Donald Trump ‘shied away from criticising Nick Fuentes’  —  Advisers wanted ex-president to distance himself from white supremacist with whom he dined but Trump feared alienating supporters - insiders  —  Donald Trump repeatedly refused to disavow the outspoken antisemite …

House Dems on GOP's thin majority: Welcome to hell  —  Democrats just spent two harrowing years navigating one of the tiniest majorities in House history.  Now it's the GOP's turn — and things could get even worse.  —  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his team are set …

Crowd angered by lockdowns calls for China's Xi to step down  —  Protesters angered by strict anti-virus measures called for China's powerful leader to resign, an unprecedented rebuke as authorities in at least eight cities struggled to suppress demonstrations Sunday that represent a rare direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party.

POLITICO Playbook: We run down the year-end sprint  —  Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  President JOE BIDEN and lawmakers return to Washington this week facing a lengthy lame-duck to-do list with only three weeks scheduled to resolve it …

Major News Outlets Urge U.S. to Drop Its Charges Against Assange  —  In a joint letter, news organizations warned that the indictment of Julian Assange “sets a dangerous precedent” that could chill reporting about matters of national security.  —  WASHINGTON — The New York Times …

Twitter grapples with Chinese spam obscuring news of protests  —  For hours, links to adult content overwhelmed other posts from cities where dramatic rallies escalated  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter's radically reduced anti-propaganda team grappled on Sunday with a flood of nuisance content …

Inside the Billionaire-Backed ‘Hub for Election Denial’  —  Dick Uihlein has been awfully busy backing election deniers.  A new IRS filing shows he also teamed up with one.  —  Right-wing megadonor Dick Uihlein has been funneling tens of millions of dollars to election deniers …

High-profile Republicans gain followers in first weeks of Musk's reign  —  Shift in follower counts for Elizabeth Warren, Ted Cruz show how the platform is beginning to change under Musk  —  High-profile Republican members of Congress gained tens of thousands of Twitter followers …

Word of the Year 2022  —  ‘Gaslighting,’ plus ‘sentient,’ ‘omicron,’ ‘queen consort,’ and other top lookups of 2022  —  In this age of misinformation—of “fake news,” conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls,and deepfakes—gaslighting has emerged as a word for our time.

The GOP's great Trump reckoning begins at the state party level  —  For years, Lou Barletta counted himself among Donald Trump's most diehard allies.  The former Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate and congressman endorsed him at a time in 2016 when many GOP elected officials saw Trump as radioactive.

Russia-Ukraine War  —  Russia Denies Reports That It Will Withdraw from Embattled Nuclear Plant … The Kremlin tries to tamp down speculation that its forces will leave the Zaporizhzhia plant.  —  KYIV, Ukraine — Following a string of Ukrainian military successes in the south …

WHO renames monkeypox as mpox, citing racism concerns  —  The World Health Organization has renamed monkeypox as mpox, citing concerns the original name of the decades-old animal disease could be construed as discriminatory and racist.  The U.N. health agency said in a statement Monday …

Trump Might Have to Face His Worst Nightmare—a D.C. Jury  —  The 11th Circuit's upcoming ruling likely means the end of the special master in the investigation over classified documents.  That means a District jury, not a Florida one. … Federal prosecutors on Tuesday …

The Jolt: Warnock rallies weekend voters, but Walker is out of sight  —  U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock hardly took any time off for Thanksgiving break, headlining six separate events scattered across metro Atlanta this weekend to pump up weekend voting.  Meanwhile, Herschel Walker …