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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 are the latest inflation rates reported by the Commerce Department?
The annual rate of inflation has gone up. The Commerce Department sat with a new report showing the rate of 3.8 percent last month compared to a year earlier. On a monthly basis, prices rose four-tenths of a percent. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has refused to temporarily block an executive order from President Trump. It calls for restricting voting by mail.
NPR's Hansi Lowong reports that another judge in Massachusetts is preparing to rule on the same order in the coming weeks.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols found it's too early for an emergency ruling that would block Trump's order because the order's main directives have not been carried out yet. This leaves in place, at least for now, Trump's latest executive order that tests the limits of the president's power under the Constitution. The order calls for the federal government to create lists of adult U.S.
citizens in each state. It also calls for banning the U.S. Postal Service, which is a financial supporter of NPR, from delivering mail-in ballots to anyone not on those lists. Democrats and voting rights groups argued in court the Constitution gives power to state legislatures and Congress, not the president, to set federal election rules.
Since Trump signed the order in March, it's been unclear whether and how it would actually affect voting by mail, which has continued for this year's midterm primary elections. Anzi Luwong, NPR News.
The Israeli military says a Hezbollah drone killed an Israeli soldier in northern Israel, and Israel is widening its offensive in Lebanon.
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Chapter 3: What recent legal developments are happening regarding voting by mail restrictions?
Here's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv.
The soldier was killed and two other soldiers were wounded in the Hezbollah drone attack on a military area of northern Israel. The Israeli military is struggling to thwart increasing Hezbollah drone attacks, which have killed several other Israeli soldiers in recent weeks. In Lebanon, Israel says it has carried out a wave of attacks on Hezbollah targets around the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
Israel warned residents to leave nearly the entire city. Israel and Lebanon have been holding rare direct talks to try to end the fighting. Israeli and Lebanese officials are expected to meet again Friday at the Pentagon. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
The Justice Department has charged a Google employee with using confidential information to bet on the site Polymarket. More from NPR's Bobby Allen.
Michele Spagnuolo is an Italian Google software engineer residing in Switzerland. Federal prosecutors say he gained access to internal documents showing who would be the most Googled person of the year in 2025. That led to $1.2 million in profit on Polymarket. He now faces commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering charges.
He had an initial court appearance in New York and has been released on bail. Last month, a U.S. military official was charged with profiting off of classified information about the capture of Venezuelan leader NicolƔs Maduro. President Trump has vowed that prediction markets would thrive in his term.
Despite the two cases, his administration has taken a mostly light touch approach to the controversial industry. Bobby Allen, NPR News.
This is NPR News. A new analysis finds the United States continues to spend more on health care than similar countries and have worse outcomes. And PR Selina Simmons-Duffin explains American life expectancy is 79 years, nearly three years less than the average life expectancy in peer countries.
Every few years, the think tank the Commonwealth Fund does a major analysis comparing the U.S. to other countries like Canada, Australia, Japan, and Mexico. Minera Gunja, the lead author of the latest report, says the U.S. stands out in many negative ways, Americans spend more on health care, avoid care because of costs, and have more preventable deaths. The U.S.
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