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The U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington, on Dec. 20, 2024. (Richard Pierrin/AFP via Getty Images)

Congress passed a last-minute spending package to extend government funding to March 14.

President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill on Saturday.

The American Relief Act passed the Senate in a late-night 85–11 vote that technically wrapped up after the government had gone into a shutdown at 12:00 a.m. ET on Dec. 21. The House passed the same bill in a 366–34 vote late in the afternoon on Dec. 20.

The passage of the legislation by both chambers of Congress caps off a week of uncertainty as lawmakers sought to reorganize following the collapse of a previous funding agreement.

Aside from punting government funding into next year, the 118-page bill includes $110 billion in emergency hurricane relief, extends the farm bill for one year, and includes a series of other minor provisions.

“This is America First legislation, because it allows us to be set up to deliver for the American people [in January],” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said following the lower chamber’s passage of the legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated he wasn’t thrilled about the package, but was happy an agreement had been reached.

“We got some major things we wanted in the bill, particularly disaster relief … we kept the government open, and we didn’t get the debt ceiling,” Schumer said. “So there were three major victories. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but I think if you look at the vote in the House, people felt pretty good it was virtually unanimous.”

Absent from the proposal is any mention of the debt ceiling. President-elect Donald Trump called on Johnson to use the lame duck session to suspend or raise the debt ceiling to deprive Democrats of policy leverage in the next Congress.

However, both House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) expressed opposition to such a move. (More)

More Politics

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a candlelight vigil in memory of those who died due to the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution, at the National Mall in Washington on July 20, 2023. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

An ever-growing lineup of whistleblowers has identified the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the culprit behind an avalanche of attacks on Falun Gong practitioners in America as well as companies they founded to raise awareness about the persecution they face in China.

The attacks adopt various tactics and forms, showcasing the range of the CCP toolkit for using American institutions and silencing its critics.

One of the companies targeted by the CCP, Shen Yun Performing Arts, produces acclaimed classical Chinese dance shows presented around the world under the tagline “China before communism.” It was founded by practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline who fled religious persecution in China.

Shen Yun, and Falun Gong more broadly, have been under constant attack in the United States over the past few years. The methods employed included bomb threats, mass shooting threats, social media trolling, impersonation, lawsuits, media smears, and physical attacks.

Over the past six months, multiple CCP whistleblowers have come forward, warning that the attacks are orchestrated by the CCP as part of a new campaign to “eliminate” Falun Gong not just in China, but also in the United States and other countries around the world.

The campaign was personally ordered by CCP leader Xi Jinping at an October 2022 secret meeting.

The head of China’s Ministry of State Security, Chen Yixin, personally oversees the campaign, according to one whistleblower, though other agencies are also involved, such as the Ministry of Public Security.

The campaign is particularly pernicious for utilizing the ministry’s undercover operatives in the United States, the whistleblower said.

“Once these people are mobilized, the threat is very high.” (More)

More U.S. News

Security forces members stand guard at the entrance of a Christmas market where a car crashed into a crowd injuring more than 60 people in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on early Dec. 21, 2024. (John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images)

A Saudi man plowed a car into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least 2 people and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities are calling an attack.

The driver of the car has been arrested, reported DPA, Germany’s national news agency. While city and state officials have described the incident as an attack, police have yet to confirm whether it was intentional.

The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006, according to Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt. He has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 23 miles south of Magdeburg.

Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters, “As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city.”

Fifteen of the injured were hurt very seriously, according to government officials and the city government’s website.

Haseloff said that the two people confirmed to have died were an adult and a toddler, and that he couldn’t rule out further deaths.

“Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many,” he said. (More)

More World News:

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🎤 Interview: 45 Hongkongers, 250 Years: The Grim Realities of Hong Kong’s Political Trials–Mark Clifford (Watch on EpochTV)

🍿 Documentary: Song of Life follows the Israeli Philharmonia Singers choir on a tour to Poland, where they perform at a ceremony marking 60 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. (Watch free on Ganjing World)

✍️ Opinion: This Is Not Government as Usual by Jeffrey Tucker

🍵 Health: The Surprising Link Between Emotion and Heart Wellness

💛 Inspiration: Jared Guynes from Texas spent two years secretly restoring his dad’s dream car: a 1967 marina blue Chevrolet Camaro. His dad, Earl Guynes, had given up his beloved Camaro over 41 years ago to raise his young family.

📷 Photo of the Day: Young boys box in Mamouzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Dec. 20, 2024. 👇

Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images

Our photography editors comb through the best images in the world every day. See their picks for today here ➞

The bells of Christmas echo in J.R.R. Tolkien’s rediscovered poem.

In early 2013, fans of the epic fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkienreceived exciting news: Two previously lost poems by the Oxford don had been discovered in an obscure, 1936 school journal.

A school journal might seem an unusual outlet for the work of a distinguished Oxford Professor. But in 1936, Tolkien was still an obscure author. His first notable work, “The Hobbit,” would not appear until the following year.

His traditional style of verse made it hard for Tolkien to publish in more notable literary journals, which were preoccupied with the stylish literary modernism of the period. It’s possible that Tolkien knew some of the staff at the school, making it an obvious place to publish.

Whatever the case, we’re lucky to have recovered the lovely little Christmas meditation “Noel.” Unlike most of Tolkien’s body of work, this poem is explicitly Christian.

Tolkien’s Catholic faith informed all his literary work, but here that influence is unmistakable and direct. Even so, the poem’s setting and imagery make it at home with Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy work.

Read the full story by our colleague Walker Larson here.

Spot the Difference is our readers’ favorite. Play it here.

Play more games at Epoch Fun ➞

Thanks for reading.

Have a wonderful day.

—Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li.

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