US Congressional negotiators on Monday pressed to wrap up a must-do spending bill to prevent an election-season government shutdown and provide money to battle the Zika virus, but numerous sticking points remain and top senate leaders again postponed a planned procedural vote.
The stopgap measure would keep the US government running past the end of the budget year this month. It is the only measure that has to pass before congress adjourns for election day. As such, the talks have been tricky, with Republicans battling Democrats and the administration of US President Barack Obama.
A controversy involving whether Planned Parenthood should be eligible for anti-Zika funding in Puerto Rico, which sparked a Democratic blockade of an earlier measure, was defused with little fanfare last week.
Senate Republicans, who have taken the lead in the talks, have relented and would make affiliates of Planned Parenthood eligible for funds to fight the virus in Puerto Rico.
The US$1 billion-plus to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus is months overdue. Republicans were slow to act on Obama’s request in February and then sparked an imbroglio with Democrats by restricting new health grants for Puerto Rico to entities like public health providers and hospitals, a step that Republicans said was aimed at ensuring Planned Parenthood was ineligible to receive any funds. A proposed solution would move the money to different accounts and make sure Planned Parenthood remains eligible to receive it.
Another proposal would temporarily ease pesticide spraying rules from US Clean Water Act requirements for permits.
Supporters say the permits are duplicative, as pesticides are generally regulated by a different environmental law, but the idea is opposed by the administration, which says it’s an assault on environmental laws.
Democrats also are opposed to pairing the Zika money with spending cuts intended to try to pay for it. Other disasters, like floods and emergency wildfire funds, have not required such offsetting cuts, and Democrats do not want to set the precedent.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz is pushing for a provision in the bill to ensure that the government does not relinquish control of the Internet’s addressing system. The government is expected to take that step, and Cruz has been fighting it.
“It is my hope that congress is going to act to maintain current law and to protect the Internet, keep the Internet free,” Cruz told reporters. “It would be profoundly harmful to American interests and to the free-speech rights of Americans to give Russia and China and Iran greater control over the Internet, and I hope we see a bipartisan consensus to protect free speech online.”
After talks over the weekend failed to produce much progress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell postponed a procedural vote that had been slated for Monday evening. The delay probably means congress will not wrap up its pre-election session this week.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other