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Chapter 1: What is the current status of the Homeland Security confirmation hearing?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. Oklahoma Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen is at a Senate confirmation hearing to be Homeland Security Secretary. The DHS is partially shut down over Democratic concerns about federal immigration agents' operations. New Hampshire Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan pointed to the killing of Minneapolis protester Alex Prette in January.
Mullen responded. I don't get to choose the laws that I enforce. You guys pass the laws. I enforce those laws. But shooting a protester who is exercising his First Amendment speech and carrying a lawfully licensed gun is not a lawful behavior. Mullen also says 280,000 DHS employees have gone a month without pay. That includes TSA agents at airport security.
One airport in Houston says half of its TSA agents have called out this week. Israel and Iran have traded airstrikes today as the war in the Mideast continues. Iran's president confirms Israel killed Tehran's intelligence minister Ismail Khatib overnight. Yesterday, Israel killed another top Iranian leader, the man widely believed to be running Iran, Ali Larijani.
Iran has retaliated, firing at Gulf countries and at Israel, and bears Daniel Estrin reports from Tel Aviv. After Israel's killing of top Iranian leader Ali Larijani, Iran says it targeted the Tel Aviv area with multiple warhead missiles, also known as cluster munitions. A man and woman were killed in their apartment in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
The Iranian missile attack also caused damage in other parts of central Israel, including a train station in Tel Aviv. Iran's missile attacks across the region have been the most lethal in Israel, where at least 14 people have been killed since the war started. Israel's military says it struck air defense systems in Tehran and Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon Tuesday afternoon.
And Hezbollah fired more rockets into northern Israel Tuesday. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. President Trump continues to raise the idea of the U.S. taking over Cuba. NPR's Franco Ordonez reports Trump says he expects to announce something soon.
Trump's threats come as the 10-year anniversary of former President Barack Obama's visit to Havana approaches when he celebrated his own agreement creating business opportunities with the island nation. Mark Fierstein, who served in the Obama White House, sees the possibility of a similar Obama 2.0 deal. The contours of an agreement, I think, look a lot like
What Obama and the Cubans agreed to 10 years ago, which was basically the Cubans opening up the economy, releasing political prisoners, pledging to ease oppression, and in turn, the United States lifting sanctions. But Trump rescinded that deal, and his team has signaled they're looking for leadership changes as well as economic changes. Franco Ordonez, NPR News.
You're listening to NPR News from Washington. President Trump has waived a century-old maritime law in an effort to lower gasoline prices. The law is called the Jones Act. When it's enforced, it requires all goods that are shipped between U.S. ports be transported on U.S.-built and U.S.-flagged vessels. But Trump has waived this law. That means foreign vessels can now do this
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Chapter 2: How are Israel and Iran escalating their conflict?
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