WASHINGTON: A splintered Senate swatted down competing Democratic and Republican plans for ending the 34-day partial government shutdown on Thursday, but the twin setbacks prompted a burst of bipartisan talks aimed at temporarily halting the longest-ever closure of federal agencies and the damage it’s inflicting around the country.
In the first serious talks in weeks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly called Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to his office to explore potential next steps for solving the vitriolic stalemate. Senators from both sides floated a plan to reopen agencies for three weeks and pay hundreds of thousands of beleaguered federal workers while bargainers hunt a deal.
At the White House, President Donald Trump told reporters he’d support “a reasonable agreement.” He suggested he’d also want a “pro-rated down payment” for his long-sought border wall with Mexico, a term he didn’t describe and which drew opposition from Democrats. He said he has “other alternatives” for getting wall funding, an apparent reference to his disputed claim that he could declare a national emergency and fund its construction using other programs in the federal budget.
“At least we’re talking about it. That’s better than it was before,” McConnell told reporters in one of the most encouraging statements heard since the shutdown began Dec. 22.
It was initially unclear whether the flurry would produce results. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose relationship with Trump seems to have soured daily, told reporters a “big” down payment would not be “a reasonable agreement.” Asked if she knew how much money Trump meant, Pelosi said, “I don’t know if he knows what he’s talking about.”
Contributing to the pressure on lawmakers was the harsh reality confronting 800,000 federal workers, who on Friday face a second two-week payday with no paychecks.
Underscoring the strains, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, angrily said on the Senate floor that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, had forced a 2013 shutdown during which “people were killed” in Colorado from flooding and shuttered federal agencies couldn’t help local emergency workers. Moments earlier, Cruz accused Democrats of blocking a separate, doomed bill to pay Coast Guard personnel during this shutdown to score political points, adding later, “Just because you hate somebody doesn’t mean you should shut the government down.”
Thursday’s votes came after Vice President Mike Pence lunched privately with Republican senators, who told him they were itching for the standoff to end, participants said. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said their message to Pence was, “Find a way forward.”
In an embarrassment to Trump, the Democratic proposal got two more votes Thursday than the GOP plan, even though Republicans control the chamber 53-47. Six Republicans backed the Democratic plan including freshman Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who’s clashed periodically with the president.
The Senate first rejected a Republican plan reopening government through September and giving Trump the $5.7 billion he’s demanded for building segments of that wall, a project that he’d long promised Mexico would finance. The 50-47 vote for the measure fell 10 shy of the 60 votes needed to succeed.
Minutes later, senators voted 52-44 for a Democratic alternative that sought to open padlocked agencies through Feb. 8 with no wall money. That was eight votes short. It was aimed at giving bargainers time to seek an accord while getting paychecks to government workers who are either working without pay or being forced to stay home.
Flustered lawmakers said Thursday’s roll calls could be a reality check that would prod the start of talks. Throughout, the two sides have issued mutually exclusive demands that have blocked negotiations from even starting: Trump has refused to reopen government until Congress gives him the wall money, and congressional Democrats have rejected bargaining until he reopens government.
Thursday’s votes could “teach us that the leaders are going to have to get together and figure out how to resolve this,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate GOP leader. He added, “One way or another we’ve got to get out of this. This is no win for anybody.”
Initially, partisan potshots flowed freely.
Pelosi accused Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross of a “’let them eat cake’ kind of attitude” after he said on television that he didn’t understand why unpaid civil servants were resorting to homeless shelters for food. Even as Pelosi offered to meet the president “anytime,” Trump stood firm, tweeting, “Without a Wall it all doesn’t work.... We will not Cave!“
As the Senate debated the two dueling proposals, McConnell said the Democratic plan would let that party’s lawmakers “make political points and nothing else” because Trump wouldn’t sign it. He called Pelosi’s opposition “unreasonable” and said, “Senate Democrats are not obligated to go down with her ship.”
Schumer criticized the GOP plan for endorsing Trump’s proposal to keep the government closed until he gets what he wants.
