Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration  —  President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession …

Trump Tweets Lengthy Attack on F.B.I. Over Inquiry Into Possible Aid to Russia  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump on Saturday unleashed an extended assault on the F.B.I. and the special counsel's investigation, knitting together a comprehensive alternative story in which he had been framed by disgraced …

Trump, GOP blamed for shutdown; no crisis seen but fewer oppose wall (POLL)  —  A majority of Americans hold Donald Trump and congressional Republicans mainly responsible for the partial federal shutdown, now the longest in history, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

‘In the White House waiting’: Inside Trump's defiance on the longest shutdown ever  —  When President Trump made a rare journey to the U.S. Capitol last week, he was expected to strategize about how to end the government shutdown he instigated.  Instead, he spent the first 20-odd minutes delivering a monologue about “winning.”

In A Private Meeting, Kirsten Gillibrand Signaled She Will Run For President  —  New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Saturday signaled to a group of about 20 influential women that she will run for president, according to a person familiar with the meeting.  —  Gillibrand made her intentions clear …

Infowars Must Turn Over Internal Documents to Sandy Hook Families, Judge Rules  —  The families of victims in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School must receive access to internal documents at Infowars, the internet and radio show whose host, Alex Jones, has spread the false claim …

As Trump Sticks With His Wall, His Ratings Stay Stuck in Place  —  The border wall remains popular only with the president's base, and shutting down the government over the issue seems unlikely to win new fans.  —  By insisting on a border wall, President Trump is emphasizing an issue …

By granting asylum to Saudi woman, Canada shows its moral leadership  —  Bessma Momani is professor at the University of Waterloo and Balsillie School of International Affairs.  She is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and author of Arab Dawn: The Demographic Dividend Arab Youth Will Bring.

Blind date: ‘I left my knickers at a house party we crashed’  —  What happened when Joanne, 24, barista, met Morgan, 24, children's social worker?  —  What were you hoping for?  —  A fun evening on the Guardian's dime!  —  First impressions?  —  Cute, chatty and early.  —  What did you talk about?

Patricia Wald, pathbreaking federal judge who became chief of D.C. Circuit, dies at 90  —  Shortly before she graduated from Yale Law School in 1951, Patricia Wald secured a job interview with a white-shoe Manhattan firm.  The hiring partner was impressed with her credentials …

V.A. Seeks to Redirect Billions of Dollars Into Private Care  —  WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to shift billions of dollars from government-run veterans' hospitals to private health care providers, setting the stage for the biggest transformation of the veterans' medical system in a generation.

Senator Tim Scott Excoriates the GOP For Being Silent on Rep. Steve King & Racism in Blistering Op-Ed  —  U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, left, speaks to the media during a news conference as South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley looks on at the South Carolina Statehouse on Monday, Dec. 17, 2012, in Columbia …

John Lasseter's return proves that Hollywood still does not understand the damage he did  —  It is so reassuring to discover that David Ellison's recent decision to hire former Pixar chief, Disney executive and billionaire frat house-atmosphere generator John Lasseter to head his company, Skydance Animation, was not one he made lightly.

Who Is MacKenzie Bezos?  —  Her divorce from the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has made this novelist, and her private life, a public fascination.  —  In her 25 years of marriage to Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Bezos has been a loyal ambassador for Amazon, the company that made her and her husband the richest couple in the world.

The GOP must stamp out the seeds of hatred before it's too late  —  Henry Olsen is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and author of “The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism.”  —  The left has wrongly tarred conservatives as racists for decades.

Megyn Kelly wanted to be the next Oprah.  Her split with NBC shows why that may never happen.  —  Kelly is taking the reminder of her $69 million contract with her.  —  Megyn Kelly has officially split with NBC, taking the reminder of her $69 million contract with her …

Their Warhols Are at the Whitney.  Their Ugly Divorce Is on Display, Too.  —  The tawdry divorce of Libbie and David Mugrabi is not just a tabloid story.  At stake are a trophy townhouse, works by Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, and the inner-workings of one of the world's most influential art dealer families.

TV station backs off accusation that CNN played politics  —  NEW YORK (AP) — An executive at a San Diego television station that accused CNN of rejecting an appearance by one of its reporters for political reasons conceded Friday he didn't really know why the network turned him down.