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Flights are getting canceled at major U.S. airports. That's where we're starting the Seven from the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Friday, November 7th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. The pain of the government shutdown is being felt at airports this morning. Airlines have canceled hundreds of flights today, the highest number since the government Shutdown began on October 1st. They are doing it to comply with a Trump administration order to reduce air traffic. It's meant to ease the pressure of staffing shortages as TSA employees are working without pay. The aim Is to cut 10% of flights nationally by next Friday. The administration is targeting 40 US airports to meet that goal, including major hubs in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Dallas. One traveler, Sandra Simon, spoke to Post reporter Alice Lee about the vibe at the airport in Oakland, California, yesterday.
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The anxiety is very palpable. Ultimately, if at the end of the day, our air traffic controllers are burnt out, exhausted, no matter how many flights are reduced, if they're not getting paid and if they're not getting the care that they deserve, then it's not a good situation.
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This is not the only shutdown story in the news. Yesterday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release full snap benefits by today. In the weeks since the food assistance program ran out of funding, many Americans have missed meals and skipped bills. Today, the Senate plans to vote on a proposal to temporarily fund and reopen the government. Whether they can actually do it remains to be seen. Democrats regained strength with Latino voters in this week's elections. That's number two. Last year, some surveys found President Donald Trump winning nearly half of Latino voters nationwide. Republicans had been hoping to build on those inroads going into next year's midterms and beyond. But elections on Tuesday showed a clear shift among Latino voters. In Virginia, for example, the heavily immigrant city of Manassas park backed the Democratic nominee for governor by a 42 point margin. That's roughly double the advantage Democrats had there in last year's presidential race. And overall, most Democratic statewide candidates won Latino voters by at least 30 points, according to exit polls. Pollsters, community leaders and strategists in both parties attributed the shift to a backlash against Trump's immigration crackdown and rising prices. Number three, the Supreme Court cleared the way for a Trump policy on gender and passports. Justices yesterday revived an executive order that requires passports to reflect a person's sex as it is listed on their birth certificate. Their ruling ends a policy under which people could self identify their gender on passports at least While a legal fight plays out in lower courts, the three liberal justices dissented in the ruling. A dozen transgender, non, binary, and intersex people had sued to block the Trump initiative. They said it would risk their safety because they would have to out themselves every time they used their passports. This is just the latest decision by the high court that rolls back gay and transgender rights this term. Justices are also set to rule on cases concerning trans athletes and conversion therapy. Number four. A jury found DC's sandwich guy not guilty of assaulting an officer. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, let me take you back to August. President Trump had taken over law enforcement in the nation's capital, and Sean Dunn, an Air Force veteran, threw a Subway sandwich at a federal agent and was charged with assault. The one sided food fight was captured on video and went viral on social media. Here it is. Listen for the soft thump. There it goes. Prosecutors originally sought to indict Dunn on a felony assault count, but a grand jury rejected that charge, so prosecutors downgraded it to a misdemeanor. Even that, though, could not convince a trial jury. They returned a not guilty verdict yesterday. After the verdict, Dunn spoke in lofty terms about his case to reporters, some of whom sounded unconvinced.
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And let us not forget that the Great Seal of the United States has equal e pluribus unum. That means from many one, every life matters. No matter where you came from, no matter how you got here, no matter how you identify, you have the right to live a life that is free. Thank you, Sean.
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What does that have to do with throwing a sandwich, though? That stirring speech comes to us from cnn. During the trial this week, the Customs and Border Protection agent who was on the receiving end of the sandwich testified that he felt its impact through his bulletproof vest. And he said that, quote, it smelled of onions and mustard. The US is skipping next week's Global Climate Change conference. That's number five. COP 30 kicks off in Brazil on Monday. It's the UN's annual summit in which the nations of the world try to figure out how to slow down and mitigate the effects of climate change. But the world's historic highest emitter of climate warming gases will not be in attendance. That's us. The Trump administration is working instead to thwart emissions cutting initiatives and environmental projects around the world. Using a mix of lobbying and economic threats, this administration has helped sink global talks on an ambitious plastics treaty. It pressed Europe to abandon some of its green policies, and more. Meanwhile, closer to home, data seen by the Post shows how Trump officials are reshaping the Environmental Protection Agency. Specifically, they are weakening enforcement against polluters and slashing regulation of industry. Number six Some staffers at CBS News are not impressed with their new leader, Bari Weiss. Weiss is an opinion writer formerly of the New York Times with no experience running a major newsroom until last month when she took over as editor in chief of CBS News. The Post spoke with more than a dozen current and former staffers, most anonymously, to find out how it's going. One month into her tenure, CBS News workers are dealing with layoffs, shifts in resources and changes in editorial direction. The climate coverage team has lost four producers and the race and culture team has been disbanded. Some staffers described a feeling of paranoia in the newsroom. After leaving the New York Times, Weiss founded the contrarian opinion publication the Free Press. She got the new gig after Paramount Skydance bought that outlet. And at number seven, a poll of nearly 9,000 adults revealed the secret to better aging in America. I hate to break it to you, but that secret is money. The survey from Pew found income levels can affect someone's physical health, social life and even cognitive skills in retirement. Affluent retirees were defined in the poll as those with an adjusted family income greater than $155,600. More than 60% of them said they were aging extremely or very well. That's compared to about 50% of middle income seniors and 39% in the lower income bracket. Another interesting finding was that Americans want long lives, but not too long. About 3 in 4Americans want to reach their 80th birthday, but less than 30% want to live to 100. The ideal age on average, according to Pew's research, is 91. So I hope every listener of this podcast makes it to exactly 91, except for Phyllis, who turned 90 this year. You've got 20 years left. @ least. That's the show for this week. The associate producer of the Seven is Taylor White. The staff writers are Jamie Ross, Izzanakbao and me. John Taylor is our editor. Additional editing by Christina Quinn. Copyediting by Melissa Ngo and Thomas Haliba. Mixing and sound design is by Jim Briggs and Justin Gerrish. Our theme music is by Edith Mudge. Renita Jablonsky is our director of audio. I'm Hannah Jewell. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. I'll meet you back here on Monday.
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