Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
The US government shutdown, the longest in the country’s history, could come to an end on Wednesday, US time.
Politicians in the House of Representatives are expected to begin voting at around 5pm DC time (9am Thursday, AEDT) to pass the government’s budget.
Yet, one of the Democratic Party’s senior leaders has said he expects the vast majority of its members to oppose the budget plan, as it doesn’t contain extensions to subsidies used by many Americans to lower their healthcare bills. That’s despite a clutch of Democratic senators paving the way for the shutdown to end.
Wednesday will also see the swearing in of Democrat Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva. That should give the numbers for another issue, which the White House wishes would go away: her vote may see more of the Epstein files released.
The Democrats have released emails which they claim are from Jeffrey Epstein saying Donald Trump “knew about the girls” he was poaching from Mar-a-Lago and that Mr Trump “spent hours” with a victim. A furious White House has said the Democrats are spinning a “fake narrative”.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has indicated he will sue the BBC for $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) after claims it selectively edited his January 6 2021 speech prior to the storming of the US’ Capitol building.
That’s despite his lawyers giving the BBC a list of demands to prevent such an outcome occurring.
Read on for more updates.
