Congress announces new spending deal; Lloyd Austin’s hospital stay : NPR

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At this time’s high tales

Congressional leaders reached an settlement yesterday that may fund the federal government by means of the top of the fiscal yr and keep away from a authorities shutdown. The textual content should now be finalized, and Congress should go the payments earlier than the Jan. 19 deadline. The highest-line determine consists of $886 billion for protection and $704 billion for non-defense spending.

Home Speaker Mike Johnson and President Biden agreed to primarily the identical quantity of spending that Biden and ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to final yr in a deal that finally helped doom McCarthy, NPR’s Eric McDaniel stories on Up First. This has upset some anti-compromise Republicans, who wished to leverage the looming authorities funding deadline to get extra coverage concessions for issues like abortion entry and a southern U.S. border wall.

Tensions proceed to rise on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the place the Israeli military has commonly traded hearth with Lebanon’s Hezbollah for the reason that Oct. 7 Hamas assault and Israeli offensive in Gaza. A latest killing of a high Hamas chief in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, has added to issues of a full-scale struggle. Israel has not admitted involvement.

NPR’s Lauren Frayer stories from close to the Israel-Lebanon border, the place she’s been listening to warplanes, air sirens and booms of weaponry. Many Israelis have been evacuated. She spoke to 1 man who stayed behind to work as an important employee, who described his residence as a “ghost city.”

Senior White Home and Pentagon officers are demanding solutions after Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to tell them and the president for days about his Jan. 1 hospitalization for problems from a latest elective surgical procedure. Austin stays at Walter Reed Nationwide Army Medical Heart in Bethesda, Md.

Austin’s present situation and the small print of the medical process and problems are unknown, stories NPR’s Tom Bowman. Bowman has coated the Pentagon for a very long time and says he is by no means seen something like this. 

The Federal Aviation Committee ordered the grounding and rapid inspection of about 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes this weekend after an Alaska Airways plane suffered a mid-flight emergency. The airplane was pressured to land after a door plug blew out midair, leaving a gap subsequent to 2 unoccupied seats.

Deep dive

Respiratory sicknesses just like the flu, RSV and COVID have climbed after the vacations — although COVID ranges are nonetheless far beneath what they had been on the peak of the pandemic. Many marvel how they’ve averted COVID infections whereas in shut contact with roommates and members of the family. Here is the science behind the unfold:

By now, most immune methods can acknowledge the virus and provoke an immune response, that means signs could present earlier than you’re contagious. The infectious window and the quantity of virus shedding fluctuate from individual to individual. For a pathogen to trigger illness, you have to be uncovered to sufficient of it to beat your immune system. Masks, open home windows and HEPA filters can cut back the quantity of virus within the air.

Image present

Artwork performs a giant function in Israel and the Palestinian neighborhood. For the reason that Oct. 7 Hamas-led assaults, many artists have confronted heavy feelings by means of their craft. Six Israeli and Palestinian artists share tales of worry, anger, disappointment and ache with NPR as they mirror on how the struggle in Gaza has affected their lives. Learn their reflections and see pictures of what they have been engaged on.

Take a look at npr.org/mideastupdates for extra protection and evaluation of the battle.

3 issues to know earlier than you go

The No. 1 Michigan Wolverines and No. 2 Washington Huskies will face off tonight on the NCAA Championship recreation in Houston. Here is methods to watch and what’s at stake.  The Navajo Nation has raised objections towards plans to ship human stays to the moon as a part of a rocket launch this week. It says the launch would desecrate a sacred place in Navajo cosmology. So You Assume You Can Dance producer and choreographer Nigel Lythgoe has stepped down from the present amid allegations of sexual assault.

This text was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.