1A

What does it mean to matter — to loved ones, to your community, at your job?

Feeling like we have value and purpose in life is something humans inherently crave. But recent work on the topic takes this a step further – arguing that it is critical to our very existence. As critical as our need for sleep, food, and air.

Why does it matter if we matter? We sit down with two experts to try and answer that question.

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Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie lost his state’s GOP primary to a Trump-backed candidate this week. The seven-term congressman became a target for the president over the former’s desire to release the files related to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Thomas Massie and Bill Cassidy are now lame-duck Republicans after losing their primaries to Trump-backed challengers. Where does that leave razor-thin margins in Congress?

President Donald Trump’s seemingly doomed lawsuit against the IRS has resolved itself in an unprecedented way this week. A settlement in the case includes a clause that precludes the agency from investigating the president, his family, and his businesses ever again.

And Trump allies get a $1.8 billion boost in the form of a new so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund paid for by taxpayers. That money could be giving pardoned January 6 insurrectionists payouts – and is drawing bipartisan ire.

And, in global news, Iranian officials are accusing the U.S. of getting ready to start a new war as the American military makes moves in the Middle East. Both parties mull a new proposal, and familiar messaging from the White House. Also this week, Iran formalizes a plan to make money on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself in a precarious political situation this week as Knesset, votes to dissolve itself ahead of another election. Now, Netanyahu must find a way to keep his right-wing coalition from collapsing amid pressure from his nation’s ultra-orthodox parties.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to China to meet with its president, Xi Jinping, a week after President Donald Trump made the same trip.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

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A war the president promised would last weeks is now in its third month. And the ripple effects are rocking the global economy.

The Strait of Hormuz is still closed to most ships. Iran, the U.S., and Israel don’t look ready for a peace deal. Iran’s air force and navy are severely damaged. But recent intelligence reports say the regime has control of more missiles and weapons systems than the Trump administration has acknowledged, and that it’s taking advantage of the ceasefire to rearm.

Meanwhile, Iranians are living under a blockade. Gulf states are absorbing the shock of Iranian missiles and of economic uncertainty.

What does the Middle East look like now? Who wins, who loses, and what happens to American influence in a region it just turned upside down? Luckily, we know just the man to ask.

Gregg Carlstrom’s is a name that might be familiar to listeners of the News Roundup. He’s been The Economist’s Middle East correspondent since 2010. He’s also the author of the book, “How long will Israel survive? The threat from within.” We sit down with him to talk through the latest in the region.

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This week, thousands of Americans attended a day-long conservative prayer gathering. The event was billed as a rededication of the U.S. as “One Nation Under God” for our nation’s 250th birthday.

The gathering was a private-public partnership backed by the White House. Non-Christian voices of faith were notably absent, apart from one Jewish rabbi. Almost all the speakers featured were Christians and most were Evangelicals. Some were Trump cabinet members and lawmakers.

With the separation of church and state and the freedom of religion baked into the founding of our country, what does our nation’s relationship with faith look like today? Does the America of 2026 represent what our founding fathers intended?

In this special broadcast of 1A in partnership with Religion News Service, we leave our studio and head to American University in Washington D.C. where we sit down with a panel of experts in front of a live audience.

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It’s been more than two weeks since the Supreme Court made the decision to weaken a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That piece of the legislation protected minority voters from discrimination in elections. Now, that ruling has invoked a new wave of calls to reform the court.

In the last installment of our “If You Can Keep It” series, we discussed what those reforms might look like, from expanding the size of the bench, to restricting the shadow docket.

Our listeners had so many thoughts on whether and how to reform the court that we decided to return to that conversation to talk more about what’s possible and answer more questions.

So, what happens when the Supreme Court loses credibility among a large swath of the country? And how can the court get it back when partisanship on the bench has become the expectation.

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