In a possible reprieve for millions of families on the brink of losing food aid, two federal judges have ruled the Trump administration cannot stop funding for SNAP benefits amid a protracted government shutdown. 

Regular funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits was due to run out on Saturday, Nov. 1. “The well has run dry,” the Agriculture Department said. 

But rulings by judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, issued within minutes of each other on Oct. 31, ordered the department to use $5.25 billion in contingency funds to continue SNAP.

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The Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the United States next year to the token level of just 7,500 – and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans.

The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world.

The administration published the news on Thursday in a notice on the Federal Registry.

No reason was given for the drop in numbers, which are a dramatic decrease from last year’s ceiling set under the Biden administration of 125,000.

The Associated Press previously reported that the administration was considering admitting as few as 7,500 refugees and mostly white South Africans.

The government memo said only that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during 2026 fiscal year was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest”.

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President Donald Trump demanded that former Special Counsel Jack Smith be hauled off to jail amid the political leader’s repeated, sweeping calls for the prosecution and jailing of his perceived political opponents.

In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump complained that “these thugs should all be investigated and put in prison.”

He added, “A disgrace to humanity. Deranged Jack Smith is a criminal!!!” alongside an article titled, “More than 160 Republicans potentially investigated in FBI’s Arctic Frost probe, House panel says.” The piece was published by right-leaning outlet Just the News Tuesday.

Trump’s post came after Axios reported that 160 Republican figures may have been investigated amidst the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe into alleged efforts by Trump’s allies to overturn the 2020 election, according to newly released documents.

Trump followed up his calls for Smith’s arrest in a separate fiery Truth Social post Thursday.

“He is a CRIMINAL AND SHOULD BE IN JAIL. A MAJOR LOWLIFE AND FAILURE. An ugly person, both inside and out! I beat him badly, and love watching him squirm now,” he wrote.

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Christine Faltz Grassman was stunned when she received a layoff notice from the Department of Education on Oct. 11, 10 days after being furloughed due to the government shutdown.

Grassman, who is blind, helps oversee a federal program that offers government contracting opportunities to blind vendors. She wondered how she would cover her mortgage and bills — and who would make sure the government is following a New Deal-era law meant to boost employment among blind Americans.

Her shock quickly turned to anger as she thought about the Trump administration’s treatment of workers with disabilities.

“The mentality of these people is if we have a disability and we have a job, we’re taking it away from an able-bodied person,” said Grassman, 56. “It’s not enough that I went to an Ivy League school, that I went to law school and can run circles around half the Cabinet… It doesn’t matter, because we’re blind.”

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