The U.S. Congress passed a stopgap bill on Wednesday to avert a partial government shutdown beginning next week, even as a large number of House Republicans revolted against their leadership for failing to achieve new federal spending cuts.

The Democratic-majority Senate passed the bill by a margin of 78-18, hours after the House of Representatives approved it. The measure will maintain the government’s current level of roughly $1.2 trillion in annual discretionary funding through Dec. 20, avoiding the furloughing of thousands of federal workers and shutdown of a wide swath of government services just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to use a parliamentary manoeuvre to bypass the House Rules Committee to overcome opposition within his own Republican Party, which holds a 220-212 majority in the chamber.

The measure passed the House 341-82, with all “no” votes were cast by Republicans.

The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to sign into law before current funding expires at midnight Monday.

The timeline is unusually truncated for Congress, as members moved quickly in order to get back to campaigning in their districts ahead of the election.

A significant number of House Republicans defied their leader and voted against the measure after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump earlier spoke in favour of a shutdown unless controversial legislation was attached to the spending bill that outlawed non-citizens from voting in federal elections, something that already is illegal.

Hard-right House Republicans had been pushing for a six-month stopgap measure with the election piece attached, but last week failed to pass that bill, which would have been lost in the Senate anyway.

Nonetheless, some of the most conservative Republicans thought Johnson and all rank-and-file Republicans should have fought harder against a Democratic victory, even if it meant a shutdown.

The Moody’s credit ratings agency warned this week that it expects the polarized U.S. political environment to cause the federal government’s fiscal health to deteriorate. The last of the three major rating agencies to maintain a top rating for the U.S. government in November 2024 lowered its credit outlook on the U.S. to “negative.”

Johnson has repeatedly had to bypass his own restive caucus to pass critical legislation. In March, the House passed the current funding bill despite 112 Republican “no” votes.

April brought the passage of nearly $61 billion in new aid for Ukraine, which has battled a Russian invasion since 2022. Again, 112 Republicans voted against Johnson’s effort.

Johnson’s predecessor, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was ousted by hard-line Republicans in a historic vote, as they punished him for reaching a bipartisan spending and debt ceiling deal with Biden.

That latter fight will recur late this year. Democrats and Republicans will have to negotiate over full-year government funding. And it faces an even more critical self-imposed Jan. 1 deadline to either raise the nation’s debt ceiling or risk defaulting on more than $35 trillion in federal government debt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address US lawmakers in Washington DC on 24 July, congressional leaders announced on Thursday.

He will speak to both chambers of Congress – the Senate and the House of Representatives – as the Israel-Gaza war continues.

Republicans and Democrats both invited the prime minister to speak, but the date of his speech was not made official until Thursday.

Last month the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor applied for arrest warrants against the Israeli leader and his defence minister, Yoav Galant, on charges related to the war.

Mr Netanyahu condemned the ICC move, saying he rejected with disgust that “democratic Israel” had been compared to what he called “mass murderers”.

Mr Netanyahu said, according to a statement released by congressional leaders, that he was “very moved to have the privilege of representing Israel… to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us”.

In their letter inviting the prime minister, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – both Republicans – said they hoped Mr Netanyahu would take the opportunity to “share the Israeli government’s vision for defending democracy, combatting terror, and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region”.

Mr Netanyahu’s visit comes as that relationship with the US has grown tense, especially among leading US Democrats.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, said in a separate statement that he supported the invitation despite his “clear and profound disagreements with the Prime Minister, which I have voiced both privately and publicly”.

“But because America’s relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister I joined the request for him to speak,” he said.

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has also grown more critical of Israel as the war continues and the death toll in Gaza climbs.

Mr Biden, who is running for re-election in November, has come under political pressure from his party’s left flank to do more to convince Israel to limit its war in Gaza.

Some progressive leaders, such as Sen Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have said they intend to boycott Mr Netanyahu’s speech in protest at Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage during an attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

At least 36,470 people have been killed in Gaza in almost eight months of fighting since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Mr Biden has recently made public his administration’s push for a ceasefire deal that would begin a six-week cessation of hostilities in Gaza.

The three-part plan that the president unveiled last week would see a “surge” of humanitarian aid, as well as an exchange of some hostages for Palestinian prisoners before a permanent end to the war.

The proposal, however, has encountered vocal opposition from some members of Israel’s government, which has raised doubt that an agreement might be reached.

Hanoch Milwidsky, a senior member of the Knesset for Mr Netanyahu’s Likud Party, told the BBC on Sunday that Israel’s governing coalition was unified in opposition to the deal, which he called “completely unacceptable”.

