Comment on Activists: Syrian government steps up offensive in southwest

Today's bowl games, via CBS Sports, all times EASTERN. Peach Bowl -- (5) Texas vs. (4) Arizona State: 1 p.m. | ESPN. Mercedes-Benz Stadium -- Atlanta Rose Bowl -- (8) Ohio State vs. (1) Oregon: 5 p.m. | ESPN. Rose Bowl -- Pasadena, Calif. Sugar Bowl -- (7) Notre Dame vs. (2) Georgia: 8:45 p.m.

“President-elect Donald Trump said he is willing to make calls to lawmakers to drum up support for Mike Johnson should there be a risk to his speakership ahead of a vote expected Friday on Capitol Hill,” Politico reports. Punchbowl News: “So there are several questions to focus on. The first is obvious: Can Johnson win?

U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned Tuesday of “illegitimate activity” that he said threatened the independence of judges, Axios reports.

Russell Berman: “Until November 5, Cleveland held the distinction of being the only U. S. president to regain the office after voters turned him out: He won the White House in 1884, lost his reelection bid in 1888, and then won again in 1892. Donald Trump matched Cleveland’s achievement by winning last year’s presidential election, robbing him of his exclusive claim to history but also renewing interest in a president whom time has largely forgotten.” “The two men share little else in common.

“The flow of natural gas through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe was cut off early Wednesday after Ukraine refused to renew an agreement that allowed for the transit of Russian gas through its territory,” the New York Times reports. “The move to suspend the flow of gas through a pipeline that had carried Soviet and then Russian gas to Europe for decades is part of a broader campaign by Ukraine and its Western allies to undermine Moscow’s ability to fund its war effort and to limit the Kremlin’s ability to use energy as leverage in Europe.”

We’re still waiting for confirmation that the mass murder in New Orleans was an ISIS attack, but we know for sure that Belgian and German violence was Islamic.