Donald Trump Denounces Meryl Streep and News Media After Tough Weekend

■ Donald J. Trump, after an intelligence report concluded that Russia tried to help him get elected, is going after ... Meryl Streep.

Will Trump continue Obama’s national security diversity efforts?

Is national security workforce diversity really an issue when the president’s national security adviser is a powerful black woman with a spacious White House office just down the hallway from her boss, a black man who embodies diversity? Yes. It’s a big, persistent problem.

Yet, despite those efforts, and others going back at least to the Foreign Service Act of 1980 that said “the Foreign Service should be representative of the American people,” the national security workforce remains starkly under-representative of the country it serves, particularly at the higher levels.

WikiLeaks wants to start building a list of verified Twitter users that would include highly sensitive and personal information about their families, their finances and their housing situations.

WikiLeaks would seek to uncover information about the financial lives of Russian President Vladimir Putin or President-elect Donald Trump, both of whom are verified on Twitter.)

But the proposal faced a sharp and swift backlash as technologists, journalists and security researchers slammed the idea as a “sinister” and dangerous abuse of power and privacy.

BEIRUT — Members of an elite U.S. force have carried out a ground operation in eastern Syria aimed at capturing leaders of the Islamic State, U.S. officials said Monday.

A U.S. official said U.S. forces intercepted a vehicle thought to be carrying senior Islamic State members, but declined to say whether the militants had been captured or killed

“The Coalition can confirm a U.S. operation in the vicinity of Deir al-Zour on Jan. 8. The U.S. and the entire counter-ISIL Coalition will continue to pursue ISIL leaders wherever they are to ensure the security and stability of the region and our homelands,” he said in an email. ISIL is another name for the Islamic State.

The announcement by the Iraqi military that its forces have reached the Tigris River for the first time in the battle for Mosul marks a significant moment in the 12-week campaign to recapture so-called Islamic State's (IS) last major stronghold in the country.

Broad-based advances suggest that IS resistance is "showing signs of collapse" in east Mosul, as suggested by Brett McGurk, the senior US official in the counter-IS coalition, in a tweet on 8 January.

Iraqi forces are now present in 35 of east Mosul's 47 neighbourhoods, including the largest and most densely populated parts of the east side.

One Canadian businessman decided he could do more for desperate Syrians fleeing their war-torn country. So he bankrolled an Ontario town's resettlement of over 200 refugees.

Canada allows private citizens, along with authorised sponsorship groups, to directly sponsor refugees by providing newcomers with basic material needs like food, clothing, housing, and support integrating into Canadian society. But Estill was looking to make a big impact, quickly.

And he says his parents, who sponsored two Ugandan refugees when he was a child, instilled humanitarian values in him.

It is a curious moment in British politics. The government is facing the most important negotiations in over 50 years. The outcome will shape the future of the UK economy - but you would not necessarily know it.

Consumers are acting "almost as though the referendum had not taken place" asserts Andy Haldane, the Chief Economist at the Bank of England.

The robust economy has bought the government political space. It is not at the moment under pressure and does not yet need to show its hand but, slowly, a narrative is emerging that carries risks for Theresa May and her tightly-wound circle; that they are hobbled by indecision.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the bombing of eastern Aleppo, which his forces recaptured from rebels last month, was justified.

In comments to French media that were published by Syrian state news agency Sana, President Assad described the devastation of eastern Aleppo and killing of civilians as "painful for us as Syrians to see", adding: "Every war is bad."

According to the UN, 36,000 people were evacuated from east Aleppo to opposition areas in Idlib and western Aleppo countryside, while 38,750 crossed into west Aleppo.

Russia says US allegations that it ran a hacking campaign to influence the American presidential elections are "reminiscent of a witch-hunt".

In his comments on Monday, Mr Peskov said Russia "categorically denied that Moscow had been involved in any hacking attacks".

As a young child in the capital of North Korea, Sungju Lee lived a pampered life. But by the time he was a teenager, he was starving and fighting for survival in a street gang.

"I saw beggars - kids my age - and I was shocked," he says.

"I asked my father, 'Are we in North Korea?' Because when I was in Pyongyang, I was taught that North Korea was one of the richest countries in the world."

