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.

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.

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 …

The Watergate ‘Road Map’ and the Coming Mueller Report  —  According to countless media accounts and President Trump's own lawyers, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is writing some kind of report on allegations of presidential obstruction of justice.  Exactly what sort of report this may be is unclear.

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.

Papadopoulos Addresses Key Question Looming Over Collusion Conspiracy Theory  — In an exclusive interview, George Papadopoulos says nobody on the Trump campaign asked him to follow up on a professor's claims to know about Hillary Clinton emails.  — Papadopoulos says he cannot remember …

“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 …

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.

Skripal Poisoning Suspect's Passport Data Shows Link to Security Services  —  Read The Insider Russian report on this same topic here.  —  An ongoing Bellingcat investigation conducted jointly with The Insider Russia has confirmed through uncovered passport data that the two Russian nationals identified …

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.

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.

The opposite of Trump isn't Bernie Sanders.  It's this guy.  —  His presidency is defined by self-absorption, fondness for authoritarians, contempt for democracy and an erratic personality.  To the extent that President Trump has any animating ideology, he seems enamored of a mishmash …

The Shame of the MeToo Men  —  I feel bad for them.  Do they feel bad for women?  —  Here's a confession: I feel bad for a lot of the men caught out by the #MeToo movement.  —  Not all of them — not Harvey Weinstein or former CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves — but the slightly less powerful …