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President Joe Biden on Friday urged Americans not to give up on working across the political aisle to solve national problems as he hailed the bipartisan legislation passed by Congress to stave off a catastrophic default on the nation’s sovereign debt as a good compromise that will protect the economic progress of the past two years. Speaking from the Oval Office during the prime-time television viewing hours — the first time he has addressed the nation from behind the iconic desk hewed from timbers taken from HMS Resolute — Mr Biden said he’d chosen to speak to the American people that night to “report on a crisis averted” and explain what his administration and Congress “are doing to protect America’s future” by enacting the spending agreement negotiated between his aides and top House Republicans. The president said he would sign the legislation on Saturday. “Passing this budget agreement was critical. The stakes could not have been higher,” he said, just moments after he told Americans that the goals of the agreement — “keeping the full, faith, and credit of the United States” and enacting “a budget that continues to grow our economy and reflects our values as a nation” – are “essential” to continuing the progress made during the first two years of his presidency. The president said “nothing” would have been more irresponsible or catastrophic than a failure by the US to pay its bills and laid out the dire consequences that a default would’ve brought on Americans of all stripes. “Our economy would have been thrown in recession. Retirement accounts for millions of Americans would have been decimated, eight million Americans would have lost their jobs. Default would have destroyed our nation’s credit rating, which would have made everything from mortgages to car loans to funding for the government much more expensive and it would have taken years to climb out of that hole — and America standing as the most trusted, reliable financial partner in the world would have been shattered,” he said. While Mr Biden said it was “critical” to reach the agreement he will sign into law and called it “good news for the American people,” he also stressed the necessity of compromise given the realities of Republican control of the House of Representatives and the thin one-seat majority by which his own party controls the Senate, as well as the importance of provisions in the bill that will ensure key social programmes will receive full funding in the next two years. “No one got everything they wanted but the American people got what they needed. We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse,” he said. “We’re cutting spending and bringing deficits down. And, we protected important priorities from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to veterans to our transformational investments in infrastructure and clean energy.” He also touted the fact that the agreement preserved legislation like the PACT Act– which extends veteran benefits to service members who suffered health complications from burn pits – and the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the CHIPS and Science Act, which promotes manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States. “Remember at the beginning of this debate, some of my Republican colleagues are determined to get the clean energy investments,” he said. “I said no, we kept them all.” Mr Biden’s remarks came less than 24 hours after the Senate approved the compromise bill by a margin of 63-36, and just over two days after the House of Representatives voted to advance the legislation. They represent the most extensive public comments the president has made on the now-resolved crisis after weeks of silence from the White House. Many in the president’s own party had criticised his reluctance to inject himself into the public discourse surrounding the negotiations. But a source close to the White House end of the process told The Independent on Thursday that Mr Biden’s silence was a deliberate choice, made out of necessity to avoid inflaming Republicans who would need to vote for the legislation to avert what most experts say would have been a worldwide economic disaster brought on by a US debt default. In the end, Mr Biden’s strategy proved successful in preventing Republican opposition from sinking the 11th-hour deal to save the US and world economies, and the White House was able to cajole all but a limited number of Democrats to give their support as well. Of the 51 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, just five joined 31 Republicans in opposition to the measure, which will suspend the nation’s statutory debt limit through the entirety of the 2024 election cycle while implementing limited spending cuts sought by the GOP and enacting some work requirements for non-disabled adults without children between the ages of 50 and 54 to access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP and formerly known as food stamps. A number of arch-conservatives in the House of Representatives had criticised the bill as giving away far too much to the White House, and in the end 71 members of the GOP conference voted against it, necessitating Democrats to contribute enough support to pass the GOP-controlled chamber. The bipartisan legislation, which was unveiled earlier this week following marathon negotiations between the White House and the Republican-led House of Representatives, will be signed into law with just two days remaining before the 5 June “X Date,” the day on which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had projected that the government would exhaust its ability to pay its outstanding debt obligations absent intervention from Congress. The spending and debt ceiling deal is the first major bipartisan agreement between the White House and the House since Mr McCarthy was elected Speaker after a record 15 ballots in January. The president had for months pledged not to negotiate while the GOP held out the possibility of a default as leverage to force him to endorse rolling back much of the legislative accomplishments enacted during his first two years in office, while Mr McCarthy had committed not to allow any bill that would lift the debt limit to move through his chamber absent concessions from the White House. The impasse persisted for months until Mr Biden extended an invitation to Mr McCarthy after the House passed what the GOP dubbed the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” — a bill to lift the debt ceiling and enact massive cuts to government programmes. Negotiations kicked into high gear late last month after the president tapped Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Counsellor to the President Steve Ricchetti — one of his longest-serving and most trusted aides — to engage with two GOP House members chosen by Mr McCarthy, House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and Louisiana Representative Garret Graves. The president praised House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for undertaking good-faith efforts to move the bill through their respective chambers with deliberate speed. “They acted responsibly and put the good of the country ahead of politics,” he said. “A final vote in both chambers was overwhelming.” He closed his address by emphasizing unity and the importance of “see[ing] each other’s not as adversaries but as fellow Americans” and “treat[ing] each other with dignity and respect” as a way to “lower the temperature” so both parties can “work together ... to pursue progress, secure prosperity and keep the promise of America for everybody”. “I know bipartisanship is hard, and unity is hard, but we can never stop trying because in moments like this one, the ones we just faced, where the American economy in the world economy is at risk of collapsing,” he said. “There’s no other way. With reporting from Andrew Feinberg in New Hampshire and from Eric Garcia in Washington Read More Senate passes debt limit bill after marathon 11 amendment votes to avoid default Angry progressives and conservatives hit out as Democrats push through Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal FBI offers to show GOP chairman document that purports to relate to Biden, his family Republicans schedule 1st presidential debate for Aug. 23, but there's no guarantee Trump will attend DeSantis wraps up 1st early states tour as candidate with more personal touch in South Carolina

