Hegseth Defends Iran War, Powell Stays On As Fed Chair, SCOTUS Voting Rights Case
From Up First from NPR by NPR
April 30, 2026 · 13 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the financial implications of the Iran War, Jerome Powell's decision to stay on as Fed Chair, and a Supreme Court ruling on voting rights.
The Pentagon estimates the war with Iran has already cost 25 billion dollars as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the cost of the war in a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says he will remain on the central bank’s board after his term ends next month to shield the agency from political pressure. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the Voting Rights Act only prohibits congressional maps intentionally drawn to discriminate based on race, a decision that could make it much harder to challenge aggressive Republican-led redistricting efforts. 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 Andrew Sussman, Rafael Nam, Ben Swasey, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Ally Schweitzer. It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange. And our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens. (0:00) Introduction (02:18) Hegseth Defends Iran War (06:07) Powell Stays On As Fed Chair (09:55) SCOTUS Voting…
People in this episode
Host: NPR
Topics covered
- Iran War
- Federal Reserve
- Voting Rights
- Political Pressure
- Redistricting
Keywords
- Iran War
- Jerome Powell
- Supreme Court
- Voting Rights Act
- Redistricting
- Political Pressure
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Supreme Court
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