Good morning! Welcome to October and welcome to Government Shutdown 2025™. We’ll dive into that in a moment. But before we do, we need to congratulate Chunk, a 1,200-pound brown bear with a broken jaw, for winning the annual Fat Bear Week contest in Alaska's Katmai National Park.

In other news, the QAnon shaman (fur hat and horns guy) is suing President Trump for, ooooh, $40 trillion and claiming he's the real president. Shoot your shot, right? The worst they can say is “lol no.”

BUDGET

💰️ Government shutdown: Wut?

The good news is that the TSA is still working hard, passing out free prostate exams. But most of the federal government is temporarily shut down after Congress failed to pass a new budget before the existing one expired at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.

The situation: The fiscal year 2025 budget expired, but the fiscal year 2026 budget isn’t done yet. So Republicans want to pass a C.R. — a continuing resolution — to continue funding everything at current levels until mid-November.

The impasse: Since 2021, federal subsidies have eased the cost of health insurance purchased on Healthcare.gov. But they’re set to expire at the end of 2025. Democrats are cool with a short-term budget, but want it to include a long-term renewal of those subsidies. Republicans say that debate should wait until after the short-term budget is passed.

What happens now? Federal government functions deemed non-essential will go on pause. About 750,000 federal employees have been furloughed. They won't be able to work, though they'll still get paid whenever this mess is over. Essential workers are still coming to work, but they also won’t get paid until this mess ends.

• Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid payments are still flowing.

• The Postal Service funds itself, so the junk mail is still coming.

• Air traffic controllers are still on the job, as are TSA "agents.”

• Members of the military are still on the job, as are law enforcement agencies.

• Federal courts could run out of cash by Friday and stop functioning.

• Critical economic data won’t be published during the shutdown.

• But most national parks are open. And the Smithsonian still has a week's worth of money in the bank.

Included in the furloughs? About 90% of the Education Department, 80% of the Commerce Department, and 67% of the State Department.

Permanent layoffs: Typically, the effects of a shutdown are temporary. But federal law probably gives — not everyone agrees — the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the power to impose permanent layoffs. And OMB Director Russell Vought (pronounced vote) is a small government guy who’s alllll in on that idea.

• Vought issued a memo last week directing federal agencies to make plans for mass layoffs in programs not “consistent with the president’s priorities.”

• On Wednesday, he said those firings would begin on Thursday or Friday.

Future: The Republican-controlled House has already passed a funding bill. But the Senate again failed on Wednesday morning to pass a bill of its own. Republicans control 53 of 100 seats in the chamber, but quirky rules mean they need 60 votes to get this done.

• They’ve convinced three of the Senate’s more moderate Democrats to jump ship so far, and more votes are scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

• Democrats could still get their way, too, but they have a bigger hill to climb.

The last shutdown, in January 2019, lasted 35 days. But the one before that, in 2018, only lasted 3. TBD on this one.

GOVERNMENT

If you’re that one person who’s super into the thrilling world of trade policy, we’ve got some good news: It’s a big week for tariffs (refresher: import taxes).m

💊 Starting October 1, branded and patented pharmaceuticals imported to the U.S. are getting hit with 100% tariffs. The plan excludes generic drugs, which make up the majority of prescriptions. Companies with U.S.-based pharmaceutical manufacturing plants — either in operation or under construction — are also exempt. And, due to a separate agreement, drugs made in the European Union will pay a far lower 15% rate. This is unlikely to hurt large drug companies. Most of them already have American plants in operation or under construction. President Trump views the policy as a way to strengthen America's supply chain for essential medicines in case of catastrophe. On a related note, Trump announced on Tuesday a deal with Pfizer to sell its meds directly to consumers at discounted prices on TrumpRx.gov.

🎞️ President Trump on Monday said he would slap a 100% tariff on all movies produced overseas and imported into the United States. He originally threatened the move back in May, but took no action. Trump said on social media that America's "movie making business has been stolen" by other countries. No concrete action has been taken yet, and how this might work in practice isn't clear. Many American studios film their movies partly in the U.S. and partly overseas. According to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the U.S. film industry earns $15 billion more from foreign markets than it spends on overseas production.

🪑 North Carolina has seen many of its furniture manufacturing jobs move overseas in the past 25 years. On Monday, the president swooped in to make the state "GREAT again." His plan? Imposing "substantial Tariffs on any Country that does not make its furniture in the United States." Tariffs will be 10% on foreign softwood lumber, 25% on kitchen cabinets, and 25% on upholstered wooden furniture. Those rates kick in on October 14. Later, on January 1, the rates on cabinets and upholstered furniture will jump to 50% and 30%, respectively.

