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With the government shutdown now in day four and no compromise in sight, a federal budget expert says two dates could send things "spiraling out of control": the first day essential federal workers go without pay and the first day service members miss a paycheck.

The next federal worker pay date is Oct. 10 and the next pay date for the military is Oct. 15, according to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and U.S. General Services Administration. 

Richard Stern, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at the Heritage Foundation, explained that while both sides are blaming the other for the shutdown, neither wants to be responsible for essential government workers or the troops to miss out on pay, making those dates central to ending the shutdown.

Stern explained that while Democratic leaders are attempting to blame the GOP for the shutdown, it was their decision to reject a compromise temporary spending bill that shut down the government.

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Democrats have insisted that any agreement to keep the government funded must extend tax credits for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) beyond the end of this year, a provision Republicans rejected.

Some Democrats have even admitted it was their decision to close the government. In a viral video, Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., said, "We got to make sure Americans have the healthcare that they need, and if that means we’ve got to shut the government down, so be it."

Former Politico reporter Rachel Bade also went on the record recently, saying, "The pressure is just going to skyrocket on Democrats."

"I mean, it's not just some people who live paycheck-to-paycheck. Most people cannot go without getting a subsequent paycheck. Like, that's just the reality of things — troops not getting paid," said Bade. "So, I think over the next, you know, week or so, if it lasts that long, we're just going to have this … gut-wrenching reminder of what shutdowns mean."

Stern likened the Democrats’ actions to deciding to "stomp [their] feet and make a dramatic situation out of it."

REPUBLICANS ERUPT OVER SHUTDOWN CHAOS, ACCUSE DEMS OF HOLDING GOVERNMENT 'HOSTAGE'

"Republicans passed a clean seven-week funding bill. They offered them the ability to fund the government for seven weeks and continue negotiations," he said. "It was superfluous. It really was gratuitous of them to say, no, we demand the shutdown."

"Democrats are asking for a restoration of so-called foreign aid. But a lot of that is money for transgender surgeries and abortions overseas," Stern continued. "They want more money to go to NPR and PBS, that spread left-wing propaganda. They want other grant money that goes to left-wing causes. But the big ticket item is they want one and a half trillion dollars of extension of a welfare program that largely hands money to very well-off Americans, and included in that, they want to remove anti-fraud provisions that were passed in the one big, beautiful bill. Not only would that increase fraud, but it will actually effectively expand these welfare benefits to legal aliens. So, it's hard to understand where they're coming from, but that's what they're asking."

"So, at the end of the day, I think they're going to get the blame that I think they deserve."

President Donald Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought have indicated the administration could use mandatory pots of money provided in the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act to ensure that service members, Border Patrol agents and other Homeland Security personnel paychecks are not interrupted, which could serve as a lifeline for Democrats, Stern noted.

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Even if this is the case, the White House noted shortly before the shutdown began that the government closure would jeopardize military pay, critical care for veterans, firefighter pay, disaster relief funding and many other programs important to Americans.

Either way, Stern said that the longer the shutdown continues, the greater the danger that funding can fail, and essential services start buckling under the pressure.

One example of essential federal workers who could be impacted by an extended government shutdown is air traffic controllers and other FAA personnel, who do not receive paychecks during government shutdowns despite being required to work to keep the nation’s flight schedules safe and on time. Though they are eventually paid when the government reopens, extended periods of time without a paycheck lead to stress on both the workers and the overall flight system.

SOCIAL SECURITY, AIRPORTS, FOOD STAMPS: HOW ARE YOU AFFECTED DURING A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?

In 2019, on the 35th day of a government shutdown, ten air traffic controllers called in sick in Virginia and Florida, triggering ground stops at LaGuardia Airport in New York and cascading delays at Newark, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

"This gets to the question of when do things start spiraling out of control?" said Stern, adding, "Some of these program expirations, as the shutdown drags on, might put more of a fire under Congress on both sides to reach a deal, whatever it means."

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50 Cent wasted no time mocking Sean "Diddy" Combs after the music mogul was sentenced Friday to 50 months in prison on federal prostitution charges.

The rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, posted on X not long after Diddy's sentence was revealed, offering to take his spot at an upcoming speaking engagement. 

"Hey to whoever was booking Diddy for speaking engagement. I heard he won’t be able to make it, 🤷 I’m available! 😆" 50 Cent wrote, including a link to his website, G-Unit Brands.

He was likely referencing speaking engagements that Diddy had booked for next week in Miami, which the prosecution revealed during the sentencing hearing.

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The two artists are longtime rivals – their feud goes back decades after 50 Cent accused Diddy of knowing who murdered rapper Notorious B.I.G. on his 2006 diss track "The Bomb."

