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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a tart response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual year-end news conference Thursday, hurling a rude epithet at the Kremlin leader in comments online.

During the press conference, Putin boasted about the capability of the Oreshnik, a new nuclear-capable ballistic missile that Russia recently fired at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. He also repeated an earlier threat to strike Ukraine again with the missile, suggesting that it be fired at Kyiv as a test of Western-supplied air defense equipment.

“Let them propose … some kind of technological experiment – a kind of high-tech duel of the 21st century, let’s say,” Putin said. “Let them determine some target to be hit, for example in Kyiv, they concentrate all their air and missile defense forces there, and we will strike there with the Oreshnik. And we’ll see what happens.”

He added: “We are ready for such an experiment. In any case, we don’t rule it out. We will conduct such an experiment, such a technological duel, and see what happens. It’s interesting.”

Zelensky posted an excerpt of those remarks on X, commenting in English: “People are dying, and he thinks it’s ‘interesting’… Dumbass.” He also posted a similar comment in Ukrainian.

Putin appeared to make similarly glib remarks about the war in Ukraine at the beginning of his comments Thursday, intimating that war was making life more interesting.

“You know, when everything is calm, measured, stable, you get bored. Stagnation. You need some action. As soon as the action starts, everything whizzes past your head: seconds, bullets. Unfortunately, bullets are whistling now.”

Putin’s marathon year-end news conference on Thursday consisted of a public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in. The event is staged annually by Putin as a way to show his sweeping control of all aspects of the country.

Russia’s war on Ukraine was a major topic, with Putin keen to emphasize Russia’s recent gains in grinding war of attrition. He also said while he had not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump in over four years, he was “ready” for potential talks with him, amid expectation that the new administration in Washington will push for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.

“You asked what we can offer, or what I can offer to the newly elected President Trump when we meet,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons. “First of all, I don’t know when we will meet. Because he hasn’t said anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him at all in over four years. Of course, I am ready for this at any time, and I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it.”

Asked whether Russia would be in a weaker negotiating position because of recent setbacks in Syria and on the battlefield in Ukraine, Putin replied, “You said that this conversation will take place in a situation when I am in some weakened state… And you, and those people who pay your salaries in the US, would very much like Russia to be in a weakened position.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Malaysia has agreed in principle to resume the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, its transport minister said on Friday, more than 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.

MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the proposal to search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean came from exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which had also conducted the last search for the plane that ended in 2018.

The firm will receive $70 million if wreckage found is substantive, Loke told a press conference.

“Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin,” he said.

“We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families.”

Malaysian investigators initially did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course.

Debris, some confirmed and some believed to be from the aircraft, has washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean.

More than 150 Chinese passengers were on the flight, with relatives demanding compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce and the Allianz insurance group among others.

Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity in 2018 to search in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to $70 million if it found the plane, but it failed on two attempts.

That followed an underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China in a 120,000 square kilometer (46,332 sq mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean, based on data of automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane.

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Ahmad Morjan was desperate to hug his mother for the first time in more than 13 years but, when he reached the door of his childhood home, he found her head to the ground, kneeling in prayer.

Morjan immediately dropped to his knees too and cried “Oh God!” in gratitude for a reunion he believed might never happen.

For a moment, the two remained prostrated before finally embracing and weeping with joy.

The poignant moment, shared on social media, is one of countless homecomings seen across Syria in the wake of its sudden liberation from the Assad dynasty’s rule. A trickle of those forced out of the country by the conflict are returning to what remains of the lives they lived before they fled.

Syria’s 13-year civil war forced 6 million people to become refugees and saw 7 million become internally displaced, according to the United Nations.

Of those who fled the country, one million are expected to return in the first six months of 2025, the UN’s refugee agency said Tuesday, as it appealed for donors to help support their humanitarian needs.

Many have longed to return for years, but in the immediate aftermath of a sudden rebel takeover, not all are keen to hurry back to an unstable country with an uncertain future.

‘It was pure joy’

When the uprising against Assad began in the spring of 2011, Morjan, then an 18-year-old high school student, picked up a camera and started filming the massive demonstrations that rocked his city, Aleppo.

