US federal workers are joining queues for emergency food aid as the shutdown bites hard.
It's hard when you don't know if your next meal is going to be not there.
But will Congress cut a deal?
They're making life decisions that they shouldn't have to make.
Let's open the government up.
Let's pay these people.
They deserve a paycheck.
This is World Business Report from the BBC World Service.
Yesterday.
As the shutdown approaches a record second month, we're measuring the economic pain from the food queues to the airports.
And we're in India, where women seemingly hold the key both in the ballot box and on the cricket field.
That's to come, but first let's go to the US, where the government's been shut down for over a month now.
And if it carries on past this Wednesday, the shutdown will become the longest in US history.
As a result, federal workers are going without pay and many small businesses which are dependent on government contracts say that they too are on the brink with food aid running dry.
Here's Abigail Smith.
She's a school bus driver at a food bank in Detroit.
It's hard when you don't know if your next meal is going to be, you know, not there.
Some of us don't have savings.
Some of us don't even have bank accounts.
Some of us don't have money put up in a cookie jar anywhere.
We live check by check.
Well, food banks in many parts of the US say that they're facing a surge in demand, with federal workers among those seeking emergency supplies.
Michael Otley runs the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen in the city of New York.
Every week, Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays in our pantry, we do see roughly 750 clients.
I've been here for 17 years and you know I've seen some rough times, but this is the roughest I've seen it in my history here at Holy Apostles.
Scary times, and no one can prepare for this because we don't know what to expect.
We're down next to the post office one of the bigger post offices in New York, on 28th and 9th Avenue, and we see a lot of the postal workers coming here for food.
We also have a soup kitchen that we run Monday through Friday.
We're seeing a huge increase in those people coming for a daytime meal and running back to work to deliver the mail.
Well, in the last few hours the Trump administration has announced that to two federal courts it will be allocating money from an emergency reserve.
This to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans during the shutdown.
It had planned to stop those payments, citing a lack of funds, but now it says it can use a contingency fund to cover more than half of the monthly 8 billion cost.
It's not just federal workers themselves who are suffering, though.
The disruption is affecting travellers as well.
At more and more of America's airports.
Nearly half of the 30 busiest airports have faced shortages of air traffic controllers over the weekend, as many of them call in sick either in protest or to take short-term alternative jobs to help cover their bills.
This has led to flight delays nationwide, as it has been acknowledged by the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, over the weekend.
We've seen problems at LA, in Dallas, in DC, Boston.
Atlanta.
And so I think it's only going to get worse.
We have controllers who, some of them are new controllers.
We have trainee controllers who are very helpful in the tower.
They don't make a lot of money and they're now confronted.
They haven't had a paycheck for over a month.
They're confronted with a decision.
Do I put food on my kid's table?
Do I put gas in the car?
Do I pay my rent or do I go to work and not get paid?
And they're making decisions.
I've encouraged them all to come to work.
I want them to come to work. but they're making life decisions that they shouldn't have to make.
Let's open the government up.
Let's pay these people.
We have the best controllers in the world that work our skies and keep our people safe.
They deserve a paycheck.
That's the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, who has raised the prospect of some airports possibly having to close if the shutdown endures.
This week, a group of 500 leading travel-related businesses signed a letter asking Congress to end the month-long government shutdown.
They cite worries about the holiday travel season that's approaching.
Joining me is Eric Hansen.
He's a senior vice president at the US Travel Association, an umbrella body for businesses in the travel sector.
Hi, Eric.
What is in this letter?
What are you calling for?
The letter is raising alarm with the impacts of the shutdown on one of the busiest travel weeks of the year Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States.
It's when we see travel levels surge, but with the government shutdown, we're likely to see flight delays and cancellations, long queues for security screening and And we have surveys that show that 60 percent of Americans said that they would reconsider their travel plans if they were trying to travel during a shutdown.
So we provide this information to Congress.
It's not just a small subset of the travel industry.
This is nearly every state, close to 500 businesses that have sent this message.
And that's what's contained in the letter.
I've seen your website nearly 5 billion and counting, you're saying, in lost travel spending already since the shutdown began.
That's only going to rise massively, isn't it, as we approach Thanksgiving.
When does that season begin for you?
I mean, when do people start booking?
Well, they start booking now.
And so if they have concerns that they might not get home or fly to see their family and get there on time, or if their flight might be canceled, we could see them stay home.
So that not only has an impact on travelers, it has an impact on the economy.
So we're already feeling the effects.
As it gets closer to the Thanksgiving holiday it starts to pick up.
About two weeks before it It's really centered the week around Thanksgiving, which is on a Thursday.
And so if we get to that period of time, that's where we're really going to start to see travel snarl around the country.
So is this directive primarily at the Democrats in Congress then?
Ditch your preconditions, end the shutdown, no matter what the implications for anything else.
