The Headlines - Food Banks Brace for Growing Demand, and Putin’s New Missile Test

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Plus, this year’s top Halloween costumes. Here’s what we’re covering:Food Banks Brace for Overwhelming Demand as SNAP Cutoff Looms by Chris HippensteelDonor Who Gave $130 Million to Pay Troops Is Reclusive Heir to Mellon Fortune by Tyler PagerWhere Trump Is Headed in Asia, and What Each Country Wants From Him by Sui-Lee Wee, Choe Sang-Hun, Javier C. Hernández and David PiersonPutin Says Russia Now Has Nuclear-Powered Missile by Valerie HopkinsCaribbean Braces for Hurricane Melissa by Frances RoblesDemon Hunter or Armadillo? Store-Bought or Homemade? by Sandra E. GarciaTune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, October 27th. Here's what we're covering. With the government shutdown nearing the one-month mark, many Americans may soon be cut off from a crucial part of the social safety net. Food stamps. Tens of millions of low-income Americans who rely on SNAP,

the federal food assistance program, could lose access. as soon as this weekend. That's as many as one in eight people in the country. Some states have said they're going to try and step up to fill the gap. Others are still trying to figure out a plan. And while the Department of Agriculture had signaled that it would use emergency funds to keep the benefits flowing, it said in a memo on Friday that it will not tap into that reserve. Good morning. And across the country, food banks are bracing for a surge in demand. Many were stretched thin even before the shutdown.

Food prices, driven up by inflation, have meant more and more Americans rely on food banks. One network in Oregon has seen a 50% jump in visits in the past two years alone. And earlier this year, the Trump administration slashed nearly a billion dollars in anti-hunger programs, including one that provided food directly to food banks. Without federal support, food banks and pantries, the Times spoke with across the country, said they'll only be able to provide a fraction of the assistance they used to.

The need is even greater in areas with lots of federal workers, many of whom aren't getting paychecks right now. In Maryland on Saturday, for example, cars lined up for blocks at an event for those federal workers. They ran out after passing out over 300 boxes of food

and had to turn the rest of the people away. Meanwhile, the Trump administration says that it's accepted a $130 million donation to help the government pay troops during the shutdown. The White House wouldn't say who the money came from, but the Times has learned from two sources that the donor is Timothy Mellon, the heir to a banking and railroad fortune. Mellon, who is famously reclusive, is a longtime backer of President Trump.

His donation to the Pentagon works out to just about $100 per service member, though it may be a violation of federal law. Government agencies are prohibited from spending money that Congress hasn't appropriated and are barred from accepting voluntary services. President Trump had already signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to use unspent R&D funds to pay military salaries. But lawmakers have warned that moving funds around like that is only a temporary fix. Yesterday, President Trump kicked off a nearly week-long trip across East

and Southeast Asia. He started in Malaysia. As of this morning, he's in Japan, and he'll head to South Korea next. The most important thing to keep in mind is that this is a moment in which Trump is arriving after 10 months of really difficult policies for Asia, from tariffs and trade to distrust around security and whether or not the U.S. will be reliable in that realm. You know, a lot of these countries have really felt like they've been put on uncertain ground. Damien Cave is a global affairs correspondent for the Times. He's based in Vietnam. Coinciding with Trump's arrival in Asia, there's been a whole bunch of deals.

Some of them have been slightly more specific trade deals with countries like Malaysia. There have also been some deals around critical minerals. So there is a bit of optimism. It's more engagement than the Trump administration has frankly had in the region with more of a given take than they've had in the past. But one of the things that I hear in the region all the time is it's not just the problem of terror, and the economic approach to the United States, it's just the uncertainty. You never know which version of Trump you're going to get.

It's his impulsiveness. It's the lack of detail in a lot of these deals. And so that uncertainty has created a real sense of instability and distrust. And, you know, for a lot of countries, I think, in the short term, they're going to say to the United States, this is great. We love you.

We really want you to be here. But in the medium to long term, a lot of the people that I talked in the region are saying, we need to diversify away from the United States. I don't know that we can ever trust the United States again the same way that we used to. The most consequential part of Trump's Asia trip will likely come later this week at a summit in South Korea, where he's scheduled to sit down for a face-to-face meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Mr. Secretary, do you believe that China is ready to make a trade deal?

Kristen, I can tell you they are because we just finished two days of negotiating. And we've created a framework for the two leaders to discuss on Thursday in Korea. So that's optimism. Ahead of the meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC that American and Chinese officials have reached some preliminary agreements to diffuse the economic tensions between China and the U.S. The two sides have been at odds over a wide range of issues, from export controls on rare earth minerals, to stopping fentanyl trafficking, to Trump's steep tariffs on Chinese goods. In Russia yesterday, President Vladimir Putin announced that his country has successfully tested a nuclear-powered missile.

It's capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, and because it runs on nuclear power itself, the Kremlin says it can fly for much less. longer than other missiles and can evade defense systems. The missile is called the Borevesnik, named after a seabird that some believe foreshadows a storm. In the test flight, a Russian official said it stayed airborne for 15 hours, traveling 8,700 miles. That's about a third of the circumference of the earth. Putin said no other country in the world has a missile like this, and an expert in nuclear nonproliferation called the development worrying, saying, it was like a tiny flying Chernobyl. The successful test wasn't unexpected. Analysts say the weapons

been in development in Russia for years. But this is the first time since President Trump returned to office that Putin has so openly discussed nuclear threats. At the moment, there's an arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia that puts limits on the number of long-range nukes that can be deployed in the field. It's set to expire in February. Though Putin has offered to extend it for another year as long as the U.S. does the same. Trump has said that proposal, quote, sounds like a good idea to me. We are due to get a direct hit category four and possibly category five. In the Caribbean, authorities in at least five countries, including Haiti, the Dominican

Republic, and Jamaica, are urging residents to evacuate from low-lying areas ahead of Hurricane Melissa. Do not take this one lightly. This may be the one. At the moment, Jamaica seems poised to take the brunt of it. Melissa could be the strongest storm in recorded history to ever make landfall there. Forecasters are predicting that as much as three feet of rain could fall, which could trigger catastrophic flash flooding and wash out roads. People in the region are already starting to feel the storm's effects.

It's expected to move across Jamaica tomorrow, but because it's moving relatively slowly, it could linger over the island for as long as a day. And finally, it is Halloween week you have until Friday to figure out your costume or your kid's costume, which can be stressful, no matter if you're trying to hot glue and paper mache and armadillo outfit, or if you're just trying to figure out where the closest spirit

Halloween is. According to Spirit, the most popular costumes at the Halloween megastore this year are, drum roll please, the K-pop demon hunter characters from the hit Netflix movie. They're a girl band who also slaughter monsters. I hope you're happy. I hope you're happy now. Wicked costumes are also flying off the shelves. Remember, if you're deciding if you're a Glinda or an Elfaba, one requires washing off a lot more green face paint, so choose accordingly. And are you the protectors of this world? Yes, we all. The Fantastic Four costumes are also a top choice, according to Spirit, because superheroes.

There you go. Of course, this year, there's definitely some DIY options out there. With just a yellow safety vest and a tiara, you could be one of the thieves that hit the Louvre. Though there were some arrests in that case over the weekend, so maybe add some handcuffs. Those are the headlines. Today on the Daily, an inside look at the federal gambling investigation that has shaken the NBA. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.