Good morning! Tomorrow is November 11, which means it’s Veterans Day. The occasion is variably celebrated around the world as Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, and Armistice Day, but its purpose doesn’t change. Major hostilities in World War I ended in 1918 at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

In other news, an 11-ton, 75-foot-tall Christmas tree arrived in Rockefeller Center on Saturday. Mariah Carey’s annual payday has begun.

SHUTDOWN

💰️ Senators work out deal to end shutdown

Welcome to Day 40 of Government Shutdown 2025®. Thanks to a deal worked out on Sunday evening, it could all come to an end later this week.

Recap: Congress dun goofed and didn’t pass a new budget before the old one ran out on September 30. Republicans tried to pass a short-term budget to fund the government through mid-December while they worked on writing the full budget for the rest of the fiscal year (through next September).

• Democrats refused to play along unless Republicans agreed to extend soon-to-expire Biden-era federal subsidies for some health insurance plans.

• Spoiler alert: They said, “No. You first.”

The Deal: Negotiated by Senate Republicans and some moderate Democrats, the new budget began its legislative journey with a vote late Sunday night. If all goes according to plan, the government will reopen later this week. Here are the basics of what they agreed to:

• Some less controversial programs will get funded for the full fiscal year (through next September). That list includes SNAP, the FDA, Veterans Affairs, some military construction projects, and Congress's own operations.

• Everything else will get funded through January 30, 2026. That’ll give Congress a few months to negotiate the details on everything else.

• Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R) — he controls what does and doesn’t get a vote — will schedule a vote for December on renewing those healthcare subsidies before they expire at year’s end.

Cash money: As for the fate of said subsidies, the president has an idea of his own. Trump wants to dump them but spend the cash anyway by sending checks “DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over.”

• If that doesn’t work out? Fear not. He also wants to use some of the tariff revenue to give everybody $2,000.

Future: If this deal doesn’t come together as planned, expect things to get even worse. Thanks to a shortage of air traffic controllers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Sunday that air travel could be “reduced to a trickle” by Thanksgiving.

In other news: The 15-member United Nations Security Council is negotiating the details of a U.S. plan for a U.N.-backed, transitional government in Gaza.

GOVERNMENT

⚖️ Trump's felony conviction, for illegal hush money payments in 2016, might soon be a thing of the past. A three-judge panel — there are 13 judges total — of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a lower, federal district court in New York City to take another look at Trump's case. Trump was convicted in state court. But his lawyers want the case moved to federal court, where they think they can get his conviction overturned. Remember, the Supreme Court in 2024 said presidents can't be prosecuted for "official acts" (think failed drone strikes or disaster response gone awry). The new decision forces the lower court to reexamine whether evidence in the case involved his term as president, which could violate that order and necessitate a flip up to federal court.

👨‍⚖️ The Supreme Court agreed to let the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs issue passports that exclusively list the holder's biological sex. A Biden-era rule allowed transgender people to change the sex listed on their passports. After Trump's 2025 inauguration, that policy changed. Opponents filed a lawsuit, and the policy has been blocked by a lower court since June. Justices said the new policy does not offend "equal protection principles." Displaying "sex at birth" is a "historical fact" similar to showing "country of birth." The court's decision is an emergency order. That means it's not permanent and only exists while the lawsuit works its way through the system.

🌳 Delegates from countries around the world are in the Brazilian rainforest today for the United Nations' 30th annual COP climate conference (this year is COP30). The two-week summit will, among other issues, work out the details of a global promise to phase out fossil fuels. The United States is one of the very few countries (basically) not attending. A White House spokesperson said Trump "will not allow the best interest of the American people to be jeopardized" by the environmentalism that's "killing other countries." European leaders, meanwhile, decried "climate misinformation" and lamented the death of the climate change "consensus."

POLITICS

✒️ Congressional moderates push constitutional amendment

America’s two political parties hardly agree on anything these days. A Congress that can’t solve the riddle of, y’know, keeping the government functioning, is probably not one that’s capable of amending the Constitution. But by golly, they’re going to try.

The situation: Thanks to the filibuster rule, most new laws need 60 votes to pass the Senate. This empowers the minority party and slows the pace of change. But we can’t even agree that Red Delicious apples are unfit for human consumption. So, a 60-vote threshold means presidents can usually only push through small, budgetary changes.

• Two recent huge laws, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act? Just two budget bills masquerading as big accomplishments.

President Trump has begun pushing Republicans to change Senate rules, which they can do with just 51 votes, and dump the filibuster. That way, they can pass his full agenda unimpeded. Most Senate Republicans oppose the change, at least for now. And no Democrat is going to support it while Trump is in the White House.

• The shoe was on the other foot in the Biden years, when Democrats were just two votes away from dumping the filibuster.

The Problem Solvers Caucus is a group of 48 moderate members of the House (there are 435 total). And they want to amend the Constitution to ensure the filibuster outlives us all. Their proposal would keep all current filibuster exceptions, like annual budget reconciliation bills (the current funding fight doesn’t count, by the way) and presidential nominations.

This is destined to fail. A constitutional amendment needs a 2/3 vote in both chambers of Congress to pass. And that’s just the beginning. It then needs to win in 3/4 of state legislatures (that’s 38). It’s not impossible. But then neither is meeting Ana de Armas at Walmart and falling in love.

Members of Congress have proposed countless constitutional amendments over the years. Nearly all landed with thuds. In fact, the most recent amendment was passed in 1992. That seems impressive until you realize it was originally proposed in 1789 as part of the original Bill of Rights.

TRIVIA

China's navy launched its latest aircraft carrier last week. The Fujian is China's most advanced carrier and features a new launch tech that's only currently in use by the United States. This is China’s third carrier, which brings it up to second place in the rankings behind the U.S. The world's navies have 23 aircraft carriers in service today. How many are American?

Hint: It’s less than half.

BRIEFS

● A day after winning an easy reelection last week, the mayor of tiny Coldwater, KS, was indicted by the Kansas Attorney General for voting illegally. He’s a legal permanent U.S. resident, but not a citizen. Despite this, he’s allegedly been a registered voter since 2006.

● The DOJ is appealing after a federal judge in Oregon permanently banned Trump from sending the National Guard to Portlandia. Trump sent troops to back up federal immigration officials there, but the judge said his actions were "untethered to the facts."

● An editing scandal has erupted at the BBC. Two top news executives resigned on Sunday after revelations that a recent BBC news program had selectively edited a video of Donald Trump to make it seem like he had directly called for violence on January 6.

● Nearly a million people have been evacuated, and two people have died in the Philippines to avoid a Category 3 hurricane super typhoon named Fung-wong. The storm made landfall north of the capital and largest city, Manila, on Sunday morning.

● Two Russian cities near the Ukrainian border lost power and heat on Sunday thanks to two successful Ukrainian strikes. Ukraine and Russia have been attacking each other's energy infrastructure lately as U.S.-led peace talks to end the four-year war have stalled.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Of the world’s 23 aircraft carriers currently in service, 11 are American. The U.S. Navy has three more under construction, and China is building its fourth. America’s domination of this industry isn’t new. Of the 165 aircraft carriers that have ever existed, 66 belonged to the United States.