NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-09-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: November 9, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. More than 2,000 flights were canceled today, according to the flight tracker, Flight Aware.com, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is warning that air traffic around the country could slow significantly if the federal government shutdown continues into the Thanksgiving travel season. It's only going to get worse. I look to, you know, the two weeks before Thanksgiving, you're going to see air travel be reduced to a trickle.

We have a number of people who want to get home for the holidays. They want to see their family. They want to celebrate this great American holiday. Listen, many of them are not going to be able to get on an airplane. Speaking there on CNN, Chris Brown with the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1040, which represents TSA workers in North Texas, says some air traffic controllers who have gone unpaid for nearly a month have stopped working and that their situations are getting dire. Some of my bargaining union employees telling me that they're getting close to be.

being evicted. They're getting close to having their cars repossessed. They can't put food on a table for their families or put gas in their cars just to come to work. The FAA says flight reductions should reach 10 percent by this Friday. Momentum is building in the Senate for a funding pathway that could end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. But as M.P.R.'s Luke Garrett reports Congress still has a long way to go. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says the chamber plans to vote on a bill Sunday that could eventually reopen the government. legislative package includes the House passed continuing resolution, but this version would last until the end of January. The CR would also serve as a vehicle for a partial full-year funding

legislation known as a minibus. But it remains unclear whether Democrats will sign on. Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, a GOP negotiator, wasn't too hopeful. I don't expect anything from the Democrats at this point. Their demands have been so ridiculous. I don't know what they're going to do. And at this point, I frankly don't really cry. Democrats have pushed for an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies before they would agree to fund the government. Health care isn't mentioned in this latest plan. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Millions of Americans are getting their first blast of winter weather a bit early this year. MPIR's Matt Bloom has more on a massive Arctic air moving through the country.

Parts of the Midwest in Great Lakes region are seeing the season's first round of snowfall as a big surge of Arctic air moves southward. It's expected to bring temperatures 10 to 15 degrees below average for dozens of states. Some of the coldest weather is expected Sunday night into Monday morning when parts of Alabama, Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle could see lows dip below freezing. The National Weather Service says the wave of Arctic air could break records for parts of the southern U.S. The cold snap is expected to last through Veterans Day Tuesday, then warm back up to more average November temperatures. Matt Bloom, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News. from Washington.

Jackson, Mississippi is the site of the 82nd National Folk Festival, the state's first time hosting the country's oldest celebration of traditional arts. Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Shemir Muhammad talked to an artist about the unique culture he's representing at the event. The National Folk Festival has been featured in nearly 30 communities around the country, but it's the first time the festival is being hosted in the Deep South. Mississippi Delta blues musician and artist James Johnson goes by the name Super Chicken. He makes guitars from items such as electric vans and cigar boxes, as well as an instrument called the Didlebo.

Dilley Bow is one of the Delta's first blues instruments. It arrived from an African instrument called a chorus. Artists performed bluegrass, West African bellophone, salsa, Irish music, and D.C. Go-Go. Jackson will continue to host the festival through 2027. For NPR News, I'm Shamir Mohamed in Jackson, Mississippi. Super Typhoon Feng Wong slammed into the northeastern coast of the Philippines, leaving at least two people dead and forcing more than one million to evacuate. The typhoon hit the Aurora province today, with winds up to 115 miles an hour. Earlier, the storm brought fierce winds and rain to northeastern provinces. Officials say it could impact about two-thirds of the

country. At the weekend, box office Predator Badlands debuted in the top spot with an estimated $40 million in ticket sales. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington.