Mark Meadows sues House January 6 committee  —  Meadows says Covid-19 made Trump so weak he couldn't hold a briefcase  —  (CNN)Former Trump White House chief of Staff Mark Meadows is suing the House select committee investigating January 6 and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Scoop: Trump-backed Perdue says he wouldn't have certified Georgia 2020 results  —  Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue wouldn't have signed the certification of the state's 2020 election results if he had been governor at the time, the former Senate Republican told Axios.

Sanna Marin: Finland's PM sorry for clubbing after Covid contact  —  Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin has apologised for going clubbing after coming into close contact with a Covid-19 case.  —  Sanna Marin went on a night out in Helsinki on Saturday, hours after her foreign minister had tested positive.

Pfizer and BioNTech Provide Update on Omicron Variant  — Preliminary laboratory studies demonstrate that three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine neutralize the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529 lineage) while two doses show significantly reduced neutralization titers

What Happened to American Conservatism?  —  I fell in love with conservatism in my 20s.  As a politics and crime reporter in Chicago, I often found myself around public-housing projects like Cabrini-Green and the Robert Taylor Homes, which had been built with the best of intentions but had become nightmares.

'It's just crazy': 12 major cities hit all-time homicide records  —  “It's worse than a war zone around here lately,” police official said.  —  At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021 — and there's still three weeks to go in the year.

Hispanic Voters Now Evenly Split Between Parties, WSJ Poll Finds  —  Republicans have made rapid gains among a crucial voting demographic that has long favored Democrats  —  The nation's large and diverse group of Hispanic voters is showing signs of dividing its support between Democrats …

Biden makes diplomatic concession to Russia with Nato talks plan  —  US president wants allies to discuss Moscow's ‘concerns’ in attempt to prevent invasion of Ukraine  —  Joe Biden has made a significant diplomatic concession to Moscow designed to prevent an invasion of Ukraine by signalling …

De Blasio Fought for 2 Years to Keep Ethics Warning Secret.  Here's Why.  —  Mayor Bill de Blasio was warned that he created an “appearance of coercion and improper access” by directly contacting donors who had business before the city.  —  When Bill de Blasio was first elected mayor of New York …

NC gerrymandering lawsuits delay 2022 election primary  —  North Carolina's 2022 primary election must be delayed — as gerrymandering lawsuits play out that could lead to redrawn districts — the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.  —  It's a win for the liberal voters and groups …

Manchin quietly discusses Senate rules changes with Republicans  —  Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), a key Democratic holdout on reforming the filibuster, is discussing small changes to Senate rules with Republicans.  —  Manchin's discussions with GOP colleagues — which haven't been previously reported …

Hillary Clinton chokes up as she reads parts of the victory speech she hoped to deliver in 2016  —  For the first time, Hillary Clinton is sharing the speech she would have made if she had won the 2016 presidential election.  —  The former first lady and secretary of state grows emotional …

Former President Trump On Boris Johnson's Woes, Sidney Powell's Dough And More  —  Former President Trump joined me this morning:  —  Audio:  —  12-08hhs-trump  —  Transcript:  —  HH: I'm joined now by former president of the United States, Donald Trump.  Mr. President, good morning.

Abbott Leads O'Rourke By Double Digits In Texas Governor's Race, Quinnipiac University Texas Poll Finds; Texas-Mexico Border Dominates Issues For Voters  — mail_outline  —  In a head-to-head matchup in the race for governor of Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott leads Democratic …

Five key takeaways from Jussie Smollett's trial  —  News that actor Jussie Smollett had been the victim of a vicious racist and homophobic attack in downtown Chicago on Jan. 29, 2019, quickly made national headlines.  —  Celebrities and politicians rallied behind the openly gay actor …

Believe it or not, Fox News once knew shame  —  It wasn't so very long ago that Fox News had some standards for what was unacceptable.  —  In 2008, a Fox host named E.D. Hill suggested that a playful fist bump between Barack and Michelle Obama looked like a “terrorist fist jab.”

Torrance police traded racist, homophobic texts.  It could jeopardize hundreds of cases  —  The caption read “hanging with the homies.”  —  The picture above it showed several Black men who had been lynched.  —  Another photo asked what someone should do if their girlfriend was having an affair with a Black man.

Texas school district pulls 400 books from library shelves for review after legislator's inquiry  —  Texas school librarians reviewing hundreds of books for ‘obscene or vulgar text’  —  A Texas school district pre-emptively pulled more than 400 books from its libraries for review following an inquiry from a Republican state lawmaker.

Gov. Whitmer says President Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate a ‘problem,’ report says  —  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in her strongest public remarks to date about President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for employers, said Monday that the requirement is “a problem” for her and state government, according to a published report.

Rachael Rollins Confirmed As Massachusetts' Historic Top Federal Prosecutor  —  Every Republican senator opposed her.  But the Boston district attorney will now be the state's first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney.  —  Senate Democrats on Wednesday narrowly confirmed Rachael Rollins …

California plans to be abortion sanctuary if Roe overturned  —  SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — With more than two dozen states poised to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court gives them the OK next year, California clinics and their allies in the state Legislature on Wednesday revealed a plan to make the state a …

Backroom defense bill lets dictators and kleptocrats off the hook  —  The most important national security legislation of the year has just been mismanaged so badly, it could end up letting some international bad guys escape accountability for some pretty horrible abuses and crimes.

Tracing America's Covid vaccine conspiracies to autism fearmongering  —  Anti-vaxxers are now melding with anti-democratic extremists.  But this movement's roots can be traced to men like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and their autism falsehoods.  —  Last week, the Centers for Disease Control …

Schools Are Closing Classrooms on Fridays.  Parents Are Furious.  —  Desperate to keep teachers, some districts have turned to remote teaching for one day a week — and sometimes more.  Families have been left scrambling to find child care.  —  DETROIT — Caitlin Reynolds, a single mother …

Gillibrand Slams ‘Four Men’ for Watering Down Military Sexual Assault Reform  —  The New York senator worked for a decade and assembled two-thirds of the Senate to support her reform, only to see it wither in a closed-door conference.  —  Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) …

Reclusive heiress who ‘played a strong role’ in financing Jan. 6 rally is thrust into spotlight  —  Eight days before the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, a little-known Trump donor living thousands of miles away in the Tuscan countryside quietly wired a total of $650,000 to three organizations that helped stage and promote the event.

Death, drugs and a disbanded unit: How the Guard's Mexico border mission fell apart  —  On the evening of Sept. 10, a soldier deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border slid a manifesto under each door in his brigade headquarters and then slipped away.  —  The frustrated Army National Guardsman assigned …

Ghislaine Maxwell and the Ecstasy of the Feet  —  Photos reveal just how close the pedophile billionaire and his accused madam were.  —  When the feds raided Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion in 2019, they unearthed a trove of evidence including binders of CDs containing tens of thousands of photographs.

Beijing Silenced Peng Shuai in 20 Minutes, Then Spent Weeks on Damage Control  —  This article is published with ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative newsroom.  —  When inconvenient news erupts on the Chinese internet, the censors jump into action.  —  Twenty minutes was all it took …