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- [00:01]
Korva Coleman
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. President Trump says for the last 2 days the US and Iran have held good and productive conversations about ending the war in the Middle East. Writing online last hour, Trump says the US Will stop any planned attack on Iranian power plants for a five day period. He says that's based on the success of ongoing discussions. Over the weekend, Trump had threatened Iran. He'd said the US Would bomb all of Iran's power plants if it didn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The near closure has forced oil and gas costs to skyrocket. Like oil and gas, the cost of fertilizer has spiked since the start of the war with Iran. From member station kcur, Frank Morris reports.
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Frank Morris
Farmers plant major crops like corn and soybeans in the spring, but first they put down lots of nitrogen fertilizer, chiefly urea. Urea is made with natural gas, and almost half the world's exports of it typically ship through the Strait of Hormuz. And urea prices have shot up by almost a third since the strait closed. Josh Linville, vice president of fertilizer at Stonex, says it's his nightmare scenario.
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John Thune
It would be this exact event during this exact time of year. It doesn't get much worse than what we're dealing with today.
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Frank Morris
The Fertilizer Institute predicts American farmers will be short perhaps 2 million tons of urea this spring and grow less food because of it. For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris.
- [01:25]
Korva Coleman
There was a deadly collision on the Runway of a New York airport late last night. The pilots of an Air Canada jet had just landed when they collided with a fire truck on a Runway at LaGuardia. Several people remain hospitalized. This is day 37 of the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. It's unclear when the Senate might strike a deal to end it and end long security lines at airports. NPR's Claudia Grisales reports.
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Claudia Grisales
To restart DHS funding, Senate Republicans need votes from Democrats who are holding out for a deal that includes reforms to immigration enforcement. But both sides remain far apart. And now President Trump is demanding the Senate pair DHS funding with a new partisan voting proposal. Here's Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
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John Thune
It's not politically good for anybody to have people out of work and important functions of our government not being carried out on a daily basis and functions that are important to our homeland security and our national security.
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Claudia Grisales
Democrats argue Republicans can fund TSA and other DHS components today since they already directed major appropriations to the agency's immigration enforcement, enforcement in a partisan law passed last year. Claudia de Salis, NPR News.
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Korva Coleman
Meanwhile, President Trump has ordered federal immigration agents to deploy to major airports across the country. They're supposed to help TSA agents who are not getting paid because of the shutdown. But the head of the union that represents TSA agents says ICE agents are untrained. He says they could make airport security worse. This is npr. The Trump administration installed a statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds over the weekend. As NPR's Marie Andrusevich reports, it is the replica of a statue that ended
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Marie Andrusevich
up in the Baltimore harbor in 2020. Demonstrators threw the original statue into the harbor during a wave of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. Pieces of the sculpture were later retrieved from the water and used for the restoration. The statue on display at the White House is on loan from an organization that promotes Italian American culture. In a thank you letter to the group, President Trump said Columbus's 1492 voyage, quote, paved the way for the ultimate triumph of Western civilization. During his second term, Trump has removed national exhibits acknowledging the country's mistreatment of indigenous people and history of slavery, while praising European colonization and restoring tributes to Confederate generals. British Marie Andrusevich, NPR News, Washington.
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Korva Coleman
More than a thousand journalists are supposed to return to work by today at the federal agency Voice of America. It broadcasts to the world in several languages. It features outlets such as Radio Free Europe. Last week, a federal judge ordered that full time VOA journalists be returned to work. He ruled that President Trump's choice to head voa, Carrie Lake, had illegally taken the powers of the CEO of the network's parent agency. The judge also ruled that Lake acted unlawfully by ignoring a decision by Congress to annually fund the Voice of America. You're listening to npr.
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NPR News Announcer
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