Politics

The Trump administration said Monday it will send out partial payments to the tens of millions of Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits – but not all of the normal funds for families relying on the resource. The administration said in a court filing that it would "fulfill its obligation to expend" funds during an emergency, using a reserve to cover "50% of eligible households’ current allotments." As the showdown over the essential program played out over the weekend, President Donald Trump called on Democrats to abandon a push for expanded health care subsidies and vote for GOP-backed legislation to reopen the government. Voting for the short-term Republican bill, which would continue spending at current levels whil

The government shutdown is poised to become the longest ever this week as the impasse between Democrats and Republicans has dragged into a new month. Millions of people could lose food aid benefits, health care subsidies are set to expire and there are few real talks between the parties over how to end it. President Donald Trump said in an interview aired on Sunday that he “won’t be extorted” by Democrats who are demanding negotiations to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year for millions of Americans. Echoing congressional Republicans, the president said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” he’ll negotiate only when the government is reopened. Trump’s comments signal the shutdown could drag on for some time as federal workers, including air traffic control

Naysayers are employing the same old playbook against the outsider, fear dressed up as caution, prejudice disguised as concern. Growing up in India, I often heard that democracy was where the silenced finally found a voice. And now New York City seems to be finding a new voice. The capital of capitalism might soon elect a socialist as its mayor. Whatever one thinks of Zohran Mamdani—the 34-year-old state assemblymember once dismissed as an outsider—his rise marks an extraordinary turn in American politics. For the Democratic Party, and for the city that defines so much of America’s identity, his potential victory isn’t just another election result. Some are already calling it the most significant breakthrough for socialism in modern US history. Mamdani’s campaign speaks to the e

Normally one is inclined to avoid cliches like the plague. But sometimes you just need to latch onto one. And the golden oldie "a week is a long time in politics" just seems so right for this moment. And it's certainly been one of those weeks in DC. Not that it's over yet. Indeed, I had barely written that line when my phone pinged with the news that US President Donald Trump had commuted the seven-year prison sentence imposed on disgraced former congressman George Santos. The Republican had flipped a Democrat seat in New York in the 2022 midterms but was soon exposed as a fraud and a fraudster. He pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges last year and has been in prison since July. His behaviour was outrageous, but he was a Trump loyalist. This story will be a one-day w...

Each year, 5,000 to 6,000 Americans renounce U.S. citizenship mostly for tax-related and logistical reasons but politics is now playing a more central role, lawyers say. On the morning after the U.S. election last November, an American living in London woke up, read that Donald Trump would be returning to the White House and sent an email to the U.S. Embassy. It said, in essence, I want a divorce. A year later, the country of his birth is about to grant his request not to be an American any more. The man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he fears retribution by the Trump administration, is in the final phase of expatriation, the process of formally renouncing his U.S. citizenship. On a coming morning, he will walk into the embassy as an American, swear face-...

The US government shutdown has entered its third week, with Republican and Democratic politicians no closer to an agreement on how to resolve an ongoing budget dispute. It means that some, but not all, US government services aretemporarily suspended, and around 1.4 million federal employees are on unpaid leave or working without pay. Although budget confrontations are common in US politics, this spending fight is especially tense because President Donald Trump has drastically reduced the size of the national government since taking office, and has suggested he may use the current impasse to make further cuts. The Trump administration has already moved to lay off about 4,000 workers as the shutdown continues, though that was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Wednesday....