I don't know Kavanaugh the judge.  But Kavanaugh the carpool dad is one great guy.  —  Julie O'Brien lives in Chevy Chase.  —  Much has been written about Brett Kavanaugh as President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, but the discussion has focused on his record as a federal judge and in his legal career.

GOP Senators Tell Contradictory Stories About Moscow Trip … A top Republican senator shocked his colleagues when he suggested, after returning from a trip to Moscow with fellow GOP lawmakers, that U.S. sanctions targeting Russia were not working and the Kremlin's election interference was really no big deal.

Mike Flynn Joins Global Consulting Firm  —  Former Trump adviser is awaiting sentencing for lying to federal investigators  —  Former national security adviser Mike Flynn has a new job: He has joined a global lobbying and investment advisory firm.  —  As he awaits sentencing for lying …

President Trump makes good on his threat to target an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports with tariffs, ramping up the trade war  —  President Trump escalated his trade war with China Tuesday, identifying an added $200 billion in Chinese products that he intends to hit with import tariffs.

Kavanaugh's Papers Don't Help Trump Avoid Indictment  —  Opponents of the Supreme Court nominee are reading him all wrong.  —  Some Democrats and advocacy groups are saying President Donald Trump picked Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court because of Kavanaugh's view …

Trump Administration Returns to ‘Catch and Release’ of Migrants  —  WASHINGTON — The government said on Tuesday that it would release hundreds of migrant families wearing ankle bracelet monitors into the United States, effectively returning to the “catch and release” policy that President Trump promised to eliminate.

Facebook is slapped with first fine for Cambridge Analytica scandal  —  Facebook is staring down its first fine for allowing Cambridge Analytica to improperly access data about millions of people, potentially opening the door for governments around the world to slap the social media giant …

EXCLUSIVE: Ocasio-Cortez with another surprise election win - in a district she wasn't even running in … Things are going so well for insurgent Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that she's winning primaries she didn't even enter.  —  In addition to recently …

Trump Is Training His Base to Hate NATO and Like Putin  —  President Trump tweeted today that America's NATO allies have been “delinquent for many years in payments” and should “reimburse the U.S.” That is not how NATO works.  It is not a protection scheme where the allies pay the United States.

Government Told Immigrant Parents to Pay for DNA Tests to Be Reunited With Kids: Advocate … DALLAS—U.S. government officials recently told four immigrant women that they must pay for DNA tests in order to be reunited with their children, according to the shelter that housed the women.

“Trump Is Too Chickenshit to Fire Kelly Himself”: With Bill Shine Producing His West Wing Reality Show, Trump Prepares to Dump His Chief of Staff  —  Now that Shine is in the saddle, it's Mooch 2.0: Kelly is being humiliated, Sarah Sanders has been deemed low energy, and the biggest winner of all is, naturally, Sean Hannity.

Brutal poll: Democrats' Senate dream slips away  —  To win the Senate, Democrats need to keep all 10 seats they're defending in states that President Trump won in 2016 — plus pick up two more seats.  —  Why it matters: That's not happening.  A new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll of key states shows Dems …

Trump's neediness is at the core of his diplomacy  —  Watching President Trump's diplomatic maneuvers — in Singapore last month and during the run-up to his meetings over the next week in Brussels and Helsinki — I wonder whether analysts have been making a mistake explaining his bargaining style …

Business Insider Pulls Conservative Column About Scarlett Johansson Playing Trans Man … Business Insider removed a post about portrayals of trans individuals in Hollywood after staff complained internally about the column, saying the article did not meet the publication's standards.

Manafort Loses Effort to Keep Storage-Unit Evidence Out of Trial  —  Paul Manafort lost a second attempt to block prosecutors from introducing evidence seized from his Virginia storage unit at one of his trials.  —  U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, in Alexandria, Virginia …

Shopping struggles: These 11 retailers may not survive 2018  —  The retail apocalypse isn't over yet.  —  The retail apocalypse is entering its ninth year.  —  Many North American retailers were wiped out in the “retail apocalypse” which started in 2010.

Paula White: There's a Difference Between Jesus as a Refugee and Those Who Enter the US Illegally … Amid the hysteria surrounding the separation of immigrant families who recently entered the United States illegally, one of President Donald Trump's spiritual advisers, Paula White …

Trump's Office of Refugee Resettlement Is Budgeting for a Surge in Child Separations  —  The Office of Refugee Resettlement is preparing for the possibility of another surge in family separations.  Internal documents obtained by Slate show that ORR has modeled a scenario …

Israeli, Saudi, and Emirati Officials Privately Pushed for Trump to Strike a “Grand Bargain” with Putin  —  During a private meeting shortly before the November, 2016, election, Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, floated to a longtime American interlocutor what sounded, at the time, like an unlikely grand bargain.

Man, 92, beaten with brick on street, told to ‘go back’  —  “A 92-year-old senior citizen, what can he do to anybody?  There's no harm that he meant,” the grandson of Rodolfo Rodriguez asked.  —  A 92-year-old man who was thrown to the ground, stomped on by strangers on the Fourth of July …

What we buy can be used to predict our politics, race or education — sometimes with more than 90 percent accuracy  —  The cultural divide is real, and it's huge.  Americans live such different lives that what we buy, do or watch can be used to predict our politics, race, income …