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In the news today: The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over but getting everything back up and running will take some time; the BBC apologizes to Trump over a misleading edit of his speech; and top Fannie Mae officials ousted after sounding alarm on sharing confidential housing data. Also, the bizarrely beautiful winter phenomenon of frost flowers. As I sign off from the Morning Wire for the last time, I wanted to say what a privilege it has been to help bring you the news each morning. Thank you for reading and for letting me be a part of your day. The newsletter will continue landing in your inbox each morning, thanks to my wonderful colleagues. |
The National Gallery of Art remains closed, Thursday, following the passage of a funding bill to reopen the government in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert) |
You can end a shutdown overnight — but you can't reopen a government that fast |
The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is over — on paper, at least. But the American public isn't done with it yet: Getting everything back up and running doesn't happen all at once. Read more. |
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- The shutdown caused significant disruptions in aviation, and staff shortages, combined with some troubling safety data, prompted the government to order airlines to cut some of their flights over the past week to relieve pressure on the system. Those cuts aren't increasing right now: the Federal Aviation Administration won't lift the order until safety metrics improve. Airlines say they expect to resume normal operations quickly after that.
Among the most high-profile impacts of the shutdown was on the SNAP program, which serves around 42 million people — about 1 in 8 Americans — in lower-income households. On Thursday, state officials said they were working quickly to get full benefits to the millions of people who missed their regular monthly payments. Some states said SNAP recipients should receive their full monthly benefits starting Thursday or Friday, though it could take up to a week.
- The country's national parks largely stayed open through the shutdown with limited staffing. Outside groups and state governments had picked up the tab during the shutdown to keep visitor centers running and help with trash cleanup at many parks. National Park Service employees were ordered back to work Thursday. It will take time for rangers to fully assess parks, including backcountry areas, and more damage could yet be discovered, said Kristen Brengel with the National Parks Conservation Association.
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BBC apologizes to Trump over its misleading edit, but says there's no basis for a defamation claim |
The BBC apologized Thursday to U.S. President Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, but said it had not defamed him, rejecting the basis for his $1 billion lawsuit threat. Read more. |
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The BBC said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech Trump gave before some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The publicly funded broadcaster said there are no plans to rebroadcast the documentary, which had spliced together parts of his speech that came almost an hour apart.
Trump's lawyer had sent the BBC a letter demanding an apology and threatened to file a $1 billion lawsuit for the harm the documentary caused him. While the BBC statement doesn't respond to Trump's demand that he be compensated for "overwhelming financial and reputational harm," the headline on its news story about the apology said it refused to pay compensation.
- Legal experts have said that Trump would face challenges taking the case to court in the U.K. or the U.S. They said that the BBC could show that Trump wasn't harmed because he was ultimately elected president in 2024.
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Top Fannie Mae officials ousted after sounding alarm on sharing confidential housing data |
A confidant of Bill Pulte, the Trump administration's top housing regulator, provided confidential mortgage pricing data from Fannie Mae to a principal competitor, alarming senior officials of the government-backed lending giant who warned it could expose the company to claims that it was colluding with a rival to fix mortgage rates. Read more. |
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Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Fannie Mae executives were unnerved about what one called the "very problematic" disclosure of data by Lauren Smith, the company's head of marketing, who was acting on Pulte's behalf. "Lauren, the information that was provided to Freddie Mac in this email is a problem," Malloy Evans, senior vice president of Fannie Mae's single-family mortgage division, wrote in an Oct. 11 email. "That is confidential, competitive information."
While Smith still holds her position, the senior Fannie Mae officials who called her conduct into question were all forced out of their jobs late last month, along with internal ethics watchdogs who were investigating Pulte and his allies.
- In a brief statement, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which Pulte leads, did not address questions from the AP, but said the agency "requires its regulated entities to carry out their operations in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations." Pulte and Smith did not respond to requests for comment.
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This photo provided by Alan Templeton shows a frost flower at the Weldon Spring Conservation area Tuesday, in St. Charles County, Mo. (Alan Templeton via AP) |
Cotton candy? No, they're frost flowers
The first major blast of wintry weather in the U.S. this week brought snow, frigid temperatures and in some places something a little more magical: frost flowers. Made of thin ribbons of ice that extend out in intricate patterns when frozen water breaks through certain plant stems, the icy blooms can disintegrate with a single touch and only appear for hours at a time.
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