.ON DECEMBER 6TH Republicans refused Head of state Joe Biden's ask for $106bn of backing, the majority of it to help arm Ukraine, on the manner that its arrangements to get The United States's southerly perimeter carried out certainly not progress sufficient. A team of senators now seem close to blowing a bipartisan bargain on migration guidelines, believed to feature tougher plans as the cost of Republican support. Yet it looks most likely to become finished off in the House of Reps. On January 14th Mike Johnson, the House speaker, claimed that meaningful boundary reform will need to hang around until a Republican was actually president. However on January 17th, after a conference with Mr Biden, he suggested that he may be ready for a trade-off besides. Is actually one very likely?