U.S. and world news for May 31

House vote on debt: The House votes today on the deal to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its bills because it has hit the debt ceiling. The deal negotiated by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suspends the debt ceiling for two years while also making some cuts to President Biden’s proposed budget that Republicans wanted. A bipartisan vote to approve the deal is expected with far right Republicans expected to vote “no.” McCarthy said today he has the votes needed for passage. After House passage, the legislation goes to the Senate.

Spy satellite: North Korea tried and failed to put a spy satellite into orbit this morning. The rocket carrying the satellite experienced a failure about 16 minutes after being launched. The North Koreans said the rocket came down in waters off the Korean peninsula’s western coast. Erroneous alert messages put out by South Korea and Japanese officials warned their citizens to take cover.

Christie expected to announce: Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is expected to travel to New Hampshire next Tuesday to announce his candidacy for the Republican Presidential Nomination. Unlike other Republican candidates Christie has been blunt in his criticism of Donald Trump, calling Trump, among other things, a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a child for not being able to admit that he lost the 2020 Presidential election.

UFO investigation: NASA investigators hold a public meeting today to continue looking into reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The group of 16 is preparing a report on UFOs that is scheduled to be released this summer. When NASA announced a year ago that it was going ahead with the UFO study it said there was no evidence that any reported UFO sightings involved extraterrestrial spaceships.

Sackler ruling: A federal appeals court has ruled that members of the Sackler family, who own drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma, can be shielded from lawsuits related to the Opioid crisis if they pay $6 billion to various states as a settlement for their role in promoting use of Opioids. Purdue has filed for bankruptcy and the judges ruled that lawsuits against the Sacklers needed to be blocked because they could interfere with the bankruptcy proceedings from moving forward.

Navarro trial set: A federal court judge in Washington, D.C. has set Sept. 5 as the date former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro goes on trial for contempt of Congress. Navarro refused to appear and give sworn testimony for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attempted coup. Navarro also refused to provide documents to the committee.

Cover photo courtesy of Maryland GovPics / Wikimedia Commons