← The Headlines
The Headlines
Food Stamp Funds Running Out, and Prince Andrew Loses Royal Title Amid Epstein Scandal
00:14:31
Plus, your Friday news quiz.
Loading summary
Transcript14 lines
- [00:00]
Rachel Sennett
Rachel Sennett has a new HBO original series called I Love la. Rachel is the breakout star from Bottoms and Shiva Baby and is now the creator and star of this new HBO comedy. Filmed in Los Angeles, this show follows a young, ambitious friend group navigating life and love in the city. Along with Rachel, I Love LA also stars Odessa Azion, Jordan Firstman, Josh Hutcherson and True Whitaker. Don't miss the world premiere of I Love LA tonight at 10:30pm exclusively on HBO Max. Subscription required. Visit HBOMax.com for.
- [00:35]
Tracy Mumford
From the New York Times, it's the Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, October 31st. Here's what we're covering to start three updates on the government shutdown, which has now hit the one month mark. First, as of tomorrow, the federal food stamps program, snap will have exhausted its remaining funds and the benefits are set to start disappearing. Nationwide, roughly 42 million Americans depend on SNAP to buy groceries. And while some states are trying to step up to fill the gap, others say they don't have the resources. Roughly two dozen states got together to sue the Trump administration to keep the program running, pointing to an emergency reserve the government has specifically for snap. But in court yesterday, government lawyers argued that there are legal and technical hurdles that prevent them from moving the money around. The judge in the case was skeptical of those claims, saying at one point she saw no reason not to use the reserve. She said, quote, congress has put money in an emergency fund. It's hard for me to understand how this isn't an emergency.
- [01:44]
News Correspondent
And you look at the aviation system, whether it's LAX or it's Atlanta or it's Dallas, you're seeing impacts of this shutdown on our airspace, and that means travelers are delayed. It has real problems.
- [01:57]
Tracy Mumford
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is warning that the shutdown is stressing an air traffic control system that was already on the brink. For years, there's been a chronic shortage of controllers, leaving basically no slack in the system. The Trump administration says that workers going without pay could make the situation worse. Airports serving D.C. new York and Orlando all had controller staffing issues yesterday that led to delays or cancellations. And lastly, President Trump is calling on Republicans to eliminate a long standing Senate rule as a way of forcing an end to the shutdown. In a late night post on social media, Trump called on them to get rid of the filibuster, which requires most Senate legislation to have 60 votes to pass. It's the reason, math wise, that Republicans need a handful of Democrats right now to side with them to reopen the government. Over the years, both parties have worked to tweak the filibuster to soften it, but have stopped short of getting rid of it entirely. Many Republicans worry that if they do that basically choose the nuclear option, it could come back to haunt them if Democrats take control of Congress. Meanwhile, there's another political battle unfolding at the state level. State lawmakers across the country are rushing to redraw election maps to try and give their party an edge in next year's midterm elections. The ultimate goal for both Republicans and Democrats is to win control of the House of Representatives, where the GOP currently has only a razor thin majority. The mad scramble over the maps kicked off earlier this year after President Trump urged his party to redraw them earlier than normal to try and keep control of the House. Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina all moved to redraw the maps in their states. And there was a flurry of new efforts from other states just this week. This morning in Ohio, a state commission is expected to approve a new map that will likely help Republicans pick up two House seats. And a few days ago, the Republican governor of Indiana called a special legislative session to explore drawing new maps there. In response, Democrats have been making their own push. In Virginia, lawmakers this week set in motion a drawn out process involving amending the state's constitution to get a map that would help their party. And in a few days in California, voters will decide on a measure that would potentially help Democrats pick up as many as five new House seats there. The efforts to redraw the maps have led to intense pushback with both parties issuing similar warnings to each other. One Republican lawmaker in Virginia described Democrats efforts as, quote, a power grab, while a Democratic lawmaker in Indiana said of Republican efforts, quote, this is not democracy, this is desperation. In Sudan this week, there was a dramatic shift in the country's brutal Civil War. For 18 months, the city of El F had been under siege by a paramilitary group, the rsf, which which has been battling Sudan's army. But the military has now retreated and videos coming out of the city show scenes of violence and horror for the roughly quarter million people trapped there. RSF fighters themselves have posted videos of executions and trenches filled with bodies. And on Tuesday, human rights groups say the RSF carried out the worst massacre of the war to date, killing more than 460 people at a hospital. There were the hospital had been the last refuge for many starving and injured civilians in the city. The RSF has rejected the accusations the war in Sudan is widely considered the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Over the past two years, an estimated 400,000 people have been killed and famine is widespread.
- [06:07]
United Nations Official
Mr. President, we cannot hear the screams, but as we sit here today, the horror is continuing.
- [06:13]
Tracy Mumford
At an emergency meeting at the United nations yesterday, officials condemned the RSF and said there must be accountability for the foreign powers who have backed the group. They did not name any country specifically, though the Times has found that the UAE has secretly funneled money, weapons and drones to fighters there.
- [06:32]
United Nations Official
Stop arming this violence. There must be accountability for those carrying out the killing, for those giving the orders, and those providing the weapons should consider their responsibilities.
