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The NewsWorthy
'End the Shutdown', Lowest Refugee Cap & Skeletons Save Lives - Friday, October 31, 2025
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Today is Friday, October 31st. We'll tell you about the unprecedented step President Trump is calling for to end the government shutdown just as benefits for millions of Americans are about to run dry. Also, how thousands of US Troops are being trained for more missions in American cities. And the lowest ever limits on refugees coming to the U.S. plus, a member of the British royal family is getting evicted. A top music label is turning a legal battle into a business deal. And we have a roundup of the most popular Halloween costumes of 2025. Those stories and even more news to know coming up. Welcome. Welcome to the Newsworthy. All the days news in around 10 minutes. Fast, fair, fun and on the go. I'm Erica. Mandy. Thanks so much for being here. You ready? Let's do this. Well, it looks like the federal government shutdown will last at least until next week, meaning lawmakers are letting benefits run out for millions of Americans this weekend. The Senate adjourned yesterday and is not scheduled to meet again until Monday. That extends the shutdown until at least its 34th day, matching the longest funding lapse in American history. But this weekend, funding for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka food stamps, is expiring, leaving 42 million Americans without access to those benefits. About 40% of them are children. Also, federal workers are finding it harder to make ends meet the longer they go without paychecks. More flights are being delayed with the busy holiday travel season right around the corner. Plus, in mid November, federal assistance usually goes out to help people pay utility bills as temperatures start to fall. And now that's being threatened. Too many senators had been hoping that once President Trump returned from his Asia trip, he would step into the negotiations. Well, yesterday he did get back and weighed in by saying Republicans should go for what he called the nuclear option, ending the filibuster. That's the long standing rule that says The Senate needs 60 votes to pass most legislation instead of just a simple majority. And Trump says if it goes away, it would, quote, immediately end this ridiculous country destroying shutdown, since Republicans could vote to reopen the government without any Democrat support. But filibuster supporters on both sides of the aisle say changing it would get in the way of compromise now and in the future, leave the country open to wild swings in policy each term. So at this point, it's not clear if GOP lawmakers will follow Trump's lead or try to find a way to negotiate with Democrats. At this point, the Dems are still holding out for negotiations to keep subsidies in place to make coverage more affordable. Republicans still say they can address that issue later once the government reopens. Stay tuned. Thousands of specialized National Guard troops will be going through a new kind of training over the next several months. The Pentagon ordered them to prepare for civil unrest missions, complete with riot control gear. It's a shift from their usual training that's usually about responding to disasters like nuclear accidents and terror attacks. As the Washington Post reports, the new quick reaction force will include nearly 24,000 troops across all 50 states and three territories, and they've been told to be on standby, ready to go by January 1st. And President Trump said earlier this week he could actually send in more than the National Guard, like also the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Trump says it's all about making cities safer. But critics say the president is undermining the military's core mission, all to fight a war of political grievances in places run by Democrats. So far, no official response from the Defense, AKA War Department. As we've mentioned, Trump has mobilized thousands of National Guard members already in Los Angeles and Memphis. And just this week, the Trump administration extended the National Guard's deployment in Washington, D.C. so troops will be mobilized there at least through February of 2026. The President has also tried to deploy troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, but those deployments have been delayed by legal cases, including one that's reached the U.S. supreme Court. The Trump administration is drastically cutting the number of refugees it will let into the U.S. capping it at 7,500 for the fiscal year. That's the lowest cap on record. In comparison, the Biden administration set the cap at 125,000. This week's notification did not give much new explanation, but White House officials say criteria for bringing in refugees includes making sure they don't pose a national security challenge and could be easily assimilated. Still, advocates have been pushing for a broader range of admissions, including people who have already been vetted with years of rigorous security checks. Before the second Trump administration took office, refugees were typically referred to the US by the United Nations. They spent months or years in third party countries going through interviews as well as security and medical checks before being granted entry into the US over the past few decades, most of those admitted to the US as refugees have come from countries in Africa or Asia plagued by war, ethnic strife or repression. Now, the 7,500 spots will mostly go to white Afrikaners from South Africa, since Trump says they face persecution based on their race in the black majority country, Reuters reports. One internal US Government document also suggested the administration could prioritize bringing in Europeans as refugees if they were targeted for expressing certain views, like opposition to mass migration or support for populist political parties. U.S. law actually requires the White House to consult with members of Congress before setting refugee levels. The Trump administration says it has not done that. Because of the government shutdown, Britain's King Charles has decided to take away his brother Andrews most valued title, the one of Prince. He'll now just be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and he'll no longer be referred to as His Royal Highness. It's a punishment that's unheard of in the modern British royal family. The now former prince will also be evicted from his royal residence, where he's lived for more than 20 years. He'll move to a private house owned by the king. Of course, this all comes in reaction to a widening crisis over Andrew's ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the details that came out in a newly published memoir from one of Epstein's survivors. Andrew has always denied wrongdoing, even earlier this month when he announced he would give up his Duke of York title. But palace officials say the decision to act against Andrew now was made by King Charles himself and supported by other members of the family. The king will still be supporting Andrew through private funds. Five more people have been arrested for taking crown jewels from the Louvre in Paris. That includes one who is believed to have been directly involved. So with these arrests, police now say they've caught three of the four men who disguised themselves as construction workers to steal artifacts dating to the Napoleonic era. But at this point, investigators still haven't been able to uncover any of the looted treasures. They're scouring the black market, hoping to track them down. But it could be tough, since many crime experts expect the jewels to be broken up, the stones recut and the gold melted down to disguise them. Of course, the heist also exposed some serious security lapses at the world's most visited museum. The investigation continues. More news still coming up. But first, a break for our sponsor. As the seasons change, a lot of people deal with seasonal shedding. That extra hair you might find in your brush or shower drain when the air gets cooler and drier out. It's a normal cycle, but that doesn't mean you have to accept it. That's where OneSkin's OS1 hair comes in. It's a lightweight scalp serum powered by their patented OS1 peptide, scientifically proven to target aging at the cellular level. In clinical studies, participants saw on average a 43% increase in hair thickness and a 40% increase in hair density after six months. I appreciate that. OneSkin's team of PhD scientists built this formula with the same rigor behind their award winning skin and sun care, which I also love. And now it's bringing that same science to our scalps. Born from over 10 years of longevity research, OneSkin's OS1 peptide is proven to target the cells that cause the visible signs of aging. So your scalp and your hair stay healthy now and as you age, go to Oneskin Co Hair and use the code newsworthy for 15% off your first order. That's OneSkin Co Hair and use the code Newsworthy. After your purchase they'll ask you where you heard about them. So please support our show and tell them we sent you now back to the news. It's almost time to fall back it's the end of Daylight Saving Time in most of the country. So before you go to bed on Saturday night, you'll want to turn your clocks back an hour. Or at least you know, be aware that your smartphone will automatically change. It means you could get an extra hour of sleep, but it also means it'll get dark earlier in the evenings. Hawaii and Arizona are the only two states that don't observe Daylight saving Time at all, as well as some territories like Puerto Rico. So no time change in those places. This weekend there has been an effort to do away with the twice a year time changes everywhere. In the U.S. though it's still still stalled in Congress. The U.S. senate voted on a measure to block President Trump's so called liberation Day tariffs leveled against countries all around the world. Four Republicans joined Democrats to approve it, saying when it comes to international trade and tariffs in particular, the authority to make changes should fall to Congress. But other Republicans defended the tariffs, saying they're just in response to what other countries around the world have been doing for decades. Either way, this was a mostly symbolic effort, since the measure almost certainly won't be taken up by the Republican led House. In fact, the House GOP leaders have already taken steps to keep lawmakers from forcing a vote on tariffs until at least March. Universal Music Group went from suing an artificial intelligence startup to partnering with them. UMG filed a lawsuit last year, saying the AI music platform Udio used copyrighted music to train its AI. Its AI can create original songs, complete with voices and instruments, all from text prompts. But music businesses like UMG claimed Yu Dio was coming out with similar melodies to songs already created and copyrighted by humans. Well, this week the two sides settled and agreed to work together on a new platform that's only trained on authorized and licensed music. This is Yu Dio's first music licensing agreement. The company says artists will be able to opt in and will be compensated separately. UMG announced a partnership with Stability AI to develop artificial intelligence powered music creation tools for artists, producers and songwriters, and more deals could soon be announced with other labels. If you're handing out candy for Halloween today, get ready to see a lot of roomies, Zoeys and Miras. They're the lead characters from the Netflix hit K Pop Demon Hunters, and their costumes have sold out at stores around the country. In fact, Google's Frightgeist found all five of the most searched for costumes are from the movie. Other costumes in Google's top 25 include chicken jockey from the Minecraft video game, a Labubu doll, and Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked. If you don't have a costume yet, you could still have some luck at local costume shops. Or if all else fails, go to an arts and crafts store or dig through your own clothes. There's always a way to get creative. Happy Halloween. Well, that's it for the May News today. So now it's time for Feel Good Friday when we bring you one extra Feel Good or positive news story before the weekend. But first, a break to thank our sponsor. Your liver is the second largest organ in your body and it does a lot more than most of us realize. It's responsible for over 500 functions, filtering what we consume, storing vitamins and minerals, helping digestion, even impacting energy and sleep. And here's the thing, over 30% of Americans have a sluggish liver without even knowing it. So I was intrigued when I learned about Dose. It's a natural science backed way to support one of the hardest working organs in your body. Each shot is formulated to help your liver do its job better, cleansing unwanted elements, aiding digestion and helping you feel more energized over time. In fact, in a double blind placebo controlled clinical trial, dose for your liver lowered liver enzyme levels by 50% in over 86% of participants. Plus, each shot is equivalent to 17 shots of turmeric juice and I can tell you it tastes delicious. My husband and I both love how easy it is to take six Save 25% on your first month of subscription by going to DueDaily Co Newsworthy or entering Newsworthy at checkout. That's D O S E D A I L Y co Newsworthy for 25% off your first month subscription. Now back to Feel Good Friday. So this spooky season, hundreds of homes around the country have been competing for which one has the best Halloween display. But it's not just festive, it also does a lot of good. They're all taking part in Skeletons for St. Jude, which encourages families to decorate and raise awareness for children's cancer research. It all started with Jeff Robertson in 2020 when he put together an extravagant Halloween display that caught the attention of a local news station in Holly Springs, North Carolina. After that, he spoke with his family and they all decided to turn their moment in the spotlight into a fundraiser. Now, years later, there's a website with resources for other families to get started, too, including a QR code for donations and a press release for households to share with local media outlets. And several of those families have gotten featured on the news. Every household that signs up is also added as an attraction on fright maps. This year, Robertson said he expected a thousand homes to be involved, and they're all bringing in money. Since this effort started in 2020, more than a million dollars has gone to St. Jude. Thank you so much for listening today. We'll be back tomorrow with our special edition Saturday episode all about holiday shopping. Yep, that time of year is coming up and we're talking about how to spend in the smartest way and stress less as you go through your gift lists. Then we'll be back on Monday with the latest news to know. For now, have a great weekend and happy Halloween.