Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday dashed a push from President Donald Trump and his allies to amend the Senate filibuster rule to speed passing controversial voter-identification legislation.

The SAVE America Act, which was introduced in January, would require voters to prove their citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and would require certain forms of photo ID to cast a ballot. The measure is slated for a vote in the House this week but faces an uphill climb in the Senate where Democrats have vowed to use the filibuster to block the legislation, which they say could disenfranchise millions of Americans. Because of the filibuster rule, bills require 60 votes to advance in the Senate.

Proponents of the voter-ID legislation are calling for changes to the chamber’s rules.

“There aren’t anywhere close to the votes, not even close, to nuking the filibuster,” Thune said at a press conference following a meeting of Senate Republicans on Tuesday. “So that idea is something, although it continues to be put out there. … That doesn’t have a future.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who is leading the push for the bill in the Senate, has called to abolish the so-called “zombie filibuster” and bring back an older form of the rule that requires objecting members to be physically on the floor and talking to delay legislation.

“Remember, the talking filibuster is best understood as the filibuster. Historically, senators have been required to speak in order to filibuster. You shouldn’t be able to have the benefits of the filibuster without doing the work of the filibuster, and that means speaking,” Lee said in a video posted to X on Tuesday.

The “talking” filibuster — made famous by the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” — has not been regularly practiced since a Senate rule change in the 1970s, and even some supporters of the legislation have reservations about a reversion back to the old ways.

“I think getting rid of the filibuster would lead to more acrimony, more rapid shifts from right to left, and I think wouldn’t be good for the country,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who said he supports the voter-ID bill, told reporters on Tuesday. “I think the default position is liberty and that most legislation takes your liberty. And so I’m not a big fan of making it easier to pass legislation.”

Filibuster reform aside, the voter-ID proposal is controversial and faces an uncertain fate in both chambers as Trump last week called for the federal government to take control of elections from states.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a GOP centrist, announced on X on Tuesday that she does not support the legislation.

“Not only does the U.S. Constitution clearly provide states the authority to regulate the ‘times, places, and manner’ of holding federal elections, but one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington, D.C., seldom work in places like Alaska,” Murkowski said.

A similar version of the bill — which was introduced by Lee…

U.S. natural gas prices surged above $6 for the first time since late 2022 on Monday as a huge winter storm swept across the country, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and forcing mass flight cancellations.

Natural gas futures for February delivery traded 18% higher, or 95 cents, to $6.2 per million British thermal units at 8:15 a.m. London time (3:15 a.m. ET), notching a new 52-week high.

It is the first time the contract, which is up around 68% year-to-date, has climbed above the $6 level since Dec. 2022, when European demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas soared following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier in the year.

More than 822,000 customers were left without power in the wake of a massive winter storm late Sunday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us, which collects real-time power outage data from utilities nationwide.

The big freeze, known as Winter Storm Fern, was forecast to bring widespread heavy snow and “catastrophic ice accumulations” from the southern Rocky Mountains to New England through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), affecting at least 180 million people in 37 states.

Wind chills as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit (-45.56 degrees Celsius) will persist across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. this week, the NWS said in a social media post on Sunday, with temperatures far below normal expected to continue into early February.

The extreme cold has been blamed for the deaths of seven people nationwide, NBC News reported, citing local officials.

More than 12,500 flights were canceled in the U.S. on Sunday, FlightAware reported, with a further 3,965 canceled so far on Monday. Delta Air Lines, which had previously urged travelers to rebook flights, said Sunday that it intended to operate a reduced schedule as icy conditions disrupted operations.

The U.S. Department of Energy on Monday issued two emergency orders to mitigate blackouts in New England and Texas, seeking to keep grids stable and minimize the risk of blackouts.

“As Winter Storm Fern brings extreme cold and dangerous conditions across the country, maintaining affordable, reliable, and secure power is non-negotiable,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement on Monday.

