Rioters who torched vehicles and looted shops in Dublin following a knife attack outside a school brought "shame" on Ireland, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday, condemning the worst violence in...

The White House cited a resumption of US-China military communications as a priority ahead of this week’s meeting

Global warming is driving leafy tropical canopies close to temperatures where they can no longer transform sunlight and CO2 into energy, threatening total collapse if the thermometer keeps...

By Francesco Canepa FRANKFURT Inflation in the euro zone hit a two-year low a month after its economy

Pope Francis is wrapping up the first-ever papal visit to Mongolia

Veering away from a default crisis, the House overwhelmingly approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, sending the deal that President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated to the Senate for swift passage in a matter of days, before a fast-approaching deadline. The hard-fought compromise pleased few, but lawmakers assessed it was better than the alternative — a devastating economic upheaval if Congress failed to act. Tensions ran high as hard-right Republicans refused the deal, but Biden and McCarthy assembled a bipartisan coalition to push to passage on a robust 314-117 vote late Wednesday. “We did pretty dang good,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said afterward. Amid deep discontent from Republicans who said the spending restrictions did not go far enough, McCarthy said it is only a “first step." Biden, watching the tally from Colorado Springs where Thursday he is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy, phoned McCarthy and the other congressional leaders after the vote. In a statement, he called the outcome “good news for the American people and the American economy.” Washington is rushing after a long slog of debate to wrap up work on the package to ensure the government can keep paying its bills, and prevent financial upheaval at home and abroad. Next Monday is when the Treasury has said the U.S. would run short of money and risk a dangerous default. Biden had been calling lawmakers directly to shore up backing. McCarthy worked to sell skeptical fellow Republicans, even fending off challenges to his leadership, in the rush to avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default. A similar bipartisan effort from Democrats and Republicans will be needed in the Senate to overcome objections. Overall, the 99-page bill would make some inroads in curbing the nation’s deficits as Republicans demanded, without rolling back Trump-era tax breaks as Biden wanted. To pass it, Biden and McCarthy counted on support from the political center, a rarity in divided Washington. A compromise, the package restricts spending for the next two years, suspends the debt ceiling into January 2025 and changes some policies, including imposing new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid and greenlighting an Appalachian natural gas line that many Democrats oppose. It bolsters funds for defense and veterans, and guts new money for Internal Revenue Service agents. Raising the nation's debt limit, now $31 trillion, ensures Treasury can borrow to pay already incurred U.S. debts. Top GOP deal negotiator Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana said Republicans were fighting for budget cuts after the past years of extra spending, first during the COVID-19 crisis and later with Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, with its historic investment to fight climate change paid for with revenues elsewhere. But Republican Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the Freedom Caucus helping to lead the opposition, said, “My beef is that you cut a deal that shouldn’t have been cut.” For weeks negotiators labored late into the night to strike the deal with the White House, and for days McCarthy has worked to build support among skeptics. At one point, aides wheeled in pizza at the Capitol the night before the vote as he walked Republicans through the details, fielded questions and encouraged them not to lose sight of the bill’s budget savings. The speaker has faced a tough crowd. Cheered on by conservative senators and outside groups, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus lambasted the compromise as falling well short of the needed spending cuts, and they vowed to try to halt passage. A much larger conservative faction, the Republican Study Committee, declined to take a position. Even rank-and-file centrist conservatives were unsure, leaving McCarthy searching for votes from his slim Republican majority. Ominously, the conservatives warned of possibly trying to oust McCarthy over the compromise. One influential Republican, former President Donald Trump, held his fire: "It is what it is,” he said of the deal in an interview with Iowa radio host Simon Conway. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said it was up to McCarthy to turn out Republican votes in the 435-member chamber, where 218 votes are needed for approval. As the tally faltered on an afternoon procedural vote, Jeffries stood silently and raised his green voting card, signaling that the Democrats would fill in the gap to ensure passage. They did, advancing the bill that hard-right Republicans, many from the Freedom Caucus, refused to back. “Once again, House Democrats to the rescue to avoid a dangerous default,” said Jeffries, D-N.Y. “What does that say about this extreme MAGA Republican majority?” he said about the party aligned with Trump’s ”Make America Great Again” political movement. Then, on the final vote hours later, Democrats again ensured passage, leading the tally as 71 Republicans bucked their majority and voted against it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the spending restrictions in the package would reduce deficits by $1.5 trillion over the decade, a top goal for the Republicans trying to curb the debt load. In a surprise that complicated Republicans' support, however, the CBO said their drive to impose work requirements on older Americans receiving food stamps would end up boosting spending by $2.1 billion over the time period. That's because the final deal exempts veterans and homeless people, expanding the food stamp rolls by 78,000 people monthly, the CBO said. Liberal discontent, though, ran strong as nearly four dozen Democrats also broke away, decrying the new work requirements for older Americans, those 50-54, in the food aid program. Some Democrats were also incensed that the White House negotiated into the deal changes to the landmark National Environmental Policy Act and approval of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline natural gas project. The energy development is important to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., but many others oppose it as unhelpful in fighting climate change. On Wall Street, stock prices were down Wednesday. In the Senate, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell are working for passage by week's end. Schumer warned there is ”no room for error." Senators, who have remained largely on the sidelines during much of the negotiations, are insisting on amendments to reshape the package. But making any changes at this stage seemed unlikely with so little time to spare before Monday's deadline. ___ AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller, AP writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Seung Min Kim and Jill Colvin and video journalist Nathan Ellgren 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 Debt ceiling deal advances pipeline and tweaks environmental rules. But more work remains. Republicans get their IRS cuts; Democrats say they expect little near-term impact Progressives and conservatives complain as Biden-McCarthy debt deal passes

