A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from continuing government furloughs, granting a temporary restraining order sought by labor unions that argued layoffs were unlawful during the ongoing government shutdown.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, ordered the administration not to issue any reduction in force notices to federal employees in ‘any program, project or activity,’ including any bargaining unit or member represented by the unions during, or because of, the shutdown.

‘The evidence suggests OMB and OPM have taken advantage of the lapse in government spending–function to assume all bets are off and that the laws don’t apply to them,’ Illston said.

She further claimed the administration’s actions were ‘…illegal and is in excess of authority and is arbitrary and capricious.’ 

In a court filing Tuesday night, an official with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said more than 4,000 government workers had already received reduction in force notices.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, led by GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, making the argument that Republicans have a winning hand when it comes to messaging over the government shutdown — even as the stalemate drags on into a 15th day.

To the group’s chair, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., that’s because the ball is solidly in the Democrats’ court.

‘We’re in the second week of a shutdown with no end in sight. Hopefully, the Senate Democrats change their minds and decide to reopen the government. But until then, the Republicans are standing together,’ Harris said.

During the call, members doubled down on support for the clean-spending extension Republicans advanced last month — not just as a matter of policy, but also as a facet of public opinion.

‘I think if the American people understand the truth, they will put pressure on their Democratic senators to actually open up the government,’ McClain said.

Republicans need the support of at least seven Democrats in the Senate to clear the 60-vote threshold to pass spending legislation over a filibuster. The GOP holds 53 seats in the chamber.

Congress remains gridlocked over funding allocations for the 2026 fiscal year which began at the start of October. Although Republicans had advanced a short-term spending plan to keep the government open through Nov. 21, the government entered a shutdown on Oct. 1 when Democrats made it clear they wouldn’t support any spending extension without a key add-on: the continuation of emergency, COVID-era healthcare subsidies set to expire at the end of 2025.

‘We passed it clean, no gimmicks. No gimmicks, no tricks, just at the exact same funding levels, of which, I might add, the Democrats put in place, that they voted for 13 times ago, as recently as March. But Democrats killed it,’ McClain said, referring to the Republican-led stopgap legislation.

Republicans have framed the standoff as a Democrat attempt to take the government hostage over bloated government programs that would add billions to the country’s expenses.

Democrats see the shutdown as a Republican refusal to negotiate over healthcare — one that will spike the monthly premiums of anyone currently relying on the expanded COVID-era subsidies to pay for Obamacare health insurance plans.

Members of the Freedom Caucus said that consideration of some sort of tax-credit extension is still out of the question. 

‘The bottom line is that the COVID-era enhancements have to end. Should we be looking at other reforms to Obamacare to stop the upward spiral of insurance premiums? Sure, we should. But to discuss, again, COVID-era enhancements as the Democrats want to do is a complete nonstarter,’ Rep. Keith Self, R-Tx., said.

That’s of particular focus to the House Freedom Caucus; since its formation in 2015, the group has always had its eye on reeling in government spending.

Some members of the caucus noted that it’s unusual for the group to support a clean-funding extension at levels the group believes are too high to begin with.

‘We’ve given [in] to the Democrats by extending the Biden policies, Biden funding. We could put Republican priorities — Republican funding requests on this, but we didn’t. So, we have already given [in] on this. They are demanding more. Well, not this time,’ Harris said. 

As the shutdown enters a third week, neither side has signaled an intent to blink any time soon.

The Senate will consider spending legislation again on Thursday. If it fails, it will mark the 10th time Democrats have rejected the Republican-led spending extension.

As Israel and Hamas lay down their arms after more than two years of war, the U.S. is stepping in to oversee the next phase of the deal as a peacekeeping force is formed. 

Sources tell Fox News that all 200 U.S. troops had arrived in Israel by Tuesday night and will operate out of a base in Israel. Additionally, a U.S. Military C-17 transport plane packed with command-and-control equipment and supplies arrived Tuesday.

Last week, negotiators working toward a Gaza deal participating in talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, asked U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to brief both sides, sources tell Fox News. CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper, along with Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, briefed the Qataris, the Egyptians and the Turks on the Civil Military Coordination Center (CMCC).

Once the U.S. committed to providing heavy coordination, but no boots on the ground in Gaza, negotiators left to tell the Israelis and Hamas. From there, things moved quickly, and, as one well-placed source said, ‘They saw an opportunity and moved at lightning speed and took it.’ However, with speed comes risk as certain questions were left unanswered, such as who would be in the stabilization force in Gaza? Or, what is the mechanism for ensuring Hamas disarms?

Fox News has learned that the CMCC will be located a few miles northeast of Gaza, not at the Israel Defense Force’s Hatzor Airbase, as some previously reported. The CMCC will be under U.S. leadership, but it will also have representatives from multiple countries and stakeholders, such as the United Nations and private aid groups. U.S. personnel will monitor everything going in and out of Gaza, and will oversee all logistics of delivering aid to the enclave.

