President Trump, you surely could not have wanted your partial government shutdown, your tariffs, your corporate tax cuts and your war on undocumented immigrants to hobble economic growth and to hurt farmers, factory workers, airline passengers, government contractors, retailers, Coast Guard members and F.B.I. agents. But the economy can take only so many bad policies. A $19.4 trillion economy is losing momentum as fast as your approval ratings.

Kraft Foods wants to make sure that government workers currently on furlough during the shutdown do not go hungry. On Tuesday, the food corporation announced it will open a pop-up store in Washington, D.C., from Jan. 16 through Sunday, Jan. 20, that will provide free food to government workers who can present the appropriate identification. The store is located at 1287 4th Street NE, two blocks from Union Market.

"The federal government produces one hell of a lot of data, but despite desultory lurches toward usability, there’s little guarantee that it’s available in a way that makes it useful to anyone. That may change for the better with the OPEN Government Data Act, which the president signed into law last night. The act essentially requires federal agencies to default when possible to making data (and metadata) public, to publish that public data in a machine-readable format and catalog it online. It also mandates that chief data officers be appointed at those agencies to handle the process."

He started a bad fight over an unpopular wall and can't admit he's wrong. By Harry Cheadle.

Virtual reality technology made Palmer Luckey a multi-millionaire. Now, the Oculus co-founder's new company is using artificial intelligence technology to create a high-tech surveillance system that could be used to build a "virtual wall" on the southern US border. In fact, Anduril Industries, the defense technology start-up Luckey founded in 2017, has already tested its border control tech in Texas and San Diego. In those tests, Anduril's surveillance technology helped US border agents catch dozens of people who were trying to cross the border into the US without authorization, US Customs and Border Protection told Wired in June 2018.

As the government shutdown stretches into the record for longest shutdown ever, key websites run by the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission are still down, leaving consumers more vulnerable. On December 28th, the FTC announced that, while ftc.gov continues to operate, several sites will remain unavailable throughout the shutdown. Among those is donotcall.gov, the website for the agency’s National Do Not Call Registry.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is beginning another six-year term in office as the country is plagued by a crippling economic crisis and mass exodus. Violence, hunger, medicine shortages, along with mass inflation has resulted in millions leaving Venezuela resulting in one of the biggest mass displacements in the history of Latin America. Mr Maduro, 56, was re-elected in May 2018 in a poll boycotted by the majority of the opposition paired with international scepticism over the vote.

Absent intervention by Congress to cancel or postpone them, senior staff members in President Donald Trump’s administration can expect raises of up to $10,000 starting on January 5, reports the Washington Post. While as many as 800,000 federal workers have gone without pay for two weeks — and counting — Vice President Mike Pence and other officials can expect to see a boost to their income in their next paycheck. According to the report, “The …

US President Donald Trump is considering declaring a national emergency to get a wall built on the southern border of the US.

Click open the newspaper and behold: stories of religion, the monotheisms born of desert honor culture particularly, messing something or someone up, often fatally. Click open the international section where conflict and war follow the bloody borders of faiths. Inter-faith and sectarian aggression have been the primary drivers of war throughout history. In the highly religious Middle East...

Millions of Americans could face going without the benefit that allows them to purchase food if the government shutdown continues into February. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, costs an average of around $4.8 billion per month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But because of the government shutdown, the program has only $3 billion in emergency reserves for February.

Exclusive: Emails show how tech firm has tried to gain influence and potentially shape lucrative government contracts

For almost two centuries, miners have been extracting coal from pits in Germany’s Ruhr valley, which the country used to power its once-burgeoning steel mills and produce electricity. It’s largely thanks to coal that Germany stepped out of the Industrial Revolution as an industrial powerhouse. Today, the country is the wealthiest in Europe, by a high margin, and the 4th largest economy in the world.

Even Tucker Carlson and Goldman Sachs are talking about the pernicious impact of monopolies in the U.S.

A federal judge late Thursday blocked construction of the disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline, saying the Trump administration “simply discarded” the effect the project would have on climate change. The ruling by Judge Brian Morris of the United States District Court for Montana repudiates one of Donald J. Trump’s first acts as president.

As of Nov. 8, more than 82,000 veterans are still waiting for their housing payments with only weeks remaining in the school semester. By Phil McCausland.

