WSJ What’s News - Airport Delays Become a Focus in the Shutdown Fight

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

P.M. Edition for Oct. 9. As the government shutdown stretches beyond a week, federal employees—including air-traffic controllers—are working without pay. WSJ reporter Anvee Bhutani discusses how a shortage of those workers could be crucial in the fight to end the government shutdown. Plus, the Israeli government is expected to vote on the hostage deal, as President Trump, whose administration helped broker the deal, offers details about its timeline. And Lay’s chips are getting a makeover for the MAHA era, with marketing that leans into the brand’s farm roots. We hear from Journal reporter Laura Cooper about why Lay’s owner PepsiCo is making the change at this key moment for its business. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. the Israeli government is set to vote on whether to accept a peace plan brokered by the Trump administration. Plus, how flight delays could play a role in ending the government shutdown.

There is suspicion that this could be one of the biggest pressure points that would finally get people to vote for some kind of continuing resolution or solution to the shutdown. And why the top-selling chip brand in America is highlighting its health food bona fides. It's Thursday, October 9th. I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Israel's government is set to vote today on an agreement that would free the remaining hostages held by Hamas and establish a ceasefire in Gaza. The Trump administration, which brokered the deal, hopes that an agreement will be the first step towards a longer-term settlement that will involve talks over the disarmament of Hamas and the formation of an interim government to oversee Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has faced resistance to ending the war from far-right members of his coalition government, welcomed the deal to bring home Israeli hostages, which his government is expected to approve. People familiar with the matter say the deal would go into effect once Israel's government approved. it. Speaking from a cabinet meeting in the White House this afternoon, President Trump offered some details about the deal's timeline. We secured the release of all of the remaining hostages, and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday. Getting them is a complicated process. I'd rather not tell you what they have to do to get them. There are places you don't want to be, but we are getting the hostages back on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday, and that'll be a day of joy.

He added that the hostage deal has been signed and that he is working on making a trip to the region for an official ceremony. In other international news, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russia was to blame for downing an Azerbaijani passenger jet last year. The December crash of the Embraer 190 plane killed 38 people and chipped away at Moscow's influence over Azerbaijan,

a former Soviet republic. In a rare acknowledgement during a meeting today with Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, Putin said that missiles fired by Russian air defenses after Ukrainian drones entered Russian airspace had detonated near an Azerbaijan airline's plane. Putin vowed to hold those responsible, accountable, and to offer compensation. U.S. markets moved lower today, with gold and silver pulling back after the sharp rallies of recent weeks. The Dow dropped about half a percent, the S&P 500 dipped about 0.3 percent, and the NASDAQ was down about a tenth of a percent. In business news, initial public offerings made a comeback in the third quarter, fueled by short-term clarity about tariffs and interest rates.

That's according to a new report from EY, which also said that the U.S. led the acceleration in IPOs in terms of proceeds, with the best quarter since 2021. Uncertainty about tariffs and interest rates held back IPO activity earlier in the year, it said, but the more recent momentum is expected to continue into next year. And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said today that the U.S. bought Argentinian pesos in a bid to act swiftly to support the economic overhaul being enacted by the country's president Javier Millet. The disclosure in a post on X shows that the White House is deploying funds in support of its political ally, whose economic reform agenda Bessent dubbed Of Systemic Importance.

Lays is America's top-selling brand of potato chips, a category synonymous with junk food. Its maker, PepsiCo, is convinced Lays can have an even stronger appeal by marketing the brand's farm roots and appearing healthier. Laura Cooper covers beverage makers for the journal and is here now with more. Laura, what kinds of changes

is PepsiCo making to Lay's? So PepsiCo is really leaning into its real potatoes image. Lays have always been made with real potatoes, but they found in market research that about 42% of consumers were unaware that they were made with real potatoes. As a result, they are rebranding Lays. The classic bag says made with real potatoes on it, has an actual picture of potatoes, chips, salt, whatever's in there.

And they also are changing some varieties of oils in specific lays chips, specifically to Oliver avocado oil from seed and corn oil. They're also going to take artificial coloring out, for instance, in barbecue chips that was used to give them their red-brown color, and they're also going to remove any artificial flavors. They're going to be ditching their shiny, classic, lightweight bags for a heavier matte finish. It actually feels different in your hands. Why is the company making these changes now? Obviously, there's a lot going on with the Make America Healthy Again movement.

And so a number of different food companies have started to take on these initiatives. But PepsiCo has been working on this for several years. It just so happens to be happening at a time where Americans are really interested in scrutinizing what's in their food. Yeah, what is this moment for PepsiCo? What's at stake with these changes? They currently have an activist investor that is pushing for changes in beverage and food. Food has been seeing since about 2022 slowing sales. Also, the price of chips is expensive.

