--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. A federal judge is temporarily blocking the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the government shutdown. At a hearing today in California, Judge Susan Ilston said the administration's actions, specifically affecting more than 4,000 federal employees, were hasty and illegal.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: President Trump has accused congressional Democrats of holding a passage of a short-term spending bill and has telegraphed plans to fire federal workers during the shutdown.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: The Supreme Court's conservative majority appears open to rolling back a long-standing protection against racial discrimination and redistricting. NPR's Hansi Lo Wong is reporting on arguments surrounding the landmark Voting Rights Act.
--:-- Hansi Lo Wong: For decades the Voting Rights Act has required certain places where voting is racially polarized to draw districts where racial minority voters have a realistic opportunity of electing their preferred candidates.
--:-- Hansi Lo Wong: During oral arguments over their constitutionality Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan asked legal defense fund Janae Nelson about the possible ending of those requirements. What would the results on the ground be?
--:-- Janae Nelson: I think the results would be pretty catastrophic. If we take Louisiana as one example, every congressional member who is Black was elected from a VRA opportunity district.
--:-- Hansi Lo Wong: Depending on when the Supreme Court rules, it could allow Republicans to redraw up to 19 more House districts in their favor before next year's election.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Delaware's Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case over Elon Musk's compensation. NPR's Kamila Domenoski has more on a 2018 pay package worth more than $100 billion today.
--:-- Kamila Domenoski: The pay package in question is the largest in history. A lower court in Delaware had thrown it out, saying Musk had too much influence over his own pay.
--:-- Kamila Domenoski: Tesla appealed, emphasizing that shareholders backed this pay package, which said Musk would only get paid if he met huge, seemingly unachievable targets for growth.
--:-- Kamila Domenoski: Here's Jeff Wall, a lawyer for Tesla, in his closing remarks.
--:-- Jeff Wall: It'd be laughable if we didn't know with the benefit of hindsight that he'd done it. And 73% of stockholders said, I'll take that deal.
--:-- Kamila Domenoski: Some justices on the state's high court seem sympathetic to Tesla's arguments, with one justice raising the fact that Musk couldn't take back the work he did over many years.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Syria's new president is in Moscow where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here's NPR's Gina Rao.
--:-- Gina Rao: Former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was so close to Putin that he took refuge in Russia after being toppled last year. Syrian President Ahmad Ashara was expected to ask Putin to hand him over.
--:-- Gina Rao: There's no word on that, but Ashara did tell Putin that Syria would honor all past deals between the two countries, an indication that Russia will be able to keep its main military bases there.
--:-- Gina Rao: Shara told Putin that Syria was working on redefining relations with Russia, and Putin said they've already held useful talks on a new relationship with Syria.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: It's NPR. More than 30,000 nurses and other frontline medical personnel in the U.S. are on strike against Kaiser Permanente, one of the country's largest not-for-profit health networks.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Unionized employees in California, Oregon, and Hawaii hit the picket lines yesterday to demand a 25 percent pay hike. Kaiser Permanente is proposing 21.5 percent over four years.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: The company says during this week's strike, some elective surgeries and procedures will be rescheduled. However, health clinics and hospitals will remain open.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: An unidentified hacking group recently stole source code from a company that makes popular hardware and software used by many U.S. government agencies. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin reports federal cyber experts are rushing to identify the scope of the problem.
--:-- Jenna McLaughlin: The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued an emergency directive requiring federal civilian agencies to inventory their use of products made by technology company F5.
--:-- Jenna McLaughlin: The company says hackers stole sensitive internal data, information that would make it easier to target its customers.
--:-- Nick Anderson: A nation state is responsible, though declined to be more specific. He says CISA continues to work to respond to the emergency despite the ongoing government shutdown, which he blamed on, quote, Democrat refusal to fund the government.
--:-- Jenna McLaughlin: Polls show Americans are blaming both parties for the funding disruption.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: U.S. stocks are trading higher this hour. It's NPR News.
