‘Can’t know where this ends’ – US on brink

The bickering is intensifying between the two American parties as analysts warn there could be no end in sight to the current government shutdown

Welcome to our recap of Wednesday’s (Australia time) eventful day in US politics.

The clock passed midnight in Washington DC, and the US federal government is now officially in shutdown mode after Congress failed to pass a spending bill to keep it operating.

What is a shutdown? It involves all non-essential functions of government freezing, while some essential services – the FBI, CIA, air traffic control, the National Guard, border security, the postal service – continue to work.

It’s been estimated that upwards of 700,000 federal government employees will be furloughed, which is to say they’ll suddenly be off the job and no longer receiving their pay cheques.

Many of those who remain in work will not be paid until the shutdown ends.

President Trump has indicated he might use the shutdown to permanently sack registered Democrats who work for the government, but that’s a whole other kettle of political controversy.

The shutdown will continue until Republicans and Democrats in Congress can reconcile and come up with some sort of spending deal. The last time this happened, in late 2018, it took more than a month.

Read on for the updates from Wednesday.