“A vote for the president’s plan is an endorsement of government by extortion,” Schumer said. “If we let him do it today, he’ll do it tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.’
McConnell’s engagement was viewed as a constructive sign because has a history of helping resolve past partisan standoffs. For weeks, he’d let Trump and Democrats try reaching an accord and, until Thursday, had barred any votes on legislation Trump would not sign.
In consultation with their Senate counterparts, House Democrats were preparing a new border security package that might be rolled out Friday. Despite their pledge to not negotiate until agencies reopened, their forthcoming proposal was essentially a counteroffer to Trump. Pelosi expressed “some optimism that things could break loose pretty soon” in a closed-door meeting with other Democrats Wednesday evening, said Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Kentucky
The Democratic package was expected to include $5.7 billion, the same amount Trump wants for his wall, but use it instead for fencing, technology, personnel and other measures. In a plan the rejected Senate GOP plan mirrored, Trump on Saturday proposed to reopen government if he got his wall money. He also proposed to revamp immigration laws, including new restrictions on Central American minors seeking asylum in the US and temporary protections for immigrants who entered the country illegally as children.
At a panel discussion held by House Democrats on the effects of the shutdown, union leaders and former Homeland Security officials said they worried about the long-term effects.
“We will be lucky to get everybody back on the job without a crisis to respond to,” said Tim Manning, a former Federal Emergency Management Agency official.
Senate rejects rival plans for ending US govt shutdown, talks start
Senate rejects rival plans for ending US govt shutdown, talks start
- Senators from both sides floated a plan to reopen agencies for three weeks and pay hundreds of thousands of beleaguered federal workers while bargainers hunt a deal
- President Donald Trump told reporters he’d support “a reasonable agreement”
Ukraine seeks surge in domestic arms production as US diverts Swiss order for Patriots to Kyiv
“What we need is greater capacity to push the war back onto Russia’s territory,” Zelensky said
KYIV: A new Ukrainian government approved Thursday will race to expand domestic arms production to meet half the country’s weapons needs within six months as it tries to push back Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, Switzerland said Thursday that the US Defense Department had informed it that Washington is diverting a Swiss order for Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, which badly needs to improve its response to increasingly heavy Russian aerial attacks.
The Swiss Defense Ministry, which in 2022 ordered five Patriot systems, said Thursday it has been informed by the US Defense Department that it will “reprioritize the delivery of Patriot systems to support Ukraine.”
Delivery to Switzerland of the systems, worth billions of dollars, was scheduled to begin in 2027 and be completed in 2028. But the Swiss government said Washington informed it of the delay on Wednesday, adding that it was unclear how many systems would be affected.
Domestic defense manufacturing already accounts for almost 40 percent of weapons used by the Ukrainian military, according to Zelensky. As uncertainty grows about how many more weapons shipments Western countries can provide — and how quickly — Ukraine is keen to increase its output and widen its strikes on Russian soil.
“What we need is greater capacity to push the war back onto Russia’s territory — back to where the war was brought from,” Zelensky said late Wednesday in his nightly video address.
“We must reach the level of 50 percent Ukrainian-made weapons within the first six months of the new government’s work by expanding our domestic production.”
The need to adequately arm Ukraine’s military is pressing as Russia looks to drive forward its summer offensive and pounds Ukrainian cities with hundreds of drones and ballistic and cruise missiles.
Meanwhile, it remained unclear when promises of US-made weapons, especially Patriot missile systems crucial for stretched Ukrainian air defenses, might reach Ukraine. US President Donald Trump agreed to send the weaponry, but it will be paid for by European countries.
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, told the Associated Press Thursday that “preparations are underway” for weapons transfers to Ukraine and that NATO is working “very closely” with Germany to transfer Patriot systems.
Grynkewich said at a military event in Wiesbaden, Germany, that he had been ordered to “move (the weapons) out as quickly as possible.” He said the number of weapons being transferred is classified.
