Louisiana Congressman-elect Luke Letlow dies with COVID  —  Louisiana Congressman-elect Luke Letlow has died at Ochsner LSU Health in Shreveport with COVID-19, a family friend confirmed Tuesday night.  —  Letlow, 41, was transferred from St. Francis Medical Center to the Ochsner LSU Health ICU …

Girlfriend warned Nashville police Anthony Warner was building bomb a year ago, report shows  —  NASHVILLE — Sixteen months before Anthony Quinn Warner's RV exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, officers visited his home in Antioch after his girlfriend reported that he was making bombs …

Strong early-vote turnout gives Dems hope in Georgia runoffs  —  Early voting in the Georgia Senate runoffs is breaking records — and Democrats have reasons for hope in the numbers.  —  More than 2.3 million people have voted as of Tuesday morning through mail-in ballots or in-person early voting …

Trump calls for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican, to resign  —  President Trump on Wednesday called for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to resign, escalating his criticism of a fellow Republican who has refused to intervene in the state's presidential election or embrace Trump's baseless claims of widespread fraud.

Hilaria Baldwin Talks Spain, Boston, Alec and Instagram  —  Accused of a “decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person,” the entrepreneur (and spouse of Alec Baldwin) talks about being the main character in this last week of 2020.  —  The first signs that Hilaria Baldwin's life …

Biden to tap longtime officials for top Pentagon roles  —  President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate two former senior officials to fill the Pentagon's No. 2 and No. 3 jobs, transition officials said, further signaling the new administration's intent to forge a more predictable foreign policy …

Covid-19 Vaccine Made by AstraZeneca, Oxford Is Authorized by U.K.  —  Green light for emergency use comes as Britain grapples with a surge in cases and a new variant  —  LONDON—The U.K. authorized a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca PLC …

How Congress and coronavirus could quash Trump's Electoral College gambit  —  President Donald Trump's last-gasp bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat appears doomed on Jan. 6, when Congress is set to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory.  —  But the byzantine process …

N.Y. prosecutor hires forensic accounting experts as Trump criminal probe escalates  —  NEW YORK — The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has retained forensic accounting specialists to aid its criminal investigation of President Trump and his business operations, as prosecutors ramp …

GOP seeks to roll back mail-in voting in states like Georgia and Pennsylvania that Trump lost  —  WASHINGTON - As President Donald Trump continues to level baseless claims of voter fraud almost two months after his Nov. 3 election loss, Republican lawmakers in states Trump contested are pushing …

US bomber mission over Persian Gulf aimed at cautioning Iran  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States flew strategic bombers over the Persian Gulf on Wednesday for the second time this month, a show of force meant to deter Iran from attacking American or allied targets in the Middle East.

The Cruise Ship Suicides  —  Confined mostly to tiny cabins as the pandemic unfolded, crew members struggled to cope.  —  At first, Jozsef Szaller's crewmates didn't think much of his absence.  Szaller, after all, usually skipped going to dinner on the Carnival Breeze …

CNN's Don Lemon, PBS' Yamiche Alcindor and NBC's Chuck Todd to Guest Author Politico's Playbook (Exclusive)  —  Politico is turning to high-profile journalists, including Recode co-founder Kara Swisher and Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson, to helm Playbook until a new team starts later in January.

Trump's big policy win: Stronger showers, faster dishwashers.  It's something almost no one asked for.  —  One change he talked about frequently won't happen: A reversal of water limits on toilet flushes  —  President Trump was on a roll, standing before an adoring crowd in Carson City …

Louisville police department moves to fire two officers involved in raid that led to Breonna Taylor's death  —  The Louisville Metro Police Department is moving to fire two of the officers involved in the raid that led to the police shooting of Breonna Taylor in March, attorneys for the officers confirmed on Tuesday.

The Trümperdämmerung Is a Fitting End to 2020  —  As the awful year of 2020 and the awful tenure of Donald Trump both come to an end, the President has partied with the unmasked in Palm Beach and taken credit for a vaccine against a virus that he once counselled could be beaten with bleach.

2020 Man of the Year: MAGA Matt Yglesias  —  You know how it goes: You oppose defunding the cops, and a million rose emojis scream at you for hours.  You sign a letter tepidly endorsing free speech, and your colleagues denounce you to your bosses and Twitter.

Proud Boys Are at War With Their Female Extremist Wing  —  A transphobic MMA fighter has announced herself to be the “Den Mother” of the Proud Girls, but some members of the extremist, misogynistic Proud Boys don't want her in the ranks.  —  BEAST INSIDE  —  When Donald Trump tweeted …

Even If It's ‘Bonkers,’ Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon And Other Conspiracy Theories  —  Toggle more options  —  A significant number of Americans believe misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus and the recent presidential election, as well as conspiracy theories like QAnon, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll.

Why the Nashville explosion is confounding terrorism experts  —  Christmas Day explosion in Nashville, Tennessee, is puzzling even for terrorism commentators and scholars.  It employed many familiar features of terrorist attacks in modern history, but the particular combination was unprecedented, raising interesting questions about the

Trump pardon of Blackwater Iraq contractors violates international law - UN  —  GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's pardon of four American men convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007 violated U.S. obligations under international law, U.N. human rights experts said on Wednesday.

US hits record for daily Covid-19 deaths.  Winter will be ‘awful’ before we see ‘some light,’ expert says  —  Nurse uses social media to warn public about Covid-19  —  (CNN)The US set two more devastating Covid-19 records as it counted down the hours to the end of what has been a calamitous year for the nation.

Dr. Fauci lied about coronavirus to manipulate our behavior — that's appalling  —  Placing blind faith in unelected celebrity scientists has its limits, and we must not be afraid to call them out  —  Fauci under fire for moving herd immunity goalposts  —  Thanks to our news media's …

Look Beyond the Media Frenzy and Focus on the Fundamentals  —  In my last column, I'd like to leave you with what I've learned covering the media for more nearly 25 years.  —  I've been writing a version of this column in just about every other issue of The Nation for nearly 25 years.