NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-03-2025 12AM EST

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roman. The Trump administration says it could begin funding the nationwide SNAP program again this week. As NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, it comes in response to rulings of two federal judges about whether the government has to use emergency funding to keep the food aid flowing. Speaking on CNN's State of the Union, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said funding could resume by midweek. President Trump wants to make sure that people. get their food benefits. So it could be done by Wednesday. Could be. Money for the federal program ran out on Saturday. A day before, a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the government to use emergency money to fund SNAP benefits as soon as possible. The Trump administration previously argued

that it could not use contingency funds to keep it afloat. Nearly 42 million Americans rely on SNAP, the supplemental nutrition assistance program. The federal government has been shut down for more than a month. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. The U.S. Supreme Court this week will hear arguments on whether President Trump overstepped his authority, imposing tariffs against dozens of nations as a cornerstone of his economic agenda and also part of American foreign policy during his second term. Several court rulings have found the White House does not have the emergency powers to impose the tariffs, though a 1977 law allows presidents to regulate imports during an emergency. On Air Force, One, the president outlined why he believes he has that authority.

I think it's the most important decision, one of the most important decisions in the history of our country, because without tariffs, without our being able to use tariffs really openly and in every way, we are really would suffer tremendously from a national security standpoint. The lower court left the tariffs in place why the Supreme Court considers the issue. Belgium's defense chief is threatening to shoot down the next drones that enter the country's airspace from Brussels. Terry Schultz reports unidentified aerial vehicles have repeatedly been seen hovering over a military base that houses U.S. nuclear weapons. For the second night in a row, drones were spotted flying over the Kleinebrugel military base in northeast Belgium. That's one of the locations in Europe where the U.S. stores nuclear weapons.

It's the third military base in Belgium, where drones have been detected in recent weeks. Belgian defense minister Teo Francon, who has previously said he wants to take down any such unmanned aerial vehicle seen above bases, reports that a weapon that should have done that jammed in the latest incident. Franken says police tried to track the drones by helicopter and car, but they got away. The minister says he'll urgently ask the government for more resources to combat drones this week. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. Wall Street begins a new trading month on Monday. The Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ were all up in the month of October.

This is NPR. There are now only a couple of days left in California's special election on a measure that could reshape how the state is represented in Congress. KQED's Billy Cruz reports the measure was created in response to Texas' successful redistricting efforts. Proposition 50 would allow state leaders to temporarily redraw congressional data. districts to be more favorable to Democrats. Outside a voting center in South San Francisco, Larry Heath explains why he is in support of Prop 50. I think it's necessary because of the things are happening, Texas,

we've got to do our part to counterbalance that. Other voters like Mark Wong think the special election is a waste of money. I don't think that California should be spending our own tax dollars on solving the nation's problems. We should be refocusing our money and dealing with our own issues here in our own state. Election Day is Tuesday. For NPR News, I'm Billy Cruz and South San Francisco. A homeowner in Heidelberg, Mississippi Sunday shot and killed one of the research monkeys that escaped last Tuesday when a truck overturned on Interstate 59.

The woman said her teenage son alerted her that a monkey was running in their yard. She grabbed a gun and shot the primate because she said, She wanted to protect her children. The monkeys were housed at Tulane University's National Biomedical Research Facility in New Orleans. Most of the monkeys on the truck died in the crash, but at least three escaped and were missing at the time. I'm Dan Ronan, NPR News, in Washington.