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Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
These days there's so much news it can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family, and your community. The Consider This podcast from NPR features our award-winning journalism. Six days a week we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news. We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth.
Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR.
Chapter 2: Has the U.S. held talks with Hamas?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. In a major policy shift, a Hamas official tells NPR the U.S. has held direct talks with the Palestinian militant group in recent months. The White House has confirmed the talks, saying they are ongoing. NPR's Kat Lonsdorff reports it is the first known time the U.S. has engaged directly with a group since designated as a terrorist organization.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of U.S. discussions with Hamas?
The talks began as early as January and were over the release of several American-Israeli dual citizens taken hostage in the October 7th, 2023 attacks on southern Israel, according to a Hamas official who spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity, as he's not authorized to speak to the media.
The official did not specify if the talks, which were originally reported by Axios, were with members from the Biden administration or President Trump's administration. Both were present at talks for a ceasefire that took effect in January, before Trump took office. The U.S. designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997. It has been longstanding U.S.
policy to not negotiate with groups it designates as terrorists. Kat Lonsdorff, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
Chapter 4: How are laid-off federal workers being supported in Philadelphia?
For laid-off federal workers facing uncertainty, volunteers in Philadelphia put together a job hunting workshop. Andrew Staltzer has more.
LinkedIn basics and resume tips, AI-assisted cover letters. It was a crash course for two dozen laid-off federal workers in the basement of a South Philly library.
Chapter 5: What challenges are laid-off workers facing in the job market?
There's a lot of competition.
Rahi Patel was one day away from finishing her probationary period at the Food and Drug Administration when she received a termination notice.
We're competing with recent graduates. It's going to definitely be that new rat's race.
Workshop organizer Charlie Ellison has seen hundreds of Philly area feds lose their jobs and wanted to do something to help.
Chapter 6: What efforts are being made to help unemployed federal workers?
It's really tragic to see our neighbors getting cut from positions they've done for a very long time that they have a lot of experience in.
Both workshops were full, and there are already talks about holding more. For NPR News, I'm Andrew Stelzer in Philadelphia.
The blockbuster obesity drug Wagovi will now be available to customers online for $499 a month, but to get the discount, patients can't use their health insurance. Here's NPR's Sidney Lupkin.
Novo Nordisk is joining its competitor Eli Lilly and offering its obesity drug direct-to-consumers at a discount. Lilly started offering vials of its weight loss drug Zepbound online last summer. The direct-to-consumer model is fairly new to the pharmaceutical industry, but it wouldn't work for every medicine, says Dr. Ben Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
Remember, Americans are already paying thousands of dollars per year on health care. So to say like, well, There is this medicine available, but you have to pay for it out of pocket. It really serves a very small percentage of the population.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two in five American adults is obese. Sydney Lepkin, NPR News.
You're listening to NPR. Mayors from four major U.S. cities were on Capitol Hill today appearing before members of Congress. The mayors, all Democrats, saying the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers are exaggerating the rates of crime committed by immigrants and attacking so-called sanctuary cities. simply to score political points.
Mayors Michelle Wu of Boston, Brandon Johnston of Chicago, Mike Johnston of Denver, and Eric Adams of New York appeared today before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Butterflies are declining rapidly across the U.S. That's according to research published today in the Journal of Science. It finds butterfly abundance fell by 22 percent between 2000 and 2020.
Barbara Moran with member station WBUR reports on why butterflies in some regions are harder hit than others.
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