doubt

WASHINGTON — Elections this week that energized Democrats and angered President Trump have cast a chill over efforts to end the record-breaking government shutdown, raising fresh doubts about the possibility of a breakthrough despite the punishing toll of federal closures on the country.

Trump has increased pressure on Senate Republicans to end the shutdown — now at 37 days, the longest in U.S. history — calling it a “big factor, negative” in the poor GOP showings across the country. Democrats saw Trump’s comments as a reason to hold firm, believing his involvement in talks could lead to a deal on extending health care subsidies, a key sticking point to win their support.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune opened what’s seen as a pivotal day in efforts to end the government shutdown by saying the next step hinges on a response from Democrats to an offer on the table.

“It’s in their court. It’s up to them,” Thune told reporters Thursday.

But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer held firm in opening remarks Thursday, saying voters “fired a political torpedo at Trump and Republicans” in Tuesday’s election.

“Donald Trump clearly is feeling pressure to bring this shutdown to an end. Well, I have good news for the president: Meet with Democrats, reopen the government,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Trump is refusing to meet with Democrats, insisting they must open the government first. But complicating the GOP’s strategy, Trump is increasingly fixated instead on pushing Republicans to scrap the Senate filibuster to speed reopening — a step many GOP senators reject out of hand. He kept up the pressure in a video Wednesday, saying the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to pass legislation should be “terminated.”

“This is much bigger than the shutdown,” Trump said. “This is the survival of our country.”

Senate Democrats face pressures of their own, both from unions eager for the shutdown to end and from allied groups that want them to hold firm. Many see the Democrats’ decisive gubernatorial wins in Virginia and New Jersey as validation of their strategy to hold the government closed until expiring health care subsidies are addressed.

“It would be very strange for the American people to have weighed in, in support of Democrats standing up and fighting for them, and within days for us to surrender without having achieved any of the things that we’ve been fighting for,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

Meanwhile, talks grind on, but the shutdown’s toll deepens. On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced plans to reduce air traffic by 10% across 40 high-volume markets beginning Friday to maintain safety amid staffing shortages. Millions of people have already been affected by halted government programs and missed federal paychecks — with more expected as another round of paydays approaches next week.

Progressives see election wins as reason to fight

Grassroots Democratic groups nationwide touted Tuesday’s election results as voter approval of the shutdown strategy — and warned lawmakers against cutting a deal too soon.

“Moderate Senate Democrats who are looking for an off-ramp right now are completely missing the moment,” said Katie Bethell, political director of MoveOn, a progressive group. “Voters have sent a resounding message: We want leaders who fight for us, and we want solutions that make life more affordable.”

Some Senate Democrats echoed that sentiment. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats and a leading voice in the progressive movement, said Democrats “have got to remain strong” and should secure assurances on extending health care subsidies — including “a commitment from the speaker of the House that he will support the legislation and that the president will sign.”

Still, how firmly the party remains dug in remains to be seen. Some Democrats have been working with Republicans to find a way out of the standoff, and they held firm after the election that it had not impacted their approach.

“I don’t feel that the elections changed where I was,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. “I still feel I want to get out of the shutdown.”

Some Republicans also shared in Trump’s concerns that the shutdown is becoming a drag on the party.

“Polls show that most voters blame Republicans more than Democrats,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican. “That’s understandable given who controls the levers of power.”

Trump sets another shutdown record

While some Democrats saw Trump’s comments on the shutdown Wednesday as evidence he’d soon get more involved, he’s largely stayed out of the fray. Instead, the talks have intensified among a loose coalition of centrist senators trying to negotiate an end to the shutdown.

Trump has refused to negotiate with Democrats over their demands to salvage expiring health insurance subsidies until they agree to reopen the government. But skeptical Democrats question whether the Republican president will keep his word, particularly after his administration restricted SNAP food aid despite court orders to ensure funds are available to prevent hunger.

Trump’s approach to the shutdown stands in marked contrast to his first term, when the government was partially closed for 35 days over his demands for money to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall. At that time, he met publicly and negotiated with congressional leaders. Unable to secure the money, he relented in 2019.

This time, it’s not just Trump declining to engage in talks. The congressional leaders are at a standoff, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent lawmakers home in September after they approved their own funding bill, refusing further negotiations.

Johnson dismissed the party’s election losses and said he’s looking forward to a midterm election in 2026 that’ll more reflect Trump’s tenure.

In the meantime, food aid, child care money and countless other government services are being seriously interrupted. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or are expected to work without pay.

Senators search for potential deal

Central to any resolution will be a series of agreements that would need to be upheld not only by the Senate but also by the House and the White House, which is not at all certain in Washington.

Asked if the House would guarantee a vote on extending health care subsidies if the Senate struck a deal, Johnson said Thursday, “I’m not promising anybody anything.”

Senators from both major parties, particularly the members of the powerful Appropriations Committee, are pushing to ensure the normal government funding process in Congress can be put back on track. Among the goals is guaranteeing upcoming votes on a smaller package of bills to fund various aspects of government such as agricultural programs and military construction projects at bases.

More difficult, a substantial number of senators also want some resolution to the standoff over the funding for the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at year’s end.

With insurance premium notices being sent, millions of people are experiencing sticker shock on skyrocketing prices. The loss of enhanced federal subsidies, which were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and come in the form of tax credits, are expected to leave many people unable to buy health insurance.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised Democrats at least a vote on their preferred health care proposal, on a date certain, as part of any deal to reopen government. But that’s not enough for some senators, who see the health care deadlock as part of their broader concerns with Trump’s direction for the country.

Cappelletti, Mascaro and Jalonick write for the Associated Press.

Teenage striker Michelle Agyemang has been backed to to find the strength to reach her potential “without a doubt” despite rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

The 19-year-old will miss the rest of the season after suffering the injury as the Lionesses beat Australia 3-0 in Tuesday’s friendly.

Agyemang was as a surprise inclusion in Sarina Wiegman’s squad for Euro 2025 in the summer, but scored crucial goals in both the quarter-finals and semi-finals as they successfully defended their European title.

The Arsenal forward started this season well on loan at Brighton, whose manager Dario Vidosic said on Friday: “It’s not just us that are heartbroken but the whole nation, seeing her go down in that game, I think we all held our breath.

“There are no words, it’s a tough one. I spoke to her today and she said she is OK, she feels good.

“She is a very switched-on kid so her mind is already set on it (recovery), that’s the impressive thing about her that maybe not everyone gets to see.

“It’s a chance to improve. We’ll keep her engaged and learning, if not physically. We can still keep her mind growing and learning as a young player.

“She still has a lot of potential that we were seeing each week, she was growing through the experience of playing and coming up against tough opponents.

“Now we’ll find another means to do that off the pitch. We’ll help her mentally so that when she comes back it will be like she hasn’t missed a beat.”

Having suffered two ACL injuries herself during her playing career, Arsenal manager Renee Slegers knows what Agyemang is going through.

“It’s a very sad time,” she added. “When these moments happen it’s horrible because you know that it will keep them away from the game for a long time.

“Michelle has been doing so well, she was in a really good place. The timing of this isn’t great, although it’s never a good time.

“But Michelle is very strong, she’s young, she will have the strength to come back and we’ll do everything we can to support her.”

Ouch, Canada.

The World Series wasn’t supposed to start like this. The Dodgers weren’t supposed to begin their inevitable championship march like this.

Even playing in their raucous Rogers Centre north of the border in the opener Friday, the cute little Toronto Blue Jays were supposed to be a far inferior team, eh?

Uhhhh…

For baseball’s burgeoning dynasty, there suddenly looms disaster. For the dominating Dodgers, this is now a World Serious.

The Blue Jays didn’t just win Game 1, they hammered the Dodgers into a maple-leafy pulp, 11-4, battering their ace and bruising their ego and sending a message.

It was delivered in the ninth inning, when the fans rained a chant down on Shohei Ohtani, who spurned the Blue Jays in his free agent sweepstakes two years ago and whose two-run homer meant nothing Friday night.

“We don’t need you… we don’t need you.”

When the game ended shortly and mercifully thereafter, another unspoken message had been sent.

You know where you can stick your broom…

Truly, the only thing getting swept in this series is the Dodgers’ aura of invincibility, as the Blue Jays did exactly what they needed to do by hitting them precisely where it hurts.

Welcome to the postseason, Dodger bullpen.

Now get lost.

Wearing down ace Blake Snell for 29 pitches in the first inning and 100 pitches by the sixth, the pesky Blue Jays hitter loaded the bases with none out when Snell left the game for the maligned and recently ignored Dodger relievers.

Rather predictably, all Hortons broke loose.

Emmet Sheehan lasted four hitters and allowed three baserunners. Ernie Clement singled in a run, Nathan Lukes walked to force in a run and Andrés Giménez singled in a run, and have you ever heard of any of those guys?

Enter Anthony Banda, and exit an Addison Barger fly ball into the right-field stands for the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history. Add an ensuing single by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a home run from Alejandro Kirk and you pretty much get the picture.

The Dodgers gave up nine runs in the sixth inning, more than twice as many runs as they gave up in the entire four-game National League Championship Series win against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Worse yet, they allowed, for the first time this postseason, some doubt.

Did the seven days off since the NLCS sweep ruin their timing as brief October vacations have done to Dodger teams in the past? After all, this is the fifth time in World Series history a team coming off a sweep played a team that was stretched to seven games, and in the previous four times, the team that was stretched won the series.

The Dodgers will roll out another ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, in Game 2 Saturday. He pitched a complete game in his last start, so maybe there’s no cause to worry.

Or maybe the Blue Jays just gave them 11 good reasons to worry.

After all, Toronto began the game as a heavy underdog, and for three good reasons, but none of their fears were realized.

They were starting Trey Yesavage, a rookie pitcher who began the season in the Class-A Florida State League pitching for the Dunedin Blue Jays in front of 328 fans against the Jupiter Hammerheads. The 22-year-old was the second-youngest starting pitcher in World Series opener history. He had made just six total major-league starts, and just last week was shelled for five runs in four innings by the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS.

”I don’t want to be out there on the mound thinking too much because for me, I’m at best when I’m just black dead out there and not thinking at all,” he said before the game.

He indeed seemed clueless, but he survived three walks and four hits in four innings by yielding just two runs.

Second, the Jays were starting Bo Bichette at second base even though he had not played the position in six years and never in the major league. The team’s standout shortstop, had also not played anywhere in 47 days since he was sidelined with a sprained knee.

“Yeah, it’s crazy,” said Bichette.

You know what’s crazier? He singled, walked, turned a double play, and made a great stop-and-throw on a grounder before being removed for a pinch-runner in the sixth

Third, the Blue Jays were also starting an outfield trio known only to family and close friends. Kudos to all those who had Myles Straw, Daulton Varsho and Davis Schneider on your bingo card.

Varsho homered. Enough said.

“I think that there’s a lot of firsts for a lot of these guys… I think that players are going to feel certain things that they haven’t felt before,” said Jays manager John Schneider beforehand.

Afterward, that applied to the suddenly shaken Dodgers.

When Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts was asked Friday afternoon about the pressure his team felt, he said, “None. None whatsoever.”

Check that.

Katie Piper has admitted she is unsure on her Loose Women future as ITV get ready to have a huge daytime television shake up

Katie Piper has candidly admitted she doesn’t know what the future holds for her Loose Women role. The presenter is among a number of stars who could see their time on the show cut short due to the impending huge changes on the ITV panel show.

She has admitted she is currently in the dark about her future as the new look Daytime line-up gets ready to launch in January. The changes will see Loose Women switch to just being a seasonal show.

Elsewhere, Good Morning Britain will be extended, chopping Lorraine episodes to just 30 minutes. For the Loose Women panel, they will only be on air seasonally, running for just 30 weeks.

