US intel shows Russians fear Mariupol abuse will backfire  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has gathered intelligence that shows some Russian officials have become concerned that Russian forces in the ravaged port city of Mariupol are carrying out grievous abuses, a U.S official familiar with the findings said Wednesday.

The coming food catastrophe  —  War is tipping a fragile world towards mass hunger.  Fixing that is everyone's business  —  By invading ukraine, Vladimir Putin will destroy the lives of people far from the battlefield—and on a scale even he may regret.  The war is battering …

Trump uses Pa. primary to continue effort to undermine electoral system  —  Good morning, Early Birds, and a special good morning to the U.S. women's national soccer team for landing a “game-changing” deal to close the pay gap with the men's soccer team.  😎 💪 Tips? earlytips@washpost.com.

GOP candidate for Colorado governor says eliminate one-person, one-vote system  —  Under Greg Lopez's proposal, the 2018 gubernatorial race would have been a runaway win for Republicans, who lost the actual race by double-digits.  —  DENVER — Coloradans have elected just one Republican governor in the last 50 years.

Pete Williams to retire from NBC News after epic Washington career  —  A former Pentagon spokesman, Williams made the unusual move 29 years ago to return to hard-news reporting.  Many historic scoops followed.  —  A jolt went through Washington when the news broke just before noon on Jan. 26 …

Why Tesla was kicked out of the S&P 500's ESG index  — In a blog post Wednesday, the S&P explained why it kicked Tesla out of its ESG index earlier this month.  — It said that Tesla's “lack of a low-carbon strategy” and “codes of business conduct,” along with racism …

Fiona Hill says Putin got ‘frustrated many times’ with Trump because the Russian leader ‘had to keep explaining things’ to him  — Putin often became frustrated with Trump over his lack of knowledge on big issues, Fiona Hill said.  — “He had to keep explaining things, and Putin doesn't like to do that,” Hill said.

Dems stand back and watch Chuck and Joe show  —  The fate of Senate Democrats' yearlong drama over the party's signature bill essentially boils down to two people: Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin.  —  After months of intrigue and disagreements between the duo on critical Senate votes …

Rare monkeypox outbreak in U.K., Europe and U.S.: What is it and should we worry?  —  There's a monkeypox outbreak in England, Portugal and Spain.  The outbreak is quite small - just 36 suspected cases spread across the three countries, including 8 in England and 20 in Portugal.

Fox News Poll: Georgia's GOP primary race for governor sees Kemp holding wide lead over Perdue  —  Former NFL star Herschel Walker dashes ahead by 58 points in Republican Senate primary contest  —  Fox News Flash top headlines for May 18  —  Incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp leads former …

Why Tucker Carlson and the Isolationist Right Are Wrong  —  A Russian defeat in Ukraine makes America safer.  —  In April 1941 Germany had conquered all of Europe except England, while its Axis partner Japan had conquered most of Southeast Asia.  At this historical moment …

Congressional whack-a-mole  —  Presented by The American Petroleum Institute (API)  —  CRISIS MANAGEMENT— Democrats said they weren't going to take messaging votes while they control both Congress and the White House, but Dems in the House are trying to see what sticks as they try to tackle …

China Insists Party Elites Shed Overseas Assets, Eyeing Western Sanctions on Russia  —  An internal Communist Party directive bars senior officials from owning property abroad or stakes in overseas entities, whether directly or through spouses and children  —  HONG KONG—China's Communist Party …

George W. Bush compares Zelenskyy to Churchill, mistakenly calls Iraq invasion unjustified  —  At Bush center event, Condoleezza Rice compares Jan. 6 to non-democratic countries  —  In some of his most extensive public comments about the Russian invasion of Ukraine since the war began …

Words aren't magic  —  The most important part of “messaging” is picking defensible policies  —  Medicare is a very popular program.  —  If you cook up a policy to enroll every American in a single-payer health care plan that guarantees free treatments at point of service …

Jill Biden's six-day tour of Latin America is high-stakes diplomacy  —  The first lady is making her third solo foreign trip, weeks before a major hemispheric summit that's going off the rails  —  Jill Biden is embarking on a high-stakes, six-day diplomatic tour of three Latin American countries …

At Wells Fargo, a Quest to Increase Diversity Leads to Fake Job Interviews  —  Black and female candidates are sometimes interviewed after the recipient of a job is identified, current and former employees say.  —  Joe Bruno, a former executive in the wealth management division of Wells Fargo …

5/19/22 ☀️ Punchbowl News AM. … THEIR OWN POLLS HAVE THEM IN THE DUMPS.  PARTY LEADERS HAVE STRUGGLED TO WRANGLE THE VOTES FOR A SIMPLE MESSAGING BILL.  MEANWHILE, THE CAUCUS CONTINUES TO BE DOMINATED BY FALLOUT OVER THE REVISED NEW YORK HOUSE MAPS, LED BY AN INTERNAL BACKLASH AGAINST THE DCCC CHAIR.

HERE ARE THE NUTCASES WHO BELIEVE IN “REPLACEMENT”  —  The “Great Replacement Theory” (GRT) has taken the media by storm!  It seems that the white racist who shot up a grocery store full of black people last weekend cited GRT in his 180-page “manifesto.”  —  First of all, journalists need …

U.S. health officials say a third of people live in areas with so much virus they should consider masks indoors.  —  Federal health officials on Wednesday warned that one third of Americans live in areas where the threat of infection from the coronavirus is now so high that they should consider wearing …

Scoop: Chris Wallace to anchor new show on CNN  —  Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's new parent company, plans to announce during its upfront presentation to advertisers on Wednesday that Chris Wallace will host a Sunday evening show on CNN. … - CNN struck a multimillion-dollar contract with Wallace last year.

Brothers behind Democrats' ‘crypto PAC’ say they're actually pandemic focused  —  WASHINGTON — Gabe Bankman-Fried knows you're going to have a hard time believing him when he says he's only interested in using his crypto-billionaire brother's money to stop the next pandemic.