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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. In North Carolina, the matchup in one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in the 2026 midterms is set, as Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley clinched their party's primary nominations today. That's according to a race call by the AP.
Chapter 2: What are the latest updates on the North Carolina Senate race?
Primaries were also held in Texas and Arkansas. President Trump says there were no evacuation plans in place for Americans in the Middle East because things happened quickly after he decided to strike Iran. Several days into the war, the State Department is now arranging some buses and evacuation flights in several countries, as NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports.
The State Department says it's facilitating charter flights from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and it has helped 300 Americans leave Israel. An official says Americans should call a hotline to get on a list for potential flights and buses. The U.S. is waiving a law that requires Americans to pay back the government for such flights.
The State Department says it's in touch with about 3,000 Americans so far and about 9,000 managed to leave on their own in recent days. Many U.S. embassies in the region have sent home non-essential personnel. Iranian drones struck the U.S. embassy in Riyadh where there was a fire but no reports of injuries. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department.
Wall Street closed lower today as the U.S. war with Iran pushed gas prices back above the $3 mark. And Pierre Scott Horsley reports. The average price of gasoline jumped 11 cents overnight, topping $3 a gallon for the first time in three months.
Low gasoline prices had been a counterweight to inflation for most of the last year, but AAA says at $3.11 a gallon, gasoline's now slightly more expensive than it was a year ago. The war with Iran has not only pushed up global crude oil prices, but also caused a spike in the cost of natural gas. That could drive up already high heating and electricity bills.
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Chapter 3: How is the U.S. government responding to the crisis in the Middle East?
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Minnesota is suing the Trump administration over its plan to withhold $260 million in Medicaid funding from the state. And here's Selena Simmons-Duffin has more. At the beginning of January, the Trump administration's health agency that runs Medicaid told Minnesota it would withhold $2 billion in federal funding over, quote, noncompliance.
A few weeks later, the same federal agency said it would hold back $260 million. Now the state has sued over these actions in federal district court. The complaint outlies the ways that the state has tried to comply with the federal government's demands and points out that Minnesota's Medicaid fraud rate is 2%, while the national average is 6%.
The complaint says that the Trump administration's move to withhold federal funds is arbitrary and capricious and, quote, part of the administration's pattern and practice of political punishment against the state. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
Colin Gray, the father of teenage school shooter Colt Gray, has been found guilty of murder and manslaughter. Prosecutors say he bought the then 14-year-old Colt an AR-15-style rifle and allowed him access to both the weapon and ammunition. Despite warnings, his son was a danger to others. The teen admitted to shooting and killing students and two teachers at a Georgia high school last year.
Colin Gray says he didn't know about his son's plans. The trial is part of a wider push to hold parents accountable for a child's actions in school shootings. Today, the Lantern Festival was held in China and Taiwan. It's celebrated on the first full moon of the lunar calendar. And this year was a blood moon, a total lunar eclipse, which darkened the moon last night for people in North America.
And Piers-Emily Fang has more. Across Taiwan and China, people celebrated Yuan Xiao Jie, or the Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the Lunar New Year and a time for family and friends to gather. In Taiwan's Pingxi District, people gathered as tradition and let go large paper wish lanterns on which they'd written with ink calligraphy their wishes for the year of the fire horse.
And in China, people held parades and dance performances to celebrate the full moon. And people ate tangyuan, sweet glutinous rice balls often filled with sesame paste because their shape resembles the full moon, and they're eaten for good luck on Lantern Festival and the winter solstice. Emily Fang, NPR News.
Asian markets are trading lower this hour than Nikkei, the main market in Japan, down 3.1 percent. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington.
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