In 2012, Aleppo was split in two – Free Syrian Army rebels wrested control of the eastern portion of the city, while the rest, including Morjan’s neighborhood, remained under government control.

Morjan, hunted and afraid, said he decided to cross battle lines and flee into opposition territory, leaving his family behind.

He threw himself into his work at an activist-run media network, while Syrian troops encircled and besieged the enclave, eventually cutting it off from food, water, medicine, and basic supplies. Barrel bombs, crudely made explosive devices packed into oil barrels and dropped from helicopters, pummeled the quarter of million people trapped in the hellscape.

The international community condemned what it called the “kneel or starve campaign” but, ultimately, Assad got his surrender.

In December 2016, rebel forces and civilians withdrew from the city under an evacuation agreement, and government forces re-established control.

“We are leaving with our dignity,” Morjan said in a video he filmed of the exodus and posted online at the time. “We are leaving with our heads held high, and we will return one day.”

Morjan made his way to Turkey, home to more than 3.2 million Syrian refugees, where he started a family, found a job, and built a life. But Syria was never far from his mind.

On the night that rebels took control of Aleppo this month, on their march to reach the capital and ultimately overthrow Assad, Morjan called his mother and vowed he would return now that his city was “liberated.”

“I cannot describe the feeling of returning home after 13 years of exile,” Morjan said.

“When I finally reached the front door, my legs would no longer carry me. We were so happy and overwhelmed that my mom and I both kneeled and prayed. It was pure joy.”

But despite this happiness his return was fraught, he said, with the knowledge that ex-government forces and shadowy former intelligence officers lurked in the city’s streets. Morjan enjoyed a home-cooked meal, laughed, and chatted with loved ones all evening, then left again first thing in the morning.

Now he is back in Gaziantep, preparing to move permanently back to Aleppo with his wife, who’s also from Syria, and their two young daughters, both born in Turkey, in the next few months.

He knows it will be dangerous and difficult to eke out a living in a country where 90% of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN, but he said it’s worth it.

“I am optimistic about the future, and I have huge hope that the country will be better than before,” Morjan said. “All our efforts, all the blood that was shed for the revolution, will be the seeds that sow a new Syria.”

Revenge killing fears

Hussam Kassas pleaded with his Bedouin smugglers to let him die in the desert. It was a 13-hour walk out of Syria and across the Jordanian border to safety, back in early 2016, but he couldn’t take another step.

Only two months prior, he had undergone surgery to remove shrapnel from his knees, the lingering aftermath of a barrel bomb blast that had torn through his legs.

The human rights activist made it to Jordan and, years later, the United Kingdom granted him and his wife student visas. The young family arrived in Manchester in August 2023, and quickly applied for asylum. Kassas could finally imagine a safe and stable future, but his relief was short-lived.

His application, along with that of tens of thousands of other asylum-seekers across Europe, is now suspended.

The governments of the UK, Austria, Germany, Greece and Sweden and others have announced a pause in the processing of all Syrian asylum requests to allow authorities to reassess the situation on the ground now that the threat of Assad is gone.

But new risks are emerging. The United States, UN, and several countries consider the main group now governing Syria, Hayat-Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a designated terrorist organization. In the wake of the rebels’ lightning advance on the capital, more than a million people fled their homes; most are now internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

UNHCR has said the suspensions are acceptable, as long as no asylum-seekers are forcibly returned to Syria and that they continue to enjoy protections wherever they reside.

Kassas says he fears retribution if he returns to Syria.

He worked as a paramedic and human rights defender in his home province of Daraya, a Damascus suburb, during the civil war. His job was to document potential war crime violations by any party to the conflict – rebel, government or otherwise – and report the cases to international agencies, a role he says puts him at particular risk.

“I do not want my family, my sons, to become the victims of a revenge killing,” Kassas said. “Just because the Syrian president fled the country, that doesn’t mean his soldiers and secret service officers suddenly become peaceful angels.”

He welcomed a second son, born in England, two weeks before his dream of a Syria free of Assad came true.

But that dream has turned into a nightmare for his family. Both his right to work and right to rent permits are set to expire next month, and he worries he could lose his job and his apartment in Manchester if they are not renewed, with his asylum application on hold. He feels under threat, again.

