Skip to content
Democrats' Shutdown Pressure, SNAP Deadline, Nuclear Testing

Democrats' Shutdown Pressure, SNAP Deadline, Nuclear Testing

Up First from NPR
Oct 31, 2025 13 min
Open in Clue

About this episode

Democrats are facing growing pressure to end the government shutdown as millions brace to lose food aid and health care costs surge. A federal judge weighs whether to force the Trump administration to keep SNAP benefits flowing for 42 million Americans as funding runs out. And President Trump says the U.S. should resume nuclear weapons testing for the first time in decades, a move experts warn could reignite a global arms race.<br/><br/><em>Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? <a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/news"target="_blank" >Subscribe</a> to the Up First newsletter.</em><br><p class="readrate">Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Catherine Laidlaw, Kelsey Snell, Brett Neely, Mohamad ElBardicy and Ally Schweitzer.<p class="readrate"><p class="readrate">It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas<p class="readrate"><p class="readrate">We get engineering support from David Greenberg. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.<p class="readrate">Our executive producer is Jay Shaylor.<br/><br/>See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

Listen to this episode in English to learn English

Podcast episodes are one of the highest-density ways to absorb English at native pace. Democrats' Shutdown Pressure, SNAP Deadline, Nuclear Testing from Up First from NPR gives you natural dialogue, unscripted speech, and vocabulary that actually appears in real conversations.

In the Clue app, every word in the transcript is tappable. Tap an unknown word, see the translation in your language instantly, and keep listening without breaking flow.

Episodes to Learn English

More podcasts in English