House approves mammoth annual defense policy bill  —  The House on Wednesday passed the annual defense policy bill, sending the mammoth measure to the Senate for consideration ahead of Congress's end-of-month deadline.  —  The legislation — known as the National Defense Authorization Act …

Manchin, Sinema block Democratic control of NLRB  —  The Senate on Wednesday blocked Lauren McFerran's re-nomination to the National Labor Relations Board, opening the door for Republican control of the board starting next year under President-elect Trump.  —  Senators voted 49 to 50 …

Christopher Wray Says He'll Step Down as F.B.I. Director  —  The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, told bureau employees on Wednesday that he intended in January, bowing to the reality that President-elect Donald J. Trump had publicly declared his desire to replace him.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace Calls Police on Prominent Foster Youth Advocate; Eyewitnesses Dispute Her Assault Allegations  —  Stunned onlookers say the disturbing turn of events followed a routine celebration of a landmark child welfare law  —  This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Mitch McConnell: 'We're in a very, very dangerous world right now'  —  The Republican Senator on his plans to spend the last two years of his term fighting back against an increasingly isolationist GOP  —  Mitch McConnell is standing in his office smiling.  Hanging on the walls are faces, mostly stern, from Washington's past.

CNN Poll: Most Americans approve how Trump is handling his return to the White House  —  Most Americans expect President-elect Donald Trump to do a good job upon his return to the White House next month (54%) and a majority approves of how he's handling the presidential transition so far …

Warren on UnitedHealthcare CEO's killing: ‘People can only be pushed so far’  —  The Massachusetts lawmaker condemned the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, but added that the visceral reaction online should be a “warning” to the industry.

Time magazine to name Trump ‘Person of the Year’  —  He also won the honor in 2016.  —  Donald Trump is expected to be named Time magazine's “Person of the Year” — and to celebrate the unveiling of the cover, the president-elect will ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday morning …

Trump outran the law.  His allies haven't.  —  Dozens of Trump allies face criminal charges in lingering cases over efforts to overturn the 2020 election.  —  Despite Donald Trump's Houdini act, the criminal cases against his allies are not disappearing.  —  Dozens of Trump's top aides …

Decivilization May Already Be Under Way  —  The brazen murder of a CEO in Midtown Manhattan—and the cheering reaction to his execution—amounts to a blinking-and-blaring warning signal for a society that has become already too inured to bloodshed.  —  The line between a normal …

Luigi Mangione's Full Story Isn't Online  —  When the identity of Luigi Mangione, the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter, was revealed on Monday, the online search — a reporting process that's become a collective online ritual — began.  It turns out he left a lot of information online …

Schumer says Senate will vote on Social Security changes  —  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that he's “doing everything” he can to try to pass legislation that would enact some Social Security before Congress ushers in a new class next month.

Trump plans to scrap policy restricting ICE arrests at churches, schools, hospitals  —  The long-standing policy has prevented ICE agents from arresting immigrants at so-called “sensitive locations” except under certain circumstances.  —  The incoming Trump administration intends to rescind …

The ultimate marker of Dems' generational shift: AOC's Oversight ascension  —  Ocasio-Cortez has earned the support of the majority of the panel's Democrats, based on interviews with a dozen members.  —  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is poised to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee …

The Fraudulence of “Waste, Fraud and Abuse”  —  History repeats itself, the first time as farce, the second as clown show  —  First things first: welcome to readers new and old.  Now that I have written my last column for the New York Times, this newsletter is coming out of dormancy.

Exclusive: RFK Jr.'s secret push to prove CIA killed uncle … - RFK Jr. has been telling people that Fox Kennedy — his presidential campaign manager, who is married to his son Bobby Kennedy III — would help get to the bottom of the JFK assassination, two Republican sources told Axios.

About 1 in 3 US women are accessing family planning services: CDC  —  About 35 percent of U.S. women ages 15 to 49 said they received a family planning service between 2022 to 2023, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.

Albertsons Backs Out of Merger Deal and Sues Kroger After Court Rulings  —  The supermarket chain had tried to join forces with Kroger, but judges sided with federal and state regulators who charged that the merger would reduce competition.  —  The grocery chain Albertsons said on Wednesday …

Judge rejects sale of Alex Jones' Infowars to The Onion in dispute over bankruptcy auction  —  A federal judge on Tuesday night rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones' Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet, criticizing the bidding process as flawed and the amount of money that families …

Former top Biden aide slams Hunter Biden pardon rollout strategy  —  One of President Joe Biden's former top communications advisers ravaged the president's messaging rollout strategy around his decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, lambasting the situation as “exceptionally poor timing” in a major public rebuke of her former boss.

How a Decades-Old Loophole Lets Billionaires Avoid Medicare Taxes  —  Some of Wall Street's richest and most powerful figures are using a legal loophole to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes earmarked for health care, a ProPublica investigation found.  —  The Secret IRS Files: Inside the Tax Records of the .001%

Judge tosses Michael Flynn's $50 million lawsuit that claimed he was prosecuted to ‘derail and discredit’ Trump's 2020 presidential bid  —  A federal judge in Florida has dismissed a $50 million lawsuit filed by former U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who sued the federal government …

Recent Immigration Surge Has Been Largest in U.S. History  —  Under President Biden, more than two million immigrants per year have entered, government data shows.  —  The immigration surge of the past few years has been the largest in U.S. history, surpassing the great immigration boom …

Republican lawmakers invite a Jan. 6 felon to Trump's inauguration  —  The invitation to and praise for a member of the mob underscores the shifting power dynamic in Washington.  —  Russell Taylor spent weeks planning for chaos on Jan. 6, 2021.  He recruited anti-government activists to join …

Transcript: Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Gives Away His Border Scam on Fox  —  The following is a lightly edited transcript of the December 11 episode of the  —  Daily Blast podcast.  Listen to it here.  —  Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network.

State Dept. disinfo unit faces shutdown amid GOP's war on censorship  —  The Washington Post's essential guide to tech policy news  —  Happy Wednesday!  If playing Among Us turns you into a real-life assassin, my 9-year-old's entire class should probably be put on a watch list.