“I chose to take the risk of being a human rights defender and an activist, and I was willing to sacrifice myself to build a better country,” Kassas said. “But I will not let my wife and kids pay for the decisions that I made.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Some House Republicans are privately fuming after Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy got involved in congressional talks on government funding, leading the charge to tank a bipartisan deal.

Several GOP lawmakers granted anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive situation were either frustrated about the pair getting involved or believe they exacerbated long-standing weaknesses within the House Republican Conference.

‘Musk and Vivek should not have jumped in at the 11th hour and should have handled it directly with the speaker. Folks on the same side shouldn’t act like these two,’ one House Republican said. ‘They’re more about the clicks and bright lights than getting the job done. I’ll have nothing to do with them after watching them publicly trash the speaker.’

A second GOP lawmaker said, ‘If Elon and Vivek are freelancing and shooting off the hip without coordination with [President-elect Trump], they are getting dangerously close to undermining the actual 47th President of the United States.’

A third lawmaker accused Ramaswamy of distorting facts.

‘He didn’t read the entire [continuing resolution] and the vast majority of what he was talking about is misinformation,’ they said.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was gearing up to hold a vote on a bipartisan, 1,547-page deal to extend current government funding levels through March 14 – known as a continuing resolution (CR).

The goal was to give congressional negotiators more time to cobble together an agreement on how to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2025, while also kicking the fight into a term where Republicans control the House, Senate and White House.

But GOP hardliners were furious about what they saw as unrelated measures and policy riders being added to the bill at the last minute.

In addition to averting a partial government shutdown through March 14, the bill also includes provisions on health care and ethanol fuel, plus more than $100 billion in disaster aid funding, measures to fund the rebuilding of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge and the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.

Musk and Ramaswamy soon joined the opposition, with Musk even threatening to back primary challengers to Republicans who supported the CR.

Less than 24 hours after the legislation was released, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters the bill was dead.

House GOP leaders have been working toward a plan B, but it’s unclear they’ll get much, if any, Democratic support. 

A fourth House Republican who spoke with Fox News Digital said of Musk’s involvement, ‘I think he influenced weak members who didn’t have direction until he tweeted.’

‘He’s just highlighting bad governance and indirectly a weak legislative branch,’ they said.

Trump, meanwhile, threatened to primary Republicans who supported a ‘clean’ CR without an increase of the debt limit – which expires January 2025.

The issue threw a wrench into negotiations on Wednesday night, given the months-long and politically brutal talks that normally accompany a debt limit increase or suspension.

One Republican bristled at his threat: ‘Trump threatening to ‘primary’ us also reduces his standing with many of us. I don’t want anything to do with him.’

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As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House next month, what sort of foreign policy can Americans expect during his second stint in the Oval Office?

Trump will pursue an ‘America first foreign policy,’ J. Michael Waller, senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy, suggested during an interview with Fox News Digital, describing Biden’s approach as ‘America last.’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is advocating for the soon-to-be commander in chief to significantly increase military spending in a bid to build up the nation’s ‘hard power.’

The long-serving lawmaker is also warning against an isolationist approach to foreign policy, asserting in a piece on Foreign Affairs that ‘the response to four years of weakness must not be four years of isolation.’

‘Trump would be wise to build his foreign policy on the enduring cornerstone of U.S. leadership: hard power. To reverse the neglect of military strength, his administration must commit to a significant and sustained increase in defense spending, generational investments in the defense industrial base, and urgent reforms to speed the United States’ development of new capabilities and to expand allies’ and partners’ access to them,’ McConnell contended.

‘To pretend that the United States can focus on just one threat at a time, that its credibility is divisible, or that it can afford to shrug off faraway chaos as irrelevant is to ignore its global interests and its adversaries’ global designs,’ he argued.

Waller, who authored the book ‘Big Intel,’ explained that America-first foreign policy does not mean isolationism. 

‘It means for the United States to define its national interests very strictly,’ without suggesting that every crisis around the globe is ‘of vital, existential interest to our country,’ he noted.

Waller opined in Foreign Affairs that McConnell was seeking to ‘maintain the uniparty consensus for the United States’ present global commitments that are stretching us beyond our means … without even stepping back to reassess what is really in our national interests and how can we best marshal our resources to ensure them.’

