The White House has proposed a new Covid-19 relief measure that would give every American a $600 (£447) payment – but at the expense of a $300-per-week employment benefit favoured by a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators.

Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, made the offer to top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi late on Tuesday afternoon, he said in a statement. He offered few details, though House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said it proposed the $600 direct payment for individuals and $1,200 for couples, which is half the payment delivered by the March pandemic relief bill.

Politicians have been under pressure to pass a new round of help for struggling Americans as coronavirus surges to record levels, spurring unemployment. Democrats initially wanted a $2 trillion package while Republicans refused to break the $1 trillion barrier.

Mr Mnuchin’s proposal would cost $916bn, up from the $908bn lawmakers were already looking at.

The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday easily approved a wide-ranging defence policy bill, defying a veto threat from Donald Trump and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration

The 335-78 vote in favor of the $731bn (£546bn) defense measure came hours after Trump renewed his threat to veto the bill unless lawmakers clamp down on social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election.

Republicans may put off admitting Joe Biden won the presidential election until 6 January, when Congress will vote to accept the outcome of the Electoral College vote.

Some GOP officials see the dragged-out process as their best shot at answering the fiery questions, calls and complaints of their constituents who voted for Donald Trump and refuse to believe he legitimately lost the race to Mr Biden.

Alex Mooney, a Republican from West Virginia, said he was being peppered with such questions back home and so introduced a House resolution on Tuesday that encouraged neither Mr Trump nor Mr Biden to concede until all the investigations are completed.

There is no evidence of widespread electoral fraud. All the false claims on the matter stem from Mr Trump, who had begun making them months before the election took place.

Republicans told the Associated Press it made little political sense at this point for them to counter the president’s conspiracies because his supporters – their constituents – may turn against them.

The GOP is relying on Trump voters to bring them victory in the Georgia Senate runoff elections on 5 January that will determine control of the upper chamber.

While some Republicans have acknowledged Mr Biden’s victory, most prefer to keep quiet, letting the process play out “organically,” as one aide put it, into January.

Additional reporting by AP

At a vaccine event on Tuesday, the president defended the White House’s decision to maintain a packed calendar of holiday parties during the pandemic, even as medical authorities discourage such gatherings amid Covid’s continued devastation, writes Josh Marcus.

“They’re Christmas parties and, frankly, we’ve reduced the number very substantially as you know,” Mr Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “And I see a lot of people at the parties wearing masks and I would say that I look out at the audience at those parties and we have a lot of people wearing masks and I think that’s a good thing.”

The US Supreme Court has rejected Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election result in Pennsylvania, delivering what may be a final, fatal blow to the president’s attempts to secure a second term, writes Andrew Buncombe.

Almost precisely a month after the Associated Press called Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes for Mr Biden and in doing do indicated he would be the next president, the nation’s top court rejected a request from Mr Trump’s supporters to throw out up to more than two million mail-in ballots.

The ruling issued by the court was notable for its brevity. “The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” it read.