panic

Headlines are filled with news of the U.S. government shutdown thanks to a budget impasse. There are real-world impacts from this event and it is both serious and worth watching. However, you need to keep what is likely to be a short-term issue in perspective when you consider the long-term investment approach you take. Here’s what you should do instead of panicking.

The media’s job is to grab your attention

Budget battles in Washington are actually a pretty common affair, as each political faction attempts to advance its priorities. On occasion disagreements lead to a failure to find common ground, and the necessary bills needed to fund the government don’t get passed in time to keep the government funded. When that happens the government is “shut down.” Even the U.S. government needs to work within a budget.

Image source: Getty Images.

“Shutdown” is a rather harsh word, since the government isn’t exactly shut down. For example, the Social Security Administration (SSA) provided a contingency plan for a shutdown before it began. According to that plan, the SSA employed 51,825 people before the shutdown and following the shutdown it plans to retain 45,628 of those employees. That’s hardly shutting down, and Social Security recipients are still going to be paid.

Simply put, the government will continue to operate select services that are deemed vital. The big impact is going to be on what some would consider less essential government-run operations, such as national parks and museums. And some essential employees may be asked to work without pay until a budget is passed, and then get paid retroactively. On that note, it is important to keep in mind that the longest shutdown to date lasted roughly a month (35 days).

Even though most media outlets are covering the shutdown intensely, and it could affect parts of the economy directly and indirectly, history suggests that it probably isn’t as big a deal as it may seem for most investors and for the markets. Remember, the media, including financial media, is trying to get your attention so it can generate advertising revenue. Turning news events into something huge and exciting is how it does that.

Step away from your portfolio

There is a problem here that investors should pay attention to. The news frenzy around the budget impasse could lead some people to make short-term investment decisions that end up being bad for their long-term financial health. Letting emotions drive investment choices is usually a bad choice. The chart below offers evidence that government shutdowns have little real effect on markets.

Data by YCharts.

The chart shows the performance of the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.36%) since 1974, which is when the Congressional Budget Act was passed. It’s a pretty darn good return, right? As the chart highlights, the S&P 500 index has advanced more than 6,700% even though there have been multiple government shutdowns along the way. So far, not a single shutdown has resulted in the permanent destruction of capital.

Data by YCharts.

The shutdown started Oct. 1. As the one-month chart above shows, the market isn’t reacting negatively … so far and is maintaining its current upward trajectory. That said, there could be near-term uncertainty. Emotions can be a powerful force on Wall Street, and the longer the shutdown lasts the more emotional investors are likely to get. Try not to get carried along with the herd. Step back and think about your long-term goals. For example, if you are a buy-and-hold investor, don’t suddenly start selling all of your stocks. If history is any guide, this situation will blow over in a month or so, and maybe much sooner.

Little reaction so far

So far there’s no indication that a precipitous bear market has begun. Wall Street appears to have seen the news and continued along its merry way. That’s exactly what you should do, too. In fact, history suggests you should keep doing that even if Wall Street starts to notice that there is a government shutdown going on.

Sticking to a long-term buy-and-hold investment plan has been the winning play through all of the shutdowns that have taken place to date. In other words, you are better off doing nothing than reacting rashly and making emotionally driven portfolio decisions.

People run for lives from air strikes and explosive-laden ‘robots’, as lifelines collapse in Gaza’s biggest urban centre.

The Israeli army is pushing towards the centre of Gaza City from two directions, “sandwiching” residents and forcing them towards the coast in a bid to drive them out of the enclave’s biggest urban centre.

Israeli army spokesperson Nadav Shoshani told the Reuters news agency on Thursday that infantry, tanks and artillery were advancing on the inner city, backed by the air force, with the aim of applying pressure on the armed group Hamas.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that the Israeli military was advancing from the northwest and the southeast, “sandwiching people in the middle” and pushing them to the west of the city, where the al-Rashid coastal road leading south is located.

“The attacks on overcrowded neighbourhoods are causing panic and fear, and pushing people literally to run for their lives. We’re seeing waves of people now doing just that,” he said, reporting from Nuseirat in central Gaza.

