* France's far-right National Front party makes historic gains in Sunday's elections, securing at least six regions. * Five takeaways from France’s regional elections. * Clinton on reining in Wall Street: Strengthen the Volcker Rule, reward whistleblowers, extend the statute of limitations for major crimes to 10
* Obama will veto, but the Senate just killed the ACA, defunded Planned Parenthood, and voted against denying terror suspects firearms. * A bill filed in Missouri requires those seeking firearms to face the same scrutiny as those seeking abortions. * The Massachusetts medical examiner takes an average of 242 days to find
* On a state-by-state basis, mass shootings like in San Bernardino do little to change gun control laws. * Rahm Emanuel threatened to withhold Chicago resources from black communities if the Laquan McDonald protests turned violent. * GOP's Senate campaign branch warns those up for reelection to stay away
* Much of the $260M in nonlethal military gear—e.g., Humvees—the US supplied to Eastern Ukraine rebels is falling apart. * Profile of ex-Chicago PD superintendent from summer 2012, as the city's murder rates were rising quickly. * Kern County, Calif., is home to America's deadliest
* New cases of diabetes in the US decline—we either reversed course or simply peaked. * Why black Americans with diabetes are more likely to receive amputations than white patients. * Shopping as a black woman at a gun show in rural Indiana. * In-state college football rivalries are class warfare, because
* French police teargas crowds and arrest more than 200 ahead of the Paris Climate Conference, which begins today. * UN climate conferences are soap operas. * Elizabeth Kolbert profiles Christina Figueres, who is facilitating the Paris climate conference. * "In terms of the [Paris] negotiations, they're largely a sham."
* Finally, the Pentagon admits the cause of the Kunduz bombing: "human error." * Businesses against Black Friday are principled—but also practical. * Son turns in his financier father as Petrobras scandal envelops three more of Brazil's most powerful people. * Giving people free money is the best solution
* "The lack of sound, and the cold way the officers moved...made a horrifying act seem almost mundane." * The final stop for north-bound refugees is an arctic town as alien to newcomers as they are are to the villagers. * "What does ISIS want," behavioral economics
* Corporations salivate at Republican shutdown over Syrian refugees to pass raft of business-friendly legislation. * Foreign-policy experts keep their heads in the sand and their fingers on the trigger. * A poet remembers his chemotherapy, when he thought all drugs would be as harmless and effective as his mother'
* While France seeks a US-Russia coalition against ISIS, the US is training Ukraine to fight Russia. * "Political correctness keeps us from talking honestly about the refugees." * Canada's Syrian refugee plan: only women, children, and families. No unaccompanied men. * Anonymous's latest PsyOps internet offensive:
