by Brittney Melton

October 28, 2025

Good morning. The perfect fright for Americans who love cars and haunted houses is popping up all across the country just in time for Halloween: haunted car washes. Here’s the news we’re following today:

More than 40 million Americans will soon be without federal food assistance. The Trump administration says there will be no money for SNAP benefits starting Nov. 1. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it will not use emergency funds to address this situation. The White House is placing blame on Democrats for this outcome, similar to its approach with various other issues related to the shutdown over the past month.

sign alerting customers about SNAP food stamps benefits is displayed at a Brooklyn grocery store on Dec. 5, 2019, in New York City.

Scott Heins/Getty Images

🎧 Some budget experts suggest that lawmakers should use the nearly $6 billion in contingency fund accounts to fund the benefits, NPR’s Stephen Fowler tells Up First. The USDA released a memo Friday stating it is currently illegal to use these contingency funds to pay for benefits. The administration argues that emergency money can only be used as a supplement when there are regularly appropriated benefits available, but due to the shutdown, there are none. Initially, the USDA’s plan for dealing with the shutdown mentioned the contingency funds as an option and suggested that Congress intended for SNAP operations to continue amid a shutdown.

President Trump addressed U.S. troops in Japan today and met the country's newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. Japan and the U.S. signed an agreement on rare earth minerals. Japan announced today that in honor of America’s 250th birthday next year, it will gift the U.S. 250 cherry trees to Washington, D.C. The president heads to South Korea tomorrow, where the big event of his Asia trip is expected to take place: his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

🎧 Trump was very complimentary of Japan’s first female prime minister, and when he addressed troops, he brought her up on stage to make her own remarks, NPR’s Deepa Shivaram says. Earlier this year, the U.S. and Japan agreed on a framework for a trade deal that imposes a 15% tariff on Japan's exports and includes Japan investing $550 billion in the U.S. Shivaram says there is a possibility that the framework could be renegotiated.

Jamaica is preparing for Hurricane Melissa, which is expected to make landfall this morning as a Category 5 storm. Melissa is the strongest hurricane to ever hit Jamaica, and its winds are starting to build across the island.

🎧 NPR’s Eyder Peralta says it is not an overstatement to say this is a monster of a storm. The National Hurricane Center says the massive hurricane has wind gusts of 175 miles per hour, making it one of the strongest storms recorded in the Atlantic basin. Forecasters expect that the storm will bring catastrophic damage to the island, which has a population of around 3 million people. Last night, Jamaica’s government officials expressed concern that few residents had actually sought shelters, and out of 881 shelters, only 133 had people in them.

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A U.S. flag in Chicago seen at nighttime flying at half-staff following Charlie Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.

Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images

Charlie Kirk’s assassination has sparked conversations around political violence in the U.S. and fueled claims that far-left extremists are primarily responsible for increasing levels of violence. So far, authorities have not released information tying the man charged with Kirk’s killing to leftist groups. A recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies posits that a significant shift took place in the first half of this year. CSIS analyzed roughly 30 years of data and found that between Jan. 1 and July 4 of this year, the number of far-left terrorist plots and attacks exceeded those from the far right. The report has ignited debate within the field of counterterrorism. Some critics argue that the report highlights more problems related to analyzing domestic terrorism data than it clarifies the current situation.

➡️ There are no public, official, unified and comprehensive reports of domestic terrorism in the U.S., so researchers have to assemble their own data sets to analyze trends.
➡️ The CSIS revealed that five instances of left-wing terrorism and one of right-wing terrorism occurred within the first six months of 2025. Critics of the research believe that the numbers found are too small to support any robust conclusion.
➡️ The study omitted incidents that some might categorize as acts of left-wing terrorism, including the killing of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington, D.C. CSIS is working to adjust its classification for violence committed in the name of Palestinian rights due to the complexities around the issue.

Living better

A hand scrolls on a cellphone with smiley faces, thumbs up and heart social media reactions are seen hovering around the phone.

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Living Better is a special series about what it takes to stay healthy in America.

Social media feeds can lead people toward the dark side with negative content or content that can diminish self-esteem. But you can reprogram what you see by making different choices. A new study found that three to five minutes of inspiring content each day can boost your mood. The study included a thousand adults from across the U.S., age 18 to 86. One group watched around three to five minutes of inspiring videos every day for five days. Another group did a few minutes of meditation. Both groups experienced significantly increased hope compared to a control group and another that watched comedy. For those hoping to see more “feel good” content on your social media feeds, here are some options to try:

📱 Find hashtags that match your interests, such as positive body image, wildlife or content that aligns with your hobbies.
📱 Create a media log where you document the things you watch and ask yourself how it makes you feel. Tracking will help you connect the dots between your media usage and your mood.
📱 You can start over by deleting your account and opening a new one. You can then discover which content on your feed works for you and reset your online presence.
📱 Take a weekly break, such as a 24-hour pause from social media, to create distance from the platform.

new calls with clack! same lousy advice.

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A man in the band Here We Go Magic stands at a mic and plays a guitar.

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New music from your favorite artists could be the work of AI. Now that AI music generators are easily accessible, scammers are uploading songs to the profiles of inactive artists and dead musicians.

The federal government has reinstalled a statue commemorating Confederate general Albert Pike in Washington, D.C.'s Judiciary Square. Protesters toppled the statue and set it ablaze in June 2020 during the Black Lives Matter movement.

Paul Biya, 92, the world's oldest head of state, has won an eighth term as president of Cameroon. If he serves out his new term, he will remain in power until he is nearly 100 years old.

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This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

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