The House voted to pass a rule vote to begin debate on four separate spending bills after two rules votes failed last week, prompting Republicans to burst into applaus on the floor.  

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was the only Republican to vote against the rule, opposing the ‘blood money’ it contained for Ukraine. 

The House now moves on to debating amendments for the agriculture-FDA, defense, homeland security and state appropriations bills.

McCarthy celebrated the win in a news conference with reporters after the vote where he vowed to bring a stopgap spending bill to the floor to extend the September 30 deadline for a government shutdown.

He said he would bring it to the floor whether or not it had the votes to pass as multiple GOP members remain opposed to any CR, arguing the House must pass 12 single-subject spending bills or nothing.  

‘We want to make sure government stays open as we do our work,’ he said. 

But the speaker scoffed at the Senate‘s new bipartisan CR plan that includes money for Ukraine and disaster relief. He said the Senate’s priorities are ‘backwards’ because their CR included money for Ukraine but did not include border security provisions.  

With only four days to shutdown, the rule vote gave a hint of optimism to the House GOP, which is not facing new pressure to agree on spending legislation after the Senate released a bill that would kick the deadline for a government shutdown down the road by six weeks.

The continuing resolution (CR), endorsed by both Senate leaders Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would extend government funding from September 30 to November 17. 

It includes over $6 billion in Ukraine aid, sure to trigger some House conservatives. It also includes $6 billion in disaster relief and no border provisions. 

It’s unlikely the deal could pass before Sunday if Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., holds up ‘quick passage’ – which requires unanimous consent. He claimed Tuesday he would continue to do so. 

‘I will object to any kind of easy passage or speeding up of the time. I think it’s bad policy to borrow money from China to send it to Ukraine.’

Meanwhile Speaker Kevin McCarthy remained non-committal on whether he’d ever give a Senate-authored CR a vote on the House floor. He’s also called for Ukraine aid to be dealt with separately from stopgap spending legislation. 

On Tuesday he did say he would put a stopgap funding bill on the floor before Saturday but said he would continue pushing for one that included border security. 

The Senate CR would likely pass both the upper chamber and the lower chamber with votes from Democrats and some Republicans if House GOP leadership put it up for a vote. But doing so could endanger McCarthy’s speakership. 

McConnell endorsed a ‘standard, short-term’ stopgap spending bill on the Senate floor Tuesday. 

‘Over the years, I’ve been pretty clear in my view that government shutdowns are bad news whichever way you look at them. They don’t work as political bargaining chips,’ the GOP leader said. 

The Senate is set to advance the House’s FAA reauthorization bill on Tuesday, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will use to advance a CR through the Senate. 

Meanwhile the knives are out between Congress and the White House four days before a government shutdown, as McCarthy lays blame on Joe Biden‘s border policies and tears into right-wing Republicans who ‘side’ with the president.

The GOP leader said he would put a short-term continuing resolution (CR), or a stopgap spending bill to fund the government past September 30, on the floor before Saturday and it would likely include provisions to bolster border security. 

‘What’s concerning to me is that there are people in the Republican Party who will take the position of President Biden against what the rest of Americans want,’ McCarthy said Tuesday. 

The speaker can only afford to lose four Republican votes and still pass a party-line CR loaded up with spending cuts.

More than four in his conference have expressed opposition to a CR – most vocally McCarthy opposer Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. They insist the House most move forward on 12 single-subject spending bills. 

McCarthy, who cut a debt limit deal with President Biden that set top line spending numbers for fiscal year 2024, is now requesting a meeting him to cut another deal to keep the government funded.  

‘Why don’t we just cut a deal with the president?’ McCarthy told reporters who pressed him on when he would cut a CR deal with congressional Democrats. 

The House is set to vote on a rule to advance four of 12 appropriations bills Tuesday night in what could be an bellwether for the week to come.  It’s not clear yet clear whether a handful of obstinate Republicans will allow the rule to pass. 

He then suggested that if Biden fixed his border policy they could work together on funding – a seemingly infeasible tradeoff. 

‘Listen, the president, all he has to do … it’s only actions that he has to take. He can do it like that. He changed all the policies on the border. He can change those,’ McCarthy said. ‘We can keep government open and finish out the work that we have done.’

Border crossings in fiscal year 2023, which ends at the end of September, are on track to surpass that of 2022 after figures released Friday show an uptick of 50,000 in apprehensions in the month of August.

