Ex-Prosecutor Spots The Jack Smith Move That May Keep Donald Trump ‘Cases Alive’  —  It's “not at all” about “obeying an authoritarian in advance,” argued Barbara McQuade.  —  LOADING  —  Former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade broke down why Jack Smith would preemptively “pull the plug” …

Mexican President's Harsh Takedown of Trump Exposes an Ugly MAGA Scam  —  Donald Trump's angry threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on all U.S. imports from Mexico—delivered Monday via the cautious diplomatic language of a Truth Social rant—is widely being depicted as a bluff.

Harris aides say internal polling never had her ahead of Trump  —  The leadership of outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign said that internal polling never had her ahead of President-elect Donald Trump.  —  After President Joe Biden began lagging heavily behind …

Trump's radical plan to purge the civil service  —  “It's explicitly about retribution.”  —  ∙ Paid … 🥘  —  Trump has been bloviating for nearly a decade now about his desire to “drain the swamp.”  He finally has a real plan to do it.  —  In the final months of his first term …

Trump Picks Stanford Physician Who Opposed Lockdowns to Head N.I.H.  —  As the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya would oversee the world's premier medical research agency, with a $47 billion budget and 27 separate institutes and centers.

Rudy Giuliani draws rebuke for a courtroom outburst accusing judge in assets case of being unfair  —  In an angry outburst in a New York courtroom, Rudy Giuliani accused a judge Tuesday of making wrong assumptions about him as he tries to comply with an order requiring him to turn …

X's Objection to the Onion Buying InfoWars Is a Reminder You Do Not Own Your Social Media Accounts  —  On Monday, X filed an objection in The Onion's bid to buy InfoWars out of bankruptcy.  In the objection, Elon Musk's lawyers argued that X has “superior ownership” of all accounts on X …

Someone Made a Dataset of One Million Bluesky Posts for ‘Machine Learning Research’  —  Update: Following the publication of this article on Tuesday evening, van Strien removed the dataset.  “I've removed the Bluesky data from the repo,” he wrote on Bluesky.

Musk Calls for Abolishing Consumer Finance Agency: ‘Delete CFPB’  — GOP has long sought to neutralize agency proposed by Warren  — Musk, Ramaswamy leading DOGE effort to cut federal government  —  Billionaire Elon Musk called for eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau …

US brokers release of three Americans it says were wrongly detained in China  —  The United States has brokered the release of three Americans it said had been wrongfully detained in China for many years, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.  —  The White House national security …

Trump signs transition agreement with Biden, but it lacks key guardrails  —  The Trump team is still refusing to accept several typical trappings of the presidential transition process, including federal funding, equipment, office space or security.  —  The Trump transition team said Tuesday …

Maye Musk welcomes Elon's bromance with Donald Trump and says they ‘just seem to be having fun’  — Maye Musk commented on her son's friendship with Donald Trump in a Fox Business interview.  — Elon Musk and the president-elect are having “a lot of fun,” she said.

Katie Porter alleges ‘persistent abuse,’ files domestic violence restraining order against ex-boyfriend  —  Julian Willis' alleged threats to leak “false” information to the press “poses a serious risk to my career and personal reputation,” Porter wrote.  Willis said the filing was an effort to preempt his own claims against her.

Playbook: Biden tries to go out with a Middle East miracle  —  With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  THE 435TH SEAT — Newly counted ballots last night put Democrat ADAM GRAY 182 votes ahead of GOP Rep. JOHN DUARTE in California's 13th Congressional District, Gray's first lead.

China's defence minister placed under investigation for corruption  —  US officials say probe is part of wider operation to uncover graft in People's Liberation Army  —  China has put its defence minister under investigation in the latest corruption-related scandal to hit the top …