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Episode Date: May 1, 2026

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. President Trump has signed a bill that funds much of the Homeland Security Department, bringing an end to the longest agency shutdown in history. The House gave the measure final approval Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson. This will relieve pressure from the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Mullen, who I've spoken to in the last couple of hours, will be greatly relieved. The President will, the administration will. We were not going to have lines at TSA.

Everybody will get their paychecks now. We'll get moving forward. And then we will finish the work. finally get, again, for three years with no crazy Democrat reforms, we will fund Border Patrol and Immigration Enforcement as soon as we return for the work session when that bill is final. The shutdown lasted for more than 70 days amid Democratic demands at immigration enforcement operations be reined in. In the end, Republicans cut Democrats out of the process, adopting a budget resolution to eventually provide $70 billion for immigration enforcement.

The U.S. Senate is banning its members, staff, and officers from bedding. on upcoming events in prediction markets. The ban was unanimously approved Thursday and took effect immediately. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer calls the change in Senate rules a no-brainer and is encouraging the House and the Trump administration to follow suit. President Trump has signed an executive order expanding retirement access for lower-income Americans. MPR. Stephen Bissaha says the plans are for workers without access to employee match plans like 401ks. Federal workers, making less than $35,000, have already been able to access retirement plans where the government provides up to a $1,000 match.

This order will make the plans available to any private sector worker below that income limit. Trump spoke about the order in the Oval Office. In my state of the Union earlier this year, I promised to make the same types of retirement accounts enjoyed by the federal employees available to all Americans. So that's what we're doing. it only seemed fair. The plans will be available next year. Trump says he also wants to work with Congress

to expand this plan to middle-income Americans. Stephen Besaha, NPR News. A commercial flight from the U.S. arrived in Venezuela Thursday. NPR's Joel Rose reports it was the first between the two countries in seven years. American Airlines flight 3599 took off from Miami and landed a little over three hours later in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. It was the first direct commercial flight between the two. two countries since the Department of Homeland Security ordered an indefinite suspension in 2019,

citing security concerns. The resumption of regular commercial service to Venezuela comes months after the U.S. captured then-President Nicolas Maduro in a nighttime raid on his residence in Caracas in early January. The U.S. formally reopened its embassy there in March. American was also the last U.S. airline flying to Venezuela in 2019, after Delta and United pulled out of the country two years earlier. Joel Rose and PR News. NPR. In Texas, Camp Mystic is dropping plans to reopen this summer. State officials say the camp has withdrawn its application for a license to operate following outrage by Texas lawmakers and from families of the 25 young campers and two teenage counselors who were killed during devastating

floods over the 4th of July weekend last year. The camp's owner was also killed. The New York Drama Circle's Critic Circle, an organization of 22, critics from daily newspapers and other outlets, announced winners of their annual words last night. Reporter Jeff London says the results were surprising. In a Broadway season where only six new musicals opened, the critics chose to not name a best musical. They did, however, give a special citation to the revival of ragtime. Giving the nation a new synch a patient of people call it ragtime. Samuel D. Hunter's Little Bear Ridge Road said in the author's native Idaho was named Best Play. Alden Aaron Reich won an individual

acting award for his role in Becky Shaw. Wallace Sean and Andre Gregory got Lifetime Achievement Awards and Queen Jean, who had costumes in three shows this year, got a citation as well. For NPR News, I'm Jeff London in New York. The elusive street artist known as Banksy has confirmed that he is behind a large news statue in central London near Buckingham Palace. Banksie posted a video on his Instagram account Thursday showing the statue being dropped into place in the dead of night. I'm Giles Snyder in PR News.