US Congress approves stopgap funding bill, averts govt closure

The US Congress approved a stopgap funding bill on Thursday in a rare show of cross-party unity to keep federal agencies running into 2022 and avert a costly holiday season government shutdown.

With the clock ticking down to the 11.59 pm Friday deadline, the Senate voted by 69 to 28 to keep the lights on until February 18 with a resolution that had already advanced from the House.

The “continuing resolution” avoids millions of public workers being sent home unpaid with Christmas approaching, as parks, museums and other federal properties and services closed.

Congress watchers had expected to see the resolution getting a rough ride in the Senate, where a small group of hardline Republicans threatened to tank the measure in protest over the White House’s pandemic response.

US bill may ban imports from China’s Xinjiang

The US House of Representatives is set to consider a bill as soon as next week that would ban imports from China’s Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labour, Representative Jim McGovern, the bill’s sponsor, told reporters on Thursday.

“Next week is an important week for human rights,” McGovern said. “... We think it’s important to move some China legislation, hopefully much of it focused on human rights. The Uighur Forced Labour Prevention Act we want to see that get over the finish line in some form.”

President Joe Biden is hosting a summit of democracies next week, seen as an effort to push back against China’s growing influence.

Republicans and Democrats have been arguing over the Uighur legislation for months.

Separately, the US military flew a record number of spy planes over the South China Sea in November, a Chinese think tank says, as tensions between the world’s two largest economies simmer. US aircraft carried out 94 sorties last month, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative said in a post on its verified Weibo account. That was a 25% increase from the February record, according to figures provided by the group, which has reported data on activity on the body of water since 2019.

China has imposed a customs block on Lithuanian exports, a Lithuanian trade body said on Friday, amid a deepening spat between Beijing and Vilnius about the Baltic state’s decision to allow Taiwan to open a de facto embassy. China downgraded its ties with the Baltic state and suspended consular services after the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania opened on November 18.