Good Monday morning. Congress is back in session today, and here are 5 things it could do on gun reform. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)
Florida high school shooting
Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School return to class this week, as the gun debate ignited by the mass shooting there rages on. More than a dozen business backed away from the NRA over its response to the shooting. President Trump — who says he’ll support stricter background checks and age requirements for gun purchases — plans to talk to the nation’s governors about it today when they get together at the White House. There’s growing pressure on Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to resign after several of his deputies failed to engage shooter Nikolas Cruz during the massacre. And everyone is dumbfounded at the stunning number of red flags about Cruz that were missed.
Syria
The bombing of Eastern Ghouta continues despite a new UN ceasefire OK’d over the weekend. Doctors in the beseiged Damascus suburb say the ceasefire is just “ink on paper” that’s done nothing to stop the barbaric deaths being inflicted upon the people there. And the violence is about to get worse, as there are now reports of ground attacks on Eastern Ghouta, one of the last rebel strongholds in the country. The Syrian regime claims it’s targeting terrorists and will continue to do so despite the ceasefire.
Politics
The Democrats’ (redacted) memo on alleged FBI abuses is finally out. It tries to undercut the previously released GOP memo on two main points. First, it says the FBI did let a court know of the Democratic ties to the infamous Trump dossier when the agency used it in asking for a warrant to conduct surveillance on Trump associate Carter Page. Second, the memo argues the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election didn’t start with the dossier; it had already been going on for weeks. President Trump dismissed the Dems’ memo as a “politically driven document.”
China
Will the age of the emperors make a comeback in China? The question’s coming up after the country’s Communist Party proposed dumping presidential term limits so that President Xi Jinping can serve a third term — and perhaps run the country indefinitely. But many observers see the move as a sign of weakness, as Xi is apparently afraid of the rise of a political rival. There’s fear too that this could push the world’s most populous country into a period of extreme instablity.
Winter Olympics
The Games are over in PyeongChang, but the memories will last forever. The two and a half weeks of figure skating, skiing, ice hockey and curling ended with a spectacular closing ceremony and calls for peace. Athletes from North and South Korea marched together again, and the South wants the US and the North to start talking.
Norway set a medals record; the country won a mind-blowing 39. There will be lots of debate about Team USA’s lackluster showing, but these Games will be best remembered for Chloe Kim and Ester Ledecka and North Korean cheerleaders and Yuzuru Hanyu and Jamaican women bobsledders.