The United States and China plan to establish military-to-military communications channels ‘to deconflict and deescalate’ potential problems, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Saturday after talking with his Chinese counterpart.

In a post on X, Hegseth said he had a ‘positive meeting’ with Admiral Dong Jun, China’s Minister of National Defense, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

During their talk, the two defense leaders agreed that the best path forward for the U.S. and China involves ‘peace, stability, and good relations.’

‘Admiral Dong and I also agreed that we should set up military-to-military channels to deconflict and deescalate any problems that arise. We have more meetings on that coming soon. God bless both China and the USA!’ Hegseth wrote, in part.

Earlier Saturday, Hegseth attended a separate meeting in Malaysia with defense leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), where he urged them to push back against Beijing’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea.

‘China’s sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea fly in the face of their commitments to resolve disputes peacefully,’ Hegseth said at the meeting, according to The Associated Press. 

‘We seek peace. We do not seek conflict. But we must ensure that China is not seeking to dominate you or anybody else,’ he added.

The South China Sea remains volatile with Beijing, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all claiming overlapping territories. 

China’s maritime fleet has frequently clashed with the Philippines in the disputed waters, with Chinese officials recently describing the country as a ‘troublemaker’ for staging naval and air drills with the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

Hegseth defended the U.S. ally during the Saturday meeting by saying Beijing’s designation of the Scarborough Shoal – a territory seized from the Philippines in 2012 – as a ‘nature reserve’ ‘yet another attempt to coerce new and expanded territorial and maritime claims at your expense.’

The War Secretary then urged ASEAN to finalize the Code of Conduct with China and proposed creating a ‘shared maritime domain awareness’ network and rapid-response systems to deter provocations – measures he said would ensure that any member facing ‘aggression and provocation is not alone.’

Hegseth also welcomed plans for an ASEAN-U.S. maritime exercise in December aimed at strengthening coordination and safeguarding freedom of navigation.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa is expected to visit Washington, D.C., and meet with President Donald Trump next week, the first-ever official visit by a Syrian president to the U.S. capital.

A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital that the meeting was planned for Nov. 10. News of the meeting was first reported by Axios.

Trump and al-Sharaa met for the first time in May on the sidelines of the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia.

‘Young, attractive guy, tough guy,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after meeting al-Sharaa, who is a former Al-Qaeda leader. ‘Strong past, very strong past — fighter. He’s got a real shot at holding it together.’

Al-Sharaa, formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, led the rebel offensive in December that toppled former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

His group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, was designated by the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in June that the Trump administration would remove the label amid the president’s efforts to reset U.S.-Syria ties.

‘This FTO revocation is an important step in fulfilling President Trump’s vision of a stable, unified, and peaceful Syria,’ Rubio said in a statement.

Trump received a standing ovation in Riyadh after announcing his administration would order the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to ‘give them a chance at greatness.’

‘Oh, what I do for the crown prince,’ he joked, referring to Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin-Salman, who pushed Trump to meet with Syria’s new leader.

Efforts to lift the Caesar sanctions, the strongest sanctions on Syria, have faced procedural delays in Congress.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Reuters on Friday that the Trump administration supports repealing the Caesar sanctions through the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which is under discussion by U.S. lawmakers.

The bill, which was named after a Syrian Army defector who smuggled thousands of images documenting torture and executions in Bashar al-Assad’s prisons, targeted entities and individuals who provided support to Assad’s regime.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NEWARK, N.J. – Enthusiasm was high among New Jersey Democratic voters who flocked to a community college campus Saturday evening to hear from former President Barack Obama as he rallied support for Rep. Mikie Sherrill in her campaign for the governorship.

‘I heard Barack Obama was gonna be here. And I love Barack Obama, so I really came out here for that,’ one voter, Alexis from South Jersey, told Fox Digital. ‘But I do support Mikie, as well.’ 

‘I want to hear Obama,’ Robert, from Spring Lake, told Fox Digital. ‘I think a lot of people want to hear Obama. Wouldn’t it be great to have a message of hope at this point in time?’ 

