There are a limited number of legislative days left for Congress to pass a stopgap funding bill or the government will plunge into a shutdown.

An easy deal isn’t likely amid GOP infighting about sending more aid to Ukraine and regarding timing for opening an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, which is poised to derail negotiations.

There are 12 annual government spending bills that must be passed by both the House and Senate before funding runs out at midnight on Sept. 30. 

However, to give lawmakers more time to push through the longer term 2024 spending bills, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working on pushing a stopgap measure known as a ‘continuing resolution’ likely through the end of November or early December to stave off a shutdown. 

The CR is supported by Senate Leader Chuck Schumer who called it the way to ‘work this out,’ last month.

But there are only a total of 11 legislative days left on the calendar for Congress to pass the stopgap bill to keep the government temporarily funded. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week in Kentucky that he believes there will be a ‘short-term congressional resolution’ that will likely go into December ‘as we struggle to figure out exactly what the government’s spending level is going to be.’ 

A bill funding military construction and Veterans Affairs projects passed the House before the body left for a month-long hiatus, leaving 11 more bills to move along. 

All spending bills originate in the House and then are moved over to the Senate. 

House lawmakers are returning from their August recess on Tuesday and are expected to first take up the massive $886 billion defense spending bill. 

The issue of sending more aid to Ukraine will be at the center of negotiations.

President Biden has requested Congress approve an additional $40 billion – including $13 billion in emergency defense aid, $8 billion for humanitarian aid to Ukraine, $12 billion in disaster relief and $4 billion for the border to combat fentanyl smuggling.

The White House is urging Congress to pass the stopgap measure in order to avoid a shutdown while negotiations on passing the larger 12 longer term spending bills continue. 

But Ukraine aid is a sticking point that is shaking up the process. 

McCarthy has reportedly indicated that the House will attach disaster aid to the stopgap bill, but will not include additional funding for Ukraine.

However, the Senate has strong bipartisan support for sending more funds to the war torn country, and is likely to put pressure on the House to include more aid.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Punchbowl News this week that he ‘understands’ that McCarthy needs to pass a bill, but the Senate will send back any piece of legislation without Ukraine aid.

‘We’re going to have to work that out,’ the Senate leader said this week. 

In addition, the House Freedom Caucus members said in August that they will oppose any spending bill that gives Ukraine a ‘blank check’ in U.S. taxpayer-funded aid.

They say they will also vote against a measure that doesn’t include provisions to address DOJ ‘weaponization’ and targeting of political opponents and the Pentagon’s ‘woke policies.’

And they want major billion dollar cuts to the appropriations bills because they are still disgruntled at the debt ceiling bill, which did not curb spending to their satisfaction.

McCarthy cannot afford to lose more than four votes from Republicans in his slim GOP majority, so he must strike a deal with the Freedom Caucus, which isn’t afraid to shut down the government.

Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, is stepping down from Congress at the end of the week to due to family concerns. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., is battling bone cancer and not expected to return to the Hill for a few months. In addition, Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., had hip surgery recently and Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., is dealing with a handful of legal issues. 

Even if the government shuts down, around 85 percent will still be in operation. For the employees not considered ‘essential,’ they will be paid once the government reopens. 

The longest shutdown – lasting over a month – occurred during Trump’s presidency due to disagreement on border wall funding.  

Another issue at play is some farther right House conservatives that say they will not support any government funding measure without an impeachment inquiry into President Biden and his connections to his family’s business dealings.

That is ruffling the feathers of more moderate Republicans who say they shouldn’t be tied together.

‘They’re totally separate issues and should be considered separately,’ said Rep. Bob Good of Virginia this week.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has threatened to remove McCarthy from his speakership position if an impeachment inquiry into Biden isn’t launched. 

The lawmaker urged his GOP colleagues to ‘seize the initiative’ in investigating the 80-year-old president when they return to Washington next week.

He also said McCarthy ‘may not have the job long’ if he ‘stands in the way’ of pushing for a Congressional trial into Biden’s links to his son Hunter’s foreign business deals.

Firebrand Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also promised to vote against funding the government if impeaching proceedings had not begun.

And House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said last week that an impeachment inquiry is ‘imminent.’ 

McCarthy has said an impeachment inquiry into Joe’s connections to Hunter’s foreign dealings is on the table.

He said if the Biden administration continue to ‘withhold’ documents, Republicans will ‘move forward with impeachment inquiry when we come back into session.’

The White House has rejected every suggestion Joe was involved in his son Hunter’s business deals and insists the Biden impeachment push is politically motivated. 