“We’re already in preparation phase for the first tranche of capability to start moving with respect to Patriots,” he said.
An expert working group under NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe will discuss concrete planning “very quickly but also with corresponding caution,” German Defense Ministry spokesperson Mitko Müller said Wednesday.
He said details were still being worked out.
“Regarding the systems that we are talking about, I can’t confirm that anything is currently on the way. I’m not aware of that,” he said.
NATO chief Mark Rutte said in Washington on Monday that the alliance is coordinating the military support with funding from allies in Europe and Canada. He said there were commitments from Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada “with more expected to follow.”
Ukraine has also developed its own long-range drones, which it uses to strike deep inside Russia.
Russian air defenses shot down 122 Ukrainian drones overnight, the country’s defense ministry said Thursday. The wave of drones caused flights to be grounded at airports in Moscow and St. Petersburg, although most of the drones were reportedly destroyed over the border regions of Bryansk and Kursk.
Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 64 Shahed and decoy drones overnight, killing at least one person, the Ukrainian air force reported. The assault centered on the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region, officials said.
In other developments:
Russia on Thursday sent to Ukraine 1,000 bodies, including some of the country’s fallen soldiers, the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said.
At the same time, Russia received the bodies of 19 soldiers, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky said.
The exchange was part of a deal reached at direct peace talks last May and June that produced few other agreements between the sides.
In Bangladeshi slums, women lead climate action to escape poverty
- Red Crescent-supported Women’s Squad was established in Barisal’s slums in 2018
- 23-member team leads hygiene and health efforts, negotiations with authorities, NGOs
DHAKA: Growing up in a poor, densely populated neighborhood of a southern Bangladeshi city, Josna Begum has for most of her life lived in conditions where even access to clean water was rare.
As climate change-related heatwaves and floods took an increasing toll in recent years, she joined a women’s community project in 2018 and soon rose to lead it — helping make Hatkhola, the slum area where she lives in Barisal city, a safer and healthier place — and support other women in escaping poverty.
“My locality is one of the most underprivileged areas of Barisal city. Here, people are mostly unaware of their rights and responsibilities,” Josna told Arab News.
“Women didn’t have a voice. We had no chance to share our opinions at home, in the community, or in any official space. We wanted to unite so we could solve our issues ourselves.”
A mother of three, Josna, 44, has been volunteering with the Women’s Squad — an all-women team established by the Bangladesh Red Crescent and British Red Cross in slum areas of Barisal. She currently serves as the team’s leader in the Hatkhola locality.
“We build awareness about climate change impacts like untimely heavy rain, drought, heatwaves, repeated cyclones, floods. We encourage people to plant more trees to help reduce the effects of climate change. We also make people aware of the importance of keeping the canals clean so they can hold enough water during heavy rainfall,” she said.
“We work to keep the environment clean where we live. To motivate the community, all 23 members of our women’s squad do the drainage cleaning tasks ourselves. We raise awareness about the effects of waterlogging, which causes diseases like dengue, malaria.”
Josna initially faced objections from her husband, a daily-wage worker, but this changed when he saw the effects of her work.
The Women’s Squad has managed to obtain a submersible water pump from the Red Crescent, and convinced local authorities to repair five tube wells, securing clean water for over 700 families, who did not have access before.
They have also persuaded local officials to repair a 106-meter-long drainage system, helping prevent waterlogging during the rain season, and are now focused on improving sanitation in the neighborhood that until recently had no proper bathrooms or toilets.
“Now, seeing my success, all family members are happy and encouraging me to keep going,” Josna said.
“With support from the Red Crescent Society, we secured two bathrooms, and just weeks ago, we coordinated the construction of another toilet with the help of a local NGO. This new facility is fully equipped, including features to accommodate people with disabilities.”
To uplift the community, the women also help households plant trees and grow vegetables on whatever small plots of land they have. With support from NGOs, they organize vocational training for those interested in learning to drive, sew, perform basic electrical work, or service mobile phones.
