As Washington barreled toward a shuttering of key federal agencies in just four days, the White House appeared dug in on Trump’s call for Congress to budget $5 billion in 2019 to fund a wall on the US-Mexico border that he insists will check illegal immigration.

If no breakthrough is reached, the shutdown would occur over the Christmas holiday — when most lawmakers flee the US Capitol — leaving Washington red-faced at the end of the year.

The closure could potentially spill into early January, when the new Congress — including a Democratically-controlled House of Representatives — is sworn in.

Lawmakers involved in funding negotiations suggested the first move would have to come from Trump’s team.

“We’ll see soon, but the clock’s ticking away,” Republican Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby told reporters.

Democrats are united in their opposition to Trump’s ask, saying their intent is to vote for no more than $1.6 billion in border security funding as laid out in bipartisan Senate legislation earlier this month.

Trump launched a fresh attack on the opposition party and its offer of wall-less border security funding.

“Anytime you hear a Democrat saying that you can have good Boarder (sic) Security without a Wall, write them off as just another politician following the party line,” he tweeted.

White House senior advisor Stephen Miller said Sunday that building the wall remained a top priority and that Trump was “absolutely” prepared to shut down government to achieve that goal.

– Not enough votes –

Last week, a defiant Trump said he would be “proud” to shutter the government over border security.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer stressed there are not enough votes in Congress to pass wall funding, and that it would be up to Trump to repeal his demand.

“President Trump still doesn’t have a plan to keep the government open. In fact, the only indication he has given is that he wants a government shutdown,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Democrats have made two offers to Trump, Schumer said: pass a funding stopgap, known as a continuing resolution (CR), for the unfunded agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year through September 2019, or fund most of the agencies and pass a CR for homeland security.

“His temper tantrum will get him a shutdown, but it will not get him a wall,” Schumer said. “It’s futile.”

The window for action is narrow. The House is off until Wednesday evening, leaving very limited time before funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and other agencies expires Friday at midnight.

Some members of Congress have told US media they see little chance of reaching a compromise in the coming days and have advocated for a short-term stopgap spending bill that would punt the problem until January.

Complicating the stalemate, several of the 100-plus lawmakers who are either retiring at year’s end or lost their seats in November’s midterm elections, mainly Republicans, may not be fully motivated to return to Washington this week for a final federal spending vote.

“Many of them don’t want to come back,” Schumer noted.

Should a shutdown occur, it would be relatively limited, as Congress has already funded 75 percent of government operations through September.

But Americans have little appetite for the standoff, and Trump would likely suffer if the government closed temporarily, polls show.

Forty-three percent of respondents said they would blame Trump and Republicans for a shutdown, compared to 24 percent blaming Democrats, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University Poll. Thirty percent would blame both equally.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) report said there had been some improvements in wage equality this year compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.

But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.

At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.

The Geneva-based organisation’s annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.

After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.

Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 percent.

And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 percent globally, WEF said.

But at the same time, the report showed that there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.

And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.

It decried the particularly low participation of women within the artificial intelligence field, where they make up just 22 percent of the workforce.

Big regional differences

“This gap is three times larger than in other industry talent pools,” the WEF statement pointed out.

“In addition to being outnumbered three to one, women in AI are less likely to be positioned in senior roles,” it said, stressing the “clear need for proactive measures to prevent a deepening of the gender gap in other industries where AI skills are in increasing demand.”

The situation varies greatly in different countries and regions.

For instance, while Western European countries could close their gender gaps within 61 years, countries in the Middle East and North Africa will take 153 years, the report estimated.

Overall, the Nordic countries once again dominated the top of the table: men and women were most equal in Iceland, followed by Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and finally Yemen showed the biggest overall gender gaps of the countries surveyed.

Among the world’s 20 leading economies, France fared the best, taking 12th place overall, followed by Germany in 14th place, Britain in 15th, Canada in 16th and South Africa in 19th.

The United States continued its decline, slipping two places to 51st, with the report in particular blaming “a decrease in gender parity in ministerial-level positions.”

