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National

- Trump says Senate should scrap the filibuster to end the government shutdown: 2025 Oct 31

- The federal government is still shut down. Here's what that means across the country: 2025 Oct 30

- Judge sentences former Jan. 6 defendant for hoax threat near Obama's home: 2025 Oct 30

- Experts worry Guard deployments could change the way military is used on U.S. soil: 2025 Oct 30

- A judge is set to decide whether SNAP benefits can be cut off on Saturday: 2025 Oct 30

- Trump says he wants to resume nuclear testing. Here's what that would mean: 2025 Oct 30

- If SNAP food aid is cut off, small grocery stores also will feel the pain: 2025 Oct 30

- Who's the man behind President Trump's dismantling of the federal government?: 2025 Oct 30

- Trump suggests the U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons: 2025 Oct 30

2025 GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2025 • 2:59 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump says Senate should scrap the filibuster to end the government shutdown

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to scrap the filibuster, so that the Republican majority can bypass Democrats and reopen the federal government.

"THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE 'NUCLEAR OPTION,' GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER," Trump posted Thursday night on his social media site, Truth Social.

The filibuster is a long-standing tactic in the Senate to delay or block votes on legislation by keeping the debate running. It requires 60 votes in a full Senate to overcome a filibuster, giving Democrats a check on the 53-seat Republican majority that led to the start of the Oct. 1 shutdown when the new fiscal year began.

Trump's call to terminate the filibuster could alter the ways the Senate and congressional dealmaking operate, with the president saying in his post that he gave a "great deal" of thought to the choice on his flight back from Asia on Thursday.

Trump spent the past week with foreign leaders in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, finishing his tour by meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The president declared the trip a success because of a trade truce with China and foreign investment planned for American industries, but he said one question kept coming up during his time there about why did "powerful Republicans allow" the Democrats to shut down parts of the government.

His call to end the filibuster came at a moment when certain senators and House Speaker Mike Johnson believed it was time for the government shutdown to come to an end. It's unclear if lawmakers will follow Trump's lead, rather than finding ways to negotiate with Democrats.

From coast to coast, fallout from the dysfunction of a shuttered federal government is hitting home: Alaskans are stockpiling moose, caribou and fish for winter, even before SNAP food aid is scheduled to shut off. Mainers are filling up their home-heating oil tanks, but waiting on the federal subsidies that are nowhere in sight.

Flights are being delayed with holiday travel around the corner. Workers are going without paychecks. And Americans are getting a first glimpse of the skyrocketing health care insurance costs that are at the center of the stalemate on Capitol Hill.

"People are stressing," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as food options in her state grow scarce.

"We are well past time to have this behind us."

While quiet talks are underway, particularly among bipartisan senators, the shutdown is not expected to end before Saturday's deadline when Americans' deep food insecurity — one in eight people depend on the government to have enough to eat — could become starkly apparent if federal SNAP funds run dry.

Money for military, but not food aid

The White House has moved money around to ensure the military is paid, but refuses to tap funds for food aid. In fact, Trump's "big, beautiful bill" signed into law this summer, delivered the most substantial cut ever to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, projected to result in some 2.4 million people off the program.

At the same time, many Americans who purchase their own health insurance through the federal and state marketplaces, with open enrollment also beginning Saturday, are experiencing sticker shock as premium prices jump.

"We are holding food over the heads of poor people so that we can take away their health care," said Rev. Ryan Stoess, during a prayer with religious leaders at the U.S. Capitol.

"God help us," he said, "when the cruelty is the point."

Deadlines shift to next week

The House remains closed down under Johnson for the past month. Senators are preparing to depart Thursday for the long weekend. Trump returns late Thursday after a whirlwind tour of Asia.

That means the shutdown, in its 30th day, appears likely to stretch into another week if the filibuster remains. If the shutdown continues, it could become the longest in history, surpassing the 35-day lapse that ended in 2019, during Trump's first term, over his demands to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

The next inflection point comes after Tuesday's off-year elections — the New York City mayor's race, as well as elections in Virginia and New Jersey that will determine those states' governors. Many expect that once those winners and losers are declared, and the Democrats and Republicans assess their political standing with the voters, they might be ready to hunker down for a deal.

"I hope that it frees people up to move forward with opening the government," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

GOP cut SNAP in Trump's big bill

The Republicans, who have majority control of Congress, find themselves in an unusual position, defending the furloughed federal workers and shuttered programs they have long sought to cut — including most recently with nearly $1 trillion in reductions in Trump's big tax breaks and spending bill.

Medicaid, the health care program, and SNAP food aid, suffered sizable blows this summer, in part by imposing new work requirements. For SNAP recipients, many of whom were already required to work, the new requirements extend to older Americans up to age 64 and parents of older school-age children.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans now "have the nerve" to suggest it's a political strategy to withhold food aid.

"We are trying to lift up the quality of life for the American people," Jeffries of New York said about his party.

"The American people understand that there's a Republican health care crisis," he said. "The American people understand Republicans enacted the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history when they cut $186 billion from their one, big, ugly bill."

During the summer debate over Trump's big bill, Johnson and other Republicans railed against what they characterized as lazy Americans, riding what the House speaker calls the "gravy train" of government benefits.

The speaker spoke about able-bodied young men playing video games while receiving Medicaid health care benefits and insisted the new work requirements for the aid programs would weed out what they called "waste, fraud and abuse."

"What we're talking about, again, is able-bodied workers, many of whom are refusing to work because they're gaming the system," Johnson said in spring on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"And when we make them work, it'll be better for everybody, a win-win-win for all," he said.

What remains out of reach, for now, is any relief from the new health care prices, posted this week, that are expected to put insurance out of reach for many Americans when federal subsidies that help offset those costs are set to expire at the end of the year.

Democrats have been holding out for negotiations with Trump and the Republicans to keep those subsidies in place. Republicans say they can address the issue later, once the government reopens.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5591978

Related

- NPR

- NPR

2025 GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 5:22 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

The federal government is still shut down. Here's what that means across the country

By The NPR Network

The federal government shutdown has dragged into another week, and Republicans and Democrats appear no closer to ending it.

Many federal workers have missed paychecks, including air traffic controllers, who are working unpaid.

The impacts of the shutdown could soon get worse. That's because a number of federal programs are set to run out of money on Nov. 1. If that happens, tens of millions of people would lose federal food and nutrition benefits like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, previously known as food stamps.

Also set to run out of funding are some Head Start programs, early-learning centers for low-income families, that serve more than 65,000 children nationwide.

Read more about how food banks are bracing for SNAP funding to lapse

The Agriculture Department says it will reopen about 2,100 county offices despite the government shutdown to help farmers get access to $3 billion of aid. At the same time many American farmers say the Trump administration's trade policies have them on the brink.

As the shutdown continues, here's the latest on what we know.

Jump to state-specific impacts.

Why did the federal government shut down?

A partisan argument over if and when lawmakers need to act to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces led to the current shutdown. Some 24 million people — who don't have insurance through their jobs or a public program like Medicaid — use the system to buy health plans.

Prominent Republican lawmakers have claimed the Democrats are looking to provide tax dollars to help pay for the health care of undocumented immigrants. That is not true.

Democrats in the Senate refused to vote for the Republican short-term funding bill that passed the House but did not include an extension of the health care tax credits. Democrats are also hoping to repeal cuts to health care programs that were put in place as part of the GOP spending and tax bill that passed over the summer.

NPR's Deirdre Walsh reports that some Democrats say Nov. 1 could be a key date in talks to loosen the current gridlock. That date marks the beginning of open enrollment for people getting coverage through the ACA, when subscribers could see big premium increases unless the subsidies that have been helping people pay for coverage since 2021 are extended.

Read more about more about the health care fight behind the shutdown here.

Plus, why Democrats are casting the government shutdown as a health care showdown.

— Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR

What about WIC and SNAP benefits?

Of those at risk of losing food and nutrition aid if the shutdown continues into November, 7 million receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC.) Nearly 42 million who rely on SNAP are also expected to lose their benefits. Their debit-like cards were funded a month in advance through October, but the Trump administration has warned the program will run out of money Nov. 1.

In a letter dated Oct. 10, the USDA told state agencies to hold off distributing November benefits "until further notice" because of insufficient funds. The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has called on the agency to shift money from its contingency fund and other places to keep SNAP at least partially funded.

As NPR's Stephen Fowler reports, a coalition of more than two dozen Democratic state leaders are suing the Trump administration over its decision to suspend federal food benefits during the government shutdown. A federal court decision in that case may come as soon as Thursday.

WIC was initially slated to lose funding after only a couple weeks. The Trump administration shifted $300 million in tariff revenue to keep it afloat, but the National WIC Association says that emergency funding will only last through October. It's calling for an additional $300 million to keep WIC operating for a couple more weeks. Some states could step in to help fill the gap, depending on their resources.

— Jennifer Ludden, NPR

Read more on the impact of this potential lapse across the country, here. — and you can read more here about how food banks are bracing for it

What about Head Start?

Beginning Nov. 1, more than 65,000 children will be at risk of losing access to Head Start, the federal early-learning program for low-income families. That's because federal funding for individual Head Start programs cannot be disbursed while the government is shut down.

Among the states hit hardest by this Nov. 1 deadline: Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio.

Nationally, Head Start serves roughly 750,000 infants, toddlers and preschool-age children, providing not just childcare and early learning but also free meals, health screenings and family support.

Local Head Start programs are funded annually, though at different times of the year. Some programs get their money on Oct. 1, others on Nov. 1 and so on. If the shutdown lasts until December, says Tommy Sheridan of the National Head Start Association, still more programs would see their funding run out.

Without federal funding, Sheridan says, some programs will have to close immediately. Others have the resources to stay open at least another week, in hopes that politicians in Washington can resolve their differences.

— Cory Turner and Kadin Mills, NPR

What the shutdown means for federal workers

Altogether, about 1.4 million civilian federal employees across the country are going without pay, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

Of those, roughly half are furloughed, which means they are not working and not getting paid, but expect to return to work once the federal shutdown is over.

The other half have been deemed essential and so are continuing to work.

By law federal workers are supposed to get back pay once the shutdown ends, but the White House has tried to cast doubt on that.

The Senate has failed to advance a pair of competing measures to pay at least some federal employees during the government shutdown.

The Trump administration has managed to move money around to ensure that some people get paid, including active duty military and law enforcement officers with the Department of Homeland Security.

Many other federal workers are also still getting paid as usual during the shutdown. Salaries for some federal employees, including the vast majority of those at the Department of Veterans Affairs, do not come out of appropriations that Congress must approve every year.

Are government workers being laid off during the shutdown?

The Trump administration has been following through on threats to further slash the size of government during the shutdown, seeking to layoff roughly 4,000 workers earlier this month.

Some unions that represent workers are fighting back in court; the federal judge overseeing the case on Tuesday indefinitely halted the Trump administration's shutdown layoffs, noting human toll. The order applies to federal employees in programs or offices where the plaintiff unions have members or bargaining units.

How is the shutdown impacting active duty military?

The Trump administration earlier this month found unused research and development funds to pay active military members, according to a Pentagon official not authorized to speak publicly. So they didn't miss a full paycheck earlier this month, but it only covered one pay cycle. Many are expecting their next paycheck at the end of this month.

Military families are already seeking additional assistance from food banks and other groups to help with paying bills.

USPS is 'open for business as usual'

"U.S. Postal Service operations will not be interrupted," according to a statement by USPS. The postal service is primarily self-funded and doesn't depend on the appropriations process to continue running as usual.

IRS furloughs nearly half its staff

A contingency plan from the Treasury Department says that slightly more than half of the IRS' approximately 74,000 workers remain on the job and will continue to work for the foreseeable future. Some IRS employees were issued reduction in force, or RIF, notices on Friday and posted screenshots of those notices informing them of their last day, Dec. 9.

The contingency plan says nearly all of those employees who continue to work will be paid using sources other than annual appropriations, which are on hold during the shutdown. Tasks will include completing and testing systems to handle next year's tax-filing season, and maintaining computers to prevent the loss of data.

— Scott Horsley, Andrea Hsu and Stephen Fowler, NPR

National Nuclear Security Administration furloughs 1,400 employees

On Oct. 20, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation's nuclear weapons, said it is furloughing approximately 1,400 employees. The agency is responsible for overseeing thousands of warheads that are not currently deployed on missiles, bombers and submarines.

According to an Energy Department spokesperson, the furloughs are due to the "Democrat shutdown."

Roughly 400 employees remain on the job providing security and safety oversight. And the office responsible for moving nuclear weapons around the country remains funded until next week.

— Geoff Brumfiel, NPR

In addition, Nevada Public Radio is reporting more than 1,000 nuclear contractors in Nevada could receive notices by the end of the month, because their work relies on the federal government remaining open.

Teachers and schools won't be directly impacted, but federal education functions might

Eighty-seven percent of Department of Education employees have been temporary furloughed, as detailed in agency shutdown contingency plans.

At the same time, the administration is trying to use a new round of layoffs to gut multiple offices inside the department, including the Office for Civil Rights and the office responsible for overseeing special education, according to multiple sources within the department.

This latest reduction-in-force (RIF) cut at least 121 staffers responsible for overseeing roughly $15 billion in special education funding and for making sure states provide special education services to the nation's more than 7.5 million children with disabilities. The courts have halted those layoffs. If they're ultimately allowed to go through, multiple sources told NPR the special education office would be left with just a handful of top executives and support staff.

In addition, many Department of Education employees who were furloughed were surprised to see a message blaming Democrats for the government shutdown inserted into their out-of-office replies. A federal workers union is suing the Trump administration for inserting the language into employees' out-of-office email messages.

— Shannon Bond and Cory Turner, NPR

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for 2026 went live as scheduled at the start of October. As WPR's Corrinne Hess reports, the U.S. Department of Education says that student financial aid programs will continue, despite the shutdown.

National Parks are a mixed bag

Across the country, the National Park Service (NPS) have brought their operations to a halt. That includes the National Zoo and other Smithsonian facilities. NPR's Alana Wise reports that the Smithsonian assured the public that animals would still be cared for during the zoo's closure. Animal cams are considered nonessential and will be turned off for the remainder of the shutdown.

As KQED's Sarah Wright and Carly Severn reported, a contingency plan for the NPS says that park roads, lookouts and trails "will generally remain accessible to visitors" for the duration of the shutdown, but other services such as regular road and trail condition updates would not be provided.

Concerns have also been raised about the safety and responsibility of keeping parks open without having a robust number of employees available to conduct critical services.

The Salem, Mass. visitor center will be open through Halloween thanks to community support

WBUR's Andrea Shea reports that local leaders in Salem, Mass., learned a National Park Service visitor center and its bathrooms would be closed during their busiest tourist season so they took action on a plan to keep them open.

Shea reports that NPS agreed to let Salem reopen the center if the community covered costs through Halloween weekend. Annie Harris — CEO of the non-profit Essex Heritage that helps staff and run the facility — sent out a flurry of emails including to the mayor. Within 48 hours businesses and non-profits raised $18,000 — keeping the center open until Nov. 2.

Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits will continue

Social Security, VA and other benefits will continue.

But employees at Social Security field offices earlier this month said the government shutdown has left them unable to carry out an important service for some recipients. As NPR's Ashley Lopez reports, workers say they are unable to provide benefit verification letters to people calling in to request them. These official letters act as a sort of income verification and are therefore key to obtaining aid like housing assistance, fuel assistance and help from nonprofits.

In an Oct. 21 email to users answering commonly asked questions about how shutdown impacts, SSA noted the online portal can still be used to access benefit verification letters.

Some furloughed employees at the Labor Department were brought back to work, in order to complete the September inflation report, which is a key ingredient used to calculate the cost of living adjustment that Social Security recipients will receive next year. Last week, the SSA said the payments to recipients will increase by 2.8% next year, or an increase of about $56 per month starting in January.

Read more on how a fight over health policy led to the government shutdown from NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin.

ICE will mostly continue uninterrupted

Immigration cases and enforcement are proceeding as usual during the government shutdown, with a few small exceptions. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that the employees in the Office of Detention Oversight, which inspects immigration detention centers, is currently not working. "We hope Democrats will open up the government swiftly so that this office can resume its work," McLaughlin said.

According to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, DHS law enforcement, including ICE agents, will be paid for work done during the shutdown.

"More than 70,000 sworn law enforcement officers across DHS including those serving in CBP, ICE, Secret Service, TSA and other critical mission areas will be paid for all hours worked during the shutdown period," Noem posted on X last week. "By Wednesday, October 22, law enforcement officers will receive a "super check" — which covers the 4 days lost, their overtime, and their next pay period."

The U.S. Coast Guard, which is housed within DHS, will continue to be paid, according to Noem; funds will be appropriated in the reconciliation bill earlier this year.

— Ximena Bustillo, NPR

If you're flying soon …

Air traffic controllers and most Transportation Security Administration employees are considered "essential workers" and have to stay on the job. This week they officially missed their first full paycheck since the shutdown began.

Travelers across the U.S. are beginning to feel the impacts of the government shutdown, as air traffic control staffing shortages disrupt flights across the country.

Air traffic controllers helped to end the last government shutdown, and could help end this one as well. According to NPR's Joel Rose, the Transportation Department says there has been an uptick in the number of controllers who are calling in sick.

The Transportation Department says that federal subsidies for rural air travel will continue through Nov. 18, reports Alaska Public Media's Eric Stone. The department previously said it had enough funding to continue the program through Sunday.

Read more on what a shortage of air traffic controllers could do to bring an end to the shutdown, here

The impact of the shutdown looks different in different parts of the country

Some states across the country are uniquely positioned to feel the impact of the government shutdown. Reporters from the NPR Network are digging into the ways the government shutdown is playing out in their region.

Here's what we know so far about how the shutdown is affecting specific communities across the country:

Alaska

- The U.S. Transportation Department says it has secured funding to continue the Essential Air Service program, subsidizing routes to 65 Alaska communities and more than an additional 100 communities nationwide, through Nov. 2. [Alaska Public Media]

- About 15,000 federal employees live in Alaska, one of the highest percentages of federal employees when compared with other states. President Trump's threat that federal employees could receive termination notices increases the uncertainty around how this crucial workforce to Alaska's economy could be affected. [Alaska Public Media]

For more on the impact in Alaska, head to Alaska Public Media.

Arizona

- Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said she would not spend state funds to keep Grand Canyon National Park open should the government shutdown. [KJZZ]

- Social services in Grand Canyon Village are gearing up to support non-essential employees at Grand Canyon National Park, including food pantry resources. [KNAU]

- Sen. Ruben Gallego said the shutdown would also not affect federal relief money to communities in the Miami-Globe area after torrential monsoon rains caused flash flooding in the region [KJZZ]

- Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport joined a handful of other airports across the country that have refused to display a video from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. [KJZZ]

California

- Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that he would deploy the California National Guard to support food banks across California as the federal government shutdown drags on, threatening to delay and stall food stamp benefits for millions of residents. [KQED]

- Well over 1 million people in L.A. County get food benefits from CalFresh — the state's implementation of the federally funded SNAP program. The other major SoCal counties — San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange — each have more than 300,000 people on CalFresh, according to state data. [LAist]

- The shutdown of the federal government has brought the full or partial closure of many National Park Service sites across California: Muir Woods is fully closed. Alcatraz Island is slated to stay open. Other sites like Point Reyes National Seashore and Fort Point have partial closures, with some parking lots blocked or bathrooms locked. Even some park staff said they didn't learn the plan until Sept. 30 — the afternoon before the government shut down. Yosemite is open, but with lots of changes for visitors. [KQED]

Colorado

- Sites and lands in Colorado operated by the National Park Service are open, but "some services may be limited or unavailable," according to the agency's website. [Colorado Public Radio]

- In Colorado, the federal government employs thousands of workers at climate or land-management agencies. An EPA spokesperson told CPR News that the agency is operating under its shutdown plan, which would furlough thousands of employees. [Colorado Public Radio]

- Court documents show almost 200 Colorado-based positions that the Interior Department wants to cut. [Colorado Public Radio]

- Unemployment claims from Colorado's federal workers are surging amid the U.S. government shutdown. Stephanie Rogers, a Colorado-based microbiologist with the Food and Drug Administration, told CPR she filed for unemployment the day after the shutdown started. [Colorado Public Radio]

- Several Colorado credit unions are already issuing Government Relief Loans to help workers make ends meet. These short-term loans charge no interest as long as they're paid off within six months. [Colorado Public Radio]

Coloradans: Been impacted by the federal government shutdown? Colorado Public Radio wants to hear from you.

Connecticut

- Connecticut will continue federally funded food assistance programs for state residents during the government shutdown, Gov. Ned Lamont said on Wednesday. But he said the state's reserve money for SNAP, the food assistance program for low-income families, will run out by the end of the month. [WSHU]

- Connecticut has a $2.5 billion budget surplus this year — its second largest in history. Advocates are asking Lamont to consider using it to help offset the federal shortfall. Legislative leaders are considering appropriating the money during a special session next month. [WSHU]

Georgia

- For federal workers living paycheck to paycheck, one option to get through being furloughed could be filing for unemployment insurance, Georgia Labor Commissioner Barbara Rivera Holmes said. The employees will have to pay the benefits back once the shutdown ends and they receive back pay, but the benefits can help them make ends meet while they are not being paid. [GPB]

- Georgia farmers could also face delays in block grant funding and commodity data they rely on during the time-sensitive season of planting and harvesting. [NPR]

Hawaii

- University of Hawaiʻi is paying affected employees out of pocket during shutdown. Over 830 University of Hawaiʻi employees are at least partially paid through federal dollars, with thousands more in positions that are fully federally funded. UH has been able to pay them with internal funds, but it costs more than $20 million a pay period — every two weeks — for the system to match their salaries. [Hawaiʻi Public Radio]

For more on the impact in Hawai'i, head to Hawaiʻi Public Radio.

Illinois

- Three workers who spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times said they haven't been furloughed, but they've dealt with uncertainties and fragmented coordination since the federal government shut down Oct. 1 on top of a year of uncertainty. [Chicago Public Media]

Indiana

- An estimated 24,000 civilians in Indiana work for the federal government. Gleaners Food Bank set up food distribution systems to help federal workers in Indiana impacted by the shutdown. [WFYI]

Iowa

- Over 60,000 Iowans participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. [IPR]

Kansas

- If the federal government shutdown continues, the Mid-America Regional Council said it may need to temporarily close Head Start centers serving more than 2,300 Kansas City children beginning Nov. 1. [KCUR]

- During the last two shutdowns, the USDA did not publish its monthly crop reports. This comes at an inconvenient time as Midwest farmers are in harvest season. [KCUR]

For more on the impact in Kansas City, head to KCUR.

Kentucky

- Funding for food assistance benefits next month isn't coming, Gov. Andy Beshear said, due to the federal government shutdown. Funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program is also delayed. [LPM]

Louisiana

- The National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, is managed by FEMA and provides flood insurance to those who don't have a private option. It has grown in size as most homeowner's insurance policies across the U.S. have dropped flood damage entirely. It covers nearly half a million Louisianans. Policyholders with expiring contracts could lose coverage and funds to pay claims have dropped $30 billion due to the shutdown. [WWNO/WRKF]

For more on the impact in Louisiana, head to WWNO/WRKF.

Maine

- Nearly 170,000 Mainers, or over 12% of the state's total population, could lose food assistance if SNAP benefits are not funded for November. [Maine Public]

- Even though much of the staff of Acadia National Park in Maine has been furloughed, it has still been busy at the park. [Maine Public]

Maryland

- Prince George's County is home to more than 60,000 federal workers. The Capital Area Food Bank has been distributing food to federal workers affected by the shutdown. But the timing is a double burden: The Capital Area Food Bank has seen some of its own federal funding slashed even as demand skyrockets. [WAMU]

Massachusetts

- While travelers across the U.S. are experiencing delays and cancellations as a result of the ongoing federal government shutdown, it's mostly business as usual at Boston's Logan International Airport. [GBH]

Michigan

- In response to how the federal shutdown will affect rural flights in Michigan, airport officials said they are continuing with "business as usual." At least, for now. Federal funding for the Essential Air Service (EAS) program is set to extend only through Nov. 2. [Michigan Public]

Minnesota

- Thousands of Minnesotans might not receive federal food aid benefits if the government shutdown continues into November, as federal officials have told states that funding for SNAP benefits is running out. [MPR News]

Missouri

- Roughly 650,000 Missourians will not receive SNAP benefits for the month of November due to the ongoing government shutdown. [St. Louis Public Radio]

- The Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis are temporarily closed, with National Park Service work largely on hold. [St. Louis Public Radio]

New Hampshire

- SNAP serves more than 75,000 people in New Hampshire. And while state officials say they've received extra money to keep WIC running into November, it's unclear if SNAP will also be funded. [NHPR]

- On Oct. 7, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the veteran appropriator who has helped broker past bipartisan deals, told NPR, she has been working behind the scenes with senators from both parties to "find common ground." [NPR]

For more on the impact in New Hampshire, head to NHPR.

North Dakota

- The state-owned Bank of North Dakota is partnering with local banks and credit unions to provide short-term low interest loans to federal government employees and members of the armed services stationed in North Dakota, if they experience financial hardship because of the federal government shutdown. [Prairie Public]

For more on the impact in North Dakota, head to Prairie Public.

Oklahoma

- With the federal government shut down, National Park rangers are not present at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. Victims, family members and first responders are stepping in to educate visitors on the location's story. [KOSU]

Oregon

- The federal government program used to subsidize commercial flights in Pendleton got a last-minute reprieve from grinding to a halt due to the partial government shutdown. But as of Wednesday, immediate answers on how that might affect Eastern Oregon's only commercial airport are in short supply. The municipally operated Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton holds the only Essential Air Service (EAS) contract in the state, a federal program that helps rural airports operate. [OPB]

Pennsylvania

- Tens of thousands of Pennsylvania-based federal workers furloughed during the government shutdown may be eligible for unemployment compensation through the state Department of Labor & Industry. [WITF]

Tennessee

- On Oct. 7, the FAA notified local officials in Nashville that flights in and out of Nashville International Airport (BNA) would be reduced Tuesday afternoon due to a shortage of air traffic controllers during the government shutdown. Nashville's airport was back to normal by Wednesday morning. [WLPN]

Texas

- The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides food purchasing support to approximately 3.5 million Texans, including more than 1.7 million children. Those benefits amount to around $617 million per month. [KUT]

- U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees who inspect cargo at the 32 other official ports of entry are among the essential federal workers who must remain on the job unpaid. The longer the shutdown lasts, the greater the risk of cargo backups at these Texas ports due to unpaid employees calling in sick. [Houston Public Media]

Utah

- In Ogden, Utah, about 10 percent works for the IRS, and when federal workers stop getting paychecks, impacts are felt quickly and broadly. (KUER)

Vermont

- If SNAP benefits run out at the end of the month, 63,000 Vermonters would lose their benefits. SNAP dollars fund the Vermont program 3SquaresVT. [Vermont Public]

- Though the Vermont Legislature passed a state budget in May that set aside about $100 million to offset potential federal funding losses, Secretary of Human Services Jenney Samuelson told lawmakers last week that the state might not be able to leverage those reserves. [Vermont Public]

- Meanwhile, Vermont is waiting on more than $22 million in federal funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance, or LIHEAP, which helps people who can't afford to fill their heating tanks this winter. [Vermont Public]

For more on the impact in Vermont, head to Vermont Public.

Washington

- The Employment Security Department says the 80,000 federal workers in Washington State may qualify for unemployment benefits. [OPB]

- A Bremerton food bank has launched extra hours for federal employees working without pay [KUOW]

Wyoming

On Oct. 3, Gov. Mark Gordon said Wyoming will cover gaps in funding to federally funded state employees who are in the state budget "in the short-term." [Wyoming Public Media]

For more on the impact in Wyoming, head to Wyoming Public Media.

NPR's Padma Rama, Emily Alfin Johnson and Heidi Glenn edited this piece.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5589849

LAW | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 5:12 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Judge sentences former Jan. 6 defendant for hoax threat near Obama's home

By Carrie Johnson

A federal judge has sentenced a man to time served for making a hoax threat near the D.C. residence of former President Barack Obama two years ago, prompting a massive law enforcement response that included a bomb squad and sniffer dogs.

Taylor Taranto, of Pasco, Wash., spent 22 months in the troubled D.C. jail facility while he waited for trial on allegations that he suggested his van was rigged with explosives.  Authorities never found any such devices, though they did recover firearms and a machete.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols noted that Taranto had no criminal history — partly because the Justice Department had previously moved to dismiss several charges related to Taranto's participation in the siege on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

President Trump granted clemency to Taranto and virtually every Jan. 6 defendant on the first day he returned to the White House this year.

But the storming of the Capitol and the Justice Department response to it continue to reverberate, especially within the U.S. Attorney's office in Washington.

Trump and his cabinet officials are trying to rewrite the history of that day, in part by firing or forcing out law enforcement officials who investigated cases related to the riot.

This week the Justice Department sidelined two veteran prosecutors who had worked on the Taranto case and took the rare step of withdrawing a sentencing memo they had filed.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro declined to comment on any personnel decisions but in a statement said "we want to make very clear that we take violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, current or former government officials extremely seriously."

"We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target," Pirro said in the statement.

Original sentencing memo sealed, replaced

The original sentencing memo in Taranto's case detailed how a "mob of rioters" attacked the seat of government as Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 election.

It also mentioned that Taranto headed in the direction of Obama's home after Trump reposted an address of a location on social media.

A replacement sentencing memo, filed by a new pair of DOJ lawyers, scrubbed both of those references. The electronic court docket last night listed the original memo as sealed.

Judge Nichols said it was "not entirely clear" how that memo had come to be sealed and that he intended to release it unless the DOJ could justify keeping it hidden.

The judge did not press the new attorneys for details about the rare, last-minute personnel switch. But he went out of his way to praise the sidelined prosecutors, Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White.

"I just want to express my view that they did a commendable and excellent job in this case," Judge Nichols said. "They also held the highest standards of professionalism."

At a press conference on a D.C. crime issue, Pirro declined to answer whether she ordered the original sentencing memo in the Taranto case to be revoked.

"I think the papers speak for themselves and what goes on in this office is not something I'm going to comment on to the press," Pirro said.

Valdivia and White listened on from the audience in the sixth floor courtroom, surrounded by some of the lawyers who had supervised hundreds of Capitol riot cases — only to be fired or forced out of the Justice Department this year.

Taranto, a Navy veteran with two children, has since returned home to Washington state. He will be required to serve three years of supervised release, undergo a mental health assessment, and to avoid firearms and controlled substances.

"There's nothing that he did, in fact, that was violent," said defense attorney Carmen Hernandez. "The firearms were in a locked compartment in a van."

Taranto signaled he would appeal in the coming weeks. He used his brief time before the judge to address what he called "deeply troubling issues concerning our founding, our history" and "election fraud for the 2020 election."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95855

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NATIONAL | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 4:07 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Experts worry Guard deployments could change the way military is used on U.S. soil

By Kat Lonsdorf

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

President Trump's National Guard deployments are not random. The president's inner circle and, at times, Trump himself have talked explicitly and publicly about them for years. Experts worry that these deployments could fundamentally change the way the military is used on U.S soil. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf has more.

KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Back in 2023, Stephen Miller went on the late Charlie Kirk's popular conservative podcast.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW")

CHARLIE KIRK: Joining us now is Stephen Miller. Stephen, we have a lot of questions, not a lot of time. I know you're...

LONSDORF: Talk about his plan for tackling illegal immigration if Trump won another term as president. Miller was a senior adviser for Trump in his first term. On the podcast, Miller described sweeping immigration raids and mass deportations.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW")

STEPHEN MILLER: And in terms of personnel, you go to the red state governors and you say, give us your National Guard. We will deputize them as immigration enforcement officers.

LONSDORF: Miller doesn't specify how that would be legal. Under U.S. law, the military can't broadly be used for policing domestically. But he continues.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW")

MILLER: The Alabama National Guard is going to arrest illegal aliens in Alabama and the Virginia National Guard in Virginia.

LONSDORF: For blue states who don't comply, he says, you simply send in the Guard from a nearby red state. In recent months, the Trump administration has deployed National Guard troops to states against the wishes of their Democratic governors to protect federal immigration facilities and officers. Those deployments are tied up in court challenges. On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump talked repeatedly about his intent to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. In an interview with Time magazine, Trump affirmed his commitment to Miller's plan to use the National Guard to help. When Trump was elected to another term, he made Miller his right-hand man on immigration.

MILES TAYLOR: Trump was deeply deferential to Stephen, and I think you've seen that with a vastly more empowered Stephen Miller in a second term.

LONSDORF: Miles Taylor was chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's first term. He has since become a vocal critic of the president.

TAYLOR: At the time, Trump wasn't talking about those things publicly.

LONSDORF: But Taylor says plans for using the National Guard for immigration were talked about behind closed doors during the first administration.

TAYLOR: I can remember in meetings with him in the Oval Office or on Air Force One or at the border, him starting to bring up this idea of using the United States military to solve the problem.

LONSDORF: It wasn't something Trump just talked about. In 2017, the Associated Press reported on a DHS memo it obtained outlining a draft proposal to use the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants throughout the U.S. At the time, the White House denied it, saying there was no such plan. Taylor says there very much was.

TAYLOR: But it was much more specific than that. It was the invocation of the Insurrection Act to deputize the military to enforce domestic law - to basically become a domestic police force.

LONSDORF: Trump invoking the Insurrection Act would legally allow for the military to act as police on U.S. soil to carry out immigration enforcement, but possibly other enforcement, too, according to legal experts. NPR contacted the White House for this story. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the administration is committed to restoring law and order. She also called Taylor a hack, but did not directly address NPR's question about deputizing the Guard for law enforcement.

These ideas are also embedded in Project 2025, a conservative action plan written by the Heritage Foundation. Trump has incorporated many of its policies into his second administration. The report's architect is the head of the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

MATT DALLEK: I mean, the subtext of Project 2025 is to take any and all steps at the executive level to go into cities and states to enact the priority, which is to root out illegal immigration.

LONSDORF: Matt Dallek is a professor at the George Washington University who studies the American conservative movement.

DALLEK: So Project 2025 opens the door to the deployment of the National Guard in a place like Chicago without explicitly calling for it to be deployed.

LONSDORF: Project 2025 only mentions the National Guard a handful of times. Dallek says that while the Trump administration has implemented many parts of the project, it's also gone farther.

DALLEK: Beyond what is explicitly recommended there, and has used its power very creatively and also, I think, quite lawlessly in ways that the project does not explicitly call for.

LONSDORF: In recent weeks, Trump has been talking about the Insurrection Act a lot. Not just about immigration enforcement, though. Trump has talked about invoking it to send the National Guard and possibly other troops to quell violent crime and protests in places like Portland, Chicago, San Francisco. That has people like Miles Taylor particularly concerned.

TAYLOR: And all of a sudden, we're not talking about immigration anymore. We're talking about sending in the United States military to go against American citizens.

LONSDORF: Legal experts worry about what that could look like, especially with the 2026 midterm elections and the possibility that U.S. troops could be present as voters cast ballots.

Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF TAY IWAR SONG, "REFLECTION STATION")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5580469

2025 GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 3:29 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

A judge is set to decide whether SNAP benefits can be cut off on Saturday

By Tovia Smith

BOSTON — A federal judge indicated Thursday she is inclined to take steps to ensure that federal food assistance keeps flowing to 42 million Americans who depend on it. Trump administration officials say because of the government shutdown, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, will be cut off on Saturday.

"The well has run dry," the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, posted on its website.

But Democratic governors and attorneys general from some two dozen states sued the federal government to keep the payments coming, arguing SNAP benefits are an entitlement that cannot legally be cut off. They also make the case that stopping benefits would cause irreparable harm to millions of Americans, and to the state governments who will be left to deal with the fallout.

The Trump administration had argued the opposite; officials say they are legally prohibited from extending the benefits by using emergency funds.

But after an hour of arguments in Boston federal court Thursday, Judge Indira Talwani wasn't buying it.

"Congress put money in an emergency fund, and it is hard for me to understand how this is not an emergency," Talwani said. "It's really clear to me that what Congress was trying to do was protect the American people," she said, and she believes it was lawmakers intent to ensure that in the event of something like a shutdown, "we're not going to make everyone drop dead because it's a political game someplace else."

Even if the emergency fund is tapped for SNAP benefits, administration officials say its $5.5 billion falls short of the $9 billion needed to fully cover the whole month of November. They say recalculating benefits and arranging for partial payments would be a logistical nightmare — and could take weeks.

That means millions of Americans would still see some delay in receiving their next benefit, and they would also be receiving less than usual.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5591347

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NATIONAL SECURITY | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 1:06 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump says he wants to resume nuclear testing. Here's what that would mean

By Geoff Brumfiel

Heard on All Things Considered

President Trump said on Thursday that the U.S. would begin testing nuclear weapons again for the first time in decades.

"We've halted many years ago, but with others doing testing I think it's appropriate to do so," the president told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Experts say that the resumption of testing would be a major escalation and could upend the nuclear balance of power.

"I think a decision to resume nuclear testing would be extremely dangerous and would do more to benefit our adversaries than the United States," said Corey Hinderstein, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for Nuclear Peace.

Here's what a test would involve, and why the president might be calling for one now.

There's currently only one place America could test a nuke — near Las Vegas, Nevada

The Nevada National Security Site, approximately 60 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is currently the only place where America could test a nuclear weapon, said Robert Peters, a senior research fellow for strategic deterrence at the Heritage Foundation.

The Nevada site is around 1,300 square miles in size, larger than the state of Rhode Island. Starting in the 1950s, scientists conducted atmospheric nuclear tests at the site, but from 1962 to 1992, testing was done underground.

Today, testing would likely be done in "a complex of deep underground mineshafts," Peters said.

Scientists dig a deep shaft either directly below ground or into the side of a mountain. They then put a nuclear device in a chamber at the end of the shaft and seal it up. The detonation is contained by the rock, reducing the risk of atmospheric fallout.

Although underground testing is far safer than atmospheric testing, it still carries risks, said Hinderstein. In the past, some radioactive fallout has leaked from test shafts. Additionally, the test could shake buildings as far away as Las Vegas, and Hinderstein said some of the newer buildings in Vegas could even be at risk of damage.

"All of these big high-rises — including Stratosphere, including the Trump Hotel," she said. "They're not designed for massive, significant seismic activity."

America's last test in Nevada was over 30 years ago

At the end of the Cold War, the world's major nuclear powers declared a voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing. Russia, then the Soviet Union, tested its last nuclear weapon in 1990, the U.S. conducted its final test in 1992, and China conducted its last test in 1996.

The voluntary test moratorium has been in place as part of an effort to maintain nuclear stability. The U.S currently uses scientific experiments and supercomputer simulations to make sure its bombs still work.

Last year, NPR was one of a handful of organizations granted rare access to the top-secret underground tunnels where the tests take place. Scientists working in the tunnels said they were confident they could continue to ensure the safety of America's nuclear weapons without testing.

Although a full-scale nuclear detonation would be "complementary" to current experiments, "our assessment is that there are no system questions that would be answered by a test, that would be worth the expense and the effort and the time," Don Haynes, a nuclear weapons scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory told NPR as they walked through the tunnels.

Indeed Hinderstein says, preparing for a nuclear test is no small matter. While a basic demonstration test could be done in approximately 18 months. Conducting a test that would produce scientifically useful data would likely take years.

Trump's announcement is likely reacting to some recent tests by Russia

On Sunday, Russia announced it had conducted a successful test of a new nuclear-powered cruise missile. Then on Wednesday President Vladimir Putin announced the successful test of another doomsday weapon — a nuclear-powered underwater drone, which Russia says can be used to attack coastal cities.

Trump never called out Russia by name, but he did suggest recent testing was behind the announcement. "I see them testing," he said aboard Air Force One, "and I say, 'Well if they're going to test I guess we have to test.'"

While testing nuclear-powered weapons is not the same as testing nuclear weapons themselves, Russia's tests are highly provocative. They come just months before the expiration of the last nuclear treaty between the U.S. and Russia, designed to put limits on their arsenals.

The back-and-forth has all the hallmarks of the start of an arms race, noted Jon Wolfsthal, the director of global risk at the Federation for American Scientists.

"We saw this play out throughout the Cold War through nuclear testing, nuclear deployments, nuclear investments," he said.

Many experts warn that now is not the time to resume nuclear testing

Hinderstein, who served as a deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for America's nuclear weapons, from 2021 to 2024, said that a decision to resume testing would not be in America's interests.

By the end of the Cold War, the U.S. had conducted more than a thousand nuclear tests — far more than any other nation (China, by comparison, had conducted just 45).

Other nations "have more to gain by resuming nuclear testing than the United States does," she said.

Testing would likely be expensive, adds Paul Dean, vice president for global nuclear policy at the Nuclear Threat Initiative. "The cost estimates I've seen have been at around, ballpark, $140 million per test," he said.

"It's not necessary to conduct a nuclear explosive test right now," agreed Robert Peters of the Heritage Foundation. But he added, "But there could very well be compelling reasons to test in the coming months and years. That's how bad things are getting."

Transcript

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

It has been 33 years since the United States last tested a nuclear weapon. Now President Trump says he wants to do it again. Here he is on Air Force One earlier today.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know, we have more than anybody. But I see them testing. I say, well, if they're go to test, I guess we have to test.

SUMMERS: What might the president mean by that? Let's bring in NPR science and security correspondent Geoff Brumfiel. Hi.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Hi there.

SUMMERS: So Geoff, the president said, if they're going to test, I guess we have to test. So I guess my question is, who's they?

BRUMFIEL: Yeah. It wasn't entirely clear from what he said, but experts I spoke to today agree it's almost certainly Russia. On Sunday, Russia announced it had successfully tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile. Then yesterday, it said it had tested a nuclear-powered torpedo. Now, nuclear-powered things obviously aren't the same as nuclear bombs, but both the missile and torpedo are designed to carry nuclear warheads. And these tests are very provocative because these devices could get around Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defense system.

SUMMERS: OK. So if the U.S. were to test a nuclear weapon, let's say, what would be involved?

BRUMFIEL: Well, first of all, there's only one place they can do it, and that's in the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. It's a place called the Nevada National Security Site. It's absolutely massive. I was out there last year. It's bigger than the state of Rhode Island.

SUMMERS: Huh.

BRUMFIEL: Basically, they dig a hole, bury the weapon thousands of feet underground, and then they detonate it. Corey Hinderstein is at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and until last year, she was high up in the agency that manages America's nuclear weapons. She told me this.

COREY HINDERSTEIN: The president is talking about sending a signal. And if the goal is to shake the ground, then we could do it on the timeline that he's required.

BRUMFIEL: But the test site is not ready to do a really scientific test. They don't have the experiment design. They don't have the instrumentation. That kind of test would take years to develop because the U.S. hasn't tested since 1992.

SUMMERS: Well, why has it been so long since the U.S. tested a nuclear weapon?

BRUMFIEL: At the end of the Cold War, the world's great nuclear powers voluntarily stopped testing kind of as a gesture of goodwill. That voluntary moratorium has held in part because the U.S. has spent billions of dollars on supercomputers to simulate nuclear weapons. They like to call it a bang in a box. And actually, many experts told me the moratorium works to the U.S.' advantage. They have data from over a thousand nuclear tests already on the books. China, by contrast, for example, has just 45. Hinderstein says America's adversaries would gain a lot more from additional testing than the U.S. would.

HINDERSTEIN: While we could potentially gain incrementally - but even that is questionable - they could stand to gain a lot and not suffer the political hit by being the first to resume testing.

BRUMFIEL: I should add, there are possible environmental consequences too. Radioactive material can leak from underground sometimes. And there's some concern that shaking from the test could actually damage buildings all the way in Vegas.

SUMMERS: So Geoff, the Russians have tested these new weapons, and America may test a nuclear bomb for the first time in decades. So I do have to ask, is this a new arms race?

BRUMFIEL: You know, the experts I spoke to were divided on that. During the Cold War, we had so many nukes, and so did the Russia. It was sort of insane. Now, things aren't as bad as they used to be, but everyone agrees these are the dynamics that drive an arms race. You know, one side does one thing, and then the other side says, I've got to look strong, so I'm going to respond with something else. So there's a lot of concern over what's happening.

SUMMERS: NPR's Geoff Brumfiel, thank you.

BRUMFIEL: Thank you.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5590818

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2025 GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN | UPDATED THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 5:40 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

If SNAP food aid is cut off, small grocery stores also will feel the pain

By Tovia Smith

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Theresa Rios came to the grocery store this week with a shorter shopping list than usual. And she's also paying even more attention than usual to price.

Walking past a shelf of items labeled "Real Bacon Bits" next to packages of imitation bacon bits, Rios doesn't hesitate. "This is $2.19 and this is $1.59," she says, "so I'm going to buy this."

Rios is a regular at the Save A Lot store in Springfield. But since she started hearing that her federal food assistance might soon be cut off, she has been trying to put some of the money she receives aside, just in case. And, she's no longer giving all her business to Save A Lot.

"I'm at the point where I am shopping for deals at three different stores," she says. "So I'll come here because this is cheaper than Stop & Shop, but some of the items at Price Rite are cheaper than here, and Walmart is [cheaper for] the cleaning stuff … I just shop around."

Rios says she's also forgoing some items altogether, as she has switched to new, cheaper meals for herself and her three young grandchildren, who she takes care of full time. Dinner is downgraded to rice and beans, and she is no longer buying the kids' favorite cereal.

"They'll have to settle for what I can give them," she says.

Rios is hardly the only shopper forced to be more frugal. Some 42 million Americans rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, formerly known as food stamps, and as many of them worry about losing their food aid, some grocery businesses are increasingly concerned as well. There are 250,000 retailers authorized to accept SNAP benefits. Most would be able to absorb whatever loss that might come from a lapse in SNAP, but others, like the Springfield Save A Lot, are more vulnerable. SNAP purchases at this store make up a solid 65% of sales.

Already, manager Jose Pajares says those sales have started to dry up.

"It's scary," he says. "I see less customers every day because they're afraid to spend all the money they have for the whole month."

As a result, Pajares says he's been ordering less stock for the store, and he's dropping prices to try to boost sales. But he still ends up with meat and produce languishing on the shelf until its expiration date.

"If we don't sell we have to throw it out," he says. "Every day, we throw things away."

Even in the best of times, grocery profit margins are razor thin — usually just a penny or two on the dollar. And recent challenges around tariffs, for example, have sliced profits even thinner.

Anthony Peña, who owns this store, also owns a few others that are less dependent on SNAP business. That means he's able to weather a dip in sales for a bit, he says, but not for long.

"After one, maybe two months, I'll start to think about the nuclear options, as we call it, having to think about closing the store," Peña says.

"For small supermarket grocers, challenges like SNAP reductions can have a significant impact on profitability, which unfortunately can put some stores and lots of jobs in jeopardy," says Scott Moses, an investment banker with Solomon Partners who wrote the book A 'Grocery' Christmas Carol about the rapid and seismic changes in the grocery industry.

He says a prolonged SNAP shutdown could mean more pressure on the already shrinking number of small independent supermarkets, which are being squeezed by grocery giants like Walmart. By itself, Walmart has almost as much market share as all the nation's 26,000 small supermarket grocers combined.

Now, Moses says, Walmart might well gain even more; if there is a cutoff of SNAP benefits, he says the superstore would likely draw in more new customers.

"A significant amount of customers are going to trade down to what they perceive to be lower-priced operators, and net, net, Walmart will likely come out ahead," Moses says.

For the less fortunate stores, however, there is growing concern that any closures could have broad and serious repercussions.

"There's a ripple effect that's going to happen here," says Jerome Bouyer, vice president of retail operations for Save A Lot. For starters, Save A Lot stores tend to be "in places that are already 'food deserts' and have food insecurity. That just makes the problem that much worse."

There is also worry about the impact on local vendors, suppliers and distributors.

"For example, the bread guy or the guy who delivers eggs or milk to the store," Peña says. "Instead of delivering 100 units, now he's going to deliver 25 units — 75 units less. So that's when things get a little bit more complicated."

And of course, store employees are acutely aware that their jobs are also on the line. Already, there are cashiers just standing around during what is supposed to be the busiest shopping hour of the day.

"I'm worried because if customers aren't coming because they don't get food stamps, our jobs are at risk," cashier Stephanie Hernández says in Spanish. She has an 11-year-old and twin 1-year-olds. "If I don't work," she says, "how will I pay my bills?"

If the worst-case scenario does come to pass, it would be a double blow for Hernandez. She gets SNAP benefits herself. So if payments are allowed to lapse, she could end up losing her food assistance — and her job.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5587926

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POLITICS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 12:10 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Who's the man behind President Trump's dismantling of the federal government?

By Terry Gross

Heard on Fresh Air

Transcript

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.

Russell Vought has been called the shadow president, including by my guest, journalist Andy Kroll. Vought is the director of the Office of Management and Budget - not the sexiest-sounding title, but he's the architect behind the Trump administration's dismantling of federal agencies, slashing foreign aid, pausing or canceling over $400 billion for infrastructure and clean energy projects in blue states, ending the Justice Department's independence from the president, stuffing so many budget cuts in the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, and expanding the power of the president. He was also one of the people behind Project 2025, which was intended to be a blueprint for a second Trump term, and that's what it's become. Vought describes himself as a radical constitutionalist. Andy Kroll has been investigating how Vought has been using his power and what his goals are. Kroll covers the Justice Department and judiciary system for ProPublica, where he's written extensively about Vought. Kroll has an article in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball." Kroll is also the journalist who first got access to and published the video of Vought saying this back in 2023.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RUSSELL VOUGHT: We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. We want - when they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work.

(LAUGHTER)

VOUGHT: Because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so. We want to put them in trauma.

GROSS: OK, and there's one more Russell Vought clip I want to play for you that will give you more of a sense of Vought's goals and strategy. When he was on The Tucker Carlson Show in November 18, 2024, just 13 days after Trump was reelected, Carlson asked Vought about his priorities. This was on top of Vought's list.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VOUGHT: So my belief, for anyone who wants to listen, is that you have to - the president has to move executively as fast and as aggressively as possible with a radical constitutional perspective to be able to dismantle that bureaucracy and their power centers. And I think there are a couple of ways to do it. Number one is going after the whole notion of independence. There are no independent agencies. Congress may have viewed them as such - SEC or the FCC, CFPB, the whole alphabet soup. But that is not something that the Constitution understands. So there may be different strategies with each one of them about how you dismantle them, but as an administration, the whole notion of an independent agency should be thrown out, particularly with the Department of Justice in which there's literally no law. All it is is precedent from the Watergate era, that the attorney general and those lawyers don't work for the president. And...

TUCKER CARLSON: Well, who do they work for?

VOUGHT: They think that they work for themselves. They think that they are...

CARLSON: So they have the power to kill people just 'cause they awarded themselves that power?

VOUGHT: They...

CARLSON: The power to kill people. I mean...

VOUGHT: They believe that they have the power for all of the prosecutions and that the president doesn't get a say in any of that. And that - we have to go at that as hard as we possibly can.

GROSS: Well, Andy Kroll, welcome to FRESH AIR. We have a lot to talk about (laughter).

ANDY KROLL: Yeah, we sure do. It's a real pleasure to be here.

GROSS: Pleasure to have you. So let's get into what we just heard Russell Vought say. I'll start with federal agencies. Why are they such a big target for Vought?

KROLL: Russ Vought believes that federal agencies are one of the chief reasons that, in his view, the American government has ceased to serve the American people and that it has become this rogue bureaucracy where there are civil servants who are unelected and who have their own agendas. They, in his belief, ignore the president and carry out this plan, these policies, these rules and regulations that, again, in Russ Vought's view, have become completely untethered from the will of the president and then the people who elected that president. And he wants to rip out as much of that bureaucracy as he possibly can. He calls it the deep state. He deeply believes that, as he put it in a different part of that Tucker Carlson interview, that the bureaucracy in the American government hates - to use his term - the American people and has to be eliminated.

GROSS: OK. So he says that the agencies aren't mentioned in the Constitution and therefore, they don't necessarily even have a right to exist, if I'm hearing him correctly. What is mentioned in the Constitution is the separation of powers between the president, the judiciary and Congress. He thinks, according to the clip we just heard, that the president should be involved directly with the judiciary. Does that violate the Constitution?

KROLL: It certainly would be a major break from how our three-part system of government has operated for quite a long time, and it would certainly be a break in terms of what the president is now doing as it relates to Congress from the plain text of the Constitution itself. What I'm talking about here is the Article 1 authority that Congress has, No. 1 job that Congress has, the power of the purse. Pass the laws with funding to implement those laws. Article 2, as anyone who has done a cursory read of the Constitution knows, says that the president must take care to implement those laws faithfully. Russ Vought has a very different theory of this case. As he and President Trump and this administration have shown in the almost 10 months they've been in office, they believe that the president has vastly more power to defy Congress' will, to block spending, to block programs approved by Congress, to essentially step on that Article 1 authority and really scramble the fundamental idea of separation of powers that, again, has governed this country for quite a long time.

GROSS: Why is Congress allowing the president to limit the power of Congress? Why are Republican congressman standing for that?

KROLL: It's a very good question. I think it speaks to the degree to which the Republican Party today is so controlled by one man, the president of the United States right now, Donald Trump. If you talk to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, you come away with the impression that the overriding concern that most Republican members of the House and the Senate have in their day-to-day existence is winding up on the wrong side of President Trump, winding up on the wrong side of his most ardent followers. So when these confrontations have come up this year, when Russ Vought has acted in ways that have thwarted, again, Congress' fundamental power of the purse responsibilities, Congress has essentially said, oh, OK. You know, well, maybe we'll put out some strongly worded statements saying we disagree, maybe we'll grumble a little bit to the Capitol Hill Press Corp. But the Republicans who run Congress right now, to be clear, seem much more concerned about staying in the good graces of President Trump and his base than they do about asserting Congress' institutional authority, which, again, is really uncharted territory for how our government is supposed to function.

GROSS: Russell Vought also wants the president to be able to fire federal workers who don't adhere to the president's agenda. And part of his rationale is that federal workers weren't elected, so the president should be able to fire them, like any boss can fire an employee. Vought wasn't elected either. So where does his power come from? Is he that powerful as the director of the Office of Management and Budget?

KROLL: The power comes from a few places. Some of it is the nature of the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, and I can get into that a little bit more. Some of it, though, is really an extension of this maximalist view of executive power. It's been referred to as the unitary executive theory - this notion that Article 2 of the Constitution gives the executive, gives the commander in chief vast powers, not just to dictate foreign policy or to shape the agenda of the various agencies that are in the executive branch, but to actually go in and fire people who are ostensibly protected by the kind of civil service safeguards, workplace protections, in some cases, actual collective bargaining agreements in place. That the president has this blanket authority to just say, no, those bargaining agreements are not valid. Those unions are not legitimate. I can go in and just say, you are fired at the Department of Education. You several thousand employees at the Department of Homeland Security, your positions are eliminated. So there's that kind of - almost a legalistic blanket approach that is just essentially pointing to Article 2 and saying, Article 2 stands for a lot more than people think it does.

But then there is this little-known, not particularly sexy, as you put it, but incredibly powerful agency known as the Office of Management and Budget. And it sits at this critical juncture in the American government. Congress, as we talked about, passes the laws, appropriates the funds, sets the policy agenda. And I think a lot of Americans figure that, OK, Congress does that. The money goes to these agencies. The plans, the laws go to the agencies, and that's how our government works. But there is this office, OMB, that sits in between Congress and the agencies that in the hands of Russ Vought has become this choke point to cut off funding, to cut off the functioning of programs and to exert the president's will in a way that we honestly haven't seen since the Nixon administration.

GROSS: OK. I want to talk with you a lot more about what Vought is doing to American government. But first, we have to take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is Andy Kroll, an investigative reporter for ProPublica covering the Justice Department and the judiciary. He has an article in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica about Russell Vought titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE AMERICAN ANALOG SET SONG, "IMMACULATE HEART II")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to the interview I recorded yesterday with Andy Kroll, an investigative journalist covering the Justice Department and the judiciary at ProPublica. He's been investigating Russell Vought, the person behind Trump's dismantling of federal agencies and expanding the power of the presidency. Vought is the director of the Office of Management and Budget and an architect of Project 2025. He's the subject of Kroll's article in The New Yorker, written in collaboration with ProPublica, titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball."

Does Vought, as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, get to veto, like, budgets that come across his desk? Does he have any kind of final say over how money is dispensed?

KROLL: Not in a permanent, official kind of way. The director of the Office of Management and Budget can't put a veto on, say, a multibillion-dollar program to support clean energy or to build the Second Avenue subway in New York City. That is the role of Congress - again, writes the laws, appropriates the money. What OMB does in normal times is what I've kind of likened to a loving but cautious parent, who gives out an allowance to their kids at sort of regular intervals to try to make sure that those kids don't spend the money that's going to them in one fell swoop. So OMB apportions money - to use the wonky term - to federal agencies at a kind of regular cadence to basically make sure that, say, the EPA doesn't run out of money two months before the fiscal year is over. Agencies have some problems with controlling the spending if they don't have that sort of regulator in place, that cadence coming from OMB. So that's what OMB normally does.

What it has done in a massive way, in an unprecedented way with Russ Vought in charge, is actually say, we're just not going to apportion that money, period. We've frozen money that is supposed to go from Congress to, say, the National Institutes of Health or the Environmental Protection Agency or the IRS. We're freezing it. And they give various reasons. They say, we're doing a review of this funding, but these reviews have no timetable. The agencies don't know how long or why this review is happening. Or Vought and his colleagues will say, this funding doesn't align with the president's priorities. It's part of the green new scam, a term that they've used, or it's part of, quote-unquote, "transing our kids." And so they just hold the money back. And that has created this chaos across the federal government because the normal functioning of how laws get passed, money gets appropriated, and agencies do their work has been completely jammed up.

GROSS: And after the money is frozen, does it expire at the end of Congress' term?

KROLL: It depends on what kind of money we're talking about. Sometimes the money is over a multiyear period. Sometimes the money is called no-year funding, which means it doesn't have an expiration date. But by and large, this money does have an expiration date, often one fiscal year. And the money will expire at the end of the fiscal year if it hasn't been spent. And one budgetary gambit that Vought has used just, you know, several months ago was trying to freeze federal funding so close to the end of the fiscal year that it would just expire on its own without any support from Congress, without any attempt to get the legislative branch to sign off on that. And again, this is one of these maneuvers that Vought is using now to try to upend the normal functioning of our democratic system.

GROSS: So in full disclosure, I should mention that Congress had voted funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes federal funding to public radio and public TV. But then Vought had asked Congress to rescind that money, to claw it back, and they did. So is that kind of thing unprecedented? And also, there's something that's being called, not a pocket veto, but pocket rescission. Can you explain that?

KROLL: Yeah. And we're getting into the budgetary weeds here. But these are really critical.

GROSS: These are powerful tools.

KROLL: Yeah, that's right. And they are very much the tools that Vought has been using to accomplish the very goal he talked about in that Tucker Carlson clip that you played earlier. In June, the White House sent what's called a rescission request down Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress. What that asked Congress to do, that request, was to rescind $9 billion that Congress had already appropriated by law. It had passed a law that accounted for this money to go to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to go to foreign aid programs. And now the White House said to Congress, we want you to take a vote on rescinding that money, zeroing it out.

The thing that is striking to me is that Vought tried to do this in the first Trump administration when he had a similar role at the Office of Management and Budget. And ultimately, he was the director at the end of the first Trump administration. They sent a massive rescissions request in the first Trump administration to Congress, and Congress said no. Congress narrowly defeated this measure. And it was seen back then as the legislative branch exerting its will, kind of standing up for itself and saying, we write the laws, we appropriate the money. We don't support you, the White House, coming over here and telling us to undo work that we've already done, the negotiations, the compromises, the deal-making.

Fast-forward to this summer, Vought goes back to the tool kit and sends another rescission request to Congress for Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding, for USAID foreign aid funding. And this time it passes. Congress votes to rescind this money. And the effects of that, of course, have been pretty devastating for the programs and agencies affected. But then a few months later, Vought takes an even more aggressive step in the same direction. He issues what he has called a pocket rescission.

What that essentially means is it's a request that went to Congress and said, we want to rescind even more money. This time, it was about $5 billion, again, targeting foreign aid. But what Vought essentially told Congress was, I don't need your vote. I don't need you at all to rescind this money because the way the law works, Congress has a 45-day period to consider one of these rescission requests, to consider, again, whether to undo work it had already done.

Vought sent this request down Pennsylvania Avenue so close to the end of the fiscal year for Congress that he said, I don't need your support - the clock is going to run out, and the money will go away. That is a maneuver that's largely seen as not legal. Republicans in Congress said as much to Vought. But by all indications, he was undaunted by this. And he sees this pocket recission - kind like a pocket veto, but again, specifically targeting funding at programs - as a way that he can erase government funding whether Congress likes it or not.

GROSS: My guest is Andy Kroll, an investigative reporter for ProPublica covering the Justice Department and the judiciary. He has an article in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica about Russell Vought titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball." We'll be right back. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF TERENCE BLANCHARD'S "AIN'T YO STUFF SAFE HERE")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to the interview I recorded yesterday with Andy Kroll, an investigative journalist covering the Justice Department and judiciary at ProPublica. He's been investigating Russell Vought, the person behind Trump's dismantling of federal agencies and expanding the power of the presidency. Vought is the director of the Office of Management and Budget and an architect of Project 2025. He's the subject of Kroll's article in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball."

It seems that one of the things that Russell Vought is doing is creating chaos - freezing funds with agencies not knowing, like, if those are going to be unfrozen or if they'll never get that funding back, creating chaos, in many ways, in agencies, creating some chaos in Congress. Because Trump has been telling Republicans in Congress what to do, and sometimes that's contradicting what they've already voted to do. Is chaos a goal of Russell Vought's?

KROLL: I don't think you can take in the full sweep of what this administration has done in less than a year and not come away with thinking that chaos is a goal and certainly an outcome that serves Vought and his team's larger agenda of putting cracks in the federal government, shaking the stability of this typically rock-solid, steady institution that is the federal bureaucracy. I talked to dozens of people who have worked with Vought, who have observed him closely - talked with a lot of federal workers who have been affected by the funding freezes, affected by the mass layoffs, affected by all the different maneuvers that Vought has attempted so far. One thing that really stuck with me - and it came out of one of these conversations with a former civil servant - was how much this administration and really Vought's efforts have shattered this idea of public service, at least at the federal level, as a reliable, stable way to not just find employment, but to serve a greater good, to serve your country, to be a part of this larger mission, this larger ideal.

You know, the people who work in the federal government aren't doing it because the pay is great. They're not toiling away at the Education Department or the FBI because it's going to make them famous or they're going to achieve viral influence or status. They do it because they believe in this larger mission, and they're willing to work under Democratic and Republican presidents. But there is this larger notion of public service, this ideal that drives them. That idea has really taken a beating in this administration to the point that former federal workers I talked to have said, things are so chaotic. Things are so uncertain. I don't know if I would want to work for the federal government again because I don't want to have to go through what I've already gone through this year.

GROSS: I wonder if that's intentional. Like, if you want to destroy federal agencies and the so-called deep state, one way to do it is to discourage people from working in federal government, to make it seem like you're not going to have a reliable job. We might take it away from you at any point. If the president thinks you're disloyal and you're not following his agenda, he has the right to fire you. We can defund agencies. We can close the doors of agencies. So, like, you're asking for instability. You might be an idealist, but, you know, this might not be good for you.

KROLL: I have to think that that is the intended outcome. And I think this comes back to the line of Vought's that set me down this path, this yearlong path of reporting, which were these comments about wanting to put civil servants in trauma. I went back and looked at his social media footprint. He doesn't have a major presence online. He is not a Pete Hegseth or a Kash Patel, who sees himself as this kind of public influencer-type figure. But Vought does chime in every once in a while, and he has over the years. And what I found, actually, was there was a New York Times article that came out when Joe Biden was president. But it talked about the lingering effects of the first Trump administration's chaos and the dysfunction and the aggressive policy changes at the top, specifically at the EPA. And there was someone in there - in The New York Times article - who said that this was a traumatic experience for the people who worked at the EPA. The first Trump administration there - we're talking about here. And Russ Vought shared this story online, and he shared it with a little message above that said, quote, "straight into my veins," as in, I love what this story is conveying about federal workers feeling traumatized. And clearly, his goal was to try to replicate that on a much larger scale. And that is just something that has really stuck with me this entire time, is this psychological motivation that he has to want to traumatize people who have devoted their lives, their careers to public service.

GROSS: Well, we need to take another break, so I'm going to reintroduce you. My guest is Andy Kroll, an investigative reporter for ProPublica covering the Justice Department and the judiciary. He has an article in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica about Russell Vought titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF JULIAN LAGE GROUP'S "IOWA TAKEN")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to the interview I recorded yesterday with Andy Kroll, an investigative journalist covering the Justice Department and judiciary at ProPublica. He's been investigating Russell Vought, the person behind Trump's dismantling of federal agencies and expanding the power of the presidency. Vought is the director of the Office of Management and Budget and an architect of Project 2025. He's the subject of Kroll's article in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball."

As part of your investigation into Russell Vought, you got access to court records. And you did interviews with people close to Vought. And you learned that DOGE was guided more than was previously known by Russell Vought. What did you learn about his role that we didn't know before?

KROLL: I think the way to understand Vought and DOGE is this. Vought is a planner. He's a thinker. He's a student of not just history, but how the federal government works and where the levers are that he can pull to try to enact his agenda. DOGE with Musk at the head was like a battering ram, a blunt force instrument that swept through the federal government trying to get rid of as many employees, cancel as many programs as it could, as fast as it could.

And so I think, while there may have been some particular programs, there may have been some specific offices that Russ Vought may not have wanted to get rid of or may not have had on his list of targets to be wound down and DOGE did go after those, DOGE kind of changed the calculus for Vought. But for a lot of Trump administration officials, they saw that if you moved fast and broke things, to use the Silicon Valley catchphrase, you could kind of get away with it.

GROSS: Was Russell Vought the person behind DOGE? Was it his idea to start that?

KROLL: From all the reporting I've done, people I've talked to who are close to DOGE, that was very much an Elon Musk idea, something that Musk pitched to the president and the president embraced. In some ways, I think DOGE kind of got in the way initially of Vought's plans that he had been crafting for years for a potential second Trump administration. But as things started to play out earlier this year, and as DOGE started to move so aggressively through the federal government, I think Vought saw an opportunity to take advantage of what DOGE showed was possible and to take even more drastic action. He did not choose to be in this situation, Russ Vought. But he saw a way that he could use it to his advantage, based on all of the interviews, all of the documents I've read, and he took that opening.

GROSS: Yeah, they're opposite in terms of approaches. You know, Musk had the chainsaw, and Russell Vought is more of a technocrat. Like, he knows all the ins and outs of congressional rules. He drafts executive orders. He works to break the rules by knowing the rules. But, you know, one of the outcomes of DOGE is a lot of lawsuits. Can you talk more about that goal of creating lawsuits to see how far you can push things and still, you know, maybe violate law or push law and still be able to get away with it?

KROLL: We're seeing this play out right now as we approach a month of a federal government shutdown here in Washington. Vought and OMB sent out this memo a few days before the shutdown telling agencies to put together plans to lay off workers en masse during the shutdown. Now, that is something that all the legal experts I talked to, the congressional staffers, people steeped in the law of how personnel actions work in the federal government, say you can't do. You can't use a shutdown as an opportunity to lay off tens of thousands of people. That is exactly what Vought told agencies to do. That's exactly what he has given interviews saying he wants to do.

This is one of those examples of what you're talking about. It has teed up a legal fight that's playing out. A federal judge on the West Coast has, for now, temporarily halted Vought's actions, these agency actions, to lay off workers. But this seems like one of those moments where Vought is testing the limit. He's looking for ways to potentially get new precedent, change the law. And I think you see a number of those attempts across the board, freezing programs, laying off workers. That is very much a part of this strategy, looking for ways to get these questions in front of judges and try to change laws, find certain laws unconstitutional or just shift the line a little bit of what the executive power that a president has looks like.

GROSS: And in terms of the shutdown that we're experiencing now, one of Vought's plans when he was drafting his plans for a second Trump term was to use shutdowns as a way to accomplish his political goals. So you gave us one example. Are there other political goals he wants to accomplish through shutdowns?

KROLL: Vought sees shutdowns as these rare opportunities, though they're increasingly less rare lately, to achieve big policy outcomes that you can't get through the normal course of Congress or the normal course of the federal government's business. I quote him in the story in one of I think about 50 briefings that he gave that I got a recording of saying Republicans need to love shutdowns because shutdowns are the way you save the country. It's not just about using a shutdown as leverage to threaten or actually fire tens of thousands of federal workers. It's also the way that you try to achieve these really dramatic policy changes.

Right now, this shutdown is all about these really critical subsidies for Obamacare. The next shutdown could be trying to get Democrats to concede to major policy changes, funding cuts on clean energy or infrastructure, unwinding, say, Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. Vought sees these shutdowns as chances to get what you can't otherwise achieve, you can't otherwise get the opposing party to agree to, when Congress is normally in session. That's why he's so eager for them.

GROSS: Russell Vought talks about the Constitution and democracy. But he supported Trump's false claim that Trump won the 2020 election. What does that say about Vought, do you think?

KROLL: I think it says that his loyalty to President Trump is so central to how he believes he is going to enact this larger vision for radically changing the federal government here in the United States. If he had broken with the president over the 2020 election, like a lot of other senior officials in the administration did, he loses the ability to be a part of the MAGA movement, to harness the political support, the energy of Donald Trump, America First, toward really things that Vought has been trying to do since long before Donald Trump has been on the political scene. I'm talking 20, 30 years back in time. So he stays loyal to the president, and he spends those four years between the two Trump presidencies remaining close to the president, saying that the 2020 election was stolen. And that gives him the ability to come back in office this time and have far more influence and leeway to do what he wants to do than he did even the first time around.

GROSS: You learned through previously unreported recordings of briefings by the think tank that he started during the Biden presidency, Citizens for Renewing America, that Vought had pressured members of the Freedom Caucus to ban critical race theory in schools. Where does that figure into his larger, like, political plan to expand the executive office?

KROLL: Vought has spent nearly 30 years working in Washington and has toiled away as a staffer on Capitol Hill, as an activist for the Heritage Action group and then, of course, in the Trump administration to try to find ways to convince the public to rally behind - and then members of Congress to actually shrink the size of the federal government in a dramatic way. These were always arguments being had about the debt, the deficit, the specific dollar amount of these programs.

What I learned in my reporting, largely drawing on these recordings that I obtained for this story, is that Vought comes to this realization that he has to link together the culture war and the fiscal wonky budgetary agenda if he's going to be successful. It's not enough to just talk about impoundment, to talk about how much this or that program costs. You need to come up with a way that makes that program feel wrong on a cultural level. He comes up with this phrase, woke and weaponized. Programs that have anything to do with diversity are too woke. The Justice Department and the FBI are weaponized. It becomes a very sticky talking point. And I think it's a real inflection point for him, where he brings together these two parts of his worldview and the larger MAGA agenda so that the public, or at least the president's followers, are along with him. They support, they understand why we're going after clean energy funding or why we're going after the community developmental financial institution - these wonky agencies that are now tagged as being too woke or they're being weaponized.

GROSS: We have to take another break here, so let me reintroduce you. My guest is Andy Kroll, an investigative reporter for ProPublica covering the Justice Department and the judiciary. He has an article in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica about Russell Vought titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANORAAK SONG, "HERE YOU GO")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to the interview I recorded yesterday with Andy Kroll, an investigative journalist covering the Justice Department and the judiciary at ProPublica. He's been investigating Russell Vought, the person behind Trump's dismantling of federal agencies and expanding the power of the presidency. Vought is the director of the Office of Management and Budget and an architect of Project 2025. He's the subject of Kroll's article in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica titled "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball."

