Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. The Trump administration has finalized a plan to open the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. It's one of the nation's most sensitive wilderness areas, home to polar bears, caribou, and other wildlife. Now the Interior Department says it will sell land there for oil and gas exploration

this winter. More than a million federal workers are set to miss another paycheck in the coming

days due to the government shutdown. As NPR's Andrea Shue reports, community organizations are

being flooded with requests for help. The Community Services Agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO,

created its Federal Worker Solidarity Fund earlier this year to help federal employees who lost

their jobs in mass layoffs. Now, with tens of thousands of federal workers in the region,

going without paychecks during the shutdown, applications for emergency assistance have

soared. Sig Males is the group's director. It's folks asking for food assistance, it's rent,

mortgages, its utility bills, and car payments. Elsewhere in the country, credit unions have seen a

surge in applications for short-term interest-free loans, which they're providing to help

their federal employee members bridge the gap until the shutdown ends.

Andrea Shue and PR News.

President Trump is threatening to expand his military campaign against alleged drug cartels.

The administration says it launched two strikes against drug boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean last night.

Seven previous strikes targeted vessels in the Caribbean. In total, the operations have killed 37 people.

Now Trump is threatening a land invasion and says he might even seek approval from lawmakers.

You know, the land is going to be next. And we may go to the Senate. We may go to the, you know, Congress and tell them about it, but I can't imagine that have any problem with it.

Experts have questioned the legality of the strikes. Trump justifies them by saying the U.S. is engaged in an armed conflict with drug cartels.

The Trump administration is defending charges to the changes to the

president's White House ballroom project. President Trump initially said the construction

wouldn't interfere with the current building. Now a White House official tells NPR the entire

East Wing will be demolished. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports. At her latest briefing,

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