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With time running short and the danger of a national default growing, Democrats are hoping an unlikely savior will come to the rescue: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). 

Democratic lawmakers say McConnell and other Senate Republicans are fooling themselves if they think Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is in a position to reach a debt ceiling deal with President Biden. 

They believe McCarthy is under tremendous pressure not to agree to any deal Democrats would accept because the House rules allow for one disappointed conservative to offer a motion to vacate the Speaker’s chair. 

“Senate Republicans are putting their heads in the sand if they think that the extremists in their party will have a change of heart,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, to reporters earlier this month.  

“If Kevin McCarthy is forced to choose between holding power in his Speakership or taking us closer to default, we know he’s going to choose default. The American people know that as well. House Republicans are on a path toward default. The question before us is will Senate Republicans take the wheel?” he said.  Close Thank you for signing up!

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Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a leader of House progressives, has joined the growing chorus of Democrats pleading for McConnell to get involved.  

“I think time is starting to run out,” Jayapal warned. “I think Wall Street should be weighing in.” 

She told reporters that “reasonable Republicans” and McConnell need “to get involved and get people to understand that default on America would be terrible,” according to Punchbowl News. 

Philip Wallach, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said McConnell has remained in the background in deference to the new GOP Speaker. But that could change, he added, if an agreement remains elusive and the threat of default creeps closer.   

“I think he’s trying to give McCarthy room to operate. And that’s professional courtesy and good partisan strategy,” Wallach said. “I don’t think that it necessarily means that he won’t be a big part of the final solution.” 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) this week demonstrated why Democrats are nervous, saying his conservative colleagues “don’t feel like we should negotiate with our hostage,” and that “the one-person motion to vacate has given us the best version of Speaker McCarthy.”

But McConnell’s allies say Aguilar and Jayapal are misguided if they think the Senate GOP leader will override McCarthy.  

“I don’t think Mitch is going to get in the way of the Speaker because he knows if he does, that will undermine the Speaker’s ability to retain the Speakership. So until the president and the Speaker reach an agreement, I don’t see McConnell getting into the room,” said former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who once served on McConnell’s Senate leadership team. 

Gregg argued that if McConnell cuts a deal with Biden instead of McCarthy, the deal would have a harder time passing the GOP-controlled House. 

“It would mean that the Speaker would have an even harder time selling whatever was agreed to to his caucus,” he said.  

Gregg said Democrats are calling for McConnell’s help in an effort to portray McCarthy as an unreasonable negotiator. 

“It’s politics,” he said. “They want to blame this on the Speaker.” 

Jayapal’s comments caught the attention of some Senate Republican aides because the outspoken liberal leader is more likely to be quoted criticizing McConnell than beseeching his help.

But McConnell has his own right flank to worry about after Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) challenged his leadership position in November. McConnell won the race 36-10, but Senate conservatives sent a message that they weren’t happy with the direction of the GOP conference. 

Conservative senators were caught off guard when McConnell proposed in fall 2021 that Democrats could move legislation to raise the debt limit without having to face a GOP filibuster.

McConnell said at the time he made the offer so Democrats would fully own the decision to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the debt.  

“Democrats are simply voicing their expectations for something that already happened in the past to happen again,” one Senate Republican aide said of the calls by Aguilar and Jayapal to get involved in the debt limit talks. 

The GOP aide noted McConnell initially took a hard line against raising the debt limit while Biden was in office, sending a letter to the president warning, “I will not be a party to any future effort to mitigate the consequences of Democratic mismanagement,” and that Democratic leaders “cannot invent another crisis and ask for my help.” 

“I get that McConnell doesn’t want to be the main guy in this fight,” the aide said. “But Jayapal wouldn’t be calling on somebody to get involved unless she thought that person would push for a clean debt ceiling hike, because that’s her position.” 

McConnell has warned repeatedly this year that he will stay out of the debt limit negotiations entirely. 

He told The Wall Street Journal in an interview last week he agreed in January that McCarthy would be the Republican point person in the negotiations.  

“The two of us agreed from the beginning that it was important for him to take the lead,” he said.  

Yet, Senate Democrats are also rooting for McConnell to step in to prevent a default, which appears more possible with each passing day as Biden and McCarthy remain far apart on a potential deal. 

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told reporters earlier this month he felt “slightly better” about avoiding a fiscal catastrophe after McConnell declared “the United States is not going to default, it never has and it never will.”  

McConnell made those comments outside the White House after a meeting with Biden and McCarthy.  

The Senate GOP leader tried to reassure the media and the financial markets again Tuesday and emphasized it would be up to the president and Speaker, not himself, to work out a deal.   

“I think everybody needs to relax,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky.   

“Regardless of what may be said about the talks … the president and the Speaker will reach an agreement. It will ultimately pass on a bipartisan vote in both the House and the Senate,” he said. “The country will not default.” 

McConnell himself has argued any debt limit deal reached in the Senate wouldn’t have a chance of passing the GOP-controlled House.  Bipartisan senators call for probe into reports of price gouging by defense contractors Connecticut has issued 521 X gender marker driver’s licenses since 2020

Yet, Democrats are betting that McConnell will be forced to intervene at the last moment once the nation is on the brink of default, threatening chaos in the financial markets and a recession — just as he did most famously in summer 2011 when then-President Obama and then-Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) were at loggerheads over raising the debt limit.  

