A government shutdown, big or small, is usually a front-and-center issue for lawmakers — but the most recent partial closure could be put on the back burner as Congress returns to several issues in Washington.

Senate Democrats and the White House are still at odds over funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as the shutdown dragged into its 10th day. Neither side is budging, with the most recent concrete action coming early last week.

Trump, who proved pivotal in striking a funding truce with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in January, was not directly involved in recent negotiations. 

Trump has not had any ‘direct conversations or correspondence’ with congressional Democrats recently, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, noting that the White House and its representatives have been handling the dialogue.

‘But, of course, Democrats are the reason that the Department of Homeland Security is currently shut down,’ she said. ‘They have chosen to act against the American people for political reasons.’ 

Senate Democrats offered a counter to the White House’s own counterproposal, which quickly was rejected as ‘unserious’ by Leavitt. It’s a peculiar instance, given that this is the third shutdown during Trump’s second term, and neither side appears to be in a particular rush to end it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital that there’s ‘some room for give and take’ in the negotiations, but remained firm in the GOP’s positioning against requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from getting judicial warrants, unmasking or other reforms sought by Democrats that could increase risks for agents in the field.  

‘I felt like, you know, the last offer the White House put out there was a really — it was a good faith one, and it was clear to me that they’re attempting, in every way, to try and land this thing so we can get DHS funded,’ Thune said. 

Funding the agency will be a top priority for the upper chamber, but they’ll be delayed because of winter storms descending on the East Coast. The weather has caused the Senate to delay a vote on the original DHS spending bill until Tuesday night, ahead of Trump’s State of the Union address.

There are other issues that could get in the way of hashing out a deal, including a possible conflict with Iran and Trump’s desire to move ahead with tariffs without congressional approval.

Trump told reporters Friday that he was ‘considering’ a limited military strike against Iran, which already has riled up some in Congress, who are demanding that lawmakers get a say on whether the U.S. strikes.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in a statement that he has a war powers resolution to block an attack on Iran filed and ready, and challenged his colleagues to vote against it.

‘If some of my colleagues support war, then they should have the guts to vote for the war and to be held accountable by their constituents, rather than hiding under their desks,’ Kaine said.

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling to torpedo his sweeping duties, Trump is considering bypassing Congress to move ahead with another set of global 10% tariffs.

That comes as some Republicans are quietly celebrating the end of the duties, and others are open to working with the administration on a path forward for trade policy.

On tariffs, a Republican aide told Fox News that the GOP was ‘waiting to see what POTUS does next.’

‘The State of the Union should be interesting,’ they said.

President Donald Trump will deliver his first official State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday night before a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, as viewers watch for viral moments and headline-grabbing exchanges like those that have defined past speeches.

Here are the top five moments from past State of the Union addresses.

1. Reagan surprises the crowd with first-ever acknowledgment of a guest in the audience

It’s become commonplace in recent years for presidents to acknowledge guests in the audience during SotU addresses, but President Ronald Reagan’s 1982 address was the first time the practice was rolled out. 

Reagan’s speech came just weeks after Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into Washington’s 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River shortly after taking off in an accident that killed 78 people. 

Three people survived the crash thanks to civilians on the ground who rushed to their aid, including Congressional Budget Office assistant Lenny Skutnik, who stripped off his shoes and clothes and dove into the frigid waters.

Reagan honored Skutnik in his speech, which made honoring people in the crowd a common theme in the years to come. 

‘Just two weeks ago, in the midst of a terrible tragedy on the Potomac, we saw again the spirit of American heroism at its finest — the heroism of dedicated rescue workers saving crash victims from icy waters,’ Reagan said. ‘And we saw the heroism of one of our young government employees, Lenny Skutnik, who, when he saw a woman lose her grip on the helicopter line, dived into the water and dragged her to safety.’

2. Speaker Pelosi tears up Trump’s 2020 speech

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sparked a social media firestorm and cemented herself in State of the Union infamy in February 2020 when she stood up and tore Trump’s speech into pieces after he had finished.

When Fox News asked Pelosi afterward why she did it, she responded, ‘Because it was the courteous thing to do considering the alternatives.’ She added, ‘I tore it up. I was trying to find one page with truth on it. I couldn’t.’

Pelosi’s outburst came on the heels of Trump’s first impeachment trial, which ended in a Senate acquittal the day after the speech.

‘Speaker Pelosi just ripped up: One of our last surviving Tuskegee Airmen. The survival of a child born at 21 weeks. The mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller. A service member’s reunion with his family. That’s her legacy,’ the White House tweeted after Pelosi tore up the speech, referencing individuals who Trump mentioned during his address.

3. Rep. Joe Wilson ‘You lie!’ outburst at President Obama

One of the most remembered moments from a State of the Union address came in 2009 when South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson interrupted President Barack Obama’s address, which at the time was far less common than it later became. 

‘There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants,’ Obama said, talking about his controversial Obamacare plan. ‘This, too, is false. The reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.’

‘You lie!’ Wilson shouted from his seat on the Republican side of the chamber, causing widespread yelling from other members in the audience.

