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Today’s top stories

President Trump confirmed yesterday that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela. He portrayed it as part of a pressure campaign against the country’s drug trade. On Tuesday, the U.S. military struck a fifth boat that the Trump administration said was carrying drugs. The U.S. has also built up forces in the Caribbean in a way that raises questions about whether this goes beyond interrupting the drug trade and could possibly be about regime change.

• 🎧 The president says the focus on Venezuela is not just about drugs. He said that it is also about the number of Venezuelan migrants who have entered the U.S. in recent years. The tension between Trump and the country dates back to his first administration when he tried to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, NPR’s Franco Ordoñez tells Up First. Trump expended considerable political capital opposing Maduro, yet he remains in power. Some experts believe that Trump may see this as unfinished business. The White House is defending these actions by saying Trump campaigned on a promise to take on cartels and stop the flow of drugs into the U.S., Ordoñez says.

A federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily halted the Trump administration’s latest wave of layoffs in the federal workforce. This comes as the federal government shutdown has crossed the two-week mark. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who is overseeing the case, expressed that she believes these layoffs are probably illegal.

• 🎧 Unions representing federal workers argue that the administration is illegally using the shutdown to engage in politically driven reductions in force. NPR’s Andrea Hsu says the unions discussed how, on top of a tumultuous year for federal workers, those who need to go to HR staff for important paperwork like information on health care cannot because they’ve been furloughed. The government’s attorney, Elizabeth Hedges, tried to convince the judge that she shouldn’t be hearing the case at all because federal employee personnel issues are heard by a particular agency, which is currently shut down.
• ➡️ Here’s what the shutdown means for you and your part of the country.

Military troops received their paychecks yesterday due to a last-minute intervention by the Trump administration. Over the weekend, Trump announced the administration would move $6.5 billion in unused research funds to make payroll. However, the fix didn’t resolve the underlying anxiety felt by military families as the shutdown continues.

• 🎧 Unemployment is an issue for military spouses, since they move around the U.S. often, says Steve Walsh with NPR network station WHRO. The Biden administration encouraged spouses to seek employment with the federal government, including positions at their local bases. Now, those spouses are not getting paid along with other federal workers, meaning their families are missing out on a paycheck. Walsh says several sources note that this shutdown feels different from previous ones. Military families are concerned that the next paycheck, which is due at the end of the month, may not arrive on time.

Deep dive

A gas pipeline construction crew in Wyncote, Pa. replaces older pipes that are prone to leak climate-heating methane. Projects like this are increasing gas customer bills, even as wholesale gas prices are relatively low.

Jeff Brady/NPR

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Jeff Brady/NPR

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Natural gas prices are relatively low currently, but residential gas utility rates are nearing record highs. That trend is being felt across the United States. Prices are up because customers are paying more for infrastructure, construction, utility costs and taxes than they are for the actual fuel. The money being spent on infrastructure, which will last for many years, comes at a time when scientists say the world will shift away from fossil fuels, including natural gas. Climate activists are now questioning why gas utilities are making this investment.

• 💸 Gas companies usually don’t profit from the gas itself; instead, utilities make their money by building new infrastructure, like pipelines. Regulators allow companies to recover the cost, plus profits, through customers’ bills.
• 💸 Pipeline replacement programs have contributed to changes in bills over the past 40 years. Last year, less than a third of customer bills went to gas, while about two-thirds went to the other costs.
• 💸 Gas utilities point out that one reason gas makes up a smaller share of bills is that it’s relatively cheap. Natural gas remains the cheapest way to heat homes in the winter, according to the Energy Information Administration. Meanwhile, construction costs have increased.
• 💸 Activists are urging state utility regulators to consider cheaper alternatives to replacing old gas pipelines. This includes repairing the lines or shutting down sections of gas pipelines and switching homes to electric appliances.

Learn more about what is impacting the price on your monthly gas bill.

Picture show

Pedro Tolomeo Rojas, known as Monky, enters his studio en Lima on October 21, 2025. Monky was a pioneer in the making of the posters that publicize cumbia concerts and are now considered chicha art. These colorful posters still cover the grey city of Lima and other cities advertising upcoming concerts. Some say the florescent colors were inspired by the the clothing worn by the women in the indigenous communities.

Ivan Kashinsky

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Ivan Kashinsky

Cumbia Across Latin America is a visual report covering the people, places and cultures that keep this music genre alive in six countries.

In Peru, the term “chicha” can refer to a sacred fermented corn drink or to Peruvian cumbia music. It has also been used derogatorily to mock immigrant culture in Lima, particularly during the mass migrations of Indigenous Andean people to the city in the 20th century. When it comes to music, the term has become controversial. Alfredo Villar, an author and art historian, says chicha “is the most complex moment of Peruvian identity, because it mixes everything — from its deepest roots to its most extreme and complex external influences. This is why it is so difficult to define … Chicha will always surprise you.” Learn more about the complexity of how cumbia has evolved in Peru and see photos of its influence in the country. You can also read the article in Spanish.

