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

Summary

Up First (NPR) — May 18, 2026

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

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Overview

This episode covers three major stories:

1. Senator Bill Cassidy's loss in the Louisiana GOP primary, a reflection of Donald Trump's enduring influence over the Republican Party.
2. The World Health Organization’s declaration of an international emergency following a deadly Ebola outbreak in Central Africa.
3. The start of jury deliberations in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, a case that could reshape the trajectory of artificial intelligence and nonprofit tech efforts.

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1. Cassidy Loses Louisiana Primary — Trump’s Hold on the GOP

[00:02–04:50]

Key Points

• Senator Bill Cassidy, one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict President Trump after January 6, lost his primary.
  • “He’s one of seven Republicans to convict President Trump after the January 6 insurrection. What does the race tell us about the president’s control over his party?” — Layla Fadel [00:06]
• The result underscores how Trump's support (or lack thereof) can define Republican primaries nationwide.
• Cassidy’s Trump-backed rival, Rep. Julia Letlow, advances to a June runoff against John Fleming.

Insights

• Trump’s Response:
  • “President Trump wrote that Cassidy’s disloyalty is now part of legend and, quote, it is nice to see his political career is over. And Layla, it wasn’t even close. Cassidy finished last in his primary.” — Sam Greenglass [01:52]
• Cassidy’s Concession Speech:
  • “You don’t whine. You don’t claim the election was stolen. You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you’ve had that privilege. And that’s what I’m doing right now.” — Bill Cassidy [02:19]
• Campaign Trail Observations:
  • Cassidy tried to “repair his relationship with Trump supporters while still maintaining that independent streak. But … it might be impossible to do both things.” — Sam Greenglass [02:39]
  • “For many Republican voters, that vote to convict Trump felt like a betrayal.” — Sam Greenglass [02:39]
• Future for Mavericks in the GOP:
  • Cassidy’s loss seen as a warning for GOP senators considering breaking with Trump. “After this year, at least five of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump will be gone. And Cassidy’s defeat may further discourage Republican senators from breaking with Trump." — Sam Greenglass [03:22]

Broader Trends

• Trump’s Influence This Primary Season:
  • Trump-backed candidates have repeatedly succeeded in ousting Republicans seen as disloyal.
  • “Almost all of them were defeated in primaries after Trump targeted them.” — Sam Greenglass on Indiana state senators [04:00]
  • Kentucky’s Thomas Massie is another target, with Trump backing a challenger.

Notable Quotes

• “Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution.” — Bill Cassidy [03:11]
• "Cassidy’s defeat may further discourage Republican senators from breaking with Trump." — Sam Greenglass [03:54]

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2. Ebola Outbreak in Central Africa — A Growing Emergency

[04:58–08:24]

Key Points

• WHO declared an international emergency due to a rare Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), now spread to Uganda.
• Over 80 dead, 336 ill; outbreak appears to be escalating quickly.

Insights

• Outbreak Origins and Response Lag:
  • The outbreak’s recognition was delayed partly because it's a rare "bundabuyo" Ebola strain, which standard tests often miss.
  • Weaker surveillance, potentially due to recent foreign aid cuts, may have hindered early detection.
    • “On a CDC press call...Satish Pillai, the Ebola response manager...said that CDC was only notified of the first case just last Thursday, and that difficult conditions in the area likely delayed the response.” — Jonathan Lambert [06:45]
• Geographic and Socio-political Challenges:
  • The outbreak is in rural, conflict-prone northeast DRC, a mining area with lots of transient workers—heightening risk of urban spread.
  • "At least two cases, including one death, have already been reported in Uganda's capital, Kampala. If the virus continues to spread in more urban, connected areas like that, it could really take off." — Jonathan Lambert [07:02]

Pandemic Risk?

• Not a high pandemic risk due to Ebola's transmission method; however, the new strain may complicate containment, as there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
  • "Ebola is a lot harder to transmit than an airborne disease like Covid ... but this is still a very serious threat to the region." — Jonathan Lambert [07:36]

Ongoing Response

• International and US health agencies are attempting to contain the outbreak through case identification, patient care, and contact isolation.
  • “It’s still really early days and the outbreak right now is likely much bigger than officials know.” — Jonathan Lambert [08:05]

Notable Quotes

• “Certainly, having less foreign aid and less funding limits what countries are able to do in terms of their response capacity.” — Bahuma Tatangi (quoted by Sam Greenglass) [06:36]
• "The numbers just seemed too big for a new outbreak. Now we've learned that the first suspected cases likely popped up in late April." — Jonathan Lambert [05:25]

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3. Musk v. Altman and OpenAI — Clashing AI Legacies

[08:24–12:06]

Key Points

• Jury deliberations begin in Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
• Musk claims he was deceived into supporting OpenAI as a nonprofit, only to see it shift focus to a for-profit model he says betrays its founding mission.