Hundreds of supporters wrapped around multiple blocks surrounding the Essex County College’s gymnasium on Saturday to hear from Obama and Sherrill as the New Jersey election comes down to its final days. The packed auditorium hit capacity before the ‘Get Out the Vote’ rally officially kicked off, with supporters also watching the rally from an overflow parking lot. 

Prominent rally speakers and attendees alike celebrated hearing from Obama on Saturday, but also repeatedly spoke about President Donald Trump, slamming him for efforts to deport illegal aliens, and pinning blame for the ongoing federal government shutdown on Trump and Republicans. 

A handful of voters who spoke to Fox Digital relayed that their ballot was not one solely focused on Sherrill, but also a vote against Trump and his administration.  

‘Well, the top issue is Trump,’ said Robert from Spring Lake. ‘There’s nothing else other than that. … Trump is absolutely the worst,’ he added, citing that Trump is allegedly ‘anti-science’ and against education. 

‘To get Trump out of office, number one’ one female voter from South Jersey told Fox Digital of why she came out to the rally and her top voting concerns this election. 

‘I am voting for Mikie Sherrill because she actually understands all the people. She is not a minion for Trump,’ another South Jersey voter added. 

Obama also leaned into slamming Trump during his remarks to the crowd, claiming the current economy has benefited ‘Trump’s billionaire friends,’ while ‘ordinary families’ pay increased prices at check-out lines due to Trump’s ‘shambolic tariff policy.’ 

‘Let’s face it, our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now,’ Obama told the audience on Saturday. ‘It’s hard to know where to start, because every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and carelessness and mean spiritedness. And just plain old craziness.’

Comments targeting Trump and his administration extended to attacks on Ciattarelli, as well, with Obama casting him as the president’s toady and a ‘suck up’ to the Republican Party. 

Trump made inroads with New Jersey voters just a year ago, in his decisive general election win over former Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump cut his 2020 loss from 16 points in the Garden State to six in 2024, and flipped five counties to the GOP, invigorating Republicans in the state to keep the momentum going as GOP gubernatorial candidate Ciattarelli launched his bid for Drumthwacket. 

‘Please go out and vote,’ Irvington Councilwoman Charnette Frederic told Fox Digital. ‘And I’m hoping Obama is the last push to remind you.’

Frederic has served as an Irvington councilwoman since 2012, and said that Obama’s presence in the state for past campaign rallies spurred an influx of voters, remarking she’s hopeful the same will unfold ahead of Tuesday. 

‘I am an immigrant, and I believe in treating people with respect and dignity,’ Frederic said. ‘Whatever I’m seeing right now, this is not the kind of opportunity that we want for our people,’ adding that Sherrill will ‘stand for the people’ against the White House’s stances on immigration and other policies. 

Sherrill, DNC chair Ken Martin, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, and other local Democrats took the stage of the auditorium to rally support for Sherrill, while also criticizing the Trump administration as top voter concern. 

‘But my fight doesn’t and can’t end at the border of New Jersey. We’ve got to take on all those hits coming from Trump and Washington, D.C. Because right now the president is running a worldwide extortion racket. You pay more for everything from the coffee you drink in the morning to the groceries you’re cooking dinner with at night as Trump pockets billions. His energy plan is designed for just one audience. The fossil fuel industry,’ Sherrill claimed. 

2025 is an off-year election cycle, with just New Jersey and Virginia holding gubernatorial elections, while other jurisdictions such as New York City are holding mayoral races and other local races. 

As the government shutdown stretches over a month, one left-wing figure has emerged as House Republicans’ most-cited political boogeyman — and it’s not either of the top two Democrats in Congress.

Instead, it’s Zohran Mamdani, a New York State assemblyman and self-proclaimed democratic socialist who is running for mayor more than 200 miles away in New York City.

