Today's Top Stories from NBC News

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2025

In today's newsletter: A judge orders the Trump administration to fund SNAP through a contingency fund. The devastating violence in western Sudan. And, a tight-knit community recovering from a cultlike leader is rocked by a measles outbreak.

Here's what to know today.

▼ The Lead

White House ordered to pay SNAP benefits out of contingency fund

(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

A Rhode Island federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to distribute money owed to recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program "as soon as possible," just one day before funding for SNAP was set to lapse.

U.S District Judge John McConnell's ruling came shortly after another federal judge in a separate case said that the Trump administration's plan not to pay out SNAP benefits set to begin today due to the ongoing federal government shutdown was "unlawful" but stopped short of ordering the Trump administration to disburse funds.

Ruling in favor of a group of cities and community organizations that sued over the cuts, McConnell said that the USDA must fund SNAP using money in a contingency fund. But, he added that if the department finds that the money in the contingency fund is insufficient, then the agency must use other funding sources to make those payments. He asked the administration for an update on the SNAP funding by Monday at 12 p.m. ET.

President Donald Trump said on social media Friday that "government lawyers do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available, and now two Courts have issued conflicting opinions on what we can and cannot do."

"I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible," Trump said.

Read the full story.

More politics news:

Trump said he wants the Defense Department to begin testing nuclear weapons "immediately," but experts say that's wishful thinking.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump's directive to restart testing nuclear weapons in the U.S. "weakness masquerading in strength."

Virginia Democratic lawmakers took the first big step in a complicated maneuver to redraw the state's congressional map before next year's midterm elections.

A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman offered a two-word reply in response to a local news report that said immigration agents were seen wearing Halloween masks in the Los Angeles area: "Happy Halloween!"

Trump pushed Senate Republicans to abolish the 60-vote filibuster rule in order to reopen the shuttered government without Democratic votes. But in a rarity, he's hitting firm and immediate resistance from his own party.

Senate Republican leaders have been outspoken in their support for the 60-vote rule to pass most bills. The new majority leader, John Thune, R-S.D., promised shortly after the 2024 election that the legislative filibuster would remain unchanged on his watch.

The legislative filibuster has evolved over the years, but since 1975, it has required 60 votes to achieve "cloture" in the Senate and ensure passage of most bills over the minority's objections. There are exceptions, such as the budget "reconciliation" process that Republicans used to pass Trump's "big, beautiful bill." GOP senators have expanded those exceptions this year, but they've largely been opposed to fully removing the 60-vote threshold.

Read the full story.

Mass slaughter in Sudan visible from space

The violence in western Sudan has been so devastating, the blood is visible from space. Tens of thousands are estimated dead after paramilitary fighters from the Rapid Support Forces rampaged through the city of el-Fasher, and because of a communications blackout in the region, it has been left to eyewitness accounts, satellite imagery and online videos to reveal the scale of what is unfolding.

Fighting has raged in Sudan since war broke out in 2023 between the military and the RSF. What began as an alliance between the country's top commander and his former deputy fractured over how to manage the transition to a civilian government, and with neither seemingly willing to cede power, fighting broke out.

An expert who studied the satellite images said they showed "activity that suggests mass killing on a level that can only be compared to Rwanda," where an estimated 800,000 people were killed in 1994. One of the few residents who made it out told NBC News as thousands tried to flee the city, the RSF "opened direct fire on civilians." He described witnessing people being executed in front of him and said he was only freed after his family agreed to pay a ransom.

Read the full story.

▼ Quiz Time

When was the last time the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series?

A. Never
B. 1990
C. 1993
D. 1999

Find out the answer and test your knowledge of this week's most-read stories. (The answer to the question is also at the bottom of this newsletter.)

Take the news quiz

▼ Read All About It

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace was involved in a heated confrontation with airport police and TSA agents at the Charleston International Airport.

The September attack at a Michigan church in which a gunman opened fire and set the building ablaze was motivated by anti-religious beliefs, the FBI announced.

The man who supplied guns and blank ammo to makers of the ill-fated Western film "Rust" filed a lawsuit in New Mexico against Alec Baldwin, producers and other movie employees, claiming they've scapegoated him for the deadly on-set shooting.

A Kentucky woman, expecting medicine and other medical supplies in the mail, instead received a box of human body parts, authorities said.

The former director of student media at Indiana University and adviser to the student newspaper has filed a lawsuit against the school after he was fired two weeks ago.

▼ Staff Pick

Distrust outbreak

It was the frightened face of a young mother as she cradled her limp daughter with an obvious measles rash in Seminole, Texas, that stuck with me. It was February, the beginning of what would become the biggest measles outbreak in the U.S. in decades. The woman was asking for medical advice at her local health food store. "She's looking better," the store's owner said. The woman's furrowed brow eased some, but not much.

The West Texas outbreak that spilled into New Mexico ultimately sickened 862 people and killed three, including two little girls. NBC News embarked on a months-long, in-depth investigation, finding vaccination rates had fallen precipitously not only in West Texas, but nationwide.

There's now a growing measles outbreak along the border of Utah and Arizona.

Why, we wondered, are American children increasingly vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases? Dozens of conversations with moms, dads and others in these hard-hit communities reveal why many have a deep distrust of vaccines — and show how some are now embracing the shots to protect their families.

– Erika Edwards, medical reporter

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