1. Congressional leaders agree on spending levels as shutdown looms
House and Senate leaders announced a tentative spending deal Sunday in a step toward averting a government shutdown later this month. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) settled on funding levels that included $886 billion for defense spending and $773 billion in non-defense spending for a total of about $1.66 trillion for fiscal year 2024. Congress still must approve funding bills or a stopgap resolution ahead of Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 funding deadlines to prevent a shutdown. Johnson said Republicans won concessions like IRS funding cuts, while Schumer said Democrats protected health care and nutrition assistance from “draconian cuts sought by right-wing extremists.” CNN, The New York Times
2. ‘Oppenheimer’ leads Golden Globes with 5 wins
“Oppenheimer” led the winners of the 2024 Golden Globes on Sunday, taking five awards, including best film, best director (Christopher Nolan) and best actor (Cillian Murphy) in the drama category. “Barbie,” “Poor Things,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Holdovers” also received multiple awards. “Barbie” won a new award for cinematic and box office achievement. Emma Stone took her second Golden Globe for her performance in “Poor Things.” Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous woman to win for best actress for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman whose relatives were murdered for their oil money, in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” “Succession” led TV shows with four wins. The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
3. Lawmakers demand answers on Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin faced intensifying criticism over the weekend for failing to notify the White House for days that he had been hospitalized for complications from recent elective surgery. Congressional leaders from both parties demanded clarification on unanswered questions, including details about the surgery and complications, and Austin’s current health status. House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said they were “concerned with how the disclosure of the secretary’s condition was handled,” and wanted details “as soon as possible,” adding, “Transparency is vitally important.” Austin said Saturday he “could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed.” Axios
4. Blinken meets with Arab leaders in push to contain Israel-Hamas war
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Sunday in an urgent push to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading in the Middle East. Blinken will also visit the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt before he returns to Washington at the end of his fourth diplomatic trip to the region since Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, sparking the current war. Blinken said Palestinians who fled their homes must be allowed to return once it’s safe, doubling down on the Biden administration’s rejection of calls from some Israeli government ministers for Palestinians to be resettled outside Gaza. The Associated Press, The Hill
5. Report: Investors, executives concerned about Musk’s alleged drug use
Elon Musk’s alleged use of drugs — including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and ketamine — has become a concern for some executives at the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s companies, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. People close to Musk told the Journal they worried Musk’s drug use could result in a health crisis or damage the companies. Illegal drug use could violate federal policies and threaten SpaceX government space-flight contracts worth billions of dollars. Musk is a big part of the value of the companies, which employ tens of thousands of people and account for $1 trillion in investor assets. A Musk lawyer said the billionaire is “regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test.” The Wall Street Journal, Fortune
6. Boeing 737 Max 9 jet groundings spread
Groundings of Boeing 737 Max 9 jets spread from the United States to Panama and Turkey over the weekend as regulators rushed to inspect the planes after a piece of an Alaska Airlines jet blew out in midflight, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing. The groundings mark the biggest setback for Boeing’s most popular aircraft since the entire fleet of Max jetliners was taken out of service in 2019 after two deadly crashes. Federal investigators prioritized the search for the Alaska Airlines plane’s missing “plug door” for clues about what caused it to fall off. The piece was found in the backyard of a home in the Portland, Oregon, area, officials announced Sunday. CNN, NBC News
7. Iowa students plan walkout to protest school shooting
Iowa students plan to walk out of class Monday and march to the state Capitol to call for lawmakers to take action to prevent gun violence in the wake of last week’s deadly shooting at Perry High School. Police say a student at the school killed sixth-grader Ahmir Jolliff, 11, and wounded seven others before taking his own life. March for Our Lives Iowa — a nonpartisan group that encourages youth political involvement — organized the walkout in response to student frustration over the shooting, the Des Moines Register reported. Akshara Eswar, one of the group’s state executive directors, said the goal was to let lawmakers know “we are not happy with the state of the gun laws in Iowa.” Des Moines Register
8. Bangladesh prime minister wins as opposition boycotts
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won her fourth straight term in a controversial Sunday election boycotted by the main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The opposition called the vote a “sham” after mass arrests targeting BNP leaders and supporters, according to BBC. Hasina’s Awami League party and its allies won 152 of the 300 parliamentary seats, giving her another five years and her fifth term overall. Human Rights Watch estimated that police arrested nearly 10,000 activists after violence broke out at an Oct. 28 opposition rally, leaving at least 16 people dead and more than 5,500 injured. BBC, The Associated Press
9. First commercial moon mission launches
The Peregrine lunar lander developed by Astrobotic headed for the moon early Monday atop a Vulcan rocket made by a Lockheed Martin-Boeing joint venture, the United Launch Alliance. The rocket launched from Cape Canaveral on a mission aiming for a Feb. 23 soft landing on the moon — America’s first lunar landing in more than 50 years and the first-ever commercial mission to the moon. The Peregrine lander, launched under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, is carrying five NASA instruments. It will also deliver nonscientific items, including payloads for Elysium Space and Celestis, companies that offer “space burials” of cremated remains. CBS News, NBC News
10. ‘Wonka’ leads box office for third weekend
“Wonka” held onto the top spot at the domestic box office for the third straight weekend, with the Warner Bros. musical featuring Timothée Chalamet bringing in another $14.4 million in ticket sales. Weekend ticket sales lifted the total domestic haul of the prequel about Roald Dahl’s mysterious chocolatier to $164.7 million. “Night Swim,” the only other big new movie in theaters and the first nationwide release of 2024, brought in $12 million from 3,200 North American theaters, enough for second place. Overseas, it collected just $5.7 million in 36 markets. Variety, The Associated Press
Congressional leaders agree on spending levels as shutdown looms, ‘Oppenheimer’ leads the Golden Globe winners, and more
