Chapter 1: What recent actions did the Trump administration take regarding federal workers?
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. The Trump administration says it sent layoff notices to more than 4,000 federal workers. It filed papers last night in response to a lawsuit brought by labor unions representing government workers. Meanwhile, the government shutdown is now in its 11th day, with no apparent movement to resolve the impasse. NPR's Ron Elving reports.
People are feeling it at airports, in farm country, wherever people do business with the government in any way or depend on it in any way. Republicans had hoped those people would blame the Democrats and put pressure on them. Some do and some have. But polls show more people are blaming the president and his party. So can there be an end in sight?
Yes, when both sides are willing to talk seriously about the coming cuts to health care.
NPR's Ron Elving. The president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has written a letter telling the Trump administration it won't be signing on to what the White House calls a compact to get preferential treatment for federal funding. NPR's Alyssa Nadworny reports.
The letter from MIT President Sally Kornbluth says the compact, quote, includes principles with which we disagree. MIT was one of nine universities asked by the Department of Education to sign the agreement to ensure access to federal funding and grants.
The compact requires schools to agree to a list of demands, including a five-year tuition rate freeze, limits on international students, and prohibiting the use of race or sex as admissions factors.
Kornbluth writes, the university believes that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone, and therefore, quote, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education. The university is the first school to respond publicly to the administration's compact.
Alyssa Nadwarny, NPR News. Thousands of Palestinians are returning to their homes in Gaza after Israeli troops withdrew to agreed-upon lines in President Trump's ceasefire plan. For the first time in years, there are not daily bombardments or airstrikes. NPR's Anas Baba reports from Gaza City.
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Chapter 2: How is the government shutdown affecting citizens and businesses?
For NPR News, Anas Baba, reporting from Gaza City.
Power is being restored in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, a day after Russia launched major strikes on Ukraine's power grid. Officials say the main work to restore power is done, but there are still some localized outages. More than 800,000 homes and businesses had lost power. This is NPR News.
Authorities said today it appears no one survived an explosion at a munitions plant in rural Tennessee yesterday. Earlier, they had said there were 18 people still missing. It occurred at Accurate Energetic Systems, which processes explosives and ammunition for the military and is located about 60 miles southwest of Nashville.
The Humphreys County Sheriff says it could take days, weeks, even months to determine the cause. Scientists are hoping to treat diseases, including Alzheimer's, by influencing the way cells decide when to die. NPR's John Hamilton reports on efforts to control the process known as programmed cell death.
In Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, nerve cells decide to self-destruct long before they should. So biotech companies are looking for ways to keep these cells alive by blocking signals that start the fatal process. Doug Green of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital says several firms think they can do this with treatments known as antisense drugs.
If they're right, it's going to cure a lot of diseases, diseases that we associate with aging and inflammation. Antisense drugs can keep a cell from making certain proteins. In this case, the drugs are designed to reduce proteins that carry the signals responsible for programmed cell death. John Hamilton, NPR News.
Today is World Migratory Bird Day, a biannual event to celebrate the millions of birds who are taking off about this time on their journeys across plains, seas, and mountains. This year's theme is Shared Spaces, Creating Bird-Friendly Cities and Communities. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.
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