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Government shutdowns have become a recurring feature of US politics, the product of partisan standoffs over spending that force federal agencies to halt a wide range of services.The last shutdown — the longest in history — ended in November. A dispute over President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement activities could cause a new, partial shutdown beginning at midnight on Jan. 31. Senate minority Democrats have said they would not vote to advance a six-part funding bill unless the portion that funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is stripped out or the bill is amended to include limits on immigration enforcement. Senate Republicans are opposed to breaking up the bill, but because Democrats can block a final vote in the Senate, Republicans need the support of at least seven Democratic senators to move the legislation forward. The standoff is expected to lead to a shutdown of some agencies. Why does the government shut down?The US government runs on 12 appropriations bills passed each year by Congress and signed by the president. When all of those bills aren’t enacted by the October 1 start of the fiscal year, lawmakers typically rely on temporary funding measures — known as continuing resolutions, or CRs — to keep federal agencies operating while negotiations continue. If they can’t agree to a CR, the US government has what’s called a funding gap and federal agencies may need to take steps to shut down. Trump has signed six of the bills for fiscal 2025, which means a portion of the government is funded through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. The remaining agencies are only funded via a CR through January 30. The funding package passed by the House that’s before the Senate would fund them for the rest of the fiscal year. These agencies include the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, State, Treasury, Transportation, Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development. Funding for smaller agencies such as the Small Business Administration and Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the White House itself is also included in the package. How many times has this happened?The last shutdown, which began in October 2025, was the third under Trump across his two terms. At the time, Congress had failed to pass any of the 12 annual appropriations bills, leaving most of the government without full-year funding when temporary financing expired. It lasted for a record 43 days, ending only after enough Senate Democrats agreed to allow a vote on a short-term funding measure that temporarily reopened the government through January 30. The 2025 shutdown was the 15th funding gap since the modern budget era began in 1981. Before 1981, operations did not automatically cease when Congress failed to act by a funding deadline, and their expenses were covered retroactively once a deal was reached. The second longest shutdown in US history — over Trump’s insistence on adding $5.7bn to the budget for a wall on the border with Mexico — spanned 35 days in late 2018 and early 2019. What does a shutdown mean?It means many, though not all, federal government functions are suspended, and many, though not all, federal employees are furloughed. Services that the government deems “essential,” such as those related to law enforcement and public safety, continue. These essential employees typically work without pay until the shutdown ends. In 2019, Congress passed a law guaranteeing that federal workers who are furloughed will receive back pay once the government is funded again. During a partial shutdown, agencies funded by appropriations bills that have already passed are unaffected. During the last shutdown, the White House budget office moved to lay off thousands of federal workers, but those efforts were blocked by a court order and later suspended by a provision in the stopgap spending law that runs through Jan. 30. That protection would lapse if funding runs out again. Which workers are ‘essential’?Individual government departments — and the political appointees who run them — have a say over who comes to work and who stays home. In theory at least, a federal employee who works during a shutdown, but isn’t supposed to, could face fines or a prison term under what’s called the Anti-deficiency Act. Military operations, air traffic control, medical care of veterans and federal criminal investigations are among the essential activities that go on. What government services cease in a shutdown?The 2025 shutdown affected the entire federal government, making its impact broader than the looming partial shutdown. For instance, if the shutdown commences, unlike last time, economic data collection by the Commerce Department will not be interrupted and the Food and Drug Administration will be able to continue accepting new drug applications. However, if Congress fails to reach a deal by midnight on January 30, non-essential staff at the Pentagon will be furloughed and the State Department will likely curtail routine passport and visa issuance. DHS will shut down, forcing federal disaster workers and Transportation Security Administration officers to do their jobs without pay. The Internal Revenue Service, which is beginning tax season, will go without funding, potentially delaying the processing of tax returns and responses to customer service questions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will shutter, likely delaying the next unemployment report, which is watched closely by markets. Small Business Administration loan activity will cease. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will likely halt casework. The Internal Revenue Service, which is beginning tax season, would go without funding during a shutdown, potentially delaying the processing of tax returns and responses to customer service questions. The US Postal Service and the Federal Reserve have their own funding streams and are largely unaffected by government shutdowns. What happens to federal contracts?Private companies that rely on federal contract work — ranging from defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin to janitorial service providers for local federal buildings — typically face lost revenue. Service contract employees historically have been furloughed during shutdowns and haven’t received back pay when the government resumes operations. What happens to government checks?Entitlement programmes such as Social Security and Medicare are considered mandatory spending, meaning they don’t need annual appropriations to continue distributing money. That doesn’t mean such programmes are unaffected. During a 1996 shutdown, even as Social Security checks continued to go out, “staff who handled new enrolments and other services, such as changing addresses or handling requests for new Social Security cards, were initially furloughed,” according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. And during the 2018-2019 shutdown, the Department of Agriculture had to rely on a special authority included in the previous continuing resolution to continue issuing food stamps.The Trump administration attempted to pause food stamp payments to states during the shutdown, a step that drew legal challenges from state officials, who argued the administration lacked legal authority to withhold benefits. A US appeals court intervened to keep benefits flowing, but the cases ended with the shutdown, leaving the underlying legal questions unresolved. 

