Government headed to a shutdown after last-ditch vote fails in Senate
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats have voted down a Republican bill to keep funding the government, putting it on a near certain path to a shutdown after midnight Wednesday for the first time in nearly seven years.
The Senate rejected the legislation as Democrats are making good on their threat to close the government if President Donald Trump and Republicans won’t accede to their health care demands. The 55-45 vote on a bill to extend federal funding for seven weeks fell short of the 60 needed to end a filibuster and pass the legislation.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans are trying to “bully” Democrats by refusing to negotiate on an extension of expanded Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire at the end of the year.
“We hope they sit down with us and talk," Schumer said after the vote. "Otherwise, it’s the Republicans will be driving us straight towards a shutdown tonight at midnight. The American people will blame them for bringing the federal government to a halt.”
The failure of Congress to keep the government open means that hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed or laid off. After the vote, the White House's Office of Management and Budget issued a memo saying “affected agencies should now execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.”
Here are some effects of a government shutdown if Congress, Trump don't reach a deal
The federal government is nearing a partial shutdown, with a range of effects on public services and the broader U.S. economy.
Employee furloughs and potential layoffs would halt some government activities. Other functions — like NASA's space missions, President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and certain public health work at FDA and the USDA — would continue.
Here is a look at some of what's expected across agencies:
Most Department of Homeland Security employees would continue to work, because much of the department’s workforce is connected to law enforcement or works in areas funded by user fees as opposed to Congressional appropriations.
DHS said in a plan published on its website that about 14,000 of the agency’s roughly 271,000 employees would be furloughed in the event of a government shutdown. That would include maintaining the vast majority of officers and employees at Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation and Security Administration, Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, among other divisions.
Trump calls for using US cities as a 'training ground' for military in unusual speech to generals
QUANTICO, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and spoke of needing U.S. military might to combat what he called the "invasion from within."
Addressing an audience of military brass abruptly summoned to Virginia, Trump outlined a muscular and at times norm-shattering view of the military's role in domestic affairs. He was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who declared an end to “woke” culture and announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.
The dual messages underscored the Trump administration's efforts not only to reshape contemporary Pentagon culture but to enlist military resources for the president's priorities and for decidedly domestic purposes, including quelling unrest and violent crime.
“We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” Trump said. He noted at another point: “We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.”
After calling hundreds of military leaders and their top advisers from around the world to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Hegseth largely focused on long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military hamstrung by “woke” policies. He said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.
Trump says his administration is close to reaching a deal with Harvard University
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is close to reaching a deal with Harvard University, which it has targeted with a series of investigations and billions of dollars in funding cuts as it presses for changes to its policies and governance.
A truce with the country's oldest and wealthiest college would end a clash that has tested the independence of America’s colleges.
Trump came into office saying he would cut funding for schools that defied his agenda, vowing to eliminate “wokeness.” His pressure campaign zeroed in on the Ivy League institution after it rebuffed his demands.
Trump initially said a deal had been reached but then said officials were “close to finalizing” the agreement. “We haven’t done it yet,” he said at the White House.
Trump said the agreement includes a $500 million payment from Harvard that would be used to create “a giant trade school, a series of trade schools that would be run by Harvard.” Trump described it as an investment to revive trade schools and produce workers for American plants.
Friends of the Michigan church shooting suspect say he long carried hatred toward Mormon faith
GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The man who opened fire in a Michigan church and killed four people while setting it ablaze long harbored hatred toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to longtime friends, and told a stranger who showed up at his door days before that attack that Mormons were the “antichrist.”
The suspect, identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford, began making those sentiments known years ago following his return from Utah where he dated but later broke up with a girlfriend who was a member of the Mormon faith, two childhood friends said Tuesday. Sanford had moved to Utah after leaving the Marines and told his friends he had become addicted to methamphetamines.
No longer the happy-go-lucky kid who was voted class clown of their graduating class, Sanford routinely spouted off about his grievances against the church, his friends said. The first time they heard it was at a wedding thirteen years ago.
“We were like, ‘come on,’ we don’t want to hear this,” said Bobby Kalush, who grew up down the road from Sanford. “When he came back from Utah, he was a completely different person.”
Just six days before Sunday’s attack, those grudges were still boiling at the surface, said Kris Johns, a city council candidate who described a bizarre brush with Sanford while door knocking for his campaign.
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Suspicious package leads to temporary evacuation before Turning Point's return to Utah
LOGAN, Utah (AP) — Turning Point USA's college tour is returning to Utah on Tuesday for the first time since founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a college campus earlier this month.
The stop, at Utah State University in Logan, is about two hours north of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed Sept. 10 by a gunman who fired a single shot through the crowd while Kirk was speaking.
The Logan campus temporarily evacuated a building Tuesday after a “non-explosive” device was found and detonated by the bomb squad “out of an abundance of caution,” the school said in an alert to students. The building is safe, the school said, and events “may resume as normal.”
