AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EST

Senate eyes vote before midnight on government funding after House approves bill to prevent shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Approaching a midnight government shutdown deadline, the Senate set up votes toward final passage late Friday of a new plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, but drops President-elect Donald Trump’s demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had insisted Congress would “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to shutter ahead of the Christmas holiday season. But the day’s outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — if not, he said in an early morning post, let the closures “start now.”

The House approved Johnson’s new bill overwhelmingly, 366-34. As the Senate worked into the night, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that senators had reached agreement that would skip past procedural hurdles and allow them to pass the funding bill “before the midnight deadline.”

“This is a good outcome for the country, ” Johnson said after the House vote, adding he had spoken with Trump and the president-elect “was certainly happy about this outcome, as well.”

It was the third attempt from Johnson, the beleaguered House speaker, to achieve one of the basic requirements of the federal government — keeping it open. And it raised stark questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job, in the face of angry GOP colleagues, and work alongside Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who called the legislative plays from afar.

___

Government funding difficulties create gloom for federal workers before Christmas

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Johnny Zuagar says he’s tried to hide his worries about a potential government shutdown from his three boys as he weighs how much to spend on Christmas presents.

“I’ve got to keep a poker face,” Zuagar, a statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau, said when thinking about his boys, ages 14, 12 and 6. “You’re just trying to take that worry off of your family.”

Like thousands of federal workers, Zuagar is navigating the holidays with the spirit of the season overtaken by an air of gloom and uncertainty.

The turbulent efforts in Congress to reach an agreement on funding the federal government have cast a cloud over the holidays for many federal workers facing possible furloughs in the days before Christmas. The House on Friday passed a three-month government spending bill just hours before a government shutdown, but its fate in the Senate was uncertain as the deadline loomed.

Many federal workers were already anxious about the possibility of future workforce reductions under the incoming Trump administration.

___

At least 2 dead and 60 hurt after a car drives into a German Christmas market in a suspected attack

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — A car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities called a deliberate attack.

The driver was arrested at the scene shortly after the car barreled into the market at around 7 p.m., when it was teeming with holiday shoppers looking forward to the weekend.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest on a walkway in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone. Other officers soon arrived to take the man into custody.

The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn’t be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.

The violence shocked the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It also prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.

___

Trump was poised to inherit a strong economy. Then things got rocky and he added to the uncertainty

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The smooth economy that Donald Trump was poised to inherit suddenly looks a bit rockier — with critics saying the president-elect is contributing to the uncertainty.

The Dow Jones stock index essentially ended Thursday flat after having posted 10 days of losses. The Federal Reserve now sees inflation as staying stubbornly elevated as it has become cautious about further interest rate cuts planned for next year.

On Wednesday, Trump blew up a bipartisan budget deal, which means the government could shut down after midnight Saturday. He then promoted a deal reached with Republicans on Thursday that Democratic lawmakers and President Joe Biden see as unacceptable. It failed to get the two-thirds threshold needed for House passage. This comes on top of a spate of tariff threats by Trump that the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday would raise prices and hurt growth without raising enough revenues to cover the rest of his planned tax cuts.

As Trump prepares for a second term in the White House, his actions to undo a deal and replace it in under 24 hours test the proposition that markets — a favored Trump barometer of success — will accept his mix of uncertainty and reality TV drama.

But from the vantage of Trump world, the economy was already a mess. That’s because of inflation, which is currently 2.7%, and public dissatisfaction with Biden.

___

Senate approves 235th judge of Biden’s term, beating Trump’s tally

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden secured the 235th judicial confirmation of his presidency Friday, an accomplishment that exceeds his predecessor’s total by one after Democrats put extra emphasis on the federal courts following Donald Trump’s far-reaching first term, when he filled three seats on the Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., teed up votes Friday on two California district judges, and they were the last judicial confirmations this year before Congress adjourns and makes way for a new, Republican-led Senate.

The confirmation of Serena Raquel Murillo to be a district judge for the Central District of California broke Trump’s mark. The tally also marks the largest number of confirmations in a single term since the Jimmy Carter administration. Come next year, Republicans will look to boost Trump’s already considerable influence on the makeup of the federal judiciary in his second term.

Biden and Senate Democrats placed particular focus on adding women, minorities and public defenders to the judicial rank. About two-thirds of Biden’s appointees are women and a solid majority of appointees are people of color. The most notable appointee was Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African American woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.

“When I ran for President, I promised to build a bench that looks like America and reflects the promise of our nation. And I’m proud I kept my commitment to bolstering confidence in judicial decision-making and outcomes,” Biden said in a statement.

___

What will Syria’s future look like? The answer could lie in other Arab countries’ recent pasts

CAIRO (AP) — Even with hopes running high, so much can go wrong when a country ousts a longtime dictator and tries to start anew. The Middle Eastern and North African nations that attempted to transition to democracy in recent years can attest to that.

