Strait Of Hormuz Tension, Trump Primaries in Indiana, Mifepristone Court Reprieve

0:02The U.S. and Iran traded fire Monday as the U.S. planned to reopen the Strait of Hormuz began. Iran has launched multiple cruise missiles, drones, small boats, and ships we are protecting. Does this mean the ceasefire is over? I'm Leila Faldin, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. In Indiana, President Trump is working hard to primary Republican state senators who defied him on redistricting. We've never had Washington meddle into our elections like they have this time. How much pull does the president still have inside his own party? And the Supreme Court is allowing the abortion pill Mifepristone to be sent by mail for one more week, while a legal challenge from Louisiana moves forward.

0:44What happens after that? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

0:53This message comes from Superhuman, The AI productivity suite that gives you superpowers everywhere you work. AI that works alongside you, understanding where you're at, and proactively offer suggestions when you're building ideas, drafting emails, collaborating, and so much more. Superhuman helps you go from to-do to done faster. Get time back you didn't know you had. Unleash your superhuman potential with AI that meets you where you work. Learn more at superhuman.com. Some commercial ships have left the Strait of Hormuz under a major U.S. operation to reopen the waterway. Yeah, the U.S. and Iran traded fire on Monday, threatening a month-old ceasefire.

1:33The shooting erupted when the U.S. launched the operation to reopen the strait. Here's Admiral Brad Cooper, the U.S. commander, describing the first day. Iran has launched multiple cruise missiles, drones, and small boats as ships we are protecting. We have defeated each and every one of those threats. For more, we're joined by NPR national security correspondent Greg Myrie. Greg, the focus for the past month has been these halting peace efforts. So are we now all heading back to more fighting? Well, at this point, we can say we did see a major change in direction yesterday. Over the past month, the U.S.

2:08and Iranian naval blockades have kept the region very tense, lots of back and forth about negotiations, but relatively quiet. Now we see the U.S. was using this time to prepare for this operation. And there was a lot of confusion initially yesterday, reports of shooting in and around the Strait of Hormuz, of the U.S. and commercial ships on the move. It was hard to make sense of it. We finally got some clarity when Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of Central Command in the Middle East, held a hastily arranged conference call with U.S. journalists in Washington. So how did Admiral Cooper explain the operation?

2:46So he said multiple U.S. Navy destroyers passed through the strait going into the Gulf itself and assisted these two U.S. flagged commercial ships coming out of the Gulf and going through the strait in the other direction. Now, these commercial ships and the new U.S. Navy ships all came under attack from Iran. Cooper said the U.S. forces shot down the incoming drones and missiles and that U.S. helicopters sank six Iranian small boats. Iran also fired across the strait and hit the United Arab Emirates. It fired missiles and drones. It set off a major fire at the country's largest oil storage facility.

3:27This was the first time the Emirates had come under attack since the ceasefire. Any sense of how big this U.S. effort will be and what the ultimate goal is? Yeah, Cooper said the military has set up what he called a defensive umbrella across the Strait of Hormuz. Now, we've heard a lot of talk about a possible U.S. Navy escort of oil tankers, and this is something the U.S. did way back in the 1980s. But the way Cooper described it, this is not just one Navy ship escorting one oil tanker at a time. This approach is more comprehensive. I think we have a much better defensive arrangement in this process where we have multiple layers that include ships, helicopters, aircraft, airborne early warning, electronic warfare.

4:11fair, we have a much broader defensive package than you would have ever if you resist escorting. So this worked yesterday with two commercial ships. It will have to be on a much larger scale and support a steady stream of traffic to be a real success. Okay, I realize we're in the first stage still, but what are the chances of it being a success? Admiral Cooper says the U.S. has reached out to dozens of ships and shipping companies, and this plan has received an enthusiastic response. But our NPR colleague Jackie Northam spoke with shipping companies and a union representing workers on these vessels, they say they still got a lot of questions, that this doesn't sound like a guarantee of safety, and that they weren't prepared to change their risk assessment at this point.

4:55So we should really be watching for three things. Number one, will large numbers of ships try to go through the strait? Number two, will Iran keep firing on these ships? And third, can the U.S. keep these ships safe? That's NPR's Greg Myrie. Greg, thanks a lot. Sure thing, eh?

5:23Today is primary day in Ohio and Indiana, and we're closely watching half a dozen state senate primaries in Indiana. Yeah, you heard that right, state senate. But there are national implications for these local races. President Trump said the incumbents should be primaried. The results will test Trump's power of political retribution. NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith was in Indiana last week, joins us now. Tamara, Indiana is a big red state. So why is the president of the United States involved in the state senate primaries? Yeah, the GOP-controlled state senate in Indiana rejected President Trump's efforts to get them to redraw the state's congressional district lines.

6:05And Trump responded by saying the Republicans who voted no should be ashamed of themselves and should be primaried. And then his political team got to work with outside groups recruiting challengers, spending millions of dollars to boost their campaigns. He even met with the challengers at the White House. All right, so put that into perspective for us. Yeah, these are state Senate primaries, usually relatively sleepy affairs focused on local issues. But according to data from Ad Impact, there's been nearly$7 million spent just on TV ads. You can add millions more for mailers and other campaign efforts.

