--:-- 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. The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block full SNAP food benefits this month. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports it's the latest in a confusing legal battle that leaves millions of SNAP recipients in limbo.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: An appeals court late Sunday repeated what two federal judges had already said. The Trump administration must pay the full amount of food aid that SNAP enrollees are entitled to. In its ruling, the court said the harm in limiting those payments would be immense, and it said the administration had, quote, sat on its hands for nearly a month, refusing to prepare for a funding shortfall it knew was coming.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: The Agriculture Department argues that tapping a larger pot of money to make full payments would hurt other nutrition programs.
--:-- Ryland Barton: The government's latest appeal to the Supreme Court comes despite moves to end the federal shutdown, which would render the SNAP standoff moot.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Meanwhile, the Senate is edging closer to a deal to end the government shutdown after a handful of Democrats negotiated with Republican leaders to fund the government through the end of January and reverse firings of federal workers.
--:-- Ryland Barton: President Trump has largely been on the sidelines of the legislative negotiations, but today said he's supportive of the compromise.
--:-- President Trump: It's a deal I heard about. That's certainly they want to change the deal a little bit, but I would say so. I think based on everything I'm hearing, they haven't changed anything. and we have support from enough Democrats and we're going to be opening up our country. It's too bad it was closed, but we'll be opening up our country very quickly.
--:-- Ryland Barton: The Senate could vote on the bill as soon as tonight and then the House would weigh in.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Democrats who negotiated the deal are being criticized by some colleagues for not winning health care concessions from Republicans.
--:-- Ryland Barton: President Trump issued a pardon of his allies related to the 2020 presidential election.
--:-- Miles Parks: The document pardons all those associated with a plot to make false electoral slates that could have potentially interfered with the presidential certification on January 6th, 2021. It names Trump campaign attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Kenneth Chesbrough, Mark Meadows and John Eastman, as well as dozens of other people who met often in secret to sign documents claiming they were legitimate electors in states actually won by Joe Biden
--:-- Miles Parks: The pardons are essentially symbolic as none of the people pardoned have been charged with federal crimes Some are charged in their individual states, but the pardon has no impact on those cases.
--:-- Ryland Barton: The Supreme Court has rejected a call to overturn its decision that legalized same-sex marriage.
--:-- Miles Parks: Justices denied an appeal from a former Kentucky County clerk, Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses after the court's 2015 ruling. She had been trying to get the court to overturn an order to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney's fees.
--:-- Ryland Barton: You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
--:-- Ryland Barton: U.N. climate negotiations are underway in Brazil, and top negotiators from the U.S. are absent.
--:-- Miles Parks: Leaders are pushing for accelerating efforts to curb global warming by drastically reducing the carbon pollution that causes it. The goal is made harder by the absence of the United States, one of the biggest carbon polluters.
--:-- Ryland Barton: President Trump has long denied human-caused climate change, and the U.S. has withdrawn from the historic Paris Agreement that seeks to limit the global warming.
--:-- Miles Parks: The U.S. military has struck two more boats in the eastern Pacific, killing at least six people.
--:-- Kerry Kahn: NPR Kerry Kahn reports that according to social media posts by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Defense Secretary Hegseth says the latest attack struck two boats suspected of smuggling drugs
--:-- Kerry Kahn: This is the 19th by the U since the military campaign began early September Hegseth posted two short videos showing two separate boats bombed while traveling along what the Defense Secretary said is a no-narco-trafficking transit route.
--:-- Kerry Kahn: Hegseth said those killed were all male narco-terrorists. He cited intelligence that the two boats were transporting drugs but did not provide evidence.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Multiple experts say the strikes are illegal even if the suspects are criminals.
--:-- Kerry Kahn: Trump says the lethal strikes are justified as he has declared the U.S. in an armed conflict with drug cartels.
--:-- Ryland Barton: A blast of Arctic air is bearing down on much of the U.S., bringing snow to parts of the country and even plunging temperatures in places like Florida.
--:-- Ryland Barton: The frigid air will affect the eastern two-thirds of the country.
--:-- Ryland Barton: I'm Ryland Barton. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
