Dan Ronan

Supreme Court to lift a federal court order requiring the state to use a race-based congressional map for the state's upcoming congressional primaries.

It comes after Alabama's Republican governor tentatively approved new congressional maps to favor Republicans, part of a broader redistricting push after the Supreme Court removed race as a consideration.

NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.

Here's NPR's Scott Horsley.

It's NPR.

The Defense Department has released more than 160 records related to UFO sightings.

NPR's Bill Chappell reports more files are to be released in the coming weeks.

The planned weekend closure of a nearly 10-mile stretch of Atlanta's very busy I-285, known as the Atlanta Perimeter, has been postponed.

Transportation officials said they made the decision just hours before the Friday night closure along the busily traveled west side of the interstate because of the possibility of bad weather.

Officials have not announced a new date for the week work.

The National Football League and its referees union have ratified a new seven-year labor agreement that will avoid the league hiring replacement officials.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the league and the union did agree to several initiatives they say will improve gain of officiating and provide more training for the referees in the offseason.

This is NPR News from Washington.

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan.

President Trump has announced what he calls Project Freedom to assist ships stuck in the Strait of Hormuz to leave the waterway safely.

The effort is scheduled to start today.

Meanwhile, no new face-to-face negotiations to end the war are scheduled.

Suzanne DiMaggio is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

She's conducted unofficial negotiations with countries that have no diplomatic relations with the United States, including Iran.