Santos, a Suburban House and $11,000 in Campaign Payments for ‘Rent’  —  Representative-elect George Santos, under scrutiny after fabricating much of his résumé, also spent campaign funds on $40,000 worth of air travel.  —  The company was called Cleaner 123 …

The IRS Really, Really Should Have Audited Trump  —  Six years after Donald Trump should have disclosed his tax returns to the public, they have finally been released.  This took advocacy, congressional action, and litigation that went to the Supreme Court—all to obtain basic financial transparency from a president.

Romanian Cops Did Not Find Andrew Tate Because Of His Greta Thunberg Video  —  This is a lesson in media failure and misinformation.  —  Romanian authorities detained far-right misogynist internet troll Andrew Tate today on allegations related to sex trafficking.  —  Who is Andrew Tate?

What's Gone at Twitter?  A Data Center, Janitors, Some Toilet Paper.  —  Elon Musk has reduced the company to a bare-bones operation, and employees are under a “zero-based budgeting” mandate to justify any spending.  —  Kate Conger, Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac have reported on Elon Musk and Twitter since early this year.

How Southwest Airlines Melted Down  —  Airline executives and labor leaders point to inadequate technology systems as one reason why a brutal winter storm turned into a debacle  —  When Southwest Airlines Co. LUV 3.70%increase; green up pointing triangle reassigns crews after flight disruptions …

Key findings from the latest Jan. 6 panel transcripts, including from Donald Trump Jr. and others  —  The House January 6 committee on Thursday released a new batch transcripts, including interviews with Donald Trump Jr., former Trump White House aides and others.

A Continuing Drop in Murders  —  The situation changed for the better in 2022.  —  At the start of this year, America's crime trends looked grim: Murders had spiked at a record speed in 2020 and increased further in 2021.  —  But now that the year is ending, it's clear that the violence has eased.

USINDOPACOM Statement on Unsafe Intercept of U.S. aircraft over South China Sea  —  U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Public Affairs  —  On Dec. 21 (China Standard Time), a People's Liberation Army - Navy J-11 fighter pilot performed an unsafe maneuver during an intercept of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft …

New election frontiers shake up 2024 map … - Wisconsin was the only Biden state where Republicans won a Senate race this year. … - Georgia was the closest battleground in the 2020 presidential race. … - Pennsylvania: Democrats cracked the Keystone State code in this year's midterms …

Putin, unaccustomed to losing, is increasingly isolated as war falters  —  A new gulf is emerging between the president and much of the country's elite  —  When Vladimir Putin visited Minsk last week to discuss deepening cooperation, a sarcastic joke by his host, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, seemed to ring all too true.

Hard-Line Positions by Russia and Ukraine Dim Hope for Peace Talks  —  Both Moscow and Kyiv say they are ready to talk, but their terms for sitting down at a negotiating table suggest otherwise.  —  As the battle for Ukraine turns into a bloody, mile-by-mile fight in numbing cold …

Lawyers exit Hong Kong as they face campaign of intimidation  —  Hong Kong's human rights lawyers are fleeing abroad amid an effort to cleanse the city of dissent.  The pressure is part of a wider crackdown by the ruling Communist Party on lawyers across China, say activists, legal scholars and diplomats.

Pelé, the Global Face of Soccer, Dies at 82  —  Pelé, who was declared a national treasure in his native Brazil, achieved worldwide celebrity and helped popularize the sport in the United States.  —  Pelé, one of soccer's greatest players and a transformative figure …