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The scariest part of Halloween this year might be the candy prices.
Prices for the “candy and chewing gum” category have spiked 7.7 percent over the past year — more than twice the rate of overall inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Rising prices are especially apparent for candies that include chocolate. Cocoa production was hampered by extreme-weather issues for years, causing prices for the crop to surge.
Cocoa prices have dropped in the last year, but relief is coming too late to help prices for this Halloween, said David Branch, sector manager at Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute. And it’s still unclear how those falling prices might affect next year’s Halloween costs — the El Niño weather could disrupt cocoa production.
About 65 percent of confectionery ingredient costs come from cocoa, sugar and corn syrup, according to the BLS. Sugar crops also have faced issues related to extreme weather.
Still, trick-or-treating must persist. The National Retail Federation expects Halloween consumer spending to reach a record $13.5 billion this year.
It’s partly off to a slow start, however. NielsenIQ reports that Halloween candy sales were down 6.7 percent in the four weeks ending Oct. 17, compared with last year.
“People are still buying chocolate, but they’re just buying less of it,” Branch said. “I don’t think people will ever stop buying chocolate.”
A potentially dangerous cyclone is rapidly intensifying in the Bay of Bengal and is expected to strike eastern India as soon as late Tuesday into early Wednesday local time.
The storm, Cyclone Arnab, is growing into what the India Meteorological Department calls a “very severe cyclonic storm,” or roughly the equivalent of a Category 2 or 3 hurricane. It could weaken into a Category 1-equivalent storm before landfall, but still will bring serious wind and surge impacts to an area with a high population density and vulnerable infrastructure.
On Monday night local time, the system was in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, where water temperatures are around 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Weak winds aloft are allowing it to strengthen quickly. It had winds of 90 mph but should continue to rapidly intensify overnight.
The Google DeepMind model suggests it could attain mid-tier Category 3 strength by Tuesday afternoon local time. It could make landfall Tuesday night along India’s eastern coast, south of Visakhapatnam near the Krishna River.
The India Meteorological Department anticipates the storm could have sustained winds of 75 mph at that point, with gusts probably exceeding 100 to 110 mph near the storm’s core. However, it may weaken a little more quickly given the introduction of easterly shear, or disruptive changing winds with height.
North of the center near Kakinada, the storm could cause about 3 to 5 feet of storm surge, where onshore winds pile water against the coast. Rainfall may total 12 to 20 inches, causing inland flood concerns, as well.
The system should fall apart quickly Wednesday, but heavy rain will still be a concern in eastern India.
This could be the region’s strongest cyclone since Hudhud in 2014.
Three Catholic bishops who met and prayed with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday said they did not intend their visit to be politicized.
Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob apologized in a statement Sunday and said a video of the meeting, which he and 11 other bishops attended, had been posted by the White House without their consent.
“I feel a heavy sadness, not only over the pain I caused, but also for the fact that something so sacred to a group of religious leaders, prayer to our Heavenly Father, would be manipulated in that way,” Grob wrote.
In a separate statement, Des Moines Bishop William Joensen said: “I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple, like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purposes.”
Catholic Archbishops and Bishops pray with President Trump in the Oval Office
pic.twitter.com/facV5wTGQQ
— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) October 22, 2026
Denver Archbishop James Golka told the Denver Catholic magazine he was aware the meeting could be used for political purposes but that it was “never my intention” for it to be seen as an endorsement.
Asked about the meeting, Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said: “There has never been a greater president for Catholic Americans than President Trump, and his strong record proves it.”
Minnesota is the NFL’s last undefeated team.
Yes, the Vikings. The team with the middling offense, a quarterback trying to jump-start his career and a division full of much louder contenders.
But with a 16-10 win over Indianapolis on Sunday — and after losses by both San Francisco and Kansas City — Minnesota is 6-0 and alone atop the league’s unbeaten list.
The 49ers squandered an early 14-3 lead and turned the ball over four times in a 29-20 loss to Atlanta. And in Seattle on Sunday night, the Chiefs struggled to get their usually potent offense moving and fell to the Seahawks, 20-3.
The Vikings, meanwhile, leaned once again on the defensive unit that has become the backbone of this unexpected start. Quarterback Kyler Murray’s 35-yard scramble early in the fourth quarter set up his go-ahead touchdown pass to T.J. Hockenson.