Russell Vought describes himself as a Christian nationalist. And he says, of course I describe myself that way. I'm a Christian, and I'm a nationalist. But when you say Christian nationalist, the implication is - or the definition is usually that you want to define America as a Christian nation. So to what extent does Russell Vought want to define America as a Christian nation? Like, what is - does he have a vision of what a Christian nation would be?

KROLL: He's talked about this in private settings - what that actually means that we are a Christian nation 'cause he very much believes that. He has said that repeatedly. He talks about it in a couple of ways. For instance, he has argued that if we are a Christian nation, then our immigration system should reflect that and there should be more vetting of people who want to come to this country legally, whether they believe Christianity or not. He has said, why would we let someone into this country who, for instance, believes in Sharia law? So that's one approach - you know, who do we even let into the country?

He's also talked at great length about Judeo-Christian values and teachings informing the work of people in public office, people who make policies, people who work not only in Congress but also in the executive branch and in the bureaucracy. How do you get policies that flow from Judeo-Christian worldviews? How do you make the legislative process more influenced by a Judeo-Christian worldview? For him, to go by his own words, that would mean that things like same-sex marriage are not compatible with that Judeo-Christian worldview and shouldn't exist. Abortion rights, in any form, not compatible with that Judeo-Christian worldview value system is how he's put it. He uses this term actual truth. I think it's a - kind of a biblical truth notion when he talks about how do we more integrate this specific Judeo-Christian value system with the functioning of our American government? It's a longer-term idea, obviously, but it's something that I think is really central to his own worldview.

GROSS: So Vought calls himself a radical constitutionalist. What does he mean by that?

KROLL: He means that the president has dramatically more powers than presidents have traditionally used, that the executive branch has far greater authority to exert the president's will and to freeze or block the work of Congress and that these independent agencies that have for so long operated without presidential or political interference should, in fact, be very much under the control at the direction of the White House. That, in his view, is what the founders intended. Hence, the name radical constitutionalists. That, of course, is not what many legal scholars and many administrations before this one have believed in how they have acted.

GROSS: What do you think are the permanent or at least the long-term changes that Vought will leave behind?

KROLL: The feeling that working for the federal government, that public service is not a safe and stable way to create a career, to be part of this larger American project, I think is a really major consequence and impact of what he's done. I think he has pushed the legal bounds of what the president can do to exert his will, talking about the funding freezes, talking about checking Congress' power of the purse, using the executive branch to choke off funding or redirect it in other - to other places that are more in line with the president's agenda. Ultimately, I think the biggest consequences of Vought's actions are going to play out in front of the United States Supreme Court. So many of the changes, the policies, the executive powers that Vought has exercised in just this year alone are likely going to end up in legal battles before the conservative supermajority in the Supreme Court. How the high court rules in those cases could lead to quite a radically different looking executive branch and even a dramatic set of changes to how we understand our three-part Democratic government working.

GROSS: Andy Kroll, thank you so much for your research, and thank you for being on our show. I appreciate it.

KROLL: It's a real pleasure. Thank you.

GROSS: Andy Kroll covers the Justice Department and the Judiciary for ProPublica. His article, "Donald Trump's Deep-State Wrecking Ball" is published in The New Yorker in collaboration with ProPublica. Our interview was recorded yesterday. If you'd like to catch up on FRESH AIR interviews you missed, like this week's interviews with film directors Judd Apatow, Cameron Crowe and Nia DaCosta, check out our podcast. You'll find lots of FRESH AIR interviews. And to find out what's happening behind the scenes of our show and get our producers' recommendations for what to watch, read and listen to, subscribe to our free newsletter at whyy.org/freshair.

(SOUNDBITE OF ROBERTO MONTERO'S "DE DUAS, UMA")

GROSS: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.

(SOUNDBITE OF ROBERTO MONTERO'S "DE DUAS, UMA")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5590249

U.S. VS. CHINA: INSIDE A GREAT POWER RIVALRY | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 5:18 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump suggests the U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons

By The Associated Press

BUSAN, South Korea — President Donald Trump appeared to suggest the U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades, saying it would be on an "equal basis" with Russia and China.

There was no indication the U.S. would start detonating warheads, but the president offered few details about what seemed to be a significant shift in U.S. policy.

He made the announcement on social media minutes before he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea. When he spoke to reporters later aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington, he offered little clarity.

The U.S. military already regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it has not detonated the weapons since 1992 because of a test ban.

But the president suggested that changes were necessary because other countries were testing weapons. It was unclear what he was referring to, but it evoked Cold War-era escalations.

"Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," he said in a post on Truth Social. "That process will begin immediately."

The White House did not immediately respond to questions seeking more details. Trump ignored a question from a reporter about his post as he sat face-to-face with Xi in Busan, a meeting that focused on trade issues between the two countries.

When he spoke to reporters later, Trump appeared to be conflating the testing of missiles that deliver a nuclear warhead with the testing of the warheads.

Other countries, he said, "seem to all be nuclear testing" but when it comes to the U.S., "We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don't do testing."

"I see them testing and I say, well, if they're going to test, I guess we have to test," Trump said as he continued speaking to reporters.

Trump was asked where the tests would occur and he said, "It'll be announced. We have test sites."

Pentagon officials didn't immediately respond to questions about the announcement from Trump on the nuclear missile tests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week announced that Russia tested a new atomic-powered and nuclear-capable underwater drone and a new nuclear-powered cruise missile. Putin did not announce any tests of Russia's nuclear weapons, however, which last occurred in 1990.

Trump did not specifically mention the Russian tests in his post, but alluded to the nuclear stockpiles controlled by both Xi and Putin, saying, "Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years."

Putin in 2023 signed a bill revoking Russia's ratification of a global nuclear test ban, which Moscow said was needed to put Russia on par with the U.S.

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which was adopted in 1996 and bans all nuclear explosions anywhere in the world, was signed by President Bill Clinton but never ratified by the Senate.

Russia in 2023 said it would only resume tests of its nuclear weapons if Washington did it first.

Earlier this year, Trump signaled he wanted to push his Russian and Chinese counterparts in the other direction, saying he wanted to resume nuclear arms control talks with both countries.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson called on the U.S. to refrain from carrying out nuclear tests.

"China hopes the U.S. will earnestly fulfill its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and honor its commitment to suspend nuclear testing," Guo Jiakun said at a briefing in Beijing.

Despite his announcement that sounded like an escalation, Trump told reporters that he would like to see a "denuclearization and "de-scalation."

"We are actually talking to Russia about that," Trump said, though he did not elaborate.

Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, quickly criticized the president's announcement and said Trump was "misinformed and out of touch."

Kimball, in social media posts, said the U.S. has no reason to resume nuclear explosive testing and it would take at least 36 months to resume testing at the former test site in Nevada, where the last detonations occurred underground.

"By foolishly announcing his intention (to) resume nuclear testing, Trump will trigger strong public opposition in Nevada, from all U.S. allies, and it could trigger a chain reaction of nuclear testing by U.S. adversaries, and blow apart the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," Kimball said in a post on X.

Japanese survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end World War II condemned Trump's announcement.

"The act vehemently opposes all countries that are endeavoring to achieve a nuclear-free and peaceful world and absolutely cannot be tolerated," said Jiro Hamasumi, secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, a survivors organization that won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95725

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World

- Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba pick up the pieces after Melissa's destruction: 2025 Oct 31

- King Charles III strips Prince Andrew of his titles and evicts him from the Royal Lodge: 2025 Oct 30

- Trump administration sets lowest-ever cap on refugee admissions to U.S.: 2025 Oct 30

- A town in northeast China has shrunk by a third since 2010. Here's one family's story: 2025 Oct 30

- Hundreds killed in Darfur hospital massacre, 'hero' doctors abducted: 2025 Oct 30

- Trump lowers China's tariffs. And, what to know for Casey Means' confirmation hearing: 2025 Oct 30

- Israel blocks longtime Gaza aid groups from working in the region: 2025 Oct 30

WORLD | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 8:35 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba pick up the pieces after Melissa's destruction

By The Associated Press

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba — The rumble of large machinery, whine of chain saws and chopping of machetes echoed through communities across the northern Caribbean on Thursday as they dug out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa and surveyed the damage left behind.

In Jamaica, government workers and residents began clearing roads in a push to reach dozens of isolated communities in the island's southeast that sustained a direct hit from one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record.

Stunned residents wandered about, some staring at their roofless homes and waterlogged belongings strewn around them.

"I don't have a house now," said Sylvester Guthrie, a resident of Lacovia in the southern parish of St. Elizabeth, as he held onto his bicycle, the only possession of value left after the storm.

Emergency relief flights began landing at Jamaica's main international airport, which reopened late Wednesday, as crews distributed water, medicine and other basic supplies. Helicopters dropped food as they thrummed above communities where the storm flattened homes, wiped out roads and destroyed bridges, cutting them off from assistance.

"The entire Jamaica is really broken because of what has happened," Education Minister Dana Morris Dixon said.

Police said at least 14 people have died in Jamaica, and they expected the death toll to keep rising. In one isolated community, residents pleaded with officials to remove the body of one victim tangled in a tree.

More than 13,000 people remained crowded into shelters, with 72% of the island without power and only 35% of mobile phone sites in operation, officials said. People clutched cash as they formed long lines at the few gas stations and supermarkets open in affected areas.

"We understand the frustration, we understand your anxiety, but we ask for your patience," said Daryl Vaz, Jamaica's telecommunications and energy minister.

Water trucks have been mobilized to serve many of Jamaica's rural communities that are not connected to the government's utility system, Water Minister Matthew Samuda said.

Slow recovery in Cuba

In Cuba, heavy equipment began to clear blocked roads and highways and the military helped rescue people trapped in isolated communities and at risk from landslides.

No deaths were reported after the Civil Defense evacuated more than 735,000 people across eastern Cuba ahead of the storm. Residents were slowly starting to return home Thursday.

The town of El Cobre in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba was one of the hardest hit. Home to some 7,000 people, it is also the site of the Basilica of Our Lady of Charity, the patron saint of Cuba who is deeply venerated by Catholics and practitioners of Santería, an Afro-Cuban religion.

"We went through this very badly. So much wind, so much wind. Zinc roofs were torn off. Some houses completely collapsed. It was a disaster," said Odalys Ojeda, a 61-year-old retiree, as she looked up at the sky from her living room where the roof and other parts of the house were torn away.

Even the basilica wasn't spared.

"Here at the sanctuary, the carpentry, stained glass and even the masonry suffered extensive damage," Father Rogelio Dean Puerta said.

A televised Civil Defense meeting chaired by President Miguel Díaz-Canel did not provide an official estimate of the damage. However, officials from the affected provinces — Santiago, Granma, Holguín, Guantánamo, and Las Tunas — reported losses of roofs, power lines and fiber optic telecommunications cables, as well as roads cut off, isolating communities, and heavy losses in banana, cassava and coffee plantations.

Many communities were still without electricity, internet and telephone service because of downed transformers and power lines.

In an unusual statement Thursday, the U.S. State Department said the United States was "ready to assist the Cuban people." A press release said the U.S. "is prepared to provide immediate humanitarian assistance directly and through local partners who can deliver it more effectively to those in need."

The statement did not specify how the cooperation would be coordinated or whether contact had been made with the Cuban government, with which it maintains a bitter conflict that includes six decades of economic and financial sanctions.

Death and flooding in Haiti

Melissa also unleashed catastrophic flooding in Haiti, where at least 30 people were reported killed and 20 others were missing, mostly in the country's southern region. Some 15,000 people also remained in shelters.

"It is a sad moment for the country," said Laurent Saint-Cyr, president of Haiti's transitional presidential council.

He said officials expect the death toll to rise and noted that the government was mobilizing resources to search for people and provide emergency relief.

Haiti's Civil Protection Agency said Hurricane Melissa killed at least 20 people, including 10 children, in Petit-Goâve, where more than 160 homes were damaged and 80 others destroyed.

Steven Guadard said Melissa killed his entire family in Petit-Goâve, including four children ranging in age from 1-month to 8-years-old.

Michelet Dégange, who has lived in Petit-Goâve for three years, said Melissa left him homeless.

"There is no place to rest the body; we are hungry," he said. "The authorities don't think about us. I haven't closed my eyes since the bad weather began."

When Melissa came ashore in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane with top winds of 185 mph (295 kph) on Tuesday, it tied strength records for Atlantic hurricanes making landfall, both in wind speed and barometric pressure.

Melissa was a Category 2 storm with top sustained winds near 105 mph (165 kph) Thursday night and was moving northeast at 32 mph (51 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered about 260 miles (420 kilometers) west-southwest of Bermuda.

Melissa brushed past the southeast Bahamas on Wednesday, forcing officials to evacuate 1,400 people ahead of the storm.

Melissa was forecast to pass near or to the west of Bermuda late Thursday and may strengthen further before weakening Friday.

Bermuda's international airport was to close Thursday evening and reopen Friday at noon, while all schools on the wealthy British territory were ordered closed.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95941

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EUROPE | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 3:43 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

King Charles III strips Prince Andrew of his titles and evicts him from the Royal Lodge

By The Associated Press

LONDON — King Charles III is stripping his brother Prince Andrew of his remaining titles and evicting him from his royal residence, Buckingham Palace said Thursday.

In a statement, the palace said Andrew will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and not as a prince, and he will move from his Royal Lodge residence into "private accommodation."

The move follows revelations about Andrew's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Pressure had been growing on the palace to oust the prince from Royal Lodge after he surrendered his use of the title Duke of York earlier this month over his friendship with Epstein and allegations by one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

But the king went even further, stripping him of the title of prince that he has had since birth as a child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II.

"These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him," the palace said. "Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95841

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IMMIGRATION | UPDATED THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 5:19 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump administration sets lowest-ever cap on refugee admissions to U.S.

By Ximena Bustillo

The Trump administration is drastically cutting the number of refugees it will admit to the U.S., capping it at 7,500 for the current fiscal year. That's the lowest since the U.S. refugee program was established in 1980.

The U.S. wants to primarily admit Afrikaners from South Africa, according to a notification in the Federal Register filed on Thursday, and "other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands."

The administration has largely paused the U.S. refugee resettlement program so far this year, with the exception of a streamlined process of resettlement for white South Africans. Several hundred from the group have been resettled across the U.S. since March.

In response, some resettlement groups have been quick to voice concern over the lack of resources and limits on admission of those from other countries. Others have shuttered their services, changing the landscape of the refugee resettlement process.

Thursday's notification, which covers the fiscal year that started October 1, does not provide a reason for the lower cap, beyond mentioning previous Trump administration policies on refugees, including pausing admissions overall and barring admissions from countries seen as threats to U.S. security and welfare.

"The Trump administration has long expressed its intention to end Biden's abuse of the refugee program," a Trump administration official said in a statement. "No refugees will be admitted in [fiscal year] 26 until the appropriate consultations with Congress are held, which are being delayed because certain members of Congress insisted on shutting down the government."

Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state, previously told reporters that criteria for bringing in refugees included making sure that they did not pose a national security challenge and could be easily assimilated.

"This decision doesn't just lower the refugee admissions ceiling. It lowers our moral standing," Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, said in a statement. "At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program's purpose as well as its credibility."

The Biden administration had set the refugee cap at 125,000 for fiscal year 2025.

Senate Democrats, including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Trump administration disobeyed the law by not consulting with Congress on the refugee cap before imposing it.

The administration's lack of consultation "demonstrates its tacit acknowledgement that this decision is indefensible," they wrote in a statement. "President Trump's move undermines the role that America has long played in the world as a beacon of stability and a refuge for those fleeing genocide, political persecution and war crimes."

Push for higher caps

Refugee advocates have spent the year pushing for a broader range of admissions beyond Afrikaners, including admitting people from other countries who had already been vetted to arrive in the U.S.

"It is egregious to exclude refugees who completed years of rigorous security checks and are currently stuck in dangerous and precarious situations," said Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project. He said that the number of those with confirmed travel plans to the U.S. is greater than the new refugee cap.

The admission of Afrikaners to the U.S. has drawn scrutiny from resettlement agencies in the U.S., who have faced sharp budget, resource, and personnel cuts since President Trump took office.

Among his first executive actions, Trump paused the refugee resettlement program. Various agencies including the State Department have also paused disbursing funding for critical services for other refugees, such as the home, job and school assistance the Afrikaners are poised to receive.

The pause also sent the refugee resettlement agencies into turmoil as refugees already cleared to arrive in the U.S. received notice their flights had been cancelled.

Among those left in limbo were Afghans who worked with the U.S. military, a move that some Republicans have criticized. A lower-court judge had ordered the government to at least resume the refugee program for those who had already been approved to travel, but an appeals court ruled in favor of the administration.

The notice in the Federal Register makes no mention of Afghans, despite past promises to help those who supported the U.S. in America's longest war.

—NPR's Michele Kelemen contributed to this report.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95823

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POPULATION SHIFT | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 12:43 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

A town in northeast China has shrunk by a third since 2010. Here's one family's story

By John Ruwitch

Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR's series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing the World explores the causes and implications of this trend.

YIMIANPO, China — Small town life suits Lin Xin.

Her yard in the town of Yimianpo, in northeastern China, is one big, sun-soaked garden where the family grows cabbages, carrots, peanuts, and a cornucopia of other fruits and vegetables. Kittens ambush one another from behind shrubs.

"This place is well-suited to retirees," she said. "Living in the countryside is truly nice, and comfortable."

The thing is, Lin is not a retiree. At 48, she's not even old.

She and her husband moved to Beijing 20 years ago to chase their dreams and try to cash in on China's booming economy. But the plan was cut short; they moved back to Yimianpo a few years ago to take care of their aging and ailing parents. Meanwhile, Lin's only daughter is in college in the capital, with no plans to return — and ambivalent about having kids herself.

Lin Xin's story highlights the fast-unfolding demographic shifts happening in China, where the population is shrinking and aging. The United Nations has projected that between 2024 and 2054, the country could see a decline of over 200 million people. Economists say China is getting old before it gets rich, posing a massive challenge for the country's leadership.

"There are just no young people here"

Yimianpo was once a thriving rail outpost along a train line built by the Russian Empire starting in the late 1800s. Later, heavy industry, owned by the state, anchored this part of China. But state-enterprise reform — in which China shut down weak state-run companies and allowed market forces to play a larger role in the economy — took a toll.

The town now feels sleepy, surrounded by corn and rice fields. Small workshops where Russian stacking dolls are made are sprinkled throughout town. Lin says the best work that she and her husband could find was driving two of the town's six taxicabs.

"Earnings here are generally low compared to big cities, where there are more opportunities, passenger traffic and people," she said.

Official statistics show the population in Yimianpo contracted by about a third between 2010 and 2020 — from roughly 34,000 people to just over 23,000. In the same period, the number of children 14 or under dropped by half, while the number of people aged 65 and up increased by over 70%.

That's partly because of an exodus of people — like Lin — hunting greener pastures as market reforms boosted the country's east and south, and killed off local state-owned enterprises.

The departure of working-age people, in turn, fueled a sharp decline in the birthrate. On a recent one-day visit to Yimianpo, NPR saw almost no children. One elementary school has been repurposed as a storage yard; Lin says another has been turned into a parking lot. A movie theater is abandoned.

"It's not that people here won't have babies," said Lin. "There are just no young people here."

In 2023, official data for Heilongjiang, the province where Yimianpo is located, recorded fewer than three births per 1,000 residents — China's lowest rate.

But the problem is not confined to the rustbelt. China's national population has shrunk now for three straight years, dropping by some 4.3 million, according to official statistics.

Lin has two siblings, but only one child of her own, even though she was legally allowed to have two due to a loophole in China's now-dismantled "One Child" policy that allowed rural-based families with firstborn girls to have another child.

But her decision had nothing to do with policy.

In Beijing, she was hustling from the get go, first helping a sister who had a mobile phone stall in an underground mall, and later running a shop of her own.

"I had thought about having a second child, but back then I didn't have the time—I was too busy," Lin said.

Then her parents got ill, exposing the other end of China's demographic crunch: a huge bulge in the number of people 65 and up. Some experts expect the population in that age bracket to double between 2020 and 2025 to around 366 million.

China's lack of a robust social safety net made the decision for her.

"I had no choice but to come back, because the family couldn't manage without someone here," Lin said.

China's young people are delaying childbirth and prioritizing their own well-being

Lin Xin's daughter Lu Lin, 20, is a third-year student at the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy, studying musical theater.

She says school is not a huge challenge at the moment. So she does some modeling, plays cards — even qualifying as a referee for a popular card game — and has recently been dabbling in finance. She trades futures and gold online; a friend showed her how.

Asked if she wants kids someday, the answer is a qualified: maybe.

"If I were to answer now, I would prioritize personal freedom," she said.

For it to work, she says she would want to wait until she's around 30 years old and have at least 5 million yuan — about $700,000 — in the bank. For context, that's a lot in China. It would take decades for most people here to sock that much away.

For now, her focus is on herself.

"I've never even seen the world; how can I tell my children how to live or teach them in the future?" she said.

For years, the Chinese government has been trying various tactics to try to boost the birthrate, including cash handouts of 3,600 yuan ($507) for each child until the child turns three. Some local governments may pay more or provide housing subsidies. Starting this fall, China is also waiving tuition fees for children in their last year of kindergarten.

Lu Lin says government subsidies might help tip the balance for her at some point — if the money's good enough. But that decision is a long way off.

She reflects a quiet revolution in people's attitudes in China, with young people delaying marriage and childbirth while prioritizing their own well-being. In Heilongjiang Province, the average age for marriage in 2020 hit 31.48, according to data published in 2023. The nationwide average was 23.59 in 1980 and 28.67 in 2020.

Traditions like si shi tong tang, or multiple generations under one roof, are being rewritten. In Yimianpo, Lu Lin's family has lived on the same plot for five generations. Lu said she likes it there just fine, but she does not see herself ever returning to live there.

"The development of Yimianpo is a bit too slow. I can't really have the kind of life I want there," she said.

Her mother seems fine with that decision. But it does raise a key question.

"When we chat now — those of us born in the '70s — the topic often comes up: what will we do when we're older?" Lin said. "There's only one child in the family, and we don't expect them to support us in old age."

The solution she's come up with, for now, is that she and her friends and siblings will all live nearby and take care of one another.

"The idea," she said, "is to stick together and retire as a group."

Jasmine Ling contributed research to this story from Yimianpo and Beijing.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95632

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AFRICA | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 12:26 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Hundreds killed in Darfur hospital massacre, 'hero' doctors abducted

By Kate Bartlett

Heard on All Things Considered

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — For months doctors at the last functioning hospital in the wartorn Sudanese city of el-Fasher performed operations by torchlight, desperately trying to save lives in the most impossible conditions.

The Saudi Maternity Hospital was a last refuge for the sick and injured in the besieged city, as fighting raged around them. Despite no electricity, shortages of supplies, and frequently coming under heavy shelling, medical staff kept going.

"They are heroes, honestly," said Dr Mohamed Faisal Elsheikh, a Sudanese medical doctor based in Manchester and a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network.

"They really work in a very difficult environment, they had no medical instruments, there's no any medicines over there, there's no electricity…and yet with all dedication and commitment…they saved as much as they could of people's lives."

No longer. Since the city fell to the Sudanese paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Sunday, the doctors have been kidnapped and reports have emerged of a massacre at the hospital.

"On 28 October, six health workers, four doctors, a nurse and a pharmacist, were abducted," from the hospital, the World Health Organization said in a statement Wednesday. "On the same day, more than 460 patients and their companions were reportedly shot and killed in the hospital."

WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply shocked" and "appalled" by the massacre and called for health facilities, health workers and patients to be protected under international law.

"Prior to this latest attack, WHO has verified 185 attacks on health care in Sudan with 1204 deaths and 416 injuries of health workers and patients since the start of the conflict in April 2023," he said.

Videos of the attack believed to have been filmed by RSF fighters themselves are circulating online. While they cannot be independently verified by NPR, they show militia men walking through the ransacked wards, stepping over piles of dead bodies and shooting anyone left alive at point blank range.

RSF leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has pledged to investigate the allegations of war crimes by his soldiers in el-Fasher - but many doubt his sincerity, as he has failed to investigate previous atrocities.

Since overtaking el-Fasher– which they had besieged for over 500 days – and chasing out the Sudanese army, videos, satellite imagery, and testimony from those who've managed to flee indicate the RSF has been pursuing a scorched earth policy in the Darfuri city.

The RSF has been fighting the national army for control of the resource-rich nation that sits at the vital crossroads between North Africa, the Sahel, and the Red Sea in a bloody civil war since 2023.

'Crisis of apathy'

The group emerged from the janjaweed militia that terrorized Darfur in the early 2000s and was accused of genocide. The US has already accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of committing genocide against African ethnic groups in the current conflict.

The situation in el-Fasher was dire even before the RSF overran it this week. The year and a half long blockade of some 250,000 civilians has led to starvation and famine.

The UN's migration organization says 26,000 people have managed to flee since the takeover. Many of those are arriving seeking help in the town of Tawila, in north Darfur, where medical charity Doctors Without Borders is running the closest health point.

Doctors Without Borders used to provide support to the Saudi hospital but stopped operating in el-Fasher in August 2024 saying it had become too dangerous.

On Wednesday the NGO said people arriving at Tawila were showing "extremely alarming levels of malnutrition among women and children, which is indicative of a famine-like situation."

The organization's International president Dr Mohamed Javid Abdelmoneim noted however, that very few adult men were arriving, and said this raised concerns about ethnically targeted violence.

"This is testament to the horror unfolding in and around the city," he said.

One mother of six, who had fled el-Fasher but didn't wish to be named to protect her identity, told aid workers from international NGO Save the Children what they had endured.

"We hid the children in trenches, and we ran into abandoned buildings during the attacks. After that, we just ate umbaz (animal feed)," she said.

Another woman described the long trek to safety, during which she was beaten and robbed by a gang.

"We lost family members, we lost neighbors, we lost everyone," she recounted. "We've been walking for the past four days from el-Fasher. A group of motorbike riders met us on the way…They killed people and insulted us a lot."

The UN Security Council held a meeting on the crisis Thursday.

The UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said the violence recalls the horrors of the genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

"But what is different today, we are seeing a different global reaction. One of resignation," he said. "So this is also a crisis of apathy."

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

A paramilitary group fighting a civil war in Sudan has killed more than 460 patients and their companions at the last functioning hospital in the city of el-Fasher. That's according to the World Health Organization. Kate Bartlett reports that it is one of the worst atrocities of Sudan's 2 1/2-year war, according to human rights groups. And a warning - listeners will hear gunshots in this piece.

KATE BARTLETT: Dr. Mohamed Faisal Elsheikh, a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network, says there's only one word to describe the doctors who worked in el-Fasher.

MOHAMED FAISAL ELSHEIKH: They are heroes, honestly. They really worked in a very difficult environment.

BARTLETT: But that didn't stop them.

ELSHEIKH: They had no - any medical instruments. There's no any medicines. There's no electricity. And yet, with all dedication and commitment, they saved as much as they could of people life.

BARTLETT: But now, the Saudi Maternity Hospital is in ruins, filled with the bodies of patients executed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, and the doctors have been taken captive.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STEPHANE DUJARRIC: We were horrified by reports of the tragic killings of more than 460 people, both patients and their companions, at the Saudi Maternity Hospital in el-Fasher.

BARTLETT: That's the U.N. secretary general's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, speaking on Wednesday about the massacre. The U.N. says health facilities, doctors and patients must be protected under international law. RSF leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has pledged to investigate the allegations, but many doubt his sincerity.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED RSF MEMBER: (Non-English language spoken).

BARTLETT: Aid organizations circulated a video that appears to have been filmed by the RSF themselves that shows their fighters walking through the hospital's wards, shooting anyone left alive.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNSHOT)

BARTLETT: For over two years now, the RSF, made up of former janjaweed fighters, has been fighting Sudan's army. Two decades ago, the janjaweed were accused of genocide in Darfur. Now their successors are fighting for control of Sudan's rich resources. It's not the first time the RSF has targeted health care facilities. Most of Sudan's hospitals are either closed or in desperate condition.

(CROSSTALK)

BARTLETT: Now those who've managed to flee el-Fasher are desperately seeking help.

MOHAMED JAVID ABDELMONEIM: Our teams are working 60 kilometers away in Tawila, where they're seeing people starting to arrive from el-Fasher.

BARTLETT: That's Doctors Without Borders international president, Mohamed Javid Abdelmoneim.

ABDELMONEIM: Among all the people arriving in Tawila, we're seeing very few adult men. Given the history of ethnically targeted violence in el-Fasher, we are deeply concerned about the risk of a potential bloodbath.

BARTLETT: For Dr. Elsheikh, his thoughts are with the abducted staff.

ELSHEIKH: They were very dedicated, despite the difficulties that they are facing in their work. But they were very committed to their holy message.

BARTLETT: For NPR News, I'm Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5590815

UP FIRST NEWSLETTER | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 7:38 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump lowers China's tariffs. And, what to know for Casey Means' confirmation hearing

By Brittney Melton

Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

Today's top stories

Today, President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met and reached an agreement on several points in trade negotiations. Trump announced the U.S. would lower the 20% tariffs to 10% because China has committed to doing more to curb exports of ingredients for fentanyl. China will defer export controls on rare earths and resume buying U.S. soybeans. U.S. and Chinese economic officials ironed out the trade details in Malaysia last weekend.

- 🎧 Xi and Trump met on the sideline of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. Trump said he didn't come to South Korea for APEC or Korean issues, but to meet with the Chinese leader. On social media, Trump posted that the U.S. would resume testing nuclear weapons "on an equal basis" with Russia and China. NPR's Anthony Kuhn clarifies to Up First that while Russia and China are upgrading and expanding their nuclear arsenals, neither country has tested atomic bombs since the 1990s. Kuhn adds that Xi has not responded to Trump's statement, but "couldn't have liked it much." Kuhn says if Trump's announcement was to try to pressure China into a conversation about arms control, it could have the opposite effect and result in an arms race.

More than 65,000 infants, toddlers and preschoolers could lose access to their local Head Start centers across the U.S. beginning Nov. 1 because of the government shutdown. The federal program provides childcare and early learning for low-income families.

- 🎧 Without federal dollars, 134 Head Start programs are rushing to find alternative funding, NPR's Cory Turner says. If the programs close, many working families may have to choose between going to work and taking care of their children. Corey Holcomb, who runs a Head Start program in Michigan, told Turner that her agency secured two more weeks of funding by pulling from other resources with the hopes that they will be reimbursed. They've also asked for deferments on some bills.

Trump's pick for Surgeon General, Casey Means, will have her confirmation hearing in front of a Senate committee today. The president announced that Means would replace his initial choice, a Fox News contributor, more than five months ago. Means is a wellness influencer and entrepreneur. Last year, she published the bestselling book Good Energy. Here's what to watch for during the hearing.

- 🎧 NPR's Will Stone says the hearing is somewhat unusual because it will be held virtually, and Means will join remotely. Stone says he expects that she will be grilled about her qualifications and potential conflicts of interest. Some medical and public health professionals have pushed back on Means' confirmation. They have highlighted her lack of qualifications, and note that she dropped out of her surgical residency and does not have an active medical license. Critics argue that Means doesn't possess the leadership or clinical experience typically expected from the surgeon general, who is regarded as the nation's top doctor.

Deep dive

In the past year, many federal law enforcement agents conducting immigration arrests have hidden their identities. They have not only concealed their faces but have also masked their vehicles. NPR discovered through a review of videos that the vehicles used by officers during immigration-related arrests sometimes lacked license plates or had plates that were swapped out from their originals. Immigration advocates say that as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement increases its presence across the U.S., untraceable vehicles may add to confusion over what tactics its officers can or should be using, and could prevent people from holding officers accountable for their actions.

- 🚨 ICE spokesperson Mike Alvarez informed NPR that federal regulations require government vehicles to display license plates on both the front and rear. However, this requirement can be waived if showing the plates would interfere with investigative, law enforcement, intelligence, or security operations.

- 🚨 Some states prohibit swapping license plates on vehicles. However, photos taken by activists and videos shared on social media suggest that some federal agents are doing it anyway. Some activists have also spotted vehicles with a license plate on the front of a vehicle that doesn't match the one on the back.

- 🚨 In Washington and Illinois, some videos shared on social media show federal agents making arrests in vehicles marked with Mexican objects or icons. When asked about this tactic, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that the agency believes its employees are not camouflaging their identities.

Read more about the tactics agents are using to make immigration arrests.

Life advice

When a loved one behaves in a way that bothers you, should you take a step back from the relationship or lean into it? Therapist KC Davis has shared some practical advice with Life Kit about how to move forward when these relationships become difficult. Davis has a few guiding questions to help you make the best decision for your situation.

- 🤝 Why is this behavior objectionable to you? This question can help you pinpoint the issue and decide how to move forward. It can help you determine if the behavior is something you don't like or if it is hurtful.

- 🤝 Are they willing to change? You can have a conversation with the person about the problem and work on a solution together.

- 🤝 Does staying in this relationship violate my values? If a relationship threatens your physical and psychological safety, as well as the safety of minor children, it is against your values to continue engaging with that person.

For tips on how to decide whether to step back from a difficult relationship or stick it out, listen to this episode of NPR's Life Kit. Subscribe to the Life Kit newsletter for expert advice on love, money, relationships and more.

3 things to know before you go

1. In the central plaza of a Colombian town, NPR's Jon Otis stumbled upon men in cowboy hats making carne a la llanera, which means "prairie-style meat." This week's Far-Flung Postcard explores this culinary tradition.

2. NPR's "Word of the Week" is "neurodivergent," which took off on Google Trends amid widespread coronavirus lockdowns in June 2020. The term refers to various ways people's brains differ from what is deemed normal in the U.S. Here's the history behind the word.

3. Chain restaurants across the country continue to serve familiar fare, drawing in people even amid high food prices. NPR wants to explore why that is, and you could help. Share your thoughts on the roles these restaurants play in American culture.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Hey.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Hello.

FADEL: Just - why do you sound so depressed?

MARTÍNEZ: I'm debuting a new personality now.

FADEL: OK.

MARTÍNEZ: No more self-deprecating A.

FADEL: OK. So what does that mean?

MARTÍNEZ: That means I'm not going to make fun of myself anymore.

FADEL: So that - so you're just not going to talk?

MARTÍNEZ: I know it's hard because that's all I got to talk about.

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FADEL: President Trump says trade talks went well with Chinese President Xi in South Korea.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I thought it was an amazing meeting. He's a great leader.

MARTÍNEZ: Some tariffs are going away, but is there an agreement on a formal trade deal?

FADEL: I'm Leila Fadel. That's A Martínez, and this is UP FIRST from NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FADEL: Tens of thousands of toddlers and preschoolers could lose access to their Head Start classrooms.

TOMMY SHERIDAN: They are scrambling and trying to figure out how long they can keep the doors open.

FADEL: Funding runs out this weekend for the federal program providing child care and early learning for low-income families.

MARTÍNEZ: And President Trump's nominee for surgeon general appears before the Senate today. She's a wellness influencer with ties to RFK Jr.

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CASEY MEANS: What we are dealing with here is so much more than a physical health crisis. This is a spiritual crisis.

MARTÍNEZ: Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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MARTÍNEZ: President Trump met with China's leader, Xi Jinping, today, and afterwards, seemed very happy.

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TRUMP: Overall, I guess, on the scale of - from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best, I would say the meeting was a 12.

