NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-02-2025 3AM EDT

Episode Date: November 2, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Rerun. The government's anti-hunger program known as Snap is on hold with 42 million Americans who rely on it for assistance not receiving their federal monthly assistance. This is despite two federal judges on Friday ruling, the funds must be dispersed. Withholding the money during the government shutdown, President Trump said Friday he's open to keeping the program running. NPR's Jennifer Lutton has more. The administration pointed out that, look, Congress did not pass a budget before this shutdown happened, so there was not enough money for SNAP. There was really no money allocated for the agency that oversees it. And they argued on top of that that they did not have legal authority to tap contingency funds, saying those are meant for things like natural disasters.

Now, two judges yesterday rejected that. They said Congress did provide more than $5 billion in emergency funds for exactly this kind of situation. the administration not only can use that money, it must. Many governors say that they will use emergency funds to pay for those benefits in the interim. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the champs of Major League Baseball for the second year in a row. They beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5 to 4 in 11 innings to win games seven of the World Series. The Dodgers became the first repeat World Series champions in 25 years, and they have dominated the National League's Western Division for more than a decade, winning 12 division.

titles in 13 years. Jeff Reeve is a Dodger fan. He was impressed how the team came back in both games six and seven. The United Nations says that the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, reportedly killed civilians and unarmed fighters during its capture of the city of Elfashir. The Sudanese army recently withdrew from Elfashir, its last stronghold in the Darfur region in the west of the country. The RSF has besieged the city for the past several months, fighting between the RSF and and the Sudanese armed forces has been going on for more than two years now. Meanwhile, today, foreign ministers from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Jordan issued a joint call for an immediate ceasefire to the fighting.

The warring factions in the conflict have created a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of civilians killed and millions displaced. For NPR news, I'm Michael Koloki in Nairobi. That obviously was a report from Michael Koloki reporting on fighting in Sudan. The UN warns hundreds may have been killed during the capture of a key city by a paramilitary group. The ongoing government shutdown continues to cause major disruptions for the nation's air travel system.

The aviation tracking system flight aware says there have been more than 650 cancellations and 2,800 delays just this weekend. Airports at major hubs, including Dallas-Fort Worth, LAX, and Denver International continue to claim the most cancellations over the weekend. From Washington, you're listening to NPR News. British police say at least 10 people have been hospitalized this after a mass stabbing attack on board a London-bound train early Sunday morning. Nine of those people stabbed, sustained life-threatening injuries.

The British Transport Police are describing what took place as a major attack. Counterterrorism officials are also assisting in the investigation. The attack took place on a Doncester to London's Kings Cross train headed south towards Huntington, a market town a few miles northwest of the University City of Cambridge. New research is suggesting that a genetic mutation plays an important role in a form of brain damage associated with contact sports. NPR's John Hamilton has the story. Researchers studied nerve cells from 19 people who died after experiencing repeated head injuries, soften from playing sports like football. Four of these people had healthy brains.

15 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a neurodegenerative disease often found in athletes. A genetic analysis of the nerve cells found a distinctive pattern of gene mutations in brains with CTE. The pattern was not present in brains that appeared healthy despite exposure to head trauma. Researchers say the mutations associated with CTE are similar to those found in brain cells from people with Alzheimer's disease. Both conditions are marked by an accumulation of a protein called TAP. John Hamilton, NPR News. The Pentagon on Saturday said the U.S. military carried out another deadly strike against what it said were drug smugglers in the Caribbean. I'm Dan Ronan, NPR News in Washington.