‘You’ve seen their party get pulled further to the socialist left, and it started when [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.] beat Joe Crowley. And ever since then, Democrats have been afraid of that kind of emerging wing of their party,’ House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital when asked why GOP leaders are invoking Mamdani so often.

‘Today, they are the center of the Democrat Party. They are running the Democrat Party, and you can see it, Mamdani is the one that they’re all scared of and they’re all listening to.’

He pointed to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and his recent endorsement of Mamdani.

‘It’s changed how they run their whole party operation, because they’re afraid of the left base of the party, which is really headed by Mamdani now,’ Scalise said.

House GOP leaders or speakers at their daily shutdown press conferences brought up Mamdani both directly and indirectly at every one of their press conferences last week.

At his Thursday press conference, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., accused the media of criticizing his frequent commentary on the New York City socialist.

‘Amazingly, the media is criticizing Republicans for fixating on Mamdani. I read some of that yesterday. This socialist uprising is something that we have a responsibility to call out and sound the alarms. That’s what elected representatives of the people are supposed to do,’ Johnson said.

‘And we take that responsibility seriously. And obviously, Mamdani is a big issue here in the halls of Congress. Why? Because the second-highest ranked Democrat in the country, Leader Jeffries, endorsed him.’

Republicans have also taken to calling him ‘commie Mamdani’ recently, a nickname debuted by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., during a shutdown press conference where House GOP leaders invited Republicans in New York’s congressional delegation to speak.

Mamdani himself criticized Johnson at one point for his focus on him earlier this month.

‘Speaker Johnson should be seating members of Congress, as opposed to using his time to try and attack our campaign,’ Mamdani fired back from Manhattan on Monday.

‘But I understand if I was one of the leaders of the Republican Party that had led a campaign that promised Americans a lower cost of living and cheaper groceries, and all I could deliver for them was a government shutdown, then I, too, would be looking to distract in any way that I could from those lack of results.’

NEWARK, N.J. – Enthusiasm was high among New Jersey Democratic voters who flocked to a community college campus Saturday evening to hear from former President Barack Obama as he rallied support for Rep. Mikie Sherrill in her campaign for the governorship.

‘I heard Barack Obama was gonna be here. And I love Barack Obama, so I really came out here for that,’ one voter, Alexis from South Jersey, told Fox Digital. ‘But I do support Mikie, as well.’ 

‘I want to hear Obama,’ Robert, from Spring Lake, told Fox Digital. ‘I think a lot of people want to hear Obama. Wouldn’t it be great to have a message of hope at this point in time?’ 

Hundreds of supporters wrapped around multiple blocks surrounding the Essex County College’s gymnasium on Saturday to hear from Obama and Sherrill as the New Jersey election comes down to its final days. The packed auditorium hit capacity before the ‘Get Out the Vote’ rally officially kicked off, with supporters also watching the rally from an overflow parking lot. 

Prominent rally speakers and attendees alike celebrated hearing from Obama on Saturday, but also repeatedly spoke about President Donald Trump, slamming him for efforts to deport illegal aliens, and pinning blame for the ongoing federal government shutdown on Trump and Republicans. 

A handful of voters who spoke to Fox Digital relayed that their ballot was not one solely focused on Sherrill, but also a vote against Trump and his administration.  

‘Well, the top issue is Trump,’ said Robert from Spring Lake. ‘There’s nothing else other than that.… Trump is absolutely the worst,’ he added, citing that Trump is allegedly ‘anti-science’ and against education. 

‘To get Trump out of office, number one,’ one female voter from South Jersey told Fox Digital of why she came out to the rally and her top voting concerns this election. 

‘I am voting for Mikie Sherrill because she actually understands all the people. She is not a minion for Trump,’ another South Jersey voter added. 

Obama also leaned into slamming Trump during his remarks to the crowd, claiming the current economy has benefited ‘Trump’s billionaire friends,’ while ‘ordinary families’ pay increased prices at check-out lines due to Trump’s ‘shambolic tariff policy.’ 