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A social media profile that appears to belong to a gunman who killed eight people in a busy Dallas-area shopping mall on 6 May includes dozens of Nazi-related images and hate-filled rants against women and racial minorities. The profile on the Russian-based platform ok.ru also includes more than two dozen photos of the Texas mall and surrounding areas, including Google location information that shows when the mall is at its busiest. It was posted in the days leading up to the attack. Posts reviewed by The Independent and extremism researchers include photos showing SS and swastika tattoos, praise for Adolf Hitler, misogynistic screeds that echo incel (or involuntary celibate) ideas and forums, and complaints about the state of his mental health. The profile allegedly belongs to Mauricio Garcia, the 33-year-old who was fatally shot by police after he fired an AR-style rifle at the outlet mall, killing eight and injuring seven others. Law enforcement officials have not publicly disclosed or suggested a motive behind the mass shooting. A federal law enforcement bulletin notes that the FBI’s “review and triage of the subject’s social media accounts revealed hundreds of postings and images to include writings with racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist rhetoric, including neo-Nazi materials and material espousing the supremacy of the white race.” The profile did not have any followers or appear to have any engagement from other users. One image on the ok.ru profile includes a picture of his hand which appears to be the same tattoo that belonged to the gunman. Another photo receipt from January has the name “Mauricio” and a phone number that appears to match one that belongs to Garcia. Photos on the profile also include dumped-out boxes of ammunition, posted at the same time with images outside the mall. The profile had appeared to telegraph preparations for violence for years; a photo of a written diary entry in a spiral-bound notebook from 2019 details a dream about racist violence. In what appears to be a final post, the user claims that a psychologist would not be able to “fix” him. A link to a YouTube video posted by the same person on the day of the shooting shows Garcia removing a Scream mask and asking, “Not quite what you were expecting, huh?” During the attack, he was reportedly wearing a patch reading “RWDS,” an acronym for “Right Wing Death Squad” – a flak jacket with the patch appears on the ok.ru profile. This catchphrase has emerged in recent years as both a far-right brand and rallying cry popular with the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group. Its also often associated with memes and T-shirts praising Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and his extrajudicial killing of political enemies by throwing them from helicopters. “Dissidents, particularly leftists, socialists, and supporters of the previous government, were dropped to their death from helicopters by Pinochet’s regime,” West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center notes in its research of the “Right Wing Death Squad” meme. “Today, the reference often features an image of a helicopter and is often accompanied by slogans such as ‘Right Wing Death Squad,’ ‘Free Helicopter Rides,’ and other iterations.” The phrases are emblazoned on T-shirts and stickers; several members of the Proud Boys who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their actions surrounding the January 6 attack have been photographed with similar patches or T-shirts reading “Pinochet Did Nothing Wrong.” “RWDS” has appeared at neo-Nazi gatherings, far-right protests and other events attracting Proud Boys members and other fascist groups within the years after the 2016 election. The phrase was scrawled on shields during the so-called “Unite the Right” rally white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. At the time, Facebook removed several racist groups from the platform, including one called “Right Wing Death Squad”. In 2019, federal investigators uncovered an alleged plot involving an active-duty US Marine to kill minorities, drug users and members of the Democratic National Committee in a group chat called “Right Wing Death Squad”. Allen is among one of the most diverse suburbs of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, home to roughly 105,000 people. Many of the posts allegedly written by Garcia also discuss or reference his Hispanic heritage, underscoring the ways in which white supremacism, fascism and violent extremist ideologies often escape rigid racial or ethnic lines. Virulent antisemite and white nationalist Nick Fuentes has a half-Mexican father, and Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Capitol attack, is Afro-Cuban. Nazi propaganda website The Daily Stormer also began publishing in Spanish in 2017 in an effort to seize on Latin American audiences. The ok.ru profile mentions the website and its founder Andrew Anglin. “I think I even read in the news Hispanics could be the new white supremist [sic],” one of the ok.ru post reads. “Just the other day this black dude told me the line is blurring. He can’t tell the difference anymore. Someone would look white but their [sic] actually Hispanic.” In photographs of his spiral-bound diary entries, he also said he wore an “It’s OK to be White” shirt and that he is Hispanic whether he “likes it or not.” Garcia was heavily armed and armoured when he began firing indiscriminately with an AR-style rifle at the Allen Premium Outlets shopping centre on 6 May. Among the eight victims are a three-year-old boy, an eight-year-old girl and an 11-year-old girl, according to the Allen Police Department. An Allen police officer who was already at the scene for an unrelated incident fatally shot him. There have been more than 200 mass shootings, including 21 mass murders, so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. White supremacists are behind the highest number of extremism-related murders in most years, according to an analysis from the Anti-Defamation League. Last year, 21 of 25 extremism-linked murders were committed by white supremacists – but “all the extremist-related murders in 2022 were committed by right-wing extremists of various kinds,” the report found. Read More Allen mall shooting - update: Parents and three-year-old son named among eight killed by Texas outlet shooter Mauricio Garcia: Everything we know about the Texas mall gunman who killed eight Two days, three attacks, 18 dead: Texas reels from horrifying weekend of violence