Despite His Billions, Bloomberg Busts  —  His rivals were ready.  He was not.  —  You can buy ads and saturate the airwaves with them.  You can buy allies, especially with the right budget.  —  But you can't buy a debate performance, and that's why Mike Bloomberg's on Wednesday night mattered so much.

Imagine That Donald Trump Has Almost No Control Over Justice  —  Congress should transform the department into an independent agency untouched by the president's whims.  —  Mr. Sunstein teaches at Harvard Law School.  —  In view of the intensifying controversy over the politicization …

Trump Names Richard Grenell as Acting Head of Intelligence  —  The move places a loyalist atop the intelligence agencies that the president has long battled.  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday named Richard Grenell, a vocal loyalist who quickly antagonized the German establishment …

Germany shooting: ‘Far-right extremist’ carried out shisha bars attacks  —  A suspected far-right extremist has killed at least nine people in attacks on two shisha bars in a city in western Germany, officials say.  —  Chancellor Angela Merkel said there were many signs the attacker in Hanau had acted out of racism.

Bolton: Testimony wouldn't have changed impeachment outcome  —  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former national security adviser John Bolton on Wednesday denounced the House's impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump as “grossly partisan” and said his testimony would not have changed Trump's acquittal …

Group glues MAGA hats on pigeons as protest ahead of Nevada debate  —  A group has released a number of pigeons with MAGA hats glued to their heads in downtown Las Vegas ahead of the Democratic debate and President Trump's visit to the city Wednesday.  —  An apparently satirical press release …

In speech, Mulvaney says Republicans are hypocritical on deficits  —  Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Wednesday night that the Republican Party is hypocritical when it comes to deficits, according to audio of an overseas speech obtained by The Washington Post.

The 11 Criminals Granted Clemency by Trump Had One Thing in Common: Connections  —  The process bypassed the formal procedures used by past presidents and was driven instead by friendship, fame, personal empathy and a shared sense of persecution.  —  WASHINGTON — Early Tuesday morning, Bernard B. Kerik's telephone rang.

Political ads are flooding Hulu, Roku and other streaming services, revealing loopholes in federal election laws  —  With more Americans cutting the cord, watchdogs worry that voters lack a full understanding of who's trying to influence them  —  The ad that interrupted some Hulu subscribers …

Trump Job Approval Steady at 49%  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump's job approval remains elevated at 49% in the latest Gallup poll, the same as in the previous poll and up five points from an early January poll conducted before Trump was acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial.

Trump's Beautiful Proposal for Federal Architecture  —  I hope members of the National Civic Art Society are just perverse enough to be rather pleased with themselves right about now.  The CAS is the group of activists behind the draft executive order informally called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again.”

Facebook must not be allowed to dictate how it gets regulated  —  Mark Zuckerberg has outlined his proposal for social media regulation.  The bottom line?  Passing the buck  —  What happens on Facebook matters.  The social network connects billions of users around the world …