US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is set to hold meetings with Chinese counterparts Monday on a trip to Beijing aimed at cooling trade tensions between...

Auston Matthews registered his second hat trick in two games to open the season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota Wild 7-4

US surgeons who transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a brain-dead patient announced Thursday they had ended their experiment...

London’s expensive housing market is notorious for pricing out would-be buyers. Now its residents are struggling to afford

Money-saving measures are announced by President Lazarus Chakwera following IMF funding.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has unveiled a sweeping list of public safety issues he wants lawmakers to address during an upcoming special session

Taylor Swift once shared recipes for two different versions of her chai sugar cookies—here are both.

Dozens of firefighters are working to put out a blaze that is burning at an oil depot in St. Petersburg, Russian authorities said.

President Joe Biden spoke with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday and agreed they would meet on Monday afternoon to try to break the stalemate over legislation to raise the national debt limit. A call took place, according to a White House readout, which gave no indication to the tone of the discussion. Mr McCarthy characterised the call as “productive” in a comment to reporters. A day earlier, the Speaker said negotiations had taken a step backward following Mr Biden’s remarks that he believed the 14th Amendment could be used to circumvent Congress on the issue. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to move forward until the president can get back into the country,” Mr McCarthy said on Saturday. “Just from the last day to today they’ve moved backwards. They actually want to spend more money than we spend this year.” Mr Biden’s call with Mr McCarthy took place while the president was on Air Force One bound for the US on Sunday. He had cut short his attendance at the G7 summit in Japan in order to lead negotiations with Republicans on the issue. During an appearance on Sunday show, Meet the Press, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen once again warned that the federal government is projected to run out of money on or about 1 June. Should the US be unable to pay its outstanding obligations to debt holders, or even raise questions about its ability to do so, it risks a downgrade of the US’s credit rating which would affect interest rates on future loans. The last official downgrading of the United States’s credit rating occurred in 2011, when Standard and Poor’s dropped the US’s rating from “AAA” to “AA+”. “I indicated in my last letter to Congress that we expect to be unable to pay all of our bills in early June and possibly as soon as June 1. And I will continue to update Congress, but I certainly haven’t changed my assessment. So I think that that’s a hard deadline,” Sec. Yellen said. She added that the possibilty was “quite low” that the US could extend its ability to pay its obligations through 15 June - referencing remarks made by Republicans who suggested Treasury could maneuver past a 1 June deadline without hitting a default. ”[I]t’s hard to be absolutely certain about this, but my assessment is that the odds of reaching June 15th, while being able to pay all of our bills, is quite low,” said Ms Yellen. “[M]y assumption is that if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, there will be hard choices to make about what bills go unpaid.” Mr Biden has been roundly accused by conservatives of refusing to negotiate cuts to federal spending ahead of the debt ceiling deadline. The White House, meanwhile, has blamed Republicans for putting the country’s credit rating at risk. Earlier on Sunday, the president spoke at a press conference and did not indicate that he was completely opposed to reaching a compromise with Republicans on spending levels, though he warned that the GOP must be willing to move in his direction as well. “It’s time for Republicans to accept that there’s no bipartisan deal to be made solely — solely — on their partisan terms,” said Mr Biden. “They have to move as well.” Read More ‘Putin will not break our resolve,’ Joe Biden tells G7 Top House negotiator on debt limit says it's time to 'press pause' as talks come to standstill Biden meeting with Indo-Pacific leaders at G7 summit while confronting stalemate over US debt limit Debt ceiling showdown: Biden and congressional leaders to meet as McCarthy pushes for faster deal Most say pair debt limit increase with deficit cuts, but few following debate closely: AP-NORC poll G7 finance leaders promise support for Ukraine, vow to enforce sanctions against Russia

Every day at dawn, 14-year-old Salim Mohammad leaves home to fetch water, trekking through his city in southwestern Yemen to join the queues...

Oliver stated that the 'immense suffering' in Israel and Gaza has been 'sickening to watch'

Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho said she wanted to add a "light moment" in her speech as she referenced the 'meat tax' - which, in fact, doesn't exist. Coutinho sat down with journalist Sophy Ridge on Sky News' Politics Hub, where she was quizzed on a part of her Conservative Party conference speech "that really struck" Ridge. "'It's no wonder Labour seem so relaxed about taxing meat," Coutinho said in her speech. "Sir Keir Starmer doesn't eat it and Ed Miliband is clearly scarred by his encounter with the bacon sandwich". Ridge asked: "You didn't write that, did you?" "I did actually write that," Coutinho smirked. "I think it's good to have a light moment in your speech as well, but the point is actually very serious..." Ridge proceeded to continuously ask the Net Zero secretary about the non-existent meat tax. The clip was soon flooded to X/Twitter with many mocking Coutinho's remarks. "You can see the Tory media training so clearly (and other parties do the same thing)," one wrote. "If an interviewer catches on something that is awkward for you then deflect, pivot, digress, talk faster, do anything except acknowledge in any way (including allowing a pause) the lie that you've been caught on." "She repeatedly kept saying 'the point is…' before not making a single point," another noted, while a third joked: "Watching it on mute is also brilliant." Last month, in an interview with the BBC, Rishi Sunak was challenged over several measures he claimed he was scrapping, including the possibility of taxes on meat and compulsory car sharing, after his former environment minister Lord Goldsmith accused him of "pretending to halt frightening proposals that simply do not exist". The prime minister told Radio 4’s Today programme: "I reject that entirely." "These are all things that have been raised by very credible people about ways to meet our net zero obligations," he said, but was unable to provide evidence they were specifically recommended by anyone. He cited the Climate Change Committee as the source of general proposals to curb meat consumption, although it never recommended a so-called "meat tax". Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.