The non-binding resolution, which was passed by consensus without a vote, welcomes diplomatic efforts to end the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

But it emphasizes that members are “deeply concerned at the grave human rights situation, the pervasive culture of impunity and the lack of accountability for human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

It also denounces the use of torture as well as “inhumane conditions of detention, rape, public executions, extrajudicial and arbitrary detention” and “the existence of an extensive system of political prison camps.”

Pyongyang’s mission to the UN attacked the US’s willingness to organize a Security Council meeting on human rights in North Korea.

In early December, Washington had given up asking for the meeting, which had been held every year since 2014, because it was unsure of the support it would get from partners.

But the US hopes to hold the meeting in January with the arrival of new non-permanent council members that could be more favorable to doing so.

“The UN Security Council is neither a place for discussion on any human rights issue nor a platform where a human rights issue is politicized to flare up confrontation,” North Korea’s UN mission said in a statement.

“The UN Security Council should not be misused as a platform again where US’s high-handedness and arbitrary practice would prevail, and should remain true to its mission and duties as enshrined in the UN Charter,” it said.

The disclosures by the Jesuit provinces of Maryland and USA Midwest are the latest chapter in the ongoing sexual abuse scandal roiling the Catholic Church and come after 153 Jesuits were publicly identified by two other provinces earlier this month.

Maryland released 24 names with allegations dating back to 1950 and USA Midwest released 65 names dating back to 1955. Many of the individuals are deceased, and some were previously publicly known to be accused of sexual assault.

“On behalf of the Midwest Jesuits, I apologize to victim-survivors and their families for the harm and suffering you have endured. Many of you have suffered in silence for decades,” Brian Paulson, head of the USA Midwest province, said in an open letter.

Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with some 16,000 members worldwide. They operate 30 colleges and 81 schools in the United States and Canada.

The names made public Monday included dozens of priests with multiple allegations of abuse who served in educational institutions.

Decades of abuse, errors dating to 1930s

The priest with the most recent allegations was Donald McGuire, who died in federal prison in 2017 while serving a 25-year sentence. His was among the names that had been previously publicized.

Numerous men have accused McGuire of molesting them when they were boys. The first allegations dated to the 1950s, when he worked at a Jesuit private high school in Chicago, and went as late as 2005.

“Most of the Jesuits on our list entered religious life from the 1930’s through the early 1960’s. In retrospect, our evaluation of candidates, as well as the training, formation, and supervision of Jesuits, was not adequate,” Paulson said.

He added that the organization had learned from its mistakes, and has improved training for Jesuits and was holding them accountable if abuse allegations are made.

The latest revelations came as religious orders are starting to face similar scrutiny to the rest of the Catholic Church and are embarking on efforts at transparency.

Lists ‘incomplete’

Earlier this month, provinces overseeing Jesuits in more than 20 western, southern and central US states released lists of 153 members accused of child sexual abuse.

The Maryland province’s leader, who is known as the provincial, said Monday’s release was meant to provide transparency and accountability, and that an external audit of the organization’s files would be conducted “to ensure that our previous reviews were both accurate and complete.”

“We are deeply sorry for the harm we have caused to victims and their families,” the provincial, Robert Hussey, said in an open letter published on the organization’s website.

“We view the disclosure today of our shameful history as part of our commitment now to preventing abuse.”

A victim’s advocacy group welcomed the disclosures, but noted that they came only after sustained public pressure, including from prosecutors.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) criticized the Jesuit order for keeping accused priests’ names secret for decades and called for an independent investigation by law enforcement.

“Too often, lists are released that are incomplete or carefully curated by church officials, and so by inviting an independent investigation, Jesuit officials can demonstrate to parishioners and the public their commitment to transparency and healing,” SNAP said in a statement.

“Such an investigation would be the only way to determine who knew what, when they knew it, and what they chose to do with that information.”

The Catholic Church has been hit by a series of child abuse scandals in recent years, with widespread allegations of cover-ups.

In August, a devastating US report on child sex abuse claimed more than 300 “predator” priests abused more than 1,000 minors over seven decades in the state of Pennsylvania.