Top Items:
New York Times:
Behind the Ukraine Aid Freeze: 84 Days of Conflict and Confusion — The inside story of President Trump's demand to halt military assistance to an ally shows the price he was willing to pay to carry out his agenda. — WASHINGTON — Deep into a long flight to Japan aboard Air Force …
RELATED:
Mike Allen / Axios:
Axios AM — Subscribe — Happy Monday! — Situational awareness: A Chinese scientist who set off an ethical debate with claims that he had made the world's first genetically edited babies was sentenced to three years in prison because of his research. (AP)
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Explosive new revelations just weakened Trump's impeachment defenses — If Mitch McConnell is going to pull off his scheme to turn President Trump's impeachment trial into a quick and painless sham with no witnesses, the Senate majority leader needs the story to be covered …
Discussion:
Alternet.org, Raw Story and Mediaite
Shayna Jacobs / Greenwich Time:
Acts of anti-Semitism are on the rise in New York and elsewhere, rattling Jews and communities — NEW YORK - Hours after a knife-wielding man barged into a Hannukah party in a New York suburb, stabbing five people, top officials condemned the crime as part of a disturbing trend.
Discussion:
HuffPost
RELATED:
John Hinderaker / Power Line:
Are Anti-Semitic Attacks Driven By Politics?
Are Anti-Semitic Attacks Driven By Politics?
Discussion:
The Libertarian Republic and The Daily Caller
Benjamin Wittes / The Atlantic:
Jews Under Attack Deserve Better Than Selective Outrage
Jews Under Attack Deserve Better Than Selective Outrage
Discussion:
The Week, Instapundit, The Guardian, The Moderate Voice and The Forward
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama, Trump Tie as Most Admired Man in 2019 — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Barack Obama and Donald Trump are tied this year as the most admired man. It is Obama's 12th time in the top spot versus the first for Trump. Michelle Obama is the most admired woman for the second year in a row.
Discussion:
Washington Times and Mediaite
RELATED:
Axios:
Gallup: Trump and Obama tie as America's most admired man — President Trump and former President Obama shared the honors as America's most admired man in 2019 in Gallup's annual poll. — The big picture: With both receiving the support of 18% of Americans, it's Obama's 12th time in the top slot — and Trump's first.
CBS Dallas / Fort Worth:
3 Dead After Shooting At West Freeway Church Of Christ In White Settlement — FULL COVERAGE: NORTH TEXAS CHURCH SHOOTING — WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) — Three people are dead, including the gunman, after a shooting at a church in the Tarrant County city of White Settlement, officials said.
RELATED:
Ryan Ledendecker / Daily Sounder:
This Firearms Instructor Is Reportedly The Hero Who Killed Texas Church Gunman With Single Head Shot
Claire Cardona / NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth:
‘Our Home Was Invaded by Evil’; 3 Dead, Including Gunman, in North Texas Church Shooting
‘Our Home Was Invaded by Evil’; 3 Dead, Including Gunman, in North Texas Church Shooting
Discussion:
Townhall, Crime Prevention …, Power Line, Dallas Morning News and Breitbart
Dallas Morning News:
2 dead, 1 in critical condition after shooting at White Settlement church, officials say
2 dead, 1 in critical condition after shooting at White Settlement church, officials say
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Daily Sounder, BizPac Review, NBC News, Fox News, CNN, abc7NY, The Gateway Pundit, UPI, Axios, TMZ.com, Townhall, Talking Points Memo, The Week, WFAA-TV, New York Post, Slate, Associated Press, Daily Kos, WND and The Hill
Congressman John Lewis:
Rep. John Lewis Undergoing Cancer Treatment — He released this statement today regarding his prognosis and his plans to continue to serve the people of the 5th Congressional District of Georgia: — “I have been in some kind of fight - for freedom, equality, basic human rights - for nearly my entire life.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Townhall, NPR, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, NBC News, The Dispatch, BizPac Review, DNyuz, Blue Virginia, Alternet.org, HuffPost, Sputnik News, Mediaite and UPI
RELATED:
Emily Cochrane / New York Times:
John Lewis, Congressman and Civil Rights Icon, Has Pancreatic Cancer
John Lewis, Congressman and Civil Rights Icon, Has Pancreatic Cancer
Discussion:
The Root
Zachary Basu / Axios:
Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer
Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer
Discussion:
ABC News, The Hill, Politico, Associated Press, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, DNyuz, One America News Network and Fox News
Lachlan Markay / The Daily Beast:
Republican Telemarketer Stiffed the Feds Out of $411K. The Trump White House Gave Him a Job. — Shannon Burns spent years dodging creditors and fighting off lawsuits. He found an angel at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. — BEAST INSIDE — In the final two months of 2016 …
Discussion:
Raw Story
New York Times:
How Big Companies Won New Tax Breaks From the Trump Administration — As the Treasury Department prepared to enact the 2017 Republican tax overhaul, corporate lobbyists swarmed — and won big. — The overhaul of the federal tax law in 2017 was the signature legislative achievement of Donald J. Trump's presidency.
