A United States Marine has been taken into custody for questioning after a 14-year-old girl who was reported missing was found at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California, last month, authorities said.

Work requirements for federal food aid recipients have emerged as a final sticking point in negotiations over the looming debt crisis, even as President Joe Biden said Friday that a deal is “very close.” Biden’s optimism came as the deadline for a potentially catastrophic default was pushed back to June 5 and seemed likely to drag negotiations between the White House and Republicans over raising the debt ceiling into another frustrating week. Both sides have suggested one of the main holdups is a GOP effort to boost work requirements for recipients of food stamps and other federal aid programs, a longtime Republican goal Democrats have strenuously opposed. Even as they came closer to a framework on spending, each side seemed dug in on the work requirements. White House spokesman Andrew Bates called the GOP proposals “cruel and senseless” and said Biden and Democrats would stand against them. Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves, one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s negotiators, was blunt when asked if Republicans might relent on the issue: "Hell no, not a chance,” he said. The later “ X-date,” laid out in a letter from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, set the risk of a devastating default four days beyond an earlier estimate. Still, Americans and the world uneasily watched the negotiating brinkmanship that could throw the U.S. economy into chaos and sap world confidence in the nation’s leadership. Yet Biden was upbeat as he left for the Memorial Day weekend at Camp David, declaring, “It’s very close, and I’m optimistic.” With Republicans at the Capitol talking with Biden’s team at the White House, the president said: “There’s a negotiation going on. I’m hopeful we’ll know by tonight whether we’re going to be able to have a deal.” But a deal had not come together when McCarthy left the Capitol Friday evening. In a blunt warning, Yellen said failure to act by the new date would “cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests.” Anxious retirees and others were already making contingency plans for missed checks, with the next Social Security payments due next week. Biden and Republican McCarthy have seemed to be narrowing on a two-year budget-slashing deal that would also extend the debt limit into 2025 past the next presidential election. But talks over the proposed work requirements for recipients of Medicaid, food stamps and other aid programs seemed at a standstill Friday afternoon. Biden has said the Medicaid work requirements would be a nonstarter. But he initially seemed open to possible changes on food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The Republican proposal would save $11 billion over 10 years by raising the maximum age for existing standards that require able-bodied adults who do not live with dependents to work or attend training programs. While current law applies those standards to recipients under the age of 50, the House bill would raise the age to include adults 55 and under. The GOP proposal would also decrease the number of exemptions that states can grant to some recipients subject to those requirements. Biden's position on the SNAP work requirements appeared to have hardened by Friday, when spokesman Bates said House Republicans are threatening to trigger an unprecedented recession “unless they can take food out of the mouths of hungry Americans.” Any deal would need to be a political compromise, with support from both Democrats and Republicans to pass the divided Congress. Failure to lift the borrowing limit, now $31 trillion, to pay the nation’s incurred bills, would send shockwaves through the U.S. and global economy. But many of the hard-right Trump-aligned Republicans in Congress have long been skeptical of Treasury’s projections, and they are pressing McCarthy to hold out. As talks pushed into another late night, one of the negotiators, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., called Biden’s comments “a hopeful sign.” But he also cautioned that there’s still “sticky points” impeding a final agreement. While the contours of the deal have been taking shape to cut spending for 2024 and impose a 1% cap on spending growth for 2025, the two sides remain stuck on various provisions. House Republicans had pushed the issue to the brink, displaying risky political bravado in leaving town for the Memorial Day holiday. Lawmakers are tentatively not expected back at work until Tuesday, but now their return is uncertain. Weeks of negotiations between Republicans and the White House have failed to produce a deal — in part because the Biden administration resisted negotiating with McCarthy over the debt limit, arguing that the country’s full faith and credit should not be used as leverage to extract other partisan priorities. “We have to spend less than we spent last year. That is the starting point,” said McCarthy. One idea is to set the topline budget numbers but then add a “snap-back” provision to enforce cuts if Congress is unable during its annual appropriations process to meet the new goals. Lawmakers are all but certain to claw back some $30 billion in unspent COVID-19 funds now that the pandemic emergency has officially been lifted. McCarthy has promised lawmakers he will abide by the rule to post any bill for 72 hours before voting. The Democratic-held Senate has vowed to move quickly to send the package to Biden’s desk. ___ Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Stephen Groves, Farnoush Amiri, Seung Min Kim and Kevin Freking and videojournalist Rick Gentilo 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 Lauren Boebert claims Biden plan to combat antisemitism will target ‘conservatives’ Defense secretary tells Navy graduates they are ready to serve Doctor's supporters, hospital at odds with Indiana penalty for talking about 10-year-old's abortion

Authorities were alerted about the Colorado "green burials" funeral home after reports of foul odour.

