French intelligence chief Vidaud fired over Russian war failings  —  The head of French military intelligence, Gen Eric Vidaud, is losing his job after failing to predict Russia's war in Ukraine, reports say.  —  Seven months after he took on the role, one report said he was blamed for …

Biden Plans Record Oil Reserve Release After Failing Twice To Lower Prices  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The Biden administration is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), four U.S. sources said on Wednesday, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices.

Concerns about Bruce Willis' declining cognitive state swirled around sets in recent years  —  Just days before Bruce Willis was scheduled to turn up on the set of one of his latest action films, the director of the project sent out an urgent request: Make the movie star's part smaller.

Attorney who backs election decertification enters Attorney General race to investigate doctors who won't prescribe ivermectin  —  MADISON - A Chippewa Falls attorney who is a key player in a movement to take the impossible step of decertifying the 2020 election is running for Attorney General …

'We've got to stop fooling ourselves': Enthusiasm gap keeps getting worse for Dems  —  At the end of October, Republicans held an 11-percentage-point advantage in voter enthusiasm.  By January, that margin had ticked up to 14 points.  Now, according to the most recent NBC News poll …

Is Ginni Thomas a Trumpworld power player or a gadfly?  It depends on who you ask.  —  When news broke last week that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas had texted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, imploring him to overturn the 2020 election results to keep Donald Trump in power, it sent shockwaves through Washington, D.C.

What explains the suspicious gap in Trump's call log? … From the moment we learned the extent of the 7.5-hour gap in White House records of President Trump's phone calls on Jan. 6, 2021, the question has been: How did this happen?  Could it just be sloppy record-keeping …

Justice Dept. expands Jan. 6 probe to look at rally prep, financing … The criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has expanded to examine the preparations for the rally that preceded the riot, as the Justice Department aims to determine the full extent of any conspiracy …

Scoop: FEC fines DNC and Clinton for Trump dossier hoax  —  The Federal Election Commission has fined the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign for lying about the funding of the infamous, and discredited, Russian “dossier” used in a smear attempt against Donald Trump weeks …

Daily Wire to make conservative kids' shows to rival ‘woke’ Disney  —  Ben Shapiro grew up loving Disney movies, he told his podcast listeners last week.  The conservative firebrand passed that love on to his kids by taking them to Disneyland as soon as they were old enough — 6 months of age in the Shapiro household.

Wisconsin lawmaker held in contempt over 2020 election records … A Wisconsin judge has ordered one of the state's top Republican lawmakers to be held in contempt after he failed to produce records from an investigation he had launched into the 2020 presidential election.

“Putin's Regime Is Going to End Very Soon”: The Oligarch Jailed by Putin Speaks  —  There's no name on the front of the nondescript building in Central London's Marylebone neighborhood, known for its preponderance of medical and dental offices.  There's also no visible security at the entrance.

Woke North Carolina medical student who is trans rights activist brags about deliberately injuring patient who mocked her she/her pronoun badge by missing his vein so he had to get jabbed twice  — Kychelle Del Rosario, a fourth-year med student at Wake Forest University allegedly bragged online about intentionally injuring a patient

Pence rolls out policy platform, staking out new ground separate from Trump  —  Former Vice President Mike Pence is taking another step toward running for the White House in 2024 — and leaning into his split with former President Donald Trump.  —  Pence is releasing a 19-page policy platform …

Hunter Biden laptop findings renew scrutiny of Twitter, Facebook crackdowns  —  Happy Thursday!  Today's top was reported with our stellar tech news analysis writer Will Oremus.  —  Below: A key tech nominee inches closer to confirmation, and the tech giants get fooled by hackers.  First:

Trump can't get his Georgia allies to back David Perdue for governor  —  (CNN)Donald Trump's endorsed candidates in Georgia are steering clear of his deeply personal vendetta against Gov. Brian Kemp — the Republican Trump says betrayed him in the 2020 election and whom he has set out to dethrone.