NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-04-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Seng. White House Prime Secretary Caroline Levitt says the administration is fully complying with the court order to release SNAP benefits following a post from President Trump saying the benefits will be given only when, quote, the radical left Democrats open up government. This month, SNAP beneficiaries will get only half their regular amount. NPR's Jennifer Lutton has more on the impact. Many SNAP recipients are parents like Shalise Hooks in Phoenix. She's a widow and an unobstiary. employed with a 15-year-old son. And it's hard because he's in high school, and when he comes home, he's hungry. That's okay, mama. No, it's not okay.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds to keep snap going. Providence, Rhode Island mayor, Brett Smiley, says it never should have taken a lawsuit for that. To threaten the stability of families who are already struggling is wrong. States must now recalculate to distribute the partial payments, which the administration says could take weeks or even months in some places. Jennifer Lutton, NPR News, Washington. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84. He was a hardline conservative,

but as Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the dispatch, describes NPR. Former Vice President was no fan of President Trump. He argued for a stronger presidency on the assumption that the presidency would be, you know, occupied by a person of real conviction and patriotic principle. And it's sort of, you know, for him, it has to have felt a little bit like a Frankenstein's monster to have this guy he did not like and thought did not put the country first using a lot of the arguments and mechanisms that he tried to put in place for his own end. In 2024, the former vice president and his daughter, former representative Liz Cheney endorsed then Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

In California today, voters go to the polls to vote on Proposition 50, an initiative that would allow congressional maps in the state to be withdrawn. It's designed to counter similar moves by Republicans in other states. Here's Steve Futterman. This all began last summer when President Trump proposed new congressional maps be drawn in Texas. We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats, and we are entitled to five more seats. Texas Republican lawmakers approved the plan, setting the same. stage for likely pickups by the GOP in House seats in Texas next year. Democrats in California led by Gavin Newsom answered with Proposition 50. I know they say don't mess with Texas.

Well, don't mess with the great golden state. Prop 50 is designed to counter any Republican gains in Texas. Opinion polls here show voters likely to approve the plan. For NPR News, I'm Steve Fudderman in Los Angeles. The Dow is down 250 points. This is NPR News. Days after an explosion at Harvard Medical School, U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley has just announced two arrests. 18-year-old Logan David Patterson and 20-year-old

Dominique Frank Cardoza were taken into custody early this morning and charged for their alleged involvement in the explosion. They're charged with conspiracy to dam. by means of fire or an explosive. No one was injured in the incident. The early morning explosion took place in a building that houses labs and offices associated with the school's neurobiology department. No motive has been disclosed. China's leader Xi Jinping welcome Russia's Prime Minister in Beijing today and applauded how relations between the countries are moving forward despite what he called a turbulent global environment. More from NPR's Emily

that top leaders from Russia and China are meeting just days after U.S. President Trump vowed to restart nuclear testing, lent the visit to Beijing more weight. Following trade talks with the U.S., China signed more cooperation agreements with Russia and satellite technology and customs payments. And China's President Xi said deepening ties with the Kremlin was a strategic choice, a choice that Beijing has doubled down on since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, after which trade between Russia and China has increased. The governments of Russia and China have been on and off again rivals and allies, and in recent years, they've grown politically closer as tensions with the U.S. have increased.

Emily Fang and Pierre News. This is NPR.