Politics

McClatchy reports: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has intensified a push for U.S. recognition of Israeli control over disputed territory with Syria, hoping that President Donald Trump will deliver a major diplomatic victory during his visit to Washington two weeks before his toughest election yet. Israel has sought international recognition of its sovereignty in the disputed Golan Heights for decades, …

ABC News reports: Jimmy Carter is now the oldest-living former president in U.S. history at 94 years and 172 days old, surpassing George H.W. Bush.  Bush, the 41st president, died on Nov. 30 at 94 years, 171 days old. America’s founding president, George Washington, was the youngest former president to die — at 57 years and 67 days — in …

Bloomberg reports: Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) promised when McCain died that he would deliver a “whipping” to anybody — including Trump — who impugned McCain’s good name moving forward. And now he’s made good on that promise. “It’s deplorable what he said,” Isakson told George Public Broadcasting in an interview Wednesday afternoon. Before the appearance, he previewed his comments in …

The Hill reports: Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that he will introduce a resolution to rename the Russell Senate Office building after Sen. John McCain amid a growing backlash against President Trump’s recent comments about the late Arizona Republican. Trump, while speaking at the White House on Tuesday, said he “was never a fan of John McCain, and …

Finland’s YLE reports: Finland has once again been ranked as the happiest country in the world. The Nordic nation received the accolade for the second year in succession in the annual survey of global happiness from the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Finland beat out 155 other countries for the title in the 2019 report, released Wednesday. The report …

The New York Daily News reports: Patti Davis, the daughter of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, said her father would be “horrified” and “heartbroken” by the state of the country as well as the GOP and President Trump in a new interview. “There’s no resemblance to the Republican Party of my father’s time,” Davis said. “He talks like an autocrat,” …

Deutsche Welle reports: Wolfgang Kubicki, the deputy chairman of the opposition Free Democrats (FDP), said Richard Grenell’s repeated interference in German sovereignty should prompt Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to immediately declare Grenell persona non grata. “Any US diplomat who acts like a high commissioner of an occupying power must learn that our tolerance also knows its limits,” said Kubicki, who …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump and “the Trump of the Tropics,” Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, will meet face to face at the White House on Tuesday. Bolsonaro — a nationalist, Twitter-loving, “fake-news” decrying politician — chose to make the first bilateral trip of his presidency to Washington, where he has found an important friend and ally in Trump. As …

USA Today reports: The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a victory Tuesday by making it easier to detain undocumented immigrants with criminal records. The justices reversed a lower court decision that required immigration officials to detain those immigrants upon release from jail or prison, rather than months or even years later. Advocates for immigrants had argued that such detentions …

The Associated Press reports: New Jersey took a step Monday toward legalizing recreational marijuana as lawmakers advanced a measure allowing adults to use cannabis after hours of delay and back-room wrangling over the measure that irritated witnesses and some legislators. Democratic-controlled Assembly and Senate legislative committees advanced the legislation late Monday despite having scheduled a hearing earlier in the day …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Lori Lightfoot jokingly refers to herself as a “triple-threat” because she is an African-American woman vying to become Chicago’s first openly-gay mayor. Now, her sexuality is the subject of a dishonest and deceptive flyer distributed to parishioners at black churches on the South Side and elsewhere. On one side of the flyer is a picture of …

ProPublica reports: Federal authorities raided the office of Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy last summer, seeking records related to his dealings with foreign officials and Trump administration associates, according to a sealed search warrant obtained by ProPublica. Agents were authorized to use the megadonor’s hands and face to unlock any phones that required fingerprint or facial scans. Broidy served as a …

From the George W. Bush Presidential Center: The George W. Bush Institute today honors America’s immigrant heritage with an official immigration naturalization ceremony. Before 51 of America’s newest citizens take the Oath of Allegiance to the United States and receive their certificates of naturalization, President and Mrs. Bush will deliver brief remarks noting the significant contributions of immigrants to our …

NBC News reports: Australia’s prime minister has suggested an anti-Muslim senator should be charged after he hit a teen who cracked a raw egg over the legislator’s head. Sen. Fraser Anning has been widely condemned for blaming Muslim immigration for racist attacks on two New Zealand mosques that claimed at least 50 lives. The 17-year-old boy who egged Anning has …

The Guardian reports: An Australian senator who blamed the New Zealand terror attack on Muslim immigration has punched a 17-year-old boy after he was egged at an event in Melbourne. Video footage recorded at the event appears to show Fraser Anning, a far-right independent Queensland senator, halfway through a press conference when the teenager cracked an egg over his head …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Frequent Melania Trump impersonator Laura Benanti dropped in on Friday night to chat with Late Show host Stephen Colbert about the rumors that the First Lady uses a “body double” when photographed with Trump. “This is nothing more than a wild conspiracy theory. Fortunately, the Late Show has a source that could put an end to …

The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reports: Former Massey Energy CEO and U.S. Senate candidate Don Blankenship on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking at least $12 billion in damages from a variety of national news and political organizations, claiming they set out on a “search and destroy” mission against his 2018 candidacy for the Senate. The lawsuit, filed in Mingo County Circuit Court, …

The Irish Times reports: On Thursday, Mr Varadkar attended a breakfast at the residence of vice-president Mike Pence. In a short speech delivered beside the vice-president, the Taoiseach reflected on his ambition to become a politician when he was younger. “I also knew at the time that I lived in a country where if I tried to be myself at …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: After years of stalling in the Utah Legislature, a bill to strengthen the state’s hate crimes law has now cleared both chambers by commanding margins. Before passing the bill, the House adopted an amendment that added “political expression” to the list of categories that would be protected by the updated hate crimes statue. Rep. Karianne …

ABC News reports: Shortly after Paul Manafort was sentenced to another 43 months behind bars on conspiracy charges by a federal judge in Washington, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that any presidential pardon “would be an obstruction of justice.” “Pardoning Paul Manafort would in effect send a message that you can break the law, defy the justice …