The Washington Post reports: Unforgiving cold has punished the eastern third of the United States for the past 10 days. But the most severe winter weather yet will assault the area late this week. First, a monster storm will hammer coastal locations from Georgia to Maine with ice and snow. By Thursday, the exploding storm will, in many ways, resemble …

The New York Times reports: President Trump again raised the prospect of nuclear war with North Korea on Tuesday night, boasting that he commands a “much bigger” and “more powerful” arsenal of devastating weapons than the outlier government in Asia. Mr. Trump’s combative response to a statement made in recent days by Mr. Kim raised the temperature in the brewing …

Politico reports: House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) announced Tuesday that he’s stepping down at the end of his term, joining the fast-growing wave of GOP lawmakers to head for the exits. Since he is term-limited out of the committee’s chairmanship after three terms, many insiders had speculated that this would be Shuster’s last year in Congress. With today’s announcement, …

LOLinfinityLOL. The Washington Examiner reports: The Jewish attorney who Roy Moore’s wife touted employing in an attempt to fight off claims of anti-Semitism is actually a longtime friend and supporter of Senator-elect Doug Jones, who defeated Moore last month. Richard Jaffe is an Alabama defense attorney hired by the Moores to defend their son, Caleb Moore, against drug charges in …

Mediaite reports: Asked if the president has a bit of a transparency issue when it comes to his golf course visits and whether the White House has “some kind of issue about his” golfing, Sanders turned the question back around on the media. “I think it’s the press that has an issue with his time on the course,” Sanders stated. …

The Kansas City Star reports: A gun range owner who drew national attention for calling her establishment a “Muslim Free Zone” will run for Arkansas governor. Jan Morgan, owner of the Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range in Hot Springs, made the announcement in a video posted to YouTube on Dec. 30. In the Republican primary, she’ll challenge incumbent Asa Hutchinson, …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump has repeatedly voiced support for anti-government protests in Iran in recent days, joining a bipartisan and international chorus in support of the peaceful demonstrators. Trump’s support for the Iranian demonstrators stands in stark contrast to his frequent criticism of Americans who protest his own government in the United States. He frequently called for violence against …

CNN reports: Former Milwaukee Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr., a vocal surrogate for President Donald Trump on the campaign trail, was temporarily blocked from tweeting after Twitter users’ complaints alerted the company that three of his messages violated the terms of service, CNN has learned. Clarke was placed in read-only mode until he deleted three tweets that seemed to call …

The New York Times reports: Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the longest-serving Senate Republican, plans to announce on Tuesday he will retire at the end of the year, rebuffing the pleas of President Trump to seek an eighth term and paving the way for Mitt Romney to run for the seat. Mr. Hatch intends to announce his decision Tuesday …

The Hill reports: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will answer reporters’ questions on Tuesday afternoon for the first time in the new year. President Trump returned to Washington, D.C., on Monday evening after spending the holidays at his private beach club in Palm Breach, Fla.

CNN reports: Germany’s tough new social media law appears to be working: A far-right member of parliament had her Twitter account suspended shortly after posting an anti-Muslim message. Under a law that took full effect in Germany on Monday, Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies can be fined as much as €50 million ($60 million) if they fail to …

Josh Israel reports at Think Progress: The head of the self-described “#1 nail art chain in Russia” visited Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning for a meeting with her country’s new ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Ivanovich Antonov. A photo posted on Movsisyan’s personal Instagram account and on Nail Sunny’s company Instagram page, shows that the meeting took place at …

“Poor Carrie Fisher, you can see her tweets and videos before she died, and that was during the filming, she died right at the end of filming, she died right as it ended, she flew back. I’m not saying it’s a star murder or anything, but we know in Hollywood sometimes when they think you’re finally done, if you die …

The New York Daily News reports: Sarah Palin rang in the New Year by sharing an image of her bruised beau. The one-term Alaska governor stated on Instagram she and her family were heading out to their cabin for New Year’s Eve, her photo also featuring her daughter Piper and son Trig along with her still-injured husband, Todd. After Todd …

Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch: Former Minnesota congresswoman and current “pastor to the United Nations” Michele Bachmann joined End Times prepper pastor Jim Bakker for a series of television programs that aired last week, during which she revealed that she is currently considering making a run for the U.S. Senate seat that is set to be vacated by …

The Associated Press reports: Bone-chilling cold gripped much of the U.S. as 2018 began, breaking century-old records and leading to several deaths that authorities attributed to exposure to the dangerously low temperatures. The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and freeze warnings Tuesday covering a vast area from South Texas to Canada and from Montana through New England. Authorities …

“The ambitious agenda of President Trump that helped fuel his election over a year ago will continue. You saw how strong December was. I think in Washington the tradition is not to work very hard in August or December. This president has reversed that, and with the help of the Congress passed some very meaningful legislation late in the game.” …

The Independent reports: Donald Trump has suggested he has improved the safety of airplanes, saying he has “been very strict on Commercial aviation” since becoming US President. Dutch-based aviation consultancy To70 on Monday released its annual Civil Aviation Safety Review that reported only two fatal accidents, both involving small turbo-prop aircraft, with a total of 13 lives lost. No jets …

Axios reports: David Bohrman, former Current TV President and former CNN Washington bureau chief and chief innovation officer at CNN Worldwide, is launching a new over-the-top (OTT) video service that will cater to progressive Americans, called the Political Voices Network (PVN). Why it matters: Bohrman argues there has been a vacancy of progressive voices in the video space compared to …

NBC News reports: Hoda Kotb was named co-anchor of “Today” on Tuesday morning and officially headlined the broadcast with Savannah Guthrie. Kotb, 53, had been behind the anchor desk of NBC’s morning news show in a temporary role since Matt Lauer was fired in November. Lauer’s dismissal came after a female colleague made a complaint accusing him of inappropriate sexual …