6:46I went out door knocking with state Senator Jim Buck and he told me this is unprecedented. I mean, you go back as far as you can go. we've never had Washington meddle into our elections like they have this time. He told me that in past cycles, if he spent$150 ,000 on his race, that would be a lot of money. This time he's had more than a million dumped on him with ads calling him a Republican in name only or rhino. He's not a never Trumper. He campaigned for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024. So what are these races about? Are they about redistricting, Trump, something else? Well, I asked State Senator Spencer Deary that, and he said the fight over the congressional maps isn't what voters talk to him about.

7:35It is affordability, affordability, affordability, I think one through three. And most people kind of remember that we did something with redistricting, but they don't really know the ins and outs. It's kind of in the weeds. And most of the ads aren't even talking about redistricting. Still, this is a test for President Trump. He is putting a lot of energy into trying to take out incumbent Republicans who have crossed him. He's also very involved in the upcoming primaries for Senator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, who voted for impeachment after January 6th, and Congressman Thomas Massey in Kentucky, who has been a general pain in Trump's side.

8:13The thing is, though, President Trump has record low approval ratings right now, and Republicans are defending narrow majorities in Congress. So why focus on primaries in red states? Marty Opst, a longtime Republican consultant in Indiana involved in this effort to oust the incumbents, told me that the president is the leader of the party and Republicans need to fall in line or there will be consequences. And he feels good about their chance of success today. I think it goes to show the strength of his political operation and also in the fact that he still has a strong amount of support, particularly in conservative red states around the country.

8:51A Trump political advisor not authorized to speak on the record said these incumbents are headed to their, quote, political slaughter. And there's plenty of campaign cash to send a message in Indiana and continue to defend Republican majorities in Congress. All right. That's NPR's Tamara Keith. Tam, thanks. You're welcome.

9:14The abortion pill Mifepristone can be prescribed online and sent through the mail until at least early next week. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an order Monday temporarily pausing an appeals court decision. Louisiana brought the case against the Food and Drug Administration, arguing that access to medication abortion should be restricted. Here to discuss this is Julie Rovner, a longtime health policy journalist. So, Julie, the ruling that's on hold is from the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans. It said mifepristone could not be mailed anywhere in the country. What happened once that decision came down?

9:49Well, I think it's safe to say there was mass confusion. Medication abortion today accounts for more than 60 percent of all abortions in the U.S., most of them using this drug. Mifepristone is also used to treat miscarriage. It's not just an abortion drug. And this order attempted to roll back its availability dramatically. doctors, patients, and drug makers all had no idea what it meant on the ground. And I should add that this came as kind of a surprise, not just because the ruling came down on a Friday after 5 p.m. in the East, but because the Trump administration itself had asked the lower court to put the case on hold until the FDA finishes an ongoing review of mifepristone safety.

10:29Presumably that won't happen until much later this year. So that brings us then to Justice Alito's order. What did that do? Well, Justice Alito has only stayed the ruling for a week until next Monday. Parties in the case have just a couple of days to deliver their argument to the justices. And next week, the court could continue to keep the status quo where telehealth abortion is available, or it could allow the appeals court ruling to take effect, or could do something else entirely. We'll have to wait and see. Now, if memory serves, I know that Mifepristone access has been before the High Court before.

11:03That's right. There was a case out of Texas in 2023. That case asked not just for availability to be rolled back to what it was prior to 2021. That's when patients physically had to get the pill handed to them by a doctor. But it asked the court to cancel the pill's FDA approval altogether. That original approval, by the way, goes back more than a quarter of a century to when Bill Clinton was president. In that case, though, the court didn't get to the question of whether or not Mifepristone should remain available because the doctors group that brought the suit didn't have standing to sue. So the justices effectively punted.

11:37That's less likely with this case out of Louisiana. Now, does this affect the political landscape ahead of the midterms? Oh, yeah. This is something that the Trump administration almost certainly does not welcome. Anti-abortion groups have been increasingly vocal about their frustration that the president hasn't done more to limit, if not outlaw, the abortion pill. And the telehealth option has basically allowed women to get around most state bans in the 20 states that now have them. President Trump has said several times he doesn't want to impose more restrictions on abortion because while anti-abortion groups may have a big megaphone and a lot of money, most voters support abortion rights, even in many of those red states.

12:18So instead of being able to finesse the issue between now and November, it certainly looks like abortion is going to be front and center in this year's elections, too. Julie Robner is Chief Washington Correspondent with NPR's partner, KFF Health News. Julie, thanks. Thank you.

12:38And that's Up First for Tuesday, May 5th. I'm Emi Martinez. And I'm Leila Fardil. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Andrew Sussman, Megan Pratz, Diane Weber, Mohamed El-Bradisi, and Jan Johnson. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow.

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