Global climate negotiations eked out an agreement that manages to nudge forward efforts to curb planet-warming emissions. But the final result — in avoiding explicit reference to fossil fuels — will leave big questions hanging over the efficacy of international climate politics.Two weeks of talks in the rainforest city of Belem, Brazil, served as a rebuttal of sorts to the idea that climate multilateralism is no longer viable. In the end, nearly 200 countries agreed to an eight-page document that calls for stronger efforts on national goals on emissions and boosting financial support to poor countries that need help defending against intensifying heat, storms and droughts.But the outcome of COP30 revealed deep fractures, particularly around which countries should pay for adaptation and how to get the world off fossil fuels. The Global Mutirao decision, a title using the Brazilian hosts' term for collective action, left out key provisions about winding down fossil fuel use that had been the benchmark for success by dozens of more ambitious countries.The two largest economies and historical emitters, the US and China, were conspicuous in their lack of impact. President Donald Trump declined to send representatives as the US exits from global climate accords; China focused more on its own interests in trade rather than stepping into a stronger leadership role.For some diplomats and experts, the outcome at best prevents a backslide on previous deals while doing little more to curb the oil, gas and coal that remain the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions. “This COP was the manifestation of a new geopolitical reality,” said Linda Kalcher, executive director at Strategic perspectives.**media[386956]**Brazil, host of the UN summit on the edge of the Amazon, announced it would work on two initiatives to combat deforestation and transition away from fossil fuels that will take shape over the next year and could inform COP31 talks in Turkiye. To understand what happened and where it leaves the world, we’ve compiled six key takeaways.The fossil fuel gap is still too wideA proposed road map for the transition away from oil, gas and coal was a focal point of this year’s COP, with backing from roughly 80 countries, including Colombia, the UK, Germany and Kenya. So when the draft that Brazil released on Friday didn’t mention it, many delegates were disappointed and angry.Ultimately, COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago pledged to create a road map focused on a just transition away from fossil fuels, which will continue over the next year. While that measure won robust applause Saturday, it’s not the full plan incorporated in formal COP processes that supporters wanted.“Staying silent on fossil fuels” isn’t sufficient, said Harjeet Singh, a founding director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.Nearly 200 countries agreed in Dubai in 2023 to phase out fossil fuels. But that belies a deep, persistent divide on the issue. Some nations insisted that COP30 spur concrete action to help economies make the shift. For others, such as China and oil producers such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, any new obligation relating to the phaseout was a red line.Adaptation has jumped up the agendaIn climate policy, adaptation — learning to live with the effects of a warmer world — has long taken a back seat to emission-cutting work of mitigation. But adaptation was elevated at this year’s COP, a recognition that climate damage is happening now and the need to adapt is here. Worsening storms, floods, droughts and fires pose a huge burden, especially on developing countries and small island states.COP30 adopted a call to triple adaptation finance by 2035. That timeline is five years longer than what developing nations were pushing for, though. “In the Marshalls, our adaptation needs are overwhelming,” Kalani Kaneko, foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, said at the summit.The 2035 timeline is hard but achievable, according to experts. “Tripling the adaptation goal is possible,” climate finance specialists at the World Resources Institute wrote in an analysis earlier this month. “But every relevant source of finance will need to step up, and the system will need to work better as a whole.”Trade and critical minerals are climate issues, tooTrade is a flashpoint in global politics right now, and it created tension in Belém as well. China and other countries voiced displeasure with the European Union’s carbon levy. The measure is designed to prevent carbon “leakage” when heavy-emitting industries relocate offshore, but critics say it penalises other countries' exports to the bloc.Those frustrations made it into the final agreement, which includes a swipe at such unilateral trade actions. The document reaffirms that measures taken to combat climate change “should not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade.” It also sets up a dialogue and a high-level event in 2028 to consider the role of trade policy.And for the first time at a COP, delegates included language on critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt in a draft negotiating text that highlighted the risks associated with their extraction and processing. Although it was left out of the final decision, the proposal underscored mounting concerns that the shift away from polluting fossil fuels could leave the world more reliant on minerals tied to environmental and social ills.Political freedom makes a COP comebackTens of thousands of people took to the streets of Belém on November 15 to call for a stronger response to climate change. The previous day, Indigenous activists blocked the entrance to the Blue Zone of the COP30 venue, staying put until they could have a dialogue with the Brazilian officials leading the summit. And before that, a small group of protesters forced their way into the Blue Zone after being denied access.Such scenes in democratic Brazil were a far cry from the past three COPs, held in countries where political expression is heavily restricted. While many activists said the summit did not adequately include or listen to