NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-07-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

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You ever get to the pharmacy and you're expecting your medication to cost $20, but instead it's $200 or $1,000? And you're like, wait, really? Like, are you sure? Is there some kind of mistake? This week on the Life Kit podcast, what to do when your prescription costs way more than you expected. You can listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kouravuk Coleman. The federal government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history at 38 days. It's affecting air travel because air traffic controllers are not getting paid. Starting today, the government will begin reducing air traffic at dozens of airports because of staffing shortages.

By next week, up to 10% of flights will be reduced. The chief operating officer of American Airlines, David Seymour, is urging Congress to agree on a spending bill and end the shutdown. We need to get the government reopened. We need to get this aviation system back and I implore our members of Congress to get the together and get the government reopened so we can get back to normalcy. He spoke to ABC's Good Morning America. The Senate may decide to hold another vote on a spending bill today that could end the shutdown. The Trump administration has appealed a judge's order to fully fund the government's food assistance program this month, despite the shutdown.

The judge had told the administration to start funding the program today. The program is also known as SNAP. The ongoing lapse in federal food assistance is strange. meaning millions of Americans and the organizations trying to help make up for shortfalls. As MPR's Tovia Smith reports, many food banks and pantries are struggling to keep up with a spike in demand. When the federal government let SNAP benefits lapse last week, pantries immediately saw more people coming and calling for help. In Boston, client advocate Juliet Smith says her pantry is already having to tell people to wait up to two weeks. It's painful when someone comes in and we have to say,

I just don't have anything for you today. We've never had to do that before, never. Many state and local governments are helping to fund shortfalls and private donations are pouring in, but it's still not enough, food banks and pantries say. As one put it, they couldn't possibly make up for the failure of the federal government. Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.

Federal regulators are wrestling with how to handle artificial intelligence in mental health care. A panel advising the Food and Drug Administration met this week, NPR's Windsor-Johnston reports, panelists found that the biggest risks may be the ones they can't touch. An FDA committee spent hours debating whether AI tools that promise therapy should fall under its oversight. Nick Jacobson, a researcher at Dartmouth University, testified that the problem is much broader. Millions of people are using unregulated chatbots for therapy. I think the ironic part of this, frankly, is that they are not going to regulate things that are not actually making

claims to mental health products. That means widely used apps like ChatGPT are not covered by any federal safety rules, even though users often turn to them when they can't find or afford a human therapist. Jacobson says new laws may be needed to close that gap, since the FDA's authority only regulates products that market themselves as treatment. Windsor Johnston, NPR News. This is NPR. Defense Secretary Pete Higset says the U.S. military has attacked another boat in the

Caribbean. Three people were killed. Writing online last night, Heggs at the ledge to the boat was involved in drug trafficking. He offered no evidence of his claim. A Colombian man who survived a U.S. attack on a submarine will not face charges in his home country. President Trump accused the sub of drug trafficking. NPR's Kerry Khan reports Trump had said he would face prosecution. According to the Spanish newspaper El Paix, Jonathan Obando Perez, was discharged last week from a Bogota hospital. The 34-year-old was one of two survivors of a U.S. military strike on a suspected drug smuggling submarine. Federal officials in Bogota say there were no plans to launch a formal investigation against Obando, as it has no evidence he committed a crime in Colombia.

President Trump had posted on social media that Obando would be detained and prosecuted in Colombia. Officials there also made similar assurances. The other survivor of the attack in Ecuador, with a criminal narcotics record in the U.S. was also released once returned to his home country. Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. Officials in Vietnam say a typhoon has killed at least five people after it made landfall yesterday. Typhoon Kaumegi had already blasted through the Philippines, killing at least 188 other people. The president of the Philippines has declared a national emergency for his country. That's because another typhoon is coming.

I'm Corvick Coleman, NPR News in Washington. I'm Jesse Thorne. What advice did your guidance counselor give you? Jason Manzuchas remembers his. Nothing much. I feel like the guidance counselor told me what I feel like teachers had been telling me for a long time, which was essentially, why don't you try? Now it's bullseye.

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