Inside the Right-Wing Media Bubble, Where the Myth of a Trump Win Lives On  —  The Electoral College has affirmed Biden's victory.  That doesn't mean that Trump-friendly news outlets have accepted it.  —  President Trump's media criticism is usually binary — there are “good stories,” favorable to him, and then the other category.

Moderna Vaccine Is Highly Protective and Prevents Severe Covid-19, Data Show  —  The positive review likely ensures that the F.D.A. will approve a second coronavirus vaccine this week for millions of Americans.  —  WASHINGTON — The coronavirus vaccine made by Moderna is highly protective …

Barr failed at his job.  His bootlicking resignation letter made that clear.  —  William P. Barr told friends, when he was tapped for attorney general two years ago, that he was returning to the position to help save the Justice Department.  Barr failed spectacularly at that task and ruined his reputation in the process.

Putin finally congratulates Biden on US election victory  —  Biden: Trump's entire presidency has been a gift to Putin  —  Moscow (CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the US presidential election Tuesday, six weeks after the vote …

Georgia's Supreme Court Rejected Trump's Suit Over the Weekend.  His Proxy Appealed Another Case and Lost Immediately on Monday.  —  Not long after rejecting outgoing President Donald Trump's election gripes, the Supreme Court of Georgia received and shredded an appeal by the lame duck's proxy on Monday.

Trump antagonizes Republicans with Georgia fundraising ploy  —  President Donald Trump couldn't make it any clearer: He needs his supporters to fork over cash for the all-important Georgia Senate runoff elections.  —  “We MUST defend Georgia from the Dems!” he wrote in one recent text message.

So Jeffrey Toobin Had a Zoom Incident.  What Now?  —  How a leading man of legal journalism lost his sweetest gig.  —  Until Jeffrey Toobin's fateful appointment with Zoom on Oct. 15, his quarantine was going better than most people's.  —  In August, his eighth book, “True Crimes and Misdemeanors …

China's ‘tainted’ cotton  —  China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities into hard, manual labour in the vast cotton fields of its western region of Xinjiang, according to new research seen by the BBC.  —  Based on newly discovered online documents …

Scoop: Trump's frenetic, fanciful, bitter final plea  —  Right up to Monday's Electoral College vote, President Trump held the false hope that Republican-controlled state legislatures would replace electors with allies who'd overturn Joe Biden's win, two people who discussed the matter with him told Axios.

Scope of Russian Hack Becomes Clear: Multiple U.S. Agencies Were Hit  —  The Pentagon, intelligence agencies, nuclear labs and Fortune 500 companies use software that was found to have been compromised by Russian hackers.  The sweep of stolen data is still being assessed.

Audit Finds Mich. County's Dominion Voting Was Rigged to Create Fraud  —  A forensic audit of the presidential vote tally by Dominion Voting Systems software used in Antrim County, Michigan, showed a more than 68% error rate, with auditors claiming the system intentionally creates the errors …

Top Facebook, Twitter execs donated tens of thousands of dollars to Biden campaign  —  No Facebook or Twitter executives were found to have donated to Trump's campaign  —  Big Tech has shown a ‘consistent hostility’ towards the center-right: Karl Rove  —  Top executives at Facebook …

Dagbladet can reveal that Norwegian authorities intervened when Saudi Arabia deployed a mysterious ten-man security team to Norway.  —  The Norwegian Police Security Service has informed a Norway-based critic of the Saudi regime about the case.  —  He fears for his safety.  —  Line Fransson

Boko Haram claims kidnapping of over 300 boys in Nigeria, marking an alarming move west  —  DAKAR, Senegal — Boko Haram asserted responsibility Tuesday for laying siege to a secondary school in northwestern Nigeria and abducting more than 300 boys, marking a striking leap from the extremist group's usual area of operation.

Asking All Georgians: Are You Seventeen and a Half?  —  There are twenty-three thousand teen-agers in the state who weren't old enough to vote in November, but who will be old enough to vote in the Senate runoffs, in January.  These volunteers tried to find them.

No Labels, Planning Centrist Push in New Congress, Taps Larry Hogan  —  The bipartisan organization has selected the Maryland governor, a Republican, as a leader, ramping up its campaign to influence the new Congress.  —  WASHINGTON — The bipartisan political organization No Labels plans …

The madness of the Covid Christmas amnesty  —  London will enter Tier 3 Covid restrictions on Wednesday, because people are mixing too freely and thus spreading a deadly virus.  Next week, those restrictions will vanish for five days, allowing people to mix more freely, thus spreading a deadly virus.

Pandemic backlash jeopardizes public health powers, leaders  —  Tisha Coleman has lived in close-knit Linn County, Kansas, for 42 years and never felt so alone.  —  As the public health administrator, she's struggled every day of the coronavirus pandemic to keep her rural county along the Missouri border safe.

Pompeo to meet Biden's secretary of state nominee this week  —  Washington (CNN)President-elect Joe Biden's pick for secretary of state is expected to visit the State Department and meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday for the first time since Biden's victory, according to three sources familiar with the planning.

Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church got $4.4 million in federal PPP loans  —  Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church is among the large local congregations that received multi-million dollar loans as part of the federal government's COVID-19 stimulus package.  —  Lakewood received a $4.4 million loan through …