Daily Briefing: More stopgap funding from Congress
Congress once again avoided a partial government shutdown just a day before funding was set to expire. Also in the news: Israel's leader said he opposes the U.S.' postwar ideas for the region and SpaceX took the lead in a new era of space travel for NASA and private companies with the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket.
🙋🏼♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. "Are we dating the same guy?"
Here is the news to know Friday.
Americans spared a shutdown — for another six weeks
Both chambers approved a federal funding extension to March with overwhelming bipartisan support, allowing lawmakers more time to hammer out a long-term spending agreement.
It's the third government funding extension this Congress has approved – first in September and again in November. Now, Congress will begin finally writing the spending legislation that was initially due at the end of September.
Averting a shutdown came with hurdles from the lower chamber’s most conservative lawmakers, who sought to block the deal because it continues current spending levels.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has pledged Republicans now have a chance to fight for conservative policy priorities to be included in the budget, though Democrats have said they won't support anything that includes so-called "poison pill" policies.
President Joe Biden will sign the legislation, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. She called on House Republicans to “finally do their job and work across the aisle” to pass spending bills that fund the government for the full year.
Israel-US wartime rift over Gaza offensive
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it crystal clear he has no interest in the proposals by the United States, his country’s strongest supporter, for either paring down the Gaza offensive or for the future after the war. In a news conference Thursday, Netanyahu seemed to dismiss the notion of a Palestinian state, a condition other Middle East nations have set for normalizing relations. He said he rejected the American “attempt to impose on us a reality that will jeopardize us.’’ He also rebuffed calls for scaling down a military operation that has killed more than 24,000 Palestinians in Gaza and left countless others on the verge of starvation. Read more
A Pittsburgh synagogue will be demolished to build a memorial for 11 killed in an antisemitic attack.
More news to know now
115 million residents from Iowa to New Jersey should prepare for a winter storm on Friday.
The Biden campaign is reigniting a push for abortion rights.
A judge gave Georgia DA Fani Willis two weeks to respond to allegations of an affair.
Will Boeing stock recover after the door plug disaster?
For subscribers: Skeptical about AI? Here's how some doctors and hospitals are using it.
On today's The Excerpt podcast, two kids are making waves on the New Hampshire campaign trail. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your smart speaker.
What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.
DOJ's scathing Uvalde school shooting report criticizes law enforcement
The U.S. Justice Department released its 575-page analysis of failures by law enforcement that combined to make the May 2022 mass shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School one of the worst in history. The report aims not only to help prevent further shootings, but also to guide, unflinchingly, the next American community to face a similar tragedy on how to best respond. While some Uvalde families commended the report, the document didn't address their most pressing concerns about lax gun regulations, which they said continue to put students at risk. It also doesn't give them the accountability families have sought for the officers who left their children to die and kept parents waiting outside the building during that agonizing 77-minute period. Read more
Trump could owe $12 million (or much more) for defamation
After a day of fireworks that saw Donald Trump threatened with expulsion from the courtroom, an expert for advice columnist E. Jean Carroll testified in a New York court that the price to repair the harm caused by Trump for defaming her could be as high as $12.1 million – not including any punitive damages. Carroll's legal team has argued Trump unleashed his millions of followers on their client after Carroll went public accusing him of sexual assault in 2019, and it's now Trump's turn to "pay dearly." Trump denies that he sexually assaulted Carroll nearly three decades ago. Read more
Keep scrolling
Here's why electric cars don't do well in cold weather – and what you can do about it.
Whatever happened to mass student loan relief?
"All of Us Strangers" movie review: A beautiful ghost story you won't soon forget.
Would you volunteer to shovel snow at the Bills stadium?
"Oppenheimer" leads the BAFTA nominations.
Climate change is terrifying the ski industry.
Here's how SpaceX's latest launch is taking private company astronauts to the ISS
SpaceX successfully launched an international crew of four non-NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Falcon 9 rocket Thursday for a two-week mission managed by a private company. The Falcon 9 lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, at 4:49 p.m. EST. It's expected to dock with ISS on Saturday. The mission, designated Ax-3, is the third collaboration between NASA, SpaceX and Axiom Space. Axiom is planning to build its Axiom Station, the world’s first private space station, which could replace the ISS around 2030. Read more
Photo of the day: 40th annual Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival is upon us again, shining a light on the best of the best in independent cinema. This year’s event features another crop of premieres trying to make their mark, from the buzzy Kristen Stewart romantic thriller "Love Lies Bleeding" and Steven Soderbergh's haunted-house tale "Presence" to high-profile documentaries including "Devo," "The Greatest Night in Pop" and "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story." Read more
Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this – subscribe to USA TODAY here.
Associated Press contributed reporting.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Government shutdown, winter weather, Israel-Hamas war, SpaceX, Uvalde, Trump trial: Daily Briefing
