NPR News: 09-06-2026 2PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Linda Kenyon. With just two months until the midterms, the war with Iran is weighing on voters. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, that's a problem for the president and for his party. NPR has been following about a dozen swing voters in swing states as part of a long-term reporting project called Swing Shift. Colleen in Pittsburgh says she still doesn't understand why President Trump wanted to go to war with Iran. I just feel like we're in places we shouldn't be, we're messing with people we shouldn't be messing with, we're arguing and fighting over, I don't even know what. John in Philadelphia says maybe Trump shouldn't have promised to lower prices. I felt like he was headed that way, but obviously this stuff in the Middle East is a mess. NPR has agreed not to use their full names so they can speak freely about politics. Tamara Keith and P.R. News. President Trump has said the war against Iran was necessary to make sure Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

1:01Speaking on ABC's this week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that premise is still the top priority. There may not be a nuclear agreement, it may be simply destroying their capabilities to do it. An agreement may await a next administration in Iran, we simply don't know that. But I think what the president was communicating there is how critically important this is. If Iran has nuclear weapons, the Middle East, the world is a wildly different place than it is today. The war has now been going on for more than six months. The Trump administration says hundreds of thousands of seniors have signed up for access to discounted obesity drugs through a Medicare program launched in July. NPR Sydney Lupkin has that story. The Medicare Bridge program got its start with the Trump administration's drug pricing deals announced last fall. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly agreed to sell their obesity drugs to Medicare for $245 a month. Beginning July 1st, the bridge program began offering them for a $50 monthly copay to

2:02patients who qualify. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, gave this update at a White House event. Now we have 600,000 seniors already just in two months have signed up to get these medications that we project will actually be able to save money. He says that's because patients will have fewer obesity-related health complications. But even with the price discounts from drug makers, it's likely the direct cost to Medicare for the drugs will exceed a billion dollars. Sydney Lupkin and PR News Yoazan voiced Steve Whitkopf and Jared Kushner as health talks in Kiev as they try to broker a deal to end the Russian war against Ukraine. Yesterday they met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Washington's push for peace has slowed with recent focuses on the Iran War. Ukrainian President Zelensky said he seeks a just and fair peace. You're listening to NPR News. A recent study published in the journal Nature, researchers analyzed genetic data for more

3:06than one million people in an effort to map the way DNA influences personalities. NPR's Katie Riddle reports Personality is shaped by many factors, including genetics. This study sought to identify genetic variants associated with broad personality traits. Elliott Tucker-Drab is a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the study's leaders. One of the things that our study underscores is that there's not just one gene for extroversion or one gene for neuroticism. Our estimates are that it's probably closer to 20,000 variants per each of the big five. The big five refers to five broad dimensions psychologists used to describe personality. Openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Although personality can change, these traits tend to remain relatively stable during adulthood. Katie Riddle in P.R. News. Many travelers are taking advantage of this long holiday weekend. Triple A booking data show Seattle, Orlando, Boston, Denver, and New York are the top domestic

4:08destinations. Rome, Vancouver, London, Dublin, and Paris top the international list. Triple A also reports travelers who are staying in the U.S. are paying 2% more for round-trip flights compared to last year with average tickets about $750. International flights are 4% cheaper this Labor Day weekend, averaging $1240 per ticket. I'm Linda Kenyon. P.R. News in Washington.