Connect with us

Published

on

The United States government is, once again, on course to shut down. 

In just a few hours, when the clock strikes a minute past midnight, the state will likely be unable to pay its bills.

What happens?

It means all non-essential federal services are frozen. Government, military, waster disposal and air traffic control staff are unlikely to be paid. Federal agencies, national parks, federal courts, museums and a plethora of state bodies will be hit.

They simply won’t have the funding to have meet their wage and other bills.

Lawmakers, however, will continue to be paid, thanks to provision in the US constitution.

Why is this happening?

More from Business

Congress, encompassing the US Senate and House of Representatives, have yet to approve discretionary spending, a necessity for the new US financial year, which starts on 1 October.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has not succeeded at getting hard right wing Republicans to agree a deal. If he pushes too hard, or gets a bill passed that the right flank of his party don’t like, he risks losing his job.

Mr McCarthy’s job is predicated on not upsetting that far right cohort. In order to secure his job as speaker he agreed that any House of Representatives member could call for a vote to oust him.

Read more
Joe Biden impeachment process: Why are Republicans pursuing it, what evidence do they have, what happens next?

In a way he’s backed himself in to a corner, promising something he couldn’t deliver: to return federal spending to pre-COVID levels. Many Republicans loath the trillions spent on health measures and economic stimulus.

While he secured a deal to lift the debt ceiling with President Joe Biden back in May to avert the US being unable to meet debt repayments, this is a different situation.

There aren’t the same catastrophic economic consequences hanging over a government shutdown and so there’s less of a threat to Mr McCarthy.

Had the US defaulted it would have been first time in the country’s history and would have led to a near total shutdown of the economy. There would have been severe consequences to the worldwide economy.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he is directing committees to open a formal investigation into a ‘culture of corruption’ around Joe Biden

When has it happened before?

Many times. In the last decade alone there have been four shutdowns over topics such as Obamacare and Trump’s border wall. This one is harder to tie to a specific event.

Most recently, in 2018, Democratic politicians refused to pass a Trump-led spending plan to fund his disputed southern border wall. The shutdown then lasted 35 days.

Numerous government organisations have manuals for furloughing staff in the event of a shutdown.

What are the consequences/effects?

Last time roughly 800,000 workers were furloughed but exact numbers for a 2023 repeat are unclear.

As the first day of the shutdown would be Sunday, the effects will not be immediate as many employees won’t be due at work.

When people activity falter so too does production.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the five-week Trump shutdown in 2018-2019 reduced economic output by $11bn, including $3bn that the US economy never regained.

Shutdowns also impact America’s reputation as a stable, functioning financial leader, and it had an influence on government spending plans, delaying legislative agendas.

Some consequences are less quantifiable.

The US’s credit rating was already downgraded after just months of debt limit debate that brought the country to the brink of default.

Fitch brought down the rating from AAA – the highest possible – to AA+ over debt and governance concerns.

Lower credit ratings can increase the cost of government borrowing, adding to taxpayer bills, reducing spending and shrinking the economy.

US officials criticised the move, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling it “arbitrary” and “based on outdated data”.

Another credit agency, Moody’s, said a shutdown would threaten the triple A credit rating it designated for the US.

What are the odds of this happening?

It’s highly likely. Hard-line Republicans in the House of Representatives voted down a long-shot bill proposed by Mr McCarthy to halt the shutdown.

The Senate, which would need to vote to approve any plan, is not scheduled to take a final vote until Sunday despite the final deadline being midnight on Saturday.

How long will it go on for?

No one knows.

Continue Reading

US

Bodycam footage shows prison guards beating handcuffed inmate before his death

Published

on

By

Bodycam footage shows prison guards beating handcuffed inmate before his death

Bodycam footage showing prison officers fatally beating an inmate has been released by New York’s attorney general.

Prison officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in New York punched and kicked 43-year-old Robert Brooks repeatedly while he was handcuffed on an infirmary bed.

He died in hospital on 10 December, a day after the attack.

The incident has drawn outrage from political leaders and was condemned by the prison officers’ union as “incomprehensible”, according to Sky News’ partner newsroom NBC.

It is now being investigated by state attorney general Letitia James, who called the videos “shocking and disturbing” at a virtual news conference.

Prison officers attacked Robert Brooks on the day he was transferred to Marcy Correctional Facility in New York. Pic: The New York Attorney General Office
Image:
Prison officers attacked Robert Brooks while he was handcuffed. Pic: New York Attorney General Office

In the video, Mr Brooks is in handcuffs as he is carried into the infirmary by several prison guards.

They put him on the bed and begin repeatedly punching and kicking him.

He is pulled upright, where his bloodied face is visible on camera, and then yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and pushed up against a window.

One of the fourteen workers involved in the incident has resigned and the rest have been suspended without pay until the process to fire them is complete. The workers include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse.