Moly Begum, another member of the Women’s Squad, who leads the team in Barisal’s Stadium Colony area, is proud of the effect their engagement has in changing not only the quality of life, but also the social standing of women.
“I didn’t have any recognition in the family and society. Nobody listened to my words. I thought, if I could get engaged with some social work, people would know me in the community, and I would be able to serve them,” she said.
“My area is an underprivileged poor area. There are many distressed women in my community. Violence against women and children was very common here ... That’s why I got involved with the Women’s Squad.”
Over the past seven years, much of what she hoped to achieve has materialized or borne fruit, as her team members went door-to-door with their advocacy and helped organize various forms of support from NGOs and local authorities.
They have been intervening in incidents of domestic violence or child marriage, as they also tried to make sure more children in the marginalized community would get access to education, while women gain some financial independence.
“The members of the Women’s Squad approached every house in the community. We encouraged the guardians to send their children to school. We convinced them that every child is equal, whether a boy or a girl,” Moly told Arab News.
“Women are now engaged in small-scale income-generating activities. Many in my community are now running tea stalls, clothing shops, selling pickles, cakes. All these things happened due to our Women’s Squad’s work.”
Environmentalists urge policy reform as toxic waste rises in Philippines
- Country’s waste management system ‘cannot cope’ with rising production, consumption, Greenpeace warns
- Number of illegal dumps surged by 84% in 2024, posing health risks to local communities
MANILA: Philippine environmental groups are calling for immediate policy reform after official data showed that the country’s annual hazardous waste levels increased to more than 269,000 metric tonnes annually, fueling concern over public health threats.
The Philippines’ toxic waste generation increased by 13 percent last year from about 238,000 metric tonnes in 2023, with oil comprising about one-third of the total, according to data published by the Philippine Statistics Authority last week.
Though it is one of the lowest volumes recorded based on figures compiled since 2015, the latest data set showed that the Philippines is producing hazardous waste at a faster rate compared to the development of waste management infrastructure.
Despite the number of trash processing facilities and sanitary landfills increasing in 2024 by about 8.7 percent and 14.7 percent, respectively, the number of reported illegal dumps rose by 84 percent in the same year.
“It’s still alarming because the infrastructure can’t catch up,” Jashaf Shamir Lorenzo, head of policy development and research at BAN Toxics, told Arab News on Thursday.
The rising number of illegal dumps concerns observers as the sites usually involve open burning or the burying of hazardous waste underground.
“There is a big health and environmental impact here for everyone … all of these harmful chemicals that could lead to various health issues like neurodevelopmental issues, cancer … (they) increase the risk of communities around them getting these diseases,” Lorenzo said.
“I think (the sites are) also a reflection of the number of wastes that we are really generating that other cities can’t handle. But also, it calls for the need for the government to pay attention to the protection of these communities.”
While the Philippine government has made efforts over the years to improve waste management in the country, environmentalists like Lorenzo say there is still room for improvement.
This includes preventing the illegal waste trade, as the Philippines has been a major destination for such exports over the years, including shipments of toxic chemical waste intended for dumping.
“A lot of the waste coming into the country, historically, has been hazardous waste traded by other countries into us. I think the government should really push for policies that limit hazardous waste coming in,” Lorenzo said.
He is also urging the government to “look at other solutions on waste reduction,” including by installing reuse and refill systems across the country.
The increasing volume of waste in the Philippines is “not surprising,” said Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Marian Ledesma, who is also pushing for policies focused on reducing waste.
“Downstream approaches like waste management simply cannot cope with increasing patterns of production and consumption … the government must enact policies that reduce or prevent waste from the start,” she said.
This includes banning the commercial use of harmful chemical groups in products, phasing out single-use products and packaging like plastics, and regulating hazardous chemicals.
“While the country is taking steps toward better and sustainable waste management, it can improve on upstream measures that prevent or reduce waste generation,” Ledesma said.
“Upstream approaches like cutting production and phase-outs or bans are necessary, have clear benefits for communities and are more cost-effective in the long term.”