‘Let’s face it, our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now,’ Obama told the audience on Saturday. ‘It’s hard to know where to start, because every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and carelessness and mean-spiritedness. And just plain old craziness.’

Comments targeting Trump and his administration extended to attacks on GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, as well, with Obama casting him as the president’s toady and a ‘suck up’ to the Republican Party. 

Trump made inroads with New Jersey voters just a year ago, in his decisive general election win over former Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump cut his 2020 loss from 16 points in the Garden State to six in 2024, and flipped five counties to the GOP, invigorating Republicans in the state to keep the momentum going as Ciattarelli launched his bid for Drumthwacket. 

‘Please go out and vote,’ Irvington Councilwoman Charnette Frederic told Fox Digital. ‘And I’m hoping Obama is the last push to remind you.’

Frederic has served as an Irvington councilwoman since 2012, and said Obama’s presence in the state for past campaign rallies spurred an influx of voters, remarking she’s hopeful the same will unfold ahead of Tuesday. 

‘I am an immigrant, and I believe in treating people with respect and dignity,’ Frederic said. ‘Whatever I’m seeing right now, this is not the kind of opportunity that we want for our people,’ adding that Sherrill will ‘stand for the people’ against the White House’s stances on immigration and other policies. 

Sherrill, DNC chair Ken Martin, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, and other local Democrats took the stage of the auditorium to rally support for Sherrill, while also criticizing the Trump administration. 

‘But my fight doesn’t and can’t end at the border of New Jersey. We’ve got to take on all those hits coming from Trump and Washington, D.C. Because right now the president is running a worldwide extortion racket. You pay more for everything from the coffee you drink in the morning to the groceries you’re cooking dinner with at night as Trump pockets billions. His energy plan is designed for just one audience. The fossil fuel industry,’ Sherrill claimed. 

During this off-year election cycle, New Jersey and Virginia are holding gubernatorial elections, while other jurisdictions such as New York City are holding mayoral races and other local races. 

President Donald Trump spent the week in Asia meeting with other global leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, while his administration ramped up its attacks against alleged drug boats in Latin America.

Trump met with Xi Thursday in South Korea, where the two hashed out a series of agreements concerning trade. Specifically, Trump said he agreed to cut tariffs on Chinese imports by 10% — reducing the rate to from 57% to 47% — because China said it would cooperate with the U.S. on addressing the fentanyl crisis.

Additionally, Trump said that he would not move forward with imposing an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods that were expected to kick in Saturday. Trump threatened the steep hike after China announced in October it would impose export controls on rare earth magnets, which he said China had agreed to postpone by a year.

Afterward, Trump described the meeting as a massive success, and signaled that a broader trade deal between the two countries would be signed shortly.

‘Zero, to 10, with 10 being the best, I’d say the meeting was a 12,’ Trump told reporters after meeting with Xi. ‘A lot of decisions were made … and we’ve come to a conclusion on very many important points.’

From China’s point of view, Xi said afterward the two countries should work together and complete outstanding tasks from the summit for the ‘peace of mind’ of China, the U.S., and the rest of the world.

‘Both sides should take the long-term perspective into account, focusing on the benefits of cooperation rather than falling into a vicious cycle of mutual retaliation,’ Xi said, according to a state media report on the meeting.

Additionally, Trump announced on the Asia trip, which also included stops in Malaysia and Japan, that he would instruct the U.S. to revive nuclear weapons testing —upending decades of precedent on nuclear policy, as the U.S. has not conducted nuclear weapons testing since 1992. The announcement also left lawmakers, experts and military personnel wondering what he meant since no other country has conducted a known nuclear test since North Korea in 2017.

China’s and Russia’s last known tests go back to the 1990s, when Russia was still the Soviet Union.

The White House did not provide comment to Fox News Digital. The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

However, experts are aligned that Trump likely meant he would instruct the U.S. to either increase its testing of nuclear-powered weapons systems or conduct tests of low-yield nuclear weapons.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters Thursday that Trump would continue to work on nuclear proliferation, but said testing would be done to guarantee weapons are working at optimal capability.