In recent days the Biden team has piled on to the GOP for causing the shutdown: Biden warned voters to ‘stop electing Republicans’ if they could not pass spending deals that keep the government open. 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy seems to have accepted the GOP-led House will not be able to push through 12 spending bills before the end of the fiscal year, and will instead need to pass a resolution to keep government funding at its current levels temporarily. 

Congress has until September 30 to pass legislation to fund the government through fiscal year 2024 – but the House does not return from recess until September 11. 

The speaker told his rank-and-file members on a press call Monday that a short term CR, or continuing resolution, was the most likely path forward – prompting immediate opposition from a number of Republicans who would rather not see the process drawn out. 

A continuing resolution would extend current spending levels – which were set under Democrats in last year’s 117th Congress – and buy more time for Congress to hash out its differences. 

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that he and McCarthy had met ‘a few weeks back’ and agreed to pursue a CR. 

‘I thought that was a good sign,’ Schumer told Morning Joe on Wednesday. ‘We are working together to avoid that shutdown in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, but the House, McCarthy is going to have the dilemma of dealing with these hard right people who are just totally destructive and angry.’ 

McCarthy has promised to push through 12 separate funding bills, which set spending levels for each agency separately, rather than an over-arching ‘omnibus’ bill. 

Under an omnibus, members are often forced to choose between voting for provisions they don’t agree with or holding up funding for the government and forcing a shutdown. 

But some conservatives say Congress should not punt its disagreements down the road. 

‘I am a NO on any Continuing Resolution that only kicks the can down the road,’ moderate GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales wrote on X, formerly Twitter. ‘Lock Congress in a room until we pass a conservative budget void of excess financial waste.’ 

Conservative Rep. Chip Roy, Texas, came out forcefully against a continuing resolution. 

‘Under no circumstances will I support a ‘continuing resolution’ to fund the government at the bloated, corrupt 2023 levels,’ he said in a statement. ‘This is especially true if it were to stupidly expire in December.’ 

He also suggested Congress should have worked through the August recess to get spending bills done. 

‘I might – might – support a short series of 24 hour ‘CR’s’ to create maximum pain for Congress to do its damned job, which – by the way – we could be doing in Washington right now.’

McCarthy could pass short-term continuing resolution with the help of Democrats, but the pushback from conservatives again prompts the question of how McCarthy will navigate the spending battle and secure budget cuts for fiscal year 2024 without angering the rightward flank. 

Even before the final vote on a short term CR, McCarthy would need the support of almost all Republicans for a procedural vote on the rule for the CR. Democrats typically do not assist the GOP speaker with passing the rule on a bill, even if they do vote for the final bill.  

‘McCarthy has been allegedly talking about, ‘Well, we’ll do a three-month CR into December.’ That’s exactly the playbook to try to get it done and to roll us,’ Roy said in a Spaces conversation on X on Monday. ‘So we’re going to have to throw everything we have in fighting that heading into September.’ 

If the House did a longer-term CR to stretch into the new year, an automatic one percent across-the-board cut would kick in beginning January 1. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said a short-term deal followed by one percent cuts could be preferable to Democrats. 

‘Joe Biden’s going to get 100% of what he wants, followed by 99% of what he wants,’ he said in a Spaces conversation on X Monday night. 

Some of the conservative demands include immediately cutting funding to agencies tied up in Donald Trump’s legal woes. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, said he would not vote for a CR that doesn’t ‘smash’ the Department of Justice’s budget. 

‘I WILL NOT vote for any continuing resolution that doesn’t smash Biden’s DOJ into a million pieces,’ Jackson wrote on X. ‘The DOJ has very rapidly become the enemy of the American people, and if nothing is done soon, our rights will be GONE. We MUST defund it!!’ 

Roy, meanwhile, has said he would not vote for a stopgap or full-year spending bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without policy changes. 

Last week, fourteen other House Republicans from Texas signed on to a letter from Roy promising to oppose DHS funding without major changes. 

McCarthy did not appear to be on board with holding up funding for DHS ahead of the August recess. ‘I want my border secure. I’m going to fund my border,’ McCarthy said. 

Further complicating matters is Ukraine funding. 