We've got a long history of supporting clean continuing resolutions, whether the Democrats are in charge or the Republicans are in charge.
We would support any solution as long as it comes as quickly as possible.
Right now, that looks like a clean CR.
But really, we need Congress to do its job and act immediately.
Put a price on it then.
I mean, you're saying $5 billion now.
If we go a week, two weeks further, presumably we're talking many times that figure.
We are.
It's a billion dollars a week.
So every hour that we wait, every day, every week, every month, we're going to see these impacts pile up.
Really, it's about the long-term impacts as well.
I mean we were already 2000 to 3000 air traffic controllers short of what we need to efficiently operate the system.
And if you're a potential air traffic controller, you might consider it as a career.
You see what's happening during the shutdown.
You might choose another line of work.
So we could have long-lasting impacts because of the shutdown.
Really?
You're saying that air traffic and indeed the air travel sector could be recovering from this for months, even if there is a deal.
Absolutely.
I think for TSA workers, the air traffic controllers, not just about recruiting, but you could see federal workers want to choose another line of work after having gone through this really dramatic shutdown.
After not being paid for doing really important work that keep people safe, that keeps people alive.
You know that could be another lasting legacy of this shutdown.
Eric Hansen at the U.S.
Travel Association, thanks very much indeed for your thoughts.
So that's the cost of the US travel sector.
What about the cost of the overall economy?
We've been hearing from Michelle Fleury.
She's the BBC's North America business correspondent.
In the past, shutdowns have caused lost economic activity in billions of dollars.
But, you know, we're talking about a $30 trillion economy.
This time around the Congressional Budget Office.
The bipartisan group thinks that the shutdown, if it lasts four weeks, which were already passed, will lead to sort of 1 shrinkage in GDP growth in the final three months of this year.
An eight-week shutdown, that would translate to about 2% in lost GDP.
Most of this would be recovered next year when the government reopens, but roughly 7 to 14 billion would be permanently lost.
And so Goldman Sachs is already saying look, you know, there is no doubt the current shutdown will probably have the greatest economic impact of any shutdown on record.
Michel Fleury.
Now for some of the other stories in the markets today.
I'm joined by Peter Jankowski of Arbor Financial Services in Chicago.
Hi, Peter.
So what about this one, OpenAI?
It makes chat GPT, of course.
It signed a seven-year deal with Amazon Web Services worth $38 billion.
Now this is money from OpenAI, a company which hasn't yet made a profit going into Amazon, one which definitely has
Yes, it's kind of interesting.
OpenAI has been greatly expanding the number of cloud operators it works with.
In the grand scheme of things, the Amazon deal is actually on the smaller side.
It's $38 billion for one year.
Some of the other deals that they've struck recently Google, and also with Oracle were in the hundreds of billions.
But I think people are looking to the potential for that to grow over time and that's why there's been so much excitement in the Amazon stock.
Also sticking with tech, we've heard from Palantir Technologies, haven't we?
Another emerging tech giant.
I mean, forecast fourth quarter revenue above analysts' estimates on Monday.
What do we make of this?
Well, they continue to have very strong growth and they're one of the few companies that really is touting the use of AI.
That's their main service is providing a predictive analysis of situations for both businesses as well as governments, and the US military and its allies.
They have a very strong record of beating their earnings estimates I believe 21 straight quarters.
So they just continue to build on that momentum.
OK, Peter, do stay with us.
You're with World Business Report from the BBC World Service.
Lithuania's Truck Truckers Association says that some 2000 vehicles are now stranded in Belarus after the border was closed over the weekend in response to last week's airspace disruptions.
The association said Belarusian officials have seized all its vehicles, with the drivers effectively taken hostage.
Dozens of balloons loaded with illegal cigarettes in Belarus last week forced the temporary closure of Lithuania's two main airports.
The EU denounced these incidents as a hybrid attack.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Rugininja said her country will respond promptly.
This is how we send the signal to Belarusian.
And we say that no hybrid attack will be tolerated here.
And we will take all possible measures to prevent such an attack.
Well to hear more about the disruption facing Lithuanian truckers.
I've been speaking to Oleg Tarasov.
He's the vice president of the Lithuanian National Road Carriers Association.
It's a big disaster for our members because we can't lose our business.
We made business 35 years after the revolution in 1990 and we can lose this business.
So most of your trade is coming from Russia and Belarus.
It's coming through the border with Belarus.
Many, many countries.
This is Middle East countries Uzbekistan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan, not only Belarus, and Russia is fastest connect with Asia.
Right.
And what kind of goods are we talking about?
Foods, medicals, this is chemicals, perfumes, humanitarian, cargoes, many kinds.
How many workers are we talking about, depending on this?
I mean, how big an industry is it for Lithuania?
In Lithuania is a very big industry because all our firms make 15% of BVP.
15%.
That is the level of disruption.
