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It is hard to get a house. Getting that down payment together, brutal. You shipped off to Djibouti to afford a down payment for a house? Yes, sir, 100% on Planet Money. The high price of housing, what the Trump administration is trying to do about it, and will it work? Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. At the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Ukraine's foreign minister says he's invited China's top diplomat to his country, suggesting Beijing could be helpful in ending Russia's war in Ukraine. NPR's Emily Feng has the latest.
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China has offered repeatedly to mediate any talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the war. Ukraine historically has been distrustful. China is one of Russia's biggest trade partners. And Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized China's increased purchases of Russian oil and gas. Ukraine has also alleged China provided military intelligence to Russia. But after several failed rounds of talks with Russia, Ukraine's leaders have signaled more openness to Beijing, with Foreign Minister Andri Sibiha saying China can play an important role in bringing about a just peace for Ukraine. China's foreign Minister Wang Yi says Beijing is, quote, willing to provide new humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, but he did not mention an invitation to visit Kyiv. Emily Feng, NPR News.
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Congress is about to go on break with no sign yet of an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security before money runs out at midnight. But mostly Democrats are holding out for changes to immigration enforcement policies. But NPR's Barbara Sprunt says Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding is not effective.
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A shutdown here does not mean a shutdown of ICE, and that's because the agency got over $70 billion in separate funds from Congress over the summer as part of Republicans massive spending and tax bill. So other agencies within the DHS will be affected by a shutdown like TSA and FEMA.
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NPR's Barbara Sprunt reporting. Tomorrow is a deadline for seven states, including California and Colorado, to agree on water usage from the Colorado River. Alex Hager with member station KJZZ reports.
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Those seven states, from Wyoming to California, seem unlikely to have a deal tomorrow. Climate change is drying up the river and states need to figure out how to rein in demand from cities and farms. They say they're working hard behind the scenes to forge an agreement because the alternative is probably a big showdown in the Supreme Court. They the current rules for managing the river expire in October, and federal officials need to do a lot of environmental paperwork before then. If they can't implement new rules in time, it could mean big shortages at the nation's largest reservoirs. State leaders say they're now focused on a short term plan to help avoid that. For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Phoenix.
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Federal officials are reporting 910 confirmed cases of measles in the US so far this year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website shows the overwhelming majority in two dozen states from California to Pennsylvania. Five new outbreaks were reported since the start of the year. The CDC says that most of the cases are among those who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Agency falls under the direction of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Who has long expressed doubts about vaccine safety. It's NPR News. U.S. stocks opened lower this morning after a better than expected report from the labor department on inflation. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
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Consumer prices in January were up 2.4% from a year ago. That's a smaller annual increase than the previous month and slightly lower inflation than forecasters were expecting. Prices rose just 0.2% between December and January. Falling gasoline prices during the month helped to offset some of the increase in rents and grocery prices. Although inflation has been cooling, prices are still climbing faster than the Federal Reserve would like. The central bank is widely expected to hold interest rates steady when policymakers meet next month, but the odds of a rate cut at the following meeting in late April have increased slightly. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
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So far on Wall street, we see the dow is up 215 points at 49,667. The S&P's up 37 points and the NASDAQ has gained 89 points. Four people are headed to the International Space Station after today's pre dawn liftoff from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The Crew 12 mission includes two NASA astronauts, a Fren astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. The four are scheduled to spend eight months aboard the orbiting outpost. NASA's last mission, Crew 11, departed earlier than planned in January, a month ahead of schedule. NASA had said that a crew member had a serious but stable health condition. It was the first medical evacuation in the orbital lab's 26 year history. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.
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