Now it’s Syria’s turn to try to get it right.

It’s hard to draw lessons from the experiences of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Sudan since the wave of Arab Spring uprisings that began in 2011, as each country’s dynamics are different, But there are common themes.

In some cases, “the Revolution” was lost when armed factions battled it out for power or an ambitious would-be strongman emerged. In others, the miliary refused to cede control to civilians or foreign countries fueled conflicts by backing one side or another with money and weapons.

Questions must be asked before major decisions are made that can spark a destabilizing backlash: How do you deal with the old police state — purge or compromise? What do you do first, hold elections or write a constitution? And how do you fix a crippled economy riddled with corruption?

___

Amazon and Starbucks workers are on strike. Trump might have something to do with it

Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are on strike in a handful of U.S. cities as they seek to exert pressure on the two major companies to recognize them as unionized employees or to meet demands for an inaugural labor contract.

The strikes that started Thursday and Friday followed other recent standoffs between corporate America and organized labor. Large and established labor unions secured meaningful employer concessions this year following strikes by Boeing factory workers, dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports, video game performers, and hotel and casino workers on the Las Vegas Strip.

But workers at Starbucks, Amazon and some other prominent consumer brands still are fighting for their first contracts. Amazon refuses to acknowledge the organizing efforts of drivers and warehouse workers — many of whom have voted to unionize — even though the powerful Teamsters union says it represents them. Starbucks long resisted the unionization of its stores, but had agreed to negotiate a contract by the end of the year.

Strikes — particularly ones that happen during the holidays, a time of high economic activity — can help unions exercise leverage during negotiations or flex their muscles by garnering support from workers and sympathetic consumers.

Both Amazon and Starbucks saw a wave of organizing efforts following the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic focused attention on front-line workers and the impact of economic inequality on the lives of wage-earning Americans.

___

A judge says Missouri’s abortion ban isn’t enforceable, but there’s no start date for abortions

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge ruled Friday that Missouri’s near-total abortion ban is unenforceable under a new constitutional amendment, though Planned Parenthood said the decision is still not sufficient for it to resume providing abortions in the state.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang said the abortion ban “is directly at odds” with a constitutional amendment creating a right to abortion that won voter approval in the November election. The judge also blocked the state from enforcing numerous other abortion restrictions, including a 72-hour waiting period and an informed consent law that required patients to be given certain state-mandated information before receiving an abortion.

But the judge declined to block several other contested abortion laws, including one requiring abortion facilities to be licensed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Planned Parenthood said most of its facilities cannot comply with some of the licensing requirements, including “medically irrelevant” size requirements for hallways, rooms and doors.

“While Planned Parenthood stands ready to start providing abortions in Missouri again as soon as the Court permits, the abortion restrictions remaining in effect — including Missouri’s medically unnecessary and discriminatory clinic licensing requirement – make this impossible,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement Friday night.

Missouri is one of five states where voters approved ballot measures in the 2024 general election to add the right to an abortion to their state constitutions. The Missouri amendment did not specifically override any laws. Instead, advocates had to ask a court to knock down specific laws that they believe are now unconstitutional.

___

Canada’s Trudeau reshuffles his Cabinet as resignation calls mount and new election threat looms

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chances of staying on in power have become more tenuous after the opposition party that backed his government for years announced it will vote no confidence in the government when Parliament resumes.

An embattled Trudeau reshuffled his Cabinet on Friday — but whether he will step aside in the coming days or weeks remains an open question.

Trudeau did not address his future or take questions after he left the meeting with his new Cabinet. But Trudeau said his government is preparing for Donald Trump and his threat to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian products.

“In exactly one month the new president will inaugurated and we are preparing Canada to face that,” Trudeau said in his first remarks to reporters since his finance minister quit.

“Whatever the U.S. administration may do, that is our priority, and that is that we’re working on and we have a lot of work to do.”

___

It’s beginning to look like another record for holiday travel

Drivers and airline passengers without reindeer and sleighs better make a dash for it: it’s beginning to look like another record for holiday travel in the U.S.

The auto club AAA predicts that more than 119 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home between Saturday and New Year’s Day, which would top the previous holiday-season high set in 2019. The two weekends on either side of Christmas look to be some of the most crowded times on the road and at airports.

Trade group Airlines for America also foresees record travel, saying it expected U.S. airlines to carry 54 million passengers during a 19-day period that started Thursday and ends Monday, Jan. 6. The number would represent a 6% increase over last year.

A government shutdown that could start as soon as Saturday would likely be too close to the holidays to immediately affect flights and airport operations, but that might change if a shutdown dragged on.

Airlines expect to have their busiest days on Friday and Sunday, and on Dec. 26, Dec. 27 and Dec. 29. Flight traffic is expected to be light on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The slowest U.S. air-travel day this year — by a wide margin — was Thanksgiving Day.

The Associated Press