Wilson later apologized to Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. 

‘This evening, I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,’ Wilson said in a written statement. ‘While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.’

4. Rep. Boebert heckles Biden over Afghanistan withdrawal during 2022 address

‘You put them in, 13 of them,’ GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert shouted at Biden as he talked about Afghanistan veterans who ended up in caskets due to exposure to toxic burn pits. Boebert was referencing the 13 U.S. service members killed during Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. 

Boebert was wearing an outfit that said ‘Drill Baby Drill’ in opposition to Biden’s energy policies and her outburst drew some boos from the audience.

At another point, Boebert and Greene started chanting ‘build the wall’ when Biden was talking about immigration. 

5. President Biden blasts GOP lawmakers in 2023 address, prompting jeers from Republicans in the crowd

‘Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage — I get it — unless I agree to their economic plans,’ Biden said to Congress, prompting a shake of the head from then-GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the background and shouts from the crowd and shots of other Republicans shaking their heads. 

‘Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans, want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,’ Biden continued, which caused an even more pronounced shake of the head from McCarthy, who mouthed ‘no’ as Republicans continued to jeer. 

‘I’m not saying it’s the majority,’ Biden continued, which resulted in even more boos from the raucous crowd. 

‘Let me give you — anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy — I’ll give you a copy of the proposal,’ Biden continued to say over increasingly louder shouting from the crowd. 

‘That means Congress doesn’t vote — I’m glad to see — no, I tell you, I enjoy conversion,’ Biden said, apparently meaning to say ‘conversation.’

Biden’s speech continued to devolve from there as Republican outrage interrupted him on multiple occasions. 

For more than a month, Michal Weits has kept suitcases packed by the front door of her house in Tel Aviv.

‘We have our bags ready for weeks,’ she said. ‘Three weeks ago, there were rumors that it was the night the U.S. would attack Iran. At midnight, we pulled the kids out of their beds and drove to the north, where it is supposed to be safer.’

Weits, the artistic director of the international documentary film festival Docaviv, is speaking from her own traumatic experience. During the 12-day war, an Iranian missile struck her Tel Aviv home. She, her husband, and their two young children were inside the safe room when it collapsed on her.

‘After an Iranian missile hit our home and we lost everything we had, we also lost the feeling of ‘it won’t happen to me,’’ she said. ‘We are prepared, as much as it’s really possible.’

Weits remembers the surreal contrast of those days. Four days after being injured in the missile strike, while still in the hospital, she was told she had won an Emmy Award for the documentary she produced about the Nova massacre on Oct. 7.

‘Four days earlier an 800-kilogram explosive missile fell on our home and I was injured, and four days later I woke up on my birthday to news that I had won an Emmy,’ she said. ‘It can’t be more surreal than this. That is the experience of being Israeli, from zero to one hundred.’

She says Israelis have learned to live inside that swing. ‘Inside all of this, life continues,’ she said. ‘Kids go to school, you go to the supermarket, Purim arrives and you prepare, and you don’t know if any of it will actually happen. We didn’t make plans for this weekend because we don’t know what will happen.’

That gap — between visible routine and private fear — defines this moment. The fear she describes is now part of the national atmosphere.

On the surface, Israel looks normal. The beaches are crowded in the warm weather. Cafés are full. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has risen in recent days. Children go to school as Israelis prepare for the Jewish holiday of Purim and costumes are being prepared.

But inside homes and across local news broadcasts, one question dominates: when will it happen? When will President Donald Trump decide whether to strike Iran — and what will that mean for Israel?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the Home Front Command and emergency services to prepare for possible escalation, with Israeli media reporting a state of ‘maximum alert’ across security bodies.

Speaking at an officer graduation ceremony this week, Netanyahu warned Tehran: ‘If the ayatollahs make a mistake and attack us, they will face a response they cannot even imagine.’ He added that Israel is ‘prepared for any scenario.’

The military message was echoed by the IDF. ‘We are monitoring regional developments and are aware of the public discourse regarding Iran,’ IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. ‘The IDF remains vigilant in defense, our eyes are open in every direction and our readiness in response to any change in the operational reality is greater than ever.’

Yet the psychological shift inside Israel goes deeper than official statements.

For years, Israelis lived with rockets from Hamas. The Iranian strikes felt different.

‘The level of destruction from Iran was something Israelis had not experienced before,’ said Israeli Iran expert Benny Sabti. ‘People are used to rockets from Gaza. This was a different scale of damage. It created real anxiety.’

Iron Dome, long seen as nearly impenetrable, was less effective against heavier Iranian missiles. Buildings collapsed. Entire neighborhoods were damaged.

‘People are still traumatized,’ Sabti said. ‘They are living on the edge for a long time now.’

At the same time, he stressed that the country is better prepared today.

‘There are feelings, and there are facts,’ Sabti said. ‘The facts are that Israel is better prepared now. The military level is doing serious preparation. They learned from the last round.’

The earlier wave of protests inside Iran had sparked hope in Israel that internal pressure might weaken or topple the regime. Weits told Fox News Digital, ‘I am angry at the Iranian government, not the Iranian people. I will be the first to travel there when it’s possible. I hope they will be able to be free — that all of us will be able to be free.’

