A bill to fund the federal government for the coming weeks did not receive the required 60 votes by the deadline of midnight on Friday.

President Trump accused the Democrats of putting politics above the interests of the American people.

The Democrats blame him for rejecting bipartisan compromise proposals.

Negotiations in both houses of Congress continued on Saturday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the chamber would be back in session on Sunday to try to end the impasse.

The White House budget chief has expressed optimism that a resolution will be found before Monday.

But if not, hundreds of thousands of federal workers face the prospect of no work and shuttered offices at the start of the working week.

The last government shutdown was in 2013, and lasted for 16 days.

Why can the two sides not agree?

This is the first time a government shutdown has happened while one party, the Republicans, controls both Congress and the White House.

The vote on Friday was 50-49, falling far short of the 60 needed to advance the bill. With a 51-seat majority in the Senate, the Republicans did not have enough seats to pass the bill without some support from the Democrats.

They want funding for border security – including the border wall – and immigration reforms, as well as increased military spending.

The Democrats have demanded protection from deportation of more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants who entered the US as children.

The Republicans added a sweetener in the form of a six-year extension to a health insurance programme for children in lower-income families. But Democrats want this programme extended permanently.

Mr Trump accused the Democrats of being “far more concerned with illegal immigrants than they are with our great military or safety at our dangerous southern border”.

But the leading Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, blamed the president, saying Mr Trump was under pressure from “hard-right forces within the administration”.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders warned: “The president will not negotiate on immigration reform until Democrats stop playing games and reopen the government.”

What is a government shutdown?

The US budget must be approved by 1 October – the start of the federal financial year.

But Congress has often failed to meet this deadline and negotiations continue well into the new year, with the previous year’s funding to federal agencies extended on a temporary basis.

Because Congress failed to agree an extension that would have maintained government funding through to 16 February, it means many federal agencies effectively closed for business as of 00:01 on Saturday (05:01 GMT).

Most staff in the departments of housing, environment, education and commerce will be staying at home on Monday. Half of workers in the treasury, health, defence and transportation departments will also not be going to work.

Visa and passport processing could also be delayed, and some national monuments, including New York’s Statue of Liberty, have already been closed.

But essential services that protect “life or human property” will continue, including national security, postal services, air traffic control, inpatient medical services, emergency outpatient medicine, disaster assistance, prisons, taxation and electricity generation.

And the Trump administration said it planned to keep national parks open – their closure in the 2013 shutdown provoked an angry public reaction.

The shutdown began on the first anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration. His trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week has also been called into question.

What happened during the 2013 shutdown?

Many federal employees were forced to take a leave of absence – officially known as being furloughed – during the 16 days of shutdown.

At its peak, some 850,000 employees were off work each day. It cost the government $2bn in lost productivity and led to “significant negative effects on the economy”, the OMB said at the time.

Donald Trump, interviewed by Fox and Friends at the time, laid the blame for the shutdown with the then president, Barack Obama.

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Source: BBC

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“As a result of the issuance of this policy, we are taking steps to dismiss our lawsuit,” Smith said.

The company expects the changes to end the practice of indefinite secrecy orders.

Microsoft filed the lawsuit in April 2016 arguing that the U.S. government was violating the constitution by preventing the company from informing its customers about government requests for their emails and other documents.

The suit argued that the government’s actions were in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which establishes the right for people and businesses to know if the government searches or seizes their property, and the company’s First Amendment right to free speech.

The changes will ensure that secrecy order requests are “carefully and specifically tailored to the facts in the case,” Smith said.

“This is an important step for both privacy and free expression. It is an unequivocal win for our customers, and we’re pleased the DOJ (Department of Justice) has taken these steps to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans,” the statement said.

While Microsoft has agreed to drop its lawsuit, Smith said the company is renewing its call to Congress for the amendment of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act which was adopted in 1986.

The DOJ did not respond to request for comment outside regular business hours.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the Trump administration’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling preventing federal prosecutors from obtaining emails stored in Microsoft computer servers in Dublin, Ireland in a drug trafficking investigation.

