JQJO — Your world, one story at a time · Page 1224

As the shutdown nears a month, low-income families face cascading losses: WIC funds that cover infant formula and groceries may run out within days; SNAP cannot tap contingency dollars; and 140 Head Start centers could close, forcing parents to find child care. Nearly six million households risk winter utility shut-offs as states curb heating aid, with Utah and Wyoming stopping new applications. Seniors struggle to verify benefits, threatening housing subsidies. Some programs scrape by with temporary donations, but uncertainty deepens stress. Food banks brace for a surge.

PayPal will let shoppers pay inside ChatGPT starting in 2026, adopting OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol and tapping the app’s Instant Checkout to confirm orders without leaving the chat. Customers can use PayPal wallets—with buyer and seller protections—or card payments via a separate API. Beginning next year, PayPal merchants’ products will be discoverable on ChatGPT in categories like apparel, fashion, beauty, home improvement, and electronics, with no new integrations required. PayPal is also launching an agentic commerce suite for catalogs and insights, after recent tie-ups with Perplexity and Google, and giving employees enterprise access to ChatGPT.

UPS topped Wall Street expectations ahead of the holidays, sending shares up 10% premarket. The company posted adjusted EPS of $1.74 on $21.4 billion in revenue, and net income of $1.31 billion, down from $1.99 billion a year ago. UPS detailed a sweeping turnaround: 34,000 job cuts, reduced Amazon work, a five‑property sale‑leaseback yielding a $330 million gain, and closure of 93 sites, driving $2.2 billion in savings so far and targeting $3.5 billion in 2025. It guided Q4 revenue to $24 billion with an 11%–11.5% operating margin, calling the shift its most significant yet.

With the U.S. government shutdown unresolved, the USDA says SNAP benefits will not be issued November 1, halting about $8 billion in monthly aid for roughly 42 million people. Recipients like Maine single mother Kasey McBlais and Massachusetts mother Sharlene Sutton say they’re bracing for hard choices and turning to food banks, which warn they cannot cover the shortfall. Some states vow to continue payments and New York pledged $30 million in emergency help, but the USDA says states won’t be reimbursed, raising doubts and broader economic ripple effects.

On an Asia tour, US President Donald Trump unveiled a spate of rare‑earth agreements with Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, seeking to diversify supplies away from China ahead of talks with Xi Jinping. The deals—some non‑binding and short on detail—follow an $8.5bn cooperation pact with Australia to expand processing capacity. Washington touts coordinated investment, stockpiles and preferential export rules, but analysts warn breaking Beijing’s grip will take years, heavy capital and stricter environmental compliance. Recent Chinese export curbs have rattled manufacturers, underscoring fragile supply chains despite new commitments.

Louisiana’s worst whooping cough outbreak in 35 years unfolded as state health officials delayed warnings to the public and doctors, even after two infants died by late January 2025. Internal emails show more hospitalizations followed while the state surgeon general halted general vaccine promotion in February and criticized prior recommendations. Public outreach trickled out in March and May; by mid-May, 42 people had been hospitalized, most not up to date on shots, and most were babies under 1. Cases climbed through summer to 387 by Sept. 20, with long gaps in communication.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun called a Nov. 3 special session to consider new congressional maps, but GOP leaders say the Senate still lacks votes, despite meetings with Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump. Republicans, who hold a supermajority and a 7–2 edge in the delegation, could target districts near Chicago and Indianapolis, though legal challenges are expected. Elsewhere, Democrats advance redistricting efforts in Virginia, California and Illinois, while Kansas Republicans seek a special session. With Democrats three seats from U.S. House control, both parties are pressing for map changes.

The Washington Post faces scrutiny after three recent editorials touched Bezos-linked interests without initial disclosure. The latest defended President Trump’s plan to raze the White House East Wing for a ballroom, even as Amazon helped defray costs; a disclosure was added only after veteran editor Bill Grueskin flagged the omission, with no note of the change. Similar lapses accompanied pieces promoting microreactors and self-driving cars as Amazon and Bezos hold stakes. Amid an overhaul of the opinion section under new editor Adam O’Neal, resignations and mass subscriber cancellations mounted, and former editor Ruth Marcus warned trust is at risk.

Supercharged to Category 5 with 175 mph winds, Hurricane Melissa is crawling at 2–3 mph toward Jamaica, where more than 800 shelters are open and evacuations ordered in parts of Kingston and Port Royal. Forecasters warn of 30–40 inches of rain, 9–13 feet of storm surge along southern coasts, and prolonged flooding and landslides. Severe hits to power, water and communications are likely. At least three deaths in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic were reported before full landfall. The storm is forecast to move on to eastern Cuba, then the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos.

House Republicans escalated their challenge to Joe Biden’s clemency record, releasing a 93-page report and a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that deem autopen-signed actions "void" and urge Justice Department action, including probes of aides who invoked the Fifth. The panel alleges a cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline and cites scant records around pardon decisions, though it offers no direct proof others decided them. Biden insists he made every call. The report also questions commutations for some violent offenders. Any bid to undo pardons would likely face major legal hurdles.