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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan.
Chapter 2: What federal aid is the Trump administration seeking for the coal industry?
The Trump administration is seeking $700 million in federal aid to help the nation's struggling coal industry. The White House is using a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act that gives the president emergency authority over domestic industries to push the money forward.
Chapter 3: How is the Defense Production Act being utilized in this context?
The president spoke to reporters Thursday.
As a result of the $700 million investment that I'm announcing today, we will protect 14 coal plants and 42 coal mines.
Chapter 4: What are the implications of the $700 million investment in coal?
It's a tremendous number. And build two new coal plants and one massive new export terminal because we're exporting coal.
The Sierra Club called the White House decision, quote, disgusting and reprehensible and said it will make Americans sicker and drive up the cost of electricity. The Senate is conducting an all day and night series of votes as Republicans attempt to pass three years of funding for immigration enforcement.
The effort has been complicated by the president's nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay out taxpayer money to people who claim they were targeted by what Trump calls a weaponized federal government.
Chapter 5: What challenges are Republicans facing with immigration funding?
NPR's Eric McDaniel reports.
The $70 billion package is meant to fund immigration and customs enforcement as well as border patrol for the rest of the president's time in the White House. Republicans thought they'd found a path to pass it on a party-line vote. Democrats don't support the funding.
But some GOP lawmakers are now demanding an end to President Trump's self-allocated anti-weaponization fund before they advance the package. Trump's acting attorney general told Congress the fund can be used to pay insurrectionists who threatened lawmakers and attacked the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Recent conflicting statements from the administration on whether it's decided to unilaterally end the payout fund have not helped matters.
Chapter 6: What is Kenya's response to the U.S. Ebola quarantine facility?
Amendment votes and negotiations will continue into the evening. Eric McDaniel, NPR News, the Capitol.
Kenya's president is defending his administration decision to allow the U.S. to set up an Ebola quarantine facility in that East African nation. Michael Koloke reports.
Speaking in South Africa, Kenya's President William Ruto described the decision by his government to allow the U.S. to set up the quarantine facility in
Chapter 7: How is public opinion affecting the Utah data center project?
as, quote, the right thing. Last week, the White House had said that the U.S. was setting up a facility in Kenya where Americans who had been exposed to Ebola would be quarantined. A Kenyan court later temporarily suspended plans to set up the facility.
Earlier this week, protests against the quarantine center were held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the town of Nanyuki, where two people were killed.
Meanwhile, East Africa's regional economic bloc, the EAC, said that mobile Ebola testing medical labs had been deployed to some member nations, including Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have both declared an outbreak of the disease. For NPR News, I'm Michael Kaluki in Nairobi.
It was a mixed day on Wall Street. Two of three indexes were up, one was down. This is NPR. AAA says the latest figures show the price of gasoline continues to fall. Unleaded regular Thursday was at $4.24 a gallon. That's down 18 cents from a week ago when it was $4.42. Diesel, the main fuel in trucking and the railroad industries, are also declining. A gallon now costs $5.39.
That's down a quarter from a month ago. The size of a massive planned data center campus in rural Utah is getting smaller. As Martha Harris of member station KUER reports, the celebrity investor is now making concessions amid pushback.
The original plan for the data center campus had it on 40,000 acres north of the Great Salt Lake. The project is backed by Kevin O'Leary. who is known for being on the TV show Shark Tank.
Utah leaders had supported the project, but there's been significant public opposition that motivated the president of Utah's state Senate, Stuart Adams, to demand that O'Leary shrink the project and make certain environmental commitments. O'Leary has now responded, saying he'll cut the project's footprint in half. He said most of what's left will be open space.
That means less than 10,000 acres can be developed. For NPR News, I'm Martha Harris in Salt Lake City.
Game two of the NBA Finals in San Antonio Friday night. The Eastern Conference champs, the New York Knicks, won game one Wednesday night in Texas. The Carolina Hurricanes have tied the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Finals at one win each. Carolina got a come-from-behind win, 4-3 in overtime against the Las Vegas Knights on Thursday. From Washington, this is NPR.
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