House Republicans’ campaign arm is going after Democrats hours after the federal government entered a shutdown at midnight on Wednesday.

A new National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) ad being rolled out in 42 battleground districts is aimed at putting pressure on Democratic lawmakers to accept the GOP’s plan and end the shutdown.

‘Democrats refused to fund the government. So now military troops, police and Border Patrol lose their paychecks. Because of Democrats, veterans, farmers, small businesses lose critical funding. Disaster relief — cut off,’ a voiceover states.

‘Democrats are grinding America to a halt in order to give illegal immigrants free healthcare. Tell Democrats: Stop the shutdown.’

The ad buy came at a four-figure price tag, according to an NRCC spokesperson.

It’s being rolled out in 25 districts represented by Democrats and 17 held by Republicans.

The federal government shut down overnight after Democrats and Republicans in the Senate failed to reach a spending agreement in time for the end of fiscal year (FY) 2025 on Sept. 30.

A short-term extension of FY 2025 funding, aimed at giving Congress more time to reach a longer-term deal, failed to advance in the Senate on Tuesday evening.

The measure, aimed at keeping the government open through Nov. 21, passed the House mainly along party lines earlier this month.

Democrats were angered at being sidelined in the spending negotiations, and by the GOP bill’s exclusion of enhanced COVID-19-era Obamacare subsidies. Those subsidies, passed in 2021 under President Joe Biden, are set to expire by the end of 2025 without congressional action.

Republicans have signaled that they will not budge from their measure, citing Democrats’ past support for similar bills aimed at averting shutdowns.

‘Out of touch Democrats shut down the government to bankroll handouts for illegal immigrants and appease their radical base. Voters won’t forget who betrayed them, and the NRCC will make sure Democrats pay the price,’ NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella told Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump and his administration have wide discretion over what changes occur during a shutdown.

However, it’s likely that thousands of government employees get furloughed, while others are made to work without paychecks until funding is reinstituted. A host of federal agencies and services could also be shuttered.

Some federal workers could lose their jobs permanently as well, with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought issuing guidance earlier this month warning offices to consider plans for mass layoffs in the event of a shutdown.

President Donald Trump shared photos on Truth Social on Tuesday showing red ‘Trump 2028’ hats strategically displayed on the Resolute Desk during an Oval Office meeting with Democrat leaders Monday in hopes of fending off a government shutdown.

Trump’s post came late Tuesday, hours before Washington grappled with its first shutdown since 2018-19. 

‘The Trump administration wants a straightforward and clean CR [continuing resolution] to continue funding the government – the exact same proposal that Democrats supported just 6 months ago, 13 times under the Biden Administration,’ White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. 

‘But radical Democrats are shutting the government down because they want a nearly $1.5 trillion wish list of demands, including free health care for illegal aliens. The Democrat’s radical agenda was rejected by the American people less than a year ago at the ballot box, now they’re shutting down the government and hold the American people hostage over it.’

Vice President JD Vance warned, ‘I think we’re headed to a shutdown’ after Monday’s meeting. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at the time the sides ‘have very large differences.’ 

Late Tuesday, the Senate failed a last-ditch vote on extending funding and barreled toward a shutdown as the clock struck midnight on Oct. 1.

Trump posted the photos late Tuesday, a few hours before the shutdown was slated to begin. 

His campaign has sold ‘Trump 2028’ hats since earlier this year.

Democrat leaders downplayed the stunt. 

Schumer said Trump ‘can avoid a shutdown if he chooses to,’ while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., added, ‘we will not back down’ in defending healthcare and spending priorities.’

Trump presided over a 35-day government shutdown in 2018–19, the longest in American history, during his first term in office.

Senate Democrats again blocked Republicans’ short-term funding extension Tuesday afternoon, further increasing the odds of a partial government shutdown and thousands of federal workers going without paychecks.

Democratic lawmakers in the upper chamber, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., banded together to vote against the GOP’s continuing resolution (CR), a move that marked the second time Democrats impeded the legislation’s progress this month.

Congress has until midnight Wednesday to pass a CR or else the government will shut down. However, the possibility of that happening became increasingly unlikely throughout the day as Republicans and Democrats huddled behind closed doors in separate meetings hours before the vote. 

The bill, which was passed by the House GOP earlier this month, failed on a largely party-line vote, 55-45. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the lone Republican to vote against the bill, while Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, crossed the aisle to vote for the funding extension.

Democrats also tried to advance their own counter-proposal, but that bill was similarly blocked by Senate Republicans.

There is still time to avert a partial shutdown, but the window is closing fast. If Schumer and Thune are unable to find a path forward, it would mark the third shutdown under President Donald Trump.

