Is the ‘smoking gun’ in Trump's Jan. 6 attempted coup hiding in plain sight?  —  While America was preoccupied last week with getting home from the holidays or lining up around the block for COVID-19 testing, there was a bombshell development in the investigation to learn just how far Donald Trump …

How the E.U. Allowed Hungary to Become an Illiberal Model  —  After years of complacency and wishful thinking, Brussels is finally trying to rein in the country's pugnacious leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban.  —  BRUSSELS — After long indulging him, leaders in the European Union …

David Fahrenthold Joins The Times  —  David is joining The Times's Washington bureau as an investigative reporter.  Read more in this note from Elisabeth Bumiller.  —  I'm thrilled to announce that David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post will be joining The Times's Washington bureau as an investigative reporter.

U.S. Catches Kremlin Insider Who May Have Secrets of 2016 Hack  —  IT executive Vladislav Klyushin's journey into U.S. custody is a blow to the Kremlin, say people familiar with a Russian intelligence assessment of what he may have to offer  —  In the days before Christmas …

Scoop: Manchin returns to Build Back Better negotiations with demands  —  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is open to reengaging on the climate and child care provisions in President Biden's Build Back Better agenda if the White House removes the enhanced child tax credit from the $1.75 trillion package …

If American democracy is going to survive, the media must make this crucial shift  —  Journalists stepped it up in 2021, but now we need a concerted effort  —  In the year since the Jan. 6 insurrection, mainstream journalists have done a lot of things right.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Takes Multiple Actions to Expand Use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine  —  For Immediate Release:  —  Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to:

Operating Status  —  CURRENT STATUS  —  Washington, DC Area  —  FEDERAL OFFICES in the Washington, DC area are CLOSED.  Emergency employees and telework employees continue to work.  —  Non-emergency employees generally will be granted weather and safety leave for the number of hours they were scheduled to work.

The Corporate Insurrection: How companies have broken promises and funded seditionists … On January 6, an armed and violent mob stormed the Capitol.  It was the first time the building had been breached since the War of 1812.  At the end of the day, the death toll stood at five.

Did a Meteor Explode Over Pittsburgh?  —  A meteor likely either “exploded or vaporized” over the city on Saturday, a meteorologist said, setting off a strong vibration that one resident likened to a “shock wave.”  —  For Heather Lin Ishler, the first morning of 2022 in Dormont …

Fix the filibuster to rescue the Republic  —  Our country is at a turning point.  The Jan. 6 House Select Committee is daily uncovering deeply disturbing evidence of a broad and deep attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.  The threat is not over; Republican legislatures around …

Since Jan. 6, the pro-Trump Internet has descended into infighting over money and followers  —  Far-right influencers and QAnon devotees are battling over online audiences in the power vacuum created by Trump's departure from office  —  The far-right firebrands and conspiracy theorists …

Morning Greatness: J6 Sensationalism Revs Up as Campaign '22 Season Begins  —  Good Monday morning. … - 11:10am: The President and The Vice President receive the President's Daily Brief  — 1:30pm: The President meets virtually with family and independent farmers and ranchers to discuss …

Happy ‘woke’ 2022, Democrats.  With democracy in the balance, time to reclaim your brand.  —  Too much is at stake for Democrats to blow the midterms.  Enough with the identity politics.  They need universal economic messages rooted in real life.  —  You may be a Democrat …

What It Means to Be a Republican in 2022  —  Inside the GOP, it's a war of all against all.  —  (SHUTTERSTOCK)  —  What does it mean to be a Republican in the year 2022?  Being hated.  Yes, by the left—but more importantly, also by members of your own party.  —  Here in the bad, red place, hardly anyone gets along.

Ex-National Archivist Thinks Trump Is Hiding His Records to Avoid ‘Prison Time’  —  HAND 'EM OVER … “There are things in those records that are going to make real trouble.”  —  With the National Archives now at the center of a historic fight over records between the current and former president …

Election-Fraud Stars Vow to Stab Each Other—'With the Truth'  —  “I will stab you in the face with the truth,” inventor Jovan Pulitzer warned a rival.  —  Inventor Jovan Pulitzer is a pillar of the MAGA election-fraud movement.  His theories were integrated into the Arizona audit …

Five Rudys from the Abyss  —  If Giuliani-like sycophants had replaced just five officials, Trump's coup would have succeeded.  —  There are two reasonable ways to look at the 2020 presidential election.  —  The first is that despite a ferocious effort by Team Trump to steal a presidential election, the center held.

A Letter to House Republicans from Leader McCarthy about 2022  —  This is a big year - maybe the most important of our time in Congress.  —  We all enter 2022 with renewed optimism, but against the same backdrop of challenges that faced our country this past year.

How the Media's Addiction to Bad News Hurts Dems  —  Earlier this fall, cable news, Twitter, and much of the media were engulfed in a moral panic about the supply chain.  The pandemic-related delays in the manufacture and delivery of certain products morphed, as it often does, into something dire enough to get eyeballs and clicks.