Author: rpnadmin

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 Tomorrow, many Americans will feel the impact of the government shutdown as SNAP food benefits will run out for about 42 million people. Saturday also marks the start of enrollment on federal insurance exchanges, and premiums are expected to more than double on average. Democrats say they’ll vote to reopen the government if Congress extends health care subsidies to help manage the rising costs. Yesterday, major airlines…

Politics / StudentNation / October 31, 2025 If passed, the constitutional amendment would lock out a potential source of future state funding and disproportionately benefit wealthy households. Ad Policy Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, during a news conference in September 2025.(Mark Felix / Getty) This story was produced for StudentNation, a program of the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism, which is dedicated to highlighting the best of student journalism. For more StudentNation, check out our archive or learn more about the program here. StudentNation is made possible through generous funding from The Puffin Foundation. If you’re a student and you have an article idea,…

Supporters of President Trump clash with police and security forces as they push barricades to storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C on January 6, 2021. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images A federal judge has sentenced a man to time served for making a hoax threat near the D.C. residence of former President Barack Obama two years ago, prompting a massive law enforcement response that included a bomb squad and sniffer dogs. Taylor Taranto, of Pasco, Wash., spent 22 months in the troubled D.C. jail facility while he waited for trial…

October 30, 2025 A congressional war powers resolution could bring pressure and is the best hope for averting another disastrous war. Ad Policy Donald Trump arrives to greet Javier Milei, Argentina’s president, not pictured, outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025.(Stefani Reynolds / Getty Images) “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK?” President Trump told reporters at a press conference last week. “We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be, like, dead.”  Trump had gotten his message across,…

Society / October 30, 2025 I warned that Trump and congressional Republicans could use a shutdown to deny SNAP benefits, but was told there was no way our political system would allow that to occur. Ad Policy A sign alerting customers about SNAP benefits is displayed at a Brooklyn grocery store on December 5, 2019, in New York City. Earlier in the week the Trump administration announced stricter requirements for food stamp benefits that would cut support for nearly 700,000 poor Americans.(Scott Heins / Getty Images) US elites tend to have a “normalcy bias” that allows them to believe our…

President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on nations around the world during an event in the Rose Garden on April 2, 2025. A slim majority of the GOP-led Senate voted this week to roll back Trump’s use of emergency powers to set tariffs on Canada, Brazil and other countries. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images In a series of three votes this week, a slim majority of the GOP-led Senate delivered a rare, bipartisan rebuke of President Trump’s use of emergency powers to set tariffs on Canada, Brazil and other countries. The last…

Politics / October 30, 2025 The House speaker admits that his legislative chamber no longer matters. That’s the outcome of a series of deliberate leadership decisions to ensure its powerlessness. Ad Policy Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks on the 28th day of the federal government shutdown at the Capitol.(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) “It doesn’t matter what we do in the House,” GOP Speaker Mike Johnson announced in a press conference this week. While it’s tempting to give the MAGA leader grudging points for candor, that churlish admission speaks volumes about a once-robust legislative branch now relegated to…

“Can you describe rent prices in New York?” “High.” “Expensive.” ”Out of control.” ”The rent here is absolutely crazy.” “Very, very unaffordable. Two verys — yeah very, very expensive.” Median asking rent in New York City is up more than 7 percent in just the last year. It’s now about $4,000 per month. That’s made the cost of housing a key issue in the mayor’s race, with the top candidates each proposing changes to a core New York City housing policy: rent stabilization. Nearly half of the apartments in New York are currently rent stabilized, which means that their rent…

Protestors gathered outside Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in February after President Trump’s executive order to stop federal funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images Access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth will be dramatically restricted by the Trump administration under new proposals by the Department of Health and Human Services. NPR has obtained the draft text of a proposed rule that would prohibit federal Medicaid reimbursement for medical care provided to transgender patients younger than age 18. It also prohibits reimbursement through the Children’s…

Politics / October 30, 2025 The Times of London failed to meet even the basic standards journalism. We should demand better from our media. The Times of London failed to meet even basic journalistic standards. We should demand better from the media. Ad Policy Bill de Blasio(John Minchillo / AP) Just before 5 pm on Tuesday, I saw a text from a New York Post reporter asking for comment on my interview with the Murdoch-owned Times of London about Zohran Mamdani. The problem was: I had never given an interview to The Times. Yet here was a screenshot of the…