Newsom Told the White House He Won't Challenge Biden  —  SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom has won three elections in five years in America's largest state, is apoplectic about his party's messaging defects and follows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the right-wing media ecosystem with a zeal …

Trump's act is ‘old and tired’, says his own former national security adviser  —  John Bolton is latest ex-White House official to condemn former boss and says Republicans are ready for a ‘fresh face’  —  John Bolton, former national security adviser to Donald Trump, has described …

The Week's Best Cartoons 11/26  —  As a heavy Twitter user for the past 6+ years, forgive me for all the cartoons about Twitter.  It has been an important place to share news and opinions, and it's hard to watch it overrun with trolls, especially its CEO.  But there was other political news, which you'll find covered below.

Kevin McCarthy could face a floor fight for speaker.  That hasn't happened in a century.  —  The last time a vote for speaker went to multiple ballots on the House floor was in 1923.  The longest was 133 ballots over two months.  —  Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is struggling to secure …

At Protests, Guns Are Doing the Talking  —  Armed Americans, often pushing a right-wing agenda, are increasingly using open-carry laws to intimidate opponents and shut down debate.  —  Across the country, openly carrying a gun in public is no longer just an exercise in self-defense …

Army veteran threatened to shoot Moms Demand Action members if he didn't get his pension  —  A Florida man pleaded guilty to sending a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs that threatened to shoot members of an organization that advocates for an end to gun violence, United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins' Office said.

A Rising Star in the Biden Administration Faces a $100 Billion Test  —  Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, has made a career of tackling increasingly larger challenges.  Could the next one be too big?  —  WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary …

They Were Surrogates.  Now They Must Raise the Children.  —  In Cambodia's weak legal system, surrogacy exists in a gray market, endangering all involved when political conditions suddenly shift and criminal charges follow.  —  Hannah Beech, who has covered Southeast Asia for more than 20 years …

Western sanctions catch up with Russia's wartime economy  —  When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched last month a new council for coordinating supplies for the Russian army, he seemed to recognize the scale of the economic problems facing the country, and his sense of urgency was palpable.

Shopify won't cut ties with controversial Libs of TikTok  —  Social media accounts accused of promoting ‘dangerous’ anti-LGBTQ content to followers  —  The Ottawa-based e-commerce company Shopify Inc. says it won't withdraw its services from the online store of multiple anti-LGBTQ social media accounts despite some public outcry.

GOP voter turnout at presidential levels, outpaces Democrats in N.Y. governor's race  —  But Zeldin needed substantially more support from unaffiliated voters to defeat Hochul, and didn't find it  —  ALBANY — A last-minute push by top national Democrats to turn out the vote in New York City …

Bipartisan band of brothers: The West Point grads coming to Congress  —  When John James and Pat Ryan reconnected on the sidelines of an Army football game in 2019, they were two old West Point classmates with night-and-day political identities in a similar predicament: Both had just lost congressional bids.

Trump was ‘very taken’ with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes' and they fawned over each other during Mar-a-Lago dinner with Kanye West - but former President claims he had no idea he was a white supremacist  — Former President Donald Trump was reportedly ‘very taken’ by known white supremacist …