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Cramm for 12/24/18
 
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THE HIGHLIGHTS

Today is the start of the gov shutdown.

 

THE BACKGROUND.

One of Prez Trump’s biggest campaign promises was to build a wall on the US-Mexico border to help keep illegal migrants out. But in the two years since taking office, he hasn’t exactly had much luck when it comes to securing the billions of dollars in funding he needs. Enter: Congress. For weeks, they’ve been working on a budget plan to keep the gov from, you know, shutting down. Problem, since the Prez said he’d only sign a bill that included $5 billion for the wall. Something Congress does not want to include.

 

THE HAPPENINGS.

Over the past few days, Congress has been trying to work out a new budget plan that makes both Trump and the Dems happy. To no avail. Meaning today marks day one of a gov shutdown that’s expected to last into 2019. Not a typo. Prez Trump’s reportedly gone down from his demand for $5 billion, but with Congress heading back to work on Thursday, it’s unclear when a new budget plan will be in place.

 

THE REACTION.

Since the State, Justice, Treasury, Transportation and Homeland Security departments won’t have any funding, around 800,000 workers - over a third of the country’s federal workers - won’t be paid. You read that right. Now, all eyes are on Wednesday, when most workers head back to their jobs and the real impacts start to be felt.

 

SO…?

With no end in sight, it’s unclear what the real effects of this gov shutdown will be. TBD on when - and if - Congress works out a budget plan.


THE ACTION

WORLD: Recently, nearly 400 people were killed and hundreds more injured after a powerful tsunami triggered by an active volcano suddenly struck the Indonesian coastline. The wave reportedly reached as high as ten feet. Dozens of people are missing, with more tsunamis potentially on the way. Stay tuned. In other news, it just came out that Israel will be holding its election in April - earlier than usual. This comes after Israeli police recommended indicting Prime Minister Netanyahu for some doing shady things. Think: promising to take down a newspaper’s competition in exchange for good coverage. Unclear how the earlier election will affect things.

 

POLITICS: The White House is all over the place. Yesterday, Prez Trump said ‘thanks for your thoughts - not’ and announced that Defense Sec James Mattis will be leaving two months earlier than expected. Quick refresher: last week, Mattis quit and wrote a not-so-complimentary letter of resignation. Trump didn’t take it well. Now, it looks like Patrick Shanahan will temporarily take Mattis’ place at the start of the new year. Speaking of which, Brett McGurk - the US envoy to the coalition against ISIS - just resigned over Prez Trump’s decision to pull the US out of Syria. And in other news, the UK says ditching Syria will lead to a “safe haven” for terrorism. Plus that al Qaeda is “resurgent” and looking to target European passenger planes.  

 

USA: All eyes are on this referee. The other day, an African American high school wrestler was told by a white referee that he needed to cut his dreadlocks - or forfeit the match. The wrestler agreed to cut his hair and ended up winning the match, but the situation led to accusations of racism. Now, the New Jersey civil rights division is opening an investigation, while the referee - who reportedly used a racial slur against an African American referee back in 2016 - won’t be assigned to any new matches. Meanwhile, SpaceX just launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a GPS satellite for the US Air Force - marking the biz’s first national security mission. Out of this world.


WHAT TO KNOW

Entomophagy:”  human consumption of insects. And one of the hardest words for Americans to pronounce. Can’t see why.


SAY WHAT?

“Netflix shows no signs of chilling” - the Associated Press after naming Netflix ‘Entertainer of the Year.’ All hail Netflix.

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