House Republicans are in preliminary discussions on a healthcare package, as Obamacare continues to be the central sticking point in the ongoing government shutdown.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Thursday that lawmakers have begun discussions in ‘informal working groups’ on what healthcare reform, aimed at lowering ballooning medical costs, would look like.

But the fight over Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), continues to drive a wedge within the House GOP. At the heart of the issue are Obamacare subsidies enhanced significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic — enhancements that are set to expire at the end of this year without congressional action.

Democrats have been demanding that any deal to end the shutdown be paired with an extension of those credits. And Republicans, while united in wanting to keep the shutdown and Obamacare two separate issues, are divided over how to handle that issue once the shutdown ends.

On one side of the divide are members of the House Freedom Caucus, who have signaled vehement opposition to any straightforward extension of the Obamacare credits.

‘What we really need to do is stop talking about the COVID subsidies, because it’s not working, and the entire system that they’re based on is a complete and total Titanic that’s going down,’ said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., a member of the conservative group. ‘Why would we throw any more bad money after this sinking ship?’

But some Republican lawmakers are floating a one-year extension as a way to buy Congress more time to find an off-ramp to eventually ending the Obamacare subsidies — something all GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital agreed on.

‘I am not at all in love with the ACA or Obamacare. I get the concern that many of the members have with it. But as I’ve said before, if you don’t have something good to replace it with, it is political insanity, and it’s just the wrong thing to do — to let it lapse, get rid of it and have nothing else because the rates are going to go up a lot,’ said Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., who styled himself a ‘populist conservative.’

He called on Republicans to ‘hold our nose, have a one-year extension, make some minor to moderate modifications.’

‘And during that year, instead of waiting till the last week or the last few days during that year, to really hammer out something that’s real, that isn’t B.S., where we are offering people health care, where it’s relatively affordable, and then we can make the big change that people want to make,’ Van Drew said.

He’s one of 14 House Republicans backing a bipartisan bill, led by Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., to extend the Obamacare subsidies for one year.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., another backer, pointed out that Democrats created the enhancements and their 2025 expiry.

‘I think we need it, because there is a cliff that was created by the Democrats,’ he said of the extension. ‘A lot of American families are going to be hurt by it. So I am in favor of extending it for a year and then looking at ways that we can, number one, fix Obamacare, and two, a way to end the subsidies, but not in a cliff-like fashion.’

Burlison suggested heavy opposition from the House Freedom Caucus, however.

‘It’s not only a non-starter, but because of the conversations that we’ve had, we would consider it a betrayal,’ he said.

Freedom Caucus member Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., similarly anticipated the ‘vast majority of Republicans’ would be against the bipartisan bill. However, he left the door open to some extension, provided a plan was in place to end Obamacare already.

‘At the end of the day, the subsidies are going away. It’s just a matter of how quickly. They are going to be phased out. Now, do you want it to be a hard stop, or do you want to phase out? I think the hospitals and the healthcare infrastructure in Nashville would prefer a phase-out, and I totally understand that,’ Ogles said. ‘Quite frankly, fiscal conservatives are not going to stand for more subsidies that were designed for a period of time during COVID. COVID is over.’

Van Drew told Fox News Digital that Republicans’ chances of keeping the House majority in 2026 hinged on a healthcare deal.

‘If you lose the majority, you’ve got nothing. You’re a spectator in the sport. You’re not even involved. So to me, keeping the majority is extremely important, and we’ve got to work to compromise on that,’ he said.

He and Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., another sponsor of the one-year extension, both floated income caps and reforms to the pricing middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs.

A House Republican familiar with leadership dynamics suggested that income caps for Obamacare are part of the discussion on a potential healthcare package.

That House Republican also suggested that tighter ‘guardrails’ like income verification standards for government healthcare could also be on the table.

‘If you have a right to a benefit, you have a responsibility to prove you are eligible for that benefit,’ they said. ‘That would save a ton of dollars.’

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., floated several ideas up for discussion but signaled that any moves to extend Obamacare would require significant changes to the system first.

‘You’ve seen additional ideas on health savings accounts and pooling together amongst small businesses, other ideas like PBM reform,’ he told reporters earlier this week. ‘So all the things we’ve been working on are focused on lowering costs for families as opposed to just shoveling more money into a failed, broken system.’

