Defense Department nominee Pete Hegseth’s plan to release a woman who accused him of sexual assault from a confidentiality agreement sets the stage for a media circus that Senate Republicans are calling Kavanaugh 2.0, a reference to the brutal Supreme Court confirmation fight of 2018. Hegseth vigorously denies the allegation and says he’s going to plow through the Senate confirmation process despite warnings from GOP senators that it is likely to get ugly. “I told him it’s going to be a...

Eric Adams was denied millions of dollars in public funds for his re-election bid because of his historic indictment – a massive blow to the embattled mayor’s campaign against a line-up of hungry challengers. New York City Campaign Finance Board members ruled Monday that Hizzoner’s 2025 mayoral campaign would not be eligible, at least temporarily, for more than $4 million in public matching funds. The rare decision by the non-partisan,...

Mayor Eric Adams was denied public matching funds for his re-election campaign on Monday as he faces federal corruption charges focused on his fund-raising practices, dealing a major setback to his bid for a second term. The New York City Campaign Finance Board ruled that Mr. Adams was not eligible to participate in a program that awards an eight-for-one match of small-dollar donations, preventing him from receiving as much as $4.3 million.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was vying for the ranking membership of the House Oversight Committee. It’s a position that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was reportedly working behind the scenes to sabotage. It’s not the first time the former House speaker has worked to contain and control members of the Squad. Whatever might have happened, Ms. Pelosi can sigh with relief—Ocasio-Cortez won’t be the top Democrat on this committee. She lost to Rep. Gerry Connelly (DVA) (via Axios): House...

There’s a dilemma facing the public health establishment: It sees Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s focus on root causes of chronic disease as long overdue — and key to reversing America’s place as the world’s least healthy wealthy country. But they fear Kennedy, who is making the case to senators this week that they should confirm him as President-elect Donald Trump’s health secretary, could also cause an explosion in infectious disease — the kind vaccines protect against. Nearly a dozen...

The professed Catholic denies she has fallen afoul of Catholic teaching on abortion, while the archbishop of San Francisco disagrees. What’s next for the former speaker? For many Catholics, learning that the Vatican has a file open on former speaker Nancy Pelosi probably isn’t much of a shock. Over the years, the congresswoman has had her differences with the Catholic Church, of which she remains a member. Most notably on abortion. But what might surprise many was the news last week...

In a Fox News interview, House Speaker Mike Johnson was spinning the facts when he claimed Republicans would have won a larger majority in the House in the 2024 election if not for Democrats’ gerrymandering of districts. Johnson failed to mention that many states with Republican legislative majorities also gerrymander districts for partisan advantage. The net effect of redistricting did not give the Democrats a large advantage, experts told us, with most of them saying the Republicans...

When most people imagine what war in the Taiwan Strait might look like, scenes out of eastern Ukraine in 2022 or even Normandy in 1944 tend to come to mind. Picture transport ships from China facing incoming anti-ship missiles; missile strikes blowing holes in airfields and key military installations; hilltop-to-hilltop fighting over rugged mountainous terrain; and urban warfare amid the skyscrapers of densely populated cities. If Washington came to Taiwan’s aid in the event...

Democrats have been imploring President Joe Biden to, in the words of former first lady Michelle Obama before last month’s election, do something. Biden, a lame-duck president whose Democratic Party is contending with losing to President-elect Donald Trump for a second time, has been conspicuously absent despite some Democrats expressing the need for leadership as the party considers how to oppose Trump. “I hope Biden uses the power of the...

As head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection troops, Igor Kirillov - who has died in an explosion in Moscow - was accused by the West of overseeing the use of chemical weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine. In Russia, he was viewed as a tireless patriot, fighting for the truth and exposing Western "crimes". Sources from Ukraine's SBU security service said it it was behind the blast and described it as a special operation against a "war criminal" and a legitimate...