Outgoing White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly defends his rocky tenure … In August 2017, shortly after John F. Kelly became White House chief of staff, he convened crucial meetings on Afghanistan at President Trump's golf club in Bedminster, N.J.  —  Top officials from the Pentagon and the CIA …

Cyberattack from outside the U.S. hits newspapers across the country, preventing distribution, source says  —  A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across the country on Saturday including …

Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal: President Donald Trump immoral, doesn't tell the truth  —  The former top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, retired four-star Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, criticized President Donald Trump's behavior and handling of the presidency …

McAuliffe says Democrats shouldn't ‘give an inch’  —  “Democrats should not give an inch,” former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Sunday when asked about the resolution of the partial government shutdown.  —  Referring to President Donald Trump as the “angry, emotional …

Alice Walker's Terrible Anti-Semitic Poem Felt Personal — to Her and to Me  —  When I first read Alice Walker's The Color Purple, I leaned into every word, inhaling Celie's tragic and triumphant story.  In Celie, I felt the presence and pain of my female family members brought up in rural Alabama.

The Real Reason Why Some Bernie Sanders Fans Have It In For Beto O'Rourke  —  They worry that defections from Sanders' 2016 team will “whitewash” O'Rourke's policy record.  —  The progressive commentariat has been buzzing in recent weeks about the barrage of unflattering reporting …

Here's how Paradise ignored warnings and became a deathtrap … The fate of Paradise was cast long before a windstorm last month fueled the deadliest fire in California history.  —  The ridge settlement was doomed by its proximity to a crack in the mighty wall of the Sierra Nevada, a deep canyon that bellowed gale-force winds.

Putin tells Trump that Moscow is open for dialogue  —  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in a New Year letter on Sunday that Moscow was ready for dialogue on a “wide-ranging agenda”, the Kremlin said following a series of failed attempts to hold a new summit.

Climate change gets a network's spotlight  —  NBC will devote the full hour of Sunday's “Meet the Press” to climate change, featuring an interview with Michael Bloomberg vowing to elevate its prominence in the White House race.  —  Why it matters: It's a rare star turn for climate change …

No Peace for Them and No Honor for Us  —  Nothing in the presidency of Donald Trump combines tragedy and farce so perfectly as his decision to withdraw the 2,000 American troops in Syria.  —  “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” he tweeted on the morning of December 19.

Facebook apologizes for banning evangelist Franklin Graham for 24 hours  —  Facebook is apologizing to evangelist Franklin Graham for banning him from posting on the site for 24 hours last week, a Facebook spokesperson told The Charlotte Observer on Saturday.

The Supreme Court's term is likely to heat up in 2019  —  The justices are about to consider a number of Donald Trump's most controversial policies  —  IT HAS been a fairly quiet few months at the Supreme Court.  Since early October, the justices have heard 32 oral arguments in mostly tame cases …

Taxpayers Dish Out $54,000 For Mar-a-Lago Party Tents For New Year's Eve  —  The public eats the costs of a bash at Trump's Florida resort while federal workers go without pay amid the partial government shutdown.  —  Whether or not President Donald Trump ultimately decides to party …

Trump Lies Again About 19,000 ‘Deleted’ FBI Text Messages  —  The inspector general of the president's own Justice Department concluded the texts were missing due to technological glitches; 20,000 were recovered.  —  As President Donald Trump raged against “angry Democrats” in a tweet Saturday …

A Federalist Remembrance Of Bre Payton, Our Colleague And Friend  —  Bre Payton lived life as if she was always ready to leave it.  And she did, too early for all of the rest of us, at the age of 26.  —  I hired Bre Payton right out of college.  She was green.  She was unknown.  She had never done TV.