NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-04-2025 12AM EST

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. The Trump administration says it will restart federal food assistance, but recipients will only get half of what they normally receive. The administration had said it would not use a contingency fund for the program during the government shutdown, but announced that changes over the last weeks due to court rulings. NPR's Windsor-Johnston reports that millions of Americans depend on SNAP, the supplemental nutrition assistance, program. The threat of missing snap benefits is sending a wave of anxiety through low-income families, many of whom already live on the edge. Mental health experts say the stress isn't just about food, it's about fear. Martha Wadsworth is a professor of psychology at Penn State University. She says the shutdown is re-traumatizing for people who've already endured poverty, displacement, and instability. Increases stress, and we know stress has effects on the brain. And for kiddos who are hungry, who have food insecurity, it affects their sleep.

It's hard to sleep when you're hungry. If benefits lapse, experts say it won't just be hunger, it will be a mental health crisis. Windsor Johnston and PR News, Washington. The front runner from Mayor of New York City, Democrats are on Mamdani, is responding to President Trump's support for former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's run for the mayor's office, saying Trump views Cuomo as his best option. option. We know and have known for months that Donald Trump would favor Andrew Cuomo as the mayor. They share the same donors. They share the same small vision. They share the same sense of impunity. Mamdani speaking at a campaign stop in Queens Monday night earlier Monday. Trump repeated his threat to withhold federal money if Mamdani wins Tuesday's election. Federal government

charging two Michigan men with firearm offenses and accusing them of plotting terrorism. Quinn Kleinfelter, member station WDET reports on the government's allegations that the men planned an attack in the Detroit area over the Halloween weekend. The FBI took five men into custody during pre-dawn raids on Halloween day. Agents said they seized several AR-15 style rifles and other weapons. FBI director Koch Patel says the Bureau prevented a, quote, massacre. Now the government is charging Muhammad Ali and Majid Mahmoud with transferring and receiving firearms and ammunition, alleging there is reasonable cause to believe they would have used them to commit terrorism.

The government says the men shared Islamic State-inspired material online, trained with weapons, and scouted potential targets in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. A defense attorney claims the men were just tough-talking video gamers who used guns for recreation. For NPR News, I'm Quinn Kleinfelter, Detroit. This is NPR. Israel has identified the three bodies returned to Israel by Hamas as part of the U.S. brokered seized fire, one of them, an American-Israeli soldier. He was 21 years old when he died during the October 7th attack. On Monday, Israel handed over the bodies of 45 Palestinians. The Afghan health ministry says more than 20 people have died

in an earthquake that rocked the country's north entering dozens of people. This latest quake follows one in August that killed more than 2,200 people in Afghanistan. Here's impures Dia Hadid reporting. The Taliban government dispatched emergency teams shortly after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook northern Afghanistan before dawn, destroying dozens of homes. Alongside the dead and wounded, Taliban officials said the earthquake damaged one of Afghanistan's most important buildings, the historic blue mosque in the city of Mazadi Sharif. It's a revered religious landmark and is named for the bright blue tiles that cover the building.

It comes just weeks after an earthquake struck southern Afghanistan's mountainous areas, which wipes some villages away in their entirety. Eight groups have struggled to raise money to aid Afghans as they reel from one crisis to another. Dee Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai. Actor Diane Ladd has died. Her daughter, Laura Dern, confirmed Lad's death in a statement saying she passed away at her home in Ohio, California. She was 89. Dern says her mother was an amazing hero and a profound gift. That appeared in dozens of movies over her career and was nominated

three times for an Academy Award. This is NPR News.