WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- The world is witnessing Government shutdowns in the United States just after midnight Wednesday, the first since 2018-19, after last-ditch efforts between the White House and congressional leaders collapsed. By dawn, agencies had begun powering down non-essential operations, hundreds of thousands of civil servants were receiving furlough notices, and Americans were asking what would - and would not - continue to function while Washington's spending stalemate drags on. In the hours before the Government shutdown in the United States, the capital was consumed by eleventh-hour brinkmanship around funding votes, a familiar Washington ritual with unfamiliar stakes.

The immediate fallout is uneven. Social Security checks ...