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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. This is the third day that the Department of Homeland Security is largely shut down after Congress failed to approve its budget. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is affected. Deanne Criswell was administrator under President Biden.
Chapter 2: What is the current status of the Department of Homeland Security budget?
She says FEMA will still be able to respond to emergencies, but there may be delays in reimbursing jurisdictions for recovery work and in helping them prepare for disasters.
FEMA also provides funding to help jurisdictions with technical assistance on helping them write their plans or administer their grants or giving them the grant funding. It also provides funding for mitigation projects. And so that funding is not part of this disaster relief fund, and that funding would not be able to be used until they can come to a budget agreement.
Congress recessed for a week without making a deal. President Trump's border czar is reiterating that a small number of federal immigration enforcement agents will remain in Minnesota, despite announcing an end to its recent crackdown. Tom Homan spoke to CBS's Face the Nation yesterday about the Trump administration's next steps. NPR's Alina Selyuk reports.
Homan says more than 1,000 immigration enforcement agents have already left and several hundred would be removed early in the week to get back to, quote, the original footprint. Exceptions beyond that footprint, he said, will include investigators who will stay to finish the probe into allegations of fraud, as well as the protests that had disrupted a church service.
Plus, Holman said an additional security force would stay to protect immigration agents to respond when, quote, they get surrounded by agitators and things get out of control. He did not specify the size of this force beyond saying small, and he said he hoped this contingent could also be removed fairly quickly.
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Chapter 3: How is FEMA impacted by the government shutdown?
Alina Seluk, NPR News, Washington.
The Kremlin is rejecting a new European report that says Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was likely murdered by a rare poison. Navalny died two years ago in a remote prison in Russia's Arctic under mysterious circumstances. NPR's Charles Maines reports from Moscow.
Issued by the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The report claims that analyses of samples from Navalny's remains conclusively showed traces of epibetidine, a toxin found in poisonous frogs in South America.
The report notes that only Russia's government had the means, motive, and opportunity to administer the poison to Navalny while he was serving out a lengthy prison sentence in Russia's Arctic. The U.S. says it has no reason to dispute those findings, yet Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the European allegations as biased and unfounded.
Russia's government has always maintained Navalny died by natural causes and declined to launch a criminal investigation into his death. Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.
You're listening to NPR News in Washington. Ukrainian negotiators arrived in Geneva today for another round of talks on ending Russia's war, a week before the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. Russia and the U.S. will also attend the negotiations, which begin tomorrow. Also tomorrow, in Geneva, the U.S. and Iran resume indirect talks on Iran's nuclear program.
The top negotiator for Iran met today with the head of the U.N. 's nuclear watchdog. People are spending more for chocolate these days. NPR's Amy Held reports.
Chocolate prices are up some 14% compared to a year ago, even though the global price of cocoa is down around 50%. Weather conditions have improved in West Africa, the world's top cocoa producer. Companies like Hershey often have long-term contracts, and it can take a while to pass on savings. Then, there are ongoing tariffs on European chocolates. The bittersweet news?
Love for chocolate may be constant, but the market is volatile. And between levies and climate change, prices could surge again. As of now, though, analysts say cost savings may reach consumers by 2027. Amy Held, NPR News.
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