them, civil society was a bigger part of these talks than it had been for years.With COP31 set to be held in Turkiye, protests may once again recede. The country has seen one of the sharpest pullbacks on freedom of expression over the past decade, according to Freedom House.Forests got money — but not make-or-break supportBrazil went into COP30 with a signature initiative: the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a fund to support rainforest conservation worldwide. The country hoped for tens of billions in pledges, but the fund fell far short.Norway, Germany and Indonesia and others have committed more than $6bn so far. Norway’s pledge came with conditions that include raising more investment from others, meaning much work remains to be done.The Global Mutirão decision also recognises the critical role of forests in storing carbon and maintaining a liveable climate. However, a proposed road map to stop deforestation did not make it into the final text, with Corrêa do Lago instead propping up a second initiative akin to the fossil fuel one. It’s an omission that some found galling given the setting of the talks.“If we cannot agree on ending deforestation here in the Amazon, the question is, ‘then where?’” asked Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, the special representative for climate change from Panama.The US makes its absence feltThis was the first COP without American attendance since President Donald Trump returned to the White House — and that absence was felt, for both good and bad.Developed country negotiators, like those in the EU, missed the presence of the US to act as a driver of ambition, using its diplomatic heft during critical moments with countries like China and Saudi Arabia. There was little sign of others being willing to step up into the vacuum. Beijing submitted an underwhelming climate pledge ahead of the summit and kept a low profile at the talks. Europe remained on the defensive against accusations of not providing enough finance and unfair trade measures.Yet there was also relief that the US didn’t disrupt talks. In the weeks before COP30, the US played the role of spoiler in negotiations at the International Maritime Organisation, which had been working for years to adopt a new global charge on the shipping industry’s enormous emissions. 

Nancy Pelosi, a towering figure in US politics and the first woman to serve as speaker of the House of Representatives, announced Thursday that she will step down at the next election.Admired as a master strategist with a no-nonsense leadership style that delivered consistently for her party, the 85-year-old Democrat shepherded historic legislation through Congress as she navigated America's bitter partisan divide.In later years, she became a key foe of President Donald Trump, twice leading his impeachment and stunning Washington in 2020 when images of her ripping up his speech to Congress were beamed on live television around the world."I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know I will not be seeking reelection to Congress," she said in a video statement pointedly aimed at her hometown constituents."With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative."Pelosi — whose term ends in January 2027 — was the first woman to lead a major political party in the US Congress.Despite entering political office later in life, she quickly rose through the ranks to become a darling of liberal West Coast politics and, eventually, one of the most powerful women in US history.She is in her 19th term and has represented her San Francisco-area district for 38 years. But her fame centers especially on her renowned skills at the national level, leading her party for two decades.As House speaker for eight years, she was second in line to the presidency, after the vice president, including during Trump's chaotic first term.She was revered for her ability to corral her often fractious caucus through difficult votes, including Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act and Joe Biden's infrastructure programs.Republicans painted her as the driving force behind a liberal elite that had turned its back on American values and was undermining the social fabric.The granddaughter of Italian immigrants, Pelosi was born in Baltimore where her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, was a mayor and congressman who schooled her in "retail politics" from a young age and staunchly backed Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.Pelosi attended her first Democratic National Convention before hitting her teens and was pictured with John F Kennedy at his inaugural ball when she was 20.She moved to San Francisco and raised five children with businessman Paul Pelosi while delving into Democratic politics before being elected to Congress at age 47."Nancy Pelosi will be recorded as the greatest speaker in American history, the result of her tenacity, intellect, strategic acumen and fierce advocacy," said Adam Schiff, a colleague in the California House delegation before he moved up to the Senate.A San Francisco liberal and multimillionaire, Pelosi is far from universally popular.Her status as a hate figure for the right was brought in stark relief when an intruder, apparently looking for the speaker, violently assaulted her husband in the runup to the 2022 midterm elections.And during the 2021 assault on the US Capitol, supporters of then-president Trump ransacked her office, and a crowd baying for blood chanted "Where's Nancy?" as they desecrated the halls of Congress.Pelosi moved quickly after that to secure the second impeachment of Trump, whom she called the "deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States."Her legislative achievements include steering through Obama's key health care reforms as well as massive economic packages after both the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic."I say to my colleagues in the House all the time, no matter what title they have bestowed upon me — speaker, leader, whip — there has been no greater honor for me than to stand on the House floor and say, I speak for the people of San Francisco," Pelosi said.

