Agriculture secretary rejects calls to use alternative funding for food stamps program
Name-checking New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his “socialist rhetoric,” US secretary of agriculture Brooke Rollins decried Senate Democrats who are holding out on opening the government.
Rollings described the shutdown as “disguising dereliction of duty, all to favor illegal aliens and other far left policies”.
The irony of attacking Democrats for supporting “socialist policies” while arguing in support of a public benefit for nutrition support went unremarked upon.
She described the call for the agriculture department to use alternative funding to cover Snap – as Donald Trump has drawn on to cover salaries for soldiers and other employees – as “a lie” and legally impossible.
Key events
Neither agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins nor House speaker Mike Johnson commented on the issue Democrats have been holding the government closed in order to address: health insurance premiums that will double, triple or more for people using healthcare insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act.
Instead, Johnson attributed the shutdown to a call for a “leftwing, radical agenda”.
Agriculture secretary rejects calls to use alternative funding for food stamps program
Name-checking New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and his “socialist rhetoric,” US secretary of agriculture Brooke Rollins decried Senate Democrats who are holding out on opening the government.
Rollings described the shutdown as “disguising dereliction of duty, all to favor illegal aliens and other far left policies”.
The irony of attacking Democrats for supporting “socialist policies” while arguing in support of a public benefit for nutrition support went unremarked upon.
She described the call for the agriculture department to use alternative funding to cover Snap – as Donald Trump has drawn on to cover salaries for soldiers and other employees – as “a lie” and legally impossible.
Mike Johnson seeks to blame Democrats for Americans losing food benefits
US House speaker Mike Johnson spoke about millions of families suffering “because of Snap benefits drying up” during the government shutdown, while offering “a word of sincere gratitude” to millions of federal workers who have showed up without pay, “not knowing when or if their next paycheck will be delivered”.
“We just want to say thank you for your diligence … even though Democrats are withholding your paycheck. They are shameless in doing so.”
Johnson laid blame for the shutdown on Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats choosing not to approve a continuing resolution on funding the government. “The pain of the people is their political lever,” he said. “Republicans have done their part.”
US House speaker Mike Johnson will hold a press conference at 10am ET to discuss the ongoing federal government shutdown.
You can watch the briefing here.
Mike Johnson doubles down on refusing to bring back House until shutdown ends
US House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated this morning that he will not bring the chamber back into session until the government shutdown ends.
Speaking to Fox News on Friday, Johnson said: “We are anxious to get the house back to regular legislative session, but we have to get the lights turned back on. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate have got to reopen the government. Again, it’s the most fundamental responsibility of congress is to have the government operate and work for the people. That’s the number one priority right now and we cannot deviate from that.”
The government is on day 31 of shutdown today. The senate adjourned on Thursday without resolving demands by Democrats to negotiate on healthcare subsidies for insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. The senate won’t meet again until Monday, extending the shutdown into at least its 34th day, equaling the longest in US history.
Meanwhile, health insurance exchanges enter an open enrollment period tomorrow. An early peek at prices without subsidies suggests that the cost of many plans will double or more. Paychecks for most government employees will not go out tomorrow. And the government will not pay Snap food benefits that would normally land on prepaid cards tomorrow, leaving about 42 million beneficiaries – mostly children and disabled elderly recipients – searching for ways to pay for food.
The president of the Heritage Foundation has denied the suggestion that the conservative thinktank should distance itself from former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, after interviewing white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who made antisemitic statements during the two-and-a-half hour video.
“Christians can critique the State of Israel without being anti-Semitic, and of course, anti-Semitism should be condemned,” said Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, in a video on X yesterday. “[C]onservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist class or from their mouthpieces in Washington.”
Roberts said: “The Heritage Foundation didn’t become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians, and we won’t start doing that now. We don’t take direction from comments on X, though we are grateful for the robust free speech debate.”
House Republicans increasingly frustrated with Johnson over shutdown tactics
House Republicans are increasingly expressing frustration with the chamber’s moribund activity and the legislative backlog piling up as speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana keeps Congress out of session during the government shutdown.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia confronted speaker the speaker during a House GOP conference call to criticize his tactics to negotiate the shutdown, according to a piece in the Hill today.
Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas has also been critical of the shutdown’s effect on the legislative agenda, Axios reported.
FBI thwarts potential terrorist attack, says Kash Patel
The FBI has made multiple arrests to avert a potential terrorist attack in Michigan, FBI director Kash Patel announced on X this morning, promising additional details.
Those arrested “were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend”, he wrote. No other details have yet been presented.
Kennedy Center ticket sales for orchestra, dance and theatre performances are at the worst they have been since the pandemic, analysis by the Washington Post has found.
Back in September, the Guardian reported that ticket sales at the Kennedy Center had continued to plummet following Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington DC’s premier performing arts venue.
Since then typical ticket sales are down from 93 per cent in late 2024 to about 57% this year, according to the Post.
Audiences are “voting with their feet to skip out” on shows that would once have been packed, in protest at the US president inserting himself into the center’s management and operations as its new chair.
A federal judge has indicated that she would order the Trump administration to use reserves to partially fund food assistance for about 42 million Americans in November, reports the Washington Post. If the order goes ahead, it could delay a cutoff in benefits during the government shutdown.
US grocers and food companies ranging from Walmart to Smithfield Foods are bracing for a dip in November sales if federal food aid benefits lapse for the first time due to the ongoing government shutdown.
The shutdown has imperiled next month’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), also known as food stamps, which serves nearly 42 million people.
Neither Congress nor the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has acted to fund the benefits beyond Saturday. The gap could mean an $8bn revenue drop for grocers, declining sales for their suppliers and reduced hours for workers as it drives Snap recipients to reduce spending, trade groups, companies and a union said this week, reports Reuters.
Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of health, nutrition and food studies at New York University said:
It’s not only poor people who are on Snap who are going to be affected. It means the places where they spend the money aren’t going to get that money.
The National Grocers Association said on Wednesday that Congress should reopen the government and fund Snap to avoid instability for customers and retailers, warning of “serious consequences for local grocers, their employees, and the food supply chain.”
“Retailers are going to be in a terrible situation here trying to manage costs and inventory,” said Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, adding stores could see unsold perishable goods go to waste.
A USDA spokesperson called the benefit lapse “an inflection point for Senate Democrats”. The agency has repeatedly blamed Democrats for the shutdown, most of whom have withheld votes on a spending bill in an attempt to keep healthcare costs from increasing for many Americans.
A US Republican senator is asking President Donald Trump’s administration to help the Malaysian government prevent US artificial intelligence chips from being smuggled through the country to China, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Reuters has previously reported that US officials believe Malaysia is among a handful of countries where organized smuggling operations have worked to get US chips into China that would otherwise be banned from export to China.
Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, wrote a letter to US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick saying Malaysian officials had begun cracking down on such activity and the Trump administration should aid Malaysian officials in the effort by helping the country develop screening programs to ensure chips are not being diverted to China.
Cotton, who along with the Trump administration has supported the idea of requiring US chips to contain technology that would verify their location to prevent smuggling, said chips with such technology should be given a green light for export to Malaysia, reports Reuters.
Cotton wrote in an 30 October letter:
As is often the case, US companies are at the forefront of developing creative and innovative technical solutions, which will help add layers of assurance against illegal diversion.
Cotton said:
To support the semiconductor industry in their efforts, it may be beneficial for US and Malaysian officials to develop priority customs clearance procedures for shipments of advanced U.S. chips with anti-diversion mechanisms.
Malaysia, China’s largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, announced in July it was requiring permits for all exports, trans-shipments and transits of US-made high-performance chips, such as those made by Nvidia.
UN human rights official says US strikes on alleged drug boats are ‘unacceptable’
The UN high commissioner for human rights said on Friday that US military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop.
Volker Türk called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a United Nations organization, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for Türk’s office, relayed his message on Friday at a regular UN briefing:
These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.
She said Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law”.
President Donald Trump has Justified the attacks on the boats as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the US, but the campaign against drug cartels has been divisive among countries in the region.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the latest US military strike in the campaign, against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people aboard were killed. It was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61, reports the AP.
Shamdasani noted the US explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug and counter-terrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.
Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life,” she said. Shamdasani added:
Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right of life and constitute extrajudicial killings.
The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, Shamdasani said.
US Senate votes to reject Trump’s global tariffs on more than 100 countries
Rachel Leingang
The US Senate took a stand against Donald Trump’s global tariffs affecting more than 100 countries on Thursday, voting to nullify the so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.
Four Republicans joined with all Democrats to vote 51-47 on a resolution to end the base-level tariffs that the president put into place via executive order.
It was the third time the Republicans have voted alongside Democrats on a tariff resolution this week, previously rallying to end tariffs targeting Brazil and Canada.
Going against Trump is rare for Republicans in his second term. But Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined the opposition party.
The vote came as Trump is wrapping up a week in Asia, where he struck a deal with China to lower tariffs on Chinese goods into the country and get China to buy up US soya beans, a pain point of the trade wars that had farmers on edge, among other concessions.
Despite the opposition in the Senate, the House is unlikely to take any similar action. House Republicans created a rule earlier this year that will block resolutions on the tariffs from getting a floor vote.
The tariff resolutions are a rebuke to the tariffs themselves and to Trump overstepping his authority and bypassing Congress. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, told reporters that the symbolic opposition should catch the president’s attention.
Kaine said:
I did learn in the first Trump term that the president is responsive to things like this. When he sees Republicans starting to vote against his policies, even in small numbers, that makes an impression on him and can often cause him to alter his behavior.
Trump says Senate should scrap the filibuster to end the government shutdown
President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to scrap the filibuster, so that the Republican majority can bypass Democrats and reopen the federal government.
Trump posted Thursday night on his social media site, Truth Social:
THE CHOICE IS CLEAR – INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER.
The filibuster is a longstanding tactic in the Senate to delay or block votes on legislation by keeping the debate running. It requires 60 votes in a full Senate to overcome a filibuster, giving Democrats a check on the 53-seat Republican majority that led to the start of the 1 October shutdown when the new fiscal year began.
Trump’s call to terminate the filibuster could alter the ways the Senate and congressional deal-making operate, with the president saying in his post that he gave a “great deal” of thought to the choice on his flight back from Asia on Thursday.
Trump spent the past week with foreign leaders in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, finishing his tour by meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump wrote about his meetings and said it “was a great honor” to “see that America is respected again”. He also claimed that “money is pouring into our Country because of Tariffs and, frankly, the Landslide Results of the 2024 Presidential Election”.
Switching back to the filibuster issue, Trump wrote:
It is now time for the Republicans to play their “TRUMP CARD,” and go for what is called the Nuclear Option – Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!
More on this in a moment. First here are some other key developments:
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A (small) handful of US Senate Republicans issued a legislative rebuke to president Donald Trump’s world-rattling trade tariffs in a rare alignment with their Democratic counterparts. Four Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – joined the opposition party, voting 51-47 on a resolution to end the base-level tariffs on more than 100 nations that the president put into place via executive order.
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The Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the United States next year to the token level of just 7,500 – and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans. The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world.
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New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, on Thursday declared a state of emergency to free up funds so that she could issue $65m in assistance to food banks because federal funding for the national food stamp program is set to lapse on 1 November. Oregon and Virginia have also issued emergency declarations to release state cash to go towards emergency food assistance as the federal government shutdown imperils Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits for nearly 42 million Americans.
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More than half of Americans disapprove of Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing and the construction of a new ballroom, according to a new poll from the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos. The survey was conducted between 24 and 28 October and indicates 56% of the respondents disagree with Trump’s recent move while 28% are in favor of it. Most of the survey’s respondents were white, one-third of them voted for Donald Trump and another third for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
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JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, has urged the Trump administration to suspend its immigration crackdown in his state from Friday to Sunday, to allow children to “spend Halloween weekend without fear”.
