Safety or Strategy? Why the FAA Is Taking Hundreds of Flights Offline
How unprecedented flight cancellations will affect your travel. Plus: Republicans reject Democrat's new proposal. Hegseth opens Pentagon coffers for tech bros. And 7'9" of pure history.
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Democrats have some wind in their sails after this week’s coast-to-coast election victories. For the first time in a year, Democratic sources are texting actual happy face emojis. The wins also showed the White House that Democrats have clout with voters again. So how will this impact the government shutdown?
Until now the two parties were in a standoff: no negotiation, just Republicans waiting for Dems to cave. But after Tuesday’s results and Trump saying publicly the shutdown hurt his party, Democrats have leverage to demand real talks. Today Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer put forward the price to reopen government: a one-year extension of health care subsidies. He called it a “simple proposal.” Schumer also suggested the creation of a bipartisan committee to determine the long-term future of the subsidies and discuss other health care reforms.
It’s less than the permanent extension Democrats wanted, but the politics are shifting. Tens of millions are without SNAP food assistance. Airlines are taking flights offline, driving huge delays that, if not resolved, could cause travel misery over Thanksgiving. Both sides need an exit. But it seems the GOP isn’t willing to walk through the door Democrats opened, at least not yet. Senate Majority Leader Thune already called Schumer’s offer a “non-starter” and Sen. Linsday Graham (R-SC) said it’s “political terrorism.” Trump is insisting that Senate Republicans blow up the filibuster to reopen government without Democrats’ votes rather than compromise. So far the GOP has resisted Trump’s demand. The shutdown continues.
By floating a compromise proposal tonight, Sen. Schumer is telling the GOP that Democrats won’t cave. Voters told them not to. They’ll have to negotiate to get a deal. Maybe it’ll take four-hour lines at airports across the country to make someone blink.
In this newsletter: travel hell, speeding defense money to Trump donors, a look back at Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s achievements, and a tall tale in News That Doesn’t Suck.
Here Are Your Headlines
When They Go Low: Over 700 flights have been cancelled, after the FAA’s mandated a reduction in air traffic. The agency ordered a 4% reduction across the nation’s 40 busiest airports, starting Friday; that will ramp up to 10% by November 14.
What’s Affected: Thousands of flights — representing over 250,000 tickets — will likely be cancelled. Multiple airlines say long-haul international flights will not be canceled; United Airlines also says hub-to-hub flights will run as normal. The reductions will primarily affect regional and domestic flights scheduled between 6am and 10pm. This many cancellations could well have a ripple effect across the industry. For a full list (and map) of the airports affected, see the bottom of this newsletter.
What It Means For You: Airlines must issue full refunds to impacted customers. Some, including American and Delta, are issuing waivers to allow customers to change or refund flights without the normal penalty. United published a list of affected flights through Sunday, Nov. 9; other airlines will send notifications when flights are impacted. If you can’t risk a cancelled flight, Frontier Airlines’ CEO recommended buying “a backup ticket on another carrier” that’s “changeable into a credit or full refund” and “departs after the first ticket” for “an immediate backup” in the event your initial flight is cancelled.
Why This Is Happening: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says it’s for safety reasons. Over 11,000 air traffic controllers are working without pay. Meaning they’re over-tired and extremely stressed out, which one controller told the New York Times “can’t be good for the safety of the flying public.” Many are calling in sick after picking up gig work or second jobs to pay the bills. Also, taking flights offline has political consequences: it will drive public outrage over the shutdown and put pressure on Congress to make a deal. Notice that Democrats proposed a deal hours after the first flights went offline.
In Context: This mandated reduction in air traffic is unprecedented. It has no set end point. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned they could have to take up to 20% of flights offline if the shutdown drags on.
Open Season: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday the Pentagon will be streamlining its “unacceptably slow” process for buying weapons. With Hegseth’s new rules it’s going to be far easier for defense startups to get billion-dollar contracts from the government — fast, and with limited oversight. Those companies might include Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies (already awarded a $10 billion defense contract); Adruil Industries, founded by Trump supporter Palmer Luckey (awarded hundreds of millions this year); Scale AI, whose past managing director now serves in the Trump Administration; or Unusual Machines, the Florida-based drone maker that won a defense contract shortly after putting Donald Trump Jr on its board. Hegseth’s streamlining also further sidelines testing; lawmakers from both parties criticized his mass firings at the Pentagon office that does independent testing of systems in May, and the office subsequently cut the number of programs it oversees by 40%.