Mr Netanyahu last spoke to the US Congress in 2015, when both chambers were controlled by Republicans. He used the opportunity to criticise then President Barack Obama, a Democrat, for pursuing a deal with US allies and Iran to curtail Tehran’s nuclear programme.

An African-American of Ghanaian descent, Gabe Felix Kofi Amo, has been elected into the United States’ Congress.

He will be serving Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District and is the first black congressman to do so.

In an interview with Good Morning America, the congressman said his election to office means a whole lot to him.

“When I look at the struggles of my parents, my dad from Ghana, my mom from Liberia, the hard work they’ve put in, my dad owning a liquor store, my mom as a nurse, it is a dramatic leap to go from that in one generation to having their son as a member of the United States’ House of Representatives,” he said.

Gabe grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and is the son of a Ghanaian and Liberian immigrants.

He graduated from Moses Brown School in Providence, where he was President of the Student Senate and received the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s Civic Leadership Award.

At Wheaton College, Gabe received a Truman Scholarship for public service and, after graduating, received a Marshall Scholarship to study public policy at Oxford.

He later served in the White House under Barrack Obama in the Office of Inter-Governmental Affairs as a liaison to Governors and state elected officials.

Gabe was then appointed by former Rhode Island Governor, Gina Raimondo as Director of Public Engagement and Community Affairs.

He served as Governor Raimondo’s principal advisor on outreach to businesses and labor, faith groups, local government, grassroots organizations, and communities of color.

Most recently, Gabe served as the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Inter-Governmental Affairs and Special Assistant to the President, working as President Biden’s principal liaison to mayors and local elected officials.

The US government has avoided a federal shutdown after both House and Senate agreed on a short-term funding deal.

A bill ensuring funding until 17 November received overwhelming support, and was signed into law by President Joe Biden minutes before a deadline.

However, it was stripped of any new aid for Ukraine for its war against Russia – a key Democrat demand.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy submitted the bill in defiance of hard-liners in his own party.

A government shutdown, which would place tens of thousands of federal employees on furlough without pay and suspend various government services, was slated to begin at 00:01 ET (04:01 GMT) on Sunday.

But in a dramatic turnaround on Saturday afternoon, Mr McCarthy decided to put to a vote the temporary funding measure that would keep the government which contains funding for natural disasters but makes no major concessions on spending levels – a key demand of the Republicans controlling the lower house.

A majority of lawmakers were keen to avert a shutdown, and the bill was backed by more Democrats than Republicans, with as many as 90 House Republicans voting against it.

The move was a blow to a small group of right-wing Republicans who have held up negotiations in the chamber with unyielding demands for spending cuts and no new aid for Ukraine.

And with the House adjourning immediately after the vote, the Senate which had agreed its own bill that included aid for Ukraine was left with no choice but to pick up the House legislation. Only nine senators voted against – all Republican.

In a statement released shortly after the Senate vote, President Joe Biden said “extreme House Republicans” had sought to create a “manufactured crisis”, and urged Speaker McCarthy to allow a further funding deal for Ukraine to pass without delay.

He said: “We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted.”

In an unusual move, senior Senate leaders from both parties, including minority leader Mitch McConnell, released a joint statement signalling their intention to “ensure the US government continues to provide” support to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

It came after Senator Michael Bennet – a Democratic member from Colorado, who backs more funding for Kyiv – held up Saturday’s proceedings in protest at the lack of guarantees for Ukraine included in the deal.

Congress has approved about $113bn (£92bn) in military, humanitarian and economic aid to Ukraine since Russia waged its full-scale invasion last year. President Biden has requested another $24bn.

Shutdowns happen when both chambers of Congress are unable to agree on the roughly 30% of federal spending they must approve before the start of each fiscal year on 1 October.

With Republicans holding a slim majority in the House and Democrats holding the Senate by a single seat, any funding measure needs buy-in from both parties.

Repeated efforts to pass spending bills in the House have been thwarted in recent weeks by rebel right-wingers.

The group has opposed short-term spending measures and pushed for making cuts by passing long-term spending bills with agency-specific savings, even though such bills stand little chance of advancing through the Senate.

Mr McCarthy had been extremely reluctant to rely on Democratic votes to pass the House’s bill until the last minute, given this would anger these hard-line conservative members of his party.

This drama is likely to be repeated again in less than seven weeks as fundamental disagreements over government spending levels and policies between Republicans and Democrats, and among Republicans themselves, have not been resolved.

In the meantime, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz and hard-line conservatives in the House have a decision to make.

