Manchin's next power play  —  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), America's ultimate swing voter, told me on “Axios on HBO” that he'll insist Republicans have more of a voice on President Biden's next big package than they did on the COVID stimulus.  —  The big picture: Manchin said he'll push …

Biden Will Establish A Gender Policy Council Within The White House  —  President Biden will mark International Women's Day on Monday by signing two executive orders geared toward promoting gender equity, both in the United States and around the world.  —  According to an administration official speaking …

Graham deals with Trump “dark side” to “harness the magic”  —  Sen. Lindsey Graham told “Axios on HBO” that Donald Trump has a “dark side” but he tries to “harness the magic” because he succeeded where Republican candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney failed.

Pence to give speech in SC, his 1st since leaving office  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — In his first public address since the end of the Trump administration, former Vice President Mike Pence is traveling to South Carolina, set to speak to a conservative Christian nonprofit in the state that plays …

Hitting Woke Herd Immunity?  —  We have become an absurd society obsessed with race but without any mechanism to develop a logical category of victimization and reparation.  —  Two recent polls suggest wokism is beginning to recede on a variety of fronts, from less trust in Black Lives Matter …

POLITICO Playbook: Does Fox care more about Dr. Seuss or stopping Biden's agenda?  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  Congress is about to pass and President JOE BIDEN is about to sign into law the greatest expansion of the welfare state since LBJ.  —  The bill extends far beyond stimulus payments …

They Had a Fun Pandemic.  You Can Read About It in Print.  —  A downtown New York crowd is pushing back against the homogenization of big social media.  —  Honor Levy, 23, with a piece of fiction published on The New Yorker's website and a short story collection coming out next year …

Josh Hawley Is ‘Not Going Anywhere.’ How Did He Get Here?  —  The senator's objection to the election results surprised some supporters.  But interviews with dozens of people close to him show his growing comfort with doing what it takes to hold on to power.

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, Ex-Wife of Jeff Bezos, Marries Seattle School Teacher  —  Ms. Scott, one of the world's wealthiest women, has married Dan Jewett, a science teacher at a private school  —  MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist formerly married to Jeff Bezos …

Hawley becomes GOP cash cow despite Jan. 6 blowback  —  Sen. Josh Hawley's effort to block certification of the 2020 election has been a fundraising boon — not just for him but his party, Axios has learned.  —  Why it matters: Corporate donors and establishment Republicans recoiled …

An FBI official told Congress the bureau can't monitor Americans' social media.  That's not true.  —  WASHINGTON — A senator had a simple question for the FBI's counterterrorism chief at a hearing last week about the Capitol riot.  —  Didn't the FBI see all those postings by extremists …

Diplomats Warned of a Coronavirus Danger in Wuhan—2 Years Before the Outbreak  —  On January 15, in its last days, President Donald Trump's State Department put out a statement with serious claims about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.  The statement said the U.S. intelligence community …

Accountant faces pressure to turn on Trump in criminal probe  —  (Reuters) - When lawyers asked Donald Trump more than a decade ago to identify who estimated values on some of his signature properties, he shrugged and pointed to his longtime accountant, Allen Weisselberg.

68% of Americans Support Biden's Pandemic Response, Most Say Lifting Restrictions Too Fast: Poll  —  More than two-thirds of Americans approve of President Joe Biden's response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday.

U.S. proposes interim power-sharing government with Taliban in Afghanistan  —  Worried that Afghan peace talks are going nowhere, and facing a May 1 deadline for the possible withdrawal of all U.S. troops, the Biden administration has proposed sweeping plans for an interim power-sharing government between …

Rescue Package Includes $86 Billion Bailout for Failing Pensions  —  Democrats pushed through a big aid measure for multiemployer pensions whose problems predate the pandemic.  —  Tucked inside the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday is an $86 billion aid package that has nothing to do with the pandemic.

Texas shows the way on COVID rationality  —  Last week, a US state decided to throw off the shackles of prolonged pandemic restrictions that have done very little good and much harm.  That state will reopen libraries, museums, houses of worship and most businesses at full capacity.  —  No uproar ensued.

Cuomo defiant as top New York lawmakers call on him to quit  —  NEW YORK (AP) — The two top Democrats in New York's legislature withdrew their support for Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment and undercounting COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

Democratic refusal to open schools is on the ballot in Virginia and New Jersey in 2021  —  President Biden claimed he would unite the country, turn down the temperature, and forge bipartisan consensus, but he has spent his first month in office unilaterally killing jobs through executive orders …

Switzerland referendum: Voters support ban on face coverings in public  —  Switzerland has narrowly voted in favour of banning face coverings in public, including the burka or niqab worn by Muslim women.  —  Official results showed the measure had passed by 51.2% to 48.8% in Sunday's referendum.

Conservative group to invest $10M on effort to tighten election security laws in 8 swing states  —  States targeted include Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Texas  —  Growing calls for Democrats to use filibuster exception to pass HR 1 voting bill  —  Heritage Action for America …

The power to change what we are: Social media as the new ‘Fifth Estate’  —  Could Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey ever have imagined that his social media platform would become a U.S. president's preferred manner of communicating with the American electorate and beyond?

What Is Happening to the Republicans?  —  In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in the past.  —  One of the oldest imperatives of American electoral politics is to define your opponents before they can define themselves.

Child Tax Credit, Proposed in Stimulus, Advances an Effort Years in the Making  —  The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package moving through Congress advances an idea that Democrats have been nurturing for decades: establishing a guaranteed income for families with children.

GOP's Kevin McCarthy dared to hold up racist Dr. Seuss imagery after his ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ stunt flops  —  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is being challenged to honestly address racially insensitive imagery found in six Dr. Seuss books after he posted a video of himself reading “Green Eggs and Ham.”

Vaccine-skeptical Trump country poses challenge to immunization push  —  The Biden administration can finally ship large quantities of coronavirus shots into the American heartland, where health officials are encountering a reservoir of vaccine skepticism among rural Americans who've adopted …