A federal appeals court on Friday denied a Trump administration request to temporarily block a lower court ruling requiring the government to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program amid the government shutdown. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit ruling comes as the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday said it is working to comply with a judge’s order to fully fund the program for November. 

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell rejected the administration’s effort to only partially fund the benefits program for some 42 million low-income Americans for November as the shutdown drags on, giving the government 24 hours to comply. 

‘People have gone without for too long,’  McConnell said in court.

After the appeals court ruling, the Trump administration filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping it will step in by 9:30 p.m. ET Friday evening. 

‘Given the imminent, irreparable harms posed by these orders, which require the government to transfer an estimated $4 billion by tonight, the Solicitor General respectfully requests an immediate administrative stay of the orders pending the resolution of this application by no later than 9:30pm this evening,’ an administration spokesperson told Fox News. 

In a letter sent to all regional directors of the SNAP program on Friday, Patrick Penn, deputy undersecretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, said, ‘FNS is working towards implementing November 2025 full benefit issuances in compliance with the November 6, 2025, order from the District Court of Rhode Island.’

He added, ‘Later today, FNS will complete the processes necessary to make funds available to support your subsequent transmittal of full issuance files to your EBT processor.’

Penn said the department would keep regional directors ‘as up to date as possible on any future developments and appreciate your continued partnership to serve program beneficiaries across the country. State agencies with questions should contact their FNS Regional Office representative.’

He scolded the Trump administration for failing to comply with the order he issued last week, which required the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the SNAP benefits programs before its funds were slated to lapse on Nov. 1, marking the first time in the program’s 60-year history that its payments were halted. 

The judge also said Trump officials failed to address a known funding distribution problem that could cause SNAP payments to be delayed for weeks or months in some states. He ordered the USDA to tap other contingency funds as needed.

‘It’s likely that SNAP recipients are hungry as we sit here,’ McConnell said Thursday. 

Trump administration officials said in a court filing earlier this week that they would pay just 65% of the roughly $9 billion owed to fund the SNAP program for November, prompting the judge to update his order and give the administration just 24 hours to comply.

‘The evidence shows that people will go hungry, food pantries will be overburdened, and needless suffering will occur,’ McConnell said. ‘That’s what irreparable harm here means.’

Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

Senate Democrats again blocked a plan by Republicans to ensure that federal workers and the military would receive a paycheck as the shutdown back and forth revs into high gear.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., again tried to advance a modified version of his ‘Shutdown Fairness Act’ bill that would see federal workers and the military paid now and during subsequent government shutdowns. However, the bill failed 53-43 with 3 Democrats defecting to support the bill. Georgia Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico voted for the bill.

Last month, it was blocked over concerns from Senate Democrats that it did not include furloughed workers.

Johnson noted on the Senate floor that after discussions with Senate Democrats he changed the bill to include furloughed workers, and that his legislation had the backing of several federal employee unions.

‘They are sick and tired, being used as pawns in this political dysfunction here. They’re tired of it,’ Johnson said.

Still, after fireworks on the Senate floor where Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who initially blocked the bill over concerns that it allowed President Donald Trump to pick and choose who got paid, the bill was blocked largely along party lines.

‘It’s about leverage, isn’t it? Isn’t that what y’all have been saying? It’s about leverage,’ Thune said. ‘This isn’t leverage. This is the lives of the American people.’

Johnson’s bill appearing on the floor wasn’t the initial plan Senate Republicans had going into Friday. Thune wanted to put the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) up for a vote again, but newfound Democratic unity after a sweeping victory on Election Night earlier this week had derailed bipartisan attempts to build an off-ramp.

The GOP’s attempt to pay federal workers amid the ongoing, 38-day shutdown came as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus announced their counter-offer to Senate Republicans’ plan to reopen the government.

Schumer’s offer included attaching a one-year extension onto expiring Obamacare subsidies — the main sticking point of the shutdown — in exchange for the Democratic votes to reopen the government.

But the offer, which a source told Fox News Digital had been made in private to Senate Republicans last week and was summarily rejected, was again not going over well with Republicans.

The Senate is expected to return on Saturday to vote on the House-passed plan for a 15th time. Whether Schumer and his caucus block it once more remains to be seen.

: A federal grand jury has subpoenaed former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, among others as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, Fox News Digital has learned.

Sources told Fox News Digital Brennan; Strzok, the FBI’s former deputy assistant director of counterintelligence; and Page, a former FBI lawyer, were served with federal subpoenas on Friday.