Some lawmakers are getting anxious to fund key programs and pay federal workers as the shutdown drags on, but even so, most Senate Republicans argue that the best way to ensure paydays and benefits is to reopen the government.

While Senate Republicans and Democrats are entrenched in a stalemate that has seen the shutdown drag into its 29th day, a handful of lawmakers has pushed bills that would pay the military, working federal workers and air traffic controllers, and fund federal food benefits.

One of those bills, from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., got a chance on the floor but was blocked by Senate Democrats last week.

Since then others, including Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have pushed piecemeal funding bills, dubbed ‘rifle shots’ by Republicans, as a way to fund portions of the federal workforce.

Both Hawley and Cruz, whose bill would pay air traffic controllers, were hopeful that their legislation would get a shot on the floor.

‘Listen, my goal is just to make sure that 42 million Americans don’t go without food starting this weekend,’ Hawley told Fox News Digital. ‘So, the only way I can see to do that is to vote on the floor. It will get blocked any other way.’

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pumped the brakes on the likelihood of those bills seeing floor time, doubling down throughout the week against funding the government one chunk at a time.

‘You start going down that road with one-off bills or take care of this group or that group, and it’s just like, it begs the larger question, how long… is this going to drag on? I think that the quickest way to end it is to just open everything up and then everybody gets paid,’ Thune said.

While there is a demand among Republicans to see federal workers get paid and to ensure the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, does not run out of funding on Saturday, most of the conference is unwilling to break ranks with Thune’s position.

‘I think we should close the door on it. Why are we picking winners and losers inside the government? The fact is, we’re shut down. We need to open it back up,’ Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla, told Fox News Digital. ‘Say you decided to fund the SNAP program. What about the employees that got to produce the paperwork and get it done? Are you not going to pay them?’

‘We had an opportunity to pay all essential employees. [Democrats] chose not to,’ he continued.

‘I mean, it’s ridiculous to think that we’re going to pick pieces of it when we should just open it all up. And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.’

Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have blocked the GOP’s plan to reopen the government 13 times since the shutdown began.

And they’ve shown little signs of cracking under pressure as pain points like food stamps funding and federal worker paydays mount.

But, Schumer and Senate Democrats are largely in favor of supporting a rifle-shot food stamps bill, even going so far as to draft their own — the top Senate Democrat said his caucus would support either their bill from Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., or Hawley’s measure.

‘If John Thune would put it on the floor, it would pass overwhelmingly,’ Schumer said. ‘But he’s afraid of Trump. He’s going along in this heartless, cruel thing.’

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is also a co-sponsor of both bills, and said Thune ‘should call these bills up.’

‘He should call both of them up immediately, and as Sen. Schumer said, they would pass,’ she said. ‘So that’s why this is such a false crisis.’

As of Thursday, Hawley’s bill had 29 co-sponsors, including Schumer and 14 other Senate Democrats.

But given Democrats’ recent history of blocking bill after bill as the shutdown drags on, not every Republican trusted Schumer’s vow. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News Digital that ‘with all due respect to Chuck, I don’t believe him.’

‘They’re not going to get on the floor,’ he said. ‘They’re not going to get on the floor for two reasons. Number one, we’ve seen this vampire move. The Democrats get right up to it, and then they pull back. They’re not serious. And number two, we’re not going to — it’s not going to get on the floor because Thune says he’s tired of playing the games.’

President Donald Trump’s tone on Ukraine has softened dramatically in recent weeks, from tough talk aimed to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin last month to a more hands-off approach.

After signaling strong support for Ukraine and pledging to bring an end to Russia’s invasion, Trump now appears far less committed to aiding Kyiv or forcing a resolution to the war.

The reversal began quietly two weeks ago when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Washington. Many had expected Trump to approve Tomahawk long-range missiles for Ukraine — but he didn’t.

The president said it would take too long to train on the missile system and that the U.S. needed them for its own stockpile. He vociferously denied a Wall Street Journal report suggesting the U.S. had lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to fire into Russia.

Then came Thursday’s announcement from the Department of War that a rotational U.S. Army brigade stationed in Romania, with forces also in Hungary and Bulgaria, would be coming home. Trump dismissed the pullback as ‘not very significant, not a big deal,’ though European allies saw it differently.

