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The US has narrowly avoided a government shutdown – with just three hours to spare before current funding expired.

A rushed package means agencies will be able to continue operating as normal for the next 45 days, ending turmoil in Washington.

However, this temporary solution has dropped aid to Ukraine – an issue that will need to be revisited with a growing number of Republican lawmakers.

The final result. Pic: Senate Television via AP
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The final result. Pic: Senate Television via AP

Had a deal not been reached, four million government employees would have been left unpaid – with national parks and financial regulators forced to shut their doors.

Active-duty soldiers would have had to work without pay, with nutrition aid to seven million poor mothers suspended.

There could also have been knock-on effects with airport security and border control, delaying passengers.

Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said: “The American people can breathe a sigh of relief – there will be no government shutdown … today, MAGA extremism has failed and bipartisanship has prevailed.”

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A shutdown had looked all but inevitable earlier in the week, with right-wing Republicans calling for government agencies to slash their budgets by up to 30% – a move that the White House and the Democrats rejected as too extreme.

Democrat Chuck Schumer gave a thumbs up as the threat of a shutdown was averted. Pic: AP
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Democrat Chuck Schumer gave a thumbs up as the threat of a shutdown was averted. Pic: AP

That plan collapsed on Friday, with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy abandoning those demands.

He instead relied on Democrats to pass the bill – putting his own job at risk – paving the way for the Senate to pass the measure 88-9.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Pic: AP
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Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Pic: AP

Mr McCarthy later struck a defiant tone and dismissed concerns he could be ousted as leader, telling reporters: “I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try.

“And you know what? If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that.”

Analysis: A sticking plaster, but lots unresolved

It was brinkmanship, about as close to the brink as it gets.

US networks had been running “countdown clocks” to government shutdown and they showed less than nine hours when the breakthrough vote happened in the House.

It was the magic key to avoiding a shutdown and everything that would have entailed – the closures, the workers unpaid, the multibillion-dollar hit to the economy and the rest.

It came down to last-minute political gymnastics. Kevin McCarthy, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, had spent weeks trying, and failing, to corral right-wing members of his party behind a preferred funding plan.

Their objections stood in his way and they didn’t budge. It was a measure of the influence wielded by the likes of Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor-Greene, once on the faraway fringe, but now key players in the party.

At the last-minute, McCarthy’s 45-day stopgap proposal to avoid a shutdown was carried forward only when Democrats weighed in behind it.

It may yet come back to bite Mr McCarthy, one of America’s most prominent political figures.

His right-wing party critics had threatened to oust him if he counted on Democrat votes.

It’s one loose end among many – not least the issue of funding for Ukraine.

The bill that has averted the shutdown doesn’t include $6bn (£4.9bn) in Ukrainian aid – a concession demanded by many Republicans in the House of Representatives.

How that squares with a US government commitment to aiding the war effort will be central to the discussions in the 45 days that this bill buys.

Democrats who nodded it through saw the danger in being seen to deprioritise US domestic interests amidst the immediate threat of a shutdown.

Having pulled back from the brink, they will wrestle with the danger they see in deprioritising Ukraine and its war effort.

President Joe Biden has welcomed the deal, and says it prevents “an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hard-working Americans”.

He added: “I want to be clear – we should never have been in this position in the first place. Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis.

“For weeks, extreme House Republicans tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans. They failed.”

Mr Biden went on to warn that US support for Ukraine cannot be interrupted when the country is at a “critical moment”.

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Donald Trump’s tariffs will have consequences for globalisation, the US economy and geopolitics

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Donald Trump's tariffs will have consequences for globalisation, the US economy and geopolitics

For decades, trade and trade policy has been an economic and political backwater – decidedly boring, seemingly uncontroversial. 

Trade was mostly free and getting freer, tariffs were getting lower and lower, and the world was becoming more, not less, globalised.

But alongside those long-term trends, there were some serious consequences.

Trump latest: US president announces sweeping global trade tariffs

Mature, developed economies like the UK and US became ever more reliant on cheap imports from China and, in the process, saw their manufacturing sectors shrink.

Large swathes of the rust belt in the US – and much of the Midlands and North of England – were hollowed out.

And to some extent that’s where the story of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” really began – with the notion that free trade and globalisation had a darker side, a side he wants to remedy via tariffs.