While the center is expected to be operational in the coming days, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar have yet to decide whether their representatives will be based there.

Neither Jordan nor Egypt said they would be willing to send troops to stabilize Gaza, and it looks as though countries outside the region could be left to handle the situation, but nothing has been finalized. Additionally, outside countries willing to send troops would likely need a mandate passed by the U.N. Security Council, as well as approval from their own governments, giving Hamas more time to rebuild and fill the power vacuum.

Despite heavy losses in the war and international threats, Hamas fighters have shown signs that they are not ready to stand down. Since the start of the ceasefire, videos of extrajudicial killings by Hamas in public squares began circulating online.

‘We strongly urge Hamas to immediately suspend violence and shooting at innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza — in both Hamas-held parts of Gaza and those secured by the IDF behind the Yellow Line,’ Cooper said in a statement Wednesday. ‘This is an historic opportunity for peace. Hamas should seize it by fully standing down, strictly adhering to President Trump’s 20-point peace plan, and disarming without delay.’

Fox News has learned of a massive effort taking place behind the scenes to plan and execute the rebuilding of Gaza. Part of the issue is the giant tunnel network under Gaza City. To rebuild the city, the tunnels will need to be filled to make the ground stable enough for construction.

The first phase of the deal remains ongoing as Hamas has failed to deliver all 28 bodies of deceased hostages, making it less clear when the second stage will begin. Israel has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to getting all the deceased hostages’ bodies so they can have proper burials.

On Monday, Israel received the bodies of four deceased hostages later identified as Yossi Sharabi, Binpin Joshi, Guy Iluz and Daniel Peretz. Israel received four more bodies on Tuesday, three of whom were identified as deceased hostages Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi, Uriel Baruch and Eitan Levi. Israel said the fourth body did not match any of the hostages and was in fact a Palestinian. 

‘Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages,’ the IDF wrote on X.

A prominent Washington think tank told Fox News Digital that one of its experts, who is a State Department employee, was placed on administrative leave after being accused of removing classified documents from secure locations and meeting with Chinese officials dating back to 2023. 

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was arrested over the weekend.

‘We are aware of the allegations against Ashley Tellis. He is now on administrative leave, including from his role as Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs,’ Katelynn Vogt, Vice President for Communications for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The Justice Department said Ashley Tellis was an unpaid senior advisor to the State Department and also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense, recently renamed the Department of War. He is considered a subject-matter expert on India and South Asian affairs in his role at the Office of Net Assessment. 

Tellis began working for the State Department in 2001, court documents state. He is accused of unlawful retention of national defense information, according to an affidavit. 

‘We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,’ Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. 

Tellis held a top-secret clearance and had access to sensitive information, federal prosecutors said in court documents.  

During a search of his Vienna, Virginia, home, authorities found more than a thousand pages of documents marked ‘TOP SECRET’ and ‘SECRET,’ the court documents added. 

On Sept. 12, Tellis had a coworker at a government facility print multiple classified documents for him, authorities said. 

On Sept. 25, he allegedly printed U.S. Air Force documents concerning military aircraft capabilities. Federal prosecutors allege that he met with Chinese government officials multiple times over the past several years. 

In September 2022, he met with Chinese officials at a Virginia restaurant while holding a manila envelope, prosecutors said. 

If convicted, Tellis faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and up to a $250,000 fine, according to the Justice Department. 

The Associated Press reported that Tellis was ordered detained Tuesday pending a detention hearing next week, and an attorney representing him, Deborah Curtis, said, ‘we look forward to the hearing, where we’ll be able to present evidence.’ 

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said on its website that Tellis specialized ‘in international security and U.S. foreign and defense policy with a special focus on Asia and the Indian subcontinent.’

‘While on assignment to the U.S. Department of State as senior adviser to the undersecretary of state for political affairs, he was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India,’ it added. 

‘Previously he was commissioned into the U.S. Foreign Service and served as senior adviser to the ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. He also served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia,’ the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said. 

It also described Tellis as a ‘member of several professional organizations related to defense and international studies including the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the United States Naval Institute, and the Navy League of the United States.’ 

Israel is preparing to deploy one of the world’s first combat-ready laser air-defense system, marking a historic shift in how nations defend against rockets, drones and missiles — and a sign that Jerusalem is intent on staying one step ahead of its adversaries even as active fighting subsides.

In an interview with Fox News Digital at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) conference in Washington, D.C., Rafael Advanced Defense Systems CEO Yoav Turgeman confirmed that the company has completed acceptance testing of its Iron Beam laser interceptor and is now delivering the system to the Israeli Air Force for operational use.

‘We have demonstrated the first production-line system. It was very successful,’ Turgeman said. ‘We are delivering the system to the Air Force, which will use it operationally.’

The Iron Beam represents a breakthrough in directed-energy technology — capable of destroying incoming rockets, drones and mortars with a beam of light that can strike targets moving as fast as the speed of sound and at a fraction of the cost of conventional interceptors.