People in Gaza City told Al Jazeera about nonstop attacks, including “aerial strikes by drones and fighter jets” and detonations from remote-controlled “robots” – unmanned vehicles packed with explosives that the Israeli army has been deploying to blow up neighbourhoods as it advances inwards.

At least 40 people were killed in Gaza City on Thursday, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Lifelines collapse

Amid the apocalyptic scenes, fleeing families faced the heartbreaking prospect of renewed displacement in a territory devoid of “safe zones”, only this time with the very real possibility that they might never again return home.

Still, many have stayed put. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics claimed that approximately 740,000 people – roughly 35 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million population – were still in the north of the enclave as of Tuesday.

However, the bureau signalled that numbers could drop, with the continuous Israeli attacks driving more people out and basic services disappearing.

The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) warned on Thursday that Gaza City’s last lifelines were collapsing.

OCHA accused Israel of “systematically blocking” efforts to bring aid to people, citing the closure of the Zikim crossing to Gaza’s famine-stricken north and bans on certain food items.

‘Blatant disregard’

Outside Gaza City, at least 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in other parts of the enclave, according to medical sources.

The Israeli military reported that four of its soldiers were killed in the early hours of the morning in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Palestine denounced on social media Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international legal requirements to distinguish between combatants and civilians in its air attacks on Gaza.

The Israeli strikes on internally displaced persons, including as they try to leave Gaza city or seek shelter near hospitals, show the Israeli military’s blatant disregard for the fundamental principle of distinction. Israel has demanded that Palestinian civilians leave Gaza…

— UN Human Rights Palestine (@OHCHR_Palestine) September 18, 2025

As Israel expanded its offensive on Thursday, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the lifting of restrictions on aid into Gaza, and the return of hostages held by Hamas.

The UK’s permanent representative to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said that “Israel’s reckless expansion of its military operation takes us further away from a deal which could bring the hostages home and end the suffering in Gaza.”

A Palestinian mother filmed the panic and confusion, screaming for her son after she said an Israeli strike targeted their neighbour’s home as they were preparing to evacuate. Palestinians in Gaza City say Israel often gives only 15–30 minutes’ warning before striking buildings.

A fight over taxes consumers pay for cannabis products has prompted a standoff between unusual adversaries: child-care advocates and the legal weed industry.

On July 1, California’s cannabis excise tax increased from 15% to 19% as part of a political deal struck in 2022 to help stabilize the fledgling legal market. But the industry now says the increase is untenable as it faces a sharp decline in revenue and unfair competition from the growing illicit market.

An industry-sponsored bill moving through the Legislature — and already passed by the Assembly — would eliminate the tax increase and lower the rate back to 15% for the next six years. This would reduce by $180 million annually the tax revenue that the state contributes toward law enforcement, child care, services for at-risk youth and environmental cleanup.

The losses include about $81 million annually that would have specifically funded additional subsidized child-care slots for about 8,000 children from low-income families.

“They are choosing the cannabis industry over children and youth,” said Mary Ignatius, executive director of Parent Voices California, which represents parents receiving state subsidies to help pay for child care.

Child care faces setbacks

The tension over taxes for legal weed versus child care — both industries in crisis — highlights the inherent pitfalls of funding important social services with “sin taxes,” whether it’s alcohol, weed or tobacco — funding that experts say is often unstable and unsustainable.

Engage with our community-funded journalism as we delve into child care, transitional kindergarten, health and other issues affecting children from birth through age 5.

The measure’s next stop is the Senate. All bills in the Legislature must be passed by Sept. 12, and the governor must sign them by Oct. 12.

“We can both support the legal cannabis industry and protect child care. If the measure reaches the governor’s desk and is signed into law, we will work with the Legislature to ensure there are no cuts to child care due to this policy change,” said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom.

But it’s unclear where money to backfill the losses would come from, as the state grapples with declining finances and federal funding cuts.

The money from cannabis taxes represents a fraction of California’s $7-billion annual child care budget. But as federal cuts to social services for low-income families, including Head Start, continue, any potential loss creates a sense of panic among child care advocates who say California ought to be shoring up revenue options right now — not reducing them.

