President Trump has backed down (for now?) from his demand for $5 billion in funding for a wall along the southern border, but Republicans in Congress still have no agreement in place to avoid a government shutdown. Lawmakers have to pass a spending bill before Friday at midnight, or many government agencies will temporarily cease operations.
Donald Trump will shutter his personal “charity,” the Donald J. Trump Foundation, under the supervision of the court. In June, New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the charity, along with Trump himself, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, seeking $2.8 million in restitution for “persistently illegal conduct,” including “unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign,” alleging that he spent charitable donations as if they were his own money.
According to Customs and Border Patrol officials, border agents are limiting the number of asylum applications they allow at the border per day to discourage other migrants—people who in many cases are fleeing violence and poverty—from traveling to the U.S. The cruelty is the point, part CCXVI.
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May has rescheduled parliament’s vote on her Brexit plan for the week of January 14. She has also asked for contingency planning to be expedited in case her proposal fails, including a request to place 3,500 troops on standby. This is going well.
Arizona’s Republican governor has appointed Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) to fill the Senate seat held by the late Sen. John McCain, weeks after she lost her bid to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ). If at first you don’t succeed, helps to know a governor.
The Trump administration has officially banned bump stocks, the device that allowed a man to massacre 58 people in the span of minutes at a country music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017. People who own bump stocks will have 90 days after the rule is published in the federal register (likely Friday) to surrender or destroy them.
The NAACP has returned a donation from Facebook, and called for a boycott of Facebook and Instagram, in the wake of yesterday’s revelation that the company did nothing to stop a 2016 Russian propaganda campaign to suppress black votes.
Actress and director Penny Marshall died at age 75. Marshall starred as Laverne in Laverne & Shirley from 1976-1983, and then became the first woman to direct a film that grossed over $100 million, with hits including A League of Their Own, and The Preacher’s Wife.
Aspiring influencers are posting fake #sponcon on Instagram. From Priyanka: Honestly it’s rude that The Atlantic put me on blast like this (find me and my good content @priaribi).
