On Wednesday night, US President Donald Trump signed legislation ending the longest federal government shutdown in American history. It was a perplexing end to a strange saga. Both the Republican and Democratic parties gambled, and their perspicacity will be tested against reality – and each other – primarily in next November’s midterm vote.
Mr Trump and his Republicans showed no signs of wearying from the confrontation after 38 days of growing pain, primarily among constituencies Democrats either already command or believe rightly belong to them. Eight Democratic senators broke ranks through a deal with Republicans that gave them very little, including on the supposedly central issue of health care.
It’s especially puzzling because the party appeared to be winning the political battle, with key national polls showing that Americans blamed Mr Trump and Republicans for the shutdown. And the compromise came in the wake of an astonishingly comprehensive, indeed virtually total, Democratic sweep in elections around the country last week. Democrats won where they were presumed to have little chance and prevailed by overwhelming margins where they seemed likely to win. There was literally nothing providing any consolation to Republicans in the outcome.
This seemed to connect with polling data showing Mr Trump sinking rapidly below the 40 per cent approval mark and into the dangerous terrain of the 30s. There was every indication, then, that the political headwinds favoured Democrats, and that they are well-positioned to hold the House of Representatives and maybe even gain a Senate majority, which was until recently widely assumed to be unattainable, next November.
Everything seemed to be going well for them. So why did eight of their senators accept a seemingly terrible deal from Republicans and throw a lifeline to Mr Trump, who appeared to be slowly sinking below the political waves?
The reasons are predictably complex and multi-layered. One of the most significant is that the Democratic senators in question, and many in their party, were astonished at how nonchalant Mr Trump was about the impact the government shutdown was having on many Americans.
He was funding some of his most cherished policies, including immigration enforcement and pay for the military, in ways that are arguably extraconstitutional, if not worse, and he did not seem to care at all about damage to the interests and pocketbooks of millions of ordinary citizens.
Congressional Republicans were evidently either similarly unbothered or, in many cases, intimidated by the White House and party leaders from voicing any opposition. So the shutdown was only going to get worse, as evinced by growing chaos at airports where air traffic control officials were lacking to meet heavy demand. That was set to get much worse in the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the busiest travel season of the year in the US.
Many Democrats thought Mr Trump was setting himself up for a deeper political disaster by appearing not to care about catastrophic travel meltdowns over the cherished holiday. But others seemed to doubt they could continue to avoid their own share of political backlash and, more importantly, to be genuinely distressed and dismayed over the impact the shutdown was having.
Trump blames all economic woes in the US on his predecessor, Joe Biden, but such arguments about the 'other guy' typically expire after six months or so into a presidential term
It’s particularly strange that the Democratic Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, offered Republicans an inexplicable compromise over existing health subsidies. These subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year – threatening the access to health care for three million to five million Americans – and many Republicans who have never reconciled themselves to former president Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms still hope to badly damage the programme, if not kill it, by doing away with them.
Democrats have been promised a vote on the issue in December, but not a positive outcome. They did manage to use the shutdown to focus national attention on the healthcare issue, along with other questions of “affordability” that seem to profoundly vex Mr Trump. He is continuing to blame all economic woes in the country on his predecessor, Joe Biden, but such arguments about the “other guy” typically expire after six months or so into a presidential term. Mr Trump is well into month 11, and these protestations ring exceedingly hollow.
But the federal funding bill only extends the issue until late January, so Americans may find themselves back in the same predicament in a few short weeks. If Democrats hope to use the healthcare issue against Mr Trump in the midterm elections, he may yet provide them every opportunity to do that.
Some may quietly be hoping so. They may even be cynically rooting for Republicans, at Mr Trump’s vociferous behest, to finally do away with the Senate filibuster rule that requires most legislation to be supported by a supermajority of 60 senators out of 100, rather than a simple majority vote. Democrats have often pointed to the filibuster as one of the more annoying counter-democratic features of the American system, even though it has been useful to both sides and is merely a Senate rule that has nothing to do with the Constitution or the underlying political system.
The eight Democratic senators who broke ranks this week may not all be cynical enough to hope that Republicans kill healthcare subsidies and do away with the filibuster in coming weeks and months. But emerging from the midterms with new majorities in both houses of Congress and no more filibuster limitation in the Senate would be a remarkably strong comeback after the devastation of the last general election. And last week’s election results certainly seem to suggest that’s entirely possible.
The most obvious objection to the compromise in the Senate is that the eight senators and their supporters are continuing to treat the current US political moment as a normal one, with standard calculations still fully valid. But the moment is not a normal one, their critics note. Instead, Mr Trump is clearly moving towards a strongman system and away from both democratic checks and balances and the rule of law that have traditionally defined the US constitutional order.
If rank-and-file Democrats, and most American voters, want to see their party uniting against what they view as an unconscionable series of usurpations and overreaches that threaten fundamental political norms and protections, then calculations about healthcare subsidies will be profoundly unconvincing.
Perhaps the best news for Democrats is that nothing is resolved, everything is still in play, and their primary adversary still appears to be sinking under the weight of his own miscalculations.
Which honey takes your fancy?
Al Ghaf Honey
The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year
Sidr Honey
The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest
Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Countries recognising Palestine
France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
The specs: 2018 Audi RS5
Price, base: Dh359,200
Engine: 2.9L twin-turbo V6
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 450hp at 5,700rpm
Torque: 600Nm at 1,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Company%20Profile
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Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier, in Bangkok
UAE fixtures Mon Nov 20, v China; Tue Nov 21, v Thailand; Thu Nov 23, v Nepal; Fri Nov 24, v Hong Kong; Sun Nov 26, v Malaysia; Mon Nov 27, Final
(The winners will progress to the Global Qualifier)
WHAT IS GRAPHENE?
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
LA LIGA FIXTURES
Thursday (All UAE kick-off times)
Sevilla v Real Betis (midnight)
Friday
Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)
Valencia v Levante (midnight)
Saturday
Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)
Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)
Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)
Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)
Sunday
Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)
Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)
Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
MATCH INFO
FA Cup final
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
EA Sports FC 24
SPECS
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Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
The specs: 2019 Subaru Forester
Price, base: Dh105,900 (Premium); Dh115,900 (Sport)
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 182hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 239Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.1L / 100km (estimated)
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
The specs
Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors
Transmission: two-speed
Power: 671hp
Torque: 849Nm
Range: 456km
Price: from Dh437,900
On sale: now
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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
How to report a beggar
Abu Dhabi – Call 999 or 8002626 (Aman Service)
Dubai – Call 800243
Sharjah – Call 065632222
Ras Al Khaimah - Call 072053372
Ajman – Call 067401616
Umm Al Quwain – Call 999
Fujairah - Call 092051100 or 092224411
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
