Did a Queens Podiatrist Help Donald Trump Avoid Vietnam?  —  In the fall of 1968, Donald J. Trump received a timely diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that led to his medical exemption from the military during Vietnam.  —  For 50 years, the details of how the exemption came about …

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker Incorrectly Claims Academic All-American Honors  —  Claim from Whitaker's University of Iowa football days listed on résumé and government documents  —  Matthew Whitaker, the acting U.S. Attorney General, has incorrectly claimed …

Trump in Iraq on first visit to troops in troubled region  —  AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq (AP) — President Donald Trump made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Wednesday, leaving behind a partially shuttered U.S. government to greet American troops helping hold off extremists in a country where thousands of Americans died during the recent war.

Dow gives back 282-point gain as Wall Street's wild ride continues  —  Stocks rose sharply in volatile trading on Wednesday as surges in retail and energy shares helped Wall Street regain the steep losses suffered in the previous session.  —  The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 657 points higher …

Federal workforce starts to feel pinch of prolonged shutdown  —  The partial government shutdown entered its fifth day Wednesday with no signs of a breakthrough and hundreds of thousands of federal workers about to feel the pinch of a protracted standoff.  —  President Donald Trump …

CBP Shares Additional Information about Recent Passing of Guatemalan Child  —  An eight year-old Guatemalan national, previously apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, died shortly before midnight on December 24 at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Ivanka Trump wears a summer dress and a bizarre full straw visor hat  —  Ivanka Trump rang in the holiday on Tuesday by heading out for a stroll near her family's Palm Beach, Florida estate on Christmas Day with husband Jared Kushner.

The Path to the Presidency Could Be Harder for White Democrats in 2020  —  Before Barack Obama's election in 2008, the relationship between white racial views and partisanship wasn't as clear-cut as one might think.  Yes, Republicans won the large majority of white voters who believed black disadvantage …

Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologizes for funding a group behind disinformation in Alabama race  —  Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized on Wednesday for funding a group linked to a “highly disturbing” effort that spread disinformation during last year's Alabama special election …

Huckabee Defends Trump: It's Not Like He's 'Boiling The Little Girl's Rabbit'  —  After President Trump was roasted for appearing to mock a 7-year-old girl for still believing in Santa Claus earlier this week, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) raised eyebrows when he took it upon himself to defend Trump …

Bad headlines for Trump also means ratings slump for Hannity  —  NEW YORK (AP) — The drumbeat of bad news for President Donald Trump hasn't been good for his most prominent backer in the media.  —  While Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity will end 2018 as cable news' most popular personality …

‘Deportation bus’ candidate reports to jail following indictment  —  State senator and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Michael Williams turned himself into Hall County jail Wednesday, days after news broke that he had been indicted on charges that included insurance fraud.

More than 4 million children endured lockdowns last school year, a groundbreaking Washington Post analysis found.  The experience left many traumatized.  —  Locked behind their green classroom door, MaKenzie Woody and 25 other first-graders huddled in the darkness.

C-SPAN caller: I support Trump's shutdown because 'it's getting us closer' to the second coming of Jesus  —  A C-SPAN caller on Wednesday suggested that President Donald Trump's partial government shutdown was tied to the second coming of Jesus Christ.  —  C-SPAN host John McArdle spoke …

The Worst of MSNBC in 2018  —  The Washington Free Beacon presents its sixth annual look at the worst MSNBC had to offer over the previous year.  —  In the second year of the Trump administration, there were Russia conspiracies galore (John Heilemann asked if Devin Nunes was a “Russian agent” …

Russia Warns United States: Don't Interfere in Saudi Royal Succession  —  Russia has warned the U.S. against any attempts to influence Saudi Arabia's royal succession, and offered its official support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.  The prince is under international pressure …

Larry Eisenberg, 99, Whose Limericks Were Very Well Read, Is Dead … Dr. Eisenberg, who died on Tuesday at 99, was for more than a decade one of the most prolific contributors of reader comments on nytimes.com — and, by extension, on the internet as a whole.

President Trump's Retreat on the Environment Is Affecting Communities Across America  —  In California, where over a third of the nation's vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts are grown, farm workers are being sickened by a pesticide that the Obama administration tried to ban.