Up First from NPR - Project Freedom Strait Of Hormuz, Louisiana Redistricting, Senate Midterm Landscape

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

President Trump announced the U.S. military will begin escorting commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz in an operation he calls Project Freedom, even as he reviews a new offer from Iran and keeps the option of renewed strikes on the table.Louisiana’s governor suspended U.S. House races so lawmakers can draw new congressional maps after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act, part of a broader Republican push for aggressive redistricting ahead of the midterms.With President Trump’s approval ratings near new lows, Democrats see a narrow but real opportunity to flip the Senate this fall in several key races including North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Susanna Capelouto, Mohamad ElBardicy and Arezou Rezvani.It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.Our director is Kaity Kline.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.(0:00) Introduction(02:52) Project Freedom Strait Of Hormuz(07:39) Louisiana Redistricting(11:01) Senate Midterm LandscapeSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Good morning, Michelle. Good morning, Leila. So real quick, before we start today, a reminder that we just celebrated public media giving days here at NPR. That's right. And this is a big deal for Up First and all the podcasts you love from NPR because we are public media, non-profit, independent, freely available to everybody like you. Yeah, the whole public, if you will. We're also supported by you, the public and up first listeners like Lauren in Oregon. She's a recent donor to the NPR network who says,

The world feels overwhelming sometimes, but you all provide a manageable amount of news that keeps me informed. It's so important to have engaging and accurate news sources that are accessible to all. Well, thank you, Lauren. It is our privilege to do this work for you, and we appreciate your support. Public Media Giving Days were officially on May 1st and 2nd, but it's not too late to make your gift in support of us at public media. You can do that at donate.npr.org. And thank you. President Trump says the U.S. will guide stranded ships out of the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, he's considering a proposal from the Iranians.

Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish him forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? I'm Michelle Martin. That's Lelifato and this is up first from NPR News. Louisiana's governor suspends house races in his state so lawmakers can draw new congressional maps after the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act. They're literally trying to take power from the people. How aggressive will the redistricting get before the midterms? And with President Trump's low approval ratings, Democrats see a narrow path to flipping the Senate this fall, which races could decide control. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

President Trump says the U.S. will guide stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz starting today. He called the Operation Project Freedom and described it as a mission to free hundreds of ships and their crews who have been stuck in the waterways. since the start of the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, the U.S. task forces asking ships to reroute through Omani waters. Trump says he's also reviewing a new offer from Iran and has left the option of war on the table. Here he is talking to reporters on Friday. I mean, do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish him forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal? Let me answer to the opposite.

Do you want to go blast the hell out of them on? I'd prefer not. On a human basis, I'd prefer not. But that's the option. We have NPR senior political correspondent Mara Liason here to try to make sense of where things stand today with the war. Good morning, Mara. Good morning. Okay, let's start with Sunday's announcement.

What more do we know about how the president plans to safely escort ships through the strait? Well, we don't know a whole lot. Donald Trump has described this as a humanitarian mission to help ships that are stuck in the strait and running low on supplies. U.S. Central Command says it will involve guided missile destroyers, more than 100 aircraft, 15,000 service members. But this is not so much an escort service, a military escort, rather than it's to guide them. In other words, to show them where the safe routes are without sea mines. Iran says the whole thing violates the ceasefire. Now, President Trump also said he is reviewing a new offer from Iran. What do we know about that?

We don't know much about that either. Donald Trump says he's been briefed on the concept of a deal, but that the Iranians are going to give him the exact wording soon. As we heard earlier, he is saying that the war is officially terminated, but he's not ruling out future military action. The war is at a stalemate. It's been that way for some time. The bombing of Iran did not cause Iran to renege on their nuclear ambitions, and they seem to have attained a new power that they didn't have or didn't use before the war began,

and that's control of the Strait of Hormuz. There is a U.S. blockade, but the Revolutionary Guard still controls the waterway, so those are like two different blockades. And unless it's opened, President Trump will not see gas prices lowered in the United States. How much is that economic impact weighing on Trump at this point? Well, it is weighing on him politically. The New Washington Post poll shows that his approval rating on the economy is 34%. That's very low. His approval ratings are down across the board. And there are more and more Republicans in Congress that want this war to end. And where do things stand with seeking approval from Congress? Well, Congress is on recess this week.

