The Senate returns to Capitol Hill, but odds of ending the shutdown remain slim amid a political blame game. The Trump administration is handed another blow in its effort to send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon. And New York's mayoral race highlights a divide between longtime residents and city transplants.
Here's what to know today.
Senators return to Capitol Hill as shutdown enters Day 6
The Senate is back in session and is expected to hold more votes on the GOP funding bill and a Democratic alternative as the government enters the sixth day of shutdown.
Republicans need five more Democrats to advance their bill to reopen the government temporarily, but both parties are locked in a standoff they blame on each other.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has demanded negotiations as Democrats seek to extend Obamacare subsidies. The subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, which would then result in major health insurance premium increases.
“We ought to be talking about the real issue here, which is that we have a health care crisis in America caused by the Republicans,” Schumer said in an interview.
President Donald Trump is declining to take a clear position on whether to extend the subsidies. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it’s a discussion he’s open to having, but only if Democrats relent and reopen the government first.
“That is a program, by the way, that is desperately in need of reform. You cannot just extend it, flat extend it. It is too flawed,” he said.
Read more about the shutdown showdown here.
More politics news:
- Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will meet with Hamas officials today in Cairo for Gaza peace plan negotiations.
- Podcasters like Joe Rogan and Theo Von helped elect Trump. Now they’re breaking with him on key issues like deportations and the war in Gaza.
Federal judge blocks deployment of National Guard troops to Portland
A federal judge in Oregon has blocked the Trump administration from sending members of California’s — or any other state’s — federalized National Guard to the streets of Portland, Oregon.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut granted the motion for a temporary restraining order filed by California, which asked her to prevent the deployment of up to 300 members of the California National Guard to Portland.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would sue the administration after it deployed the federalized troops to Oregon. The judge’s decision is the second blow to the president, who was also blocked a day earlier from deploying Oregon National Guard troops in Portland.
Before the ruling, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a memo that he is calling up to 400 members of the Texas National Guard into federal service in Chicago and Portland for up to 60 days with the potential for an extension.
NYC's mayoral races boils down to a battle between lifelong residents and city transplants
New York City’s mayoral race is surfacing the divide between lifelong New Yorkers and young professionals who have recently moved in.
Zohran Mamdani, the self-described socialist, has made efforts to court the latter group, campaigning on cost-of-living issues and building an engaging social media presence. The young voters that support him have seen rents soar in their Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods.
Despite Mamdani’s victory in the primary, Andrew Cuomo performed better in majority-Black, outer-borough neighborhoods that have experienced less gentrification. The same was true in other places like the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, also home to many longtime New Yorkers.
Here’s what NYC political fixtures had to say about the divide.
Patriots hand Bills first season loss on 'Sunday Night Football'
Dearly beloved, we gather here today to mourn the loss of the NFL season’s last undefeated teams. 🙏
First, the Philadelphia Eagles saw their 4-0 start and 12-game home winning streak spoiled at home by the Denver Broncos.
Then, the only other unbeaten team, Buffalo, saw its own hot start come to an end. The Bills’ 13-game home winning streak was snapped on “Sunday Night Football” after the New England Patriots kicked a late field goal to win, 23-20.
Every NFL team now has at least one loss, while only one team, the New York Jets, remains winless.
The longest active losing streak in the NFL also came to an end Sunday. The Tennessee Titans had lost 10 consecutive games until the wildest touchdown aided an unlikely comeback.
Read All About It
- A trio of scientists — two of them American and one Japanese — have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for their discoveries about the immune system.
- Former NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez is accused of approaching and assaulting a delivery driver while intoxicated before the driver then stabbed him multiple times in what he described as self-defense, according to a court filing.
- At least two people were killed and a dozen others wounded in a shooting in downtown Montgomery while the city was hosting the Alabama National Fair.
- More than 6,800 book bans were enacted during the 2024-25 school year in 87 public school districts. Did your favorites top the list?
- A 35-year-old skydiving instructor has died after he was “presumed to have fallen from the sky without a parachute,” police in Nashville, Tennessee, said.
Staff Pick: Shutdown cancels sports games and homecoming dances for kids in military-base schools
Dylan McDonald, a senior and co-captain of his school’s soccer team, said that, as a result of the government shutdown, his team’s season was cut short.
Dylan is one of more than 67,000 students at 161 schools worldwide that are on or near military bases and funded by the Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA. Due to the shutdown, DoDEA paused all extracurricular activities, including sports games.
If the shutdown continues, Dylan said his team could be forced to cancel their first game in the single-elimination district tournament next week, which jeopardizes his chances of playing on the all-district team and being recruited to play soccer in college.
“I put countless hours and blood, sweat and tears into this, and to not be able to finish properly based off of something that is uncontrollable to myself and my teammates and our families, yet still so directly affects us, is truly devastating,” Dylan said of the shutdown’s impact.
Dylan and his mother are among the eight parents and students at DoDEA schools who told NBC News how the government shutdown is affecting them, describing cancellations of sports practices and games, as well student theater productions and homecoming dances.
— Jo Yurcaba, NBC Out reporter
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