AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EDT

Government shutdown takes hold with mass layoffs looming and no end in sight

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government was thrown into a shutdown Wednesday with no easy endgame in sight, as Democrats held firm to their demands to salvage health care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republican in Congress have dismissed as something to possibly discuss later.

The White House threatened mass layoffs of federal workers, rather than simply the normal furloughs, in a matter of days, seizing the chance to slash government. Blame was being cast on all sides. No new talks were scheduled after the president failed this week to secure a deal with congressional leaders.

“Let’s be honest, if this thing drags on,” warned Vice President JD Vance during a visit to the White House briefing room, “we are going to have to lay people off.”

Roughly 750,000 federal workers were expected to be furloughed, and some fired, by Trump’s Republican administration. Many offices will be shuttered, perhaps permanently, as the president promises to zero in on programs Democrats like. Trump’s deportation agenda is likely to run full speed ahead, while education, environmental and other services sputter. The economic fallout could ripple across the nation.

Democrats believe their health care campaign is what House Leader Hakeem Jeffries called a “moral” issue, but cracks are emerging within the party. A Senate vote on the GOP plan to fund the government without the health subsidies failed, but it drew some Democratic support.

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What happens now that a government shutdown is underway

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington is bracing for what could be a prolonged federal shutdown after lawmakers deadlocked and missed the deadline for funding the government.

Republicans supported a short-term measure to fund the government generally at current levels through Nov. 21, but Democrats blocked it, insisting the measure address their concerns on health care. They want to reverse the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s package of tax breaks and spending reductions from the summer and they want to extend tax credits that make health insurance premiums more affordable for millions of people who purchase through the marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans called the Democratic proposal a nonstarter that would cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion.

Neither side shows any signs of budging.

Here’s what to know about the shutdown that began Wednesday:

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Democrats voted for a shutdown. Now they have to find a way out

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats kept their promise to reject any Republican spending bill that didn’t extend or restore health care benefits, choosing instead to force a government shutdown. Now they have to figure out how to get out of it.

Just hours after the shutdown began, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that if the Republicans work with them, “the shutdown could go away very quickly.”

But that won’t be easy. Republican leaders — Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump — have said that they won’t negotiate or be “held hostage ” by Democrats demanding concessions to reopen the government. The bill Democrats voted against was a simple extension of funding for 45 days, legislation they say should be noncontroversial.

While that uncompromising Republican position may not last long — there were some early, informal talks on the Senate floor Wednesday — reaching a deal would be difficult. It’s deeply uncertain, for now, if the two sides could find common ground on health care policy or sow enough trust for the Democrats to change their position.

At the same time, an extended shutdown could be increasingly painful for Democrats. The Trump administration has threatened to lay off thousands of workers and target Democratic-leaning states. On Wednesday, the White House announced it was putting a hold on subway and tunnel projects in Schumer’s home state of New York.

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Bondi and Hegseth rally federal agents and troops in Memphis as part of crime task force

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on Wednesday rallied members of a federal law enforcement task force that has begun operating in Memphis as part of President Donald Trump’s crime-fighting plan for the city.

The officials met with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican who has supported the project, before touring a staging area for the Memphis Safe Task Force and then speaking to a group of federal, state and local law enforcement officers and Tennessee National Guard members.

Miller called the task force an “all of government, unlimited support operation” that would make the city “safer than any of you could ever possibly imagine.” He predicted that “businesses and investment are going to pour in, and Memphis will be richer than ever before.”

“We’re not here to second guess you,” Hegseth told them. “We’re here to have your back — to unleash you to do your jobs so you come home safely.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who represents Memphis in Congress, said he was disappointed to learn about the visit in the media. In a letter to Hegseth and Bondi, he urged them to be more collaborative and expressed concern about the “wartime rhetoric” coming from the Trump administration.

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Activists say Israeli navy has begun intercepting a Gaza-bound aid flotilla

JERUSALEM (AP) — Activists on board a flotilla of vessels sailing toward Gaza said late Wednesday that the Israeli navy had intercepted 13 of its boats as they approached the besieged Palestinian territory. Israeli authorities said the activists on board, including Greta Thunberg, were safe and being transferred to Israel.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, composed of nearly 50 boats and 500 activists, is carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Sirius, Alma and Adara boats were intercepted some 70 nautical miles (80 miles) from the coast of Gaza, according to organizers who shared live positions of the flotilla. The group, which includes Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau and several European lawmakers, said it remained undeterred in its mission to break the Israeli blockade and bring aid to Palestinians.

Just before dawn, organizers said on their official Telegram channel that 13 of 43 boats had been intercepted and said the remaining vessels would keep sailing toward Gaza.

