Episode 49

3:43 VICE News travels to Puerto Rico to find out why restoring power there has been so difficult after Hurricane Maria. 11:25 President Trump and congressional Republicans took a victory lap at the White House today, after final passage of their tax reform bill gave them their first big legislative win of the Trump era. 14:20 The National Retail Federation expects Americans to spend a whopping $600 apiece on presents for family and friends this Christmas. There’s just one problem: a shortage of trees to put them under. It’s a slow-moving aftershock of the Great Recession, being felt years later in places like Oregon—the heart of Christmas tree country. 17:45 The last remaining porn cinema in Paris is preparing to spin its last reel, before it closes at the end of the year. VICE News profiled its veteran pornographer-in-chief Maurice Laroche as he reflected on how digital smut and gentrification killed a Parisian tradition.