Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. Republicans have held on to a Tennessee congressional seat, but by a much thinner margin than in the past. Mariana Bakial from member station WPLN reports.

At the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Republicans celebrated after a heated race for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District.

Last year, the GOP swept this district by 22 points. Van Epps fended off a challenge from Democratic

State Representative Afton Bain, winning the election by about 9 percentage points. That's according

to a race called by the Associated Press. In his victory speech,

Van Epps said Democrats shouldn't own the conversation on affordability. And together we'll bring

down the cost of living. I'm tired of too many Republicans ceding affordability to the Democrats.

Van Epps will be back on the ballot next year for the midterms after he finishes out

his predecessor's term. For NPR news, I'm Mariana Baca Yao in Nashville. Defense Secretary Pete

Hagsath is coming under mounting pressure over the decision to launch a second strike against a

suspected drug smuggling boat in September.

Hegss spoke about the strike Tuesday, as NPR's Greg Myrie reports.

President Trump convened a cabinet meeting, and Pentagon Chief Pete Heggsess spoke about that operation on September 2nd.

That's when the U.S. military hit a suspected drug boat.

Nine people were killed, and the boat was set of flame initially.

Here's what Hegsus said.

I watched that first strike lot.

As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do.

So I didn't stick around, so I moved on to my next meeting.

So he was fully engaged when the initial attack took place and didn't remain around for what followed.

Heggs said he didn't hear about the second strike order by Navy Admiral Mitch Bradley until

later. Bradley is expected to meet with members of Congress this week. U.S. officials hunkered down

...