--:-- Janine Hurst: When someone you love is diagnosed with cancer or another serious illness, all you want to do is help. But where do you start?
--:-- Janine Hurst: On the Life Kit podcast, we have tips for you. Your agenda should be, I'm going to be with you and be totally present to whatever comes up. Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts for different ways to offer support.
--:-- Janine Hurst: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst.
--:-- Janine Hurst: In Tennessee, authorities say at least 19 people are missing and feared dead after an explosion at a military munitions plant in Buxnort, about 60 miles west of Nashville, this morning.
--:-- Janine Hurst: Several people were hospitalized. Humphrey County Sheriff Chris Davis was asked to describe the scene.
--:-- Chris Davis: Can I describe the building? There's nothing to describe. It's gone. Again, it's the most devastating scene that I've seen in my career.
--:-- Chris Davis: Davis says they feel the scene is secure and that the ATF and FBI are investigating, but right now there's no word on a cause.
--:-- Chris Davis: He says they expect to be there for days. The blast was reportedly felt 10 miles from the plant that manufactured, stored, and researched explosive materials.
--:-- Janine Hurst: White House Budget Director Russell Vogt says layoffs of federal workers began today.
--:-- Russell Vogt: This follows President Trump threats to fire workers and close agencies If the federal government shutdown continues it now on its 10th day with no end in sight
--:-- Russell Vogt: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says the U will build a Qatari Air Force facility in the U
--:-- Pete Hegseth: Hegseth praised Qatar's substantial role in brokering President Trump's Gaza peace deal, which is in the early stages of implementation.
--:-- Pete Hegseth: Hegseth added, I'm also proud that today we're announcing or signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari-Emiris Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho.
--:-- Pete Hegseth: He said the base will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots in continuation of a long military partnership between the two countries.
--:-- Pete Hegseth: The U.S. has relied on Qatar to base troops in the Middle East for decades.
--:-- Pete Hegseth: This year, the Trump administration has drawn criticism from ethics watchdogs over accepting a gift from Qatar of a half-billion-dollar luxury jet intended to be a replacement for Air Force One.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: Quill Lawrence, NPR News.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: MIT says it won't be signing a Trump administration letter in exchange for federal funding.
--:-- Quill Lawrence: And Piers Alyssa Nadwerny has more.
--:-- Sally Kornbluth: The letter from MIT President Sally Kornbluth says the compact, quote, includes principles with which we disagree.
--:-- Sally Kornbluth: MIT was one of nine universities asked by the Department of Education to sign the agreement to ensure access to federal funding and grants
--:-- Sally Kornbluth: The compact requires schools to agree to a list of demands including a five tuition rate freeze limits on international students and prohibiting the use of race or sex as admissions factors
--:-- Sally Kornbluth: 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.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Wall Street sharply lower by the close after President Trump threatened higher tariffs on China, accusing the country of becoming very hostile with restrictions on rare earth metals.
--:-- Janine Herbst: Dow down 878 points.
--:-- Janine Herbst: This is NPR.
--:-- John Hamilton: Scientists are hoping to treat diseases, including Alzheimer's, by influencing the way cells decide when to die.
--:-- John Hamilton: NPR's John Hamilton has more on efforts to control the process known as programmed cell death.
--:-- Doug Green: In Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, nerve cells decide to self-destruct long before they should.
--:-- Doug Green: So biotech companies are looking for ways to keep these cells alive by blocking signals that start the fatal process.
--:-- Doug Green: Doug Green of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital says several firms think they can do this with treatments known as antisense drugs
--:-- Doug Green: If they right it going to cure a lot of diseases diseases that we associate with aging and inflammation
--:-- Doug Green: Antisense drugs can keep a cell from making certain proteins
--:-- Doug Green: In this case the drugs are designed to reduce proteins that carry the signals responsible for programmed cell death
--:-- Janine Herbst: Britain's antitrust watchdog is labeling Google a strategic player in the online search advertising market.
--:-- Janine Herbst: That paves the way for regulators to force the company to change its business practices to ensure more competition.
--:-- Janine Herbst: A government agency says its investigation found that the U.S. tech giant has strategic market status because it has substantial and entrenched market power in general search and search advertising.
--:-- Janine Herbst: It's the first time the watchdog has issued the designation since the new U.K. digital rules took effect at the start of the year.
--:-- Janine Herbst: On Wall Street, the Dow down 878 points has done 1.9 percent.
--:-- Janine Herbst: The Nasdaq down 3.5 percent, losing 820 points.
--:-- Janine Herbst: The S&P 500 down 182 points.
--:-- Janine Herbst: I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News.
--:-- Narrator: Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force, showing up in your everyday life.
--:-- Narrator: Powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket.
--:-- Narrator: Science is approachable because it's already part of your life.
--:-- Narrator: Come explore these connections on the Shortwave podcast from NPR.
