The Headlines - A Major New Experiment in Voting, and the World’s Most Polluted Air

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Plus, your Friday news quiz. Here’s what we’re covering:Federal Agencies Return to Work After Longest Shutdown in History by Eileen SullivanU.S. Strike Kills 4 on Boat Trump Says Was Smuggling Drugs by Helene Cooper and Eric SchmittMemo Blessing Boat Strikes Is Said to Rely on Trump’s Claims About Cartels by Charlie Savage and Julian E. BarnesSwalwell Denies Allegations of Fraud and Says Trump is Targeting Him by John YoonWill People Trust Voting by Phone? Alaska Is Going to Find Out by Nick CorasanitiAn Escape From India’s Air Pollution for Those Who Can Afford It by Alex TravelliBlue Origin Lands Booster After Rocket Launch and Matches SpaceX’s Feat by Kenneth ChangTune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, November 14th. Here's what we're covering. Across the country, the federal government has started to click back into gear. But even as employees return to work and government services come back online, the broader impacts of the record-breaking shutdown are just now starting to come into focus. Well, our Council of Economic Advisors, said that it cost about 15 billion a week and it accumulates to maybe one, one and a half percent of GDP would get out for multiple-player effects.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, one of President Trump's top economic advisors said the shutdown left lasting marks on the U.S. economy and that roughly 60,000 people who weren't federal employees lost their jobs because of the economic impacts. At the same time, many recipients of food stamps are still waiting for their account balances to be updated, and they're feeling a new sense of vulnerability. Even during previous shutdowns, the SNAP program had never been disrupted like this before, with the White House refusing to use emergency funding to keep benefits flowing. The head of a major food bank in Boston told the times that SNAP recipients felt a sense of,

quote, being used as a political pawn when you're just trying to feed your families, and that people had been plunged into what she called continuous uncertainty. Other side effects of the shutdown are also becoming clear. Federal courts now have a pile up of cases they're working through after spending more than 40 days delaying less urgent hearings. And the country's national parks are taking stock of damage after most remained partially open, even with little-to-no staff to monitor them. For example, at Gettysburg, a stone wall was top of,

and at Arches National Park in Utah, people illegally drove off-road vehicles across the landscape. Meanwhile, RICO, I want to present to you a check and say thank you from the American people. Appreciate it. Ashley, thank you. Christy Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, began handing out $10,000 checks to TSA officers, who she said went above and beyond during the shutdown. She distributed the first round of checks during an event at an airport, in Houston, though she didn't say exactly what criteria were used to decide who should get them or how many would be given out in total.

TSA agents, along with air traffic controllers, were required to work unpaid during the shutdown. An official at a union representing the agents said the bonuses were, quote, great for some, but it's better to give everybody a little something because they all suffered. Now, two more updates on the Trump administration. The U.S. military has carried out another strike on a boat in the Caribbean, bringing the death toll in its campaign against alleged drug traffickers to 80 people. Since the strike started in early September, the U.S. has hit boats in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, claiming they're smuggling drugs to the U.S., though officials have provided, little to know evidence of that. The Times has now learned new details about a secret

Justice Department memo that signed off on the campaign. It says the killings are lawful based on claims President Trump has made that the U.S. is officially in a state of armed conflict with drug cartels. But those claims that the memo hangs on contradict the assessment of a broad range of experts in the use of force who say there is no legitimate armed conflict and that Trump has illegally ordered the military to commit murder. Also, Well, first, of course, these allegations are false, just like the allegations against Adam Schiff are false,

and Letitia James are false. Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California is pushing back after reports broke that he's been referred to the Justice Department for a potential criminal investigation. According to NBC News, the referral claims Swalwell committed mortgage and tax fraud, accusations similar to those made against other high-profile critics or targets of the president, like Senator Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

Swalwell, who helped lead one of the impeachment efforts against Trump, denied any wrongdoing and said in a statement, quote, The only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long to come after me. The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In Alaska, the state's largest city is gearing up for a big experiment, letting residents vote not just in person or by mail, but by using their smartphones. Voting over the Internet is not entirely new. Some military and overseas voters have been able to do that for a while.

But in Anchorage, with almost a quarter million registered voters, the trial run of phone voting will be the first of this scale in the country. My colleague Nick Khorasinidi, who covers elections and voting, says the city has a lot of reasons for trying this out, which they're preparing to do this spring. Officials in Alaska told me that the main reason to experiment with this is because voting can just be logistically challenging in the state. They have to deal with bad weather. They have to deal with extremely long distances and people living in very rural areas. And they also have a pretty transient population. So people who work on the offshore oil and gas rigs, up in the North Slope, some fishermen who work very seasonally. So their argument is that being able to vote on your phone

will allow more people to participate in elections and eliminate a lot of the reasons ballots are either undelivered or never make it back to them. Nick says officials are trying it first at the municipal level with school board and city assembly elections, the kind of local race where turnout can be really low. Their argument is exploring any way to get more people voting is a good thing for the country.

But at the same time, voting experts I talk to say that this push is coming at a time when trust in elections has been significantly shaken. There's the ongoing fallout from the 2020 election. President Trump is still saying the same falsehoods about his loss there, claiming that there's widespread voter fraud when there simply isn't. But those falsehoods have really taken root among a large part of the Republican base. And rolling out voting by phone at a time. when trust is just so shaken in our election system,

some experts worry could only exacerbate that problem. So it'll be very interesting to see exactly how this experiment in Anchorage works. Does it increase turnout? It'll also be interesting to see whether the same kind of conspiracy theories that we've seen across the country appear in Alaska as well. And we're now getting some more inputs on the story, Overall, Delhi's air quality remains in the severe category, with most locations recording AQI above 350.

This week in New Delhi, the Indian government has imposed emergency measures because of severe air pollution in the capital city. New Delhi is considered the most polluted city in the world, and it gets particularly bad every year about this time. When stagnant winds mean pollutants just hang around. A noxious, grayish fog envelops everything. At some points, the air can contain 30 times. the World Health Organization's limit for fine-grained dust.

That makes breathing difficult for the 32 million people who live there and can even lead to fatal health conditions. For the moment, the government's halted all non-essential construction, banned older vehicles from the streets, and moved schools online. Officials even tried multiple attempts at cloud seating this season to try and create artificial rain to clean the air, but those efforts failed because there wasn't enough moisture. Facing those conditions, many residents have been looking for their own solutions,

and the Times has been covering how the problem has spawned a boom-in-air purification systems. One startup's offering a device that basically creates a pressurized, filtered air bubble in someone's home. That prevents dirty air from leaking inside. It's modeled off the technology used in so-called clean rooms in laboratories. Air quality readings inside those homes can improve drastically, but the cost of the technology underscores the inequality in New Delhi. The price tag for the system is about $2,000. That's 70% of the average annual income there.

And finally, when it comes to rockets and the space race, Elon Musk's company SpaceX has been enjoying a very comfortable lead for a decade or more, just dominating the competition. In part, that's because, it developed the ability to reuse rocket boosters, which used to just crash back into the ocean, never to be used again. By figuring out how to safely land the boosters and put them back to work, SpaceX cut costs and made it possible to launch more rockets more often. It was alone in that innovation until yesterday.

Congratulations, Team Blue. He did it. Now, Jeff Bezos's company, Blue Origin, has cracked it. A landed orbital rocket. What an incredible day. The team nailed the landing of a rocket booster named Never Tell Me the Odds, gently setting it down on a floating platform off the coast of Florida, with the company's employees cheering like mad over the live stream. With this success in the books,

Blue Origin could start to peel away some of the business that SpaceX has had a lock on. The lucrative contracts for sending stuff into space, Blue Origins Landing was impressive enough that even SpaceX had to give it to them. One of the executives of SpaceX posted online, well done. We as Americans should be proud of what we are accomplishing in space. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News Quiz, stick around. It's just after the credits.

This show is made by Will Jarvis, Kate Lopresti, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Zoe Murphy, and Pauphi. Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you get them all? First up. This week, there was a unique effort to try and offset some of the billion-plus dollars in federal funding cuts that the Trump administration has made to public media. There was an auction of several objects from the estate of an iconic public media. personality, and the proceeds are going to struggling stations.

Your question, what went up for auction? You get four options here. A, wool cardigans that once belonged to Mr. Rogers. B, original landscape paintings done by Bob Ross. C. autographed cookbooks from Julia Child. D. The original Burton Ernie puppets designed by Jim Henson. So again, your options are sweaters, paintings, cookbooks, or Muppets. The answer?

Painting should make you happy. And if it doesn't make you happy, you're doing the wrong thing. It was three paintings by Bob Ross that together sold for over half a million dollars. We don't make mistakes. We have happy accidents. The estate of the soft-spoken painter with his unforgettable perm plans to keep the fundraising effort going and auction off 27 more paintings in the coming year. Okay, next one. On Monday, the CEO of one of the country's most valuable companies sent one of

his last letters to shareholders before he retires at the end of this year. In it, he said he'd be speeding up his plans to give away much of his enormous personal fortune, which he made transforming the company into a trillion-dollar juggernaut with a controlling stake in everything from Dairy Queen to Geico. Your question, who is this CEO? While you guess, please enjoy this clip featuring one of his after-work interests, playing the ukulele. Now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain.

A hint, if the ukulele is not doing it for you? Despite being worth $150 billion, the CEO has never moved out of the house he bought in 1958 in Omaha, Nebraska. Much more than this, I did it. The answer? My way. Warren Buffett, who has led Berkshire Hathaway since the mid-60s. Buffett has actually gotten a reputation over the decades for his letters to shareholders, which mix business with solid life advice.

He signed off from the one this week with, I wish all who read this a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, even the jerks. It's never too late to change. Okay, last question. This week, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia pressed the very last American penny. After 232 years, our little copper-colored friend is Dunzo. But the penny will live on in our change jars, under our couch cushions,

and in song. We're going to play you four songs with Penny in the title. Some of these are real toughies, so we're just going to ask you to name the artist. Ready? We're starting easy. That band, of course, is the Beatles with Penny Lane. Next up, name this artist.

And it hurts me so to see the song. That was Willie Nelson, Penny for your thoughts. Third one. Tell me, baby, could this be true? That I could need someone like I need you. That is the very smooth Lionel Richie with Penny Lover. And lastly, that is Dolly, that is Daly Parton, singing if tear drops were pennies and heartaches were gold. That is Dolly Parton singing If Teardrops Were Pennies with Porter Wagner.

Pour one out for the pennies. That is it for the news quiz. If you want to tell us how you did, as always, our email is The Headlines at NYTimes.com. I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back on Monday.