The Latest: National Guard deploys as ICE uses increasingly combative tactics in US cities

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Republican and Democratic lawmakers have provided few public signs of meaningful negotiations to break an impasse on reopening the federal government as the shutdown entered its sixth day. President Donald Trump says federal workers are already being laid off, and he's blaming the Democrats. The possibility of layoffs escalates an already tense situation, without common ground or mutual trust among Washington lawmakers. Leaders in both parties are betting that public sentiment has swung their way, putting pressure on the other side to cave.

Meanwhile, a federal judge late Sunday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon, after a legal whirlwind that began hours earlier when the president mobilized California troops for Portland. The same judge had blocked him from using Oregon’s National Guard the day before. Trump has also moved to deploy 300 National Guard troops to Chicago as federal immigration agents adopt increasingly combative tactics in the city.

The Latest:

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein. As is their custom, the justices did not explain why.

On the first day of their new term, the justices declined to take up a case that would have drawn renewed attention to the sordid sexual-abuse saga after the Trump administration sought to tamp down criticism over its refusal to publicly release more of its investigative files.

Lawyers for Maxwell, a British socialite, argued that she never should have been tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, a New York financier. She is serving a 20-year prison term, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed in July by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Paramount said Monday that it has bought the commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News.

The announcement is a bold move for the venerable television news network, initiated by new corporate leader David Ellison, who said “I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News.”

Weiss’ experience is in print journalism, particularly in commentary. Ellison said in the news release that the move fits Paramount’s vision to modernize “the way it connects — directly and passionately — to audiences around the world.”

No purchase price was announced for The Free Press. Some at CBS News have been concerned it is a sign that the news division was moving in a direction more friendly to President Donald Trump.

Scott Bessent named Frank Bisginano, the current commissioner of the Social Security Administration, as the new CEO of the IRS.

Bessent made Monday’s announcement of the unusual decision on the social media site X.

It is a newly created position at the IRS and Bisignano will remain head of SSA in addition to his new role at the federal tax collection agency.

Bessent said Bisignano will bring his expertise to the IRS “as we sharpen our focus on collections, privacy, and customer service.”

The House is not expected to be in session this week, focusing attention on the Senate to take the lead on any deal in the Republican-led Congress. Both Republican and Democratic leaders have been holding almost daily briefings as they frame their arguments and seek to shift blame for the shutdown.

Democrats insist on extending the subsidies that have enabled millions of households to afford health insurance. Otherwise they will be eliminated at the end of the year, spiking premiums for millions.

Trump wants to preserve the budget changes Republicans made, and figures Democrats will fold under his pressure to end federal infrastructure and energy projects.

Police and Federal officers stand guard an area by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore. on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Portland has reduced crime under a new mayor and police chief, with fewer homeless camps and livelier foot traffic downtown. But protests have increased in size since Sept. 28, when the Trump administration mobilized the Oregon National Guard over Gov. Tina Kotek’s wishes. About 400 people gathered outside the ICE facility Saturday before federal agents shot tear-gas canisters into the crowd.

This weekend, about 200 federalized members of the California National Guard who had been on duty around Los Angeles landed in Portland on Sunday, a Pentagon spokesperson said. The state of Oregon also submitted a memo written by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering up to 400 Texas National Guard personnel activated for deployment to Oregon, Illinois and possibly elsewhere.

Small protests have been going on outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility since Trump’s second term began in January, with occasional flareups, but the nightly demonstrations have attracted only a few dozen people on one city block, far from downtown, in a city that covers 45 square miles (376 square kilometers).

Trump has turned his attention to the city calling Portland “war ravaged,” and “burning down” and like “living in hell.”

Local officials say many of his claims and social media posts appear to rely on images from 2020, when unrest that grew out of the Black Lives Matter protests roiled the city for several months.

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, who was appointed by President Trump in his first term, seemed incredulous that the president moved to send National Guard troops to Oregon from neighboring California and then from Texas on Sunday, just hours after she had ruled the first time.

She ultimately blocked the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon at all.

“How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” she questioned the federal government’s attorney during a hastily called evening telephone hearing. “Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order?” she said later. “Why is this appropriate?”

The White House did not immediately comment on the judge’s decision.

The high court has begun its new term Monday with a sharp focus on Trump’s robust assertion of executive power.

The judges will hear pivotal cases on the president’s restrictions on birthright citizenship, the legality of many of his sweeping tariffs, and his power to fire independent agency members at will.

The Israeli and Hamas officials hope their meeting Monday will lead to a potential ceasefire in Gaza on the eve of the devastating war’s second anniversary.

This latest push for peace comes after Hamas accepted some elements of the U.S. peace plan, a move welcomed by Trump. Israel has said it supported the new U.S. effort.