The Latest: Federal offices reopen as the government shutdown ends

President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill Wednesday night, ending a record 43-day shutdown that caused financial stress for federal workers who went without paychecks, stranded scores of travelers at airports and generated long lines at some food banks.

The signing ceremony came just hours after the House passed the measure on a mostly party-line vote of 222-209. The Senate had already passed the measure Monday.

The shutdown magnified partisan divisions in Washington as Trump took unprecedented unilateral actions — including canceling projects and trying to fire federal workers — to pressure Democrats into relenting on their demands.

Democrats wanted to extend an enhanced tax credit expiring at the end of the year that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not include that priority. But Republicans said that was a separate policy fight to be held at another time.

Here’s the latest:

Hegseth names Caribbean mission ‘Operation Southern Spear’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced in a social media post that he is formally naming the anti-drug mission in the Caribbean “Operation Southern Spear.”

The move emphasizes the growing significance and permanence of the military’s presence in the region, which started over the summer as part of what the Trump administration is calling its war against narcoterrorism.

At least 17 U.S. strikes on vessels in South American waters have killed at least 69 people.

The newly named operation will encompass the nearly one dozen U.S. Navy ships as well as around 12,000 sailors and Marines that will be in the area after the arrival of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.

“This mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Hegseth said in his post.

Education Department staffers report a rocky first day back

A union for department workers says employees who were laid off in mass government firings last month and then reinstated were unable to access their work accounts Thursday, the first day back after the government reopened.

The American Federation of Government Employees Local 252 says workers who were furloughed during the government shutdown also did not receive official notices to return to work.

“This disorganization and chaos only further demoralizes the hardworking public servants at the Education Department that have faced threats, harassment, illegal firings — and 44 days without paychecks,” said Rachel Gittleman, president of the union.

The department says it has brought back all the workers affected by the shutdown.

Noem presents $10,000 bonus checks to TSA agents at Houston airport

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem awarded the checks to two dozen TSA agents during a news conference at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, saying the payments recognize employees who went “above and beyond” while working without pay during the shutdown.

Noem said the department will continue awarding bonuses to TSA employees who showed “exceptional” performance, noting that eligibility isn’t limited to those with perfect attendance. She added that some officers went above and beyond by giving co-workers rides to work.

One of the recipients at the news conference was an officer Noem praised for reporting to all of his shifts and volunteering for extra ones to help cover staffing shortages.

BBC apologizes to Trump over its misleading edit, but says there’s no basis for a defamation claim

The BBC apologized Thursday to Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021 but said it strongly disagreed that there was a basis for a defamation lawsuit.

The BBC said Chair Samir Shah sent a personal letter to the White House saying that he and the corporation were sorry for the edit of the speech Trump gave before some of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. It said there are no plans to rebroadcast the documentary that spliced together parts of his speech that came almost an hour apart.

Trump’s lawyer sent the BBC a letter demanding an apology and threatened to file a $1 billion lawsuit.

Trump approves pardon for former Tottenham owner Joe Lewis

The president has agreed to pardon Joe Lewis, 88, the former Premier League soccer club owner who was convicted last year of insider trading and securities fraud, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the yet to be formally announced decision.

Lewis wasn’t sentenced to any time in prison after pleading guilty to federal insider trading and conspiracy charges in New York but did pay a $5 million fine.

When he entered his plea, Lewis admitted that he agreed in 2019 to share secrets about publicly traded companies with several individuals.

His company, Broad Bay Limited, and Lewis, a British citizen and resident of the Bahamas, agreed to pay $50 million in financial penalties.

The official noted that Lewis admitted he made a mistake, did not fight extradition in the case, and paid a hefty fine.

Lewis transferred his majority ownership interest in Tottenham to his family via a trust in 2022, the year before he was charged.

Democratic Wisconsin senator says deal can be reached on health care

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin, said Thursday that she remained optimistic a deal could be reached with Republicans who share her concerns about rising health care costs. Baldwin said some Republicans are hearing from voters “about the pain that the expiration of these tax credits will cause.”

“I’ve talked to folks who would like to provide some relief for the people who sent them to Washington to represent them,” she said at a news conference.

Baldwin said some deals being floated by Republicans that would approve a multiyear extension of the tax credit, but perhaps with income limits and other changes, are “workable and sensible.”

“We’re going to see if they’re serious and if there’s enough of them to get to the 60 vote threshold,” Baldwin said. “And we’ve got to do that quickly.”

Trump signs executive order seeking to expand opportunities for children who have experienced foster care

The president signed an action championed by his wife, first lady Melania Trump.

She said it is meant to provide “individuals from the foster care community with technology-based scholarships to attend colleges and universities throughout America” and to equip “each scholarship recipient with a fundamental foundation of knowledge that will endure throughout their lifetimes.”

The initiative creates public- and private-sector partnerships that give young people who have experienced foster care “more pathways to success.” It also includes a push to provide “decommissioned federal laptops to youth in foster care,” meant to help them “bridge the digital divide and increase access to online resources.”

Trump has the White House’s East Room will be part of the ‘future’ entrance of his ballroom

The president was addressing an East Room event when he paused to indicate the huge, active construction site nearby where the ballroom is being built – and where the East Wing was demolished to make room.

“In about two years from now, we’ll use a much bigger room,” Trump said, adding that the new ballroom’s entrance will be “right here” and suggested that the project might require removing more of the existing White House.

“It looks pretty nice right now. It’ll look a lot better in a little while,” Trump said. He also said the ballroom has “really become very popular” – an assertion the president has frequently repeated that is not backed up by recent polling.

Trump administration slaps terror designation on 4 left-wing groups in Europe

The Trump administration is designating four European left-wing groups as terrorist organizations, following through on the president’s vow to crack down on leftists after the September assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The networks all appear to be based in Europe, with no operations in the United States. They are an Italian anarchist front that sent explosive packages to the then-president of the European commission in 2003, two Greek networks believed to have planted bombs outside riot police and labor department buildings in Athens, and an anti-fascist group whose members were prosecuted by German authorities for a hammer attack against neo-Nazis in Dresden.

The designation allows the administration to target any financial support the networks may have in the U.S. Most anarchist and antifa, or anti-fascist, groups are technically not organizations but rather loose affiliations of individuals who join up for specific actions.

First lady headlines executive order signing on foster youth

First lady Melania Trump kicked off an East Room event on Thursday to promote an executive order meant to help current and former foster youth.

Her husband, the president, is to sign the executive order shortly. Melania Trump said it was “truly inspiring to see everyone gather here together, united in support of this remarkable initiative.”

2 Smithsonian museums to reopen

Two of the Smithsonian’s museums along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. – American History and Air and Space – were set to reopen Friday after people had been turned away from the free attractions for more than four weeks during the government shutdown.

The organization says on its website that the rest of the Smithsonian’s sites across the Washington area and New York will reopen by Monday, on a rolling basis.

All Smithsonian buildings and the National Zoo were first closed Oct. 12.

Most of the Smithsonian museums are typically open every day of the year with just one exception for Christmas. The 20 sites together hosted more than 16 million people last year, and the organization has more than 3,600 federal employees.

While the zoo has been closed, the popular livestream feeds capturing the famous giant pandas playing, rolling in the grass or eating were offline. The normally active social media pages sharing animal updates and colorful photographs were silent. Still, even during a shutdown, the animals continue to be fed and get care, unpublicized.

The Education Department brings back staff members

The Education Department said Thursday it had brought back all its staff members who were furloughed during the government shutdown or dismissed in the Trump administration’s round of mass firings in October.

The administration laid off 466 Education Department staffers in the cross-government firings meant to pressure Democratic lawmakers over the shutdown. Those layoffs had been halted by a federal judge.

The department furloughed 2,117 employees at the start of the shutdown, but some were brought back for essential work.

New grants were put on hold during the shutdown. Most school districts received the bulk of their federal funding over the summer, but some grants that schools were counting on for this year have been delayed.

Recipients of Impact Aid, which boosts the budgets of districts with large amounts of federal land that can’t be taxed for local schools, were waiting to learn when their payments would be processed.

Justice Department sues to block California US House map

The Justice Department on Thursday sued to block new congressional district boundaries approved by California voters last week, joining a court battle that could help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026.

The complaint filed in California federal court targets the new congressional map pushed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in response to a similar Republican-led effort in Texas backed by Trump. It sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight between the Republican administration and the Democratic governor, who’s seen as a likely 2028 presidential contender.

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an emailed statement. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, a constitutional amendment changing the congressional boundaries to give Democrats a shot at winning five seats now held by Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.

Federal workers to receive backpay by Nov. 19

The Trump administration is working to push out pay for federal workers that had been on hold because of the government shutdown by the middle of next week.

The money will go out in four separate tranches, depending on the agency, according to a senior administration official. The varied dates are because agencies are on different pay schedules and payroll providers.

The White House had pushed federal agencies to expedite backpay for employees, said the official, granted anonymity to discuss the administration’s plans.

The schedule is as follows: —Nov. 15: Employees at the General Services Administration and Office of Personnel Management will be paid a “supercheck” that covers the period of Oct. 1 to Nov. 1 —Nov. 16: Employees at the Departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, and Veterans Affairs will be paid for the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1, as well as civilian employees at the Pentagon. —Nov. 17: Employees at the Departments of Education, State, Interior, and Transportation, as well as those at the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, National Science Foundation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Social Security Administration will be paid for the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1. —Nov. 19: Employees from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Treasury and the Small Business Administration will be paid for the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15.

—By Seung Min Kim

Voto Latino criticizes House for ignoring health crisis and voting ‘yes’ on budget bill

On Wednesday evening the House voted on a budget bill that ended the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

Voto Latino leaders said the House “chose to ignore the health crisis millions of Americans are facing” when it voted on a budget bill that they claim will jeopardize the health of Latino communities by failing to fund subsidies provided by the Affordable Care Act that make health coverage more accessible.

“Latinos are already left behind when it comes to accessing health care coverage,” Voto Latino leaders said in a statement. “With lawmakers choosing to turn a blind eye to this reality, these disparities will only grow, and families will be pushed to make difficult decisions when it comes to seeking medical attention.”

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman hospitalized after fall

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman had what his office says was a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up” that caused him to feel light-headed and fall during an early morning walk Thursday. He was doing well and was hospitalized in Pittsburgh, his office said. He sustained minor injuries to his face and was under “routine observation” at the hospital, the office said.

Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in 2022, has disclosed that he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and a heart condition called atrial fibrillation.

Cardiomyopathy can impede blood flow and potentially cause heartbeats so irregular they can be fatal. Atrial fibrillation can cause blood to pool inside a pocket of the heart, allowing clots to form. Clots then can break off, get stuck and cut off blood, causing a stroke.

Wait and see on poverty program reimbursements

The federal government is back but it is unclear when and if Washington, D.C., will be reimbursed for the payments it made to programs for its impoverished residents while the government was shut down.

Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered that the thousands of recipients of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and the WIC program receive their benefits during the shutdown. The city ultimately covered $18.5 million of the SNAP expense after the federal government made a partial payment of $8 million at the direction of a federal district judge.

Overall, it will be months before city officials know the full impact of the shutdown in terms of economics although at least budgetarily it will be a better outcome than 2024 when the city was unable to spend more than $1 billion of its own tax revenue on its budget because of action by the House.

This year the city retained its spending authority on the budget the council passed.

States scramble to send full SNAP food benefits to millions after government shutdown ends

With the longest U.S. government shutdown over, state officials said Thursday they’re working quickly to get full SNAP food benefits to millions of people, though it still could take up to a week for some to receive their delayed aid.

A back-and-forth series of court rulings and shifting policies from Trump’s administration has led to a patchwork distribution of November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. While some states already had issued full SNAP benefits, about two-thirds of states had issued only partial benefits or none at all before the government shutdown ended late Wednesday, according to an Associated Press tally.

The federal food program serves about 42 million people, about 1 in 8 Americans, in lower-income households. They receive an average of around $190 monthly per person, though that doesn’t necessarily cover the full cost of groceries for a regular month.

▶ Read more about the shutdown and SNAP food benefits

Judge hears arguments challenging appointment of prosecutor who charged James Comey, Letitia James

Lawyers for two of Trump’s foes who’ve been charged by the Justice Department asked a judge Thursday to dismiss the cases against them, saying the prosecutor who secured the indictments was illegally installed in the role.

U.S. District Cameron McGowan Currie didn’t immediately rule from the bench but said she expects to decide by Thanksgiving on challenges to Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The requests are part of multiprong efforts by former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James to get their cases dismissed before trial.

At issue during Thursday’s arguments are the complex constitutional and statutory rules governing the appointment of the nation’s U.S. attorneys, who function as top federal prosecutors in Justice Department offices across the country.

▶ Read more about the Justice Department cases

Trump’s new ambassador visits head of Greece’s Orthodox Church

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the first female U.S. ambassador to Greece and a close ally of Trump, visited the head of Greece’s Orthodox Church on Thursday, telling him he was the first person she called after being nominated to her new post.

Guilfoyle’s visit to Archbishop Ieronymos II came just over a week after she took up her new position in Athens. A former California prosecutor and Fox News host who was once engaged to Donald Trump Jr, the 56-year-old presented her diplomatic credentials to Greece’s president on Nov. 4.

“It’s wonderful to be here and I’m just very grateful that President Trump has blessed me with the opportunity to serve the United States here in Greece, for the relationship that we have and for that growing and blossoming going forward,” Guilfoyle said during the meeting with the 87-year-old archbishop.

Ieronymos extended his thanks “to the president for the opportunity that he gave us today. May God bless these relations.”

▶ Read more about the ambassador’s visit in Greece