There’s so much more to uncover here — but real accountability takes time, resources, and a newsroom built to do the digging. We need a dedicated reporting team to go further. If you want to help make that possible, you can make a tax-deductible gift of any size here.
Food Fight: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to pay SNAP food benefits in full by Friday. The administration immediately appealed the ruling. Trump said Tuesday that food stamps will only be paid “when the Radical Left Democrats open up government,” despite multiple court orders. Judge McConnell accused the administration of disrupting and delaying SNAP “for political reasons,” “an outcome that predictably magnifies harm and undermines the very purpose of the program it administers.”
Whoops! Trump’s Agriculture Department made things worse by adding new, byzantine rules for obtaining benefits. They would have left almost 5 million people receiving nothing in November. The Department admitted Wednesday it had made a mistake, but its correction further complicated disbursement of benefits.
All Cake, No Crumbs: Tesla shareholders on Thursday overwhelmingly approved an unprecedented $1 trillion payout for CEO Elon Musk. If he and Tesla meet ambitious milestones over the next decade, Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire. Partial success will net him more annually than any other CEO in the world. The deal gives Musk increased control over the company — and its “robot army,” his term for the company’s planned humanoid robots. Shareholders also voted to allow Tesla to invest in Musk’s xAI. About one-quarter of shareholders, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and the largest US public pension, plus multiple corporate watchdogs, opposed this. Musk denounced them as “corporate terrorists” and threatened to abandon Tesla if shareholders didn’t approve the package. The shareholders have spoken. The rest of us get to live with it.
Ransom Paid: Cornell has become the latest major university to concede to the Trump administration’s demands. It agreed on Friday to pay $60 million — half directly to the federal government, half in “research to strengthen US agriculture” and help US farmers — to convince the Trump administration to restore federal research funding.
End of an Era: Veteran congresswoman and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Thursday she would retire after her 20th term ends next year. Born in 1940, Pelosi was involved in politics from a young age. Her father was Thomas D’Alesandro Jr, a New Deal Democrat who represented Maryland in the US House and served as mayor of Baltimore; at 21, Pelosi was photographed meeting then–President JFK. She moved to San Francisco with her husband, Paul, and their children in the late 1960s, where she rose through the ranks of the Democratic political machine. By the late 1980s she was elected to the US House, a seat she would hold for the next four decades. In 2007, she became the first female speaker of the House, and in 2019 the first politician in half a century to become speaker for a second time. Over the years, Pelosi earned a reputation as one of the most politically formidable and capable lawmakers and House speakers in US history — one that made her many enemies, not least President Trump. He reacted to her retirement with his usual grace, calling her “an evil woman who did a poor job.” Other political opponents were more civil: far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) said she wishes Republicans “could get things done for our party like Nancy Pelosi was able to deliver for her party.”
Who’s Next: Pelosi’s retirement opens a safe Democratic seat for the first time in a generation. Candidates have already announced their intent to replace her, including state Senator Scott Weiner. But Pelosi’s retirement has also reopened longstanding frustrations with the Democratic party’s “serious gerontocracy problem,” as one critic put it.
Follow the Money: In recent years, Pelosi also became famous for her uncanny investing ability, which made her one of the wealthiest members of Congress. Investors tracked her portfolio and created funds that copy her trades; her portfolio last year outperformed the average hedge fund by over five times.
Long List of Achievements: Across the country Republicans used Pelosi in their attack ads, calling her a “radical San Francisco liberal” who was “breaking the country.” Thanks to Pelosi’s remarkable ability to cut deals and wrangle votes she was instrumental in passing some of the most significant Democratic legislation of the modern era. These include passing the Affordable Care Act, the economic stimulus package during the Great Recession, Wall Street and banking reform, a huge investment in modern infrastructure and clean energy infrastructure, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. What will you remember her for? Let us know in the comments.
News That Doesn’t Suck
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How the world’s tallest teenager just made basketball history
Two new studies suggest we might finally be able to make food allergies a thing of the past
The new tool that takes digital maps back to the height of the Roman Empire
An interactive map (and list) of all 40 airports affected by the FAA’s reduction in flight traffic
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