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A group of eight mostly moderate Senate Democrats defected from the party line and struck a deal with Republicans on Sunday to set in motion a likely end to the federal government shutdown. MSNBC reports that the emerging deal “mirrors what Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., floated weeks ago during an interview with MSNBC: Reopen the government now, and Republicans will later give Democrats a vote on extending the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.”
This isn’t a good deal for Democrats. The point of the shutdown was not to force a symbolic vote on extending ACA subsidies, but to get Republicans to agree to support a real extension. There are other elements of the deal as well, including back pay for furloughed federal workers and the rehiring of laid-off workers, but those provisions are mostly cleanup after the shutdown and don’t relate to the premise for triggering it in the first place.
Trump has observed that enough Democrats will crack under enough pressure.
Democrats appear to have achieved the worst of all possible worlds with this conclusion. Their refusal to vote to fund the government set off the longest government shutdown in history, and they held the line long enough that the slowdown of government operations and services became extremely visible. Air traffic dipped due to staffing shortages, and Trump refused to appropriately distribute emergency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially known as food stamps, to tens of millions of poor Americans. Yet now Democrats have basically nothing to show for it — and have infuriated the parts of the base eager for a sustained fight with President Donald Trump.
Marisa Kabas, an independent reporter, posted on social media that a SNAP recipient wrote in an email to her: “We’ve been put through hell for weeks, constantly having our ability to simply feed ourselves dangled in front of our faces, our survival used as a bargaining chip, told it was for a reason. Our suffering would prevent even more suffering and that it would be temporary and worth it to save healthcare for millions. And now it’s all for nothing.”
Attempting a government shutdown was always risky business — usually the party that tries to leverage the government’s closure for a policy win loses the battle of public opinion.
The argument for Democrats staying the course was that it looked like Democrats were bucking that trend: Several recent polls showed that Republicans were getting more blame for the shutdown and that, by historical standards, Democrats were receiving unusually high levels of support for their role in the shutdown, in part because their cause — health care access — seemed worthwhile.
The argument for ending the standoff was that Trump, by attempting to use reduction of food stamps as a political weapon, had demonstrated a cold willingness to cause more harm than Democrats would ever be able to stomach. “Waiting another week, or another month, wouldn’t deliver a better outcome,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H, said, explaining why she moved toward making a deal with Republicans. “It would only mean more harm for families in New Hampshire and all across the country.”
Regardless of where you come down on what Democrats should have done, this was a difficult position for the party to be in. The ethics in this situation are blurry — the cause of protecting health care access is noble, but so is the cause of protecting hungry Americans. And while the Dems were faring a bit better than Republicans politically, this fight was always going to get ugly, and it’s possible that Shaheen is right that this concession would ultimately have come no matter what, but after a lot more suffering. Everyone with a conscience has their limits when participating in activist measures to secure a win.
Worst of all for Democrats, strategically speaking, is that this likely rules out the possibility that the party will be able to leverage a government shutdown to try to secure a policy extraction ever again during Trump’s presidency. Trump has observed that enough Democrats will crack under enough pressure. And he’s demonstrated, as plain as day, an indifference to Americans’ suffering, even if it costs him in approval ratings, in order to secure a political win.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MSNBC Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Politico, and he has also been published in, among other places, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The Intercept. You can sign up for his free politics newsletter here.
© 2025 MSNBC Cable, L.L.C.

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By Deivis Centeno
November 11, 2025 4:07 am
General Motors’ SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) joint venture in China has just announced that the Wuling Bingo family of vehicles has surpassed 600,000 units sold.

The successful fully electric Wuling Bingo lineup marks a new milestone as the company’s best-selling brand in China. This new sales achievement further solidifies Wuling’s leadership in the “A0” category of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market.

The Wuling Bingo family is a line of subcompact zero-emission vehicles comprised of three different models: the Bingo hatchback five-door, the bigger Bingo Plus, and the all-new Bingo S crossover. This product range marked Wuling’s first foray into the small passenger vehicle segment, and the standard EV quickly became the best-selling model in its class.

