Top 5 US news stories

Trump, Democrats Deadlocked as Government Barrels Toward Shutdown

Seeking Smartphone Alternative, Parents Fuel Landline Revival for Kids

Alarmed by Low Stockpiles, Pentagon Urges Massive Boost in Missile Output

YouTube to Pay Trump $24.5 Million to Settle Jan. 6 Suspension Lawsuit

Trump Issues 72-Hour Ultimatum to Hamas as U.S. Public Opinion Turns Against Israel

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1. Trump, Democrats Deadlocked as Government Barrels Toward Shutdown

President Trump and top Democrats failed to strike an agreement during a private meeting on Monday, with Senator Chuck Schumer pointing to “large differences” on health care and Vice President JD Vance saying that the government was probably “headed to a shutdown.” Republican and Democratic leaders emerged from the White House blaming the other side for the stalemate as Congress faces a Tuesday deadline to fund the government. The ramifications of a government shutdown could be immense for the federal work force and Americans relying on an array of government services, with Trump officials signaling they plan to conduct mass firings if the government shuts down. In a letter to federal agencies, the White House Office of Management and Budget said agencies should “use this opportunity to consider reduction in force.” Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Schumer; Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader; Speaker Mike Johnson; and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, came less than 32 hours before the government was slated to shut down, at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

NYT

2. Seeking Smartphone Alternative, Parents Fuel Landline Revival for Kids

There were eight children among the four close-knit families in their Seattle neighborhood, and by last fall, the oldest child — who was almost 9 — had already started asking for a smartphone. But the group of parents had made a communal agreement: They would keep their children away from smartphones for as long as possible. There was strength in that solidarity, says Lauren Zemer, a Seattle-area therapist and mom of two: “We had agreed that we were going to share these values.” But she and her neighbors also wanted their children to feel connected to their peers and to develop a sense of social independence. So in October 2024, when one of the parents heard about a local father who had built a prototype for a kid-specific, adult-controlled landline phone — and had created a waitlist for families who wanted one — Zemer and her friends were ecstatic. “Our neighbor was like: ‘Everybody, text him right now, we’re all going to get them,’” Zemer says, and within days, they were among the first parents to acquire an early model of what has now become a virally popular phone for kids — the Tin Can, a Wifi-enabled, curly-corded landline that allows parents to control the hours when it is in use and which phone numbers are approved to call in to (or be called from) the closed network. In the year since then, Zemer says, the Tin Can has been transformative for her children, ages 5 and 8. Her 8-year-old son has autonomy to call his friends when he wants to talk; the neighborhood kids often work out their own playdates, without their parents having to text one another. The landline has also been a boon for the children’s relationship with their grandparents, Zemer says: They used to video-chat over FaceTime, but “the kids would get so distracted by the screen and the poop emojis they could drop in, and how they could change their face or turn into a unicorn,” she says. “Now they have thoughtful, nuanced conversations.” Among the parents in their neighborhood community, she adds, there is a unanimous sense of gratitude for their landline phones: “We’ve seen such a social dynamic shift, a change in the kids and in the way they communicate with one another,” she says. “We’ve really doubled down on it.”

Washington Post

3. Alarmed by Low Stockpiles, Pentagon Urges Massive Boost in Missile Output

The Pentagon, alarmed at the low weapons stockpiles the U.S. would have on hand for a potential future conflict with China, is urging its missile suppliers to double or even quadruple production rates on a breakneck schedule. The push to speed production of the critical weapons in the highest demand has played out through a series of high-level meetings between Pentagon leaders and senior representatives from several U.S. missile makers, according to people familiar with the matter. Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg is taking an unusually hands-on role in the effort, called the Munitions Acceleration Council, and calls some company executives weekly to discuss it, some of the people said. The department summoned top missile suppliers to a June roundtable at the Pentagon to kick off the industry effort. The meeting, attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, drew executives from several weapons makers, new market entrants like Anduril Industries, and a handful of suppliers of important parts like rocket propellant and batteries.

WSJ

4. YouTube to Pay Trump $24.5 Million to Settle Jan. 6 Suspension Lawsuit

YouTube agreed to pay a $24.5 million settlement to President Trump and others who were suspended by the video streaming platform in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a legal document filed on Monday. YouTube froze Mr. Trump’s account after the riot, blocking him from uploading new videos and arguing that the content could lead to more violence. Mr. Trump sued YouTube in October 2021, claiming that it and other social media firms that removed his accounts had wrongfully censored him.

NYT

5. Trump Issues 72-Hour Ultimatum to Hamas as U.S. Public Opinion Turns Against Israel

A. WASHINGTON—For months, President Trump warned Hamas that it had to release all remaining hostages or face Israel’s wrath. On Monday, he issued an ominous message: Agree to a 20-point peace plan for Gaza within 72 hours, or suffer complete annihilation. In effect, Trump threatened the prospect of more war in order to end nearly two years of fighting. If Hamas doesn’t accept, or the plan falls apart, “Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas,” Trump said. The move ranks among the riskiest diplomatic gambles for Trump, which he delivered alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to show that at least one warring party agreed to his peace vision. If Hamas doesn’t support the proposal, then the U.S. would back Israel as it targeted the U.S.-designated terrorist group in its last remaining strongholds.

B. Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, American support for Israel has undergone a seismic reversal, with large shares of voters expressing starkly negative views about the Israeli government’s management of the conflict, a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University found. Disapproval of the war appears to have prompted a striking reassessment by American voters of their broader sympathies in the decades-old conflict in the region, with slightly more voters siding with Palestinians over Israelis for the first time since The Times began asking voters about their sympathies in 1998. In the aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, American voters broadly sympathized with Israelis over Palestinians, with 47 percent siding with Israel and 20 percent with Palestinians. In the new poll, 34 percent said they sided with Israel and 35 percent with Palestinians. Thirty-one percent said they were unsure or backed both equally.

WSJ/NYT

September 30 1935: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Boulder Dam, now known as Hoover Dam, on Colorado-Nevada border. The highest dam in the world at that time, its construction claimed the lives of 96 workers.

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Sources

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/us/politics/government-shutdown-trump-vance-congress.html
2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2025/09/30/the-landline-is-back/
3. https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/pentagon-pushes-to-double-missile-production-for-potential-china-conflict-ee153ad3?mod=hp_lead_pos8
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/technology/youtube-trump-lawsuit-settlement.html?searchResultPosition=1
5. https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/trumps-gaza-cease-fire-plan-faces-obstacles-as-he-meets-with-netanyahu-4a4d9e9d?mod=article_inline, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/polls/israel-gaza-war-us-poll.html