Trump pressures Venezuela; Shutdown layoffs paused : NPR

Good morning. You are studying the Up First publication. Subscribe right here to get it delivered to your inbox, and pay attention to the Up First podcast for all of the information it is advisable to begin your day.

As we speak’s high tales

President Trump confirmed yesterday that he has licensed the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela. He portrayed it as a part of a stress marketing campaign in opposition to 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 approach 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 concentrate on Venezuela is not only about medication. He mentioned that it is usually concerning the variety of Venezuelan migrants who’ve entered the U.S. in recent times. The stress 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 specialists 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 circulation of medication into the U.S., Ordoñez says.

A federal choose 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 most likely unlawful.

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

Army troops acquired their paychecks yesterday on account 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. Nevertheless, 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 aren’t getting paid together with different federal employees, that means their households are lacking out on a paycheck. Walsh says a number of sources be aware that this shutdown feels totally different from earlier ones. Army households are involved that the subsequent paycheck, which is due on the finish of the month, could not arrive on time.

Deep dive

A fuel pipeline development crew in Wyncote, Pa. replaces older pipes which are vulnerable to leak climate-heating methane. Initiatives like this are growing fuel buyer payments, at the same time as wholesale fuel costs are comparatively low.

Jeff Brady/NPR

conceal caption

toggle caption

Jeff Brady/NPR

Pure fuel costs are comparatively low at the moment, however residential fuel utility charges are nearing file highs. That pattern is being felt throughout the USA. Costs are up as a result of prospects are paying extra for infrastructure, development, 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 are actually questioning why fuel utilities are making this funding.

• 💸 Fuel firms often do not revenue from the fuel itself; as a substitute, utilities make their cash by constructing new infrastructure, like pipelines. Regulators permit firms to get well the price, plus income, by way of prospects’ payments.
• 💸 Pipeline alternative packages have contributed to adjustments 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.
• 💸 Fuel utilities level out that one cause fuel makes up a smaller share of payments is that it is comparatively low-cost. Pure fuel stays the most cost effective technique to warmth houses within the winter, in accordance with the Power Data Administration. In the meantime, development prices have elevated.
• 💸 Activists are urging state utility regulators to contemplate cheaper options to changing outdated fuel pipelines. This consists of repairing the strains or shutting down sections of fuel pipelines and switching houses 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, often called Monky, enters his studio en Lima on October 21, 2025. Monky was a pioneer within the making of the posters that publicize cumbia concert events and are actually thought of chicha artwork. These colourful posters nonetheless cowl the gray metropolis of Lima and different cities promoting upcoming concert events. 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 masking the individuals, locations and cultures that hold this music style alive in six international locations.

In Peru, the time period “chicha” can confer with a sacred fermented corn drink or to Peruvian cumbia music. It has additionally been used derogatorily to mock immigrant tradition in Lima, significantly throughout the mass migrations of Indigenous Andean individuals to the town within the twentieth century. In relation to music, the time period has turn out to be controversial. Alfredo Villar, an writer and artwork historian, says chicha “is probably the most advanced second of Peruvian identification, as a result of it mixes all the pieces — from its deepest roots to its most excessive and sophisticated exterior influences. That is why it’s so troublesome to outline … Chicha will all the time 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 as well learn the article in Spanish.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

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

Ezra Shaw/Getty Photos for Ironman

conceal caption

toggle caption

Ezra Shaw/Getty Photos for Ironman

1. Natalie Grabow, an 80-year-old grandmother, is being hailed as an inspiration after changing into the oldest lady 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 neighborhood as writers battle with cuts to arts funding.
3. Greetings from the Rhône Glacier! This week, NPR’s Far-Flung Postcards collection 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.