Power outages are estimated to cost the U.S. about $44 billion per year, according to data from the DOE’s National Laboratories.

Natural gas prices soared more than 20% on Wednesday as an Arctic cold front is forecast to blast across the Upper Midwest and descend south to grip much of the U.S. with frigid temperatures through the weekend.

Prices surged about 25%, or 97 cents, to close at nearly $4.88 per million British thermal units.

Heating demand is expected to spike as wind chills could fall to -50 degrees Fahrenheit across the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains, according to the National Weather Service.

The wind chills pose a life-threatening risk of hypothermia and frostbite to exposed skin, the NWS warned. Power outages could prolong the risk, the federal agency said. Families should protect all pets from the cold, it said.

Heavy snow is forecast for the southern high plains of Colorado and New Mexico on Friday, said Owen Shieh, a meteorologist at the NWS Weather Prediction Center in a public service announcement on social media.

The storm will spread across the southern plains to the Mississippi Valley on Saturday before moving into southern Appalachia, the Carolinas and the Mid-Atlantic on Saturday night into Sunday, Shieh said.

A major ice storm threatens to hit Texas on Friday night and extend through the Deep South and the Carolinas into the weekend, the meteorologist said. This could lead to hazardous travel, downed trees and power lines, he said.

Frigid subzero and single-digit temperatures will also expand into the Ohio Valley and Northeast by Sunday, according to the NWS.

“Due to the large extent and long duration of the extreme cold accompanying this winter storm, it will take longer for the snow and ice to melt after the storm,” Shieh said. “You need to prepare for the possibility of extended impacts, potentially for several days.”

Natural gas prices soared on Tuesday, as heating demand is expected to spike due to a blast of frigid weather across the U.S.

Prices surged 25%, or 78 cents, to $3.89 per million British thermal units by 10 a.m. ET, putting natural gas futures on pace for the best day in four years. Natural gas is used primarily for heating and electricity generation.

“Frigid weather is set to reshape the near-term natural gas outlook as Arctic air masses flash across the eastern US and the huge weather demand gain over the MLK weekend threatens severe market dislocation,” EBW AnalyticsGroup told clients in a Tuesday note.

A big winter storm is forecast to dump heavy snow, sleet and treacherous freezing rain across the Southern Rockies, Plains and the South by Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The storm is then expected to shift toward the East Coast through the weekend.

Much of the U.S. was already gripped by frigid temperatures on Tuesday morning. The weather will threaten production freeze-offs, according to EBW Analytics.

“The frigid weather pivot comes with speculator short positions at a 14-month high — suggesting further bullish risks as shorts are forced to buy back gas,” the group told told clients.

“Volatility will stay high, however — and any weather model warming into mid-February could allow a near term price spike to eventually soften,” the group said.

TIANJIN, China — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday urged members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to strengthen artificial intelligence cooperation, while rejecting what he called a “Cold War mentality.”

Xi was speaking at the largest-ever summit of the SCO to date, with more than 20 foreign leaders gathered in Tianjin, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The meeting comes as China seeks to cast itself as a global peacemaker, against a backdrop of persistent trade tensions with the United States, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Xi said China has invested $84 billion in other SCO countries and pledged support for 10,000 students to join Beijing’s “Luban” vocational education program. He added that the SCO gathering presents an opportunity to chart a new phase of high-quality development and cooperation.

Ahead of his remarks, Xi briefly gathered with Modi and Putin during a photo session with all SCO members.

Xi is expected to meet with Putin this week, with the Russian leader scheduled to stay in China for a military parade in Beijing to commemorate 80 years since the end of World War II.

Over the weekend, Xi met with at least 10 visiting leaders, including Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet. On Saturday, he met Modi, with both sides affirming the importance of being partners, not rivals, according to official readouts.

“A stable relationship and cooperation between India and China and their 2.8 billion peoples on the basis of mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity are necessary for the growth and development of the two countries,” India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement following the meeting.