FADEL: The president spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One about his first meeting with Xi since 2019. Trump said, as a result of the talks, he was going to cut some tariffs on Chinese products, though most of his tariffs from the trade war will stay in place. He also said the two sides are scheduling visits to each other's countries next year.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Anthony Kuhn joins us from South Korea. So, Anthony, tell us about the trade details.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: OK. Well, basically, what Trump and Xi did was to confirm what economic officials from the U.S. and China had already ironed out last weekend in Malaysia. And Xi Jinping said to Trump that that ironing out was basically a precondition for their meeting. The key details are that, first of all, China will defer export controls on rare earths. China will resume buying U.S. soybeans, and China will do more to curb exports of the ingredients for the drug fentanyl. So President Trump responded by saying that the U.S. will lower the 20% tariffs that are on China because of the fentanyl issue down to 10%, and both countries will suspend collecting port fees on each other's ships.

MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, China and the U.S. met in South Korea. Why did they meet there?

KUHN: Well, they met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit here in Gyeongju, South Korea, and President Trump said the main point of his coming to South Korea was to speak to Xi Jinping, not come to this APEC meeting. So both of them were guests of South Korea, and that setting was not right for a big deal or an announcement. Trump said also that he did not have time to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on this trip, but he'd return for that another time.

MARTÍNEZ: Now, President Trump seemed to be saying that he made a deal with Xi. I mean, is it a real deal?

KUHN: Well, what the Chinese state news agency Xinhua said is that Xi Jinping called it a consensus on solutions to problems. In other words, this is not a broad framework deal. It is a temporary fix for specific issues. Trump said a deal could be signed pretty soon. Perhaps a fuller agreement could be reached during a state visit, which he says he will visit China in April. I asked Choo Jaewoo, who's an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Kyung Hee University outside Seoul, and here's his take.

CHOO JAEWOO: (Speaking Korean).

KUHN: He said, "it was difficult to reach a final agreement this time. Instead, I anticipated that the two leaders would confirm their differences and be satisfied with building a common understanding." And that's what seems to have happened. And he added that President Xi appeared to be eager to prevent trade tensions from impacting China's economy, especially its high-tech sector.

MARTÍNEZ: One more thing, Anthony, because an hour before the meeting, President Trump posted on social media that the U.S. would conduct testing on nuclear weapons, quote, "on an equal basis" with Russia and China. So how did that announcement go over?

KUHN: Well, we didn't hear a response from Xi Jinping, but he can't have liked Trump's statement very much. Trump said that the U.S. will resume nuclear testing because other countries are doing it. Now, it's true that Russia and China are upgrading and expanding their nuclear arsenals, but neither of them have tested any atomic bombs since the 1990s. And for decades, China maintained a minimum nuclear deterrent, but it apparently decided that the U.S. was trying to cancel out that deterrent so that it could hit China with nuclear weapons and not be hit back. So Trump's announcement may confirm those fears, and if Trump was trying to pressure China into arms control talks, it may have had the opposite result and just sped up an arms race.

MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Anthony Kuhn speaking to us from South Korea. Thanks.

KUHN: You're welcome.

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FADEL: More than 65,000 infants, toddlers and preschoolers may soon be at risk of losing access to Head Start.

MARTÍNEZ: That's the federal program that provides child care and early learning for low-income families. And because of the government shutdown, a wave of local Head Start centers across the U.S. could be forced to close beginning November 1.

FADEL: For more, we're joined by NPR's Cory Turner. Good morning, Cory.

CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So 65,000 children. I mean, help us understand why this is happening.

TURNER: Yeah. So local Head Start programs all over the country run on different federal funding cycles, and the National Head Start Association says 134 of these programs are supposed to be getting their next round of federal funding November 1. They can't do that if the government is still shut down. And so, without those federal dollars, these centers are now rushing to find alternative funding. Here's Tommy Sheridan of the National Head Start Association.

SHERIDAN: They are scrambling and trying to figure out how long they can keep the doors open. There is a ton of hard work, a ton of goodwill, a ton of dedication, but hardware, goodwill and dedication don't keep your doors open.

TURNER: For now, Leila, these unfunded programs serve nearly 1 in 10 children in Head Start, and if they have to close, many working families may have to choose between taking care of their kids and going to work.

FADEL: Is there anything these communities can do short of waiting for the shutdown to end?

TURNER: I mean, for many programs, the answer is a pretty clear no. They are going to have to close after Friday. Some may be able to stay open at least a little longer. A year ago, I spent some time in Michigan's remote Upper Peninsula, where Corey Holcomb runs a Head Start program, and it turns out it is one of these places that is going to run out of money in early November. Holcomb told me her agency and board of directors have found a way to keep the doors open two more weeks. Here's how.

COREY HOLCOMB: Making use of some reserve funds, pulling in other resources with the hopes that we will be reimbursed. And we've asked for deferments on rent payments and some utility bills during that time to still provide services.

TURNER: And I should say, Leila, by services, Holcomb doesn't just mean child care. Head Start provides high-quality early learning backed by research, plus free health screening, care for kids with disabilities, not to mention multiple nutritious meals every day, which is extra important right now with federal food benefits for low-income families also set to expire at the exact same time.

FADEL: Wow. So, Cory, do we know where these closures might hit hardest?

TURNER: Yeah. According to a map put together by the National Head Start Association, programs will be at risk in more than 40 states, but the places hit hardest first will likely be Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio. Keep in mind, though, Head Start serves about 750,000 children. And if this shutdown keeps going, more and more of those centers are going to run out of money. It's also worth stepping back here for a quick second, Leila, because Head Start celebrated its 60th anniversary this year. And while it still enjoys strong bipartisan support, the Trump administration actually considered trying to cut the program from its budget proposal. And in the spring, they temporarily withheld funding from Head Start. So this shutdown is just the latest crisis in what's been a pretty tough year for Head Start and the families who depend on it.

FADEL: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Thank you, Cory.

TURNER: You're welcome.

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MARTÍNEZ: President Trump's pick for surgeon general will have her confirmation hearing.

FADEL: Later this morning, Dr. Casey Means will appear in front of a Senate committee. It's been more than five months since Trump announced Means would replace his initial choice, who was a Fox News contributor. Means is a wellness influencer, entrepreneur and author.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Will Stone joins us now to talk about her nomination. So, Will, what will you be looking for in this confirmation hearing for surgeon general?

WILL STONE, BYLINE: Well, this is a somewhat unusual hearing because it will be held virtually. Casey Means will join remotely. And we do know she's pregnant. Actually, her brother, who is a close adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., shared that back in May. So I'm expecting she will be grilled about her qualifications and potential conflicts of interest. Means recently said, if confirmed, she would resign from her company that promotes continuous glucose monitors, and she also disclosed other financial ties, including to the supplement industry.

MARTÍNEZ: OK. So tell us about Casey Means' medical resume.

STONE: Yeah. Means is in her late 30s. She went to Stanford Medical School and was pretty far along in her training to be a head and neck surgeon, but she dropped out of residency before finishing. Then she pivoted to what's known as functional medicine, briefly had a practice in Oregon, but really made her name on social media and through a book she published with her brother on diet and metabolic health. They did the rounds on big podcasts in the wellness space. And her message tends to echo, you know, what you hear from Kennedy and his allies in the Make America Healthy Again movement, especially when they talk about the high rates of chronic illness. Here's how she talked about that at a congressional roundtable led by Republicans last year.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MEANS: What we are dealing with here is so much more than a physical health crisis. This is a spiritual crisis.

STONE: Means often talks about our food supply, environmental toxins. She criticizes the reliance on the pharmaceutical industry. And Kennedy has said she will be, quote, "the greatest surgeon general ever."

MARTÍNEZ: Now, Will, I've heard that there has been a little bit of pushback to Casey Means.

STONE: That's right - on several fronts. Certainly, a lot of pushback from folks in the medical and public health establishment, pointing to what they say is her lack of qualifications. She doesn't have the leadership or clinical experience you'd expect from the surgeon general, who is considered the nation's top doctor. Dr. Jerome Adams, who was surgeon general during Trump's first term, told me confirming Means would set a, quote, "disastrous precedent" for the nation's top public health role. And she has made statements casting doubt on the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule, also about oral contraceptives. She's endorsed raw milk, similar to Kennedy.

Now, interestingly, when Trump announced he'd picked Means, you also saw some opposition emerge from some supporters of Kennedy, and part of that was some in that camp seemed to worry she wasn't critical enough of vaccines. So there were questions whether this fracture in the MAHA base would sink her confirmation. I asked David Mansdoerfer about this. He's a consultant and was deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services during Trump's first term.

DAVID MANSDOERFER: To me, there's nothing substantive in the opposition that I think will cause any sort of significant impediment for her being appointed.

STONE: Mansdoerfer says it takes a lot to get these hearings set up, and the Trump administration would not be scheduling this now if they thought, you know, she did not have the votes to get confirmed.

MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Will Stone. Will, thanks.

STONE: Thank you.

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MARTÍNEZ: And that's UP FIRST for Thursday, October 30. I'm A Martínez.

FADEL: And I'm Leila Fadel. We here at UP FIRST give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

MARTÍNEZ: Today's episode of UP FIRST was edited by Miguel Macias, Lauren Migaki, Diane Webber, Mohamad ElBardicy and Ally Schweitzer. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Damian Herring-Nathan, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95738

WORLD | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 6:48 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Israel blocks longtime Gaza aid groups from working in the region

By Jane Arraf

Heard on Morning Edition

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

In Gaza, a surge in aid has failed to materialize. That's despite promises by Israel in a ceasefire clinched three weeks ago. And Israel is now banning some of the world's biggest aid groups that have worked in Gaza for decades. NPR's Jane Arraf has more.

JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Save the Children has operated in Gaza for more than 70 years. This week, it said it had been informed by Israel's Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism that it did not meet the new criteria for reregistration and would need to pull out its international staff. Israel's new rules require personal details of staff and their families - rejected by most organizations as a security risk. The second issue - and the reason why the Ministry for Combating Antisemitism is involved - is that the new rules allow Israel to ban aid groups even for statements they make.

At least 20,000 children have been killed in this war, most of them in Israeli airstrikes, according to Gaza health authorities. That's 2% of all of Gaza's children. An important part of Save the Children's mandate is advocating for children. It has called for the killing to stop and noted that the International Court of Justice is considering genocide charges against Israel. Israel says it does not target children.

Other big players are in limbo. The Norwegian Refugee Council applied months ago to reregister but hasn't heard anything. This is communications manager Ivan Karakashian.

IVAN KARAKASHIAN: We consider that the current process relies on political criteria unrelated to humanitarian conduct, and that should never really be applied to impartial aid organizations.

ARRAF: Gaza is essentially destroyed. International organizations see these new rules not just as denying desperately needed help, but as a warning by Israel to aid groups not to be too outspoken.

Jane Arraf, NPR News, Amman.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5589963

Law

- Democratic leaders sue Trump administration for stopping food aid during the shutdown: 2025 Oct 29

- Camouflaging cars and swapping license plates: How agents make immigration arrests: 2025 Oct 29

LAW | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 6:53 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Democratic leaders sue Trump administration for stopping food aid during the shutdown

By Sylvia Goodman

Heard on Morning Edition

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

As the shutdown drags on, more than two dozen Democratic state leaders are suing the Trump administration over the likely suspension of food assistance benefits. Kentucky Public Radio's Sylvia Goodman reports.

SYLVIA GOODMAN, BYLINE: In Kentucky, food assistance cards will not be refilled starting November 1. The coalition of Democratic leaders accuses the U.S. Department of Agriculture of illegally withholding the contingency funds that could continue to cover food assistance benefits. The USDA has said in a memo that they think it would be unlawful if they did use those funds during the shutdown without money directly appropriated by Congress. Kentucky governor Andy Beshear is one of the 26 leaders suing the USDA. With about 1 in 8 Kentuckians relying on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - or SNAP - Beshear says it will be a difficult and scary time for many families.

ANDY BESHEAR: There are emergency funds sitting around that the president could use to fund the SNAP program. All he has to do is be willing to do it.

GOODMAN: The USDA says, quote, "the well has run dry." The administration and Republicans place the blame on Senate Democrats for the prolonged government shutdown. The lapse in SNAP funding will likely put a heavy strain on food banks and place families in a difficult position ahead of the holiday season. Louisvillian Rico Garcia (ph) says losing his SNAP benefits would put him in a tough spot, especially if funding is withheld for more than a couple weeks. He says he just has to hope the federal government figures things out before then.

RICO GARCIA: 'Cause if not, then I'm going to be paying out of pocket for food stamps, and I don't really make too much money to be doing it every week or every month.

GOODMAN: Some counties in Kentucky have a much higher percentage of people relying on SNAP, especially in the state's most rural areas. In McCreary County, roughly 2 in 5 households receive SNAP benefits. Barbara Duncan with Integrated Community Ministries says the food bank is already stretched thin as price pressures have driven more people in her community to seek help.

BARBARA DUNCAN: We're going to have to be trying to provide a lot more food over the next at least month or until they can get something squared away with the government shutdown. But there are a lot of people here who are already so close to the edge that it's a big problem.

GOODMAN: Duncan says that normally they supplement SNAP, providing food when benefits run out.

DUNCAN: And now we're going to have to try to provide four weeks' worth of food.

GOODMAN: And Duncan says maybe they'll be able to manage to keep up with demand for a little while but not for long.

For NPR News, I'm Sylvia Goodman in Louisville, Kentucky.

(SOUNDBITE OF MENAHAN STREET BAND'S "RAINY DAY LADY")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5588706

INVESTIGATIONS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Camouflaging cars and swapping license plates: How agents make immigration arrests

By Chiara Eisner, Ximena Bustillo

In a video shared on TikTok in September, a masked man in a tactical vest runs across a street in Chicago toward a Ford SUV. More people in tactical police vests get inside the vehicle, as an angry crowd forms around it, yelling profanities.

"You guys are separating families," one woman shouts at the car, which is flashing red and blue lights. "And for what?"

The woman tells others not to come near the area because "la migra" is there, which is how some Spanish speakers refer to U.S. immigration authorities. But there is little to reveal whether the Ford belongs to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency that is leading President Trump's push for mass arrests and deportations of those suspected of being in the U.S. without legal status, or any other federal unit tasked with carrying out immigration-related arrests. The car has no license plates on the back and appears to have no words on the side that indicate it is government property.

Over the past year, many federal law enforcement agents conducting immigration arrests have been concealing their faces under masks and gaiters when making arrests in public, in what DHS says is an effort to avoid doxing, or publishing agents' personal information online. Dozens of pending proposals across the country now seek to ban masking of federal policing authorities in public places.

Less public attention has centered on the masking of agents' cars.

But some vehicles being used in what appear to be immigration-related arrests do not have license plates, or have traded license plates, NPR found in a review of videos shot by bystanders and reporters, and those circulating on social media. The videos appear to come from areas where the administration has focused its immigration enforcement across the country, including Illinois, California and Washington state.

Witnesses and activists have alleged similar behavior concerning license plates in court filings and in media reports, while the Illinois Secretary of State, a Democrat, has condemned the apparent trading of license plates as illegal in his state.

NPR sent several requests for comment to ICE citing the specific photos and videos that appear to show license plate removal or manipulation during immigration enforcement operations. The department did not respond to the specific examples.

Immigration advocates say that as the agency increases its presence across the country thanks to an infusion of cash from Congress, untraceable vehicles may add to confusion over what tactics immigration officers can or should be using, and could prevent people from holding officers accountable.

"Most people are not used to interacting with federal law enforcement on our streets," said Bruno Huizar, policy manager at the California Immigrant Policy Center. Not knowing the identity of law enforcement – or not knowing if the enforcement is legitimate – exacerbates lack of trust in police, and makes it harder for people to defend their legal rights, he said.

Officers who appeared to be conducting immigration arrests in unmarked vehicles were captured on videos shot across the country and shared online on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Eyes Up, an application that tracks where federal agents have arrested migrants. NPR reviewed all videos cited in this story and confirmed the dates of the videos and locations of law enforcement presence and bystanders when possible. When details couldn't be verified, NPR corroborated information with immigration experts, activists, and a developer for an app that documents confrontations with federal agents.

In a video shared in June that takes place in Washington state, a federal agent in a police vest is seen driving a black Ford SUV with no license plate on the back of the vehicle.

And in another video posted on the Eyes Up app, labeled as shot in July in a Los Angeles suburb, a blue Nissan is seen with a placard on the back of the car that reads "Lexus of Valencia" in the space where a license plate is usually placed. The vehicle is seen parked near others that federal agents were seen using while detaining a person.

NPR asked ICE to confirm whether these vehicles and others like them belonged to federal employees working for the agency. The agency did not respond.

In an earlier statement provided in response to questions about the vehicle with the "Lexus of Valencia" placard, ICE spokesperson Mike Alvarez told NPR in a statement that ICE officers and agents do not use personal or rental vehicles while conducting immigration enforcement operations.

"Further, per federal code, federal law enforcement agency vehicles used primarily for investigative, law enforcement, intelligence, or security duties are exempt from displaying U.S. Government license plates or motor vehicle identification when such identification would interfere with these critical duties," Alvarez said.

Appearing "like a ghost"

It used to be rare for ICE employees to drive cars without plates when conducting arrests, said Darius Reeves, a former Baltimore field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations. He left the agency this year.

"The agency clearly wants to appear like a ghost," Reeves said. "I have never experienced this."

The federal code, or regulation, that Alvarez cited requires that vehicles used by government employees display government license plates on the front and rear of the vehicle – except when identifying these cars would interfere with investigative, law enforcement, intelligence, or security duties.

Federal regulation also prohibits swapping license plates from one car to another.

But ICE guidelines for agents on managing vehicle fleets indicate that operating a vehicle without license plates is meant to be the exception, not the rule.

"All ICE owned, or leased motor vehicles must display DHS or [General Services Administration] license plates, unless exempted," the guidelines state. To operate a vehicle without a federal license plate, someone must submit a request for a waiver to the unit that manages ICE's fleet, according to the guidelines.

In August, NPR requested to review all license plate waivers submitted by ICE over the previous year. At the time of publication, ICE had not provided the documents to reporters, though according to the federal Freedom of Information Act, the agency should have provided them by September.

An automatic email message received this month stated all federal records offices would not communicate with reporters about records until the end of the "funding hiatus," referring to the shutdown of the federal government that began on October 1.

Alvarez, the ICE spokesperson, did not respond to a question from NPR about how many times employees had submitted waivers to operate vehicles without a license plate.

Removing and swapping license plates

Some states prohibit swapping license plates on vehicles. But photos taken by activists and a video shared to social media suggest federal agents are doing this anyway in Illinois and California.

A video posted to a TikTok account in October shows a man dressed like a federal agent who said that changing license plates on vehicles was standard practice.

"We change the plates out every day," says in the video, which was described by the poster as having taken place in Round Lake, Ill., as he walks around an otherwise unmarked black Jeep SUV with an Illinois license plate.

On Oct. 22, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias posted the video to X, stating that Illinois had "zero tolerance for this type of illegal activity."

"Flipping license plates or altering them in any way to avoid detection is strictly prohibited in Illinois," said Giannoulias in the video, urging residents to report similar violations to a hotline. "No one, including a federal agent, is above the law."

Alvarez, the ICE spokesperson, identified the officers in that video as Border Patrol. A separate agency inside DHS that has been involved with immigration enforcement, Border Patrol has been among the agencies tasked with conducting immigration-related arrests, particularly in cities like Chicago in recent weeks. Customs and Border Protection, the branch of DHS it is housed within, did not respond to a request for comment from NPR asking about their practice of switching license plates.

Activists for the Harbor Area Peace Patrol, a community group based in Los Angeles, Calif., have said they also noticed behavior that seems to contradict state guidelines about license plates.

Since June, the activists say, they have monitored federal agents almost every day as they leave Terminal Island, an artificial island in southern Los Angeles that has been used as a staging area for agents before they arrest migrants and conduct raids throughout the city. More than once, activists documented people on Terminal Island, a part of LA, removing plates from vehicles.

"We've seen that multiple times," said Elijah Chiland, an activist with the group.

Activists said they have additionally noticed that sometimes, federal agents left the staging area in the same car, but with different license plates on the vehicle than the car had on a previous day. And multiple times, the activists said, they noticed something else: Vehicles departing from Terminal Island were spotted with one license plate on the front and a different plate on the back.

"I've seen seven or eight different times that a car had a license plate that it didn't originally have," said Victor Maldonado, another of the group's activists. ICE did not respond to NPR questions about the allegations of license plate-switching near Terminal Island.

Mexican markings in Washington and Illinois

Some videos shared online appear to show federal agents making arrests using vehicles marked with Mexican objects or icons.

In the video recorded in Spokane Valley, Wash., where a car without license plates was used, another vehicle drew attention from bystanders. In front of the car without plates, two masked federal agents in tactical vests are seen entering a white Jeep SUV with a back license plate from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

"Tamaulipas on the license plate, can you believe this?" says a bystander, who can be heard on the audio in the clip.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment asking if this was their vehicle or operation.

A similar tactic was observed in a video that appears to be recorded in Illinois and was shared on TikTok in September. In the video, a man in a tactical police vest marked with the words "U.S. Border Patrol" is seen entering a silver Ford Explorer with a large Mexican flag across the hood of the car. Mexican flag stickers are seen stuck to the car's back and side windows.

"ICE using Mexican flag to target immigrants!!" read the words typed across the video, shared to TikTok, though it is unclear that anyone working for ICE is in the vehicle.

Another video shared the same day showed multiple men in tactical vests loading into a vehicle with a similar Mexican flag splayed across the hood.

When asked about whether Border Patrol agents were using a vehicle with Mexican flag decals, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated the agency believes its employees are not camouflaging their identities, though she acknowledged agents do wear masks to protect themselves from harm. ICE did not respond.

"DHS is not going to confirm our vehicles and put an even larger target on our officers' backs," McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to questions regarding current CBP policy for markings on cars including painted hoods and stickers.

Multiple agencies, few agency markings on cars

Involvement of other federal agencies in immigration activities further complicates the situation, said Reeves, the former ICE employee.

Employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Park Police have been involved with arresting migrants. But during arrests, the officers' clothing hasn't appeared to always match the cars they drive, according to media reports and NPR's own reporting.

In one instance, after President Trump deployed the National Guard to patrol D.C. in early August, a group of officers detained two migrants. The officers' clothing indicated some of them worked for the FBI, ATF and U.S. Park Police, reporters observed. One person wore a tactical vest labeled "police." Another wore a tactical vest with no description on it at all. A U.S. Park Police vehicle was the only car visible that was labeled with the name of a law enforcement agency.

Making arrests while operating cars that aren't clearly identified can erode the public's trust in local police, said Daniel Hodges, a police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington D.C., which has also worked with ICE on immigration arrests in the city. Hodges was attacked during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

"We've got to live with that destruction of trust after the feds go away," said Hodges. "Ethically and in terms of long-term effectiveness of our police departments, it's only detrimental as far as I can see."

David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said that removing or switching license plates can be detrimental for another reason: It helps federal agencies avoid further scrutiny.

"It removes the opportunity for accountability if you don't know what officers were conducting an operation. There's no way to track back, 'This person was using this vehicle,'" Bier said. "It's unclear exactly how they track these actions. So it could genuinely be impossible to ever determine who was involved and in what operation."

Bier said not knowing which agency or people are involved in an arrest can make it difficult for Congress or lawyers to investigate specific claims if officers are accused of violating people's rights.

"Of course, if you're being charged with a crime or being arrested or detained, you have a right to know who is leveling this charge against you, who's claiming that you violated the law," Bier said. "These are all basic principles of liberal democracy that we've just taken for granted."

Nick McMillan contributed reporting.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95373

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POLITICS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 4:08 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump calls meeting with China's president 'outstanding.' What actually happened?

By Mary Louise Kelly, Deepa Shivaram, Tom Bowman

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Today, the two most powerful men in the world came face-to-face at a South Korean airport. We're talking about President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, their first meeting in six years. They talked tariffs, appeared to step back from the brink in what has amounted to Trump's economic war with China during his second term. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram has been traveling with the president. She's in South Korea today. Deepa joined me, along with NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman, on our national security podcast Sources & Methods. We talked through the summit, including the curveball that Trump delivered right before it got underway.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

KELLY: On Truth Social, President Trump wrote, and I quote, "because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis." Deepa, I think I can sum up the collective reaction here in Washington as, wait, what? What was the reaction there in Asia?

DEEPA SHIVARAM: It was sort of one of those things that went out and we were like, oh, very focused on a Trump-Xi summit. And then all of a sudden, you know, in a very Trumpesque (ph) way, this other thing, like, flies out of left field.

KELLY: Did it come up in the actual summit?

SHIVARAM: It didn't. And it sort of - or if it did, we don't know that they spoke about it. And to be honest, like, there hasn't really been much follow-up. Like, we don't really know a lot of detail. What does an instruction to the Department of War/Defense look like? Where would testing take place, and what would Trump even want that to look like? So there's just - it's sort of one of those things that Trump fired off, and we're sort of left asking a lot more questions.

KELLY: Tom, any details from the Pentagon? Any reaction?

TOM BOWMAN: Well, first of all, the Pentagon doesn't do testing. It's done by a division of the Department of Energy called the National Nuclear Security Administration, No. 1. No. 2 is the testing site is in the Nevada desert. So even if you want to do testing, setting it up with diagnostic equipment and figuring out where you wanted to do it and what you wanted to do would take many months, I'm told, if not years.

KELLY: So do we know why this was on President Trump's mind as he's walking into a big summit with Xi?

BOWMAN: Well, we think it was precisely because Russia has tested these delivery systems - again, not weapons, just how you would deliver a nuclear weapon. So everyone's speculating that's precisely why he's doing it, because of what Putin announced.

KELLY: OK. So let's go to what actually did get discussed at this summit and what we were expecting to be the big headlines, which have to do with trade, have to do with tariffs. Deepa, give us the very quick rundown on where they landed.

SHIVARAM: Yeah. I would say it comes down to, like, a big three on this - like, the takeaways from this meeting. One is basically that China agreed to pull back on some of the limits they had put on rare earths exports. The other element was that China would resume buying soybeans from the U.S. immediately, and that's, of course, been a major issue for American farmers since China halted those shipments. And then the other thing is that Trump said - this is the big number part - that tariffs on China would be lowered from 57% to 47%. And that 10% drop, Trump says, is because Xi committed to decrease the flow of fentanyl coming into the U.S. That is the reason that Trump said he would lower the tariff rate.

KELLY: Yeah. The captain basic question, have we figured out what U.S. policy on China is, what the goal of all of the threats of tariffs and then walking back the threats of tariffs is?

SHIVARAM: It's a really good question, and based on a lot of people I've talked to, there isn't exactly an answer. I did talk to Ryan Hass, who's the director of the China Center at Brookings, and he said that Trump policy is really different than his first term. But he said in the second term, it's essentially kind of like this.

RYAN HASS: The China policy is the president's policy. He drives. He's in charge. And it's really not looked warmly upon if other people encroach upon his territory without his guidance or direction on how to do so.

SHIVARAM: And think about how Trump does a lot of diplomacy, right? It's very personality oriented. It's very - you know, a lot of compliments, a lot of fanfare, and that is essentially how he's treated his relationship with Xi. Like, China is not a friend or ally to the United States. And he really, you know, kind of comes at this very big issue with sort of a personal diplomacy end to it. And of course, we know Xi does not really share that same level of diplomatic relations or diplomatic personality, I'll say.

KELLY: NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram and Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. You can hear more of our discussion on Sources & Methods wherever you get your podcasts.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5590196

POLITICS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 3:31 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

4 GOP senators join Democrats to rebuke Trump on tariffs for a third time this week

By Claudia Grisales

In a series of three votes this week, a slim majority of the GOP-led Senate delivered a rare, bipartisan rebuke of President Trump's use of emergency powers to set tariffs on Canada, Brazil and other countries.

The last of these votes — a measure approved Thursday to roll back global tariffs announced by Trump in April — passed by a margin of 51 to 47. Democrats cleared the measure with support from four Republicans: Susan Collins of Maine, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Kentucky's Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.

"The way that the president has imposed the tariffs is leading to nothing but chaos," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the lead sponsor of the measure, said ahead of the vote. Kaine said the strategy behind Trump's tariff policy amounted to, "Announce tariffs on everyone, then announce that they may be suspended or delayed while I work out one-on-one deals."

Earlier this week, the same four Republican senators joined Democrats to approve resolutions to terminate tariffs on Brazil and Canada that were announced using emergency powers. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., joined Democrats to terminate the Brazil tariffs, which he argued specifically had no rational basis.

The vast majority of Senate Republicans voted against the measures, with many saying that at this point they're counterproductive to the president's tariff program. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said Trump's new plans to lower China's tariffs Thursday were a good reminder. Trump announced the plans after meeting in South Korea with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

"The president's negotiations are bearing fruit. President Trump already announced new trade deals," Crapo said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote. "Other deals are, hopefully, forthcoming."

However, the success of this week's resolution votes, which only needed a simple majority to pass, may not go far. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., installed a special rule to block such votes in the House, so they're currently unlikely to reach the floor. Even if they were to somehow pass the House, President Trump would almost certainly veto them.

Still, the vote marked a test of support for the president's tariff policies among Republicans, reflecting unease inside the party about their impacts on the U.S. economy, and specifically the farming and manufacturing sectors. It came ahead of arguments at the Supreme Court this fall in a case challenging Trump's authority to put sweeping tariffs in place using emergency powers.

Thursday's vote wasn't the first time Senate Republicans took up Trump's authority to set global tariffs. In April, a similar measure failed 49 to 49. That same month, a measure to block tariffs on Canada drew a simple majority in the Senate.

"Since then our nation's trade policy has looked pretty much like a dog chasing a squirrel," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a lead co-sponsor of the global tariffs resolution, said on the Senate floor on Thursday. "More tariffs threatened, added, taken away, thousands of packages being destroyed because the customs service wasn't prepared, secretive deals to lift tariffs for certain companies and products that have influence at the White House."

The Republicans who broke ranks did so despite a lobbying push by Vice President JD Vance, who met with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and urged them to back the president's policies. Vance told reporters after the lunch meeting that the tariffs are critical leverage for Trump in international negotiations.

But Tillis, for example, was one of those Republicans not convinced when it came at least to the Brazil tariffs.

"I just don't think there's a rational basis for it," Tillis said.

Trump triggered the Brazil tariffs this summer to pressure the country's government to end what he called a "witch hunt" against his ally, former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Last month, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup to stay in power following his 2022 election defeat.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5591301

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MEDIA | UPDATED THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 5:39 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Judge sets trial over whether CPB pulled back from NPR due to White House pressure

By David Folkenflik

NPR's lawsuit against its decades-long partner, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is headed for trial in December, a federal judge ruled Thursday. It is another marker of the Trump administration's disruptive force throughout the media.

NPR alleges that last spring, CPB unlawfully yanked away a planned three-year contract worth $36 million in the face of intense pressure from the White House to sever ties with the radio network.

As NPR presented evidence in court hearings on Tuesday and Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss indicated a deep skepticism of CPB's argument that it sharply reversed course on the merits. The most plausible explanation, Moss said, was that CPB was hoping to survive.

"I am not sure I have received an answer at all to the question of what changed from April 2nd to April 4th, other than the fact that CPB was looking for ways to try and ingratiate itself with the administration and perhaps folks on the Hill in a desire to survive," Moss said at Thursday's court hearing, according to a transcript, "and that it was perceived that the votes and the support that CPB needed would come from those who were hostile to the content of NPR's speech."

The CPB is the nonprofit that funneled federal dollars to public media until this month, as Congress and the president acted this summer to halt all $1.1 billion in planned future subsidies. Only a skeleton crew remains at the corporation.

President Trump had been in the White House barely two months when he began attacking NPR and its TV counterpart PBS on social media as "radical left MONSTERS." On May 1, he followed up with an executive order to stop all federal dollars from going to them. In response, NPR and three member stations in Colorado sued both the Trump administration and CPB, alleging their First Amendment rights were being violated.

The portion of the lawsuit headed to trial does not involve the subsidies, but a separate contract to provide satellite and distribution services for public radio stations. NPR has operated it for four decades under a series of contracts with CPB. Moss said he had an open mind about the final merits of the two sides' arguments but ordered the trial because he thought NPR's argument was credible enough that he didn't want to take more time assessing its case. As the judge reiterated his skepticism of CPB's case, the corporation's trial attorney, Joseph Lipchitz, disclosed he had been negotiating a potential resolution of the lawsuit with NPR's legal team.

A rush to get a deal, then a change of heart

In late March, CPB had heard rumors of the possibility of an executive order against public media but was uncertain what form it would take.

With that in mind, on April 2, CPB's board authorized its officials to work out the fine print of a fresh contract with NPR.

A top CPB official, Kathy Merritt, called NPR's executive overseeing the satellite and distribution system and told him not to trip up the negotiations over minor matters, citing the urgency to get the money approved. (Merritt affirmed this account during a sworn deposition last week.)

The next day, at an in-person meeting, a top White House budget official told CPB's board chairperson and two senior executives of her "intense dislike for NPR." Memoranda about the meeting reflect the White House official, Katie Sullivan, also said "it would be a shame to throw the baby out with the bath water," according to legal documents NPR filed in court.

The day after that, April 4, CPB's board reversed itself, deciding that the radio satellite and distribution system had to be operated by an entity separate from NPR. CPB asked NPR to come up with plans to spin off the division, court filings show; NPR declined but bid for the project nonetheless.

Behind the scenes, CPB's chairperson, Ruby Calvert, was "adamant that she doesn't want funding to go to NPR," according to an April 12 email from Merritt to a colleague brought to light in the litigation.

"Something has been fundamentally missing"

On April 13, CPB's chief of staff, Debra Sanchez, wrote that she wasn't sure how to explain the requirement that it spin off its satellite and distribution system, called PRSS, court documents show. "Something has been fundamentally missing for me ... and it's the 'because' statement," she wrote to colleagues. "In particular, the 'local stations would be better served by having PRSS as an independent entity' which begs the question... because?"

Newly hired Republican consultant Carl Forti advised CPB on key themes to embrace in dealing with the administration: "CPB has taken proactive steps to rein in what it sees as bias at NPR and PBS," according to court filings.

The consultant stated that CPB should stress it had "already taken steps to address the administration's concerns" including by "[w]ithholding interconnection funds from NPR." The word "interconnection" is a shorthand for the satellite and distribution system.

Forti's memo also stated that CPB should note it had stopped grants for specific NPR newsroom efforts. CPB had subsidized international reporting and, last year, after allegations of bias led Congressional Republicans to blast NPR, a new senior editorial review team.

Clayton Barsoum, CPB's chief lobbying executive, affirmed the memo in a note to Sanchez, writing, "This looks good to me," court filings show.

CPB argues it is a bulwark against political pressure

In September, the corporation announced it was awarding a longer, bigger contract — $57 million over five years — to a new consortium that includes major public radio stations, a public radio distributor and an industry consulting firm. It said it was doing so to address long-standing concerns about NPR's performance.

CPB attorney Lipschitz argued in court that the corporation has acted as a resolute bulwark for public media, including NPR, against political pressure. He noted that CPB had separately sued Trump over his attempt to fire corporation board members.

In his remarks at the hearings Tuesday and Thursday, Moss cast doubt on the credibility of that defense, repeatedly questioning the quick-twitch decision to demand that NPR no longer run the distribution system after such a longstanding arrangement.

"All of a sudden there was this change. And so what happened to cause this change?" the judge asked Tuesday. "I have to say, the most plausible explanation for what's happening here, is that everything is not quite as linear as "We're for or against it'."

"CPB is understandably trying to survive," Moss said. "There are a lot of materials that are in the record here that say there are a lot of strategies going on: 'What do we do? One thing we do is distance ourselves from NPR, because they don't like NPR'."

"A desire to earn some brownie points"

On Thursday, Moss underscored his thinking. "At this point, I am not convinced that there is any real explanation of what changed other than the political climate and desire to try and earn some brownie points with those who CPB saw as attacking it," Moss said.

In that April memo reproduced in court filings, CPB's consultant Forti came up with a message to convey to senators whom Trump was urging to pull all funding for public media:

"a. We understand the new world.

"b. We are responsive to the new world.

