With expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans set to expire at the end of 2025, Americans on ACA health plans are starting to see big increases in their monthly health insurance premiums for 2026 as insurers send out annual notices. To address why this is happening and what the impacts are for health care access, coverage, and outcomes generally, Brookings expert Matt Fiedler, a senior fellow with the Center on Health Policy, joins The Current.

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The thirtieth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP30, meets in Belém, Brazil next week. The most urgent challenge is finance: How do we pay for the massive global shift away from fossil fuels and fund essential adaptation projects to cope with a changing climate? To preview COP30, two leading Brookings experts on climate join the show: Samantha Gross is a fellow in Foreign Policy and director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at Brookings; and Amar Bhattacharya is a senior fellow with the Center for Sustainable Development in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings.

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After years of war, Syria is attempting to rebuild under a new government. Brookings Fellow and Director of the Turkey Project Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is joined by Visiting Fellow Mara Karlin, a former assistant secretary of defense, who recently visited Syria. They discuss the country's "plastic moment" of transformation, analyzing the realities on the ground, the complex new leadership, the challenge of lifting U.S. sanctions for reconstruction, and the tough diplomatic balancing act with regional players like Turkey and Israel.

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The annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, or APEC, starts October 31 in South Korea. Leaders from the twenty-one Pacific Rim economies are expected to attend. In this episode of The Current, two Brookings senior fellows talk about the aims of the summit and what's at stake for the U.S. and other participants. Ryan Hass directs the John L. Thornton China Center and Mireya Solís directs the Center for Asia Policy Studies.

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The Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, known as the DMV — District, Maryland, and Virginia — is home to the U.S. federal government, 6.4 million people, and hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs. To track the cascading impacts of federal restructuring and national policy shifts, Brookings has launched the DMV Monitor. Joining The Current to introduce the DMV Monitor are two of the researchers behind this crucial effort, Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow in Brookings Metro, and Glencora Haskins, research associate and applied research manager at Brookings Metro.

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As of October 1, 2025, non-essential U.S. government operations ceased due to the failure of Congress to pass legislation that funds government agencies. The latest shutdown follows others that have occurred during both Republican and Democratic administrations and under Congresses' controlled by both parties. To discuss this shutdown and what it means for governance moving forward, Brookings senior fellows Elaine Kamarck and Molly Reynolds join The Current.

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The 80th UN General Assembly is underway in New York City, in session from just after Labor Day into December. The annual High-Level Week, when world leaders gather, ended in September. To share their takeaways from the 80th General Assembly thus far and to look ahead at the UN's role in global security and development, experts Jeff Feltman and John McArthur join The Current.

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On this episode — a look at the shifting landscape of media regulation, consolidation, and the ongoing debate over free speech in the wake of Jimmy Kimmel's suspension from his late-night talk show and subsequent reinstatement. To talk about these developments, including the role of the FCC in regulating U.S. media in an era of media consolidation, Tom Wheeler, a visiting fellow in Governance Studies and former chairman of the FCC from 2013 to 2017, joins The Current.

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The credibility of U.S. federal government data may seem an arcane topic, but it is critical for a well-functioning economy. To explore the importance of reliable economic data and potential challenges to that reliability, and why it matters to businesses and the public, Ben Harris, vice president and director of Economic Studies at Brookings, joins the Current.

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On August 11, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that put the federal government in charge of the local police force. A second executive order directed members of the D.C. National Guard into active federal service. Today, over 2,000 National Guard members from D.C. and other states are mobilized in the nation's capital. To talk about the constitutional and legal basis of these actions and what this expansion of federal military power by the Trump administration could mean for other U.S. cities, Scott Anderson, a fellow in Governance Studies, plus general counsel and senior editor for Lawfare, joins the Current.

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