President Biden requested $40 billion in supplemental funding, including some $24 billion for Ukraine last week. The House’s right-wing members balked at the request – 12 of them wrote a letter to the White House expressing their outrage. 

‘Americans are tired of funding endless wars and want policies that not only help restore fiscal sanity in Washington, but also put America and American citizens first,’ the lawmakers wrote. 

The White House requested the supplemental aid ‘as part of a potential short-term continuing resolution for the first quarter of FY 2024,’ though it’s not clear if leadership would pair Ukraine aid with the spending bill.

Last month, 89 House Republicans voted for an amendment to strip $300 million in aid for Ukraine from the Pentagon’s yearly spending bill. 

Book of the week

Highly Desirable: Tales of London’s super-prime property from The Secret Agent

By Anonymous (Headline £22, 374pp)

We hate estate agents — the easy money they make as prices escalate and commissions expand (‘the figures that seemed inconceivable just years ago have quickly become the norm’); the surface-level smarm ‘bordering on obsequious’; the fact they don’t do anything complicated beyond ‘securing the right property at the best possible price’: the conveyancing solicitors do the nitty gritty and earn far less.

Indeed, any idiot can show someone around an empty house and say, ‘This is the bathroom’, or ‘I can picture you having kitchen suppers around that table’. 

You appreciate why Anne Robinson, disguised in the book as ‘an adored international TV personality’, has a policy of telling estate agents to remain silent, on pain of torture and death.

Max Thomas, the (pseudonymous) author, operates in London’s super-prime sphere — £22 million apartments in the City, an £18.5 million house in Regent’s Park, a flat in Chelsea Barracks with a £35 million price tag, which also comes with an £80,000 per annum service charge.

Though Thomas comically tries to make his life sound as exciting as James Bond (‘I’ve got to salvage this deal by 6pm!’), in fairness, he is likeable and diligent, mugging up on ‘speculative costs of refurbishment, pound-per-square-foot value, potential swiftness of transaction’. Thomas has the addresses of builders, architects and feng-shui experts.

He finds himself turning into a psychological counsellor, his clients wanting recommendations for reflexologists, masseurs and private jet charter companies.

The fun of Highly Desirable is learning all about the ‘high net-worth individuals’ whom Thomas encounters. 

‘There are lots of rich people about’, apparently, and you’ll hear them coming because they do nothing except complain loudly about staffing problems, caterers, private tutors, club memberships and beauty regimes. 

Wives and daughters have ‘so much surgery and so many artificial additions’, they can’t be recognised from week to week.

We are told about ‘rich kids spending thousands on champagne and thinking that’s normal’. Private equity managers, venture capitalists, oligarchs, sheiks and gangsters — these are the characters and wannabe Bond villains who travel by chauffeur-driven limousine and in first-class cabins, who are ‘never polluted by contact with the outside world’. 

They expect to dwell in homes with media and massage suites, games rooms and have ‘all the trimmings’, such as lifts and garages for four cars.

Notting Hill has been colonised by the hedge funder, Americans favour St John’s Wood, and Hampstead ‘is full of the moneyed intelligentsia’. 

Holland Park, where houses have a £17 million ticket price, is the location of the late Michael Winner’s palace, now owned by Robbie Williams and rented to Richard Caring, the British billionaire nightclub and restaurant entrepreneur. 

When as a new owner Williams wanted to scoop out the basement for a swimming pool and a cinema room, there was a feud with the neighbour, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, who feared subsidence.

‘I can’t begin to imagine,’ says Thomas, ‘the number of unused underground pools that have been built in London over the last decade.’ 

For the paradox with the rich is that they are seldom in residence. Houses and flats are investment assets, not homes to inhabit. Most of the time the owners are on the yacht or in tax-efficient Switzerland, Monaco or Dubai.

London is simply where a place is needed (‘I feel it is a sensible £2.95 million’) for an occasional drinks party for 40. Often, the rich never materialise in person at all. They just Google-map it and peruse the floor plan, then make Zoom calls with decorators.

Worse than this, the rich openly flout planning permission rules and bypass due process regarding listed building regulations. 

A stucco mansion in Chester Terrace, Regent’s Park, unoccupied for years, is found to have chain metal lights, velvet black walls, leatherette sofas and leopard-skin pouffes.

There’s a Queen Anne property in Chiswick Mall along the banks of the Thames, a riverside flat in Battersea with 24-hour concierge service, an elegant townhouse in Onslow Gardens in South Kensington: once the potential buyer turns up with a cavalcade of bodyguards, days are numbered for any surviving plaster cornices in the drawing room, the craftsmanship of Victorian fireplaces and folding wooden window shutters. 

Everything gets stripped out. ‘It takes a lot of money to look this cheap’, Thomas comments wryly of the results.

The wealthy expect ‘discretion all the way’, buying and selling off-market, ‘without any digital footprint’ or recourse to ‘online portals’, as this risks advertising on the internet, which can be perused by anybody.

Thomas meets a grim old miser in Kensington, whose house contains such original features as a butler’s pantry and kitchen nursery. ‘The whole house has a cloying claustrophobic odour of musk, antique cologne and talcum powder.’ 

I dread to think what the developers did — though the owner is to be applauded for not wanting to sell to foreigners or common sorts, e.g., the Yorkshireman who’d amassed his large fortune from owning care homes.

‘We are dealing with very wealthy people — and they don’t tend to elicit sympathy,’ says Thomas, who is not going to be contradicted by me on that point.

Despite their self-help podcasts, almond cappuccinos, artisanal bread and cupcakes, these yacht-hoppers and villa fillers, who run off with 28-year-old Pilates instructors, or who retrain as therapists having left banking; who need two chefs to pack a picnic, and have ex-spouses ‘who only need £3 million for the house in Queen’s Park’ in North-West London — all these people in Thomas’s book come with an ‘aura of paranoia’.

Beyond doing deals, ‘there’s not much that seems to give them pleasure’, he says.

Eventually, Thomas has a heart attack. ‘You need to be kinder to yourself, you need to minimise the stress in your life and you need to prioritise your needs above the needs of everyone else,’ states his doctor. 

Funnily enough, that’s exactly what my cardiologist told me, when I crashed to the ground the other day with a myocardial infarction.

Except, I live in a mortgaged hut in a shabby South-Coast town. The world portrayed in the highly enjoyable Highly Desirable could be on another planet, it is so alien to my own pitiable state. 

Nevertheless, I wouldn’t want a life of bodyguards and almond cappuccinos, either.

In a Wednesday evening vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that punts government funding negotiations to the day before Christmas Eve.

Members of Congress voted 224 to 201 on a short-term spending deal that will keep federal dollars flowing through December 23. 

Nine Republicans crossed the aisle to join Democrats in passing the bill – including outgoing Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

‘The legislation before us today is a simple date change that keeps the government up and running as we negotiate the details of final spending bills and complete the work of funding the government programs that meet the needs of hardworking Americans,’ House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro said before the vote. 

The bipartisan bill now heads to the Senate, which must take action by Friday to avoid a government shutdown. 

On Tuesday, lawmakers leading the spending talks finally announced a compromise that would cover a year of federal funding.

But negotiations over the so-called ‘omnibus’ bill have hit fierce opposition from Republicans in the House.

Earlier on Wednesday, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy called for a slightly longer resolution that would have funded the government until January 3 – when House control would turn over to Republicans.   

He also knocked his GOP colleagues in the Senate for helping Democrats ‘jam through’ a year-long spending bill after leaders announced they ‘should’ be able to clear a deal to fund the government and avert a shutdown. 

‘The majority right now wants to put a small continuing resolution to bump all the members up to days before Christmas to try to vote a package that cannot be written by two individuals will not be here,’ McCarthy said. 

‘The people deciding it aren’t going to be held up to the voters,’ McCarthy said, referring to retiring Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. 

Unlike McCarthy, GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is prioritizing a full-year spending bill, arguing a short-term deal would leave the military and other agencies in limbo. 

‘The Democrats have been in power. They’ve had the House, the Senate and the presidency. They did not do their work. They should not jam us now,’ the California Republican said, noting that funding for fiscal year 2023 was meant to be passed at the start of the fiscal year, October 1. 

If Congress fails to pass an omnibus bill this month, McCarthy said he would force Democrats to eliminate ‘waste and wokeism’ from government spending in 2023. 

The top House Republican signaled he did not want omnibus legislation and instead wanted 12 appropriations bills voted on and passed separately. 

‘We are 20 days before new members will be sworn-in,’ McCarthy went on.

The GOP leader held off on criticizing McConnell for the deal, as he did last week on Fox News, and instead went after retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby. 

‘We have two members leading appropriations who will not be here,’ he said, referring Shelby and Leahy.

Asked about McCarthy’s opposition to the omnibus bill, Shelby, R-Ala., told the Huffington Post: ‘He’s running for speaker, he’s supposed to say that.’ 

Last week McCarthy said on Fox that Republicans are ‘wrong’ to cut a year-end spending bill with Democrats. 

‘Does that include McConnell?’ host Laura Ingram asked.

‘Yes,’ McCarthy said. ‘Why would you want to work on anything if we have the gavel inside Congress?’

McCarthy on Wednesday decried that House and Senate appropriators had announced they reached a deal without even revealing a top number.

‘We don’t even know what the baseline is yet. And they want to vote on it next week!’ he said.

McCarthy went on about the $31 trillion in national debt and noted the nation has paid $100 billion in interest on its debt this year. 

‘Why would you feel comfortable moving forward? I don’t think this is a partisan issue.’ 

Meanwhile a group of top House and Senate appropriators announced that the outlines of a deal had been reached that ‘should’ be able to clear Congress – which would avert a shut-down crisis by dispensing with the need for short stop-gap bills. 

They did not say how much money they had agreed on, providing no details in statements from three key appropriations negotiators, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, Republican Senator Richard Shelby and Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro.

It all comes as lawmakers rushed to find a way to reach a deal before government funding runs out at midnight Friday, with lawmakers anxious to get home and avoid yet another chapter of holiday shutdown drama.

The White House has also been pushing for Congress to complete its spending work and pass the measure set to exceed $1.5 trillion, even as Biden hailed a drop in the annual deficit.

‘If all goes well, we should be able to finish an omnibus appropriations package by Dec. 23,’ said Shelby, the retiring top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

House Appropriations ranking member Kay Granger, R-Texas, didn’t take part in the deal announcement. She attended McCarthy’s press conference to express her opposition to the deal.  

The news came hours after the House began moving a stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial shutdown that would otherwise begin on Friday, providing time to pass the sweeping full-year bill, which was expected to include more than $1.5 trillion in funding and will run through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2023.

DeLauro, who head the House Appropriations panel, said lawmakers would ‘work around the clock’ to complete the job.  

A first, procedural vote on the stopgap legislation was set for Wednesday.

‘The experiences of the last decade show that those who risked shutdowns in order to make political points always lose in the end,’ said Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York on Wednesday. He called it ‘a roadmap for funding the government before the conclusion of the 117th Congress’ and said there was ‘still have a long way to go.’

‘Long-term continuing resolutions cheat our armed forces out of the resources and the certainty that our commanders and civilian leaders need to keep modernizing our forces, investing in crucial weapons, and outcompeting adversaries such as China,’ said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The full year ‘omnibus’ bill is also expected to contain new emergency funds to aid Ukraine in its battle against Russian forces.

Ukraine could get billions more, after Biden asked Congress last month for $37 billion.

It also is expected to fold in an unrelated bill reforming the way Congress certifies U.S. presidential elections by reforming the Electoral Count Act.

Negotiators have mostly settled on a Defense funding totaling $858 billion – a 10 per cent jump from prior-year funding. There was a $26 billion difference between the two sides haggling over non-defense funding, the Hill reported. 

Democrats wanted $813 billion, and Republicans wanted $787 billion in non-defense spending.

The latter is aimed at avoiding a repeat of the deadly turmoil of Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump tried to stop the certification of Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Lawmakers, predominantly Democrats, have complained that Trump was able to exploit ambiguities in the law and wanted to underline the largely ceremonial role carried out by the vice president. In 2020, Trump wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence not to accept the electoral vote count.

McConnell said Republicans want work on the omnibus bill wrapped up by Dec. 22. ‘We intend to be on the road going home on the 23rd,’ he told reporters ahead of the agreement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has thrown her weight behind efforts to ban TikTok from federal employees’ phones by including the provision in an omnibus spending bill she hopes to pass by the end of next week.

It is the latest in a growing move to limit the reach of the Chinese-owned video sharing app, amid fears the country’s communist rulers could access data. 

Pelosi’s spokesperson told Reuters that she supports including the TikTok provision in legislation to fund the government that the House of Representatives is due to take up next week.

