Evening Edition: Shutdown to last until at least Thursday

'He takes no ownership': Trump eschews responsibility for a shutdown he once craved; Q&A: What happens during a shutdown? Late checks, closed museums and more.

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Shutdown to last until at least Thursday Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Saturday afternoon that the Senate would adjourn until Thursday, leaving many federal agencies closed until later next week at the earliest as a dispute over funding for President Trump's border wall continues. Lawmakers will go home for the holidays as hundreds of thousands of federal workers are left in limbo about their status. By Paul Kane, David Weigel and Philip Rucker · Read more The Debrief 'He takes no ownership': Trump eschews responsibility for a shutdown he once craved After vowing to "take the mantle," the president seeks to foist blame on Democrats. By David Nakamura · Read more   Q&A: What happens during a shutdown? Late checks, closed museums and more. Here are ways people across Washington and the country are affected. By Mark Berman and Lisa Rein · Read more   FAQ: Everything you need to know about a shutdown A shutdown complicates the lives of federal workers and the millions of Americans who rely on them. By Eric Yoder and Katie Mettler · Read more The Fix 'Tyranny of talk radio hosts': Limbaugh and Coulter blamed for Trump's shutdown Some have suggested that President Trump bowed to backlash from high-profile conservative pundits who lambasted him for appearing to concede on the wall funding. By Michael Brice-Saddler · Read more     ADVERTISEMENT   She wanted to buy her grandkids a bike for Christmas. Then came the shutdown. Bonita Williams, one of roughly 2,000 janitors, security guards and federal building workers who stand to lose wages because of the partial government shutdown, worries she won't be able to pay her rent. By Danielle Paquette · Read more   Trump-Erdogan phone call set in motion the tumult over Syria, Mattis "You know what? It's yours," President Trump said of Syria. "I'm leaving." The call, shorthanded in more or less the same words by several administration officials, set off events that, even by the whirlwind standards of Washington in the Trump years, have been cataclysmic. By Karen DeYoung, Missy Ryan, Josh Dawsey and Greg Jaffe · Read more   GOP breaks with Trump over Syria, Afghanistan, Mattis — but is at a loss on how to stop him Senate Republicans will get to vet Mattis's replacement, but they're struggling to channel their outrage into actions that can reverse Trump's new course. By Karoun Demirjian · Read more   Retreating ISIS army smuggled a fortune out of Iraq and Syria to finance future resurgence The Islamic State is sitting on a mountain of stolen cash and gold that its leaders stashed away to finance terrorist operations and ensure the organization's survival years into the future. By Joby Warrick · Read more   U.S. envoy to anti-ISIS coalition resigns in protest of Trump's decision on Syria Brett McGurk had been planning to leave his post in February 2019, but accelerated his resignation after the president's decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria. By John Hudson and Ellen Nakashima · Read more     ADVERTISEMENT   The Take | Analysis Mattis's blunt resignation letter puts Republicans on notice The defense secretary has effectively asked everyone to step up and make their positions clear, to defend what they believe in and to challenge what they don't. By Dan Balz · Read more   Jamal Khashoggi managed to flee Saudi Arabia. Its most powerful royal still monitored him. Months after he arrived in the United States, the Saudi journalist's phone lit up with an incoming call from Riyadh, and it became clear he would never fully escape. A year later, he would be dead. This account reveals new details about the final 18 months of his life. By Souad Mekhennet and Greg Miller · Read more   Justice Dept. officials told Whitaker signing gun regulation might prompt challenge to his appointment The internal debate over Matthew G. Whitaker's signature, which began weeks ago, shows how concerned even top Justice Department executives are that his appointment to acting attorney general is vulnerable to a legal challenge. By Devlin Barrett · Read more   A girl in Mexico attached her Christmas list to a balloon. A man across the border found it. "My Spanish isn't very good, but I could see it was a Christmas list," said Randy Heiss, who found the note while hiking in Arizona and started a search for the sender. By Amy Wang · Read more   Solo-ish The worst gifts boyfriends give to girlfriends, from a can opener to a sonogram Most bad gifts stem from lack of thought paired with last-minute shopping. By Lisa Bonos · Read more

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