Young undocumented immigrants seeking permanent status in the United States received an unexpected boost Thursday on Capitol Hill as a small group of House Republicans mounted a last-minute effort to bring up an immigration vote in Congress. The group of eight Republicans some freed from political considerations by upcoming retirements and others facing tough re-elections races defied their own party leadership, quickly persuading 10 more Republicans to sign on to a petition that would force debate on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. With all 193 Democrats expected to sign on, Republicans will have to persuade just seven more members of their own party to join the petition to trigger a vote on several immigration bills on the House floor. But Republican leadership said the effort would be wasted if the end result is a presidential veto. "I think it's important for us to come up with a solution that the president can support," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Thursday. These types of petitions are rare and seen as a threat to leadership's ability to direct legislative action. "It's better to use the legislative process," Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters Wednesday. But that argument appears to be losing sway with House members who see an opportunity for legislative action in a mid-term election year. The growing group of House Republicans are joining Democratic colleagues who have long criticized Ryan for not bringing immigration bills up for a vote. "This is about making sure we're not consolidating power in the White House," said Representative Mia Love, a Republican from Utah and one of the first lawmakers to sign petition. The immigration issue had all but died after an effort to pass a DACA fix collapsed in the U.S. Senate earlier this year. The program has been the focus of fierce negotiations on Capitol Hill since last September, when President Donald Trump announced he was ending the 2012 Obama-era program and called for a legislative fix. Who thinks it's important to come up with a solution that the president can support? A. not enough information B. Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy C. Representative Mia Love D. House Speaker Paul Ryan
D

The White House said Monday that President Donald Trump "doesn't believe any of these accusations" made by adult film actress Stormy Daniels that she had a one-night affair with the future U.S. leader in 2006 and five years later was threatened to keep quiet about their alleged liaison. Trump spokesman Raj Shah rejected any suggestion that Trump had engaged in wrongdoing because his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, paid the porn star $130,000 from his own funds in hush money shortly before the 2016 presidential election. "False charges are settled out of court all the time," said Shah, who faced a barrage of questions from reporters after a lengthy Daniels interview aired Sunday night on 60 Minutes, a CBS News show that drew its biggest ratings in a decade for the spectacle. "He's consistently denied these accusations," Shah said of Trump. The spokesman said the 39-year-old Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was "inconsistent" because she has at various times denied she had a sexual encounter with Trump, but now claims she is telling the truth that she met up with him at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. Shah also dismissed Daniels' claim that in 2011, when she was on her way to a fitness class in Las Vegas with her infant daughter, she was approached by a stranger who threatened her. "A guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,' " Daniels told journalist Anderson Cooper. "And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone." Trump has yet to comment directly on Daniels' story. However, he posted a Twitter comment Monday that seemed to allude to the controversy. Daniels says the Las Vegas incident occurred shortly after she first tried to sell her story about her encounter with Trump to a tabloid magazine. She said the incident made her fearful for years and that she thought she was doing the right thing when she accepted $130,000 from Trump... What does Daniels think of her claims? A. not enough information B. That she was paid to stay quiet C. That they have made her fearful D. That they are true
A

The collaborative process between me and Claire Bridge has been good so far. Upon finding out her email address we had a brief email exchange culminating in me sending her a list of potential questions for the interview. Claire quite liked a lot of the questions, but overall there were too many, so we proceeded to reduce the number of questions to six main questions. These questions would then form the basis of the artist portrait, with an attempt to limit answers to no more than a minute, so little had to be cut for the final edit. The six questions we arrived at are as follows: How would you define creativity? What does it mean to you to be an artist? Do you feel a painting or piece of art can house an energy/a feeling from the original artist? Do you feel that your own works house this energy? Change and transformation are recurrent themes in your work. What are you exploring and why do these fascinate you? And recently we saw a change in your medium too, incorporating video works and photography. You seem to draw on many influences in your work, from quantum physics, astrophysics, to environmental ecology, psychology, philosophy and metaphysics. With titles like "Dark Matter", "Touching Infinity", "We are made of Stars", "Rising tides" and "A drop in the ocean" or "Alchemy". Can you tell us something more about the convergence of these ideas and influences? What continues to motivate and inspire you as an artist? We both felt these questions addressed the initial topic of exploring creativity, explored why Claire became an artist, gives insight into Claire's work and practise and looks toward the future of Claire's practice. After refining the questions, we proceeded to organise a day to film, which will be on the 16th September. Hopefully if all goes well we will both have an artist portrait that lives up to our expectations. How does the author likely feel about the upcoming interview? A. dreading it because they don't like Claire's work B. not enough information C. optimistic that it will be successful D. anxious because they are unprepared
C