Pat Rynard / Iowa Starting Line:
Pete Buttigieg Shows No Signs Of Slowing Down In Iowa — Pete Buttigieg is barreling toward an Iowa Caucus victory, and there's not a damn thing anyone's tweets can do about it. — The month of December has given the South Bend Mayor his biggest challenges yet, including intense media questions …
Zack Stanton / Politico:
The Worst Political Predictions of 2019 — If you took the sum of political knowledge available at the end of 2018, and projected the course of 2019, the resulting spaghetti models could go in millions of directions. — Perhaps Robert Mueller's findings would devastate President Donald Trump.
Discussion:
Althouse
Tina Nguyen / Politico:
When John Solomon was Rudy Giuliani's toughest critic — Long before they entered a symbiotic relationship to pick apart the Bidens' alleged ties to Ukrainian corruption, John Solomon and Rudy Giuliani had a completely different dynamic: an investigative reporter focused …
RELATED:
Paul LeBlanc / CNN:
Washington Post: Giuliani held back channel phone call with Venezuelan President
Washington Post: Giuliani held back channel phone call with Venezuelan President
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Week and Washington Post
New York Post:
Woman accused of assaulting 3 Jewish women arrested again day after release — A Brooklyn miscreant accused of slapping three Orthodox Jewish women last week struck again on Sunday and was busted for assaulting another woman. — A day after she was released without bail on charges stemming …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Wire, Sara A. Carter, Breitbart and Redstate
David Leonhardt / New York Times:
The Presidential Nominating Process Is Absurd — We have an unnecessarily weak presidential field, especially the incumbent. — Andrew Yang began his closing statement at the last Democratic debate with a charming bit of self-deprecation: “I know what you're thinking, America.
Discussion:
Althouse
Victor Davis Hanson / American Greatness:
Trump's ‘Failures’ — It is popular on the NeverTrump Right and everyone on the Left to claim that President Trump has “failed” as we head into an election year. But his supposed failures are instructive. — Take the wall. True, Trump certainly in the last three years has not come close …
Sarah Scoles / Slate:
The Year UFOs Became a Little More Legit — We didn't find ETs in 2019, but the U.S. government did become a little more chatty about flying saucers. — Not long ago, the world received what seemed like an otherworldly revelation: The Pentagon had been secretly running a UFO research project …
Washington Post:
Trump's pardon of Gallagher just got even more appalling — “FREAKING EVIL.” That is how Special Operator First Class Craig Miller described Eddie Gallagher, the chief of his Navy SEAL platoon. Then, he wept. — The New York Times last week revealed investigative video recordings …
Zhou Xin / South China Morning Post:
China's top negotiator Liu He to visit Washington for phase one trade war deal signing this week, source says — Vice-Premier Liu He has accepted an invitation to lead a delegation to the US from this Saturday, a source briefed on the matter told the Post US trade representative Robert Lighthizer previously …
Charles M. Blow / New York Times:
The Decade We Changed Our Minds — America in the 2010s saw significant cultural and political shifts that pushed us forward. — America is always in a state of flux. The country is an eternal experiment, aiming at evolution, betting on its own betterment.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
Stephen Collins / The Irish Times:
Johnson will abandon pledge on Brexit transition period - Hogan — EU commissioner believes British PM will abandon promise not to extend — British prime minister Boris Johnson will abandon his pledge not to extend the transition period for the UK's exit from the European Union beyond December 2020 …
Cristiano Lima / Politico:
Fight against facial recognition hits wall across the West — Face-scanning technology is inspiring a wave of privacy fears as the software creeps into every corner of life in the United States and Europe — at border crossings, on police vehicles and in stadiums, airports and high schools.
Claire Lee / Agence France-Presse:
All eyes on ‘new way’ in Kim Jong Un's New Year speech — Kim told a meeting of top ruling party officials that ‘positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country’ — Seoul (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for “offensive measures” …