- [06:43]
Tracy Mumford
The Emirates has publicly denied backing the RSF in the conflict. But in recent days, with outrage over the violence in Sudan growing, congressional leaders in Washington have called for a pause in arms sales to the uae. In the UK Yesterday, King Charles handed down an extraordinary punishment, moving to strip his brother, Prince Andrew, of his royal title. The royal family has been caught in a widening crisis over Andrew's connections to Jeffrey Epstein, including damning new details about his alleged sexual abuse of a young woman, Virginia Jeffrey, who Epstein trafficked to him. Jeffrey died by suicide last year, but her memoir was recently published and included vivid descriptions of how she said Andrew had assaulted her. In London and at Epstein's homes in Manhattan and the Virgin Islands, Andrew has flatly denied those allegations for years, even as he stepped back from public duties. Now Buckingham palace says it's begun the formal process of stripping him of the quote, style, titles and honors of Prince Andrew, and that going forward, he'll officially be a commoner. He will also be evicted from his sprawling residence, the Royal Lodge. The dramatic move is unheard of in the history of the modern British royal family. Royal experts tell the Times that the king was partly acting out of fear that the ongoing firestorm around Andrew was partly responsible for eroding public support for the monarchy itself. In the early 90s, 86% of people in Britain said it was very or quite important to have a monarchy. By 2023, that number had dropped to just 54%. And finally, a new study out this week looked at the effectiveness of a popular new form of therapy, therapy via text message. It's exactly what it sounds like. People might wake up and say, text their therapist that they're feeling anxious. A few hours later comes a response encouraging them to label that thought, reframe it, examine what may be feeding that feeling. The back and forth could spread over hours or days. The pandemic really supercharged the rise of this kind of digital therapy and others in place of in person appointments. And the study, published in the journal JAMA Open Network, provides early evidence that it is effective in treating mild to moderate depression. In a clinical trial of over 800 people, those who received unlimited messaging with a therapist reported improvement in their depression symptoms, the same level of improvement as those who had weekly video sessions with a therapist. The study was kicked off after a company that offers digital therapy approached researchers as companies in that space are hoping that more data may convince insurance companies to cover the relatively new kind of care. At the moment, most do not. One medical expert not involved with the study told the Times. The new evidence is encouraging, but not sufficient to justify insurers changing their policies just yet. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Cait Lopresti, Yon Stewart and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to David Adams, Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Annie Corial, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy and Paula Schuman. Now time for the quiz. Every week we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you get them all?
- [10:34]
News Correspondent
First up, bumpy weather up in the we're way up in the air a little bit bumpy.
- [10:40]
Tracy Mumford
President Trump spent a lot of time on Air Force One this week as he went on a whirlwind tour of Asia. We're going to do a speed round on that for you where you have to fill in four blanks about his visit. Here we go. Trump started his tour on Sunday when he landed in Malaysia. He moved on to Japan, where officials seemed to try and get on his good side over lunch by serving an American grown version of the Japanese staple rice. They also put Thousand island dressing on the menu, apparently his favorite. From there, Trump flew to South Korea where he was presented with a replica of an elaborate ancient royal crown. And lastly, one leader Trump did not meet with on the trip even though he repeatedly said he wanted to waste Kim Jong Un of North Korea. North Korea test fired cruise missiles instead. Moving on to the next question, we.
- [11:54]
News Correspondent
Continue to track Hurricane melissa, winds at 160 miles an hour on the island nation of Jamaica.
- [12:01]
Tracy Mumford
In the eye of the storm this week, Hurricane Melissa cut a path across the Caribbean Sea as one of the top five strongest hurricanes in ever recorded. Crews on board the US Government's so called Hurricane Hunter planes have flown into the storm multiple times to gather valuable data. During one of those flights, they spotted something alive inside the eye of the storm. What creatures were in there? The answer? Birds. It's actually not unusual for birds to get sucked into a hurricane like that, and then once they're in the eye, it's almost impossible to get out, so they just chug along in the calm center of it all. A couple years ago, bird lovers in the UK rushed to see more than a dozen species of North American birds that showed up after they were pulled all the way across the Atlantic by the remnants of a storm. And last one Today is Halloween. In case you're wondering why people outside are wearing funny outfits and hitting you up for candy, it's a day to trick or treat or turn your lights off and pretend you're not home. Also, a good day to break out the horror classics. We're going to play you four screams from some spooky, scary or Halloween themed favorites. See if you can ID what each one of them is from. Scream queens might get them right off the bat, but if you are stumped, hang in there. Hints are coming. First, second, what do you think of this? You like it?
- [13:47]
News Correspondent
Third, finishing something.
- [13:50]
Tracy Mumford
And fourth, scream your hints. Think shower, think stripes, think dope and think very frustrated writer. With that in mind, here they are, one more time. You like it? The answer? Those were screams from in order Psycho, Beetlejuice, the Simpsons Annual Halloween Special, and the Shining. One last bonus Hollywood scream for you. It's actually been used in hundreds of movies and TV shows, becoming so iconic it has its own name. If you know what that scream is called, shoot us an email@the headlinesytimes.com can't give you any candy, but we will tell you if you got it right. That is it for the news quiz. I'm Tracy Mumford. The headlines will be back on Monday.