Fox News Digital attempted to reach out to request comment from McConnell, but did not receive a response.

Trump has tapped Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for secretary of state, a choice Waller graded as a ‘really good pick.’ 

Regarding the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, Rubio has said that the U.S. is funding a ‘stalemate war.’

Trump has called for a ceasefire.

‘There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse,’ he declared in a post on Truth Social.

Trump has also called for the release of hostages in the Middle East, warning in a post on Truth Social that if they are not released by when he assumes office, ‘there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America,’ he declared.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday promised to ask former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for help in locating American veteran and journalist Austin Tice following a letter from Tice’s mother pleading for assistance. 

‘I haven’t seen President Assad yet, since he came to Moscow – but I plan to do so. I will have a conversation with him,’ Putin told NBC during a press conference according to a translator, though he appeared to cast doubt on the former president’s ability to help. ‘We are adults, we understand – 12 years ago, a person went missing in Syria, 12 years ago.

‘We understand what the situation was and 12 years ago acts of hostilities were ongoing from both sides. Does President Assad himself know what happened to that U.S. citizen, a journalist who performed his journalistic duty in a combat area?’ he asked before giving a shrug.

‘Nonetheless, I do promise that I will ask this question to him,’ he added. 

Putin’s comments came after Debra Tice on Wednesday appealed to the Kremlin chief in a letter to help find her son who went missing after he was detained in Damascus in August 2012.

The Syrian government for more than a decade refused to negotiate the release of Tice, who was abducted while reporting on the uprising against the Assad regime during the early stages of the Syrian civil war, which ultimately ended earlier this month after the Syrian president was ousted and fled to Moscow. 

‘The current situation in Syria compels us to ask for your help in finding Austin and safely reuniting our family. You have profound connections with the Syrian government, which can be a great benefit for our unrelenting efforts to find our Austin,’ she wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News. ‘In this holiday season of peace and goodwill, we respectfully request your assistance in finding Austin and safely reuniting him with our family.

‘We would, of course, be willing to travel to Moscow or any other place on Earth to put our arms around our precious Austin and bring him home safely,’ she added. 

In an interview with NBC News, Debra defended her decision to write to the authoritarian leader, one of the U.S.’ chief adversaries, and said, ‘Of course I am reaching out to powerful people, so they can help us.’

‘Russia has had a port there in Latakia forever, so I do think they have the ability to know what’s going on the ground. We are still trying to find out where he is,’ she emphasized. 

The State Department has escalated its efforts to find Tice following the fall of the Assad regime, including by offering a $10 million reward for information relating to his release.

‘We have fanned out everywhere with every possible source, every possible actor who might be able to get information,’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday in his interview with MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe,’ in a transcript sent out by the State Department. ‘This involves anyone and everyone who has some relationship with the different rising authorities in Syria. We’ve been in direct contact with them ourselves. We have other partners on the ground, and we’re looking at getting on the ground ourselves as quickly as we can.

‘But the most important thing is this: Any piece of information we get, any lead we have, we’re following it. We have ways of doing that irrespective of exactly where we are,’ Blinken continued. ‘And I can just tell you that this is the number-one priority… to get Austin.’

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The chaotic collapse of the continuing resolution spending bill is putting House Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership under the spotlight and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has floated the idea of replacing him with Elon Musk, President-elect Trump’s pick to co-chair his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Paul took to Musk’s X Thursday morning to pitch the idea of the tech billionaire taking the House Speaker’s gavel, noting that the Speaker does not need to be a sitting member of Congress.

‘The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress… Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk… think about it… nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds),’ wrote Paul, a staunchly libertarian conservative on fiscal matters.

Musk, an outspoken critic of government waste, has weighed in on the spending bill debate and led a conservative revolt against the latest plan due to its bloated spending provisions – calling for lawmakers who supported the bill to lose their seats.

‘Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!’ Musk wrote on X. The legislation has angered conservatives, including President-elect Trump who also called for it to be scrapped. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., confirmed to reporters that the deal was dead while leaving the Capitol on Wednesday night. It came after GOP critics of the spending bill spent much of the day attacking Johnson’s handling of the issue.

It’s unclear if Paul was serious in his suggestion or if the post was made with tongue-in-cheek.

Democratic political strategist Jimmy Williams balked at the idea.

