Senate Democrats break ranks to join Republicans in backing a deal to reopen the government after 41 days, a move that could finally end the longest shutdown in U.S. history. SNAP benefits remain tangled in court battles, as a late ruling orders the Trump administration to fully restore payments while states face threats of federal penalties. And world leaders gather in Brazil for a major climate conference, but the Trump administration says the U.S. won't be at the table. 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 Anna Yukhananov, Kevin Drew, Neela Banerjee, Mohamad ElBardicy and Martha Ann Overland.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Lindsay Totty
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Extreme weather caused by climate change is affecting agriculture and raising the cost of foods like coffee, olive oil and chocolate. Cocoa prices have been hitting record highs due to extreme rainfall, drought and heat. And some experts say most of the land used for cocoa production won’t be usable in the future.
Marketplace’s Amy Scott, host of our podcast "How We Survive," explores a new way tech entrepreneurs are making chocolate so that we can keep enjoying it for years to come.
The Trump administration appeals a court order to fund SNAP benefits as the government shutdown continues, grounding thousands of flights nationwide. In California, Katie Porter loses traction in the governor’s race, while Denmark moves to ban social media for children under 15. New U.S. visa rules target applicants with medical conditions, prompting criticism from immigration advocates. In business, ESPN ends its deal with Penn Entertainment to partner with DraftKings, and Google integrates its Gemini AI into Maps.
In our continuing Still Good Law series, Jenessa explains how a dispute arising from a parking garage in Wilmington, Delaware became the foundation for one of the most important concepts in civil rights: determining that a private or quasi-public individual or entity is operating “under color of law.” How does this concept help to hold law enforcement and other governmental agencies accountable, and how is it holding up in 2025?
Twenty years ago, a genocidal campaign in the Darfur region of Sudan shocked the world. Now, videos and images of new atrocities have captured global attention once more.
Declan Walsh, who has been covering Sudan, discusses one of the worst humanitarian conflicts in decades, and how gold is fueling it.
Guest: Declan Walsh, the chief Africa correspondent for The New York Times.
In a surprise move, several Senate Democrats cross the aisle to end the shutdown. A series of judicial rulings leaves some SNAP recipients with benefits, and others without. And two MLB pitchers are indicted over alleged sports betting.
Threats to the natural world are the focus of today’s conversation. Adam Rutherford talks to wildlife biologist Jonathan Slaght, novelist Juhea Kim and criminal psychologist Julia Shaw.
Jonathan Slaght discusses Tigers Between Empires, his account of the international effort to save the Siberian tiger from extinction in the wake of the Cold War.
Juhea Kim’s short story collection A Love Story from the End of the World imagines lives lived in precarious balance with nature, from biodomes in Seoul to landfill islands in the Pacific.
Dr Julia Shaw’s Green Crime investigates the psychology behind environmental destruction, profiling the perpetrators of ecological harm and the people fighting to stop them.
In the mid-19th century, China experienced its greatest civil war.
It was a conflict that set China on a course that eventually led to China’s Century of Humiliation and the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
It wasn’t just a massive civil war; in terms of total lives lost, it was far and away the largest war in history up until that point, and by some estimates, it might even have been as or more devastating than the world wars of the 20th century.
Yet, despite being one of the greatest conflicts in history, it remains largely unknown in the modern world.
Learn more about the Taiping Rebellion and how it changed China on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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