Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton.
Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have passed a new congressional map that likely eliminates the state's only Democratic seat.
“This is the first state to pass a new map after the Supreme Court all but struck down”
the Voting Rights Act, and appears Ashley Lopez reports. The newly passed map breaks up a congressional district that includes Memphis into multiple districts. This dilutes the voting power of the city's mostly black population, which largely votes for Democrats.
Various Republican-led states in the South are weighing redrawing districts since the Supreme Court overturned Louisiana's congressional map.
The courts conserved a majority took issue with a district that was drawn to create a second
majority black district. Louisiana is expected to redraw its map soon as well, which could add to the growing number of safe seats for Republicans. The party now has a slight edge heading into this year's midterm elections. Ashley Lopez and PR News.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent a couple of hours at the Vatican today trying to smooth
“over tensions between the Trump administration and the first American Pope.”
And PR's Michelle Kalman reports that Iran and Cuba were among the topics discussed. President Trump has called the Pope soft on crime and on Iran, but none of those tensions were on display as Rubio exchanged gifts with the Pope and met with him privately. The State Department says the meeting underscored the strong relationship between the U.S. and the Holy See and said they discussed the situation in the Middle East and
topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere. Rubio State Department has been working with the Catholic Church in Cuba to deliver aid. The Vatican has expressed concerns about a humanitarian crisis there, as the U.S. cuts off most fuel shipments, and as Trump talks about a "friendly takeover of the communist island."
Michelle Kalman and PR News, the State Department. Public health experts are raising concerns about why the U.S. government hasn't had a more public response to the haunt of virus outbreak that started on a cruise ship and PR's Gabriela Emmanuel reports.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out a brief email on Wednesday, saying”
they are monitoring the response and coordinating with international partners. Without specifics, Dini Muratzot, head of the Infectious Disease Society of America, says she would have expected press conferences a help alert and likely a team sent to help in the investigation. We have seen large-scale funding and workforce cuts made in the last year, so all of
these things are having really profound ripple effects. The World Health Organization says their teams have been in regular contact with the U.S. and getting technical advice. The CDC did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment. Gabriela Emmanuel and PR News.
Powerful storms that spawned at least three tornadoes tore through several Mississippi
counties, authorities say the storms damaged nearly 500 homes knocked down trees and power lines and injured at least 17 people that were no immediate reports of deaths. This is NPR News from Washington. The leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center has pleaded not guilty on behalf of the organization, the Department of Justice alleges that the civil rights group defrauded donors
by failing to disclose that money would be paid to informants inside extremist groups. The nonprofit says payments to informants helped it monitor threats of violence from extreme groups and saved lives. A survey from the nonprofit Treasurer Trevor Project, rather shows 36% of LGBTQ youth considered attempting suicide in the past year, and one in 10 attempted to take their own
life as NPR's retu-chattergy reports. Youth age 13 to 17 were more likely to consider an attempt suicide than older youth. More than 2/3 of respondents said that experience recent symptoms of anxiety. 57% reported experiencing depression. More than 8 in 10 respondents wanted mental health care, but 44% of those youth were unable
to access that care. Nearly half of LGBTQ+ youth reported experiencing discrimination due to their gender identity or sexual orientation. But the vast majority said they have at least one caring adult that's called supportive of their identity.
And youth who live in supportive communities are far less likely to attempt suicide compared to those in unsupportive communities, with the strategy and peer news. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is now the second longest serving justice in history overtaken someone who is nominated by President Lincoln. Thomas's tenure as of today tops 34 years, the only justice with a longer tenure is William
O Douglas whom he would overtake in 2028. There's no sign he plans to retire anytime soon. This is NPR News from Washington. Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza.
With conflict unfolding in so many places, first hand reporting has never mattered more.
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