How Dems ended up where they swore they wouldn't be: Negotiating on the debt limit  —  President Joe Biden's party slowly relented on its insistence that any hike be clean.  And progressives are aghast at the concessions the GOP is poised to extract.  —  Looking back on the first two years …

Republicans deploy new playbook for abortion bans, citing political backlash  —  GOP lawmakers in North Carolina and Nebraska are casting new 12-week bans as “mainstream,” while Democrats say they are “cruel and extreme”  —  Nebraska antiabortion groups and GOP lawmakers were stunned.

Dems championed Chicago-area man now charged with attempted murder after Obama commuted his sentence  —  Sens. Warren, Durbin praised Alton Mills, who's accused in connection with a freeway shooting  —  A Chicago-area man whose life sentence in prison was commuted by then-President Barack Obama in 2015 …

EXCLUSIVE: Ex Playboy model Karen McDougal shares intimate details of her ‘ten-month affair’ with Donald Trump, claiming he told her he loved her and SHE ended it - moving on with Bruce Willis - in explosive interview with Daily Mail  — Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who claims …

Man with AR-15-style rifle by bus stop says he wasn't out to terrify kids  —  The man stood in a red Make America Great Again baseball cap pointing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle toward the sidewalk.  —  An elementary school student ran home crying.  Parents were terrified.  Neighbors called the police.

Air DeSantis: The Private Jets and Secret Donors Flying Him Around  —  As the Florida governor hopscotched the country preparing to run for president, a Michigan nonprofit paid the bills.  It won't say where it got the money.  —  For Ron DeSantis, Sunday, Feb. 19, was the start …

The Supreme Court Is Hiding Important Decisions From You  —  A new book argues the court is undermining its credibility by rendering so many unsigned and unexplained decisions on its so-called ‘shadow docket.’  —  As the Supreme Court begins to release its written opinions from its most recent term …

A look inside the playbook on transgender health bills  —  Aaron and Lacey Jennen's roots in Arkansas run deep.  They've spent their entire lives there, attended the flagship state university, and are raising a family.  So they're heartbroken at the prospect of perhaps having to move …

Mother of 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody says pleas for hospital care were denied  —  The mother of an 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody said Friday that agents repeatedly ignored pleas to hospitalize her medically fragile daughter as she felt pain in her bones …

Hunter Biden cried poverty but still flew to his child-support hearing on a private jet for at least $55K  —  Fly me a river.  —  Hunter Biden cried poverty at his Arkansas child-support hearing earlier this month — despite flying to and from the courthouse aboard a luxury private jet owned by his close friend Kevin Morris.

Trump Is Up In The Middle Of The Night Obsessing Over Jack Smith  —  Trump was posting in the middle of the night on Friday/early Saturday about Special Counsel Jack Smith.  —  Trump wrote on Truth Social: … The poll that Trump referred to didn't show him way up on Biden.

Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same.  But why?  —  Scientists think a traumatized orca initiated the assault on boats after a “critical moment of agony” and that the behavior is spreading among the population through social learning.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 19, 2023  —  Click here to see ISW's interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  This map is updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.  —  Click here to access ISW's archive of interactive time-lapse maps of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Justice Gorsuch says COVID emergency orders among ‘greatest intrusions on civil liberties’  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court got rid of a pandemic-related immigration case with a single sentence.  —  Justice Neil Gorsuch had a lot more to say, leveling harsh criticism of how governments …

A standstill settles in as Democrats fret over Feinstein's health  —  The California senator is casting votes and attending committee hearings but has at times seemed confused by reporters' questions  —  When Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) returned to the Capitol this month …

Russia to take into account West's plans to send F-16 aircraft to Kiev — senior diplomat  —  Alexander Grushko added that Western countries continue down the path of escalation  —  MOSCOW, May 20.  /TASS/.  Western countries continue down the path of escalation and Moscow will take their plans …

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema hit with complaint of lavish campaign spending  —  A group seeking to oust U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has filed a formal complaint with election authorities about her campaign spending habits, accusing her of “living a lifestyle of luxury financed by her special interest donors …

Strange alliances emerge in Tennessee as the GOP governor pushes for gun reform  —  Gov. Bill Lee's insistence on taking action highlights how gun control has become a major tension point for the GOP in overwhelmingly conservative Tennessee.  —  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's decision last week …

Moscow bans ‘500 Americans’ from Russia including CNN journalists  —  Former United States President Barack Obama, late night television host Stephen Colbert, and CNN's Erin Burnett are some of the “500 Americans” Russia has banned from entering the country.

‘Live laugh lesbian’: Target's cheeky Pride collection strikes again  —  While much of the Pride merchandise that debuts around June falls flat, Target's has managed to break through the noise — and spark an onslaught of memes.  —  As queer Americans face a historic onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation …

They're openly saying it: Brexit has failed.  But what comes next may be very dark indeed  —  The ‘remoaner elite’, the civil service, the BBC, universities, unions, refugees: anything is blamed but Brexit itself  —  t lasts no more than a second, but it is a moment for the ages.