MNI POLITICAL RISK - Centrist Democrats Vote To End Shutdown

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Executive summary:

• At 11:00 ET 16:00 GMT, President Donald Trump will meet bilaterally with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. At 15:30 ET 20:30 GMT, Trump will hold a swearing-in ceremony for the US ambassador to India.
• The Trump administration announced pardons for allies accused of aiding efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump said no administration officials will attend this month’s G20 summit in South Africa.
• Eight centrist Democrats voted with Republicans on a new Continuing Resolution and three-bill appropriations package to fund the US government through January 30.
• The shutdown deal fails to achieve Democrats’ core demand of an extension to Affordable Care Act subsidies, but does secure a promise to backpay federal workers and a provision to reverse layoffs of federal workers made during the shutdown. Perhaps most importantly for Democrats, the shutdown has reframed the 2026 midterms around healthcare, successfully wrestling control of the media discourse for the first time since Trump returned to office.
• The US and China have suspended reciprocal port fees, signalling that the trade truce is holding.
• Trump suggested tapping tariff revenue to fund direct payments of at least USD$2000 to most Americans as the Supreme Court weighs the constitutionality of his tariffs.
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán scored a one-year exemption from US sanctions on buying Russian oil, a sign of Trump's ambivalent approach to sanction enforcement. 
• Chart of the Day: Positive US consumer sentiment is being driven by a stock market ‘wealth effect’.

Please find the full article attached below: US DAILY BRIEF