Mr McCarthy’s decision to rely on Democratic votes to pass the short-term bill was supposedly a red line that, if crossed, would prompt an attempt to remove the Speaker from his leadership position, by triggering a so-called motion to vacate.

At his Saturday news conference, Mr McCarthy challenged those who oppose him to “bring it”, adding: “There has to be an adult in the room.”

The days ahead will reveal whether Mr Gaetz and company were serious about their threat – or just bluffing.

Chief Executive for video blogging platform, TikTok, Shou Chew made appeared before the United States Congress for the first time.

This follows backlash from legislators that usage of the app should be banned after accusations of dubious surveillance and inappropriate use of user information.

In his opening speech, the CEO promised to protect US user data, to keep teens safe and to remain free from any government influence.

According to CNN, Mr Chew’s written remarks also defend ByteDance’s corporate structure and outlines steps the company has taken, and plans to take, to resolve fears the Chinese government could gain access to TikTok user data through its potential influence over ByteDance. Among those steps is a vow to “firewall” US user data from “unauthorized foreign access.”

Watch live stream here:

The US House ethics panel has extended its investigation into congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over allegations that she may have violated congressional rules.

A nonpartisan watchdog review found “substantial reason to believe that she accepted impermissible gifts” related to a fashion event.

The probe centres on the payments for the dress she rented to attend the prestigious Met Gala in 2021.

The lawmaker has denied any wrongdoing.

In 2021, Ms Ocasio-Cortez made headlines at the New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art event wearing a white dress with the words “Tax The Rich” scrawled across the back.

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), a nonpartisan watchdog, issued a report on Thursday that says the Democratic politician was provided with the dress, a handbag, shoes and jewellery for the event. She also received hair, makeup and transportation services as well as the use of a hotel room for the event.

“While Rep. Ocasio-Cortez appears to have now paid for the rental value of the attire she wore to the Met Gala and for the goods and services she and her partner received in connection with this September 2021 event, payment for these goods and services did not occur until after the OCE contacted her in connection with this review,” the OCE said in a report released on Thursday.

“If Rep. Ocasio-Cortez accepted impermissible gifts, then she may have violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law,” the OCE report said.

The OCE board recommended in June 2022 that the House review the allegations against Ms Ocasio-Cortez. The House Ethics Committee announced in December that it was investigating her, though it did not disclose the subject of its inquiry at the time.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s counsel David Mitrani has said the congresswoman “finds these delays (in payment) unacceptable, and she has taken several steps to ensure nothing of this nature will ever happen again.”

“However, while regrettable, this matter definitively does not rise to the level of a violation of House Rules or of federal law,” he added.

Paul Pelosi, the husband of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked by a hammer-wielding intruder at the couple’s San Francisco home in the early hours of Friday.

Within hours of the attack, a series of unsubstantiated claims began circulating in fringe far-right circles that contradicted the official police account of how the attack unfolded.

Those misleading claims have since gone viral after being amplified by new Twitter chief Elon Musk and a number of conservative influencers.

BBC News examines some of the claims about the attack.

False same-sex affair claims

One of the most viral false claims about the attack suggests that Mr Pelosi, 82, and his attacker David DePape, 42, were in a same-sex relationship and had a drunken quarrel.

A series of baseless assumptions that do not match official accounts of the incident have been used to support the narrative.

These claims started to trend in the US after Elon Musk tweeted an article from a website featuring similar claims to his 112 million followers on Sunday, before deleting his tweet without any explanation hours later.

“There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” Mr Musk had said in response to a tweet by former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The website Mr Musk linked to has a history of publishing inaccurate stories, including an article from 2016 that claimed Hillary Clinton was dead.

One of the claims made online is that both Mr DePape and Mr Pelosi were in just their underwear as police arrived at the scene.

But the FBI complaint against Mr DePape quotes a witness as saying he was dressed “in all black” carrying a large black bag on his back.

Another claim seized on to support this narrative is that the two men knew each other before the attack and were friends.

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene repeated the claim in a tweet yesterday.

According to the FBI complaint, Paul Pelosi did not know Mr DePape. Mr Pelosi used coded language as he made a 911 call from the bathroom, and an experienced operator worked out what was happening in his house.

Another rumour supporting the idea that the two men knew each other claimed that the shattered glass door of the house was broken from the inside, suggesting Mr Pelosi or a third person had let Mr DePape in.

The FBI complaint quotes Mr DePape as saying that he “broke into the house through a glass door, which was a difficult task that required the use of a hammer”.

