Johnson's spending holdouts  —  Presented by IN TODAY'S EDITION:  — Johnson, White House hammer holdouts  — Thune taps a debt-limit whisperer  — More tax complications on GOP agenda  —  EAT LIKE A LAWMAKER — POLITICO Magazine is out this morning with a rundown of where Republicans …

Ontario suspending 25% surcharge on provincially generated electricity purchased by U.S. states  —  Move comes after Trump threatened Ontario ‘will pay a financial price’ for levy  —  Ontario is suspending its promise to add a 25 per cent surcharge on exports of electricity to some U.S. states …

What Really Happened With the DDoS Attacks That Took Down X  —  Elon Musk said a “massive cyberattack” disrupted X on Monday and pointed to “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area” as the source of the attack.  Security experts say that's not how it works.

Marco Rubio Personally Signed Off to Detain Mahmoud Khalil on ‘Foreign Policy Grounds,’ Sources Confirm  —  Marco Rubio personally signed off on the arrest of Palestinian Columbia University student protest negotiator Mahmoud Khalil, using a narrow, little-used authority given to the secretary of state …

Ukraine willing to accept 30-day ceasefire with Russia as U.S. lifts freeze on aid and intelligence  —  Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — The U.S. and Ukraine said Kyiv would accept a 30-day ceasefire with Russia after talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with Washington pledging to immediately lift …

CEOs are confused by Trump trade war, deepening economic unease  —  Trump will address business leaders Tuesday as stock markets continue sliding over concerns about his tariff policies.  —  More than 100 of the nation's top business leaders will hear directly from President Donald …

USAID official tells remaining staffers: Shred and burn all your documents  —  The mass document destruction order marks the latest step to dismantle the agency.  —  A senior official at USAID instructed the agency's remaining staff to convene at the agency's now-former headquarters …

Education Department to Lay Off Half of Staff  —  Ahead of the announcement, the department told staff that DC offices would be closed on Wednesday and reopen Thursday for “security reasons.”  —  The Education Department is moving to lay off half of its more than 4,000 employees Tuesday evening …

White House prepares high-profile purchase of Tesla auto  —  Trump aides were arranging to bring a Tesla to the White House on Tuesday.  —  The White House announced a plan Tuesday to promote President Donald Trump's potential purchase of a Tesla, the car produced by Elon Musk …

USDA halts more than $100M in funding for University of Maine System programs  —  The move temporarily pauses USDA funding for Maine's university system after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off the state over Maine's decision to allow transgender athletes to compete in sports.

Remembering Kevin Drum  —  My friend and colleague, who died this month, was not only a pioneer blogger but also a journalist who should have won the Pulitzer Prize.  —  One day in early 2004, I called my senior editor at the Washington Monthly, Josh Marshall, with a proposition …

How the US economy went from booming to a recession scare in only 20 days  —  New York CNN —  Just 20 days ago, the US stock market was sitting at all-time highs.  The US economy appeared to be growing at a solid pace.  And a recession was nowhere in sight.  —  Now, the R-word is seemingly everywhere.

His Daughter Was America's First Measles Death in a Decade  —  A visit with a family in mourning  —  Peter greeted me in the mostly empty gravel parking lot of a Mennonite church on the outskirts of Seminole, a small city in West Texas surrounded by cotton and peanut fields.

What lies behind the dramatic shift in markets  —  The sudden change in investors' growth expectations for the three largest economies is upending many consensus trades  —  The writer is president of Queens' College, Cambridge, and an adviser to Allianz and Gramercy

Democracy Dies in Dumbness  —  It used to be common knowledge — not just among policymakers and economists but also high school students with a grasp of history — that tariffs are a terrible idea.  The phrase “beggar thy neighbor” meant something to regular people, as did the names …

Elon Musk Has Wanted the Government Shutdown  —  Sources tell WIRED that Elon Musk has wanted a government shutdown in part because it would potentially make it easier to eliminate the jobs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers.  —  As President Donald Trump has been trying …

‘Big one to eliminate’: Elon Musk spotlights cost of federal entitlements amid fear of cuts to programs  —  Elon Musk on Monday highlighted the cost of federal spending on entitlement programs, the latest sign of the tech billionaire and presidential adviser's focus to downsize …

The Office That Investigates Disparities in Veterans' Care Is Being “Liquidated”  —  The closure effectively hobbles the VA's efforts to investigate and eliminate long-standing racial inequities that the department itself has acknowledged.  “The consequences will be dire, wide-reaching and deadly,” an advocate for Black veterans said.

Trump's Latest Weapon Against Critics: Destroying Their Lawyers  —  from the first-they-came-for-the-lawyers dept  —  When a president uses executive power to not just blacklist but effectively destroy a major law firm, solely for representing political opponents, it means he's given …