Trump signs funding bill to end longest US government shutdown

President signs legislation to restart federal operations after House passes measure in 222-209 vote

The longest US government shutdown in history ended on Wednesday after more than 42 days, following the House of Representative’s passage of a bill negotiated by Republicans and a splinter group of Democrat-aligned senators.

The compromise sets the stage for government operations to return to normal through January, while leaving unresolved the issue of expiring tax credits for ...

Trump shares false claim Obama earned $40m in ‘royalties’ from Obamacare

US president promoted fictional claim from satirical website that has been debunked repeatedly since 2017

Donald Trump promoted the false claim that Barack Obama has earned $40m in “royalties linked to Obamacare” in a post to his 11 million followers on Truth Social on Sunday.

The fictional claim that the former US president receives royalty payments for the use of his name to refer to the Affordable Care Act, which he signed into law in 2010, has been repeatedly debunked since...

Trump news at a glance: President suggests scrapping Obamacare as shutdown flight chaos continues

Trump urged Republican senators to redirect federal money toward direct payments to individuals. Key US politics stories from 8 November at a glance

Donald Trump on Saturday urged Republican senators to redirect federal money used to subsidize health insurance costs under the Affordable Care Act toward direct payments to individuals, in an effort to overcome an issue at the heart of the US government shutdown.

“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billio...

Senate Republicans embrace Trump’s call – from his Florida golf course – to replace Obamacare

Amid a historic government shutdown, some senators on Capitol Hill are working this weekend on an unpopular bill

US senators are working through the weekend for the first time since the government shutdown began more than a month ago, but hopes for a bipartisan agreement on how to end the standoff, and keep healthcare affordable for millions of Americans, appeared to recede as Republican senators floated a proposal toxic to Democrats: scrapping the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as...

On the shutdown, Democrats have painted themselves into a corner

Having painted themselves into a shutdown corner, Democrats now want Republicans to extricate them. 

Democrats know that they cannot win this one. They also know that they cannot return to their rabid base having conceded. What they want is for Senate Republicans to detonate another so-called “nuclear option” and end Democrats’ ability to filibuster the federal government to a standstill. 

Senate Democrats have defeated 13 Republican attempts t...

What Democrats should learn from Zohran Mamdani

Ask Thomas Dewey. Politics is unpredictable. The polls are often wrong, and even the smartest of the commentariat don’t always get it right. Nobody thought Tom Dewey would lose to Harry Truman in 1948; Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump in 2016; or Kamala Harris, to Trump in 2024. 

And few commentators, including me, thought Zohran Mamdani would win the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.

So, at the risk of being proven wrong yet again, I want to boldly ...

Top Senate Democrat blames ‘heartless’ Trump for food aid being cut off – US politics live

Chuck Schumer condemns president for stopping Snap benefits for millions as overall cost of shutdown to US economy could reach $14bn

On X, Adam Schiff, one of California’s Democratic senators, criticized acting US attorney Bill Essayli, after a judge found that he was in the Los Angeles-based position illegally.

Schiff wrote:

“Unlawfully serving” in his role. Acting illegally. But left in place? While this Administration continues to replace career professionals with illegitimate political allies eager to do Trump’s bidding, Californians need better relief than this.

I do the American People’s bidding at the direction of their duly elected President. That’s how our Constitution works. Try reading and abiding by it sometime.

Continue reading...

No Kings indeed: A partial list of Trump’s shameless power grabs 

Millions of Americans opposed to President Trump’s attacks on our Constitution, democracy and the rule of law are expected to join some 2,000 peaceful No Kings Day protests around the nation tomorrow. The protests are a follow-up to the No Kings Day held on June 14  — Trump’s 79th birthday.

The protests are backed by a long list of nonprofits and will draw patriotic Republicans, Democrats, independents and third-party backers determined to...

Will Speaker Johnson ever call the House back? 800,000 Arizonans are without a voice

Right now, more than 800,000 people in Arizona’s 7th District are without representation in Congress. Their duly elected representative, Adelita Grijalva, is being denied the right to be sworn in by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) not because of any wrongdoing on her part, but because Republican leadership has chosen to hold her seat hostage for political leverage.

Let’s be clear: this is not a clerical delay or a scheduling issue. This is a deliberate act. Johnson has refused to...

Top Senate Republican says he can ‘guarantee’ a vote on key healthcare provision amid shutdown standoff – live

Senate majority leader there will be a vote on Obamacare subsidies, as Democrats have demanded, but ‘can’t guarantee it’s going to pass’

Mike Johnson said that Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congresswoman from New York, said the “quiet part out loud” during a televised CNN town hall on Wednesday.

“They don’t know what they want to end the shutdown. They couldn’...