‘This will be an invitation for Russia to increase their attacks on Ukraine, increase its influence in the region,’ one European official told Fox News Digital.

The softer posture extended to Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. Despite previously pressing India to curb its purchases of Russian oil, Trump made no such demand of Xi.

‘We really didn’t discuss the oil,’ he told reporters afterward.

Ending the war did come up, but in a noticeably less urgent tone.

‘We’re both going to work together to see if we can get something done,’ Trump said. ‘We agree that the sides are locked in, fighting, and sometimes you have to let them fight, I guess. Crazy. But he’s going to help us and we’re going to work together on Ukraine.’

For a president who vowed to ‘end the war on Day One,’ those comments suggest a shift from urgency to resignation — and a foreign policy that appears increasingly reactive rather than strategic.

Not everyone is alarmed by the change. Last week, Trump sanctioned two major Russian oil companies — Lukoil and Rosneft — in what supporters of Ukraine hope will deal a significant blow to Moscow’s war coffers. Both companies have since announced plans to sell international assets in response.

‘The sanctions are a step of actual consequence. European troop withdrawals are expected, but the changes seem marginal,’ another European official said. ‘The rest is your typical Trump pendulum — swinging away, this way one day, that way the next.’

At the same time, Trump announced the U.S. would resume nuclear weapons testing for the first time since 1992, blaming ‘other countries’ testing programs.’

Russia claims it recently tested a nuclear-powered drone along with a nuclear-capable missile and submarine, but the tests did not involve a detonation. Russia has not confirmed a nuclear weapon test since 1990. 

Weeks ago, Trump suggested European nations dealing with Russian drone and jet incursions into their airspace should ‘shoot them down,’ and administration officials vowed to defend ‘every inch’ of NATO.

He’d planned to meet with Putin in Hungary this month, but canceled the meeting after deciding he didn’t want to ‘waste time.’

‘Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere,’ Trump complained last week. ‘They just don’t go anywhere.’

Meanwhile, Russia bombarded Ukrainian cities with 705 missiles and drones overnight on Thursday, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Ukraine repelled many of the projectiles, but four people were killed.

Even as Trump insists his administration is pursuing peace ‘through strength,’ his latest actions and rhetoric paint a more complicated picture — one that has left allies guessing which version of Trump’s Ukraine policy will prevail next.

A prominent Empire State Republican is backing former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayoral race next week in a bid to derail Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., a House lawmaker who previously chaired the New York State Republican Party, told Fox News Digital it was a ‘no-brainer’ backing Cuomo, despite their disagreements, over Mamdani.

‘This is a simple choice. I mean, one candidate has a shot to win. I mean, there’s polling that has him 10 points down in a very fluid situation,’ Langworthy said.

‘This is about saving the city from communism. I’ve had plenty of disagreements — very publicly over the years — and fought tooth and nail with Gov. Cuomo. But there’s no doubt in my mind he would be a far superior mayor than a communist.’

He is one of several prominent Republicans in New York coming out to publicly back Cuomo in the waning days before the election.

Early voting began in the New York City mayor’s race last weekend. Mamdani is the presumptive frontrunner in the deep blue Democrat stronghold, with Cuomo running as an independent candidate and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa running as the Republican.

Cuomo and Sliwa have both made overt movements to court independent and Republican voters, however, with concerns from Mamdani’s critics that the two could cancel each other out.

Langworthy would not say whether it was a mistake for Sliwa not to drop out of the race earlier but said, ‘Everyone’s really got to check, is this a vanity project? Or is this something you’re trying to do to seriously be the mayor?

‘There’s only one candidate running against Mamdani that has a credible path to win. And there’s Andrew Cuomo. And, you know, he knows how to run a government,’ he said. ‘I may have policy disagreements with him, but he’s certainly a better option than the alternative of Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America running the city with no checks and balances.’

It comes as other New York Republicans are making last-ditch overtures to Big Apple voters as well.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., the only House Republican representing part of New York City and who ran for mayor in 2017, said she believed Sliwa was ‘the best choice’ but said polling showed ‘Cuomo’s got the best chance of beating Mamdani.’

‘I’ll take either of the two, quite frankly. I’ll take anybody but the communist,’ she said. 

‘He lacks the experience. You know, 34 years old. His only job was a hip-hop artist — a bad one, to boot. And if we have another hurricane, another pandemic, another terrorist attack, this guy is not capable of managing this city through it.’