Case Breakdown

• Musk’s Claims:
  • He was misled into donating money and resources, believing OpenAI would serve as a charitable trust for the good of humanity.
  • Accuses Altman and Greg Brockman of "stealing a charity" by shifting focus and resources to a for-profit entity.
• OpenAI’s Defense:
  • The nonprofit mission remains intact with consensus among founders, including Musk, for the need for a for-profit arm to raise funds and attract talent.
  • Musk left in 2018 after not being given control over the for-profit division.

Legal Highlights

• Jury has to decide if Musk filed his case within the three-year statute of limitations on breach of charitable trust.
• Ultimate decision will be made by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is expected to defer to the advisory jury.
  • “If Altman and OpenAI are found liable, there could be big changes. Musk wants a rollback of the for-profit company...and he wants Altman and Brockman ousted from their leadership roles.” — John Ruich [11:36]

Notable Quotes

• “[Musk] argues that Sam Altman and others breached OpenAI's founding mission as a charitable trust and unjustly enriched themselves." — John Ruich [09:06]
• "All the co-founders agreed that they needed to start a for-profit entity too, including Elon Musk, who actually wanted control of it." — John Ruich [10:14]
• "His lawyers argued that Altman and the others, quote, stole a charity. But OpenAI's lawyers tried to undercut that." — John Ruich [10:55]

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Memorable Moments & Timestamps

• Cassidy’s Concession and Dig at Trump
  [02:19] — “You don’t whine. You don’t claim the election was stolen ... And that’s what I’m doing right now.” — Bill Cassidy
• WHO Ebola Emergency
  [05:05] — “The outbreak has killed more than 80 people. At least 336 have gotten sick. It started in the Democratic Republic of Congo and spread to Uganda.” — Amy Martinez
• Musk’s Altruism Questioned
  [10:55] — “[Musk] tried to come across as altruistic ... [but] Musk had a case of sour grapes, they argue, long before 2021.” — John Ruich

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Episode Tone & Takeaways

The tone of the episode is factual, measured, and analytic, delivering crisp, up-to-the-minute coverage with clarity. Political analysis focuses on Trump’s tightening grip; health reporting balances urgency with context; tech coverage unpacks complex legal dynamics in plain language.

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For listeners who missed the episode:
This summary offers a complete portrait of the shifting dynamics inside the Republican Party, global public health threats, and the future of AI leadership—all within a digestible format, featuring the direct perspectives of NPR’s team and the newsmakers at the story’s center.

Transcript

[Amy Martinez]

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

[Layla Fadel]

He's one of seven Republicans to convict President Trump after the January 6th insurrection. What does the race tell us about the president's control over his party?

[Amy Martinez]

I'm a Martinez. That's Layla Fadell. And this is up first from NPR News. The World Health Organization declared an international emergency over an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now it spread to Uganda. A rare strain of the disease has already killed more 80 people.

[Layla Fadel]

And the jury begins deliberations today in the lawsuit by elon Musk against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk claims he was misled when he helped launch the company as a nonprofit. Altman says the mission never changed. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. On NPR's wild card podcast, Julio Torres says he doesn't need to prove himself to anyone.

[Sam Greenglass]

When someone makes me feel like I

[John Ruich]

have to prove something to them, I just walk away.

[Sam Greenglass]

Really. I'm like, seek help.

[Layla Fadel]

Watch or listen to that wild Card conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR. Wildcard. The latest casualty in President Trump's campaign to vanquish Republicans he sees as disloyal is a two term senator from Louisiana. Senator Bill Cassidy didn't make it out of a three way primary race on Saturday.

[Amy Martinez]

Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump after the January 6th insurrection. And his primary is just another sign of Trump's grip on the Republican Party.

[Layla Fadel]

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

[Sam Greenglass]

Hey, Leila.

[Layla Fadel]

So has the president reacted to Cassidy's loss?

[Sam Greenglass]

Yeah. President Trump wrote that Cassidy's disloyalty is now part of legend and quote, it is nice to see his political career is over. And Layla, it wasn't even close. Cassidy finished last in his primary. His Trump backed challenger, Representative Julia Letlow, will advance to a June runoff against State Treasurer John Fleming. And when Cassidy conceded on Saturday night, he made this apparent dig at Trump.

[Bill Cassidy]

You don't whine. You don't claim the election was stolen. You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you've had that privilege. And that's what I'm doing right now.

[Layla Fadel]

Now, you spent time on the campaign trail with Cassidy and Letlow. You talked to voters. What did you hear?

