McConnell reactivates his connection to Biden — with a sharp debt warning  —  Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell's two-man emergency hotline had gone silent — until now.  —  The Senate minority leader on Monday morning prodded the president to talk his party into raising the debt ceiling without the GOP …

Florida Gov. DeSantis' wife diagnosed with breast cancer  —  Fox News Flash top headlines for October 4  —  EXCLUSIVE - Casey DeSantis, the wife of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  —  “I am saddened to report that Florida's esteemed First Lady …

Scoop: House Republican says he's facing federal prosecution  —  The top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee's agriculture panel says he's facing federal prosecution, Axios has learned.  —  Driving the news: In a new fundraising page for his legal expense fund, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry …

USPS Begins Postal Banking Pilot Program  —  The test allows customers to cash business or payroll checks at the post office and place them onto a gift card.  —  The United States Postal Service (USPS) has taken the most dramatic step in a half-century to re-establish a postal banking system in America.

The Facebook Whistleblower, Frances Haugen, Says She Wants to Fix the Company, Not Harm It  —  The former Facebook employee says her goal is to help prompt change at the social-media giant  —  The former Facebook Inc. employee who gathered documents that formed the foundation …

Breaking Up with the Democratic Party  —  I changed my voting registration from ‘Democrat’ to ‘Independent’ today.  It was a strangely emotional experience.  —  I registered as a Democrat back in 1995 when I was 20 years old to vote for Bill Clinton's re-election.  It was a no-brainer for me.

Schumer wants deal on details of spending package ‘within a matter of days’  —  Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is trying to hit the gas after Democrats faced a significant setback last week over President Biden's agenda, failing to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill …

Exclusive: Stephanie Grisham says ‘I regret’ enabling culture of dishonesty in Trump White House  —  The former Trump aide spoke exclusively to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.  —  In an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Stephanie Grisham, one of former President Donald Trump's …

Covid, in Retreat  —  New cases in the U.S. have fallen by more than a third in the past month.  —  Covid-19 is once again in retreat.  —  The reasons remain somewhat unclear, and there is no guarantee that the decline in caseloads will continue.  But the turnaround is now large enough …

One-time presidential candidate Evan McMullin will mount an independent bid to oust Republican Sen. Mike Lee, Robert Gehrke reports  —  A McMullin candidacy challenges the rigid two-party standard, which leaves too many Utahns unrepresented.  —  Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin speaks …

Trump, talked out of announcing a 2024 bid for now, settles on a wink-and-nod unofficial candidacy  —  As turmoil in Afghanistan reached a crescendo in August, Donald Trump began talking again with advisers about whether he should announce his 2024 campaign for president right away.

New: Whitmer vetoes GOP bills part of ‘calculated misinformation’ about the 2020 election  —  Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday vetoed three Republican election bills introduced after former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election as part of a nationwide right-wing effort to restrict voting and change election rules.

Jan. 6 rioters exploited little-known Capitol weak spots: A handful of unreinforced windows  —  Four major access points that Jan. 6 rioters used to break into and overtake the U.S. Capitol had something unusual in common: They were among a dozen or so ground-floor windows and glass-paned doors that had not been recently reinforced.

Ex-U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, sunk by ‘legitimate rape’ remark, dies  —  Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape” sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, died late Sunday.

Conservatives everywhere should fear a Canada-like future  —  I have a hideous premonition of the future.  I see Canada's woke politics spreading across the rest of the Anglosphere but divorced from that vast country's redeeming qualities of courtesy, generosity, and humor.

Matthew Dowd Gets Snippy with Brianna Keilar, Dismisses Deleted Tweets as Fox ‘Conspiracy’: ‘I Answered Three Times’  —  Tensions briefly flared between CNN's Brianna Keilar and Matthew Dowd as the former George W. Bush strategist fielded questions about a major Twitter purge he did.

Exclusive: Afghan ambassador decries country's “betrayal”  —  Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Adela Raz, has lost her country and her faith in the U.S. government — and her life's work of liberating women and girls is in shambles.  She shared her despair with “Axios on HBO” …

What They Saw in Ozy  —  The story behind the story is about the elite investors who plowed millions into a media dream without much due diligence, persuaded by the charm of Ozy's head, Carlos Watson.  —  There's an irresistible temptation, in this age of scams and hype …

Pro-Trump challenger's residency issues catch Murkowski's eye  —  (CNN)Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has not yet said whether she'll run for reelection in 2022 — but she is well aware of potential baggage one of her challengers could be carrying.  —  Murkowski took aim at her would-be GOP challenger …

Trump's Sprawling Use of NDAs Now Threatens to Humiliate Him  —  For decades, Donald Trump used the same legal language in Non-Disclosure Agreements to prevent associates from saying anything bad about him.  That's bad news for Trump.  —  For decades, Donald Trump has treasured Non-Disclosure …