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Federal workers brace for missed paycheck as shutdown enters 5th week

Federal workers brace for missed paycheck as shutdown enters 5th week

Washington is barreling into its fifth week of a government shutdown, and despite a handful of payday deadlines for federal workers fast-approaching, there’s been little progress made toward turning the lights back on. The Senate is expected to again vote on a House-passed plan to reopen the government this week but has failed to advance the continuing resolution (CR) 12 times. As before, the legislation — which would reopen the government until Nov. 21 — is expected to fail again. The same dispute that triggered the shutdown nearly a month ago remains unresolved. DEMOCRATS EYE KEY OBAMACARE DEADLINE AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENTERS 4TH WEEK Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., want an ironclad deal to extend expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, while Senate Republicans want to address the issue only after the government is reopened. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued that Democrats’ position had little to do with the actual premium tax credits, nor a desire for negotiations. “It’s politics,” he said. “Well, they’d like you to believe that it’s about healthcare,” he said on the Senate floor last week. “It’s not. Republicans have been perfectly clear that we’re willing to have a discussion about healthcare, just not while government funding is being held hostage and all the federal employees that come with that. So if this were really about healthcare, Democrats would be voting in favor of the clean CR as the quickest way to reopen the government.” In the meantime, payday deadlines for air traffic controllers, military service members, and a funding cliff for federal nutrition assistance programs are right around the corner. Air traffic controllers are expected to miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday after being partially paid earlier this month. FISCAL DISASTER SCENARIO DURING SHUTDOWN SENDS GOP SCRAMBLING FOR NEW SPENDING PLAN Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has a bill that would fill that funding gap that is expected to be put on the floor for a vote this week. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not yet teed it up. Then there is the military payday coming on Oct. 31. President Donald Trump previously moved around billions in funding to cover troops’ paychecks earlier this month, but that money is not expected to cover this upcoming pay cycle. Sen. Ron Johnson’s, R-Wis., bill to pay troops and “excepted” federal workers — meaning federal workers who are currently working during the shutdown but not being paid — was blocked by Senate Democrats last week. However, there is an effort between Johnson and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to bring a new version of the bill to the floor. Van Hollen also tried to get his own bill to pay federal workers and troops on the floor last week but was blocked in the process. Van Hollen, like other Senate Democrats, warned that Johnson’s version of the bill would allow Trump and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought a “blank check as to who they’re going to send home and who they’re going to punish by not paying.” SCHUMER BLOCKS 12TH GOP BID TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT AS TRUMP SAYS DEMOCRATS ‘LOST THE NEGOTIATION’ “Not one of our federal employees, service members, or contractors deserves to be punished for this government shutdown,” Van Hollen said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “I’m continuing to work to make sure they’re not.” And on Nov. 1, the same day as the beginning of open enrollment for Obamacare, funding for food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is expected to run out. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats received another blow to their unified front as the shutdown drags on from an outside ally that donates millions of dollars to Democratic political action committees and candidates. The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal employees in the nation that represents over 800,000 workers, demanded that Democrats swallow the Republicans’ clean CR to reopen the government. Everett Kelley, president of the massive union, said in an open letter on Monday that the best path forward was to, “Reopen the government immediately under a clean continuing resolution that allows continued debate on larger issues,” and ensure that every federal employee that has been working or furloughed under the shutdown receive back pay. “Because when the folks who serve this country are standing in line for food banks after missing a second paycheck because of this shutdown, they aren’t looking for partisan spin,” Kelley said. “They’re looking for the wages they earned. The fact that they’re being cheated out of it is a national disgrace.” “It’s long past time for our leaders to put aside partisan politics and embrace responsible government,” he continued. “A strong America requires a functioning government — one that pays its bills, honors its commitments, and treats its workforce with respect by paying them on time.”

