Manafort plans to plead guilty to second set of charges  —  President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes at a hearing Friday morning, officials said.  —  The planned plea, if accepted by a judge, would short-circuit his second trial scheduled …

Democratic Insurgents Topple 6 New York Senate Incumbents  —  Years of anger at a group of Democratic state senators who had collaborated with Republicans boiled over on Thursday, as primary voters ousted nearly all of them in favor of challengers who had called them traitors and sham progressives.

A Sexual-Misconduct Allegation Against the Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Stirs Tension Among Democrats in Congress  —  On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had referred a complaint regarding President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the F.B.I. for investigation.

State Department Spent $52,701 on Curtains for Nikki Haley's Residence  —  WASHINGTON — The State Department spent $52,701 last year buying customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in Nikki R. Haley's official residence as ambassador to the United Nations …

Bannon says right must support ‘RINOs’  —  's controversial former chief strategist Stephen Bannon is making an uneasy peace with the Republican establishment as he returns to the battlefield for the midterm elections.  —  Bannon, who made his name as a populist firebrand eager to attack GOP leaders …

“None of Them Is Where the President Is”: It's Trump vs. Trumpworld Over North Korea  —  Is this what today's “resistance” looks like inside the Trump Administration?  —  In the past few days, as a “tremendously big” and “tremendously wet” hurricane barrelled toward the Carolinas …

Lawyers “disgusted” by release of search warrant showing marijuana found in Botham Jean's apartment  —  DALLAS - Following the shooting death of Botham Jean by the hands of Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger, multiple search warrants were executed at Jean's apartment as part of the investigation.

Tucker Carlson Railroads ‘Creepy Porn Lawyer’ Michael Avenatti in Trainwreck Fox News Interview  —  The nearly 13-minute shoutfest represented everything that is wrong with America today.  —  Michael Avenatti has to be regretting going on Tucker Carlson's show right now.

The biggest threat to the GOP majority no one's talking about  —  Forty-four House Republicans are heading for the exits, and almost half of their seats have become top Democratic targets.  —  ISSAQUAH, Wash. — A glut of GOP retirements has House Republicans defending a record number …

University announces “White Awake” safe space for white students  —  The University of Maryland at College Park announced Friday a new diversity support group to create a “safe space” for white students to discuss their feelings about “interactions with racial and ethnic minorities.”

Republican Extremism Is Turning Democrats Left on Health Care  —  When President Obama urged Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, a plan modeled after Mitt Romney's health-care plan, conservatives decried it as a government takeover of health care.  Obama explained that his plan did no such thing.

September Governors Overview  —  Thanks to August primaries in a handful of key races, all the pieces of this year's gubernatorial puzzle are finally in place, and Republicans' exposure to losses in November has increased.  —  Republicans were already battling the trends that batter the party …

Congress passes bill to change Senate filing  —  Congress has passed and sent to the President the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019, which includes a provision that makes the Federal Election Commission (FEC) the official point of entry for all Senate filings.

Rep. Clay Higgins Wants to Drug Test Congress  —  Rep. Clay Higgins has an idea for how to get Congress to clean up its act: random drug screenings.  —  “I have observed some behavior that would cause one to wonder,” Higgins, a freshman GOP congressman from Louisiana, told the USA Today Network in an interview, apparently joking.

Suspect Indeed: Odd Moments From RT's Interview With The Novichok ‘Lads’  —  In going public as the Russian men accused by London of carrying out deadly poisonings on English soil, Ruslan Boshirov and Aleksandr Petrov both expressed and generated disbelief at the same time.

Barack Obama's return just reminds us how he fueled the distrust that led to Donald Trump  —  Who cares if Obama belatedly cheers for transparency and accountability?  He should admit that he made the government more dangerous at home and abroad.  —  Former president Barack Obama is back.

Hurricane Florence Has Made Landfall Near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina; Catastrophic Flash Flooding to Hammer the Carolinas, Appalachia  — Florence is expected to crawl near or along the coast of the Carolinas through Friday.  — This will produce catastrophic flash flooding and major river flooding.

The threat to democracy — from the left  —  For several years now, scholars have argued that the world is experiencing a “democratic recession.”  They have noted that the movement of countries toward democracy has slowed or stopped and even, in some places, reversed.