Shutdown? What shutdown? President Donald Trump is barreling along like the government isn't shuttered, keeping up international and domestic travel while construction crews race to transform the White House to accommodate his new ballroom. Other presidents have cut back on travel and events during past shutdowns, including Trump himself when the government was defunded during his first term. Allies say this business-as-usual strategy makes him look presidential, cutting programs backed by Democrats while making sure other priorities are funded. Democratic critics say it makes Trump look callous as workers go unpaid and some people lose benefits to help them buy food.

A senior Border Patrol official is due in court for the second day in a row in the first of his daily court-mandated check-ins about the Chicago area immigration enforcement operation, which has produced more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force. A federal judge took the rare step Tuesday of ordering Greg Bovino to brief her every evening on how his agents are enforcing the law and whether they are staying within constitutional bounds. It is an unprecedented bid to impose real-time oversight on the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Bovino is chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, California, and is leading efforts in Chicago.

It's a tough time for the job market. Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a “no-hire, no fire” standstill. At the same time, some sizeable layoffs have continued to pile up — raising worker anxieties across sectors. Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs due to U.S.'s new tariffs, while others have redirected money to artificial intelligence investments. Workers in the public sector have also been hit hard. Federal jobs were cut by the thousands earlier this year. And many workers are now going without pay as the U.S. government shutdown nears its fourth week.

General Motors is laying off about 1,700 workers across manufacturing sites in Michigan and Ohio, as the auto giant adjusts to slowing demand for electric vehicles. The Detroit News first reported the cuts on Wednesday — covering about 1,200 jobs at an all-electric plant in the Detroit area and 550 workers at Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Ohio, in addition to hundreds of other employees slated for “temporary layoffs.” GM later confirmed the news to The Associated Press. The company says it's adjusting production in response to changes in demand and recent regulatory shifts. In the U.S., federal tax credits for EVs ended Sept. 30.

President Donald Trump's nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait is facing rejection by the Republican-controlled Senate. Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib was picked for the post after the Republican president credited him for helping Trump do better-than-expected in Michigan's large Arab American community in the 2024 election. But senators in both parties have expressed concerns over past remarks by Ghalib that they say are antisemitic. GOP Sen. Ted Cruz has said publicly that he will oppose Ghalib. Other Republicans are expected to join Cruz. The founder of Arab Americans for Trump says rejecting Ghalib's nomination would compound anger among Arab Americans over how they've been treated since the election.

Uber said Wednesday that the San Francisco Bay Area will be the first market for its specially built autonomous taxi, which is expected to launch in late 2026. The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company said in July it was developing a robotaxi with the electric car company Lucid and the self-driving technology company Nuro Inc. Uber said it plans to have 100 test vehicles on the road in the coming months. Within six years, Uber plans to deploy 20,000 or more Lucid-based autonomous taxis in multiple locations. The vehicles will be owned and operated by Uber and available to riders through the Uber app.

Rescuers have saved a pet dog that fell off an oceanside bluff in San Francisco and spent more than 20 minutes clinging to a narrow ledge. Officials say the dog was playing with another pooch on Tuesday at Fort Funston, which is a coastal park with steep bluffs. Firefighters say the dog slipped on some vegetation, lost its traction and fell over the cliff. One rescuer rappelled down, attached a harness to the dog and held it as they were pulled back up top together. Rescuers then reunited the dog with its owner.

Even while warning about national security and human rights abuse, the U.S. government across five Republican and Democratic administrations has repeatedly allowed and even actively helped American firms to sell technology to Chinese police, government and surveillance companies, an Associated Press investigation has found. And time after time, despite bipartisan attempts, Congress has turned a blind eye to loopholes that allow China to work around its own rules, such as cloud services, third-party resellers, and holes in sanctions passed after the Tiananmen massacre. This reluctance to act reflects the tremendous wealth and power of the tech industry, which is more visible than ever under the Trump administration.

An exhibition in Germany invites visitors to explore the world of scents through 81 fragrances across 37 galleries. "The Secret Power of Scents" opens Wednesday at the Kunstpalast museum in Düsseldorf. The exhibit combines fragrances with art and spans over 1,000 years of cultural history. It uses scent steles, atomizers, and diffusers to connect art with the smells of different time periods. Curator Robert Müller-Grünow says it's the first exhibition of its kind to bring scents into a museum on this scale. The show highlights the significance of scents in religion, politics, art, and more, offering a unique sensory experience.

A Pennsylvania man whose murder conviction was overturned after he served 43 years in prison hoped to walk free this month, but instead found himself in immigration custody. Subramanyam Vedam was an infant when his family moved to the U.S. so his father could teach at Penn State University. The Trump Administration plans to act on a 1999 deportation order despite his murder conviction being overturned because Vedam also has a drug conviction from the 1980s. His lawyers say the years he wrongly spent in prison should outweigh that. They have asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen the case.

Paris police have acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses on Wednesday — turning this month’s dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures. Testifying in the Senate, Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure has said aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak seams in the world’s most-visited museum. “A technological step has not been taken,” he has told lawmakers, noting parts of the video network are still analog and slow to share images. The long-promised rebuild — an $93 million project requiring roughly 37 miles of new cabling — “will not be finished before 2029–2030,” he has said.

Higher prices, less help and a government shutdown hang over health insurance markets as shoppers start looking for coverage this week. The annual enrollment window for millions of people to pick an individual plan opens Saturday. The federal government shut down this month as Democrats in Congress demanded negotiations to extend enhanced tax credits that have helped people buy coverage the past few years. Republicans say they won’t negotiate until Democrats vote to reopen the government. Stuck in the middle are insurance shoppers, many of whom will be facing the biggest premium hikes they’ve seen in years.

The Federal Reserve is expected to cut its short-term rate Wednesday for the second time this year despite an increasingly cloudy view of the economy it is trying to influence. The data drought raises risks for the Fed because it is widely expected to keep cutting rates in an effort to shore up growth and hiring. Yet should job gains pick up soon, the Fed may not detect the change. And if hiring rebounds after weak job gains during the summer, further rate cuts may not be justified.

Compact luxury crossovers have become the chariot of choice for those seeking an effective blend of utility and style in an efficient package that won’t break the bank. The BMW X3 has been a longtime favorite in the segment, but it faces stiff competition from the likes of Mercedes-Benz and its GLC SUV. Edmunds’ experts compare the two upscale sport-utility vehicles to determine which is the better buy.