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) will hold “Seeing Sudan: Politics Through Art”, a landmark three-day conference from September 18-20 at Four Seasons Doha that promises not just to inform, but to transform the way the world views Sudan. “At a time when Sudan’s crisis risks invisibility, this conference amplifies Sudanese voices and highlights the transformative role of culture in sustaining resilience and hope,” said GU-Q dean Safwan M Masri. “The 50 leading scholars, artists, and activists speaking at the conference will show how art functions as politics by other means, with memory as its medium, imagination as its arena, and survival as its aim.” Anchoring the programme is the keynote panel “Eyes on Sudan”, featuring Zeinab Badawi, legendary broadcaster, president of SOAS University of London, and author of the bestselling book *An African History of Africa (2024). She will be joined by Khalid Albaih, internationally celebrated Sudanese political cartoonist and GU-Q’s 2025 Artist-in-Residence; Nesrine Malik, award-winning journalist and author whose writing has reshaped global understandings of politics and identity; and Rashid Diab, one of Sudan’s most influential contemporary artists. Together with Masri as moderator, they will ask urgent questions about Sudan’s past, present, and future, and challenge audiences to engage with a rich cultural legacy in peril. Beyond the keynote, attendees will experience live music by Alsarah of Alsarah & The Nubatones, and musician and composer Huda Asfour; attend a special art exhibition and book launch for *Sudan Retold at Alhosh Gallery; and engage in immersive discussions on art, film, music, and life in Sudan and the diaspora. The event extends beyond academic dialogue, offering participants the chance to engage with Sudan’s cultural heartbeat in the midst of crisis. As the GU-Q marks its 20th anniversary, “Seeing Sudan” exemplifies its aim to foster bold scholarship and dialogue that bridges cultures, honours diverse histories, and addresses the world’s most pressing challenges.

After weeks of violent protests, a leading rights activist and former chief justice have emerged as presidential contenders -- but can they succeed in the bare-knuckle world of Kenyan politics?President William Ruto has seen his popularity plummet since coming to power in 2022 over continued economic stagnation, corruption, police brutality and abductions targeting government critics.Ruto has stood firm against waves of violent protests seeking to force his resignation in mid-2024 and again in recent months, in which hundreds have died or disappeared.But many are now looking for new faces who can challenge him at the next election in 2027.Firebrand human rights activist Boniface Mwangi on Wednesday announced his bid for the top seat, vowing not to work with "anyone who is contaminated"."We cannot achieve change by working with people who have been part of the problem," Mwangi said as he announced his candidature.He pitched himself as the antithesis of the typical politician -- shunning bribes and the lavish cash hand-outs to voters that occur during Kenyan campaigns.But the 42-year-old faces an uphill struggle. His previous attempt to run a clean campaign -- running for a parliamentary seat in 2017 -- ended in failure.Another figure who has entered the fray is former chief justice David Maraga, who came out of retirement in June to announce his presidential bid.In an interview, he told AFP he had not previously considered a political career but was shocked into action by Ruto's violent crackdown on protesters."What I saw horrified me," he said. It is a "leadership that does not want to follow the law."Maraga, 74, made his name in 2017 when his bench of judges in the Supreme Court nullified the results of the presidential election over "irregularities and illegalities" -- an unprecedented ruling in Africa."Maraga could be our Muhammad Yunus," said Nelson Amenya, a columnist and whistleblower, on X, referring to the respected Bangladeshi civil society leader and statesman.Maraga rejects claims that he lacks the charisma and brawn for politics."I am prepared to go into the murky environment," he told AFP."What good is a good reputation for me if... I see my country going down and I see the youths being killed, being kidnapped?"'BUILT TO CORRUPT'Ruto remains defiant, saying only he has a plan for the country, based on mobilising international investment and reforming public services.The opposition's "only plan is that 'Ruto must go' -- how will that help Kenyans and the country?" he said in a speech during the protests in June.Ruto has also repeatedly proved his mastery of Kenyan politics -- how to exploit its deep-rooted tribal divisions and mobilise voters with financial promises.While the protests of 2024 and 2025 showed there was a new generation of educated young Kenyans keen to move beyond that type of politics, analysts say there is still a long way to go."Culture does not change overnight," political analyst Kaburu Kinoti told AFP. No candidate "can appeal to the mass political market without segmenting it into ethnic blocs."Patrick Gathara, a political cartoonist, said candidates like Mwangi and Maraga will struggle to stay clean."I have no faith that they are not going to be corrupted by the system, because our system is actually built to corrupt people," he said.Gathara said the key to Kenya's future cannot come from politicians but continued pressure by citizens."Change never comes from within," he said.