The WikiLeaks founder has long drawn the attention of federal investigators for revealing U.S. secrets.

Since when did socialism become en vogue? It seems like only a few years ago being called a socialist in American politics was an insult. Today, however, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders—a self-avowed socialist—is quickly rising in the polls, and millennials are largely driving his support.

Here they go again. The leaders of the euro zone are once more inching forward in their quest to form a fiscal union that will, they hope, shore up the common currency. At a time when Italy seems hell-bent on causing Euro Crisis 2.0, that might sound like a good idea. Upon scrutiny, however, the proposals, even if they pass, are risible. They are too timid to integrate the euro zone economically. Simultaneously, they are large enough to embolden Eurosceptics and populists.

In August of 2016, investigative journalist Maria Ressa contacted Facebook with some “alarming” data: Rampant harassment and threats targeted via Facebook at people, predominantly women, in the Philippines who were critical of the “drug war” being waged by the newly elected president, Rodrigo Duterte.

Wannabe homeowners in Japan are about to get the deal of a lifetime. The Japanese government is launching a program to reduce the number of abandoned homes across the country by offering them for sale for nearly nothing, or actually nothing, according to Insider. According to a 2013 report, there are about eight million houses that have been left abandoned all over Japan.

Choices that Congress made decades ago allowed tech giants to become as powerful as they are.

A Dutch church has been holding a service for over 800 hours to protect an immigrant family from deportation because Dutch law forbids police from entering places of worship while a service is ongoing. The Hague's Bethel Church has been holding the ceremony around the clock since 1:30 p.m. on October 26, the church said. It is trying to protect the Tamrazyan family, who fled Armenia in 2010, CBC and CNN reported. The family has three children.

There are a lot of compelling reasons to ditch the penny. Here are seven of them.

Countries where freedom triumphed three decades ago are leading history’s march in reverse.

Around the world attitudes towards the use of cannabis are shifting. Mexico's new government plans to legalise recreational cannabis use, as does the incoming government of Luxembourg. Meanwhile, New Zealand's leaders are considering a referendum on what their approach should be. As public opinion - and that of governments - changes, it seems increasingly likely that other countries will follow, raising questions about how they work together to manage the use and supply of cannabis.

Google chief Sundar Pichai has faced accusations of political bias from US politicians. Mr Pichai was being quizzed by members of the House Judiciary Committee about the way his tech firm runs it business. Google was accused of having "programmed" bias against conservative views into its algorithms. Mr Pichai denied the accusation saying he had "issues" with studies that claimed to show the firm's search results excluded right-wing views.

There’s a push underway to release of more data about things the Pentagon is tracking in orbit. It’s a sign of things to come as Uncle Sam tries to make being a space more friendly place for business.

This week, a plant that's nearly identical to marijuana is set to become legal to grow in the US. Thanks to the US Farm Bill, which the House passed on Wednesday in a 369 to 47 vote, American farmers will be able to plant and harvest hemp, a strain of the same plant species from which marijuana originates. The bill passed the Senate Tuesday in an 87 to 13 vote, and President Donald Trump has indicated his support. Hemp legalization has been a longtime goal of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, who believes it can help replace tobacco as a key crop for his state's farmers.

Controversial leader signs resignation letter, signalling an end to a seven-week long political crisis.

President Donald Trump has named Mick Mulvaney as the new White House Chief of Staff. Mr. Mulvaney is a prominent supporter of Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology. Mick Mulvaney who is serving as director of the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been appointed the Chief of Staff for the White House by President Trump. As Chief of Staff, Mr. Mulvaney will be the highest-ranking non-elected employee of the White House.

Reporter Mimi Mefo Takambou was detained for tweeting reports of government culpability in an American missionary’s death.

After the news from Trump and a Fed rate increase, the Dow and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index were on pace for their worst quarter since 2011.

The partial US government shutdown is expected to run on past Christmas Day as a protracted standoff over Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funding continues. After White House negotiations with the Democrats faltered yet again on Saturday, even a temporary measure to keep the federal government running appeared unlikely until the Senate returns for a full session on 26 December. The first day of the shutdown saw thousands of government offices closed across the nation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have agreed on a plan to reopen the federal government after two weeks of shutdown.