Minnesota has been more workmanlike than dazzling. Its offense ranks among the league’s lower-scoring units, but the Vikings’ defense has allowed the fewest points in the NFL — just 74 through six games, or 12.3 per game. Justin Jefferson remains the headliner, but their perfect start has been built around lesser names: veteran edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel and a relentless pass rush; fellow linebacker Blake Cashman, who piled up 12 tackles and two sacks Sunday; and Murray, a free agent signing who has repeatedly delivered the one timely play Minnesota’s modest offense needs.
This is the Vikings’ first 6-0 start since 2009 and only their seventh in franchise history. Before the season, most sportsbooks pegged Minnesota’s win total at 8½ and viewed the Vikings as more likely to miss the playoffs than make them.
Now we are about to find out whether the Vikings are for real.
Their next four games are at Detroit on Sunday, home against Buffalo on a Monday night, at Green Bay and then against San Francisco in Mexico City. It is the stretch that will tell us whether the Vikings are contenders — or merely a feel-good story with a midseason expiration date.
A recent securities filing spotlighted what triggered Mark Zuckerberg’s months-long power battle with board directors at Meta — a fight that sparked not-so-veiled threats from Zuckerberg and led board members to contemplate quitting.
Zuckerberg and Meta officials wanted to create a new type of stock to fund Meta’s titanic bet on artificial intelligence. Board members tasked with negotiating the deal wanted something from Zuckerberg in return.
In June, directors proposed dissolving, under some circumstances, Zuckerberg’s special stock that lets him effectively rule Meta by decree — including from beyond the grave.
As it stands now, Zuckerberg can pick someone to take over his superpowered Meta stock when he dies or if Zuckerberg is fired or becomes disabled. The directors proposed that Zuckerberg relinquish his absolute power over Meta without transferring it under those circumstances. He’d also have to do so if it reached a point where Zuckerberg owns less than half of the Meta stock he held at the time the new type of shares were issued.
Zuckerberg balked at those conditions. His lawyer relayed that Zuckerberg didn’t want to lose power in a “proposal intended to strengthen the company,” the document said.
After that, already thorny negotiations over Meta’s new stock deteriorated into war between Zuckerberg and board members.
Additional Coverage
Scientists have known for decades that dirty air and dementia seem to be connected. But new research is exploring whether the materials it carries, such as silica, metals, soot and other debris, could be physically reshaping the brain.
I wrote about varying studies looking at the field. Though there are still many questions in the science that need to be answered, researchers say there are things worth doing to protect yourself.
Here are some life tips from Xiaobo Mao, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University, who is leading some of the largest studies on the brain and pollution today:
- Be mindful of indoor air. Cooking, especially without adequate ventilation, can generate surprisingly high concentrations of particles.
- Try to avoid living directly on a major road. Traffic-related pollution tends to be higher along such areas.
- Change HVAC filters regularly.
We can’t control everything that enters the air around us, but we can try to control what we can, said Mao, who will begin a new job in January as the director of the Houston Methodist Center for Translational Precision Dementia Research.
Mao said that, knowing humans face a near-constant onslaught of particulate matter, he tries to put himself in the best position to withstand its effects. That means taking care of his brain in more ordinary ways, too: eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly and spending time outside in the sunlight.
Additional Coverage
Good morning. It’s Monday, Oct. 26, and both teams in this year’s World Series are full of short kings. Reporter Stephanie Apstein went looking for an explanation.
The presidential election in Brazil leads today’s edition of The 7 briefing. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva completed a stunning political comeback, defeating Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro to win reelection and keep Latin America’s largest democracy from joining the region’s rightward shift.
In the U.S., there is just over one week to go until Election Day. Yesterday, President Donald Trump hit the campaign trail in Michigan. He repeatedly called Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed a “jihadist” and invoked 9/11. El-Sayed dismissed Trump’s remarks as a weak diversion.
Elsewhere in the briefing, we take a look at some wild winter weather ahead. We unpack at the latest science on the threat of microplastics. And legendary reporter Bob Woodward is sharing his secrets.
Read today’s edition of The 7 briefing here.
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