Shutdown leaves a mark on an already-struggling economy, from lost paychecks to canceled flights
WASHINGTON (AP) — The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history appears to be nearing an end, but not without leaving a mark on an already-struggling economy.
About 1.25 million federal workers haven't been paid since Oct. 1. Thousands of flights have been canceled, a trend that is expected to continue this week even as Congress moves toward reopening the government. Government contract awards have slowed and some food aid recipients have seen their benefits interrupted.
Most of the lost economic activity will be recovered when the government reopens, as federal workers will receive back pay. But some canceled flights won't be retaken, missed restaurant meals won't be made up, and some postponed purchases will end up not happening at all.
“Short-lived shutdowns are usually invisible in the data, but this one will leave a lasting mark," Gregory Daco, chief economist at accounting giant EY said, "both because of its record length and the growing disruptions to welfare programs and travel.”
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a six-week shutdown will reduce growth in this year's fourth quarter by about 1.5 percentage points. That would cut growth by half from the third quarter. The reopening should boost first-quarter growth next year by 2.2 percentage points, the CBO projected, but about $11 billion in economic activity will be permanently lost.
Pakistan investigates the suicide bombing that killed 12 outside an Islamabad court
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan opened a probe Wednesday into the suicide bombing outside an Islamabad district court that left 12 dead the day before, underscoring the challenges facing the government as it struggles with militant attacks, border tensions and a fragile ceasefire with Afghanistan.
The attack at the court, located on the edge of the city and next to a residential area, also raised alarms that despite multiple operations by the security forces to crush the militants, they are still capable of mounting high-profile bombings — even in the Pakistani capital.
Pakistan has struggled with a surge in militant attacks in recent years but until Tuesday's bombing, Islamabad has largely been considered a safer place.
Forensic teams and police were combing Wednesday through debris at the site of the blast, which had been sealed to preserve evidence. Across the city, grief-stricken relatives were receiving the bodies of their slain loved ones at an Islamabad hospital.
Later, funeral prayers got underway for some of the slain victims. Most of the 27 people wounded in the bombing had been released home after treatment.
Turkish military plane crash in Georgia kills all 20 on board
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — All 20 personnel on board a Turkish military cargo plane that crashed in Georgia were killed, Turkey's defense minister announced on Wednesday.
The C-130 plane was flying from Ganja, Azerbaijan to Turkey when it crashed in Georgia’s Sighnaghi municipality, close to the Azerbaijani border, on Tuesday. The cause of the crash is being investigated.
A Turkish accident investigation team reached the crash site and was inspecting the wreckage of the plane, in coordination with the Georgian authorities, the National Defense Ministry said.
Georgian Interior Minister Gela Geladze said authorities have so far recovered the remains of 18 of the victims and efforts were continuing to locate the other two.
Speaking at the crash site, Geladze said details concerning the accident would be released “in stages" in coordination with the Turkish authorities, due to military sensitivities.
Record-low temperatures shock the Southeast US while snowfall blankets parts of the Northeast
The first major cold spell of the season plunged parts of the southeastern U.S. into record-low temperatures Tuesday, delivering a shock for 18 million people under a freeze warning across Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Meanwhile, several inches of snow blanketed areas along the eastern Great Lakes as the blast of cold air moved through.
The direct shot of Arctic air affecting the eastern two-thirds of the country migrated east — and far southeast — from the Northern Plains, which was hit with gusty chills and snow over the weekend. For much of the Southeast on Tuesday, that meant an abrupt transition into wintry temperatures after reaching well into the 70s and 80s (21 to 27 Celsius) in recent days.
Some daily records were “absolutely shattered,” said meteorologist Scott Kleebauer, including a low of 28 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 Celsius) at the airport in Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday morning. That broke the previous record low of 35 degrees set in 1977.
The southeastern U.S. will face a few more colder-than-normal days before warming up later in the week.
Iguanas begin to “freeze” and fall from trees when temperatures dip to 40 degrees (4 Celsius) or below, according to Kleebauer, a forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. Those temperatures were widespread upstate in Florida on Tuesday.
Masked Israeli settlers attack 2 Palestinian villages in the West Bank
JERUSALEM (AP) — Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked a pair of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, setting fire to vehicles and other property before clashing with Israeli soldiers sent to halt the rampage, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
It was the latest in a series of attacks by young settlers in the West Bank.
Israeli police said four Israelis were arrested in what it described as “extremist violence,” while the Israeli military said four Palestinians were wounded. Police and Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said they were investigating.
Videos on social media showed two charred trucks engulfed in flames, with a nearby building on fire. Settler violence has surged since the war in Gaza erupted two years ago. The attacks have intensified in recent weeks as Palestinians harvest their olive trees in an annual ritual.
Earlier on Tuesday, tens of thousands of Israelis attended the funeral of an Israeli soldier whose remains had been held in Gaza for 11 years, overflowing and blocking surrounding streets as somber crowds stood with Israeli flags.