How the Next President Could Save Social Security

According to the latest estimates, Social Security will begin to run short of money in 18 years. Yet, the issue has barely come up this election year. In a brief exchange during the final debate, Donald Trump said a growing economy would be enough to save the program1. Hillary Clinton proposed raising taxes on the wealthy and increasing some benefits. Neither candidate outlined a solvency plan.

It is unlikely that a future Congress or president will let benefits suddenly drop off like this. The question is when and by what means the system will get fixed.

Uber Outlines Vision for Flying Cars

"We also believe that in the long-term, VTOLs will be an affordable form of daily transportation for the masses, even less expensive than owning a car," Uber wrote in its whitepaper (PDF).

As Uber draws attention to its vision for flying cars, the company acknowledges that it will take many years to develop. The paper reads, "The vision portrayed above is ambitious, but we believe it is achievable in the coming decade."

Vladimir Putin dismissed U.S. “hysteria” over alleged Russian interference in its presidential elections, saying it was impossible to influence voters’ choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“Does anyone seriously think that Russia can influence the choice of the American people?” President Putin told the annual Valdai discussion forum of international analysts and academics in Sochi on Thursday. “Is America some kind of banana republic? America is a great power. If I’m wrong, correct me.”

Obama on Kimmel: Trump Isn't Funny Anymore

Obama, with his uninvited guest, brought a note of the ominous to the otherwise cozy late-night couch, suggesting that the era of 2011—the time when Trump could exist simply as a punchline—is over.

And yet here we are. Trump has been anti-establishment not just when it comes to politics, but also when it comes to the broader sphere of entertainment: Comedians have been unsure, exactly, how to treat him. The president was in that sense making a political argument that was also about comedy: He was saying, essentially, that the time for simple jokes about Trump—the kind he made in 2011, the kind so many people have been making since Trump became a political candidate—has ended.

Which Republicans Oppose Donald Trump? A Cheat Sheet

When the emails leaked in September, it seemed like a moment of reckoning for someone like Powell. Did he speak out and endorse Clinton, who he thought would be better qualified but with whom he had some real gripes?

How do you solve a problem like The Donald? For Republicans and conservatives, the time for hoping Trump would simply burn himself out, collapse, and go away is over. Now they have to figure out what they’ll do: Sign up with Trump in the name of party unity, and distaste for Hillary Clinton? Or risk alienating the Republican nominee and reject him?

The ugliness of Trump vs. Clinton flatters Obama's legacy

Barack Obama will probably leave office on a high. His weekly average approval rating now stands at 54%. Given the state of the economy and America's troubles overseas, the likely explanation is that voters are contrasting him favorably with the election candidates

One legacy of Donald Trump might be to give Obama a better legacy -- a reminder of the calmer, simpler time that we all lived in 18 months ago.

How Trump awakened a feminist revolution in America

Trump's attitude toward women, his words alone, prompted the most powerful speech of the entire campaign. Michelle Obama articulated the experience of women -- in the US and around the world -- who confront "The disrespect of our ambitions and our intellect..."

Trump has not only breathed new life, new awareness into the demands for equal treatment for women everywhere, but in the process, he sealed his own fate. Pollsters say millennials are now solidly behind Hillary Clinton, and women's support may well make her president of the United States

Hundreds of Islamic State militants are thought to have been killed since Iraqi forces launched an offensive to retake Mosul last week, the US military says.

"This relentless campaign of strikes has removed hundreds of fighters, weapons, and key leaders from the battlefield in front of the Iraqi advance," he added.

IS has previously used chemical weapons in attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces, and there are fears that it might do so again inside Mosul, where more than a million civilians live.

With less than two weeks to go, the race for the White House has narrowed as Hillary Clinton now has a three-point advantage over Donald Trump.

Compared to 2008, this is a more character driven election.  At that time, voters said issues were more important than personal qualities by a 71-14 percent margin.  

The Fox News Poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,309 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from October 22-25, 2016.  The survey includes results among 1,221 likely voters.  The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for results among both registered and likely voters.

Ben Carson Says He Has No Memory of Running for President

Appearing on the Fox News Channel, Dr. Carson responded to host Sean Hannity’s question about his ten-month-long candidacy by saying, “I do not recall any of that occurring.”

“Someone is trying to mess with my mind,” he said. “And when I find out who is doing that I will make them pay dearly.”