• Schumer Shutdown update: The Senate side of the Schumer Shutdown has ended after 41 days. An updated continuing resolution passed late Monday night, with eight Democrat defectors enabling the package to reach the required 60-vote threshold. In exchange, Democrats earned a guaranteed December vote on the expiring ObamaCare subsidies. Senate Majority Leader John Thune insisted that negotiations on the subsidies would need to wait until after the government reopened, with the passage of the continuing resolution representing his victory over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s insistence that the deal be made before the government reopened. The alterations to the CR that will keep the government open through January 30 mean the bill will face another vote in the House, which is expected to vote as soon as Wednesday; a successful vote there would officially end the shutdown.

• A 50-year mortgage? In a move that is akin to Franklin Roosevelt’s 30-year mortgage, Donald Trump is floating the idea of mortgages with 50-year terms. Bill Pulte, the U.S. Director of Federal Housing and the chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, says that they are indeed working on it and that it would be a “complete game changer.” Would it, though? A slightly lower monthly payment made over five decades, when people can’t afford to “buy” a home until they’re 40, doesn’t seem like “owning” a house. The banks are the ones that will benefit the most from a 50-year loan, as they come away with hundreds of thousands of extra dollars in interest. It might be a better idea to deport all the illegal aliens first, especially since that’s one of the reasons housing costs are through the roof.

• SCOTUS on mail-in ballots: The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will take up an election-ballot case, Watson v. Republican National Committee. The state of Mississippi appealed the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the state’s election law, which permitted the acceptance of ballots up to five days after an election, was unconstitutional because it violated the national Election Day deadline. Mississippi’s law stipulated that as long as the ballots were cast on Election Day and received by election officials within five days following an election, they would be counted. The Court’s decision will have significant ramifications across the nation, as upwards of 30 other states, mostly blue states, have similar post-Election Day ballot acceptance laws. SCOTUS has yet to set a date for hearing the case, but a ruling is expected by July.

• Utah judge adopts Dem-leaning congressional map: Utah lawmakers proposed a new congressional map for 2026 that would protect the state’s four Republican House seats in the 2026 midterm elections. The map would’ve altered two seats to be more competitive for Democrats while still favoring the incumbents. Judge Dianna Gibson rejected the lawmakers’ map for unduly favoring Republicans. She unilaterally adopted a map proposed by the plaintiffs, the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government, which will keep Salt Lake City in a single Democrat-leaning district. Republicans argue that Judge Gibson overstepped her authority by adopting a map that the legislature has not passed, and State Rep. Matt MacPherson has introduced a bill to pursue impeachment.

• Newsom in Brazil blasts Trump, praises China: California Governor Gavin Newsom has overseen his state’s slide into growing disarray. Yet he found his own dismal record worth burnishing at the annual climate confab COP30, this time in Brazil. “I apologize for being so partisan here,” Newsom told attendees during a symposium. He then blasted the Trump administration for not sending any officials to the conference, calling it “disrespect.” After throwing his own nation under the bus, Newsom praised China, saying, “China gets it. America is toast competitively, if we don’t wake up to what the hell they’re doing in this space — on supply chains, how they’re dominating manufacturing, how they’re flooding the zone here, EU, elsewhere, Africa.” This is from the guy who has sent the energy and tech industries running from his state. Furthermore, he praised an actual dictator, Xi Jinping, while disparaging a duly elected American president as an authoritarian.

• A Syrian president visits White House for first time: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad, met with President Donald Trump in the White House on Monday. Al-Sharaa is a former leader of al-Qaida, and the U.S. once listed him as a terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head. Trump and al-Sharaa have now met three times this year, with the most recent meeting leading to the U.S. halting its sanctions on Syria as the nation joins the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State. Al-Sharaa also met with Congress over the weekend, including with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, a veteran who served in conflicts against al-Qaida. When asked by Mast, “Why are we no longer enemies?” Al-Sharaa responded that he wishes to “liberate from the past” and become a great ally of the United States.

• Kim Davis’s SCOTUS appeal rejected: On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused a petition to take up a case seeking to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 5-4 decision in 2015 that redefined marriage to include same-sex unions. Like Roe decades before, Obergefell is an example of judicial activism, where the Court twisted the 14th Amendment to force the redefinition and recognition of same-sex unions as “marriages” in every state. That said, the refusal to take up this case raised by Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who, days after the Obergefell decision, famously refused to certify a marriage certificate of a homosexual couple, was predictable given the mess of interstate implications it would create should the case be overturned. The proverbial toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube.

• 101 missing kids tracked down in Memphis: It hasn’t been making headlines during the Schumer Shutdown, but President Trump’s initiative to bring law and order to crime-ridden cities continues apace. The Memphis Safe Task Force has executed 1,000 warrants in the last 40 days, according to the U.S. Marshals. The task force has also located and safely returned 101 missing children in the same time period. Outstanding warrants that the task force executed included charges of homicide, narcotics, and sex offenses. Some 2,342 individuals have been arrested on various charges during the ongoing mission. “We will continue to investigate each warrant,” said U.S. Marshals Service Operation Commander Chad Hunt, “to make Memphis and Shelby County a safer place to live.”

• Trump says MTG has “lost her way”: On Monday, Donald Trump responded to Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had been one of his biggest supporters but has recently sounded like a Democrat by criticizing Republicans and Trump for the government shutdown. “I don’t know what happened to Marjorie. She’s a nice woman, but I don’t know what happened,” Trump opined. “She’s lost her way, I think.” MTG has been especially critical of Trump’s foreign affairs endeavors, claiming he has lost focus on domestic issues. He explained, “We could have a world that’s on fire, where wars come to our shores very easily if you had a bad president. When you’re president, you really sort of have to watch over the world. Otherwise, you’re going to be dragged into a world war.” After noting the tax cuts Congress cemented this year, Trump wondered about MTG’s “catering to the other side.”

Headlines

• House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington won’t seek reelection (Fox News)

• First openly trans lawmaker admits to sickening child sex charges (NY Post)

• China hatches plan to keep U.S. military from getting its rare-earth magnets (WSJ)

• Canada loses measles elimination status (Newsweek)

• Humor: Dems agree to end shutdown in exchange for 15% off coupon to Cracker Barrel (Babylon Bee)

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