Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
Today marks 60 days since the Trump administration formally notified Congress of the war with Iran.
“That's the legal deadline to gain approval from lawmakers to continue the conflict.”
But as NPR's Franco Ordonia's reports, top officials argue hostilities with Iran have ended despite continued presence of U.S. forces in the region. Under the War Powers Act, President Trump is supposed to get congressional approval of a conflict once the 60-day deadline is reached, or is required to withdraw U.S. forces. Trump announced major combat operations against Iran in late February, but the White
House and Defense Secretary Pete Hague-Seth said that hostilities stopped with the implementation of the ceasefire, and that there has been no exchange of fire between the U.S. and Iran since April 7th. After two months of fighting, the two sides remain in a high-stakes stand-off that is having major impacts on the global economy.
Neither the U.S. nor Iran wants the bombing to resume, but both continue to make demands that the other side will not accept Franco Ordonia's NPR News. The White House.
“China's ambassador to the U.N. is urging Iran in the U.S. to reopen the state of”
Hormuz, and he says if the waterway is still closed when President Trump visits China later this month, this will be a major theme of the trip, as NPR's Michal Kalman reports. As he takes over the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council, China's ambassador Food Songs says the "straight of our moves needs to open as quickly as possible." And that actually applies to both sides.
Iran is to lift its restrictions on the state of Hormuz, and the U.S. need to lift its naval blockade. The Chinese ambassador denies his country as cooperating with Iran's military and calls U.S. sanctions on Chinese ships and companies, quote, "illegitimate." He's urging the U.S. and Iran to keep a ceasefire in place and negotiate in good faith.
Michal Kalman and PR News, the State Department.
Today, Nebraska became the first state under new federal rules to require Medicaid beneficiaries
to prove they're working in order to keep their coverage, and PR's Selena Simmons Duffin reports.
“The one big, beautiful bill act passed by Republicans in Congress last summer created a federal”
work requirement for Medicaid. Adults up to age 64 will have to regularly prove that they are working, or that they qualify for an exemption. The deadline for the policy to be implemented is next January, but Nebraska is getting started early.
The state says it's not adding staff or funding to implement the requirement which will apply to roughly 70,000 Nebraska's. Health advocates call the rules "paper work" requirements, since most people on Medicaid who can work already do, Selena Simmons Duffin and PR News. And from Washington, you're listening to NPR News.
More than half a million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip are
without work according to the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, Nuham Muslim reports from Ramallah. The Labour Union puts the unemployment trade in Gaza at 85 percent, and in the occupied West Bank at 38 percent, since October 7, 2023, and Israel's subsequent restriction of Palestinian workers into Israel, the Labour Union says more than 250,000 workers have been
prevented from reaching their jobs, leaving them without income for over 30 months. Share her side, the head of the Palestinian workers' union tells NPR that the workers are suffering from unemployment and are living harsh conditions. He says the Palestinian Labour market has lost $90 billion in these years of instability and war.
For NPR, normal slurre ports from Ramallah. Today, May 1st, the International Workers' Day, which started 140 years ago in Chicago, demonstrations were held around the world as Axios's Monica Ang explains. Unions really wanted this to be a huge day, a day when people basically walked out of school and walked out of work.
There was a lot of help up because the Chicago teachers' union, which may be one of the most
powerful political forces in this already strong union town, wanted Chicago public schools
to just cancel school that day. Lots back and forth. The superintendent refused to cancel school CEO, but did say if schools wanted to take a field trip, they could. Activists are calling for peace, higher wages, and better working conditions.
You're listening to NPR news from Washington. This week on the NPR Politics podcast, a landmark Supreme Court ruling just up ended Louisiana's congressional maps, and effectively gut at the Boding Rights Act. Meanwhile, in Florida, Republicans have unveiled a new map of their own aiming to net the GOP for congressional seats.
We break down what it means for this November's midterms on the NPR Politics podcast.
