--:-- Janine Hurst: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst.
--:-- Marlon Hyde: The FAA says as staffing shortages increase across the system, it will start slowing down air traffic at airports nationwide to ensure safe operations as the government shutdown continues.
--:-- Janine Hurst: Marlon Hyde from member station WABE reports, flight capacity will be reduced by 10% in phases at 40 major airports, including Chicago, Washington, and Atlanta, starting tomorrow.
--:-- [Sound of airport ambiance]
--:-- Ellen Silva: [Interviewee] I'm Ellen Silva, just arrived from Baltimore. I'm staying until Tuesday. I'm a professional pet sitter and I'm concerned that my job might be affected if my return flight is altered by the flight reductions.
--:-- Janine Hurst: Silva is a professional pet sitter and is concerned that her job might be affected if her return flight is altered by the flight reductions.
--:-- Ellen Silva: I would miss work and I'd have some very unhappy people that I work for because they depend on me so they can travel. And if I'm not there, they can't leave.
--:-- Janine Hurst: Airlines encourage customers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
--:-- Marlon Hyde: Frontier and Delta Airlines expect flights will go as planned. Customers whose flights are canceled or delayed can rebook or request a refund online.
--:-- Janine Hurst: For NPR News, I'm Marlon Hyde in Atlanta.
--:-- [Sound of news theme music fading out]
--:-- Janine Hurst: President Trump is taking steps to lower the cost of obesity drugs.
--:-- Pierre Franco Ordonez: Speaking from the Oval Office, President Trump announced a deal with two pharmaceutical companies that would allow some people to get drugs like Ozempic for as little as $149 a month.
--:-- Pierre Franco Ordonez: The deal includes coverage by Medicare and Medicaid, which could mean new customers for the companies. And the administration says about 10 percent of Medicare enrollees will be eligible.
--:-- Pierre Franco Ordonez: The drugs will also be available to purchase online in a direct-to-consumer marketplace that the Trump administration plans to launch, called TrumpRx.
--:-- Janine Hurst: Franco Ordonez, NPR News, the White House.
--:-- [Sound of news theme music]
--:-- Janine Hurst: There's some ominous news about the job market today.
--:-- Scott Horsley: A firm that keeps tabs on pink slips, Challenger Gray and Christmas, says layoff notices jumped sharply last month. It was the worst October for layoff announcements in more than two decades.
--:-- Scott Horsley: U.S. employers announced plans to cut more than 150,000 jobs in October. Tech companies and warehousing firms saw some of the biggest downsizing.
--:-- Janine Hurst: Reports like Challenger's are getting extra scrutiny these days because official government reports on the job market have been suspended by the federal shutdown.
--:-- Scott Horsley: For NPR News, I'm Scott Horsley, Washington.
--:-- [Sound of news theme music]
--:-- Janine Hurst: Wall Street lower at the close. The Dow down 397 points. The Nasdaq down 445. S&P 500 down 75.
--:-- Janine Hurst: You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
--:-- [Sound of news theme music]
--:-- Janine Hurst: The Supreme Court says President Trump can proceed with blocking transgender and non-binary people from choosing their sex marking on passports and require them to list their sex as their gender at birth.
--:-- [Sound of news theme music fading out]
--:-- Janine Hurst: This overturns a lower court order pausing Trump's policy and allowing applicants to choose how to identify M for male, F for female, or X for neither.
--:-- Janine Hurst: For 30 years the government has allowed citizens to choose their apparent gender instead of the one listed on their birth certificate, but the addition of X only started in 2021.
--:-- Janine Hurst: 2025 is on track to be the second or third hottest year ever recorded. That's the finding from the World Meteorological Organization's annual climate review.
--:-- Alejandra Burunda: That comes just before countries gather for international climate negotiations in Brazil.
--:-- Alejandra Burunda: WMO says the planet is about 1.4 degrees Celsius hotter than it was during the pre-industrial era. And all that planetary heating means it's almost more surprising when a year doesn't come with the tagline, hottest year ever.
--:-- Alejandra Burunda: So it doesn't look like 2025 will end up with that superlative. That's probably due to natural cycles and Earth's weather systems that dragged global temperatures down slightly this year.
--:-- Alejandra Burunda: But overall, the pattern of global warming is clear. That's according to WMO Deputy Secretary General Coe Barrett.
--:-- Alejandra Burunda: Each fraction of a degree matters for communities facing floods, droughts, and heat extremes.
--:-- Janine Hurst: The report comes as the United Nations Annual Climate Summit starts next week. No high-level officials from the United States will attend the meeting.
--:-- Alejandra Burunda: For NPR News, I'm Alejandra Burunda.
--:-- Janine Hurst: This is NPR News.
