Trump pressures Venezuela; Shutdown layoffs paused : NPR

Good morning. You are studying the Up First e-newsletter. Subscribe right here to get it delivered to your inbox, and pay attention to the Up First podcast for all of the information you’ll want to begin your day.

Immediately’s prime tales

President Trump confirmed yesterday that he has approved the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela. He portrayed it as a part of a stress marketing campaign towards the nation’s drug commerce. On Tuesday, the U.S. navy struck a fifth boat that the Trump administration mentioned was carrying medication. The U.S. has additionally constructed up forces within the Caribbean in a means that raises questions on whether or not this goes past interrupting the drug commerce and will probably be about regime change.

• 🎧 The president says the deal with Venezuela is not only about medication. He mentioned that it’s also concerning the variety of Venezuelan migrants who’ve entered the U.S. in recent times. The strain between Trump and the nation dates again to his first administration when he tried to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, NPR’s Franco Ordoñez tells Up First. Trump expended appreciable political capital opposing Maduro, but he stays in energy. Some consultants consider that Trump might even see this as unfinished enterprise. The White Home is defending these actions by saying Trump campaigned on a promise to tackle cartels and cease the circulate of medicine into the U.S., Ordoñez says.

A federal decide in San Francisco has briefly halted the Trump administration’s newest wave of layoffs within the federal workforce. This comes because the federal authorities shutdown has crossed the two-week mark. U.S. District Choose Susan Illston, who’s overseeing the case, expressed that she believes these layoffs are in all probability unlawful.

• 🎧 Unions representing federal staff argue that the administration is illegally utilizing the shutdown to interact in politically pushed reductions in pressure. NPR’s Andrea Hsu says the unions mentioned how, on prime of a tumultuous yr for federal staff, those that have to go to HR workers for necessary paperwork like info on well being care can not as a result of they have been furloughed. The federal government’s lawyer, Elizabeth Hedges, tried to persuade the decide that she should not be listening to the case in any respect as a result of federal worker personnel points are heard by a selected company, which is presently shut down.
• ➡️ Here is what the shutdown means for you and your a part of the nation.

Navy troops obtained their paychecks yesterday as a consequence of a last-minute intervention by the Trump administration. Over the weekend, Trump introduced the administration would transfer $6.5 billion in unused analysis funds to make payroll. Nonetheless, the repair did not resolve the underlying nervousness felt by navy households because the shutdown continues.

• 🎧 Unemployment is a matter for navy spouses, since they transfer across the U.S. typically, says Steve Walsh with NPR community station WHRO. The Biden administration inspired spouses to hunt employment with the federal authorities, together with positions at their native bases. Now, these spouses usually are not getting paid together with different federal staff, which means their households are lacking out on a paycheck. Walsh says a number of sources be aware that this shutdown feels completely different from earlier ones. Navy households are involved that the following paycheck, which is due on the finish of the month, might not arrive on time.

Deep dive

A fuel pipeline building crew in Wyncote, Pa. replaces older pipes which might be liable to leak climate-heating methane. Initiatives like this are rising fuel buyer payments, whilst wholesale fuel costs are comparatively low.

Jeff Brady/NPR

conceal caption

toggle caption

Jeff Brady/NPR

Pure fuel costs are comparatively low presently, however residential fuel utility charges are nearing document highs. That pattern is being felt throughout the US. Costs are up as a result of prospects are paying extra for infrastructure, building, utility prices and taxes than they’re for the precise gasoline. The cash being spent on infrastructure, which can final for a few years, comes at a time when scientists say the world will shift away from fossil fuels, together with pure fuel. Local weather activists at the moment are questioning why fuel utilities are making this funding.

• 💸 Gasoline corporations often do not revenue from the fuel itself; as a substitute, utilities make their cash by constructing new infrastructure, like pipelines. Regulators enable corporations to recuperate the associated fee, plus income, by way of prospects’ payments.
• 💸 Pipeline substitute applications have contributed to modifications in payments over the previous 40 years. Final yr, lower than a 3rd of buyer payments went to fuel, whereas about two-thirds went to the opposite prices.
• 💸 Gasoline utilities level out that one motive fuel makes up a smaller share of payments is that it is comparatively low-cost. Pure fuel stays the most affordable approach to warmth properties within the winter, in response to the Power Data Administration. In the meantime, building prices have elevated.
• 💸 Activists are urging state utility regulators to think about cheaper options to changing outdated fuel pipelines. This contains repairing the strains or shutting down sections of fuel pipelines and switching properties to electrical home equipment.

Be taught extra about what’s impacting the worth in your month-to-month fuel invoice.

Image present

Pedro Tolomeo Rojas, referred to as Monky, enters his studio en Lima on October 21, 2025. Monky was a pioneer within the making of the posters that publicize cumbia live shows and at the moment are thought of chicha artwork. These colourful posters nonetheless cowl the gray metropolis of Lima and different cities promoting upcoming live shows. Some say the florescent colours had been impressed by the the clothes worn by the ladies within the indigenous communities.

Ivan Kashinsky

conceal caption

toggle caption

Ivan Kashinsky

Cumbia Throughout Latin America is a visible report protecting the folks, locations and cultures that preserve this music style alive in six nations.

In Peru, the time period “chicha” can seek advice from a sacred fermented corn drink or to Peruvian cumbia music. It has additionally been used derogatorily to mock immigrant tradition in Lima, notably in the course of the mass migrations of Indigenous Andean folks to town within the twentieth century. In terms of music, the time period has change into controversial. Alfredo Villar, an writer and artwork historian, says chicha “is probably the most complicated second of Peruvian identification, as a result of it mixes all the things — from its deepest roots to its most excessive and sophisticated exterior influences. For this reason it’s so troublesome to outline … Chicha will at all times shock you.” Be taught extra concerning the complexity of how cumbia has developed in Peru and see pictures of its affect within the nation. You may also learn the article in Spanish.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

Natalie Grabow of the US completes the 2025 Ironman World Championship Girls’s Race on Oct. 11, 2025, in Kailua Kona, Hawaii.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Pictures for Ironman

conceal caption

toggle caption

Ezra Shaw/Getty Pictures for Ironman

1. Natalie Grabow, an 80-year-old grandmother, is being hailed as an inspiration after turning into the oldest girl to complete the grueling Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
2. LitBox, a merchandising machine promoting books written by native authors within the nation’s capital, is offering hope to the literary group as writers wrestle with cuts to arts funding.
3. Greetings from the Rhône Glacier! This week, NPR’s Far-Flung Postcards sequence takes us to the place scientists are conducting checks that embrace releasing brilliant pink dye to see how briskly a glacier is melting.

This article was edited by Obed Manuel.