NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-08-2025 1PM EST

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rom. The Senate is in session today, the first weekend session since the government shut down October 1st. Democrats say they're offering a compromise to reopen the government, but Republican Senate leader John Thune says it's a non-starter. NPR's Barbara Sprunt reports. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a proposal to reopen the government with a one-year extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits. Those credits are set to expire at the end of the year. and have been central to this government shut down. Most Democratic senators have been holding out on voting to fund the government until Republicans agree to extend those credits. Schumer also proposed establishing a bipartisan committee to negotiate on long-term health care reforms. Republicans want to address health care subsidies after the government reopens.

Any deal in the Senate would also have to pass the House, which remains out of town. Barbara Sprint and Pier News, the Capitol. More than 2,000 flights across the U.S. have been canceled or delayed today. Under FAA orders, the nation's busiest airports are cutting 4% of flights, building to 10% by next week. NPR's Amy Held reports. A stressed system is stressing out flyers. Total headache. Disaster nightmare. Richard Alvario's Philadelphia to Florida flight was rebooked twice. Working unpaid, fewer air traffic control workers are showing up. The Senate meantime showing up for its first Saturday session in the shutdown. Capping the week,

it became the longest in history, surpassing the record 35 days under the first Trump administration. Mounting travel disruptions then pressured lawmakers and Trump to compromise. Now weeks before the Thanksgiving rush, with billions of dollars and millions of travelers on the line, travel industry groups are imploring Congress

to end this shutdown and avert what they say would be a crisis. Amy Held and PR News. The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to withhold, for now, payments under SNAP, the Federal Food Assistance Program. This allows a lower court more time to consider the administration's request to make only partial payments. Snap benefits have lapsed for the first time in the 60-year history of the program. Ellie Coffrey is a special education teacher in Pennsylvania. She says many of her students rely in the program, so she began packing lunches for them. We can come together for a common cause,

and at the end of the day, the kids, the people that are really affected are the kids. They don't have to say whatever happens, and we need to protect them. So this is helping me do that, and it's showing me that we are able to do that. A video of her packing lunches has received more than a million views. She says that people are sending her donations, which has restored her faith in humanity. Arctic Air is moving across much of the country this weekend, bringing cold temperatures from the northern plains to the southeast. This is NPR News in Washington.

Ukrainian officials say Russia launched missiles and drones overnight, targeting the country's energy infrastructure. A drone also struck an apartment building in the eastern city of Nipro. Officials say at least three people were killed in the attacks. Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, posted on social media, the strikes on energy are aimed at harming ordinary people before winter. A single infusion of an experimental gene editing drug appears safe and effective for cutting cholesterol, possibly for life. The approach could someday offer a powerful new weapon to

fight heart disease, the nation's leading killer. NPR's Rob Stein has the story. Doctors infused an experimental gene editing drug into 15 patients to test whether a one-time infusion can permanently lower cholesterol by editing a gene in the liver and found, the infusion could safely cut cholesterol, as well as triglycerides, by as much as half. The findings presented at the American Association's annual scientific meeting mirror those produced by a similar experimental approach also being tested. But much more research is needed to confirm that a one-time infusion can safely and effectively cut cholesterol for life. Rob Stein and Peer News.

Both UPS and FedEx announced yesterday they're grounding their McDonnell Douglas MD-11 cargo planes after a deadly crash this week. A UPS plane crashed at its hub in Louisville, Kentucky Tuesday, moments after takeoff, 14 people were killed. I'm Nora Rahm. NPR News in Washington.