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Several people have been killed in two shootings at a university hospital and a nearby home in Rotterdam. Rotterdam police said on X, formerly Twitter, that they were informing next of kin before releasing any more details. A suspect had been arrested after the shootings at the Erasmus Medical Centre and the nearby apartment. Fire also broke out at both locations, local authorities said. Police had said that a man wearing military clothing and carrying a handgun had opened fire in a classroom at the university hospital, wounding one person. They also reported a shooting earlier at the home nearby. Police said they had arrested a 32-year-old man under the hospital’s helipad and that the Rotterdam resident was a suspect in both shootings, though no motive was immediately announced. The force initially said the gunman may have left the scene on a motorbike, but they later said an arrest team was checking the medical centre to establish if he was still in the building. They said they did not believe any other shooters were involved. Videos posted online showed police instructing students, some wearing medical gowns, to run outside as heavily armed arrest teams arrived at the scene. One video showed a man in handcuffs wearing what appeared to be camouflage pants, whilst the Erasmus Medical Centre appealed on social media for people not to attend the hospital. Police were still in search of possible victims or people hiding on Thursday evening, Dutch news agency ANP reported citing police. “This is a very dark day,” caretaker Minister of Justice and Security Dilan YeÅŸilgöz-Zegerius was quoted by newspaper de Telegraaf as saying in comments made in Brussels. More follows... Read More Three killed in shootings and explosion in Sweden as deadly gang feud escalates Shooting incident in Slovak capital leaves 1 dead, 4 injured Teen testifies about boy's death and firearms training at New Mexico compound Florida auto shop owner and angry customer shot each other to death, police say Child soldiers, executions, bombs: Deadly gang violence turns Sweden into a ‘war zone’ Elite army unit storms ship to seize Ireland’s biggest drugs haul Child soldiers, executions, bombs: Deadly gang violence grips Sweden Putin’s forces pushed back as Kyiv ‘gradually gaining ground’ in counteroffensive

Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa has pledged to donate $1,000 for every birdie he makes in the US PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs to...

A man fell 4,000 feet to his death from a popular tourist attraction walkway in the Grand Canyon, according to authorities in Arizona.

Climate activists are protesting at two German airports, causing numerous flights to be canceled during the peak holiday travel period