Politics and views in the United States.

As the government shutdown deepens, the debate over food aid sharpens and a federal judge weighs emergency action to keep SNAP benefits flowing. Activists say pregnant migrants are at risk in ICE detention and Ohio faces a last-minute redistricting fight.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

I've lived through several government shutdowns in my time here.

Nobody wins.

This is something we ought to be able to work out.

It's simply funding the government so that we can fund the rest of the government through the normal appropriations process.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota is again accusing Democrats of playing politics and says Republicans are focused on reopening the government.

Federal food assistance will stop for more than 40 million Americans November 1.

Emily Weikert Bryant with Feeding Indiana's Hungry says food pantries are bracing for when SNAP benefits go away for 850,000 Hoosiers.

Food banks will be one of the first places families turn.

Our member food banks are working with faith-based and community pantries across the state.

Our food banks adapt quickly to meet the moment.

President Donald Trump says he'll cut "Democrat programs" in the shutdown, but a Boston federal judge says she may compel the administration to use billions in the USDA emergency fund to keep SNAP running, as the White House did during a shutdown in Trump's first term.

District Judge Indira Talwani says it's hard to understand how this isn't an emergency when there's no money and people are hungry.

Meanwhile, the number of pregnant migrant women in ICE custody is rising, and advocates say the conditions in detention are putting lives at risk.

Melanie Naser with the Women's Refugee Commission says new data show alarming situations are causing miscarriages, in spite of federal policies which should limit such detentions.

We have learned that women are miscarrying in detention, that women are not getting the nutrition that they need for healthy pregnancies, and they are showing up after being deported malnourished.

So that's a huge concern.

ICE insists women in custody receive proper care, but Naser and the commission says the agency refuses to release medical data and has forced researchers to travel abroad to interview deported women.

In Ohio, the Redistricting Commission faces a deadline today to vote on a proposed map it released just one day ago.

Spencer Derig with the Ohio Environmental Council says state voters approved reforms years ago to make redistricting more transparent, but lawmakers have ignored them.

He warns they seem set to push through a partisan map with little public input.

Let's be very clear.

The current congressional map is an unconstitutional gerrymander and the map that they are proposing is also an unconstitutional gerrymander.

California voters look likely to approve a democratic redistricting plan when they go to the polls next week.

Trump is ordering the Energy Department to restart nuclear weapons testing for the first time in three decades, saying America must keep pace with China and Russia.

And the administration's new refugee quota, 7,500, mostly white South Africans, marks the lowest in history.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.