Rex Tillerson's 3 a.m. phone call  —  It was nearly 3 o'clock in the morning when the phone rang in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, an impoverished, war-torn country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.  —  Hours earlier, Rex Tillerson, then a young, up-and-coming country manager at Exxon …

How Clinton lost Michigan — and blew the election  —  Everybody could see Hillary Clinton was cooked in Iowa.  So when, a week-and-a-half out, the Service Employees International Union started hearing anxiety out of Michigan, union officials decided to reroute their volunteers …

Lessig: 20 Trump electors could flip  —  Larry Lessig, a Harvard University constitutional law professor who made a brief run for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, claimed Tuesday that 20 Republican members of the Electoral College are considering voting against Donald Trump …

The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — When Special Agent Adrian Hawkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the Democratic National Committee in September 2015 to pass along some troubling news about its computer network, he was transferred, naturally, to the help desk.

Trump Must Give Up Hotel Before Inauguration, Agency Tells Lawmakers  —  Major development in dispute over Donald Trump's conflicts of interest: The government agency that leases a taxpayer-owned landmark for Trump's Washington hotel has told lawmakers that the president-elect will be in breach …

Trump's national security adviser shared secrets without permission, files show  —  A secret U.S. military investigation in 2010 determined that Michael T. Flynn, the retired Army general tapped to serve as national security adviser in the Trump White House, “inappropriately shared” …

Don Trump Jr. involved in INTERIOR search — WAYNE BERMAN up for TRADE REP — TRUMP'S TECH SUMMIT — SPOTTED AT DAVID RUBENSTEIN'S PARTY — B'DAY: Kirsten Powers  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  BULLETIN — “BEIRUT (AP) - Syrian activists say aircraft have resumed bombing raids over eastern Aleppo, further threatening cease-fire deal.”

IBM unveils plan to hire 25,000 in US on eve of Trump meeting  —  12k  —  US technology giant IBM said Tuesday it would hire 25,000 people in the country over the next four years, a day before President-elect Donald Trump meets with tech industry leaders.  —  About 6,000 of those hirings …

Huma vs. the “Night Stalkers”  —  After a stunning election loss, the knives appear to be out in Clintonworld.  —  “Maybe I'm just pissed off, but I really don't give a s**t about what happens to Huma to be honest with you,” one close adviser to Hillary Clinton told me recently.

Alan Thicke — Dead at 69  —  EXCLUSIVE  —  5:50 AM — Robin Thicke posted on Instagram about his father's passing.  —  TV icon Alan Thicke has died ... TMZ has learned.  —  We're told Alan had a heart attack while he was playing hockey with his 19-year-old son, Carter.

Divisions deepen inside Trump Tower  —  Donald Trump's White House-in-waiting is already being roiled by divisions, with the conservative outsiders who helped power his historic victory colliding with a Republican Party establishment muscling its way in.  —  Insiders paint a picture …

Zinke and Trump have ‘positive meeting’ in New York Monday  —  Montana's lone congressman, Ryan Zinke, met with President-elect Donald Trump today in New York City.  —  Zinke is in the mix for one of a handful of Cabinet positions that include the departments of the Interior and Veterans Affairs, Fox News has reported.

POLITICO survey: Ellison no lock for DNC chair  —  Lingering tensions from the presidential primary are driving the race for Democratic National Committee chairman, impeding early favorite Keith Ellison's bid to consolidate support behind his candidacy and raising fears that the party …

Algorithms are making us small-minded  —  Your life is mapped out for you but, not in the way that you think.  How predictive algorithms narrow your perspective - and ultimately your choices.  —  We live in a world of curation.  The internet — aided by algorithms that predict what we search …

Disgrace under pressure  —  A month after the surprise election of Donald Trump in November (surprising to noone more than to Trump and Clinton), the losers are still working through the stages of anguish in ways that seem strange to many observers but of which they appear oddly proud.

Ex-CIA chief says Trump risks blame for an attack if he skips briefings  —  Former CIA director Leon Panetta said on Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump risked being blamed after any potential attack on the United States if he refused to receive more regular intelligence briefings.