‘It’s an important part of American national security to make sure that this nuclear arsenal we have actually functions properly,’ Vance said. ‘And that’s part of a testing regime. To be clear, we know that it does work properly, but you got to keep on top of it over time. And the president just wants to make sure that we do that with his nation.’

The Trump administration also stepped up its campaign against drug cartels in Latin America, totaling at least 14 strikes against alleged drug boats in the region.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday that the U.S. had conducted three strikes against four vessels in the Eastern Pacific, and Hegseth announced Wednesday another strike had also been conducted in those waters.

But the White House dismissed reports Friday that the Trump administration had identified and was poised to strike military targets within Venezuela imminently. Trump later told reporters that he hadn’t determined whether he would conduct strikes within Venezuela.

Lawmakers — including some Republicans — have pressed for more answers on the strikes, and have questioned if they are even legal. For example, Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., spearheaded a war powers resolution that would prohibit U.S. armed forces from engaging in ‘hostilities’ against Venezuela.

‘The Trump administration has made it clear they may launch military action inside Venezuela’s borders and won’t stop at boat strikes in the Caribbean,’ Schiff said in an Oct. 17 statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump wants Senate Republicans to gut the Senate filibuster, but it’s a request that puts his quick-fix desire to end the shutdown at odds with the GOP’s long-held defense of the filibuster.

The Senate filibuster is the 60-vote threshold that applies to most bills in the upper chamber, and given the nature of the thin majorities that either party has commanded in recent years, that means that legislation typically has to be bipartisan to advance.

It has also proven to be the main roadblock in reopening the government. Despite Republicans controlling the upper chamber, they have routinely come up a handful of votes short in their 13 attempts to end the shutdown.

Three members of the Democratic caucus have broken from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and their colleagues to reopen the government, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., needs five more to hit the magic number.

Trump, in a late-night Truth Social post, said that on his return trip from Asia, he ruminated heavily over why the government had shut down despite Republicans being in control. His solution was for Senate 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,’ Trump said.

Senate Republicans have already gone nuclear this year to unilaterally change the rules to blast through Schumer’s and Democrats’ blockade of Trump’s nominees. But for many Senate Republicans, including Thune and his leadership team, nuking the filibuster is a proverbial third rail.

‘There’s always a lot of swirl out there, as you know from, you know, social media, etc., but no, we’re not having that conversation,’ Thune said earlier this month when asked about pressure to go nuclear on the filibuster.

And there isn’t much daylight between his sentiments from earlier in October to now.

‘Leader Thune’s position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged,’ Thune’s spokesperson Ryan Wrasse said in a statement.

Earlier this month during an appearance on Fox & Friends, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., shared a similar outlook as Thune when asked if the filibuster was under consideration to be on the chopping block.

‘No, that’s not going to be the case,’ he said. ‘There aren’t the Republicans that would want to support it.’

The filibuster has come under fire in the last decade from Senate Democrats, a point that Trump noted in his lengthy post.

The last time the filibuster was put to the test was when Democrats controlled the Senate in 2022. Schumer, who was majority leader at the time, tried to change the rules for a ‘talking filibuster’ in order to pass voting rights legislation.

But the effort was thwarted when then-Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., joined Republicans to block the change. Both have since retired from the Senate and become independents.

Still, the stalemate in the Senate has shown no signs of shattering as the shutdown heads into November, though bipartisan talks among rank-and-file members have been on the rise as federal food benefits career toward a weekend funding cliff.

Across the building, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also warned against turning to the nuclear option for the filibuster, even as a handful of House Republicans have demanded that the safeguard be erased.

‘Look, I’ll just say this in general, as I’ve said many times about the filibuster, it’s not my call. I don’t have a say in this. It’s a Senate chamber issue,’ Johnson said. ‘But the filibuster has traditionally been viewed as a very important safeguard. If the shoe was on the other foot, I don’t think our team would like it.’

