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Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today’s top stories A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal last night to reopen the government and end the longest shutdown in U.S. history. The vote on the first procedural step was 60 to 40, with seven Democrats and one independent joining most Republicans on the measure. The agreement would fund the government through Jan. 30. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to reporters following a vote on Capitol Hill…

Politics / November 4, 2025 In an exclusive interview with The Nation, Sanders says Mamdani can show Democrats how to campaign—and govern—for the working class. Ad Policy Zohran Mamdani holds hands with Senator Bernie Sanders during a campaign rally at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, on October 26, 2025. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images) Bernie Sanders knows that if Zohran Mamdani is elected as mayor of New York City on Tuesday, it will matter most profoundly for the people of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. But the Brooklyn-born senator from Vermont believes that a victory…

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks to reporters in the U.S. Capitol Building on Sept. 30. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images A bipartisan group of Senate Democrats and Republicans reached a deal to reopen the government after the longest shutdown in U.S. history, voting on the first procedural step on the measure. The agreement would fund the government through Jan. 30 and include full-year funding for a trio of appropriations bills, including full funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, through Sept. 30, 2026, or the end of the fiscal year. The vote late…

Politics / November 4, 2025 The latest centrist missive to Democrats is bad news for the party and the planet—and great news for the oligarchy. To win back power, Democrats must organize themselves against oligarchy—and that means rejecting the latest shoddy centrist recommendations. Ad Policy Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), right, and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), left, brief members of the press during a news conference on the government shutdown at the US Capitol on October 16, 2025, in Washington, DC.(Alex Wong / Getty Images) Last week, WelcomePAC released “Deciding to Win,” a 59-page memo purporting to…

Prominent conservatives are engaged in a battle over how to respond to antisemitism in their ranks. AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I’m Ayesha Rascoe. Good morning. There’s been fallout from right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson’s long and friendly interview with far-right influencer Nick Fuentes last week.(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “THE TUCKER CARLSON SHOW”)TUCKER CARLSON: Nick Fuentes, thank you for doing this.NICK FUENTES: Yeah, thank you for having me.CARLSON: I’ve wanted to meet you. I’ve heard about you.FUENTES: I’ve heard about you, so…CARLSON: Well, thank you.RASCOE: Fuentes has built an online following promoting many white nationalist and extremist…

Politics / Books & the Arts / November 4, 2025 In Born in Flames, Bench Ansfield asks, who, or what, is responsible for the arson epidemic that afflicted the borough in the 1970s and ’80s? Ad Policy Nighttime view of people in a vacant lot as they watch a fire burning on the top floors of an apartment building in the Bronx, New York, 1983. (Ricky Flores / Getty Images) Few images from the 1970s still resonate like those of the destruction of the Bronx. Block after block of once-doughty apartment buildings, abandoned and burned; whole streets, even neighborhoods, left…

Jen Janecek Hartman helps prepare bagged meals for a food bank for students at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in New Town, N.D. John Locher/AP hide caption toggle caption John Locher/AP The Trump administration late Saturday directed states that they must “immediately undo” any actions they have made to provide benefits to low-income families via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). “To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized. Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture…

Ad Policy Nick Fuentes with livestreamer and January 6 insurrectionist Baked Alaska at an anti-vaccine protest with members of the far-right group America First in front of Pfizer world headquarters on November 13, 2021, in New York City. (Stephanie Keith / Getty Images) Much has been written about the how the Israel/Palestine conflict is dividing the left, but the same is true of the right. Tucker Carlson’s interview with the antisemitic critic of Israel Nick Fuentes has created an intense debate on the right about anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, currently playing itself out in turmoil at the Heritage Foundation. I spoke…

Democrats won every election in the 2025 off-year contests, setting them up for high expectations going into the 2026 midterms. Democrats and Republicans talk about what it could mean going forward. LEILA FADEL, HOST: Democrats outperformed expectations in races across the country this week. And so NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon has been asking Democrats and Republicans what this all means for next year’s midterms. And Sarah is with me now. Good morning, Sarah.SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.FADEL: So let’s start with Democrats. What are they telling you?MCCAMMON: Well, obviously, they are very pleased across the…FADEL: Right.MCCAMMON: …Board. And they’re…

Politics / November 5, 2025 A full transcript of the mayor-elect’s victory speech to supporters. Ad Policy Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani celebrates during an election night event at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, New York, on November 4, 2025.(Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images) Thank you, my friends. The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said, “I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.” For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power…