Makeshift scaffolding set up at a church in Ethiopia collapsed on Wednesday, killing at least 36 people and injuring more than 200, state media said.

The incident occurred at around 7:45 am in the town of Arerti, roughly 70 kilometres (40 miles) east of the capital Addis Ababa, when a group was visiting for an annual Virgin Mary festival.

District police chief Ahmed Gebeyehu told state media Fana: “The number of dead has reached 36 and could increase more”, adding “more than 200 people have suffered injuries” and were receiving treatment at a local hospital.

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Some people remained under the rubble, local official Atnafu Abate told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), without giving further details about those trapped or possible rescue efforts.

He said some of the more seriously hurt were taken to hospitals in the capital.

Images shared on the EBC’s official Facebook page showed a mess of collapsed wooden poles, with crowds gathering amid the dense debris.

Other pictures appeared to show the outside of the church where scaffolding had been precariously constructed.

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A government statement shared by EBC expressed condolences and added that “safety must be given priority”.

Health and safety regulations are virtually non-existent in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, and construction accidents are common.

The sprawling country is a mosaic of 80 ethnic groups and has one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.

Its predecessor, the Axumite Empire, declared Christianity the state religion in the fourth century.

The United States government was barreling towards its first shutdown in six years Tuesday, with funding expiring at midnight barring a breakthrough on deadlocked negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.

A last-gasp meeting at the White House on Monday yielded no progress, with top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer saying afterward that “large differences” remained between both sides.

His party, in the minority in both chambers of Congress, is seeking to flex its rare leverage over the federal government, eight months into Donald Trump’s barnstorming second presidency that has seen entire government agencies dismantled.

The 100-member Senate requires government funding bills to receive 60 votes — seven more than the Republicans control.

With no sign of compromise, an afternoon Senate vote was expected on a short-term funding extension already passed by the House of Representatives, although there was little hope it would succeed.

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Unless Congress passes a bill before midnight to fund federal operations, the government will partially close up shop — and plunge Washington into a fresh political crisis.

A shutdown would see nonessential operations grind to a halt, leaving hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily without pay, and payment of many social safety-net benefits potentially disrupted.

Trump upped the ante Tuesday when he told reporters his administration may go beyond the usual practice of temporary furloughs and fire “a lot” of federal workers — but he blamed Democratic demands for the looming crisis.

“It’s like they don’t change. They lost an election in a landslide, and they don’t change,” he said.

‘On vacation’ –

US government shutdowns are deeply unpopular, and Democrats and Republicans alike try to avoid the scenario — while blaming the other camp in the event of a closure.

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Republicans have proposed to extend current funding until late November, pending negotiations on a longer-term spending plan.

Democrats want to see hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare spending restored, particularly in the Obamacare health insurance program for low-income households, which the Trump administration is likely to eliminate.

They also want to block Trump and Republicans from cutting approved funds later through the so-called “rescissions” process, as they did this summer. The process requires only a simple majority to pass.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson kicked off a pressure-cooker final day of brinkmanship ahead of the midnight deadline by accusing Democrats of weaponizing health care funding “to shut down the government and protect themselves from their radical base.”

The House has already passed a seven-week stop-gap funding measure, and Johnson has sought to force Senate Democrats’ hands by not bringing his chamber back to Washington this week.

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But many Democrats have shown up and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries assembled dozens of his members in front of the US Capitol to berate Republicans for being “on vacation” as the shutdown looms.

“We’re ready, we’re willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward to fund the government in a way that actually meets the needs of the American people in terms of their health, their safety and their economic wellbeing,” he told reporters.

“But here’s what we’re not going to do: We’re not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of the American people — not now, not ever.”

The gridlocked Congress regularly runs into deadlines to agree on spending plans.
In March of this year, with the threat of another shutdown already looming, Republicans refused to engage in dialogue with Democrats over massive budget cuts and the layoffs of thousands of federal employees.

Senate Democrats reluctantly provided the votes to end the stand-off but the decision angered the party base, which is calling on Democratic leaders to stand up to Trump.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday the military should use US cities as training grounds for a “war from within,” in a darkly authoritarian speech to a rare meeting of top officers.

Republican Trump told hundreds of generals and admirals summoned from around the world to be ready for a greater role in crackdowns on Democrat-run cities, including Chicago.

The assembled top brass were separately warned by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth of a different challenge, as he vowed to eliminate “fat generals” and to roll back what he called “decades of decay.”

“I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” Trump said in front of a huge American flag at a military facility in Quantico, Virginia.

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Trump added that “we’re going to straighten them out one by one, and this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too — it’s a war from within.”

Trump began his speech by railing against so-called “woke” practices in the US military, saying that under his administration it was now “reawakening the warrior spirit.”

His hour-long address then took on an even more overtly political tone, in a break with previous presidents who have tended to avoid domestic politics when addressing troops.

‘Fat generals’ –

Former Fox News host-turned Defense Secretary Hegseth summoned the highly unusual meeting last week before Trump then announced that he would also speak.

Speculation had swirled about the purpose of gathering the whole US top brass in one place, with talk of a major military announcement.

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But in the end it was largely a doubling down on restoring what Iraq war veteran Hegseth called the “military ethos.”

Striding the stage, Hegseth told all ranks they must now take a physical fitness test twice a year. “It’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon,” he said.

Hegseth also insisted on “grooming standards” including short hair and shaving, adding: “If you want a beard you can join special forces. If not, then shave. We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans.”

He also declared an end to “ideological garbage,” citing concerns over climate change, bullying, “toxic” leaders and promotions based on race or gender as examples.

The speeches by Trump and Hegseth came as the US military faces controversy both at home and abroad, with Trump deploying troops in Los Angeles and Washington, and shortly in Portland, Oregon and Memphis, Tennessee.

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‘American muscle’ –

Internationally, he has ordered lethal strikes on small, alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, despite questions over the legality of the attacks.

Trump has also ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and Tehran-backed Yemeni rebels.

In a sometimes rambling speech, the US president said he was “discovering American muscle” and that the country had the “strongest military anywhere in the world.”

Trump has however overseen a rare purge of senior officers after taking office.

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In May, Hegseth ordered major cuts to the number of general and flag officers in the US military, including at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals.

Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has also purged top officers, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff general Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February.

Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the leaders of the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.

Hegseth defended the firings on Tuesday, saying: “it’s nearly impossible to change a culture with the same people who helped create — or even benefited from — that culture.”