President Donald Trump traveled through Asia this week, sitting down for a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which he described as “truly great,” while Americans at home bore the brunt of the ongoing government shutdown, which is entering its second month.Democrats now find themselves in a bind as they have succeeded in framing health care as the issue at the heart of the stalemate but are grappling with the lapse of federal food assistance for millions of Americans set to begin Saturday.The shutdown is also likely to lead to more flight delays as the Federal Aviation Administration grapples with staffing shortages. At the same time, federal employees are working without pay, and food banks are bracing for a surge in demand.The president, though, seems to have his mind focused elsewhere as he instructed the Pentagon to immediately resume testing of nuclear weapons to ensure the U.S. keeps up with its rivals.“With others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also,” he told reporters after departing South Korea to return to the U.S.The Trump administration is continuing to add pressure on Venezuela, with the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, now accusing the U.S. of “fabricating a new eternal war.”See previous updates here, and read the latest below:Kash Patel Has Fired A Special Agent Who Previously Oversaw Trump 2020 Election Interference Probes: ReportsFBI Director Kash Patel has ousted a special agent who previously helped oversee investigations into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, CNN and MSNBC reported on Thursday.Aaron Tapp, who joined the agency in 2003, most recently served as the special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio office.MSNBC noted that Tapp was listed as one of the "FBI leaders who oversaw Arctic Frost" — the FBI's code name for the election interference probe — on the X account of the far-right Oversight Project group.See All UpdatesClose