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Talks to extend the ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. are still up in the air. Iran says it won't negotiate under threat, but President Trump says he's sending negotiators anyway. Will Iran send a delegation for talks?
I'm Leila Faldin, that's Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News.
[MUSIC] Another Trump administration official is out. Labor secretary, Lori Chavez, the renal resigned and made an investigation of Ms. Conduct, some outlets reported it including drinking on the job, and an alleged affair with her bodyguard.
She's the third cabinet member, Ghana, less than two months. And President Trump's pick to leave the federal reserve faces his confirmation hearing today. But a key Republican senator is threatening to block Kevin Worsh's confirmation until the Justice Department drops its investigation of the current Fed chair.
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>> Every story from shortwave and pure science podcasts starts with a question. Like, why do we have nightmares? How does AI affect my energy bill? >> At NPR, we are here for your right to be curious about the world around you. Follow shortwave wherever you get your podcast, because the more you ask, the more interesting
the world gets. [MUSIC] >> It's the final day of the Seas fire agreement between the US, Israel, and Iran. >> That's as the status of further peace talks to extend that agreement or main unclear. And in Lebanon, a different temporary Seas fire agreement to pause the fighting between Israel
and Hezbollah is in place.
“But people there are watching what happens between the US and Iran.”
>> For more on all that we're joined by NPR's Cat Lomsdorf, who is in southern Lebanon. Cat, welcome, thanks for joining us. >> Hey, good morning. >> So let's start with a possible peace talks between the US and Iran. Where do those stand right now?
>> Yeah, President Trump has said that he is sending a delegation to Islamabad and Pakistan, where those talks are supposed to happen. But as of now, Iran has not confirmed that it will be participating. Yesterday, Trump said that a ceasefire extension between the US and Israel and Iran is "highly unlikely," but also said that he's not under pressure to make a deal.
And that one with Iran will happen quote very quickly. Meanwhile, Iran's parliamentary speaker said Tehran is "prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield." >> And this is all happening as the Strait of Hormuz is still close to most commercial vessels.
>> Yeah, basically the US is blocking the transit of Iranian cargo ships and international
waters around Iran as Iran is blocking most ships from passing through the Strait. Neither seems to be budging on those positions, even as they try to work out these potential peace talks. And this is all happening as the ceasefire is set to run out tomorrow, like you said Michelle. And I'm here in Lebanon, where this is all being watched very closely.
>> Right, the ceasefire in Lebanon has been a main demand from Iran in the past.
“There is one now, but how dependent is that on what happens between the US and Iran?”
>> Yeah, that ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah here in Lebanon is intertwined in many ways with what's happening between the US and Iran. It came about after Iran demanded one to be in place in order to continue any peace talks with the US. Hezbollah is backed by Iran and largely answers to the state.
The sense here from many people, though, is that if talks fall apart between the US and Iran, that will almost certainly mean that this ceasefire falls apart, too. >> Can't, as you told us you in the south of Lebanon, we're much of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has happened with the ceasefire in place. It's the first time anybody can travel relatively safely down south where you are in weeks.
What are you seeing in here and there? >> Yeah, I'm in prior, which is a city on the Mediterranean, it's about 12 miles from Israel's northern border. Everywhere you go, there are signs of destruction from Israeli air strikes, or drone strikes, the whole buildings crumpled to the ground, just because there's a ceasefire that doesn't
mean that life can return to normal for a lot of people here. Israel is still occupying a huge swath of land for their south from here all along the border to keep Hezbollah from attacking Israel.
Many of the more than 1 million people who were displaced in this war can't go home.
I talked to 50-year-old Zena Mahdi, who is still living in a school set up for displaced people. She's from one of the towns that Israel is now occupying. She can't go home, but even if she couldn't, she said she's heard her house has been demolished and that most of the town is gone as well.
>> I feel a lot of anger, a lot of sadness, but also fear, she told me, fear because who knows how long it will be until we can go back, will be us or our children who are able to go. That seems to be one of the big questions here, even if the ceasefire extends, how long
Will Israel stay occupying the land, last time Israel occupides other in Leba...
so for nearly two decades.
“Israel has said it's prepared to stay for months or even years.”
>> That is NPR's Kat Lonstorf in southern Lebanon. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. [MUSIC]
>> Labor Secretary, Lori Chavez, the rumor has resigned to becoming the third member of President
Trump's cabinet out in just the last few weeks. >> White House Communications Director Stephen Chung announced on X that Chavez Deremer was leaving, saying she had done a phenomenal job. She was being investigated from his conduct. >> NPR, Labor correspondent Andrea Shewis, with us now to tell us more about this morning, Andrea.
>> Good morning. Do we know why Chavez Deremer resigned? >> Well, the official line from Stephen Chung is that she's taking a job in the private sector and that's something she confirmed in her own post on X yesterday, but we also know that she was being investigated by the Labor Department's Inspector General over a complaints
of professional misconduct and that investigation Michelle has been going on for months. Several of her senior staffers have already been forced out and following President Trump's removal of Christy Known, the Homeland Security Secretary in early March and then the month later attorney general Pam Bonny, you know, there's been talk that the Labor Secretary might be the next to go.
“>> So what do we know about the allegations that we're being investigated?”
>> Well, yeah, according to reporting from the New York Post and other media outlets, there were complaints that she was having an affair with a subordinate, her security detail. Also drinking on the job, taking staffers to a strip club and using taxpayer-funded travel to spend time with friends and family and places like Las Vegas, now NPR is not independently verified the contents of the investigation, but we do know it was ongoing and a distraction
for the administration.
>> No, we mentioned she's the third cabinet member to go.
She's not as well-known, I would say, as Christy Known or Pam Bonny, how was she selected for this job? Do we have any sense of why she was picked for this job? >> Well, she was a one-term congresswoman from Oregon, a mother of public end, and she lost her seat in 2024, but then the teamster's president, Sean O'Brien, pushed for her nomination
as Labor Secretary, O'Brien liked her because she was one of the few Republicans who supported the pro-ath that's a bill aimed at making it easier for workers to unionize, and you might recall that Sean O'Brien was a prime time speaker at the Republican Convention in the summer of 2024, and while he didn't endorse Trump, his decision not to endorse any candidate for president was huge for Trump, and Chavez Droomer ended up at the Labor Department.
No, under her watch, I should say the Trump administration has not made anything easier for labor unions.
In fact, Trump has tried to strip collective bargaining rights from about a million federal
workers and the administration has been ruling back various protections for other workers as well. Is there something, no worthy, that we could point to, that Chavez Droomer achieved in her year-in-office? >> Well, sources that the Labor Department says she was not actually in the office a whole
lot. She went on what she called her America at work, Listening Tour, which did take her to all 50 states. She visited training center, she talked about apprenticeships, and the blue collar boom that the Trump administration has been touting, that has not materialized, in fact, manufacturing
jobs are down since Trump took off his last year. And overall, the labor market has been pretty much in a holding pattern, amid a lot of economic uncertainty. Steven Chung said her deputy, Keith Sonderling, will step in as acting labor secretary. He's already been running a lot of the day-to-day operations, if the Labor Department
has served in the Department during Trump's first term and later at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. So, in many ways, he is much more familiar with the inner workings of government than Chavez Droomer was. That is Empire's Andrew issue, Andrew, thank you.
President Trump has described his pick to lead the federal reserve as straight out of central casting, but there could be some plot to us today when Kevin Warsh goes before a Senate Committee for his confirmation hearing. Warsh has the resume of a Fed Chairman. He's served on the Central Bank's governing board, he's worked on Wall Street, but his
elevation could still be held up by events that have nothing to do with the nominee himself.
“And Pierre Scott, Horsley is with us now to tell us more about the scorning Scott?”
Good morning, Michelle. So, what are the potential roadblocks for Kevin Warsh? Central casting may not have banked on Senator Tom Tillis, the Republican from North Carolina is a key member of the Bank Committee, and he has promised to block Warsh's nomination until the Justice Department drops its investigation that it's been running of the current
Fed Chairman's own pal. Tillis, pal, and a federal judge have also said that investigation is really just part of a pressure campaign by the White House to get pal to lower interest rates or step aside. And it may backfire, even though pal's term as Fed Chairman is scheduled to run out next month, he could wind up staying longer.
I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and ...
with transparency and finality.
“It's possible the administration will find a way to end the investigation so Warsh can take”
over from pal, but so far the White House and the Justice Department have shown no signs of moving in that direction. Yes, well, that lowering interest rates is obviously a priority of this president. He's made it very clear he wants a Fed Chairman who's going to do that is Warsh likely to go along with that.
You know, it's interesting. The last time Warsh was on the Fed's governing board, he earned a reputation as an inflation
hawk that is someone who's wary about cutting interest rates and perhaps letting prices get out
of control, but more recently he has changed his tune and argued the Fed has room to cut rates without rekindling inflation, because he says artificial intelligence is going to make workers so much more productive in the future. Now perhaps that reflects a real turnaround in Warsh's thinking, but to Democrats on a committee led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, that flip flop is a sign that Warsh will
bend which ever way the wind is blowing from the White House. Warsh has really gone out of his way to demonstrate that he will be the stock puppet in chief. Warren told NPR that committee Democrats are united in their opposition to Warsh, and that's why alone GOP no vote from Tom Tillis has the power to block this nomination unless
and until the administration gives way on the pal problem.
“If Warsh ultimately does get confirmed, will he have the power to cut interest rates?”
Not all by himself. You know, interest rates are set by a 12-person committee, and while the chair runs those meetings, he only gets one vote. Number of committee members have voice concern about cutting interest rates while inflation is as high as it is, and those concerns have gotten louder, now that the war in Iran
has poured costly gasoline on the fire. Members of the rates at a committee are very protective of the Fed's independence, and Austin Goolsby, who heads the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, says that's a lesson that comes from painful experience. Just look around the world in countries and at times when the central bank is not independent,
the administration presses, cut the rates, cut the rates. If inflation comes roaring back, that'll be the next person's problem. So Warsh is sure to get a lot of questions about Fed independence today.
“And it's got before we let you know, how is he likely to answer those questions?”
Well, Warsh has said the central bank should be independent when it comes to setting interest rates, but just as politicians should be hands-off in directing monetary policy, Warsh says the Fed should stay in his lane and steer clear of taking a stand on political policies like climate change. That's Empire Scott Horsescott.
Thank you. You're welcome.
And that's up first for Tuesday, April 21st.
I'm Layla Faldin. And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of a first-west edited by Ruth Schurler, Emily Cot, Rafael Nam, Muhammad El-Bardeseen, and H.J. May, it was produced by Zeyak Bouch and the E.D. Moss, our director is Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Nisha Heines and our technical directors, Carly Strange, our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow. [BLANK_AUDIO]
