Special counsel Jack Smith resigns from DOJ  —  The special counsel's departure was disclosed in a court filing submitted Saturday afternoon to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.  —  Special counsel Jack Smith has completed his work on two criminal investigations of President-elect Donald Trump …

Biden Awards Medal of Freedom to Pope Francis  —  President Biden, a Catholic, awarded the medal with distinction to the pontiff, to whom he has turned for personal guidance.  —  President Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction to Pope Francis on Saturday …

Trump Calls Officials Handling Los Angeles Wildfires ‘Incompetent’  —  Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles County authorities have invited President-elect Donald J. Trump to tour the devastation, but he has not publicly responded.  —  President-elect Donald J. Trump offered fresh criticism early Sunday …

Inside Elon Musk's Plan for DOGE to Slash Government Costs  —  Mr. Musk has turned to Silicon Valley to help recruit executives who will take up unofficial positions across the federal government.  —  An unpaid group of billionaires, tech executives and some disciples of Peter Thiel …

Steve Bannon: ‘I Will Do Anything’ to Keep Elon Musk out of the White House  —  ROME — Former Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon has declared war on Elon Musk, vowing to have the tech billionaire kicked out of the White House by the time Donald Trump is inaugurated.

F.B.I. Briefs Top Senators on Armed Services Panel About Hegseth  —  The committee's Republican chairman and its top Democrat were briefed on F.B.I. findings into Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's defense secretary pick.  Democrats questioned whether there were gaps.

Republican congressman calls for halting of disaster relief to California  —  Warren Davidson of Ohio says aid should be withheld until the state ravaged by wildfires reforms forestry management  —  A Republican US congressman from Ohio has called for federal disaster relief to be withheld …

Vance Says Violent Jan. 6 Protesters Shouldn't Be Pardoned  —  Vice President-elect JD Vance tempered his boss's promise to pardon all the protesters involved in the US Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, saying those who behaved violently should “obviously” not receive pardons.

Dem senator warns ‘LA fires are preview of coming atrocities,’ claims Trump bought off by ‘Big Oil’  —  Ed Markey claims there is a ‘climate crisis’  —  As fires wreak havoc in California, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., claimed in a post on X the catastrophe is “what a climate emergency looks like.”

Trump tells House Republicans to find a ‘fair number’ on SALT  —  New York Republicans left a meeting with the incoming president saying he supported increasing the cap on the SALT deduction.  —  New York Republicans came out of a Mar-a-Lago meeting with Donald Trump on Saturday confident …

Trump border czar privately tempers Republican lawmaker expectations on administration's initial deportation operation  —  President-elect Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan has privately told Republican lawmakers to temper their expectations for the incoming administration's initial deportation operation …

More than a dozen states have passed new laws that led to restrictions on pornography.  Now, the Supreme Court will weigh in  —  In Texas, Florida, and more than a dozen other states, users who try to access the world's largest pornography website are greeted by a surprising sight …