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The year has begun in a state of transatlantic chaos as the US and UK governments offer a portent of more international instability and corrosion of systems of governance in 2019.

The US federal government's partial shutdown became the longest in American history on January 12 and is now in its 25th day. Neither the president nor Democrats indicated any willingness to budge in their stalemate over funding for a border wall with Mexico. Meanwhile, an estimated 800,000 US government workers continue to go unpaid until the impasse is resolved.

Across the North Atlantic, the UK Parliament saw Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal rejected by 230 votes overnight – the largest defeat for a sitting government in parliamentary history. May's government faces a no-confidence motion debate tomorrow, with expectations her leadership will survive, but with no clear direction of the future of Brexit negotiations.