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By Abigail Summerville and Anirban Sen NEW YORK U.S. grains merchant Bunge Ltd is putting the final touches

Far-right members of Congress are blocking legislation in the House of Representatives in retaliation after the passage of a bipartisan agreement to lift the debt ceiling. The rebellion began earlier this week, when members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus voted against a rule to advance a bill that would prevent government action on gas stoves. Every Democrat voted against the bill, along with 12 Republicans, making it the first time a rule to pass a piece of legislation had failed to pass on the House floor since 2002. Many of the Republicans who opposed the rule also opposed the agreement to lift the debt limit, such as Reps Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Chip Roy (R-TX) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO). Mr Gaetz said the blockade came in retaliation for the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement that House Republican leadership brokered with the White House that passed last week. “When Speaker McCarthy and House GOP Leadership couldn’t hold the line on spending, they surrendered the ability to exclusively hold the floor,” Mr Gaetz tweeted. “We are going to #HoldTheFloor and refuse to allow their failure theater to continue to play out.” “All we are asking is that Speaker McCarthy abide by the spending commitments he previously made,” Rep Ken Buck (R-CO) tweeted. “That’s not an unreasonable ask.” As a result, the House dismissed itself for the rest of the week and will not convene until Monday 12 June for votes. The logjam led to House Republican leadership blaming each other. “We’ve been through this before; you know we’re in a small majority,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said, The New York Times reported, also taking a swipe at House Majority Leader Steve Scalise for the failure to control procedure. “The majority leader runs the floor,” he told reporters. Many House conservatives said that Mr McCarthy broke a series of promises he made to them in January of this year, when they forced the House to go into 15 rounds before he became speaker. Mr Scalise said he was not privy to those negotiations with conservatives in an interview with Punchbowl News. “So I still don’t know what those agreements were,” he said. “Whatever they are, [conservatives] feel that the agreements were broken. That’s got to get resolved. Hopefully it does.” Read More Gaetz and Boebert vow to force McCarthy into ‘monogamous relationship’ Lauren Boebert claims she missed vote on debt ceiling deal because it was a ‘c**p sandwich’ Richard Snyder, ‘warrior-king’ of publishing who presided over rise of Simon & Schuster, dead at 90 Senators call on TikTok CEO to explain 'inaccurate' statements about how company manages US data Judge rules to release names of Rep. Santos bond cosigners, will say secret for now as appeal mulled

By Dave Graham MEXICO CITY Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador this week intervened in the increasingly fractious

A bipartisan group of lawmakers will introduce a bill on Thursday to ban the sale of bump stocks and other devices that enable semi-automatic firearms to increase their rate of fire and effectively operate as fully automatic weapons, the bill's lead sponsor told CNN.

The wildfire smoke that originated from Canada shrouded some major US cities on the Eastern Seaboard, leaving millions at risk of breathing unhealthy air and prompting the cancellation of outdoor activities ranging from school recess to Major League Baseball games.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will hold talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as Pretoria considers switching the

Watch live as Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak hold a press conference after their meeting at the White House on Thursday (8 June). The war in Ukraine and artificial intelligence (AI) were two topics expected to be high on the agenda in their talks, which took place in Washington DC. Mr Biden and Mr Sunak met days after the Nova Kakhovka dam, which lies along the Dnipro river in Russia-held Kherson, was blown up. As a result of the incident, water gushed into nearby villages and towns in the region with a 42,000-strong population at risk of losing their homes, food, safe water and livelihoods. Ukraine has blamed Russia for an attack on the dam, and Mr Sunak said earlier this week that the destruction would be “new low” if Moscow was indeed responsible. “What I can say is if it is intentional, it would represent, I think, the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war, and just would demonstrate the new lows that we would have seen from Russian aggression,” he said. Read More Budget 2022: Hunt says UK in recession as he announces huge tax rises Jeremy Hunt increases energy windfall tax in budget Jeremy Hunt freezes tax allowances and hits 45p rate payers

Donald Trump has praised the life of Christian televangelist Pat Robertson, even though he once said that the former president was living in an “alternate reality.” Robertson died at the age of 93 at his home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Thursday morning, according to the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). The conservative broadcaster himself ran unsuccessfully ran for president in 1988, finishing behind behind both George HW Bush and Bob Dole. “Today the World lost an incredible and powerful Voice for Faith and Freedom. Pat Robertson showed us that Belief in God produces results that can change the course of History,” wrote Mr Trump on his Truth Social platform. “Pat’s legacy lives on in the many endeavors and lives that he touched. He will be greatly missed. Our hearts and prayers are with his Family!” Mr Robertson predicted that Mr Trump would beat Joe Biden for the White House in 2020, but then criticised him when he refused to accept his defeat. He made his “alternate reality” comment in an interview with CBN as Mr Trump filed a desperate and unsuccessful Supreme Court challenge to Mr Biden’s win in December 2020. “You’ve had your day and it’s time to move on,” Mr Robertson said of Mr Trump. “I had prayed and hoped that there might be some better solution, but I don’t think … I think it’s all over.” Mr Robertson also incorrectly predicted that vice president Kamala Harris would take over from Mr Biden “not too long after the inauguration.” Regent University in Virginia, which Robertson founded, also released a statement saying it was mourning his loss. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved founder,” said Regent University executive vice president for academic affairs William Hathaway. “Dr Robertson was a globally-renowned leader, broadcaster, philanthropist, educator, author, accomplished businessman, and – most importantly – a faithful servant of God who dedicated his life to glorifying the Lord and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Read More Trump in ‘alternate reality’, says televangelist Pat Robertson, as he advises president against 2024 run Trump news – live: Grand jury indictment looms as Trump protests innocence over classified documents Trump knew how to correctly declassify documents, White House official tells prosecutors Why was Tucker Carlson fired from Fox News? Chris Christie hits back at Trump’s mockery over his weight: ‘He’s such a spoiled baby’ ‘Small, pathetic man’: Inside the bitter rivalry between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom

US President Joe Biden accidentally called UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “Mr President” as the two met in the Oval Office of The White House during Mr Sunak’s two-day visit to Washington, DC. “Well Mr President ...I just demoted you, Mr Prime Minister,” Mr Biden said as he quickly corrected himself. Mr Biden assured Mr Sunak that the US-UK special relationship is in “real good shape” and that the US has no “closer ally than Great Britain,” adding that he was “delighted” to see the prime minister in the US capital. Mr Sunak welcomed Mr Biden’s “warm words” and lauded the “strength of our partnership, our friendship”. “We will put our values front and centre as we’ve always done,” he said. Mr Biden mentioned that Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt met in the very same place more than seven decades before, according to the Mirror. “They asserted to the strength of the partnership between Great Britain and the United States with the strength of the free world. I still think there’s truth to that assertion,” he said. Mr Sunak recalled that Mr Churchill was once found wandering the halls of the White House in the middle of the night, joking that he wouldn’t be. He has been staying at the presidential guest house, Blair House, during his hectic visit. The US government bought the property after Eleanor Roosevelt discovered Mr Churchill carrying a cigar as he headed towards the private area of the first family at about 3am. “There’s an awful lot of stories that are told, probably a bunch apocryphal about former prime ministers,” Mr Biden said. “Wondering around at 3am in the morning? Winston Churchill bothering Mrs Roosevelt,” Mr Sunak said. “Sir, don’t worry, you won’t see me there bothering you and the First Lady.” “In the past few months we have met each other in San Diego and then we met in Belfast and we met Hiroshima,” Mr Biden noted. “And now we’re here we’re going solve all the problems of the world in the next 20 minutes.” “Together, we’re providing economic humanitarian aid and security assistance to Ukraine in their fight against the Russians,” the president added. Mr Sunak said that “it’s daunting to think of the conversations that our predecessors had in this room when they had to speak of wars that they fought together, peace won together, incredible change in the lives of our citizens”. “And again, for the first time in over half a century, we face a war on the European continent,” he added in reference to Russia’s war in Ukraine. “And as we’ve done before, the US and the UK, have stood together to support Ukraine and stand up for the values of democracy and freedom and make sure that they prevail, as I know we will.” Read More Budget 2022: Hunt says UK in recession as he announces huge tax rises Jeremy Hunt increases energy windfall tax in budget Jeremy Hunt freezes tax allowances and hits 45p rate payers Watch live as Biden and Sunak hold press conference after White House talks Leaders reflect on Churchill’s early hours visits to Roosevelt Government must ‘speed up and scale up’ AI in education – Lord Hague

The worst Canadian wildfire season in recorded history spread an orange haze from Massachusetts to South Carolina and

A blanket of heavily polluted air covering much of the eastern US is likely to last until Tuesday,

A White House official who testified to the Justice Department regarding both Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials told the agency that the 45th president understood the process for correctly declassifying those papers, according to CNN. CNN reports that the official, whose name was not published, told prosecutors about a 2018 instance in which Mr Trump directed his team to go through the correct process for declassifying a document, a memo relating to the Russia investigation. That experience could undercut any potential arguments from Mr Trump’s lawyers insisting that their client did not know or care about learning the correct procedure; so far, Mr Trump has insisted that he had issued an order to automatically declassify any documents taken from the White House — an explanation rejected by former Trump White House staff. His attorneys have claimed that the classified documents were taken inadvertantly. In general, the former president has raged against the DoJ’s multiple investigations into his activities, which include his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and actions on January 6. He has consistently argued that the lack of scrutiny into Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials is evidence of a double standard, though notably Mr Biden’s team is reported to have been much more forthcoming once they discovered documents at their client’s residence and office at a DC-based think tank. Mr Trump’s team has been engaged in a dispute with the federal government over the full return of documents retained from the White House for months; just recently, the DoJ subpoenaed the Trump team for any documents regarding potential plans for an invasion of Iran. The sheer extent of Mr Trump’s trove and his continued insistance to be its rightful owner has proved to be a headache for the ex-president’s legal team as the DoJ’s special counsel overseeing the probe, Jack Smith, nears a decision on whether to file charges. The former president was first reported by The Independent this week to have received a letter indicating that he was the target of the investigation, and would likely soon be charged. That set off another wave of condemnations from the Mar-a-Lago monarch on Truth Social, as he rages that the investigations are a supposed attempt to block his return to power. “Wow, this is turning out to be the greatest & most vicious instance of ELECTION INTERFERENCE in the history of our Country. Remember, I’m leading DeSanctimonious BIG in the Polls but, more importantly, I’m leading Biden by a lot. Also, & perhaps most importantly, they are launching all of the many Fake Investigations against me RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF MY CAMPAIGN, something which is unheard of & not supposed to happen. DOJ, FBI, NEW YORK A.G., NEW YORK D.A., ATLANTA D.A. FASCISTS ALL!” wrote Mr Trump on Wednesday. Read More Republicans abruptly drop plans to level contempt charges against FBI chief Christopher Wray Pence calls on DoJ not to indict Trump but stops short of saying he’d pardon him if elected in 2024 Trump’s ex-adviser Steve Bannon subpoenaed by Jack Smith’s Jan 6 probe, says report