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🎧 A significant number of the speaker’s Republican colleagues joined Democrats to tank the new plan even after Trump endorsed it, NPR’s Deirdre Walsh tells Up First. Many House conservatives criticized the decision to add — at Trump's request — a two-year increase to the U.S.’ borrowing authority without spending cuts. Currently, there is no Plan C or clear path to avoid a government shutdown, but Johnson said he is regrouping to develop a new solution. Walsh says this shows how hard it will be for Republicans to move their agenda through when they are so divided over the spending bill.

🎧 If Pokrovsk falls, other cities like Dnipro, which is home to nearly a million people, will be more vulnerable. NPR’s Brian Mann said people he spoke to in the region yesterday expressed that this battle is crucial and the fighting is grim. As Mann walked through Pokrovsk, he saw empty gray streets, houses, shops and hotels shattered by Russian bombs. Most military analysts have stated that Russia’s army is simply much larger and has more men, artillery and shells than Ukraine’s. Mann says Ukraine has been able to hold on so far by being creative, in part by using attack drones. If Russia can take the city, it’ll be its most significant victory in months.

🎧 HTS, which has roots in al-Qaeda, has informed Syrians it won’t turn the country into another Afghanistan. Still, some in the country are worried about whether they will impose a very stringent form of Islamic rule, NPR’s Hadeel Al-Shalchi says. HTS is using bureaucrats from Assad’s regime to get things up and running, as the rebels don’t have the expertise needed to run a country. Senior U.S. diplomats are in Damascus now meeting with HTS. The rebel group is currently designated as a terrorist organization, but they are desperate for the U.S. to drop that designation so they can get aid to rebuild the country.