Democrats swept on election night this week, winning several key gubernatorial races, state legislature positions, and the New York City mayoral election.As the government shutdown continues, airports are struggling to run at maximum capacity. The Federal Aviation Administration is looking to cut 10 percent of flights at high traffic airports as they struggle with delays and staffing shortages.The Supreme Court began hearing arguments over whether or not Donald Trump’s tariffs on America’s trading partners are legal.Meanwhile, a top Israeli military lawyer was incarcerated this week after she leaked footage of Israeli soldiers allegedly sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are working to combat what he calls the “most severe public relations attack that the state of Israel has experienced.”U.S. officials are mulling possible regime change in Venezuela. The federal government’s operations in and around Caribbean and South American waters have intensified in recent weeks.Donald Trump is also threatening to take action in Nigeria if the country’s government doesn’t take action to protect Christians within its borders.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It’s open enrollment season. And for the 20 million Americans who buy their own health insurance, prices are through the roof.Rates are up an average of 30 percent for a typical plan in the 30 states where the federal government manages markets. In states that run their own markets, rates are up an average of 17 percent. That’s according to an analysis from the health policy research group KFF.Meanwhile, the longest government shutdown continues in Washington. Lawmakers still can’t agree over whether to extend subsidies that would make health insurance more affordable. Without those subsidies, experts estimate that more than 4 million people could lose access to insurance.How did health insurance get so expensive in the first place? And who stands to benefit from higher costs?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Virginia Giuffre’s memoir, “Nobody’s Girl,” is again shining a light on justice for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.The Department of Justice says Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. Over the summer, she was moved to a minimum security prison in Texas after meeting privately with Trump administration officials.In the book, Giuffre recounts how she was lured into Epstein’s world after meeting Maxwell at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago spa at the age of 16. She was then subjected to years of abuse where she was sex trafficked, including to England’s former Prince Andrew, whose title was revoked last week in part due to these allegations.Giuffre took her own life earlier this year. Even before her memoir was released posthumously, she was one of Epstein’s most outspoken accusers. We sit down with Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law about her story and their call for justice. We also speak with Marijke Chartouni, another Epstein survivor who says she was recruited in 2000 and was sexually assaulted by Epstein.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Tariffs are getting their day in court.On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases about the legality of President Donald Trump’s favorite policy tool.Shortly after he took office, Trump started signing executive orders imposing tariffs on America’s trading partners. He declared April 2 “Liberation Day,” and enacted a broad package of import duties from Canada to China and way beyond, upending U.S. economic policy and reshaping global trade.He did it all without input from Congress. And that might, or might not, have violated presidential power under the Constitution.So, are the Trump administration’s tariffs legal?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Farmers are being hit hard by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The cost of fertilizer and machinery is up, while the market for certain crops is nearly gone.But last week’s trade deal with China could provide relief. And the administration says it’s readying a $12 billion farm aid package to pay out post-shutdown.What kind of impact have Trump’s economic policies had on the American farmer?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As it’s filled election security roles at the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, the Trump administration has elevated people who are known election deniers — activists who’ve pushed unproven claims about fraud in the 2020 election or in American election systems more generally.And the administration has asked states to turn over voter roll data that includes private information. It’s even sued eight of them for some of that data in an unprecedented push for federal control of voter information.How are the systems and processes behind the 2026 midterm faring in 2025? Especially as the federal government pushes to have more control over what’s traditionally been the jurisdiction of state and local officials? We hear one of those officials as well as a panel of experts.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The government shutdown has gone on for longer than one month. Now, Republicans are considering ending the Senate filibuster to reopen the government.The Supreme Court requested more information as it heard arguments about whether President Donald Trump is within his rights to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.Two prosecutors who went after January 6 rioters were put on leave this week for filing a sentencing memo in the case of a man who showed up armed outside of the Obama residence.Amidst a brutal trade dispute, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping sat down for a face-to-face meeting in South Korea.Despite recent Israeli strikes killing more than 100 people in Gaza, the Trump Administration says the ceasefire with Hamas is still on.Following a snub by President Trump and a successful nuclear weapons test, intelligence officials say Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing no signs of seeking a compromise to end the war Ukraine.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Bruce Springsteen is an American music legend. Songs like “Born to Run” and “Born in the USA” have echoed through ballparks, dive bars, TV shows, and politics for decades.That’s why his new biopic, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” is unique. Instead of reckoning with The Boss’ glittering legacy, it focuses on a darker period of his career starting in 1981.Played by Jeremy Allen White, Springsteen finishes touring his album “The River,” rents a house in New Jersey by himself, and turns his focus inward to grapple with his past and write a new album, “Nebraska.”The 1A Movie Club convenes to talk about the film.What has audience reception been to the movie? And what did "The Boss" have to say?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

More than 400 bills challenging longstanding public health practices, including vaccines and milk safety, are making their way through statehouses across the country.According to an Associated Press investigation that tracked said legislation, these bills would do everything from ban certain types of immunizations to making the sale and consumption of unpasteurized milk more accessible.Anti-vaccine bills are by far the most common. At least 350 of the 420 bills were related to vaccines. Some 11 states have already adopted more than two dozen laws restricting vaccine access.Who are the highly organized groups behind this wave of anti-science legislation? And how do these bills fit into the broader dismantling of the country’s public health system?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hurricane Melissa is on track to make a direct hit on Jamaica today, with rains and winds already lashing the island. Melissa is a category five storm, with winds clocked at up to 175 miles per hour. It’s the strongest storm on the planet this year and one of the most devastating on record.Authorities in Jamaica and Cuba have issued evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people. For years, scientists have been telling us that climate change will make hurricanes more dangerous.What does this mean for the people of Jamaica? And what does a climate-change fueled future of hurricanes look like?Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy