Biden, GOP reach tentative deal to raise debt ceiling, avoid calamitous US default

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an “agreement in principle” to raise the nation's legal debt ceiling late Saturday as they raced to strike a deal to limit federal spending and avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default.

However, the agreement risks angering both Democratic and Republican sides with the concessions made to reach it. Negotiators agreed to some Republican demands for increased work requirements for recipients of food stamps that had sparked an uproar from House Democrats as a nonstarter.

Support from both parties will be needed to win congressional approval next week before a June 5 deadline.

The Democratic president and Republican speaker reached the agreement after the two spoke earlier Saturday evening by phone, said McCarthy. The country and the world have been watching and waiting for a resolution to a political standoff that threatened the U.S. and global economies.

“The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want,” Biden said in a statement late Saturday night. “That’s the responsibility of governing,” he said.

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GOP-controlled Texas House impeaches Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, triggering suspension

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ Republican-led House of Representatives impeached state Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday on articles including bribery and abuse of public trust, a sudden, historic rebuke of a GOP official who rose to be a star of the conservative legal movement despite years of scandal and alleged crimes.

Impeachment triggers Paxton’s immediate suspension from office pending the outcome of a trial in the state Senate and empowers Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint someone else as Texas’ top lawyer in the interim.

The 121-23 vote constitutes an abrupt downfall for one of the GOP’s most prominent legal combatants, who in 2020 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral defeat of Donald Trump. It makes Paxton only the third sitting official in Texas’ nearly 200-year history to have been impeached.

Paxton, 60, decried the move moments after scores of his fellow partisans voted for impeachment, and his office pointed to internal reports that found no wrongdoing.

“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just,” Paxton said. “It was a politically motivated sham from the beginning.”

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Why Texas' GOP-controlled House impeached Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — After years of legal and ethical scandals swirling around Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives on Saturday voted to impeach him, causing his immediate suspension from office.

The extraordinary and rarely used maneuver came in the final days of the state’s legislative session, setting up a bruising political fight that pitted Paxton, who has aligned himself closely with former President Donald Trump and the state’s hard-right conservatives, against House Republican leaders, who appear to suddenly have had enough of the allegations of wrongdoing that have long dogged Texas’ top lawyer.

Paxton fought it every step of the way, calling the process “corrupt,” and asking supporters to rally for him at the state Capitol during the vote.

Here is how the impeachment process works in Texas, and how the 60-year-old Republican became just the third official to be impeached in the state’s nearly 200-year history:

THE PROCESS

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As Elizabeth Holmes heads to prison for fraud, many puzzle over her motives

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — As Elizabeth Holmes prepares to report to prison next week, the criminal case that laid bare the blood-testing scam at the heart of her Theranos startup is entering its final phase.

The 11-year sentence represents a comeuppance for the wide-eyed woman who broke through “tech bro” culture to become one of Silicon Valley’s most celebrated entrepreneurs, only to be exposed as a fraud. Along the way, Holmes became a symbol of the shameless hyperbole that often saturates startup culture.

But questions still linger about her true intentions — so many that even the federal judge who presided over her trial seemed mystified. And Holmes' defenders continue to ask whether the punishment fits the crime.

At 39, she seems most likely to be remembered as Silicon Valley’s Icarus — a high-flying entrepreneur burning with reckless ambition whose odyssey culminated in convictions for fraud and conspiracy.

Her motives are still somewhat mysterious, and some supporters say federal prosecutors targeted her unfairly in their zeal to bring down one of the most prominent practitioners of fake-it-til-you-make-it — the tech sector's brand of self-promotion that sometimes veers into exaggeration and blatant lies to raise money.

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Debt-ceiling deal: What's in and what's out of the agreement to avert US default

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached an agreement in principle on legislation to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and avoid a default.

Negotiators are now racing to finalize the bill’s text. McCarthy said the House will vote on the legislation on Wednesday, giving the Senate time to consider it ahead of the June 5 deadline to avoid a possible default.

While many details are unknown, both sides will be able to point to some victories. But some conservatives expressed early concerns that the deal doesn’t cut future deficits enough, while Democrats have been worried about proposed changes to work requirements in programs such as food stamps.

A look at what’s in and out of the deal, based on what’s known so far:

TWO-YEAR DEBT INCREASE, SPENDING LIMITS

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‘Anatomy of a Fall’ wins Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, the 3rd time a woman has won top honor

Justine Triet's “Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in a ceremony Saturday that bestowed the festival's prestigious top prize on an engrossing, rigorously plotted French courtroom drama that puts a marriage on trial.

“Anatomy of a Fall,” which stars Sandra Hüller as a writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband’s death, is only the third film directed by a woman to win the Palme d'Or. One of the two previous winners, Julia Ducournau, was on this year's jury.

Cannes' Grand Prix, its second prize, went to Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” a chilling Martin Amis adaptation about a German family living next door to Auschwitz. Hüller also stars in that film.

