White House Counsel Has Cooperated Extensively With Mueller's Obstruction Inquiry  —  WASHINGTON — The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has cooperated extensively in the special counsel investigation, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry …

Trump caught weaponizing security clearances to kill bad news stories  —  Trump doesn't control the media from the inside — so he's taking a page from the modern authoritarian's playbook and trying to control it from the outside, instead.  —  After revoking the security clearance …

The Slippery Slope of Complicity  —  When was the last time centrist talking heads declared, “Donald Trump just became president” (because he bombed someone, or something like that)?  I think it's been more than a year.  At this point, you have to be a truly fanatical practitioner of bothsidesism …

Bill Maher criticizes social media bans: ‘Alex Jones gets to speak’  —  HBO talk-show host Bill Maher spoke out in defense of controversial right-wing host Alex Jones after Jones was suspended from several social media platforms, saying that everyone has a right to free speech.

ICE arrested a man driving his pregnant wife to give birth.  She drove herself to the hospital.  —  Maria del Carmen Venegas was on her way to deliver a baby boy, her fifth child, by Caesarean section in a planned operation Wednesday afternoon.  Her husband, Joel Arrona-Lara, was driving her car to the hospital.

Sex Abuse Report Lists a Beloved Pastor, and a Pennsylvania Church Reels  —  The Rev. John David Crowley was once adored by his parishioners.  Then came the news that he was among the priests who abused more than 1,000 children.  —  Everything felt normal until the news alert popped up on Cindy Depretis's cellphone Tuesday afternoon.

CBS News pollster reveals why ‘blue wave’ is unlikely  —  Anthony Salvanto was imprisoned in a windowless office on Nov. 8, 2016.  His phone was confiscated; guards escorted him to the bathroom.  And all he had to look at were numbers, numbers and more numbers.  —  It wasn't some sadistic punishment.

'I'm not going there': As Trump hurls racial invective, most Republicans stay silent  —  The president of the United States had just lobbed another racially charged insult — this time calling his former top African American adviser a “dog” — but Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) had no interest in talking about it.

South Africa farm seizure: Terrified white farmers plot escape as crackdown looms  —  A RECORD number of white South African farmers have put their land up for sale amid fears the ruling party is considering confiscating properties bigger than 25,000 acres.  —  Tensions among the country's …

Pioneer of modern redistricting dies at 75  —  For more than four decades, when Republicans needed strategic advice drawing political boundaries, the party turned to a small cadre of expert cartographers, trained in the rare art of redistricting.  At the heart of that group was Tom Hofeller.

Should you be eating diatomaceous earth, the fossilised remains of tiny marine animals?  —  We're used to influencers pushing out-there ‘superfoods’ (yes, that's in quotation marks because we don't think superfoods are a real thing).  —  Remember the charcoal hype?  Everyone's excitement for goji berries?

Alleged Russian Agent Marina Butina Moved to Virginia Jail, Unclear Why … Maria Butina, the Russian national accused of acting as a Kremlin agent in the United States, was abruptly moved from a jail in Washington to a lockup in Alexandria, Virginia, according to her lawyer.

Who Is Winning the War in Afghanistan?  Depends on Which One  —  Rod Nordland has been reporting on Afghanistan's travails since well before the American-led invasion that booted the Taliban from power in 2001.  For the past eight years, he has been a correspondent and then Kabul bureau chief …

Netflix's ‘Classless’ Cancellation of Michelle Wolf's ‘The Break’ … Well, that was fast.  On Friday, Netflix quietly pulled the plug on The Break with Michelle Wolf, one of the only “late-night” shows on “television” hosted by a female comedian, just three months after it premiered.