Top 5 US news stories

Stalemate Continues as Senate Set for Another Shutdown Vote; Gridlock Likely to Extend Into Next Week

Is It a Boom or a Bust? Strong GDP, Weak Job Numbers Puzzle Economists, Hint at Productivity Revival

Bipartisan Lawmakers Press Pentagon for Legal Basis of Strikes on Cartel Boats in Caribbean

OpenAI's Sora Puts AI Video Creation in Your Pocket, With a Social Twist

Drone Sightings Ground Flights at Munich Airport Amid Broader European Airspace Threats

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…US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENTERS 3RD DAY…

1. Stalemate Continues as Senate Set for Another Shutdown Vote; Gridlock Likely to Extend Into Next Week

A. WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will vote again on Friday on dueling Democratic and Republican plans to end a government shutdown now entering its third day, though there is no sign that either plan will win passage. Lawmakers do not appear to have made any headway toward a deal that would allow them to resume government funding, and Democrats and Republicans have spent the past several days blaming each other for their failure to keep the government funded beyond October 1, the start of the fiscal year. Democrats say any funding package must also expand pandemic-era healthcare subsidies due to expire at the end of December, while Republicans say that issue should be dealt with separately. U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has frozen billions of dollars earmarked for Democratic-leaning states and threatened to fire more federal workers, on top of the 300,000 he will have forced out by the end of the year. His budget chief, Russ Vought, has asked federal agencies to draw up plans to lay off those whose work is not aligned with the administration's priorities. The shutdown, the 15th since 1981, has suspended scientific research, economic data reports, financial regulation, and a wide range of other activities. Pay has been suspended for roughly 2 million federal workers, though troops, airport security screeners, and others deemed "essential" must still report to work. The Senate has three times already rejected a Republican plan, which would fund the government through November 21, and a Democratic alternative that would also bolster the expiring health subsidies. The chamber will vote on both of those plans again on Friday. Republicans control both chambers of Congress, but they need at least seven Democratic votes to advance spending legislation in the Senate.

B. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on Thursday that it’s “unlikely” senators will be in the Capitol voting this weekend, all but guaranteeing the government shutdown goes into next week. “They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to vote to open up the government, and if that fails, we’ll give them the weekend to think about it, and then we’ll come back and vote on Monday,” Thune told reporters.

Reuters; Politico

2. Is It a Boom or a Bust? Strong GDP, Weak Job Numbers Puzzle Economists, Hint at Productivity Revival

The economy is either booming or on the brink of recession. Honestly, you could make the case for either. The broadest measure of economic output, inflation-adjusted gross domestic product, grew at a blistering annual rate of 3.8% in the third quarter, which ended Tuesday, a Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta model predicts. Yet employment and hours worked barely grew in the three months through August. September data won’t be released Friday as scheduled because of the government shutdown. The payroll processor ADP estimates private payrolls shrank in September. GDP and employment do occasionally go in different directions, but rarely by this much. There are several possible explanations… The third possibility is the most intriguing: A productivity boom might be in the works, which means the economy could grow faster in coming years with less inflation.

WSJ

3. Bipartisan Lawmakers Press Pentagon for Legal Basis of Strikes on Cartel Boats in Caribbean

Senators on both sides of the aisle pressed the Pentagon’s top lawyer in a closed-door meeting to provide a better legal explanation for striking alleged Latin American drug boats in the Caribbean, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In a classified Senate Armed Services Committee briefing Wednesday, the Pentagon general counsel, Earl Matthews, detailed the legal basis for the military’s attacks ordered by President Trump. Matthews repeatedly referred to Trump’s designation of some Latin American drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which he said granted the Defense Department unilateral authority to use military force against them, some of the people said. Matthews refused to provide a written justification for the strikes, which legal experts say is necessary for transparency and accountability. Some of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers who attended Wednesday’s Armed Services Committee briefing expressed concern about the administration’s rationale and urged officials to devise a stronger legal case, some of the people familiar with the discussion said.

WSJ

4. OpenAI's Sora Puts AI Video Creation in Your Pocket, With a Social Twist

This week, we — the two authors of this article — spent hours scrolling through a feed of short-form videos that featured ourselves in different scenarios. In one hyper-realistic nine-second video, we were shown skydiving (and grinning) with pizzas as parachutes. In another, Eli hit a game-winning home run in a baseball stadium full of robots. In yet another, Mike was caught in a “Matrix”-style duel against Ronald McDonald, using cheeseburgers as weapons. “I’m genuinely blown away,” Eli messaged Mike about the cheeseburger video, before liking the content. Mike kept sending videos — which included him ballroom dancing with his dog and sitting on a throne of rats — to other New York Times colleagues (all of whom found the clips slightly disturbing). The app we used was not TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts, the current leaders of short-form video. It was Sora, a smartphone app made by OpenAI that lets people create such videos entirely from artificial intelligence. Sora’s underlying technology debuted last year, but its latest version — which is faster and more powerful and can incorporate your likeness if you upload images of your face — was released on an invitation-only basis this week. After we spent less than a day with the app, what became clear to us was that Sora had gone beyond being an A.I.-video generation app. Instead, it is, in effect, a social network in disguise; a clone of TikTok down to its user interface, algorithmic video suggestions and ability to follow and interact with friends. The powerful A.I. model that Sora is built on makes it simpler to produce clips, giving people an almost unlimited ability to generate as many A.I. videos as they want.

NYT

5. Drone Sightings Ground Flights at Munich Airport Amid Broader European Airspace Threats

Germany’s Munich Airport grounded flights overnight after several drone sightings, the latest in a string of interruptions in European airspace that have spurred NATO members to retune defenses. The airport reopened and flights resumed on Friday morning. Air traffic was suspended Thursday night after the drones were spotted, grounding 17 departing flights and affecting nearly 3,000 passengers, the airport said. Additionally, 15 incoming flights were diverted to other airports in Germany and Austria. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its members are contending with a new range of threats in European skies, often connected to suspected Russian incursions. Last month, NATO warplanes shot down several Russian drones over Poland and intercepted Russian warplanes that violated Estonia’s airspace. In Denmark, drone incursions temporarily closed several airports, including in Copenhagen, the busiest in Scandinavia. Drones were spotted over an air force base housing most of Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 jet fighters. Danish authorities said the drones were launched from the country’s vicinity by “professional” operators.

WSJ

October 3 1932: Iraq wins independence

With the admission of Iraq into the League of Nations, Britain terminates its mandate over the Arab nation, making Iraq independent after 12 years of British rule and centuries of Ottoman rule.

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Sources

1. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-vote-dueling-plans-end-shutdown-though-neither-likely-pass-2025-10-03/; https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/10/02/congress/shutdown-senate-votes-weekend-00591890
2. https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/behind-job-weakness-are-hints-of-a-productivity-revival-is-ai-the-reason-cf6309da?mod=hp_lead_pos4
3. https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/lawmakers-from-both-sides-pressed-pentagon-on-legal-basis-for-cartel-boat-strikes-a61b9de0?mod=hp_lead_pos6
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/technology/openai-sora-video-app.html
5. https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/munich-airport-pauses-flights-after-latest-europe-drone-sighting-a85bd9e9?mod=hp_lead_pos10