If passed, the  $1.7 trillion spending bill will funds the government until the end of Sept. 30, 2023.

F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray recently told lawmakers the app could be used to take control of phones.

But the app’s owners, ByteDance, say the fears are unfounded.

Even so, the Senate on Wednesday voted to ban the video app from government-owned devices, supporting a bill sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley to protect federal employees.

Seven states have banned the app — or are in the process of banning the app — from employees phones.

And several federal agencies, including the White House and the Pentagon, have barred it from government-owned devices.  

Some lawmakers want to go even further. This week members of Congress introduced legislation that would ban TikTok from the U.S. entirely. 

The Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act) would ban all operations by any social media company in or under the influence of China and Russia.

It has the backing of Republicans as well as Democrats, in a sign of how the app has triggered alarm across party lines that Chinese spies can access American smartphones.  

Sen. Marco Rubi (R-Florida), who introduced the bill in Senate, said Chinese law meant the app’s owner, ByteDance, was required to hand data to the Chinese Communist Party. 

‘The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok,’ he said. 

‘This isn’t about creative videos — this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day. We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China.’

The Beijing-based owners of the app are already locked in dispute with the federal government over how it uses and stores user data, amid concerns that it could be deployed in influence operations. 

Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, who co-sponsored the bill in the House, said: ‘TikTok is digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news.’

While Republicans have often been loudest to warn of the digital threat from China, the bill is co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois.

‘At a time when the Chinese Communist Party and our other adversaries abroad are seeking any advantage they can find against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance, it is imperative that we do not allow hostile powers to potentially control social media networks that could be easily weaponized against us,’ he said. 

‘The bipartisan ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act is a strong step in protecting our nation from the nefarious digital surveillance and influence operations of totalitarian regimes.’ 

Their move follows months of heightened scrutiny of the app. 

FBI Director Wray told Congress last month that the Chinese government could use it to ‘control data collection of millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which can be used for influence operations.’

He has also warned that it could be used to hijack other software on the phone, potentially allowing it to collect and send more data. 

Such is the level of concern that six states have barred employees from downloading the app.

On Friday, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said the state was joining New Hampshire, Wyoming, Georgia, North Dakota, Idaho and Iowa in taking action.

‘Use of TikTok poses a significant risk to the security of our state and Montanans’ sensitive data,’ he tweeted. 

‘Effective immediately, I have prohibited the use of TikTok on state devices, while connected to the state network, and to conduct state business.’

Girl, 13, blows her Chinese family’s life savings spending $64,000 on mobile phone games

• The teenager’s mother, Gong Yiwang, found just seven cents left in her account
• Schoolgirl deleted chat and transaction records to hide them from her parents

By Elena Salvoni

Published: 10:38 EDT, 9 June 2023 | Updated: 10:42 EDT, 9 June 2023

Debt ceiling talks STILL at a stalemate with three weeks until default date: Biden and McCarthy prepare for crunch White House meeting as Republicans threaten to filibuster ANY plan that doesn’t have spending cuts

• 43 GOP senators, led by Utah Sen. Mike Lee, over the weekend threatened to block a deal on the debt ceiling that wasn’t attached to ‘substantive’ budget cuts
• The group is large enough to filibuster a clean debt ceiling bill in the Senate – meaning such legislation would fail in both chambers of Congress

By Morgan Phillips, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 09:54 EDT, 8 May 2023 | Updated: 13:41 EDT, 8 May 2023

Matty Healy was seen flashing a smile as he grabbed a Starbucks on Saturday while being guided by Taylor Swift‘s bodyguard after reportedly spending time at her Nashville condo the night before. 

The British-born singer, 34, exited the popular coffee shop chain and headed back to an awaiting vehicle that took him to Nissan Stadium ahead of Swift’s concert. 

The 1975 front man opted for stylish comfort wearing a pair of black trousers that were secured with a black belt with a silver buckle at the waist. 

Matty also donned a long-sleeved, white button up which he chose to leave partially unbuttoned near the collar, and added a plain white shirt underneath. 

Later on Matty took to the stage in a skeleton onesie to join Taylor’s opening act, Phoebe Bridgers, ahead of Swift performing herself. 

The singer carried a warm drink in his hand while also looking through his smartphone as he was led to a sleek, white SUV parked near the coffee shop. 

