The Presidential Daily Brief

Senator Al Franken Curates OZY’s PDB

This weekend we get to call Minnesota’s junior senator — and former Saturday Night Live writer and performer — our guest curator. Sen. Al Franken first hit the big time as one of the original writers for SNL in the 1970s, specializing in political satire (which ultimately led to five Emmy wins). Before being elected to the Senate in 2008, Franken also wrote two movie screenplays and several books (with another debuting this spring). Today he joins the ranks of past curators like Satya Nadella, Von Miller, Karl Rove, and Ken Burns to share his take on today’s must-know news and trends, in the briefs below.

Scrapping Obamacare Is a Big Mistake

Because of the Affordable Care Act, 20 million people in the U.S. have gained health insurance, and delivery of care has been transformed in a positive way. By gearing up to repeal the ACA — with no realistic plan to replace it — Republican lawmakers are playing politics with people’s health. We shouldn’t be gutting the law. Instead, we should be amending, building on, and improving it to help more people and reduce costs for families. And that’s what I plan to fight for.

Trump Needs to Put America First

The president of the United States must always put the interests of the American people ahead of his own financial interests. And when it comes to Donald Trump, his lack of transparency during the campaign and even now, days from inauguration, means we don’t know who or what will come first to him. He has simply not done enough to eliminate his potential conflicts of interest. Now, he must assure the country by fully divesting his financial holdings. Not doing so would jeopardize our national interests and break with the long-standing practice of past presidents.

Don’t Make Our Grandkids Climate Change Refugees

I have three grandchildren — Joe, Jacob and Avery. And you know, when they’re older, I don’t want to have to explain to them that we blew our chance to tackle climate change. Last year, I went to Paris to support the historic climate change accord that nearly 200 countries signed. But now that unprecedented agreement could be in jeopardy, and I think it’s important for people to know that climate change isn’t just a problem to worry about in 100 or 200 years. It’s threatening the livelihoods of families across the globe at this very moment, and it’s a problem that requires sustained international action.

Iran’s Former President Dies, Attack in Jerusalem, Kushner’s Dealings and the Zombie Apocalypse

Know This: Iran’s ex-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani dies at age 82. Vehicular attack in Jerusalem kills 4, injures 13. Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, held talks with a Chinese tycoon about a real-estate deal, causing new questions about his conflicts of interest. Beijing is releasing a new police force to battle its smog problem. And the suspect in the Fort Lauderdale shooting has been charged, and could be executed if convicted.

Remember This Number: 181. That’s how many people (of 7.5 billion estimated on the planet) would survive the first 100 days of a zombie apocalypse, according to a paper by a team of physics students at the University of Leicester.

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