German authorities arrested three alleged Hamas members on suspicion of plotting attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany, officials told The Associated Press.

Two of the suspects arrested on Wednesday are German citizens. The federal prosecutor’s office described the third as being born in Lebanon.

They were only named as Abed Al G., Wael F. M. and Ahmad I., in accordance with German privacy rules. The trio is set to appear in court on Thursday. 

‘In the course of today’s arrests, various weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and several pistols, as well as a considerable amount of ammunition, were found,’ federal prosecutors said in a statement obtained by Reuters. 

A security source told Reuters the three were in their 30s or 40s.

Germany is one of Israel’s strongest allies due to the legacy of the Holocaust and security is tight at synagogues and other Jewish institutions. It did not join France, Britain and several other countries last month in defying Israel’s wishes and recognizing Palestinian statehood.

Hamas has not yet responded to a 20-point plan for Gaza by U.S. President Donald Trump, which includes disarmament of the militant group.

In February, four Hamas members suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe went on trial in Berlin in what prosecutors described as the first court case against militants of the Palestinian group in Germany.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

Neither Republicans nor Democrats blinked less than 24 hours into a government shutdown as an attempt to pass a government funding extension failed again Wednesday.  

Despite Republican leaders signaling confidence that more Democrats would cross the aisle, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus blocked the GOP’s continuing resolution (CR) for the third time with a 53-45 vote.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to bring the same bill to the floor again and again in a bid to crank up pressure on Senate Democrats. The Senate is expected to leave town on Thursday to observe Yom Kippur but will return Friday to continue voting. In order to advance the bill, Thune needs at least 60 votes to smash through the Senate filibuster.

There were glimmers of hope on Tuesday that more Democrats would break ranks and vote for the bill when Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, joined Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., to vote for the bill.

However, that trio remained the only members of the Democratic caucus that crossed the aisle on Wednesday.

‘We are just one Senate roll call vote away from ending the shutdown,’ Thune said. ‘We need a handful of Democrats to join Republicans to reopen the government. And once we do that, then we can talk about the issues that Democrats are raising. But we’re not going to engage in bipartisan discussions while Democrats are holding the federal government hostage to their partisan demands.’

The GOP’s ranks held, too, save for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, who again voted against the bill.

Schumer and Senate Democrats still appear firmly entrenched in their position that they want an extension to expiring Obamacare tax credits and to be cut into negotiations on the short-term funding bill.

Schumer said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote that Democrats weren’t ready to budge and blamed the shutdown on Republicans. 

‘Democrats want to avert this crisis, but Republicans tried to bully us, and it’s clear they can’t,’ he said. ‘They don’t have the votes.’

Congressional Republicans and the White House have accused Democrats of shutting the government down in a bid to give illegal immigrants healthcare, a point that Schumer rejected. 

‘That is a damn lie,’ he said. ‘Not $1 of Medicare, Medicaid or [Obamacare] is allowed to go to undocumented immigrants, not a dollar. So why do they keep saying this? This seems to be their theme, because they’re afraid to talk about the real issue. It’s a typical Republican response: Have a diversion, try to scare people emotionally.’

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, panned Schumer and Democrats’ blockade as ‘grossly irresponsible.’

‘It reminds me of my 4-year-old granddaughter when she gets mad, when she kicks the sand and leaves the sandbox, and they can’t have their way,’ he said. ‘It’s ridiculous.’

Their own counter-proposal was also blocked, again, on Wednesday, which included a permanent extension to the credits, a repeal of the healthcare title in President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ and a clawback of canceled funding for NPR and PBS.

But the crux of their wishlist is focused on the Obamacare tax credits. They do not expire until the end of this year, but Democrats warned that Americans who are enrolled in the healthcare program and rely on the subsidies would see their rates skyrocket by an average of 114% if Congress did not act.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, argued that Democrats’ position was not some ‘sort of cooked-up demand.’

‘The reason that we are trying to take action now on healthcare is because people’s premiums are going up this coming week,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Trump warned ahead of the vote that his administration and the Office of Management and Budget, led by Director Russ Vought, could do things ‘that are irreversible,’ like mass firings and cutting programs favored by Democrats.

Vought and the OMB sent out a memo last week that directed agencies to implement mass firings beyond the typical furloughs that happen during a shutdown. And the Congressional Budget Office projected that about 750,000 employees would be furloughed per day at a cost of roughly $400 million in daily back pay. 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to review President Donald Trump‘s effort to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and will allow her to remain in her spot on the board until oral arguments can be heard in January, the court said — delivering a long-awaited update on a high-profile case, and one expected to have significant political and economic implications for the nation’s central bank.

The update comes roughly two weeks after Trump officials appealed the case to the high court for emergency review. 

Oral arguments are expected to be closely watched, given the unprecedented nature of the case, and the seismic shift that any ruling could have on U.S. economic decisions. 

In appealing the case to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the Trump administration argued that the Fed’s ‘uniquely important role’ in the U.S. economy only heightens the government’s and public’s interest in reviewing the case.