Law enforcement sources told Fox News Digital that up to 30 subpoenas will be issued in the coming days relating to the investigation.

The grand jury is out of the Southern District of Florida. U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones is supervising the probe.

Fox News Digital first reported this summer that Brennan was under criminal investigation. 

Strzok and Page first came under scrutiny in 2018 when Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz uncovered a series of anti-Trump text messages between them. Both were assigned to work on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team in 2017.

Page served on Mueller’s team on a short detail, returning to the FBI’s Office of General Counsel in July 2017. Strzok, though, was removed from the team and was reassigned to the FBI’s Human Resources Division. Prior to serving in the special counsel’s office, Strzok was a top agent in the bureau’s counterintelligence division.

Strzok is the FBI agent who, in July 2016, opened the FBI’s initial Russia investigation, which was nicknamed ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ inside the bureau.

Page resigned from the bureau in May 2018, and Strzok eventually was fired in August 2018.

Strzok was fired from the bureau in August 2018 after months of scrutiny regarding the anti-Trump text messages exchanged between himself and Page.

During congressional testimony in 2018, Strzok confirmed that he and Page were involved in an extramarital affair.

As for the criminal investigation into Brennan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred evidence of wrongdoing by Brennan to FBI Director Kash Patel for potential prosecution, DOJ sources told Fox News Digital.

Sources, at the time, said that the referral was received and told Fox News Digital that a criminal investigation into Brennan was opened and is underway. DOJ sources declined to provide further details. It is unclear, at this point, if the investigation spans beyond his alleged false statements to Congress.

The Brennan investigation came after Ratcliffe, this summer, declassified a ‘lessons learned’ review of the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). The 2017 ICA alleged Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election to help then-candidate Donald Trump. But the review found that the process of the ICA’s creation was rushed with ‘procedural anomalies,’ and that officials diverted from intelligence standards. 

It also determined that the ‘decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.’ 

The dossier — an anti-Trump document filled with unverified and wholly inaccurate claims that was commissioned by Fusion GPS and paid for by Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC — has been widely discredited. Last week’s review marks the first time career CIA officials have acknowledged politicization of the process by which the ICA was written, particularly by Obama-era political appointees. 

Records declassified as part of that review further revealed that Brennan did, in fact, push for the dossier to be included in the 2017 ICA.

Brennan testified to the House Judiciary Committee in May 2023, however, that he did not believe the dossier should be included in that intelligence product.

Ratcliffe was not surprised by the review’s findings, a source familiar told Fox News Digital, given the director’s long history of criticizing Brennan’s politicization of intelligence. But Ratcliffe was compelled to refer aspects of Brennan’s involvement to the FBI for review of possible criminality, the source said.

The source was unable to share the sensitive details of Ratcliffe’s criminal referral to the FBI with Fox News Digital, but said that Brennan ‘violated the public’s trust and should be held accountable for it.’

The false statements portion of the probe stems from a newly declassified email sent to Brennan by the former deputy CIA director in December 2016. That message said that including the dossier in the ICA in any capacity jeopardized ‘the credibility of the entire paper.’

‘Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,’ the new CIA review states. ‘When confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders – one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background – he appeared more swayed by the Dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.’

The review added: ‘Brennan ultimately formalized his position in writing, stating that ‘my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.’’

But Brennan testified the opposite in front of Congress in May 2023.

‘The CIA was very much opposed to having any reference or inclusion of the Steele dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment,’ Brennan testified before the House committee, according to the transcript of his deposition reviewed by Fox News Digital. ‘And so they sent over a copy of the dossier to say that this was going to be separate from the rest of that assessment.’

CIA officials at the time of its creation pushed back against the FBI, which sought to include the dossier, arguing that the dossier should not be included in the assessment, and casting it as simply ‘internet rumor.’ 

Ultimately, Steele’s reporting was not included in the body of the final ICA prepared for then-President Barack Obama, but instead detailed in this footnote, ‘largely at the insistence of FBI’s senior leadership,’ according to a review by the Justice Department inspector general, and later, the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But back in June 2020, Ratcliffe, while serving as director of national intelligence, declassified a footnote of the 2017 ICA, which revealed that the reporting of Trump dossier author Christopher Steele had only ‘limited corroboration’ regarding whether then-President-elect Trump ‘knowingly worked with Russian officials to bolster his chances of beating’ Hillary Clinton and other claims.