But a new poll released this week showed that 61 percent of Americans believe then-Vice President Joe was involved at some level in his son’s dealings. 

Manie Libbok’s no-look pass to set up Kurt-Lee Arendse’s try for South Africa leaves fans blown away during win over Scotland as they hail the ‘outstanding’ Springboks star

By Ash Rose For Mailonline

Published: 14:03 EDT, 10 September 2023 | Updated: 14:46 EDT, 10 September 2023

Republicans pour cold water on Democrats’ hopes to pass a year-long government funding bill in just two weeks: Parties struggle over deal as McConnell signals it will be punted to 2023 when GOP controls the House

• Last week it appeared that Democrats and Republicans could work together on a so-called ‘omnibus’ spending bill to keep the government funded for a year
• But conservatives pushed back on the effort, calling for a shorter continuing resolution to fund the government until January 2023 when GOP controls House
• Multiple GOP senators signaled to DailyMail.com ahead of their weekly policy luncheon on Tuesday that a year-long spending bill likely will not happen 
• ‘I think it’s not very promising,’ Texas Sen. John Cornyn told DailyMail.com
• But the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, retiring Sen. Richard Shelby, said failure to do so will ‘have shown we didn’t do our jobs’

By Elizabeth Elkind, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 16:52 EDT, 6 December 2022 | Updated: 17:06 EDT, 6 December 2022

Venus will look like the queen bee passing over her colony tonight, as the planet soars over the Beehive Cluster in a stunning spectacle for skygazers. 

The Beehive Cluster, also known as M44, is a ‘star cluster’ – tightly bound clusters of tens of thousands to millions of stars, held together by gravity. 

Located in the constellation of Cancer in the north sky, it is described as a ‘swarm’ of around 1,000 stars, altogether stretching about three times the size of a full moon. 

Venus has been steadily approaching the Beehive Cluster for weeks and will appear just above it throughout Monday night and Tuesday night. 

The spectacle will easily visible to the unaided eye, although experts say it will look clearer with a telescope or even just binoculars. 

The stars that make up the Beehive Cluster are relatively young – about 600 million years old, which is a fraction of our sun’s age (4.5 billion years).

It’s also 600 light years away, making it one of the closest star clusters to our solar system. 

Although it appears to cover the space of three full moons in the night’s sky, the Beehive Cluster is actually spanning about 15 light-years across – the distance travelled by light in the space of 15 years. 

It includes yellowish tinted stars which are red giants – stars in their final death stages that have swollen up to become many times their original size. 

But also there are blue main sequence stars – short-lived stars that burn very hot and glow luminous and blue. 

Venus, meanwhile, is the brightest object in the night’s sky and can be easily mistaken for a star, although there is a simple way to spot the planet. 

In a backdrop full of stars, the planets can be identified by their distinct lack of twinkling; stars twinkle, while planets usually shine steadily. 

What’s more, Venus is entirely covered with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and sulphuric acid clouds which give it a light yellowish appearance.

As a guide, look north towards the bright stars Castor and Pollux which are in the nearby constellation of Gemini.

Next, look southeast for Cancer, which appears like a upside-down Y, and there should be a hazy patch of light in the middle that is the Beehive Cluster.

‘Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky after the Moon, and it’s really easy to find just after sunset when it’s still too bright to see stars,’ said Dr Becky Smethurst, astrophysicist at the University of Oxford and host of YouTube channel ‘Dr Becky’. 

‘It’ll be to the left and up from the glow left behind by the sun.

‘Once you find it, grab a pair of binoculars (any binoculars will do, whether bought for birdwatching, gigs, or sports).’

The Beehive Cluster looks like a hazy patch of light with the naked eye, but with a telescope or binoculars it ‘practically glitters there’s so many stars that appear,’ said Dr Smethurst. 

‘The longer you wait after sunset, the more stars you’ll see, but don’t leave it too long as Venus and the Beehive Cluster will also eventually set a few hours after the sun,’ she told MailOnline.  

Just like any skygazing opportunity, those rewarded will be in an area with low light pollution and cloudless skies.  

The Met Office told MailOnline that the cloudier UK skies on Monday night will be in western areas and across Scotland, but East Midland, East Anglia and the southeast should be clearer. 

‘Drier and clearer air continues to push westwards overnight with mostly clear skies across much of England and Scotland by dawn on Tuesday,’ said a Met Office spokesperson. 

‘On Tuesday, a few isolated showers soon fading during the evening with mostly clear skies across much of the country offer favourable viewing conditions for many. 

‘However, some low cloud may lap onto North Sea coasts across Scotland with slightly hazier skies across Northern Ireland and southwest England.’ 