But House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., who represents part of the New York City suburbs on Long Island, said he believed a Mamdani victory was likely a ‘forgone conclusion.’

‘The Democrats, the way they just set the system for themselves — somehow the primary is ranked choice, but the general is not. I mean, it’s ridiculous,’ Garbarino said. ‘We’ll see, though. I mean, the polls have been wrong before.’

Election Day in New York City is Tuesday, Nov. 4.

The Senate once again rejected President Donald Trump’s tariffs, this time on a global scale.

Lawmakers in the upper chamber went three for three with resolutions meant to terminate Trump’s use of emergency powers to enact steep tariffs on foreign countries. While the previous two were geared toward specific tariffs on Brazil and Canada, the latest would end tariffs on countries around the world.

Earlier this year, Trump declared through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that he would enact a base 10% tariff on countries across the world. He argued in his executive order at the time that ‘national emergency arising from conditions reflected in large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits’ as a reason to pull the trigger on the tariffs.

Since then, senators have grumbled about the tariffs and made moves to terminate his usage of emergency powers throughout the year.

And it’s the second time that this particular resolution from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has been considered in the Senate.

The first go-round saw the resolution narrowly defeated 49-49, not because of partisan will but because of absences on the day of the vote. At the time, Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., were expected to vote for the resolution but missed their chance.

Fast-forward to October, and McConnell joined a foursome of Republicans, including himself and Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., to strike down Trump’s global tariffs. Those same lawmakers all voted against the previous two resolutions, too.

The other tariff-minded legislation would end Trump’s emergency powers to enact 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods and 35% tariffs on Canadian goods.

But they likely won’t go anywhere in the House, which previously voted to reject undermining Trump’s tariff policy until next year.

Meanwhile, Trump announced that after a ‘truly great’ meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that he would lower his fentanyl tariffs on China by 10%. That brings the total level of duties on the country down to 47% from 57%.

The reduction comes after China agreed to help stymie the flow of chemicals into the U.S. that are used to create the dangerous narcotic and to ease export controls on rare earth minerals, which manufacturers in the U.S. rely on to create a variety of goods and electronics.

‘There is enormous respect between our two countries, and that will only be enhanced with what just took place,’ Trump said on Truth Social. ‘We agreed on many things, with others, even of high importance, being very close to resolved.’

Another aviation-related union is demanding lawmakers reopen the government as Vice President JD Vance prepares to hold a roundtable with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and airline industry leaders Thursday as shutdown woes mount, Fox News Digital learned. 

The roundtable will be held at the White House Thursday afternoon, and will include Airlines for America CEO and former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and other airline leaders, a White House official told Fox News Digital. 

The roundtable comes as the ‘Democrat Shutdown’ has ‘gravely’ impacted the aviation industry, according to the White House official, including air traffic controllers officially missing their first full paycheck, and unions calling on lawmakers to pass a clean continuing resolution. 

Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, an independent union representing aircraft maintenance technicians and other related employees, called on lawmakers on Wednesday to pass a ‘clean continuing resolution’ and reopen the government. 

‘On behalf of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) and our 4,400 members in the Unites States representing the aircraft maintenance technicians at Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Horizon Air, Spirit Airlines, and Sun Country Airlines, we urge Congress to end the government shutdown by passing a clean Continuing Resolution,’ AMFA National President Bret Oestreich said in a press release published Wednesday. 

‘We stand with our brothers and sisters in air traffic control and TSA who continue to ensure the safety of the flying public while working for no pay,’ he continued. ‘It’s time for Congress to reconvene in a bipartisan manner to pass a clean CR and support all the men and women in aviation who contribute to the safest National Airspace System for us all to travel.’ 

The government shutdown has persisted since Oct. 1, when Senate lawmakers failed to reach a funding agreement before a midnight deadline. The Trump administration and Republicans have since pinned blame for the shutdown on Democrats, claiming they worked to include taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants. Democrats have denied the claims and argue that Republicans refused to negotiate on healthcare demands. 

‘We need to end this shutdown as soon as possible,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in floor remarks Oct. 9. ‘Every day that Republicans refuse to negotiate to end this shutdown the worse it gets for Americans, and the clearer it becomes who’s fighting for them.’ 

