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Charter fishing industry experts in southeast Alaska say they're eager to learn the cause of a tragedy that left five people dead or lost at sea

For about two decades, a meat plant in the northwest German town of Vörden has helped produce a

President Joe Biden is expected to sign legislation on Saturday to raise the debt ceiling, just two days before the U.S. Treasury warned that the country would struggle to pay its bills. The bipartisan measure, which was approved this week by the House and Senate, eliminates the potential for an unprecedented government default. “Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher," Biden said from the Oval Office on Friday evening. “Nothing would have been more catastrophic,” he said, than defaulting on the country's debt. The agreement was hashed out by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, giving Republicans some of their demanded federal spending cuts but holding the line on major Democratic priorities. It raises the debt limit until 2025 — after the 2024 presidential election — and gives legislators budget targets for the next two years in hopes of assuring fiscal stability as the political season heats up. “No one got everything they wanted but the American people got what they needed,” Biden said, highlighting the “compromise and consensus” in the deal. “We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse.” Biden used the opportunity to itemize the achievements of his first term as he runs for reelection, including support for high-tech manufacturing, infrastructure investments and financial incentives for fighting climate change. He also highlighted ways he blunted Republican efforts to roll back his agenda and achieve deeper cuts. “We’re cutting spending and bringing deficits down at the same time,” Biden said. “We're protecting important priorities from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to veterans to our transformational investments in infrastructure and clean energy.” Even as he pledged to continue working with Republicans, Biden also drew contrasts with the opposing party, particularly when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy, something the Democratic president has sought. It’s something he suggested may need to wait until a second term. “I’m going to be coming back,” he said. “With your help, I’m going to win.” Biden's remarks were the most detailed comments from the Democratic president on the compromise he and his staff negotiated. He largely remained quiet publicly during the high-stakes talks, a decision that frustrated some members of his party but was intended to give space for both sides to reach a deal and for lawmakers to vote it to his desk. Biden praised McCarthy and his negotiators for operating in good faith, and all congressional leaders for ensuring swift passage of the legislation. “They acted responsibly, and put the good of the country ahead of politics,” he said. Overall, the 99-page bill restricts spending for the next two years and changes some policies, including imposing new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid and greenlighting an Appalachian natural gas pipeline that many Democrats oppose. Some environmental rules were modified to help streamline approvals for infrastructure and energy projects — a move long sought by moderates in Congress. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it could actually expand total eligibility for federal food assistance, with the elimination of work requirements for veterans, homeless people and young people leaving foster care. The legislation also bolsters funds for defense and veterans, cuts back some new money for the Internal Revenue Service and rejects Biden’s call to roll back Trump-era tax breaks on corporations and the wealthy to help cover the nation’s deficits. But the White House said the IRS' plans to step up enforcement of tax laws for high-income earners and corporations would continue. The agreement imposes an automatic overall 1% cut to spending programs if Congress fails to approve its annual spending bills — a measure designed to pressure lawmakers of both parties to reach consensus before the end of the fiscal year in September. In both chambers, more Democrats backed the legislation than Republicans, but both parties were critical to its passage. In the Senate the tally was 63-36 including 46 Democrats and independents and 17 Republicans in favor, 31 Republicans along with four Democrats and one independent who caucuses with the Democrats opposed. The vote in the House was 314-117. ___ AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide FBI offers to show GOP chairman document that purports to relate to Biden, his family Republicans schedule 1st presidential debate for Aug. 23, but there's no guarantee Trump will attend DeSantis wraps up 1st early states tour as candidate with more personal touch in South Carolina

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US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin used a speech at Asia’s biggest security conference to warn that a

By Siddharth Cavale BENTONVILLE, Arkansas Walmart still expects to double the amount of gross merchandise volume it sells

