US Shutdown

The mutiny, led by Rep Matt Gaetz, came days after McCarthy averted a government shutdown by putting a stopgap measure on the floor that garnered Democratic support

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the far-right lawmaker who led the push to oust McCarthy, has floated Scalise as a possible replacement

Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job in an extraordinary showdown, a first in US history that was forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and threw the House and its Republican leadership into chaos. McCarthy's chief rival, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, forced the vote on the motion to vacate, drawing together more than a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who said he was unworthy of leadership. The next steps are uncertain, but there is no obvious successor to lead the House Republican majority. Stillness fell as the presiding officer gavelled the vote closed, 216-210, saying the office of the speaker "is hereby declared vacant. Moments later, a top McCarthy ally, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., took the gavel and, according to House rules, was named speaker pro tempore, to serve in the office until a new speaker was chosen. The House then briskly recessed so lawmakers could meet and discuss the path forward. It was a .

Speaker Kevin McCarthy is facing an extraordinary referendum on his leadership of the House of Representatives after a conservative member of his own conference, a longtime critic, moved to trigger a vote on whether he should remain at the helm. I have enough Republicans where at this point next week, one of two things will happen: Kevin McCarthy won't be the speaker of the House or he'll be the speaker of the House working at the pleasure of the Democrats," GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz told reporters after he filed the motion. "I'm at peace with either result because the American people deserve to know who governs them. McCarthy responded minutes later on social media, Bring it on. Gaetz, a far-right Republican from Florida, has for months threatened to use the procedural tool called a motion to vacate to try to strip McCarthy of his office. Those threats escalated over the weekend after McCarthy relied on Democrats to provide the necessary votes to fund the government. That decision has

This comes hours after the US was finally able to pass the spending bill, that can keep the economy afloat for the next 47 days

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's last-ditch plan to keep the federal government temporarily open collapsed on Friday as hard-right holdouts rejected the package, making a shutdown almost certain. McCarthy's right-flank Republicans refused to support the bill despite its steep spending cuts of nearly 30 per cent to many agencies and severe border security provisions, calling it insufficient. The White House and Democrats rejected the Republican approach as too extreme. The bill's failure a day before Saturday's deadline to fund the government leaves few options left to prevent a shutdown that will furlough federal workers, keep the military working without pay and disrupt programmes and services for millions of Americans. The outcome puts McCarthy's speakership in serious jeopardy with almost no political leverage to lead the House at a critical moment that has pushed the government into crisis. Ahead of voting, the Republican speaker all but dared his hold-out colleagues to oppose t

The US Congress is at a crossroads days before a disruptive federal shutdown that would halt paychecks for many of the federal government's roughly 2 million employees

The Biden Administration has clarified that it has no intention of imposing new shutdowns amid a surge in Omicron variant across the US.White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that President Joe Biden will "issue a stark warning and make clear unvaccinated individuals will continue to drive hospitalizations and deaths" in his COVID-19 address on Tuesday."This is not a speech about locking the country down," Psaki said. "This is a speech outlining and being direct and clear with the American people about the benefits of being vaccinated, the steps we're going to take to increase access and to increase testing, and the risks posed to unvaccinated individuals."The highly transmissible Omicron variant was first detected in the U.S. on December 2 and has since spread to 47 states.A wave of the variant has already hit New York and New Jersey, where it accounted for approximately 13 per cent of cases last week.

European shares and US futures climbed Thursday after US lawmakers moved to avert a government shutdown. Germany's DAX edged 0.1 per cent higher to 15,378.85 while the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.5 per cent to 6,593.48. In London, the FTSE 100 also gained 0.5 per cent, to 7,146.51. The future for the Dow industrials was 0.7 per cent higher while that for the S&P 500 also rose 0.7 per cent. Investors have had their eyes on Washington, where Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been wrestling over extending the nation's debt limit. Congress has moved to avert that crisis, with the Senate poised to approve legislation to fund the federal government into early December. The House was expected to approve the measure following a Senate vote Thursday, preventing a partial government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Friday. If the limit, which caps the amount of money the federal government can borrow, wasn't raised by Oct. 18, the country would likely face a financial crisis .

Under the deal, Republican and Democratic lawmakers are to sit down together in a committee to device a border security plan that Trump would agree on or face another round of shutdown

Trump made no firm announcement regarding his demand for $5.7 bn to fund the border wall

Trump triggered a partial government shutdown on December 22 as a way of pressuring the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives to back the border wall project

Cultural institutions are moving to help unpaid federal workers spend some of their otherwise idle hours with loved ones enjoying art, science history or music

The US government shutdown on Saturday became the longest in history and is taking a growing bite out of the world's largest economy with each passing day, economists say. While most of the 21 "lapses" in government spending since 1976 left barely a scratch on economic growth, the length of this shutdown makes it harder to say just how bad the impact could get. "It's not a hard stretch to say that initially it's smaller and then it expands, the pain starts to widen," Beth Ann Bovino, chief US economist at S&P Global Ratings, told AFP. "Think of it as a butterfly effect." With about a quarter of the federal workforce affected, the shutdown is currently squeezing an estimated USD 1.2 billion a week out of the economy, Bovino said, but that figure could grow if it drags on. At the current rate, within two weeks it will have cost America more than the USD 5.7 billion US President Donald Trump is demanding for a wall on the border with Mexico, the dispute with Congress that led to the .

Families are feeling the pinch of the government shutdown

About 800,000 federal workers, including air traffic controllers and members of the Coast Guard, have been without pay for three weeks

The shutdown entered its 14th day on Friday with little sign that President Donald Trump and Congress will resolve the standoff over the border wall

The shutdown has affected about a quarter of the government, left 800,000 federal workers furloughed or working without pay, and on Thursday entered its sixth day

Asked when the government would reopen fully, Trump said he couldn't say

The partial shutdown that officially kicked in on Friday midnight has dealt a blow to several national parks and landmarks forcing them to close their doors to visitors during the holiday season