Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. Voters will have less time to get mail-in ballots to elections officials this year. Multiple states are eliminating grace periods for casting ballots by mail, as NPR's Ashley Lopez reports.
Almost 20 states and territories count ballots that make it to officials after polls close. Most require that those ballots be postmarked by Election Day, though. These laws are in place to give voters wiggle room in case there are issues with the mail or other unforeseen problems.
But four of those states passed legislation that require ballots to be received by the close of polls, regardless of when the voter mailed their ballot. Trump signed an executive order, much of which is currently halted by a court order that sought to eliminate these grace periods altogether. Ashley Lopez, NPR News.
19 states have raised their minimum wage. The bottom rate varies by state, but the highest is $17.13 an hour in Washington state and $16 an hour in Hawaii. The federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour, where it's been since 2009. American farmers hurt by U.S. tariffs are learning how much federal aid they can expect per acre.
The Agriculture Department says payments from a recently announced $12 billion Farm Aid package should begin arriving by the end of February, but some farmers say it will not be enough. Authorities say it's too soon to speculate on the cause of a deadly fire that claimed at least 40 lives at a skeet resort bar in the Swiss Alps.
President Guy Parmelin calls it one of the worst tragedies in Swiss history.
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Chapter 2: What changes are being made to mail-in ballot deadlines?
As NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports, a social media video appears to show flames spreading above the bar.
There's also what seems to be a promotional video from last year for the bar, and that shows female staff wearing biker helmets striding through the place carrying sparklers stuffed into alcohol bottles. People have also been asking whether last night the bar was overcrowded. So there's clearly lots of questions to be answered in this investigation.
For now, officials are saying the priority is to identify the bodies of the victims, and they say that that could take quite some time.
NPR's Ruth Sherlock. Colombia's armed forces say they have, quote, neutralized the main leader, Atrenda Agua, the country's most feared criminal gangs. The BBC's Mimi Swaby has more.
Chender Agua was originally formed in 2014 in a Venezuelan prison and has since branched out and become a multinational criminal organization. And it really has strong roots now across Latin America as well as the U.S., with some gang members recently being captured as well in Spain. The Trump administration is increasing its pressure on the gang.
It is designated as a foreign terrorist organization, and Donald Trump says it's enabling a huge amount of drugs into the country and is the cause of serious violent crime.
Mimi Swaby reporting. This is NPR. At least seven people, including a 21-year-old paramilitary volunteer... have been killed in the latest unrest in Iran. The deaths are the first fatalities during protests triggered by a troubled economy. The protests have slowed in the capital while spreading into rural provinces.
They're being called the largest since 2022 when a police killing triggered nationwide protests. Several international aid groups are urging Israel to reverse a new ban on dozens of groups providing food, shelter, and health care to Palestinians. Details from NPR's Aya Patrawi.
Eight-year-old Noor Zinnu cries in pain as a physician at this Doctors Without Borders clinic in Gaza City changes her dressing for severe burns sustained in the war. She's among what the Gaza Health Ministry says is more than 170,000 Palestinians wounded in Israeli attacks. NPR's Anas Baba visited the clinic's waiting room, which was packed with the wounded and sick.
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