Georgia Howe

As the government shutdown continues, one Democratic senator notably struggled to defend his party's demands to reopen the government.

In a fiery exchange on CNBC yesterday, Squawk Box host Joe Kernan pressed Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego on the Democrats' supposed focus on extending Obamacare subsidies.

The subsidies were originally introduced as an emergency measure during COVID and are set to expire this year.

Democrats have made this a sticking point to negotiations to reopen the government.

Kernan noted that funding the subsidies for one additional year would cost roughly $40 billion.

But the current Democratic proposal to end the shutdown reportedly includes $1.5 trillion in additional spending.

Here's Gallego.

President Trump has asked an appeals court to throw out his so-called hush money conviction brought by Democrat Manhattan AG Alvin Bragg.

Daily Wire senior editor Joel Needler has the latest.

14 alleged drug smugglers were killed in a new round of U.S.

precision strikes in the Pacific.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Monday that the United States carried out three coordinated attacks against suspected smuggling vessels.

The exact location of the operations has not been disclosed, but Hegseth confirmed that 14 smugglers were killed and one survivor was rescued.

The strikes mark a further escalation of President Trump's campaign against narco-terrorists operating in the Pacific, which has become an increasingly important smuggling corridor amid tighter border security on land.

And Microsoft founder and climate activist Bill Gates appears to be backpedaling.

In a new memo written by Gates, he says that dire warnings over climate change are overblown.

This comes despite Gates spending billions over the past decade pushing policies to curb emissions while hyping the consequences of climate change.

In fact, just four years ago, he released a book titled How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.

Now, Gates says there's been enough innovation to avoid, quote, super bad outcomes of global warming.

He says next month's climate conference in Brazil should focus more on human welfare than global temperatures.