President Xi Jinping of China has ordered his armed forces to be ready to seize Taiwan by 2027. Though the United States maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity on how it would respond to an invasion, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have said that America would defend the island nation. The Pentagon has produced a classified, multiyear assessment that shows how such a conflict would play out: the Overmatch brief. The report is a comprehensive review of U.S. military power prepared by the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment and delivered most recently to top White House officials in the last year. It catalogs China's ability to destroy American fighter planes, large ships and satellites, and identifies the U.S. military's supply chain choke points. Its details have not been previously reported.

The Transportation Security Administration is tightening the rules around traveler identification, and it's about to cost people who show up unprepared. Beginning in February, TSA will start charging passengers $45 if they arrive at an airport checkpoint without an acceptable form of ID, such as a Real ID-compliant driver's license or a U.S. passport. Instead of turning travelers away, TSA will verify their identity through a backup system called Confirm.ID, but that secondary screening now comes with a price tag.

Many states in the South and Southwest recorded some of the nation's highest poverty rates in 2024. The national rate was roughly 12%, but several states in these regions exceeded that. For example, New Mexico's rate was 16.5%, Oklahoma's was about 15%, and Texas' rate was over 13%.AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.

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Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Peter Criss were celebrated at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, President Trump

Making a cheesecake at home isn't easy, and many people resort to buying one at the store. We sampled and ranked grocery store cheesecakes to find the best one.

Supreme Court decision will decide limits of presidential powers going forward.