Read Online  |  April 30, 2026  |  E-Paper  | 🎧 Listen

“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”

— Bruce Lee

Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor

Good morning! It’s Thursday. Here are today’s top stories:

• The U.S. Supreme Court reinterpreted a provision of the Voting Rights Act and struck down a majority-black congressional district in Louisiana
• President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and said that he will continue the U.S. Naval blockade until the regime accepts his administration’s demands over its nuclear program.
• The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged for the third straight policy meeting on Wednesday, with the meeting marking the end of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s tenure as central bank chief.
• The Florida Legislature passed Gov. Ron DeSantis’s congressional redistricting proposal. The new map would add four districts favorable to Republicans.
• 🍵 Health: Looking to protect both your health and physique despite a hectic schedule? Just 10 minutes of daily isometric core exercises can help strengthen your core muscles and even lower blood pressure.

The Supreme Court in Washington on April 28, 2026. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)

Supreme Court Issues Landmark Ruling on Voting Rights Act

The U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark decision reinterpreted a provision of the Voting Rights Act and struck down a majority-black congressional district in Louisiana, opening the door for more redistricting across the United States.

In a 6–3 ruling, the high court found that the Louisiana district represented by Rep. Cleo Fields (D-La.) relied on race when the congressional map was drawn up.

The ruling was authored by Justice Samuel Alito and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Alito wrote that “allowing race to play any part in government decisionmaking represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context.”

He said Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is effectively limited to instances of intentional discrimination, a very high standard.

“Only when understood this way does (Section 2) of the Voting Rights Act properly fit within Congress’s 15th Amendment enforcement power,” Alito wrote.

The 15th Amendment, a Reconstruction-era amendment of the Constitution that was ratified in 1870 following the end of the Civil War, allows Congress to pass laws ensuring that the right to vote cannot be denied “on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

Interpreting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which was signed into law in 1965, to “outlaw a map solely because it fails to provide a sufficient number of majority-minority districts would create a right that the amendment does not protect,” Alito argued, referring to the 15th Amendment. (More)

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell departs after a press conference following the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting at the Federal Reserve on April 29, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

POLITICS

• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he will continue to serve on the Board of Governors “for a period of time to be determined.”
• The Supreme Court appeared dividedover the Trump administration’s terminations of Temporary Protected Status shielding Haitians and Syrians from deportation.
• The U.S. House of Representatives extended a key federal surveillance program in a 235–191 vote, sending the measure to the Senate just ahead of the program’s expiry.
• The Department of Justice is proposing to roll back and modify 34 gun regulations in an attempt to benefit law enforcement and gun owners. The changes will usher in a shift in firearm policy, supported by Second Amendment advocates, with more rule changes than the ATF has issued in the last 15 years combined.
• A former government official has been charged with illegally conspiring to destroy records. A grand jury indicted Dr. David Morens, who was a senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci from 2006 through 2022, when Fauci was head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 
• The California Coastal Commission has issued an apology to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and agreed not to require coastal development permits for the company’s rocket launch program at Vandenberg Space Force Base, ending a federal lawsuit that alleged that the agency was guilty of political bias.

LATEST NEWS

• A Food and Drug Administration expert found indications of safety problemswith COVID-19 vaccines several months after they were authorized, according to newly released emails.
• Attorneys representing OpenAI on Wednesday pushed back againstallegations in federal court that the company’s CEO Sam Altman defrauded Tesla CEO Elon Musk and betrayed a founding mission to operate as an open-source, nonprofit lab dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
• The state of Texas has filed a lawsuit against a Houston-area “birth tourism” operation that the Attorney General’s office said has claimed responsibility for “1,000+ American-born babies.”
• Most infant formula tested by the Food and Drug Administration had low or undetectable levels of contaminants such as lead, the agency said.
• A U.S. special forces soldier involved in a military operation to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty on April 28 to using classified information about the secret plan to win more than $400,000 on prediction market Polymarket.

MORNING READ: She fled persecution in China. Now Beijing wants to take her freedom in the West.

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IRAN WAR

• Combat operations against Iran have cost the U.S. military about $25 billionin two months, a top Pentagon accounting official told House Armed Services Committee members.
• Iran’s rial fell to a record low on April 29, weakening to about 1.8 million to the U.S. dollar as a shaky ceasefire with the United States and Israel continued to hold, raising fears of a new inflation surge in an economy already battered by war, sanctions, and a U.S. naval blockade

WORLD

• The United States objected stronglyafter Iran was selected as one of the 34 vice presidents of the United Nations Nonproliferation Treaty conference.
• Acting U.S. Ambassador in Ukraine Julie Davis will leave her post in June and retire after three decades as a foreign service officer.
• Europe’s smaller airports are facing an “existential threat” due to the spike in jet fuel prices, according to the Airports Council International.

 

OPINION

• We Were Promised Flying Cars. We Got a Kill Switch.—by Kay Rubacek (Read)
• Leverage in the Middle East—by Tamuz Itai (Read)
• Grace Over Rage: What the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Offered the Press—by Mari Otsu (Read)
• Southern Poverty Law Center’s Alleged Fraud Exposes the Hate It Claimed to Fight—by Steven W. Mosher (Read)
• Is Your Car Underwater?—by Jeffrey A. Tucker (Read)
• Spain Sides With China as NATO Fractures Over Iran—by Antonio Graceffo (Read)

Pedestrians walk by a newly installed Charlie Kirk Way sign in Westminster, Calif., on April 29, 2026. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

📸 Day in Photos: Sailing in Poland, Israel–Lebanon Ceasefire, and Crime Scene in England (Look)

🎙️ Podcast: 7 Takeaways From RFK Jr.’s Appearances Before Congress—The Report (Listen)

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MUSIC

“Night and Sleep,” 1878, by Evelyn De Morgan. (De Morgan Centre, UK) 

Classical Music for Bedtime

Busy schedules and evening screen time can make it difficult to get the sleep we need. But establishing a nightly bedtime routine can help our overstimulated minds and bodies prepare for rest.

Classical music can be a powerful tool for one’s bedtime routine. A George Mason University article notes that listening to music in the classical tradition can provide stress relief and help with chronic pain management. It can decrease the heart rate and improve oxygen saturation. Classical music can also help support a healthy brain as we age.

The following three classical worksby celebrated composers can help calm the mind and body, creating a peaceful environment for a rejuvenating night of sleep.

In 1868, Johannes Brahms pennedone of classical music’s most popular compositions. His “Lullaby” has connected generations for more than a century as mothers have long hummed its gentle melody while their newborns fall asleep. The classical pianist and composer wrote the dreamy ballad as a tribute to his dear friend Bertha Faber and the birth of her son, but he included a hidden message in the song.

Before Faber married, she and Brahms would take walks together and, to pass the time, she would sing him a song by Alexander Baumann from the 1840s, “S‘Is Anderscht.” Brahms incorporated the Austrian folk tune into his “Lullaby” piece as a secondary melody, knowing that when Faber heard it, she’d recognize the composition wasn’t just for her son but for her as well. Brahms had become smitten with Faber during their time together, and he included “S’Is Anderscht” as a hidden message of his affection. (More)

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Thanks for reading 🙏

Have a wonderful day!

—Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li.

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