aacj

Top 5 US news stories

November 7 2025

Greg Loving

07 Nov 2025 • 7 min read

China's Fujian aircraft carrier last year. DING ZIYU/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Trump Announces Deal to Cut Obesity Drug Prices to $149/Month

Medicare Coverage for GLP-1s Could Save Lives, Costs, If Prices Drop

Tesla Shareholders Approve Potential $1T 'Trillionaire' Pay Plan for Musk

Government Shutdown Prompts DOT to Cut Flights at 40 Major Airports

China Commissions Third, Most Advanced Aircraft Carrier 'Fujian'

…US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENTERS 38th DAY, LONGEST SHUTDOWN IN US HISTORY…

1. Trump Announces Deal to Cut Obesity Drug Prices to $149/Month

President Trump on Thursday announced a deal that could significantly expand access for millions of Americans to hugely popular obesity drugs by reducing the price to as little as $149 a month. The Trump administration’s agreements with the drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly would save consumers and the government considerable money on Wegovy, Zepbound and two obesity pills that are expected to win regulatory approval in the coming months. The lowest price, of $149 a month, will be available only for the lowest doses of the pill form of the drugs. When those drugs reach the market, Medicare and Medicaid will pay that price, as will Americans using their own money to buy the pills directly from manufacturers.

NYT

2. Medicare Coverage for GLP-1s Could Save Lives, Costs, If Prices Drop

Medicare coverage of GLP-1 drugs could lower spending on heart disease, diabetes complications, sleep apnea, and other obesity-related conditions, especially if prices are negotiated and access is paired with smart utilization management. One peer-reviewed modeling study of comprehensive access in Medicare projects meaningful health gains alongside potential budget benefits. They also project 38,950 cardiovascular events and 6,180 deaths avoided over the decade. That calculus plays out on a very large balance sheet. Medicare accounts for roughly 13% of the federal budget, with benefit payments around $1.1 trillion in 2025, and the Hospital Insurance (Part A) trust fund is forecast to be depleted in 2033 absent policy changes. Those metrics underscore why any GLP-1 expansion must demonstrate clear value: potential health gains and some offsets are real, but program-wide savings will hinge on lower net prices, value-based contracts, and adherence strong enough to translate clinical benefits into reduced downstream costs.

citizen journal

3. Tesla Shareholders Approve Potential $1T 'Trillionaire' Pay Plan for Musk

A. Tesla shareholders approved a record-setting pay package for Chief Executive Elon Musk, a plan designed to motivate the world’s richest man with as much as $1 trillion in additional stock. Flanked by dancing humanoid robots on a stage bathed in pink and blue light at the electric vehicle maker’s Austin, Texas, headquarters, Musk thanked the crowd of shareholders who supported the pay package with more than 75% of the votes cast.

B. Tesla’s longtime leader is already the company’s largest shareholder, with control over roughly 500 million shares, or a 15% stake. That includes interim shares he received in August but not options from a 2018 award that are held up in a court dispute. The proposed pay plan requires Tesla to hit a series of milestones to unlock 424 million more Tesla shares. The award is carved into 12 tranches of stock. To unlock each block, Tesla must hit both a market-cap milestone and achieve one of a dozen operational milestones. The market-capitalization targets begin at $2 trillion and climb to $8.5 trillion. Tesla currently has a market cap of around $1.5 trillion. Half the new targets would put Tesla at or above $5 trillion—roughly the current market capitalization of chip maker Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company. Four operational milestones are tied to existing and new Tesla products. Musk could unlock two blocks of shares by continuing to sell millions of electric vehicles and adding self-driving subscriptions. The other two blocks would require Musk to succeed in shifting Tesla’s focus to developing robotaxis and humanoid robots.

WSJ

4. Government Shutdown Prompts DOT to Cut Flights at 40 Major Airports

Airlines and travelers scrambled to review flight plans after U.S. transportation officials said they would throttle commercial air traffic starting Friday, a move that has heightened pressure on lawmakers and the president to end the government shutdown. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said traffic at 40 major airports would be reduced as much as 10% as a safety measure prompted by the shutdown. He has said that while the country’s air-travel system is safe, the reduction is aimed at keeping it that way. Air-traffic controllers and airport security agents aren’t being paid during the shutdown, which federal officials said has led to stretched staffing, flight delays and long security lines. A 4% reduction in traffic will take effect Friday. The reductions will reach 6% by Tuesday, Nov. 11, 8% by Nov. 13, and 10% by Nov. 14. The order also limits commercial space launches to nonpeak hours and prohibits some parachute operations.

WSJ

5. China Commissions Third, Most Advanced Aircraft Carrier 'Fujian'

SINGAPORE—China has put its largest and most sophisticated aircraft carrier into active service, boosting Beijing’s quest to create a formidable oceangoing navy that can challenge U.S. power in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. Leader Xi Jinping presided over the commissioning ceremony this week for the Fujian, the country’s third aircraft carrier and the first to be fully designed and built in China. More than 2,000 personnel attended the ceremony at a naval base in Sanya, on China’s southern island province of Hainan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday. Xi boarded the warship during the event on Wednesday to speak to its crew and inspect its systems, and activated the carrier’s catapult system as part of a demonstration, Xinhua said. Named after the coastal province that sits closest to Taiwan, the island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory, the Fujian features electromagnetic catapults for launching aircraft, including new early-warning radar planes that China’s other two carriers can’t deploy. China has the world’s largest navy, with more than 370 surface ships and submarines, according to Pentagon estimates, though the U.S. still operates the most aircraft carriers of any country. Since taking power in 2012, Xi has directed an ambitious effort to modernize China’s military and turn it into a 21st-century fighting force that can take on Western powers—particularly at sea, where Chinese forces have confronted U.S. counterparts while asserting Beijing’s sovereignty claims over Taiwan and in the South China Sea.

WSJ

November 7 1944: FDR wins unprecedented fourth term

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term in office. FDR remains the only president to have served more than two terms.

Roosevelt rose above personal and political challenges to emerge as one of the nation’s most revered and influential presidents. In 1921, at the age of 39, he contracted polio and thereafter was burdened with leg braces; eventually, he was confined to a wheelchair. From the time he was first elected to the presidency in 1932 to mid-1945, when he died while in office, Roosevelt presided over two of the biggest crises in U.S. history: the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II.

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