US commandos kill ISIS leader, successor of al-Baghdadi, in Syria raid  —  The U.S. military killed the leader of ISIS in an early-morning operation in northwest Syria early Thursday morning, President Biden said.  —  Abu Ibrahim al Hahimi al Qurayshi, who took control of the terror group …

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Brian Stelter should start looking for another job.’ Attention turns to the CNN anchor following Jeff Zucker's ousting for his failure to report on the open secret affair while bashing other news networks  — Insiders are calling for Brian Stelter to be fired after failing …

Unmasking Of Rudy Giuliani On Fox's ‘The Masked Singer’ Prompts Judges Ken Jeong & Robin Thicke To Walk Off In Protest  —  EXCLUSIVE, SPOILER ALERT: Rudy Giuliani was last week unmasked as an exiting costumed contestant in the taping of the first episode of Fox's popular prime time show The Masked Singer.

Inside Mississippi's only class on critical race theory  —  As Republican lawmakers push to ban critical race theory, here's how the class changed the mind of one conservative Mississippian.  —  Brittany Murphree was born and raised in Rankin County, Mississippi, one of the most Republican counties …

Memos Show Roots of Trump's Focus on Jan. 6 and Alternate Electors  —  Just over two weeks after Election Day, lawyers working with the Trump campaign set out a rationale for creating alternate slates of electors as part of an effort to buy time to overturn the results.

L.A. Mayor Garcetti Says He Held His Breath For Maskless Photo With Magic Johnson  —  Los Angeles Mayor — and Biden Administration ambassadorial nominee — Eric Garcetti today defended his actions after maskless photos surfaced of him and Lakers great Magic Johnson, along …

Memo circulated among Trump allies advocated using NSA data in attempt to prove stolen election  —  The proposal to seize and analyze “NSA unprocessed raw signals data” raises legal and ethical concerns that set it apart from other attempts that have come to light.

America is in Europe to stay — thanks to Putin  —  By threatening Ukraine's sovereignty, Moscow has achieved something Biden could not do on his own: unite the west  —  So much for America's shift from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific.  By demanding concessions that have shocked a divided …

How much 2022 candidates are paying after endorsements  —  Some big-name 2022 candidates are cutting checks to high-profile backers who endorsed their campaigns, records show.  —  Why it matters: Key endorsements are a known boon to campaigns battling for support, especially among ideologically committed primary voters.

POLITICO Playbook: What Eric Adams taught Joe Biden about the politics of crime  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  BREAKING OVERNIGHT — via AP's Ghaith Alsayed, Lolita Baldor and Bassem Mroue: “U.S. special forces carried out what the Pentagon said was a large-scale counterterrorism raid in northwestern Syria early Thursday.

Take The Hint, John Roberts — It's Time For You To Retire, Too  —  “Judges are like umpires,” John Roberts famously said at his confirmation hearing as Chief Justice.  “Umpires don't make the rules, they apply them ... They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role.

NYC Mayor Adams dines with ex-Gov. Cuomo at Midtown restaurant  —  Mayor Adams enjoyed a two-hour dinner with Andrew Cuomo at a popular Italian restaurant in Manhattan on Tuesday night, raising eyebrows from critics of the former governor who resigned last year amid a flurry of sexual misconduct accusations.

3 more women say Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy filmed them without asking during sex … In November 2021, three young women came forward about sexual encounters they had with Barstool Sports' founder, Dave Portnoy.  These women told Insider the experiences with Portnoy turned frightening …

When the Pope Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie, That's Ahmari  —  From neoconservatism to integralist cosplay to active worship of China and Russia, the ‘post-liberal’ right has had a giddy five years  —  I first met Sohrab Ahmari, one of the most influential and controversial writers …

National Butterfly Center on Texas border closing indefinitely after attacks from right-wing conspiracy theorists  —  The National Butterfly Center on the Texas border is closing “for the immediate future” after conspiracy-fueled attacks against the center on social media escalated in recent days.

He's Head of a Georgia Election Board—and Fixated on QAnon  —  Ben Johnson of Spalding County dabbles in election conspiracies even as he holds power over voting. … The Republican chair of a rural Georgia election board—which has the power to restrict or expand access to voting …

Former Human Rights Campaign president alleges racial bias in his firing after Andrew M. Cuomo scandal  —  The former president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBTQ advocacy group, sued the organization Thursday, contending that a pattern of racial discrimination led …

Exclusive: NRA Revenues Cut in Half Since 2018, Legal Spending Spiked in 2021  —  The National Rifle Association of America shrank significantly through the first eight months of 2021, according to detailed financial records obtained by The Reload.  —  The contraction came in membership …

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is a key Republican to watch on environmental issues  —  Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202!  Maxine finally got her cast off yesterday after fracturing her wrist in December, and she's excited to be typing this newsletter with both hands again.  🎉

Donald Trump's Old ‘Grudge’ Helped Propel Ron DeSantis to GOP Stardom: Lev Parnas  —  Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas has said that former President Donald Trump's boosted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' political career because of a “grudge” against former Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

Virginia judge declines to act immediately on school boards' suit seeking to halt Youngkin's mask-optional order  —  An Arlington County Circuit Court judge is weighing how to act on a request from seven Virginia school boards to halt implementation of Gov. Glenn Youngkin's order making masks optional in schools.

Woodside freezes SB 9 projects, citing an exemption for mountain lion habitats  —  New housing law allows up to four residential units per lot  —  Mountain lions and housing policy aren't often uttered in the same sentence, but that was the case last week in Woodside.

So long, Omicron: White House eyes next phase of pandemic  —  The White House is preparing to move on from Omicron.  —  Emboldened by falling case counts, the Biden administration is plotting a new phase of the pandemic response aimed at containing the coronavirus and conditioning Americans to live with it.