"c. We are trying to limit funds direct to NPR and PBS for biased content."

Barsoum had endorsed the memo. Yet CPB officials felt they could not make that case publicly, evidence presented by NPR in court shows.

Behind the scenes, CPB officials were asking Forti how they could best present their decision, without referring to the political firestorm around them. "I don't think we are comfortable with the approach to publicly state we cut funding to NPR, so the bland statement might be where we land," Sanchez, the CPB chief of staff, wrote, according to materials filed in court.

Moss ordered a brief expedited trial on this portion of the litigation and also ordered that CPB set aside $36 million, which it could not touch until the case was resolved. Assuming there is no settlement between the parties, Moss will assess it himself, instead of a jury, in what is called a bench trial. It is expected to last three to four days.

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp, Managing Editor Vickie Walton-James and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5590945

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GOATS AND SODA | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 8:20 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Candy is dandy but trick or treat for UNICEF has heft. And this year it turns 75!

By Ari Daniel

Every year, Halloween sparks the sale of $3.9 BILLION on candy in the United States. But that's not the only impressive statistic related to trick-or-treating.

Several years after World War II, a couple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had an idea — what if kids also asked for coins to donate to UNICEF, the U.N. agency that protects the rights of children worldwide. This year marks the 75th anniversary of that initiative, called Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. And some $200 million has been collected during that time span.

This year's campaign features supermodel Heidi Klum, one of an esteemed group of past and present celebrity supporters like Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya, Sammy Davis Jr., Maya Angelou, Bob McGrath and even Lassie.

"We want to raise awareness for the importance of protecting children — making sure they're healthy, that they're well fed," says Shelley Diamond, a spokesperson with UNICEF USA.

But in 2025, it's not just the anniversary that's of note. At a time of a dramatic and abrupt scaling back of federal foreign aid, some say this simple practice is more important than ever.

"We have absolutely adequate resources to make sure that [children's] rights are respected," says Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development think tank in Washington, D.C. "But frankly, governments worldwide, including the United States, have failed in that."

He believes that in an imperfect world, it's best to support those in need however we can. And that includes Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, which Kenny lauds as "a fantastic win" — one that has the added benefit of getting kids interested in "their fellow children worldwide."

An idea that captured the nation

The origin of the program goes back to the late 1940s. After World War II, hunger stalked large swaths of the globe, including Europe and parts of Asia. A Presbyterian pastor at the time, Clyde Allison and his wife, Mary Emma, believed in the power of community service. When Mary Emma saw well-fed American kids trick or treating on Halloween, she had an idea.

Monroe Allison, her son, recalls her thinking. "These kids could be doing something really meaningful instead of just collecting candy for themselves," he says. "So it was my mother who demanded of my father, 'We have to convert this into something good.'"

"Their hearts yearned to be able to have these kids collect money for kids who needed it," adds Diane Allison, Monroe's wife. "It's vitally important because of that experience of empathy for other children — the power to do something."

And so the Halloween collections were born. The Allisons organized children from church Sunday schools to gather shoes, winter coats, soap and coins for kids in need elsewhere in the world. For the first couple of years, the Church World Service, a faith-based group that responds to global hunger and poverty, distributed the goods.

After connecting with philanthropist Gertrude Ely and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the Allisons soon recognized that UNICEF was an ideal charity to partner with. And by 1951, Diane says the agency had transformed the nascent idea into a national program of coin collecting.

The campaign involved orange collection boxes (often converted milk boxes), public service announcements, and songs including the one Diane wrote. "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, that's what we say… Kids helping kids in the whole world today," she croons during her interview with NPR.

"Children helping one another"

The program was a hit. "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF zoomed like a wildfire," says Monroe Allison. "And the children who participate in it — and that's my parents' idea — get as much out of this as the people receiving it."

One such recipient is Manyang Kher, one of the lost boys of Sudan, who fled his home in the early 1990s during his country's civil war. He landed in a refugee camp in Ethiopia where he lived for 13 years. "Our parents were not there with us," he says.

Kher remembers UNICEF providing him and other children with food and school supplies. These were items, he was told, that came from American children.

"I know there was some kid helping us from New York or somewhere there," he says. "It's very excit[ing] to hear, 'Oh, there's a lot of kids that want to help children in refugee camp.' To see kid helping kid, children helping one another."

Kher credits those gifts with helping him get critical calories as a boy — and an education.

"Hope, that's what it mean for me at the time," he says. "To help children be better human being, and that is what creates society."

The program enters a new and uncertain era

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF began a decade before the establishment of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which went on to provide a wide array of humanitarian aid and development programs across the globe. It now appears to have outlasted the foreign aid agency, which the Trump administration quickly dismantled.

But Kenny says the UNICEF campaign reveals longstanding American support for international aid. "This program has been running for 75 years for a reason, right?" he asks. "It's that a lot of Americans really do care, despite what's going on in Washington. It's even more important than ever that Americans stand up and be counted in that way."

The U.S. is still the largest foreign aid donor worldwide in absolute dollars. (Though, Kenny notes, "if you put it on a per capita level or as a percentage of GDP," other countries top the list.) But global need far outweighs that support.

According to Kenny, this is where the UNICEF program can play a role. "It provides some of the financing and some of the awareness, and we need both," he says. "I hope that, as this is children we're talking about, when they grow up and start running the government themselves, it's a sign that the future will look a little more generous than today."

And it's a practice that has thrived from generation to generation. Beverley Weiler, age 75, remembers trick or treating for UNICEF as a kid. On Halloween, she and her Quaker friends set up a table in their Santa Fe neighborhood with information, dolls from different countries and pumpkin soup — so that children and families can learn about the program and do it themselves. She says the needs of the world are more visible than ever, including to children — and Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF offers an antidote.

"It gives them somewhere to lay down their worries a little," Weiler says, "and gives them something positive and productive to be a part of that makes sense in a world that often doesn't make sense."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95543

HEALTH | UPDATED THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 4:28 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Casey Means' confirmation hearing for surgeon general postponed

By Will Stone, Selena Simmons-Duffin

Heard on Morning Edition

Update: The confirmation hearing for President Trump's surgeon general nominee scheduled for Oct. 30 at 11 a.m. was canceled. Dr. Casey Means, who is pregnant, went into labor.

The Department of Health and Human Services declined to answer a question about when the hearing would be rescheduled for but press secretary Emily Hilliard issued the following statement: "Everyone is happy for Dr. Means and her family. This is one of the few times in life when it's easy to ask to move a Senate hearing."

Who: Dr. Casey Means

Nominated for: Surgeon General

You might know her from: Casey Means is a wellness influencer, entrepreneur, and author. Last year, she published a bestselling book about diet and metabolic health Good Energy.

- She coauthored the book with her older brother, Calley Means, who works for the Trump administration as a special government employee and is a close advisor to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

- She did not complete her surgical residency and does not have an active medical license, which would be a major departure from past surgeon generals.

- She runs a company that promotes the use of continuous glucose monitors.

- She has described America as in "spiritual crisis," questioned the childhood vaccine schedule and the use of birth control and has called out what she calls "corruption" at the FDA.

What does this role do? Known as the nation's top doctor, the surgeon general leads the more than 6,000 members of the U.S. Public Health Service, which include physicians, nurses, and scientists working at various federal agencies.

The surgeon general serves in the Department of Health and Human Services and issues public advisories and reports to convey health information to the public.

With the hearing delayed, what does it mean for the U.S. to not have anyone in place as surgeon general? The surgeon general is a communicator in chief for the nation's health. The person in the role raises awareness of current health issues. For instance, former surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a report on the health effects of loneliness. Secretary Kennedy himself has taken up a lot of that kind of communication work and uses his platform to promote his views on health.

What's expected at the hearing:

It's been more than five months since Trump announced Casey Means would replace his initial choice, Fox News contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat.

She was originally set to join the senate hearing remotely, which is unusual. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, which is holding the hearing, did not explain why she would be joining virtually. Her brother, Calley Means, shared in May that she was pregnant.

Senators will likely have tough questions for her about her qualifications and potential conflicts of interest. In financial filings released ahead of the hearing, Means committed to resigning from her continuous glucose monitor company if confirmed. She also disclosed financial ties to the supplement industry from which she promised to divest.

Means is 38 years old and a graduate of Stanford Medical School. She completed most of her residency training to be a head and neck surgeon, but quit before finishing.

In the years since, she pivoted to what's known as functional medicine, a field that focuses on root causes of illness and often encompasses lifestyle change and alternative medicine approaches that are not always evidence-based.

She briefly had a functional medical practice in Oregon. But she did not become board certified and her Oregon medical license is currently listed as inactive.

Means grew her public profile on social media and through her book Good Energy. She did the rounds on big podcasts in the wellness space with her brother and coauthor Calley Means. Her message tends to echo Kennedy's and that of his allies in the Make American Healthy Again movement, especially in flagging the high rates of chronic illnesses in the U.S.

"What we are dealing with here is so much more than a physical health crisis — this is a spiritual crisis," she said at a congressional roundtable led by Republicans last year.

She often talks about the U.S. food supply and environmental toxins and she criticizes the pharmaceutical industry. Kennedy has said she will be the greatest surgeon general ever.

Pushback on several fronts:

There has been significant opposition against Means's confirmation from medical and public health experts. They point to her lack of leadership or clinical experience, something that surgeon generals traditionally have, and some of her views. For example, she has raised concerns about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule and questioned hormonal birth control. She has also endorsed raw milk, as has Kennedy, who would be her boss.

"The Senate's likely confirmation of Casey Means as Surgeon General, an individual who never completed medical training, would mark a disastrous precedent for the nation's top public health role," Dr. Jerome Adams wrote in a statement to NPR. Adams served as surgeon general in the first Trump administration.

"Numerous qualified candidates — fully trained, licensed physicians who champion prevention and wellness —could lead the 6,000-person [U.S. Public Health Service] with distinction," he added. "Confirming Means reflects a capitulation to political pressures, not a desire to get the best person for the job."

Earlier this year, opposition to her nomination also emerged from some of Kennedy's MAHA supporters, partly out of concern that she wouldn't be critical enough of vaccines or carry forward other priorities of their movement.

Still, it seems unlikely that the Senate would have scheduled the hearing if the Trump White House weren't confident that Means could be confirmed. The withdrawal of previous health official nominations from this administration have all happened before a hearing took place.

NPR follows the confirmation hearings for the Trump administration. See Trump's Terms podcast or sign up for our Politics newsletter to stay up to date.

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

President Trump's pick to be surgeon general was scheduled to appear in front of a Senate committee later this morning for her confirmation hearing. Dr. Casey Means is a wellness influencer, an entrepreneur and author. But as we just learned, the hearing was postponed at the last minute. NPR's Will Stone joins us to tell us why and who Casey Means is. I mentioned a few things, Will, that Casey Means is, but she's got a new title, right?

WILL STONE, BYLINE: Yeah. She's soon to be a mother. It turns out Casey Means, who is pregnant, just went into labor. The hearing was already scheduled to be virtual, so she did not have to travel so late in her pregnancy. She's currently in Hawaii, and the committee was set to do this, but clearly, this changed the plans. And at this point, we don't know when the hearing will be rescheduled.

MARTÍNEZ: All right. So tell us more exactly about who she is.

STONE: Yeah. Casey Means is in her late 30s. She went to Stanford Medical School and was pretty far along in her training to be a head and neck surgeon, but she dropped out of residency before finishing. And then she pivoted to what's known as functional medicine, briefly had a practice in Oregon, but really made her name on social media and through a book she published on diet and metabolic health. I'll note that her brother is a close adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Casey Means and her brother did the rounds on big podcasts in the wellness space. And her message tends to echo what you hear from Kennedy and his allies in the Make America Healthy Again Movement, especially when they talk about high rates of chronic illness. Here's how she talked about that at a congressional roundtable led by Republicans last year.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CASEY MEANS: What we are dealing with here is so much more than a physical health crisis. This is a spiritual crisis.

STONE: And she often talks about our food supply, environmental toxins. She criticizes the reliance on the pharmaceutical industry, and Kennedy has said she will be the greatest surgeon general ever.

MARTÍNEZ: All right. Yeah. But there's been some pushback, though.

STONE: Yeah, there has on several fronts. Certainly, a lot of opposition from folks in the medical and public health establishment who argue she doesn't have the qualifications. She doesn't have the leadership or clinical experience you'd expect from the surgeon general, who's considered the nation's top doctor. Dr. Jerome Adams, who was surgeon general during Trump's first term, told me confirming Means would set a, quote, "disastrous precedent." And she has made statements casting doubt on the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule, also about oral contraceptives. She's endorsed raw milk, similar to Kennedy.

Now, interestingly, when Trump announced he'd picked Means, you also saw some opposition emerge among some supporters of Kennedy, and part of that was some in that camp seemed to worry she wasn't critical enough of vaccines. So there were questions about whether this fracture in the MAHA base would sink her confirmation, but it's unlikely the administration would have set up this hearing if she didn't have the votes to get confirmed.

MARTÍNEZ: Well, Trump announced that she was his pick back in the spring, and now the confirmation is delayed. So what does it mean for the country not to have an acting surgeon general?

STONE: Yeah. I mean, we've been months and months without a surgeon general under this administration. And some of that delay was because Trump had first picked a Fox News contributor for the role. She dropped out. Then they went to Casey Means. As for the job itself, you know, surgeon general is not about making big policy decisions. The person is really a communicator-in-chief for the nation's health. They take up causes. They issue reports. You can remember Biden's surgeon general did a lot on loneliness and social media. So that's not happening, obviously, since she's not confirmed. But I will point out Secretary Kennedy himself has certainly taken up a lot of the communication work, as we've seen, and he uses his platform to promote his views on health.

MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Will Stone. Will, thanks.

STONE: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)-

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5589127

HEALTH | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 4:44 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Misinformation online driving some women to quit hormonal birth control

By Lexie Schapitl

Heard on Morning Edition

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

As part of NPR's Population Shift series, we've been spending this week looking at how families make decisions about if and when to have children - decisions made possible in part because of hormonal birth control. Now there's a growing social media trend that shows women quitting their hormonal birth control, even though they're not ready to become parents. Doctors are worried that some women are making decisions based on inaccurate medical information they see online. Lexie Schapitl reports on how TikTok and Instagram have become the new WebMD for family planning.

LEXIE SCHAPITL, BYLINE: Charlotte Freed (ph) first got a hormonal IUD as a teenager. She wasn't sexually active at the time, but she wanted to be protected from pregnancy before she started college. This was also a time when she experienced anxiety, depression and fatigue. But it wasn't until years later, when a friend of hers quit her birth control and recommended a book on the topic, that Freed started wondering if these things could be connected.

CHARLOTTE FREED: It was really upsetting and almost, like, a little disturbing that no doctor had ever brought it up. And honestly, I was like, I kind of just want to, like, meet myself in a way that I hadn't since I was, you know, 16, 17.

SCHAPITL: So Freed took out her IUD. Social media is full of stories about women like Freed quitting or questioning hormonal birth control, but not because they want to get pregnant. Some are concerned about effects on their mood and mental health. Others say doctors dismissed their complaints about weight gain, nausea and decreased sex drive. But doctors and researchers say misleading and inaccurate claims about birth control, which decades of research has shown to be safe and effective, abound on social platforms. And they worry those claims are turning some women off the medication and could lead to unintended pregnancies.

FRANZISKA HAYDANEK: It's important to kind of look at the difference between disinformation and misinformation.

SCHAPITL: Franziska Haydanek is an OB-GYN who uses social media to educate her followers about different birth control methods.

HAYDANEK: I think it's totally appropriate that people share their negative experiences with any sort of surgery, medication, whatever. What's not OK is when it's, like, done purposely, and that's when we get into the disinformation.

SCHAPITL: A 2024 study analyzed posts about birth control on TikTok and found that nearly half of the posts on the topic were discouraging women from using it. Stats like that motivated Jennifer Lincoln, an OB-GYN based in Portland, Oregon, to start debunking false claims on Instagram - claims like...

JENNIFER LINCOLN: That birth control is bad for you. It gives you infertility. It causes cancer. It makes you not attracted to your partner. It causes abortions. You name it, somebody on social media has said it.

SCHAPITL: And Lincoln worries that young people are using social media like a search engine for medical advice.

LINCOLN: And it might be somebody who says that who has a blue check mark, who even has doctor in their name, but they might not be a medical doctor. And they're selling you something, or, you know, they're promising you something that has made up for the gap in the health care system.

ALEX CLARK: I feel like women haven't been given true informed consent when it comes to the hormonal birth control pill.

SCHAPITL: That's conservative podcast host Alex Clark. She argues birth control is overprescribed and used as a Band-Aid that can mask more serious underlying issues. Clark took the pill for nearly 10 years before stopping. Now she steers her listeners toward options like condoms and cycle tracking, which do not contain hormones and have much higher failure rates.

CLARK: I think that if women were told the truth about hormonal birth control in general, that they would choose other options. I think just the more educated women become on it, that they're just going to say, yeah, nah, I'm good. I think they're just going to choose something else.

SCHAPITL: Dr. Jennifer Lincoln believes her colleagues should do more to explain the facts around birth control. She says social media is filling a vacuum that gets created when doctors rush their patients through appointments or brush off concerns about symptoms.

LINCOLN: The medical field owns so much of why people are going to these forums and Reddit and TikTok for information and are really buying it because they have been - we have failed them.

SCHAPITL: When Charlotte Freed took out her IUD, she did notice improvements in her mood. She had more energy. She felt more connected to her body, and she got reacquainted with her cycle. Then she was going abroad for graduate school, and her calculation changed.

FREED: Either the trade-off is, like, the possibility of having a child when you don't want to, the possibility of, like, hormones kind of messing up your personality or increasing anxiety, depression, fatigue, whatever. So it's a lose-lose situation.

SCHAPITL: She decided she couldn't take the risk of getting pregnant in a foreign country. Ultimately, Freed got a new IUD for now.

Lexie Schapitl, NPR News, Washington.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5535839

GOATS AND SODA | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 3:00 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

How will the dismantling of USAID affect U.S. relief efforts in Jamaica?

By Fatma Tanis

Heard on All Things Considered

It's a major international disaster. And it comes in the wake of the Trump administration's dismantling of the world's largest aid agency, the United States Agency for International Development, along with the slashing of billions of dollars in foreign assistance.

Hurricane Melissa, the most powerful Atlantic storm of this year, has torn through Jamaica and several other islands in the Caribbean, leaving a trail of devastation. With major flooding and power outages, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared the country a "disaster area."

The State Department confirmed that Jamaica has formally asked for help. And President Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. will respond: "We're watching it closely, and we're prepared to move."

Will the U.S. be able to meet the needs of Jamaica and other affected island nations?

NPR spoke to half a dozen experts in disaster relief. They all noted that hurricane Melissa is is a real test for U.S. disaster response capabilities since the shutdown of USAID.

Here's are key points to consider:

USAID was the lead federal agency coordinating disaster response but no longer exists.

The agency had a staff of about 800 people trained in disaster relief and a road map for handling disasters like Melissa. For disasters like this epic hurricane, preparations would have started months in advance.

"USAID would have been working with governments and embassies in the region on preparing for hurricane season," says Sarah Charles, who led USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance during the Biden administration. "And this would have been everything from exercises with emergency management authorities in different countries [and aid groups], to pre-positioning stocks of things like plastic sheeting, emergency food, household item kits warehouses in places like Miami, but also in particular countries like Haiti, which is very vulnerable to storms of this nature."

The agency would also often send out staff ahead of a predicted disaster like Melissa to be on the ground before airports or roads were closed.

USAID also coordinated efforts with the Pentagon and other federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as with charities and organizations led by immigrants to the U.S. from the affected places, who often have a good handle on the needs of communities in their home countries.

In the wake of the aid cuts, these efforts have been largely eliminated.

The State Department is stepping in but there are concerns about its capabilities.

After the shutdown of USAID on July 1, about 100 of USAID's disaster response staff survived the transition and are working in the State Department's Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration, which is responsible for humanitarian aid.

And the State Department is now mounting a response.

"The United States is in close contact with the governments of Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic and The Bahamas as they confront the devastating impacts of Hurricane Melissa. We have rescue and response teams heading to affected areas along with critical lifesaving supplies," said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on X on Wednesday.

Brian Heidel, who's worked as a humanitarian for more than two decades and led USAID's Caribbean teams, says the announcement is a "welcome sign" and describes an effective way to deal with a disaster of this magnitude.

It's also important to note that the country where a disaster takes place takes the lead in establishing the type of aid needed.

In this case, says Sarah Charles, the Jamaican government will likely want U.S. help with emergency food and supplies and transportation to bring such aid to remote areas as well as damage assessment.

"So, using our technology to do damage assessments and sharing those with the government, supporting their communication and logistics, all with the aim of helping the Jamaican government get to those that are the most cut off and the most vulnerable," she says.

Nonetheless there are concerns about the U.S. ability to coordinate the expected response.

Experts interviewed also cautioned that the State Department is bureaucratic and has systems and operating procedures that were not built with disaster relief in mind. So things could take longer.

"So many of USAID's systems came out of, frankly, the negative experiences of the Haiti earthquake, where people both in and out of the government were so moved by the devastation that a lot of help flooded in, but in a totally uncoordinated way that created more chaos and challenges in the response," says Sarah Charles, adding that the agency's expertise built over decades may not have survived the administration's cuts.

Then there's the matter of the budget upheaval. Heidel says the cuts to programs and staff limits the capability for the U.S. to respond to new disasters that can happen anywhere, "because they're spread so very thin on all of the pre-existing disasters. Obviously, there's so much going on worldwide and in the Middle East and in Africa," he says.

And with all the cuts, he says that there's simply "no way that the U.S. government is going to be able to provide a major level of support that they have provided in the past."

Transcript

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

As Jamaica and other Caribbean countries take on the overwhelming task of working through the wreckage left by Hurricane Melissa, many are wondering how the U.S. will respond. Earlier this year, the key agency USAID that coordinated Washington's international disaster response was dismantled by the Trump administration. A few remaining staff moved to the State Department. NPR's Fatma Tanis is here to tell us more. Hi there.

FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: Hi.

SUMMERS: So Fatma, Hurricane Melissa is one of the first major international disasters since the Trump administration dismantled USAID, right?

TANIS: That's correct. And, you know, Juana, I've been speaking to people who worked in disaster response with USAID and also outside experts. And they say, this is a test case for U.S. disaster response capabilities overseas since the agency was shut down and also billions of dollars in foreign assistance were cut. And while there have been other disasters since the administration took office, such as the earthquakes in Myanmar and Afghanistan, U.S. help was pretty much MIA. But this time, President Trump himself said they were prepared to help.

SUMMERS: Interesting - so what can you tell us about how Washington is responding to Hurricane Melissa?

TANIS: So the State Department announced that a disaster response team was being deployed. They're sending critical supplies and rescue teams. Experts I spoke to said countries would be anticipating U.S. help with emergency food and getting aid to people in remote areas. Now, it will take a while for that help to roll out and also for experts to be able to assess how effective the U.S. response is. So we'll know more about that in the coming days. But there are already some signs that things are a little different from disaster responses of the past.

SUMMERS: Like what?

TANIS: First of all, USAID staff would have started preparing for a hurricane like Melissa months ago, in early summer. They would have been topping up warehouses in the region with food, first aid, household items. They'd be working with governments and also U.S. embassies to do exercises for emergency management. And then a week or two before landfall, there would have been a dozen or so agency staff actually on the ground before the storm hit and airports closed. So these kinds of efforts have all been eliminated in the administration's cuts. One of the experts I spoke to is Brian Heidel. He used to lead USAID's humanitarian response teams for the Caribbean. And he said the State Department deploying teams is a good sign and the right step, but after all the cuts this year...

BRIAN HEIDEL: There is no way that the U.S. government is going to be able to provide a major level of support that they have provided in the past.

SUMMERS: So then Fatma, what is the role of the State Department team left over from USAID disaster response?

TANIS: So there are highly specialized experts working on this at the State Department. But Juana, what used to be a bureau of 800 people is now a team of about a hundred working on humanitarian aid globally, and they're spread pretty thin and the destruction from Melissa is vast.

SUMMERS: Yeah.

TANIS: So another thing experts pointed out is that the State Department is bureaucratic. Its systems were not built with disaster relief in mind, and it can be slower to act. USAID, on the other hand, had amassed experience from years of responding to disasters. I spoke to Sarah Charles, who led the agency's humanitarian bureau under the Biden administration. And she said that many of USAID systems came from learned experiences from the Haiti earthquake in 2010, where there was so much help flooding in from several government agencies and charities, but they were not coordinated, and that created a lot of chaos. She says, after that, the agency developed a system that really focused on coordination with, you know, the Pentagon, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with United Nations agencies. They also communicated with diaspora groups in the U.S. who understand the needs of friends and family back in affected countries. And it's that fine-tuned coordinating mechanism that has completely unraveled with the dismantling of the agency.

SUMMERS: NPR's global health correspondent, Fatma Tanis, thank you so much.

TANIS: Thank you.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95551

SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 10:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Teens who use weed before age 15 have more trouble later, a study finds

By Rhitu Chatterjee

Teens who start using cannabis before age 15 are more likely to use the drug often later in their lives. They are also more likely to develop mental and physical health problems in young adulthood compared to their peers who did not use the drug in adolescence.

Those are the findings of a new study in JAMA Network Open.

"This further builds the case that cannabis use in adolescence adversely affects the [health] trajectories of those who use it," says psychiatrist Dr. Ryan Sultan at Columbia University, who wasn't involved in the new research.

The new study used data from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Researchers in Montreal, Canada, have been following more than 1,500 kids since birth into young adulthood to understand the factors that influence their development and their health. Among the various aspects of the kids' lives and habits scientists have recorded is cannabis use between ages 12 and 17.

The researchers found that a majority of teens — 60% — didn't use cannabis in adolescence. Among the remaining 40%, half started using cannabis in their late teens and by the time they turned 17, they used the drug infrequently — less than once a month. The remaining 20% started using marijuana before they turned 15, and by age 17, they were using it at least once a month.

This last group was more likely to seek health care in young adulthood for both mental and physical health conditions compared to those who didn't use the drug as young teens.

"The risk is concentrated among those who start early and use frequently," says psychologist and the study's main author Massimiliano Orri at McGill University.

Early, frequent cannabis users had a 51% higher chance of seeking care for mental health problems in young adulthood compared to those who didn't use the drug. And that risk was calculated after controlling for a range of confounding factors that are known to influence health, like bullying or lack of parental involvement.

Similarly, early and frequent users of cannabis had an 86% higher chance of needing care for physical health needs.

"We have some indication that respiratory problems were most frequently reported and also accidents and unintentional injuries," says Orri.

These physical health problems may have to do with intoxication from cannabis, but could also be due to withdrawal symptoms, write Orri and his colleagues in the paper.

"That certainly makes sense," says psychologist Krista Lisdahl at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, who also studies teenage brain development and health, but wasn't involved in the new research. "It's alarming and something that we really need to be tracking more closely here in the United States as well."

A major strength of the study is that Orri and his colleagues controlled for so many confounding factors, adds Lisdahl.

"There are a lot of factors that are co-linked with physical health as well as mental health," says Lisdahl. And the new study controlled for many of them, including "family, parental conflict and parenting style, as well as parental monitoring of the teens." They also looked at factors at the individual level like social skills, peer relationships and whether a kid was victimized by peers.

Prior studies have also found a link between teen cannabis use and a higher risk of developing mental health symptoms.

Sultan's recent research found a two to four times higher likelihood of developing psychiatric disorders for teens who used cannabis recreationally compared to adolescents who don't use the drug at all. Other studies have suggested a link between early cannabis use and psychosis in youth. He and his colleagues also found a higher risk of other impacts like poorer grades and truancy.

"The adolescent brain is continuing to develop in a very dynamic fashion during the adolescent period and all the way into young adulthood," says Lisdahl. "Using something like cannabis regularly during this period might disrupt that healthy neural development, especially in areas of the brain that are related to executive functioning, which is like problem-solving, planning, maybe controlling other kinds of behaviors and impulses, but also emotion regulation," she says.

Take for example, a teen who's prone to anxiety who turns to cannabis to feel less anxious, says Sultan. "If you start to do that on a regular basis, this is now your method for managing your anxiety," he says. "This becomes your coping skill and you become atrophied in any ability to manage it in another way."

The same thing can happen for someone who uses cannabis to manage their mood, he adds.

So, for someone who's already predisposed to some mental health symptoms, starting cannabis use in adolescence can make it more likely those symptoms will worsen over time into mental health disorders.

For all these reasons, Sultan — a child and adolescent psychiatrist — says he often talks to teens and parents about delaying using cannabis until they are 25, to minimize the risks of health and behavioral issues later on in life.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5589224

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YOUR HEALTH | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 6:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

An Alzheimer's pill appears to protect some in a high-risk population

By Jon Hamilton

Heard on All Things Considered

In April, the future was looking bleak for an experimental Alzheimer's drug called valiltramiprosate, or ALZ-801.

Researchers had just released topline results of a study of more than 300 people age 50 or older, who were genetically predisposed to Alzheimer's. Overall, those who got the drug did no better than those given a placebo.

But in September, a closer look at the results revealed benefits for a subgroup of 125 people who had only mild memory problems when they started taking the drug.

Those participants, initially diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment rather than mild dementia, "showed very meaningful responses," says Dr. Susan Abushakra, chief medical officer of Alzheon, the drug's maker.

By one measure, the drug slowed cognitive decline by 52% in people with mild cognitive impairment. That result appears comparable with benefits from the two Alzheimer's drugs now on the market: lecanemab and donabemab.

But the true effect of ALZ-801 is hard to quantify because of the relatively small number of participants in the group with mild cognitive impairment.

More robust results came from measures of brain atrophy — the shrinkage that tends to come with Alzheimer's.

In the hippocampus, for example, participants who got ALZ-801 experienced about 18% less atrophy than those who got a placebo.

That's an important difference, Abushakra says, because the hippocampus is critical to memory and thinking.

The findings were published in the journal Drugs. The study was supported by a $47 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

A drug that's different

Ordinarily, results like that would probably fall short of the evidence required for approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

But ALZ-801 may get special consideration because it has potential advantages over the two drugs already on the market.

Those drugs are both monoclonal antibodies given by intravenous infusions. That adds to the cost and requires patients to make multiple trips to an infusion center.

ALZ-801 is a twice-daily pill that can be taken at home.

Also, the monoclonal antibodies work primarily by breaking down sticky amyloid plaques. These plaques form after fragments of a misfolded protein called beta-amyloid begin to clump together.

Alzheon's product is meant to keep plaques from forming in the first place, by preventing amyloid proteins from clumping at all.

As a result, ALZ-801 doesn't cause the swelling or bleeding in the brain that often comes with monoclonal antibody treatment.

A safer treatment for a high-risk group

The availability of a safer drug like ALZ-801 could be a boon to people who carry two copies of a gene called APOE4.

Their genetic status means they have about 10 times the usual risk of developing Alzheimer's. As a result, even though APOE4/4 carriers make up only about 2% of the population, they represent about 15% of all people diagnosed with the disease.

Unfortunately, people with APOE4 genes are not only more vulnerable to Alzheimer's, they are also more likely to experience side effects from treatment with monoclonal antibodies.

"These individuals are at higher risk for inflammation in the brain that can be quite serious," says Jessica Langbaum, an Alzheimer's researcher at Banner Health in Phoenix.

Even so, Langbaum thinks people with the APOE4/4 genes can be treated safely with the current monoclonal antibodies. That could mean starting with a lower dose, she says, or beginning treatment earlier in the disease, when fewer amyloid plaques are present.

But David Watson, a scientist who carries two copies of the APOE4 gene, thinks people like him need a safer drug.

Watson, a co-author of the new study, also notes that ALZ may have benefits beyond those seen with monoclonal antibodies. For example, he says, the experimental drug appears better at reducing levels of a protein fragment associated with brain cell death.

"We're really making a difference in keeping neurons alive," he says.

More evidence of the drug's effectiveness is coming from people who have kept taking ALZ-801 after the initial 18-month study period ended, Watson says.

Despite carrying genes that usually lead to a swift decline, he says, "many of them are holding their own" in their 60s and 70s.

Transcript

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Six months ago, the future was looking bleak for an Alzheimer's drug called ALZ-801. Now, a new study suggests the drug could help some people whose genes put them at high risk for Alzheimer's. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports.

JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: In April, the biotech company Alzheon announced that its drug ALZ-801 had come up short. A large trial of people genetically predisposed to Alzheimer's found that overall, those who got the drug did no better than those who got a placebo. But Dr. Susan Abushakra of Alzheon says a closer look showed that one group did benefit.

SUSAN ABUSHAKRA: The group that's at the early stages of mild cognitive impairment - MCI - where most of what they had was memory problems actually showed very meaningful responses on cognition and on function and on brain volume.

HAMILTON: The findings were published in the journal Drugs, and Abushakra says they showed that on some measures, ALZ-801 slowed down Alzheimer's as much as the two existing drugs.

ABUSHAKRA: The cognitive tests that are memory and calculation and language, that showed slowing of the decline by 52% compared to the placebo arm.

HAMILTON: She says the drug also kept brain areas, including the hippocampus, from shrinking as much.

ABUSHAKRA: And that's really important because of course the neurons in the hippocampus is what serves our memory - what gives us memory and good cognition.

HAMILTON: The results are open to interpretation because they excluded participants with more severe symptoms. But ALZ-801 may get special consideration because it's unlike the two existing drugs. Those drugs, lecanemab and donanemab are monoclonal antibodies given by intravenous infusions. ALZ-801 is a pill. Also, the monoclonal antibodies work by breaking down sticky amyloid plaques. Abushakra says Alzheon's product keeps the plaques from forming in the first place.

ABUSHAKRA: With our drug, we actually target amyloid at a very early stage. We target the clumping or aggregation of the amyloid.

HAMILTON: As a result, ALZ-801 doesn't cause the swelling or bleeding in the brain that often comes with monoclonal antibody treatment, and that's critical for people who carry two copies of a gene called APOE4. Their genetic status means they have at least 10 times the usual risk of developing Alzheimer's. And Jessica Langbaum of Banner Health in Phoenix says they're also more likely to experience side effects from existing drugs.

JESSICA LANGBAUM: These individuals are at higher risk for some adverse events - inflammation in the brain, if you will - and that can be quite serious.

HAMILTON: Even fatal. So Langbaum says doctors are often reluctant to give lecanemab or donanemab to these people who make up about 15% of all Alzheimer's patients.

LANGBAUM: There's quite a lot of discussion going on in the field, and clinicians vary whether they will want to prescribe one of these new treatments to people with two copies of the APOE4 gene.

HAMILTON: Langbaum isn't sure that people with the APOE4 gene need a different drug. But the idea appeals to David Watson, a scientist who carries two copies of the APOE4 gene. Watson, who runs the Alzheimer's Research and Treatment Center in Florida, is a co-author of the new study. He notes that the drug reduced levels of a protein fragment associated with brain cell death.

DAVID WATSON: We're really making a difference in keeping neurons alive. We're actually seeing changes that we typically don't see in the monoclonal antibody studies.

HAMILTON: More evidence of the drug's effectiveness is coming from people who kept taking ALZ-801 after the initial 18-month study period ended. Because they carry two copies of the APOE4 gene, scientists expected them to decline more quickly than other Alzheimer's patients. But Watson says for at least some participants, that hasn't happened.

WATSON: Functionally, these individuals didn't deteriorate, and many of them are on an extension phase now well past the 18 months and kind of holding their own.

HAMILTON: Alzheon says it's working with the Food and Drug Administration to assess this new information.

Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5575561

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POPULATION SHIFT | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Schools close and island life is under threat as Greece reckons with low birth rates

By Sarah McCammon, Ayman Oghanna

Families in the U.S. and around the world are having fewer children as people make profoundly different decisions about their lives. NPR's series Population Shift: How Smaller Families Are Changing the World explores the causes and implications of this trend.

