By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is showing little urgency to broker a compromise that would end the government shutdown, even as Democrats insist no breakthrough is possible without his direct involvement.

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Three weeks in, Congress is at a standstill. The House hasn’t been in session for a month, and senators left Washington on Thursday frustrated by the lack of progress. Republican leaders are refusing to negotiate until a short-term funding bill to reopen the government is passed, while Democrats say they won’t agree without guarantees on extending health insurance subsidies.

For now, Trump appears content to stay on the sidelines.

He spent the week celebrating an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal he led, hosted a remembrance event for conservative activist Charlie Kirk and refocused attention on the Russia-Ukraine war. Meanwhile, his administration has been managing the shutdown in unconventional ways, continuing to pay the troops while laying off other federal employees.

Asked Thursday whether he was willing to deploy his dealmaking background on the shutdown, Trump seemed uninterested.

“Well, look, I mean, all we want to do is just extend. We don’t want anything, we just want to extend, live with the deal they had,” he said in an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. Later Thursday, he criticized Democratic health care demands as “crazy,” adding, “We’re just not going to do it.”

Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Democrats must first vote to reopen the government, “then we can have serious conversations about health care.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune echoed that approach before leaving for the weekend, saying Trump is “ready to weigh in and sit down with the Democrats or whomever, once the government opens up.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., left, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speak at a news conference as the government shutdown begins its tenth day, in Washington, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Still, frustration is starting to surface even within Trump’s own party, where lawmakers acknowledge little happens in Congress without his direction.

Leaving the Capitol on Thursday, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski said, “We’re not making much headway this week.” For things to progress, Murkowski acknowledged Trump may need to get more involved: “I think he’s an important part of it.”

“I think there are some folks in his administration that are kind of liking the fact that Congress really has no role right now,” she added. “I don’t like that. I don’t like that at all.”

Trump has not been slowed by the shutdown

While Congress has been paralyzed by the shutdown, Trump has moved rapidly to enact his vision of the federal government.

He has called budget chief Russ Vought the “grim reaper,” and Vought has taken the opportunity to withhold billions of dollars for infrastructure projects and lay off thousands of federal workers, signaling that workforce reductions could become even more drastic.

At the same time, the administration has acted unilaterally to fund Trump’s priorities, including paying the military this week, easing pressure on what could have been one of the main deadlines to end the shutdown.

Some of these moves, particularly the layoffs and funding shifts, have been criticized as illegal and are facing court challenges. A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the administration from firing workers during the shutdown, ruling that the cuts appeared politically motivated and were carried out without sufficient justification.

And with Congress focused on the funding fight, lawmakers have had little time to debate other issues.

In the House, Johnson has said the House won’t return until Democrats approve the funding bill and has refused to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva. Democrats say the move is to prevent her from becoming the 218th signature on a discharge petition aimed at forcing a vote on releasing documents related to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

So far, the shutdown has shown little impact on public opinion.

An AP-NORC poll released Thursday found that 3 in 10 U.S. adults have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of the Democratic Party, similar to an AP-NORC poll from September. Four in 10 have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of the Republican Party, largely unchanged from last month.

Democrats want Trump at the table. Republicans would rather he stay out

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have said Republicans have shown little seriousness in negotiating an end to the shutdown.

“Leader Thune has not come to me with any proposal at this point,” Schumer said Thursday.

Frustrated with congressional leaders, Democrats are increasingly looking to Trump.

At a CNN town hall Wednesday night featuring Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, both repeatedly called for the president’s involvement when asked why negotiations had stalled.

“President Trump is not talking. That is the problem,” Sanders said.

Ocasio-Cortez added that Trump should more regularly “be having congressional leaders in the White House.”

Democrats’ focus on Trump reflects both his leadership style — which allows little to happen in Congress without his approval — and the reality that any funding bill needs the president’s signature to become law.

This time, however, Republican leaders who control the House and Senate are resisting any push for Trump to intervene.

“You can’t negotiate when somebody’s got a hostage,” said South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who added that Trump getting involved would allow Democrats to try the same tactic in future legislative fights.

