Elizabeth Warren Stands by DNA Test.  But Around Her, Worries Abound.  —  WASHINGTON — The plan was straightforward: After years of being challenged by President Trump and others about a decades-old claim of Native American ancestry, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts would take a DNA test …

The White House Has No Plan for Confronting the Mueller Report  —  Nobody knows how the White House plans to respond to the Mueller report—including the people who work at the White House.  —  The special counsel is reportedly nearing the end of his probe.  Sentencing memos are dropping.

Trump aide's appearances on RT channel are focus for Russia inquiry  —  Ted Malloch, a Trump campaign adviser, has been questioned about his relationship with the Kremlin-controlled broadcaster  —  Robert Mueller is allegedly examining a Trump campaign adviser's appearances …

George H. W. Bush's Funeral Was the Corny, Feel-Good Moment That Washington Craves  —  What does it tell you that the feel-good events in Washington these days are funerals?  —  George Herbert Walker Bush was memorialized on Wednesday at the National Cathedral in the country's first state funeral …

General McChrystal Told Pompeo To ‘Muddle Along’ In Afghanistan, Leaked Audio Reveals  —  Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, recently told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he did not know what to do in Afghanistan but offered his “best suggestion” …

Record imports push US trade gap to $55.5 billion in October  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Record imports in October drove the U.S. trade deficit to the highest level in a decade.  —  The Commerce Department said Thursday that the gap between the United States sells and what it buys …

Stocks drop again with Dow's two-day slide now totaling more than 1,000 points  —  Stocks fell sharply on Thursday as continuing fears over U.S.-China trade relations and concern over a possible global economic slowdown kept investors on edge.  —  The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 451 points …

After a lot of conversation, reflection and prayer, I've decided that a 2020 campaign for president is not for me.  I've been overwhelmed by advice and encouragement from people from all over the country, known and unknown.  Humbled, in fact.  But knowing that the cruelty of our elections process …

Ecuador: Enough UK guarantees for Assange to leave embassy  —  QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador's president says Britain has provided sufficient guarantees for Julian Assange to leave his government's embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks founder has been living under asylum since 2012.

This Is How The Accusations Against Neil deGrasse Tyson Finally Came To Light  —  No one believed Tchiya Amet when she said Tyson had raped her in the 1980s.  Now, three other women tell BuzzFeed News that he harassed them, including one who's sharing her story publicly for the first time.

Trump's slow-motion staff ‘shakeup’ stunts 2019 planning  —  President Donald Trump is still looking for a new United Nations ambassador.  He has no deputy national security adviser.  His attorney general and Environmental Protection Agency administrator are serving in acting capacities …

Kamala Harris aide resigns after harassment, retaliation settlement surfaces  —  A longtime top staff member of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris resigned Wednesday after The Sacramento Bee inquired about a $400,000 harassment and retaliation settlement resulting from his time working for Harris at the California Department of Justice.

Nancy Pelosi says funding for Trump's ‘immoral, ineffective, expensive’ border wall is off the table  — Nancy Pelosi called for a yearlong continuing resolution on funding for homeland security.  — Pelosi dismissed a compromise of exchanging border wall funding for a DACA solution.

Beto O'Rourke's team has been talking to Obama political operatives in Iowa and New Hampshire as 2020 momentum builds  — Democratic rising star Beto O'Rourke's team has been fielding calls from senior operatives who worked on President Obama's campaign in the pivotal states of Iowa and New Hampshire

How Trump's approval rating has evolved, according to data scientist Donald Trump  —  Late Wednesday night, President Trump tweeted a celebratory image. … Polling from Rasmussen Reports has Trump at 50 percent approval, the tweet notes, something Trump credits to his hard work.

Saudi-funded lobbyist paid for 500 rooms at Trump's hotel after 2016 election  —  Lobbyists representing the Saudi government reserved blocks of rooms at President Trump's D.C. hotel within a month of Trump's election in 2016 — paying for an estimated 500 nights at the luxury hotel in just three months …

An escaped inmate kicked down a sleeping woman's door.  But she had a gun.  —  The prisoners had been planning their escape for days.  —  Bruce McLaughlin Jr. and Timothy Dill put the jailbreak into motion sometime after 2 a.m. Tuesday.  It was the graveyard shift at the jail in Pickens County …

Fox Business Network Apologizes for Louie Gohmert Spreading Anti-Semitic George Soros Conspiracy  —  The openly anti-Semitic attack initially went unchallenged by host Stuart Varney, who later issued an apology.  —  Matt Wilstein  —  Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Thursday morning managed …

‘Death is waiting for him’  —  On the day he pleaded for his life in federal immigration court, Santos Chirino lifted his shirt and showed his scars.  —  Judge Thomas Snow watched the middle-aged construction worker on a big-screen television in Arlington, Va., 170 miles away from the immigration jail where Chirino was being held.

Chris Cuomo Nabs Viewers for CNN in Cable-News' Toughest Time Period  —  CNN has learned that there's nothing wrong with a little attitude.  —  In just six months, the network's new 9 p.m. program, “Cuomo Prime Time,” has become the most-watched show on the AT&T-owned cable-news network.

Trump Plans Major Rollback of Sage Grouse Protections to Spur Oil Exploration  —  WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday published documents detailing its plan to roll back Obama-era protections for the vast habitat of the greater sage grouse, a chickenlike bird …

Don't condemn white nationalists, Veterans Affairs' diversity chief was told after Charlottesville, emails show  —  A top White House appointee at the Department of Veterans Affairs sought to silence the agency's chief diversity officer, who — in the aftermath of last year's racially charged violence …

Kushners' Beachfront Strip Eligible for Trump's Poor-Area Tax Perks  —  The opportunity zones in the new tax law are supposed to attract investment to low-income areas.  But some of these neighborhoods aren't exactly struggling.  —  Pier Village promotes itself as a “jewel on the New Jersey coast.”

The Wisconsin power grab is part of a bigger Republican attack on democracy  —  The GOP's turn against democracy may be a greater threat to the American experiment than President Trump.  —  The Wisconsin Republican Party is nullifying the results of the 2018 election.

Hugo Chavez's Failed Socialist Experiment Is Deadlier Than Ever  —  Hugo Chávez had barely been in office two months when Nelson Chitty La Roche, a burly, gruff, gun-toting lawmaker from the Venezuelan political establishment, told me he was fed up.  Chitty didn't care …

U.S. Murder Rate for 2018 Is on Track for a Big Drop  —  Murders are down so far in a sample of large American cities, typically a good indicator for national numbers.  —  The murder rate in the United States in 2018 is on track for the largest one-year drop in five years.

Labor divided over Albany's ambitious single-payer health care bill  —  Legislation that would make New York state the health insurance provider for all residents has fractured New York's unions — a divide the bill's sponsors are trying to bridge before it risks derailing the controversial measure.

Job posting: Congress reporter  —  The next Congress promises to be an extraordinary story, as Democrats push their agenda and launch oversight investigations and both parties continue to figure out how to work with President Trump.  —  We are looking for a reporter who can cover it in full …