The officers had not activated their body cameras but they were still on and recorded in standby mode, without audio, during the attack.

Read more from Sky News:
Elon Musk accused of censoring right-wing X accounts
Italian journalist detained by Iranian police
Two sailors die on separate yachts during race

As a result of the incident, all officers will now need to have their cameras activated any time they are engaging directly with prisoners.

Mr Brooks’ family thanked officials for taking action “to hold officers accountable” in a statement this week.

“We cannot understand how this could have happened in the first place,” the family said. “No one should have to lose a family member this way.”

Robert Brooks, who died a day after being attacked by prison officers. Pic: Family handout
Image:
Robert Brooks, who died a day after being attacked by prison officers. Pic: Family handout

The attack happened before 9.30pm on 9 December in a medical exam room after Mr Brooks had been transferred from the Mohawk Correctional Facility to Marcy Correctional Facility.

An autopsy found “preliminary findings show concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another,” according to a state corrections office investigative report obtained by an affiliate of Sky News’ partner newsroom WKTV in Utica.

Mr Brooks had been behind bars since 2017 on a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault involving a longtime girlfriend.

Officials declined to say why he had been transferred to the Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison.

Last year, an independent prison oversight group called The Correctional Association of New York released a report on the Marcy Correctional Facility.

It noted complaints of “rampant” physical abuse by staff members, with 80% of incarcerated people reporting having witnessed or experienced abuse and nearly 70% reporting racial discrimination or bias.

In response to the video, the union that represents workers at the prison said: “What we witnessed is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day.”

It adding what transpired is the “opposite of everything [the union] and its membership stand for.”

Continue Reading

US

Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world’s best golfer to undergo surgery

Published

on

By

Scottie Scheffler: Freak Christmas dinner injury forces world's best golfer to undergo surgery

The world’s best golfer has suffered a freak injury while cooking Christmas dinner, forcing him to undergo surgery.

Scottie Scheffler sustained a puncture wound after cutting the palm of his right hand on broken glass.

The world number one required surgery as small glass fragments remained in the palm after the accident.

The injury has forced him out of the first tournament of the season, next week’s The Sentry in Hawaii.

Scottie Scheffler. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Pic: Reuters

But the 28-year-old has been told he will recover in three to four weeks, and he hopes to be back in action at The American Express tournament in California on 16 January.

Scheffler won an Olympic gold and seven PGA Tour titles in the last year and was recently named PGA Tour’s Player of the Year for a third season in a row.

In May, he was arrested by police during the US PGA Championship after he was accused of trying to drive around a traffic jam caused by a fatal accident.

More from US

Spectators wore Free Scottie t-shirts and one wore an orange jumpsuit. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
Image:
Scheffler’s arrest became a major story at the US PGA Championship. Pic: Matt Stone-USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

Just hours later, he was released and allowed to return to Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky to play his second round of the tournament.

Criminal charges against Scheffler were later dismissed due to a lack of evidence and a police officer who arrested him was disciplined for not having his bodycam on at the time of the incident.

Continue Reading

US

Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

Published

on

By

Man indicted on murder charge after sleeping woman burned to death on New York City subway

The man accused of burning a woman to death on a New York subway train has been indicted on murder and arson charges.

Sebastian Zapeta is accused of setting a sleeping woman on fire and then fanning the flames with a shirt, which caused her to be engulfed by the blaze.

He allegedly sat on a platform at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station, opposite the stopped train, and watched as she burned to death.

Authorities are still working to identify the victim.

Zapeta, 33, has been charged with one count of first degree murder, two counts of second degree murder and one count of arson in the first degree.

After a brief hearing in which the indictment was announced, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said: “This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system.”

Mr Gonzalez said police and medical examiners are using fingerprints and advanced DNA techniques to identify the victim, while also retracing her steps before the murder.

“Our hearts go out not only to this victim, but we know that there’s a family,” he said. “Just because someone appears to have been living in the situation of homelessness does not mean that there’s not going to be family devastated by the tragic way she lost her life.”

Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Image:
Officers patrol the platform where the woman died. Pic: AP

Zapeta was initially charged with murder and arson in a criminal complaint earlier this week.

Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because all felony cases in New York require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial, unless a defendant waives that requirement.

Zapeta was not present at the hearing. The most serious charge he is facing carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole and the indictment will be unsealed on 7 January.

More US news:
Pizza delivery woman stabs pregnant customer
Judge warns Jay-Z’s lawyer over rape case

Zapeta is a Guatemalan who entered the US illegally having already been deported in 2018, officials say.

He was taken into custody last Sunday, after three children called 911 when they recognised him from an image shared by police.

During questioning, prosecutors say he claimed not to know what happened, and noted he consumes alcohol – but did identify himself in photos and videos showing the fire being lit.

Continue Reading

Trending