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Today's top stories
Rising prices and stagnant wages fueled frustration during this week's midterm elections, prompting voters to express their discontent at the ballot box. Similarly, the stock market experienced a downturn yesterday. Concerns about a Democratic Congress regulating AI led to a more than 5% drop in the tech-heavy Nasdaq, wiping out more than $2 trillion in market value. This decline followed from Wednesday when shares rose as investors were relieved that the midterms had made Congress's fate clear. In contrast, there has been less volatility in the job market, and today the Labor Department is set to release the latest jobs report.
- 🎧 Today's jobs report is expected to show that employers added about 60,000 jobs last month, NPR's Scott Horsley tells Up First. While this isn't robust growth, it should keep the unemployment rate low. As long as the job market stays stable, the Federal Reserve can focus on fighting stubbornly high inflation, which likely drove the recent election outcomes.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked construction of President Trump's 250-foot arch in the capital. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued an order just before midnight Friday, halting work for 14 days at the request of D.C. and Virginia governments. In her 33-page opinion, she scrutinized the administration's justifications for the arch, particularly its focus on national security and agreed that the local governments are likely to be harmed by its construction. The arch is planned for Memorial Circle, a traffic island on the bridge linking the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery.
- 🎧 The judges' decision followed a contentious meeting last night, during which the National Capital Planning Commission, filled with Trump allies, voted to approve the arch, NPR's Rachel Treisman says. The commission's approval came despite significant opposition to the arch from dozens and dozens of people. After nearly nine hours, the panel gave the go-ahead, which would have allowed excavation to begin. Several Democratic lawmakers are already talking about blocking the arch. Democrat Jared Huffman of California, likely to become head of the House Natural Resources Committee, warned commissioners at yesterday's meeting that anyone advancing projects not authorized by Congress risks legal repercussions.
School enrollment is set to plunge by another 2 million kids by 2030, and education experts say the crisis will be worsened by the deportation of immigrant families with school-age children. Even before the Trump administration's policy changes, public schools faced a significant decline due to shrinking family sizes. U.S. Census data show the number of children under 18 nationwide had fallen by about 2.1 million since 2010. The Trump administration's large-scale deportations began after public schools started facing a demographic crisis, with a Migration Policy Institute study indicating that 1.9 million people left the U.S. during Trump's second term. This situation marks the first time in nearly a century that birth rates and immigration levels are both low at the same time.
Harmeet Dhillon has left her position as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division after 18 tumultuous months. During her time in the role, she transformed the unit, saw a significant loss of career staff and aggressively pursued Trump's agenda. She is the first senior official to depart since Democrats gained control of Congress in the midterms. Dhillon called the role "the honor of a lifetime."
Healthy or hype?
Healthy or Hype? is an NPR series helping readers and listeners sort truth from fiction when it comes to online health claims.
Many people are replacing their fluoride dental products with those containing hydroxyapatite. It is a mineral that boasts cavity protection, whitening and enamel strengthening — all without fluoride. While health experts widely agree that fluoride is beneficial to health, interest in fluoride-free alternatives is growing. A driving force behind the trend is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blaming water fluoridation for health issues like arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders. Here's what dentists say about it.
- 🪥 Fluoride has been extensively researched, especially in long-term studies, but early research on hydroxyapatite shows promising results.
- 🪥 For patients considering both options, Bennett Amaechi, a professor of dentistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio, recommends using fluoride because there is more evidence supporting its effectiveness.
- 🪥 Amaechi was an author of a 2021 study in Scientific Reports that followed 177 children for a year and compared hydroxyapatite and fluoride toothpaste. The findings showed similar outcomes of tooth decay in both groups.
- 🪥 The American Dental Association told NPR that it acknowledges that more people are using hydroxyapatite products, which may aid in remineralization. However, they noted that research on its clinical effectiveness is still limited and unclear.
- 🪥 The ADA recommends brushing teeth twice daily for two minutes with fluoride toothpaste, flossing every day and visiting a dentist regularly.
Weekend picks
Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: John Turturro stars as Harry, a skilled pickpocket and caretaker for his wife, in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. His life changes dramatically when he steals a backpack from a college kid, only to discover he is the grandson of a crime boss.
📺 TV: VisionQuest is Marvel's finale series to the trilogy that started with WandaVision and continued through Agatha All Along. It serves as a timely parable about artificial intelligence, while also exploring themes of daddy issues, according to Pop Culture Happy Hour.
📚 Books: As it gets cooler, it's the perfect time to cozy up with a good book. Here are six must-read November releases, featuring tales of star-crossed romance, hard-won redemption and high-stakes struggles.
🎵 Music: As 2026 draws to a close, NPR's All Songs Considered revisits some great songs from earlier in the year that might have been missed, including Northern Iowa's pop artist Kinji and Mexican singer Silvana Estrada.
🎮 Gaming: Nintendo's Ocarina of Time remake secures its legacy in gaming, but despite its high production values, NPR's James Perkins Mastromarino says it left him feeling oddly bereft.
❓ Quiz: The midterms are over, and while this week was politics-heavy, that's not all that happened. This quiz offers a great recap of the week's diverse events.
3 things to know before you go
- New global data suggest only a small minority of kids and teens get at least one hour a day of exercise that breaks a sweat, as recommended by the World Health Organization.
- A new report finds that generational wealth is enabling a record number of first-time homebuyers to pay in cash, increasing the gap between buyers and those priced out. The median age of first-time buyers also remains at a record high of 40.
- Herbert Blomstedt, a Swedish conductor whose remarkably long career saw him lead many of the world's major orchestras, died this week at home. He was 99.
This newsletter was edited by Dorine Bethea.
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