.ON DECEMBER 6TH Republicans rejected Head of state Joe Biden's ask for $106bn of financing, the majority of it to help branch Ukraine, on the manner that its own stipulations to safeguard United States's southern boundary did certainly not progress enough. A team of legislators right now seem to be near to blowing a bipartisan package on immigration policies, thought to include harder plans as the cost of Republican help. Yet it appears most likely to be defeated in the House of Representatives. On January 14th Mike Johnson, the House speaker, mentioned that purposeful boundary reform would need to wait till a Republican was head of state. Yet on January 17th, after a meeting along with Mr Biden, he hinted that he could be ready for a concession nevertheless. Is one likely?