Government lawyers argued the lower court ruling threatened national security and public safety.

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Source: Reuters

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Blazer, whose evidence to US investigators helped trigger the Fifa corruption scandal, had been suffering from cancer.

He was a larger-than-life character, and formerly the general secretary of Concacaf, the governing body of North and Central American football.

In 2013 he pleaded guilty to bribery, money laundering and tax evasion.

He was banned from all football activities for life in 2015.

“We are truly saddened by the passing of our client and friend, Chuck Blazer,” his lawyers said in a statement.

“His misconduct, for which he accepted full responsibility, should not obscure Chuck’s positive impact on international soccer.”

The official served on Fifa’s executive committee from 1997-2013, during which time he pocketed millions to fund a globe-trotting VIP lifestyle.

A 2013 report by Concacaf’s integrity committee said he had received more than $20.6m (£16m) in commissions, fees and rental payments from the organisation between 1996 and 2011.

His personal excesses included two apartments in New York’s Trump Tower, one of which was exclusively for his cats.

In his blog Travels with Chuck Blazer and his Friends…, he was pictured enjoying time with football legends like Pele and Bobby Charlton, and other high-profile names like Prince William and Hillary Clinton.

He also introduced readers to his pet parrot, a blue-and-gold macaw named Max Blazer, even uploading a video of the bird dancing on the basket of his mobility scooter in New York’s Central Park.

His luck ran out when he tried to conceal his income after failing to file tax returns from 2005 to 2010.

According to one account, Mr Blazer was arrested by the FBI and an Internal Revenue Service official in 2011 as he rode his scooter to a favourite New York restaurant.

“We can take you away in handcuffs now, or you can co-operate,” he was reportedly told.

Mr Blazer made his choice, and agreed to become an informant to help the US government expose corruption in football.

His information led to charges against 14 other current or former Fifa officials, and contributed to the downfall of Sepp Blatter, the organisation’s president.

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Source: BBC

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This is in addition to a judgement debt payment of £7.3 million made within the same period.

The said payments were as a result of the settlement of disputes and judgement debts between CP and the Government of Ghana over construction works.

Chief Manager of the Banking Department of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Mr Eric Kweku Hammond said this when he testified before the Judgement Debt Commission on Tuesday.

He said the payments were made based on directives from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD).

On the payment of judgement debt to Delta Foods Limited, Mr Hammond told the Commission that on November 24, 1999, BoG received a letter from the CAGD directing them to transfer an amount of Ȼ20.3 billion into the Judicial Service Deposit Account as payment for judgement debt to the company.

He said on March 10, 2000, BoG received another letter from the Judicial Service instructing them to transfer the said amount into the account of Delta Foods Ltd, which was effected on March 15, 2000.

He said based on another court ruling from the United States (US) on the same case, the CAGD again asked BoG to make an offshore payment of $ 4.9 million to Delta Foods Ltd, which was paid in two batches of $ 2.5 million and $ 2.4 million.

Sole Commissioner of the Judgement Debt Commission, Mr Justice Yaw Apau  said the additional payment of $ 4.9 million dollars was incurred by the state, when it delayed in honouring the Ȼ 20.3 billion, which compelled Delta Foods Ltd to take legal action against Ghana in the US to enforce the Ghana court’s ruling.

Counsel for the Commission,  Mr Kofi Dometi Sokpor,wanted to know from the BoG Chief Manager if per chance they came across the reliefs from the courts concerning the matter, to which Mr Hammond answered in the negative.

The Counsel recounted that Delta Foods Ltd imported some grains from the US upon the request of the Government of Ghana, but somewhere along the line the state defaulted in honouring its part of the agreement, which led to the company taking legal action against Ghana.

Also at the Commission’s sitting was Professor Bruce Banoeng-Yakubo, Chief Director of the Ministry of Lands and Forestry to answer questions on the payment of compensations to land owners of Kete Krachi, Makango and Paso, due to the flooding of Volta Lake following the Construction of the Akosombo Dam. The Commission has adjourned sitting to Wednesday June 25.

Source: GNA

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