Visible to the unaided eye, the Beehive Cluster or M44 has been recognised since antiquity. 

Galileo had the first telescopic view of the Beehive in 1609, using his paper tube and two pieces of glass to detect 40 stars. 

It was described as a faint cloud or celestial mist long before being included as the 44th entry in French astronomer Charles Messier’s famous 18th century catalogue.

It was only when astronomical telescopes were available that the cluster was resolved into its individual stars.

House Republicans PASS bill to permanently make fentanyl a Schedule 1 drug and make criminal penalties harsher: Scores of Democrats back law to crackdown on epidemic

• Fentanyl is currently the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49 and synthetic opioids have accounted for 66 percent of total U.S. overdose deaths
• The bill garnered bipartisan support in a 289-133 vote
• 74 Democrats crossed party lines to vote for the measure 

By Kelly Laco, Executive Editor Of Politics For Dailymail.Com

Published: 12:11 EDT, 25 May 2023 | Updated: 13:26 EDT, 25 May 2023

Joe Biden again called on Congress to send an assault weapons ban to his desk for signature after the latest mass shooting in Texas left eight people dead.

The president lamented that the ‘leading cause of death for American kids is gun violence’ while listing the moves he has taken to try and tackle the crisis already, noting ‘it’s not enough.’

‘We need more action, faster to save lives,’ he urged.

Biden also blamed Republicans for holding up action and insisted: ‘Republican Members of Congress cannot continue to meet this epidemic with a shrug. Tweeted thoughts and prayers are not enough.’

‘Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,’ he continued. ‘Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately. We need nothing less to keep our streets safe.’

Meanwhile, Texas’ Republican Gov. Greg Abbott insisted Sunday morning that the best way to address the exponential increase in gun violence is to focus on the mental health problems at the root of the issue.

The explanation comes after his gun-friendly state saw yet another mass shooting on Saturday that left nine people dead at a mall, including the gunman.

Abbott dismissed critics’ claims that the lax gun laws in Texas are to blame for the increased mass shootings. Instead, he noted that all states have been experiencing an increase in gun violence in recent years.

‘We need to recognize the reality we’ve seen across the United States over the last year or two, and that is an increased number of shootings in both red states and blue states,’ the Republican governor told Fox News Sunday. ‘We’ve seen an increased number of shootings in states with easy gun laws, as well as states with very strict gun laws.’

‘I think that the state in which the largest number of victims occurred this year is in California, where they have very tough gun laws,’ he added.

A gunman with an AR-15 and wearing full tactical gear opened fire at an H&M clothing store in the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas on Saturday afternoon.

He gunned down eight people, including children, before a hero cop took out the shooter. The cop was on scene for an unrelated call but rushed over when he heard the gunshots.

Biden lamented in his Sunday afternoon statement: ‘Such an attack is too shocking to be so familiar.’

The shooting on Saturday comes almost exactly a year after another mass shooting shook Texas in Uvalde last May at the Robb Elementary School.

Abbott said earlier on Sunday: ‘One thing that we can observe very easily – and that is there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that’s taking place in America.’

‘And what Texas is doing in a big time way, we are working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause, which is addressing mental health problems behind it,’ he told Fox News.

New audio footage of the most recent shooting reveals how the unnamed hero officer made a frantic phone call begging for his colleagues to join him on the scene, radioing: ‘I need everybody I got.’

He bravely ran towards the active shooter – who was armed with 60 rounds and had shot over a dozen people by this point – and killed him.

Around two minutes after first calling for backup, the cop said: ‘I got him down.’ 

Minutes later, another voice is heard on the radio saying: ‘We got victims. I need an ambulance.’ 

The FBI have raided the dead suspect’s home following the civilian massacre.  

A stampede of hundreds of shoppers were seen racing out of the complex while gunfire rained out – as security and police attempted to shepherd them to safety. 

People in the store were frantically ushered into lockable rooms, and when they eventually got the all-clear to come out, they saw the broken windows, trails of blood by the door, and bloodied bodies covered in sheets.  

Dashcam video showed the gunman getting out of a car and shooting at people on the sidewalk on Saturday afternoon. More than three dozen shots could be heard as the vehicle that was recording the video drove off. 

The gunman was using an AR-15-style gun during the mass shooting, and was dressed in full tactical SWAT gear. 

Allen Fire Chief Jonathan Boyd confirmed that seven people died at the scene, including the gunman, and then a further two victims died in hospital. 

Three of the wounded were in critical condition in the evening, and four were stable, Boyd said in an update on Saturday night. 

