Jeff Flake Explains Himself  —  Jeff Flake barely slept the night before he upended the battle for the Supreme Court.  —  The Arizona senator had spent days agonizing over what to do with the explosive allegation that Judge Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted a young woman when he was in high school.

At Times, Kavanaugh's Defense Misleads or Veers Off Point  —  On Thursday, the adolescent jottings of Brett M. Kavanaugh in his high school yearbook were being scrutinized under the searing lights of a Supreme Court confirmation hearing, where he sat accused of committing a drunken sexual assault when he was 17.

The Most Important Least-Noticed Economic Event of the Decade  —  A localized recession in manufacturing-heavy areas can explain a lot of things.  —  Sometimes the most important economic events announce themselves with huge front-page headlines, stock market collapses and frantic intervention by government officials.

Bannon predicts ‘three-way race’ in 2020  —  Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon is predicting that the 2020 presidential race could become a three-way contest.  —  Bannon said on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday night that the race could involve a three-way battle between President Trump …

The train will continue, and you will be crushed  —  “I was ... wondering whether I would just be jumping in front of a train that was headed to where it was headed anyway, and that I would just be personally annihilated.”  —  I am so tired.  —  The train is very, very urgent.

How the F.B.I. Will Investigate the Kavanaugh Accusations  —  Can the bureau finish investigating in a week?  What about the allegations of other women?  Here's what to expect from the inquiry.  —  Here are three inconsistencies the F.B.I. investigation could address.