What we covered here
• Middle East trip: President Donald Trump said Sunday that “the war is over” between Israel and Hamas as he left Washington for Tel Aviv. The president will speak at Israel’s parliament on Monday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the families of the hostages. Leaders from more than 20 countries will then join Trump in Egypt for a summit on Gaza’s future.
• Stalemate continues: The government shutdown is on track to extend into a third week. Congress remains deadlocked on a funding plan, and the Senate isn’t scheduled to hold any votes until Tuesday. Top House leaders signaled today there’s virtually no appetite for their parties to cross the aisle and engage with the other side’s demands.
• Paychecks for troops: Trump said Saturday that “we have identified funds” to pay troops. It had seemed almost certain that military members wouldn’t get their next paychecks, which were scheduled to go out Wednesday.
Swing-district Republican says GOP leaders need to "explore all avenues" to open government
GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley told CNN on Sunday he thinks that Republican leadership needs to “explore all avenues” to reopen the government as the parties stand at a stalemate and the shutdown is set to drag into a third week.
Kiley told CNN’s Manu Raju that he wished the Senate would pass the short-term bill to fund the government through November 21, which he called the “lesser of two evils,” adding, “I don’t agree with what Chuck Schumer is doing. I think he’s being unreasonable. But this is politics.”
“Sometimes you have to work with people that you believe are being unreasonable in order to find the common ground that is best for the country, and so long as the House isn’t even there, that’s going to be very hard for us,” he said.
He said he shares concerns with Democrats who are calling for an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies and suggested that Republicans should at least keep a door open to negotiating the issue, something that Democrats are demanding in exchange for their votes to open the government.
The swing district Republican said he thinks Speaker Mike Johnson has “no justification” for keeping the House out of session since September 19, as lawmakers have “ordinary business” to carry out.
He also broke with Johnson over the delay in swearing in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who won her seat in a special election last month.
“There’s a duly elected member of Congress from that district, and she should be sworn in. I don’t know why this is an issue. The constituents in that district deserve to have a representative,” Kiley said, adding that Johnson should swear in Grijalva during a pro-forma session, as he recently has for Republican members.
Trump to meet Netanyahu and families of Gaza hostages in Israel tomorrow
President Donald Trump will depart for the Middle East later today following his announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed the first phase of his Gaza ceasefire plan.
He will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and meet the families of the Israeli hostages tomorrow, according to an itinerary released by the Israeli leader’s office. The remaining hostages held in Gaza are expected to be freed Monday morning local time.
Their timings show the US president will meet with Netanyahu in his office at the Knesset at 10:15am local time (3:15am ET).
Later that hour, at 10:45am (3:45am ET), also at the Knesset, Trump is due to meet with families of the hostages.
Trump is then set to deliver a speech to the Knesset during a plenary session, at 11am local time (4am ET). Netanyahu, the Speaker of the Knesset, and Israel’s opposition leader are also expected to give speeches during this session, the Israeli statement said.
Trump will depart Israel at 1pm local time (6am ET), Netanyahu’s office said.
This itinerary largely aligns with Trump’s official schedule of the visit, which was released overnight.
Trump will then travel to Egypt, where he is due to co-chair a summit on Gaza alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. According to the US President’s schedule, he is set to land in Egypt at 1:45pm local time (6:45am ET).
"The damage is beyond repair": CDC faces deep staff cuts

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suffered a round of deep staff cuts late Friday night, with disease detectives, outbreak forecasters, policy and data offices among those impacted, according to four sources with knowledge of the layoffs.
“The administration did not like that CDC data did not support their narrative, so they got rid of them. They didn’t like that CDC policy groups would not rubber stamp their unscientific ideas, so they got rid of them,” said an agency official who asked not to be named for fear of losing their job.
The notices were emailed shortly after 9 p.m. The exact number of cuts is still being assessed.
The CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, which trains the agency’s celebrated “disease detectives,” lost at least 30 of the staff who coordinate the program, and 40 EIS officers who were in their second year of training, according to a second agency official who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
More than 130 employees were laid off from the office of the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, which coordinated activities for the entire center, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who recently resigned as the director of the NCIRD.
The layoffs come as the country is heading into the winter respiratory virus season.
All the staff at the agency’s the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal known as the MMWR that has published surveillance data on the nation’s health for over a century, were also fired, according to Houry.
Trump says administration has "identified funds" to pay troops next week

President Donald Trump said yesterday that “we have identified funds” to pay military troops on October 15 as the government shutdown is headed into a third week.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he will “direct our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th.”
“We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS,” he wrote.
The funds for military pay will come from the Pentagon’s research and development money that’s available for two years, according to a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget.
Some context: As service members were in danger of missing their first paychecks, congressional GOP leaders had rejected the idea of voting on a standalone bill for military pay, marking the most dramatic step yet to attempt to force Democrats to end the shutdown.
Trump had previously promised that service members would still be paid despite the government shutdown.
“We will get our service members every last penny. Don’t worry about it,” Trump said at a Navy event in Norfolk, Virginia, last weekend.