And we are talking about what?
1 billion euros a year of lost trade for you.
In this direction work about 7,000 of trucks.
One truck turnover is 8,000-10,000 euros.
And if we don't have this work, we lose about 1 billion euros.
Also, one truck gives work for five people.
It's the drivers, it's the servicemen financial, administrative and 35000 people can lose the work.
OK, so it's going to be a huge problem if this blockade continues.
Meanwhile, am I right in saying there are still truck drivers up to 2000 Lithuanian trucks stranded inside Belarus?
Is that right?
2,000 trucks and 3,000 semi-trailers.
And today is 5,000 transport units.
And they cannot be allowed through.
Who's responsible for leaving them there?
Is that the fault of the Belarus authorities or the Lithuanians for not opening the border?
I think to close the border is Lithuania.
So what are you saying now to your own government about this problem?
What are you telling them to do?
We not have answers for our questions from government.
We send the letter to our prime minister and we want to have a meeting with prime minister, but we not have invitation from the prime minister.
Well, isn't there a sense, though, that this is just politics and this will play out?
Both the Russians, the Lithuanians and the Belarus authorities.
Everybody will want to find a solution eventually, won't they?
It's an argument over balloons flying over last week.
This will not last.
But are you optimistic that there will be a deal?
Because the government must want a deal as well, mustn't they?
Yes, I'm optimistic in these days.
But if after one week I not will be so optimistic.
But today I optimistic.
Yes, I think government, they must to make a deal.
Oleg Tarasov of the Lithuanian Road Carriers Association.
Peter Jankowskis of Arbor Financial Services in Chicago is still with us.
Peter, one or two stories in the world of Big Pharma have been catching the news headlines in the last few hours.
Pfizer, for example, it's filed a second lawsuit against Novo Nordisk.
This is about the obesity drug startup Metzera.
And it seems to be an argument over competition in this kind of weight loss drugs market, a very lucrative market, it seems.
Indeed.
Pfizer had a deal in place to purchase MetaValue, I believe is the name of the company that has a promising pipeline.
They were willing to pay 49 billion, jumped in with a higher offer and Pfizer is alleging that that's anti-competitive.
It's not a legitimate offer.
That's really the crux of their argument.
They want to be able to acquire the firm for $4.9 billion.
So they're putting forth the best arguments they can to make that happen.
So that will be settled in the courts.
Meanwhile, this looks pretty clearly going ahead.
Kimberly-Clark is going to be buying Kenview.
That's the maker of Tylenol.
Kenview has faced attacks from the White House.
It's also faced flagging demand, hasn't it, for its products.
It's looked quite weak and Kimberly-Clark is stepping in with the takeover.
Yes, I think Kimberly Clark is being very optionistic here in trying to snap up the company.
Investors in Kimberly weren't too excited about it, though.
The stock was down about 14% today on the announcement.
Kenview was up 12%, so it does suggest that there is value there within Kenview.
But you know, the overall growth prospects for combining household products, which is basically Kimberly Clark's business with, you know, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and first aid, which is basically Kenview's business, is kind of an interesting proposition.
OK, Peter Jankowskis, thanks very much indeed.
Now India has been hit hard by US tariffs, in part due to its insistence on buying Russian oil in defiance of US policy.
The duties have hit many Indian companies, both big and small.
I've been speaking about this and much more with Dr Jayan Mehta.
He's the managing director of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation. also known as AML.
It's the largest food product marketing organisation in India.
It's also a cooperative, which means it's controlled by its thick 3.6 million milk producers.
Our daily cooperative started about 80 years back, almost a year prior to India's independence, which eventually made India the largest producer of milk in the world.
So today we have a turnover of 11 billion US dollars.
We procure milk from 3.6 million farmer families in this province of Gujarat in India.
The best part of this cooperative enterprise is that we pass on the largest share of the consumer's revenue to the producers.
80% share of the consumer's revenue goes back to the producer.
So here you're keeping both ends of the spectrum happy.
The consumer gets the best quality product at the most affordable prices.
And that makes us the largest food and FMCG brand in India.
And the producer gets the largest share of the consumer's revenue.
So he or she is benefited of being a member of this cooperative.
The critics will say that that makes you perhaps a little less able to react rapidly to changing business circumstances.
You're always having to worry about your members rather than the key requirements of the business imperative of survival and getting ahead from your rivals.
Absolutely right, because the business objective is very contradictory to what is taught in the business schools.
But, having said that, we are a consumer-facing organization and it's also been ranked as the strongest food and dairy brand in the world.
So obviously, this organization has kept its relevance and its strong cooperative roots intact.
Have the tariffs from the United States been affecting your business?
Is it a concern?
I mean, there is still the threat, isn't there, of some very high US tariffs on Indian products.
Does that affect your plans, for example, with regard to the US market?
You're absolutely right.