Ukraine’s new PM: a deal-maker as head of wartime government
- “It is a great honor for me to lead the Government of Ukraine today,” Svyrydenko said
- She led fraught negotiations around a minerals and investment agreement with the US
KYIV: Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s new prime minister, represents a generation of young Ukrainian politicians who have steered their country through the turmoil of war.
The 39-year-old, who was appointed economy minister just months before the Kremlin launched its full-scale assault in February 2022, shot to international prominence this year when she championed a vital economic accord between Kyiv and Washington.
“It is a great honor for me to lead the Government of Ukraine today,” Svyrydenko said on social media, adding that “war leaves no room for delay. We must act swiftly and decisively.”
Svyrydenko led fraught negotiations around a minerals and investment agreement with the United States that nearly derailed ties between Kyiv and its most important military ally.
The deal was central to a disastrous televised spat between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in February 2025.
Not long after, Svyrydenko traveled to Washington to finalize an agreement that many Ukrainians hoped would placate Trump by giving him a sellable victory and ensure more critical US support for Kyiv.
“She was the key and the only person leading these negotiations. She managed to prevent them from unraveling,” said Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former economy minister who worked with Svyrydenko.
She earned the respect of US partners during the negotiations, according to several analysts, including Mylovanov, who described Svyrydenko as preferring a level-headed, non-confrontational approach in politics.
Svyrydenko is also viewed as loyal to the powerful head of Zelensky’s office, Andriy Yermak, with some seeing her nomination as another attempt from the presidency to consolidate power.
She is taking the helm at a precarious moment, in a country exhausted by more than three years of war and dependent on its foreign allies for survival.
The role of prime minister does not typically include a say on military strategy or frontline operations, where Zelensky and his military chiefs call the shots.
Yet Svyrydenko is central to a young generation of Ukrainian leaders, like Zelensky, who have guided the country through the Russian invasion and contrast starkly with the Soviet-styled elites that dominate in Russia.
She was not yet 30 when the Kremlin helped foment a violent overthrow of authorities in eastern Ukraine, as popular protests demanded that Kyiv pursue closer integration with Europe.
And her native region of Chernigiv, which borders Russia and its war ally Belarus, was briefly occupied at the start of the invasion launched in February 2022.
Despite being ravaged and facing a potentially crippling recession, she kept Ukraine’s economy afloat during the war, including by pushing for some businesses to have exemptions from key staff being mobilized into the armed forces.
Keeping businesses going will be “her legacy as the wartime economy minister,” Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, told AFP.
“Svyrydenko is emblematic of the Ukrainian people’s resilience,” then-US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo wrote of her in Time Magazine in 2023.
Svyrydenko, who mostly avoids the press, moved through the ranks of government quickly after graduating with honors from the National University of Trade and Economics and a brief spell in the private sector.
She held a variety of posts in her native Chernigiv region before being appointed by presidential decree as deputy head of the president’s office in 2020.
Less than a year later, she became deputy prime minister and economy minister.
Svyrydenko has said that civil service was a part of her life since childhood, as both her parents worked in government.
“I saw how they devoted themselves to serving the community, how their hometown and its improvement were their core values,” she recently told Ukrainian media.
Man jailed in UK after releasing rats outside mosque
- Edmund Fowler caught on CCTV committing offense 4 times
- Mosque manager: Community members ‘scared of further harassment’
LONDON: A man has been jailed in the UK after being filmed dumping wild rats outside a mosque in the city of Sheffield, The Independent reported on Thursday.
Edmund Fowler, 66, was caught on film unloading the rodents from the back of his car outside Sheffield Grand Mosque. Footage showed the rats running through the mosque’s fence into the grounds of the building.
Fowler did this a further three times between May and June before being charged. He pleaded guilty to four counts of racially aggravated harassment at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court, which sentenced him to 18 months in jail and banned him from going near a mosque for a further 18 months upon release.
The mosque’s manager said in a statement that community members “are scared of further harassment and are now too scared to come to the mosque.”
