Legislation from Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota would have followed Australia’s and Canada’s lead by requiring companies like Meta and Google to negotiate payment deals for news organizations that produce content linked from the platforms. The language is not in the final version of the defence-spending bill the Senate had shoehorned it into, released Tuesday night. (The Washington Post)

Talking point: Meta had threatened earlier this week to block news links in the U.S. if the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act became law, as the tech giant briefly did in Australia and has said it might in Canada if the Liberals’ Online News Act comes into force. Tacking unrelated matters onto “must-pass” bills is a common legislating technique in Congress—the defence bill includes measures on invasive Asian carp and internships in the State Department, in addition to paying for the U.S. military—but the journalism provision was cut as Senate leaders negotiated passage of the bill with the House of Representatives.