There is no evidence in any of the police accounts that a third person was either in the house or involved in the attack.

Claims DePape’s blogs were faked

Two personal blogs and a Facebook account in the suspect’s name were found on the internet after police revealed his name following the attack, all of which were subsequently taken down.

His writings, viewed by the BBC, suggest he was a man radicalised by far-right conspiracy theories.

His posts cover a range of subjects, including unsubstantiated theories that the 2020 election was stolen, the 6 January Capitol riot, claims that Covid vaccines were harmful, support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, as well as racist and anti-Semitic posts.

Some online posts suggested the blogs were fake and only created on the day of the attack to support the narrative that he believed in far-right conspiracy theories.

But the BBC has screenshots of the blogs which show he had made posts as early as August, weeks before the attack.

Some have also claimed the attack was not motivated by politics or Mr DePape’s beliefs.

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh said it was “absurd” to portray the attacker as “a militant right winger”.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz echoed Mr Walsh’s words, simply tweeting “truth”.

However, the police complaint clarifies the attack was not a random act. According to San Francisco’s district attorney Brooke Jenkins, the attack was likely “politically motivated”.

In his police interview, Mr DePape described Nancy Pelosi as the “leader of the pack of lies told by the Democratic Party”, adding that he wanted to “break her kneecaps”.

Conservative figures, including Congressman Steve Scalise and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, have also been targets of violent attacks by political opponents in recent years.

Evidence-free accusations against Marjorie Taylor Greene

Baseless theories in the aftermath of the attack weren’t confined to the right.

Some liberal influencers seized on a tweet by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, posted a day prior to the attack, which read: “Just wait until tomorrow.”

A number of accounts with large liberal followings claimed that Ms Taylor Greene’s tweet could be a hint that she was in on the attack on Mr Pelosi. There is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory.

The National Black Caucus of State Legislators of the United States Congress have presented President Nana Akufo-Addo, with the first-ever International Nation Builders Award of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

Presenting the award, the president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators of the United States Congress, Congressman Billy Mitchell, explained that the ‘Nation Builders Award’ was established “to recognise those African-Americans who have distinguished themselves to live-long service and dedication to enfranchisement and inclusion of Americans of African descent into the national body of politics.”

Speaking at the award ceremony on Wednesday, at the 45^th Annual National Black Caucus of State Legislators in Atlanta, Georgia, Congressman Billy Mitchell explained the nation build award ceremony was renamed in 1995 to honour the late David P. Richardson, a 23-year member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and NBCSL’s third President.

“I must say as the President of NBCSL, it is my belief, that we must unite and partner with our brothers and sisters of the continent and throughout the diaspora. It is not lost on me that Ghana is widely regarded as the hub of pan-Africanism and the final resting place of many of our great thinkers, yes, even W.E.B. Du Bois,” he said.

Describe himself as “a student of Kwame Nkrumah”, Congressman Mitchell, I know we are stronger together and when we unite and advance the causes of our people, internationally, we are all better.

“It is, for this reason, I present to you this award Mr President, for your commitment to working collaboratively to achieve the liberation of African people despite where we were born. Mr President, I present to you, the first International Nation Builders Award of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators,” he added.

Ghana and the Diaspora

In his remarks, President Akufo-Addo noted that Ghana’s connection with the African Diaspora pre-dates her independence, stating that “currently, we are creating platforms for adoption of legal frameworks in key sectors to drive diaspora engagements. This has culminated in the Homeland Return Bill, on which we are currently working.”

The Homeland Return Bill, he explained, recognises Ghana’s moral and spiritual obligation, as an African nation, to facilitate the return of diaspora Africans to Ghana and the motherland, and to initiate the legal and regulatory processes for integrating them into Ghanaian society.

“When enacted, the Law will provide the much-needed regulatory and practical changes to improve the requirements for the acquisition of Ghanaian citizenship and permanent residence by diasporan Africans. Indeed, in the Year of Return, I granted citizenship to126 members of the diasporan community in Ghana of African-Americans and Caribbeans,” the President stressed. 

He continued, “It will, in fact, be a critical indication for business and investment, presenting an avenue for Africa in the diaspora to work towards partnerships, and establish Ghana as a launchpad to the rest of the continent of Africa through the AfCFTA”.

The President told the gathering that “We, in Ghana, and in Africa as a whole, have a keen interest in how you in the Diaspora fare. If you flourish, it will reflect well on us in Africa. Your success will boost our confidence. If we do well, and the continent flourishes, you will have an easier time of it here.”  

