The Senate has passed a bipartisan agreement forged by US president Joe Biden and House speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the $31.4 trillion US debt ceiling after the deal survived a Republican rebellion in the House of Representatives. The Fiscal Responsibility Act, which will also implement new federal spending cuts, cleared the lower chamber with 314 votes in favour and 117 against on Wednesday night. The narrowness of its passage through the House was made possible through the support of Democrats, who stepped in to thwart a Republican rebellion that badly undermined Speaker McCarthy’s claims to control over his increasingly divided party. On Thursday, the Senate rejected 11 proposed amendments before passing the bill 63 for to 36 against. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer will now send the bill to President Biden’s desk for his signature. Full congressional approval was required before Monday 5 June, when the Treasury Department was expected to run out of funds to pay its debts for the first time in American history. Read More Underestimated McCarthy emerges from debt deal empowered as speaker, still threatened by far right Lauren Boebert didn’t turn up to vote on debt ceiling deal she furiously campaigned against What’s next for Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal as Senate races to beat default deadline?

A federal judge in Florida didn’t immediately set a trial date in the classified documents prosecution against Donald

Israeli forces engaged in heavy fighting with Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip overnight as the US said

The Pumpkin Spice Latte is coming back, again.

Chinese property shares are poised to enter a bull market for the first time this year on continued

U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Thursday, a day after minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy

By Katya Golubkova TOKYO Oil prices weakened on Wednesday, extending falls to a third straight day, as the

A US federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked Microsoft from completing its $69 billion buyout of gaming giant Activision Blizzard...

By Mark Miller An important Biden administration effort to control the soaring cost of prescription drugs made headlines

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has stopped working. The site broke hours after Elon Musk said that he is planning to force everyone to pay for access to the site. Some parts of X continued to load, for some people. But users had problems with much of the site, including loading tweets and their timelines. Tracking website Down Detector showed a huge influx of reports of problems on Tuesday afternoon, across the world. That site depends on reports from X, and so may experience problems itself. Mr Musk told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the subscription fee was necessary to avoid “vast armies of bots” that he claimed have taken over the service. “We’re actually going to come up with a lower tier pricing... we just want it to be a small amount of money,” he said. “This is a longer discussion, but, in my view, this is actually the only defence against vast armies of bots.” Ever since completing his takeover of the platform formerly known as Twitter last year, the Tesla and SpaceX boss has spoken extensively about wanting to boost X’s income through new revenue streams, including subscription models. When launching Twitter Blue - now known as X Premium - a number of features which had previously been free to all users were placed behind the subscription paywall in an effort to spark more sign-ups for the paid version of the site. The need for new, different forms of income has become vital for Mr Musk after X advertising revenue plummeted in the wake of his takeover amid concern over his support for absolute free speech and more relaxed content moderation as a result. A number of advertisers went on to reduce or completely stop their advertising on the site. Mr Musk has previously said several campaign groups have falsely accused him and X of being antisemitic, costing the site millions in lost revenue because of advertising boycotts as a result. In his conversation with Mr Netanyahu, the Israeli leader said he knows Mr Musk is “committed” to stopping antisemitism after the billionaire reiterated he is against hate speech. Additional reporting by agencies Read More How does Russell Brand make money online? Elon Musk wants all Twitter users to pay a monthly fee Elon Musk’s X finally agrees to try and settle Twitter’s mass layoffs lawsuit Twitter rival Bluesky hits new milestone Famed tech journalist deletes X account with epic rant at Elon Musk Why is Elon Musk obsessed with the letter X?

Derivative contracts with a notional value of about $7.5 billion traded in Singapore will shift to India as

Asian shares face headwinds Monday after the rally in US bonds and stocks hit a wall Friday amid