--:-- Noorah Rahm: This week on Consider This, a big few days for the Democratic Party, decisive wins on Election Day, and Nancy Pelosi announces she'll retire next year. What it all can mean in 2026, plus the latest action from the Trump administration to limit the flow of refugees into the U.S. Catch up on the news you've missed in short, daily episodes of Consider This. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noorah Rahm.
--:-- Ava Pukash: The Senate is in session this weekend, working to try and find a bipartisan solution to reopen the federal government. NPR's Ava Pukash reports today is day 39 of the shutdown, the longest in history.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: Senate Majority Leader John Thune says a Democratic proposal to agree to a one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits is a non-starter. There's still only one path out. It's a clean funding extension.
--:-- Ava Pukash: Minority leader Chuck Schumer criticized Republicans for dismissing the offer, and he argued the Trump administration could choose to find funding for snap food benefits and pay air traffic controllers going without pay if it wanted to. This crisis is in the administration's hands. It's all them, not anyone else.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: On Truth Social President Trump reiterated his push for Republicans to terminate the filibuster to end the shutdown.
--:-- Eva Pugach: The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to withhold for now payments under SNAP, the federal food assistance program. This allows a lower court more time to consider the administration's request to make only partial payments. SNAP benefits have lasted for the first time in the 60-year history of the program.
--:-- Allie Coffrey: I'm a special education teacher in Pennsylvania. My students rely on the program, so I began packing lunches for them. We can come together for a common cause, and at the end of the day, the kids, the people that are really affected are the kids. They don't have the say in whatever happens, and we need to protect them. So this is helping me do that, and it's showing me that we are able to do that.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: A video of her packing lunches has received more than a million views. She says people are sending her donations, which has restored her faith in humanity.
--:-- Curtis Tate: UPS and FedEx have temporarily grounded their MD-11 cargo planes after one crash during takeoff in Louisville on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: From member station W.E.K.U., Curtis Tate reports.
--:-- Curtis Tate: The cargo carriers made the decision out of an abundance of caution on the recommendation of Boeing which bought the plane original manufacturer McDonnell Douglas UPS and FedEx have roughly two dozen MD each UPS Flight 2976 bound for Honolulu crashed while attempting to take off in Louisville Investigators are still piecing together what went wrong.
--:-- Curtis Tate: The National Transportation Safety Board says the cockpit voice recorder revealed a repeating bell sound about 30 seconds into the takeoff. It says the plane's left engine separated from the wing and was recovered near the end of the runway. The crash left a fiery trail of debris.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: For NPR News, I'm Curtis Tate in Shelbyville, Kentucky.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: The Philippines is preparing for another typhoon that could make landfall early next week. A typhoon this week killed more than 200 people. This is NPR News.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: Officials in southern Brazil are assessing the damage after a tornado last night. They say six people were killed and hundreds were injured. Dozens of homes were destroyed.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is denying a report that the Washington National Opera may leave its home in the nation's capital after more than 50 years.
--:-- Chloe Veltman: NPR's Chloe Veltman reports.
--:-- Chloe Veltman: In an email to NPR, Washington National Opera Board of Trustees President Andy Farrow said the company, quote, has no plans to move out of the Kennedy Center and is proud to be part of America's cultural center.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: The statement came hours after The Guardian published a story quoting Washington National Opera Artistic Director Francesca Zambello as saying her company may quit the Kennedy Centre as a result of President Donald Trump's takeover.
--:-- Chloe Veltman: Zambello told The Guardian her company is being forced to consider other options owing to tumbling ticket sales and audience protests.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: When asked by NPR for a response to the Kennedy Center's rebuttal, Zambello only re-shared the board president's statement.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: In Sunday football, the Indianapolis Colts play the Atlanta Falcons tomorrow in Berlin. It's the NFL's first regular season game in the German capital.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: Former Colt Bjorn Werner will be there. He returned to his native Germany after retiring from the NFL. He's now a popular TV commentator and podcaster in a country dominated by the other football, soccer.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: On the ThruLine podcast from NPR, the story of the undersea cables that run the internet. Other historians have compared it to the Apollo missions of going to the moon.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: Listen to ThruLine in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Noorah Rahm: Thank you.