The footnote, also known as ‘Annex A’ of the 2017 ICA, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in June 2020, spanned less than two pages and detailed reporting by Steele, the former British spy who authored the unverified anti-Trump dossier — a document that helped serve as the basis for controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants obtained against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Steele’s reporting, at the time, was commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS and funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) through law firm Perkins Coie.

The footnote made clear the internal concerns officials had over that document.

‘An FBI source (Steele) using both identified and unidentified subsources, volunteered highly politically sensitive information from the summer to the fall of 2016 on Russian influence efforts aimed at the US presidential election,’ the annex read. ‘We have only limited corroboration of the source’s reporting in this case and did not use it to reach the analytic conclusions of the CIA/FBI/NSA assessment.’

‘The source collected this information on behalf of private clients and was not compensated for it by the FBI,’ it continued.

But the annex notes that Steele’s reporting was ‘not developed by the layered subsource network.’

‘The FBI source caveated that, although similar to previously provided reporting in terms of content, the source was unable to vouch for the additional information’s sourcing and accuracy,’ the annex states. ‘Hence this information is not included in this product.’

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz also reviewed the inclusion of Steele’s reporting in the ICA during his review of alleged misconduct related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

His report, released in late 2019, found that there were ‘significant inaccuracies and omissions’ in FISA warrants for former Trump campaign aide Page. Those warrants relied heavily on Steele’s reporting, despite the FBI not having had specific information corroborating allegations against Page that were included in Steele’s reporting.

Meanwhile, Fox News Digital exclusively reported in October 2020 that Brennan briefed former President Obama and administration officials on intelligence that then-Democrat nominee former Secretary of State Clinton was stirring up a plan to tie Trump to Russia.

Ratcliffe, as director of national intelligence, declassified Brennan’s handwritten notes memorializing that meeting, which were exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in October 2020.

On July 28, 2016, Brennan briefed Obama on a plan from one of Clinton’s campaign foreign policy advisors ‘to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.’ 

Comey, then-Vice President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were in the Brennan-Obama briefing.

After that briefing, the CIA properly forwarded that information through a Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) to Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, with the subject line: ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained and reported on the CIOL in October 2020, which stated: ‘The following information is provided for the exclusive use of your bureau for background investigative action or lead purposes as appropriate.’

‘Per FBI verbal request, CIA provides the below examples of information the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE fusion cell has gleaned to date,’ the memo continued. ‘An exchange (REDACTED) discussing US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.’

The FBI on July 31, 2016, opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether candidate Trump and members of his campaign were colluding or coordinating with Russia to influence the 2016 campaign. That investigation was referred to inside the bureau as ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to take over the FBI’s original ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation. After nearly two years, Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March 2019, yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.

Shortly after, John Durham was appointed as special counsel to investigate the origins of the ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ probe.

Durham found that the FBI ‘failed to act’ on a ‘clear warning sign’ that the bureau was the ‘target’ of a Clinton-led effort to ‘manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes’ ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

‘The aforementioned facts reflect a rather startling and inexplicable failure to adequately consider and incorporate the Clinton Plan intelligence into the FBI’s investigative decision-making in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,’ Durham’s report states.

‘Indeed, had the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation as an assessment and, in turn, gathered and analyzed data in concert with the information from the Clinton Plan intelligence, it is likely that the information received would have been examined, at a minimum, with a more critical eye,’ the report continued.

Durham, in his report, said the FBI ‘failed to act on what should have been—when combined with other incontrovertible facts— a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election.’

The Justice Department, earlier this year, formed a ‘strike force’ to assess evidence publicized by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard relating to former President Barack Obama and his top national security and intelligence officials’ alleged involvement in the origins of the Trump–Russia collusion narrative.

Meanwhile, Fox News Digital also first reported that Comey was under criminal investigation. Comey has been charged with making false statements and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. 

Comey has pleaded not guilty. His trial is expected to begin in January.

Senate Democrats unveiled their alternative to Republicans’ plan to reopen the government that would see an extension to expiring Obamacare credits for one year, asking that Republicans just say ‘yes.’ 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced the plan in dramatic fashion on the Senate floor Friday afternoon with a backdrop of the Senate Democratic caucus in a bid to show a tangible version of the newfound unity among Democrats since their Election Day sweep earlier this week. 