With no deal in place to reopen the government and no action from the administration to make up for a funding shortfall in federal benefits, millions of Americans are at risk of losing food benefits starting on Saturday.

The argument raging in the Senate mirrors the same argument that has so far seen the government shutdown for 32 days.

Senate Democrats contend that with the stroke of a pen — like on expiring Obamacare subsidies — President Donald Trump could easily see the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps, funded as the shutdown drags on.

‘We don’t want to pit healthcare and food, [Republicans] do,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. ‘We think you can have both.’

But congressional Republicans and the administration argue that food stamp benefits, and numerous other government programs, could be fully funded if Schumer and his caucus would unlock the votes to reopen the government.

Democrats are suing the Trump administration in part over its refusal to use the SNAP emergency fund, which they contend has about $5 billion, to fund the program. But a recent memo by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) argued there was no legal standing to use the fund and that federal SNAP funds would run dry by Nov. 1 if Democrats did not vote to end the shutdown.

A pair of federal judges ruled on Friday that the administration would have to pay out the food stamp benefits for November, either in full or partially. 

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins affirmed the memo during a Friday press conference, ‘There is a contingency fund at USDA, but that contingency fund, by the way, doesn’t even cover, I think, half of the $9.2 billion that would be required for November SNAP. But it is only allowed to flow if the underlying program is funded.’

Nothing typified the dysfunction over the benefits, which 42 million Americans rely on, more than an explosion on the Senate floor this week between Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M.

Luján tried to force a vote on his bill that would fund both food stamps and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), but was promptly blocked by an angry Thune, who argued that Democrats have had 13 chances to fund the program through the shutdown.

‘This isn’t a political game, these are real people’s lives we’re talking about,’ Thune said. ‘And you all have just figured out, 29 days in, that, oh, there might be some consequences.’

Democrats contend that Trump and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program, are actively choosing not to fund the program, given that there is roughly $5 billion in an emergency contingency fund that the administration could dip into.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., charged that it was ‘Trump’s choice.’

‘He’s got $5 billion that he could be using right now to help people, to help people feed their kids, and he’s choosing not to do that,’ he said. ‘What he’s doing is sick, deliberately making this shutdown more painful as a means to try to get Democrats to sign on to an immoral, corrupt budget.’

The argument has been much the same in the House of Representatives, which passed the GOP’s federal funding bill on Sept. 19. Both Republicans and Democrats appear worried, however.

‘I just left the local food pantry in my district and was speaking with seniors there, and they’re all very concerned,’ Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., whose district is home to more than 120,000 SNAP recipients, told Fox News Digital. ‘They agree with me that the Senate, beginning with their own senator, Senator Schumer, should vote to continue the existing funding levels that they previously voted for four times and prevent this unnecessary pain.’

There is a desire among both sides of the aisle to fund the program before the government reopens, but the likelihood of piecemeal bills, or ‘rifle-shots,’ making it to the floor was squashed by Thune during the week.

Both Luján and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have bills that would fund food stamps, with Hawley’s bill having 29 bipartisan co-sponsors, including Schumer.

One of the co-sponsors, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital that the administration’s argument, in part, was because the $5 billion in the contingency fund was not enough to cover a month’s worth of food stamp benefits.

‘It’s hurricane season, and that’s what it’s really satisfying,’ he said. ‘But it’s not enough, either way. We’ve tried 14 times to be able to fully fund SNAP — once with an actual appropriation bill … to say, ‘let’s just fund it for the entire year,’ 13 times to do short term. It’s a little frustrating. Some of my Democratic colleagues are saying, ‘Well, find some way to fund it for a week or so, move things around.’’

But on the House side, it’s not clear if Democrats nor Republicans have the appetite for piecemeal bills during the shutdown.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has consistently said he will only call the House back into session if Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government.

Meanwhile, Fox News Digital asked Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., during a press conference on SNAP this week whether he was discussing food stamp legislation with his Senate counterparts.

