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Newscapped 13-17

October 16, 2025

national- Wednesday

international- Thursday-Friday

Greensboro family shares their baby’s story of survival

The Orlando family in Greensboro loves to play together and their baby, Jack, is in the middle of it all. As he approaches his first birthday, his parents, Mike and Lindsey, look back on how he was born much earlier than expected.

After Lindsay spent 3 weeks in the hospital trying to delay delivery, Jack was born premature at only 30 weeks into her pregnancy. “He was born without a heartbeat, had to be resuscitated, so that was terrifying at the point,” Mike said. As Jack’s journey continued, he was intubated, needed a feeding tube and a jet ventilator. He was then put on a CPAP machine and eventually high-flow oxygen. “He was in the NICU for 70 days. It was a steady progression of getting better every day,” Lindsey said. “The doctors, the nurses, the respiratory therapist, nutritionists, people in milk lab, housekeeping just amazing care to bring him home.”

Federal workers endure financial strain and fear layoffs as the government shutdown drags on

With every passing day of the government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay face mounting financial strain. And now they are confronting new uncertainty with the Trump administration’s promised layoffs. Little progress has been made to end the shutdown as it enters its third week, with Republicans and Democrats digging in and convinced their messaging is resonating with voters. The fate of the federal workers is among several pressure points that could eventually push the sides to agree to resolve the stalemate.

“Luckily I was able to pay rent this month,” said Peter Farruggia, a furloughed federal worker. “But for sure I am going to have bills that are going to go unpaid this month, and I really don’t have many options.” The shutdown has a familiar feel for many federal employees who endured past stalemates — including during President Donald Trump’s first term — but this time, the stakes are higher. The Republican White House is leveraging federal workers’ jobs to pressure Democrats to soften their demands.

China blames US for global panic over rare earths controls

China on Thursday accused the U.S. of stoking panic over its rare earth controls and said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had made “grossly distorted” remarks about a top Chinese trade negotiator, rejecting a White House call to roll back the curbs.

The official newspaper of the governing Communist Party also issued a seven-point rebuttal after top U.S. negotiators suggested Beijing could avert President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese goods by scrapping the measures set to take effect on November 8. While investors are relieved the world’s top two economies have avoided the retaliatory tariff hikes of March and April, each exchange risks derailing a meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month — a fixed point that has so far helped anchor market stability.