“Every single dollar needs to remain in the programs that are serving our children and families. What may seem like a small amount to some is everything for advocates who are fighting for it,” said Ignatius.

The past decade has been a time of progress for child care advocates, as the state rebuilt a child care industry decimated by cuts during the Great Recession. California has more than doubled spending on child care since the recession low, added about 150,000 new subsidized child care slots, eliminated the fees paid by families, increased pay for child care workers and added a new public school grade level for 4-year-olds.

But despite these efforts to bolster the market, California’s child care industry still suffers from low pay for workers, unaffordable costs for families, and a shortage of spaces for infants and toddlers.

The waiting list for subsidized child care slots is still so long that some parents have taken to calling it the “no hope list,” said Ignatius. Those who join the list know they could wait years before a spot opens up, and by that time their child may already be in kindergarten or beyond.

Jim Keddy, who serves on an advisory committee to help determine what programs the tax will finance, opposes the proposed reduction.

“If you don’t work to promote and hold on to a funding stream for children, someone eventually takes it from you,” said Keddy, who is also executive director of Youth Forward, a youth advocacy organization.

The cannabis industry, however, argues that while the causes the tax supports may be worthwhile, market conditions are so abysmal that it cannot weather an increase.

Legal cannabis industry struggles to remain afloat

“It is sad that the cannabis industry is being pit against social programs, childhood programs and educational programs,” said Jerred Kiloh, president of United Cannabis Business Assn. and owner of the Higher Path dispensary in Sherman Oaks. “The reality is, if our legal industry keeps declining, then so does their tax revenue.”

In 2022, when the cannabis industry agreed to increase the excise tax, quarterly cannabis sales were at their peak. The agreement offered the new industry temporary relief by eliminating the cultivation tax passed by voters under Proposition 64, the 2016 initiative that legalized cannabis. In exchange, state regulators would be able to increase the excise tax after three years to make the change revenue neutral.

But since then, sales have plunged to their lowest levels in five years, due in part to the growing illicit market that is siphoning off sales from legal dispensaries.

In L.A., Kiloh said that between state and local taxes, his legal dispensary customers end up paying 47% in taxes on their purchase. But if they shopped instead at any of the thousands of stores in L.A. selling cannabis products without a license, they could avoid state and local cannabis taxes entirely.

“A 30% increase in an excise tax that is already egregious is just kind of the breaking point for a lot of consumers,” said Kiloh.

Even before the excise tax hike went into effect, just 40% of the cannabis consumed in California was obtained from the legal market, according to the California Department of Cannabis Control.

The measure to drop the excise tax, AB564, received widespread support from Assembly members, including stalwart supporters of early childhood education like Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), chair of the Legislative Women’s Caucus.

“Revenues from legal sales of cannabis are already dropping and if we keep raising the tax they’ll drop even more. That penalizes cannabis businesses who are doing the right thing and working within the legal market. And, it makes illegal sales from cartels and criminals more competitive,” she said in a statement. “We need to fund our kids’ education through the State General Fund, but if we want to supplement education and youth programs, cannabis tax dollars will only exist if we steady the legal market and go after those illegal operators.”

How reliable are sin taxes?

Lucy Dadayan, a researcher who studies sin taxes at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., said the California predicament reflects a larger problem with sin taxes.

If a sin tax is successful and consumption drops — as it has with tobacco — “the tax base shrinks. And in the case of cannabis, there’s the added wrinkle that a high tax rate can push consumers back into the illicit market, which also reduces revenue,” she said.

This is not the first time services for the state’s youngest children have been affected by reductions in a sin tax.

In 1998, California voters slapped cigarettes with a hefty surcharge to pressure smokers to give up their habit. The state used the money to fund “First 5” organizations in every county, which are dedicated to improving the health and well-being of young children and their families. But the less people smoked over time, the less money was available for early childhood programs, and the First 5 system now finds itself confronting an existential crisis as it faces a rapidly declining revenue source.

Meanwhile, the critical social services like child care that come to depend on sin taxes tend to get more and more expensive, creating a “mismatch” in the tax structure versus the need, said Dadayan.

