United States President Donald Trump signed a new government finance bill on Wednesday, ending a Republican-Democrat standoff over the bill and the longest government shutdown in US history.

The federal shutdown, which began when Democrats in the Senate refused to sign off on the finance bill unless it included amendments to extend healthcare subsidies for low-income Americans, which the Republicans refused, dragged on for 43 days and left government workers without pay and agencies paralysed without funding.

Trump signed the new bill hours after the House of Representatives voted to approve a package passed earlier by the Senate that would reopen federal departments and restart food assistance programmes.

“With my signature, the federal government will now resume normal operations,

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