The Associated Press reports: Disgraced former congressman George Santos, facing a federal prison sentence, has won a few months’ freedom to come up with more than half a million dollars in court fines — including from work on his new podcast. U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert set the new court date for April 25, which is about three months …

Variety reports: Production came to a halt in Los Angeles on Wednesday as fires continue to sweep across the neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades, Altadena and Sylmar. NBCUniversal said production has been suspended on “Hacks,” “Loot,” “Ted,” “Suits: L.A.” and “Happy’s Place” with Reba McEntire. CBS Studios shut down “NCIS,” “NCIS: Origins,” “After Midnight,” “Poppa’s House” “The Neighborhood” and tapings for …

Deutsche Welle reports: Panama reiterated on Tuesday that the sovereignty of its eponymous ship canal was not up for discussion after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to regain control. “The sovereignty of our canal is not negotiable and is part of our history of struggle,” Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said, adding that President Jose Raul …

Dakota News Now reports: A bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be posted and taught in public schools will make an appearance in the 2025 legislative session. First-term lawmakers usually don’t carry much legislation, if at all, but Senator John Carley out of Piedmont said it’s important to recognize the historical significance of the Ten Commandments in U.S. …

Slate reports: On Monday, the four-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, members of the self-proclaimed “J6 community” gathered at a Washington hotel ballroom to lionize those who had stormed the Capitol and to rail about the “civil rights abuses” Jan. 6 defendants faced as “political hostages.” Pardons were not sufficient, speakers at the event argued. Those who had committed …

The Hill reports: Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) will introduce a bill that would authorize the president to purchase the Panama Canal and put it under U.S. control, an acquisition that President-elect Trump has been pushing over the last several weeks. Johnson plans to introduce the Panama Canal Repurchase Act on Thursday. The bill would authorize the president, in coordination with …

CBS News reports: Capitol Police said officers arrested a man with a machete and other knives on Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol Visitor Center. Those wishing to view Carter’s casket are entering through the Capitol Visitor Center. Capitol Police said they arrested the man after 2 p.m. as he was going through security at the Capitol Visitor Center. “Our officers …

“I’m gonna say this just off the cuff before I introduce our guest. Can we please just do away with giving half the screen during these emergency briefings to the sign language interpreters? “I have nothing against, obviously, people that cannot hear, but there’s closed captioning. I mean, this is just over the top. We can’t do this. We gotta …

ABC News reports: At least two people are dead and many more injured as several fires broke out across Southern California amid historically dry and windy conditions. Tens of thousands were evacuated as more than 15,000 acres burned in the Palisades Fire. At least 1,000 structures are estimated to have been destroyed in the fire. Meanwhile, the Eaton Fire — …

Via press release from the White House: Under President Biden’s leadership, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking significant actions to support state and local response efforts for the wildfires in Los Angeles, California. As the fires continue to devastate communities, President Biden is focused on mobilizing life-saving and life-sustaining resources across the region. The President is closely monitoring ongoing response efforts …

Axios reports: Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed Wednesday that President-elect Trump invited him to attend the inauguration — but it may be difficult for Bolsonaro to attend amid his ongoing his legal turmoil. Bolsonaro — like Trump — had refused to concede his election loss while his supporters rioted. Now, Bolsonaro takes inspiration from the president-elect’s impending White House …

The Daily Beast reports: Facebook’s algorithm angered founder Mark Zuckerberg when he shared a November 2023 post about his knee surgery and it received little engagement, The Wall Street Journal reports. It was this experience that led to the Meta CEO’s Jan. 7 announcement that the platform will divest from a centralized fact-checking process, according to the newspaper. “We’re going …

Raw Story reports: CNN’s Breanna Keilar wouldn’t let up when freshman Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) touted Donald Trump’s new age of “Manifest Destiny” but failed to directly answer questions about how it would help the U.S. economy. Gill pivoted to the southern border, before stating, “I think that the people of Panama, I think that the people of Greenland, I …

Florida Politics reports: Sen. Rick Scott says he backs potential moves to bring Greenland and the Panama Canal under American control that have been floated recently by Donald Trump. “Well, it would be pretty exciting. If you think about it, we’ve got a President that’s going to focus on our national security,” Scott told Fox Business host Stuart Varney. “It …

The Idaho Statesman reports: An Idaho House committee will consider a formal statement asking the U.S. Supreme Court to end same-sex marriage nationwide and allow the state to restore its ban on such unions. Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, proposed the measure that calls the 2015 decision from the nation’s highest court to legalize same-sex marriage an “illegitimate overreach.” It asked …

The New York Times reports: Mexico’s president rejected several of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s assertions about her country and even joked that the United States should be called “Mexican America” after Mr. Trump said the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the Gulf of America. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico used her Wednesday morning news conference to show a world …

CNN Business reports: President-elect Donald Trump is considering declaring a national economic emergency to provide legal justification for a large swath of universal tariffs on allies and adversaries, four sources familiar with the matter told CNN, as Trump seeks to reset the global balance of trade in his second term. The declaration would allow Trump to construct a new tariff …

NBC News reports: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that the leaders of the nations of the European Union would not tolerate the violation of the Danish territory’s borders, the sovereignty of which is a principle of international law. “In my discussions with our European partners, a certain lack of understanding has emerged with regard to …

The Guardian reports: Pedro Sánchez has hit out at Elon Musk and his allies for “openly attacking our institutions, inciting hatred and openly calling for people to support the heirs of Nazism”, saying the politics of division, disinformation and hatred risk ushering in a new age of authoritarianism. Speaking in Madrid on Wednesday as Spain prepares to mark the 50th …

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called …