‘I’m familiar with the proposals, and I know that many of my colleagues … have proposed legislation here in the House as well. Those conversations will continue,’ Neguse said. But, ‘ultimately,’ he added, ‘legislation doesn’t need to be passed in order for these funds to be released. It is the law.’

We have passed the spooky season of silly ‘No Kings’ protests and whines about White House renovations. Halloween is the start of one of our favorite times of year – eating. The three biggest food holidays land within two months – Halloween (Candyland for those of us with sweet teeth), Thanksgiving and Christmas. And the best two are still on their way – sort of like dessert before the main course. So, who better to lead that off than our friends at Peta.

1. Peta bites again

Peta, which wouldn’t exist if people didn’t eat animals or wear animals or have pets or look at animals in zoos, etc., is one of the strangest organizations around. It is so pro-animal and anti-human that it’s always good for a laugh or a gross out. (We dropped one previous item that was, well, funereal. Trust me, you are better off.) This month, it’s sort of similar, except it’s about a memorial … for some of those previously mentioned tasty animals.

According to Peta, ‘Wesleyan University, students, faculty, and alumni are coming together to build a more compassionate campus.’ No, they’re not doing charity work or going to animal shelters adopting cute puppies. That would make sense. They’re pushing for a plaque. They are ‘calling on the school to install a PETA-supported ‘Wesleyan Animal Recognition Memorial.’’ What’s that, you ask? It’s a memorial plaque ‘outside the dining hall that would commemorate the millions of chickens, cows, fish, pigs, and others who have been killed and served there as food.’

Yum. Imagine getting ready to eat your industrial, cafeteria burger or chicken fingers and pass by a memorial devoted to the dead critters you are about to eat. For what we are about to receive, thank Peta.

2. Loving those cop killers

The far-left news outlet The Nation sure does take ‘F— the police’ pretty far. The publication’s Sports Editor Dave Zirin wrote a loving piece about infamous cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal under the headline, ‘Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaks With the Clear Voice of a Free Man.’ 

News flash, he isn’t free and isn’t much of a man either. ‘Mumia,’ as his supporters call him, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1982 for murdering Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. He managed to escape the death penalty, but go to almost any leftist protest in the last 40 years and a couple idiots will be carrying ‘Free Mumia’ signs.

The timing of Zirin’s latest interview (he wrote about Mumia for Rolling Stone earlier this year) came right after ‘an event commemorating the recently departed revolutionary Assata Shakur, the former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army who escaped a New Jersey prison to Cuba 46 years ago.’ 

In other words, another cop killer. According to the New York Times’ loving farewell to Shakur, she murdered ‘state trooper, Werner Foerster, [who] was killed and another, James Harper, [who] was wounded.’ 

Notice a trend? You should. Shakur died in September, or I’d dwell more on the media’s love fest for her. Watching Zirin lament the poor health of ‘the country’s best-known political prisoner’ was bad enough. For the record, I lament his health, too, just not in the same way.

3. Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow 

If you travel the back roads of the United States, you will encounter oddities – large monuments to furniture, trolls, a giant elephant and even Carhenge. (Just what you think it is. Stonehenge is better.) Count wacky museums in that list. But we are losing one, Leila’s Hair Museum in Missouri. Alas, Leila Cohoon died at 92 and now they are, ‘rehoming the collection of more than 3,000 pieces to museums across the country,’ according to the Associated Press.

AP describes the hair art coming from, ‘from past presidents, Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe and even Jesus.’ (That last one, I kind of doubt.) 

Hair art used to be how people remembered loved ones or captured keepsakes of famous people. The museum also drew the attention of celebrities from comedian Phyllis Diller to Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne. It’s good to see other museums taking on these unusual memories, but that’s one less cool roadside stop.

4. When You’ve Lost the Washington Post… 

Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the news in October and not in a good way. She should be used to that after an inauspicious term in her role covering for President Joe Biden’s obvious dementia. ‘KJP,’ as she is sometimes called, has a new book out, ‘Moving Forward: A Story of Hope, Hard Work, and the Promise of America.’ In World Series terms, she whiffed on all three. Don’t wait to buy your copy.