3 things to know before you go

Natalie Grabow of the United States completes the 2025 Ironman World Championship Women’s Race on Oct. 11, 2025, in Kailua Kona, Hawaii.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images for Ironman

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1. Natalie Grabow, an 80-year-old grandmother, is being hailed as an inspiration after becoming the oldest woman to finish the grueling Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
2. LitBox, a vending machine selling books written by local authors in the nation’s capital, is providing hope to the literary community as writers struggle with cuts to arts funding.
3. Greetings from the Rhône Glacier! This week, NPR’s Far-Flung Postcards series takes us to where scientists are conducting tests that include releasing bright pink dye to see how fast a glacier is melting.

This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel.

California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter is trying to unwind the impact of widely viewed videos showing her nearly cutting off a CBS News interview and cursing at a former staff member.  

Porter broke her silence a full week after the videos went viral. She spoke at an online California Working Families Party forum and addressed the clips that drew widespread attention to her campaign.

“When I see those videos, I know, and I want people to know that I absolutely could have done better,” Porter said. “I absolutely understand that I could have been better in those moments. I’m going to hold myself to that standard.”

Jane Kim is the state director for the California Working Families Party.

“I thought the congresswoman gave a great response last night,” Kim said on Thursday. “I think the big question, of course, is moving forward, are we going to see a version of the congresswoman that is treating her colleague and members of her team with respect?”

The first clip showed Porter abruptly announcing she was cutting off an interview with CBS California Investigates correspondent Julie Watts due to frustration over follow-up questions. While Porter called the interaction “unnecessarily argumentative,” she did eventually continue the interview.

The Porter interview was part of a larger piece where all candidates in the governor’s race shared where they stand on redistricting and Proposition 50. After it aired, Politico released a video showing Porter, a former U.S. House member, yelling at a staffer in 2021.

Republican strategist and crisis management expert Doug Elmets said that Porter’s first attempt at explaining herself fell flat. 

“She never addresses the pattern of behavior,” Elmets said. “Voters want authenticity. They want somebody who is genuinely accountable and not somebody who is rehearsing carefully tested talking points and that’s what I think you really got in her response.”

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Morgan Stanley overtook arch-rival Goldman Sachs in equities trading in the third quarter for the first time since 2022, helping the investment bank’s profits jump by almost half.

Morgan Stanley said on Wednesday that net income for the three months to the end of September was $4.6bn, more than $1bn better than analysts had expected.

The core Wall Street businesses of investment banking and trading have powered forecast-beating results across America’s biggest banks.

Goldman, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have all surpassed expectations in the past two days on the strength of their investment banks.

In equities trading, Morgan Stanley generated revenues of $4.1bn, up 35 per cent from a year ago and ahead of the $3.7bn reported by Goldman on Tuesday.

Equities trading has been a key point of rivalry between the two investment banks, and this quarter marked the first time that Morgan Stanley had out-earned Goldman in the business since the final quarter of 2022. 

Morgan Stanley was traditionally the dominant force on Wall Street in stock trading.

But it ceded that position to Goldman after it sustained heavy losses tied to investment firm Archegos Capital Management, and it has made a concerted effort to regain its top position under chief executive Ted Pick, who took over from James Gorman at the start of 2024. 

“We’re trying to create a more durable business,” Morgan Stanley chief financial officer Sharon Yeshaya told the Financial Times.

“Part of that comes from the lending and the prime brokerage business associated with equities. And some of it comes from the relationships that we continue to build on the corporate side.”

Investment banking generated $2.1bn in revenues, a 44 per cent improvement on the same quarter last year, which was in line with Goldman.

Goldman reported a 43 per cent increase in investment banking revenues to $2.7bn on Tuesday, while JPMorgan could only manage more modest gains of 16 per cent to $2.6bn and Citigroup reported a 17 per cent rise to $1.2bn.

Yeshaya said the bank was at “record levels when you look at the pipeline and the backlog” of potential deals.

Morgan Stanley’s wealth management business also performed far better than expected, drawing in net new assets of $81bn in the quarter compared with the $67bn investors were looking for.

The figure is followed closely by investors as a gauge of the business’s growth trajectory, with Morgan Stanley’s revenues split relatively evenly between its investment bank and wealth management divisions.

Morgan Stanley’s earnings came on the same day as Bank of America, which also trounced expectations for its investment bank. BofA reported a 43 per cent rise in investment banking fees to just over $2bn. Analysts had only expected the business to bring in $1.6bn.

BofA also reported an 11 per cent rise in revenues in its markets division to $6.2bn, helping lift the bank’s profits by almost a quarter from a year ago to $8.5bn.

Morgan Stanley and BofA shares were both up more than 4 per cent in pre-market trading.

This article has been updated since publication to correct the revenue in BofA’s markets division.