Schumer argued that after 14 failed votes on the House-passed continuing resolution (CR), ‘It’s clear we need to try something different.’ 

He offered to attach a one-year extension to the expiring Obamacare subsidies and to create a bipartisan committee that could negotiate further on how to deal with the subsidies after the government reopened, a clear nod to the GOP’s position that negotiations won’t happen until the government is reopened. 

‘Democrats are ready to clear the way to quickly pass a government funding bill that includes healthcare affordability,’ Schumer said. ‘Leader Thune just needs to add a clean, one-year extension of the [Obamacare] tax credits to the CR so that we can immediately address rising healthcare costs. That’s not a negotiation. It’s an extension of current law, something we do all the time around here.’

‘Now the ball is in the Republicans’ court,’ he continued. ‘We need Republicans to just say ‘yes.’’

Whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Republicans will accept the offer remains in the air. Republicans are set to meet Friday afternoon and are expected to discuss the Democrats’ olive branch. 

Initially, Thune had planned to hold a vote on the House-passed plan as a means to amend it and attach a trio of spending bills in a package, known as a minibus, to jump-start the government funding process.

However, that plan was canned Friday morning after Thune charged that the ‘wheels came off’ of ongoing bipartisan discussions with Senate Democrats on the minibus and a path forward. Now it’s likely that the Senate will vote for a 15th time on the same plan on Saturday. However, that all depends on whether they accept Senate Democrats’ offer.

It also comes after Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., made a bid to have his bill that would ensure that federal workers and the military would be paid during this shutdown and future shutdowns move through a fast-track process known as unanimous consent that doesn’t require a full vote of the Senate. 

However, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., blocked the bill — despite it being amended to include furloughed federal workers into the mix — over lingering concerns that it still gave President Donald Trump too much power to pick and choose ‘which federal employees are paid and when.’

That move prompted a fired-up Thune to question why, exactly, Peters, and more broadly, Senate Democrats, would object to the bill, given that it would solve a major pain point of the shutdown. He said that lawmakers would vote on the bill on Friday. 

‘In other words, we’re going to keep federal employees hostage,’ Thune said of Peters’ objection. 

‘It’s about leverage, isn’t it? That’s what ya’ll have been saying,’ he said. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday that air travel could take ‘days if not a week’ to get back to normal once the government shutdown ends.

‘If the government opens tomorrow — which it won’t, it doesn’t look like — it’s going to take us days to assess the controllers coming back into their facilities or their towers,’ Duffy told ‘America Reports.’

‘And then once we start to move those numbers back down to zero on our required 10%, the problem is the airlines then have to put those planes back on for booking again,’ he said.

Duffy said there will be a lag of several days to a week before airlines and airports can return to normal operations.

‘It’s going to take some time for the airlines to respond. So once we see more controllers in the towers, then the airlines have to respond to that,’ Duffy said. ‘It can be days, if not a week, before we get back to full-force flights when the shutdown ends.’

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

Senate Republicans had planned to put the House-passed bill to reopen the government on the floor for a vote again on Friday, but after Senate Democrats signaled that they were willing to hold out longer, that course of action is likely to change.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., opted to keep the chamber in session for a rare Friday vote, with the idea being to put the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) on the floor for a 15th time.

However, after Senate Democrats met behind closed doors on Thursday and exited their meeting with a renewed sense of unity, Thune raised the concern that, ‘We’ve got to get the Democrats back and engaged.’

Bipartisan talks among several Republican and moderate Democratic senators had picked up significantly in the last week, with rays of hope that an end was near that could cut through the fog of the shutdown.

But Tuesday’s election sweep and pressure from progressives and more left-leaning members of the Democratic caucus have possibly tripped up progress in those talks.

‘All I know is that the pep rally they had at lunch yesterday evidently changed some minds,’ Thune said. ‘I thought we were on a track. We were giving them everything they wanted or had asked for, and at some point, I was gonna say, they have to take yes for an answer, and they were trending in that direction. And then yesterday, everything kind of — the wheels came off, so to speak.’

Thune’s remarks came as a flurry of activity was happening behind-the-scenes. The plan was to advance the CR and then add a trio of spending bills in a package known as a minibus, but a series of counteroffers and demands from Senate Democrats have slowed momentum.

But some in the Senate GOP don’t appear too keen on the idea of putting the same bill on the floor again without real progress being made.

‘There’s no reason to vote on the same stuff that we voted on in the past just to do it again,’ Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said.

