United States Facing Possible Default as June 1 Deadline Approaches: Negotiations Continue with Republican Leaders

The United States in possible default as of June 1. The Treasury Department on Monday confirmed an estimate published in early May that the world’s largest economy could find itself unable to honor its financial commitments from the beginning of June. Joe Biden is due to meet with parliamentary opposition leaders, including House of Representatives boss Kevin McCarthy, on Tuesday to try to avoid such a scenario. The Democratic president and the elected officials had initially planned to meet last Friday, after a first round of discussions without much progress on May 9. But the meeting was postponed, and the teams of the various protagonists have been negotiating ever since. According to information from Washington Post who interviewed three sources familiar with the matter, the White House recently “gave Republican leaders in Congress a list of proposals regarding the possibility of eliminating certain tax loopholes […]. But the Republican negotiators rejected everything”. Joe Biden said to himself on Sunday “optimistic”. But Kevin McCarthy spoke to him on Monday about “positions (which) are still very far apart”.

Russia says it intercepted two NATO planes. Moscow said on Monday that it took off one of its warplanes to meet two military planes, French and German, over the Baltic Sea, which it said were going “violating the border” Russian, reports The National. “After the foreign military planes turned back […]the Russian fighter safely returned to the airfield”, said the Russian Ministry of Defense on Telegram. According to the ministry, the two devices in question are a P-3C Orion patrol boat from the German navy and an Atlantique 2 anti-submarine surveillance device from the French navy. The Russian border was not violated, he said. Incidents involving Russian planes and aircraft from NATO countries have multiplied in recent years, even before the start of the conflict in Ukraine. In March, Russian fighters went to meet an American Reaper MQ-9 drone in the Black Sea, which after their maneuvers crashed into the sea. The incident had caused a bout of tension between Washington and Moscow.

At least 6 dead in hotel fire in New Zealand. The fire broke out overnight from Monday to Tuesday in this four-storey building in central Wellington. Firefighters reported 52 people rescued, some of whom had taken refuge on the roof. But dozens more are still missing. “It is an absolute tragedy”Prime Minister Chris Hipkins reacted on Tuesday. According to New Zealand Heraldthe fire started in a building built in the 1960s which “did not have sprinklers”.

In the Netherlands, wind turbines stopped to let migratory birds pass, a “first”. The blades located in the North Sea, off the villages of Borssele and Egmond aan Zee, stopped spinning for a few hours last weekend when a massive bird migration was expected at that time, the Dutch government announced on Monday. The latter boasted of an unprecedented initiative at the global level. This first shutdown is part of the pilot phase of a measure that is to be implemented regularly from autumn. According to NL Times, “Bird migration has become easier to predict since a PhD student at the University of Amsterdam last year created an accurate model to better predict migration times about two days in advance.”