The Latest: No end in sight to government shutdown as House speaker refuses to negotiate

Audio By Carbonatix

The shutdown entered its 14th day with the Senate returning from its holiday break, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson refusing to call lawmakers back to Washington and President Donald Trump’s budget director vowing to keep firing federal workers.

Democrats have focused on trying to keep Affordable Care Act subsidies from expiring for millions of Americans who purchase insurance on Obamacare exchanges. Without this federal support, costs are expected to soar across the health care economy. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he “won’t negotiate” unless Democrats first agree to reopen the government, losing their leverage for any deal.

The Latest:

“ALL TWENTY HOSTAGES ARE BACK AND FEELING AS GOOD AS CAN BE EXPECTED. A big burden has been lifted, but the job IS NOT DONE,” Trump wrote in a posting on his Truth Social platform. “THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED! Phase Two begins right NOW!!”

He made no mention in his post of Israel announcing earlier Tuesday that it would halve the flow of aid into the territory as a result of the slow return of the dead.

The president said in a post on social media that he’s moving the ceremony to posthumously honor Charlie Kirk outside at the White House, where he paved over the Rose Garden grass, because the crowd will be “so big and enthusiastic.”

Trump said the new location will allow people to see the changes he’s made, such as the Presidential Walk of Fame where he hung portraits of the previous commanders-in-chief, along with renovations to the Palm Court.

Trump’s post to the entire world also included instructions on how to enter the White House for the event: “Enter through Main South Entrance.”

Airports in Las Vegas, Charlotte, Phoenix and Westchester County say the Homeland Security secretary’s video goes against their policy or regulations because of its political content.

In the video, Noem blames Democrats for the federal government shutdown and its impacts on operations to screen travelers. The shutdown has left airports scrambling with flight disruptions.

The bid’s price for the coal on public lands in Montana reflected the low appetite for coal among utilities turning to cheaper natural gas and renewables such as wind and solar.

It would have been the biggest U.S. government coal sale in more than a decade. But coal emissions are a leading driver of climate change, which scientists say is making weather more extreme. Trump has made reviving the coal industry a centerpiece of his energy agenda, but economists say he’s unlikely to reverse its decline.

A Department of Interior statement Tuesday said the $186,000 bid from the Navajo Transitional Energy Co. didn’t meet the requirements of the Mineral Leasing Act. Agency representatives did not provide further details, and it’s unclear if they will attempt another sale.

The New England governor who told Trump to his face that she would see him in court now plans to challenge Maine’s Republican U.S. senator at the ballot box.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills cited her White House confrontation in her Tuesday launch video. She told The Associated Press: “I’ll stand up to Trump, just as I did in February.”

Mills says she’s running for a broader resistance to Trump and to oust five-term Sen. Susan Collins, who voted for the tax breaks and spending cuts law that reduced food and health care aid for children and low-income Americans.

Other challengers for the Democratic nomination include oyster farmer Graham Platner, who has the backing of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Read more about the Maine senate race

Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit against the SSA Tuesday, asking a court to compel the release of public records related to policy changes at the agency.

The plaintiffs allege that SSA’s changes during Trump’s second term — which include mass firings and changes to how benefits are administered — have left millions of retirees and people with disabilities struggling to access the benefits they rely on.

They seek internal memos, communications, and data about the impact of SSA’s policies.

“Transparency isn’t optional — it’s essential,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement. “We’re taking action to demand accountability and ensure the public knows what’s happening behind closed doors.”

Congressional Democrats and laid-off workers are gathering outside the White House’s budget office to decry the Trump administration’s moves to fire federal employees during the shutdown.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, called it “a lie” and illegal for the White House to use the shutdown to impose mass layoffs.

The Democrats stood behind people that held signs printed with budget director Russ Vought’s face and his quote about wanting to put federal workers “in trauma.”

“When they viciously attack our federal employees, they are viciously attacking the American people,” Van Hollen said.

Mike Johnson says the Trump administration “has every right” to move congressionally-mandated funds around to pay the nation’s troops.

“If the Democrats want to go to court and challenge troops being paid, bring it,” Johnson said at a Capitol press conference.

Moving the funds removes a major pressure point that might have encouraged negotiations over the shutdown. Members of the military were projected to miss their first paycheck on Wednesday.

The Trump administration is exercising vast leeway both to fire workers — drawing complaints from fellow Republicans and lawsuits from employee unions — and to determine who is paid. Military troops and federal law enforcement agents don’t necessarily have to go without pay thanks to other funding sources as well as the billions made available in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is now law.

▶ Read more about the latest shutdown related developments

Mike Johnson says he and the speaker of the Israeli Knesset are starting a project to rally global leaders to support Trump’s nomination for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Conservatives have hailed Trump’s effort to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and say he deserves the annual award.