“In the short term, these taxes can raise a lot of money and help build public support for legalization or regulation. But in the long term, they can leave important programs vulnerable because of shifting consumption patterns,” she said.

This article is part of The Times’ early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed.

“He builds a special relationship with players and they understand where he’s coming from.

“He has a modern mindset and all of those things mean it does take some time to put a team together, to get the team playing the way that you want.

“West Ham is not a club that panics about its managers. We tend to stick with them, tend to support people, stick with them and see it through.

“I really hope he does well. He’s a pleasure to work with, he’s incredibly professional.

“I know his relationship with the players is good. I know he’ll be sitting down with them today to have a long, hard think about what went wrong yesterday, expecting a reaction and expecting to put it right.”

Potter gave full debuts to Senegal full-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, a £19m signing from Slavia Prague, and Denmark goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, who joined for £20m from Leicester.

Striker Callum Wilson also made his debut as a substitute following his arrival from Newcastle, while another free transfer, Kyle Walker-Peters, remained on the bench.

West Ham have yet to bring in a direct replacement for Ghana midfielder Mohammed Kudus, who joined Tottenham for £55m.

They performed well in the first half and went close through Jarrod Bowen and Diouf, but faded badly after Eliezer Mayenda’s 61st-minute opener, conceding twice more in the final 17 minutes.

“I wish yesterday could start all over again,” added Brady. “It’s so tough to take. It’s never easy for the supporters, the players, or the manager to lose 3-0, particularly in the opening game of the season.

“I spent a lot of time with the manager and the squad in America on the pre-season tour. The spirit among them is fantastic. I know that they’ll be more disappointed, that they’ll be the most disappointed people this morning.

“I know we’ll see a reaction and I know they want to turn it around and they’ll want to turn it around quickly.”

Residents of Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, North East Nigeria, who live near the Alau Dam and its downstream channel, are in a state of confusion, grappling with conflicting government directives on the dam’s water release. The mixed messages are sparking widespread concern over potential flood risks.

The conflicting messages from these two key government bodies have left residents uncertain about the immediate danger and the appropriate course of action. While the Chad Basin Development Authority (CBDA) suggests a controlled release of the dam that shouldn’t cause panic, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) is demanding immediate evacuation, indicating a potentially serious flood threat.

“We really don’t know which warning or advisory to follow now,” said Yunus Isa, a resident whose house was submerged in the devastating September flood last year. “I hope we will not be left in the darkness about reality until it is too late.”

The September flood resulted from the breakdown of the Alau Dam after years of neglect and warnings that the flood would happen. It swept through several local government areas of Borno State and affected about one million residents, according to the emergency management agency. HumAngle investigations found money trails that were allocated to the repair of the dam over the years, yet the repairs never happened.

This Wednesday, the CBDA announced the opening of the Alau Dam’s spillway gates to release water downstream. In a special announcement, they tried to calm fears, stating, “The general public should note that the spillway gates of the Alau Dam have been opened for water in the reservoir to spill downstream steadily… people, especially those living within the River Ngadda and Gwange area, should not panic by seeing the water passing through its normal way.” 

CBDA’s Executive Director for Engineering, Engr. Mohammed Shettima, who signed the statement, added that the authority would keep monitoring the dam’s activities until water levels recede.

However, SEMA has issued an urgent public notice concerning the dam’s water release with a stern directive: “Evacuate Immediately: All communities and individuals living or working near the Gadabul River and its tributaries must relocate to higher ground without delay.” SEMA further cautioned against approaching riverbanks, citing “strong currents and sudden surges” as “life-threatening hazards,” and advised residents to secure property and stay informed through local media.

When contacted for clarity, Borno State Permanent Secretary for Information and Internal Security, Aminu Chamalwa, stated that his ministry has reviewed both press statements and will address the matter on Friday to prevent any miscommunication.

The current confusion over the Alau Dam’s water release comes nearly a year after its catastrophic collapse and months after the Federal Government inaugurated a significant reconstruction project. The Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation held a groundbreaking ceremony in March this year for a crucial ₦80 billion project to reconstruct, dredge, and upgrade the vital infrastructure. However, despite that formal flag-off, nearly 120 days later, no significant work has reportedly been done on the dam.