A terrorist assault on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, combined with Germany’s arrest of five suspected Islamist militants accused of plotting a Christmas-market attack, is renewing fears that Western democracies are entering a more volatile era marked by ideologically driven violence.  The incidents, striking symbolic holiday gatherings on opposite sides of the world, have intensified debate across the United States and Europe over whether open societies are prepared...

Former special counsel Jack Smith told House lawmakers during a closed-door deposition Wednesday that politics played no role in his investigations and prosecutions of President Donald Trump, directly countering accusations leveled at him by Republicans. Smith, speaking to House Judiciary Committee members on Capitol Hill during the deposition, also took full ownership of the two criminal cases he brought against Trump regarding the 2020 election and alleged retention...

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump in 2021, announced on Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in 2026. “This decision comes with no reservations or remorse, only gratitude for the tremendous opportunity to have represented my home state in Congress,” Newhouse wrote in a statement. “After over 25 years of public service, including more than a decade...