‘Senators should stick to Senating and House Members should stick to their Chamber,’ Williams wrote on X. ‘No House Member gives a damn what a Senator thinks about who should be Speaker.’

However, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., backed the idea.

‘I’d be open to supporting @elonmusk for Speaker of the House,’ Greene wrote on X replying to Paul. ‘DOGE can only truly be accomplished by reigning in Congress to enact real government efficiency. The establishment needs to be shattered just like it was yesterday. This could be the way.’

Johnson ascended to the speakership after former House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted late last year in a move initiated by eight Republican rebels, becoming the first House speaker to be voted out of the position in U.S. history.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D- N.Y., said last week that no Democrats will vote for Johnson’s bill, scheduled for Jan. 3. 

With Republicans set to hold a four-seat majority, Johnson retaining the gavel is not guaranteed.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Wednesday that he won’t vote for Johnson, barring a ‘Christmas miracle.’ Earlier this year, Massie supported Greene in pushing to remove Johnson from the speakership, but the vast majority of members in both parties ultimately voted to spike the ouster effort. 

With Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., saying she will no longer caucus with Republicans while remaining a registered Republican, that may reduce Johnson’s support to a single vote.

Paul is not the only senator to weigh in on Johnson’s leadership.

On Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, took aim at the House Speaker for the chaotic situation playing out on Capitol Hill and suggested change.

‘It’s ridiculous. It’s a horrible plan. I can’t believe that Republican leadership ever cooked it up,’ Hawley told Hannity.

‘Clearly, they didn’t talk to Trump about it, and I tell you what, we need to have a serious look at who’s leading this Congress because if this is the best they could do, I mean, it’s just it’s total incompetence, this is a disaster.’

Hawley said the latest plan would saddle the incoming administration with a ‘terrible spending bill’ and it would need to be revisited again in March.

‘Under this bill, they’d shut the government down again, have to do this all over again, have to raise the debt ceiling again later, the same year.’

‘This bill right here would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit, and the worst part is, it is all for Dem priorities.’

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report. 

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A bill to avert a partial government shutdown that was backed by President-elect Trump failed to pass the House of Representatives on Thursday night.

Congress is inching closer to the possibility of a partial shutdown, with the deadline coming at the end of Friday.

The bill needed two-thirds of the House chamber to pass, but failed to even net a majority. Two Democrats voted with the majority of Republicans to pass the bill, while 38 GOP lawmakers bucked Trump to oppose it.

The margin fell to 174 to 235.

It comes after two days of chaos in Congress as lawmakers fought among themselves about a path forward on government spending – a fight joined by Trump and his allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Meanwhile, the national debt has climbed to over $36 trillion, and the national deficit is over $1.8 trillion.

The legislation was hastily negotiated on Thursday after GOP hardliners led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy rebelled against an initial bipartisan deal that would have extended the government funding deadline until March 14 and included a host of unrelated policy riders.

The new deal also includes several key policies unrelated to keeping the government open, but the 116-page bill is much narrower than its 1,547-page predecessor.

Like the initial bill, the new iteration extended the government funding deadline through March 14 while also suspending the debt limit – something Trump had pushed for.

It proposed to suspend the debt limit for two years until January 2027, still keeping it in Trump’s term but delaying that fight until after the 2026 Congressional midterm elections.

The new proposal also included roughly $110 billion in disaster relief aid for Americans affected by storms Milton and Helene, as well as a measure to cover the cost of rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was hit by a barge earlier this year.

Excluded from the second-round measure is the first pay raise for congressional lawmakers since 2009 and a measure aimed at revitalizing Washington, D.C.’s RFK stadium.

The text of the new bill was also significantly shorter – going from 1,547 pages to just 116.

‘All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

But the bill hit opposition before the legislative text was even released.

Democrats, furious at Johnson for reneging on their original bipartisan deal, chanted ‘Hell no’ in their closed-door conference meeting on Thursday night to debate the bill.

Nearly all House Democrats who left the meeting indicated they were voting against it.

Meanwhile, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus also said they would vote against the bill.

‘Old bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $0 increase in the national credit card. New bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $4 TRILLION+ debt ceiling increase with $0 in structural reforms for cuts. Time to read the bill: 1.5 hours. I will vote no,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on X.