The Wuling Bingo lineup reached the milestone of 600,000 units in cumulative sales earlier this month, driven by the strong sales performance of the all-new Bingo S, launched in late September. SGMW stated that more than 24,000 units of Wuling’s small EV crossover were sold in October 2025, its first full month of sales in China.

First introduced in early 2023, the Wuling Bingo family of vehicles has achieved significant commercial appeal and an excellent reputation among users for its outstanding, technologically advanced, and affordable product proposition tailored to customer demand. In 2024, the Bingo line topped the Chinese new energy vehicle user satisfaction survey in the small electric car segment.

The Wuling Bingo continues to increase its sales and popularity in the Chinese automotive market, with the hatchback leading its category and the S crossover achieving instant success in its first month on the market. SGWM expects demand for the all-electric subcompact lineup to continue growing even faster in the coming months in the Chinese market and plans to replicate its success in international markets.
By Deivis Centeno
Deivis is an engineer with a passion for cars and the global auto business. He is constantly investigating about GM’s future products.
We’ll send you one email per day with the latest GM news. It’s totally free.

Copyright © 2025 Motrolix. All rights reserved.

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A leading mathematician has revealed the series of numbers you should never pick in the lottery as they are “too common”.
One lucky Brit is now richer than Adele and Harry Styles after winning a staggering £177 million in the Euromillions last week.
In total, the National Lottery has paid out £92 billion over the years, yet the possibility of winning remains approximately 1 in 45 million.
And while Dr Lassina Dembele, who specialises in number theory, says there is “no number luckier than the other,” there are some which are picked more than others.
The King’s College lecturer told the Daily Express: “There is no number luckier than the other or mathematical basis when it comes to playing the lottery.
Don’t miss: Pensioner forced to use food banks after Euromillions ‘win’ isn’t paid out
“It is just a game of probability, and just because a person plays often does not mean your chances of winning increase; each game is a new game.”
But when asked what could potentially increase your chances of winning, Dr Dembele quipped: “Buying all the tickets.”
He added: “Birthdays and special dates are too common to win. If I played, it would just be for fun because I like certain numbers because of their properties, not because I’ll have better chances.”
Despite this, there are some numbers that have come up more frequently than others, which can be found on the National Lottery website.
The numbers 11 and 39 have only been drawn six times, while number 15 has been called just seven times, followed by numbers 21 and 47, which have been drawn eight times.
Don’t miss: National Lottery most overdue numbers as experts explain top tips to win
Don’t miss: The National Lottery’s biggest winners – and those who blew the lot
Don’t miss: I won £58m on the National Lottery and it saved my husband’s life
Mathematician Skip Garibaldi told Wired: “You are not going to increase your chances of winning by some strategy about how you pick the exact numbers that you choose.”
When it comes to playing the big lottery draws, he advises “You’d like to pick unpopular numbers” and adds, “Don’t pick dates; a lot of people gamble based on dates.”
Recently, ticket holders were urged to check their numbers a second time after an error led to the wrong winning numbers being published online. A correction was later issued after it emerged that an additional number had been added by mistake.
The actual winning numbers were 07, 11, 25, 31, and 40, with lucky numbers 09 and 12.
A UK ticket holder ended up winning the incredible sum, making them the third biggest National Lottery winner of all time.
The winner, who remains anonymous, now joins the ranks of previous massive payouts, including the UK ticket-holder from July 19, 2022, who bagged an eye-watering £195 million while keeping their identity hidden.
The latest winner falls just behind Joe and Jess Thwaite from Gloucester, who scooped a record-breaking £184,262,899 with a lucky dip ticket on May 10, 2022.
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(Photo: Luke Webster)
It’s like applying to college all over again. Whether you skip your long run to anxiously watch the results roll in, or you leave your phone at home and take out your jitters on the trails, the same fate awaits nearly us all. That dreaded email:
Thank you for your interest. We’re sorry to inform you…
