1A

Imagine a small town in rural Tennessee — a town square, a yellow brick courthouse, a family-owned restaurant, a café, and beautiful sunrises and sunsets across the Appalachian foothills.

Now, imagine a group of far-right real estate developers — backed by Silicon Valley venture capital and with powerful ties to Washington — move into town. They have a vision to build a new kind of community and turn it into a haven for like-minded white Christians.

That’s what’s happening in Gainesboro, Tennessee. And it’s part of a growing movement by some far-right Christian nationalists to relocate to red states and turn small towns into white enclaves. 

Locals in Gainesboro are alarmed. They call it a “takeover.” And they are pushing back. That’s the story of “Our Town,” a new Bloomberg investigative podcast series. We sit down with its hosts to talk about this takeover in Tennessee.

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For some of you, it’s still a week away. For others — the doors are already open.

It’s back to school. But in this edition of 1A, it’s all about the teachers. They’ve been called heroes. They’ve fought for better salaries and benefits. They‘ve been asked to do more with less. They’ve started go-fund-me campaigns to pay for your classroom supplies when the funding just isn’t there.

Last year, we asked teachers what excited and worried them before the school year. And this year, we’re doing it again.What are teachers in the U.S. feeling ahead of a school year sure to be filled with triumphs and perils?

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Between 1950 and 1975, an estimated 1.5 million women were sent to homes for unwed mothers across the United States. There, most were hidden away from their families and communities until they gave birth and placed their babies for adoption. Some of those adoptions were involuntary.

That type of experience is hard to forget. For one family, a past that had been buried for decades finally came to light after a DNA test connected two long-lost sisters. We hear from both of them, as part of the new book, “My Mother’s Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family’s Fractured Past.”

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Following a Supreme Court decision that cleared the way, a federal judge lifted a nationwide block on President Donald Trump’s executive order that limited mail-in voting ahead of the midterm elections.

A historic drought in the northwestern United States is supercharging what’s on track to already be a historic wildfire season.

And reporting from The Wall Street Journal indicated that Trump intervened at the Department of Justice as the agency was preparing to sue Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter.

And, in global news, this week, President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Canadian imports, prompting Ottawa to retaliate with tariffs of its own.  Canada and the U.S. exchanged about 872 billion dollars in goods and services in 2025.

Friday marks six months since the start of the U.S. war with Iran. This week Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a warning to foreign governments and companies saying they could lose access to the U.S. financial system if they continue doing business with Tehran. President Trump said he’s not in a hurry to return to the negotiating table.

And a catastrophic flood at the border between Nepal and China killed at least 400 people, with thousands more still missing.

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

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Four years after the fall of Roe v. Wade upended federal protections for abortion access, abortion opponents have set their sights on a new target in the world of fertility: surrogacy.

A gestational surrogate is a woman who carries an embryo that was formed using the egg of another woman. Before the pregnancy, the surrogate also agrees to return the baby to its intended parents once born.

At its core, surrogacy is a contractual agreement. But because there’s no federal law regulating surrogacy agreements, it’s left up to state to decide how they can be enforced. That’s the issue at the heart of a high-profile legal dispute between an Alaska surrogate and a California couple.

Why are some abortion opponents looking to ban surrogacy? And could they succeed? And how does the patchwork of regulations that govern surrogacy agreements complicate the process?

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