Recommended for you
In Trump-dominated media world, editing video takes on new significance — as BBC uproar shows
In the space of a few months, one of the more straightforward journalistic tasks — editing tape for broadcast — has been behind a $16 million legal settlement, a network's change in how it offers interviews on a news show and, now, the resignation of two top leaders at the BBC.
The other common denominator: President Donald Trump.
Britain's BBC is reeling this week following the resignations of its director-general, Tim Davie, and news chief Deborah Turness amid accusations of bias in the editing of last year's documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance.” The BBC admitted filmmakers spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump made before the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol to make it seem like he was directly urging violence.
Trump sued CBS' parent company over a “60 Minutes” edit of Kamala Harris' interview, resulting in this summer's settlement, and the complaints of his Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, about her “Face the Nation” interview in August caused a policy change.
In a different time, the BBC episode would likely have led to a quick admission of a mistake, a correction, apology and everyone would have moved on, said Mark Lukasiewicz, a former NBC News executive and now dean of Hofstra University's School of Communication.
Top diplomats from G7 countries meet in Canada as trade tensions rise with Trump
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario (AP) — Top diplomats from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies are converging on southern Ontario as tensions rise between the U.S. and traditional allies like Canada over defense spending, trade and uncertainty over President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan in Gaza and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said in an interview with The Associated Press that “the relationship has to continue across a range of issues” despite trade pressures as she prepared to host U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We’re tackling a range of critical issues with one main focus: putting the safety and security of Americans FIRST,” Rubio said in a social media post.
Anand also invited the foreign ministers of Australia, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, South Korea, South Africa and Ukraine.
Anand said critical priorities for discussion Tuesday night include talks on advancing long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.
ByHeart recalls all baby formula sold nationwide as infant botulism outbreak grows
ByHeart, a manufacturer of organic baby formula, recalled all of its products sold nationwide Tuesday, days after some batches were recalled in an expanding outbreak of infant botulism.
At least 15 babies in 12 states have been sickened in the outbreak since August, with more cases pending, according to state and federal health officials. All of the infants were hospitalized after consuming ByHeart formula, officials said. No deaths have been reported.
ByHeart officials expanded the voluntary recall from two lots announced Saturday to all products in consumers' homes and in stores. That includes ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula and Anywhere Pack pouches of powdered formula. The company sells about 200,000 cans of infant formula a month online and in stores such as Target, Walmart, Albertsons and Whole Foods, according to Dr. Devon Kuehn, chief medical officer.
Parents and caregivers who have the formula in their homes “should immediately discontinue use and dispose of the product,” Kuehn said.
Company officials said they enacted the unusual recall “in close collaboration” with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration even though no product that was previously unopened tested positive for the contamination. The type of bacteria that produces the toxin is widespread in the environment and could come from sources other than the formula, company officials said.
Alabama promised to improve psychiatric care for men charged with crimes. They still wait years
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Fernando Clark spent the last 10 months of his life in a jail cell, waiting for psychiatric treatment a court ordered he undergo after he'd been arrested for stealing cigarettes and some fruit from a gas station.
He died while waiting for the treatment that never arrived, found unresponsive in his jail cell.
Clark was just one of hundreds of people across Alabama awaiting a spot in the state's increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in evaluating and providing care for people suffering from mental illness who are charged with crimes.
Seven years since the federal agreement, the problem is only worse. The waitlist for the state's sole secure psychiatric facility is almost five times longer than when it the decree was issued, according to court documents released in September.
Sometimes arrestees are waiting years for placement in a facility designed to treat their illness and ensure they are healthy to go to court, a problem faced by many states around the country.
Newsom tells AP the eight senators who struck the shutdown deal aren't alarmed enough about Trump
BELEM, Brazil (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday he is stunned by eight senators’ decision to break with Democrats and end the government shutdown and warned they are not alarmed enough about President Donald Trump’s political norm-shattering.
“I’m not coming in to punch anybody in the face, but I'm not pleased that, in the face of this invasive species that is Donald Trump, who’s completely changed the rules of the game, that we’re still playing by the old rules of the game,” Newsom told The Associated Press in an interview at the COP30 UN Climate Conference in Brazil. “And in my core, I'm stunned.”
Newsom was asked what he would say to the group of seven Democrats and one independent senator who joined with Republicans in the Senate late Monday to pass legislation to reopen the government, bringing the longest shutdown in history closer to an end. Along with the ratified deal came searing criticism for the moderates from other Democrats, frustrated by what they said amounted to caving to the GOP without achieving lasting progress toward extending health care subsidies set to expire Jan. 1.
As news of potential compromise neared ahead of a procedural Sunday night vote to advance the overall funding legislation, Newsom's press office wrote on X, “Pathetic. This isn’t a deal. It’s a surrender. Don’t bend the knee!” After the same eight senators — seven Democrats and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats — joined with Republicans in that procedural vote, he called their conciliation “capitulation and a betrayal of working Americans.”
The group of defectors consisted of several senators who are retiring next year, as well as a number of former governors. Since making their moves, several have acknowledged they viewed the deal as imperfect but necessary to end the shutdown, which has meant missed paychecks, stoppages in federal food aid and travel headaches for millions across the country.

(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.