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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh.
Chapter 2: What recent political developments are happening in Tennessee?
Protests at Tennessee's state capitol where Republican state lawmakers have approved a new U.S. House map that divides a majority black district representing Memphis. It's part of a broad effort President Trump has pushed in the South to give Republicans an edge in retaining their congressional majority in this year's midterm elections.
Today's development comes in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that further weakened the Voting Rights Act as it struck down a congressional map in Louisiana that created a second majority black district. Iran is denying that its armed forces were responsible for an explosion aboard a South Korean tanker stranded in the Strait of Hormuz.
NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul that South Korea is still investigating the cause of the blast.
An explosion hit the Panamanian-flagged cargo ship operated by a South Korean shipping company on Monday. A fire then broke out in the engine room, but there were no injuries. President Trump said that Iran had fired on the ship and said that's why South Korea should join Project Freedom, intended to escort merchant ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
But Iran's embassy in Seoul said in a statement that it had nothing to do with the explosion. Seoul said it did not need to consider joining Project Freedom, as Trump himself announced its suspension after about two days. The ship is being towed to a dock in Dubai and a South Korean government team has been sent to investigate. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.
Due to the war, world oil prices are high, but they have eased back. Patrick DeHaan at GasBuddy says it'll take a while to see relief in storing U.S. gas prices.
The national average is starting to decline. It's down about a penny a gallon today, nothing significant, but it does generally take a little bit longer for declines in prices to start rippling down the station.
AAA reports that people are paying now, on average, $4.56 for a gallon of regular gasoline. A new poll shows Americans believe many members of Congress are too old. NPR's Elena Moore reports on the latest findings from NPR, PBS News, and Marist.
The poll looked at support for maximum age limits and term limits for members of Congress, and it found that the vast majority of Americans, 8 and 10, support both. It's also got bipartisan backing. 78% of Democrats and 83% of Republicans like the idea of age caps, and similar amounts support term limits. 18-year-old Michael Hatch of Eudora, Kansas, feels that way about leaders in Washington.
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Chapter 3: What caused the explosion on the South Korean tanker in the Strait of Hormuz?
Authorities in South Africa and Europe are tracing contacts of the passengers who left the ship. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus weighed in on the current outbreak.
Our priorities are to ensure the affected patients receive care that the remaining passengers on the ship are kept safe and treated with dignity and to prevent any further spread of the virus.
Health officials still maintain the risk to the wider public remains low. In Asia, robots help assemble cars in factories and serve food in restaurants already. Robots are also in the business of spirituality now. NPR's Emily Fang reports on a robot monk who has joined a Buddhist order in South Korea.
Nicknamed Gabi, meaning Buddha's mercy, the robot monk led prayer at a temple in central Seoul this week. Helping human monks chant Buddhist sutras, Gabi was inducted into a prominent Buddhist order in South Korea. And its ordination was a bit of a novelty. And it's a sign of how Asia's Buddhist communities have been trying to update and mainstream their faith practice.
In Japan, where Buddhism is also widely practiced, a robot monk prototype dubbed the Buteroid by its inventors is programmed with scripture and can correct those studying Buddhist texts. Emily Fang, NPR News. It's NPR.
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