This comes at a time when people are going into supermarkets and making hard choices, whether that's do I buy a bag of chips or do I buy something else? Food has always been an engine of growth for this company. And I think this is part of bringing back some of that magic. That was WSJ reporter, Laura Cooper. Thanks, Laura. Thank you so much. Coming up is your flight.

delayed, blame the government shutdown. More on that after the break. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear-off about transferring your business when the time comes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business.

So join the more than four. 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. Business. Delta Airlines said today that travel demand has surged in the last six weeks, helping its revenue rise 6% in the third quarter, ahead of Wall Street expectations. And the airline expects that demand to carry into the fourth quarter, a market turnaround from a turbulent start to the year. Well, the longer the government shutdown continues, the greater chance that those flights stand of being delayed.

A shortage of air traffic controllers at airports from Nashville to Chicago's O'Hare has already delayed thousands of flights across the country this week. More travel disruptions loom as thinly staffed airport towers grapple with a workforce that frequently puts in 60-hour workweeks but now isn't getting paid to work. WSJ reporter Anvi Bhutani is in the capital and joins me now with more. Anbi, how do staffing issues among air traffic controllers result in flight delays? What is the relationship there? So when you have air traffic controllers that are working without pay, they're more likely to call in sick, which we're seeing, and there's more likely to be a shortage of staff.

That means that flights can't take off and land as they might be planned to. And we've seen in recent days that across the country from Tennessee, there's Chicago, it's right here in D.C., that people are facing those delays in lifetime. Delays are unpleasant and unfortunate, but safety, of course, is the primary issue that I think people would be worried about. And over the past few months, we've really been talking about it a lot after the mid-air collision between an American Airlines flight and a helicopter in D.C. back in January. So do these air traffic control staffing issues have an impact

on flight safety? 100% they do. And this is something that the FAA, the Federal Aviation, Administrative, has come out and said that they will ground flights if shortages start causing safety concerns. The Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, has also been very clear about this. So far, they haven't had to ground any flights for stopping reasons, but if their shortage persists and if the shutdown persists, that's something that they are considering. About that shutdown, because air travel problems actually helped end the last government shutdown in 2019. Could that happen this time around?

Both Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly said that this is a huge problem, that they're seeing the delays happening, that they're not happy about it. And so there is suspicion that this could be one of the biggest pressure points that would finally get people to vote for some kind of continuing resolution or solution to the shutdown. And what do air traffic controllers say about that? Air traffic controllers are upset that they're becoming a political pawn in this. This is becoming like a political football, as they called it, is something that they're very unhappy about and something that they've repeatedly spoken out about in recent days. That was WSJ reporter, Anvi Bhutani. Thanks, Anvi. Thank you so much.

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released its year-end figures for fiscal year 2020. And though control of the White House changed during that period, the U.S. budget picture remains grim. Despite a historic rise in tariff revenue, the deficit was the same in the year-ended September 30th, 2025 as the previous year. WSJ tax policy reporter Richard Rubin is here to tell us more. Richard, were there any surprises in that budget review? The big drivers are unchanged. Interest costs are going up. Social Security, Medicare, more expensive, year-on-year, both because of the aging of the population.

and rising health care costs. Those trends continue. We haven't seen the tariffs are raising a lot of money. There's still a small piece of federal budget, but it's growing. Trump's stamp on the budget is largely tariffs replacing income taxes and maybe some spending restraint on Medicaid coming out of the one of the beautiful bill, but we'll have to see how well that gets implemented. I'm curious whether the Department of Government Efficiency or Doge made an impact on the overall budget,

which it was intended to do. not overall look the budget is so large federal government raised more than five trillion dollars in fiscal 2025 and spent more than seven billion dollars at the beginning they were talking about all we'll save two trillion that has not materialized that doesn't mean that they did nothing they clawed back some grants and those also led this effort to encourage federal employees to leave and so as those federal employees have now left government payrolls which really is just happening in the past couple of weeks then the question is can agencies operate with fewer people? Also on the congressional level, Congress controls the purse strings at a fundamental level.

And so if Congress goes back and gives agency the kind of budgets that they were going to have, then it's not going to make that much of a difference broadly. That was WSJ reporter, Richard Rubin. Thanks, Richard. Yep, anytime. And finally, Hungarian novelist Laslo Krasnohorkai has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Born in Dula, Hungary in 1954, Krasnohorkai is known for his long, winding sentences and dark themes. The Swedish Academy in Stockholm credited Krasnohorke,

quote, for his compelling and visionary uvra that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bienname and Rodney Davis, with supervising producer, Jana Heron. I'm Alex Oslo for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show, tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.