It also comes as the Senate creeps toward a scheduled recess for Veterans Day next week, and as questions linger on whether Thune will keep lawmakers in town over the weekend. If there’s no CR vote on Friday, it could be punted until Saturday.

‘Our members are going to be advised to be available if, in fact, there’s a need to vote, and we will see what happens and whether or not over the course of the next couple of days, the Democrats can find a way to reengage,’ Thune said.

A possible second option could be voting on a bill from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., to ensure that federal workers and the military would get paid as the shutdown drags on. That bill was blocked by Senate Democrats last month, and since Johnson has workshopped it with his colleagues across the aisle, he plans to offer an amendment that would include furloughed federal workers into the mix.

He said in a statement to Fox News Digital that he hopes to pass the bill Friday through unanimous consent or a voice vote, two fast-track methods that don’t require a full vote.

‘No Republican senator objects to the bill, and we hope the same is true among the Democrat senators,’ Johnson said. ‘If not, we will call for a roll call vote to reveal which senators are willing to use federal workers as political pawns and jeopardize the safety and security of the American people.’

The core of Senate Democrats’ demand is to see an extension to the expiring Obamacare subsidies in exchange for reopening the government.

Thune and Republicans offered a vote on legislation for the subsidies only after the government reopened, but many Senate Democrats view that as not enough. For now, the chamber is in limbo until a play call is made.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital that ‘it seems Republicans don’t know what they want to do.’

‘This thing could be solved in an hour,’ he said. ‘What is their resistance to just stopping these premium increases from going into effect? I mean, this is so insane.’

President Donald Trump said Friday during a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán he is considering granting an exemption on Russian oil sanctions to allow Hungary to purchase the resource from Russia. 

‘We’re looking at it because it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,’ Trump said Friday when asked by the media if he is prepared to grant Orbán’s request for an exemption. ‘As you know, they don’t have, they don’t have the advantage of having seas. It’s a great country.

‘It’s a big country. But they don’t have sea, they don’t have the ports,’ he continued. ‘And so they have a difficult problem. There’s another country that has that same problem, by the way. But when you look at what’s happened with Europe, many of those countries, they don’t have those problems, and they buy a lot of oil and gas from Russia. And, as you know, I’m very disturbed by that because we’re helping them, and they’re going and buying oil and gas from Russia.’ 

After months of waffling between confrontation and conciliation toward Moscow, Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies — Rosneft and Lukoil — in October as the Kremlin backed off from talks to end the war with Ukraine. 

‘Every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere,’ Trump said in October when announcing the sanctions. ‘They just don’t go anywhere.

‘I just felt it was time. We’ve waited a long time,’ Trump added when asked why he chose to impose the sanctions at that time and not sooner. 

The sanctions came after a planned meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in October was called off. 

Orbán, who has a longstanding warm relationship with Trump, in October called the sanctions imposed by Trump ‘a mistake,’ from Hungary’s perspective. 

‘We are thinking about how to build a sustainable system for the Hungarian economy because Hungary is very dependent on Russian oil and gas. And, without them, energy prices will skyrocket, causing shortages in our supplies,’ Orbán said in October during a meeting with Italian leaders in Rome. 

Orbán told the media his discussion with Trump Friday will include the exemption request, explaining that the pipelines transporting oil and gas are ‘vital’ to the nation because it is landlocked and that he will negotiate the matter with the White House. 

Trump told the media that he and Orbán agree the war between Russia and Ukraine — which has raged since 2022 — will end soon, adding, ‘The basic dispute is they just don’t want to stop yet. And I think they will. I think it’s taking a big toll on Russia.’

The pair said it would likely take a ‘miracle’ for Ukraine to win the war. 

Trump praised Orbán during the meeting as a ‘great leader,’ namely on his strict immigration policies. 

‘The fact is that he’s a great leader, and he’s respected all over,’ Trump said. ‘Not necessarily liked by some of the leaders, but, you know, those leaders have proven to be wrong.

‘If you look at his stance on immigration and other things, you know, if you look at Europe, they made tremendous mistakes in immigration. It’s really hurting them very badly. He has not made a mistake on immigration.’ 

Orbán also commended Trump, arguing ‘everything was ruined’ by the Biden administration while celebrating Trump’s return to the White House. 

‘The reason why we are here to open a new chapter between the bilateral relations of the United States and Hungary, basically, because during the Democrat administration, everything was ruined,’ he said. 