When asked if he believed a shutdown was inevitable, Trump said, ‘Nothing is inevitable.’ 

‘But I would say it’s probably likely, because they want to give healthcare to illegal immigrants, which will destroy healthcare for everybody else in our country,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office. ‘And I didn’t see them bend even a little bit when I said we can’t do that.’ 

Shortly after the vote, however, the Office of Management and Budget released a memo that the appropriations for Fiscal Year 2025 would run out at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, making a shutdown official. 

‘It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict,’ the memo read. 

Republicans want to pass a ‘clean’ short-term extension until Nov. 21 that would give appropriators time to finish spending bills, while Democrats want to extend expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, among multiple other demands.

But the chances of a deal materializing, particularly one that meets Democrats’ demands, are slim. Both Senate leaders traded barbs throughout the day, first on the Senate floor and then in back-to-back press conferences. 

Thune panned Democrats’ push for an extension to the expiring tax credits, which aren’t set to sunset until the end of this year, as well as their other demands to repeal the healthcare portion of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ and clawback canceled funding for NPR and PBS. 

Republicans argue that reversing the cuts from Trump’s megabill and undoing the public broadcasting rescission would amount to $1.5 trillion in spending tacked onto their short-term funding extension. 

‘These are things that they’re demanding as part of their so-called negotiation,’ Thune said. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, there isn’t anything here to negotiate.’

Schumer, however, countered that the decision to shut the government down was ‘in their court’ and charged that Democrats were working to solve the GOP’s ‘healthcare crisis.’

Still, despite scoring a meeting in the Oval Office with Trump and congressional Republican leaders, in addition to public guarantees from Thune and Republicans that Obamacare tax credits could be discussed after a shutdown was averted, Schumer demanded that Democrats be cut in on negotiations to craft a bipartisan bill. 

Earlier in the day, the top Senate Democrat commandeered a floor chart from Thune that showed how many times Democrats supported CRs under former President Joe Biden. He said that each time, Republicans were involved in the process. 

‘As leader, I sat down with the Republicans every one of those years and created a bipartisan bill. Their bill is partisan. They call it clean. We call it partisan. It has no Democratic input,’ Schumer said. ‘Thune never talked to me.’ 

The Interior Department announced Tuesday it is testing autonomous lawnmowers on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in an effort by the Trump administration to use artificial intelligence to ‘boost operational efficiency.’

In an order obtained by Fox News Digital, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said AI will ‘drive smarter decision-making, boost operational efficiency, and better deliver on our core mission of advancing American energy dominance, protecting our natural resources, partnering with Tribal Nations, and enhancing internal services.’ 

The Interior Department is working with a private company, the name of which was not shared, to develop its AI technologies for use by the agency. 

Video shared with Fox News Digital shows a demonstration of the AI-controlled lawnmowers on the National Mall, each carrying an American flag. Visitors scanned a QR code on the technology to view a map tracking their progress.

In the video, Jeff Gowen, division manager of the National Park Service’s Technical Services Division, said the new machines will ‘allow us to get more work done with the same amount of people.’

Gowen added that six AI-controlled lawnmowers are being tested at six national parks with a grant provided by the National Park Foundation. 

‘Wild time to be alive,’ he said.

In his order, Burgum said AI will strengthen relationships with state and tribal lands while pushing federal agencies to adopt AI faster and more responsibly.

‘To fully unlock the potential of AI, we must scale intelligently, govern responsibly, and enable our workforce to lead with confidence and clarity,’ he said. ‘As AI becomes more accessible to the DOI workforce, it offers real opportunities to modernize how we serve, strengthening coordination with stakeholders, including State and Tribal partners, across the Nation’s lands.’

In addition to the lawnmowers, Burgum said the Interior Department is already using AI for wildfire response and environmental reviews.

‘AI is reshaping how industries operate and government must not be left behind, and must adapt to private sector standards,’ he said in the order.

‘AI offers a strategic advantage across all facets of the Department’s mission, enabling an advanced workforce with well-trained employees to strengthen domestic resource development and operational efficiency, allowing for the best management of public lands,’ he added. ‘AI adoption shall be pursued in ways that strengthen Interior’s ability to serve the American people through safe, responsible, and outcome-oriented innovation.’

The lawnmowers come after the Trump administration released its ‘America’s AI Action Plan’ in July, a plan aimed at securing U.S. dominance in AI. The plan highlights AI’s role in economic competitiveness and national security.

‘Winning the AI race will usher in a new golden age of human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security for the American people,’ the White House said.

A judicial consensus is forming against climate lawfare, but the U.S. Supreme Court must still end environmental extortion of American energy. In two landmark cases, the court will soon have the opportunity to reassert the federal government’s authority over questions of national energy and environmental policy. 

