Good morning! Best of luck staying awake today to everyone who stayed up all night listening to “Tortured Poets.” Because why not, a national political poll tested Taylor Swift for president against Donald Trump. She would lose 43% to 26% 😬.

CONGRESS

🏛️ Congressional updates

They can’t do it all at once. Been there. Tried that. Caused a ruckus. So they’re splitting it all up. And they’re working over the weekend to do it.

Speaker Mike Johnson announced the House will vote Saturday on a stack of bills related to foreign aid. President Biden says he’s on board, too.

• Ukraine: $61 billion in support. Much of this cash goes to replenish U.S. weapon stocks given to Ukraine.

• Israel: $26 billion for the fight against Hamas.

• Indo-Pacific: $8 billion to Taiwan and others to counter “Chinese aggression.”

There’s also another anti-TikTok bill. Like the last one (that passed the House but has languished in the Senate), it forces TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or leave the U.S. market. But this gives them a year to do it — twice the last one.

• This would also seize Russian assets to help pay for Ukraine’s war effort.

• It’s titled the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act. Because who could ever oppose something with such a patriotic name?

This may or may not include another bill designed to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico border by re-upping some Trump-era policies (like forcing asylum seekers to do so from Mexico). This one’s got some pushback from those on the right who see it as a useless “shiny object.”

F.A.R.T.: Drama. Alert. Members of the Freedom Caucus (a group of very conservative Republicans) spun up a Floor Action Response Team. They’re taking shifts to watch the House floor to ensure allies of Speaker Johnson don’t try to sneak in and curb their power while they’re not around.

Best of the rest:

• Rep. Mike Gallagher changed his resignation date. He’ll stay in the House one extra day to vote for the foreign aid bills tomorrow.

• Chinese Embassy diplomats are lobbying congressional staff against a forced divestment of TikTok.

• The Senate dismissed the House’s impeachment of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas a day after receiving it. His survival wasn’t in doubt, but this avoids a long, embarrassing Senate trial.

WORLD

❌ U.S. vetoes Palestine at the U.N.

We have veto power at the U.N. Then again, so does the U.K. And China. And Russia. And France? These are the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

• The Security Council has 15 members. Five are permanent. Ten rotate.

• Those permanent five have veto power over anything the UNSC does (but nothing outside of the UNSC).

The U.S. just used its veto power to axe a proposal that would make Palestine a full member of the U.N.

• The U.S. has consistently opposed this. Per the U.S. ambassador yesterday, the best way to achieve Palestinian independence is via “direct negotiations” with Israel.

Iran has long claimed its hot-button nuclear program was all about energy, not weapons. Now they're saying this all depends on Israel's response to last week's Iranian missile barrage. They don’t like the response? They might "reconsider" that (alleged) energy-only policy.

Qatar (the only country starting with Q) is an itty-bitty oil-rich country next door to Saudi Arabia. Qatar says it's re-evaluating its role as a mediator between Hamas and Israel. This revelation comes after some in Congress said the U.S. should "re-evaluate its relationship with Qatar."

POLITICS

🔵 Thanksgiving could be awkward this year. At a campaign event in Philadelphia yesterday, Joe Biden received the endorsement of 15 members of the Kennedy family. They said the independent campaign of relative (brother, for some) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. risked reelecting Donald Trump.

• Biden spent three days campaigning in (swing state) Pennsylvania this week. He swung by his childhood home in Scranton and cast Trump as an out-of-touch elitist.

• Some younger Biden White House staffers reportedly have a nickname for Donald Trump: “Hitler Pig.”

🔴 After a hiccup caused by media reports on jurors, all 12 jurors have been seated for Donald Trump's NYC criminal trial. Here’s some info on the 12 unlucky New Yorkers. The process continues today with the selection of 6 alternates.

• Outside the courtroom, Trump campaigned at a bodega in Harlem and claimed he was serious about winning New York in November. The state voted for Biden in 2020 by 23% and last supported a Republican in 1984.

• She's been off the radar the past year, but Melania Trump will speak at a fundraiser tomorrow. This could be a sign she's about to re-enter the campaign world full-time.

⚪ Nothing to see here. It’s “personal,” says the mayor of Atlantic City, NJ. What is it? Oh, just the fact that he and his wife — the local school superintendent — were charged with physically abusing their teenage daughter. He says he remains committed to his job.

🔴 They just keep quitting. Kansas Rep. Jake LaTurner just became the 22nd Republican to announce his retirement from Congress. LaTurner, 36, just got there in 2021. His reasoning? The same as most of the others: Being a congressman basically sucks.

🔵 Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) remains unconscious after his heart attack on April 6. His office last week claimed Payne’s prognosis was “good.” They now say he’s “in stable condition” and requested prayers. Payne’s Newark-area congressional district is one of the most Democratic in the nation.

TRIVIA

What is and isn’t a country is… actually not all that easy to define. One easy enough measure is whether something is a member of the United Nations. How many member states does the U.N. have?

WORLD

🇪🇹 Ethiopia: Africa's biggest coffee producer is liberalizing its bean regulations. The new rules should make the crop easier to purchase and export. Economic growth is key to Ethiopia's recovery from drought, war, and food insecurity.

🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates: Dubai received two years of rain in a single day this week. Its airport, the world’s second-busiest, expects to fully reopen today. Remarkably, only one death was reported in the city of 3.5 million (whose population was ~100,000 in the 1970s).

🇺🇸 United States: RIP Ambler Road. Biden’s Interior Department will block a road-building project in remote Alaska leading to a huge copper and zinc mine. It would have to cross federal land, so the (other) BLM — the Bureau of Land Management — has jurisdiction. Many local villages and Tribes oppose the road. But, proponents say domestic access to these minerals is a national security issue.

🇻🇳 Vietnam: CEO Tim Cook says Apple will expand its business in Vietnam. As foreign investment in China tumbles, Vietnam’s manufacturing sector is exploding. As a result, the country is set to see the world’s biggest spike in wealth over the next decade.

BRIEFS

• New Yorkers are getting sick via infected rat urine in record (but still small) numbers as the city fights its growing rat battle

• DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — says it conducted in-air dogfights using an AI-controlled fighter jet

• Turns out staging a sit-in in your boss’s office isn’t a great career move — Google fired 28 employees for Israel-related protests

• Germany arrested two dual German-Russian citizens accused of plotting terror attacks on U.S. military sites

• Starbucks unveiled environmentally (and fiscally?) friendly redesigns of its plastic cups that use 20% less plastic and same-sized lids

• Sweden just became the 38th country to sign onto NASA's Artemis Accords that establish a moon exploration framework

• As Congress considers forcing a sale of TikTok, Elon Musk might revive short-form video pioneer Vine — he owns the rights via X

QUOTE

SNACKS

🏀 Basketball: The NBA playoffs tip-off this weekend. The dominant Boston Celtics are favored to win the whole thing for the first time since 2008.

🌠 Meteors: Missed the eclipse but want in on some space action? Check out the annual Lyrids meteor shower. Peak viewing is overnight on Sunday.

✈️ Travel: Love travel but don't have the time or money? Do a virtual flyby of all 1,199 UNESCO World Heritage Sites across 168 countries and counting.

♈ Zodiac: Bad news, Aries. Astrology is so over and it’s all Gen Z’s fault. Over 80% of Millennials say they believe, but just 62% of Gen Z agrees.

ANSWER

The U.N. has 193 member states. The Holy See (that’s Vatican City) and the State of Palestine are non-member observer states.