Trump praises ‘Fox & Friends’ for being named ‘most influential’ because he watches it  —  on Thursday praised “Fox & Friends” after a media website named it the “most influential” because he watches it.  —  “Was @foxandfriends just named the most influential show in news?”  Trump tweeted.

Defying Trump, U.N. General Assembly Condemns U.S. Decree on Jerusalem  —  UNITED NATIONS — A majority of the world's nations delivered a stinging rebuke to the United States on Thursday, denouncing its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ignoring President Trump's threats …

Prosecutors ask FBI agents for info on Uranium One deal  —  On the orders of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Justice Department prosecutors have begun asking FBI agents to explain the evidence they found in a now dormant criminal investigation into a controversial uranium deal that critics …

Mueller Avoids Pitfalls by Giving Trump the Silent Treatment  —  Some Republicans are escalating attacks on Russia probe  —  Special counsel aims to convey credibility, officials says  —  Through all the controversy, threats and noise surrounding the Trump-Russia investigation …

President Trump commutes sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, ex-Iowa slaughterhouse executive  —  President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the prison sentence of former Iowa slaughterhouse executive Sholom Rubashkin, who was sentenced to 27 years for bank fraud and money laundering, the White House said.

Mueller Is Looking Into a U.S. Foundation Backed by Russian Money  —  Foundation got $500,000 in undisclosed Russian donations  —  Representatives attended meeting with Trump campaign officials  —  Sara Peterson flew to Moscow in 2012 to take home two Russian orphans just as the Kremlin …

Virginia officials will randomly pick winner of tied House of Delegates race on Dec. 27  —  Politicos, mark your calendars for Wednesday Dec. 27.  —  That's the day the Virginia Board of Elections will randomly pick the winner of the high stakes and tied 94th House District race.  —  The impact?

Fueled by drug crisis, U.S. life expectancy declines for a second straight year … American life expectancy at birth declined for the second consecutive year in 2016, fueled by a staggering 21 percent rise in the death rate from drug overdoses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

This Congress's clear priorities: corporations, not children  —  It's taken Congress three months to do the bare minimum to help CHIP.  —  Congress is preparing to go home for the holidays having delivered a historic tax cut for corporations — and having done only the absolute minimum …

Exclusive: US making plans for ‘bloody nose’ military attack on North Korea  —  America is drawing up plans for a “bloody nose” military attack on North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons programme, The Telegraph understands.  —  The White House has “dramatically” stepped up preparation …

The Politics of the Republican Tax Bill: A Dissenting View  —  I am not a fan of the new tax bill that the Republican Congress passed.  It will widen the gap between the wealthy and everyone else and increase the likelihood over a decade or so of another crash.

Facebook Job Ads Raise Concerns About Age Discrimination  —  This article was written through collaboration between The New York Times and ProPublica, the independent, nonprofit investigative journalism organization.  —  A few weeks ago, Verizon placed an ad on Facebook to recruit applicants …

Inauguration Protesters Found Not Guilty On All Charges In Jury Trial  —  A jury on Thursday found the six defendants not guilty on all charges they were facing in connection with Inauguration Day protests in Washington, DC.  —  Reporting From Washington, DC

Review: In ‘The Post,’ Democracy Survives the Darkness  —  THE POST - NYT Critic's Pick - Directed by Steven Spielberg - Biography, Drama, History, Thriller - PG-13 - 1h 55m  —  Steven Spielberg's exhilarating drama “The Post” is about a subject that's dear to the heart of journalists: themselves!

Janet Elder, a Top Editor at The Times, Is Dead at 61  —  Janet Elder, who in a three-decade career at The New York Times rose from reporter to deputy managing editor, along the way spending many years as the editor of news surveys and election analysis, died on Wednesday.  She was 61.

Memphis removing Confederate statues from Downtown parks  —  Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal  —  The city of Memphis sold two public parks containing Confederate monuments to a nonprofit Wednesday in a massive, months-in-the-planning operation to take the statues down overnight.

De Blasio thinks city-funded news outlets would be ‘more fair’  —  There's one sure way for Mayor Bill de Blasio to get better press coverage — own the press.  —  The mayor said he's open to the idea of the city investing in a media outlet that would cover the city.

You Cannot Be Too Cynical About the Republican Tax Bill  —  The rush to enact the tax bill was designed to mask — as a break for the middle class — what is in fact a $1.4 trillion package of benefits for key donors and lobbyists, the richest members of Congress, President Trump, his family and other families like his.

The Real Coup Plot Is Trump's  —  When Donald Trump's campaign was accused of spreading “fake news,” he quickly appropriated the term for himself.  The true purveyors of fake news, he claimed, were television networks like CNN and newspapers like this one.  —  Now, as Mr. Trump and his allies seem …

Long Island Iced Tea Soars 500% After Changing Its Name to Long Blockchain  —  There's a new leader in the sweepstakes for the zaniest name change in the crypto craze.  —  Long Island Iced Tea Corp. shares rose 238 percent after the company rebranded itself Long Blockchain Corp. It's …

Hell freezes over: Media start admitting that Trump's first year isn't a flop  —  I have sensed for weeks now that some in the media were on the verge of rolling out a contrary take on President Trump's first year in office.  —  And in the wake of yesterday's final passage of massive tax cuts, that moment has arrived.

Cochran's future in the Senate in doubt  —  Sen. Thad Cochran, chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, hasn't presided over a hearing since early September.  The Mississippi Republican has not given a speech on the Senate floor all year, and he's introduced only two bills during that time, both of them minor.

Money Talks: Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR dial up donations to key GOP lawmakers as tax bill protects carried interest loophole  —  If you want to know how one of Wall Street's biggest players managed to keep a massive and controversial loophole in the GOP tax bill, just follow the money.

Ryan Pushes Trump to Follow Tax Win With U.S. Welfare Revamp  —  Trump determined use momentum from tax win for big legislation  —  Ryan pressing to top agenda with limits on social safety net  —  Republicans want to channel momentum from the GOP's victory on taxes into a push to overhaul …

Deducting a CEO's Jet, But Not a Cop's Uniform  —  What the Republicans' Tax Bill Really Means for People Like Us  —  Donald Trump often declares his support, even love, for police, firefighters and other first responders.  That isn't stopping him, however, from nicking their wallets …