It’s trail and ultrarunning race lottery season. Some of the big hitters, like Western States and Hardrock, drew the names of the precious few lucky enough to get into the 2025 race last weekend. Others, such as High Lonesome, Zegama, and Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, are right around the corner. And then there are the ultra-exclusive Barkley Marathons of the world which even require you to write an admissions letter.
And like elite college admissions, your chances of getting in grow slimmer with each passing year. Sure, there are some races that come and go in popularity. (Do you remember Way Too Cool, Lake Sonoma, or Miwok? Nah, me neither.) But the staples remain as popular as ever. Well, actually, more popular. Race caps remain the same and entry numbers continue to climb as more runners turn to the trails.
Western States, for example, saw 9,993 applicants apply for a total of 260 lottery slots this year. Thanks to the weighted lottery system, first-year applicants had a whopping 0.4 percent chance of getting in. This ranks somewhere between getting stung to death by bees (0.0016 percent chance) and getting into Harvard (3 percent chance). Just a decade ago the total number of applicants was 2,704. Doing some back-of-the-napkin math, that means your chances of getting in now are roughly less than a third of what they were in 2014, never mind when Western States initiated a lottery in 2000 and just 583 weirdos bit.
While you fight back tears—your dream race, your top bucket list goal, your life’s mission, eluded once again—acquaintances humble-brag about their lottery luck on Strava and Instagram:
“It’s been my dream for five years to run the Hardrock 100, and this year I will be running it just three weeks after Western States and six weeks before UTMB!”
Five years? You think. Try five decades. (Never mind Hardrock was established in 1992, what does it matter when you’ll never get in anyway?) You unfollow that acquaintance. Or worse, you leave a passive aggressive comment, “Congratulations! You are so brave!” 
Maybe your schadenfreude is punishing you. Before you punish yourself even further, overdo it on craft stouts, or do something drastic like sign up for a Hyrox race (just to get into something), we’ve rounded up a few last-ditch methods of salvation.
Let’s face it, ultrarunning is a waste of time at best, a mortal hazard at worst. It’s expensive: so many lightly-used, $250 shoes creating a fire-hazard in your doorway because they rub your Achilles but you can’t bear to part with the sunk cost; yucky energy gels you dutifully deep-throat on your long runs to “practice fueling;” and chiropractor appointments that you pay for out of pocket because the U.S. healthcare system unduly fails to recognize the importance of preventative medicine and self-care.
Ultrarunning is also needlessly extreme. You do not need to run 100 miles to be “healthy,” to feel a “runner’s high,” or to “make friends.” In fact, as physical therapist and 1993 marathon world champion Mark Plaatjes laughed in my face as I lay on the treatment table recently, you don’t need to burn your disposable income on treatments for that calf strain when you just run “for fun.” “You feel great when you run less!”
And ultrarunning is not fun. How many times have you puked your guts out, hobbled into the finish on a sore foot, or fallen asleep on the trail? That’s what I thought. But…maybe that’s precisely what makes it fun. Type II, maybe Type III, fun is all you know. Where some see the 120-degree heat of the Western States canyons as a wish to end up in the hospital, you see an opportunity to prove you are a badass. Whereas others view Hardrock as an old man’s club, you see it as a chance to finally be in the inner circle that’s eluded you since middle school. Where the self-assured think of UTMB as the overly crowded Disneyland of trail running, you see the Instagrammable European vacation of a lifetime.
And who are you without the purpose of a big, hairy, scary goal on the calendar? What will you do if you can’t justify skipping a few stressful hours at family holiday time to get a few peaceful hours to yourself on the trails? How will you manage if your Instagram bio doesn’t say “ultrarunner?” How will you distract yourself at work without the virtual fireworks from your coworkers on Slack after you walk it into the finish of your next race?
If the answer to all of those questions is, I will not survive, then keep reading.
Look, I get it, you only care about getting into Hardrock. Or Western States. Or whatever, they are all miserable in their own ways. But per point number one, you cannot live without a race on the calendar. And you didn’t get into Hardrock/Western States/whatever so, it’s time to find a backup. Plus you need to renew your Hardrock qualifier anyway, remember?
After you spend a run or two going through denial, anger, and grief, it’s time to graduate to acceptance and throw down that credit card number for some more lotteries and race entries. It’s not too late to put your name in the lottery of a few “safeties,” or if you have the means, sign up for a race in another country that doesn’t have as stringent of field caps and hence might be slightly easier to get into.
