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Today's top news
Two days before Congress' scheduled recess, lawmakers are likely to leave Washington without extending Health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Expanded subsidies for ACA Marketplace plans will expire at the end of the year. Millions of Americans can expect their insurance premiums to rise sharply, and some may see the price of their plans is two or three times in the new year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Los Angeles) discusses rising health insurance premiums as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Los Angeles) (L) and House Majority Leader Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) look on during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol building on December 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Heather Deal/Getty Images
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Heather Deal/Getty Images
- 🎧 The House of Representatives plans to vote today on a package of long-loved conservative ideas for health care reform.– NPR's Sam Greenglass reports Up first. Proposed policies include association health plans and a review of pharmacy benefit management rules. Ordinary members of Congress continue bipartisan negotiations on subsidies, but lawmakers acknowledged a solution is unlikely to come this year.
As President Trump approaches the end of the first year of his second term, only 36% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy.according to the latest NPR/PBS Marist poll. This is its lowest score in the six years that Marist has asked the question. Democrats now have a slight lead over Republicans (37-33%) on economic confidence. That's a sharp reversal from the GOP's 16-point lead on the issue in 2022. The large-scale survey also shows other severe economic pressures facing Americans.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration unveiled a program aimed at speeding up the construction of new and untested nuclear reactor designs. The goal is to have three new nuclear test reactors US 250th anniversary July 4, 2026.
- 🎧 The pilot reactor program is accelerating the development of 11 new reactor designs from start-up nuclear companies.according to NPR's Jeff Brumfiel. The program is run by the Energy Department, not the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has one of the world's most powerful nuclear regulatory agencies. Some companies believe that the NRC is too strict and that the Department of Energy will be easier to work with. Isaiah Taylor of Valar Atomics tells Brumfiel that he believes the NRC is more appropriate for a plant that is 100% ready for construction throughout the United States. However, critics of the pilot program believe that the Department of Energy is incorrect regulator and that this compromises safety for the sake of speed.
Today's audition
Since 1990, NPR anchors Murray Horwitz and the late Susan Stamberg have celebrated Hanukkah with stories about family, faith, friendship and community. This year, NPR is honoring one of its founding mothers by looking back at Stamberg's 34-year history of performances that still move listeners, inspire laughter and provide fresh meaning. In one story, a 100-year-old opera singer meets her last audience in a performance that reflects the unfading light of the eternal world. In another, a Jewish boy saves money to buy his mother a new menorah. Listen “Hanukkah Lights 2025“or decide which of these four stories you want to listen to first Here.
Picture show
The assembled crash test dummy sits on a movable table in the assembly area of the Humanetics manufacturing facility in Huron, Ohio.
Brittany Greeson for NPR
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Brittany Greeson for NPR
Humanetics is a leading manufacturer of automotive crash test dummies. They are strapped into cars for safety testing to gather information about what would happen to a real person in the event of an accident. This year, the updated design of the female mannequin moved closer to widespread adoption and brought these mannequins into the spotlight. But for decades they quietly did their job, taking blow after blow to save lives. The history of crash test dummies begins long before they are strapped into a crash. Their lives, of sorts, begin in a factory in Huron, Ohio, where people create their physical parts. Go to the plant with these photos to see step by step process development of mannequins.
3 things you need to know before your trip
A model of the Barbara Rose Jones statue taken in 2023, two years before the actual statue was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol.
Amy Davis/The Baltimore Sun/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters
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Amy Davis/The Baltimore Sun/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters
- Yesterday, Barbara Rose Jones statue replaced Robert E. Lee at the U.S. Capitol after Lee was fired in 2020. 16-year-old Jones led a walkout at her high school that helped end school segregation.
- Yesterday FIFA announced that it would sell $60.”entry level fan tickets“for each of the 104 games of the 2026 World Cup. The decision follows protests over prices for next summer's tournament.
- In Charlotte, North Carolina, a woman abandoned her. 10 foot pine Christmas tree, half decorated in her yard after immigration agents questioned the men who were helping her. She says she uses it to symbolize the human and economic costs of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration.
This newsletter has been edited Suzanne Nuyen.
