News

Morning Brief: Super Typhoon Fung-wong Batters Philippines, Syrian President Sharaa to Meet With Trump, Govt Shutdows Hits Day 40

BY Guy D. McCardle

With Luzon taking body blows from Uwan’s flood and wind, airports rationing airspace, and federal paychecks frozen on day 40, Ahmed al-Sharaa walks the White House halls seeking partners, proof that geopolitics move forward even when the country is stuck.

Rescue crews in bright helmets and rain gear guide families across a flooded bridge in the Philippines, bracing against Super Typhoon Uwan’s wind and water as survival takes precedence over everything else. Image Credit: Associated Press

Fung-wong Slams the Philippines After Kalmaegi’s Killing Blow

The Philippines took a brutal one-two punch this week. Typhoon Kalmaegi killed by the hundreds and left families searching through mud and wreckage for missing loved ones. Before crews could clear the roads, Super Typhoon Fung wong, known locally as Uwan, muscled in with the biggest wind and rain field the country has seen this year, felt across much of the archipelago.

Advertisement

Authorities moved early. Nearly a million people were ordered out of danger zones, with mass evacuations in Bicol and Catanduanes where slopes fail fast and rivers climb faster. More than fifty thousand families crowded into schools, churches, and civic centers. Flights were canceled by the hundreds. Ferries stayed tied to the pier, which stranded travelers at shuttered ports. Schools and government offices went dark to get people off the roads and into safer ground.

Fung wong arrived with sustained winds around 185 kilometers per hour and gusts that punched to 230. That kind of energy tears roofs, topples poles, and shoves the sea inland. Forecasters warned of storm surge over three meters. Flooding built through Eastern Visayas and into Luzon. Whole neighborhoods lost power. In places where Kalmaegi had already softened the soil, creeks turned into brown fire hoses and carried debris straight through front doors. Some families fled to higher floors. Others ran for the nearest church and pulled the doors closed against the water.

Early casualty numbers are thin, which often means the picture will get worse when roads open and teams reach the cutoff towns. Officials have confirmed at least two dead so far. With Kalmaegi’s toll already above two hundred and hundreds still unaccounted for, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared a state of emergency and put soldiers, police, engineers, and rescue units into motion. The mission is simple. Clear, search, restore.

Advertisement

The storm track points across northeastern Luzon after landfall near Aurora and Isabela, with more rain loading the mountains and lowlands. That sets the table for landslides, mudflows, and flash floods from the foothills to Metro Manila. Millions have been told to remain ready. Think of it like boxing in deep water. You cannot plant your feet, you fight to breathe, and every mistake costs more. The country needs time to stand up between rounds. For now, the priority is survival, communications, and power. The rest of the work begins when the sky opens and the water drains.

From Pariah to Partner: Syria’s al-Sharaa Walks the Halls of Washington

For the first time since Syria won its independence in 1946, a Syrian president has set foot in the U.S. capital. Ahmed al-Sharaa’s arrival in Washington this week marks a stunning reversal of fortunes—not just for him, but for a country long buried under war, sanctions, and isolation.

Al-Sharaa came to power the hard way. His rebel coalition ousted Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, bringing a brutal 13-year civil war to an end. Once a commander inside Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—a group that once waved al-Qaeda’s banner—he’s spent the past year recasting it into a nationalist movement sporting stylish suits instead of suicide vests. The rebranding worked. By mid-2025, Washington officially took HTS off its list of foreign terrorist organizations, and al-Sharaa’s name was scrubbed from both U.S. and United Nations sanctions lists. That cleared the runway for this week’s historic handshake at the White House.

President Donald Trump, never one to shy from political theater, has called al-Sharaa a “strong guy,” a phrase that in Trump-speak usually means “someone I can do business with.” The two first met in Riyadh last May, breaking a quarter-century of silence between Washington and Damascus. This time, they meet on Trump’s home turf to talk about something the U.S. can always sell—fighting terrorism. Both leaders are reportedly discussing Syria’s participation in a U.S.-led coalition aimed at hunting down what’s left of Islamic State cells scattered across the Levant.

But this isn’t just about security. It’s about normalization and influence. For the United States, re-engaging Syria is a geopolitical play to counterbalance Iran’s presence and hedge against Russian leverage in the region. For al-Sharaa, it’s about legitimacy—getting Syria’s name back into the family photo of nations after more than a decade in exile.

Not all sanctions are gone. Key restrictions under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act still hang like a sword over Damascus, pending Congressional review. Still, the diplomatic tide is shifting. In September, al-Sharaa addressed the United Nations General Assembly—the first Syrian to do so in nearly sixty years—and spoke of rebuilding a country that has known nothing but war.

From pariah to partner, the journey of Ahmed al-Sharaa is a reminder that in global politics, yesterday’s outcast can be tomorrow’s ally—if the timing, and the interests, line up just right.

 

Day 40: A Government Shutdown With Real-World Consequences

Forty days into a funding lapse that began on October 1, Washington’s standoff has become the longest shutdown in American history. Workers are unpaid, services are stalled, and Congress is still trading talking points instead of votes. The record that used to belong to 2018–2019 is gone. This one has surpassed it.

The flashpoint is health care. Democrats are holding out for a guaranteed extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. Republicans want a clean funding bill first and offer only a future vote with no promise of passage. Leadership in both chambers has stuck to those positions through weekend negotiating sessions. The result is the same blank scoreboard.

Meanwhile, the shutdown is no longer an inside-the-Beltway argument. It is hitting kitchens and airports. Food assistance programs are unfunded or running on fumes, and the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered airlines to cut flights at dozens of busy airports because controller staffing has cratered without paychecks. That move triggered widespread delays and cancellations, with ripple effects from Atlanta to the New York region and beyond.

On the aviation side, the numbers tell the story. The FAA has asked carriers to trim schedules at about forty high-traffic airports. Delays have stacked up by the thousands, and absences among controllers are rising. Airlines, crews, and travelers are paying for a political fight they do not control. If the shutdown continues, the system bends further.

Capitol Hill has floated partial fixes. Proposals to reopen slices of government and extend subsidies for the short term have circulated, but they keep running aground on the same reef. Democrats want a concrete extension of ACA support. Republicans refuse to negotiate health policy inside a stopgap. The gap between those positions is the shutdown.

There is an old infantry saying about operations that drag on without a clear objective. You start losing tempo. That is where Washington is. Federal workers are burning savings. Families who rely on food benefits are counting days. Airports are rationing airspace. The economy absorbs a thousand small cuts that add up fast. Congress can argue about who gets credit for ending this, but the country needs the lights back on now. Until the two sides trade hard lines for a concrete deal on funding and a defined path on subsidies, day 41 is coming. And after that, day 42.

 

Advertisement

What readers are saying

Generating a quick summary of the conversation...

This summary is AI-generated. AI can make mistakes and this summary is not a replacement for reading the comments.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR