Government shutdown live updates: Spending bill passes Senate and goes to Biden for approval

A partial government shutdown is looming over the United States right before the holidays due to disagreements over a spending bill in Congress and lawmakers have until Friday night to figure it out.

If a spending bill finally does pass, federal agencies would be funded until mid-March.

But if it reaches midnight and there is still no deal, some federal services will be temporarily sidelined or federal workers will go unpaid.

Here’s Ariana Baio on how a government shutdown could impact Americans’ holiday plans.

Republican Lisa Murkowski has been speaking just now to The Independent’s Eric Garcia on the chaos in Congress and tells him she has four flights home for Christmas booked and has already had to cancel one.

“I’m reading whatever you guys are writing,” she said of the struggle to stay abreast of developments.

On Elon Musk’s influence over the incoming Trump administration, Murkowski said: “I guess that’s the power of an influencer. I mean, you know, you would think that there’s value in your election certificate, that we’re back here to do the work – and we will do the work.

“But this is obviously a level of influence that we saw the impact of yesterday.”

Her Kentucky counterpart Rand Paul tells The Indy that he thinks Chuck Schumer will pass a spending bill to keep the government open and then kick it to the House.

“I think Schumer eventually will pass something here, and that it’ll go over there and it’ll pass over there,” he said.

Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester was more blunt, telling us: “Look, the House has taken orders from the unelected false president Elon Musk.

“That’s the kind of s*** you run into when you start listening to people who aren’t elected.

“They need to get their heads out of the back end of whoever they got it up and get the job done.”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders adds: “You have Elon Musk, an unelected official telling Republicans what they have to do and threatening to primary them if they don’t obey his wishes, you’re really seeing the power of oligarchy and the power of big money.”

The incoming president and his acolytes are promising retribution for critical journalists, writes Alan Rusbridger.

It is already having a chilling impact – and poses grave threats to the future of the free press.

Fresh from spoiling Christmas for America’s congressmen and women, the Big Tech mogul has described the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the country’s “saviour”, sparking calls from Berlin for him to “stay out” of its politics.

Honestly, couldn’t he just take up tennis or something?

Here’s Tom Watling’s report.