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Chapter 1: What recent developments are affecting the Strait of Hormuz?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending U.S. attempts to force open the Strait of Hormuz while also insisting that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire is holding.
American forces won't need to enter Iranian waters or airspace. It's not necessary. We're not looking for a fight. But Iran also cannot be allowed to block innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway.
Mohammad Bagher Khalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator in talks with the U.S., accuses the Trump administration of undermining regional security. More than 20 percent of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas typically pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The disruption to supplies have sent fuel prices worldwide surging. The State Department has issued final separation notices to more than 200 U.S.
diplomats who lost their jobs in a reorganization last year. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports their union and some in Congress have been fighting the administration's action.
force separation will be effective today, says an unsigned email that went out to diplomats who had been in limbo for the past year.
The American Foreign Service Association opposed the move, saying the department did not follow its own rules for a reduction in force and is now losing officers with rare language skills and decades of institutional knowledge, even as it brings in new foreign service officers.
One officer who received the notice, Mariam Safi, writes that for the past year she and her colleagues were still on the payroll and offered to help evacuate Americans at the start of the U.S. war against Iran. The department declined that offer. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department.
Senate Republicans are proposing a billion dollars to fund security upgrades for President Trump's ballroom project, even though Trump has been quoted saying the ballroom would cost taxpayers nothing. Trump and allies have been pushing the project since the recent attack at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington.
Authorities charged the suspect with attempting to assassinate the president. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued to stop the ballroom construction. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched new initiatives to wean people in the U.S. off a popular class of antidepressant medications.
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Chapter 2: How is the U.S. State Department restructuring affecting diplomats?
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