Hamas hands over hostage’s body to Israel as Trump’s 48-hour warning nears

Hamas hands over hostage’s body to Israel as Trump’s 48-hour warning nears

Israeli authorities have confirmed they received the body of a deceased hostage from the Red Cross on Monday evening, as President Donald Trump’s 48-hour deadline looms. The body was handed over to the IDF and Shin Bet by the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip. Hamas still has the bodies of 12 Israeli hostages in its custody. Trump’s deadline will expire Monday night. Hamas has made no mention of the identity of the deceased hostage set to be released. “Within the framework of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, the Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the body of one of the occupation prisoners, which was recovered today in the Gaza Strip, at 9 PM Gaza time,” Hamas announced in a statement. Trump acknowledged on social media Saturday that some of the deceased hostages are “hard to reach.” TRUMP ON WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO BRING ISRAELI HOSTAGES HOME: HAMAS MUST BE ‘CONFRONTED AND DESTROYED’ “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Perhaps it has to do with their disarming, but when I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely.” Hours before Trump’s post, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with the families of Itay Chen and Omer Neutra, two U.S. citizens who were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. TRUMP THANKS GROUP REPRESENTING FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE APPEAL Their bodies are among those still being held by Hamas. “We will not forget the lives of the hostages who died in the captivity of Hamas,” Rubio wrote in an X post. “We will not rest until their—and all—remains are returned.” Authorities believed Chen, a 19-year-old dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, but was later declared dead by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Huckabee noted Rubio’s visit to Israel was “very productive in moving forward” the U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan, adding the plan cannot work until all hostages, living and deceased, are released. Fox News’ Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.

NGOs note 28 new ‘carbon bomb’ projects since 2021

NGOs note 28 new ‘carbon bomb’ projects since 2021

Potential CO2 emissions from new projects 11 times global “carbon budget” remaining to hit Paris Agreement targets. Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Twenty-eight new “carbon bomb” projects have launched across the globe over the past five years, according to a report issued by NGOs. Despite global efforts to phase out the use of fossil fuels, known to have catastrophic climate effects, the report, published on Monday by a quartet of environmental nonprofits, details that dozens of new fossil fuel extraction projects that will pump out enormous emissions have been started since 2021. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Carbon bombs were defined in a 2022 research article as oil, gas or coal facilities capable of generating more than a billion tonnes of CO2 over their lifetime. At that time, the NGOs Lingo, Data for Good, Reclaim Finance, and Eclaircies counted 425 such projects worldwide. The report said some 365 projects are still producing more than one billion tonnes each, with the fall from the 2021 total due to operations that have either cut their output or been re-evaluated. That is despite the International Energy Agency having said in 2021 that launching new oil and gas projects was incompatible with reaching climate targets set out in the Paris Agreement. The landmark agreement reached in 2015 included the aim of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with the pre-industrial era. Two years later, at COP28, countries around the world agreed to begin a phase-out of fossil fuels. Despite that, between 2021 and 2024, the world’s 65 largest banks financed more than $1.6 trillion to the companies involved in the projects pinpointed in the report. Advertisement Barclays Bank is the most involved in supporting companies behind carbon bombs, providing $33.7bn to 62 companies, including Eni, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies. “Major global banks are exacerbating climate change and future emissions by continuing to give carte blanche to these fossil fuel companies that are destroying the planet,” said Louis-Maxence Delaporte, energy research manager at Reclaim Finance, one of the NGOs involved in the study. China accounts for 43 percent of “carbon bombs”. Russia accounts for 9 percent, the United States for 5 percent. Western oil majors have the most such projects, although Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and China’s CHN Energy produce the most total emissions. The report also identified more than 2,300 smaller extraction projects, approved or launched since 2021, whose potential emissions exceed five million tonnes of CO2 each, equivalent to the annual emissions of a city like Paris. Combined, the potential CO2 emissions from all these projects are 11 times greater than the global “carbon budget” remaining to keep global warming below 1.5C (2.7F) compared with the pre-industrial era, according to the authors’ calculations. Adblock test (Why?)

Fact check: Do quarter of US’s ‘drug boat’ searches find nothing?

Fact check: Do quarter of US’s ‘drug boat’ searches find nothing?

