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After 41 days of economic paralysis, Washington’s longest-ever government shutdown appears headed for its finale. The Senate approved a funding measure late Monday with enough Democratic defectors to hit the crucial 60-vote threshold, sending legislation to the House that could reopen federal agencies as early as Wednesday. Markets responded with relief — Asian indices jumped, with South Korea’s Kospi surging 3.5% and Japan’s Nikkei climbing 1.2%, while US stock futures advanced sharply ahead of Monday’s opening bell.
The deal itself tells a familiar story about political capitulation under pressure. Eight centrist Democrats broke ranks to join Republicans, abandoning their party’s six-week demand for guaranteed extensions of Affordable Care Act subsidies that help 24 million Americans afford health insurance. Instead, they settled for a promise — a future vote on healthcare, with no guarantee it will pass either chamber. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, visibly furious, voted against the compromise his own caucus members negotiated, calling it a failure to address “the healthcare crisis” as premiums loom to spike in 2026.
But the human cost of the standoff had become impossible to ignore. Food assistance programs faced collapse, with the Trump administration withholding November SNAP benefits until the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a lower court order mandating full payments. Air travel descended into chaos — flight cancellations hit 2,300 over the weekend alone, with air traffic controller staffing shortages accounting for 61% of delay minutes between November 7 and 9, up from 47% in early November. Federal workers, 750,000 of them furloughed or working without pay, will finally receive backpay under the agreement. The legislation funds most agencies through January 30 and extends some appropriations through September 2026, though it means Congress will revisit this battle before February arrives.
President Trump, who spent the weekend in Florida while negotiations unfolded, told reporters Monday that “it looks like we’re getting very close to the shutdown ending.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has called members back to Washington for an expected vote this week, though final passage isn’t guaranteed. The political calculus is straightforward: Republicans have absorbed the polling hit, and even centrist Democrats concluded that extending the standoff offered no realistic path to policy wins. The question now is whether markets maintain Monday’s optimism once the adrenaline of reopening fades and investors realize January’s funding cliff is just 11 weeks away.
Britain’s Brain Drain Accelerates
While Washington wrestles with its fiscal dysfunction, London faces a different kind of exodus. Over 150 entrepreneurs and investors have signed an open letter warning Chancellor Rachel Reeves against implementing a proposed “exit tax” on founders leaving the UK — a 20% levy on business assets that could raise roughly £2 billion ($2.3 billion / €2.0 billion) but risks accelerating the wealth flight it’s meant to address.
The letter, organized by the Startup Coalition lobby group, reads like a last-ditch intervention before Reeves’s November 26 Autumn Budget. Signatories include founders from Fuse Energy, AI fintech Cleo, and Wise, alongside venture capital firms like Dawn Capital, 20VC, and Notion Capital — collectively representing more than £10 billion ($11.6 billion / €10.0 billion) in UK economic value. Their message is blunt: “a potential exit tax would not only tell founders that their ideas and innovations aren’t welcome, but that they should either get out early or not come at all.”
The timing compounds existing anxieties. Britain has already seen some of the developed world’s largest outflows of millionaires in recent years, with Revolut founder Nik Storonsky relocating to Dubai earlier this year. Capital gains tax increased last year, and venture capital fundraising has collapsed — £5.3 billion ($6.1 billion / €5.3 billion) in the first half of 2025 compared to £9.4 billion ($10.9 billion / €9.4 billion) a year earlier. Reeves is now considering additional raids on limited liability partnerships, which would hit not just GP practices and law firms but also the VC funds that finance startups.
The UK and Italy stand alone in the G7 without exit taxes, though implementation is fiendishly complex. Countries like the US, France, and Canada have mechanisms with deferrals, exemptions, and thresholds built on decades of legal scaffolding. Rushing a poorly drafted version risks creating avoidance loopholes and double-taxation disputes, precisely the technical mess that accelerates pre-emptive emigration. As deVere Group CEO Nigel Green put it: “The Chancellor risks overseeing a historic loss of wealth, talent and confidence” — all while rival financial centers like Dubai and Singapore roll out welcome mats. Britain’s competitive disadvantage isn’t hypothetical; it’s compounding with each policy announcement. And with Reeves facing pressure to raise £35 billion to close a fiscal black hole, the exit tax temptation grows stronger even as the economic case grows weaker.
In Other News
AI models aren’t ready to control robots, according to research from King’s College London and Carnegie Mellon University. Every tested large language model failed critical safety checks when given access to personal information about gender, nationality, or religion — approving at least one command that could cause serious harm. The paper, published in the International Journal of Social Robotics, calls for immediate safety certification standards similar to aviation or medicine before AI-powered robots interact with vulnerable populations.
Majestic Labs raised $100 million to tackle the “memory wall” problem constraining AI data centers, while nuclear startup Valar Atomics secured $130 million from investors including Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, to build next-generation reactor “gigasites.” AI drug discovery firm Iambic Therapeutics landed $100 million, and Fastbreak AI closed $40 million to bring its scheduling platform from professional leagues like the NBA and NHL to amateur sports.
OpenAI is reportedly developing consumer health tools that could analyze medical data, summarize health records, and provide personalized wellness insights — a strategic move beyond productivity tasks into heavily regulated healthcare territory. The company is building partnerships and internal teams to explore responsible use cases without crossing into diagnostic territory, positioning itself to compete with Google DeepMind and Apple Health.
Orbital data centers are gaining traction as AI-driven energy demands strain power grids. Tech companies are exploring space-based computing infrastructure that would offer constant solar power and efficient cooling free from Earth’s constraints, potentially easing the planet’s energy load while creating a new space-tech economy where orbital infrastructure becomes the next frontier for AI development.
TSMC reported 17% year-over-year revenue growth in October, reinforcing the semiconductor sector’s demand narrative even as the US barred Nvidia from exporting downgraded AI chips to China. The escalating trade restrictions will likely force Nvidia to redesign products or seek export waivers, deepening the tech rift between Washington and Beijing while accelerating domestic chip innovation efforts.
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