A Dallas-area medical group said it was treating victims as young as five-years-old. 

Investigators have confirmed that they believe the shooter was working alone, but they have not yet released any motive for the devastating killings.  

Fontayne Payton, 35, was at H&M when he heard the sound of gunshots through his headphones. He said: ‘It was so loud, it sounded like it was right outside.

‘I pray it wasn’t kids, but it looked like kids,’ he said. 

The bodies were covered in white towels, slumped over bags on the ground. ‘It broke me when I walked out to see that.’

Payton then saw the body of the dead shooter – which was the only one not covered, he recalled.  

Another witness, Kimberly Blakey, said she and her daughter, 14, were among the crowd of people rushing to flee the parking lot after the gunfire started.

She said the raining bullets were ‘non-stop.’ Her car got shot at during the ordeal as she tried to escape. 

Blakey told CNN: ‘I told my daughter to get down. I could hear her start praying.’ 

Another witness, Sheliza Ramlall, who was in the Nike store when the violence broke out, said: ‘I had the most horrifying experience earlier. I was standing in line at the Nike store when all of a sudden people started to scream and run. 

‘The people in the doorway saw the man with the gun outside and raised the alarm. All of us in line dropped to the floor and started to crawl looking for a hiding place while falling over each other. 

‘I crawled behind the counter. At that moment, I realized that we were right in plain sight and and figured that I needed to get away from the front. 

‘As I looked to the back of the store, I heard someone saying ‘get to the back, get to the back’ and everyone started running at that point. An employee opened the back door and let us out. We are standing by the roadside shaken, crying, and hugging each other.

‘Not knowing where the gunman was or what was happening on the other side was terrifying but I wanted to get out of there so I left the crowd and started to flag the cars down to give me a lift. 

‘An elderly woman stopped and I hopped in a panic. She started to tell me about the gunshots she heard and drove me to my car. I raced out of there with an elevated heartbeat. 

‘I am grateful for our brave first responders who stopped the shooter and helped the people to safety.’

Mayor Ken Fulk said in a statement on Saturday night: ‘Today is a tragic day for the City of Allen, our citizens, our friends and visitors who were at the Allen Premium Outlets. We know you are grieving, we are grieving.

‘Allen is a proud and safe city which makes today’s senseless act of violence even more shocking. However, I want to commend our police and fire departments for their quick response. 

‘Their thorough training not to hesitate to move toward the threat likely saved more lives today. We also want to thank all of our surrounding municipalities and law enforcement agencies for offering their assistance at the scene. 

‘This collective effort is what makes our North Texas communities united.’ 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott described the shooting as an ‘unspeakable tragedy.’

Witnesses have recalled the horrific moments they realized they were in the midst of a mass shooting – with one man, Steven Spainhouer, saying he rushed to desperately save a child who had been shot.

His own son was working at the H&M store when shots were fired.

Spainhouer told CBS News: ‘I never imagined in 100 years I would be thrust into the position of being the first first responder on the site to take care of people.

‘The first girl I walked up to was crouched down covering her head in the bushes, so I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side and she had no face.’  

He said she was already beyond saving.

Still set on saving the mess of victims, Spainhouer recalled how he then found another child, who survived the barrage of bullets by being covered by his protective mother, who he said was among eight to die by the gunman.

Spainhouer added: ‘When I rolled the mother over, he came out.

‘I asked him if he was OK and he said, ‘My mom is hurt, my mom is hurt.’

‘Rather than traumatize him any more, I pulled him around the corner sat him down and he was covered from head to toe.  [It was] like somebody poured blood on him.’  

In recent years, Texas has witnessed some of the most gruesome and deadly mass shootings in America.

Many believe it’s partly because of the state’s loosened gun laws which have come into effect in the past few years.

In September 2021, a ‘constitutional carry’ law came into effect, allowing most Texas who legally own a firearm to carry it openly in public without obtaining a permit or training. 

At the time, Gov. Greg Abbott declared that the law ‘instilled freedom in the Lone Star State.’ 

Just eight months after the pro-gun law was passed, Uvalde, Texas experienced one of the bloodiest school shootings in US history at Robb Elementary School. A total of 19 children were killed, along with two teachers, by gunman Salvador Ramos. 

The gunman, 18, wrote ‘LOL,’ an acronym for ‘laugh out loud,’ on a whiteboard using the blood of his innocent victims. 

For years in Texas, Republicans have waved aside efforts to tighten gun laws after mass shootings, and even expanded gun rights after the 2019 attack on a Walmart in El Paso.