Covid Live Updates: Pfizer Says its Booster Offers Significant Protection Against Omicron  —  Here's what you need to know:  —  Pfizer says blood samples showed a third dose of its vaccine provides significant protection against Omicron.  —  Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday …

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 …

Conservatism: An Elegy  —  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.

Trump's 2022 Endorsements Are Earlier, Bolder And More Dangerous Than When He Was President  —  Almost since the moment of his inauguration, former President Donald Trump has been the kingmaker of the Republican Party.  In both the 2018 and 2020 elections, Trump-endorsed candidates won almost every Republican primary they competed in.

Fox News Christmas Tree Catches Fire in Manhattan  —  The police said that a man was in custody in relation to the blaze.  The 50-foot tree had been ceremonially lit days earlier in an “All-American” festive broadcast.  —  A 50-foot-tall Christmas tree caught fire outside the Fox News headquarters …

Young Dems more likely to despise the other party  —  Nearly a quarter of college students wouldn't be friends with someone who voted for the other presidential candidate — with Democrats far more likely to dismiss people than Republicans — according to new Generation Lab/Axios polling.

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 …

Republicans ready new push to defund, repeal Biden vaccine and testing policies  —  The latest salvo is set to arrive this week, as GOP lawmakers force another Senate vote to revoke the president's policy requiring shots or tests at private employers  —  Congressional Republicans are planning …

Boebert Shows Off Rifle-Toting Kids in Christmas Photo  —  TONE DEAF  —  Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) shared a photo of her children wielding rifles in front of their Christmas tree late Tuesday, the latest gun-themed holiday photo released by Republicans in the wake of a deadly high school shooting.

As Grifters Squabble, QAnon's Bloodlust Gets More Open  —  QAnon influencers hope to unite the right in a sea of blood.  —  Not merely rhetorical violence, though that's important.  QAnon is violence in its ideology, in its end goal, and in its imagination: the “Storm,” …

Utility giants agree to no longer share sensitive records ICE used to track the public  —  Legal advocates cheer the closing of a ‘dangerous’ loophole: ‘The data never should have been used in this way.’  —  A nationwide group of utility companies that provided sensitive data from millions …

COVID-19: Medical board deletes anti-misinformation policy amid GOP pressure  —  Health Department attorney: Rep. John Ragan threatened to dissolve the Board of Medical Examiners  —  Tennessee's medical licensing board voted Tuesday to delete a policy opposing coronavirus misinformation …

Senate Dems launch last-ditch effort to change the rules of the chamber  —  It's the Senate version of “Waiting for Godot”: Democrats are once again trying to find an answer to their filibuster dilemma in the hopes of passing voting rights legislation before it's too late.

The pandemic worsened young people's mental health crisis.  —  The United States surgeon general on Tuesday warned that young people are facing “devastating” mental health effects as a result of the challenges experienced by their generation, including the coronavirus pandemic.

Voice of America, ProPublica among National Press Club Journalism Awards winners  —  Voice of America won a National Press Club Journalism Award for coverage of the Trump administration's attempts to redirect and censor VOA coverage.  ProPublica won awards for consumer news and political news.

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 …

Yo, media: The crisis is democracy, not Biden  —  The out-of-nowhere 1993 Phillies with their “Macho Row.”  Allen Iverson and the perpetually banged up 2001 76ers.  There's a certain kind of gritty Philadelphia sports team that forces its way into your heart — and at the very end, breaks it.

Italian Lives Matter  —  Italian reader Giuseppe Scalas says that the murder in NYC of an Italian researcher by a black gang member out on parole has turned the left-wing Milan daily Corriere della Sera against The New York Times.  He sent a translation of the Federico Rampini commentary in the Corriere today.

Next up: Trump to write White House memoir  —  Former President Donald Trump, savoring the explosive sales of his first post-White House book, a coffee table photo album, has decided to write his Oval Office memoirs.  —  Donald Trump Jr., whose new company, Winning Team Publishing sold 100,000 copies …

Wisconsin Conservative Group Finds ‘No Evidence Of Widespread Fraud’ In 2020 Election  —  A 10-month-long review of Wisconsin's 2020 election conducted by a conservative group in the state found no signs of widespread or significant election fraud, according to a new report of its findings …

When Terrorists Govern … As the Taliban swept across Afghanistan this summer, all eyes were on their fighters as they triumphed over the Afghan security forces, which surrendered in large numbers as the Taliban rapidly advanced.  But the Taliban's victory did not happen overnight …

Chinese weddings fall to 13-year low as demographic crisis brews  —  Gender imbalance and high cost of tying the knot blamed for fewer couples getting married  —  China's efforts to lower the cost of marriage and boost birth rates have failed to lead to more weddings, dealing a blow …

Meet Germany's new government  —  BERLIN — It's changeover time in Germany after 16 years of Angela Merkel.  —  Social Democrat Olaf Scholz took over as chancellor on Wednesday, leading a new Cabinet that includes just four members of Merkel's outgoing administration.

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.

Rep. Pressley to introduce resolution to condemn Rep. Boebert  —  Nearly a dozen House liberals want Democratic leadership to act against the Colorado Republican for anti-Muslim remarks  —  Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) plans to introduce a resolution Wednesday to strip Rep. Lauren Boebert …

The Pro-Life Movement Plans for a Future Without Roe  —  Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, is preparing for new abortion laws to pass in at least thirty states.  —  Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning a Mississippi law that bars abortions …

House passes workaround to move forward on raising the debt ceiling  —  The House passed a bill Tuesday night to expedite a debt ceiling fix in the Senate, allowing Democrats to essentially raise the nation's credit limit on their own and thwart a Christmastime default.