Taylor Swift is Hollywood's biggest mega-star;
Speakerless House status quo to extend to next week
Speakerless House status quo to extend to next week
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00:00 Late afternoon greetings one and all proud Filipina charms Espina here and
00:04 this is PTV News Now. Taylor Swift is a mega star of the brightest magnitude. She
00:11 may not be at the apex of her fame right now but one thing is for certain she's
00:16 Hollywood's hottest performer and money in the bank that keeps hitting pay dirt
00:20 whether in the studio or on stage or even in a skybox suite watching the
00:25 Kansas City Chiefs play. In fact America's biggest professional sports
00:29 organization the National Football League is reaping the benefits whenever
00:33 she goes up to watch a game live. Sales of her rumored boyfriend's jersey went
00:38 up 400% on game day and the NFL is licensing her music so that's money.
00:44 Most of all the NFL has reported a surge in female viewership of 2 million new
00:49 viewers in the 18 to 34 demographics since the Chicago Bears Kansas City
00:54 Chiefs game on September 24th. Today her ear is to her concert movie opens
01:00 worldwide with over a hundred million dollars in tickets pre-sold. Her ear is
01:05 concert tour that ends in December next year is expected to rake in a billion
01:10 dollars. Add to that ten of her albums charted this year and she's the first
01:15 ever artist in nearly 60 years to have four tunes in the top ten at the same
01:20 time. Not even the King of Pop did it back in the early 80s with Thriller. Then
01:25 again it's her ear is tour that's catapulted her to the stratosphere of
01:28 money and fame when all she wanted to do was confront her greatest weakness live
01:33 music.
01:35 In the meantime frontrunner and speaker nominee Steve Scalise won the GOP
01:40 nomination for Speaker of the House on Tuesday beating rival and fellow
01:44 election denier representative Jim Jordan from Ohio but then Scalise dropped
01:49 out of the speakership after failing to convince enough fellow GOP congressmen
01:53 to formally vote for him. VOA's congressional correspondent Katherine
01:57 Gibson tells us how funding for military aid to Israel and Ukraine is on
02:02 indefinite hold in this story.
02:05 Republican representative Steve Scalise announced late Thursday he was dropping
02:11 his bid to become Speaker of the House. Our conference still has to come
02:17 together and is not there. There are still some people that have their own
02:21 agendas. Despite winning a narrow majority of Republican votes Wednesday
02:26 to become the speaker nominee Scalise could not secure a 217 vote majority
02:32 with all Democrats expected to vote against him. Former speaker Kevin
02:41 McCarthy who was removed from power last week lost only eight Republican
02:46 votes and has also not ruled himself out of being reelected speaker. Many
02:52 Republican critics said Scalise is no different from McCarthy and would not
02:57 negotiate the spending cuts they want. This is a competition and it's going to
03:02 be even more difficult. The other Republican candidate for speaker
03:06 conservative Jim Jordan had called for an end to the debate and through his
03:11 support to Scalise. I hope we can unite around a speaker and get doing the work
03:17 of the American people and helping our dearest and closest friend the state of Israel. All 212 Democrats are expected to vote for their leader
03:26 Hakeem Jeffries who called for an end to the paralysis in the house. Israel needs
03:31 its closest friend and ally in the world the United States of America to stand
03:37 with Israel in this urgent time of need. The inability of House Republicans to
03:45 get their act together even when they themselves by their own rules have
03:50 elected a speaker nominee speaks to the broader chaos and dysfunction and
03:58 extremism. One analyst described how a power-sharing agreement between
04:03 Democrats and Republicans could work if the house remains deadlocked.
04:09 Minority leader Jeffries kind of floated this idea very very recently saying hey if you guys are
04:13 enough of you moderates if you guys want to get back to the processing the
04:17 business particularly with the calamities that are happening around
04:20 the world we need to do the people's business both here and abroad and so if
04:24 there are enough responsible moderates out there in the Republican Party I can
04:27 work with someone. Republicans are also exploring the possibility of keeping the
04:32 temporary speaker Republican Representative Patrick McHenry in a more
04:37 permanent role through November when a temporary government funding bill is set
04:42 to expire. Catherine Gibson VOA News.
04:48 And that's a wrap for today and here's wishing you all a mighty fine and
04:53 eventful weekend ahead of you. Keep in mind to always stay informed be kind.
04:57 Count your blessings and catch the news right here.
04:59 Shawn Zespina here and good evening.
05:04 (upbeat music)