How much have you missed?

Here’s a recap of this week. Just click the story to read on!

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Politics

• Here’s everything you should know about the government shutdown.
• Trump is now blaming the government shutdown on the democrats after he explicitly promised he wouldn’t. *Senator Elizabeth Warren announced that she is forming an exploratory committee, a big step in a potential 2020 presidential run.
• Senator-elect Mitt Romney wrote a scathing op-ed explaining his (very negative) feelings toward Trump.
• Here are all the new laws that are going into place this year.
• In the midst of the government shutdown, the Violence Against Women Act just expired.
• Democrats officially take back control of the House Thursday, while Republicans remain in control of the Senate.
• House Democrats have passed a law to reopen the government and are set to vote on proposals on Thursday.
• This new Congress is the most diverse in history. Here’s why.

Pop culture

• Ariana Grande shut down dating rumors like the boss that she is.
• Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are expecting their fourth child via a surrogate.
• Taylor Swift had a costume party for New Year’s Eve, and the pics are giving us major FOMO.
• The Netflix movie Bird Box inspired a “Bird Box Challenge” that is sending people to the hospital, so Netflix issued a statement warning against it.
• The Coachella lineup was announced, with Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino, and Tame Impala headlining.

Humanity

• A 2012 tweet of Melania Trump’s has driven the internet wild after the original image recently changed from a beluga whale to a giraffe.
• Instagram accidentally released an update with a new scrolling feature to a large number of people, and quickly changed it after people lost their minds.
• Trump asked a 7-year-old girl, who was calling the NORAD Santa Tracker to find out Santa’s whereabouts, if she still believed in Santa.
• An area off the Philippines coast was hit by a strong undersea earthquake.
• Washington State has banned assault rifle sales to anyone under 21 years old.

Science says...

• The sky above New York City turned bright blue after an electrical explosion at a Con Edison power plant in Queens. We got some great memes out of it.
• NASA’s spacecraft captured images of the most distant object we have ever seen in outer space.
• A Chinese space probe has touched down on the dark side of the moon for the first time.
• National Parks are getting trashed in the midst of the government shutdown.
• The Mediterranean Diet was named the best diet for 2019 by U.S. News and World Report..

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