‘The interception cost is just a few dollars,’ Turgeman explained. ‘There’s no interceptor debris, so the collateral damage is much smaller. It enables us to reduce the cost of interception and enhance the performance of our system.’

The Iron Beam’s rollout makes Israel the first nation to field a high-power laser interceptor integrated into a national air-defense network — a milestone that could redefine missile defense for decades to come.

Rafael designed it as part of Israel’s layered air-defense architecture, which also includes the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow systems.

The laser will handle short-range threats such as rockets, small drones, and mortar rounds, freeing up Iron Dome’s more expensive missile interceptors for higher-value targets.

‘Each layer complements the other,’ Turgeman said. ‘The system decides what is the optimized solution.’

Turgeman said Rafael will partner with Lockheed Martin to produce Iron Beam components and indicated the technology could be integrated into the U.S.’s Golden Dome plans.

‘We are looking forward to start the production stage,’ he told Fox News. ‘Lockheed Martin will take part in a significant part of the production. We were able to meet our schedule on time, even though we had a war.’

Modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome, the U.S. is currently developing plans for its own homeland missile defense shield.

‘We would love to see [Iron Dome] as part of that solution,’ he said. ‘We have Iron Dome, the Stunner interceptor, and the laser — all could help protect the U.S.’

The new technology comes amid relative calm in the Middle East. Israel and Hamas have maintained a cease-fire in Gaza, and Iran has not launched attacks since June’s 12-day war.

Still, Israel isn’t taking any chances: Turgeman said Rafael has doubled its research and development investment to ensure Israel maintains its technological edge.

‘If there will be another war, it will be the surprise,’ he said. ‘The idea is to deter the enemy from attacking Israel — that is the safest way to prevent war.’

At AUSA, Rafael also unveiled a new L-Spike loitering weapon, a drone-like missile capable of reaching a target rapidly and then circling overhead until a strike is authorized.

Turgeman said it’s designed for ‘time-critical targets’ and built to resist electronic warfare interference.

‘Even though the system has its own brain and can identify the target, the operator must approve the attack,’ he said. ‘One operator can run four systems — but the final decision is human.’

Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst introduced a bill Wednesday that would require federal agencies to submit detailed reports outlining the true full costs of a government shutdown, including back pay for furloughed employees. 

‘Schumer’s Shutdown shenanigans have already wasted $4.4 billion paying 750,000 ‘non-essential’ federal employees not to work for more than two weeks,’ Ernst told Fox News Digital. 

‘My Non-Essential Workers Transparency Actwill expose thelost productivity and true cost of Democrats’ political stunt,’ she said. ‘It will also help expose which parts of the bloated bureaucracy are truly ‘non-essential’ and should be put on the chopping block to increase efficiency in Washington for taxpayers.’

Ernst’s bill would require federal agencies to submit reports to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs within 30 days of a shutdown’s end, detailing each agency’s total number of employees when the shutdown began, total salary spending during the previous fiscal year, the number of furloughed workers, how much those employees would have earned during the shutdown, and the number and pay of those who continued working.

The U.S. government has been in the midst of an ongoing shutdown since Oct. 1, when Senate lawmakers failed to pass funding legislation for 2026. An estimated 750,000 federal employees were furloughed and will be compensated with back pay once the shutdown ends, as stipulated in a 2019 law. 

As the shutdown loomed at the end of September, Ernst published Congressional Budget Office data showing the shutdown is expected to cost taxpayers $400 million a day, with the Iowa senator railing against the hefty price tag ‘to pay 750,000 non-essential bureaucrats NOT to work.’

The estimated cost of back pay has reached roughly $4.4 billion as of Wednesday, according to estimates cited by Ernst.

‘Using information from the agencies’ contingency plans and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), CBO estimates that under a lapse in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2026 about 750,000 employees could be furloughed each day; the total daily cost of their compensation would be roughly $400 million,’ a letter to Ernst from the Congressional Budget Office stated in September. 

The Trump administration and Republicans have since pinned blame for the shutdown on Democrats, claiming they sought taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants. Democrats have denied they want to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants and instead have blamed Republicans for the shutdown.

‘They say that undocumented people are going to get these credits,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier in October. ‘That is absolutely false. That is one of the big lies that they tell.’ 

White House spokesman Kush Desai slammed Democrats as ‘not serious people’ when asked about the Congressional Budget Office data earlier in October. 

‘Democrats are burning $400 million a day to pay federal workers not to work because they want to spend $200 billion on free health care for illegal aliens,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘These are not serious people.’

President Donald Trump warned the administration could make ‘irreversible’ changes to the federal workforce in the lead-up to the shutdown, most notably through a new wave of fresh layoffs. The president repeatedly said that he and his allies did not want the government to shut down, but that it opened the door for some ‘good’ that could come from it as he looks to further slim down the size of the government and make it more efficient.  

The White House announced on Friday that reduction in force notices, better known as RIFs, had been issued across agencies. 

‘The RIFs have begun,’ White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote on X Friday.