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.
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.