Trump has largely followed that guidance. After previously saying he would be open to negotiating with Democrats on health insurance subsidies, he walked it back after Republican leaders suggested he misspoke.

And that’s unlikely to change for now. Trump has no plans to personally intervene to broker a deal with Democrats, according to a senior White House official granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. The official added that the only stopgap funding bill that Democrats can expect is the one already on the table.

“The President is happy to have a conversation about health care policy, but he will not do so while the Democrats are holding the American people hostage,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Thursday.

A product of the Congress Trump has molded

In his second term, Trump has taken a top-down approach, leaving little in Congress to move without his approval.

“What’s obvious to me is that Mike Johnson and John Thune don’t do much without Donald Trump telling them what to do,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., joined at left by Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., gestures as he answers questions during a press conference on day 16 of the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

His hold is particularly strong in the GOP-led House, where Speaker Mike Johnson effectivelyowes his job to Trump, and relies on his influence to power through difficult legislative fights.

When Republicans have withheld votes on Trump’s priorities in Congress, he’s called them on the phone or summoned them to his office to directly sway them. When that doesn’t work, he has vowed to unseat them in the next election. It’s led many Democrats to believe the only path to an agreement runs through the White House and not through the speaker’s office.

Democrats also want assurances from the White House that they won’t backtrack on an agreement. The White House earlier this year cut out the legislative branch entirely with a $4.9 billion cut to foreign aid in August through a legally dubious process known as a “pocket rescission.” And before he even took office late last year, Trump and ally Elon Musk blew up a bipartisan funding agreement that both parties had negotiated.

“I think we need to see ink on paper. I think we need to see legislation. I think we need to see votes,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “I don’t accept pinky promises. That’s not the business that I’m in.”

Both parties also see little reason to fold under public pressure, believing they are winning the messaging battle.

“Everybody thinks they’re winning,” Murkowski said. “Nobody is winning when everybody’s losing. And that’s what’s happening right now. The American public is losing.”

—

Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

As evidenced by 2012’s “Sinister” and 2021’s “The Black Phone,” director Scott Derrickson has a gift for blending realism with the supernatural — and for conjuring a sense of dread that the viewer can’t help but share with the films’ characters.

‘The Black Phone’ a satisfying slice of dread-inducing terror | Movie review

That gift is on display in the sequel to the latter, “Black Phone 2,” in theaters this week.

“Black Phone 2” is set four years after the events of its predecessor, which earned more than $160 million at the worldwide box office and has scored myriad fans since it landed on Peacock. The follow-up sees franchise villain The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) out to exact revenge on his slayer, the now-17-year-old Finney (Mason Thames), from, well, hell. It’s silly-but-standard-enough horror-movie stuff, and Derrickson and his filmmaking collaborators sell it well.

For a while.

That palpable dread — earned from myriad effective filmmaking elements, including cinematography (Pär M. Ekberg), production design (Patti Podesta), editing (Louise Ford) and the unsettling musical score (Atticus Derrickson, son of the director) — eventually give way to over-the-top horror spectacle as our heroes desperately attempt to accomplish the goal that somehow and for some reason will defeat the Grabber.

The director and his co-writer and producing partner, C. Robert Cargill, also deserve credit for straying more than you may have expected from the formula of “The Black Phone.” We see that titular, unconnected phone that was key to the 2022 film’s events, hanging in the basement where the Grabber held Finney hostage, but only a couple of times and only briefly.

“Black Phone 2” begins with a ringing black phone, but this rotary number resides in a booth in a snowy, mountainous part of Colorado. We will learn the identity of the girl who speaks into it soon enough.

We then cut to Denver in the movie’s present day, 1982, where and when Finney is introducing his fists to a schoolmate who’d razzed him about his experience with the Grabber — much to the disapproval of his younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw).

Refreshingly, the foul-mouthed 15-year-old takes center stage in this intermittently scary affair, the girl suffering from incredibly disturbing dreams, accompanied by sleepwalking, that connect to her family’s past.

Finney, meanwhile, is haunted by ringing phones, the young man repeatedly answering and quickly telling the person on the other lines that he’s sorry but that he cannot help them.