President Donald Trump says US military strikes on eight vessels in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, mostly targeting boats from Venezuela, were legal because they carried drugs being delivered to the United States. But Republican Senator Rand Paul, Kentucky, who is also chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said maritime law enforcement statistics show that not all boats suspected of carrying drugs actually have drugs onboard. He said the military’s strikes were not in line with usual US policy. “When you stop people at sea in international waters, or in your own waters, you announce that you’re going to board the ship and you’re looking for contraband, smuggling or drugs. This happens every day off of Miami,” Paul said on October 19 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme. “We know from Coast Guard statistics that about 25 percent of the time the Coast Guard boards a ship, there are no drugs. So if our policy now is to blow up every ship we suspect or accuse of drug running, that would be a bizarre world in which 25 percent of the people might be innocent.” Paul made a similar statement in an October 12 interview. More than 30 people have been killed so far in the strikes, and the Trump administration has provided no evidence that the vessels contained drugs. We rated Trump’s recent statement that each strike saved “25,000 American lives” false. Paul’s office pointed PolitiFact to the US Coast Guard’s 2024 fiscal year report, which said that year the agency intercepted drugs in about 73 percent of cases when they boarded boats, with about 27 percent of vessel interceptions yielding no drugs. Advertisement Experts said the data supports Paul’s point, but noted that it’s unclear how the Coast Guard defines the term it uses to describe intercepting drugs – “a drug disruption”. “If the (Coast Guard) boards a vessel and finds a known drug trafficker but no drugs, and that individual gets arrested and convicted, does that count as a ‘drug disruption’?” said Jonathan Caulkins, a Carnegie Mellon University drug policy researcher. “Or suppose they approach the vessel, it jettisons the drugs overboard, and so the Coast Guard seizes the vessel but the drugs have disappeared into the water. Is that a successful disruption?” Paul’s figure might not translate directly to the recent boat strikes, experts said, since the US could have had intelligence about those specific vessels. PolitiFact contacted the Coast Guard about its data collection process but did not hear back. Coast Guard report details the agency’s drug interceptions The Coast Guard reports data about how often it intercepts drugs to the Department of Homeland Security. Its 2024 fiscal year report, which covers October 2023 to September 2024, summarises the agency’s performance in various programmes. During that period of time, the Coast Guard disrupted drug runs in 91 out of 125 boat interdictions, the report says, which was a rate of about 73 percent. “The quality of searches performed by Coast Guard boarding teams is high,” the report said, adding that its metrics depend on the quality and timeliness of the intelligence the agency receives. The rate has varied in recent years. The agency started reporting this drug interception data in fiscal year 2021, according to the report, which shows a drug disruption rate that year of 59 percent – meaning 41 percent of boats searched yielded no drugs. The interception rate rose to 64 percent in 2022 and 69 percent in 2023. The 2024 drug interception rate of 73 percent represents the Coast Guard’s highest since it started tracking the data. It lists an 80 percent interception rate as its annual goal. The Coast Guard didn’t answer our questions about its data collection process or what amounts to a drug disruption. A 2025 Coast Guard report evaluating agency data from fiscal years 2021 through 2023 found it didn’t accurately reflect all drug interdictions as some reports didn’t contain drug seizure results or the required documentation. Experts said we don’t know whether the 2024 Coast Guard statistic directly translates to the recent strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. “The people with fingers on the trigger may demand a much higher certainty rate before shooting,” Caulkins said. “So, even if the senator’s figure were correct when looking across all the many, very diverse operations over the course of a year, that doesn’t mean it applies to the special case of boats of Venezuela. Perhaps it does, but perhaps not.” Advertisement The Trump administration’s lack of information about the type or quantity of drugs it says were on the boats makes it impossible to know if every or any of the boats carried lethal drugs, and if they were en route to the US. Drug experts previously told us that Venezuela plays a minor role in trafficking drugs that reach the US. Most illicit fentanyl in the US comes from Mexico, not Venezuela. It enters the country mainly through the southern border at official ports of entry, and is smuggled in mostly by US citizens. Our ruling Paul said, “About 25 percent of the time the Coast Guard boards a ship, there are no drugs.” A 2024 Coast Guard report said the agency boarded and intercepted boats with drugs on them about 73 percent of the time, which means 27 percent of the interceptions yielded no drugs. This drug disruption statistic, however, might not translate directly to the recent boat strikes, experts said, since we don’t know what kind of intelligence the US had about those vessels. Paul’s statement is accurate but needs clarification. We rate it Mostly True. Adblock test (Why?)

UK journalist Sami Hamdi detained in US after pro-Israel pressure

UK journalist Sami Hamdi detained in US after pro-Israel pressure

NewsFeed UK journalist Sami Hamdi has been detained by US immigration officials after his visa was revoked, seemingly for unsubstantiated ‘national security’ reasons. Civil rights groups say it’s due to his criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza, after US far-right activists and pro-Israel influencers called for his deportation. Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)