Palestinian prisoners.

• "This is the most comprehensive report yet on the issue of sexual violence that has been issued by an independent body outside of Israel," NPR's Becky Sullivan reports. The report concludes rapes likely took place in at least three locations on Oct. 7. Investigators were also detailed about the challenges they faced, including the fact that no sexual assault survivors have come forward. Researchers are calling for a full-fledged investigation. Israel has blocked such an investigation over alleged anti-Israel bias. 

From our hosts

This essay was written by A Martínez, Morning Edition and Up First host.

In 1970, my mom came to the U.S. from Ecuador on a tourist visa while pregnant with me, her invisible carry-on luggage.

She knew the tourist visa would lapse. Still, amid the hustle and bustle of getting used to life in a new country whose language she didn't speak, trying to find any odd job she could, helping my grandmother care for my mother's much younger brothers and sisters and giving birth to me, she forgot to get her papers in order. Nearly two years later, what she describes as two very polite but stern men from immigration showed up at her door to let her know that she needed to return to Ecuador and to please do it right away or they'd have to come back to remove her.

I was thinking about that as I watched the film Problemista, written and directed by former Saturday Night Live writer Julio Torres. He plays protagonist Alejandro, who, like Torres in real life, is an immigrant from El Salvador trying to find someone to sponsor him so he can get a work visa to stay in the U.S.

Despite my description of the film, Problemista is a quirky, surrealist comedy about being an optimist, chasing dreams and trying to find some humanity in the U.S. immigration system.Two polite men spoke to my mom about her immigration status. For Alejandro, however, the system has no soul.

"It is a cloud that's hovering over you when you're going through something like that because it feels [like] a problem, it's, like, invisible and omnipresent," Torres says. "That is sort of the really frustrating thing about dealing with bureaucracy, right? ... But, you know, Alejandro wants to be here. He is happy to be here. And he's sort of finding himself in this journey.

"No spoiler alert for Problemista. You'll have to watch it to see what happens to Alejandro. Tilda Swinton plays one of her funniest roles, so that's another reason to watch.

My mom? She left the U.S. for Ecuador right after the polite men's visit. I stayed with my grandparents. A couple of years later, she returned to stay, as they say, happily ever after.

Picture Show

People are living longer than ever before, causing a historic shift in the world's population. By 2030, one in six people will be at least 60 years old. Every nation will grapple with the social and economic factors that accompany a graying population. At the same time, septuagenarians have life lessons to share with the rest of the world.

See photos of 72-year-olds (the global median lifespan) from around the world.

3 things to know before you go

1. Meet the swanky peacocks and peahens that roam the streets of the Poplar Grove neighborhood in Salt Lake City, Utah. The birds, which a florist brought to the town in the 1940s, draw in visitors hoping to get a glimpse of "The magic of Goshen Street." (via KUER)
2. Spirit Airlines and JetBlue have abandoned their plan to merge. The airlines say legal obstacles would prevent the deal from taking place by their July 2024 deadline. A federal judge blocked the merger in January over monopolization concerns.
3. Residents of Ithaca, N.Y., are working together to try to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 — 20 years earlier than the target date the White House set for the rest of the country.

This newsletter was edited by Olivia Hampton. Mansee Khurana contributed.