Trump Has Made Us All Stupid  —  The decline of discourse in the anti-Trump echo chamber.  —  Donald Trump is impulse-driven, ignorant, narcissistic and intellectually dishonest.  So you'd think that those of us in the anti-Trump camp would go out of our way to show we're not like him …

Iraq asks United States to set up mechanism for troop withdrawal  —  BEIRUT — In a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi asked the United States send a delegation to Iraq to set up a mechanism for U.S. troop withdrawal from the country …

Trump's New National Security Team Made Fast Work of Iran Strike  —  White House advisers were cohesive and less inclined than their predecessors to push back against the president's wishes  —  WASHINGTON—President Trump and his senior national-security advisers waited anxiously …

Bloomberg to fund sizable campaign effort through November even if he loses Democratic nomination  —  Exclusive: The former New York City mayor plans to continue paying hundreds of staffers and funding his digital operation to defeat Trump even if he's not the nominee.

Justice Dept. winds down Clinton-related inquiry once championed by Trump.  It found nothing of consequence.  —  A Justice Department inquiry launched more than two years ago to mollify conservatives clamoring for more investigations of Hillary Clinton has effectively ended with no tangible results …

Job market ends 2019 with disappointing 145,000 growth in payrolls  —  By Jeff Cox@JEFF.COX.7528@JEFFCOXCNBCCOM  — December's payroll and wage growth missed expectations, according to the Labor Department.  — Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 145,000 while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.5%.

Boeing Employees Mocked F.A.A. and ‘Clowns’ Who Designed 737 Max  —  The company expressed regret at the embarrassing communications it sent to investigators on Thursday, which included a comment that “this airplane is designed by clowns, who are in turn supervised by monkeys.”

The Fall of Donald Trump's Fixers  —  The mogul-turned-president has long relied on loyalists to push the limits in defense of his image, but Roy Cohn, David Pecker and Michael Cohen all wound up out in the cold  —  For decades, Donald Trump has depended on loyalists to take care of especially sensitive and difficult tasks.

Black Britons Know Why Meghan Markle Wants Out  —  It's the racism.  —  Ms. Hirsch is the author of “Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging.”  —  The British press has succeeded in its apparent project of hounding Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, out of Britain.

Preet Bharara to Georgia congressman: You've hit a shocking new low  —  Preet Bharara is a CNN senior legal analyst and former US attorney for the Southern District of New York.  The views expressed in this commentary are his own.  View more opinion on CNN.  —  (CNN)Dear Representative Doug Collins,

Democrat Amy McGrath enters 2020 with $9 million war chest in Senate race against Mitch McConnell  —  Democrat Amy McGrath, who is running to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, finished 2019 with a $6 million fundraising haul to add to her impressive war chest heading into 2020.

An Iranian general dies in U.S. attack, and innocents suffer  —  TORONTO (AP) — The worst had passed, it seemed, and the United States and Iran no longer appeared poised at the edge of war.  —  “All is well!”  President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night, days after a U.S. drone strike killed Iran's …

She Was a Star of New York Real Estate, but Her Life Story Was a Lie  —  Faith Hope Consolo had the entire press fooled, including us.  Then a message came in.  —  Wrapped in furs, dripping with diamonds and with her blond hair perfectly coifed, Faith Hope Consolo cut a glamorous figure in the flashy …

Pompeo, Mnuchin to detail new sanctions on Iran  —  President Trump threatened sanctions after backing off military action.  —  LIVE NOW  —  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are scheduled to detail new sanctions on Iran at the White House Friday morning …

Majority of Americans favor wealth tax on very rich: Reuters/Ipsos poll  —  WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The idea of imposing a wealth tax on the richest Americans has elicited sharply divergent views across a spectrum of politicians, with President Donald Trump branding it socialist …

The Chaotic, Beautiful Larks of Elizabeth Wurtzel  —  About a decade ago, when the writer Elizabeth Wurtzel rounded forty, her work—previously a gale-force project of unbridled self-mythologizing—started to look backward and inward in a different way.  She began dealing more explicitly …

Harvey Weinstein Rape Trial Defense Team Wants Media Shut Out Of Jury Selection  —  The end of the first official week of Harvey Weinstein's rape trial began Friday with a new legal grenade being tossed into the proceedings.  —  “Most people don't speak in front of the international media …

Army general denies request by officer pardoned by Trump to have his Special Forces tab reinstated  —  An Army general has denied a request by an officer pardoned in an open murder case by President Trump to have his Special Forces tab reinstated, setting up a potential showdown between senior defense officials and the White House.

Firefox attacks: Homeland Security urges all users to update browsers immediately in rare warning  —  If you use Mozilla Firefox's web browser you'll want to drop what you are doing right now and update it.  That urging doesn't just come from Mozilla-it comes from the United State's Department …

Female Journalist Wins Pay-Discrimination Case Against BBC  —  LONDON (AP) — A BBC journalist who was paid a fraction of the fee received by a male colleague doing a similar job has won a sex-discrimination lawsuit against the British broadcaster.  —  An employment tribunal ruled Friday …

Bill would ban cellphone use for those under 21  —  MONTPELIER — A bill has been introduced in the state Senate that would make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to use or possess a cellphone.  —  The bill, S.212, would make such possession or use a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of a year behind bars and a $1,000 fine.

College Professor Out After Joke Suggesting Iran List U.S. Cultural Targets  —  Asheen Phansey is no longer employed by Babson College after joking that Iran should target Minnesota's Mall of America and a home of the Kardashian family.  —  An adjunct professor is no longer on staff …

Record 158,803,000 Americans Employed; 1.85M Year-to-Year Increase  —  (CNSNews.com) - “As we begin this new year, our economy is booming,” President Trump told a rally in Toledo, Ohio Thursday night.  “Wages are soaring, workers are thriving, and America's future has never looked brighter.”

Kushner's Global Role Shrinks as He Tackles Another: The 2020 Election  —  Ivanka Trump's husband will now supervise her father's re-election campaign, but he continues to weigh in with advice to the president on a range of other matters.  —  WASHINGTON — When senior administration officials gathered …

Intelligence Community's Inspector General Is the Link Between FISAgate and Impeachment  —  As impeachment remains stalled for now, Democrats in the House of Representatives still refuse to release the closed-door testimony of a key witness in the concocted drama: Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the intelligence community.

Exclusive: Border Patrol Circulates Intel Alert Titled ‘Suspected Suicide Bomber en Route to the U.S.’  —  Authorities along the U.S. border are on alert after receiving a law enforcement intelligence warning about a possible suicide bomber heading north toward the U.S.-Mexico Border.

Dixville Notch Finds Enough People to Keep First-in-the-Nation Voting Title  —  After a crucial election official moved away, the tiny New Hampshire town had just four residents and needed to find one more person to fill a selectman vacancy  —  A tiny New Hampshire community whose tradition …

Colorado to deploy more teams to investigate mystery drones after close call with medical helicopter  —  The Viaero Wireless cameras in eastern Colorado captured the mysterious drones earlier this week.  —  DENVER - The Colorado Department of Public Safety will start using more ground-based teams …

Reporter busts GOP's Kevin McCarthy for saying he only met indicted Giuliani henchman Lev Parnas ‘one time’  —  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Thursday tried to distance himself from Lev Parnas, but found himself getting busted by a reporter for misstating his relationship with the indicted Rudy Giuliani henchman.