--:-- Ryland Barton: Support for NPR and the following message come from Indeed. Hiring? Do it the right way with Indeed's Sponsored Jobs. Claim a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash NPR. Terms and conditions apply.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
--:-- Ryland Barton: The Trump administration says it will fully fund SNAP food benefits during the government shutdown. That's even as it appeals a new court order to pay for them. A federal judge admonished the administration for saying earlier it would make only partial SNAP payments. He said officials failed to consider the, quote, needless suffering that it would cause millions of people.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Senate Democrats say they're offering a compromise to reopen the government. Republican Senate leader John Thune says it's a non-starter.
--:-- Barbara Sprunt: NPR's Barbara Sprunt reports.
--:-- Barbara Sprunt: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a proposal to reopen the government with a one-year extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits. Those credits are set to expire at the end of the year and have been central to this government shutdown. Most Democratic senators have been holding out on voting to fund the government until Republicans agree to extend those credits.
--:-- Barbara Sprunt: Schumer also proposed establishing a bipartisan committee to negotiate on long health care reforms Republicans want to address health care subsidies after the government reopens.
--:-- Barbara Sprunt: Any deal in the Senate would also have to pass the House which remains out of town.
--:-- Barbara Sprunt: Barbara Sprint NPR News the Capitol
--:-- Ryland Barton: The Trump administration began scaling back flights because of the government shutdown today. Airports in Chicago, Atlanta, and Denver are among those with the most disruptions. The FAA is trying to reduce flights by 10 percent to ease pressure on unpaid air traffic controllers.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Scientist James Watson, who co-discovered the structure of DNA, has died at the age of 97.
--:-- Nell Greenfield-Boyle: As NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyle reports, his life was full of fame and controversy.
--:-- Nell Greenfield-Boyle: James Watson was not yet 25 years old back in 1953 when he and Francis Crick pieced together clues to figure out the chemical structure of DNA. This historic breakthrough revealed how one molecule could encode so much of life's complexity.
--:-- Nell Greenfield-Boyle: Watson's memoir about the discovery was a bestseller, but the book and Watson got a lot of criticism for the shoddy treatment of Rosalind Franklin, a scientist who did key lab research that Watson and Crick relied on.
--:-- Nell Greenfield-Boyle: Watson spent his entire career advancing DNA science but he spent his later years effectively shunned by researchers in the field he pioneered after he made prejudiced remarks about black people women and others
--:-- Nell Greenfield-Boyle: NPR News
--:-- Ryland Barton: Taking up a call to overturn the landmark decision legalizing same-sex marriage was on the agenda for a closed-door meeting of the Supreme Court today.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Justices are considering an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky County clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses after the 2015 ruling. She's been trying to overturn an order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and fees to a couple she refused to issue a marriage license to.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Stock indexes were mixed on Wall Street today. The S&P 500 edged up a tenth of a percent.
--:-- Ryland Barton: This is NPR News.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Cornell University has agreed to pay $60 million and accept the Trump administration's interpretation of civil rights laws in order to restore federal funding.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff says the agreement restores more than $250 million in research funding that the government withheld amid investigations into alleged civil rights violations.
--:-- Ryland Barton: The president of Doctors Without Borders says that with the levels of malnutrition in people fleeing Al-Fashir in Sudan are the worst he's seen in a career spent working in conflict zones
--:-- Kate Bartlett: Since the city of Al fell to a paramilitary group Doctors Without Borders has been treating people who fled at their health point in the nearby town of Tawila Darfur
--:-- Kate Bartlett: Seven out of 10 of those turning up are showing signs of starvation
--:-- Kate Bartlett: Mohammed Javid Abdelmonim, the newly elected international president of the charity, told a press briefing in Johannesburg Friday.
--:-- Kate Bartlett: I think it's really worth highlighting these statistics because I've never seen anything so shocking in all my 15 years of my work.
--:-- Kate Bartlett: He said 71% of children and 87% of pregnant and breastfeeding women are suffering from acute malnutrition.
--:-- Kate Bartlett: For NPR News, I'm Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Japan has resumed seafood exports to China for the first time since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Six metric tons of scallops from Hokkaido were shipped on Wednesday.
--:-- Ryland Barton: A ban remains for seafood from Fukushima and nearby areas, but Japan is urging China to lift remaining restrictions.
--:-- Ryland Barton: I'm Rylan Barton.
--:-- Ryland Barton: You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