A good place to start, as you’ve probably realized if you are reading this (but just in case), is with the Western States and Hardrock qualifiers. Many, if not most of these races will sell out—perhaps within hours of race registration opening. But for many it’s not too late. I just did a quick, random perusal of the list, and of all the ones I looked at, Bighorn, Hellbender, Cruel Jewel, and Swiss Alps, they all have spots left. Just register now, reconsider your life choices later. Because let’s face it: If you don’t register while you have the chance, you’ll inevitably regret it once it’s sold out. There’s even a psych term for this—the desire of the unattainable.
If you’re hell-bent on not learning your lesson, or if you just secretly get a kick out of rejection, it’s not too late to enter some more race lotteries. The UTMB lottery, for those with enough “stones,” will be open from December 19 to January 9. (If you’re wondering what a “stone” is, the UTMB qualification process is so convoluted we wrote an entirely separate guide for it.) The Cascade Crest 100 lottery is open from December 9 to January 5. The Vermont 100 lottery is January 1-10. Or ditch the 100-mile bandwagon and enter the Zegama lottery, open January 13-24. (This list is nowhere near exhaustive!)
Ultra-trail running is in this curious era of conglomeration and consolidation. Call it the Industrial Revolution of the sport. While independent races used to hold prestige in their own right (Miwok, Leadville, Way Too Cool), we’re seeing more races swept into race series such as UTMB and Golden Trail and into qualifiers for Western States and Hardrock. This pseudo-monopolization has benefits, such as stiffer competition at the pointy end of the field. It also has a downside. Namely, the death of the local race. Well, my forlorn friends, it’s time to make local, independent, and one-of-a-kind cool again.
I’m going to make a serious prediction, buried here half way down this silly article, that like the rise of couture, indie running brands local racing is going to make a comeback. The proletarian revolution against the bourgeoisie is coming. Be a changemaker and lead the charge!
Where I live in Colorado, Gnar Runners puts on a whole series of races of all types of distances that are exceptionally well-run and have that backyard, community vibe where everyone laughs about their tribulations on the trail over a beer and a hot dog at the finish line. New Hampshire’s 603 Endurance is similar. Let’s make the post-race BBQ cool again.
Here’s the problem with racing: To get the most out of yourself, you have to truly want to be there. If no other races light that fire, then maybe it’s time to look elsewhere. Go after that fastest known time you’ve been afraid of for years, or make up a project of your own. Sign up for a “backyard ultra” or a “fat-ass” event, like this hellishly epic-looking 100-mile non-race through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Or, dare I say it, commit this year to training for a road marathon.
That’s what I decided to do recently, Father Time scared me into realizing that my years to run to my potential on the roads are dwindling. After too much time of slogging it out on the trails, I think it’s going to take me about a year to rekindle a semblance of speed. So I ran my first road half marathon ever, got back on the track for the first time in eight years, and reconnected with old college teammates and new friends for workouts and long runs. Like Lucy falling through the wardrobe into Narnia, I’ve discovered another world right in front of my face. New faces yelling “good job!” on the track, new running routes, and so much more time to do other things since 20 miles on the roads takes about half the time as on the trails. (I haven’t read this many books in years.) It’s reinvigorated my running in a way I didn’t even realize I needed, and it’s reconnected me to my absolutely least favorite term, my “why.” (Ugh.)
Ask yourself: What am I truly seeking by devoting all of my free time (and then some) to this sport? Where can I find it outside of that one race that really doesn’t want to let me in? For many of us, including me, part of that answer at least lies in pushing ourselves in new ways, beyond our own perceived limits. Good news: You can do that with anything from the mile on the track to 200 miles on the trails. Whatever you choose, it will inevitably help you hone a skillset, be it speedwork or problem-solving, that’s beneficial when you enter that lottery again next year. Mixing up the stimulus, I’ve found, releases a whole new level of endorphins and let’s face it that’s one hell of a drug. Maybe by taking on a new challenge, you’ll evolve and that lottery won’t seem quite as important anyway.
Or just sign up for that Hyrox race, and you’ll have an excuse to throw heavy objects multiple times a week.