‘Put simply, the president may reasonably determine that interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herself — and refuses to explain the apparent misrepresentations,’ Solicitor General D. John Sauer said Thursday in the appeal.

The review of Cook’s case is significant. Trump’s attempt to fire Cook marked the first time in the bank’s 111-year history that a president has ever attempted to remove a sitting governor from Fed — a stridently independent body whose members are shielded by law against political pressures.

The court’s decision to take up the case comes weeks after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb issued a preliminary injunction last month blocking Trump from firing Cook from the Fed while the case continued to play out in court.

She ruled that Trump had failed to satisfy the stringent requirements needed to remove a sitting Fed governor ‘for cause,’ and that Cook could not be removed for conduct that occurred prior to her appointment to the Fed. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit voted 2-1 in September to to deny Trump’s request for intervention, prompting the administration to kick the case to the Supreme Court for emergency review.

The Supreme Court update comes as Trump has for months pressured the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates, in a bid to help spur the nation’s economic growth. 

But his attempt to fire Cook for alleged mortgage fraud violations, which she has denied, has teed up a first-of-its-kind court clash that could have profound impacts on the Fed. 

Cook’s lawyers have argued that Trump’s attempt to fire her well before the end of her 14-year term is an attempt to install a nominee of his choosing and secure a majority on the Fed board. 

Cook sued Trump in late August for his attempt to fire her, arguing that his removal violated her due process rights under the Fifth Amendment, as well as her statutory right to notice and a hearing under the Federal Reserve Act, or FRA — a law designed to shield members from the political whims of the commander in chief or members of Congress. 

The Supreme Court has sided with Trump on similar cases in the past.

The Supreme Court in May allowed Trump to proceed with the provisional firings of two independent board members — National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris — two Democrat appointees who were abruptly terminated by the Trump administration.

But even that decision sought to differentiate these boards from the Fed, which they stressed was a ‘uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States.’

The blame game over the first federal government shutdown in seven years is intensifying.

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

And both sides are blasting each other in a verbal fistfight with plenty of policy and political implications as next year’s battle for Congress heats up.

‘IT’S MIDNIGHT. That means the Republican shutdown has just begun because they wouldn’t protect Americans’ health care. We’re going to keep fighting for the American people,’ Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer posted on social media as the shutdown began.

Republicans countered, blaming Schumer and Democrats for the shutdown.

‘This is basically Chuck Schumer,’ Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday in an interview on Fox News’ ‘Fox and Friends.’ ‘He’s worried he’s going to get a primary challenge from AOC [Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez].’

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.

‘I think it’s important for the American people to realize that the far-left faction of Senate Democrats shut down the government because we wouldn’t give them hundreds of billions of dollars for health care benefits for illegal aliens,’ Vance said in his ‘Fox and Friends’ interview.

Hours before the shutdown, a new national poll indicated that nearly two-thirds of American voters said that the Democrats in Congress shouldn’t force a federal government shutdown if their demands are not met.

But the New York Times/Siena poll also indicated that voters would blame Republicans and Trump, as well as Democrats, for a government shutdown.

But Schumer, speaking with FOX Business on Wednesday morning, argued that ‘the American people are on our side, completely and totally. They don’t want their healthcare decimated.’

And he charged that the White House and congressional Republicans ‘have refused to talk to us. They should come and talk to without conditions because the American people are suffering. Their health care is in shambles.’

While all sides are in the hot seat, the one feeling the most heat may be the 74-year-old Schumer, who has led the Senate Democrats for nearly a decade. 

The shutdown appears to offer the Democrat from New York a second chance, or a do-over. 

This after he faced fierce backlash from the Democratic Party base, which hungers for more vocal opposition to Trump’s unprecedented second-term agenda after his move to vote with Republicans to avoid a government shutdown this past spring.

Schumer’s move raised questions about whether he would face a leadership challenge in 15 months, and whether he’d face a primary challenge from progressive rock star Ocasio-Cortez when the senator is up for re-election in 2028.

‘There is one reason and one reason alone that Chuck Schumer is leading the Democrats off this cliff. He is trying to get political cover from the far-left corner of his base. He’s afraid of a challenge for his Senate seat by AOC or someone like that,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed in a Wednesday interview on Fox Business’ ‘Mornings with Maria.’

But Schumer, in a joint statement with House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as the government shut down, pinned blame on Trump and the GOP ‘because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people.’

‘Over the last few days, President Trump’s behavior has become more erratic and unhinged. Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos,’ the top two Democrats in Congress and fellow New Yorkers, argued. ‘The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown.’

With the battles for the House and Senate majorities in next year’s midterm elections drawing closer, the blame-game over the shutdown quickly reached the campaign trail.

The Democrat-aligned outside group Majority Forward launched paid ads targeting Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who will likely face a challenging re-election next year.

And the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP re-election arm, fired up paid ads targeting Democratic Sen. Jon. Ossoff of Georgia, who is considered the most vulnerable Democrat running for re-election in the 2026 midterms.

In the battle for the House, where Republicans aim to defend their fragile majority, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee quickly went up with digital ads taking aim at 35 Republican-controlled districts they consider in play.

And as first reported by Fox News Digital, the rival National Republican Congressional Committee launched ads across 42 districts, hitting Democrats over the government shutdown.

A federal judge disqualified Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada Sigal Chattah from involvement in several cases.

‘Given the Court’s conclusion that Ms. Chattah is not validly serving as Acting U.S. Attorney, her involvement in these cases would be unlawful,’ the order signed by senior U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell declares. ‘The Court will disqualify Ms. Chattah from participating in or supervising Defendants’ prosecutions.’

‘Defendants’ motions are granted to the extent they seek disqualification of Ms. Chattah from supervising their criminal prosecutions. Ms. Chattah is disqualified from supervising these cases or any attorneys in the handling of these cases. The government attorneys handling these cases shall, within 7 days of this order, file statements in the docket that they are not being supervised by Ms. Chattah in their prosecution of these cases,’ the order notes.

‘Defendants’ motions are denied to the extent they seek dismissal of their indictments,’ the order also declares.

Chattah unsuccessfully ran for Nevada attorney general as a Republican in 2022, but lost the contest to incumbent Democratic state attorney general Aaron Ford.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada asserted in part of a post on X that Chattah ‘has no business being our U.S. Attorney and she needs to resign now.’

Chattah currently has a post pinned to the top of her personal X profile that declares, ‘We are all Charlie,’ in a reference to conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last month — her post also includes the broken heart and American flag emojis.

Republicans and Democrats are trading barbs on Wednesday morning as the federal government settles into the first day of a shutdown.

‘Democrats made this choice, Democrats forced this crisis, and Democrats alone will answer to hardworking Americans now paying the price for their reckless agenda,’ Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday night.

The government entered a shutdown just after midnight Wednesday after the Senate failed to advance a short-term federal funding bill called a continuing resolution (CR) hours earlier. The measure did not reach the necessary 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster — falling 55-45 — with just three Democrats joining the GOP on Tuesday night.

Certain federal services will temporarily cease to function, and some government workers — including the military and air traffic controllers at airports — must continue to clock in under deferred pay.

Veteran services and military operations will continue to be funded, and Social Security checks will continue to be sent out to Americans, among other essential services.

But some federal workers could lose their jobs altogether, as indicated by a memo sent to federal agencies earlier this month by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought.

Republicans are now blaming Democrats for plunging the government into a shutdown, while Democrats are accusing Republicans of refusing to negotiate on what’s traditionally a bipartisan exercise.

‘Virginia is home to tens of thousands of federal workers, contractors and service members who keep our country running. Tonight, they are once again being forced to wonder when they will get their next paycheck — not because they failed to do their jobs, but because lawmakers in Congress failed to do theirs,’ Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., whose district includes the D.C. suburbs, said in a Tuesday night statement. 

‘Trump and his rubber-stamp Republicans have chosen to hurt Virginia families instead of working across the aisle. It’s past time they come to the table so we can find real solutions, reopen the government, and deliver for the people we serve.’

Meanwhile, Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, whose coal country district includes Youngstown, told Fox News Digital, ‘The current government shutdown is the culmination of months of the same tired and disruptive tactics used by the left against the American people.’

‘In November 2024, President Trump and the Republicans received an overwhelming mandate to govern. Yet, every time we try to implement the changes demanded by voters, we face fierce resistance — even on straightforward measures like a clean CR, which Congress approved 13 times before,’ Rulli said.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., wrote on X, ‘FACT: Schumer led a shutdown to hold the government hostage for a $1.5 trillion liberal payout.’

His message came in reference to Democrats’ own CR proposal calling for a repeal of healthcare spending cuts made in the GOP’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.’ Their plan would have also restored funding to NPR and PBS that was cut by the Trump administration earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Democrats have also demanded any CR include Obamacare subsidies, enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic but due to expire this year, in exchange for their votes.

‘Thousands of hard-working federal employees in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District woke up this morning to learn whether they were furloughed or required to work without pay,’ Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., wrote on X. ‘This shutdown was entirely avoidable. Democrats in Washington remain ready, willing and able to negotiate a bipartisan agreement to keep the government open and lower healthcare costs for Americans everywhere.’

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., similarly said in a statement, ‘Democrats have been clear for months: we will not support a budget that inflicts a healthcare crisis on the American people in order to fund Trump’s continued destruction of our democracy and out-of-control mass deportations.’

First-term Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, countered that ‘Democrats created this crisis.’

‘Democrats in the Senate just voted to shut the government down. This will impact food assistance programs, veterans’ care, troops’ pay, TSA agents’ and air traffic controllers’ pay, and so much more. Their reason? They want to restore taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens and prop up liberal news outlets with your $$,’ House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have also heaped blame on one another’s parties, with both expected to make their cases to Americans on Wednesday.

The Senate is also expected to vote on the CR again on Wednesday.