Congress has a midnight deadline to fund the federal government. Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump instructed Republicans to kill a bipartisan plan. Then the House rejected Trump's preferred alternative. Russia's army has lost thousands of soldiers trying to capture a strategic Ukrainian town, and in Syria, the rebel group that toppled former dictator Bashar al-Assad is now is now tasked with building a new government that includes everyone in a divided country.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Carrie Kahn, Ryland Barton, HJ Mai and Olivia Hampton. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Our executive producer is Kelley Dickens.

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