The school day is just getting started, and 4-year-old Vasiliki Vourgou, a little girl with dark eyes and hair pulled back in a shiny ponytail with a hot pink scrunchie, is alone.

Most days, there are two pupils in this small classroom on the Greek island of Lemnos, with big windows and a view of the school's front courtyard. But one student is sick, so today it's just Vasiliki, going through the morning routine with her teacher.

The sky is gray, but Vasiliki's teacher says when the weather is nice, she tries to get the girls outside to interact with the older children during their breaks.

"They wait for the kids from the primary school to get out and they join them also, so they can be more social," the teacher, Maria Kokkinopliti, said through an interpreter.

Lemnos, in the northern Aegean, is home to roughly 16,000 people spread across a few dozen small villages. Vasiliki's school, in the small village of Thanos, is one of many in Greece that's facing declining student numbers, as younger people move away and those who stay have fewer children.

Vasiliki's father, Stelios Vourgos, works long hours as a shepherd, but he can't imagine raising Vasiliki and her baby brother anywhere else.

"Here, I fell in love with my wife; here is my job," Vourgos said through an interpreter. "For the kids, it's a paradise to be raised on an island, because big cities are like a jungle."

But the way of life here faces increasing challenges. The primary school in the village where his wife grew up was shuttered decades ago, he said.

He attended the same school in Thanos where Vasiliki is now a student, as did his father. But now he worries it will be shut down. Without a thriving school, he said, there won't be much left here.

"There's a chain reaction after [a school closes], so people move into different places, and then just the old people are left there, and you see villages disappearing," Vourgos said.

Across most of the world, people are having far fewer children than their parents and grandparents did. Greece's birthrate is about 1.3 births per woman — well below the 2.1 level needed to maintain the population.

The low birthrate is especially visible in rural communities like Thanos and on Greek islands like Lemnos, where hundreds of schools are cutting programs or closing. Nationwide, Greece's education ministry announced more than 700 schools would close this year alone, or about 5% of the nation's schools.

"The island's infrastructure and available services are also affected, plus limited employment opportunities," Konstantinos Maditinos, president of the primary education teachers association on Lemnos, said. "This means young couples have little incentive to stay on the island and leave, even if they are originally from here."

For those who stay, health care services can be limited. Vourgos said he and his wife spent thousands of euros to travel for medical care for each of her two pregnancies.

The island's small public hospital has no neonatal ICU services, so many pregnant women make that choice, said Dr. Olga Katira. She has been working as a pediatrician on Lemnos for more than a decade. Katira said she's noticed the birth rate shift in her own office.

"We used to have six, seven newborns per month, and now we have three," she said. "That is a decline that we can see."

While the problem is more pronounced in Greece's small towns and island communities, Katira worries about the future of the country as a whole.

"We are a small country. If it continues declining, it will be very, very difficult," she said.

As families have had fewer children or left the island, the population of Lemnos has plummeted by more than a third since the early 1950s, from a peak of more than 27,000 people to about 16,000 in the most recent census.

The mayor of Lemnos, Eleonora Georga, said shuttered schools around the island are one of the most obvious signs of the decline.

Switching back and forth between English and Greek, Georga said the overall population here is getting smaller — and older.

"It's the contemporary lifestyle of the people nowadays. They're not choosing to create families anymore," she said through an interpreter.

In September, the Greek government announced new tax incentives designed to address the birth rate decline. Georga said she also would like the European Union to intervene.

Asked if she thinks more immigration to Greek islands like Lemnos could also be a solution, she hesitated.

"It depends on who," she said.

In recent years, Greece has seen a sharp increase in the number of migrants traveling from eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East — as Europe has seen waves of anti-immigrant protests.

Georga said she'd rather see Greeks who've left the country move back.

Those worries are shared by Angelos Vlapas, the principal of another local primary school on Lemnos, who said he's concerned about what immigration means for Greek identity.

"We're not criticizing the people who came here to make a living," Vlapas said through an interpreter. "On the contrary, those who have remained … have become valuable members of the local community."

"However, that doesn't change the fact that they belong to a different nationality."

Alexandra Tragaki, a professor of economic demography at Harokopio University of Athens, said modern women are having fewer children, in part because they've taken on responsibilities in the workplace without having traditional, domestic responsibilities proportionately reduced.

"Women changed roles, but no one else did," Tragaki said. "Neither the society, nor men, so part of the roles that used to be covered by women were left uncovered. And when that happens, obviously it's the size of the family that is affected. … So obviously, when you have both things to do, parenting and working, what you cut down is the number of children you parent."

Tragaki said many young Greeks — who grew up at a time when the country was struggling under a catastrophic economic downturn — worry about their own future.

"They have been brought up in consecutive crises," Tragaki said. "They were born in crisis. They were brought up in financial crisis, in energy crisis, in pandemic crisis. So what they have learned is that they need to expect the unexpected."

The idea that the culture around family life is shifting in a profound way also resonates with longtime residents of another smaller island, Fourni. The island, nearly 200 miles southeast of Lemnos across the Aegean Sea, is home to roughly a thousand people, depending on the time of year.

On a sunny, clear morning, a group of elderly men sit outside a small local market under the flawless blue sky.

Parthenios Flytzanis, 92, and Nikolaos Amorgianos, 86, are reminiscing about the past and, through an interpreter, say they worry about the country's future.

"In 10 years, Greece will be a country of old people," Amorgianos said.

Amorgianos believes younger generations are choosing to have fewer children because their values have changed.

"Now the young people, they only care about the bars, about going out, and they've abandoned the mountains, they've abandoned the countryside," he said.

Flytzanis agreed. He believes women in particular have changed.

"Women back then had five, six, seven children," he said. "And they still took care of the goats, and the garden."

"The chickens," Amorgianos added.

Amorgianos remembers his mother making her own bread, but now he believes younger people want everything to be convenient.

"So yes, life has become easier, and people have gotten lazier," he said.

Women today have more choices, but for those who choose to raise children on a remote island, that choice comes with its own difficulties.

Katerina Vrana lives on an even smaller island neighboring Fourni, Thymaina, with her husband and their three children. Through an interpreter, Vrana says she and her husband were both born and raised on the island. He's a fisherman, and she owns a restaurant.

For her first two pregnancies, Vrana said she paid thousands of euros to travel off the island to see doctors and deliver her babies. She wanted another child, she said, but hesitated because of the cost.

Then, she found out about HOPEgenesis, an Athens-based nonprofit that pays for medical care and transportation for pregnant women from small islands and villages. It's funded largely with corporate and philanthropic support. Vrana said the program allowed her to make her "dream" of a third child "reality."

HOPEgenesis started by working with women in Fourni a decade ago and has since expanded services to some 500 small villages and island communities in an effort to help reverse the declining birthrate.

"When they felt secure, when they felt they had financial support, women started having babies again," project manager with HOPEgenesis Eva Papadaki said.

But even with that financial help to have children, raising them on small islands is challenging. The primary school on Thymaina is down to just two grade-school students. There's no school for Vrana's two older children, who travel to Fourni for secondary school by ferry.

This year, Vrana said her youngest son would have been the only child in Thymaina's kindergarten, so she's decided to send him by boat to Fourni, to the kindergarten that serves all of that island's children, so he won't be alone.

Many days, Vrana and her son ride the ferry to Fourni for school, along with his older siblings and a few others. One of the secondary students, 16-year-old Georgia Gramatikou, said sometimes in the winter the weather is too dangerous for her and her twin brother to make the crossing and go to school.

While Georgia enjoys her island home, she doesn't think she'll stay here.

"It's very nice here, and it's peaceful, but I don't see myself living here in the future because there aren't many opportunities," she said through an interpreter.

People are slowly leaving the island, she said, and the shops are closing.

Back on Fourni, Dimitris Markakis, a local business owner and city official, says family life has always been important in Greece, but it was once seen as essential. Many families were poor, he says, but they saw having children as a source of happiness, "as the meaning of the life."

Markakis is in his mid-40s, with two children. He left the island to study abroad before returning to start his family.

He thinks the stresses of modern life are one reason people are having fewer children.

Still, Markakis said, his people are strong, and he is hopeful.

"Greek people are very hard, and they always face problems with responsibility," he says. "I am optimistic."

Kleitia Kokalari and NPR's Brian Mann contributed to this story.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5536843

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Science

- Why an interstellar comet has scientists excited: 2025 Oct 30

- This week's Short Wave news roundup: 2025 Oct 30

- Scientists thought this fossil was a teen T. rex. Turns out it's a new tyrannosaur: 2025 Oct 30

SPACE | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 5:40 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Why an interstellar comet has scientists excited

By Jaclyn Diaz

An ancient comet that entered our solar system this summer is offering a rare opportunity to learn more about distant planetary systems far beyond the reach of any spacecraft, researchers say.

The comet is special both because it is interstellar — meaning it came from outside our solar system — and also because nickel vapor was detected in the gas surrounding the comet.

This comet, called 3I/ATLAS, is only the third such interstellar object to enter our solar system in recorded history. Observing such a rare occurrence is "extremely valuable for us," because it's the only opportunity to look at this object before it moves out of our solar system, said Darryl Z. Seligman, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University, who is coordinating international teams of scientists that are observing 3I/ATLAS.

Rohan Rahatgaonkar, a Ph.D. student at the Instituto de Astrofísica-Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and Thomas Puzia, who led the team there that made the discovery, were among the authors of a new research paper describing the nickel vapor detection.

The findings are notable because the nickel gas surrounding 3I/ATLAS was detected at a huge distance from the sun (nearly four times Earth's distance from the sun) where temperatures are too cold for metals to normally vaporize, Rahatgaonkar told NPR in an interview.

"It was pretty clear that it was nickel," Puzia said of the data. "So it was super, super exciting."

Puzia cautions that there's still a lot of evidence collection and research to be done into what these findings could mean. But this study into 3I/ATLAS opens the door for new insights into the chemistry of objects and materials that originate far outside of our solar system and are likely billions of years old, he said.

The comet could be older than our solar system

3I/ATLAS was first confirmed on July 1 to be the third interstellar object known to have come into our solar system, in a sky survey by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).

When Rahatgaonkar and another student, Baltasar Luco, were set to observe the comet through the Southern Astrophysical Research (or SOAR) Telescope in Chile, they were not looking for nickel vapors.

But over multiple days of observations with the Very Large Telescope in Chile and as 3I/ATLAS continued its journey closer to the sun, Rahatgaonkar and other researchers found that levels of nickel vapor continued to increase.

They measured the nickel using a host of instruments including a spectrograph and by looking at characteristics of the light coming off the comet.

Rahatgaonkar and Puzia also credit a team of researchers around the world, using telescopes and other instruments, for helping to observe and analyze data on the comet.

The analysis of this object is far from over. As it continues its journey close to the sun, it will undergo thermodynamic changes which will cause reactions that could, hopefully, give scientists more clues about where 3I/ATLAS was formed, how it evolved, what it carries and many more potential answers, Puzia said.

This particular interstellar comet "could be maybe older than our solar system," Rahatgaonkar said. The chemical signatures being emitted from 3I/ATLAS "reflect the ancient origin and its long journey through interstellar space."

Rahatgaonkar, Puzia and Seligman emphasized how valuable interstellar objects are to understanding star systems outside of our own solar system. They offer chemical and physical details from those systems and where they formed, potentially billions of years ago.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5591378

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SCIENCE | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 4:16 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

This week's Short Wave news roundup

By Emily Kwong, Regina G. Barber, Ailsa Chang

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

It's time now for our science news roundup from Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. I'm joined by the show's two hosts, Regina Barber and Emily Kwong. Hey to both of you.

REGINA BARBER, BYLINE: Hey.

EMILY KWONG, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.

CHANG: Hey. OK, so you have brought us three science stories, as you always do - stories that caught your attention this week. What are they?

KWONG: We have for you how spiders add decorations to their webs.

CHANG: Ooh.

BARBER: Plus, why more pixels on your HDTV might not make a difference.

KWONG: And how different kinds of stories change your brain.

CHANG: Ooh. OK, let's take spider webs first, just in time for Halloween.

KWONG: Yes, I want to talk about orb webs. That's the spider web that looks like a wheel with concentric circles of silk on the spokes.

CHANG: Yes...

KWONG: Yeah...

CHANG: ...I've seen these. They're so beautiful.

KWONG: ...They're so pretty, yeah. And sometimes orb webs have these additional bits of silk called stabilimenta - stabilimenta - which look like a zigzag of threads or a flattened disc decoration.

CHANG: Oh, I think I have seen these right before I've walked into a spider web with my face.

(LAUGHTER)

CHANG: Why are spiders decorating like that?

BARBER: Yeah, no one knows for sure. The stabilimenta do reflect a wide range of light, so there's an idea that they might help attract prey or deter predators, but it's a big debate among silk scientists.

GABRIELE GRECO: Discussing about stabilimenta for silk scientists is like picking up an easy fight.

CHANG: Even that word stabilimenta sounds so beautiful.

(LAUGHTER)

KWONG: This is Gabriele Greco. He wanted to throw another idea into the debate ring. He's a physicist and lead author of a new paper in the journal PLOS One, and he wondered if the stabilimenta actually help spiders locate their prey.

CHANG: I mean, that would be ingenious. Why would they need help, though?

KWONG: Well, spiders, many of them have low vision. They can't look across the web and see their prey. Instead, they rely on the web's vibrations to sense dinner.

BARBER: So when a fly hits the web, the impact sends out waves in all directions, like a string of a guitar being strummed, and that lets the spider know where their dinner has landed. And Gabriele wanted to know if the decorations helped in any way with wave propagation.

CHANG: That is fascinating. And how did he go about testing that?

BARBER: His team ran simulations - like, modeled web vibrations with a computer - and found that when vibrations moved perpendicular to the spokes of the simulated web, the stabilimenta didn't make a difference, but when the vibrations move parallel to the spiral threads of the web, the decorations did help. So the presence of the stabilimenta allowed the wave to travel farther.

CHANG: So they finally settled the debate.

KWONG: No, they actually complicated the debate. Gabriele recognizes his study has limits. It's just a simulation, and real webs are much more complex. Outside researchers, including Shichang Zhang, an ecologist at Hubei University, noted the study lacks behavioral data from real spiders. So to figure out if there's some kind of mechanical purpose for the stabilimenta, Gabriele plans to do more research, both in the lab and in the field.

CHANG: So cool. OK, next up - tell me about the study about pixels on my TV.

BARBER: Yeah. So a team from the University of...

CHANG: Did I buy the wrong TV?

BARBER: We'll get there. Don't worry.

CHANG: (Laughter).

BARBER: So a team from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. decided to ask the question, like, how many pixels on your high-definition TV, or really any display, is too many? So pixels being that smallest unit of a digital image, that tiny colorful square.

CHANG: Yeah.

KWONG: So researchers had 18 people look at images on an adjustable display to see if they could distinguish between different resolutions or a level of detail. And what they determined is that there is a limit.

CHANG: A limit? Wait, what does that mean? Like, are certain fancy TVs with a ton of pixels just not worth it?

BARBER: So it depends. So keep in mind, there are so many factors that matter here. So we talked to Maliha Ashraf about it, and she's a human vision researcher and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

MALIHA ASHRAF: The number of pixels by itself doesn't mean a lot, but rather, when you put it into context with the viewing distance and also how large the screen is. So what matters is pixel density.

KWONG: Pixel density...

CHANG: Yeah.

KWONG: ...That's pixels per square inch. So a 4K TV has 4,000 pixels in a line across the screen. But screens come in different sizes.

CHANG: Yeah.

KWONG: Four thousand pixels could be packed into a 55-inch TV or a 70-inch TV, and that will affect your viewing experience. So, Ailsa, like, say your dad just bought a new 80-inch TV that is 8K - that's 8,000 pixels across the screen - but he watches it from 10 feet away in a big room.

CHANG: (Laughter).

KWONG: That means he paid too much. He does not need something that powerful.

CHANG: My dad never wants to pay too much for anything, so he would be mad at this.

(LAUGHTER)

CHANG: I wonder if my TV, though, at my house in Los Angeles has too many pixels for me to notice.

BARBER: Yeah, so this is what I was worried about. I just bought a 65-inch TV, and it's the most I've ever spent on a TV. And I was dying to know, did I waste money? I brought it up to Maliha and Rafal Mantiuk, one of the other co-authors. They ran my TV specs through their calculator. I sit about 7 feet away.

RAFAL MANTIUK: I would say that you are exactly where you should be in terms of viewing distance. I think that was, you know, the perfect fit for your, you know, viewing environment.

KWONG: Nice.

BARBER: Validated.

CHANG: (Impersonating French accent) Perfection.

KWONG: Good job, Gina. So lesson here - don't just buy a super-megapixel TV because it's the newest model or highest resolution yet. Talk to the people at the store. Tell them the viewing distance in your TV room and buy something that actually fits your needs.

CHANG: Yeah.

BARBER: And, Ailsa, if you're wondering, like, why computer scientists are so interested in TVs, we should note that this study was funded by Meta because those sorts of insights are also, like, really important for people who make, like, VR goggles, 3D images, this new generation of technology for our eyes.

CHANG: Yeah. OK, well, for our third topic - storytelling and the brain. I feel like NPR would be very interested in this. Gina?

BARBER: Yeah, so there's a new study out this month in the Journal of Neuroscience that suggests the way a story is told changes how the memory of that story forms in the human brain.

CHANG: OK, so explain this a little bit to me. You're saying that different versions of the same story might activate my brain in different ways?

KWONG: Yes, exactly. And to figure that out, researchers put participants in MRI machines and told them stories while looking at their brains. So all the participants heard a story about going out to eat with a line that read...

CHARLES FERRIS: Once I was ready to go, I took an Uber to meet my friend at the restaurant.

BARBER: That's Charles Ferris, a cognitive neuroscientist and one of the study authors. And he says, from there, researchers changed the details. In some cases, they also told the stories with extra sensory details like...

FERRIS: I noticed a scuff mark on my blue shoes as I walked down my staircase towards the front door.

BARBER: Yeah, you can almost picture the story, right?

KWONG: Yeah.

CHANG: Yeah.

BARBER: Like, hearing those details.

KWONG: Right.

BARBER: And with this version of the story, researchers saw more connections between the hippocampus - that's an area important for memory - and the area of the brain related to sensory integration and language processing.

CHANG: OK, so that was the first version of the story. What was the second version?

KWONG: The second version had more conceptual details instead, so like how the person was thinking or what they felt.

FERRIS: I wanted to take my time getting ready because it was important to me to look nice for my friend.

KWONG: So these details are more related to the emotional context, right? And in this telling of the story, researchers then saw more connections between the hippocampus and areas of the brain related to emotion and conceptual processing.

CHANG: And what does it mean if memories are forming in different areas of the brain?

BARBER: So we asked Charan Ranganath, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis. And he didn't work on this paper, but he does study memory. And he says the study offers two big takeaways - first, how interconnected the human brain actually is.

CHARAN RANGANATH: The standard narrative in neuroscience has always been focused on single brain areas, when something that these authors are showing is that, in fact, memory is this kind of richly orchestrated set of interactions across these brain regions.

KWONG: And secondly, he says this study emphasized that even if the key details of a story are the same, different ways of presenting that information could change the way a person processes it and possibly remembers it.

CHANG: Yeah. OK, note to self, storytellers. That's Emily Kwong and Regina Barber from NPR's science podcast Short Wave. Subscribe now for new discoveries, everyday mysteries and the science behind the headlines. Thank you to both of you.

KWONG: Thank you so much, Ailsa.

BARBER: Thank you, Ailsa.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5587737

SCIENCE | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 1:04 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Scientists thought this fossil was a teen T. rex. Turns out it's a new tyrannosaur

By Ari Daniel

Heard on All Things Considered

It's known as the "Dueling Dinosaurs" fossil: A triceratops and a tyrannosaur, skeletons entangled, locked in apparent combat right up until the moment of their mutual demise.

Even in the Hell Creek Formation in eastern Montana, a spot known for great finds, this specimen was, in a word, "fantabulous," says Clayton Phipps, a self-described rancher, cowboy and dinosaur hunter.

That discovery in 2006 now appears to have overturned decades of dinosaur dogma about Tyrannosaurus rex, the fearsome giant long thought to be the sole top predator stalking the late Cretaceous. In a paper in the journal Nature, paleontologists Lindsay Zanno and James Napoli conclude that some of the bones from that specimen belong not to a teenage T. rex, but to a fully grown individual of a different tyrannosaur species — Nanotyrannus lancensis.

The majority of paleontologists, after some debate, had dismissed the idea that any other tyrannosaurs existed besides T. rex. And yet, the sands of Montana seem to have disgorged a second one. In a broader analysis of other fossils, the two researchers also uncovered what they say is a third tyrannosaur species, formerly presumed to be a juvenile T. rex.

"We knew the specimen was exceptional," says Zanno. "We did not realize it would turn decades of research about T. rex on its head."

"Just insanely good"

The Montana dig began on a breezy summer day when Phipps' friend, Mark Eatman, found an exposed pelvis and femur at the bottom of a canyon. Phipps thought maybe there was half a dinosaur hidden below.

But after two weeks of digging, Phipps and his older cousin revealed that those bones belonged to a stunning triceratops.

"It was crazier than any site I've ever done before or since because every bone is in place," he says. "The skeleton was just all together — just insanely good."

Then, while excavating the light yellow sand from around the specimen, Phipps spotted something the color of chocolate. It was a claw.

But triceratops didn't have claws.

"I'm like, 'What?' I start brushing and all of a sudden this arm starts to appear and part of the leg," he recalls. "Oh man, my hat went in the air about 200 feet. I was like, 'No way — there's another dinosaur in here.'"

This was a bipedal, carnivorous dinosaur, entwined with the triceratops. "Just laying like they died," says Phipps.

The scientific consensus pegged this second dinosaur as a teenage Tyrannosaurus rex — a conclusion that would soon be overturned.

Teenage angst

A few years ago, the nonprofit Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences acquired the fossils and rock they were encased in (some 30,000 pounds) from Phipps and donated them to the museum. "They were a Christmas present waiting to be unwrapped," he says.

Zanno, who is head of paleontology at the museum, was thrilled. "It's one of the most incredible specimens from the late Cretaceous in North America I've ever seen," she says.

She and the museum built an entire wing around the dueling dinosaurs to house a live-action research experience. "It's the only place in the world where you get to enter the working paleo-lab without a barrier and talk to the scientific team that's working on the fossils," says Zanno.

When that work began, Zanno also figured the carnivorous dinosaur was the world's most complete juvenile T. rex ever found. "But as soon as we started actually studying this specimen, we realized there were a lot of red flags," she says.

For context, paleontologists had previously debated whether small-bodied tyrannosaurs were teenage T. rexes or a different species altogether. The existence of a two-legged tyrannosaur species that lived alongside T. rex was proposed back in the 1940s, but had long since fallen out of favor.

The consensus converged on juvenile T. rex, "meaning it would have been the only major predator in end-Cretaceous ecosystems right before the asteroid impact," says Zanno. Most researchers believed that T. rex — which could be 12 feet high, 40 feet long and weigh around 15,000 pounds — had outcompeted all other meat-eating dinosaurs.

The completeness of the new skeleton provided Zanno with the ideal specimen to test these long-standing conclusions.

"This is such a controversial topic," she says. "And we don't want to write another paper that just stirs the pot. We want to write the paper that ends the debate."

The dueling dinosaurs settle a duel

One of the first of those red flags in the new specimen was the arm bones. They looked completely different than T. rex's puny appendages.

"We never had a complete arm of this animal," says Zanno. "These are powerful arms with large claws, large hands. They were using them for prey capture." Contrast that with T. rex, "an animal that's a mouth on legs."

There were additional clues. The animal had fewer tail vertebrae and more teeth than T. rex. Zanno and Napoli considered other lines of evidence. They created 3D models of numerous purported T. rexes against which they compared their specimen. They looked at the growth stages of the cranial nerves and sinuses of close living relatives of dinosaurs, features that were visible in the fossilized skeleton.

"But maybe the most important and damning thing that we did was we were able to figure out that our animal is not a juvenile at all," she says. This conclusion was based on slicing through the fossil's limb bones to examine the growth rings. That work demonstrated that this animal was mature and done growing when it died around the age of 20.

"That means it's half the size and a tenth of the mass of a full grown Tyrannosaurus rex," says Zanno.

All of the results point to one conclusion, according to Zanno and Napoli. This was no teen T. rex. This was a fully grown Nanotyrannus lancensis — the same species first identified in the 1940s and later largely dismissed by the paleontological community.

It was "a small, slender pursuit predator that could run under the legs of a T. rex," explains Zanno.

In addition, while making models of all those other alleged T. rex skeletons, Zanno says they identified another new species of tyrannosaur, one they're calling Nanotyrannus lethaeus. "The name comes from Greco-Roman mythology for the [Lethe] River where souls used to drink and forget their prior lives and be reincarnated," she says. "That's a reference to this animal having been under our nose and not recognized for what it was."

For years, most researchers believed there was just one tyrannosaur — rex. But now the king has been de-throned. There were at least two other tyrannosaurs holding court.

"It tells us that these end-Cretaceous ecosystems right before the asteroid hit were flourishing," says Zanno. "They had an abundance of different predators. And refutes this idea that dinosaurs were in decline before the asteroid struck."

Loving being wrong

Thomas Holtz, a paleontologist at the University of Maryland who wasn't involved in the research, welcomes the broader picture of tyrannosaur diversity proposed by the new study. "I always said with sufficient evidence, I'd be happy to embrace it," he says. "And now I can because there's sufficient evidence. I think they've made a very strong case."

Though, he adds, "We'll see if it lasts. As I like to point out, taxonomy is not permanent," referring to the study of how organisms are classified (and, sometimes, re-classified).

Holtz argues that one consequence of the study is that paleontologists no longer know what a juvenile T. rex looked like — because previously assumed "teenagers" were likely Nanotyrannus. That's an arena of future research and discovery, along with fleshing out the varied biologies and behaviors of this growing group of tyrannosaurs.

Zanno agrees that there remains much to understand. She believes there's likely to be additional dinosaur species that have been hidden in plain sight in museums and collections across the world.

"This is why I love science," says Zanno. "I have the only job in the world where my job is to second-guess myself every day and everything I think I know."

"When it comes to shedding doubt on research on Earth's most famous dinosaur," she says, referring to T. rex, "that's an intimidating endeavor. But this is how we grow as a profession and how we grow as scientists."

Zanno believes this study will pave the way for paleontologists to look for more complex patterns in this and other prehistoric ecosystems.

"From here forward," Zanno adds, "what I'm most thrilled about is how much we stand to learn by recognizing that we got it wrong the first time."

Transcript

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Think of Tyrannosaurus rex, a fearsome dinosaur and the top predator stalking the late Cretaceous. Well, a new discovery suggests T. rex likely shared its dominion with another tyrannosaur species. The king had company. Here's science reporter Ari Daniel.

ARI DANIEL, BYLINE: We start with Clayton Phipps...

CLAYTON PHIPPS: I'm a rancher and a cowboy and a dinosaur hunter.

DANIEL: ...Whose friend had found an exposed pelvis and femur at the bottom of a canyon in eastern Montana. The bones belong to a stunning triceratops. Then after excavating for about two weeks, there in the dug-up sand, Phipps spotted something the color of chocolate - a claw. But triceratops didn't have claws.

PHIPPS: I'm like, what? I start brushing, and all of a sudden this arm starts to appear and part of the leg. Oh, man, my hat went in the air about 200 feet (laughter) 'cause I was like, no way. There's another dinosaur in here.

DANIEL: This was a bipedal, carnivorous tyrannosaur entwined with the triceratops.

PHIPPS: Just laying like they died.

DANIEL: Phipps sold the fossils to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, where Lindsay Zanno is head of paleontology.

LINDSAY ZANNO: It's one of the most incredible specimens from the late Cretaceous in North America I've ever seen.

DANIEL: Zanno and the museum built an entire wing around the dueling dinosaurs to house a live-action research experience.

ZANNO: It's the only place in the world where you get to enter the working paleo lab and talk to the scientific team.

DANIEL: Like many of her colleagues, Zanno started out thinking the carnivorous dinosaur was a juvenile T. rex, perhaps the most complete teenage tyrannosaur ever found.

ZANNO: But as soon as we started actually studying this specimen, we realized there were a lot of red flags.

DANIEL: One red flag was the arm bones, which were unlike T. rex's puny appendages.

ZANNO: These are powerful arms with large claws, large hands.

DANIEL: The animal had fewer tail vertebrae than T. rex and more teeth.

ZANNO: But maybe the most damning thing that we did was we were able to figure out that our animal is not a juvenile at all.

DANIEL: By slicing through the limb bones to examine the growth rings, Zanno and her colleagues found this animal was done growing when it died. It all pointed to one conclusion, she says. This was no teen T. rex. This was a different tyrannosaur species whose existence was long dismissed by most paleontologists. This was a fully grown Nanotyrannus lancensis.

ZANNO: A small, slender pursuit predator that could run under the legs of a T. rex. This is an animal that's using its arms to hunt prey. Tyrannosaurus rex is an animal that's a mouth on legs.

DANIEL: For years, most researchers believe there was just one tyrannosaur, rex. This work dethrones the king. There were other tyrannosaurs holding court.

ZANNO: It tells us that these end Cretaceous ecosystems were flourishing before the asteroid struck.

DANIEL: The findings appear in the journal Nature. Thomas Holtz is a paleontologist at the University of Maryland who wasn't involved in the study. He welcomes the broader picture of tyrannosaur diversity.

THOMAS HOLTZ: I always said, with sufficient evidence, I'd be happy to embrace it. And now I can. But we'll see if it lasts. As I like to point out, taxonomy is not permanent.

DANIEL: The study opens up numerous research avenues about the varied biologies (ph) and behaviors of what appears to be a growing group of tyrannosaurs. Lindsay Zanno again.

ZANNO: This is why I love science. What I'm most thrilled about is how much we stand to learn by recognizing that we got it wrong the first time.

DANIEL: For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "JURASSIC PARK: MAIN THEME")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5589172

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- NPR

Space

- Time for an interstellar flyby! Meet 3i/ATLAS, a very old comet: 2025 Oct 29

SPACE | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 4:17 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Time for an interstellar flyby! Meet 3i/ATLAS, a very old comet

By Gabriel J. Sánchez, Hosts, Justine Kenin

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Time now for an interstellar flyby. Let's meet a very old comet, 3I/ATLAS.

DARRYL SELIGMAN: 3I/ATLAS is probably somewhere between 3 billion to 11 billion years old. So it's presumably been traveling around the galaxy for billions of years, potentially before even the solar system formed.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

That's Darryl Seligman. He's a professor at Michigan State University in the physics and astronomy department.

SELIGMAN: Unlike all of the planets in the solar system that orbit around the sun and keep going around and round and always come back, this thing is coming through but is also on its way out. So it's leaving, and it's never going to come back.

DETROW: This is not the first object to buzz by from outer, outer space.

SUMMERS: The name 3I/ATLAS is a direct reference to the fact that it's the third interstellar object we've observed. And it was the ATLAS consortium of telescopes - A-T-L-A-S - that discovered this celestial body.

SELIGMAN: It stands for Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. So it is an all-sky survey. So it looks at the entire sky basically every night with a network of telescopes, some in Hawaii, some in Chile, some in South Africa. And they are scanning the whole sky for anything that moves at all.

DETROW: As the 3I/ATLAS cuts across our planetary system, the comet is making its way close to our sun, which is great news for scientists because it offers a peak opportunity, known as the perihelion, for astronomical research.

SELIGMAN: So the perihelion of any celestial object is, as it moves throughout its orbit, that point in time and also the point in its orbit when it is closest to the sun. So that is also, for a comet, when it is at its warmest because the closer you are to the sun, the more sunlight you get. That's when you get the most holistic view of the kind of pristine nucleus and its composition.

DETROW: Seligman says that as it heads towards the sun, scientists will have the opportunity to get a clear image of the rare space object and not just using tools here on Earth.

SELIGMAN: NASA and other space agencies have assets all over the solar system. And ATLAS does get close to Mars around now. So ATLAS is currently close to Mars. We have plenty of cameras and space missions around and on Mars. So those assets are all obtaining data on 3I/ATLAS as we speak.

DETROW: Now, important to say, scientists say that 3I/ATLAS is not a threat to Earth. The closest it will come is more than 150 million miles away.

(SOUNDBITE OF T C LONG'S "PEACEFUL SCENE")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5590039

Education

- Shutdown puts thousands of schoolkids at risk of losing Head Start services: 2025 Oct 30

- Families could start losing access to Head Start if shutdown continues: 2025 Oct 29

- Lockdown drills have become a routine part of the school year. But should they be?: 2025 Oct 29

EDUCATION | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 4:08 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Shutdown puts thousands of schoolkids at risk of losing Head Start services

By Kadin Mills

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Low-income families across the country rely on Head Start for child care and preschool, but federal funding for the program is on hold during the government shutdown, and now some 65,000 children are at risk of losing their Head Start services. NPR's Kadin Mills has the story.

KADIN MILLS, BYLINE: In Florida, a cluster of Head Start programs serve the children of migrant and seasonal farm workers.

DANIEL JAIME: I was a former migrant worker, was a Head Start child, migrant Head Start child.

MILLS: Daniel Jaime runs six Head Start programs across a handful of counties as a part of the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project.

JAIME: But I still consider myself a migrant farm worker 'cause I still every now and then go out and pick muscadine grapes and blueberries here when in season.

MILLS: In any given year, Jaime's centers serve around 500 children. Without federal funding, those centers will be forced to shut down. That could keep many farm workers at home, caring for children.

JAIME: It's just a full circle from, you know, not having the services for these children, for growers not having their workers there and also maybe loss of production. If they don't have the manpower, then what do they do?

MILLS: He worries that to keep working the fall harvest, some may have no choice but to leave their children in less than ideal settings.

JAIME: That's the biggest thing for me right now, is knowing that we have our babies out there and we can't serve them in the center.

MILLS: Without federal funding, Jaime's Head Start programs will shut down after Friday. And his centers aren't alone. According to the National Head Start Association, 134 Head Start programs across the country have funding cycles that start on November 1, and that funding can't be renewed while the government is shut down.

TOMMY SHERIDAN: They are scrambling and trying to figure out how long they can keep the doors open.

MILLS: Tommy Sheridan is with the National Head Start Association. He says programs are looking into anything that might help them stay open for just a little longer, including delaying rent and utility bills and trying to raise emergency funding.

SHERIDAN: They're talking to schools. They're talking to their state. They are talking to philanthropic partners, their banks about lines of credit.

MILLS: Some programs have a built-in advantage. They're in the minority of states that also spend their own money to help fund the centers. Suey Linzmeier runs a Head Start center in northern Oregon, where she says the state provides about 60% of their funding.

SUEY LINZMEIER: If we didn't have state dollars, that would be a whole different story. I don't even know what we would do. We would probably have to shut down.

MILLS: Still, Linzmeier says the program can only avoid closure for so long without federal dollars, but she hopes it doesn't come to that. To do this kind of work, she says you have to be hopeful.

LINZMEIER: And we just hired a woman named Hope, and I said, thank goodness you're here (laughter).

MILLS: Linzmeier has 314 children in her program right now, or as she says, 314 more opportunities to change a life for the better.

Kadin Mills, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5587604

2025 GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Families could start losing access to Head Start if shutdown continues

By Cory Turner, Kadin Mills

Heard on Morning Edition

Beginning Nov. 1, more than 65,000 children will be at risk of losing access to Head Start, the federal early-learning program for low-income families. That's because federal funding for individual Head Start programs cannot be disbursed while the government is shut down.

The leaders of 134 local Head Start programs, as well as another half-dozen whose funding lapsed on Oct. 1, are now debating how long they can go before closing their doors, says Tommy Sheridan of the National Head Start Association.

"They are scrambling," Sheridan says. "There is a ton of hard work, a ton of goodwill, a ton of dedication – but hard work, goodwill and dedication don't keep your doors open, unfortunately."

Among the states hit hardest by this Nov. 1 deadline: Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio.