[Sam Greenglass]

Cassidy said this campaign should be about the future, not the past. But for many Republican voters, that vote to convict Trump felt like a betrayal. Cassidy tried to repair his relationship with Trump supporters while still maintaining that independent streak. But as former Louisiana Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Darden told me, it might be impossible to do both things.

[Layla Fadel]

Any signals from Cassidy about how he's going to approach his final eight months in office?

[Sam Greenglass]

Well, Cassidy hinted he might not finish his term quietly.

[Bill Cassidy]

Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans, and it is about our Constitution.

[Sam Greenglass]

Cassidy may look to fellow Senator Thom Tillis as an example. The retiring North Carolina Republican has become one of the most vocal GOP critics of Trump in Congress. But next year, both Cassidy and Tillis will exit, leaving few Republican senators willing to criticize Trump at a time when Congress has repeatedly relinquished authority to the president. After this year, at least five of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump will be gone. And Cassidy's defeat may further discourage Republican senators from breaking with Trump.

[Layla Fadel]

So we saw Trump's influence here in this race. How else has Trump used his influence this primary season?

[Sam Greenglass]

You know, when I reported from Indiana last year, it was stunning to see a handful of Republican state senators defy Trump, voting against his campaign to redistrict ahead of the midterms. But this spring, almost all of them were defeated in primaries after Trump targeted them. Another test will be a House race on Tuesday in Kentucky, where Trump is backing a challenger against Congressman Thomas Massie, a Trump critic.

[Layla Fadel]

Now, there are primaries in a half a dozen states this week. What else are you watching?

[Sam Greenglass]

I was a reporter in Georgia for four years, and there's a lot to watch. In that Tuesday primary, there are a bunch of competitive races, including for governor and Senate. Trump has not endorsed in the Senate primary to take on Democratic Senator John Ossoff. And all three candidates are competing to align themselves most closely with the president.

[Layla Fadel]

NPR's Sam Greenglass. Thank you, Sam.

[Sam Greenglass]

You're welcome.

[Layla Fadel]

Ebola in Central Africa is a global health emergency. The World Health Organization made the declaration over the weekend.

[Amy Martinez]

The outbreak has killed more than 80 people. At least 336 have gotten sick. It started in the Democratic Republic of Congo and spread to Uganda. Other countries nearby are on alert.

[Layla Fadel]

Here with the latest is NPR's global health correspondent, Jonathan Lambert. Hi, Jonathan.

[Sam Greenglass]

Hi, Layla.

[Layla Fadel]

So why is this outbreak worrying the whole.

[Jonathan Lambert]

Well, for one, Ebola is a really serious disease. The virus kills about half the people it infects and can spread through contact with bodily fluids. Now, the DRC has lots of experience with Ebola. Just last year, there was an outbreak that killed 45 people over the course of a few months. This One is worrying because the death toll is already much higher than that, and it was only announced on Friday. That's part of why an emergency was declared the next day. I track outbreaks like these pretty closely, and when I saw the announcement, I had this moment of panic that I'd somehow missed earlier reports. The numbers just seemed too big for a new outbreak. Now we've learned that the first suspected cases likely popped up in late April.

[Layla Fadel]

So it took more than three weeks to recognize Ebola was spreading. Why did it take so long?

[Jonathan Lambert]

One factor may be the kind of Ebola that's spreading. It's a rare strain called bundabuyo, and standard field tests often miss it. Samples had to be sent to larger labs for analysis. And in a big country like drc, that can take time. Historically, that kind of surveillance was supported by US Foreign aid. I asked Bahuma Tatangi, an infectious disease physician at Emory, whether last year's massive aid cuts might have delayed the response. And here's what she had to say.

[Sam Greenglass]

Certainly, having less foreign aid and less funding limits what countries are able to do in terms of their response capacity.

[Jonathan Lambert]

On a CDC press call yesterday, I asked this question. Satish Pillai, the Ebola response manager, didn't answer it directly, but he did say that CDC was only notified of the first case just last Thursday, and that difficult conditions in the area likely delayed the response.

[Layla Fadel]

Why is it so hard to trace the disease?

[Jonathan Lambert]

It's in a pretty remote area. It's rural northeast drc. It borders Uganda and South Sudan, and there's a lot of ongoing conflict there. It's also an active mining area, so there are a lot of transient workers coming and going that could spread the virus to urban centers, and that seems to already be happening. At least two cases, including one death, have already been reported in Uganda's capital, Kampala. If the virus continues to spread in more urban, connected areas like that, it could really take off.

[Layla Fadel]

Are health officials concerned that this could become a pandemic?