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He imposed a set of tariffs in his first term, some on China, some on specific materials like steel and aluminium. But the height and the breadth of those tariffs were as nothing compared with the ones we have just heard about.

Not since the 1930s has the US so radically increased the level of tariffs on all nations across the world. Back then, those tariffs exacerbated the Great Depression.

It’s anyone’s guess as to what the consequences of these ones will be. But there will be consequences.

Consequences for the nature of globalisation, consequences for the US economy (tariffs are exceptionally inflationary), consequences for geopolitics.

President Trump with his list of tariffs for various countries. Pic: Reuters
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Imports from the UK will face a 10% tariff, while EU goods will see 20% rates. Pic: Reuters

And to some extent, merely knowing that little bit more about the White House’s plans will deliver a bit of relief to financial markets, which have fretted for months about the imposition of tariffs. That uncertainty recently reached unprecedented levels.

But don’t for a moment assume that this saga is over. Nothing of the sort. In the coming days, we will learn more – more about the nuts and bolts of these policies, more about the retaliatory measures coming from other countries.

We will, possibly, get more of a sense about whether some countries – including the UK – will enjoy reprieves from the tariffs.

To paraphrase Churchill, this isn’t the end of the trade war, or even the beginning of the end – perhaps just the end of the beginning.

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‘A genius actor’, ‘firecracker’, and ‘my friend’: Tributes paid to Top Gun star Val Kilmer

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'A genius actor', 'firecracker', and 'my friend': Tributes paid to Top Gun star Val Kilmer

Actors, directors and celebrity friends have paid tribute to Val Kilmer, after he died aged 65.

The California-born star of Top Gun, Batman and Heat died of pneumonia on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told the Associated Press.

She said Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.

Tributes flooded in after reports broke of the actor’s death, with No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin among the first to share their memories.

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Watch: Val Kilmer in his most iconic roles

He wrote on Instagram: “See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those.

“I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts.”

Kyle Maclachlan, who co-starred with Kilmer in the 1991 biopic The Doors, wrote on social media: “You’ll always be my Jim. See you on the other side my friend.”

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Michael Mann, who directed Kilmer in 1995’s Heat, also paid tribute in a statement, saying: “I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.

“After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.”

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Heat co-star Danny Trejo also called Kilmer “a great actor, a wonderful person, and a dear friend of mine” on Instagram.

Cher, who once dated the actor, said on X that “U Were Funny, crazy, pain in the ass, GREAT FRIEND… BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness”.

Lifelong friend and director of Twixt, Francis Ford Coppola said: “Val Kilmer was the most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life.

“He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know – I will always remember him.”

The Top Gun account on X also said it was remembering Kilmer, who starred as Iceman in both the 1986 original and 2022 sequel, and “whose indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations”.

Nicolas Cage added that “I always liked Val and am sad to hear of his passing”.

“I thought he was a genius actor,” he said. “I enjoyed working with him on Bad Lieutenant and I admired his commitment and sense of humor.

“He should have won the Oscar for The Doors.”

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Elon Musk calls reports he will step back from government role ‘fake news’

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Elon Musk calls reports he will step back from government role 'fake news'

Elon Musk has called reports that he will leave his government role in the coming months “fake news”.

A senior White House official previously told NBC News, Sky’s US partner network, that Donald Trump had discussed the Tesla and X boss transitioning back to the private sector at a cabinet meeting last month.

Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk before attending a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., November 19, 2024 . Brandon Bell/Pool via REUTERS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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The Tesla boss has headed DOGE since 20 January. File pic: Reuters

After reports emerged of the meeting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was “garbage” and added: “Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”

Mr Musk added in response on X: “Yeah, fake news.”

NBC News reported that the official said Mr Musk would leave at the end of his 130 days as a special government employee.

That would be 30 May, but it is unclear if the billionaire businessman will indeed leave on that date.

Previously, the White House said that as a temporary organisation, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would be terminated on 4 July next year – the 250th anniversary of the US.

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It comes days after Mr Musk said some members of his DOGE team were getting death threats on a daily basis.

Mr Musk had drawn criticism over his efforts to downsize the US federal government.

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‘Elon Musk has got to go’

In just weeks, entire agencies were dismantled, and tens of thousands of workers from the 2.3 million federal workforce have been fired or have agreed to leave their jobs.

A number of lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts over cuts recommended by DOGE.

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