hello, i m lukwesa burak. president biden has said a deal with republicans to raise the us government debt ceiling is very close and he s optimistic it will be achieved. the two sides have a little more breathing room after the treasury secretary, janet yellen, extended the deadline slightly, saying the government would not run out of money untiljune 5. they re working on an agreement that would ensure no repeat of the stand off before next year s presidential election. as the clock ticked down to the midnight deadline which hasjust passed mr biden hinted a deal might be not be too far away. with regards to the debt limit, things are looking good. i m very optimistic. i hope we ll have some clearer evidence tonight, before the clock strikes 12:00, that we have a deal. but it s very close and i m optimistic. and our north america correspondent nomia iqbal sent us this update. lawmakers have now been given a little more time to find that much needed solution. many of them h
hello i m sumi somaskanda. we begin right here in washington dc where democrats and republicans are scrambling to close a deal on raising the federal debt limit. there is still no deal in place but as many lawmakers leave for a holiday weekend, president biden has hinted a deal might be not be too far away. with regards to the debt limit, things are looking good, i m very optimistic. i hope we will have some clearer evidence tonight, before the clock strikes 12, that we have a deal. but it is very close and i am optimistic. so according to the president, we might get the news of a deal in less than an hour. a top republican negotiator, congressman patrick mchenry, was a bit more cautious with his assessment, saying: we are in the window by which we meet thejune five deadline. it s not over, we re not done. but we have to come to some tough terms in these closing hours. earlier on friday, congress got a bit more runway for its negotiations. us treasury secretary janet yell
And she is also the author of twitter and tear gas, which is for sale after tonights program. And for those of you who are not familiar with World Affairs, we are an organization that seeks to explore problems and expand opportunities at the intersection of international policy, philanthropy and commerce where solutions to hard problems lie. We are recording tonights event with both via cspan, as well as more radio. So please do take a moment to silence your cell phones. Ask is we would like to thank kqeds audio engineer who is joining us this evening. Youll notice that we have blue question cards on your seats, so please do make use of them and write your questions down, and i will bring your questions up to the moderator. And given that we will be talking about social media in tonights program, we invite you all to get involved in our online conversation. You can use the hashtag World Affairs live if youd like to engage in online discussion. And id now like to introduce our moderator
And she is also the author of twitter and tear gas, which is for sale after tonights program. And for those of you who are not familiar with World Affairs, we are an organization that seeks to explore problems and expand opportunities at the intersection of international policy, philanthropy and commerce where solutions to hard problems lie. We are recording tonights event with both via cspan, as well as more radio. So please do take a moment to silence your cell phones. Ask is we would like to thank kqeds audio engineer who is joining us this evening. Youll notice that we have blue question cards on your seats, so please do make use of them and write your questions down, and i will bring your questions up to the moderator. And given that we will be talking about social media in tonights program, we invite you all to get involved in our online conversation. You can use the hashtag World Affairs live if youd like to engage in online discussion. And id now like to introduce our moderator
And commerce where solutions to hard problems lie. We are recording tonights event both by cspan and for radio, so take a moment to silence your cell phones and we would like to thank jane. Your question cards on your seats, so please make use of them and write your questions down and given we will be talking about social media and tonights program we invite you to get involved in our online conversation using the World Affairs alive, if youd like to engage in online discussion. I would now like to introduce our moderator this evening who is an adjunct professor at the school of information at uc berkeley where he teaches a course on digital activism. Hes also the founder and editor in chief of China Digital times. We are delighted to have him here this evening and if you could all join me in welcoming him who introduced tonights speaker. [applause]. Good evening. Pleasure. I will try my best. Zeynep tufekci, a contributing up in your and writer of the new york times. What i am most am