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Right now’s high tales
With two days till Congress’s scheduled vacation recess, lawmakers will doubtless go away Washington with out extending Inexpensive Care Act medical health insurance subsidies. The improved subsidies for ACA market plans will expire on the finish of the 12 months. Thousands and thousands of Individuals can anticipate a spike of their premiums, and a few may even see the value of their plans double or triple within the new 12 months.
Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson (R-LA) discusses rising medical health insurance premiums as U.S. Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise (R-LA) (L) and Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) look on throughout a press convention within the U.S. Capitol Constructing on Dec. 10, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Heather Diehl/Getty Photos
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Heather Diehl/Getty Photos
- 🎧 The Home expects to vote right this moment on a package deal of long-favored conservative concepts round well being reform, NPR’s Sam Gringlas tells Up First. The proposed insurance policies embody affiliation well being plans and revising pharmacy profit supervisor laws. Rank-and-file congressmembers proceed to carry bipartisan talks on subsidies, however lawmakers have acknowledged {that a} resolution is unlikely to come back this 12 months.
As President Trump nears the top of his first 12 months of his second time period, solely 36% of Individuals approve of his dealing with of the economic system, in keeping with the newest NPR/PBS Marist ballot. This marks his lowest rating within the six years that Marist has been asking the query. Democrats now maintain a slight 37% to 33% lead over Republicans on financial belief. This can be a sharp turnaround from the 16-point benefit the GOP had on the query in 2022. The wide-ranging ballot additionally showcases different stark financial pressures Individuals face.
The Trump administration unveiled a program earlier this 12 months to fast-track the development of recent and untested nuclear reactor designs. The objective is to have three new nuclear check reactors by the U.S.’ 250th birthday on July 4, 2026.
- 🎧 The Reactor Pilot Program is fast-tracking 11 new reactor designs by nuclear startup corporations, in keeping with NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel. This system is run by the Division of Power, not the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Fee, which has one of many world’s strongest nuclear regulatory companies. Some corporations imagine the NRC has been too strict and the Power Division will likely be simpler to work with. Isaiah Taylor of Valar Atomics tells Brumfiel that he believes the NRC is extra related for a plant that’s 100% able to be constructed all around the U.S. Nonetheless, critics of the pilot program imagine that the Power Division is the mistaken regulator and that it compromises security for the sake of velocity.
Right now’s hear
Since 1990, NPR broadcasters Murray Horwitz and the late Susan Stamberg celebrated Hanukkah with tales about household, religion, friendship and neighborhood. This 12 months, NPR honors the reminiscence of one in all its founding moms by reflecting on Stamberg’s 34 years of performances that also transfer listeners, spark laughter and supply recent which means. In a single story, a 100-year-old opera singer faces one closing viewers in a efficiency that displays the undimmed mild of a permanent world. In one other, a younger Jewish boy saves his cash to purchase his mom a brand new menorah. Hearken to “Hanukkah Lights 2025” or determine which of those 4 tales you need to take heed to first right here.
Image present
An assembled crash check dummy sits on a moveable desk within the meeting space at a Humanetics manufacturing facility in Huron, Ohio.
Brittany Greeson for NPR
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Brittany Greeson for NPR
Humanetics is the main producer of automotive crash check dummies. They’re buckled into automobiles for security assessments to assemble data on what would occur to an actual individual in a crash. This 12 months, an up to date design for a feminine dummy moved nearer to widespread adoption, and put these dummies within the highlight. However for a lot of a long time, they’ve quietly finished their work, taking hit after hit to assist save lives. A crash check dummy’s story begins manner earlier than they’re buckled in for a collision. Their life, of kinds, begins at a Huron, Ohio, plant, the place folks create their bodily elements. Step contained in the plant with these images to see the step-by-step means of growing the dummies.
3 issues to know earlier than you go
A mannequin of the statue of Barbara Rose Johns pictured in 2023, two years earlier than the true factor was unveiled on the U.S. Capitol.
Amy Davis/The Baltimore Solar/ZUMA Press Wire by way of Reuters
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Amy Davis/The Baltimore Solar/ZUMA Press Wire by way of Reuters
- Yesterday, a statue of Barbara Rose Johns changed Robert E. Lee’s within the U.S. Capitol after Lee’s removing in 2020. Johns, at 16, led a walkout at her highschool, which helped finish faculty segregation.
- FIFA introduced yesterday that it’s going to promote $60 “supporter entry tier tickets” for every of the 104 video games within the 2026 World Cup. This choice follows an outcry over costs for the event subsequent summer season.
- In Charlotte, N.C., a lady left her 10-foot pine Christmas tree half-decorated in her entrance yard after immigration brokers questioned the boys serving to her. She says she’s utilizing it to represent the human and financial prices the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown incurs.
This text was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