That gives lawmakers a bit of a break. But the War Powers Act gives the President a 60-day deadline to seek congressional approval for military hostilities. That's why the President has told Congress that hostilities have officially been terminated. Hostilities began on February 28th. So what he's doing is trying to give himself another 60 days before he has to seek congressional approval. So he's trying to reset the clock. Now, Trump is also preparing for a trip to China, a trip that was previously delayed because of this war. How does that play in here?

Well, it's complicated. Donald Trump has taken a lot of armaments out of the Pacific and sent them to the Middle East. That has some defense experts worried that the U.S. would not be able to defend Taiwan if China decided to invade it soon. China gets a lot of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, so the war is hurting them. But it's also been a boost to China because they control over 70 percent. of the supply chains for solar energy equipment and EVs. So in that sense, it's been a boost for China. Meanwhile, the Pentagon says it will withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany over criticisms of his handling of the war. What is happening? Well, what's happening is the president was very angry at German Chancellor Frederick Mertz for saying that the U.S. had no real strategy in Iran.

Right now, there are about 38,000 U.S. troops in Germany, and the president says he wants to bring home a about 5,000 of them. Defense experts say that could hurt the United States even more than Germany because the U.S. needs those troops in Germany to run U.S. bases or stage operations in the Middle East. And that announcement about pulling out troops has gotten some pushback from Republicans in Congress. The chairman of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee issued a joint statement saying that reducing America's forward presence in Europe sends the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin. That's NPR's Mara Liason. Thank you so much, Mara. You're welcome. Republicans in several southern states are racing to pass new congressional maps in time for the midterms. They are responding to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court that gutted the Voting Rights Act.

In Louisiana, the governor suspended U.S. House races so the legislature can draw a new map. Early voting actually started there this past weekend. Aubrey U.S. of Member Station at WN.O is following the situation in Louisiana, where the Supreme Court case. originated and joins us now. Good morning, Aubrey. Good morning, Lila. So where do things stand right now? Yeah, the day after the Supreme Court threw out Louisiana's congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, state officials suspended house races arguing they had to do it in light of the ruling, though the court didn't tell them to do that. That map had been drawn under court order in 2024 to create a second majority black district out of six. Black residents

make up about a third of the state's population. This comes amid an unprecedented redistricting race that President Donald Trump set off in an effort to help the GOP hold the House in the midterms. So when Louisiana's governor, Jeff Landry, put the state's U.S. House races on hold, Trump thanked him for doing that. This week, lawmakers are expected to start working to pass a new map that could eliminate one or both of the state's majority black districts. How are voters reacting? Yeah, I was out in New Orleans on Saturday, the first day of early voting to visit an early voting site. And there were people who honestly weren't sure what to do since the House races are still on the ballot. It was

too late to take them off, and officials have said votes cast won't be counted. At the poll I went to, there wasn't any big signage explaining the change, just a sheet of all the races that were supposed to be happening that was up on the wall, and it had been updated in pen. Someone had written canceled next to the House races and cross them out. So some voters said they cast votes anyway just in case. I asked Saria Jackson if she felt it was reasonable for the state to suspend races at the last minute. Nowhere near reasonable. They're literally trying to take power from the people. I also spoke with Pete Creasy, and he used language I've been hearing from some older black people in Louisiana. They feel like we're in a new Jim Crow era.

Well, the thing is, it'll go back to where it was in the 1960s. They're doing the same thing over and over. Creasy said there needs to be another civil rights movement, and that's something several people told me. Have there been any legal challenges to the suspension of these House races? Yes, voters, voting groups, and candidates have filed multiple lawsuits in state and federal courts. They say the governor doesn't have the right to put things on hold, that it should be up to the legislature. They also argue it was too late since absentee ballots were already sent out and in some cases returned and that there are lots of other potential legal problems. Rick Hassan is an expert in election law at UCLA's law school. He's not involved in the cases.

The bottom line is this is one of the most complex tangled web of issues. Aubrey, any idea on how or when this may get untangled? Yeah, some judges have already denied requests to force the House races to happen as scheduled with the old map. And they're expected to start weighing in on some of the larger legal questions as early as this week. Meanwhile, early voting will continue until Election Day on May 16th. Aubrey, U-Huss is with member station WWNO in New Orleans. Aubrey, thank you for your reporting. You're welcome.

Republicans face a challenging political environment in this year's midterms, a difficult economy, a war in Iran, and a president suffering from low approval ratings. Republicans are clinging to a razor-thin majority in the House, and Democrats still have good odds to take control of the lower chamber. But what about the Senate? Did Democrats actually have a chance at flipping it, too? NPR's senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro has a new analysis out on these races, and he joins me now. Good morning, Domenico. Hey, Layla. Okay, so what about it? Can Democrats take control of the Senate?

At the outset of this cycle, I would have said that's highly unlikely a year ago. You know, Republicans have a three-seat majority, which may not sound like a lot, but considering where the competitive seats that are up are, it's a lot of traditionally Republican turf. But with the national environment continuing to sour for President Trump and with some Democratic recruiting wins, it's become at least a possibility. Okay, so what are some of the states you are watching? Well, for Democrats to pull it off, they actually need a net gain of four seats because with Trump in the White House, Vice President J.D. Vance would come in to break ties. Democrats see what they call a core four states that can get them there. That includes North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, and Alaska. All of those, except for Maine, are states Trump won in 2024. Democrats are already favored in North Carolina because they got a pretty good recruit there in former Governor Roy Cooper. he's off to a good fundraising start. He's leading in the polls. He's up against Trump's former Republican

National Committee Chairman Michael Watley. Okay, that's North Carolina. What about Maine, Ohio, and Alaska? Well, Maine has a nearly 30-year incumbent in office, Republican Susan Collins. So this isn't the easiest path for Democrats. The current governor, Janet Mills, was a big recruiting win for Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. She was his preferred candidate. But she dropped out of the race last week because she was way behind in the polls and fundraising to Graham Platner, who's a progressive upstart, and he's an oyster farmer, and progressive favorite who's never won an elective office. Democrats do have two more strong recruits in Ohio and Alaska. Former Senator Sherrod Brown is back in Ohio.

He's running against Republican incumbent John Hustead. In Alaska, former congresswoman Mary Peltola is making it a very local race. Her slogan is fish, family, freedom. but she's running against an incumbent Republican and Dan Sullivan and a state Trump won by 13 points. So pardon the pun here, but it might not be so easy for Democrats to reel this one into the boat. So how do Republicans see things? Well, they acknowledge the difficult environment. They point to the history that parties out of power usually pick up a seat or two or three.

They're hoping for an improved economic landscape, certainly for states like Ohio and even Iowa, which have been hit hard by tariffs. Ohio's race, by the way, will be set tomorrow after the primary there. But Republicans maintain that at the end of the day, they will retain control, even if it's narrowly. And they point out that they're on offense in some places, too. Like where? But the top of their list is Michigan. They like their candidate there in Mike Rogers, former congressman cuts a moderate profile.

He came up just short in 2024 against then-congresswoman Alyssa Slotkin. Now he's competing for an open seat with Democrat Gary Peters out of the race. he's retiring. A win there would throw a serious monkey wrench into Democrats' takeover plans. But, you know, they think that places like Georgia and New Hampshire could also be very close in the end for Republicans, so still a lot to be decided here. Domenico, we've also been hearing that left-leaning voters are not exactly thrilled with the Democratic Party. How is that showing up in the campaigns? Well, polls have shown significant unease with the Democratic Party from the kinds of voters who should be voting for them, especially younger, more progressive voters. voters. This divide, though, is mostly simmering below the surface right now this year because the left is pretty unified in their opposition to Trump and his policies. But this is going to become a major theme to watch in 2028. That's NPR senior political editor and correspondent

Domenico Montanaro. Thank you, Domenico. You're welcome. And that's up first for Monday, May 4th. I'm Lela Falded. And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Susanna Capoludo, Mohamed El Bardisi, and Arzu Resvani. It was produced by Zier Butch and Mia Dumas. Our director is Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines and our technical directors, Carly Strange.

We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.