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[OUT] Kerala Lottery Result Today 11-11-2025 LIVE: Sthree Sakthi SS-493 lucky draw declared – 1st Prize Winner SU 538938; Check Tuesday winning ticket numbers online on mobile, YouTube  ET Now
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Wayne County man thought ‘scanner was broken’ but actually won $230K Michigan Lottery prize  ClickOnDetroit | WDIV Local 4
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In the ancient world, just as today, gods were pressed into political service.

Shiva as a figure rippling with muscles, bearing a trident; Skanda as a tall youth grasping a gleaming spear; Durga as a goddess slaughtering a buffalo. All these depictions were shaped by a place that confounds unitary nationalist imaginations: Greater Gandhara. Here, Iranic, Hellenic and Indic gods were combined in weird and wonderful ways by diverse elites, laying the foundations for deities who are still revered today. Indeed, as much as we are fond of boasting of “Indian” gods being worshipped in medieval Southeast Asia, we owe much to the imaginations of Central Asian rulers who once shaped them.

‘Iranian gods in Hindu garb’

Gandhara, in present-day northwest Pakistan, was the crossroads of West, Central, and South Asia. At the peak of its power in the 2^nd century CE, it was by far the greatest cultural force in all these regions. The Kushan Empire, which ruled it at the time, was originally a Central Asian confederation. It moved from the borders of Xinjiang (present-day western China) to Tajikistan and then to northern Afghanistan, before arriving within the Indian subcontinent. Along the way, the Kushans had picked up more and more gods, learning to assimilate them into each other and integrate them into royal self-presentation.

Interesting examples of this can be seen in how the Kushans treated Iranian gods, particularly of the Zoroastrian pantheon. In his paper Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb, archaeologist and art historian Frantz Grenet points out that the Avesta, the ancient Zoroastrian text contemporary with the Vedas, had “little interest in anthropomorphic images of the gods”. But these gods were certainly popular in the regions that the Kushans had begun to conquer by the 1^st century CE. In order to present themselves as being supported by the Zoroastrian pantheon (and vice versa), the Kushans struck upon an innovative solution. They simply took regional deities that already had iconographic forms—particularly the Hellenic gods of the Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms—and depicted them on their coins with Zoroastrian names.

Coins were tiny, portable pieces of royal propaganda, and they allow us an insight into how rulers wished to be seen. With a portrait of a Kushan ruler on the obverse and a popular god on the reverse, Kushan coins followed older Gandharan traditions in trying to claim divine favour. No less than fifteen Zoroastrian deities appeared in Kushan coinage: the supreme Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda depicted as the supreme Hellenic god, Zeus; Mithra as the sun-god Apollo-Helios; Mah the moon-god as a masculine Selene, and so on.

In a couple of cases, the Kushans attempted to integrate a South Asian god with Iranic or Hellenic models. A fascinating case of this, described by Professor Grenet, is of the god Oesho-Shiva. In the late 1^st–early 2^nd century CE, he appeared on the coins of the Kushan king Vima Kadphises with the titles of “Great Lord” and “Lord of all the World”, titles also used by Vima. These depictions were inspired by the Greek demigod Herakles, with a muscular body and occasionally a lion pelt. But by the 2^nd century CE, under the Kushan emperor Kanishka and his successor Huvishka, Grenet writes that “the iconographic ties with Heracles are severed and the god exhibits the three-headed and four-handed type of [Shiva] Mahadeva.” He was also referred to by the name of an Iranian god, Oesho, who was originally related to the ancient Vedic wind-god Vayu. By this time he was worshipped as a god of cosmic space in Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia.

These depictions of the god would become fairly standard in Kushan coinage; Shiva had already been a popular god in Gandhara, and was becoming increasingly recognisable throughout South Asia thanks to the proselytisation of groups such as the Pashupatas. While Kushan subjects in Central Asia recognised Oesho coins as depicting their highest god, Kushan subjects in South Asia could recognise the same figure as Shiva.

