Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
For a second day, Senators grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hague-Seth about the Iran War
and a huge proposed defense budget increase in PR's Quil Lawrence reports. Secretary Pete Hague-Seth cited high military recruiting numbers, as evidence of support for the Iran War, Senators like New York Democrat, Kirsten Gillibrand, pushed back. What I'm concerned about is we are not safer, and I would just like to know why you have not sought the support of the American people.
And three out of five Americans are against this war today.
“I believe we do have the support of the American people, and we have briefed regularly.”
What this mission looks like and why it's critically important that we undertake it. Gillibrand pointed to the Airint U.S. air strike that killed more than 100 Iranians school girls, and Iran's blockade driving up prices as reasons the war is unpopular. Hague-Seth said the biggest U.S. adversaries are Democrats and some Republicans who doubt the war.
Lawrence and PR news, Louisiana is suspending primary elections for its U.S. House seats. The decision comes after yesterday's Supreme Court decision that ruled the state's congressional map amounts to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
It had been redrawn to create a second majority black district in 2024, and PR's actually
Lopez reports. Louisiana's Republican Secretary of State Nancy Landry announced that most of Louisiana's primaries, including a closely-watched Senate primary, will proceed as scheduled, but not the House seats. Early voting in the state starts on Saturday and voting ends on May 16 for the state's
primaries. Absentee voting has already been underway. Republican Governor Jeff Landry said the state is sending notices to early voting sites to warn voters that even though U.S. House races will appear on their ballots, those votes will not be counted.
It is unclear when Louisiana will hold elections for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Officially Lopez and Pianos Congress passed a short-term extension of a key U.S. surveillance”
program as they continue to work toward a long-term deal. The provision in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows agencies to collect communications from foreign targets without a warrant, but it can incidentally sweep up Americans communications too. A commercial flight from the U.S. arrived in Venezuela today, and PR's Joel Rose reports
it was the first between the two countries and seven years American Airlines Flight 3599 took
off from Miami and landed a little over three hours later in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. It was the first direct commercial flight between the two countries since the Department of Homeland Security ordered an indefinite suspension in 2019, citing security concerns. The resumption of regular commercial service to Venezuela comes months after the U.S.
captured then President Nicolás Maduro, in a nighttime raid on his residence in Caracas in early January, the U.S. formally reopened its embassy there in March. American was also the last U.S. airline flying to Venezuela in 2019, after Delta and
“United pulled out of the country two years earlier.”
Joel Rose and PR News. It's NPR. President Trump says he's removing tariffs on Scotch whisky after this week's White House visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla, Trump posted online that the royal couple got him to do something that nobody else was able to do.
It's unclear if the tariffs were being lifted on bottles of Scotch or on the materials used to produce alcohol in both countries. A new test for tuberculosis is fast, affordable, portable and accurate, according to the new study, our annual reports. The most common test for TB involves sampling someone's flim, and looking for the tell-tail
bacteria under the microscope. But the tests often wrong. The new mini-dock MTB was recently announced, which scans flim or a mere tongue swab for DNA from the TB bacteria. UC Irvine pulmonologist Adithia Katamanchi and his colleagues enrolled almost 1,400 patients
to find that the new test is accurate and easy to use. What we hope it means is that many more people will have access to high quality TB testing. The test may not work for those with early stages of the disease, and it can't distinguish between regular TB and the drug resistant variety. But Katamanchi argues it's still a real step forward.
For NPR news, I'm Ari Daniel. A Tennessee developer is betting that cattle grazing and solar panels can't coexist. Silicon Ranch is debuted a 40-acre solar and cattle farm outside of Nashville. It's fairly common now to see sheep grazing at solar sites, but cattle have been too big to fit safely under panels.
Silicon Ranch has developed a system that rotates the panels horizontally when cattle are grazing nearby, giving them room to roam. This is NPR. This year, for the first time in NPR's history, public media is operating without federal funding.
That means NPR needs your support now, more than ever. I'm Brittany loose from its benefit. Please do your part to keep independent, reliable news coverage strong, and support the podcasts that get you through the day by making a gift for public media giving days.
