The Islamic Republic has been reeling from one crisis to another, from the targeted killing by the United States of its top general to the Revolutionary Guard's accidental shootdown of a passenger plane carrying scores of young people, most of them Iranians. U.S. sanctions have crippled its economy as tensions with America have soared. In a rare Friday sermon in Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stuck to the playbook Iran has relied on since 1979, blaming the country's woes on the U.S. and other Western powers, and proclaiming that Iranians still support the Islamic Revolution.

Shifa al-Nima was captured in the Mansour neighborhood of Mosul by the Nineveh police command, according to Iraqi police.

The arrests come ahead of a big gun-rights rally in Virginia, where the governor has warned that there are "credible threats" of malicious activity.

France will deploy the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and its battle group from January to April to support French military operations in Middle East, Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday. "The aircraft carrier will support Chammal operations (in the Middle East) from January to April 2020 before deploying to the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea", Macron said at a New Year speech to the French military.

A Republican lawmaker is facing calls for a sexual harassment investigation after he told a young female reporter that a group of high school boys “could have a lot of fun” with her.Peter Lucido, a Michigan state senator, has been accused of making inappropriate comments to local reporter Allison Donahue during a tour of the state Capitol.

A strategy that has achieved the opposite of its promises is a failure. Before another moment is wasted, Americans need to ask their leaders the same question General David Petraeus plaintively asked at the height of the Iraq War: “Tell me how this ends.”

If you really want to know what former National Security Adviser John Bolton though of President Trump's actions regarding Ukraine, you may not have to rely on the Senate to call him as a witness in the president's upcoming impeachment trial. That's because Bolton is going to reveal some of what he saw in his upcoming book, people familiar with the matter told The New York Times. The book, which is almost finished, is reportedly going to detail Bolton's time in the White House, events related to Russia and Venezuela, and his interactions with other administration officials, some of whom reportedly don't come across very well, including former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The Ukraine scandal, which is at the center of Trump's impeachment, will fill at least some pages, too, and Bolton is expected to share some of his observations about Trump's efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials into announcing an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter.Bolton has said he's prepared to testify should the Senate issue a subpoena, but it's unclear if the upper chamber will do so. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Ukraine gives Trump the corruption investigation he asked for DOJ reportedly eyeing James Comey as it investigates old leak of classified information Mitch McConnell should recuse himself

In a Thursday morning interview on "Fox & Friends," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said she doesn't want to hold televised press briefings because reporters "just want their moment to peddle their books."

In the eight years since he became a pastor at First Immanuel Baptist Church, Todd Johnson says he's seen his congregation's politics make a subtle shift. The Philadelphia church, which recently hosted a Donald Trump campaign event reaching out to black voters, has “more people now who are more open to voting for someone other than a Democrat,” Johnson said. The president's meager support among African Americans has shown few signs of increasing from the 6% of black voters he won in 2016, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.

An Indiana man charged with negligent homicide in his young granddaughter’s fatal fall from a cruise ship’s open window in Puerto Rico leaned out of that window for several seconds before he lifted the child up to it and she fell, the cruise operator alleges in a court filing. Royal Caribbean Cruises' Jan. 8 filing in U.S. District Court in Miami comes in response to a lawsuit t he parents of Chloe Wiegand filed in December, accusing the operator of negligence in her death by allowing an 11th floor window in the ship’s children's play area to be open. Royal Caribbean, which is seeking the lawsuit’s dismissal, lays the blame for the child’s fatal fall on her 51-year-old grandfather, Salvatore Anello.

Someone else tried to hide behind a recliner when deputies came knocking.

Britain's Labour Party needs to do more to promote aspiration and look more like a government-in-waiting, the party's business spokeswoman, Rebecca Long-Bailey, said when she formally launched her leadership campaign on Friday. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is stepping down, after the party's worst election performance since 1935 gave Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives a large majority in parliament. Long-Bailey is currently second in the race to succeed Corbyn, behind the party's Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer, according to a YouGov poll of party members for The Times newspaper.

A television series developed for Apple Inc by famed director M. Night Shyamalan blatantly copied a 2013 film, a copyright lawsuit filed on Wednesday claimed. Late superstar Whitney Houston and five other artists and bands, living and dead - and representing a wide range of musical genres, including pop, electronica and rap - were unveiled on Wednesday as this year's inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

A Pennsylvania judge on Friday slashed to $6.8 million from $8 billion a punitive damages award against Johnson & Johnson to a man who said it failed to warn that boys using its antipsychotic drug Risperdal could grow breasts. A second person has died from pneumonia in the central Chinese city of Wuhan following an outbreak believed to be caused by a new coronavirus strain, local health authorities said. The 69-year-old man had been admitted to hospital with abnormal renal function and severe damage to multiple organs, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement on its website late on Thursday.

