Foreign
US Govt Shutdown Looms As Trump, Musk Kill Funding Deal
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The United States was staring down the barrel of a holiday-period government shutdown Thursday after a late-hour intervention by Donald Trump and Elon Musk threatened efforts in Congress to keep the lights on through the New Year.
The money authorized by lawmakers to run federal agencies is set to expire Friday night, and party leaders had agreed on a stopgap bill — known as a “continuing resolution” (CR) — to keep operations functioning.
Debt hawks in the House of Representatives baulked at what they considered an overstuffed package full of “pork” — spending that has nothing to do with the point of the bill — but it still looked like it might pass a floor vote.
Then Musk, the world’s richest man and President-elect Trump’s incoming “efficiency czar,” bombarded his 208 million followers on X with posts trashing the text, many making false or misleading claims.
Twelve hours after Musk’s first tweet, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance effectively torpedoed the bill, releasing a statement attacking the add-ons and demanding out of the blue that it include an increase in the country’s debt limit.
Negotiating increases in permitted federal borrowing levels — and then writing and voting on legislation in both chambers on Congress — usually takes weeks, and government functions are due to begin winding up at midnight going into Saturday.
The debacle offered a preview of the chaos that Democrats say will attend Trump’s second term in office and prompted questions over why a tech billionaire who is a private, unelected citizen was able to plunge Congress into crisis.
“It’s weird to think that Elon Musk will end up having paid far less for the United States Government than he did for Twitter,” prominent conservative lawyer and Trump critic George Conway posted.
– Unpaid workers –
A shutdown would cause the closure of federal agencies and national parks, limiting public services and furloughing potentially hundreds of thousands of workers without pay over Christmas.
As time ran short, House Republicans and Democrats gathered separately to begin the seemingly impossible task of coming up with a Plan B with just hours to spare.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was being criticized from all sides for having misjudged his own members’ tolerance for the bill’s spiraling costs, and for allowing himself to have been blindsided by Musk and Trump.
He is expected to introduce a slimmed-down funding patch, attaching a borrowing limit and removing most of the add-ons.
But Democrats, who control the Senate, have little political incentive to help Republicans and say they will only vote for the agreed package, meaning Trump’s party will have to go it alone.
This is something the fractious, divided party — which can afford to lose only a handful of members in any House vote — has not managed in any major bill in this Congress.
Asked if Democrats would support a pared-back bill with an extended borrowing cap, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries offered little hope that he would bail Johnson out.
He said talk of dealing with the debt limit was “premature.”
“House Democrats are going to continue to fight for families, farmers and the future of working-class Americans. And in order to do that, the best path forward is the bipartisan agreement that we negotiated,” he told reporters.
Trouble with the bill began during the negotiations, as Republican leaders demanded billions of dollars in economic aid to farmers, prompting Democrats to start making their own requests.
While voicing frustration over spending levels, Trump’s main objection was that Congress was leaving him to handle a debt-limit increase — invariably a contentious, time-consuming fight — rather than including it in the text.
He said Wednesday that “everything should be done, and fully negotiated” before he takes office.
But conservatives are generally against increasing the country’s massive borrowing — currently standing at $36.2 trillion — and multiple Republicans have never voted for a hike.
The Biden administration estimates that the debt limit won’t actually be reached until the summer of 2025 and Republicans had been planning to handle an extension as part of other legislation.
The disarray jeopardizes $100 billion in disaster relief in the bill to help Americans hit by two devastating hurricanes in the fall, as well as $30 billion in aid for farmers.
US President Donald Trump has vowed that American military strikes on Iran will continue until he personally decides they have achieved their objectives, declaring that the campaign will not stop “until I say it’s enough.”
Speaking with Fox News on Tuesday, July 24, Trump said the US forces would ‘hit them very hard tonight, very hard tomorrow night’ in a brutal campaign that won’t stop until he says ‘enough.’
‘I’ll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we’ll hit energy targets,’ Trump warned.
‘We’re going to hit them very hard the night after, and then next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants.’
Trump also said the US would target bridges next week unless Iran was willing to negotiate a peace deal that included giving up their nuclear ambitions.
He vowed the attacks will continue ‘until I say it’s enough.’
In an update late on Tuesday night, CENTCOM advised another round of strikes had been completed, hitting dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian coastal areas.
