This is the Way Paul Ryan's Speakership Ends  —  The Republican leader is walking away.  Don't ask him about Trump anymore.  —  Paul Ryan has a thing about punctuality and routine.  They bring a sense of order to the chaos that he otherwise must try to maneuver through.

New Details About Wilbur Ross' Business Point To Pattern Of Grifting  —  I write about Donald Trump, the people around him, and how they affect business.  Before he won the presidency, I covered billionaires, industrial America and sports.  My favorite stories focus on the hands-dirty businesses between …

Giuliani preparing letter to Mueller expressing ‘real reluctance’ over obstruction questions  —  Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's lead attorney for the ongoing special counsel investigation, said Monday that Trump's legal team is planning to send a letter to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III …

Rick Gates Testifies He Committed Crimes With Paul Manafort  —  ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Rick Gates, Paul Manafort's right-hand man for years, began testifying against his former boss on Monday in federal court in Alexandria, Va. He is considered the most important witness in Mr. Manafort's trial on tax and bank fraud charges.

City passes proposal to remove Trump's star from Hollywood Walk of Fame  —  The city of West Hollywood approved a proposal to remove President Donald Trump's star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, citing recent costly vandalism and recent demonstrations around the star.

Now the Trump administration wants to limit citizenship for legal immigrants  —  The most significant change to legal immigration in decades could affect millions of would-be citizens, say lawyers and advocates.  —  WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expected to issue a proposal …

Saudi Arabia's bold move has nothing to do with Canada  —  Bessma Momani is Professor at the University of Waterloo and Balsillie School of International Affairs.  She's a senior fellow at Centre for International Governance and Innovation and non-resident fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington.

Here are six things to watch in today's elections  —  First Read is your briefing from “Meet the Press” and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.  —  WASHINGTON — Voters head to the polls for primary elections in Kansas, Michigan …

No One Voted for Facebook and Apple to Deal With Alex Jones  —  On Sunday, Apple announced that it was removing most of Alex Jones' content from its podcast feeds.  The chief of the website and broadcaster Infowars, Jones is a longtime conspiracy theorist whose prominence has risen recently thanks …

Mike Pence's moral case for removing a president from office  —  (CNN)Vice President Mike Pence once argued the president of the United States should be held to the highest moral standards to determine whether he should resign or be removed from office.  —  Pence made the argument in two columns …

Only one other president has ever acted this desperate  —  William D. Ruckelshaus served as acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and as deputy attorney general in 1973.  He was also administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1970 to 1973 and 1983 to 1985.

Exclusive poll: Trump's iron wall of defense  —  Data: SurveyMonkey online poll conducted August 1-3, 2018 among a total sample of 2,421 adults living in the United States.  Margins of error at the 95% confidence level are ±3 percentage points for Total, ±9.5 for African-American women …

GOP fears steep losses in state legislatures  —  LOS ANGELES — Republicans hoping to hold on to their majorities in state legislative chambers across the country are nervously eying President Trump  —  's anemic approval rating, concerned that a wave of voter anger could undo years of gains.

“There Aren't That Many Places Where She Feels Safe”: Hope Hicks Plots Her Next Act  —  Donald Trump's former communications director made an unusual appearance on Air Force One last weekend.  Does she want back in, or is Hicks ready to step into her next phase of life?

In a strikingly ignorant tweet, Trump gets almost everything about California wildfires wrong  —  No one would mistake President Trump for an expert on climate change or water policy, but a tweet he issued late Sunday about California's wildfires deserves some sort of award for most glaring misstatements …

LISTEN: Don Jr.'s Line Drops After Ingraham Asks About Conflicting Statements on Trump Tower Meeting  —  President Donald Trump's wonderful son Don Jr. called into Laura Ingraham's radio show on Monday, and had some well-timed technical difficulties.  —  Ingraham questioned Don Jr …

Jared Kushner Used To Personally Order The Deletion Of Stories At His Newspaper  —  Jared Kushner personally ordered a software developer at his newspaper to remove stories critical of his friends and real estate peers.  —  Now a senior White House adviser and son-in-law to President Trump …

School board asks judge to hold Sun Sentinel in contempt over school-shooter report  —  In a court filing, the Broward County School Board alleges the South Florida Sun Sentinel intentionally published information it knew a judge had ordered to be redacted.  (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) South Florida Sun Sentinel

West Virginia to introduce mobile phone voting for midterm elections  —  Why voting in the US is so hard  —  West Virginians serving overseas will be the first in the country to cast federal election ballots using a smartphone app, a move designed to make voting in November's election easier for troops living abroad.

Betsy DeVos's summer home deserves a special place in McMansion Hell  —  Kate Wagner dissects the shingle-style Michigan summer home of the education secretary.  —  Two weeks ago, somebody untied Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's $40 million yacht from its mooring.

Dean Heller says GOP made ‘big mistake’ by tackling Obamacare first  —  RENO, Nev. — Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., believes Republican lawmakers made a “big mistake” by pushing to repeal the Affordable Care Act as their first big legislative move at the outset of the Trump administration.

The Nation Magazine Betrays a Poet — and Itself  —  I was the magazine's poetry editor for 35 years.  Never once did we apologize for publishing a poem.  —  Ms. Schulman was poetry editor at The Nation from 1971 to 2006.  —  During the 35 years that I edited poetry for The Nation magazine …

Failed Prognostications of Climate Alarm … It has been 30 years since the alarm bell was sounded for manmade global warming caused by modern industrial society.  And predictions made on that day—and ever since—continue to be falsified in the real world.

Trump: U.S. seeking ‘world peace, nothing less’ with Iran sanctions  —  President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday that he is seeking “world peace” by imposing “the most biting sanctions ever” against Iran, the latest example of escalating tensions between the two nations.

A Top Syrian Scientist Is Killed, and Fingers Point at Israel  —  JERUSALEM — Aziz Asbar was one of Syria's most important rocket scientists, bent on amassing an arsenal of precision-guided missiles that could be launched with pinpoint accuracy against Israeli cities hundreds of miles away.

Trump's political base is weaker than it seems, our new study finds  —  In July, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo faced tough questions from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers over President Trump's recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Republican criticism …