'You think I'm crazy?'  Florida GOP sweats Trump vs. DeSantis  —  Most of Congress' Sunshine State Republicans have a line ready if you ask whether they prefer Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis: “The next president will be from Florida.”  —  Ask them who that president will be, though, and you rarely get a firm answer.

New Data Links Pandemic's Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market  —  Genetic samples from the market were recently uploaded to an international database and then removed after scientists asked China about them.  —  An international team of virus experts said on Thursday that they had found genetic data …

Hunter Biden sues laptop repair shop owner, citing invasion of privacy  —  The lawsuit, a counter-move against John Paul Mac Isaac, escalates the legal battle surrounding the president's son at a sensitive moment.  —  Hunter Biden has filed a sweeping countersuit against the computer repair shop owner …

Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova  —  Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or “the Court") issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine …

Steve Bannon Is Neck-Deep in Guo Wengui's Allegedly Fraudulent Business Empire  —  In late November 2021, Steve Bannon appeared in a live broadcast on GTV, a media outlet that he'd helped his friend Guo Wengui launch a year earlier.  Bannon used the appearance to celebrate HCoin, a supposed cryptocurrency that Guo was selling.

Trump-commissioned report undercut his claims of dead and double voters  —  A report buried by the former president's campaign and obtained by The Post did not back up his claims of fraud and did not provide evidence to overturn the 2020 election  —  When Donald Trump called Georgia Secretary …

Jack White pens poetic ode to Meg White after White Stripes drummer was maligned  —  Jack White dedicated a poem on Wednesday to his former wife and bandmate, Meg White, after a journalist posted a disparaging tweet about the White Stripes drummer that went viral.

‘Donald Trump Hates America!’  Joe Scarborough Disgusted by Trump Calling the US ‘Greatest Threat to Western Civilization Today’  —  Joe Scarborough called out Donald Trump's apparent hatred for America and went off on the constant criticism from the former president and many Republican allies of the former president.

Biden's Italian mystery  —  With the Senate finally voting to confirm Eric Garcetti as ambassador to India, senators and Democratic donors are turning their attention to something of a Biden-era mystery: the open embassy in Italy. … - Although the embassy's chargé d'affaires …

Regulatory Failure 101: What the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank Reveals  —  The collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank this past weekend were the end point in an all-too-familiar cycle: first the boom, then the breathtakingly speedy bust and then the bailout.

The Federalist Society Isn't Quite Sure About Democracy Anymore  —  AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas sun was just beginning to rise over central Austin as groups of neatly-dressed law students arrived at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center, a beige monolith plopped on the southwestern corner …

EXCLUSIVE: Dozens of Mar-a-Lago staff, from servers to aides, are subpoenaed in classified documents probe  —  At least two dozen people - from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to members of Donald Trump's inner circle at the Florida estate - have been subpoenaed to testify to a federal grand jury that's investigating …

Gosar Blames Jesus for Sneaking Kari Lake into ‘New’ National Prayer Breakfast  —  Lake rejected the prayer breakfast's calls for reconciliation, said God “enacts justice”  —  Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) at the Feb. 2, 2023, National Prayer Breakfast.

Ron DeSantis' crackdown on “woke” banks could help a big Ron DeSantis donor  —  Today's bonus newsletter is written by Jason Garcia, an amazing corporate-accountability reporter who focuses on Florida.  He also has his own newsletter, Seeking Rents.  For more of Jason's indispensable reporting, subscribe.

The Unlearned Lessons From the War in Iraq  —  You don't have to reflect on a war if that war doesn't end, let alone pay reparations for your crimes.  —  Leave it to George W. Bush to misspeak his way to the truth about the Iraq War that he launched 20 years ago.

Xi, Cast as Peacemaker, Wades Into Russia's War in Ukraine  —  China's top leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia this month and speak with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.  —  China's top leader, Xi Jinping, has cast himself as a global statesman …

Former Guantanamo prisoner: Ron DeSantis watched me being tortured  —  Mansoor Adayfi says the brutal force-feeding methods employed on Guantanamo prisoners like him amounted to torture.  He tells Richard Hall that Ron DeSantis watched it happen  —  A former detainee of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp …

Trump Picks an Enemy: Us  —  The Orange Caligula sides with Russia.  —  For a moment, set aside the buzz about an impending indictment, bank bailouts, and even how badly your March Madness bracket is doing.  —  Pay attention to this.  Please.  —  Because on Earth 2.0, this would be the stuff of endless news cycles and nightmares.

Trump Media executives worried over murky $8m loans, emails reveal  —  Exclusive: financing with suspected Russian ties came at a critical time as company was running out of cash after a planned merger  —  Top executives at Donald Trump's social media company started to become concerned …

How the ‘No Labels’ Gambit Could Wreck the 2024 Election  —  The group says it doesn't want its (as-yet-unchosen) third-party candidate to be a spoiler—but it also doesn't say who all its funders are.  —  Those politics watchers—including most journalists—who are envisioning …

The Fed Was Too Late on SVB Even Though It Saw Problem After Problem  —  Just over a year before Silicon Valley Bank's collapse threatened a generation of technology startups and their backers, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco appointed a more senior team of examiners to assess the firm.

Slovakia agrees to give Ukraine fleet of Soviet warplanes  —  Slovakia's government has approved a plan to give Ukraine its fleet of 13 Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets, becoming the second NATO member country to agree to fulfill the Ukrainian government's pleas for warplanes to help defend against Russia's invasion. .

Wall Street rides to the rescue as 11 banks pledge $30 billion to First Republic Bank  —  A group of financial institutions has agreed to deposit $30 billion in First Republic Bank in what's meant to be a sign of confidence in the banking system, the banks announced Thursday afternoon.

Scoop: YouTube restores Trump's channel  —  YouTube will lift its restrictions on former President Trump's channel Friday, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios.  Why it matters: The restrictions have prevented Trump from posting any new YouTube videos to his account, which has more than 2.6 million followers, for over two years.

Dallas Has a Problem With ‘Zombie’ Astroturf Groups … In September 2020, a large, white transportation truck wrapped in splashy adverts drove through the streets of downtown Dallas.  “Tell City Council to Defund Themselves—Not the Police,” read one side.  “Don't let Dallas become Portland,” read the other.

Dr. Rachel Levine says changing kids' genders will soon be fully embraced: ‘Wheels will turn on this’ … Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Rachel Levine promised that medically changing kids' genders will soon be normalized.