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

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Ron DeSantis has slammed his 2024 Republican Rival Donald Trump, claiming he “is a different guy” than when he first ran for president. The former president is leading all other Republican candidates for the party’s presidential nomination, with Mr DeSantis running in second place, according to polls. The Florida governor officially launched his own bid earlier this week in a chaotic Twitter Spaces event with billionaire Elon Musk. And Mr DeSantis told radio host Matt Murphy that he was running to the right of Mr Trump and portrayed himself as more conservative, according to USA Today. “It seems like he’s running to the left and I have always been somebody that’s just been moored in conservative principles,” said Mr DeSantis. “So these will be interesting debates to have, but I can tell you, you don’t win nationally by moving to the left, you win nationally by standing for bold policy. We showed that in Florida. I never watered down anything I did.” And Mr DeSantis claimed that Mr Trump is not the same person who first ran for office. “I don’t know what happened to Donald Trump; this is a different guy today than when he was running in 2015 and 2016 and I think the direction that he’s going with his campaign is the wrong direction,” Mr DeSantis said. And he attacked Mr Trump over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic while in office. “I think [Trump] did great for three years, but when he turned the country over to Fauci in March of 2020 that destroyed millions of people’s lives,” Mr DeSantis said on a podcast. “And in Florida, we were one of the few that stood up, cut against the grain, took incoming fire from media, bureaucracy, the left, even a lot of Republicans, had school open, preserved businesses.” Read More Ron DeSantis news — live: DeSantis Jan 6 pardon remark rebuked as Disney slams bid to disqualify lawsuit judge DeSantis signed bill shielding SpaceX and other companies from liability day after Elon Musk 2024 launch Trump news – latest: Mar-a-Lago worker makes shock claim about classified papers as Fox announces town hall Disney opposes DeSantis request to disqualify judge in free speech lawsuit DeSantis dismisses climate change, calling it ‘politicisation of weather’

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A Wisconsin bride unexpectedly died as a result of a fire on the very day of her wedding. Paige Ruddy suffered a fatal brain haemorrhage caused by smoke inhalation following a fire in a Reedsburg home on Tuesday (23 May). The 19-year-old, who was planning to get married on the day of the tragedy, died at the hospital the next day. “She was just a precious human. There was nothing about her that you couldn’t like,” Ruddy’s aunt told NBC affiliate WMTV. “She was this presence you never knew you needed in your life, but always did.” Family members had prepared to attend Ruddy and her fiancée’s Logan Mitchell-Carter ceremony at Sauk County Courthouse but instead received news of her sudden death. A funeral will take place next week, Ruddy’s aunt told the network. Ruddy, who had graduated last summer, was planning to attend a vet tech program at Madison Area Technical College this upcoming fall. A preliminary investigation into the fire and Ruddy’s death is underway, according to Sauk County authorities. Her grieving family has created a GoFundMe to cover funeral costs. “There are enough good qualities about Paige to fill up a room. Since she was a toddler Paige was full of life, ready to help anyone with anything, and an absolute joy to be around,” the description of the fundraiser read. “She was kind, fun, and according to her family had lots of spunk. Paige always worked hard at everything she did.” Read More Videos, 911 calls capture frantic response to deadly New Mexico rampage Ex Met-police officer gets ‘hundreds of hate messages’ over Couzens probe Three Black men convicted of murder launch legal appeal claiming ‘institutional racism’

President Joe Biden’s administration has announced a national strategy, the nation’s first, for combating antisemitism, with a call to action across government agencies, law enforcement and other institutions against a reported wave of discrimination and proliferation of online hate. “It sends a clear and forceful message: In America, evil will not win. Hate will not prevail,” the president said in a prerecorded message shared on 25 May. “The venom of antisemitism will not be the story of our time.” Sharing a video of the announcement, Republican US Rep Lauren Boebert said the plan would instead be used to target “conservatives” like her. “When they say stuff like this, they mean they want to go after conservatives,” she wrote on Twitter on 26 May. “Their tactics are straight out of the USSR’s playbook.” Her critics were quick to point out that she was conflating a campaign against hate with an attack on the American right, an echo of other far-right criticism against attempts to combat hate speech, white supremacism and violent extremist groups. Democratic US Rep Sara Jacobs shared Ms Boebert’s post with a meme from Mean Girls, with the caption: “So you agree? You think you’re antisemitic?” “Congresswoman Boebert is mistaken; antisemitism is not ‘conservative’ – it is evil,” deputy White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told The Independent. “President Biden is standing up for a bedrock American value that goes beyond politics and is embraced by liberals, conservatives, and independents: that we are better than antisemitism and hate,” he added. “Those vile forces fly in the face of what America represents. If anyone finds opposition to hate threatening, they need to look inward.” Mr Bates also suggested that Ms Boebert study the history of the Soviet Union’s “long, repulsive history of antisemitism” – a regime that the president also has condemned. In a statement to The Washington Post, Ms Boebert’s office condemned antisemitism and charactised the Biden plan as an attempt to censor speech. “This is the latest version of this administration’s failed ‘Ministry of Truth,’” Ms Boebert said in the statement. “The First Amendment guarantees a marketplace of ideas where truth, beauty, and justice ultimately win out.” “If the congresswoman believes efforts to combat antisemitism are a way to ‘go after conservatives’,” said Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, “then what does that say about conservatives?” The Independent has requested additional comment from Ms Boebert’s office. In 2022, there were 3,697 reported incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism in the US, according to the Anti-Defamation League. That figure marks a 36 per cent increase from 2021, and represents the largest number of attacks against Jewish people in the US since the organisation began reporting such incidents more than 40 years ago. The Biden administration’s plan – with input from hundreds of federal and local officials, faith leaders and civil rights groups, among others – includes more than 100 recommendations for policy changes and congressional action, among other steps. It also includes 10 separate calls for technology companies to bolster zero-tolerance policies against hate speech and to combat the spread of antisemitic language across their platforms. Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen, co-chair of the Senate and House Bipartisan Task Forces for Combating Antisemitism, said the “whole-of-government approach” will “effectively utilize the full force of the United States government to root out antisemitic hate across our nation.” Read More Lauren Boebert intervened when son called 911 to report father’s alleged abuse, report says Lauren Boebert’s hypocrisy over children isn’t just absurd. It’s cruel Paul Gosar faces calls for investigations after allegedly hiring Nick Fuentes-linked congressional staff

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The U.S. is rolling at the 2023 U-20 World Cup.

Since his 2024 campaign got off to a shaky start on Wednesday evening with its much-derided Twitter Spaces launch, Ron DeSantis has been doing the rounds of right-wing media outlets, reminding voters of his record in Florida and taking the occasional dig at chief rival, former president Donald Trump. In one interview he said, if elected president, he would consider pardons for those charged with January 6 Capitol riot offences, and when pressed as to whether that would include Mr Trump, acknowledged it would be everyone. His remark was criticised not just by Democrats, but was also sharply rebuked by former Republican Rep Liz Cheney, who tweeted: “Any candidate who says they will pardon Jan. 6 defendants is not qualified to be President.” Meanwhile, in the Florida governor’s ongoing feud with the Walt Disney Company, Disney urged a federal court to reject a request by Mr DeSantis to disqualify the judge overseeing the company’s lawsuit saying it amounted to political retaliation. Disney filed its First Amendment lawsuit against the governor in April, saying it was punished for speaking out against Florida legislation that critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay”. Read More DeSantis v Disney: Why Florida’s governor is at war with the Mouse Ron DeSantis says he will consider pardon for Trump if elected DeSantis for President? This is what the polls say His 2024 launch was laughable but DeSantis could be more dangerous than Trump