Eventually, Gwen, Finney and Ernesto (a returning Miguel Mora) — a goofy-but-sweet love interest for Gwen whose brother was one of the Grabber’s victims communicating with Finney four years ago — all end up at a winter camp that Gwen wants to investigate.

Of course, a blizzard that made it nearly impossible for them to arrive in one piece means that, for the time being, it’s just them and a few folks who run the Christian-focused camp, including its leader, Mando (Demián Bichir, “A Better Life”) and his capable niece, Mustang (Arianna Rivas, “A Working Man”). A camp is a classic horror-flick setting, and this one is home to the aforementioned, long-not-operational phone booth, which rings just about anytime Finney is within earshot.

As Gwen works to unearth the connection between the camp and her nightmares, the Grabber appears to have Finney where he wants him.

On the plus side, add to the list of strengths of “Black Phone 2” the performances by its leads, starting with McGraw (“Secrets of Sulphur Springs,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp”). She does a nice job as Gwen, who’s both vulnerable AND comfortable firing back at adults who question her with highly offensive phrases. Plus, she and Mora share an absolutely hilarious scene at night at the camp. (It feels a little wedged-in, honestly, but we get the need for a bit of levity at that point in the proceedings.)

And while he’s now more of a supporting player, Thames — turning in strong work earlier this year as the gradually heroic Hiccup in the live-action version of “How to Train Your Dragon” — remains compelling as Finney, who, despite his resentment over his father’s alcoholic past, frequently turns to marijuana to deal with his Grabber-related trauma.

A mention of the performance of Hawke (“Training Day,” “The Purge”) feels obligatory, but he’s asked to do one-note work here. The Grabber is little more than the embodiment of evil this go-round.

After the highly effective setup and a first major encounter with the vengeful Grabber, “Black Phone 2” begins to lose steam.

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While incorporating several ideas from Derrickson and Cargill — a tandem whose writing credits also include the Derrickson-directed “Doctor Strange,” a better-than-average Marvel Cinematic Universe entry from 2016 — “The Black Phone” was based on a short story by Joe Hill, son of horror great Stephen King. Lacking that type of foundation, the storytelling isn’t as compelling in its sequel, which loses more than the “The” from the first feature.

And the film’s frenzied climax, as the good guys fight the Grabber on two supernatural fronts, has too much going on, including — wait for it — ice skating. (We couldn’t help but think of a line spoken by Rick Moranis’ Dark Helmet from 1987’s “Spaceballs”: “Too bad this isn’t the ‘Wide World of Sports’!”)

“Black Phone 2” boasts enough reasons to answer its call, but as the powers that be seemingly could resurrect the Grabber anytime they like for what, you fear, could be increasingly unimpressive efforts, you may want to block its number moving forward.

‘Black Phone 2’

Where: Theaters.

When: Oct. 17.

Rated: R for strong violent content, gore, teen drug use, and language.

Runtime: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

Stars (of four): 2.5.

By Linda Gassenheimer, Tribune News Service

Chicken seasoned with cinnamon, cumin, and turmeric creates a fragrant, savory Moroccan-inspired dish. The turmeric not only infuses the chicken with a warm golden hue but also adds a earthy depth to the flavor.

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It’s served with pearl couscous which is also called Israeli couscous. Its small, round, pearl-like grains are slightly larger and chewier than traditional couscous, making them an ideal companion to the aromatic chicken.

HELPFUL HINTS:

Minced garlic can be found in the produce section of the market.
A quick way to chop cilantro is to snip the leaves from the stems with a scissors.

COUNTDOWN:

Prepare the chicken, onion, tomato and spices.
Make pearl couscous and set aside.
Make chicken dish.

SHOPPING LIST:

To buy: 3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast. 1 small bottle turmeric,1 small bottle cinnamon, 1 small bottle ground cumin, 1 jar minced garlic, 1 can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, 1 container pearl couscous, 1 bag washed, ready-to-eat spinach, 1 bunch cilantro

Staples: olive oil, onion, salt and black peppercorns.