MrBeast has announced his involvement with the popular gaming platform 'Stumble Guys'

The NFL has suspended three players indefinitely for violating the league’s gambling policy and a fourth was sidelined for six games

US officials are searching for Chinese malware hidden in various defense systems that could disrupt military communications and resupply operations, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The prime minister had been set to leave on Sunday after a tense meeting with India's Narendra Modi.

Chinese-based hackers seeking intelligence information breached the email accounts of a number of US government agencies...

Zookeepers at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium arrived to a pair of unexpected discoveries Thursday morning: a newborn baby gorilla and the news that its mother wasn't a male gorilla.

A Democratic lawmaker lost his cool with Matt Gaetz on the House floor on Thursday night, screaming that the far-right Republican is “exhausting”. Rep Steven Horsford, of Nevada, singled out Mr Gaetz while giving an impassioned speech in defence of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military and calling out shocking racially-charged comments made by multiple members of the Republican party in recent days. On Thursday, House Republicans introduced an amendment to a military spending bill pushing to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the Department of Defense (DOD). Mr Horsford slammed the move warning it would hamper efforts to improve diversity in the military. “This amendment does nothing to address the recruitment shortfalls that our services are facing and instead it will only make it more difficult to recruit Americans of diverse backgrounds representing the true makeup of our nation,” he said. At this point, he turned and addressed Mr Gaetz directly, his voice rising. “What are you so afraid of? Why do you keep bringing these divisive issues to the body of this floor?” he asked, before shouting: “You are out of order! You are exhausting, Mr Gaetz!” Mr Gaetz – who is currently the focus of a revived House Ethics Committee investigation into his alleged misconduct – complained about Mr Horsford’s actions. “Mr Speaker, the childish antics that we just observed indicate that we’ve got a lot of work to do, both in this House and the military, not to have radical racial ideology governing our discourse and governing the policy choices that we make in these bills,” he said. During the heated debate, Mr Horsford, who is Black, also condemned comments made by Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville – who has repeatedly defended white nationalists – and Republican Rep Eli Crane – who used the term “coloured people” earlier on the House floor. “Just this week, the sponsor of this amendment called Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the military a, quote, ‘failed experiment.’ He has called it ‘cancerous’,” said Mr Horsford. “Just this week a senator from Alabama stated that it was his opinion that White nationalists are not necessarily racist and refused to denounce white nationalists serving in the military.” He continued: “Just an hour ago, on this very floor, one of the members on the other side of this body said his amendment, quote, ‘had nothing to do whether coloured people or Black people can serve.’” Mr Horsford said such comments by lawmakers “show exactly why we need diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives” in place. Mr Crane faced an instant backlash on Thursday night when he defended the bill amendment by using the offensive term for people of colour. “My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not coloured people or Black people or anybody can serve. It has nothing to do with any of that stuff,” Mr Crane said. The comment was widely condemned and ultimately struck from the record. Meanwhile, for the past couple of months, Mr Tuberville – who has been blocking the confirmation of senior military officials in protest of the DOD’s abortion policy – has repeatedly refused to condemn white nationalists as racist. “I call them Americans,” he said in May. This week, he then claimed that he can’t possibly be racist because he worked with many people of colour during his time as a football coach. On Tuesday, he finally walked back his defence of white nationalists, now admitting that they “are racists”. Following Thursday’s heated debate, House members voted on the amendment. The Republican-majority House passed the amendment by just one vote of 214 to 213, striking down diversity initiatives in the military. Read More Anger in House as Republican uses ‘racist and repugnant’ term to refer to Black Americans Biden calls out GOP senator’s ‘ridiculous’ block on military promotions: ‘It jeopardises US security’ GOP senator says he can’t be racist because he’s a football coach – after white nationalist comments House Ethics Committee revives ‘misconduct’ probe into rep Matt Gaetz Christopher Wray hits back at Gaetz after Republican presses him on trust in the FBI ‘Rage-baiting’ leftist Twitter account is probably fake, expert says

By Lisa Baertlein and Priyamvada C U.S. workers at United Parcel Service have ratified a new five-year contract,

By Lisi Niesner and Sarah Marsh KIEL, Germany Just off the coast of Kiel in northern Germany, scuba