The Republican blueprint to steal the 2024 election  —  Ex-Judge who played key role in Trump-Pence feud speaks out for first time  —  J. Michael Luttig, appointed by President George H. W. Bush, formerly served on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for 15 years.

Twitter says mass deactivations after Musk news were ‘organic’  —  How Elon Musk's Twitter takeover could change the platform  —  Twitter was flooded with user reports of high-profile accounts losing thousands of followers in the hours after news broke that Tesla CEO Elon Musk would purchase …

Disney tells investors state can't dissolve special district without paying debt  —  As Florida legislators were rushing through passage of a bill to repeal the special district that governs Walt Disney World last week, they failed to notice an obscure provision in state law that says the state …

Russia releases US Marine vet as part of prisoner exchange  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia and the United States carried out a dramatic prisoner exchange on Wednesday, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America …

McCarthy Feared G.O.P. Lawmakers Put ‘People in Jeopardy’ After Jan. 6  —  New audio recordings reveal Kevin McCarthy worried that comments by his far-right colleagues could incite violence.  He said he would try to rein in the lawmakers, but has instead defended them.  — Give this article- - - Read in app

Opinion Does the exit ramp look more attractive to Putin now?  —  Russian President Vladimir Putin protested to Kremlin visitors Monday that his adversaries were trying to “win on the battlefield” and “destroy Russia from within.”  For once, he wasn't just being paranoid.

Villanueva backs off investigation of Times reporter who revealed cover-up  —  Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday that his department was targeting a Times journalist in a criminal leak investigation for her reporting on a departmental cover-up, but after a barrage …

First look: Lis Smith dishes on love of political combat in new book … - The title, “Any Given Tuesday,” puts an Election Day twist on the “Any Given Sunday” truism about the NFL.  —  The book is animated by Smith's love for the hand-to-hand combat of politics, and she …

NY attorney general's office says it's nearly done unraveling Trump's ‘Russian nesting doll’  —  New York (CNN)Lawyers for the New York State Attorney General's Office said they are nearly finished with their civil investigation into the Trump Organization, after taking steps to unravel …

Michigan Republican resigns from GOP committee citing ‘delusional lies’  —  Lansing — Tony Daunt, a longtime Michigan Republican insider, resigned Tuesday night from the GOP's state committee, saying party leaders had made the coming election a test of “who is most cravenly loyal” to former President Donald Trump.

POLITICO Playbook: Fauci pulls out of WHCD.  Is Biden next?  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  Late Tuesday night, CNN's Oliver Darcy and Kaitlan Collins scooped that ANTHONY FAUCI is dropping out of this weekend's White House Correspondents' Association dinner over concerns about Covid-19.

China's Covid Lockdown Outrage Tests Limits of Triumphant Propaganda  —  Public anger and grief over the bungled lockdown in Shanghai is creating a credibility crisis for the country's leader, Xi Jinping, and his zero Covid policies.  —  Immediately after Beijing said it had detected …

Ohio Senate Race Pits Trump and Son Against Big G.O.P. Group  —  The Club for Growth has lined up behind Josh Mandel.  Donald J. Trump and his eldest son, Donald Jr., are backing J.D. Vance.  Tuesday's outcome will be a crucial test of the former president's sway.  — Give this article- - - Read in app

Warren tries to ‘light the fire of urgency’ for Democrats  —  As Elizabeth Warren surveys the landscape for her party, she does not like what she sees.  —  “We've got nearly 200 days.  If we don't deliver, if we don't get up off our rear ends and make it happen, we're in real trouble,” …

How does Ukraine keep intercepting Russian military communications?  —  Russia is regarded as one of the world's most advanced countries when it comes to anything and everything related to spying, and that includes secretive, high-tech military communications.

Before Washington's ‘Nerd Prom,’ Lots of Risk-Benefit Calculation  —  Dr. Anthony S. Fauci won't attend the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, but President Biden has concluded it is worth the risk.  —  WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris's Covid-19 diagnosis …

United States is ‘out of the pandemic phase,’ Fauci says  —  The United States is finally “out of the pandemic phase,” the country's top infectious-disease expert said Tuesday, as cases and hospitalizations are notably down and mask mandates are all but gone.

Twitter Admits It Hid Tweets About HBO's QAnon Docuseries  —  Twitter told the director of “Q: Into the Storm” it had “made the decision not to allow promotion of this documentary” when he tried to advertise the film.  —  Alerts  —  For the past year, Twitter has censored tweets …

A major recession is coming, Deutsche Bank warns  —  New York (CNN Business)Deutsche Bank raised eyebrows earlier this month by becoming the first major bank to forecast a US recession, albeit a “mild” one.  —  Now, it's warning of a deeper downturn caused by the Federal Reserve's quest to knock down stubbornly high inflation.

Madison Cawthorn Is Trying to Commit Every Possible Scandal … No lawmaker in recent memory has inspired such fervent, bipartisan speculation as Madison Cawthorn.  The young, right-wing first-term member of Congress has generated so many horrible news stories, ranging from the personal to the ideological …