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Today's top stories
Close to a million and a half federal workers across the U.S. are going without pay today as the government enters day 24 of the shutdown. Yesterday, the Senate blocked dueling bills to pay federal employees. The Republican bill would have paid the people still working despite the shutdown. The Democratic option would have paid everybody, including furloughed workers.
- 🎧 Tierra Carter, who works at the Social Security Administration, tells NPR's Andrea Hsu that she's had to take out loans and seek a hardship withdrawal from her 401(k) due to the shutdown. Carter says it feels as if she is trying to swim to the top of a pool, but every time she gets to the middle, she is knocked back down. Hsu tells Up First that if the shutdown continues, experts believe the general public will begin to feel the economic effects in their communities. Grocery stores near federal buildings are already experiencing less foot traffic.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were among the more than 30 people arrested yesterday in an FBI investigation into illegal gambling. The arrests stem from their alleged involvement in two major schemes: one involving bets placed on NBA games and the other concerning underground poker games. Billups and Rozier have been placed on leave.
- 🎧 This case is a big deal because the scandal involves leaks from multiple teams and players or coaches allegedly sharing non-public information with gamblers, says NPR's Becky Sullivan. The scheme came to light thanks to monitoring services that track bets and look for unusual patterns. For example, Rozier allegedly told a friend he would withdraw from a game with an injury, which led that friend to sell the information to a gambler. As a result, organized bettors placed about a quarter of a million dollars on proposition bets predicting Rozier would underperform.
This week, the Trump administration announced new sanctions on Russia aimed at bringing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table to end the war in Ukraine. The sanctions target two oil giants, Rosneft and Lukoil, which make up nearly half of Russian oil exports, according to NPR's Charles Maynes. This move to sanction comes after President Trump reversed his decision after initially saying he would hold another summit meeting with Putin.
- 🎧 The sanctions are significant as they mark the first time Trump has followed through on threats to hold Russia accountable for the war, Maynes says. The idea for the summit came after a phone call Putin initiated with Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to meet with Trump about the possibility of the U.S. providing Ukraine with long-range weapons. Trump decided not to give the weapons to Ukraine and said he'd meet with Putin instead. Putin informed reporters last night that the canceled meeting and sanctions undermined recent progress in restoring relations with the U.S.
Today's listen
The lives of Ukrainians have changed in many ways since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, including the way nighttime sounds. Since the start of the war, the country has been hit with over 50,000 drone strikes. Members of a youth orchestra outside of Kyiv know the new sounds of their country well and are working on a sonic poem about it. The sound of the piece begins as a peaceful night or an ordinary day in an ordinary city, until chaos rocks the city. The orchestra members use their instruments to mimic the sounds they hear at night, from drones flying around to the emergency vehicles that pass by their homes. Listen to this State of the World From NPR episode to hear how the orchestra is channeling their daily reality into this composition.
Weekend picks
Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: In Good Fortune, Keanu Reeves plays a guardian angel who attempts to teach Arj, a gig worker, a life lesson by granting him the chance to swap places with a finance mogul.
📺 TV: Nobody Wants This is back for a second season, providing not only good banter, but some pretty deep questions about faith and compatibility.
📚 Books: Jaquira Díaz's debut novel, This Is the Only Kingdom, spans generations and focuses on some fragile mother-daughter relationships amid the commotion of a Puerto Rican neighborhood.
🎵 Music: The BPM explores the "vulnerable person you are IRL with the confident free spirit you can be virtually," NPR Music's Sheldon Pearce says in his review of Sudan Archives' new album.
🍞 Food: Chef and author Samin Nosrat's Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love: A Cookbook provides big batch recipes perfect for a group meal. Check out her recipe for Pane Criminale, a garlic-butter-infused loaf of bread.
❓ Quiz: I scored a 'decent' eight out of 11. Better than last week! Now it is your turn to give it a try. Who knows, maybe you will also improve.
3 things to know before you go
- The International Chess Federation is investigating Russian grand master Vladimir Kramnik for cheating allegations he made against fellow elite players, including 29-year-old U.S. grand master Daniel Naroditsky, who died earlier this week.
- This week, an audience in Culver City, Calif., enjoyed a special advance screening of Bugonia as part of a publicity stunt. The catch? Moviegoers had to agree to have their hair shaved off by a barber in the theater's lobby.
- NPR's Far-Flung Postcard series takes you on a train ride where you can see the views from Mumbai to Goa in India.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
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