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 …

How China's Biggest Protests in Decades Unfolded Over Five Days  —  Created with sketchtool.  —  1x  —  SINGAPORE—China's internet watchdog instructed tech companies to expand censorship of protests and moved to curb access to virtual private networks this week, as a government clampdown succeeds …

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 …

'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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

The Corruption of the Legal Profession  —  A new book shows how corporate law firms bear great responsibility for the degradation of the rule of law.  —  The Washington, D.C., offices of Jones Day … Jones Day, one of the world's largest and most powerful law firms, disgraced itself in its work for Donald Trump.

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 …

Who Made Your World Cup Jersey?  —  Garment workers in Myanmar earn less than $3 a day to produce soccer apparel for Adidas.  Some say they were fired after asking factory owners for a raise.  —  As the World Cup in Qatar kicked off last week, millions of fans pulled on jerseys costing $90 …

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.

FBI denies purging conservative employees in letter to Jim Jordan  —  Jordan may escalate his FBI probe once taking control of the House Judiciary Committee  —  Fox News Flash top headlines for December 1  —  The FBI denied accusations from Republicans on Capitoll Hill …

House, Senate negotiators agree to add $45B to Biden's defense budget  —  An emerging compromise on annual defense policy legislation will endorse a $45 billion increase to President Joe Biden's defense spending plans, according to four people familiar with the negotiations.

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.

The GOP is openly vowing debt limit extortion.  Act now, Democrats.  —  It's clear that the incoming House GOP majority will try to use debt-limit extortion to extract all kinds of concessions from Democrats.  This will likely focus on refusing to raise the nation's borrowing limit to try to secure deep spending cuts.

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 …