‘So, after your leaving president, everything was basically blocked, ruined, canceled. A lot of harm done by the previous administration. In the last ten months, president, what you have done, we are very much grateful for that. You restored the old level of the relationship. You improved the bilateral relation. You repaired what was done badly by the previous administration,’ Orbán said. 

North Korea launched a ballistic missile off its east coast Friday, just days after U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth wrapped up a visit to South Korea focused on deterring Pyongyang and reinforcing the alliance between the two countries.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the suspected short-range missile was fired from an inland area around the western county of Taekwan toward the East Sea, traveling roughly 435 miles. The launch was reported by Reuters and The Associated Press, citing military officials in Seoul and Tokyo.

No injuries or damage were reported, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said. Seoul’s military added that it had detected signs of preparations before the launch and was monitoring additional activity in the area, according to The Associated Press.

Reuters reported that North Korea has conducted several missile launches in recent weeks, including systems it claims are ‘cutting-edge’ strategic weapons.

During his three-day visit to South Korea on Nov. 4, Hegseth spoke to reporters following annual security talks with South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back in Seoul and said he was ‘greatly encouraged’ by Seoul’s commitment to increasing defense spending and investing more heavily in its own military capabilities. He said both allies agreed that these investments would strengthen South Korea’s ability to take the lead in conventional deterrence against its northern adversary.

Hegseth added that President Donald Trump’s decision to support South Korea’s plans to build nuclear-powered submarines was driven by his desire to have strong allies. ‘And because Korea has been a model ally, he’s open to opportunities like that, that ensure they have the best capabilities in their own defense and alongside us as allies,’ he said.

The United States and South Korea have maintained close military coordination as Pyongyang accelerates its weapons testing program. Hegseth’s visit was meant to reaffirm U.S. commitment to the alliance and emphasize deterrence against North Korea. His remarks in Seoul echoed earlier statements that the alliance will stay focused on deterring North Korea.

When asked whether the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea might be used in conflicts beyond the peninsula, including with China, Hegseth said that protecting against nuclear-armed North Korea remains the alliance’s primary goal. ‘But there’s no doubt that flexibility for regional contingency is something we would take a look at,’ he told reporters.

Friday’s launch underscores the fragile security situation on the peninsula and highlights ongoing tensions as North Korea continues to expand its missile capabilities. Both Seoul and Tokyo said they are analyzing the launch in coordination with the United States.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Senate Democrats for years have warned of the negative side effects of government shutdowns that would largely affect their priorities, but as the shutdown drags on, they find themselves in direct opposition to their own pet projects. 

‘There’s a tremendously twisted irony,’ Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital.

John Feehery of EFB Advocacy, who served as press secretary to former Republican House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert, said, ‘The most unbelievable thing’ about the shutdown is Democrats ‘hurting their own constituents.’

‘Democrats never shut the government down. This is the first time they’ve ever done this. I mean, they’ve let the Republicans shut the government down, but they’ve never done it on purpose,’ he said.

As Senate Democrats have pushed the shutdown into the longest on record, they still aren’t ready to reopen the government, even as millions who rely on food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are only set to get partial benefits.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus have remained firm in their demand that they get a guarantee to extend expiring Obamacare premium subsidies in exchange for their votes to reopen the government.

Democrats have blasted President Donald Trump and his administration for threatening to not fund federal food benefits. Earlier this week, Trump said that food stamps would not be funded despite a court order requiring that they at least be partially paid for.

‘They’re the ones who shut down the government,’ Lummis said. ‘They won’t reopen it, and so they got nothing to complain about. It’s within their control to reopen the government. It’s in their control.’

His administration has since changed course, however, and announced in a memo from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that Americans that rely on the benefits would receive 65% of their typical allotted amount. A federal judge then ordered the administration to fully fund food benefits by Friday. 

‘We’re finding out that it’s hurting the union workers, it’s hurting air travelers, it’s hurting people who rely on food stamps. I mean, it’s hurting Democrats,’ Feehery said. ‘Their higher priority is showing that they’re tough against Trump, and they’re more than happy to use their constituents as cannon fodder.’

Democrats acknowledge that the pain of the shutdown can’t be ignored but remain firm that their fight to extend the healthcare subsidies is one worth having.

