Janine Herbst

TSA agents who screen passengers and bags at airports.

They're required to work without pay, and experts say that could cause travel problems.

This as the busy spring travel season approaches.

Five European countries say authorities are confident that Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in a remote prison two years ago, was poisoned.

And Piers Rob Schmitz reports.

You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

U.S.

speed skater Jordan Stoltz slid into another Olympic victory today in Italy.

As Empire's Ping Wang reports, he's halfway to his goal of four gold medals in Milan.

The Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., says a week-and-a-half-year-old Asian female elephant now has a name, Lin Mai, a Vietnamese name that means spirit blossom.

The 308-pound calf is the first elephant born at the zoo in almost 25 years, and she's only the third elephant ever born in the zoo's 136-year history.

The zoo says fans were invited to vote on a selection of names in exchange for at least a $5 donation.

They raised nearly $59,000, and all of those donations support the zoo's Asian Elephant Care and Conservation Program.

I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed at midnight, which means a partial shutdown that officials say isn't expected to bring the whole department's mission to a halt.

But it could impact travelers because TSA workers, who screen passengers and baggage, are required to work without pay.

This as Congress is gone for a week.

DHS was funded for two weeks as Democrats sought to rein in the agency after two U.S.

citizens in Minneapolis were shot and killed by immigration officers, but they couldn't reach an agreement.