Despite losing her home and suffering hearing damage from the blast, she says the greater loss was psychological. ‘There is no more complacency,’ she said. ‘The ‘it won’t happen to me’ feeling is gone.’

Across Israel, that sentiment resonates.

When President Donald Trump announced ‘TrumpRx’ in early February, a weight I’ve carried my entire adult life suddenly lifted from my shoulders. The website offers life-saving medications at much lower prices than normal, based on the president’s promise to give Americans the same prescription drug costs as patients in other developed countries. I can personally attest that such equal treatment — a policy known as ‘most favored nation’ pricing — is urgently needed for people who struggle with chronic disease.

I’ve had debilitating asthma since I was a child. I’ve been able to manage it thanks to a prescription drug which blocks lung inflammation and keeps my airways open. The few times I’ve gone off the medication, I’ve ended up in the emergency room, unable to breathe. That nearly happened four years ago in what I thought was the worst possible place — on the other side of the world, unable to contact my doctors or go to my pharmacy.

My family and I were in Italy, on a trip to honor my mother. She had recently been diagnosed with cancer and my brother and I scheduled the trip in between her chemo treatments, when she would be well enough to travel. She had always wanted to go there with us. But in our rush to get two families and three little kids packed, I accidentally grabbed a nearly empty inhaler.

I realized my mistake a few days into the trip, when I looked at the inhaler and saw that I only had two doses left. I wasn’t just worried about my health, though, of course, that was paramount. I worried how I’d afford the drug if I even found it in Italy.

I’ve organized my professional life around access to insurance that covers my medication, given its longstanding retail price $600 for a month’s supply. For 25 years, I’ve grappled with denied coverage letters, premium tier prescription charts and the constant worry that we would have to cut back on necessities to get my medication. At the time, in Italy, I was already paying a few hundred dollars a month for the drug — a lot, but a bargain compared to its normal price.

But I had no choice. I had to get my medication. After a few minutes of searching, I found an Italian pharmacy across town. I walked there immediately, trying to control my racing thoughts of what might happen. I knew that if I couldn’t get the drug, I couldn’t get safely back to the U.S.

Fifteen minutes later, in tears I walked out, drug in hand. It cost me only 30 euros or about $35.

At first, I was both relieved and grateful. But by the end of the day, I was scratching my head. Why was it $600 in the U.S. while Italians could get it for next to nothing? In the days that followed, I discovered that the answer is beyond complicated.

It’s affected by everything from a lack of price transparency to the meddling of middlemen who jack up costs. It’s also true that foreign countries have been negotiating the prices of prescription drugs for decades, forcing Americans to cover the enormous cost of pharmaceutical development while they pay far below market prices.

Whatever the reason, the system doesn’t work for Americans. Brand name prescription prices in the U.S. are more than four times higher than prices in other wealthy countries. As many as 18 million Americans have struggled to buy the prescriptions they need in recent years.

I’m now using a generic version of the drug that costs significantly less. But that doesn’t change the fact that I, like many other Americans with chronic disease, have paid through the nose for decades on end, only to find the medication I needed in Italy for what seemed like pennies.

I wasn’t just worried about my health, though, of course, that was paramount. I worried how I’d afford the drug if I even found it in Italy.

Trump is fighting to fix this broken system. Before launching TrumpRx, he reached 16 deals with pharmaceutical companies to charge most-favored-nation prices. As a lifelong conservative, I’m typically uncomfortable with this kind of government intervention in the market. But other countries have already intervened and people like me have paid the price.

If pharmaceutical companies need the extra money, they should take it up with other countries that negotiated them down first. Then they could recoup their costs on the backs of others, not simply by charging more in the U.S. Bottom line, there’s no good reason why 340 million Americans should pay so much more than hundreds of millions of people who live in Europe and Asia.

I will always be grateful that my medication was so affordable in Italy back in 2022. It may very well have saved my life. But I’m even more grateful that President Trump is finally lowering prices for every American here at home.

A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison Thursday for leading an insurrection after declaring martial law in December 2024.

Yoon was found guilty of abuse of authority and masterminding the insurrection.

Yoon, 65, denied the charges and argued that he had presidential authority to declare martial law and that his action was aimed at sounding the alarm over opposition parties’ obstruction of government.

Prosecutors said in January that Yoon’s ‘unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law undermined the function of the National Assembly and the Election Commission … actually destroying the liberal democratic constitutional order.’

Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law lasted roughly six hours, sparking mass street protests before parliament quickly voted it down.

Under South Korean law, masterminding an insurrection carries a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment. Prosecutors hadsought the death penalty.

While courts last imposed a death sentence in 2016, South Korea has not carried out an execution since 1997.

Yoon is expected to appeal the ruling.

Yoon faces eight ongoing trial proceedings and was already given a five-year prison sentence last month in a separate case on charges including obstructing authorities’ attempts to arrest him following his martial law declaration. He has appealed that sentence.

Reuters contributed to this report.