Environmental groups believe that energy use increases global temperatures, causes sea levels to rise and creates more destructive weather. Their campaign to curtail energy has taken many forms — including asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to block pipelines and the Interior Department to deny oil and gas leases — but it met a roadblock with the 2024 election and the Trump administration’s subsequent blizzard of executive orders lifting overregulation.  

Rather than pursue their interests in Congress or before the electorate, environmental extremists have now allied with bankrupt cities and trial lawyers to use the courts to shake down the energy industry. Blue cities and states have filed tort suits in state courts to extract money for allegedly causing weather-related costs in their jurisdictions. 

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to take up one of those cases, Boulder County v. Suncor Energy, following a ruling this year from the Colorado Supreme Court that allowed the county’s case to move forward in state court. Borrowing theories of liability from tobacco and opioid litigation, Boulder alleges that energy companies sold their products without disclosing climate risks. Such claims plainly intrude on federal authority over interstate pollution. 

Other climate cases are still progressing in lower state courts. In Hawaii, summary judgment motions are pending in a case seeking damages for rising sea levels. Hawaii’s highest court allowed this litigation to move forward in 2023 with Justice Todd Eddins issuing a remarkable concurrence, declaring that litigation would proceed under the ‘Aloha Spirit,’ regardless of federal precedent.  

In Rhode Island, the state judge presiding over a similar lawsuit against the energy industry compared it to developing nations devastated by natural disasters, citing Kenya, Tanzania and the Seychelles. The suggestion that Rhode Island has suffered comparable ‘severe destruction’ is telling: judges are inflating rhetoric to justify climate claims, not grounding them in law.  

Meanwhile, other states are effectively trying to replace federal authority over environmental policy. In Louisiana, plaintiffs obtained a $750 million judgment (potentially over $1 billion with interest) against Chevron for coastal erosion that they claimed was caused by oil extraction during World War II. Those companies had been under federal contracts to supply aviation fuel for the war effort. Yet eight decades later, Louisiana claims it can punish those practices retroactively. 

The energy firms sought to move the case to federal court because of its genesis in work for the federal government. But a divided 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel refused to allow it. As Judge Andrew Oldham rightly noted in dissent, crude oil extraction plainly ‘relates to’ war production. If states can sue private businesses for their wartime work generations later, future cooperation with the federal government will be chilled, raising the costs of national defense. This coming term, the Supreme Court will review the Fifth Circuit’s decision. 

Despite some disappointing rulings from activist judges, a growing number of state courts are beginning to resist such frivolous claims. A Maryland judge rejected Baltimore’s lawsuit that alleged fossil fuels caused sea rises that have harmed the city; the Maryland Supreme Court will hear the appeal later in October. A South Carolina court dismissed Charleston’s similar claims, which blue city officials will almost certainly appeal as well. Likewise, nearly identical state and municipal lawsuits have been similarly dismissed in Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and New Jersey. 

Notwithstanding some recent wins, climate lawfare is like Hydra — new cases are constantly being brought. Even if higher courts ultimately overturn them, simply forcing the industry to defend against these suits imposes enormous litigation costs. That alone is a victory for environmental radicals. At this stage, the Supreme Court must act to reaffirm federal authority over national energy and environmental policy.  

If climate change is producing harmful effects nationwide, then the nation should decide how to address it. As the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in a 2021 case rejecting New York City’s lawsuit against Chevron, ‘the question before us is whether a nuisance suit seeking to recover damages for the harms caused by global greenhouse gas emissions may proceed under New York law. Our answer is simple: no.’ However, they frame their aims, blue cities and states are trying to set nationwide climate policy through litigation — violating federal law and tort principles. 

As the country decides how to respond to climate change, those choices — including the possibility of not acting — must have nationwide legitimacy. Courts cannot allow a handful of blue jurisdictions, aided by trial lawyers and environmental activists, to dictate those decisions for the rest of America. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is engaged in what he described as a ‘total war’ with the U.S., Israel and Europe.

In an interview published Saturday by Iranian state media, Pezeshkian said that he believes the Western powers want to bring Iran ‘to its knees,’ The Times of Israel reported.

‘In my opinion, we are at total war with the United States, Israel and Europe,’ Pezeshkian said. ‘They want to bring our country to its knees.’

Pezeshkian argued that the current conflict is more complex than the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, saying his country is now under pressure ‘from every angle,’ according to The Times of Israel.

‘If one understands it well, this war is far more complex and difficult than that war. In the war with Iraq, the situation was clear, they fired missiles, and we knew where to hit,’ Pezeshkian said, according to The Jerusalem Post. 

