Good evening. I'm William Brangham. I'm the Navaz and Jeff Bennett are away. On the news hour tonight, the ongoing federal shutdown threatens critical funding for Head Start, which serves children and families nationwide. The civil war in Sudan escalates into a brutal new phase after a paramilitary force captures a key stronghold.

And an Afghan man is detained by immigration authorities despite following the legal asylum procedure.

We talked to his sister about their ordeal.

He is still believed, our family still believe in justice and we are hopeful.

Welcome to the News Hour. Two federal judges ruled today that the Trump administration must continue to pay for SNAP benefits during the government shutdown using emergency funds that were set aside earlier by Congress.

It comes one day before a freeze was set to take effect for the nation's biggest food aid program, which is also known as food stamps.

Before the judge's rulings came down, House Speaker Mike Johnson gave a news conference, along with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

They warned that her department's $5 billion contingency fund cannot cover SNAP for long if the shutdown continues.

It is a contingency fund that can only flow if the underlying appropriation is approved.

And listen, even if it could flow, it doesn't even cover half of the month of November.

So here we are again in two weeks having the exact same conversation.

Democrats have argued that a separate fund with about $23 billion could be tapped to keep the

food stamp program running. Snap pays out about $8 billion per month and goes to roughly one in

eight Americans. Another social safety net program that is potentially at risk with this shutdown is Head Start,

the federal program that provides early childhood education, health, and food support for low-income families.

Without funding, hundreds of Head Start programs across the country will have to close their doors, which could impact tens of thousands of children across the country.

Here's how Rika Strong, who runs some Head Start programs in Vancouver, Washington, described it.

When I look at our families, when I look at our babies and I walk into that classroom, and I'm sorry, it makes me emotional because I know the support

and the impact that our programs have,

both on our children and families,

and knowing that there are some classrooms that come Monday,

when I go out to check on them and see how folks are doing,

...