'Waste, fraud and abuse'
| 'Waste, fraud and abuse'  A pig was just spotted flying over the US Capitol dome.
The airborne porker might have something to do with the fact that Mitch McConnell, the obdurate Senate minority leader, just blinked in a showdown with Democrats over an extension to government borrowing authority. The wily Kentucky Republican had been refusing to give President Joe Biden's party any help on the issue, a stance that threatened to cause a debt default and send the economy into a deep crisis within days.
But McConnell has now agreed to give Democrats more time in a deal authorizing the government to borrow into early December. The compromise eases the immediate crisis. But, as is the way in the often-baffling Senate, it likely sets up an even bigger collision just before Christmas, when new government funding is also due.
McConnell, a master of parliamentary blockades, hasn't suddenly gone soft. And days of Democrats trying to shame him into doing the right thing didn't work either. What seems to have gotten him to budge was the threat of a crack in the mechanism that gives him obstructive power — the Senate filibuster.
Biden had earlier suggested there was a real chance that Democrats could vote to change the chamber's rules to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass a debt ceiling hike. The filibuster is a Senate custom that effectively requires 60 votes to pass major legislation, that Biden, along with a handful of moderate Democratic senators, has always balked at removing. They reason that the tradition pushes the chamber toward bipartisan compromise. But they also fear that a future Republican majority could go into right-wing overdrive if is removed.
McConnell has wielded the filibuster ruthlessly hundreds of times, effectively stalemating the chamber and blocking Democratic priorities — like voting rights bills to overturn GOP voter-suppression laws in the states. By lining up his increasingly extreme caucus, he can stop Democrats calling up their priorities for debate – let alone final votes.
But after the mere hint of change got McConnell to cave, liberals are sure to redouble demands on their party's reluctant senators to blow up the filibuster for good, so they can maximize the power of what could be a short-lived Senate majority. The world and America African scientists hailed a malaria vaccine breakthrough.
Covid-19 booster shots have outpaced new vaccinations.
And 18 former NBA players were indicted for allegedly trying to defraud the basketball league's health care plan.  On Saturday, a US nuclear-powered submarine struck an object underwater in the South China Sea, injuring a number of sailors, according to two defense officials. None of the injuries were life-threatening, according to a statement from US Pacific Fleet. It's unclear what the Seawolf-class submarine may have hit while it was submerged. (Above: The USS Connecticut departing for sea trials in 2016.) A coup by any other name Some reporters were initially a bit squeamish about using the word "coup" to describe former President Donald Trump's shenanigans around the election he lost -- but which he falsely claims to have won.
The description brings to mind military juntas and armed takeovers in developing nations where democrats are an endangered political species and chaos and anarchy perpetually reign. But it's becoming harder by the week to view Trump's attempts to steal the presidency and destroy America's democratic institutions in any other way.
Last month, we learned of a step-by-step plan laid out by a conservative lawyer for then-Vice President Mike Pence to thwart the Constitution and deliver the election to Trump on the basis of false claims of fraud. Now a Senate Judiciary Committee report reveals that the ex-President tried nine times to get his Justice Department to undermine the result of the election.
That the former President didn't succeed is down to small groups of career bureaucrats and political officials who stood firm and did their constitutional duty. But it's frightening to contemplate what would have happened without their courage. And to wonder what could happen next time, as Trump works to elect loyalists to key posts for administering swing-state elections.  'Waste, fraud and abuse' Half a billion dollars for aircraft that flew for about a year. A huge $85 million hotel that never opened, and sits in disrepair. Camouflage uniforms for the Afghan army whose fancy pattern would cost an extra $28 million. A health care facility listed as located in the Mediterranean Sea.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports: These are part of a catalog of "waste, fraud and abuse" complaints made against the United States' reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan -- an effort totaling $145 billion over 20 years -- made by the United States' own inspector general into the war. But the in-depth audits detailing these findings have, for the most part, been taken offline at the request of the State Department, citing security concerns. Thanks for reading.
On Friday, Japan's new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, delivers his first policy speech. A group of French senators plan to hold a news conference in Taiwan. The winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo.
On Saturday, the Taliban say, they will resume issuing passports. Trump holds a rally in Des Moines, Iowa -- the state that traditionally kicks off the US presidential nominating process. View in browser | All CNN Newsletters
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