Vance has hammered the argument that Democrats are to blame for the shutdown, including during his remarks at a Turning Point USA event Wednesday at the University of Mississippi. 

‘The reality here is that there’s a very simple bill that just reopens the government,’ he said. ‘It does it through pretty much the end of the year. That got every single Republican in the House of Representatives to support it, and then it got 52 Republicans in the Senate and three Democrats in the Senate to support it. But because of weird Senate procedural rules, it requires a 60 vote threshold.’ 

‘When you have every single Republican with like two exceptions in both houses of Congress, I feel pretty confident. I know that I’m partisan,’ he added. ‘I know I have an R next to my name, but I feel pretty damn good saying the shutdown is the Democrats’ fault because we voted again and again to open.’ 

The shutdown comes as Americans prepare to travel for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, with the White House previously telling Fox News Digital that as the shutdown continues it ‘threatens to ruin the holidays.’

The Air Line Pilots Association, the world’s largest airline pilot union, called on lawmakers to reopen the government earlier in October. The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association issued a similar statement later in October, urging lawmakers to pass a ‘clean Continuing Resolution’ and reopen the federal government while pointing to the state of air traffic controllers during a shutdown. 

The shutdown has rocked families as they prepare to temporarily lose federal food assistance, while small business owners are losing out on billions in Small Business Administration-backed funding, and an estimated 750,000 federal employees have been furloughed. 

As for air travel, massive hubs such as Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Newark, New Jersey, have seen delays in recent weeks, as air traffic controllers, who are employed by the Federal Aviation Administration, cope with staffing shortages. 

Air traffic controllers lost their first full paychecks beginning Tuesday. 

‘I’ve made clear to our air traffic controllers: they need to show up for work. They do really important work for our country, and they need to show up. But I’m not going to lie to anybody to not say that they’re not feeling the stress,’ Transportation chief Duffy said during a press conference at LaGuardia Airport in New York City Tuesday. ‘The fact that they are working, and oftentimes, they are head of households, they’re the only income earners in their homes, and they have families, and they’re having a hard time paying their bills.’

On the heels of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing has agreed to restart its purchases of U.S. soybeans, a $30 billion cornerstone of American agriculture that was once wielded as a weapon in the battle for global trade leverage.

Once a quiet export success story, America’s humble soybean became a political flashpoint after Beijing halted imports in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods. China’s shift to suppliers in Brazil and Argentina exposed how quickly global trade flows can realign and how vulnerable U.S. farmers remain to diplomatic friction.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that China will buy 12 million metric tons of American soybeans during the current season through January and has committed to buying another 25 million tons annually for the next three years as part of a larger trade deal.

In an interview with Fox Business’ ‘Mornings with Maria,’ Bessent added that several Southeast Asian nations have also agreed to buy a combined 19 million tons of U.S. soybeans, though he did not specify a timeframe for those purchases.

‘So our great soybean farmers, who the Chinese used as political pawns, that’s off the table, and they should prosper in the years to come,’ Bessent said.

What began as tit-for-tat posturing between the world’s two largest economies evolved into both a symbolic and economic gut punch for Trump’s rural base, whose livelihoods depend on the very trade ties now caught in the crossfire.

According to the American Soybean Association, the U.S. has traditionally served as China’s leading soybean source. Prior to the 2018 trade conflict, roughly 28% of U.S. soybean production was exported to China. Those crop exports fell sharply to 11% in 2018 and 2019, recovered to 31% by 2021 amid pandemic-era demand and eased back to 22% in 2024.

But some policy experts argue that China’s shift away from U.S. soybeans was already underway.

‘China was always going to reduce its reliance on the United States for food security,’ Bryan Burack, a senior policy advisor for China and the Indo-Pacific at the Heritage Foundation told Fox News Digital. ‘China started signing purchase agreements with other countries for soybeans well before President Trump took office.’ 

He added that Beijing has ‘been decoupling from the U.S. for a long time.’

‘Unfortunately, the only way for us to respond is to do the same, and that process is painful and excruciating,’ Burack said.

But for farmers thousands of miles from Washington and Beijing, those policy shifts translate into shrinking markets and tighter margins.