The awards were decided by a jury presided over by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund, the Swedish director who won the prize last year for “Triangle of Sadness.” The ceremony preceded the festival's closing night film, the Pixar animation “Elemental.”

Remarkably, the award for “Anatomy of a Fall” gives the indie distributor Neon its fourth straight Palme winners. Neon, which acquired the film after its premiere in Cannes, also backed “Triangle of Sadness,”Ducournau's “Titane” and Bong Joon Ho's “Parasite,” which it steered to a best picture win at the Academy Awards.

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Former US diplomat Henry Kissinger celebrates 100th birthday, still active in global affairs

Former diplomat and presidential adviser Henry Kissinger marks his 100th birthday on Saturday, outlasting many of his political contemporaries who guided the United States through one of its most tumultuous periods including the presidency of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War.

Born in Germany on May 27, 1923, Kissinger remains known for his key role in American foreign policy of the 1960s and 1970s including eventual attempts to pull the U.S. out of Vietnam, but not before he became inextricably linked to many of the conflict's most disputed actions.

David Kissinger, writing in The Washington Post on Thursday, said his father’s centenary “might have an air of inevitability for anyone familiar with his force of character and love of historical symbolism. Not only has he outlived most of his peers, eminent detractors and students, but he has also remained indefatigably active throughout his 90s.”

The elder Kissinger will celebrate this week with visits to New York, London and his hometown of Fürth, Germany, David Kissinger wrote.

In recent years Kissinger has continued to hold sway over Washington's power brokers as an elder statesman. He has provided advice to Republican and Democratic presidents, including the White House during the Trump administration, while maintaining an international consulting business through which he delivers speeches in the German accent he has not lost since fleeing the Nazi regime with his family when he was a teenager.

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Iran exchanges heavy gunfire with Taliban on Afghan border, escalating tensions over water rights

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Taliban and Iran exchanged heavy gunfire Saturday on the Islamic Republic's border with Afghanistan, killing and wounding troops while sharply escalating rising tensions between the two countries amid a dispute over water rights.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency quoted the country's deputy police chief, Gen. Qassem Rezaei, accusing the Taliban of opening fire first Saturday morning on the border of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province and the Afghan province of Nimroz. IRNA said Iran inflicted “heavy casualties and serious damage."

From the Taliban's view, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor accused Iran of shooting first. Takor said the firefight killed two people, one from each country, and wounded others. He described the situation as now being under control.

IRNA, quoting Iranian police, said two border guards had been killed. However, that number may be higher. The semiofficial, English-language newspaper Tehran Times said the fighting killed three Iranian border guards. IRNA said the Milak border crossing with Afghanistan, a major trade route, was closed until further notice over the gunfight.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers dialogue to be a reasonable way for any problem,” Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khawarazmi said in a statement. “Making excuses for war and negative actions is not in the interest of any of the parties.”

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Ed Ames, '50s pop singer with Ames Brothers and '60s TV star in 'Daniel Boone,' dies at 95

Ed Ames, the youngest member of the popular 1950s singing group the Ames Brothers, who later became a successful actor in television and musical theater, has died. He was 95.

The last survivor of the four singing brothers, Ames died May 21 from Alzheimer's disease, his wife, Jeanne Ames, said Saturday.

“He had a wonderful life,” she said.

On television, Ames was likely best known for his role as Mingo, the Oxford-educated Native American in the 1960s adventure series “Daniel Boone” that starred Fess Parker as the famous frontiersman. He also was the center of a bit on “The Tonight Show” that — thanks to his painfully uncanny aim with a hatchet — became one of the show's most memorable surprise moments.

Ames had guest roles in TV series such as “Murder, She Wrote” and “In the Heat of the Night,” and toured frequently in musicals, performing such popular songs as “Try to Remember” and the song that became his biggest hit single, “My Cup Runneth Over.”

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2 horses die from injuries at Churchill Downs, bringing total to 12 at home of Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Two horses have died the past two days following injuries at Churchill Downs, the 11th and 12th fatalities over the past month at the home of the Kentucky Derby.

Mare Kimberley Dream was euthanized after sustaining a distal sesamodean ligament rupture to her front leg during Saturday’s first race. Lost in Limbo was euthanized following a similar injury just before the finish line in Friday’s seventh race.

The track stated in a release that both injuries were “inoperable and unrecoverable.”

As team members mourn the loss of the animals, the statement added, the track is working to determine cause and appropriate investments to minimize risk to the sport and its property.

“We do not accept this as suitable or tolerable and share the frustrations of the public, and in some cases, the questions to which we do not yet have answers,” the statement added. “We have been rigorously working since the opening of the meet to understand what has led to this spike and have yet to find a conclusive discernable pattern as we await the findings of ongoing investigations into those injuries and fatalities.”

News from © The Associated Press, 2023