Trump's billionaires set to take government by storm … - They've been picked to lead the departments of Treasury (Scott Bessent), Commerce (Howard Lutnick), Education (Linda McMahon), Interior (Doug Burgum), the Small Business Administration (Kelly Loeffler) and NASA (Jared Isaacman).

Of Course Joe Biden Was Right to Pardon His Son  —  People need to stop asking Democrats to play by different rules than Republicans, and they need to stop asking Biden to be a worse father than any of us would be in his place.  —  Bluesky  —  Pocket  —  Ido not believe I have read …

Melania Trump says heading to the White House for the second term is much different than the first  —  Soon-to-be first lady Melania Trump said Friday that preparing to enter the White House for the second time looks a lot different from the first go-around.  Now, she and her husband know what to expect.

TikTok Faces U.S. Ban After Losing Bid to Overturn New Law  —  The law will ban the video app in the United States by Jan. 19 if its owner, ByteDance, does not sell it to a non-Chinese company.  —  TikTok is one step closer to disappearing in the United States after a panel of federal judges …

USDA orders testing of milk for bird flu  —  The mandate targeting bulk milk transporters and dairy processors is meant to help identify herds that have caught the virus, which has spread among livestock.  —  The national milk supply must be tested for bird flu under a federal order announced Friday …

Millions will lose health coverage if ACA subsidies expire: CBO  —  A new report released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that if the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) extended subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of 2025, millions of people will become uninsured and premiums will rise.

Everybody Loves FRED: How America Fell for a Data Tool  —  From Facebook political debates to college classrooms, the St. Louis Fed's data tool has gained a major following.  —  Fans post about him on social media.  Swag bearing his name sells out on the regular.

Exclusive: Trump may cancel US Postal Service electric mail truck contract, sources say  —  Donald Trump's transition team is considering canceling the United States Postal Service's contracts to electrify its delivery fleet, as part of a broader suite of executive orders targeting electric vehicles …

Breaking news.  Romanian court cancels presidential election in latest political earthquake  —  The first round of the elections saw a previously unknown far-right nationalist candidate Călin Georgescu top the polls in a shock result.  —  The Romanian presidential run-off between …

A big insurer backed off its plan to pay less for anesthesia.  That's bad.  —  Support independent journalism that matters — become a Vox Member today.  —  In November, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) issued a dire warning: One of America's largest insurance companies …

The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.'s Killing Should Ring All Alarms  —  It started barely minutes after the horrifying news broke that the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in midtown Manhattan.  Even before any details were available …

Paul Krugman retires as Times columnist  —  After nearly 25 years as an Opinion columnist, Paul is signing off.  —  I want to take you back to Jan. 2, 2000, a day when Y2K was in the rearview mirror and the dot-com bubble burst was just around the corner, when the Dow stood at a mighty 11,500 …

Pre-election research shows disturbing trend among Republicans  —  Public opinion research conducted in October shows a shift in one political party that might make Donald Trump's election on Nov. 5 less of a surprise.  A majority of the party now agrees with a sentiment about immigration …

Elon Musk funded a super PAC comparing Trump's position on abortion to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's  —  Elon Musk was the sole funder of a super PAC formed less than a month before the election that focused on advertising intended to convince voters that Donald Trump 's stance on abortion was akin …

Health-care quality rating at 24-year low: Gallup  —  Americans' outlook on the quality of health care in the U.S. is at a 24-year low, according to a new survey.  —  The Gallup poll, released Friday, shows 33 percent of U.S. adults said the quality of American health care is excellent and 11 percent said it is good.

Eric Adams doesn't rule out switch to the GOP: ‘Cancel me’  —  The New York City mayor has been at odds with national Democrats over immigration.  —  NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has taken a soft touch with President-elect Donald Trump, left open the possibility …

Hegseth Brings His Nomination Back from the Brink  —  DONALD TRUMP WANTS HIS CABINET nominees to “earn” their confirmation on their own.  —  But on Friday, the president-elect went out of his way to give an attaboy to Pete Hegseth just hours after the defense secretary pick scolded reporters …

Kash Patel's Podcast Problem  —  “Factions of Republican lawmakers at war over how to slash federal spending,” Politico reports, “are scrambling to recruit Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to their cause”: … And how better to do that than by lobbying Trump's quasi-governmental billionaire pals?

Owner of Los Angeles Times Plans ‘Bias Meter’ Next to Coverage  —  Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong said that he planned to introduce the tool, which he said would appear next to the paper's news articles and opinion pieces, in January.  —  Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of The Los Angeles Times …

Putin's Pals Say Tucker Carlson Is Acting as a Secret Back-Channel to Trump  —  GOING UNDERCOVER  —  Carlson traveled to Moscow to push the Kremlin's Ukraine propaganda in public, but what was he doing in private?  —  Tucker Carlson, the darling of the Russian state media …

Biden will leave office as the ‘worst president’ in modern history, according to voters in devastating poll  — J.L. Partners polled 1006 registered voters for their views on Joe Biden  — Respondents were asked to rank nine recent presidents from best to worst

Republican senators launch inquiry into unpublished NIH study on puberty blockers for trans youth  —  Six Republican senators in a letter to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli said they are “concerned about the transparency” of studies funded by the NIH …

How Trump could bring on a second civil war  —  Trump may force a second civil war on America with his plan to use the military to round up at least 11 million undocumented people inside the United States — even if it means breaking up families — send them to detention camps, and then deport them.