‘Shutdowns suck. I want it over here, but I don’t think we have fully come to recognize how much pain is going to exist in this country when 4 million people lose their healthcare insurance,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. ‘That’s as devastating, if not more devastating, in the long run, than the pain people are feeling this month.’

Julian Epstein, former chief counsel for House Judiciary Committee Democrats, told Fox News Digital that Republicans had an opportunity to seize the narrative on healthcare.

‘If I were advising Trump, I would tell him to make the case in an Oval Office address that the Democrats are voting to close the government and that it’s the Republicans that want to open it. The president should also lay out his vision for controlling healthcare premiums,’ Epstein said. ‘Voters are starting to tune out the invective from both sides, and all the noise. They want a clear plan for their economic concerns.’

And Feehery similarly argued Republicans should take their moment on healthcare, pointing out that Democrats are effectively delaying the discussion on Obamacare by prolonging the shutdown.

‘If Republicans were smart, they would be talking about why Obamacare is fundamentally broken and how to fundamentally change that. But Republicans don’t really like to talk about healthcare, which is kind of annoying,’ he said. ‘But yeah, I do think that the fact that it’s gone past the [Nov. 1 open enrollment] deadline has made this even more complicated.’

There is a sense on Capitol Hill that the shutdown could be coming to an end, but Republicans contend it will be up to Senate Democrats.

A dozen centrist Democrats are mulling an offer from the GOP that would guarantee a vote on the expiring subsidies after the government reopens, coupled with the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) and a trio of spending bills to jump start the government funding process.

But many in the caucus say that’s not enough, and demand that Trump sit down and meet with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to hash out a deal.

Democrats also believe that Republicans are feeling the heat from Tuesday night’s elections, where Democratic candidates swept their Republican opponents in statewide elections, and they point to comments Trump made that the shutdown was hurting the GOP.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., contended that what Trump meant was Democrats were using the shutdown ‘to fire up their base.’

‘But I think it’s also incredibly sad that SNAP recipients and federal workers and their families and Head Start families all had to go without so they could help the New York City election,’ Lankford said. ‘And that’s pretty sad.’

Meanwhile, Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who is running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, told Fox News Digital, ‘Every day the Schumer Shutdown drags on, Americans pay the price — missed paychecks, canceled flights, and threats to public safety. Democrats aren’t helping anyone, they’re sowing chaos and achieving nothing.’

Still, Democrats largely remain firm that the only off-ramp they want starts at the White House.

‘Shutdowns are terrible. I mean, I don’t know what to tell you,’ Sen. Bryan Schatz, D-Hawaii, told Fox News Digital. ‘It’s really awful what people are going through. And the only way out of this is a negotiation.’

A Democratic lawmaker is backing the Trump administration’s decision to reduce air traffic as a consequence of the ongoing government shutdown.

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said, ‘Safety must always be the highest priority’ for the aviation industry in a statement on Thursday evening.

‘The decision by Secretary Duffy to reduce flights at America’s 40 busiest airports is the right call for the safety of the flying public,’ Stanton wrote on X. ‘Now it’s critical that Republicans and Democrats get together and reach a bipartisan agreement on a plan to reduce health costs and end the shutdown.’

He concluded, ‘Arizona deserves better, and so do the hardworking professionals who keep our skies safe.’

Friday marks the 38th day of the government shutdown. Bipartisan Senate efforts to end the standoff have still not produced a clear off-ramp.

Thousands of federal employees have been furloughed as agencies and critical programs run low on funds, while government workers deemed ‘essential’ have been forced to work without pay for weeks.

People in the latter group include air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, many of whom have been forced to take second jobs and call out sick to make ends meet.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) directed a 4% reduction in air traffic across 40 of the busiest airports in the U.S., taking effect on Friday.

That reduction will gradually ramp up to 10% by Nov. 14 if the shutdown does not end by then.

An emergency order issued by the FAA said the reduction would ensure the National Airspace System could ‘maintain the highest standards of safety’ amid shortages fueled by the shutdown.

That includes Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the largest airport serving Stanton’s district.

Stanton’s nearby 4th Congressional District encompasses parts of Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs, including portions of Tempe and Mesa.

Back in Washington, whose two main airports are also affected by the reduction order, Democratic leaders are still publicly insisting that any funding deal be paired with an extension of COVID-19-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.

Republicans have argued against partisan policy riders in a funding bill to end the shutdown.

Stanton was among the House Democrats who voted against the GOP’s funding proposal when it passed the House on Sept. 19.