Moroccan Chicken

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

2 teaspoons olive oil

3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast 1-inch pieces

1 cup thinly sliced onion

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 teaspoons ground cumin

3 teaspoons minced garlic

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 cups, no-salt-added, diced tomatoes with their juice

4 cups washed, ready-to-eat spinach

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and brown on all sides, for about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from skillet to a plate. Add the onion, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, garlic, salt and black pepper to taste and diced tomato with juice to the skillet. Cook 5 minutes, stirring during that time. Return chicken to the skillet along with the spinach. Stir just until the spinach wilts, about 1 minute. Divide between 2 dinner plates and sprinkle chopped cilantro on top.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving: 354 calories (27 percent from fat), 10.7 g fat (1.8 g saturated, 3.9 g monounsaturated), 126 mg cholesterol, 43.9 g protein, 23.4 g carbohydrates, 9.4 g fiber, 162 mg sodium.

Couscous

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

1 1/4-cups water

3/4-cup pearl couscous

2 teaspoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring water to a boil. Stir in couscous. Reduce heat to medium, cover with a lid and simmer 10 minutes. Drain, add oil and salt and pepper to taste. Serve on the dinner plates with the chicken.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving: 120 calories (37 percent from fat), 5.0 g fat (0.7 g saturated, 2.2 g monounsaturated), no cholesterol, 2.9 g protein, 15.8 g carbohydrates, 0.9 g fiber, 1 mg sodium.

©2025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

By Katja Ridderbusch, KFF Health News

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A few months ago, Waynesville Police Sgt. Paige Shell was about to give up hope of getting better. The daily drip of violence, death, and misery from almost 20 years in law enforcement had left a mark. Her sleep was poor, depression was a stubborn companion, and thoughts of suicide had taken root.

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Shell, who works in a rural community about 30 miles west of Asheville, tried talk therapy, but it didn’t work. When her counselor suggested ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, she was skeptical.

“I didn’t know what to expect. I’m a cop. It’s a trust thing,” she said with a thin smile.

Combining psychotherapy with low-dose ketamine, a hallucinogenic drug long used as an anesthetic, is a relatively new approach to treating severe depression and post-traumatic stress, especially in populations with high trauma rates such as firefighters, police officers, and military members. Yet evidence of the efficacy and safety of ketamine for treatment of mental health conditions is still evolving, and the market remains widely unregulated.

“First responders experience a disproportionately high burden of trauma and are often left without a lot of treatment options,” said Signi Goldman, a psychiatrist and co-owner of Concierge Medicine and Psychiatry in Asheville, who began including ketamine in psychotherapy sessions in 2017.

Signi Goldman, a psychiatrist and owner of Concierge Medicine and Psychiatry in Asheville, North Carolina, began including ketamine in psychotherapy sessions in 2017 to help patients with severe depression. (Katja Ridderbusch/KFF Health News/TNS)

Law enforcement officers in the U.S., on average, are exposed to 189 traumatic events over their careers, a small study suggests, compared with two to three in an average adult’s lifetime. Research shows that rates of depression and burnout are significantly higher among police officers than in the civilian population. And in recent years, more officers have died by suicide than been killed in the line of duty, according to the first-responder advocacy group First H.E.L.P.

Ketamine is a dissociative drug, meaning it causes people to feel detached from their body, physical environment, thoughts, or emotions.

The Food and Drug Administration approved it as an anesthetic in 1970. It became a popular party drug in the 1990s, and in 1999, ketamine was added to the list of Schedule III nonnarcotic substances under the Controlled Substances Act.

The death of “Friends” actor Matthew Perry in 2023, which was attributed to ketamine use, further tainted the drug’s reputation.

But starting with a 1990 animal study and followed by a landmark human trial, research has shown that low doses of ketamine can also rapidly reduce symptoms of depression. In 2019, the FDA approved esketamine — derived from ketamine and administered as a nasal spray — for treatment-resistant depression.

All other forms of ketamine remain FDA-approved only for anesthesia. If used to treat psychiatric disorders, it must be prescribed off-label.

“This is a situation where the clinical practice is probably ahead of the evidence to support it,” said John Krystal, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and a pioneer of ketamine research.

