Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

It was arguably one of the world's first breaking news stories, a shootout in 1911 between

London's police and gangsters captured by new-fangled news-real cameras.

We look back on the Sydney Street Siege and how it still resonates today.

And for centuries the color black has tested artists' ingenuity as it hinted at the underworld, the darkness of evil.

We examine the latest artistic use of the color in the form of a new, unfathomably absorbing material.

There is truly none more black.

But first...

America's House of Representatives passed another version of a stimulus bill yesterday.

This one promising $2,000 checks to the majority of Americans.

This would make a difference in the lives of Americans who are facing the greatest uncertainty that they've experienced for many of them in their lifetime.

It's unclear if the measure will pass in the Senate, making it yet another twist in a last-minute saga to provide economic assistance to millions of struggling American workers and businesses.

The original $2.3 trillion spending package included $900 billion for pandemic relief in addition to funding the federal government for the next year.

It was hastily negotiated in the run-up to Christmas by a bipartisan group including President Trump's Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

But after it was passed by the House and the Senate, Mr. Trump criticized the bill, saying it didn't do enough to help ordinary Americans.

It really is a disgrace. For example, among the more than 5,000 pages in this bill.

In the end, he didn't make a good on his threat to veto the legislation on Sunday. But he demanded another congressional vote on increasing the value of the stimulus checks, a measure supported by many more Democrats than Republicans.

I worry that this whopping $463 billion won't do what's needed. Stimulate the economy or get the jobless back to work.

Whatever the outcome, the relief couldn't be more needed. The government has been deadlocked on the matter for months.

And in just over three weeks, it'll be President Joe Biden who inherits the budget, the stimulus plans, and the problems brought about by all the foot-dragging.

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