WHAT TO KNOW

* White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended this afternoon the demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for Trump’s ballroom. * The Senate today rejected dueling partisan bills to pay federal workers during the government shutdown, with both Republicans and Democrats deflecting blame as many employees are set to miss their first full paycheck at the end of this week. * Russia reacted with outrage today to new U.S. sanctions on Russia’s oil sector, which the Treasury Department imposed yesterday in a bid to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine. * Trump said in an interview with Time magazine last week that Israel “would lose all of its support from the United States” if it annexed the already occupied West Ban

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