Gaza ceasefire tested; Voting Rights Act in court : NPR

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Today's top news

Israel says it will retaliate if Hamas does not hand over more bodies of the dead hostages. On Wednesday, Israel closed a key border crossing from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. halve the amount of aid allowed to enter in retaliation for what they call the delay in receiving the hostages' bodies. This comes after Hamas and Israel exchanged surviving hostages and prisoners in the first phase of a ceasefire agreement for the war in Gaza. President Trump also said violence could occur if Hamas does not give up its weapons.

• 🎧 Hamas handed over seven bodies of hostages, but there were 28 in total in Gazareports NPR's Daniel Estrin Up first. Israel says it did not receive the hostages' bodies as quickly as it expected. Estrin says Israel does not want to violate the ceasefire agreement before he returns the bodies, and it is unknown how many bodies are under the rubble or missing. Israel is conducting autopsies on the returned bodies. One family said their son was killed in an Israeli bombing while in captivity. The truce remains shaky for the sixth day. There were reports that at least six people were killed in Israeli fire yesterday, and another fire broke out today. Hamas is also fighting a bloody battle for power in the Gaza Strip against rival clans.

Today is day 15 of the federal government shutdown.and Republicans and Democrats appear no closer to an agreement on reopening the government. The Trump administration says it is prepared for a prolonged stalemate, while congressional leaders say there are no active negotiations. Last night, the Senate failed to advance a short-term funding bill for the eighth time.

• 🎧 During past shutdowns, the possibility that the military would not be paid has put pressure on Congress.But that's off the table this time because the White House can redirect funds to pay for them for now, says NPR's Sam Greenglass. Layoffs are possible, especially since Trump has promised to lay off more federal workers during the shutdown. However, Democrats say they unwavering in their negotiating position extending the duration of health care subsidies. Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland says the administration shouldn't be trusted when it says the shutdown is causing federal worker layoffs. Greenglass says that even if the impact of the shutdown does become more severe, the impasse may not be resolved soon.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments today in a case challenging the last major provision of the Voting Rights Act. The case centers on a lower court decision that found that a previous version of Louisiana's congressional map illegally weakened black suffrage. This decision led to the creation of the state's second majority-black district. However, critics who claim that race was too emphasized in this decision The new map is now being contested.

• 🎧 The court will consider whether the state's creation of a second majority district violates guarantees voting rights enshrined in the 14th and 15th Amendments and Acts of Congress. powers to enforce this mandatesays NPR's Nina Totenberg. Louisiana has a 30% black population, but there was only one in six congressional districts where African Americans had a realistic chance of electing a candidate of their choice. So last year the state created a second majority-black district. Louisiana has since changed its position and now argues that the redistricting provisions of the Voting Rights Act are unconstitutionally discriminatory. Key provisions of the law were removed over time, with one exception aimed at ensuring that minority voters were not excluded from the process of drawing new congressional districts.

Deep Dive

The Trump administration blames Democrats for the government shutdown and has said so publicly, sharing the message through internal federal agency communications and on government agency websites. At the start of the shutdown, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's website displayed a bright red banner and a pop-up message that said, “The radical left in Congress has shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.” This is just one example of reports reported by federal employees. Experts suggested that these messages may violate the Hatch Actwhich prohibits executive branch government employees from participating in most political activities while on duty or in federal buildings.

• ➡️The law prohibits messages containing propaganda of an opposition political party. While citing only Democrats probably isn't a violation of the law, explicitly blaming their party for the shutdown might be, said Michael Fallings, a partner at Tully Rinckey, a labor law firm.
• The messages seen do not protect specific candidates or influence elections, but they do violate the spirit of the law, said Donald Sherman, executive director and general counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Sherman says during the stress of the shutdown, agency leadership's role is to provide nonpartisan service to its constituents.
• ➡️Messages during this shutdown are different from those used by previous administrations. In 2013, then-President Barack Obama wrote a letter thanking federal workers for their service and berated Congress for failing to pass a spending plan without assigning blame.

Find out more about Why some ethics experts are sounding the alarm over the administration using this type of language to describe the shutdown.

Today's audition

Director M. Night Shyamalan and writer Nicholas Sparks have teamed up for their new project. Staywhich is both a novel and a film based on a story they collaborated on. The book is out now and the film will hit theaters next October. The two were determined to work together on Notebook when Shyamalan was invited to direct the film but refused to work on what became his breakthrough film, Sixth sense (1999). The anticipation led to their unique experiment: Stay. In the story, successful architect Tate Donovan comes to Cape Cod to design a summer home for a client. Donovan was recently released from treatment for severe depression. He meets a young woman who challenges his point of view. Shyamalan and Sparks say the experiment worked for them because they are very attuned to each other and trust each other's work. Morning EditionThe magazine's Leila Fadel spoke with them to learn more about the unique collaboration. Watch their interview here. Listen to Shyamalan and Sparks describe the cooperation or read the transcript.

3 things you need to know before your trip

1. D'Angelo, R&B singer who pioneered the neo-soul subgenre, died aged 51 after a battle with cancer, according to a statement from his family published by several outlets.
2. NPR's word of the week, “broadcasting,” dates back centuries and has its roots in agriculture, not radio or television. The word has acquired new meaning with growth radio in the 1920s.
3. Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk yesterday at the White House, just over a month after Kirk was shot and killed during an event in Orem, Utah.

This newsletter has been edited Suzanne Nuyen.