Krystal has studied the effect of ketamine on veterans and active-duty military members — a population comparable to first responders in their exposure to trauma. While research shows strong evidence of ketamine’s antidepressant effects, he said further studies are needed on its potential role in PTSD treatment.

The regulatory environment for ketamine also remains a concern, Krystal said. State oversight varies, and federal regulations don’t outline dosing, administration methods, safety protocols, or training for providers.

In this regulatory patchwork, more than 1,000 ketamine clinics have sprung up across the country. At-home ketamine treatments have flooded the market, prompting the FDA to issue a warning.

Side effects of ketamine can range from nausea and blood pressure spikes to suppressed breathing. The drug can also cause adverse psychological effects.

“Being on a psychedelic puts people in an extremely vulnerable state,” Goldman said. People can get retraumatized as they relive disturbing memories. That’s why it’s critical that a mental health provider guide a person through a ketamine session, she said.

With proper precautions — and when other treatments have failed — Rick Baker thinks ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is a good fit for first responders. Baker is CEO and founder of Responder Support Services, which provides mental health treatment exclusively to police officers, firefighters, and other first responders in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

As a population, first responders are more resistant than civilians to traditional therapy, said Baker, who is a licensed clinical mental health counselor. Ketamine provides a potential shortcut into the trauma memory and works “like an accelerant to psychotherapy,” he said. “It strips away people’s armor.”

When used for mental health treatment, a dose of ketamine — typically half a milligram per kilogram of body weight, less than for anesthesia — creates a mildly altered state of consciousness, Goldman said. It makes people look at their own traumatic memories at a distance “and tolerate them differently,” she said.

The ketamine sessions in her practice are usually two hours long, and clients are under the drug for about 45 minutes. The drug is administered as an IV drip, an intramuscular injection, under-the-tongue lozenges, or a compounded nasal spray. The drug is short-acting, meaning its dissociative effects largely wear off within about an hour.

But most insurers won’t pick up the cost of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, which can be more than $1,000 per session for the IV drip.

“That’s certainly prohibitive for first responders,” Goldman said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs covers some forms of ketamine treatment, including ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, for eligible veterans on a case-by-case basis.

In Shell’s case, a donation made to Responder Support Services covered what her insurance wouldn’t when she decided this spring to try ketamine-assisted psychotherapy with Baker, her counselor.

Revisiting the most gruesome calls in her nearly two decades as a police officer was not something Shell wanted to do. But Hurricane Helene, which caused catastrophic flooding in western North Carolina last year, pushed the 41-year-old “over the edge,” she said.

“Some of the sessions were rough,” said Shell, who is also a member of her agency’s SWAT team. “Things came up that I didn’t want to think about, that I’d buried during my entire career.”

The badly mangled victim in a fatal car crash. A murder-suicide, in which a man cut his pregnant girlfriend’s throat then slit his own.

Under ketamine, the images came to life as still pictures, she said, like a surreal slideshow replaying some of her darkest memories. “Then I would sit there and cry like a baby.”

As of early October, Shell had undergone 12 ketamine sessions. They have not provided a sudden miraculous cure, she said. But her sleep has improved, and bad days are now bad moments. She also finds it easier to manage stress. “And I smile more than I used to,” she said.

She was hesitant to share her experience within her department because of the ongoing stigma associated with seeking help in the hard-charging police culture.

“I just didn’t want my people to think that I couldn’t handle the job,” she said. “I didn’t want them to feel that I’m posing a risk to them.”

The perception of ketamine plays a role as well, said Sherri Martin, national director of wellness services at the Fraternal Order of Police, an organization representing more than 377,000 sworn law enforcement officers. Many cops are used to ketamine as an illegal street drug, she said, or think of it as a counterculture psychedelic.

“So, when they are supposed to accept this as a treatment, that’s hard for them to grasp,” she said.

Few if any police departments provide clear guidance on ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. If it were medically prescribed, it would likely be viewed the same as taking an antidepressant, Martin said.

Shell ultimately shared her story with colleagues, most of whom were curious and supportive, and she now encourages other officers to speak up about their struggles. She believes seeking mental health treatment — in her case, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy — has made her a better and safer police officer.

“It’s hard to help other people when you can’t take care of yourself,” she said.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.