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Up First from NPR

Cassidy Loses Louisiana Primary, Ebola Outbreak, Musk Sues Altman Over OpenAI

Up First from NPR

NPR

Daily News, News

4.659K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Senator Bill Cassidy became the latest Republican casualty in President Trump’s campaign against disloyal members of his party, losing his primary in Louisiana after voting to convict Trump following the January 6th insurrection.
The World Health Organization has declared an international public health emergency over a deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has already killed more than 80 people and spread to neighboring Uganda.
A jury in California has begun deliberating in Elon Musk’s high-profile lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, with Musk claiming he was misled when he helped found the company as a nonprofit.

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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukhananov, Carmel Wroth, Kara Platoni, Mohamad ElBardicy and HJ Mai.

It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.

Our director is Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

(0:00) Introduction
(01:54) Cassidy Loses Louisiana Primary
(05:35) Ebola Outbreak
(09:14) Musk Sues Altman Over OpenAI

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Two-term Senator Bill Cassidy lost his primary in Louisiana this weekend.

0:06.3

He's one of seven Republicans to convict President Trump after the January 6th insurrection.

0:11.7

What does the race tell us about the president's control over his party?

0:14.9

I'm Amey Martinez, that's Leila Fadl, and this is up first from NPR News.

0:20.6

The World Health Organization declared an international emergency over an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and now it's spread to Uganda.

0:29.3

A rare strain of the disease has already killed more than 80 people.

0:32.9

And a jury begins deliberations today in the lawsuit by Elon Musk against Open AI's CEO Sam Aldman.

0:39.5

Musk claims he was misled when he helped launch the company as a nonprofit.

0:43.1

Altman says the mission never changed. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start

0:47.2

your day.

0:53.7

The latest casualty in President Trump's campaign to vanquish Republicans he sees as disloyal

1:00.1

is a two-term senator from Louisiana. Senator Bill Cassidy didn't make it out of a three-way

1:06.4

primary race on Saturday. Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump after the

1:12.5

January 6th insurrection, and his primary is just another sign of Trump's grip on the Republican Party.

1:18.6

NPR congressional reporter Sam Greenglass was on the campaign trail in Louisiana and joins us now. Good morning, Sam.

1:24.7

Hey, Lila. So has the president reacted to Cassidy's loss?

1:28.6

Yeah, President Trump wrote that Cassidy's disloyalty is now part of legend. And, quote,

1:34.6

it is nice to see his political career is over. And Leila, it wasn't even close. Cassidy finished

1:41.5

last in his primary. His Trump-back challenger, Representative Julia

1:45.3

Letlow, will advance to a June runoff against state treasurer John Fleming. And when Cassidy

1:50.6

conceded on Saturday night, he made this apparent dig at Trump.

1:54.7

You don't whine. You don't claim the election was stolen. You thank the voters for the privilege

...

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