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After nearly 43 days, the longest shutdown in government history is over. 

Wednesday, the House reconvened (with some Reps driving cross-country to avoid flight delays and make the vote) to pass a stopgap spending bill, turning Capitol Hill’s lights on through January. Hours later, President Trump gave his Sharpie of approval. 

Now, Washington’s getting its systems back up and running. Over 800,000 furloughed federal workers will head back to work, and SNAP recipients started receiving full benefits as early as yesterday. Transportation Secretary Duffy says flight cancellations will remain at 6% this week, with things ramping back up once safety is “moving in the right direction.” 

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a lot of make-up work (think: employment, inflation, and consumer-spending reports); data will likely be delayed and come with asterisks. 

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ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
This shutdown was the longest in history… and it felt long. While a lot can happen in six weeks, and the shutdown’s effects are sure to linger for weeks to come, this moment in time is just that—a moment—compared to eternity. Rest in this hope and let it motivate you toward holiness. 

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” 
Romans 8:18 (CSB) (read full passage)

House Democrats released three never-before-seen Epstein emails referencing President Trump on Wednesday (read them here).

In a 2011 email to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein called Trump “the dog that hasn’t barked,” and said that Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of the financier’s victims, Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre (who died by suicide in April) said she never saw Trump engaging inappropriately with minors in a 2016 deposition. In a 2019 note to author and longtime-Trump-critic Michael Wolff, Epstein claimed Trump “knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” 

Two hours after the emails’ release, the House Oversight Committee released another 20,000+ pages of Epstein-related documents. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) was sworn in and gave a petition to release more files its pivotal 218th signature, forcing a full House vote next week.

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ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Secrets and spin are rampant in politics, but God’s Word promises that nothing hidden will stay that way (Luke 8:17). Use discernment while placing your hope not in committees or courts but in Christ, who will reveal truth and bring ultimate justice.

“So don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.” 
1 Corinthians 4:5 (CSB) (read full passage)

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Ukraine’s ministers for Energy and Justice resigned on Wednesday in the wake of corruption allegations.

Ukraine’s anticorruption bureau publicized its investigation this week, accusing high-level officials of conspiring for $100M in kickbacks from companies that had contracts with the country’s atomic-energy company, Energoatom.

Energoatom said it’s “committed to ensuring full transparency” in investigations of its employees; Zelenskyy—associated with the accused but not personally implicated by allegations—acknowledged public outrage at the scandal, saying “schemes in the energy sector” are “unacceptable” given the “enduring power outages, Russian strikes, and losses” Ukrainians are facing.

Meanwhile, President Trump sent a letter to Israel’s President Herzog asking that he “fully pardon” PM Netanyahu of corruption charges (read it here). The PM is charged with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate cases Trump calls “lawfare.”

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Verse to consider whether allegations undermine your trust in a friend or your relationship is more solid than ever… “Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind… he cannot see when good comes but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness… The person who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence indeed is the LORD, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green.”
Jeremiah 17:5-8 (CSB) (read full passage)

Starbucks’ Red Cup Day wasn’t all peppermint cheer. Baristas in 40+ cities staged an open-ended strike, seeking better hours, higher wages, and action on hundreds of unfair-labor-practice allegations. Starbucks said the impact was minimal, but the Starbucks workers union picked the coffee giant’s biggest sales day, hoping the message would hit like a triple shot of espresso.

The BBC said sorry to President Trump, but is refusing to dole out apology dollars. The broadcaster admitted it spliced parts of Trump’s January 6 remarks into a misleading sequence, removing his call for peaceful demonstrations. It doesn’t plan to rebroadcast the documentary but rejected Trump’s $1B defamation demand. Two top BBC leaders resigned Sunday amid the documentary fallout.

Venezuela is launching a “massive deployment" of 200,000 troops in response to the buildup of U.S. forces in the Caribbean. Soon after the USS Gerald R. Ford—the Navy’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier—sailed into the region as part of an anti-drug offensive, Venezuela’s President Maduro ordered land, air, and sea drills to defend against America’s “imperialist threat.”

RIP, pennies. The U.S. Mint pressed its last Abe Lincolns Wednesday (read the 232-year-old coin’s obituary). Earlier this year, President Trump ordered the Treasury to toss the penny amid rising production costs (one penny costs ~4¢ to make) and cashless payments. Now, merchants and Congress are weighing how to legally round prices to the nearest nickel (which costs ~14¢ to make).

Intense solar storms had your Facebook friends celebrating… and Blue Origin rescheduling. The same geomagnetic fireworks that made the northern lights visible across U.S. skies (ICYMI, see here) delayed Blue Origin’s Wednesday liftoff of its New Glenn rocket—set to carry two NASA Mars orbiters—over radiation concerns. NASA scrubbed the attempt five hours before launch, holding out ‘til last night.

Breaking news: Penguins love bubbles.

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