French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, known for dressing stars like Madonna and who cultivated an irreverent image as the industry's "bad boy", said on Friday that a fashion show in Paris next week would be his last. Gaultier, 67, did not detail what would happen to his namesake brand, owned by private Spanish fashion and fragrance group Puig, only saying in a brief statement that it would continue to exist. "I will be celebrating my 50th anniversary in fashion with a major Haute Couture fashion show," Gaultier said in short statement.

Applications to become Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa's girlfriend have topped 20,000, streaming service AbemaTV said on Thursday, ahead of its documentary on his search for a "life partner" to take on his moon voyage. Maezawa, who will be the first private passenger on Elon Musk's SpaceX, has already generated huge social media buzz with a $9 million giveaway to his followers that secured his position as Japan's foremost Twitter celebrity. Have a cold one, have an "El Chapo" beer.

1. Supreme Court will hear whether states may punish electoral college members who ignore popular vote results  The Washington Post
2. 'Faithless elector': Supreme Court will hear case that could change how presidents are chosen  NBC News
3. Supreme Court to decide whether Electoral College voters have a right to differ from state popular vote  CNBC
4. Supreme Court to Look at Electoral College Rules  Wall Street Journal
5. Supreme Court will hear case that could decide future presidential elections  USA TODAY
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1. Trump adds Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz to impeachment defense team  CNN
2. Graham blasts the Dems, 'Impeachment is manufactured BS'  Fox News
3. Lewinsky offers colorful remark in apparent response to Starr joining Trump defense team  CNN
4. The Opening Moves in the Trump Impeachment Trial  The New York Times
5. Why the chief justice must ensure a fair presidential impeachment trial | TheHill  The Hill
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1. Trump scolds CNN's Jim Acosta for trying to disrupt Oval Office news conference: 'Quiet'  Fox News
2. Pompeo stonewalls as evidence emerges of possible surveillance of ex-Ukraine ambassador  CNN
3. Kellyanne Conway Melts Down Under Grilling by Fox News  The Daily Beast
4. All the President’s Thugs  The New York Times
5. No evidence ties Trump to troubling surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch  Washington Examiner
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1. One dead, one seriously injured in avalanche at Alpine Meadows near Tahoe  San Francisco Chronicle
2. Sheriff: One dead, one seriously injured in avalanche at Lake Tahoe ski resort  Fox News
3. 1 dead, 1 injured in avalanche at Tahoe ski resort  KCRA Sacramento
4. 1 dead, 1 hurt in avalanche at Lake Tahoe ski resort  KOIN.com
5. Sheriff: 1 dead, 1 hurt in Lake Tahoe avalanche Authorities say one person has died and  msnNOW
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1. Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasts U.S. "clowns" in rare personal message amid a crisis  CBS News
2. Iran's supreme leader calls Americans 'clowns' in first Friday prayers in eight years  The Telegraph
3. Iran's top leader strikes defiant tone amid month of turmoil  AOL
4. The US and Iran’s perpetual almost-war is unsustainable – and will end badly  The Independent
5. Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calls Trump a 'clown,' defends Iran's military  USA TODAY
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1. Ken Starr, Alan Dershowitz join Trump’s impeachment defense team  Fox News
2. Trump Legal Team to Add Starr and Dershowitz for Senate Trial  The New York Times
3. Opinion | Schumer's demands for impeachment witnesses could haunt the Democrats  Washington Post
4. Trump defense team for impeachment trial to include Ken Starr, Alan Dershowitz  New York Post
5. Trump's impeachment defense team to include Kenneth Starr, Alan Dershowitz  POLITICO
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1. FBI arrests three suspected white supremacists ahead of gun rights rally in Virginia  CBS News
2. Virginia Capital on Edge as F.B.I. Arrests Suspected Neo-Nazis Before Gun Rally  The New York Times
3. FBI Arrests 3 Men Linked To Violent White Supremacist Group Ahead Of Pro-Gun Rally | TIME  TIME
4. FBI arrests three more members of right wing extremist group 'The Base'  BBC News
5. FBI arrests suspected white supremacists ahead of rally  CBS Evening News
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