Pompeo rebuffs Iraqi prime minister's demand for US troop withdrawal plan  —  BAGHDAD — The Trump administration on Friday rebuffed demands from Iraq's prime minister to begin planning for the withdrawal of U.S troops from Iraq.  —  In a phone call Thursday, Iraq's prime minister …

Trump's New National Security Team Made Fast Work of Iran Strike  —  White House advisers were cohesive and less inclined than their predecessors to push back against the president's wishes  —  WASHINGTON—President Trump and his senior national-security advisers waited anxiously …

'Don't tell me it doesn't matter': Impeachment trial hurts presidential campaigns  —  There are many ways Elizabeth Warren can continue her presidential campaign from Washington during President Donald Trump's impeachment trial: Surrogates in Iowa, national TV appearances and on social media.

Bloomberg to fund sizable campaign effort through November even if he loses Democratic nomination  —  Exclusive: The former New York City mayor plans to continue paying hundreds of staffers and funding his digital operation to defeat Trump even if he's not the nominee.

The Fall of Donald Trump's Fixers  —  The mogul-turned-president has long relied on loyalists to push the limits in defense of his image, but Roy Cohn, David Pecker and Michael Cohen all wound up out in the cold  —  For decades, Donald Trump has depended on loyalists to take care of especially sensitive and difficult tasks.

Job market ends 2019 with disappointing 145,000 growth in payrolls  —  By Jeff Cox@JEFF.COX.7528@JEFFCOXCNBCCOM  — December's payroll and wage growth missed expectations, according to the Labor Department.  — Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 145,000 while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.5%.

Trump Has Made Us All Stupid  —  The decline of discourse in the anti-Trump echo chamber.  —  Donald Trump is impulse-driven, ignorant, narcissistic and intellectually dishonest.  So you'd think that those of us in the anti-Trump camp would go out of our way to show we're not like him …

Dear Colleague on Next Steps on Impeachment  —  For weeks now, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has been engaged in tactics of delay in presenting transparency, disregard for the American people's interest for a fair trial and dismissal of the facts.

Firefox attacks: Homeland Security urges all users to update browsers immediately in rare warning  —  If you use Mozilla Firefox's web browser you'll want to drop what you are doing right now and update it.  That urging doesn't just come from Mozilla-it comes from the United State's Department …

Justice Dept. winds down Clinton-related inquiry once championed by Trump.  It found nothing of consequence.  —  A Justice Department inquiry launched more than two years ago to mollify conservatives clamoring for more investigations of Hillary Clinton has effectively ended with no tangible results …

Boeing Employees Mocked F.A.A. and ‘Clowns’ Who Designed 737 Max  —  The company expressed regret at the embarrassing communications it sent to investigators on Thursday, which included a comment that “this airplane is designed by clowns, who are in turn supervised by monkeys.”

Preet Bharara to Georgia congressman: You've hit a shocking new low  —  Preet Bharara is a CNN senior legal analyst and former US attorney for the Southern District of New York.  The views expressed in this commentary are his own.  View more opinion on CNN.  —  (CNN)Dear Representative Doug Collins,

Virginia Democrats won an election.  Gun owners are talking civil war  —  Democrats' pledge to pass new gun laws has sparked a grassroots pro-gun movement that will bring thousands of activists to a volatile rally this month  —  Thousands of Virginia residents have shown up at meetings across …

She Was a Star of New York Real Estate, but Her Life Story Was a Lie  —  Faith Hope Consolo had the entire press fooled, including us.  Then a message came in.  —  Wrapped in furs, dripping with diamonds and with her blond hair perfectly coifed, Faith Hope Consolo cut a glamorous figure in the flashy …

An Iranian general dies in U.S. attack, and innocents suffer  —  TORONTO (AP) — The worst had passed, it seemed, and the United States and Iran no longer appeared poised at the edge of war.  —  “All is well!”  President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night, days after a U.S. drone strike killed Iran's …

The 50 Greatest War Movies Ever Made A look back at a genre that has inspired a century of cinema.  —  Speaking to Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune in 1973, Francois Truffaut made an observation that's cast a shadow over war movies ever since, even those seemingly opposed to war.

Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: Reuters/Ipsos poll  —  WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The idea of imposing a wealth tax on the richest Americans has elicited sharply divergent views across a spectrum of politicians, with President Donald Trump branding it socialist …

Buts of the Democratic Party  —  Leading Democrats speak in unison over President Trump's decision to order the termination of Iranian terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani after he reported for work in Baghdad last week (Washington Free Beacon supercuts video below).

The Chaotic, Beautiful Larks of Elizabeth Wurtzel  —  About a decade ago, when the writer Elizabeth Wurtzel rounded forty, her work—previously a gale-force project of unbridled self-mythologizing—started to look backward and inward in a different way.  She began dealing more explicitly …

Bill would ban cellphone use for those under 21  —  MONTPELIER — A bill has been introduced in the state Senate that would make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to use or possess a cellphone.  —  The bill, S.212, would make such possession or use a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of a year behind bars and a $1,000 fine.

Democrat Amy McGrath enters 2020 with $9 million war chest in Senate race against Mitch McConnell  —  Democrat Amy McGrath, who is running to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, finished 2019 with a $6 million fundraising haul to add to her impressive war chest heading into 2020.

Black Britons Know Why Meghan Markle Wants Out  —  It's the racism.  —  Ms. Hirsch is the author of “Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging.”  —  The British press has succeeded in its apparent project of hounding Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, out of Britain.

Detroit homeowners overtaxed $600 million  —  THOUSANDS OF DETROIT RESIDENTS ARE STILL IN DEBT AFTER SKEWED PROPERTY ASSESSMENTS  —  Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News, Mark Betancourt / Special to The Detroit News  —  Detroit overtaxed homeowners by at least $600 million after it failed …

College Professor Out After Joke Suggesting Iran List U.S. Cultural Targets  —  Asheen Phansey is no longer employed by Babson College after joking that Iran should target Minnesota's Mall of America and a home of the Kardashian family.  —  An adjunct professor is no longer on staff …

Colorado to deploy more teams to investigate mystery drones after close call with medical helicopter  —  The Viaero Wireless cameras in eastern Colorado captured the mysterious drones earlier this week.  —  DENVER - The Colorado Department of Public Safety will start using more ground-based teams …

Kushner's Global Role Shrinks as He Tackles Another: The 2020 Election  —  Ivanka Trump's husband will now supervise her father's re-election campaign, but he continues to weigh in with advice to the president on a range of other matters.  —  WASHINGTON — When senior administration officials gathered …

Trump has a rare public moment of self-awareness  —  But it wasn't an unprecedented one.  —  President Trump is a man who practically begs you to caricature him.  His devotion to his shtick is either so complete that he rarely breaks character, or the character has simply become him over many decades.

Record 158,803,000 Americans Employed; 1.85M Year-to-Year Increase  —  (CNSNews.com) - “As we begin this new year, our economy is booming,” President Trump told a rally in Toledo, Ohio Thursday night.  “Wages are soaring, workers are thriving, and America's future has never looked brighter.”

Army general denies request by officer pardoned by Trump to have his Special Forces tab reinstated  —  An Army general has denied a request by an officer pardoned in an open murder case by President Trump to have his Special Forces tab reinstated, setting up a potential showdown between senior defense officials and the White House.

AOC riles Dems by refusing to pay party dues, bankrolling colleagues' opponents  —  EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has already topped the fundraising charts in her short time in Congress, but the liberal darling won't donate a cent of her millions to Democrats' House campaign organization …

A company repossessed and returned a vet's prosthetic legs.  He still can't use them  —  Veteran says his prosthetic legs were taken, then returned, but he still can't use them ... and go home  —  COLLINS — A man walked into a nursing home for military veterans two days before Christmas, picked up Jerry Holliman's legs and left.