US senators began a long weekend Friday that guarantees the government shutdown lasting at least 14 days, with both sides more entrenched than ever and the military facing an unprecedented threat to its pay.Republicans and Democrats have been getting into angry confrontations in the corridors of Congress, with frustration mounting as the crisis over funding the government hits public services harder each day.Pressure is increasing on Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the shuttered lower chamber of Congress back in session to hold an emergency vote on at least providing military pay.But Johnson is sticking to his guns, telling reporters Friday that “we will come back here and get back to legislative session as soon as the Senate Democrats turn the lights back on.”Some 1.3 million active-duty service military personnel are set to miss their pay due next Wednesday — something that has not happened in any of the funding shutdowns through modern history.And with the Senate out until Tuesday next week, there’s little hope for the civilian federal workforce, whose pay has already been hit. “We’re not in a good mood here in the Capitol — it’s a somber day. Today marks the first day federal workers across America will receive a partial pay check,” Johnson said.”Thanks to Democrats’ obstruction to the system here, this is the last pay check that 700,000 federal workers will see until Washington Democrats decide to do their job and reopen the government.”Rising tensions between the two parties have been on full display this week, with Johnson and Democratic senators clashing over the shutdown in front of the gathered press.There was a fiery exchange after a House Democratic leadership press conference when Republican Congressman Mike Lawler needled House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries over his role in the shutdown.Jeffries told Lawler to “keep your mouth shut” as the two traded barbs and later called the Republican a “malignant clown.”    – ‘Tired of the chaos’ -Nonessential government work stopped after the September 30 funding deadline, with Senate Democrats repeatedly blocking a Republican resolution to reopen federal agencies.The sticking point has been a refusal by Republicans to include language in the bill to address expiring subsidies that make health insurance affordable for 24 million Americans.With a prolonged shutdown looking more likely each day, members of Congress have been looking to Republican President Donald Trump to step in and break the standoff.Trump has been largely tuned-out, with his focus on the Gaza ceasefire deal and sending federal troops to bolster his mass deportation drive in Democratic-led cities such as Chicago and Portland.”Donald Trump can find the time to play golf, but he can’t be bothered negotiating a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government… and House Republicans remain on vacation for three weeks,” Jeffries told a news conference.”The American people are sick and tired of the chaos, crisis and confusion that has been visited upon the country by Donald Trump and Republican complete control of Congress.”

US President Donald Trump said Friday he no longer feels a summit is necessary with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this month, slamming Beijing for hostile trade practices and threatening “massive” tariffs.”Some very strange things are happening in China! They are becoming very hostile,” Trump said in a long post on Truth Social that railed against China imposing export controls on rare earth minerals — a critical component in modern technology.”I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so,” he added in the post, which he sent as he headed for a medical check-up at a military hospital near WashingtonTrump said China had sent letters to countries around the world detailing export controls on “each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China.””There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive,’ but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time,” Trump wrote, adding that Beijing had been “lying in wait” despite what he characterized as six months of good bilateral relations.Rare earth elements are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology. China dominates global production and processing of these materials.”One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” Trump said, adding that he was considering “many other countermeasures.”Trump said other countries had contacted the United States expressing anger over China’s “great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere.”The president added that he had not spoken to Xi about the matter.He characterized China’s approach as building monopoly positions on magnets and other elements, calling it “a rather sinister and hostile move, to say the least.”

Mark Bray, a US university professor and expert on the loosely organized left-wing Antifa movement says he has fled the country after receiving death threats, amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on opponents.Bray, 43, has written several books on the nebulous, self-described “anti-fascist” movement, which the Trump administration has classified as a terrorist group.”The whole thing has been very stressful, even more stressful having small children — my whole life has been turned on its head,” Bray, a history professor at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, told AFP in an interview.Fearing for their safety, Bray and his family flew to Spain on Thursday evening.Trump and his supporters “are trying to expand this term ‘Antifa’… and they’re trying to apply this to basically anyone they don’t like,” Bray said.”It is particularly easy to try and label me… the guy who wrote the book about it.”- ‘I’m a researcher’ -Bray acknowledged his history with the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City in 2011, but stressed that he had “never been part of an anti-fascist group.””I’m not now, and I don’t intend to be. I support anti-fascism, broadly construed, I detest fascism, but in this capacity, I’m a researcher,” he said.Bray said he was first targeted on X following the September 10 murder of pro-Trump conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.Far-right activist Jack Posobiec labeled him online a “domestic terrorist professor,” while Andy Ngo, a conservative content creator, accused him of being a “militant anti-fascist activist.” Both took part in a White House round table discussion on the “Antifa threat” this week.After those social media posts, Bray began receiving death threats, he said, including one “saying that someone was going to kill me in front of my students,” and a threatening email with his home address.”At that point, I decided I wanted to leave the country for the safety of my family,” he said.- ‘Without fear’ -A petition calling for Bray’s dismissal was launched last week by the Rutgers University chapter of Turning Point USA, the right-wing organization founded by Kirk, and has gained more than 1,000 signatures.Bray also appears on a “watch list of professors” maintained by Turning Point USA.In a statement, a Rutgers University spokesperson said the “institution is committed to providing a secure environment — to learn, teach, work, and research, where all members of our community can share their opinions without fear of intimidation or harassment.”Turning Point USA and the student behind the petition have not responded to AFP’s request for comment.Since his return to power in January, Trump has launched an offensive against universities, with a series of shock decisions that have unsettled the scientific and academic community, pushing some professors to announce plans to move abroad.