Matty had reportedly arrived at Taylor’s Nashville condo, and left later Friday night following her anticipated concert performance. 

After grabbing a drink to get a boost of energy, Healy was later seen arriving at Nissan Stadium in the heart of Nashville ahead of Taylor’s Saturday night performance in the city. 

The Somebody Else singer who recently stopped by the performer’s Eras Tour concert earlier Friday, appeared to confirm their budding romance while singing along to her hit track, Shake It Off, which was captured on video and uploaded to Twitter. 

Earlier on Wednesday, Taylor, 33, and Matty’s rumored romance came to light, only weeks after the Blank Space hitmaker’s split with actor, Joe Alwyn, was confirmed.

Earlier on Friday, he was seen dancing along to Swift as she sang her hit track, Shake It Off, amongst fellow concert-goers in a secured area on the floor section of the venue.

The video was posted on Twitter and quickly went viral amid rumors that Matty and Taylor have started a budding romance. Despite the speculation that the two have entered a relationship, both singers have yet to publicly confirm they are dating. 

However, earlier Thursday, The Sun reported that Taylor and Matty have plans to confirm the romance over the weekend during her Nashville stop, with the British star set to join her on stage. 

According to the outlet, Healy is slated to perform two of her popular songs, with a source stating, ‘Taylor and Matty have been planning their ‘coming out’ for a few weeks now, and are really excited just to go public with their love.’  

The insider further revealed, ‘Neither of them want any secrets, or to hide away. The plan is for Matty to walk out on stage mid-show and play two songs.’ 

‘They will chat to the audience and, at present, the idea is for them to confirm their romance with some kind of PDA — public display of affection. It won’t be anything remotely cheesy though.’ 

And on Saturday, Matty strummed on his guitar as he made an appearance with Taylor’s supporting act during the show.  

Wearing a black and white skeleton ensemble, the musician sang along with the Moon Song singer moments before his rumored girlfriend also stepped out onto the stage.  

Taylor and Matty’s rumored romance first came to light earlier this week on Wednesday, with a separate source telling The Sun, ‘She and Matty are madly in love.’ 

‘It’s super-early days, but it feels right. They first dated, very briefly, almost ten years ago but timings just didn’t work out,’ the insider added. 

Before dating rumors emerged around Swift and The 1975 singer, Taylor had dated British actor, Joe Alwyn, for six years until their split was confirmed last month in April. 

In regards to her ex, the source informed the publication, ‘Taylor and Joe actually split up back in February, so there was absolutely no crossover.’ 

‘Both Matty and Taylor have been touring over the past few weeks, so it’s been a lot of Face-Timing and texting but she cannot wait to see him again,’ and added that the two stars, ‘are incredibly supportive of their respective careers.’ 

‘They are both massively proud and excited about this relationship and, unlike Taylor’s last one — which was very much kept out of the spotlight, deliberately — she wants to ‘own’ this romance, and not hide it away.’ 

While Taylor focuses on her Eras Tour, which is slated to conclude later this year in August, Matty is also in the middle of touring with his band, The 1975. 

Before being romantically linked to Swift, the British hitmaker previously dated model, Meredith Mickelson, until they went their separate ways earlier this year in February. 

‘Matty was seeing Meredith while he was in LA in February – but things fizzled out when he went to New York at the end of the month,’ an insider told The Sun. Following the break up, the two are reportedly still on ‘good terms.’ 

Not long after Taylor and Joe’s split was confirmed in April, a source opened up to People about the reasoning behind the break up, and explained that the two, ‘weren’t the right fit for one another.’ 

The insider further expressed that Joe didn’t have a chance to fully get to ‘know’ Taylor during the pandemic and that, ‘he didn’t really ‘know’ her yet outside of that bubble.’ 

The source added that the actor had a difficult time, ‘with Taylor’s level of fame and the attention from the public.’ However, their split was not dramatic and the insider revealed that the two stars are also still on ‘friendly’ terms. 

Taylor and Matty’s rumored romance might not come as a surprise to some fans due to the two singers knowing each other for years. 

He had notably helped her create tracks for her Midnights album two years earlier, although the songs eventually never made it onto the record upon its release late last year.  

The Love Story songstress has also already met Healy’s mother, Denise Welch, back in January while attending The 1975’s concert at the O2 in London. She also joined the band on stage as a special guest at the time.