‘We rely on trade with other countries, specifically China, to buy our soybeans,’ Brad Arnold, a multigenerational soybean farmer in southwestern Missouri, told FOX Business ahead of Trump’s bilateral meeting with Xi. He said China’s decision to boycott U.S. soybean purchases ‘has huge impacts on our business and our bottom line.’

‘There are domestic uses for soybeans, looking at renewable diesel, biodiesel specifically produced from soybeans,’ Arnold said. 

‘In the grand scheme of things, that’s such a small percentage currently, you know it’s going to take a customer like China to buy beans to make a noticeable impact. You can’t take our No. 1 customer, shut them off and just overnight find a replacement.’

Whether China’s new purchases signal a genuine thaw in U.S.–China trade relations or just a temporary reprieve, the deal underscores how closely diplomacy and agriculture remain intertwined.

Fox Business’ Eric Revell contributed to this report.

Republican senators on Wednesday urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to tighten safety standards and reconsider partnerships tied to abortion pills, accusing the agency of expanding access without adequate oversight.

On the call, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., expressed frustration that the agency hadn’t already overhauled safety parameters around abortion pills — and that it had instead expanded its partnerships with producers of the drugs that make chemical abortions available.

‘My plea to the FDA is to follow the science to put back safety guardrails,’ Hawley said. ‘I’ve called on the director of the FDA to take these steps. The public deserves to have answers.’

The press conference held by the senators indicates that abortion policy is still a mainstay priority for some Republican lawmakers — even as President Donald Trump has previously signaled contentment with leaving questions about abortion policy at the state level. Hawley and Cassidy both questioned the safety of chemical abortions and their proliferation.

Notably, Republicans passed a short-term prohibition of Medicaid funding from going to nonprofit organizations that provide abortions as part of its One, Big Beautiful Bill Act that became law earlier this year.

But that change hasn’t stopped Hawley and other lawmakers from torching the FDA for announcing a partnership with Evita Solutions, looking to create a new version of the key abortion drug, mifepristone.

‘When I heard the FDA approved another generic form of misoprostol, I was upset,’ Sen. Cassidy said, referring to the drug often used in conjunction with mifepristone. ‘I call them up, ‘Why are you doing this?’’ 

Cassidy joined 17 other Republican senators in sending a letter to the FDA earlier this month, demanding to know why the agency had approved a new form of the abortion drug. They asked for an answer by Oct. 30.

Cassidy said the group has not received anything from the agency.

‘They have not responded, but the government’s been shut down, and so I’m sure they would say, ‘Well, we can’t respond,’ but we will have the FDA commissioner to come in and speak to FDA issues.’ 

Without mifepristone and misoprostol, most of the country’s abortions would be impossible. 

The pair of compounds undermine the vitality of a pregnancy and prompt the body to expel pregnancy tissue. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual health and reproductive rights organization, mifepristone was used to induce 63% of all U.S. abortions in 2023. 

‘This is shocking,’ Hawley said in a post to X earlier this month. ‘FDA just approved ANOTHER chemical abortion drug, when evidence shows chemical abortion drugs are dangerous and even deadly for the mother. And of course, 100% lethal to the child.’

Hawley claimed on Wednesday that 11% of women who use a chemical abortion experience some sort of adverse health event.

‘The science is really quite significant. We’ve just had one of the largest studies ever performed of claims relating to chemical abortions based on insurance data. It came out this summer — 865,000 insurance claims that were made and analyzed,’ Hawley said. 

The Ethics & Public Policy Center published findings in April that evaluated 865,000 medical abortions prescribed between 2017–2023. It concluded that the rate of serious side effects was 22 times higher than indicated by the FDA label.  

‘That’s a sanitized way of saying they’re in very serious danger,’ Hawley said.

Critics of the study have said it lacks context and may overlook unrelated, complicating factors. 

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion advocacy group, shares Hawley’s concern about the pill’s safety. She also believes abortion pills are an easy way for women to access abortion — even in states that have passed restrictions on them.

‘This abortion pill is an instrument of beating back [state] sovereignty. State laws are being undermined. The abortion rate overall in this nation has gone up since Dobbs because of the abortion pill,’ Dannenfelser said, referring to the landmark 2022 case Dobbs v. Jackson that overturned a federal right to an abortion.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America was one of the key groups calling on Republicans to cut Medicaid funding for abortions through Trump’s One, Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Anti-abortion advocates have zeroed in on access to mifepristone as a way to continue pushing back against abortion access — especially since the FDA approved remote prescriptions of the drug in the wake of COVID-19.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge brought by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM), arguing that the FDA had improperly approved mifepristone for use back in 2001, skirting safety requirements. 

