☕ Is the shutdown (nearly) over?

Good morning!

A deal that would see the federal government re-open after the longest shutdown in history is traveling through the Senate, with a bill that would fund the government until the end of January next year gaining enough support from Republicans and Democrats to push ahead. We break it all down in today’s newsletter.

I’ve got 30 seconds

Some headlines from this morning:

• Airlines began canceling flights at 40 major U.S. airports on Monday as the ongoing government shutdown leaves air traffic control facilities critically understaffed. The Federal Aviation Administration said cancellations started at 4% of scheduled flights and will reach 10% by week's end, citing safety concerns about overworked controllers. More than 7,200 flights were delayed and 2,200 canceled on Sunday alone, affecting hundreds of thousands of travelers. The Senate advanced a funding bill that could end the shutdown, though passage remains uncertain.

• Hundreds of migrants are missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Malaysia last week. Over the weekend, Malaysia’s Maritime Enforcement Agency reported it had rescued 13 people and recovered seven bodies. The head of the Maritime Enforcement Agency for the region, Romli Mustafa, said the boat sank four days ago around the Malaysia-Thailand maritime border. The search area covers 170 square nautical miles off the coast of northwestern Malaysia, near Langkawi. The Maritime Enforcement Agency expects more victims to be found, with an estimated 300 total passengers on board the boat. Many are believed to be Rohingya refugees, an ethnic minority violently targeted and not legally recognised by the Myanmar Government.

• Two senior BBC staff have resigned over claims that the organisation misled viewers by editing a speech given by President Donald Trump. Director General Tim Davie and CEO of News Deborah Turness both announced their resignations on Sunday night (local time) after British newspaper The Telegraph accused the BBC of inaccurate editing. The newspaper reported that in a documentary called ‘Trump: A Second Chance?’, broadcast one week before the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, the BBC cut parts of a Trump speech together that were 50 minutes apart, “making him appear to encourage the Capitol Hill riot” on 6 January 2021. It credits an “internal whistleblowing memo” as the source of the allegation. In her statement, Turness said the “ongoing controversy… is causing damage to the BBC” and that “the buck stops with me”. In his statement, Davie did not specifically reference the documentary, but said “some mistakes” had been made and that “I have to take ultimate responsibility.”

• The COP30 climate conference opens in Brazil on Monday, bringing together world leaders to discuss global climate action. The summit reflects a shifting international landscape, with the United States absent from the conference for the first time in its history following President Trump's withdrawal from climate commitments. China is positioning itself to fill the leadership vacuum, with officials planning to showcase the country's recent clean energy investments and advances in renewable technology. The two-week conference will test whether international climate cooperation can continue without American participation.

I’ve got 1 minute

A bipartisan Senate deal has passed legislation that paves the way to end the record-breaking government shutdown, but the bill faces fierce opposition from House Democrats who say it abandons their fight for healthcare subsidies.

The shutdown has now lasted 40 days, causing flight delays and threatening social services that support tens of millions of Americans. Here's what you need to know.

What happened?

Eight centrist Democratic senators negotiated a deal with Republicans to reopen the government. In exchange for Democratic votes, Republicans promised to hold a separate vote on healthcare subsidies in December.

The bill funds the government until January 30, 2026, reverses firings carried out by the Trump administration at the start of the shutdown, prevents further firings before January, and guarantees backpay for all furloughed federal workers.

The shutdown

The 40-day shutdown has created mounting problems across federal services. Flight delays have increased, and social service programs are beginning to shut down.

"From the precarious situation we're in with air travel to the fact that our staff have been working without pay for a full 40 days now, all of us who support this bill know that the time to act is now," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.

Democrats divided

The bill now moves to the House, where most Democrats - including party leadership - oppose it because it doesn't include healthcare subsidies.

"America is far too expensive. We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits," Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.

Some Senate Democrats who supported the bill are now calling for leadership changes. Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna called for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to be replaced, saying he was "no longer effective."

The bill requires a House vote to become law. With Democratic leadership opposed and Republicans broadly supportive, the outcome will depend on whether enough centrist Democrats break ranks again to pass it.

I’ve got 2 minutes

Nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards were announced over the weekend. Overall, Kendrick Lamar and Lady Gaga lead the list of nominees, with nine and seven nods, respectively. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 1 February 2026. So, how exactly are artists nominated for a Grammy?

The Academy

The Grammy Awards are the music industry’s biggest annual honors, recognising excellence across dozens of categories and genres.

The Recording Academy decides who is nominated for awards. The Academy is a membership organisation of thousands of music professionals, including artists, producers, engineers, and other industry figures.

Members must be actively working in the industry to vote, making the Grammys the only music awards to be completely peer-voted.

In 2019, the Recording Academy changed its membership model to “create a more diverse and engaged membership base that represents all corners of the music industry.” This included a commitment to add 2,500 women to its ranks by 2025.

This year, the Academy accepted 3,800 new members. Of these members, the Academy said half are aged 39 or younger, more than half are people of color, and about a third are women.

The 2025 inductees included Addison Rae, Joey Bada$$, and the members of girl group KATSEYE.

Nominations

The Grammy nomination process happens across several stages.

First, record labels and Academy members submit entries for consideration. The eligibility period for the 2026 awards was between 31 August 2024 and 30 August 2025. This means more recent releases, such as Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ and Cardi B’s ‘Am I The Drama?’, will be considered for the 2027 awards.

Next, Academy staff and experts review submissions to make sure they meet technical requirements and are placed in the correct categories. Each category has its own eligibility rules - for example, an act can only submit itself for Best New Artist consideration three times. You are also automatically ineligible for this category if you have received any Grammy nominations before as a performer, though not for other roles.

For the first time, the Grammys will include categories for ‘Best Traditional Country Album’ and ‘Best Album Cover’. The new country category follows Beyoncé's history-making win as the first Black woman to win Best Country Album at the 2025 ceremony.

All members can vote in four general categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.

Record of the Year is awarded to artists, producers and engineers for the performance and production of a song.

Song of the Year is awarded to songwriters for a song’s lyrics, melody, and composition.

For other categories, members vote only in their areas of expertise — a jazz musician votes in jazz categories, a producer in production categories, and so on. The top vote-getters in each category become the nominees. This is usually five per category, though some have more. Once the nominees are publicly announced, members vote again to determine the winners.

2026 nominees

For the first time ever, three rap albums were nominated for Album of the Year, including Kendrick Lamar’s ‘GNX’.

New Zealand-born singer Rosé (from Blackpink) has also become the first-ever K-pop act to be nominated for Record of the Year.

Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny’s album ‘DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’ was nominated for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. He is the first Spanish-language artist to be nominated in all three categories simultaneously.

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