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The Senate reaches a bipartisan spending deal; North Korea dominates the early Olympic drama.
A bipartisan breakthrough?
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- Senate leaders have reached a bipartisan spending deal as Thursday’s shutdown deadline looms. [NYT / Thomas Kaplan]
- The deal would lift budget caps on military and some domestic spending, allowing for $300 billion in investments over the next two years. [Vox / Tara Golshan]
- The spending bill would also extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, better known as CHIP, for the next decade. [Vox / Dylan Scott]
- This isn’t quite a done deal yet: The White House and House Speaker Paul Ryan have signaled their support, but the agreement is likely to face opposition from Republican and Democratic factions in the House. [NYT / Thomas Kaplan]
- Conservative deficit hawks are warning that such a deal would add to the federal deficit. They’re right. [Reuters / Richard Cowan and Amanda Becker]
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also signaled that Democrats would oppose the bill unless Republicans guaranteed a vote on DACA. [Washington Post / Erica Werner and Mike DeBonis]
- But Congress hasn’t made much progress on an immigration deal since the last three-day shutdown in January. [Vox / Tara Golshan]
Kim Jong Un is sending his younger sister to South Korea
- Nobody in North Korea’s ruling family has ever set foot in South Korea ... until now. [Vox / Zeeshan Aleem]
- Kim Jong Un’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong will arrive in the South Friday, as part of North Korea’s 22-member government delegation that will attend the Winter Olympics opening ceremony later that day. [NYT / Choe Sang-Hun]
- Kim Yo Jong, who is believed to be around 30, has quickly climbed the political ranks in Pyongyang. She’s now a member of the country’s influential Politburo (the top decision-making body in the North Korean government) and a vice director of the country’s propaganda department. [CNN / James Griffiths and Sophie Jeong]
- This announcement comes on the same day as one from Vice President Mike Pence saying that the Trump administration is planning to roll out its harshest sanctions yet against the country. [Washington Post / Ashley Parker and Anna Fifield]
Miscellaneous
- Democrats flipped a Missouri state House seat in a special election, the 35th seat that has changed from red to blue since Donald Trump became president. [Huffington Post / Amanda Terkel]
- Whether you’re waiting for one to end or savoring every second, a “moment” can feel either interminable or fleeting. A journalist tried to figure out what exactly people mean by the term. [Atlas Obscura / Natasha Frost]
- In an ironic turn of events, more Russians believe the US meddled in their country’s elections than the other way around. [Washington Post / Adam Taylor]
- We’ve come so far technologically — and yet maybe not far enough. The humble paper jam indicates why. [New Yorker / Joshua Rothman]
Verbatim
“Tanks, but no tanks.” [The DC Council, riffing on President Trump’s proposed grand military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue / Twitter]
Watch this:
Problems have plagued the US Census Bureau in recent decades. [YouTube / Carlos Waters]
Read more
Trump says new FBI texts are a “bombshell.” They’re not.
More than 60 women have filed sexual harassment complaints against IHOP, Applebee’s restaurants
Why a simple, lifesaving rabies shot can cost $10,000 in America
Thousands of Facebook users spread child porn in a misguided attempt to stop child porn
Novelist Lev Grossman on why James Joyce’s Dublin matches J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth
