The Headlines - Mike Johnson Shuts Door on Key Health Care Vote, and a Dangerous New Drug Hits U.S. Cities

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Plus, the subway stop that’s also a museum. Here’s what we’re covering:Johnson Rules Out House Vote to Extend Health Insurance Subsidies by Michael Gold and Carl HulseTrump Expands Travel Ban and Restrictions to 20 More Countries by Tyler Pager and Hamed AleazizTrump Orders Blockade of Some Oil Tankers to and From Venezuela by Edward Wong, Simon Romero, Charlie Savage and Julian E. BarnesWhite House Shrugs Off Rise in Unemployment Rate by Tony RommTrump Dangles Cash Payments to Buoy Voters’ Views of the Economy by Tony Romm and Andrew DuehrenA Powerful New Drug Is Creating a ‘Withdrawal Crisis’ in Philadelphia by Jan HoffmanAt Rome’s New Stations, Peruse Ancient Relics While Catching a Train by Elisabetta PovoledoTune 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 Wednesday, December 17th, here's what we're covering. It is the Democrats Unaffordable Care Act that broke America's health care system. And this is the system that Democrats in Congress want to extend without any reform. We just can't have that. On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson says he's officially ruled out a vote to extend Obamacare subsidies that have lowered insurance costs for millions of

Americans. The decision essentially kills an effort by a group of moderate Republicans to take action before health insurance prices spike next month. Johnson had seemed open to allowing debate on the topic, as some members of his party wanted to show constituents that they were trying to stop health care premiums from rising. We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure release valve, and it just was not to be. We worked on it all the way through the week. Now, though, Johnson said Republicans will instead consider a narrow health care bill that won't extend the Obamacare subsidies. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that could force about 2 million Americans

to become uninsured next year as costs climb. It's idiotic and it's political malpractice. Representative Mike Lawler of New York and other moderates who had been pushing for the vote blasted the decision. They said their party's alternative bill doesn't do enough to address rising insurance rates, especially as Democrats plan to make affordability a centerpiece of next year's midterms. We need to address the longer-term issue of health care costs in this country, but to allow these subsidies to expire without even having a vote, to me, is foolish.

In the Senate, meanwhile, a bipartisan group of about 20 lawmakers met this week to try and find a way forward on health care. But they say nothing will happen until January at the earliest after the subsidies expire. President Trump has announced that he is expanding his travel bans, adding restrictions on people from 20 more countries, mostly in the Middle East and Africa. Earlier this year, Trump put in place bans on travelers from 12 countries, but after an Afghan man who entered the U.S. legally under the Biden administration

was charged with shooting two National Guard members, Trump vowed to add more countries to the list. He said he was working to, quote, permanently pause migration from all third world countries. Now, starting January 1st, people from Syria, South Sudan, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso will be barred from entering the U.S., along with people who have documents issued by the Palestinian Authority. Another 15 countries have partial restrictions, and the policy applies even to family members of U.S. citizens. The Trump administration has now fully or partially limited travel from nearly 20% of countries in the world.

It's all part of a White House effort to crack down on legal forms of immigration, and the bans could pose major issues for people who are already in the U.S. Earlier this month, federal officials began reviewing green cards held by people from countries on the original travel ban list. They also canceled some citizenship ceremonies for immigrants who had already been vetted by the government. Now, two other quick updates on the Trump administration. President Trump is continuing to turn up the pressure on the leader of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, announcing what he called a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going to and from the country. U.S. forces recently seized one ship carrying Venezuelan oil, and a U.S. official told the times that the administration has made plans to capture more tankers in the region,

a move that could damage Venezuela's fragile economy. While the White House has framed its aggressive stance towards Venezuela as being about stopping drug trafficking, behind the scenes the administration has been focused intently on the country's energy resources. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, and for years Trump has talked about ousting Maduro and taking that oil. And tonight, President Trump is set to deliver a prime time speech to the country as the administration tries to tamp down Americans' economic anxieties. New jobs data released yesterday showed that the unemployment rate for November climbed to 4.6%, the highest in four years, and that wage growth also slowed considerably. The White House brushed off that report, insisting that the overall economy remains strong and pointing to an uptick,

in private sector and construction jobs. And as polls show that Americans are increasingly skeptical of Trump's economic agenda, the president has been teasing the idea of giving people cash. He's floated a proposal to send $2,000 checks to many families using money from tariff revenue. But that plan would require congressional approval. An economist's note the money wouldn't address the underlying reasons that many Americans are struggling, including a housing shortage that's driven up rent, and the fact that Trump's tariffs have made imports more expensive.

I've been reporting from the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, which has historically been battered by waves and waves of new drugs that eventually go nationwide. Most recently, they are struggling with a drug called metatomedean, a veterinary sedative that sedates people from me. many, many hours, but it's the withdrawal symptoms that are truly worrisome and life-threatening. Jan Hoffman covers addiction for the times. She says that since last year, a growing number of drug users in Philadelphia have found that the fentanyl they're using has been cut with metatomedeen. Drug dealers can buy it cheaply online from veterinary supply companies, and it's so addictive

that even a tiny amount of the drug can get people hooked. If they can't find supply to get them going as soon as they wake up, withdrawal begins to set in. What that looks like is that heart rates begin to soar. Blood pressure rises dramatically, sometimes helping to bring on brain damage. People vomit without cessation. They hallucinate and they need to go into the intensive care unit. Over the last year, Philadelphia hospitals have been inundated with these patients in severe crisis. Ambulances are screeching across the city. The ICU beds have been taken up with patients in withdrawal. Costs are rising. It can take a patient five to seven days in intensive care bed before they're stable to be released. Jan says that doctors in Philadelphia

are on the front lines of a public health crisis that's spreading. They've been issuing alerts, giving lectures, and writing case studies to warn other hospitals about what might be coming their way. The drug has started to appear in other cities on the east coast and across the Midwest. And finally, in Rome yesterday, the city's newest subway line opened to passengers after more than a decade of construction. The extended transit system is intended to make the nearly 3,000-year-old city easier to live in for modern-day Romans, but it was also a also a massive and complex archaeology project. Because the city is built on layers and layers and layers of historic sites and priceless relics, workers excavating the subway had to carefully pick through the ground, sometimes digging by hand. Underneath a new station at the Coliseum,

archaeologists found 28 ancient wells, and near another stop, they unearthed a vast military complex with barracks and a commander's villa. Now the stops have become part station, part museum. Commuters who aren't late to work can take a few minutes to look at the ancient ruins that are displayed there, including the remains of thermal baths. The city's mayor said that if the subway hadn't been built, the buried structures and hundreds of artifacts might never have been discovered. Those are the headlines. Today on the Daily, the latest on the investigation into the murder of Rob Reiner and a look at the acclaimed director's legacy in Hollywood. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get. get your podcasts. I'm Will Jarvis. The show will be back tomorrow with Tracy Mumford.