MILITARY

🏋️‍♂️ Hegseth plans overhaul of military fitness

“We're going to cut our hair, shave our beards, and adhere to standards.” That’s what Defense War Secretary Pete Hegseth told hundreds of America’s top military admirals and generals at their sudden, all-hands-on-deck meeting in Virginia on Tuesday. His primary topic? Fitness.

• Hegseth’s Pentagon will no longer be involved with “identity months,” “dudes in dresses,” or “climate change worship.” “We are done with that shit,” he said.

• Anyone not on board with the changes was asked to resign.

What are the fitness changes? Dual, sex-based fitness standards for combat roles are no more. “The highest male standard" will be the only standard to qualify for combat, though less stringent standards remain for non-combat positions.

• Hegseth emphasized that the U.S. military’s female troops are the “best in the world,” but that combat situations are “life or death.”

• If women qualify under the male standards, “excellent.” If not? “So be it.”

He also blasted the idea of “fat troops” and called it “completely unacceptable” that he runs into “fat generals and admirals” in hallways at the Pentagon. Everyone will be expected to get their act together, and “warfighters in combat jobs” will need to score “above 70%” on their gender-neutral service fitness test.

President Trump spoke, too. In his hour-long speech, the president said he was all-in on “reawakening the warrior spirit” and committed to a $1 trillion military budget in 2026. The 2025 budget is $895 billion. He raised eyebrows, though, by suggesting troops could be trained on deployments to U.S. cities. They’d go to help “quell civil disturbances,” like potential riots, brought on by what he called “the enemy within.”

• Trump has already deployed National Guard troops to fight crime in federally controlled Washington, D.C., and has announced a similar move for Portlandia.

The Democratic response was … not positive. The party’s House leaders characterized Hegseth's speech as "shameful" and "unhinged." And they slammed Trump for suggesting more troops be sent to U.S. cities. That would, in their view, be illegal and improper.

TRIVIA

A 2-year-old girl in Nepal has been chosen as the newest Living Goddess, replacing some sad 11-year-old who aged out of the role. She'll be worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists alike, which, let's be real, sounds like a bang-up time.

On a much cooler note, Nepal is the only country in the world whose national flag is not a rectangle (or square). They went with a goofy, made-up shape instead — the same decision the good folks of one very special U.S. state made. What is the only U.S. state whose flag isn’t a rectangle?

Hint: The state’s name begins with a vowel.

WORLD

☮️ Trump unveils Gaza peace plan

Peace in the Middle East. That’s the dream. In pursuit of that lofty goal, President Donald Trump released a 20-point plan for peace in the Gaza Strip on Monday.

The basics: 

• The war ends immediately.

• Hamas ceases to exist and can no longer govern Gaza.

• Hamas releases the remaining Israeli hostage (~20 are living), while Israel releases hundreds of Gazan prisoners and detainees taken since the war began.

• Humanitarian aid flows in, and the rebuilding of Gaza begins.

• An international "Transitional Governing Authority" takes over Gaza, potentially run by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and overseen by a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump.

• Nearby Arab countries ensure Hamas (a terror group) is permanently destroyed.

• Israel slowly pulls out of Gaza for good.

Trump dropped the plan at a White House press conference alongside longtime Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu supports the plan, as do most of Israel’s Arab neighbors, including Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.

The hard part? Getting Hamas on board.

BRIEFS

● A massive fire broke out at one of Russia's largest oil refineries on Wednesday. The cause is unknown, but Ukraine has been using drones to attack Russia's oil infrastructure, hoping to destroy the industry that's funding Russia's war.

● As it turns out, the soon-to-be-deported superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools lied about having a doctoral degree. Dr. Ian Roberts was arrested by ICE last week after a judge ordered his removal in May 2024. He has since resigned his position.

● The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the State of New York. The claim? New York is refusing to hand over info about its voter rolls, which the DOJ says is required by the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to ensure accurate voter registrations for federal elections.

● President Trump signed an order on Tuesday directing the investment of $50 million into AI-driven research into curing childhood cancer. This doubles the NIH's investment in an existing initiative launched during Trump’s first term.

● Lisa Cook will keep her job as a Federal Reserve governor for now. Trump tried to fire her without legal “cause,” but the Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to let her stay on the Fed’s board until after it hears full arguments in the case in January.

QUOTE

ANSWER

You might try to pick the weirdest state for this one, but the correct answer is probably the most painfully normal state that has ever stated. That’s right, the flag of Ohio is the goofy, non-rectangular one.