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House Republicans have struck a deal on a backup plan for averting a government shutdown by Friday’s deadline.

Multiple sources told Fox News Digital the deal would extend current government funding levels for three months and also suspend the debt limit for two years, something President-elect Trump has demanded.

Trump praised the deal minutes after Fox News Digital reported its contents.

The deal also includes aid for farmers and roughly $110 billion in disaster relief funding for Americans affected by storms Helene and Milton.

It would also include certain health care provisions, minus reforms to the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) system that some Republicans and Democrats were pushing for but that others vehemently opposed.

‘Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal for the American People,’ Trump wrote of the deal. ‘The newly agreed to American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the Government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes.

‘All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!’.

Meanwhile, the national debt has recently exceeded $36 trillion and continues to grow. The national deficit is over $1 trillion.

Shortly after Fox News Digital’s report, House leaders released the legislative text of the bill. It came in at about 116 pages, a far cry from their original 1,547-page legislation.

It comes after conservatives led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy torpedoed Speaker Mike Johnson’s initial government funding plan Wednesday, prompting fears of a partial government shutdown right before the holidays.

GOP hardliners were furious about what they saw as unrelated measures and policy riders being added to the bill at the last minute.

House Republicans began negotiations for a ‘clean’ bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), but those were also upended when Trump urged GOP lawmakers to pair a CR with action on the debt limit, which was expected to be a contentious battle in the first half of next year.

Musk and Ramaswamy also lent their voices to the fight, with Musk calling on any Republican who supported the deal to lose their House seats.

The original plan, which was bipartisan, was declared ‘dead’ by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., as he left the U.S. Capitol Wednesday night.

In addition to averting a partial government shutdown through March 14, the bill also included a provision to allow for the revitalization of RFK stadium in Washington, D.C.; permits to sell ethanol fuel year-round; and the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009.

House lawmakers may vote on the new bill as early as Thursday evening.

But it’s not immediately clear if it would pass. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who also led opposition to the initial bill, also blasted the new deal.

‘More debt. More government. Increasing the Credit Card $4 trillion with ZERO spending restraint and cuts. HARD NO,’ Roy wrote on X.

And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on the way into a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus, ‘The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It’s laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown.’

Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report

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The House of Representatives is set to imminently vote on a bill backed by President-elect Trump to avert a government shutdown.

It comes after two days of chaos in Congress as lawmakers fought amongst themselves about a path forward on government spending – a fight joined by Trump and his allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Meanwhile, the national debt has climbed to over $36 trillion, and the national deficit is over $1.8 trillion.

The legislation was hastily negotiated on Thursday after GOP hardliners led by Musk and Ramaswamy rebelled against an initial bipartisan deal that would have extended the government funding deadline until March 14 and included a host of unrelated policy riders.

The new deal also includes several key policies unrelated to keeping the government open, but the 116-page bill is much narrower than its 1,547-page predecessor.

Like the initial bill, the new iteration extended the government funding deadline through March 14 while also suspending the debt limit – something Trump had pushed for.

It proposed to suspend the debt limit for two years until January 2027, still keeping it in Trump’s term but delaying that fight until after the 2026 Congressional midterm elections.

The new proposal also included roughly $110 billion in disaster relief aid for Americans affected by storms Milton and Helene, as well as a measure to cover the cost of rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which was hit by a barge earlier this year.

Excluded from the second-round measure is the first pay raise for congressional lawmakers since 2009 and a measure aimed at revitalizing Washington, D.C.’s RFK stadium.

The text of the new bill was also significantly shorter – going from 1,547 pages to just 116.

‘All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country, and vote ‘YES’ for this Bill, TONIGHT!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

But the bill hit opposition before the legislative text was even released.

Democrats, furious at Johnson for reneging on their original bipartisan deal, chanted ‘Hell no’ in their closed-door conference meeting on Thursday night to debate the bill.

Nearly all House Democrats who left the meeting indicated they were voting against it.

Meanwhile, members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus also said they would vote against the bill.

‘Old bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $0 increase in the national credit card. New bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid for), $4 TRILLION+ debt ceiling increase with $0 in structural reforms for cuts. Time to read the bill: 1.5 hours. I will vote no,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on X.

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