Chapter 1: What recent Supreme Court ruling affects Texas congressional maps?
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stephens. The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use a newly drawn congressional map that President Trump had requested. As the Texas newsroom's Blaze Ganey reports, the decision boosts chances that Republicans may retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026.
The battle over which map Texans will use for the 2026 midterm elections had an impact that spread nationwide. Republicans came out victorious with this ruling. Their new map will likely give the GOP five additional seats. Texas House Democratic Leader Gene Wu led a quorum break with lawmakers staying out of state to delay the map's passage. He says the move sends a message.
The Supreme Court allowing the maps to stand essentially means that what protections we have for voting, for communities, for people without as much power and without as much voice is over.
The ruling will also shake up which candidates decide to run in Texas. Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett has said he won't run again if these maps were in place.
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Chapter 2: How did the Supreme Court decision impact the 2026 midterm elections?
He is yet to make that official. For NPR News, I'm Blaise Gainey in Austin.
Some members of Congress have been briefed on the killings of two survivors of a U.S. military strike in the Caribbean. Navy Admiral Frank Bradley showed lawmakers a video of two men being killed after surviving the first strike on their boat. NPR's Franco Radonis explains Bradley's role in the controversy.
Bradley is the admiral who was named first by the press secretary in a carefully worded statement, by the way, and then by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as the one who specifically ordered that second strike that killed the survivors. And now he is the one facing scrutiny from lawmakers, and he's basically delivering just the latest version of how these strikes happened.
NPR's Franco Ordonez. Dozens of people have been killed in U.S. strikes on boats that the Trump administration insists were hauling drugs across the Caribbean and East Pacific and en route to the United States. President Trump's name is now in the building that housed the dismantled U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington, D.C. More from NPR's Jackie Northam.
Chapter 3: What controversial military actions are being discussed in Congress?
The U.S. Institute of Peace sits along the National Mall, not far from the White House, and has been at the center of a battle over who controls it. Earlier this year, the Trump administration seized the building and fired most of the staff. The building's fate is still in the hands of the courts. But on Wednesday, workers installed new signage on the side of the building.
It's now called the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. The move comes ahead of a ceremony to sign a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of several conflicts Trump claims to have resolved in his quest for a Nobel Peace Prize. Jackie Northam, NPR News.
U.S. futures are virtually unchanged in after-hours trading. This is NPR. A Virginia man is accused of planting pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic National Headquarters in Washington. 30-year-old Brian Cole Jr. is facing explosives charges. The devices were planted outside the Washington, D.C.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of the U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean?
party offices on the eve of the U.S. Capitol riot, but none went off. There is no immediate word on a motive for the attack or whether the incident was linked to the Capitol riot. Russian President Vladimir Putin says his military will seize control of Ukraine's eastern Donbass region. As NPR's Charles Mains reports from Moscow, Putin's remarks come days after a U.S.
delegation visited Moscow to discuss U.S.-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
In recent days, Putin has touted new Russian battlefield gains, saying they opened the way for further advances this winter. His latest comments, delivered to Indian media ahead of a visit to New Delhi, continued in that vein. Putin said Russia would take the Donbass by force of arms if Ukrainian troops didn't pull back.
Kiev has rejected that demand, which includes lands claimed but not controlled by Russia despite more than three years of war.
Chapter 5: What recent developments surround the U.S. Institute of Peace?
Putin also offered comments on this week's meeting with White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner aimed at resolving the Ukraine crisis. Putin noted he did not agree with several proposals in a U.S. peace plan, but called the talks useful. Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.
The last of three back-to-back supermoons this year peaks this week.
Chapter 6: How does the upcoming cold moon relate to seasonal changes?
This one is called a cold moon because it occurs near the winter solstice. A supermoon occurs when the celestial body is closest to Earth, making it appear brighter and larger than usual. This is NPR News.