‘US fighter aircraft, drones, and naval vessels launched precision munitions against Iranian missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, and coastal defense systems during the seven-hour wave to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews,’ the update said.
US forces resumed the naval blockade against vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas.
The latest US bombing comes after Trump notified Congress that the war would resume after Iran breached the memorandum of understanding by targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump did not rule out using US ground forces to ensure that his key objectives are met, especially when it comes to removing Iran’s enriched uranium.
US forces had been careful not to harm Iran’s civilian population with strikes, but Trump warned Iran that everything was on the table.
‘You better make a deal, or you’re not going to have anything left,’ he said.
The President also likened Iran to ‘a great boxer’ that needed to be put to the mat.
‘You think you have them beat, then they’ll come back and give you a shot,’ Trump said.
Trump suggested later in the interview with Fox News that he wasn’t interested in continuing negotiations with Iran because ‘they lie.’
He also said the last contact he had with negotiators was an hour ago.
The President praised his Cabinet for its work on the Iran issue, including Pete Hegseth, as he said ‘oil is flowing like never before.’
He also announced he was replacing the 20 percent fee the US was charging on the Strait of Hormuz to various Gulf States.
Children aged 16 and 17-year-olds in the UK will face a voluntary overnight social media curfew, alongside a shutdown of infinite scrolling and mandatory breaks in AI chatbot use, under new plans announced by Technology Secretary Liz Kendall.
According to a report by The Independent UK on Tuesday, the measures form part of the government’s wider restrictions on children’s social media use, and will see default settings block access for older teenagers between midnight and 6 am.
Kendall, in a statement, said, “These measures will be crucial in helping young people get the sleep they need, focus on school and college, and spend more quality time with family and friends, all of which are fundamental to building a happy, healthy and fulfilling adult life.
“We want young people to enjoy the benefits of technology while having the tools to make the online world a place where they can thrive.”
The Independent said features designed to keep users engaged, such as never-ending video reels and algorithmic feeds, will also be automatically switched off under the new defaults.
However, the report noted that critics have questioned how effective the measures will be, given that 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to turn off these default settings themselves.
The curfew plan follows last month’s announcement of a broader social media ban for under-16s by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government, expected to cover platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, but not messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal, from next spring, according to the newspaper.
The report added that responsibility for working out key details of the policy will fall to Andy Burnham, who is set to become prime minister after winning the Makerfield by-election.
Kendall is also reportedly pushing new safeguards for children using artificial intelligence, including requiring under-18s to take regular breaks while using chatbots, and a crackdown on AI services that give dangerous, misleading or unverified mental health advice.
Ministers are said to be considering banning chatbots deemed a serious threat to children.
Conservative shadow education secretary Laura Trott reportedly criticised the plan, describing it as “another dog’s dinner from Labour” and arguing that curfews teenagers can simply switch off “won’t achieve anything.”
The South African government has reaffirmed its visa exemption policy, allowing citizens of 22 African countries to enter the country without obtaining a visa in advance, subject to the permitted duration of stay and applicable entry conditions.
According to the country’s official visa exemption policy, eligible travellers may enter South Africa for periods ranging from 30 to 90 days, depending on their nationality.
The African countries currently eligible for visa-free entry include:
Algeria – up to 30 days
Benin – 30 days or less
Botswana – up to 90 days
Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) – 30 days or less
Comoros – up to 90 days
Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) – up to 30 days
Gabon – 30 days or less
Guinea – up to 90 days
Kenya – up to 30 days
Lesotho – 30 days or less
Madagascar – up to 30 days
Malawi – 30 days or less
Mauritius – 30 days or less
Mozambique – up to 90 days
Namibia – 30 days or less
Rwanda – up to 30 days
Seychelles – 30 days or less
Eswatini – 30 days or less
Tanzania – up to 90 days for ordinary passport holders
Tunisia – up to 90 days
Zambia – 30 days or less
Zimbabwe – up to 90 days
South Africa also grants visa-free entry to holders of the African Union Laissez-Passer and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Laissez-Passer under its exemption policy.
Authorities, however, noted that visa-free access for some countries, including Kenya, Benin and Gabon, is subject to specific conditions. Travellers are therefore advised to confirm the latest entry requirements with South African authorities before making travel arrangements.
Notably, Nigeria is not among the countries currently eligible for visa-free entry into South Africa, meaning Nigerian passport holders are still required to obtain a visa before travelling.
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