Even the Washington Post had unkind words for it. Book critic Becca Rothfeld wrote a lede 190 words long with six semicolons and two em dashes. She complained that KJP had only given up on the Democratic Party because it helped ‘usher a doddering Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential race.’ 

The piece called KJP a ‘devoted apparatchik’ and ‘revealingly blinkered.’ She’s ‘an artifact of an age that looks recent on paper but feels prehistoric in practice — the age of pantsuits, the word ‘empowerment,’ the musical ‘Hamilton,’ the cheap therapeutic entreaties to ‘work on yourself’ and ‘lean in’ to various corporate abysses.’

Rothfeld guts the author and the book, noting, ‘It is incredible — and emblematic of the Democrats’ total aesthetic and intellectual driftlessness — that someone who writes in such feel-good, thought-repelling clichés was hired to communicate with the nation from its highest podium.’ I wouldn’t recommend KJP send her resume to the Post just yet.

5. Democrats Don’t Know What a Woman Is

It takes MSNBC to complain about misogyny in a governor’s race … between two women. Yep, the bright lights of ‘Morning Joe,’ the same show that told you demented Biden was ‘intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever,’ now whine that voting against Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sexist. One small problem with that, the Republican candidate is Winsome Earle-Sears, who also happens to be a woman.

Co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Jonathan Lemire had an epic exchange on why female Democrats are struggling. ‘They’ve nominated women two of the last three elections for the presidency — lost both. There are some who say, ‘Well, we can’t do that again. The stakes are too high.’ But, of course, that does fall into the same misogynistic trap,’ said Lemire. To which Brzezinski replied, ‘Other countries have no problem electing women.’ 

Earle-Sears had the last laugh until Election Day, tweeting, ‘Who wants to tell them?’

Rap superstar Nicki Minaj recently thanked President Donald Trump for shedding light on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

‘Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,’ Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Friday. ‘The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world!’

Minaj is open about her Christian faith and said that the president’s statement made her ‘feel a deep sense of gratitude.’

‘Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other,’ Minaj wrote.

‘Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror [and] it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice. Thank you to the president [and] his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer,’ she added.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz thanked Minaj for ‘using your platform to speak out in defense of the Christians being persecuted in Nigeria.’

‘We cannot allow this to continue,’ Waltz added. ‘Every brother and sister of Christ must band together and say, ‘Enough!”

The situation for Christians in Nigeria has become dire as entire villages have been burned to the groups, worshippers have been murdered at Sunday services and thousands have been displaced by Islamist groups sweeping through the country.

‘Even being conservative, it’s probably 4,000 to 8,000 Christians killed annually,’ Mark Walker, Trump’s ambassador-designate for International Religious Freedom, told Fox News Digital. ‘This has been going on for years — from ISWAP to Islamist Fulani ethnic militias — and the Nigerian government has to be much more proactive.’

Trump said he has directed Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and members of the House Appropriations Committee to investigate the situation and report their findings to him.

The president also said that he would designate Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern’ (CPC). According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in countries with that designation, the government has ‘engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom,’ which is defined as ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.’ This comes from the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.

‘Nigeria is the most dangerous nation on Earth to follow Christ,’ the House Appropriations Committee said in a statement. ‘For simply practicing their faith, Christians are actively being kidnapped, attacked, and slaughtered. With President Trump announcing he will be redesignating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, the United States is making clear in one resolute voice: religious persecution will not be tolerated. The scourge of anti-Christian violence and oppression of other religious minorities by radical Islamic terrorists is an affront to religious freedom. This is a critical step in mobilizing leadership and attention to confront evil extremism.’

The committee vowed that once the government shutdown is over, its members will ‘continue moving full-year appropriations across the finish line to uphold your priorities. We know you’ll be ready at your desk with a pen in hand.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Minaj’s representative for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter and Sophia Compton contributed to this report.