Good morning. I'm Reese Tebo from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

202. It's Monday, December 28th. James is out for the holidays, but I'm here

instead with the stories you need to know.

In today's news, authorities have identified the man responsible for an explosion in downtown

Nashville on Christmas morning. The 63-year-old was killed in the blast.

And Vladimir Putin is accelerating his push toward full-blown authoritarian control in Russia.

But first, the big idea.

At the 11th hour, late on Sunday,

President Trump signed the stimulus bill into law.

His decision averts a government shutdown

and releases $900 billion in stimulus funds

that he had held up for nearly a week.

Trump finally signed the bill while vacationing in Florida,

and after changing his mind repeatedly,

according to three people close to him.

This comes less than a week after he demanded changes

to the legislation, and he hinted that he

wouldn't sign it unless those demands were met. He has called the bill a quote

disgrace. It's not clear what changed his mind on Sunday, but he was under tremendous pressure from Republicans to acquiesce.

My colleague Sungman Kim, Jeff Stein, Mike Debonus, and Josh Dossie have been on top of this fast-moving story.

The government would have shut down on Tuesday if Trump hadn't acted.

In addition to government funding, the bill also included emergency pandemic relief money for a new round of stimulus checks,

...