Nationally, Head Start serves roughly 750,000 infants, toddlers and preschool-age children, providing not just childcare and early learning but also free meals, health screenings and family support.

Local Head Start programs are funded annually, though at different times of the year. Some programs get their money on Oct. 1, others on Nov. 1 and so on. As such, Sheridan says, if the shutdown lasts until December, still more programs would see their funding run out.

Without federal funding, Sheridan says, some programs will have to close immediately. Others have the resources to stay open at least another week, in hopes that politicians in Washington can resolve their differences.

Head Start closures could hit Florida's migrant farm workers

Daniel Jaime manages six Head Start centers across three Florida counties as part of the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project – a nonprofit that serves the children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

"It's a pretty hard deadline," Jaime says of Nov. 1, when his centers will have to close unless their funding is somehow extended. "We're all hoping for a miracle that things change."

Jaime was born in Florida and attended Head Start as the child of a farmworker. He later sent his own children to Head Start as a farmworker himself. Right now, he says, fall peppers and cucumbers need picking, with tomatoes due next month and strawberries soon after. If he can't provide Head Start care to the children of the workers that growers rely on to harvest these crops, he worries, markets and ultimately consumers could feel the blow.

In the short term, Jaime also worries that some workers may have no choice but to leave their children in less-than-ideal settings to keep working – like with an adult in the community who's informally looking after many of the children who would otherwise be in Head Start.

"That's a big thing for me right now, is knowing that we have our babies out there, and we can't serve them," he says.

How some centers will manage to stay open

While some programs may be forced to close after Friday, others have cobbled together plans to stay open at least a little longer.

"We have determined that we can continue services through Nov. 14," says Corey Holcomb, who runs a Head Start program serving more than 250 children across Michigan's Upper Peninsula. "After that, if the shutdown is still going on, we would have to close."

Holcomb says she has been exploring funding options since the beginning of October. That includes weighing taking out a loan, something her agency and board of directors decided was "not a viable option." Her plan now is to lean on reserve funds while also temporarily cutting expenses.

"We've asked for deferments on rent payments and some utility bills," Holcomb says.

The programs that may be best positioned to stay open, even without federal funding, are in the roughly 14 states that also provide state dollars to support Head Start, including Oregon.

"I have hope," says Suey Linzmeier, executive director of Head Start of Yamhill County in northern Oregon. Her program serves 314 children or, as she puts it: "314 more opportunities to change a life for the better."

While many Head Start programs receive little state financial support, Linzmeier says roughly 60% of her program's funding comes from Oregon. Without those dollars, she would likely have to close their doors on Nov. 1.

"I don't even know what we would do" she says.

Head Start celebrated its 60th anniversary this year. And while it has enjoyed bipartisan support in the past, the Trump administration reportedly weighed cutting the program from its budget proposal and, earlier this year, temporarily withheld Head Start funding.

Holcomb in Michigan says a staff member recently told her, "If somebody in Congress could just come and spend one hour in our classroom and see the work that we're doing and how important it is…"

Her voice trails off.

"Our children need us."

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

More than 65,000 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers may soon be at risk of losing access to Head Start.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

That's the federal program that provides child care and early learning for low-income families. And because of the government shutdown, a wave of local Head Start centers across the U.S. could be forced to close beginning November 1.

FADEL: For more, we're joined by NPR's Cory Turner. Good morning, Cory.

CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So 65,000 children. I mean, help us understand why this is happening.

TURNER: Yeah, so local Head Start programs all over the country run on different federal funding cycles, and the National Head Start Association says 134 of these programs are supposed to be getting their next round of federal funding November 1. They can't do that if the government is still shut down. And so without those federal dollars, these centers are now rushing to find alternative funding. Here's Tommy Sheridan of the National Head Start Association.

TOMMY SHERIDAN: They are scrambling and trying to figure out how long they can keep the doors open. There is a ton of hard work, a ton of goodwill, a ton of dedication, but hard work, goodwill and dedication don't keep your doors open.

TURNER: For now, Leila, these unfunded programs serve nearly 1 in 10 children in Head Start. And if they have to close, many working families may have to choose between taking care of their kids and going to work.

FADEL: Is there anything these communities can do short of waiting for the shutdown to end?

TURNER: I mean, for many programs, the answer is a pretty clear no. They are going to have to close after Friday. Some may be able to stay open at least a little longer. A year ago, I spent some time in Michigan's remote Upper Peninsula, where Corey Holcomb runs a Head Start program, and it turns out it is one of these places that is going to run out of money in early November. Holcomb told me her agency and board of directors have found a way to keep the doors open two more weeks. Here's how.

COREY HOLCOMB: Making use of some reserve funds, pulling in other resources with the hopes that we will be reimbursed. And we've asked for deferments on rent payments and some utility bills during that time to still provide services.

TURNER: And I should say, Leila, by services, Holcomb doesn't just mean child care. Head Start provides high-quality early learning, backed by research, plus free health screening, care for kids with disabilities. Not to mention multiple nutritious meals every day, which is extra important right now with federal food benefits for low-income families also set to expire at the exact same time.

FADEL: Wow. So, Cory, do we know where these closures might hit hardest?

TURNER: Yeah. According to a map put together by the National Head Start Association, programs will be at risk in more than 40 states, but the places hit hardest first will likely be Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio. Keep in mind, though, Head Start serves about 750,000 children, and if this shutdown keeps going, more and more of those centers are going to run out of money. It's also worth stepping back here for a quick second, Leila, because Head Start celebrated its 60th anniversary this year. And while it still enjoys strong bipartisan support, the Trump administration actually considered trying to cut the program from its budget proposal. And in the spring, they temporarily withheld funding from Head Start. So this shutdown is just the latest crisis in what's been a pretty tough year for Head Start and the families who depend on it.

FADEL: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Thank you, Cory.

TURNER: You're welcome.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5587603

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EDUCATION | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 4:41 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Lockdown drills have become a routine part of the school year. But should they be?

By Leila Fadel

Heard on Morning Edition

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Schools are back. Classes are in full swing. And in the U.S., that means the possibility of a school shooting is just a reality for students. On yesterday's program, we took you to a school in Minnesota to hear how it prepares its students for mass violence if that day were ever to come.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Here, listen up, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED STAFF MEMBER: Can I have your attention, please? This is a lockdown drill. Teachers, please secure your students in your classrooms. This is a lockdown drill. Thank you.

FADEL: And middle schoolers there told us that these drills are just normal to them. But should they be normal? I spoke to Jillian Peterson about this. She's a psychologist who studies mass shootings, and she is the executive director of the Violence Prevention Project, a research center based in St. Paul, Minnesota. I started by asking her if lockdown drills are effective.

JILLIAN PETERSON: Students will often say that they do feel more prepared. They will also say that they feel more anxious, more worried and more fearful that a school shooting is going to happen at their school. And so those are the two things that we very much have to weigh against each other.

FADEL: How do you do that? I mean, how do educators weigh the effectiveness versus the harm?

PETERSON: I think that is the question a lot of school districts are facing because we don't truly know. You know, there have been cases where we can maybe point to them and say, I think because these kids had drilled, they were able to get behind doors faster and lock them, and maybe deaths were prevented. There are other cases we can point to and say, because these kids drilled in a certain way and that's not how the shooting happened, maybe more kids died than would have needed to, 'cause there's really no way to truly prepare for every instance. And so how do you weigh that - the may or may not work - against the fact that these kids are getting really upset and traumatized by this? And then the other key point is that the most likely perpetrator is a kid who goes to school in that building, who is running through the drills with everybody else.

FADEL: So then they would know what the school would do if there was a shooter.

PETERSON: Exactly.

FADEL: Now, as a psychologist, you've studied the effect of these drills - right? - as far as you can.

PETERSON: Yes.

FADEL: And what did you come away with? What was your big takeaway?

PETERSON: I came away with concern generally that, A, the most likely perpetrator is in the building; B, we're not totally sure that they work; C, like, we don't really, truly understand what we're doing to the young kids. We're just normalizing this type of violence. You know, I really got into this space when my oldest entered kindergarten, and he was coming home talking about just nonchalantly having to practice in case bullets came through the windows, right?

FADEL: Oh, my gosh.

PETERSON: At the age of 5. And we do have more evidence that certain kids are more impacted by this, especially if you are already kind of anxious, developmental issues, if you live in a community where you've experienced gun violence previously. So in Minnesota, we recently passed some legislation that said you have to do these in a trauma-informed way. You have to make sure kids know their drills. You have to let parents know ahead of time. You have to let parents opt out if they don't want to participate. And you have to debrief with kids afterwards 'cause even high schoolers will say, you can't expect me to rehearse for my death and then go back to learning a math assignment. I just...

FADEL: Oh, my gosh.

PETERSON: ...I can't do that.

FADEL: What are the alternatives? I mean, how do you protect kids in school without traumatizing them for something that may never happen?

PETERSON: If you're going to drill, do it in a trauma-informed way. Two is you can just train the adults and then train kids to listen to adults in emergencies. And, I mean, third is just really thinking about prevention and what we know about who does this, which is the most likely person to do this is a kid in the building who we see every day, who's giving out warning signs, who's telling people they're thinking about it. So building things like anonymous reporting systems, threat assessment teams, those pieces - that prevention side is just as critical as training for the reaction side.

We should teach kids crisis intervention skills. We should teach them how to, when they're worried about a friend, report to a teacher. And even things like how to be inclusive, right? Like, how to make sure nobody's eating alone. We know that these kids tend to be really isolated. There's so many things we could be teaching kids to do to prevent violence beyond just hiding in closets.

FADEL: Dr. Jillian Peterson is a forensic psychologist and the executive director of the Violence Prevention Project at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Thank you so much for your time.

PETERSON: Absolutely. Thank you.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5570744

Culture

- In case 2025 wasn't scary enough, it was a great year for horror, too: 2025 Oct 30

- Nigerian Nobel winner Wole Soyinka says U.S. revoked his visa after Trump criticism: 2025 Oct 30

- From horror to Ibsen's 'Hedda,' filmmaker Nia DaCosta pursues the genres she loves: 2025 Oct 29

- White House fires entire commission that reviews designs for federal buildings: 2025 Oct 29

- Greetings from high up in Colombia's Andes, where 'prairie-style meat' is a delicacy: 2025 Oct 29

- If you liked 'Sandwich,' you'll love 'Wreck,' its warm, witty sequel: 2025 Oct 29

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WHAT TO WATCH | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 8:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

In case 2025 wasn't scary enough, it was a great year for horror, too

By Glen Weldon, Bob Mondello, Linda Holmes, Aisha Harris, Neda Ulaby, Justin Chang

2025 has been a ghoulish year for horror, and you can catch all of it this weekend: Doggie dread, a vampiric Oscar contender, thrillers zombified, supernatural, and nuclear.

No tricks, just treats.

Weapons

Available to stream on HBO Max and rent on demand.

Youtube Video

Weapons begins with something that seems impossible: One night, in the suburb of Maybrook, every student (save one) from Justine Gandy's third-grade classroom gets up at 2:17 a.m., goes downstairs, walks out of the house, and silently runs off into the night. They are gone, 17 of them. They are caught on doorbell cameras or security cameras, disappearing into the woods or just into the darkness. Suspicion falls on Justine (Julia Garner), for the simple reason that nobody can figure out how these kids could disappear unless something was happening in that classroom, on her watch. In large part, not unlike HBO's 2014 series The Leftovers and the novel that inspired it, Weapons is a story about a community recovering from an inexplicable trauma that arrives like a natural disaster, wreaks havoc, and then cannot be reversed, only survived. But there is another thing, another Whole Thing going on in this story, which I would not spoil for anything, because it is simply too wonderfully scary and strange. – Linda Holmes

Read the full review here.

Good Boy

In limited theaters; available to rent on demand.

Youtube Video

No harm befalls the deeply sympathetic canine protagonist of Good Boy, a low-budget horror film based on those eerie moments when pets seem to have a heightened sense of a presence humans can't detect. The dog in question, named Indy, is the director's dog in real life, and we experience the events of the film through his soulful eyes. The film features indie horror auteur Larry Fessenden in a surprise supporting role, and in some ways, it belongs to his lineage of scary movies that explore humanity's rapacious relationship with nature. While some horror fans have expressed disappointment over Good Boy's deliberate pace and absence of jump scares, critics have celebrated the film's emotional, innovative storytelling from the point of view of a very good boy. — Neda Ulaby

Sinners

Available to stream on HBO Max and rent on demand.

This trailer includes an instance of vulgar language.

Youtube Video

It's 1932 in Clarksdale, Miss., and enterprising twin brothers Smoke and Stack, both played by Coogler's longtime muse Michael B. Jordan, have returned to town after some years away in Chicago. What the siblings got into while up North in all likelihood wasn't on the up-and-up; think robbing, stealing, and doing business with Irish and Italian gangsters. But now back home, they're flush with cash and booze and eager to set up a new venture: a juke joint. It's possible you're aware that Sinners involves vampires, and it does. In a straightforward metaphor for all the ways Black culture has been co-opted by whiteness, the raucous pleasures and sonic beauty of the juke joint attract the interest of a trio of demons led by Remmick (Jack O'Connell); they wish to literally leech off of the talents and energy of Black folks. And — this is not a spoiler — some of those Black people make it pretty easy for Remmick and his ilk to taste blood. – Aisha Harris

Read the full review here.

28 Years Later

Available to stream on Netflix and rent on demand.

Youtube Video

The apocalyptic horror film 28 Years Later takes place in the same world as the 2002 film 28 Days Later, where a deadly virus transformed the citizens of England into rabid, blood-spewing creatures with really impressive lung capacity. Seriously, those zombies were just as good at wind sprints as they were at cross-country. This year's film picks up almost three decades later on a small island connected to the mainland by a causeway, where a group of survivors eke out a modest existence. A desperate expedition to the mainland reveals new allies and new horrors — because the infected have evolved. — Glen Weldon

Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour panel discuss the movie.

Presence

Available to stream on Hulu and rent on demand.

Youtube Video

The haunted-house thriller Presence has a formal conceit so clever, I'm surprised it hasn't ever been done or attempted before. Maybe another movie has done it that I'm not aware of. This is a ghost story told entirely from the ghost's point of view: We see what the ghost sees.

The ghost cannot leave the house, and so the movie never leaves the house, either. You could say that the ghost is played by the director, Steven Soderbergh, who serves as his own cinematographer, as usual, working under the pseudonym of Peter Andrews. That's Soderbergh holding the camera as it glides up and down the stairs, following the characters from room to room, and hovering over them as they try to figure out what's going on.

Soderbergh's camera movements are so delicate and expressive, he can convey empathy with a mere twitch or shudder, or rage with a sudden, violent lurch. Before long, we realize that the ghost isn't trying to scare this family; it's trying to warn them. — Justin Chang

Read the full review here.

Frankenstein

In theaters; on Netflix Nov. 7.

Youtube Video

Guillermo del Toro has made several monster movies of a particular bent — soulful, swoony, feverish films about grotesque-looking creatures who prove themselves more deeply human than the humans who reject them. Which is why Frankenstein seems like the perfect match between story and muse; certainly del Toro's been talking about making his own version of the tale for decades, calling it his "lifelong dream." That dream is now realized, and while the resulting film captures the tone and spirit of the original novel in all its breathless zeal and hie-me-to-yon-fainting-couch deliriousness, the many narrative tweaks del Toro has made — some of which work, some of which don't — ensure that you'd never mistake his Frankenstein for anyone else's. – Glen Weldon

Read the full review here.

A House of Dynamite

Available in limited theaters and streaming on Netflix.

This trailer includes instances of vulgar language.

Youtube Video

An entirely plausible nuclear horror story from the Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker, this nerve-jangling thriller begins with a ballistic missile headed toward the continental U.S. Origin unknown, but consequences cataclysmic, the missile plays into doomsday fears so primal, most of us bury them. Nuclear war is unthinkable, we tell ourselves, because mutually assured destruction means no government would ever start one. But suppose, as director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim have, that a seemingly rogue threat can't quickly be traced, that a missile will strike a major American city in just 19 minutes, and that fallible, increasingly frantic civilian and military leaders haven't a clue how to finesse the possible obliteration of humankind. This explosive scenario, played for farce in Dr. Strangelove, leads here into white knuckle territory. – Bob Mondello

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5587657

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CULTURE | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 9:31 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Nigerian Nobel winner Wole Soyinka says U.S. revoked his visa after Trump criticism

By The Associated Press

Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka said on Tuesday that his non-resident visa to enter the United States had been rejected, adding that he believes it may be because he recently criticized President Donald Trump.

The Nigerian author, 91, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, becoming the first African to do so.

Speaking to the press on Tuesday, Soyinka said he believed it had little to do with him and was instead a product of the United States' immigration policies. He said he was told to reapply if he wished to enter again.

"It's not about me, I'm not really interested in going back to the United States," he said. "But a principle is involved. Human beings deserve to be treated decently wherever they are."

Soyinka, who has taught in the U.S. and previously held a green card, joked on Tuesday that his green card "had an accident" eight years ago and "fell between a pair of scissors." In 2017, he destroyed his green card in protest over Trump's first inauguration.

The letter he received informing him of his visa revocation cites "additional information became available after the visa was issued," as the reason for its revocation, but does not describe what that information was.

Soyinka believes it may be because he recently referred to Trump as a "white version of Idi Amin," a reference to the dictator who ruled Uganda from 1971 until 1979.

He jokingly referred to his rejection as a "love letter" and said that while he did not blame the officials, he would not be applying for another visa.

"I have no visa. I am banned, obviously, from the United States, and if you want to see me, you know where to find me."

The U.S. Consulate in Nigeria's commercial hub, Lagos, directed all questions to the State Department in Washington, D.C. Through a spokesperson, it said that because under US law visa records are generally confidential, they would not discuss the specifics of this case while stressing that "visas are a privilege, not a right" and that "visas may be revoked at any time, at the discretion of the U.S. government, whenever circumstances warrant."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95710

MOVIE INTERVIEWS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 12:17 PM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

From horror to Ibsen's 'Hedda,' filmmaker Nia DaCosta pursues the genres she loves

By Tonya Mosley

Heard on Fresh Air

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta doesn't want to be limited by genre. Her movie credits include an indie film (Little Woods), a horror blockbuster (Candyman) and a foray into the superhero universe (The Marvels).

"I have this feeling of having to prove myself ... and part of that was knowing I need to not get typecast," DaCosta says. "I need to also pursue these other genres that I love, like horror, like comic book movies."

DaCosta's latest film, Hedda, is something more personal, a project she wrote years ago and couldn't shake. In it, she reimagines Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play, Hedda Gabler, recasting the main character as a queer, mixed-race Black woman and transporting the action to a 1950s English manor.

The film tells a twisted story of jealousy and control as it follows Hedda (played by Tessa Thompson) over the course of one wild, unsettling night. For DaCosta, situating the film in post-War England offered a perfect parallel to the upheaval of our modern age.

"I'm a bit of a stoic … when it comes to trying to navigate the horrors of humanity in our present day. And history really helps me to sort of process what's happening, the cyclical nature of it," she says. "So many of the conflicts that we're dealing with now are directly related to the end of [WWII] ... I think the '50s were this time of a reaction to trauma in a way that I found really fascinating."

Interview highlights

On reimagining Ibsen's title character as a Black woman

When I came to writing a script, I always thought a Black woman would be the center because I wanted more visions of us and more diverse kinds of visions of Black women in media. And also I was lucky enough to have Tessa Thompson as a collaborator in my first film and as a very good friend. And I just thought, oh, Tessa's gonna play Hedda. That was just an assumption I made and I told her about it. And so from that point on, I'm like, yeah so now Hedda is a Black, mixed-race woman is this dimension that I have to feed into the script.

On escaping into art as a kid

My parents got divorced when I was 9 and it wasn't one of those very easy, amicable ones. And so I think my way of dealing with any sort of emotional strain or stress was by escaping into art, by reading lots of books, by watching movies and watching TV. And that paired up quite nicely with the fact that I'm a very curious person. I find curiosity to be a really important quality and that drove me. That was like the engine, but ... I love to disappear into things. And I think part of that was just a way to deal with trauma.

On directing Candyman, and why she likes to tackle big ideas through horror

You can really push people out of their comfort zones. You can be really confrontational in horror films because people go into horror films the way they get onto a roller coaster. If you're on a bus, on a midtown bus trying to get across town and it starts careening everywhere, that's not fun. But if you get onto a roller coaster, you know what you're signing up for. And I think that horror, people know they're signing for an extreme experience, they're setting up for discomfort. And that means you can push a lot more into it.

On what she learned from working as a production assistant for Steven Soderbergh, Steve McQueen and Martin Scorsese

I was a production office PA, which was good because I would write my scripts at my desk. But when I got to go to set it was really awesome to watch them run the set. They're all very different people. But what I learned was everything comes from the top. Because even in the production office, you feel the difference because of how the director is running the set.

When I was working on The Knick, which is the Stephen Soderbergh TV show, I think a PA got yelled at by someone, and the production manager said, "Whoa, whoa, who yelled at you? We don't do that here." And she went and talked to the person. And that's a Soderbergh thing. It's like, everyone is respected here. And I thought it was so inspiring how that comes from the top. And then on Steve McQueen's sets, he comes to the production office and I visit the set some time and you just see the way he talks to people and the gentleness, but also the sheer honesty with which he communicates. I was like, ah, noted.

And then Scorsese, I mean, geez, that was so amazing for me. That was my first big scripted job, PAing on the pilot of Vinyl and it was a whole production, oh my goodness. I mean, 24-hour production office. Which I have not experienced since. … I learned there, it's like those sorts of big muscular productions, it's like the rigor of the work, that like the seriousness with which he's pursuing perfection was really inspiring as well. But still, the sheer skill and experience of the people there, It was very Hollywood, I'll say. It was very cool.

On learning to be uncompromising with her vision

I was educated in many predominantly white institutions, and you learn what being a Black woman does to the sound of your voice, to how much presence you have in a room. You learn pretty quickly what it means to other people and how that changes … how you're perceived, and how you are perceived changes perhaps how you will approach compromise, for example, or being uncompromising. That has been very helpful because Hollywood is a predominantly white space. …

I've always [believed] kind honesty will get you through. But as I've gotten older and as I've become more confident, sometimes it's a hard "No, I am not doing that," or, "Guess what? I'm doing this" … even though I know that perhaps you'll perceive that as more aggressive because I'm a Black woman. I'm OK with that. … When I was younger, I felt like I would lose something if I wasn't always fully liked or seen as being polite and accommodating. Now that's not really my concern. My concern is the work.

Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.

Transcript

TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. And today, I'm talking with director Nia DaCosta, who's had a meteoric rise over the past few years. "Little Woods," her first feature in 2018, was an intimate story about two sisters in North Dakota who turned to a life of crime to make ends meet. It got a lot of attention, including from Jordan Peele, who later brought DaCosta on to reimagine the horror classic "Candyman." That film made DaCosta the first Black woman to direct a movie that opened at No. 1 at the U.S. box office. DaCosta made history again with "The Marvels," becoming the youngest director and first Black woman to helm a film in the Marvel universe. And now she's turned to something even more personal, a project she wrote years ago and never let go of. It's called "Hedda," and it's DaCosta's take on Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play "Hedda Gabler." In DaCosta's hands, the story becomes a dark exploration of a woman suffocating in a life she never wanted, trapped in a 1950s English manor house over the course of one wild, unsettling night. Tessa Thompson stars as Hedda. And here's a scene at the start of the film, where police interrogate her about what happened that night.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HEDDA")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Hedda Tesman. Is that right? This is your husband's house?

TESSA THOMPSON: (As Hedda Gabler) Hedda is fine.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) So could you tell us the events of the evening, the way you remember them, leading up to the shooting?

THOMPSON: (As Hedda Gabler) No. My memory's a bit fuzzy. It was a party after all. Certainly, I can do my best. The first thing I remember seeing is a bloody mess of a person dragged into my...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Before that, please.

MOSLEY: (As Hedda Gabler) Well, there was a lot of yelling.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Earlier.

THOMPSON: (As Hedda Gabler) Where should I start?

MOSLEY: What ensues is a dark and twisted tale of jealousy and control. Nia DaCosta grew up in Harlem and studied film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She started out as a production assistant, working on sets for Martin Scorsese, Steve McQueen and Steven Soderbergh. She recently wrapped directing "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," the next film in the zombie horror trilogy. Nia DaCosta, welcome to FRESH AIR.

NIA DACOSTA: Thank you so much for having me.

MOSLEY: You know, you have been quoted as saying that this particular story, Hedda it was like a revelation when you first read the play. And I just have to know, what was it about Hedda's character that you couldn't let go of?

DACOSTA: Oh, man. I mean, so much. I think, you know, she does some pretty terrible things in the play, and she does some extreme acts that are emotionally violent, and she asks people to do some terrible things. But she's so vulnerable. And she's as vulnerable as she is vicious. And she's so complicated. And she's funny, and she's all these things. And I just thought it was a really interesting portrait of a woman who was trying to express herself while living under oppression, essentially.

MOSLEY: That's so interesting you use the words vulnerable and vicious because Hedda is a product of her time. The original play is set in 19th century Norway. So we understand what life for a woman was back in those days. But in your version, that confinement takes on new dimensions because you've reimagined her. She's a mixed-race woman. Her former lover and her husband's rival is also a woman.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Walk me through those decisions.

DACOSTA: At the time, when I came to writing a script, I always just thought a Black woman would be the center because I wanted more visions of us and more diverse kinds of visions of us, Black women, in media. And also, I was lucky enough to have Tessa Thompson as a collaborator on my first film and as a very good friend. And I just thought, oh, well, Tess is going to play Hedda. You know, that was just an assumption I made, and I told her about it. And so from that point on, I'm like, yeah, so now Hedda is a Black mixed-race woman. You know, now she's this dimension that I have to feed into the script.

And then turning Eilert Lovborg from the play into Eileen Lovborg was really about me wanting to dig into what I found so compelling about the piece, which was really this idea of a woman trying to navigate a repressed society who's trying to put her into a box. And I thought, she needs more women around her. And this character, Eilert - he's always complaining about being so brilliant, and no one understands him, and no one listens to him. And I thought, well, if that's a woman, that's a female character, then I want to empathize a bit more, and then I understand even more fully why she's so depressed and why that leads her to drink and to kind of keep self-sabotaging in a way. I thought she was much more compelling as Eileen than Eilert.

MOSLEY: OK, this is so fascinating. First, I want to start with the race thing because your approach kind of feels different than blind casting, which is something...

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...That we've seen recently over the last few years. It's not like you're ignoring race entirely by just choosing someone and just plopping them into a time period. How do you view it? How do you look at it?

DACOSTA: Yeah. You know, I think in the sort of correcting the sins of our past, the dearth of visibility for people of color in cinema, I think sometimes the easy answer was, oh, colorblind casting. So you can have people of color in the film, but you don't have to contend at all with their race and what that actually means for them moving through the world. Then the other version is the film is only about that. It's here to educate you about the experiences of being a Black person, or a person of color, or a queer person or any minority, and that's a function of it. But that wasn't really interesting to me when it came to doing this adaptation. I really just wanted to represent characters - in particular, a Black woman, mixed-race woman in her experience, not in an educational way, but just saying, yeah, she's Black, and this is a part of what that means in the context of the story, so that it feels lived in. It felt like what it feels like to live the life as opposed to, you know, a seminar about race relations in 1950s in England.

MOSLEY: I think I heard you say that the 1950s were kind of the great age of pretending.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: And I wanted to unpack that a little bit. What made it the perfect time period for your adaptation?

DACOSTA: I mean, everything you said, but, also, I'm really fascinated by the postwar period and how it shapes our lives even today. I mean, it's - so many of the conflicts that we're dealing with now are directly related to the end of that war. And I found it really interesting how people tried to recover and heal after, you know, 44 million people die - and these conflicts of opened wounds and maybe pasted over some other ones and what a society does to say, you know what? We're OK. It's over now. Let's go back to normal.

And the women who'd been experiencing this new kind of freedom - you know, they're working now. They're kind of taking more prominent places in society are like - are told the men are back. Bye, girl. Leave the factories. You go home. And then these men come back traumatized. And they're told, OK, go back to work. Thank you so much. Let's go. We're good. Everything's fine.

And so the '50s have this energy. And it's no surprise the '60s came right after. You know, with this explosion of freedom, this questioning of, like, what is freedom? What does freedom look like from, like, a sexual point of view, but then also, like, you know, the Civil Rights Movement in America, in particular, exploded in this time. So I think the '50s were this time of a reaction to trauma in a way that I found really fascinating. And that reaction was safety comes in conformity. And because this film is about people trying to find safety and fighting against that conformity, I just thought it was a really interesting parallel.

MOSLEY: Oh, my God. Is that what we're going through right now? It's just a...

DACOSTA: Oh, my God, girl.

MOSLEY: Is it?

DACOSTA: I'm a bit of a stoic, I think - capital S - when it comes to trying to navigate the horrors of humanity in our present day. And history really helps me to sort of process what's happening, the cyclical nature of it. And I think it is what's happening right now. The world is so confusing. There's so many forces we don't understand. Social media is as scary as nuclear weapons. And we just want to feel safe. And I think that's where tradwives come from, by the way (laughter).

MOSLEY: I think you're right. I mean, that's when - when you said safety comes in conformity, I mean, I thought about all of those things. I actually want to play a scene that really gets at the heart of this idea of safety as conformity. It's - and it's also at the heart of the dynamic between Hedda and her former lover, Eileen. So in this scene I want to play, they've stolen a few moments alone at this party. And Eileen, who is played by Nina Hoss - she's an academic. She's a rival, as I mentioned, to Hedda's husband in the academic world. And she's basically telling Hedda, you're wasting your life playing a housewife. Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "HEDDA")

NINA HOSS: (As Eileen Lovborg) You could be so much more. Look what I've done. You could do anything.

THOMPSON: (As Hedda Gabler) Well, like what? Become a professor? Tell me. How many women are at the university teaching?

HOSS: (As Eileen Lovborg) Two.

THOMPSON: (As Hedda Gabler) And they're both white, I presume.

HOSS: (As Eileen Lovborg) Whatever.

THOMPSON: (As Hedda Gabler) You're upset I couldn't choose you.

HOSS: (As Eileen Lovborg) I was once. Not anymore. Not for a long time.

THOMPSON: (As Hedda Gabler) Since Thea?

HOSS: (As Eileen Lovborg) I know she's still there. I saw her little bag near the door.

THOMPSON: (As Hedda Gabler) Do you know that a roach can live without its head for a week?

HOSS: (As Eileen Lovborg) Excuse me?

DACOSTA: (Laughter).

MOSLEY: That was a scene from the new movie "Hedda," written and directed by my guest today, Nia DaCosta. I'll tell you, I had to Google that a roach can live without its head for...

DACOSTA: Oh, my gosh. That was a Tessa Thompson ad-lib. I loved it.

MOSLEY: Oh, it was?

DACOSTA: Yeah, 'cause earlier in the scene, Eileen says, you scramble around like a roach trying to control a man's destiny. You know, shape your own. And that's why Nina responded in that way. She's like, huh? That wasn't the line. (Laughter) So fun.

MOSLEY: Were there a lot of ad-libs in the film?

DACOSTA: No, actually. I mean, I have a, like, pretty robust rehearsal process. So if there's any thoughts and feelings, you know, we can bring it up then, and I can adjust the script accordingly. But I also - like, once we get what we need, I'm like, OK, jazz riff if you want. But it's not, like, a, you know, free-for-all.

MOSLEY: There's so much tension in that scene because it's not just about their romantic past. It's two completely different survival strategies. So Eileen thinks she's free because she's refused to marry. She has this career. But Hedda sees something else. And I was just curious - when you were writing that dynamic, were you consciously setting up two different kinds of traps?

DACOSTA: Absolutely. Something I think a lot about is, what does freedom look like? What does it mean to be free, especially as a Black person in America but just as a human being? And the tension of the movie is this question for women who don't have the access that they think they have. But I think often people - their shortcut to freedom is trying to attain power. And so what these two women are actually doing is trying to attain power - Hedda through marriage and through the conformity and Eileen through her intellect. But those are both incomplete things because power doesn't necessarily equal freedom, especially if you have to hold on to the power to feel free. And freedom should really be divorced of those things. So that was a really intentional sort of dichotomy I was trying to set up between those two characters.

MOSLEY: If you're just joining us, my guest is filmmaker Nia DaCosta. We're talking about her new film, "Hedda," a provocative reimagining of Henrik Ibsen's classic play "Hedda Gabler." We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF HILDUR GUONADOTTIR'S "ALLEGRETTO - GLASS")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. And today, I'm talking to director Nia DaCosta about her latest film, "Hedda," starring Tessa Thompson. The film is a modern queer adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play set over one charged night in a 1950s English manor house party. DaCosta made history as the first Black female director to debut at No. 1 at the box office for her 2021 horror film, "Candyman," which she co-wrote with Jordan Peele.

After your first film, "Little Woods," Jordan Peele tapped you to direct "Candyman," which is a reimagining of the 1992 film, directed by Bernard Rose, about an urban legend, this supernatural figure with a hook for a hand who appears when you say his name five times in a mirror. But your version digs deeper into racial violence and systemic erasure that created that legend. And I actually want to play a clip from the film. In this scene, Billy Burke, played by Colman Domingo, lives in what was once the Cabrini–Green housing project in Chicago. And he's telling Anthony a story of the Candyman. Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CANDYMAN")

COLMAN DOMINGO: (As Billy Burke) But the first one, where it all began, was in the 1890s. It's the story Helen found, the story of Daniel Robitaille. He made a good living touring the country painting portraits for wealthy families, mostly white. And they loved him. But you know how it goes. They love what we make, but not us. One day, he's commissioned to paint the daughter of a Chicago factory owner who made his fortune in the stockyards. Well, Robitaille committed the ultimate sin of his time. They fell in love. They had an affair. She got pregnant. The girl tells her father, and, well...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, crying).

DOMINGO: (As Billy Burke) ...You know, he hires some men to hunt Robitaille down, told them to get creative. Chased him through here in the middle of the day. He collapses from exhaustion right near where the old tower in Chestnut used to be. They beat him, tortured him. They cut off his arm and jammed a meat hook in the stump. They smeared honeycomb from the nearby hives on his chest and let the bees sting him. A crowd started to form to watch the show. The big finale - they set him on fire, and he finally dies. But a story like that, a pain like that, lasts forever. That's Candyman.

MOSLEY: That was a scene from the 2021 film "Candyman," directed by my guest today, Nia DaCosta. What was it about the original "Candyman" and specifically about what you could bring to it that made you know you wanted to direct it?

DACOSTA: Oh, I mean, I think that movie came out when I was quite young. But when I was in middle school, it was very much a part of our, you know, bathroom shenanigans. (Laughter) It was Bloody Mary, and it was Candyman. And because it happened in the projects - I grew up in Harlem, and the projects, you know, I live across street from the projects - the high rises were over on 148th Street. Like, that's where I imagined these things happening. So I didn't feel like it was in a movie or far away. And so it was just such a part of my childhood and part of my lure that horrified me (laughter) when I was younger. But I loved what Jordan wanted to do. He really wanted to expand it, to turn it on its head. And that exploration of how to do that was really exciting.

And I thought I had a point of view on it as someone who, you know, lives in America and remembers - not just, you know, the "Candyman" legend, but also, you know, I remember when Amadou Diallo was shot 50 times by the cops in New York, that was my first time understanding what it was to be Black in America. That was when I was like, Oh, OK. So I think also holding that and holding all of the people who become martyrs and sort of emblems of our pain and our systemic oppression is why it was really important to me to balance all these things properly, you know - the horror and the thrills, but also the real pain that we're talking about.

MOSLEY: I also want to talk with you about your aesthetic because I'm starting to see it. Like, with every movie, it becomes clear. There's a moment in "Candyman" - actually, there's several. And actually, in "Hedda" as well, where you are holding on to these long, unbroken shots. So we're locked into the character. We're moving through space, and you just don't cut it. There's, like, no tight, medium wide shots of these different spaces. Where does that come from? What are you trying to make us feel when you are refusing to cut away?

