--:-- Janine Herbst: The federal government has shut down. What are lawmakers arguing about? And what does it mean for you?
--:-- Janine Herbst: The NPR Politics Podcast is here to make sense of it all, giving you updates and news every day to keep you informed.
--:-- Janine Herbst: The NPR Politics Podcast. Listen every day.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.
--:-- Janine Herbst: The White House says it started a round of layoffs of federal workers today, making good on President Trump's threats to cut workers and agencies while the government is shut down.
--:-- Janine Herbst: White House Budget Director Russ Vogt didn't specify which agencies or how many workers are affected, but at least one federal agency, Health and Human Services, tells NPR its workers have received notices, saying those who got them were designated as non-essential.
--:-- [Sound of an explosion]
--:-- Cynthia Abrams: Multiple people are dead and injured in an explosion at a military munitions plant today in Tennessee, west of Nashville.
--:-- Cynthia Abrams: As I report, the blast could be felt for miles away.
--:-- Cynthia Abrams: The explosion happened just before 8 a.m. this morning.
--:-- John McEwen: I felt just kind of the house was shaken or jarred a little bit. And I thought somebody may have hit my home or ran into it.
--:-- Cynthia Abrams: The manufacturer Accurate Energetic Systems makes a variety of explosive products for the military, commercial demolition firms, and the aerospace industry.
--:-- Cynthia Abrams: Emergency responders initially were not able to access the site because of continuing detonations.
--:-- Cynthia Abrams: For NPR News, I'm Cynthia Abrams in Nashville.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Memphis, Tennessee is the latest city where the Trump administration has deployed National Guard troops, arriving today as part of a federal and state task force intended to combat crime.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Meanwhile, Oklahoma's Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, chair of the National Governors Association, tells the New York Times that sending Guard troops to Illinois and other cities is a violation of his beliefs in federalism and states' rights.
--:-- Janine Herbst: He's the first Republican governor to question the administration's deployments.
--:-- Ayah Batraoui: The Israel-Hamas ceasefire is underway, and now both sides have 72 hours to return hostages and Palestinian detainees under President Trump's peace plan for the area.
--:-- Ayah Batraoui: For the first time in seven months, Palestinians woke up to no Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
--:-- Ayah Batraoui: And thousands of Palestinians who had been forcibly displaced by Israel military offensive on Gaza City rushed back to check on their homes when the ceasefire came into effect.
--:-- Anas Baba: NPR Anas Baba in Gaza City saw two men embracing after meeting again in their neighborhood.
--:-- Anas Baba: And they are hugging each other embracing each other that both of them are still alive.
--:-- Ahmed Ar-Rawak: The joy was short-lived. Ahmed Ar-Rawak tells NPR he returned only to find half his home destroyed.
--:-- Ahmed Ar-Rawak: It's unlivable. And he says there's no real ceasefire, that Israeli forces are still striking areas of Gaza they've pulled back to.
--:-- Ayah Batraoui: Israeli troops will remain in around half of Gaza until Hamas disarms.
--:-- Ayah Batraoui: Ayya Botrawi, NPR News.
--:-- Janine Herbst: You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Japan's ruling bloc has split over political differences, just as they were preparing to vote for a new prime minister.
--:-- Janine Herbst: NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports it could complicate things for President Trump's scheduled visit to Japan later this month.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: The ruling bloc smaller Komei party has been uncomfortable with the larger Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP's new president, Sunai Takeichi, and her hardline conservative policy positions since her election last week.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: But in the end, Komei said it decided to leave the 26-year-long coalition over what they saw as Takeichi's insincere response to a slush fund scandal within the LDP.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: Takeichi will now have to forge a new coalition with opposition parties to maintain the LDP hold on power and get the parliament to elect her as prime minister.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: Japan cabinet secretariat said U and Japanese officials have agreed to proceed with their trade deal during the political transition.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Tokyo.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Karina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
--:-- Janine Herbst: The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised her as a key unifying figure in the opposition, advocating for free elections and representative government.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Machado has faced serious threats and lives in hiding.
--:-- Janine Herbst: President Nicolas Maduro's government disqualified her from running in last year's presidential election.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Her ally, Edmundo Gonzalez, replaced her but later sought asylum in Spain.
--:-- Janine Herbst: She's the 20th woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
--:-- Janine Herbst: On Wall Street, the Dow is down 675 points, the Nasdaq down 622. That's down 2.7 percent.
--:-- Janine Herbst: I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington.
--:-- Terry Gross: Hi, it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air.
--:-- Terry Gross: Hey, take a break from the 24-hour news cycle with us and listen to long-form interviews with your favorite authors, actors, filmmakers, comedians, and musicians, the people making the art that nourishes us and speaks to our times.
--:-- Terry Gross: So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY.
