The Shutdown Shows the Twisted Rules of a Broken Congress

By PETER SUDERMAN from NYT Opinion http://ift.tt/2FZbLAY

Government shutdown explained: What would happen if it went ahead, and why is it even a possibility?

Government funding may run out at midnight on Friday unless both chambers of Congress pass a spending bill and President Donald Trump signs it into law. There have been 18 government shutdowns since 1976 that have occurred under both Republican and Democratic presidents, according to the Congressional Research Service. What is a government shutdown?

Prosecutors to seek death penalty in Chinese scholar case

CHICAGO (AP) — U.S. prosecutors will seek the death penalty for a former physics student charged with the kidnapping and killing of a University of Illinois scholar from China, they told a judge in a Friday filing that also made a new allegation that the 28-year-old suspect once choked and sexually assaulted someone else years ago.

This Flu Map Shows How the Biggest Influenza Outbreak in Years Spread Across the U.S.

This season's deadly flu is all over the continental U.S.

Texas 'tourniquet killer' becomes first U.S. inmate executed in 2018

In the first U.S. execution of 2018, Texas on Thursday put to death a man convicted of raping and murdering five girls and young women, using a tourniquet to torture and strangle his victims. Anthony Shore, 55, was executed by lethal injection in the state's death chamber in Huntsville, dying at 6:28 p.m., Robert Hurst, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said by telephone. It was the 546th in the state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state.

Experts: Shackled children face long road to recovery

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the torture and abuse case against the parents of 13 children and young adults in California (all times local):

Turkey 'not satisfied' with US assurance over Syria force

Turkey on Thursday described as far from satisfactory US assurances playing down plans to create a border force in northern Syria made up of Kurdish militia forces deemed as "terrorists" by Ankara. Washington said it is training a 30,000-strong border force on Syria's northern frontier with Turkey, comprised of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, whom Ankara accuses of being a terror group.