In fact, US had been already charging, prior to August 1st, very high import duties on dairy products like ghee, butter cheese that we export out of India had tariff rates from 40 to 60.
And on top of it, the new tariffs have come, which is 25 plus 25.
So as much as 100% tariffs on many of the Indian dairy products that we export to the US.
But let's face one thing very, very clearly.
The tariff is for the consumers of the importing country.
So for us, my price realisation has not come down.
My market share has not dropped.
My business has not come down.
But it does affect the consumers of that country.
And we do hope that situation will normalise in the near future.
Does international trade form a significant part of your business, or at least your business plans now?
Are you looking to sell products to other nations around the world?
At the moment it is not a very significant component because, India being the largest producer of milk,
So today, more than 95% of our revenues are domestic.
But, having said that, we export to more than 50 countries around the world, including the US, entire Middle East, Southeast Asia Japan Australia, New Zealand and so on.
So we are in a position right now to explore international markets in a much more focused manner, because today India produces one fourth of the total milk in the world.
And in the next 10 years, India will produce one third of the total milk in the world.
So, going at the rate of growth in our country, we have an opportunity to become a dairy to the world.
And that's why we have sought alliances with dairy cooperatives in the US to launch fresh products there in Europe, to launch our fresh products there.
And that's why establish a global footprint.
And that's where the power of cooperatives working together has been demonstrated.
And we have been able to forge very, very strong partnerships with sister cooperatives around the world.
Dr Jayan Mehta, Managing Director of Amol, India's biggest milk marketing cooperative.
Meanwhile, staying in India...
Some of the cheers there from fans on the streets of Mumbai late last night.
They were celebrating India's first win at the Women's Cricket World Cup.
The team made history, not just on the pitch, but maybe financially too.
After lifting their first ever World Cup trophy in Mumbai.
The players will share a record prize of about US45 million from the International Cricket Council.
And with more awards coming in from the government and sponsors Sponsors no doubt it's turning into one of the biggest paydays ever for women's cricket, certainly in India.
But will I be backed up by continuing fan support?
I've been speaking to Sushma Ramachandran.
She's an independent journalist and columnist with the Tribune newspaper in Delhi.
It's just wonderful.
I mean, everybody here is absolutely excited about it.
You know, they're always excited over cricket, but it's always been the men's game.
And now the best part is that not only are people talking about women's cricket, I mean, people are paying to watch.
You know, the stadium has been packed throughout the World Cup cricket games and people are following.
You know what the girls are doing and which girls are doing what specialities.
Which are the good bowlers, which are the good batters?
And there's been a lot of interest.
Of course naturally, you know the fact that they actually beat Australia in the semifinal.
That was actually quite astonishing.
It was astonishing, wasn't it?
Because nobody was beating Australia in any of the games.
Nobody was beating Australia.
This is a team.
Obviously, the Indian team has been merging as one of the biggest powerhouses in women's cricket for a number of years.
But still it is hard, isn't it, as you were saying, to look at the status of the women's game in India in comparative terms with the men's games which, of course, has been dominant.
Men's cricket, it is the economic powerhouse of cricket, perhaps in the world, in India.
But the women have been left behind.
What do you think to that assertion?
I think that's very true.
Of course, they're catching up now.
I think the one big thing that the Board of Control for Cricket did in 2022 was that they made the match fees for both the men and the women cricketers the same.
That was a big boost.
So I mean every match.
You would get about 15 million rupees per four test matches and 600000 rupees for ODIs were given to the men and now, from 2022, the women are getting the same.
But but there's a huge difference as far as the annual retainer fees are concerned.
You know, if you have the annual contracts of the top level cricketers is at about 70 million rupees.
It's only about 5 million rupees for a top level, what they call grade a woman cricketer.
Huge gap over there.
So now you have the Indian Premier League right.
You have the Indian Premier League for cricket, which is introduced in 2023.
I mean, are you expecting to see a big change in the next year or two in terms of attendances, in terms of everything?
I think this World Cup win will really turn the tide in a sense, because when you see the girls, when you see these young women winning against very powerful sides like Australia and South Africa and you say well, our women can do it.
And I think that's when it's a financial issue.
That's when the sponsors are going to pour in the money.
That's when BCCI will pour in the money and they're going to see that the returns are coming back to them.
I think this is actually going to be a pivotal moment.
Sushma Ramachandran, an independent journalist and columnist based in New Delhi.
Just time for one last story that's hit the headlines in the last few hours.
The Asian fast fashion giant Shein has imposed a total ban on sex dolls from its online platform.
This after facing condemnation for selling childlike figures in France.
French authorities have threatened to ban the Chinese retailer if it ever sold such products again.
Shein withdrew the dolls and announced an internal investigation.
That's just about it for today's edition of World Business Report from me, Ed Butler, and the rest of the team here in Salford.
Take care.