‘Here, they are besieging us from every aspect, they are creating problems for us in terms of livelihood, culturally, politically, and security-wise.’

Despite the strain, Pezeshkian claimed Iran’s military emerged stronger following its June conflict with Israel, according to The Times of Israel.

‘Our beloved military forces are doing their jobs with strength and now, in terms of equipment and manpower, despite all the problems we have, they are stronger than when they attacked. So if they want to attack, they will naturally face a more decisive response,’ he said.

The interview with Pezeshkian was released ahead of a planned meeting this coming week at Mar-a-Lago between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Tensions remain high following a brief but intense air conflict in June that was kicked off by Israel. 

The fighting resulted in roughly 1,100 deaths in Iran, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, while Iranian missile attacks killed 28 people in the Jewish State.

On June 22, President Donald Trump announced U.S. forces had launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, including Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

‘Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number one state sponsor of terror,’ the president said. ‘Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.’

A US-brokered ceasefire between Iran and Israel took effect on June 24.

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.

Amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, analysts say the Trump administration should pressure Lebanon to fulfill its commitments to disarm the Iran-backed terrorist group as it drags the country into another war with Israel.  

David Schenker, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs who oversaw Lebanon’s policy during the first Trump administration and now directs the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said: ‘The U.S. should make clear to Lebanon that it is time for the state to honor its ceasefire commitment to disarm Hezbollah,’ he told Fox News Digital. Schenker warned if Beirut ‘doesn’t pursue disarmament, it will remain a failed state.’

The warning comes as the IDF attacked multiple Hezbollah targets Friday in response to the terror group’s launching of rockets and drones toward Israel on March 2, its first attack since a November 2024 ceasefire ended the previous round of fighting. 

Since the first day of the renewed fighting, the IDF has carried out over 200 strikes across Lebanon targeting Hezbollah’s military, media and financial infrastructure, as well as operatives from the group and affiliated networks, according to a March 5 analysis by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’Long War Journal. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also threatened Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem.

The renewed fighting has exposed deep tensions inside Lebanon’s government, which in recent days called on Hezbollah to disarm and ordered security agencies to prevent attacks on Israel from Lebanese territory. 

Schenker says the move reflects frustration in Beirut rather than a fundamental policy shift. ‘The Government of Lebanon’s latest cabinet vote on Hezbollah disarmament is nothing new,’ Schenker said. ‘It is a reiteration of the cabinet decision last August mandating the disarmament of Hezbollah. The language is perhaps more strident, but the message is the same.’

‘It is a reflection of the Government’s frustration and desperation over Hezbollah dragging Lebanon into yet another war with Israel,’ he added. ‘It also reflects the Lebanese Armed Forces’ failure to date to take its mission of disarmament seriously.’

Hezbollah’s latest attacks appear to have caught Lebanese officials off guard. Reports suggest the group had previously assured officials it would not intervene in a broader regional conflict tied to Iran.

Schenker said the episode underscores a longstanding reality in Lebanon’s political system. ‘The government of Lebanon has never tried to control Hezbollah,’ he said. ‘The few months that the LAF devoted to disarmament in south Lebanon was performed with Hezbollah’s consent and coordinated with the militia.’

Still, public frustration inside Lebanon may be shifting the political environment. ‘Given the population’s growing anger toward Hezbollah now, the political environment should be more conducive for the LAF to confront Hezbollah,’ Schenker said.

‘The fear of ‘civil war’—i.e., Hezbollah perpetrating violence against the Government—remains,’ he added. ‘But increasingly, Lebanese prefer taking that risk and possibly gaining sovereignty than being in a state of perpetual war with Israel.’

In a clip posted on X by the Center for Peace Communications, Lebanese people angrily responded to Hezbollah’s actions with one man telling Jusoor News: ‘If Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem wants to commit suicide, let him go do it in Tehran, not Lebanon.’

According to David Daoud, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Hezbollah’s decision to attack Israel despite the ceasefire reflects the group’s willingness to escalate the conflict even as Lebanon’s government seeks to avoid another war.

The crisis has also drawn international attention. French President Emmanuel Macron called for urgent steps to prevent Lebanon from sliding deeper into war.

‘Everything must be done to prevent this country, so close to France, from once again being drawn into war,’ Macron wrote in a statement posted on X on March 5 after speaking with Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese leaders.

Macron said Hezbollah ‘must immediately cease its fire toward Israel,’ while urging Israel to avoid expanding military operations inside Lebanon.

For now, analysts say the outcome may depend on whether Lebanon’s government is willing to confront Hezbollah directly or continue to tolerate Iran’s terror proxy that has long operated outside the control of the government’s control.