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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dua Halisa-Cautel. President Trump says he's planning to shut down the Kennedy Center for two years beginning on July 4th to make a major renovation move more quickly. But as NPR's Tamara Keith reports, this comes as the Performing Arts Center has suffered mass rejection by patrons and performers alike.
Late last year, the Kennedy Center board, which is packed with Trump allies and chaired by the president himself, voted to add the president's name to the center, now calling it the Trump Kennedy Center. There has been widespread backlash, with artists pulling out of contracts to perform there and a mass exodus of patrons buying memberships and tickets to shows.
In his social media post denouncing the planned closure, Trump says he plans to transform the center he described as dilapidated and in bad condition financially and structurally into a new and spectacular entertainment complex. with, quote, the highest level of success, beauty and grandeur. Tamara Keith, NPR News.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says he expects lawmakers this week to vote on a nearly $1.3 trillion funding bill to fully reopen the federal government. The Senate has already passed the measure and President Trump says he endorses it. But there is one area of disagreement with Democrats, funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Speaking to NBC's Meet the Press, Johnson says Republicans will fund all federal agencies, then negotiate with Democrats.
Well, let's say I'm confident that we'll do it at least by Tuesday. We have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town. And because of the conversation I had with Hakeem Jeffries, I know that we've got to pass a rule and probably do this mostly on our own. I think that's very unfortunate.
A Russian drone attack on a Ukrainian energy company bus has killed at least 12 coal mine workers and injured 16 more people. NPR's Joanna Kakisis reports from Kiev that the attack came hours after Ukraine's president said talks to end the war would continue later this week.
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Chapter 2: What are the latest updates on the Kennedy Center renovation announced by President Trump?
The coal miners worked for DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company. DTEK spokesman Pavlo Bilodad told NPR that this is the deadliest attack on the company's workers since Russia's full-scale invasion began. Ukraine's energy minister, Denis Mikhail, called it, quote, a cynical and targeted attack on energy workers.
In another part of south-central Ukraine, at least six people were injured after a Russian attack on a maternity hospital in the city of Zaporizhia. Meanwhile, Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff said this weekend that talks with Russia have been, quote, productive.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has won a Grammy Award for his narration of an audiobook about compassion. You're listening to NPR News from New York City. Liam Conejo Ramos is now home.
Photos of the five-year-old boy in his blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack went viral last month after school officials said federal agents tried to use him to lure other adults out from his Minneapolis home. Federal agents took Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, to a Texas detention facility where they remained until their release this morning, ordered by Judge Fred Beery.
He called their arrest and detention cruel and unconstitutional. Nationwide, lawsuits and federal investigations have pushed schools to help students with disabilities make up for the services they went without during the pandemic. In Pittsburgh, students missed out on more than 600,000 hours of special education support, as Jillian Forstad of member station WESA reports.
Pittsburgh Public Schools has spent $2.7 million this school year in an effort to help students with disabilities catch up. The district is paying for things like after-school tutoring, specialized art classes, and even rock climbing. Some people question how rock climbing can help students make up for lost learning time. District official Maria Paul defends it.
You know, in those moments, too, you're working on following directions, listening to others, getting along with peers. Like there's so many other pieces of development that are captured in those moments.
So far, the district says it has made up about 10 percent of the hours lost. For NPR News, I'm Jillian Forsat in Pittsburgh. And I'm Dua Halisa-Cautel, NPR News in New York City.
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