Many in U.S. Skeptical Trump Can Handle Presidential Duties  —  PRINCETON, N.J. — As Donald Trump prepares to take the presidential oath on Jan. 20, less than half of Americans are confident in his ability to handle an international crisis (46%), to use military force wisely (47%) …

Trump: North Korea will be stopped  —  President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Monday evening that North Korea won't reach the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon that will be able to hit the United States.  —  “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing …

Israeli police question PM Netanyahu in corruption probe  —  Israeli police have questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as part of an inquiry into corruption allegations.  —  Ahead of their arrival at his residence, Mr Netanyahu again denied any wrongdoing.

Repeal and Delay Is Forever  —  The Republican Party has used health care to its advantage for the last seven years by following the same strategy: advocating an alternative plan that does not and cannot exist.  During this entire time, President Obama has held power.

Nude Neptune sunk by Facebook's privacy controls  —  A statue of Neptune in the Italian city of Bologna has fallen foul of Facebook's privacy policies, which claim it is “explicitly sexual.”  —  According to the Telegraph, local writer Elisa Barbari chose the 16th-century statue …

Donald Trump's New Year's Eve speech cited Dubai business partner  —  Hussain Sajwani, founder of the DAMAC Group  —  (CNN)Donald Trump gave a lengthy description of his electoral victory, and lavished praise upon a Dubai business partner, during a ten-minute speech to 800 paying guests at his Florida estate Saturday night.

Former Chicago police chief blasts Black Lives Matter  —  Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy on Sunday blamed the Black Lives Matter movement for causing a rise in violent crime around the country.  —  During a radio interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York …

House Republicans gut their own oversight  —  In one of their first moves of the new Congress, House Republicans have voted to gut their own independent ethics watchdog — a huge blow to cheerleaders of congressional oversight and one that dismantles major reforms adopted after the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Joe Scarborough against the world  —  Joe Scarborough is fed up with his critics.  —  “I am sick and tired of people misrepresenting me and making snide assumptions and giving readers false conclusions,” the “Morning Joe” co-host told CNNMoney on Monday.  In 2017, he said, he was “going to war against lies.”

Claiming mandate, GOP Congress lays plans to propel sweeping conservative agenda  —  For six years, since they took back the House of Representatives, Republicans have added to a pile of legislation that moldered outside the White House.  In their thwarted agenda, financial regulations were to be unspooled.

Adviser contradicts Trump: Russians hacked the US  —  Washington (CNN)A top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he thinks the Russians were involved in election-related hacking of the US — a very different view than that held by the incoming administration.

Impeaching Trump  —  The process begins now.  —  Donald Trump is wildly unfit to be president, and he will demonstrate that in ways that break the law and violate the Constitution.  Since the election, there have been three wishful efforts to keep Trump from the presidency …

Turkey nightclub attack: IS says it carried out shooting  —  So-called Islamic State says it was behind the new year attack on a Turkish nightclub that killed 39 people.  —  The group said in a statement it was carried out by “a heroic soldier”.  —  At least 600 revellers were celebrating …

Intellectuals for Trump  —  A rogue group of conservative thinkers try to build a governing ideology around a President-elect who disdains ideology.  —  The most cogent argument for electing Donald Trump was made not by Trump, or by his campaign, but by a writer who, unlike Trump …

America Becomes a Stan  —  In 2015 the city of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, was graced with a new public monument: a giant gold-plated sculpture portraying the country's president on horseback.  This may strike you as a bit excessive.  But cults of personality are actually the norm in the …

Obama could still force Garland onto court during ‘intersession recess’  —  President Obama will have one last chance to force Judge Merrick Garland onto the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday — but it's a legal gamble and one that has so many pitfalls that even those who say he could get away with it believe it isn't worth the fight.

Perdue Is Trump's Lead Pick for Agriculture Secretary  —  Perdue's selection for agriculture post isn't yet final  —  Several other candidates have been interviewed by Trump  —  Sonny Perdue III, the former governor of Georgia, is president-elect Donald Trump's leading candidate …