Trump's tax returns shed new light on former president's finances  —  Six years of Donald Trump's federal tax returns released on Friday show the former president paid very little in federal income taxes the first and last year of his presidency, claiming huge losses that helped limit his tax bill, among other revelations.

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 …

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.

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?

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 …

The U.S. Will Need Thousands of Wind Farms.  Will Small Towns Go Along?  —  In the fight against climate change, national goals are facing local resistance.  One county scheduled 19 nights of meetings to debate one wind farm.  —  MONTICELLO, Ill. — Depressed property values.  Flickering shadows.

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.

Our 2022 House Wins Above Replacement Model  —  Our 2020 House wins-above-replacement (WAR) model showed that spending still matters in American politics.  Among other things, the new 2022 edition proves that candidate quality, or the lack thereof, can fundamentally impact competitive races.

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.

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.

How Justice Kagan lost her battle as a consensus builder  —  Speaking at a small university in Rhode Island earlier this year, Justice Elena Kagan committed an act of Supreme Court heresy.  —  For years, justices have told the same anecdotes to assure the public that …