The assassination of a top ally of President Donald Trump and a significant figure in his Make America Great Again movement has galvanized conservatives, who have vowed to carry on Kirk’s mission of encouraging young voters to embrace conservatism and moving American politics further right. Kirk has been celebrated as a “martyr” by many on the right, and Turning Point USA has seen tens of thousands of requests to create new chapters in high schools and colleges.
Tuesday’s event, scheduled before Kirk’s death, will showcase Turning Point's path forward without its influential leader, who headlined many of its events and drew crowds.
At least 91 students remain buried in rubble 2 days after school collapse in Indonesia
SIDOARJO, Indonesia (AP) — At least 91 students remain trapped in concrete rubble almost two days after an Islamic school building collapsed on them, authorities said after reviewing attendance records and reports from anxious families of those missing.
More than 300 rescue workers desperately worked to free survivors Wednesday morning, after the structure fell on top of hundreds of people, mostly teen boys, who had been performing afternoon prayers Monday in a prayer hall at a century-old al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in East Java province that was undergoing an unauthorized expansion.
At least three students have been confirmed dead and 100 others were injured, many with head injuries and broken bones.
The National Disaster Management Agency revised the number of people presumed buried in the rubble to 91 late Tuesday from the previous 38.
The agency said at least six children are alive under the rubble, but the search was made difficult by the slabs of concrete and other unstable, heavy parts of the building. Heavy equipment was available but not being used due to concerns that it could cause further collapse.
Strong earthquake kills 31 people in a central Philippine region hit by deadly storm just days ago
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — An offshore earthquake of magnitude 6.9 collapsed walls of houses and buildings late Tuesday in a central Philippine province, killing at least 31 people, injuring many others and sending residents scrambling out of homes into darkness as the intense shaking cut off power, officials said.
The epicenter of the earthquake, which was set off by movement in a local fault at a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles), was about 19 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Bogo, a coastal city of about 90,000 people in Cebu province where at least 14 residents died, disaster-mitigation officer Rex Ygot told The Associated Press by telephone.
The death toll in Bogo was expected to rise. Workers were trying to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and boulders, he said.
“It's hard to move in the area because there are hazards,” Glenn Ursal, another disaster-mitigation officer told The AP, adding some survivors were brought to a hospital.
At least 12 residents, mostly belonging to small families, died when they were hit by falling ceilings and walls of their houses, some while sleeping, in Medellin town near Bogo, Gemma Villamor, who heads the town's disaster-mitigation office, told The AP.
Trump pulls nomination of E.J. Antoni to lead Bureau of Labor Statistics, AP source says
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is withdrawing the nomination of E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to a White House official and an AP source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the action, which has yet to be publicly announced.
The White House official declined to say the reasons for withdrawing the nomination, only to say that Antoni was a talented economist and that President Donald Trump plans to announce a new nominee soon. The Senate received paperwork formally withdrawing Antoni’s nomination on Tuesday.
Antoni’s nomination, announced in August, was an attempt by Trump to gain greater control over the federal agency responsible for producing key economic data, including the monthly jobs report and consumer price index, which is used to measure inflation. As the chief economist at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, he was a major critic of the BLS. Yet most economists saw him as overtly partisan and warned that his basic misreads on recessions, import prices and other measures made him a risk to lead the federal agency.
Kyle Pomerleau, a tax expert for the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote on X after Antoni's nomination in August: “There are a lot of competent conservative economists that could do this job. E.J. is not one of them.”
Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action, said in a statement that Antoni “continues to be one of the sharpest economic minds in the country” and that he “was the right man for the job” at the BLS. But the statement said that Antoni would remain at the conservative think tank instead of taking a job in the government.
Nicole Kidman files for divorce from Keith Urban after 19 years of marriage
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nicole Kidman has filed for divorce from Keith Urban after 19 years of marriage, bringing a surprising end to a long and seemingly successful union that brought together two superstars from the worlds of movies and music.
The 58-year-old Oscar-winning actor petitioned on Tuesday to end her marriage to the 57-year-old Grammy winning country singer in a Nashville court. The documents state the couple has undergone “marital difficulties and irreconcilable differences.”
Kidman and Urban, two of the biggest stars to come out of Australia in recent decades, have been red carpet fixtures throughout their two-decade relationship, with Urban joining his wife at the Oscars and Kidman attending music events like the Academy of Country Music Awards.
The filings include a marriage dissolution and childcare plan agreed on by the couple and submitted for a judge's approval.
“The mother and father will behave with each other and each child so as to provide a loving, stable, consistent and nurturing relationship with the child even though they are divorced,” says the permanent parenting plan, using language common in the state's divorces. “They will not speak badly of each other or the members of the family of the other parent. They will encourage each child to continue to love the other parent and be comfortable in both families.”
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