Steve Inskeep

All this as the war continues to spread across the region.

Israeli attacks continue in Lebanon, and Iranian strikes are causing turmoil in numerous Gulf countries.

Whoever is chosen will sit atop a complicated governing system.

There's an elected president, there's a legislature, there's a lot of security agencies, a regular army, and a whole separate army called the Revolutionary Guard.

But if you put that government on a chart, all the lines of power ultimately would run back to that supreme leader.

Beijing is sending a special envoy to the Middle East to help mediate.

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Today's Up First was edited by Hannah Block, Miguel Macias, James Heider, Tina Kriah, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley.

It was produced by Ziad Bunch and Ben Abrams.

Our director is Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Nisha Hynas.

And our technical director is Carly Strange.

Hi there, Carly.

Our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens.

Join us tomorrow.

Got a message for you here.

Many people who listened up first have had the podcast directly shuffled into their feed, automatically shuffled into their feed.

That's changing for some, so you need to be active and make sure to follow up first in your podcast app to continue getting this service.

That way you'll never miss the news, which comes right now.

He has an opportunity to clarify in a State of the Union speech.