The Senate advanced a bill Wednesday required to avoid a government shutdown at midnight next Monday. The unanimous vote came after 21 hours of filibustering by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican, who wanted to keep in the bill a provision to defund the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Now that the bill has been brought to the full Senate, the Democrats, who have a majority, are expected to strip that provision from the bill.

The FBI said Wednesday that Aaron Alexis, the man who shot 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard on Sept. 16, did not target specific people and was under the delusional belief he was being controlled by electromagnetic waves. The bureau said Alexis had only been working at the yard since the previous Friday, so it was unlikely he was responding to any problems at work. A Pentagon official said Wednesday the department will conduct reviews in December of base safety procedures and security clearances.

The United States is renewing its global terrorism alert for U.S. citizens Wednesday after an al-Qaida affiliate attacked a mall in Kenya and killed at least 67 people. The State Department said it was concerned about threats in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and targets could be any places where Americans gather in groups. FBI agents also said Wednesday they are working in Kenya to identify the remaining bodies at the mall and their nationalities; it is unclear whether any Americans were killed in the attack.

An Ohio lawsuit, brought by two gay married couples who want their out-of-state marriage recognized as legal in Ohio, has been expanded to include all gay married couples in spite of a statewide ban on gay marriage. The couples’ attorneys asked Judge Timothy Black to require Ohio’s health department director to order funeral directors and coroners to list gay clients who were legally married in another state to be listed as married. The judge is expected to rule on the case in December.

Contact Carrie Blazina at [email protected].