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From economic and geopolitical volatility to a government shutdown standoff, the continued slashing of the government and mixed messaging on the measles, it was another consequential and news-packed week of this second Trump presidency.

Here are five takeaways from what happened this week that help you sift through what matters:

1. Trump’s “period of transition”: President Trump triggered concerns this week of a recession when he declined to rule the possibility of one out and called this “a period of transition.” Plus, Trump’s tariff policy sent stocks tumbling. Later in the week, Trump said of a recession possibility, “I don’t see it at all.” The “period of transition” comment, though, called to mind the Biden administration’s contention that inflation was “transitory.” And Biden’s party was ousted from the White House largely because of high prices.

2. “The ball is now in Russia’s court”: The Trump administration said Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Russia. As a result, the U.S. will restart aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. But Russia has not agreed to anything yet and has cast doubt on the terms. The U.S. has already largely been negotiating on Russia’s terms — no NATO for Ukraine, no to getting all of Ukraine’s territory back. So how does Trump respond if Putin flouts his efforts?

3. Shutdown likely averted, as Democrats make a hard choice. Get ready for the blame — and outrage: The government looks like it will remain open for another six months. A day before it would have shut down, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he plans to vote for a GOP-written spending bill — despite saying a day earlier that Democrats would not help Republicans with this measure because Democrats were left out of negotiations. He contended that not passing the bill would give Trump and his allies “more power” and would reopen “only their favorite departments and agencies.” Schumer’s move opens the pathway for more Democrats to vote in favor of it. Republicans could not pass the bill alone because they wouldn’t have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. And it will also likely mean even more outrage from the Democratic base, which has been clamoring for Democratic leadership to do something to try and thwart Trump’s agenda.

4. DOGE keeps on DOGE-ing — but what’s really going on? The Department of Education has now been slashed in half. It’s the latest target of Trump and Elon Musk’s advisory Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. But there are questions about how efficient its cuts actually are despite DOGE’s professed goals: improving efficiency and cutting the debt and deficit. In reality, all of the cuts so far amount to very little as a percentage of the federal budget, but a lot in terms of human beings. And that may be the very point. Remember, Trump’s now Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said in October that he wanted “bureaucrats to be traumatically affected” and “to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains."

5. Kennedy’s mixed message on measles: The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine is the reason measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 after its development nearly 40 years earlier. Public health officials have touted that the MMR vaccine is the most important way to prevent the spread of measles, one of the world’s most infectious diseases. But now, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of Health and Human Services, they’re getting mixed messages. He said this week he encourages people to get it, but also cast doubt on the vaccine’s safety. Doing so, public health officials worry, will lead to fewer people getting vaccinated and people dying as a result — particularly as this exact scenario plays out in the southwest where two unvaccinated Americans have died amid a measles outbreak.