On Thursday, the eve of the sentencing, 50 Cent posted a "letter" he wrote to Judge Arun Subramanian, who issued the ruling in Diddy's case.

"I have had an ongoing dispute with Puffy (one of Diddy's nicknames) for over 20 years. He is very dangerous. Multiple times I have feared for my life," the letter reads.

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50 Cent then goes on to explain why he thinks Diddy should remain in jail and ends the letter with a reference to all the baby oil found when federal authorities raided Diddy's properties last year.

A jury found Diddy guilty on both counts of transportation to engage in prostitution during his sex trafficking and racketeering trial in July 2025. He was found not guilty of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.

In addition to the 50-month sentence, Diddy will have five years of supervised release and pay a $500,000 fine.

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Japan is on track to get its first female prime minister after the leading conservative party elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader. 

Takaichi, the former economic security minister of Japan, beat Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in a runoff in an intraparty vote on Saturday by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Takaichi is replacing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as the party looks to regain public support and stay in power. 

Despite suffering major election losses, the Liberal Democratic Party remains by far the largest in the lower house and determines Japan’s leader because opposition groups are highly splintered.

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In the first round of voting, Takaichi finished first with 183 votes and Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi placed second with 164. Because neither candidate reached a majority in the first round, the winner was determined in an immediate two-way runoff. 

The LDP, whose consecutive losses in parliamentary elections in the past year have left it in the minority in both houses, sought a leader who can quickly address challenges both domestic and international, while seeking cooperation from key opposition groups to implement its policies.

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Takaichi, a hard-line conservative who’s cited former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as her hero, has called for strengthening Japan’s military, and taking a tougher stance against China and North Korea. She also opposes same-sex marriage and retains ties to nationalist groups. 

Takaichi also faces a possible summit with President Donald Trump, who could demand that Japan increase its defense spending. A meeting is reportedly being planned for late October. Trump will travel to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea starting Oct. 31.

The LDP also needs help from the opposition, which it has long neglected. The party will likely look to expand its coalition with the moderate centrist Komeito with at least one of the key opposition parties, which are more centrist.

A parliamentary vote is expected in mid-October.  

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President Donald Trump recently told United Nations delegates what many in the developing world already know: wind and solar are not strong enough to power the industrial growth needed to lift nations out of poverty. He warned that Europe must urgently address both uncontrolled immigration and the misguided energy policies that are fueling it.

Renewables are "not strong enough to fire up the plants that you need to make your country great," the president declared. Europeans "must take control strongly and immediately of the unmitigated immigration disaster and the fake energy catastrophe before it's too late."

Trump is right to link these two seemingly disconnected issues. By forcing green energy on developing countries, the UN and other international organizations are complicit in today’s migration disaster, as residents flee places prevented from moving towards Western standards of living and well-paying jobs.

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The UN could take a meaningful step by permanently disbanding its Net Zero Banking Alliance, which pressures financial institutions to stop lending for fossil-fuel projects in developing countries. Though currently paused, the Alliance’s climate guidance urges banks to set "credible, robust, impactful and ambitious targets" aligned with the Paris Agreement. In practice, this means prioritizing green energy over economic development.

The World Bank has followed suit, discouraging lending for fossil fuels and nuclear power while favoring renewables. But, this approach ignores a fundamental truth: poverty, not climate change, remains the greatest threat to humanity. That’s the conclusion of the U.S. Department of Energy’s latest climate report, yet unlikely to be embraced by the UN’s climate science review panels.

Restricting access to reliable energy keeps African and Latin American nations poor and drives migration to Europe and North America. If the West truly wants to reduce migration pressures, it should support, not block, energy infrastructure that enables economic growth.

The consequences of these lending bans are severe. Without financing for fossil-fuel power plants, transmission lines, or household electricity meters, emerging economies are literally left in the dark. China, meanwhile, steps in with loans and takes ports and other strategic assets as collateral. This energy embargo causes vast economic damage, traps nations in poverty, and pushes their citizens to seek opportunity elsewhere.

Consider the numbers: in 2020, 11 million Africans lived in Europe, 5 million in Asia, and 3 million in North America. That same year, 25 million Latin Americans lived in North America. These migration patterns are not random — they reflect the energy gap between rich and poor nations.

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No country has achieved high per capita income with low energy use. The correlation is clear: more energy means more productivity, better healthcare, safer water, and higher agricultural yields. Countries with energy use below 500 kilowatt-hours per person typically have incomes around $1,000 per year. At 10,000 kWh, poverty begins to decline. At 100,000 kWh, it virtually disappears.