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Also read: Buddhism did not spread by the sword. But the empires that helped it grow did

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From a terrifier to the Great General: Skanda and Mahasena

The Kushans were not the only group in the subcontinent who sought to integrate popular gods into their propaganda. Roughly around the same time that Kanishka was experimenting with his Shiva coinage, the Yaudheyas, a local group in present-day Haryana, were trying to claim another god for themselves: one Skanda the Attacker.

The origins of Skanda are unclear. In his pioneering art-historical and textual study, The Rise of Mahasena, art historian Richard D Mann analysed narratives from the Mahabharata as well as Ayurvedic traditions in search of answers. It appears that far from the victorious, martial son of Shiva that we are familiar with, in the earliest traditions Skanda was a terrifying six-headed god. In the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, he is linked to another spear-wielding young god called Visakha. He initially has a terrifying personality, but when worshipped with Brahminical rituals, becomes a brilliant divine general. In the Vana Parva and in Canto 27 of the Sushruta-Samhita, (an Ayurvedic text), he is also associated with deities called the Matrs (“Mothers”) and Grahas (literally “Graspers”, not the navagrahas of the astrological tradition). These figures were connected with childbirth and child-rearing, sometimes even killing or stealing infants. In early beliefs, it seems the Grahas, Matrs and Skanda had to be propitiated, at which point they would act as protective gods.

In the early 2^nd century CE, the Yaudheya polity was on the verge of being wiped out by the Kushans. And so they tried to assimilate this protective form of Skanda into their coinage, depicting him and Visakha along with the Matrs. These coins were issued in copper for wide circulation, which suggests that the Yaudheyas were trying to appeal to the gods’ worshippers. This was ultimately unsuccessful: the Kushans soon took over the region and extended their control through the Gangetic Plains.

The Kushans were not as interested in the fierce or protective Skanda of local traditions, preferring his martial aspect, known as Mahasena/Mahasenapati, the Great General. In the two centres of Kushan power in the subcontinent—Gandhara and Mathura—Mahasena was increasingly depicted alone, without any accompanying Matrs. Carved in stone as a strapping young man with a spear, inscriptions from Mathura suggest that he was being worshipped by local Kshatriya or warrior groups. In Gandhara, he was depicted wearing scale armour popular with Indo-Scythians, the nomadic warrior confederation assimilated into the Kushan Empire. In the coins of the Kushan emperor Huvishka, he is shown with a bird banner, a Zoroastrian emblem of kingship. Mahasena is also associated with the rooster, the bird of the Zoroastrian god Sraosha. The Rabatak inscription of the emperor Kanishka makes this quite clear. Sraosha is mentioned as one of the gods leading the worship of deified Kushan kings, and the inscription says that “in [the] Indian [language] he is called Mahasena and he is called Visakha”.

We can see the bold political intent behind Kushan royal policy: to select, appropriate, and meld together gods who were understandable in many ways to many peoples. Gods became figures who supported the Kushan ruler, both ritually and as foci for the worship of diverse elites. The consequences of these ancient political calculations are still visible; many South Asian rulers would go on to claim his favour in later centuries, and it is as the general of the gods, the son of Shiva, that Skanda is best known to Hindus today.

In Greater Gandhara, the close contact of diverse cultures and religions led to ideas and gods flowing in both directions. But this process was not simply an example of “tolerance”, or of “superior” Indian gods being accepted by “foreigners”. As we have seen, these developments were driven by politics, a phenomenon that continued in the region for centuries after. As always with Thinking Medieval, we see the futility of dividing up our complex histories along modern national borders, and the enduring political utility of appropriating the divine.

Anirudh Kanisetti is a public historian. He is the author of Lords of the Deccan, a new history of medieval South India, and hosts the Echoes of India and Yuddha podcasts. He tweets @AKanisetti. Views are personal.

This article is a part of the ‘Thinking Medieval’ series that takes a deep dive into India’s medieval culture, politics, and history.

(Edited by Prashant)