READ MORE: Loose Women star hits out at ‘cruel’ cuts by ITV ahead of schedule changesREAD MORE: Alison Hammond admits relief over This Morning’s NTA win after string of scandals

Speaking of the switch-up, Katie admitted she doesn’t know what is coming her way. When asked by The Sun about the situation at the National Television Awards, she admitted: “You’d have to ask the producers that. I don’t know.”

The decision to drop the show’s 100-strong audience will also see bosses remove the need for extra security and a warm-up act. But the move is said to have angered a number of the regular panellists who feed off the audience interaction.

The cost-cutting measure also sees This Morning and GMB move away from its current home at BBC Studioworks Television Centre.

And in July, the big changes at Loose Women were explained in full. The iconic lunchtime chat show, which is best known for its bold debates and A-list guests, is reportedly getting ready to cut celebrity interviews completely from January as part of the channel’s sweeping budget cuts.

Instead, it’s said the high-profile bookings will now be prioritised for Lorraine and This Morning. This will leave Loose Women to rely solely on its panel discussions of the day’s news and lifestyle topics.

“Not having guests is a big blow for both the presenters and viewers at home,” an insider revealed at the time. “The celebrity interviews are often one of the highlights of the show and bring a unique energy you don’t get on other programmes. It feels like a strange decision to cut them altogether.”

It will also only air for 30 weeks of the year rather than its usual 52, meaning production time will be slashed by nearly in half.

And speaking of cutting the audience, Nadia Sawalha admitted she was “devastated” by the news. It also meant that f her close friend and warm-up artist Lee Peart has lost his job as a result.

“The audience is so important for the show,” Nadia said. “What a lot of people don’t realise is that we’re self-employed. Every contract is a new contract – I could be let go tomorrow or in five years. It’s brutal.”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Washington, DC – New media reports in the United States, citing intelligence assessments, have cast doubt over President Donald Trump’s assertion that Washington’s military strikes last month “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Washington Post and NBC News reported that US officials were saying that only one of the three Iranian nuclear sites – the Fordow facility – targeted by the US has been destroyed.

The Post’s report, released on Friday, also raised questions on whether the centrifuges used to enrich uranium at the deepest level of Fordow were destroyed or moved before the attack.

“We definitely can’t say it was obliterated,” an unidentified official told the newspaper, referring to Iran’s nuclear programme.

Trump has insisted that the US strikes were a “spectacular” success, lashing out at any reports questioning the level of damage they inflicted on Iran’s nuclear programme.

An initial US intelligence assessment, leaked to several media outlets after the attack last month, said the strikes failed to destroy key components of Iran’s nuclear programme and only delayed its work by months.

But the Pentagon said earlier in July that the attacks degraded the Iranian programme by one to two years.

While the strikes on Fordow – initially thought to be the most guarded facility, buried inside a mountain – initially took centre stage, the NBC News and Washington Post reports suggested that the facilities in Natanz and Isfahan also had deep tunnels.

‘Impenetrable’

The US military did not use enormous bunker-busting bombs against the Isfahan site and targeted surface infrastructure instead.

A congressional aide familiar with intelligence briefings told the Post that the Pentagon had assessed that the underground facilities at Isfahan were “pretty much impenetrable”.

The Pentagon responded to both reports by reiterating that all three sites were “completely and totally obliterated”.

Israel, which started the war by attacking Iran without direct provocation last month, has backed the US administration’s assessment, while threatening further strikes against Tehran if it resumes its nuclear programme.

For its part, Tehran has not provided details about the state of its nuclear sites.

Some Iranian officials have said that the facilities sustained significant damage from US and Israeli attacks. But Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said after the war that Trump had “exaggerated” the impact of the strikes.

The location and state of Iran’s highly enriched uranium also remain unknown.

Iran’s nuclear agency and regulators in neighbouring states have said they did not detect a spike in radioactivity after the bombings, suggesting the strikes did not result in uranium contamination.

But Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, did not rule out that the uranium containers may have been damaged in the attacks.

“We don’t know where this material could be or if part of it could have been under the attack during those 12 days,” Grossi told CBS News last month.

According to Grossi, Iran could resume uranium enrichment in a “matter of months”.

The war

Israel launched a massive attack against Iran on June 13, killing several top military officials, as well as nuclear scientists.

The bombing campaign targeted military sites, civilian infrastructure and residential buildings across the country, killing hundreds of civilians.

Iran responded with barrages of missiles against Israel that left widespread destruction and claimed the lives of at least 29 people.

The US joined the Israeli campaign on June 22, striking the three nuclear sites. Iran retaliated with a missile attack against an air base housing US troops in Qatar.

Initially, Trump said the Iranian attack was thwarted, but after satellite images showed damage at the base, the Pentagon acknowledged that one of the missiles was not intercepted.

“One Iranian ballistic missile impacted Al Udeid Air Base June 23 while the remainder of the missiles were intercepted by US and Qatari air defence systems,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told Al Jazeera in an email last week.

“The impact did minimal damage to equipment and structures on the base. There were no injuries.”

After a ceasefire was reached to end the 12-day war, both the US and Iran expressed willingness to engage in diplomacy to resolve the nuclear file. But talks have not materialised.

Iran and the US were periodically holding nuclear talks before Israel launched its war in June.

EU-Iran talks

During his first term in 2018, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The agreement saw Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting international sanctions against its economy.

In recent days, European officials have suggested that they could impose “snap-back” sanctions against Iran as part of the deal that has long been violated by the US.

Tehran, which started enriching uranium beyond the limits set by the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, insists that Washington was the party that nixed the agreement, stressing that the deal acknowledges Iran’s enrichment rights.

I had a joint teleconference with E3 FMs & EU HR last night, in which I made the following points clear:

It was the US that withdrew from a two-year negotiated deal -coordinated by EU in 2015- not Iran; and it was US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a… pic.twitter.com/NFQdK2HZD4

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) July 18, 2025

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he held talks with the top diplomats of France, the United Kingdom and Germany – known as the E3 – as well as the European Union’s high representative.

Araghchi said Europeans should put aside “worn-out policies of threat and pressure”.

“It was the US that withdrew from a two-year negotiated deal – coordinated by EU in 2015 – not Iran; and it was US that left the negotiation table in June this year and chose a military option instead, not Iran,” the Iranian foreign minister said in a social media post.

“Any new round of talks is only possible when the other side is ready for a fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial nuclear deal.”

Tehran denies seeking a nuclear bomb. Israel, meanwhile, is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.

French forward Kylian Mbappe is battling illness on the eve of Club World Cup opener for Real Madrid against Al Hilal.

Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe is a doubt for the club’s opening Club World Cup match against Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal after missing training on Tuesday due to illness.

The club said Mbappe had been suffering from a fever, with newly-appointed manager Xabi Alonso, who will make his debut in the dugout in Wednesday’s match, adding that a decision on his participation would be made in the morning.

“Kylian was a bit better this morning, but he was not fully fit, so we thought it would be best for him to skip training. Let’s see how it evolves, and we’ll make a last-minute decision,” Alonso told a news conference on the eve of the clash at the Hard Rock Stadium.

The potential absence of Mbappe leaves Alonso facing a selection dilemma as the French player is currently the only recognised centre-forward in the squad.

Brazilian teenager Endrick, who could have provided an alternative, was left out of the travelling party following a leg muscle injury sustained during Real’s La Liga fixture at Sevilla last month.

Mbappe has been instrumental for Real Madrid this season, scoring 31 La Liga goals since his high-profile summer move from Paris St Germain.

Regardless of Mbappe’s potential absence, Alonso insisted his team would need to press “like a unit”.

“Defensive work is important. It’s one of the tasks we need to address in the short term, and in the long term, it will be decisive for our success,” the Spaniard said.

Real Madrid enter the tournament as one of the favourites, having dominated European football over the last decade, winning five of the last 10 Champions League titles.

Al Hilal secured their place in the competition by triumphing in the AFC Champions League in 2021, and will look to capitalise on any weakness in Madrid’s lineup.

Real and Al-Hilal were drawn in Group F with Mexican side Pachuca and RB Salzburg of Austria.