DACOSTA: Yeah, I think it's just really great for pretension and building anticipation. You know, why aren't we cutting? What's going to happen? Why am I sitting here on this shot? I think it makes the audience lean in. I think sometimes when you cut too much, viewing a film can become something of a passive experience where I'm literally telling you, look here, look here, look here, look here, do this, feel this. But what I really want is for you to feel the things I want you to feel but because you are participating in a way, you're actively looking at the frame, and you're like, OK what am I looking for, in a way, especially when it's a wide shot and we're holding on a wide. And then I just think it's great to just get out of the way of the actors, sometimes, you know, just really trust and be confident in what they're doing and that they can hold the attention of the audience.

MOSLEY: "Candyman" opened at No. 1, and it made you - as I mentioned before - the first Black woman to debut at No. 1 at the box office. Do those titles like, first Black woman or youngest director in the case of "The Marvels" movie, do those titles mean anything to you?

DACOSTA: Oh, man. It's so interesting because so much of what I love about this is the process of doing it. And that being said, it was pretty amazing. I was like, oh, I didn't know any of these things, actually. Like, I think I was in an interview when a journalist told me I was the youngest Marvel director. And I had no idea I was going to be the first Black woman with a No. 1 film. Absolutely no idea. I was kind of dumbfounded by that because, to me, you know, I grew up with Kasi Lemmons and Gina Prince-Bythewood making films. And, you know, I was in college when Ava was making her films, and...

MOSLEY: Ava DuVernay, yeah.

DACOSTA: Ava DuVernay, yeah. And so I'm - I thought it was Ava or Gina. I was like, me? (laughter) And so it was kind of amazing. And, of course, I'm so proud of it. And then I think, wow, we got a ways to go, guys. But I love what the landscape is doing right now.

MOSLEY: There's a shift.

DACOSTA: Yeah. And I felt that when I was - like, when I was making my first films, I really felt, oh, I think they're actually opening the door to us right now. So I better run through it before it closes.

MOSLEY: Is that what it is? Because it does - when I look at your career, it almost feels like a sprint. It's like, you're not just walking upstairs. You're like sprinting up the stairs (laughter).

DACOSTA: Yeah, and now I'm at the top, huffing and puffing. Like, OK, time to take a little break before I...

(LAUGHTER)

DACOSTA: ...I go up the rest of these flights. I think so. I think I have this feeling of having to prove myself. And also, like, speaking of freedom, like, I really wanted to feel as though I had the freedom to make the kinds of projects I wanted to make. And I thought, OK, how do I build a career that facilitates that? And part of that was knowing, OK, I need to not get type cast as just a Indie drama director. I need to also pursue these other genres that I love, like horror, like comic book movies. You know, I really wanted to do those things, not just because I love them, but because I also was thinking, like, about how to build a career that sustained and that could eventually allow me to make original films that were bigger scale. So yeah, I definitely have this feeling of, like, I don't know how long this will last, so let me make sure that I make the most of it.

MOSLEY: If you're just joining us, my guest is filmmaker Nia DaCosta. We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Tonya Mosley, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF HILDUR GUONADOTTIR SONG, "STOLEN TALE - PREPPING THE PARTY")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley, and we're continuing our conversation with director Nia DaCosta about her new film "Hedda," which is in select theaters and premieres today on Prime Video. It's a reimagining of the Henrik Ibsen classic, exploring themes of manipulation, desire and suffocation in a woman's life. The film reunites DaCosta with actress Tessa Thompson, who starred in her debut feature "Little Woods." DaCosta made history as the first Black female director to debut at No. 1 at the box office for her 2021 horror film "Candyman," which she co-wrote with Jordan Peele.

So, yeah, you went from "Candyman" to "The Marvels," which is this massive Marvel movie. And I heard that when you pitched for it, you wrote that it's a story about sisters. And that stuck with me because that's not what people think about when we think about a superhero movie. How did you hold on to that emotional core when you're also dealing with, I don't know, you know, CGI sequences and...

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...Intergalactic battles?

DACOSTA: I mean, the great thing about making a Marvel film is, like, the relationship between the amount of work and how huge the movie is is directly proportionate to how much help you get. And so, you know, the first thing they tell you to do is they're like, call the other directors. They'll tell you what it's like. So I did that. But then you also have, like, an amazing crew. Like, everyone wants to make a Marvel film, so you get, like, the best of the best helping you through the experience. And that includes, you know, my executive.

Every film has an exec, and mine was Mary Livanos. And she helped me to make sure that the emotional core of the film, these three women and how they develop and relate to each other and how the relationships change and shift could stay prominent. So it was one, me, like, really believing in it and also just having the help that I needed to bring it all to life.

MOSLEY: OK, Nia, I want to go back to where it all started for you as a filmmaker. I know it started as a child, very young. But I want to talk about your idols. So...

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: A lot of filmmakers who make their mark in the 1970s - Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg - they're all folks that you talk about quite a bit. And these are guys you believe could do anything with a camera.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: But you're not a guy, and it's not 1970s. What is it about their particular brand of filmmaking that speaks to you?

DACOSTA: Yeah. That was, like, the age of the new American cinema. And I just - I mean, the audacity of it all was - is, for me, what I - that I really responded to. I mean, I remember the first time I saw "Apocalypse Now," I was like, what do you mean? Like, what - you recreated this, and it's a brilliant film, but it's also, like, this managed chaos. And I was just so in awe of it. And I think, also with "Apocalypse Now," actually, I was - the reason why I watched it was because I was studying Joseph Conrad's "Heart Of Darkness" in AP English.

And my teacher said, oh, there's an adaptation of it - a loose adaptation called "Apocalypse Now," and we happen to have it in my dorm 'cause I was at boarding school at the time. And actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if that's why I'm so loosey-goosey with adaptation and feeling I can do anything because, you know, that's from the heart of Africa to the Vietnam War, that transliteration was very - it's a very different world that he his adaptation in. So, yeah, it really made me feel brave, watching those men be audacious. And I didn't really think about their maleness, their whiteness, you know, their privilege. I was just like, oh, movies. Great. And because, at the same time, I was watching Kasi Lemmons' film, watching "Eve's Bayou, " "Love & Basketball." And so I took for granted that I could make movies, too.

MOSLEY: You went into college knowing what you wanted to do.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Do you remember when you - when the seed was planted in your mind that you could be a filmmaker? And then the choice that I am going to be a filmmaker, even aside from just all of those great films that you watched?

DACOSTA: Yeah. I think it was between the ages of 11 and 13, I think. My mom and I were talking a lot about, like, film and what I want to do with my life. And I was always writing, and I was always saying, I'm going to be a writer, I'm going to write some stuff. And my mom was like, yeah, you are. I can see that for sure. And then I got into film, and I thought I wanted to be an actor. I was like, well, I mean, they're the ones you're skiing. You know, they're the ones who you're empathizing with and feeling through. And then my mom said, no, you're too sensitive. I think...

MOSLEY: Wow.

DACOSTA: ...The way - yeah, she said, you're too sensitive, babe. The way you want - the way you talk about this, the way you talk about film and the way you are, I think you want to be a director. I didn't know she was saying. I was a tyrant.

(LAUGHTER)

DACOSTA: But I was like, oh, yeah. I think my mom's right. But now I have this word director, and then I can ask myself, what is a director? What does that mean? And that sent me down the rabbit hole. And, you know, I remember being at NYU, and I would - I'd have, like, OK, Coen Brothers. Let's go. And I'd go to the Fisher Center at Bobst and watch all of the Coen Brothers films. And then I'd go, OK, Ang Lee. I'd watch all of Ang Lee's films and just go down the filmography. And that started because my mom identified for me - oh, I think it's director. I think that's you.

MOSLEY: You worked as a PA not just for Scorsese, but for Steve McQueen, Steven Soderbergh. These are directors with completely different styles.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Take me back to those sets. What were you noticing? What were you absorbing? Is there a throughline that you saw with all of them, even though they're all different?

DACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, I was a production office PA. And so my - a lot of my time, which was good because I would write my scripts and - at my desk.

MOSLEY: Oh, and during your time.

DACOSTA: Yeah, you know. But when I got to go to set, it was really awesome to watch them run the set. And they're all very different people. And - but what I learned was everything comes from the top, because even in the production office, you feel the difference because of how the director is running the set.

You know, when I was working on "The Knick," which is the Steven Soderbergh TV show, I think a PA got yelled at by someone, and the production manager said, whoa, whoa, whoa. Who yelled at you? We don't do that here. And she went and talked to the person. Like - and that's a Soderbergh thing. It's like, everyone is respected here, and I thought it was so inspiring, how that comes from the top. And then on Steve McQueen's sets, you know, you know, he comes through the production office, and I visit set sometime, and you just see the way he talks to people and the gentleness, but also the sheer honesty with which you communicate. So I was like, ah, noted. And then Scorsese - I mean, jeez that was so amazing for me. That was my first big scripted job, PAing on that show, and...

MOSLEY: Which show was it?

DACOSTA: Oh, it was "Vinyl." I worked on the pilot of "Vinyl," and, you know, it was a whole production. Oh, my goodness. I mean, 24-hour production office, which I have not experienced since I would never ask anyone to do. But I learned there, it's like, those sorts of big, muscular productions. It's like, the rigor of the work, like, the seriousness with which he's pursuing perfection was really inspiring as well - the sheer skill and experience of the people there. It was very Hollywood, I'll say. It was very cool.

MOSLEY: You know, I was thinking all of those guys, something that's common for all of them that they all share is they are uncompromising.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Like, they will fight with the studios to protect their vision. And I'm so curious about what this looks like for you. And what types of considerations have you had to make, or you just decided I'm going to bypass that and stand in my power?

DACOSTA: I think a big thing for me has been I was educated in a - in many predominantly white institutions. And you learn what being a Black woman does to the sound of your voice, to how much presence you have in a room. You know, you learn pretty quickly what it means to other people and how that changes who - like, not who you are, but how you're perceived. And how you're perceived changes perhaps how you will approach compromise, for example, or being uncompromising. That has been very helpful because Hollywood is a predominantly white space.

And, I mean, as - in general, I'm a person who's just, like, quite kind and really just wants everyone to have a good time and get along. And I'm also very honest. I don't really have a poker face. So I've always just been like, kind honesty will get you through. But as I've gotten older and as I've become more confident, sometimes it's a hard, no, I'm not doing that. Or, guess what? I'm doing this. And actually, even though I know that perhaps you'll perceive that as more aggressive because I'm a Black woman, I'm OK with that. Now I'm OK with that, though - it's gotten better as I've gotten older, but it is, as a Black woman, like, being audacious, having the audacity as a Black woman. Frankly, you have to have more to do what we do.

MOSLEY: If you're just joining us, my guest is filmmaker Nia DaCosta. We're talking about her new film, "Hedda," a provocative reimagining of Henrik Ibsen's classic play "Hedda Gabler." We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAURA KARPMAN'S "SURGE")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. And today, I'm talking to director Nia DaCosta about her latest film, "Hedda," starring Tessa Thompson. The film is a modern, queer adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play set over one charged night in a 1950s English manor house party. DaCosta made history as the first Black female director to debut at No. 1 at the box office for her 2021 horror film "Candyman," which she co-wrote with Jordan Peele.

You went to public school in Harlem for a short period of time, right?

DACOSTA: I did, yeah.

MOSLEY: And then you made the switch to private school, then to boarding school. Those are huge shifts.

DACOSTA: Yeah. Going to boarding school in the middle of nowhere in Connecticut, in the heart of, like, WASP country, was very - it's a very specific place, and I wasn't fully prepared for the lack of diversity. Like, I wasn't - I'd - like, I totally took for granted what a gift New York City is. And all its imperfections and all its craziness, I really took for granted. Like - 'cause not just in terms of race, but also in terms of, like, socioeconomics. Like, I went to public school with the rich kids and poor kids and everything in between because it's New York City.

So, you know, going to boarding school - it was like a whole other ecosystem that I had to learn, and it was a rough ride my first year. I was like, what is happening? I don't understand these people. Who am I? Who do they expect me to be? And it really shaped me moving forward, actually. It really - like, trying to protect myself and my feelings was something that I really had to figure out how to do, you know, moving forward. But then, eventually, again, I kind of matured. And then it was like, OK, I'm just going to be myself, I think. I think that might be the way forward.

MOSLEY: Is there a particular moment that first year in boarding school - a time in school in general where you really learned that lesson of, like, oh, I'm trying to be this thing, but I just need to be myself?

DACOSTA: Yeah. I think someone said to me, I don't know where you come from, but, you know, we don't do that here. And I was like, oh. Like, you cannot - there is no conformity for me because I'm Black. Like, you know? Like, it doesn't matter if you wear, like, the Birkenstocks and the - and the fleeces and, you know, have a Juicy Tube. Like, you're always - you know, you're always going to be Black. And in a way, that's absolutely freeing. You're like, oh, great. OK. Well, if this doesn't matter to you, then I'm not going to do it either. Like, you know, I'm not going to, like, get a weave right now. I'm just keeping my braids, you know? Like, it's...

(LAUGHTER)

DACOSTA: It's really freeing. And then also - and then this - the - again, owning your authority. Like, owning your space. I mean, I learned that over years. But, yeah. I mean, I went to boarding school, I think - how old? I think I was 12 my first year and turned 13, so I was really young. And I really wanted to fit in, and I really was still also grappling with what it meant to be Black.

Like, I remember my mom trying to talk to me about shopping while Black, and I was like, Mom, what are you talking about? I was like, what are you - what is that? I was like - I just, like, didn't want to hear it. And she's like - and she'd be like - you know, if I was reading, like, Elle magazine, she'd also give me an Essence. She just wanted me to know, like - she was trying to tell me, like, the world's going to tell you some lies about yourself, and I want you to not believe them. And I - being young, I was, like, trying to figure out how to be a person, let alone, like, get all this extra information. And she really - and I credit her so much for this. She really just - she just knew what it would be like, and especially going away to school, like, which she really wanted me to do, too, 'cause my mom is huge in education. And I really got that from her.

MOSLEY: Your mother, Charmaine DaCosta - she was in the girl group Worl-A-Girl. They were a reggae group that did the Jamaica bobsled chant for the movie "Cool Runnings," which...

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...Came out in 1993. And I actually want to play a little bit of it 'cause...

DACOSTA: Yay.

MOSLEY: ...I think that everybody kind of knows this once they hear it. Let's listen to a little bit.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JAMAICAN BOBSLEDDING CHANT")

WORL-A-GIRL: (Vocalizing).

(Chanting) Go. Go. Go.

Love to all Jamaicans. Big up the ice scene (ph). I know when the bobsled team this year, me come fi running (ph). Worl-A-Girl say so. Seh wha (ph)?

(Singing) Lahs (ph), enough people can't believe Jamaica have a bobsled team. Woi (ph), enough people can't believe Jamaica have a bobsled team.

(Singing) Sometimes in life, there's disappointment. We've got to keep on working for our goals.

We have to work hard, man.

(Singing) You know you can achieve whatever you believe. Keep your eyes on the prize. Take it a little higher.

(Singing) Lahs, enough people can't believe Jamaica have a bobsled team. Woi, enough people can't believe Jamaica have a bobsled team.

Seh wha?

(Singing) You have be fast.

MOSLEY: That was the reggae group Worl-A-Girl singing "The Jamaica Bobsled Chant," which was written and performed by my guest today's mother, Charmaine DaCosta. You had to be around 3 or 4 when that came out.

DACOSTA: Oh, my gosh. I loved hearing that. I mean, I remember meeting Doug E. Doug, and I remember...

MOSLEY: Oh (laughter).

DACOSTA: ...Like, my mom - like, Shaggy used to, like, watch me when they performed together. Like, you know, that was, like, my childhood. Like, and I was - like, being on their music video sets and being in the studio with my mom. And then my mom would go on tour for - you know, for some stretches of time. So crazy. Like, I (laughter) - oh, so fun. I love it so much.

MOSLEY: Your mom, she's a powerhouse in her own right. She's also been a gospel singer.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: She has a juice business. How did watching her navigate all these different chapters shape or help you think about your own career?

DACOSTA: Oh, man. I mean, my mom is someone who's had so many lives, it feels like. And she's so fiercely intelligent, and she also - I really feel I can do anything. And she always said to me, like, I'll support you, whatever you want to do. But I think she valued, one, education, but also ambition. And when I wanted to be an artist, I remember her saying, you know, you just need to know that it's going to be tough, and you're going to be broke, and you're going to be like, why am I doing this to myself? But if you love it, it's worth it, and the money will come. And I really believed that. You know, I - and she was right. 'Cause, you know, we're not well off, you know, and there was no - there's no backup plan for me in terms of - you know, if I don't make rent, it's like, I don't make rent. There's no one I can go and say, can you give me money, you know? But my mom prepared me for that life. She was like - and watching her live it, watching her success, the modicum of success she had with her career in the '90s. And also the way she operated, like, the joy with which my mom pursued her art. Like, I - she's happiest when she's singing. And I've seen that. It made me feel how important it is for me to do the same.

MOSLEY: You know, I've been wondering - your mom says to you, the world is your oyster, but yet you didn't grow up with a lot of money.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Your mom went into a lot of debt to send you to these really great schools.

DACOSTA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: And so there are these two things that exist together, like follow your dreams, but there wasn't, like, just this clear road to success. So how...

DACOSTA: No.

MOSLEY: ...Did you hold those two things together as a young person?

DACOSTA: I think the lesson I got from all that was follow your dreams, but it costs you something. You know, it's work, and it's hard, and you have to love it. I mean, they say that your first day in film school, but, you know, for me, I mean, I also - you know, I've seen my mom go from, you know, signed to Island Def Jam and touring a lot to not being able to make a living singing, which she was able to do when I was really young. So I also knew that that was something that could happen, that you could, you know, go from being at the top of the world to - 'cause my mom, you know, she also worked in "30 Rock." She worked as an executive assistant at GE. And so, you know, I saw when the life changes and how you have to make space for your passions when it is no longer your vocation. But my mom, she just - her spirit is so beautiful. I think she just - she really believes in pursuing it, no matter what. Because I think her ethos is sort of like, you have a plan B, but that's what you do when you fail. That isn't - that's not what you do without trying.

MOSLEY: When she worked at "30 Rock," did you ever visit or have a chance to visit?

DACOSTA: Oh, my God. I was there all the time. I mean, also, like, single mom. I was just, like, booping around the office like, hey.

(LAUGHTER)

DACOSTA: And, you know, I remember bring-your-daughters-to-work day. It was so fun 'cause, as you can imagine, "30 Rock" - like, everything gets shot there. We had, like - they did, like - you know, of course, I did horror makeup. They did, like, a makeup thing, and you can get, like, a wound or something on your head, and I got, like, a wound on my forehead and walked around with my mom.

MOSLEY: (Laughter).

DACOSTA: And people were like, is she OK? My mom's like, she's fine. But also, like, even that, like, another parent might have said, like, OK, take that off your head. We're going outside. My mom just let me be a weirdo. Like, she really just let me, (laughter) you know, be a little freak, and she didn't stamp out my voice. If anything, the times when she tried to, like, shift or correct me was when she - it was about my safety.

MOSLEY: Nia DaCosta, this has been such a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much.

DACOSTA: Thank you so much, Tonya, for having me.

MOSLEY: Nia DaCosta's new film is called "Hedda." It's in theaters and also streaming on Amazon Prime Video. After a short break, jazz critic Martin Johnson reviews the new album from Linda May Han Oh. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MARY LOU WILLIAMS' "A GRAND NIGHT FOR SWINGING")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5588627

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CULTURE | UPDATED WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 11:14 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

White House fires entire commission that reviews designs for federal buildings

By Elizabeth Blair

Heard on All Things Considered

The White House has fired six members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the independent federal agency that advises the president and Congress on design plans for monuments, memorials, coins and federal buildings. The seven member commission is made up of experts in architecture, art, urban and landscape design. Since its creation in 1910, the commission has reviewed plans for everything from Arlington National Cemetery to Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

As first reported by The Washington Post, the commissioners who were terminated are Bruce Redman Becker, Peter D. Cook, Lisa E. Delplace, William J. Lenihan, Justin Garrett Moore and vice chair Hazel Ruth Edwards. The chair position, now vacant, was held by Billie Tsien, one of the architects working on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Lenihan confirmed in an email to NPR the six were terminated "effective immediately."

In an email to NPR, the White House said it is "preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump's America First Policies."

The commissioners would have advised President Trump on his anticipated White House ballroom and his plans for a monument similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which he says will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. In an email to NPR, architect Bruce Redman Becker, one of the commissioners who was fired, wrote that "Neither project has been submitted for review yet."

President Trump has not yet announced who the new commissioners will be. During his first term, Justin Shubow, founder and president of the National Civic Art Society served as chair and White House ballroom architect James McCrery was one of its commissioners.

In 2021, President Biden fired four commissioners who'd been appointed by Trump in his first term, including Shubow. Like Trump, Shubow is a champion of traditional and classical architecture.

The White House has not yet responded to NPR's request for comment.

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

President Trump has fired all of the members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. That's the independent federal agency that looks over plans for monuments, memorials, coins and federal buildings - things like Arlington National Cemetery or the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. All six members were told over email that they were terminated, quote, "effective immediately." Now, there are usually seven commissioners. One position was vacant. Here to tell us more about all of this is NPR's Elizabeth Blair. Hey, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.

DETROW: So does this perhaps have something to do with a big controversy right now, the White House ballroom that we keep hearing about, the one where the East Wing used to be until it was demolished?

BLAIR: Well, it's fair to say that the commission would have advised the president on the ballroom, but the ballroom is just one of Trump's ambitions when it comes to changing the look of Washington, D.C. He has also proposed a major new monument - an arch, much like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Now, it's possible he doesn't want anyone to get in the way of his plans, but that's not the role of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

DETROW: OK. Well, tell us a little bit more about what their role is, how they fit into this.

BLAIR: The commission is made up of people at the top of their field in architecture, the arts, urban and landscape design. And the idea is that the president and Congress rely on them for their expertise when it comes to design. I talked to Sara Bronin, a law professor at George Washington University and the former chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which is a similar agency. Here's what she said.

SARA BRONIN: Overall, their scope is generally advisory in nature. However, their opinions should be taken into account by decision-makers. We have seen that their expertise has led to improvements in proposals. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that will be the case with the president's proposed ballroom.

BLAIR: It's important to note here that the lead architect of the White House ballroom, James McCrery, was himself a fine arts commissioner during Trump's first term. So the president is familiar with how the commission works. In fact, in his first term, the White House built a new tennis pavilion that the commission worked on.

DETROW: At times, President Trump fires people and restaffs them with allies. At times, he fires people and just never fills the positions again. Any sense which one it is here?

BLAIR: They said they are restaffing. In an email, a spokesperson said they are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump's America First policies.

DETROW: Now, this is not the first time that a president has fired this whole commission, though, isn't it?

BLAIR: That's right. When President Biden took office, he fired four of the commissioners that Trump had appointed, and this is where it gets to a matter of taste about architecture. During President Trump's first and second terms, he issued executive orders that require the designs of federal buildings be traditional or neoclassical. So out with the new, in with the old. No boxy brutalism like the old FBI building, which Trump has said is just plain ugly, and a lot of people have agreed with that. But many architects continue to push back on this idea. They say today's buildings shouldn't be modeled after ancient Greece or Rome and that the style of a building shouldn't be dictated. It should be whatever the particular structure, purpose, location or community calls for.

DETROW: I mean, all of this makes me wonder what - how it works. If I have an idea for a memorial - I don't know, a memorial to public radio or whatever, can I just apply to the commission? How does that work?

BLAIR: No, you cannot.

DETROW: OK.

BLAIR: You - not as a private individual, but you can if you are with a federal or D.C. government agency. But you can observe the process.

DETROW: OK.

BLAIR: The commissioners meet monthly to review proposals, and those meetings are open to the general public, but not during the shutdown.

DETROW: That is NPR culture correspondent Elizabeth Blair. Thank you so much.

BLAIR: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF EMOTIONAL ORANGES SONG, "TALK ABOUT US (FEAT ISAIAH FALLS)")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5589793

FAR-FLUNG POSTCARDS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 8:30 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Greetings from high up in Colombia's Andes, where 'prairie-style meat' is a delicacy

By John Otis

Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.

In the central plaza of this remote northern Colombian town, I came upon a ring of metal rods skewered with tenderloin, ribs and brisket, encircling a smoky fire.

Men in cowboy hats were making carne a la llanera, which means "prairie-style meat." It's a culinary tradition from the plains (los llanos) of southeast Colombia, where cowboys and cattle herds still roam.

But what were they doing in Monguí, which sits 9,500 feet high in the Andes Mountains?

Turns out carne a la llanera is popular all over Colombia. In Monguí, the succulent aroma helped draw hundreds of people to the plaza, where their purchase of a raffle ticket included a plate of the fire-roasted beef.

Tied to a nearby tree was a cute but nervous-looking lamb. I feared the animal was bound for the spit — but later learned it would go to the holder of the winning lottery ticket.

See more photos from around the world:

- Greetings from an Indian Railways coach, with spectacular views from Mumbai to Goa

- Greetings from the Rhône Glacier, where a gash of pink highlights how it's melting

- Greetings from the Mediterranean, where dolphins swim alongside a migrant rescue ship

- Greetings from Kyiv, where you might stumble across Zelenskyy taking a stroll

- Greetings from Guatemala, where one person's trash becomes another's colorful art

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-95196

BOOK REVIEWS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 7:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

If you liked 'Sandwich,' you'll love 'Wreck,' its warm, witty sequel

By Heller McAlpin

Some characters are just too good to let go after a single book: Olive Kitteridge, Hercule Poirot, Tom Sawyer. And now, in Wreck, Catherine Newman has given Rocky, the sharp-witted, neurotically doting mother who narrates her delicious 2024 novel, Sandwich, a repeat engagement.

When we first met her in Sandwich, Rocky was thrilled to have her husband, grown children, and aging parents all together under one roof during the family's annual vacation on Cape Cod. But squeezed between generations and moodily menopausal, she was feeling the weight of both past secrets and future change.

Wreck is even funnier, yet also more earnest in its explorations of life's fundamental impermanence. It picks up the story of Rocky and her brood two years later, back home in western Massachusetts. Wreck can stand on its own, but chances are, you'll want to read both books.

Wreck's cover, like Sandwich's, features a soft-focus photograph of an alluring porch-fronted all-American house that telegraphs that this novel is not about a real estate teardown. In fact, the title refers to Rocky's state after being knocked off-kilter by a serious health scare and a local train crash that hits too close to home.

Newman's novel is animated more by wit, warmth, and worry than by plot. Its plot, such as it is, is set in motion when insomniacal Rocky, awake in the wee hours, googles the insidious rash that is spreading over her body. That's mistake number one. Mistake number two is reading a local news report about a high school classmate of her son's, who has been killed in a collision with an oncoming train at a railroad crossing.

The rash leads to an increasingly alarming medical odyssey, while the train crash leads to disturbing theories about how this might have happened. One plausible explanation involves a consulting firm that advised the railroad to save money on maintenance. (It's more complicated than that, but I'll leave readers to untangle the situation.)

This isn't the first time Newman has made light of dire diseases: We All Want Impossible Things, her moving and improbably funny first novel about the death of a dear friend, was so convincing I thought it was a memoir.

At her best, Newman evokes Nora Ephron. Rocky works from home writing what she's well aware are silly Home-ec type articles for various publications. She's a font of hilarious riffs about the absurdity of life — the ridiculous complexity of juice bar menus and the frustrations of modern medicine. She complains to her family about being fired from her own "etiquette column," but happily, we get to read her over-the-top angry email drafts to her editors before she wisely deletes them.

Sometimes, Rocky's life feels like an updated version of cozy mid-century sitcoms about idealized American families. She's still the one cooking dinner every night and making coffee every morning for her unerringly supportive husband Nick, a physical therapist, her grieving 92-year-old father, who moved into their home temporarily a year ago after his wife's death, and her anxious, queer, migraine-afflicted daughter, Willa, who is back home from college, working in a local university lab while applying to Ph.D. programs in neuroscience. But unlike those sitcom moms, Rocky is a regular customer at her favorite marijuana dispensary. (A camping trip where she and her best friend get stoned and laugh uncontrollably falls flat.)

One of Newman's strengths as a writer is her ability to evoke widely shared predicaments with fresh images. When Rocky's father can't recall an old friend's name, she writes, "I know this exact feeling. I can be on my mental hands and knees, flailing around under the couch of my mind with a hockey stick, trying to sweep out a name I can't remember — and all I'll dredge up is a Ping-Pong ball, a catnip mouse, and a spool of thread. If I look away, though, sometimes it might creep out on its own little feet."

Newman can veer sentimental, but she mostly pulls off another mix of irreverent quips and heartfelt reverence in Wreck. At one point, frequently flippant Rocky describes herself as almost pathologically empathic," an undammable river of mother love."

During soothing woodland walks with her family and consoling cuddles with her daughter and cats, that river pretty much overflows its banks. Rocky gushes, "this moment, here, with my beautiful daughter in the beautiful world." Smitten parents will relate.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5587829

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NATIONAL | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025 • 5:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Love or hate chain restaurants? We want to hear your story

By Alana Wise, Jaclyn Diaz

Chain restaurants (think Red Lobster, Chili's, Cracker Barrel, etc.) can be found across the country, serving up familiar fare and comforting memories to millions. Even amid high food prices and increasingly stiff competition, these restaurants endure.

NPR is exploring why and how — and what keeps people coming back.

For many, these cozy, recognizable spaces are where some of life's most memorable moments unfold. Does this sound like you? We want to hear your stories.

What role have chain restaurants played in your life? Do they hold a special place in your heart — or a spot on your personal do-not-return list?

NPR reporters are hitting the road to examine the role chain restaurants play in American culture. Your stories may help shape our reporting — and we may even reach out to meet up with a few of you along the way.

Please note: Your submission will be governed by our general Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. As the Privacy Policy says, we want you to be aware that there may be circumstances in which the exemptions provided under law for journalistic activities or freedom of expression may override privacy rights you might otherwise have.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5588623

Trans

- Trump pushes an end to medical care for transgender youth nationally: 2025 Oct 30

SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2025 • 9:00 AM EDT | VIEW ON NPR

Trump pushes an end to medical care for transgender youth nationally

By Selena Simmons-Duffin

Access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth will be dramatically restricted by the Trump administration under new proposals by the Department of Health and Human Services.

NPR has obtained the draft text of a proposed rule that would prohibit federal Medicaid reimbursement for medical care provided to transgender patients younger than age 18. It also prohibits reimbursement through the Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP for patients under age 19.

An additional proposed rule would go even further, blocking all Medicaid and Medicare funding for any services at hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care.

The rules are being prepared for public release in early November, according to an employee at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The employee asked that NPR not use their name because they fear professional retribution for speaking to the media without authorization. An HHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the planned timing of the proposed rules' release.

A near ban in all states

Both supporters and opponents of transgender rights agree that, taken together, the forthcoming rules could make access to pediatric gender-affirming care across the country extremely difficult, if not impossible. The care is already banned in 27 states.

"These rules would be a significant escalation in the Trump administration's attack on access to transgender health care," says Katie Keith, director of the Center for Health Policy and the Law at Georgetown University.

"I think it's really, really important to note that nothing is changing immediately," she explains. "These would be proposals that would go out for public comment, it would take months for the Trump administration to issue a final rule, and then, if past is prologue, we would see litigation over whatever the final rules are."

Administration goals

In his first days in office, President Trump signed an executive order declaring that the United States "will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called 'transition' of a child from one sex to another."

In the months since, HHS released a report critical of the research that supports access to this care. A federal suicide prevention lifeline specifically for transgender youth was cancelled, as were hundreds of millions of dollars in scientific research funding related to LGBTQ people. Federal health officials warned state Medicaid directors to tread carefully, and the Department of Justice announced subpoenas of some children's hospitals and threatened providers with prosecution.

"I think these restrictions are very good," says Terry Schilling of the forthcoming rules. Schilling is president of the American Principles Project, a conservative advocacy group. "It's going to change the entire transgender industry, and it's going to take away a lot of their funding streams."

He points to an opinion poll from the spring, which found 66% of the public opposes Medicaid coverage for this type of care for young people.

"They believe that if you want to get some type of sex-trait modification procedure, you should have to pay for it," Schilling says. "The American people are fully behind this effort."

Dramatic new expansion of power

The proposal to condition a hospital's participation in Medicaid and Medicare on halting gender-affirming care for youth represents an "unprecedented" use of the executive branch's power to control what medical care is available in hospitals, says Keith.

"Because Medicare is such a significant portion of many hospitals' revenue," she explains, the rule would essentially force hospitals to end their gender care programs for transgender youth. That would mean all of those programs' patients — whether they have Medicaid or private insurance — would lose access.

This is not how the federal government normally uses this type of rule, Keith says. She served in the Biden administration on the Gender Policy Council, and worked on some "conditions of participation" regulations for Medicare and Medicaid, she says. "They're so basic — it's like, you have to have a crash cart [with] enough medicine to help a pregnant woman in crisis."

Instead of health and safety standards, this proposal would instruct hospitals "to stop offering a certain type of care completely to a certain patient population," she says.

Law professor Katie Eyer of Rutgers University questions whether such a rule would survive a court challenge. "But if it were successful, I shudder to think what this administration would do with such a tool in their hands," she says. It could open the door for any White House to withhold all federal funding from hospitals over the provision of medical care that it disfavors.

"The writing has been on the wall that this has been coming," says Lindsey Dawson, director of LGBTQ Health Policy at KFF, a nonpartisan health research organization.

Yet the timing of the release has been a mystery for months. Notice of both proposed rules — though not the rules themselves — appeared on a government register over the summer, and it's been unclear why they have yet to be released, Dawson says.

'An obsessive focus'

The administration's efforts on transgender issues stretch far beyond health policy and beyond youth. The Federal Trade Commission recently hosted a workshop "on unfair or deceptive trade practices in 'gender-affirming care' for minors." The military forced out transgender servicemembers. Universities have been told their federal funding is contingent on adopting anti-transgender policies on issues like bathroom access.

Even the impending lapse in funding for food assistance, or SNAP, is linked to Democratic support for "gender mutilation procedures," according to a banner on the Department of Agriculture website.

"It's endless," says Eyer. "It really has been an obsessive focus that's been deployed across the administration."

The warning letters and cancelled grants and more have had a significant chilling effect. In the states where the care is still legal, many clinics and hospitals have ended their programs for gender-affirming care. If these rules were to take effect, the remaining programs would likely follow suit.

"There are real people behind all this," says Eyer, who is also the parent of a transgender child. "People are really scared and suffering as a result of this onslaught of attacks on the trans community."

It's still legal, although access is shrinking

Gender-affirming care for youth — including puberty blocking medications, hormones, and rarely, surgery — does not actually violate federal law, Eyer notes. And, despite recent political pressure, no major U.S. medical organization has altered their clinical guidance that supports these treatments as appropriate and safe.

Approximately 3% of youth in the U.S. identify as transgender or nonbinary, although not all of them seek medical treatment related to their identity.

Notably, in Utah, a state-commissioned analysis of the evidence recently came to the opposite conclusion as the Trump administration's transgender report. University of Utah researchers found that there was ample evidence of benefits and safety for these treatments, and wrote that policy restrictions on this care for youth "cannot be justified based on the quantity or quality of medical science findings or concerns about potential regret in the future."

The draft text of the proposed federal rule obtained by NPR does not mention the Utah analysis, nor does it cite the American Academy of Pediatrics, whose guidelines also support access to the care.

In Eyer's view, the public release of these rules will offer the opportunity for them to be legally challenged.

"It will be subject to 'arbitrary and capricious' review, and a court will presumably take a close look at the factual basis that actually underlies it," she says. "That is actually preferable to what we've had up until now, which is coercion without law."

Diane Webber edited this story.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5588655

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