The crisis is coming to an end: Biden signs a debt limitation agreement
President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan debt limitation package on Saturday afternoon, averting a calamitous default shortly before the nation ran out of maneuvers to pay its bills on Monday. He called the deal he brokered with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy a necessary compromise that protects top Democrat priorities while cutting some of the spending Republicans oppose.
India train disaster kills 275
Rescuers waded through wreckage to remove bodies and free people after two trains collided in India on Friday, killing 275 people and injuring hundreds more in one of the world’s deadliest train disasters since decades. Officials said on Sunday that an error in the electronic signaling system was behind sending a passenger train crammed with workers and students into a head-on crash with a freight train. The collision knocked the Coromandel Express coaches onto another track, causing the Yesvantpur-Howrah Express entering the opposite side to derail. India’s prime minister has promised the “severest punishment” for anyone found responsible for the sinking.
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Arlene, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, weakens into a tropical depression
Tropical Storm Arlene, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, weakened into a tropical depression on Saturday. Arlene initially formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday afternoon and National Hurricane Center officials said it should stay offshore and have minimal impact in Florida or any land area as it meanders to the sea. south. While the first named storm of the 2023 season is Arlene, it is actually the second storm of the year. A system in January was classified in May as an unnamed subtropical storm.
Federal judge rejects controversial Tennessee anti-dragging law, declares it unconstitutional
In a significant victory for LGBTQ advocates, a federal judge has thrown out Tennessee’s controversial law limiting drag performances, after hearings in which the law’s necessity and broad language were questioned. Judge Thomas Parker delivered his decision just after midnight on Friday, writing that “the Court finds that … the Adult Entertainment Act (“AEA”) is an UNCONSTITUTIONAL (sic) restriction on freedom of expression.” The bill banning “male and female impersonators” from performing in public spaces was signed into law by Governor Bill Lee in early March. The bill was one of many to come out of the 2023 legislative session that targeted LGBTQ Tennesseans.
Wildfire near Grayling, Michigan burns over 3,000 acres
Firefighters were working Sunday to contain a wildfire in northern Michigan that grew to more than 3,000 acres a day earlier, officials said. The wildfire near the town of Grayling forced temporary evacuations and closed nearby Interstate 75 for most of Saturday, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said in a news release. I-75 has since reopened and the evacuation order has been lifted.
2024 GOP race heats up as DeSantis shoots Trump
For months Donald Trump was not greatly offended by Ron DeSantis and other Republican presidential candidates. Now it’s on, at least as far as DeSantis is concerned. He made that clear in a string of talk show hits after his announcement and this week’s trips to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, the states that will host the first Republican delegate contests in 2024. “I think his conduct — which he’s been doing for years — I think is one of the reasons he’s not in the White House now,” DeSantis told the host of radio Jack Heath while on tour in New Hampshire.
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This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Contributor: Associated Press.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden signs debt limitation deal, train derailment in India: weekend news