High-energy-use nations enjoy better lives because they can afford doctors, clean water and pollution control. Meanwhile, natural disasters hit poor countries hardest — not because nature is crueler there, but because they lack the infrastructure to prepare and recover. Affordable energy is the great equalizer.

In 2018, Lesotho, Djibouti and Zimbabwe each consumed less than 4,000 kWh per capita and had incomes around $4,450. By contrast, Norway, the United States, and Iceland consumed over 80,000 kWh and had GDPs near $45,000. The difference is stark and instructive.

When poor countries are denied access to reliable energy, their citizens look abroad for opportunity. Illegal immigration imposes real costs on the West. The solution isn’t more border enforcement, but enabling real economic progress in Latin America and Africa.

If the UN wants to help countries grow and stem migration, it should stop romanticizing renewables and start supporting the energy sources that actually power prosperity.

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When Marjorie Taylor Greene first came to Congress, it is fair to say, she was viewed as something of a kook.

She indulged in conspiracy theories and repeated Q’Anon quackery, which she later acknowledged was a mistake.

But now MTG has evolved into President Trump’s most vociferous critic – which is especially noticeable in a party that follows their leader at almost every turn.

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The Georgia congresswoman, an ultra-conservative, still says she likes Trump, but she’s largely in the business of denouncing him on various issues. And that hasn’t exactly gone unnoticed.

When you spend a little time with Marjorie, you quickly realize that she’s smarter than her media image and a shrewd practitioner of the political game.

After she was elected, Greene faced a censure vote for having "repeatedly fanned the flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred." She also "mocked the Holocaust" and said "Joe Biden is Hitler."

But the Democratic member pushing the resolution withdrew it at the last minute. Greene, though, was not put on any committees.

The media and political community started taking her more seriously when she became a key ally of Kevin McCarthy and helped get him elected House speaker, despite rumors that he might quit the race.

"That was something that the media kept spinning around," she told me on "Media Buzz." "They were trying to say that Kevin McCarthy would drop out or that the conference was going to pull away. Absolutely not. And President Trump really helped with that."

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She held up the phone when Trump said he wanted to talk with another Republican, Matt Rosedale, who refused to take the call.

Trump "was angry," Greene told me. "He yelled at me on the House floor, telling me, don't you ever do this. I was so surprised. I couldn't understand. I was holding out my phone, saying, it's President Trump, he wants to speak with you."

Greene couldn’t save McCarthy when he was deposed, and she was on her own again.

Now the New York Times is portraying her as part of a growing MAGA divide.

Greene has been pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. And a Trump official made it known that would be viewed as a hostile act.

MTG told the Times that she called a top White House aide.

"I told them, ‘You didn’t get me elected. I do not work for you; I work for my district.’ We aren’t supposed to just be whipped on our votes because they’re telling us what to do with this scary threat, or saying ‘We’ll primary you,’ or that we won’t get invited to the White House events."

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Her attitude: "[Expletive] you."

Greene has also challenged the president on foreign policy, saying she still believes in the concept of America First. Proudly proclaiming herself to be a Christian nationalist, she was the first Hill Republican to accuse Israel of genocide: "You can’t un-see dead children. That’s not fake. It’s not war propaganda."

She is also an ardent critic of federal funding for Ukraine and voted against aid packages, despite Trump’s new support for the sovereign country invaded by Russia. Greene not only says taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be used to fund foreign wars, but she has clashed with Speaker Mike Johnson, attempting to oust him for depending on Democratic votes to pass Ukrainian aid.

Greene, who has also opposed the White House on artificial intelligence, is clearly enjoying her newfound independence. She posted this: "If you tell the base of people, who support you, of deep state treasonous crimes, and rich powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of The People."

Otherwise, "the base will turn and there’s no going back."

It’s not that MTG still doesn’t say wacky things. After the murder of Charlie Kirk, she called for a "national divorce" in which the country’s red states would secede from the blue states. How exactly would that work?

"There is nothing left to talk about with the left. They hate us," she said.

MTG’s boyfriend is Brian Glenn, chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, who usually asks the president friendly questions (and chided Volodymyr Zelensky for not wearing a suit). She was married to her ex-husband for 27 years before he filed for divorce.

Whatever her ambitions, she recently passed up potential runs for governor and the Senate. 

"One day," she says, "I might just run without the blessing from the good ole boys club or the out-of-state consulting leeches or even without the blessing of my favorite president."

In the meantime, a lower profile is not exactly in the cards.

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MADISON, N.J. - EXCLUSIVE - The nation's capital isn't the only battlefield in the blame game between Democrats and Republicans over the first federal government shutdown in seven years.

