POLITICO Playbook: Inside the 28 minutes that saved Kevin McCarthy  —  Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  For the first time all week, House Republicans were jubilant and KEVIN McCARTHY's smile finally seemed genuine.

Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable?  —  An unexpected ancient manufacturing strategy may hold the key to designing concrete that lasts for millennia. … The ancient Romans were masters of engineering, constructing vast networks of roads, aqueducts, ports, and massive buildings …

Time is not on Ukraine's side  —  Condoleezza Rice was secretary of state from 2005 to 2009.  Robert M. Gates was secretary of defense from 2006 to 2011.  —  When it comes to the war in Ukraine, about the only thing that's certain right now is that the fighting and destruction will continue.

6-year-old in custody after shooting teacher in Virginia, police chief says  —  A 6-year-old boy was taken into police custody after he shot a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, Friday afternoon, Police Chief Steve Drew said in a news conference.

There Are Many Questions About George Santos, but Latest Leftist Complaint Is Incredibly Dumb  —  There are a ton of valid questions that one might ask about Rep. George Santos (R-NY) who seems to be following in the grand tradition of Joe Biden and lying — a lot — about his background and a variety of aspects of his life.

CREEPY: OB-GYN Hypes Medication Abortion as ‘Extrarordinarily Safe’ — For Whom?  —  Text to Speech Font Size  —  On Wednesday's PBS NewsHour, viewers received a bucket of happy talk about medication abortions from Dr. Jennifer Villavicencio.  Twice, she insisted the use of mifepristone was …

Proposed GOP select panel would be empowered to review ‘ongoing criminal investigations’  —  A proposed subcommittee to investigate “weaponization” of the federal government — a key demand of House conservatives who delivered Speaker Kevin McCarthy the gavel — would be given sweeping investigatory powers …

From battlefield to internet sleuthing: Exposing U.S. white supremacy  —  NBC News' Courtney Kube has the story of veteran Kristofer Goldsmith who is on a mission to expose far-right extremism despite some saying his tactics are co...

How Democrat Adam Schiff abused his power to demand I be kicked off Twitter simply due to a personal vendetta  —  Back from holiday vacation, I found an interesting email waiting for me in my inbox from Matt Taibbi, the independent journo Elon Musk tasked with reviewing and releasing internal Twitter documents …

Conservatives pan Jefferies ‘rambling disaster of a speech,’ yet gets high praise from left  —  Jeffries went A-Z through how Democrats have better values than Republicans, drawing boos from the GOP side of the aisle  —  Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats will ‘never compromise our principles’

DeSantis seeks to transform Sarasota's New College with conservative board takeover  —  Gov. Ron DeSantis began the process Friday of transforming Sarasota's New College of Florida into a more conservative institution, appointing six new board members, including conservative activist Christopher Rufo …