Today's Top Stories from NBC News

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2025

In today's newsletter: Democrats offer a proposal to end the shutdown on a day of snarled air travel and uncertainty over food assistance benefits. Ghislaine Maxwell's prison emails show her relief at being transferred to a cleaner and safer federal prison camp in Texas. And, the New England Patriots are back, along with their haters.

Here's what to know today.

▼ The Lead

What to know about SNAP, air travel and the shutdown

(Jim Vondruska / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Fallout from the longest federal government shutdown in history continues, with more uncertainty over when SNAP recipients will receive their November payments, and thousands of flights delayed or canceled altogether from an FAA reduction in air traffic.

The Supreme Court, in an order late yesterday by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, temporarily allowed the Trump administration to withhold about $4 billion in payments for the SNAP food benefits program that a federal judge had ordered.

The administration had said that because of the government shutdown, there is only enough money to pay partial benefits this month. It had previously agreed to pay about $5 billion from a SNAP contingency fund but objected to paying another $4 billion from a separate program, arguing McConnell had no authority to force it to.

In her order, Jackson said a temporary stay was required so that the appeals court can consider the government's application in full.

At airports, passengers experienced the first day of reduced flights, with more than 1,000 canceled and thousands more delayed. Frustration at airports was expected to continue today, and even if the shutdown ends soon, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that flying during Thanksgiving could still be a nightmare.

Senate Democrats made an offer yesterday to reopen the government, proposing a one-year extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies alongside a package of funding measures in order to secure their votes.

The offer, rolled out on the floor by Chuck Schumer includes a "clean" continuing resolution, which would reopen the government at current spending levels, and a package of three bipartisan appropriations bills to fund some departments for the full fiscal year.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the Democratic offer a "nonstarter."

Read the full story.

More politics news:

The Trump administration is exploring buying warehouses that were designed for clients like Amazon and retrofitting them as detention facilities for immigrants before they are deported.

A federal judge ruled that the partisan language added to out-of-office email messages of furloughed Education Department employees violates their First Amendment rights.

DNC Chair Ken Martin will travel to Tennessee to campaign for congressional candidate Aftyn Behn, who is running in a deep red district — a sign of Democratic bullishness coming off of positive election results.

The Trump administration said it would launch an investigation into whether major meatpacking companies are illegally influencing beef markets amid soaring prices.

Trump hailed his deal to slash the price of weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound as a game changer. But major gaps in the plan could blunt its impact, drug policy experts said.

A federal judge in Oregon issued a permanent injunction barring the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard on the streets of Portland in response to protests against the president's immigration policies.

"This Court arrives at the necessary conclusion that there was neither 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion' nor was the President 'unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States' in Oregon when he ordered the federalization and deployment of the National Guard," U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut, who was nominated to the bench in President Donald Trump's first term, wrote in her ruling.

The Trump administration can appeal the ruling if it wants to.

Read the full story.

Ghislaine Maxwell's prison emails show she is 'happier' at minimum-security facility

Ghislaine Maxwell arrived at a minimum-security facility in August and gushed in emails to her friends and family over the cleanliness and safety of her new surroundings.

Maxwell's unexpected move to the all-women's Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas, which houses inmates convicted of nonviolent offenses and white-collar crimes in dormitory-style quarters, drew immediate condemnation from current and former federal Bureau of Prisons employees. They said it was very unusual for prisoners with sex offenses on their records to be incarcerated in such an unconstrained setting, indicating Maxwell was receiving preferential treatment.

NBC News has reviewed emails Maxwell sent during her first few months at FPC Bryan, which were obtained by the House Judiciary Committee. The emails describe Maxwell's relief at being in a calmer facility without violence, where staff was polite and the food was better. "My situation is improved by being at Bryan," she wrote in one email.

Read the full story.

Paramount Skydance's bullish pitch to Hollywood

Executives at Paramount Skydance have been making a bullish pitch to many Hollywood players and spending big for high profile projects. About a dozen industry insiders who spoke to NBC News — including talent agents, producers and executives — said the studio is aggressively closing deals with top talent and signaling to the entertainment industry what the tech-driven future of the David Ellison-owned company will look like.

Paramount has landed a Timothée Chalamet-starring crime drama, a four-year film, TV and streaming deal with the Duffer brothers (the duo behind "Stranger Things") and a multipicture deal with Will Smith's production company. Many who were interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying they're wary of discussing Ellison on the record as they try to broker deals with the studio and its competitors.

They describe Paramount executives leading with a confidence that is lacking at many of their less resourced competitors right now, and a mandate to make mainstream movies in the action, horror and comedy genres.

Read the full story.

▼ Quiz Time

A jury acquitted a Washington, D.C., man of a misdemeanor for throwing what at a federal officer?

A. A rock
B. A Subway sandwich
C. A tear gas canister
D. A water balloon

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

Malnourished and dehydrated people are crawling through the desert on their elbows and knees in constant terror of being caught by fighters from Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, humanitarian organizations have warned.

Trump approved a pardon for baseball legend Darryl Strawberry.

Google will begin including "prediction market" odds from the online betting platforms Kalshi and Polymarket into its Google Finance tools.

Liquor makers can't get approvals for new releases as long as the government is shut down. Even if it reopens soon, it may be too late to make the holiday season.

Fox Sports parted ways with football analyst Mark Sanchez a month following his arrest in Indianapolis in an incident in which he was stabbed after allegedly attacking a truck driver.

▼ Staff Pick

Rebuilding the Patriot way

As they won six Super Bowls over two decades, the New England Patriots were the NFL's most polarizing team — beloved by their fans, and loathed by rivals. Since their last title in 2019, however, they'd mostly just been bad, with opposing fans cheering as the NFL's longest-running dynasty was taken down a peg.

That's why the first half of this NFL season has been such a surprise. The Patriots are back, with a record that ties for the league lead, a Bill Belichick disciple as head coach, and a young star at quarterback.

I spoke with Patriots fans, and Patriots haters, to find out how they felt about one of the season's most surprising contenders.

– Andrew Greif, sports reporter

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The NBC Select team rounded up the best wireless earbuds for various activities and budgets. Plus, what to know about the plastics in your underwear.