00:00Three weeks in and still no deal, President Trump digs in, Democrats double down as the shutdown drags on.
00:08Plus, Trump wants payback, literally, why he's demanding more than $200 million from the Justice Department.
00:14And the Louvre is open this morning, but the jewel's still missing.
00:18The hunt is on for the thieves behind the heist that shook Paris.
00:24The stories that matter, clear and credible.
00:27From across the country to around the world, these are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow News.
00:36Hello everyone, I'm Kaylee Carey, in today for Craig Negrelli.
00:40This morning, the government shutdown hits three weeks with still no end in sight.
00:44Top Republican leaders met with President Trump over lunch at the White House Tuesday and came out united in their decision to stand firm.
00:51Trump told GOP senators not to back down, insisting Republicans will not be extorted by Democrats who want health care concessions before reopening the government.
01:01The Senate has now failed 11 times to pass a short-term bill that would keep the government open through November 1st.
01:08We will not be extorted on this crazy plot of theirs.
01:13They've never done this before. Nobody has. You always vote for an extension.
01:17Democrats are pushing back, urging the president to get personally involved as a critical deadline approaches.
01:24If Congress doesn't act by October 31st, millions of Americans will see higher premiums when open enrollment begins November 1st.
01:31The decisions made or not in the next 10 days will determine whether working families can afford their health care next year.
01:40And Americans are desperately looking to Republicans, the party and the majority, to do something about it.
01:45Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries say they've asked to meet with Trump,
01:50but the president told reporters he won't sit down with Democrats until the government reopens.
01:55Now to the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza.
01:59Israel's military says Hamas returned the remains of two more hostages late Tuesday.
02:04It's another step toward honoring the ceasefire deal, which requires Hamas to return all remaining hostages, both living and dead.
02:11And while that process has been fraught, Vice President J.D. Vance says the truce is actually going better than he expected.
02:18He's in Israel this week with special invoice Steve Whitcoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner,
02:23the architects of President Trump's peace plan.
02:26The trip is aimed at keeping the deal on track and preparing for phase two, which focuses on reconstruction and security in Gaza.
02:34Look, I think that we are one week into President Trump's historic peace plan in the Middle East,
02:40and things are going, frankly, better than I expected that they were.
02:44This is a very, very tough situation.
02:46You have two peoples, two enemies who have fought a very tough conflict against each other.
02:51You have a terrorist organization on one hand that murdered a lot of innocent people.
02:55You've got an Israeli army that was defending itself on the other, that has learned a lot over the past couple of years.
03:00And, of course, you have an innocent civilian population in Gaza that's caught in the middle.
03:04Vance also announced the opening of a new civil military coordination center in southern Israel.
03:09Run by U.S. Central Command, it's designed to be the main hub for Gaza stabilization and aid.
03:15The vice president is expected to remain in Israel through Thursday.
03:18This morning, new questions about just how far President Trump is willing to go to turn the tables on his former prosecutors.
03:26The New York Times was first to report that the president is demanding about $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department,
03:34money he claims he's owed for what he calls years of unfair investigations into him.
03:39The claims filed before he returned to the White House cover both the Russia investigation and the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
03:46But now, the same department that once investigated him is run by his own appointees,
03:52including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former defense lawyer,
03:56one of the officials who may have to sign off on any settlement.
04:00Legal experts tell the Times the ethical conflict is, quote, bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.
04:06I don't know what the numbers are. I don't even talk to them about it.
04:09All I know is that they would owe me a lot of money, but I'm not looking for money.
04:14I'd give it to charity or something. I would give it to charity.
04:16With the country, it's interesting because I'm the one that makes the decision, right?
04:20And, you know, that decision would have to go across my desk.
04:24And it's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself.
04:28In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you're paying yourself in damages?
04:33But I was damaged very greatly, and any money that I would get, I would give to charity.
04:38The Times says about $230 million in taxpayer money could be at stake
04:43if the president's own Justice Department agrees that he deserves it.
04:47A Trump nominee is out this morning pulling his name from consideration
04:51after a damaging political report on racist text.
04:55Paul Ingracia, the president's pick to lead the government's corruption-fighting office of special counsel,
05:01has withdrawn his nomination.
05:03In a post on X, Ingracia wrote that he doesn't have enough Republican votes at this time,
05:08saying he'll continue working to make America great again.
05:11Four Republican senators, including Majority Leader John Thune,
05:14publicly opposed his nomination, enough to sink it if all Democrats voted no.
05:19Politico reports the messages included racial slurs about black holidays
05:23and remarks about having a, quote, Nazi streak.
05:26Ingracia's lawyer told Politico the text may have been altered or taken out of context.
05:32He's still serving as a White House liaison to the Department of Homeland Security.
05:37An earthquake in the media world to tell you about.
05:40Warner Brothers Discovery, the parent company of CNN and HBO, says it's open to a sale.
05:46The move comes after the company announced plans to split in two,
05:49one side for entertainment and streaming, the other for news and sports.
05:52But now, as The New York Times first reported, bidders are already lining up.
05:57Among them, David Ellison, who just took control of Paramount
06:00and recently spent $150 million buying Barry Weiss's free press
06:05and made her editor-in-chief of CBS News.
06:08If that deal goes through, it would put CNN and CBS under the same roof,
06:13two of America's legacy news brands in one empire.
06:16Warner Brothers Discovery CEO says the company is reviewing alternatives
06:20after getting unsolicited offers.
06:22Other potential suitors include Netflix and Comcast, according to CNBC.
06:27For CNN, it's the latest turn in a long string of ownership changes
06:31and an uncertain question, who owns the future of that news organization?
06:36The Louvre is open again this morning, but its most prized treasures are still missing.
06:42Police say the jewels stolen in that Hollywood-style heist are worth,
06:45get this, more than $102 million.
06:47That's not including their historic value to France.
06:51Investigators say the thieves used a basket lift to scale the museum's facade,
06:56cut through a window, and smash their way into the Apollo Gallery,
07:00all in under eight minutes.
07:01Eight imperial pieces were taken, including a sapphire tiara,
07:05emerald necklace, and a corsage brooch belonging to Empress Eugenie,
07:09the wife of Napoleon III.
07:11France's cultural minister called it a wound for the nation,
07:14saying the Louvre is more than a museum.
07:16It's the soul of French culture.
07:18Still, the museum reopened this morning.
07:20Crowds back under that glass pyramid, a symbol, perhaps,
07:24that even in the face of theft, the lights of Paris don't go out for long.
07:29And finally this morning, a little magic from the Oregon Zoo.
07:33It's the zoo's annual squishing of the squash,
07:35where elephants turn into pumpkin-smashing machines.
07:38They get giant gourds, some weighing hundreds of pounds,
07:41donated by local growers who specialize in monster vegetables.
07:45But the crowd favorite, baby Tula too.
07:47At just eight months old, she weighs about as much as one of the pumpkins,
07:51too small to smash it, but not too small to steal the show.
07:54Instead of stomping, she started dribbling her mini pumpkin like a soccer star,
07:59proving Halloween fun comes in all sizes.
08:01Before we head out, here's what we're tracking today.
08:04In Illinois, opening statements begin in the murder trial of Deputy Sean Grayson,
08:09accused of shooting Sonia Massey, an unarmed woman who called 911 for help.
08:14In Chicago, a federal judge holds a hearing on whether to keep blocking the deployment
08:18of National Guard troops to the area.
08:21At two, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals takes up a similar case over guard deployments in Los Angeles.
08:26And at four, NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda will be at the White House today for a meeting with President Trump.
08:33And check out more of our stories on the app, where unbiased isn't a tagline, it's certified.
08:38All sides calls us unbiased.
08:40NewsGuard gives us a perfect score for reliability.
08:43Facts first, without the spin.
08:45Those are your unbiased updates for this Wednesday.
08:48Craig will be back tomorrow.
08:50For all of us here at Straight Arrow News, I'm Kayleigh Carey.
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