On the updated version of Hot off the Wire (posted Dec. 20 at 6:33 a.m. CT):

• The House Jan. 6 committee is urging the Justice Department to bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for the violent 2021 Capitol insurrection, calling for accountability for the former president and “a time of reflection and reckoning.”

• The Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to publicly release years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

• The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook parts of Northern California, jolting people awake, and thousands were without power afterward.
• Dangerous cold and snow continue to move across the United States.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the recent focus of some of the most intense fighting of Russia’s war.

• President Joe Biden, speaking to guests gathered for a Hanukkah reception Monday at the White House, said “silence is complicity” and added that it’s imperative that hate, violence and antisemitism are condemned by the nation.

• Biden noted that Hanukkah comes “in the midst of rising and emboldened antisemitism at home” in the U.S. Biden told guests the "venom is becoming too normal.” The Anti-Defamation League tracked 2,717 antisemitic instances of assault, harassment and vandalism last year, a 34% increase over the previous year.

• Jurors in Los Angeles have found Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape at his second sexual misconduct trial.

• Terry Hall, lead singer of ska band The Specials, has died at the age of 63. The band announced late Monday that Hall had died after a brief illness.
• R. Kelly’s onetime manager Donnell Russell has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for calling in a shooting threat that halted a screening of a damning documentary about the R&B star.

• In sports, the Packers warmed up their playoff hopes, Donovan Mitchell exceled in his first game against his former team, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo starred in their team's wins, and the Bruins kept rolling.

On the original version of Hot off the Wire (posted Dec. 19 at 4:30 p.m. CT):

• The House Jan. 6 committee is urging the Justice Department to bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for the violent 2021 Capitol insurrection, calling for accountability for the former president and “a time of reflection and reckoning.”
• Dr. Anthony Fauci is excited by the prospect of next-generation coronavirus vaccines but worried about health misinformation as he prepares to step down at the end of the month.
• A second person has died after a crush at a London's concert venue last week.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare trip to close ally Belarus as his forces pursue their campaign to bombard Ukraine with missiles and drones amid a broad battlefield stalemate almost 10 months into the war.
• Stocks closed lower on Wall Street as investors brace for higher interest rates from central banks to fight inflation.
• Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have settled their defamation lawsuits following a high-profile trial earlier this year in which the former couple accused each other of physical and verbal abuse.
• A man has been arrested after Nazi symbols were carved into a menorah in Beverly Hills, California.
• Millions of Twitter users asked Elon Musk to step down as head of Twitter in a poll the billionaire created and promised to abide by.
• Police say a serial burglar has been caught attempting to poach Christmas presents from actor Robert De Niro’s Manhattan home.
• The Vatican has defrocked an anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it says were “blasphemous communications on social media” as well as “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.

—The Associated Press