The verbal crossfire is also playing out on the campaign trail in New Jersey, which is home to one of only two elections for governor across the nation this year.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli, in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital, pointed fingers at his Democratic rival, Rep. Mikie Sherrill.

After Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman, charged in a statement that "Washington Republicans have once again shown they’re willing to turn their backs on the American people in order to blindly follow Donald Trump's demands," Ciattarelli criticized his opponent in the combustible, competitive, and high-profile ballot box showdown.

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"There's nothing my opponent won't blame on President Trump. As I like to say, if you get a flat [tire] today, it's President Trump's fault," Ciattarelli argued, in a sitdown interview after taking part in a candidate forum hosted by Fairleigh Dickinson University.

With neither Trump and the Republican majority in Congress, nor congressional Democrats willing to lower the temperature, the government shutdown at midnight Tuesday.

BLAME GAME OVER SHUTDOWN INTENSIFIES 

Democrats insisted that any agreement to prevent a government shutdown, or now to end the shutdown, must extend tax credits for the popular Affordable Care Act (ACA) beyond the end of this year. Those credits, which millions of Americans rely on to reduce the costs of health care plans under the ACA, which was once known as Obamacare, are set to expire unless Congress acts.

But most Republicans oppose the extension of the credits and argue that the Democrats' demands would lead to a huge increase in taxpayer-funded healthcare for immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Sherrill, along with every other House Democrat except Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted against a GOP stopgap measure that would have temporarily averted the shutdown.

Ciattarelli, pointing to his rival's vote in Congress, said, "I do know that there's a bipartisan group of congresspeople that are trying to keep the government open. My opponent has decided not to be part of that bipartisan group, and she voted no. And so here we are."

Sherrill, who has repeatedly linked Ciattarrelli to Trump, placed the shutdown blame squarely on Trump's shoulders, writing in a social media post, "This is precisely the extreme MAGA agenda that @Jack4NJ wants to bring to NJ."

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And taking aim at congressional Republicans in a statement from her House office, Sherrill argued that "instead of working with Democrats to lower costs, protect health care, and support working people, Washington Republicans bent the knee to Donald Trump, shutting down the government in the process."

With just over one month to go until Election Day in New Jersey — and early voting taking place Oct. 25-Nov. 2 — a new Fox News poll indicated Sherrill holding an upper single-digit lead over Ciattarelli.

But Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and a certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics, touted that "the energy is off the charts, and the fact that I'm being endorsed by Democratic mayors around the state says a whole lot about people wanting change here in the state of New Jersey."

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The two candidates will face off next week in their second and final debate before voters head to the polls in the election to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

Asked about his debate game plan, Ciattarelli said he would "be very, very specific with policy proposals that fix our problems here in New Jersey, and point out every single time she doesn't answer the questions."

Gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey run on a party ticket, and Democrats on Wednesday were spotlighting a comment by the GOP lieutenant governor nominee Jim Gannon, the Morris County Sheriff, in a debate earlier this week that "taxes are on the table."

Asked about his running mate's comment, Ciattarelli emphasized that "there will be no tax increases under Governor Ciattarelli. And I would put forth a very specific plan on how to decrease the income tax and the property tax here in New Jersey."

The race was rocked last week after a New Jersey Globe report revealed that Sherrill's military records indicated that the United States Naval Academy blocked her from taking part in her 1994 graduation amid the cheating scandal.

Sherrill claims that Ciattarelli is going on a "witch hunt" over her improperly released military records, which raised questions about her possible involvement in a cheating scandal that rocked the U.S. Naval Academy three decades ago.

"He has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, if you will. He's now trying to divert from that," Sherrill told reporters on Tuesday following a campaign event in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey.

Ciattarelli and his campaign are calling on Sherrill, who went on to pilot helicopters during her military career after graduating from the Naval Academy, to release her military records to explain why she was prevented from attending her graduation ceremony.

But a separate report from CBS News revealed that the National Personnel Records Center, which is a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, mistakenly released Sherrill's improperly redacted military personnel files, which included private information like her Social Security number, to a Ciattarelli ally. 

"To have a guy I'm running against, it will stop at nothing, it will stop at nothing, who will illegally obtain records. It's just beyond the pale," Sherrill, who served as a federal prosecutor before winning election to Congress, charged last week.

The National Archives, in a letter last week, apologized to Sherrill, saying the improper release was due to a government worker's error over a legal records request.

Following the breach of the records, Sherrill's campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to the National Archives and to Ciattarelli's campaign, as well as to Ciattarelli's top strategist, Chris Russell and Nicholas De Gregorio, who is described by Sherrill’s team as "an agent of the campaign working at the direction of" Russell.

The Sherrill campaign on Monday launched a digital ad taking aim at Ciattarelli.

"They broke the law to attack a veteran," the narrator in the spot charged.

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Asked about the ad, Ciattarelli charged in his Fox News Digital interview that Sherrill "did something at the Naval Academy that caused them to punish her. She wasn't allowed to participate in the graduation. Her name is not listed in the commencement exercise program. She was, in fact, punished. She needs to come clean on what she did to be punished by the Naval Academy."

And asked about the release of her military files and criticism from Democrats of possible dirty tricks, Ciattarelli said "somebody filed a Freedom of Information Act request, and it was fulfilled by the National Archives. And so it's all a smokescreen. The information that came out of there is what the National Archives provided, but this is a smokescreen and spin on what really took place at the Naval Academy, and that's her punishment."

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The Democrats are taking a big gamble by going along with a government shutdown, one that they will probably lose.

The most important reason is that President Trump has a giant megaphone. Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer simply can’t compete in drawing media attention.

What’s more, while some Americans may blame both sides – can’t they act like adults and work out these budget fights? – the Republicans are blaming the "Democrat Party" for triggering the shutdown.

At yesterday’s White House briefing, itself a key advantage, JD Vance and Karoline Leavitt kept repeating, like a mantra, that the Democrats support "healthcare for illegal aliens." That is bunk. They aren’t eligible. It’s already against the law, except in emergency situations. But Trump is pounding that message home through sheer repetition.

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A Washington Post editorial yesterday says "Democrats just marched into a shutdown trap … Progressives embraced the same disastrous mentality that led the House Freedom Caucus to believe it could come out ahead in previous government funding standoffs: They wrongly assumed their political leverage would withstand the ensuing fallout."

A few minutes after the briefing, Hakeem Jeffries stepped before the microphones to declare that Republicans don’t want to provide healthcare "to working-class Americans."

The minority leader said the administration is trying to "jam their extreme right-wing agenda down the throats of the American people … The Republican healthcare crisis is immoral."

Frankly, it just didn’t sound as forceful or have the same impact.

Whatever the immediate toll of the shutdown – military people and hundreds of thousands of civilians not getting paid, food stamps on hold – Vance and Leavitt blamed it on Democratic intransigence. (Those laid off will get back pay once the shutdown ends.)

The vice president said Schumer is moving left because he’s terrified of a primary challenge by AOC. She says her only goal is to "stop this madness."

The president has been more candid, telling reporters: "We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like." Now that’s transparency.

The Dems don’t hold the moral high ground when it comes to kick-the-can votes to delay a shutdown, having frequently used the tactic when they were in charge. While Vance says they’d be happy to talk about healthcare during a seven-week delay, the other party feels they would lose whatever leverage they have, and it would be politically humiliating.

The Democrats are making a more complicated argument about healthcare, and that’s a tougher sell for the many millions who don’t follow the news closely.

KFF, which is Kaiser, says those on Obamacare would get socked if tax credits are allowed to expire at year’s end. Average premiums next year would be $888, but without the tax credits, would jump to $1,593 – a 114 percent increase.

That would really cripple the Affordable Care Act and knock millions off the rolls.

SOCIAL SECURITY, AIRPORTS, FOOD STAMPS: HOW ARE YOU AFFECTED DURING A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?

The Dems’ other objection is to deep cuts in Medicaid, despite Trump’s promise to protect the program. But that’s why we have elections. Having lost the House, Senate and White House, the party can’t expect the GOP to make sweeping changes to its preferred budget.

It just so happens – a coincidence, I’m sure – that the administration yesterday halted $18 billion in funding for two major transportation projects in New York City, expansion of the Second Avenue subway and new train tunnels under the Hudson River.

A shot at Schumer’s hometown? Vance says this is a question of "triage," saving money on such projects to preserve essential services.

But it’s really a case of Trump going after Democratic priorities, as he said he would, since he preserved funding for one of his pet projects, the mission of returning to the moon, which seems less than vital at the moment.

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What really got Jeffries mad after Monday’s unsuccessful White House meeting was a fake AI image posted by the president. It depicted him as having a handlebar mustache and wearing a huge sombrero, with mariachi music in the background.

Jeffries called the parody "racist" and demanded that the president "say it to my face."

The bottom line, given the atmosphere of mutual distrust, is that this government closure could drag on for awhile. That would gradually boost the pain level, and the Democrats are already at a disadvantage.

At this point the opposition party is trying to show the public that it can fight, and that, beyond the healthcare battle, may be its main message.

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