The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments this morning in Trump v. Slaughter, a case that has broad implications for consumers and workers. The justices are considering whether the president has the power to fire the leaders of independent federal agencies — in this case, the Federal Trade Commission. Plus, we hear about data on consumers' AI use during holiday shopping and visit a Michigan wood factory that hires and houses employees in addiction recovery.
Marketplace All-in-One - U.S. tariffs fail to dent China’s trade surplus
From the BBC World Service: The latest economic data from China shows that while exports to the U.S. crashed over the past year, China's towering annual trade surplus surpassed $1 trillion for the first time last month. The data reveals what economists and Chinese officials have said for a while now: Chinese manufacturers can find other buyers. Then, lawmakers in France's divided parliament have been at odds for weeks over the country's budget.
CBS News Roundup - 12/08/2025 | World News Roundup
Wintry blast intensifies. Millions of dangerous airbags on the road. Marjorie Taylor Greene's rift with President Trump. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has those stories and more on the World News Roundup podcast.
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Up First from NPR - SCOTUS FTC Case, ACA Extension Vote, Zelensky In London
The Supreme Court hears a case that could upend decades of limits on executive power by allowing the president to fire leaders of independent agency leaders.
Pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies are on track to expire at the end of the month, with Democrats pushing an extension and Republicans offering no unified plan.
And President Zelenskyy meets with European leaders in London as they push back on U.S. pressure for Ukraine to accept concessions in peace talks with Russia.
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Pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies are on track to expire at the end of the month, with Democrats pushing an extension and Republicans offering no unified plan.
And President Zelenskyy meets with European leaders in London as they push back on U.S. pressure for Ukraine to accept concessions in peace talks with Russia.
Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Krishnadev Calamur, Dana Farrington, Miguel Macias, Mohamad ElBardicy, and HJ Mai.
It was produced by Kaity Kline, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
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Marketplace All-in-One - Using AI chatbots for mental health support poses serious risks for teens, report finds
A new report from Stanford and Common Sense Media finds that more than half of U.S. teens use AI chatbots for companionship. But, according to Dr. Darja Djordjevic, an adolescent and adult psychiatrist who co-authored the research, the bots aren't equipped to provide the kind of emotional support young people need when dealing with a mental health issue.
Dr. Djordjevic and her team simulated conversations involving various mental health concerns with four of the most popular consumer chatbots and identified several risks; chiefly, their tendency to be sycophantic. A note, this conversation mentions suicide and self-harm.
The Intelligence from The Economist - Transitional injustice: Syria one year after Assad
A year after ousting its despot, things are not as bad as many had feared. But old sectarian divides threaten the peace. Forced labour, sex tourism and human-trafficking: ever more sophisticated drug gangs are behind a wave of exploitation across Latin America. And the rocketing price of gold drives a new generation of prospectors to California.
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Code Story: Insights from Startup Tech Leaders - Developer Chats – Svyatoslav Babinets of Meta
Today, we are kicking off a new series, entitled Developer Chats - hearing from the large scale system builders themselves, sponsored by our friends at Beyond Tech. Beyond Tech is a top tier consulting company, specializing in creating portfolios for tech and science professionals seeking the UK Global Talent Visa.
In this episode, we are talking with Svyatoslav Babinets, Engineering Manager at Meta. Svyatoslav helps to illuminate teh approaches he takes when building larger scale systems, connecting millions of users, and motivating users and developers alike.
Questions
- You’ve worked on everything from large-scale multiplayer worlds to social technologies that power digital presence — how did that journey shape the way you think about engineering today?
- You’ve worked on systems that connect millions of users across different platforms and products. How do you design architecture that supports high development velocity in large teams while still delivering experiences that delight users?
- In your experience, what helps large companies move faster without sacrificing quality? Can you share how approaches like Virtual mission squad enable cross-functional collaboration across different disciplines and tech stacks?
- As systems and teams grow, platform solutions often become the glue that holds everything together. How do you approach designing and implementing platform architecture that supports autonomy while keeping the whole ecosystem consistent?
- From your experience, where do culture and infrastructure intersect? What kinds of engineering decisions are really decisions about trust, not technology?
- You’ve worked both in games and in metaverse projects. What do these worlds teach us about building systems that feel alive — where motion, identity, and emotion all need to synchronize?
- Large-scale systems evolve constantly. How do you design for long-term adaptability — ensuring that architecture remains flexible and scalable as product and user demands grow?
- Looking ahead, how do you see the future of human–digital interaction? What should the next generation of engineers focus on — performance, presence, or empathy?
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WSJ Minute Briefing - Trump Says Netflix Deal for Warner Bros. Could Face Scrutiny
Plus: IBM is in advanced talks to acquire data-infrastructure company Confluent. And investors anticipate another rate cut as the Federal Reserve prepares to meet. Luke Vargas hosts.
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Headlines From The Times - Netflix Strikes Deal to Acquire Warner Bros., CDC Reverses Hep. B Birth Vaccine Rec., Supreme Court Approves TX Congressional Map, Hegseth Pentagon Comms Breach, CA Expands Farmworker Oversight, LeBron’s Scoring Streak Ends, and Frank Gehry Dies
Netflix agrees to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in an unprecedented Hollywood merger that will reshape the entertainment landscape. The CDC reverses its long-standing recommendation for the hepatitis B birth vaccine, drawing immediate backlash from medical experts. The Supreme Court allows Texas to use a disputed congressional map expected to add GOP seats. A Pentagon watchdog finds Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated communication rules during Yemen strike discussions in a group chat on the "Signal" app. California expands oversight to protect underage farmworkers. LeBron James’ historic scoring streak comes to an end. Architecture pioneer Frank Gehry dies at 96. In business, a Waymo autonomous taxi hits a dog in San Francisco reigniting a fierce debate about safety and Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund moves toward controlling EA in a record-setting buyout.
Start the Week - Histories, emotions and identity
Three prize-winning authors in today's discussion programme hosted by Tom Sutcliffe:
The German Peasants’ War of 1524–1525 was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. Tens of thousands of peasants rose up to demand a new, more egalitarian order—only to be crushed in a brutal counterattack that left up to 100,000 dead. The historian Lyndal Roper argues that this rebellion was far from chaotic: it was a coherent mass movement inspired by the radical ideals of the Protestant Reformation. Her book Summer of Fire and Blood is the winner of the 2025 Cundill History Prize.
The neurologist Masud Husain explores the human mind through the stories of seven patients. In asking what it is that makes us who we are, he explores how our identity can shift when we lose just a single cognitive ability. He examines the stories a man who ran out of words, a woman who stopped caring what others thought, and another who, losing her memory, believed she was having an affair with her own husband. His account of the science of identity, Our Brains, Our Selves, won the Royal Society's 2025 Trivedi Science Book Prize.
The historian Hannah Durkin explores the stories of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade. Based on her original research she uses first hand accounts to tell the stories of the enslaved in their own words. Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade is the winner of the 2025 Wolfson History Prize.
Producer: Ruth Watts