Since then, mifepristone has remained widely available, but the Supreme Court’s ruling left the door open to future challenges to the FDA’s certification of the drug.

Like other critics of chemical abortions, Hawley has urged the FDA to undergo its own evaluation of whether abortion pills are safe, reliable products — a priority shared with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

‘We need to have a full and thorough review of the data related to mifepristone [and] the health risks related to mifepristone. We need to see the reinstatement of safety guardrails that have historically accompanied this drug,’ Hawley said.

The FDA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

A virtual confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s surgeon general pick Dr. Casey Means has been postponed because she went into labor.

Means, 38, was appearing remotely because she was nine months pregnant with her first child.

Her opening remarks for the hearing expected on Thursday had been prewritten.

‘Our nation is angry, exhausted, and hurting from preventable disease. Rates of high blood pressure, many cancers, autoimmune conditions, type 2 diabetes, mental health disorders, dementia, neurodevelopmental challenges, and youth suicide have all increased in the past two decades,’ the prepared remarks, obtained by Fox News, said.

‘This public-health crisis is touching every American family. It is robbing our children of possibility, our workforce of productivity, and our nation of security. It strains our federal budget and dims hope for millions,’ she planned to say.

As the nation’s doctor, the surgeon general is a leader for Americans and health officials on public health issues. If confirmed, Means will represent an administration that has already transformed the public health landscape by calling for increased scrutiny of vaccines, the nation’s food supply, pesticides and prescription drugs.

Means, a Stanford-educated physician who rose to popularity as a wellness influencer after becoming disillusioned with traditional medicine, was expected to share a vision for ending chronic disease by targeting its root causes, an idea that aligns with the Make America Healthy Again message of her close ally Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

She has no government experience, and her license to practice as a physician is inactive, The Associated Press reported, adding that it was not immediately clear when the hearing would be rescheduled.

‘Everyone’s happy for Dr. Means and her family,’ said Emily Hilliard, deputy press secretary for the Health and Human Services Department. ‘This is one of the few times in life it’s easy to ask to move a Senate hearing.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Israel said Thursday that the Red Cross provided information indicating ‘two coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their custody and are on their way to IDF troops in the Gaza Strip.’

In its announcement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repeated its demand that Hamas hand over the remains of all the deceased hostages.

Israel said earlier Thursday that it had received information indicating that the Red Cross is on its way to a meeting point in the central Gaza Strip to retrieve coffins containing the remains of deceased hostages from Hamas. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the coffins were on their way to Israel saying that ‘All of the hostages’ families have been updated accordingly, and our hearts are with them in this difficult hour. The effort to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned.’

Netanyahu’s office said it would continue to provide updates ‘as necessary.’

On Tuesday, Fox News learned that a coffin handed over to Israel was assessed to contain the remains of a hostage whose body was already brought back to Israel for burial. The remains were later determined to be those of Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was first recovered in 2023.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that some of Tzarfati’s remains were returned in March 2024 and that in August 2024, Hamas published a photo of his body.

‘This is the third time we have been forced to open Ofir’s grave and rebury our son,’ Tzarfati’s family said in a statement. ‘The circle supposedly ‘closed’ back in December 2023, but it never truly closes. Since then, we have lived with a wound that constantly reopens, between memory and longing, between bereavement and mission.’

If the two coffins are confirmed to remain deceased hostages, there will still be another 11 whose remains are still in Gaza, possibly including two U.S. citizens, Itay Chen and Omer Neutra. So far, Israel has received the remains of 15 of the 28 deceased hostages.

The hostages whose remains have been returned include Aryeh Zalmanovich, Master Sergeant (Res.) Tamir Adar, Staff Sgt. Tal Haimi, Suntaya Akrasi, Ronen Tommy Engel, Eliyahu Margalit, Uriel Baruch, Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi, Eitan Levi, Daniel Peretz, Yossi Sharabi, Guy Illuz, Bipin Joshi, Inbar Hayman and Sergeant Major Muhammad Al-Atresh.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.