The government is close to reopening. The Senate voted Monday in favor of a temporary spending bill to fund the government until February 8th. The Daily Beast's White House Reporter Lachlan Markay explains rhetoric on Capitol Hill over this short-term resolution.
"Really all Democrats were able to get out of this deal was an agreement to vote on something that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell insisted the Senate was already going to vote on," says Markay. "So from the Democratic perspective its not clear they got anything." McConnell promised the Democrats to vote on immigration reform as part of the spending resolution.
The House still needs to approve the measure the Senate passed in order for the government to reopen. With the funding extension, it's possible the government could face another shutdown in three weeks says Markay.
The U.S. approved updated COVID-19 vaccines Monday, hoping to rev up protection against the latest coronavirus strains and blunt any surge this fall and winter.
The Biden administration has cleared the way for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran by issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of U.S. sanctions. In addition, as part of the deal, the administration has agreed to release five Iranian citizens held in the United States.
The U.S. government is taking aim at what has been an indomitable empire: Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has become the internet’s main gateway.
President Joe Biden departed Vietnam after meetings with President Vo Van Thuong along with other high-ranking officials, following his participation at the G20 summit in India.