Greg Stoker, an American veteran aboard the Ohwayla, one of the boats in the flotilla, said that around a dozen naval vessels with their transponders off had approached it. “They are currently hailing our vessels, telling us to turn off our engines and await further instructions or our boats will be seized and we will face the consequences,” he said in a shaky video posted on Instagram. Israeli authorities used water cannons against some of the boats, Stoker and other activists reported on social media.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry posted a video on X showing Thunberg sitting on a ship’s deck being handed a water bottle and raincoat.

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Rescuers desperately search for survivors of earthquake in the Philippines that killed at least 72

BOGO, Philippines (AP) — Rescuers used backhoes and sniffer dogs to look for survivors in collapsed houses and other damaged buildings in the central Philippines after an earthquake killed at least 72 people and injured more than 200 others.

The death toll was expected to rise from the 6.9 magnitude quake that hit about 10 p.m. Tuesday and trapped an unspecified number of residents in the hard-hit city of Bogo and outlying rural towns in Cebu province. Sporadic rain and damaged bridges and roads have hampered the race to save lives.

On Wednesday night, rescuers in orange and yellow hard hats used spotlights, a backhoe and bare hands to sift through the rubble of concrete slabs, broken wood and twisted iron bars for hours in a collapsed building in Bogo city. No survivor was found.

“We’re still in the golden hour of our search and rescue,” Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said in a Wednesday morning news briefing in Manila, the country’s capital. “There are still many reports of people who were pinned or hit by debris.”

The earthquake occurred at a dangerously shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles) and was centered about 19 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Bogo, a coastal city of about 90,000 people in Cebu province where officials reported about half of the known deaths.

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Florida was a top destination for immigrants who came to the US under Biden

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — After Paola Freites was allowed into the U.S. in 2024, she and her husband settled in Florida, drawn by warm temperatures, a large Latino community and the ease of finding employment and housing.

They were among hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the state in recent years as immigration surged under former President Joe Biden.

No state has been more affected by the increase in immigrants than Florida, according to internal government data obtained by The Associated Press. Florida had 1,271 migrants who arrived from May 2023 to January 2025 for every 100,000 residents, followed by New York, California, Texas and Illinois.

The data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which must verify addresses of everyone who is allowed to enter the U.S. and stay to pursue an immigration case, shows Miami was the most affected metropolitan area in the U.S. with 2,191 new migrants for every 100,000 residents. Orlando ranked 10th with 1,499 new migrants for every 100,000 residents. Tampa ranked 17th, and Fort Myers was 30th.

Freites and her husband, who had fled violence in Colombia with their three children, moved to Apopka, an agricultural city near Orlando, where immigrants could find cheaper housing than in Miami as they spread throughout a community that already had large populations of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. Her sister-in-law owned a mobile home that they could rent.

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Supreme Court lets Lisa Cook remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now, declining to act on the Trump administration’s effort to immediately remove her from the central bank.

In a brief unsigned order, the high court said it would hear arguments in January over Republican President Donald Trump’s effort to force Cook off the Fed board.

The court will consider whether to block a lower-court ruling in Cook’s favor while her challenge to her firing by Trump continues.

The high-court order was a rare instance of Trump not quickly getting everything he wants from the justices in an emergency appeal.

Cook will be able to take part in the remaining two Fed meetings in 2025, including the next meeting of its interest rate-setting committee in late October.

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Jane Goodall, the celebrated primatologist and conservationist, has died

Jane Goodall, the intellectual, soft-spoken conservationist renowned for her groundbreaking, immersive chimpanzee field research in which she documented the primates’ distinct personalities and use of tools, has died. She was 91.

The environmental advocate became a beloved household name who transcended generations through her appearances in documentaries and on television, as well as her travels to address packed auditoriums around the world.

The Jane Goodall Institute announced the primatologist’s death Wednesday in an Instagram post. According to the Washington, D.C.-based institute, Goodall died of natural causes while in California on a U.S. speaking tour.

Her discoveries “revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” it said.

While living among chimpanzees in Africa decades ago, Goodall documented them doing activities previously believed to be exclusive to humans. Her observations and subsequent magazine and documentary appearances in the 1960s transformed how the world perceived not only humans’ closest living biological relatives but also the emotional and social complexity of all animals, while propelling her into the public consciousness.

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Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is almost here. Here’s what to know

NEW YORK (AP) — Lights, camera, action. Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” arrives Friday. Are you ready for it?

Swift announced her latest era back in August, when she began teasing the release.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of its drop date: how to stream, which variants exist, and of course, how the album came together. Enjoy the show!

“The Life of a Showgirl” will be available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

Fans can pre-save the album ahead of its release on Oct. 3. Pre-saving ensures the new music automatically appears in a fan’s library the moment it is available. It is also a way for an artist to promote streams ahead of the drop date.