“Under his leadership, we are witnessing the dawn of a new golden age, not just for America but for the entire free world,” the Louisiana Republican, said at a news conference.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been using a full-body restraint device called the WRAP during deportations. The Associated Press spoke to a number of people who said they were placed in the device after they had already been shackled.

The manufacturer says the device is intended for violent individuals, but detainees claim it is used to intimidate or punish them.

ICE’s use of the WRAP has continued despite safety concerns expressed two years ago by a watchdog division of its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

A DHS spokesperson says ICE’s use of the restraints is “fully in line with established legal standards.”

▶ Read more from the AP’s investigation into ICE’s use of full-body restraints

The administration has begun tapping funds from Trump’s tax breaks and budget law to start paying for priorities during the shutdown — in this case, ensuring the Coast Guard doesn’t go without paychecks.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that thanks to “the One Big Beautiful Bill, the brave men and women of the US Coast Guard will not miss a paycheck this week.”

Trump had already instructed the Department of Defense to make sure military service members are paid. The Pentagon announced it would do so with $8 billion in unused research and development funds.

The law includes more than $300 billion in new funds for the military as well as for DHS and Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

The office led by budget director Russ Vought also said in a social media post that it will continue implementing reduction-in-force plans to fire federal workers.

The post said the office would “pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs, and wait.”

Many in Washington are digging in for a prolonged government funding fight. The shutdown is already well into its second week.

A man who scaled an iron security fence, eluded police and used beer bottles filled with gasoline to ignite the occupied Pennsylvania governor’s mansion pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted murder.

Cody Balmer, 38, was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison after he also entered pleas to terrorism, 22 counts of arson, aggravated arson, burglary, aggravated assault of Gov. Josh Shapiro, 21 counts of reckless endangerment and loitering in the April 13 attack that did millions of dollars in damage to the state-owned brick building.

Shapiro and his family were awakened and evacuated hours after celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover. Balmer told police after turning himself in that he had planned to beat Shapiro with a sledgehammer, according to court documents.

▶ Read more about the attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and left in place the $1.4 billion judgment against him over his description of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as a hoax staged by crisis actors.

The Infowars host had argued that a judge was wrong to find him liable for defamation and infliction of emotional distress without holding a trial on the merits of allegations lodged by relatives of victims of the shooting, which killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut.

The justices did not comment on their order, which they issued without even asking the families of the Sandy Hook victims to respond to Jones’ appeal.

▶ Read more about Jones’ rejection by the Supreme Court

Barack Obama is entering the fight for U.S. House control by appearing in a 30-second ad urging California voters to approve a ballot proposal that could add as many as five Democrat-held House seats from California.

“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama says, looking directly into the camera. “You can stop Republicans in their tracks.”

Proposition 50 is aimed at offsetting Trump’s moves in Texas and elsewhere to help win more Republican seats in the 2026 midterm election. Voting is underway and concludes Nov. 4. Republicans hold a 219-213 House majority, with three vacancies.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has framed the election as a referendum on all things Trump, who is unpopular in liberal-leaning California outside of his conservative base. Republicans call it a Democratic power grab that would override an independent commission created by voters.

Major news organizations say they won’t sign a Defense Department document about its new press rules, making it likely the Trump administration will evict their reporters from the Pentagon.

Pete Hegseth reacted to their refusal by posting a hand-waving emoji on X. His team has said that reporters who don’t acknowledge the policy in writing by Tuesday must turn in badges admitting them to the Pentagon and clear out their workspaces the next day.

The new rules bar journalist access to large swaths of the Pentagon without an escort and say Hegseth can revoke press access to reporters who ask anyone in the Defense Department for information — classified or otherwise — that he has not approved for release.

The New York Times, The Associated Press, the conservative Newsmax television network, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and Reuters, among other outlets, say the policy threatens to punish routine news gathering protected by the First Amendment.

▶ Read more about the Pentagon and the media

The president posted a lament on social media early Tuesday morning about a signature subject: his hair.

Trump has long been known for his swoopy blonde hair, but on the latest issue of Time recognizing his ceasefire deal in Gaza, he feels his locks are lacking.

“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird!” the president wrote.

The president also complained that the shot is taken facing up, showing more neck and chin than he seemed to prefer.

“This is a super bad picture, and deserves to be called out,” he wrote. “What are they doing, and why?”

As Israel and Hamas traded hostages and prisoners on Monday in a first step toward peace, Trump addressed Israel’s parliament, claiming he had ended his eighth war. “Yesterday I was saying seven, but now I can say eight,” he told the Knesset.

“After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm. The guns are silent. The sirens are still. And the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace,” Trump said.

But Trump’s claim is exaggerated. Here’s a closer look.

The coming weeks, months and years will require more than just rebuilding from the devastation that has left much of Gaza in ruins. Key details of the peace plan may remain unsettled.

Granular details will need to be negotiated to keep the plan moving forward and prevent the resumption of fighting. The path to long-term peace, stability and eventual rebuilding will be a long and very precipitous route.