The Headlines - A Major Test of Presidential Power, and How States Make Billions From Online Casinos

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

Plus, the social changes sweeping Iran. Here’s what we’re covering:Supreme Court to Hear Major Test of Trump’s Power to Fire Officials by Ann E. MarimowConservative Project at Supreme Court Meets Trump’s Push to Oust Officials by Ann E. MarimowRunning Out of Time, Republicans in Congress Still Lack a Health Plan by Sheryl Gay StolbergBipartisan House Group Proposes Long-Shot Health Care Plan by Catie EdmondsonPoll Suggests G.O.P. Will Face More Blame if Obamacare Subsidies Go Away by Reed AbelsonStates Are Raking In Billions From Slot Machines on Your Phone by Ben BlattAngst Turns to Anger in Hollywood as Netflix Hooks Warner Bros. by Brooks Barnes and Shawn HublerOutdoor Concerts? Uncovered Hair? Shimmying in Public? Is This Iran? by Farnaz Fassihi and Sanam MahooziTune 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 Will Jarvis in for Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, December 8th, here's what we're covering. This morning, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a major case about presidential power that could upend the fundamental structure of the modern U.S. government. The case centers on whether President Trump had the right to fire a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission earlier. this year. Trump said she didn't align with his agenda, even though by law, commissioners can only be removed for a narrow set of reasons, including neglect of duty. That law was designed to insulate

independent government officials from politics. Now, the Trump administration will be asking the justices to overturn decades of precedent and expand the president's ability to fire officials at more than two dozen federal agencies. Since Trump took office, the court has repeatedly allowed him to go ahead with firings like the one at the FTC on an emergency basis. But today's case will be the first chance for it to issue a conclusive ruling on whether the president should have even more direct control over the executive branch. Some members of the court's conservative majority, including Chief Justice John Roberts, have been signaling for years that they've been eager to do exactly that. They've embraced what's known as the unitary executive theory that says the Constitution

gives all executive power to the president. The court's liberal members, meanwhile, have warned that giving a president the ability to fire agency heads at will would undermine their bipartisanship and independence. And the head of the legal team representing the fired FTC commissioner has warned that if the court sides with the administration, it would give the president, quote, vast new powers that Congress and prior presidents working together chose not to vest in the president alone. I think it's pretty well established. The American people are having a hard time affording health care, and they are looking to Congress to work together to find solutions. On Capitol Hill, the clock is ticking for Republican lawmakers as they face a looming deadline over health care costs for millions of Americans.

At the end of the year, Obamacare subsidies are set to expire, which could more than double health insurance premiums for many Americans. Polling shows that the subsidies are broadly popular and that most voters who receive them say they'd blame Republicans if the financial support disappears. We can push for big ideas, grandiose ideas on the right or the left, but we've got to have a solution for three weeks from now. Amid that political pressure,

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy led a health committee hearing this past week, encouraging his colleagues to find a stopgap solution. So far, Cassidy's floated a plan that would give money directly to consumers for health care, and a bipartisan group of House lawmakers has pitched a short-term, scaled-back extension of the existing subsidies. But the Republican majority in Congress hasn't coalesced around any particular plan, and one health policy analyst who advises Republicans said that he didn't know if it was possible to get something done in three weeks. He said the most important feature of any proposal is whether it has the support of President Trump, and he's largely

stayed out of the health care debate. Meanwhile, Democrats who put extending the subsidies at the center of the government shutdown fight this fall, say there's a simple solution. Republicans were worried about how Americans will react to a surge in health care costs, can vote with them to extend the tax credits. Senate Democrats say they plan to force a vote this week on a three-year extension of subsidies that would leave them at their current levels. What happens in Vegas stays? Not anymore. Play quick hit slots.

Across the country. It's Vegas, baby. Right here in your pocket. A growing number of states are moving to legalize not just online sports betting, but online casinos. Where people can put money on games like slots, blackjack and bingo right from their phones. So far, seven states have legalized the online casinos and lawmakers. in New York, Ohio, and other parts of the U.S. are considering it too. One major appeal is tax revenue. In Pennsylvania, for example, the games now bring in more than $100 million in taxes

each month. Lawmakers who support legalization say that kind of cash can help fund public services like education without raising income taxes. But the lucrative new source of government funding has come at a cost. The games can be addictive and have made it easy for people to potentially lose huge amounts of money without even leaving their homes. In the years since Pennsylvania legalized online casinos, the games have become the number one reason for calls to the state's gambling support hotline. And in West Virginia, one 45-year-old told the times that she's lost almost $20,000 since the games were legalized there. She called it a cash grab by the government, saying, quote, they don't care if a person's addicted.

In the past few days, as Hollywood has started to process the news that Netflix intends to buy Warner Brothers discovery, there seems to be one dominant feeling there, anger. On Friday, Netflix said it plans to spend $80-plus billion to scoop up the iconic studio, along with HBO Max, giving it control of everything from Looney Tunes to The Wizard of Oz to Harry Potter. Netflix has told investors the deal will help it attract and retain more subsisting. subscribers. But actors, writers, and industry professionals are warning the merger would be disruptive and damaging. They're worried that the Netflix takeover could shrink the marketplace for independent film, and also that it could undermine the industry's business model if the streaming giant decides to move away from releasing movies into theaters. The co-CEO of Netflix says nothing will change, quote, right now, but as previously called movie theaters, an outmoded

idea. The head of a group that represents theaters across the country called the potential acquisition an unprecedented threat and vowed to fight it. And the Writers Guild of America said in a statement, the world's largest streaming company swallowing one of its biggest competitors is what antitrust laws were designed to prevent. The fate of the deal is now in the hands of federal regulators in Washington. It could take several years to finalize. And finally, in Iran, the Times has been covering a remarkable social shift. For years, the country's hard-line Islamic government has been known for its widespread restrictions on everything from dancing to singing to mixed gender gatherings.

But in recent months, many Iranians have started pushing the boundaries of what's allowed in public. We've seen videos pouring in from Iran of young people. dancing and jumping up and down at pop concerts, outdoor concerts, there's rave parties in the deserts, there's morning yoga class, street musicians have become a common site around the capital Tehran and other places. These are scenes that just five years ago would have been unthinkable. There's certainly scenes that really point to change. Farnaz Fas Fasihi covers Iran for the times. She says that the government still doesn't tolerate political dissent, executions and death sentences are common.

But it seems to be allowing the new social freedoms for a few different reasons. On one hand, they're kind of turning a blind eye because they're dealing with so many other crises from shortage of water to energy shortage to a terrible economic situation. So the government really has its hands full of problems. And it's kind of treading carefully

because they don't want to create another crisis for themselves. They don't want to crack down and start arresting young people and risk another uprising. But also, I think there are too many. Like, you can't arrest millions of people. This is now turned into, it's not just one neighborhood in Tehran. It's not just one city. It's really nationwide. The change is so visible, it's so widespread, that they just simply can't put this genie

back in the bottle the way that it was five or six years ago. So the, you know, the people we interviewed in Iran, were telling us that the young people and the women were playing the long game for social change and feel like they're winning. Those are the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis. Tracy Mumford will be back tomorrow.