Trump's dinner with antisemites provides test of GOP response to extremism  —  Republicans are showing increasing boldness in criticizing Trump over his meeting with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West who has issued anti-Jewish diatribes

Quit Underestimating President Biden  —  If Republicans are going to successfully work through the next two years in Congress - and win the presidency in 2024 - we need to look much more deeply at what worked and what did not work in 2020 and 2022.  —  Republicans must learn to quit underestimating President Joe Biden.

U.S. gas prices plunge toward $3 a gallon as demand drops worldwide  —  The average price of gas is back to where it was before Russia invaded Ukraine.  It is putting real money back in Americans' wallets.  —  The cost of gasoline is falling so fast that it is beginning to put real money …

In the Speaker's race, it's Kevin McCarthy versus the phantom conservative  —  Sign up for Semafor Principals: An insider's guide to power in D.C.  —  Your Email addressSign Up  —  The conservative rebellion against Speaker-not-quite-elect Kevin McCarthy continues, with a small …

House committee receives Donald Trump's federal tax returns from IRS  —  The House Ways and Means Committee now has six years of Donald Trump's federal tax returns, ending a yearslong pursuit by Democrats to dig into one of the former president's most closely guarded personal details.

'It's all bullshit': Democrats unload on the crypto industry while hearings loom  —  Sign up for Semafor Principals: An insider's guide to power in D.C.  —  Your Email addressSign Up  —  At a moment when Congress is finally debating whether and how to seriously regulate the cryptocurrency industry …

Georgia GOP chairman singled out by judge for central role in fake elector plot  —  A state judge singled out Georgia Republican Party chairman David Shafer, one of the fake electors for Donald Trump, for the unique role he played in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State as part of a ruling on Wednesday.

Herschel Walker Ex Comes Forward: He Attacked Me in a Rage  —  Cheryl Parsa says she endured cheating, lying, violence, and multiple personalities during her romance with the gridiron great. … A former longtime girlfriend of Republican senatorial candidate Herschel Walker has come forward …

Stuck With Ronna  —  How does such a loser become the longest-serving RNC chair in modern history?  —  If you want to know how bad things are for the Republican party, consider this: The person most likely to be selected next month to chair the Republican National Committee has already overseen …

‘Look, I Screwed Up’: Sam Bankman-Fried Is Challenged on the Collapse of FTX  —  FTX, the crypto exchange Mr. Bankman-Fried founded, declared bankruptcy this month in a failure that wiped out billions of investor dollars.  He said his lawyers did not want him to talk, but he answered questions at the DealBook Summit.

Musk's Neuralink Hopes to Implant Computer in Human Brain in Six Months  —  Elon Musk's Neuralink Corp. aims to start putting its coin-sized computing brain implant into human patients within six months, the company announced at an event at its Fremont, Calif. headquarters on Wednesday evening.

Rise in Iranian assassination, kidnapping plots alarms Western officials  —  In the summer of 2021, officers from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service showed up at the Vancouver home of Ramin Seyed Emami, an Iranian Canadian musician and performer who hosts a popular Persian-language podcast.

This California city asked where its recycling went.  The answer wasn't pretty.  —  Four years ago, city officials in Palo Alto, California, posed what they thought was a straightforward question: Where did their recycling go?  —  Concerned citizens had seen dire headlines about plastic dumping …

POLITICO Playbook: ‘Dems in disarray’ makes a (brief) comeback  —  Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  Since Election Day, the drama in the House has been concentrated on the GOP side, as KEVIN McCARTHY tries to overcome a MAGA world mutiny to get the gavel …

The Washington Post will end its Sunday magazine, eliminate positions  —  Executive editor Sally Buzbee said the magazine would end ‘in its current form’ after printing its final issue on Dec. 25.  —  The Washington Post will stop publishing its stand-alone print magazine …

Happy holidays?  Florida school district walks back decision to nix Hanukkah presentation  —  Pasco County Schools says it has reversed its decision denying a mother's request to give a Hanukkah presentation to her son's fifth grade class after reporters contacted the district for an explanation.

Assembly prepared to vote against seating Brooklyn Republican over residency question  —  In an extremely rare move, the Democratic-led state Assembly is preparing to vote against seating the Republican winner of an Assembly race in Brooklyn, Lester Chang, because he may not have moved …

Georgia 2022: Warnock Holds Slight Edge Over Walker  —  Home Polls Georgia 2022: Warnock Holds Slight Edge Over Walker  —  The Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey of Georgia voters ahead of the December 6 Senate runoff election finds Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock with 49% support …

ICE accidentally released the identities of 6,252 immigrants who sought protection in the U.S.  —  Immigration and Customs Enforcement accidentally posted the names, birthdates, nationalities and locations of more than 6,000 immigrants who claimed to be fleeing torture and persecution to its website on Monday.

Netflix's Reed Hastings Admits He Was Wrong About Advertising, Says ‘Glass Onion’ Theatrical Release Was Promotional Tactic … Netflix co-CEO and chairman Reed Hastings conceded that he wished the streamer had introduced an ad-supported plan years ago.  —  Netflix's reluctance to adopt advertising was …

Crypto Lenders' Woes Worsen as Bitcoin Miners Struggle to Repay Debt  —  Beleaguered crypto lenders are being dealt another blow from Bitcoin miners as they weather the aftermath of the FTX collapse.  —  Miners, who raised as much as $4 billion from mining-equipment financing when profit margins …

NPR to impose near-freeze on hiring but avoids layoffs as budget cuts loom  —  NPR will need to cut at least $10 million from the current fiscal year ending next September 30, the network's chief executive, John Lansing, announced Wednesday, due to a sharp drop in revenue from sponsors.

Hungary: Data Misused for Political Campaigns  —  Threatens Privacy, Democratic Elections  —  (Brussels) - The Hungarian government's misuse of personal data during the 2022 national elections campaign undermined privacy and further tilted an already uneven playing field in favor of the ruling party …

EU and US turn up the heat on Elon Musk over Twitter  —  EU commissioner warns billionaire he must adhere to the rules as Janet Yellen indicates Washington could review purchase  —  Elon Musk is under renewed pressure from the US and EU over his ownership of Twitter, as regulators clamp …

EXCLUSIVE: Documents Reveal Senate Democrat Pressured IRS, DOJ to Target Conservative Groups  —  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., called for revoking a tax exemption for a conservative group for not masking up and socially distancing during the pandemic, insisted on a slew of investigations …