[Jonathan Lambert]

Right now, there's not really a pandemic risk. Ebola is a lot harder to transmit than an airborne disease like Covid. Plus, previous Ebola outbreaks haven't sparked pandemics, but this is still a very serious threat to the region. Part of that is the fact that the outbreak got so big so fast, and because this is a rare strain of Ebola, there aren't approved vaccines or treatments for it, and that could make containing the disease a lot harder.

[Layla Fadel]

So what are health officials doing to

[Sam Greenglass]

respond to right now?

[Jonathan Lambert]

International health agencies are scrambling to send staff and supplies. And the US CDC is sending more staff, too. They'll all be focused on identifying cases, caring for patients and isolating their contacts to limit the spread of the disease. But it's still really early days and the outbreak right now is likely much bigger than officials know.

[Layla Fadel]

That's NPR's Jonathan Lambert. Thank you for your reporting, Jonathan, thank you. A jury in California begins deliberations today in a case that has pitted two of the biggest names in Silicon Valley against each other.

[Amy Martinez]

Elon Musk sued OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the direction he took the company. They founded it together as a nonprofit, but Musk left after a power struggle.

[Layla Fadel]

NPR tech correspondent John Ruich has been following this and joins me now. Good morning, John.

[John Ruich]

Good morning.

[Layla Fadel]

So the jury starts deliberating today. What will they be considering exactly?

[John Ruich]

Yeah, the key question in this case is was Elon Musk duped into donating money, cloud and contacts to OpenAI in its early days? That's what Musk claims. He argues that Sam Altman and others breached OpenAI's founding mission as a charitable trust and unjustly enriched themselves by creating a for profit division that essentially swallowed the original nonprofit. Now, Musk was there at the start 11 years ago along with Altman and others. They were worried about AI being controlled by one person or one company. So they launched OpenAI as a non profit to create advanced AI for the benefit of humanity. But within a couple of years, they all realized that AI was extremely expensive to develop and that they were going to need a for profit arm to raise money and to attract top talent. And that's pretty much where Musk's and Altman's stories diverge.

[Layla Fadel]

So what is the disagreement?

[John Ruich]

Well, Musk side basically argues that Altman and another founder, Greg Brockman, sidelined the nonprofit entity, jettisoned its founding mission and have basically made the for profit arm the main thing at OpenAI. Of course, Altman and OpenAI disagree.

[Layla Fadel]

What do they say?

[John Ruich]

Well, they point out that the nonprofit still exists. They say the mission is still very much intact. But all the co founders agreed that they needed to start a for profit entity too, including Elon Musk, who actually wanted control of it. Altman's lawyers say the others weren't comfortable comfortable with that and said no. So Musk left in 2018. A key question that the jury's going to have to decide on is whether or not Musk filed this case soon enough. There's a three year statute of limitations for breach of charitable trust in this case. So the jury has to basically believe Musk's claims that he became aware of the issues less than three years before he filed the suit in 2024.

[Layla Fadel]

And how did each of these tech leaders come across in court?

[John Ruich]

Yeah, I would say neither of them really emerged unscathed. Musk tried to come across as altruistic. His lawyers argued that Altman and the others, quote, stole a charity. But OpenAI's lawyers tried to undercut that. Musk had a case of sour grapes, they argue, long before 2021. He didn't launch this lawsuit until after OpenAI achieved success, highlighted by the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. And he started his own for profit competitor called Xai. For his part, Altman tried to make it seem like he's still guided by the nonprofit's mission. But Musk's lawyers accused him of being dishonest and they called a string of witnesses to make that case.

[Layla Fadel]

What comes Next?

[John Ruich]

Well, the nine person jury is an advisory jury and U.S. district Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will make the ultimate call, although she said she's likely to follow the jury's lead. If Altman and OpenAI are found liable, there could be big changes. Musk wants a rollback of the for profit company. He wants up to about $150 billion in gains that are linked to that company put into OpenAI's non profit foundation. And he wants Altman and Brockman ousted from their leadership roles.

[Layla Fadel]

That's NPR tech correspondent John Ruich. Thank you, John.

[John Ruich]

You're welcome, Leila.

[Layla Fadel]

For poor people in one of the world's fastest growing megacities, development means displacement and violence.

[John Ruich]

We are homeless now.

[Sam Greenglass]

Nowhere to stay, nowhere to sleep.

[Layla Fadel]

On the Sunday story, the human cost of building Lagos, Nigeria into the Dubai of Africa. Listen now to the Sunday story from the upverse podcast on the NPR app. And that's up first for Monday, may 18th. I'm layla fodel and amy martinez.

[Amy Martinez]

Today's episode of up first was edited by anna yukoninoff, carmel roth, cara platoni, mohamed el bardisi and hj mai was produced by ziad baj and nia duma, us our director is christopher thomas. We get engineering support from stacy abbott. Our technical director is carly strange. Join us again tomorrow.