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“We will always be part of NATO. We will always be a strong partner for U.S. We are close neighbors, we have been cooperating in the last 80 years, and I think the future have a lot to offer to cooperate with, but we want to also be clear. We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be …

ABC News reports: Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday was interrupted multiple times by outbursts from attendees — who are not members of the regular State Department press corps — shouting questions about U.S. support for Israel as he tried to make farewell remarks to reporters in the State Department briefing room. At least one individual was removed from …

NPR reports: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a cabinet meeting that was scheduled to vote Thursday on the peace deal between Israel and Hamas has been delayed, in a blow to hopes that a ceasefire after 15 months of fighting would take effect Sunday. Netanyahu said that the meeting will only happen once Hamas pulls back on demands …

CBS News reports: Locking up store merchandise can deter shoplifters and paying customers alike, according to Walgreens.  The pharmacy chain’s CEO Tim Wentworth said in Walgreens Boots Alliance’s first-quarter earnings call Tuesday that “When you lock things up … you don’t sell as many of them. We’ve kind of proven that pretty conclusively.” Keeping retail products under lock and key …

NBC News reports: Iran “never” plotted to assassinate Donald Trump during last year’s U.S. election campaign and never will in the future, President Masoud Pezeshkian told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an exclusive interview in Tehran. Asked about the reported plot against Trump outlined by U.S. authorities, Pezeshkian said: “This is another one of those schemes that Israel and other …

The New York Times reports: Several members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed deeply skeptical of a challenge to a Texas law that seeks to limit minors’ access to pornography, peppering a lawyer for the challengers with exceptionally hostile questions. The lawyer, Derek L. Shaffer, said the law violated the First Amendment by requiring age verification measures like the …

Newsweek reports: Puerto Rico’s governor has called on President-elect Donald Trump to respond after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called for an invasion of the island territory. Maduro’s comments were an “open threat to the United States and our national security,” Jenniffer González-Colón wrote in a post on X on Monday. On Friday, the U.S. announced a $25 million reward for …

The Associated Press reports: Former first lady Michelle Obama will skip the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Laura Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will join their husbands for the Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, representatives said. “Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former first lady Michelle Obama will not …

Gothamist reports: The launch of congestion pricing led to some 43,000 fewer drivers on average entering Manhattan below 60th Street each weekday last week than would be typical for that time of January, according to data released by the MTA on Monday. The data comes just over a week after the tolls went live. The decline in traffic only amounts …

Washington DC’s NBC affiliate reports: A D.C. man says he was taking a Metrobus to the Anacostia Metro Station when a stranger set his shirt on fire. “Crazy, you know,” Eric Walton said. “Like, I never even spoke to that guy.” Walton says he was on the way to the library with friends on the A4 bus around noon Nov. …

CBS News reports: Macy’s is closing 66 store locations that it has said are underperforming. The closures are part of the storied retailer’s turnaround strategy. The company referred to the brick-and-mortar stores it’s shuttering as “non-go-forward” locations. They include outposts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, …

Atlanta’s Fox affiliate reports: Four people have been injured after a Delta flight was evacuated at the Atlanta airport on Friday morning. Officials say the flight from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport to Minneapolis-St. Paul aborted takeoff shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday due to an engine problem. According to a post from the Atlanta airport’s X page, passengers deplaned from the …

The Associated Press reports: A powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward into southern U.S. states overnight, prompting governors to declare states of emergency and shuttering schools across the region. School was canceled Friday for millions of children across a wide tract of southern states from Texas …

NBC News reports: The Senate voted Thursday to begin debate on the Laken Riley Act, clearing a key hurdle to advance a Republican-led bill aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration that has garnered significant support from Democrats. With a vote of 84-9, the bill easily cleared the 60-vote threshold to advance in GOP-controlled Senate. But many Democrats have suggested …

ABC News reports: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke to Trump by phone Tuesday to recommend one of his former law clerks for a job in the new administration. “William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position,” Alito said in a statement …

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 …

CNN reports: The Massachusetts State Police were called to Boston’s Logan International Airport Tuesday evening after a JetBlue passenger opened an aircraft door, deploying the emergency slide, the police and airline told CNN. At around 7:30 p.m., authorities responded to JetBlue flight 161 after a passenger “who wanted to deplane opened an aircraft door suddenly and without warning,” police said …

Los Angeles’s ABC affiliate reports: Tens of thousands of residents in the western Los Angeles area were under mandatory evacuation orders Tuesday evening as a wind-driven wildfire exploded in size and swept through communities in the Pacific Palisades. The Palisades Fire was first reported around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 1100 block of North Piedra Morada Drive. By evening, the …

NBC News reports: Two prisoners who are among the 37 federal inmates whose death sentences were commuted last month by President Joe Biden — a move that spares them from the death chamber — have taken an unusual stance: They’re refusing to sign paperwork accepting his clemency action. Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis, both inmates at the U.S. Penitentiary in …

The New York Times reports: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moved on Tuesday to ban medical debt from appearing on credit reports, potentially lifting the credit scores of about 15 million Americans and making it easier for them to obtain loans. The finalized new rule would effectively prohibit loan providers from using medical information while making lending decisions. It is …