New legislation introduced in both houses of Congress on Thursday (Nov. 21) brings artists one step closer to receiving performance rights royalties on radio airplay.

The Ask Musicians for Music Act (AM-FM) would require radio stations to get consent from recording artists to play their music.

The legislation was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and in the House by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who called the current copyright system for radio “patchwork” and said the act would require all radio services to pay a fair market value for the music they use. 

The bill follows the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, which Blackburn and Nadler introduced in 2015 and 2017 to achieve the same goal, but failed to pass. 

“The United States in an outlier in the world for not requiring broadcast radio to pay artiste when playing their music, while requiring satellite and internet radio to pay,” said Nadler in a statement.

“This is unfair to both artists and music providers. I’m proud to sponsor the Ask Musician For Music Act of 2019 which would give artists and copyright owners the right to make a choice to allow AM/FM radio to use their work for free or to seek compensation for their work. The bill would also allow them to negotiate rates with broadcasters in exchange for permission for it to be aired. This is what music creators want and deserve.”

If the AM-FM Act were to pass, it would likely trigger negotiations for artists’ royalty rates. Since there is no master recording performance right in the United States, terrestrial radio stations get to play music for free without compensating labels who own the music or the artists who create it.

This act was filed as a response to the National Association of Broadcasters’ (NAB) fight against the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act (STELAR), industry sources tell Billboard. That act is set to expire at the end of this year and several bills to reform or extend that act have been filed.

The expiring legislation allows local satellite and cable carriers to use a compulsory license and get a discounted rate on the rebroadcast of network television stations in remote rural markets that years ago weren’t reached by nearby local TV stations. While the multichannel programming providers are supposed to ask for permission to rebroadcast the programming from such stations, part of STELAR allows the satellite operators to skip the retransmission consent and free-market negotiations and pay a Copyright Royalty Board Rate.

“There is no policy justification or technological reason for STELAR to be reauthorized,” reads a white paper on STELAR on the NAB’s website. “The time has come to stop subsidizing billion-dollar satellite TV companies and to instead provide viewers with the local news, weather and emergency information they want and need. Congress should let STELAR expire.”

The AM-FM Act’s introduction was immediately applauded by music industry organizations. 

“We applaud Chairman Nadler and Senator Blackburn for their leadership in introducing bipartisan, bicameral legislation to ensure creators receive fair market value for their music on all platforms,” said Recording Industry Association of America chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier in a statement. “By requiring broadcasters to get permission from music creators to use their music, in the same way, broadcasters are entitled to give permission for the use of their signal – the AM/FM Act addresses inequities in law that should be fixed.”

Added Recording Academy chief industry officer Daryl Friedman: “The AM-FM Act will give artists control over what is rightfully theirs, their music. The legislation is about consent for use of content, a basic concept that the NAB is seeking for its own television members. We thank Senator Blackburn and Representative Nadler for their leadership on this issue, and ask members of Congress who recognize the importance of intellectual property to join them and pass this legislation.”

“Songwriters and music publishers support the AM-FM Act because music has value, and creators should be able to decide what is best with their intellectual property,” said National Music Publishers Association president and CEO David Israelite in a statement. “For too long broadcasters have benefited from the lack of a sound recording performance right, as well as antiquated consent decrees that allow them to pay songwriters less than fair market value.”

“The AM-FM Act ensures that the people who make the music have a protected property right in their own work by requiring broadcasters to get permission before they transmit recordings over the air,” added SoundExchange CEO Michael J. Huppe. “It sets the table for meaningful marketplace negotiations and ends the current market distortion in our laws that forces artists to subsidize the multi-billion-dollar FM radio broadcast industry.

However, passage of the act will facing some stiff opposition from NAB, which firmly opposes the legislation saying it would cause undue harm to the radio industry.

“NAB opposes the AM-FM Act, which could decimate the economics of America’s hometown radio stations that have launched the careers of countless musicians and exposed legacy artists to a new generation of listeners,” NAB president and CEO Gordon Smith said in a statement.

NAB added that its “door remains open to work with the record labels to find a holistic solution to this issue that reflects the enduring value to artists and labels of local radio to our hundreds of millions of terrestrial and digital listeners. Unfortunately, the record labels have shown little interest in having those discussions.”

Since February, NAB has been supporting a competing bill, The Local Radio Freedom Act, which opposes any potential legislation that imposes new performance royalties on broadcast radio stations for music airplay. The act is the latest biennial attempt at passing this legislation after similar bills failed in 2017 and 2015. It currently has the backing of bipartisan group of 201 representatives in the House and 25 senators, according to the NAB.