News and culture round-up

新闻与文化综述

Monocle on Saturday

新闻

2024-12-21

30 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Join Georgina Godwin and Charles Hecker reflect on the week’s top news stories and cultural highlights. Plus: an engaging conversation with Ferdia Lennon, the winner of the prestigious Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Comic Fiction Prize.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

单集文稿 ...

  • This edition of Monocle on Saturday was first broadcast on the 21st of December, 2024.

  • Hello.

  • Hello.

  • I'm Georgina Godwin broadcasting to you live from Midori House in London.

  • This is Monocle on Saturday, the Saturday before Christmas.

  • It's very exciting.

  • I have Charles Hecker with me.

  • And Charles, as everybody knows, but I'm not supposed to publicly admit, is my favorite person to have in the studio with me.

  • Charles, what are you going to be talking about?

  • Good morning, Georgina, and thank you.

  • We're going to ask why Donald Trump pushed the government in the United States to the brink of a shutdown.

  • We'll look at tragic events in Germany.

  • We will then give everyone a Christmas earworm or two and then see how well you can do on a 2024 news quiz.

  • Very exciting stuff.

  • We're going to hear from Ferdia Lennon, who's won the Bollinger Everyman Woodhouse Prize for comic fiction.

  • So that's all coming up here on Monocle on Saturday with me, Georgina Godwin and Charles Hecker.

  • First, though, here's the news.

  • The U.S.

  • senate has voted to pass a budget deal to avert what would have been the first US federal government shutdown since 2019, hours after the House of Representatives approved the same legislation.

  • The late night vote capped a frantic that saw President elect Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk defeat an initial bipartisan deal, throwing Congress into disarray.