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President Joe Biden on Friday urged Americans not to give up on working across the political aisle to solve national problems as he hailed the bipartisan legislation passed by Congress to stave off a catastrophic default on the nation’s sovereign debt as a good compromise that will protect the economic progress of the past two years. Speaking from the Oval Office during the prime-time television viewing hours — the first time he has addressed the nation from behind the iconic desk hewed from timbers taken from HMS Resolute — Mr Biden said he’d chosen to speak to the American people that night to “report on a crisis averted” and explain what his administration and Congress “are doing to protect America’s future” by enacting the spending agreement negotiated between his aides and top House Republicans. The president said he would sign the legislation on Saturday. “Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher,” he said, just moments after he told Americans that the goals of the agreement — “keeping the full, faith, and credit of the United States” and enacting “a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation” – are “essential” to continuing the progress made during the first two years of his presidency. The president said “nothing” would have been more irresponsible or catastrophic than a failure by the US to pay its bills and laid out the dire consequences that a default would’ve brought on Americans of all stripes. “Our economy would have been thrown in recession. Retirement accounts for millions of Americans would have been decimated, eight million Americans would have lost their jobs. Default would have destroyed our nation’s credit rating, which would have made everything from mortgages to car loans to funding for the government much more expensive and it would have taken years to climb out of that hole — and America standing as the most trusted, reliable financial partner in the world would have been shattered,” he said. While Mr Biden said it was “critical” to reach the agreement he will sign into law and called it “good news for the American people,” he also stressed the necessity of compromise given the realities of Republican control of the House of Representatives and the thin one-seat majority by which his own party controls the Senate, as well as the importance of provisions in the bill that will ensure key social programmes will receive full funding in the next two years. “No one got everything they wanted but the American people got what they needed. We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse,” he said. “We’re cutting spending and bringing deficits down. And, we protected important priorities from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to veterans to our transformational investments in infrastructure and clean energy.” He also touted the fact that the agreement preserved legislation like the PACT Act– which extends veteran benefits to service members who suffered health complications from burn pits – and the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the CHIPS and Science Act, which promotes manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States. “Remember at the beginning of this debate, some of my Republican colleagues are determined to get the clean energy investments,” he said. “I said no, we kept them all.” Mr Biden’s remarks came less than 24 hours after the Senate approved the compromise bill by a margin of 63-36, and just over two days after the House of Representatives voted to advance the legislation. They represent the most extensive public comments the president has made on the now-resolved crisis after weeks of silence from the White House. Many in the president’s own party had criticised his reluctance to inject himself into the public discourse surrounding the negotiations. But a source close to the White House end of the process told The Independent on Thursday that Mr Biden’s silence was a deliberate choice, made out of necessity to avoid inflaming Republicans who would need to vote for the legislation to avert what most experts say would have been a worldwide economic disaster brought on by a US debt default. In the end, Mr Biden’s strategy proved successful in preventing Republican opposition from sinking the 11th-hour deal to save the US and world economies, and the White House was able to cajole all but a limited number of Democrats to give their support as well. Of the 51 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, just five joined 31 Republicans in opposition to the measure, which will suspend the nation’s statutory debt limit through the entirety of the 2024 election cycle while implementing limited spending cuts sought by the GOP and enacting some work requirements for non-disabled adults without children between the ages of 50 and 54 to access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP and formerly known as food stamps. A number of arch-conservatives in the House of Representatives had criticised the bill as giving away far too much to the White House, and in the end 71 members of the GOP conference voted against it, necessitating Democrats to contribute enough support to pass the GOP-controlled chamber. The bipartisan legislation, which was unveiled earlier this week following marathon negotiations between the White House and the Republican-led House of Representatives, will be signed into law with just two days remaining before the 5 June “X Date,” the day on which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had projected that the government would exhaust its ability to pay its outstanding debt obligations absent intervention from Congress. The spending and debt ceiling deal is the first major bipartisan agreement between the White House and the House since Mr McCarthy was elected Speaker after a record 15 ballots in January. The president had for months pledged not to negotiate while the GOP held out the possibility of a default as leverage to force him to endorse rolling back much of the legislative accomplishments enacted during his first two years in office, while Mr McCarthy had committed not to allow any bill that would lift the debt limit to move through his chamber absent concessions from the White House. The impasse persisted for months until Mr Biden extended an invitation to Mr McCarthy after the House passed what the GOP dubbed the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” — a bill to lift the debt ceiling and enact massive cuts to government programmes. Negotiations kicked into high gear late last month after the president tapped Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Counsellor to the President Steve Ricchetti — one of his longest-serving and most trusted aides — to engage with two GOP House members chosen by Mr McCarthy, House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and Louisiana Representative Garret Graves. The president praised House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for undertaking good-faith efforts to move the bill through their respective chambers with deliberate speed. “They acted responsibly and put the good of the country ahead of politics,” he said. “A final vote in both chambers was overwhelming.” He closed his address by emphasizing unity and the importance of “see[ing] each other’s not as adversaries but as fellow Americans” and “treat[ing] each other with dignity and respect” as a way to “lower the temperature” so both parties can “work together ... to pursue progress, secure prosperity and keep the promise of America for everybody”. “I know bipartisanship is hard, and unity is hard, but we can never stop trying because in moments like this one, the ones we just faced, where the American economy in the world economy is at risk of collapsing,” he said. “There’s no other way. With reporting from Andrew Feinberg in New Hampshire and from Eric Garcia in Washington Read More Senate passes debt limit bill after marathon 11 amendment votes to avoid default Angry progressives and conservatives hit out as Democrats push through Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal FBI offers to show GOP chairman document that purports to relate to Biden, his family Republicans schedule 1st presidential debate for Aug. 23, but there's no guarantee Trump will attend DeSantis wraps up 1st early states tour as candidate with more personal touch in South Carolina

The US president said he will sign the debt deal into law on Saturday.

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