“I understand the convenience of passing the buck in this building, but in the end, Sen. McConnell always has his own opinion,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told The Hill earlier this month. “He doesn’t outsource his opinions and votes to Speaker McCarthy.”   

Mike Lillis contributed.  

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Business

Ryanair and easyJet cancel hundreds of flights over air traffic control strike

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Ryanair and easyJet cancel hundreds of flights over air traffic control strike

Ryanair and easyJet have cancelled hundreds of flights as a French air traffic controllers strike looms.

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, said it had axed 170 services amid a plea by French authorities for airlines to reduce flights at Paris airports by 40% on Friday.

EasyJet said it was cancelling 274 flights during the action, which is due to begin later as part of a row over staffing numbers and ageing equipment.

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The owner of British Airways, IAG, said it was planning to use larger aircraft to minimise disruption for its own passengers.

The industrial action is set to affect all flights using French airspace, leading to wider cancellations and delays across Europe and the wider world.

Ryanair said its cancellations, covering both days, would hit services to and from France, and also flights over the country to destinations such as the UK, Greece, Spain and Ireland.

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Group chief executive Michael O’Leary has campaigned for a European Union-led shake-up of air traffic control services in a bid to prevent such disruptive strikes, which have proved common in recent years.

He described the latest action as “recreational”.

Michael O'Leary. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Michael O’Leary. Pic: Reuters

“Once again, European families are held to ransom by French air traffic controllers going on strike,” he said.

“It is not acceptable that overflights over French airspace en route to their destination are being cancelled/delayed as a result of yet another French ATC strike.

“It makes no sense and is abundantly unfair on EU passengers and families going on holidays.”

Ryanair is demanding the EU ensure that air traffic services are fully staffed for the first wave of daily departures, as well as to protect overflights during national strikes.

“These two splendid reforms would eliminate 90% of all ATC delays and cancellations, and protect EU passengers from these repeated and avoidable ATC disruptions due to yet another French ATC strike,” Mr O’Leary added.

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Business

CBI kicks off search for successor to ‘saviour’ Soames

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CBI kicks off search for successor to 'saviour' Soames

The CBI has begun a search for a successor to Rupert Soames, its chairman, as it continues its recovery from the crisis which brought it to the brink of collapse in 2023.

Sky News has learnt that the business lobbying group’s nominations committee has engaged headhunters to assist with a hunt for its next corporate figurehead.

Mr Soames, the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, was recruited by the CBI in late 2023 with the organisation lurching towards insolvency after an exodus of members.

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The group’s handling of a sexual misconduct scandal saw it forced to secure emergency funding from a group of banks, even as it was frozen out of meetings with government ministers.

One prominent CBI member described Mr Soames on Thursday as the group’s “saviour”.

“Without his ability to bring members back, the organisation wouldn’t exist today,” they claimed.

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Rupert Soames
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Rupert Soames. Pic: Reuters

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Mr Soames and Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI chief executive, have partly restored its influence in Whitehall, although many doubt that it will ever be able to credibly reclaim its former status as ‘the voice of British business’.

Its next chair, who is also likely to be drawn from a leading listed company boardroom, will take over from Mr Soames early next year.

Egon Zehnder International is handling the search for the CBI.

“The CBI chair’s term typically runs for two years and Rupert Soames will end his term in early 2026,” a CBI spokesperson said.

“In line with good governance, we have begun the search for a successor to ensure continuity and a smooth transition.”

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Technology

Apple’s China iPhone sales grows for the first time in two years

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Apple's China iPhone sales grows for the first time in two years

People stand in front of an Apple store in Beijing, China, on April 9, 2025.

Tingshu Wang | Reuters

Apple iPhone sales in China rose in the second quarter of the year for the first time in two years, Counterpoint Research said, as the tech giant looks to turnaround its business in one of its most critical markets.

Sales of iPhones in China jumped 8% year-on-year in the three months to the end of June, according to Counterpoint Research. It’s the first time Apple has recorded growth in China since the second quarter of 2023.

Apple’s performance was boosted by promotions in May as Chinese e-commerce firms discounted Apple’s iPhone 16 models, its latest devices, Counterpoint said. The tech giant also increased trade-in prices for some iPhone.

“Apple’s adjustment of iPhone prices in May was well timed and well received, coming a week ahead of the 618 shopping festival,” Ethan Qi, associate director at Counterpoint said in a press release. The 618 shopping festival happens in China every June and e-commerce retailers offer heavy discounts.

Apple’s return to growth in China will be welcomed by investors who have seen the company’s stock fall around 15% this year as it faces a number of headwinds.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Apple with tariffs and urged CEO Tim Cook to manufacture iPhones in America, a move experts have said would be near-impossible. China has also been a headache for Apple since Huawei, whose smartphone business was crippled by U.S. sanctions, made a comeback in late 2023 with the release of a new phone containing a more advanced chip that many had thought would be difficult for China to produce.

Since then, Huawei has aggressively launched devices in China and has even begun dipping its toe back into international markets. The Chinese tech giant has found success eating away at some of Apple’s market share in China.

Huawei’s sales rose 12% year-on-year in the second-quarter, according to Counterpoint. The firm was the biggest player in China by market share in the second quarter, followed by Vivo and then Apple in third place.

“Huawei is still riding high on core user loyalty as they replace their old phones for new Huawei releases,” Counterpoint Senior Analyst Ivan Lam said.

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