Sinema Trashes Dems: ‘Old Dudes Eating Jell-O’  —  The Arizona senator courts GOP donors by ridiculing her former Democratic colleagues. … Ever since Senator Kyrsten Sinema became an independent in December, her Democratic colleagues have been restrained about the shift …

DeSantis Calls Putin a ‘War Criminal,’ Clarifying Earlier Comment on Ukraine  —  The Florida governor and presumed G.O.P. presidential candidate previously described the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a “territorial dispute” and did not mention the Russian president.

House GOP widens Manhattan DA probe with outreach to ex-prosecutors  —  House Republicans are expanding their investigation into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's probe of former President Trump by seeking testimony from two prosecutors who resigned from the D.A.'s office last year.

Most trans adults say transitioning made them more satisfied with their lives  —  The Washington Post and KFF surveyed one of the largest randomized samples of U.S. transgender adults to date about their childhoods, feelings and lives  —  Transgender Americans experience stigma …

Court rejects Trump's urgent bid to keep lawyer's records from special counsel  —  The ruling effectively permits the Justice Department to circumvent Trump's attorney-client privilege after a lower-court judge found that the documents likely contain evidence of a crime.

Biden approval dips near lowest point: AP-NORC poll  —  Approval of President Joe Biden has dipped slightly since a month ago, nearing the lowest point of his presidency as his administration tries to project a sense of stability while confronting a pair of bank failures and inflation that remains stubbornly high.

Florida's crackdown on LGBTQ issues in schools is getting worse  —  It should come as no surprise to longtime readers that Florida legislators are moving to expand the so-called “Don't Say Gay” law far beyond its original framework.  Three bills have been introduced in the Legislature …

Block: How Inflated User Metrics and “Frictionless” Fraud Facilitation Enabled Insiders To Cash Out Over $1 Billion  —  GET OUR LATEST REPORTS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX  — Block Inc., formerly known as Square Inc., is a $44 billion market cap company that claims to have developed a …

Federal Trade Commission Proposes Rule Provision Making it Easier for Consumers to “Click to Cancel” Recurring Subscriptions and Memberships  —  Proposal seeks to make it as easy to cancel enrollment as it was to sign up  —  Tags: - Consumer Protection - Bureau of Consumer Protection …

Matt Taibbi Can't Comprehend That There Are Reasons To Study Propaganda Information Flows, So He Insists It Must Be Nefarious  —  from the not-how-any-of-this-works dept  —  Over the last few months, Elon Musk's handpicked journalists have continued revealing less and less with each new edition of the …

Where is DeSantis traveling on state business?  Legislature wants to make it a secret  —  Citing an increase in public records requests for the governor's travel schedule, Florida legislators are advancing a bill that would shield from the public any information about how and where Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials go.

A nightmare for women in Idaho could be coming to all of us soon  —  There's news from Idaho, and it's not good.  The only hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, is terminating the provision of labor and delivery services.  Sandpoint is the largest city in Bonner County, with just shy of 9,000 people.

Video Shows ‘Heroic’ Security Guard Wrestle Gun From Masked Man Entering Strip Club  —  Michael Rudman was wearing a devil mask and had “kill” and “darkk one” written on his arms as he attempted to enter the Florida venue, police in Tampa said.  —  Security guards at a Florida strip club …

Nigerian Senator Found Guilty of Organ Harvesting Plot in UK  —  A Nigerian politician and his wife were found guilty by a London jury of plotting to bring a Lagos street trader to the UK in order to harvest one of his organs for their sick daughter.  —  Ike Ekweremadu, a senior Nigerian senator …

California could become the 1st state to ban caste discrimination  —  A bill introduced Wednesday in the California Senate could be a historic win in the fight against caste discrimination in the U.S. If it is signed into law, it would make the state the first to explicitly name caste as a protected category.

What it looks like when a country doesn't trust its banks  —  I went to Argentina and the US did a bank run.  —  I've been in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the last month, including through the recent turmoil in the banking industry in the United States and Europe.

AP source: Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed jerseys  —  The Chicago Blackhawks will not wear Pride-themed warmup jerseys before Sunday's Pride Night game against Vancouver because of security concerns involving a Russian law that expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting LGBTQ rights in the country.

Israel passes law shielding Netanyahu from being removed amid protests over judicial changes  —  The Israeli parliament on Thursday passed a law that would limit the ways a sitting prime minister can be declared unfit for office as part of a package of bills the government is pushing through in its controversial judicial overhaul.

Arizona Supreme Court rejects most of Kari Lake's election challenge  —  Arizona's top court has declined to hear Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's challenge to her election loss, but kept the case alive by sending one of Lake's claims back to a county judge to review.

China Says It Opposes a Forced Sale of TikTok  —  Biden administration has demanded that video app divest itself from its Beijing-based parent or face nationwide ban  —  SINGAPORE—China said it would strongly oppose any forced sale of TikTok, responding for the first time to a Biden administration demand …

What connects Trump's likely arrest with the bank bailouts?  —  Answer: the anti-democracy movement  —  What connects the two biggest stories now dominating the news — Donald Trump's likely arrest and the Fed's bailouts of shaky banks?  —  Start with multi-billionaire Peter Thiel, and follow the money.

WATCH LIVE: Pete Buttigieg testifies on fiscal 2024 transportation budget  —  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will testify before a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee on President Joe Biden's fiscal 2024 budget proposal for the Department of Transportation.

The Trump RINO Test Is Ridiculous  —  He's the real Republican In Name Only.  —  Records aren't kept on such things, but Donald Trump is clearly the most promiscuous user of the word “RINO” in Republican Party history.  Francis Chung/POLITICO  —  Rich Lowry is editor in chief of National Review …

The US mulls opening Pacific defense pact with Britain and Australia to more countries  —  The Biden administration is open to adding additional countries to its mammoth new three-way defense partnership with Australia and the U.K. once the pact moves into its next phase, an administration official told Semafor.

Abortion legal again in Wyoming after judge blocks ban  —  Abortion is legal again in Wyoming after a Teton County judge Wednesday temporarily blocked a new ban on the procedure while a new legal challenge winds through the courts.  —  “Wyomingites voted into law that they have a fundamental right …

The Ciskei experiment: a libertarian fantasy in apartheid South Africa  —  In the 1980s, South African libertarians set up a deregulated zone that they sold to the world as 'Africa's Switzerland'.  It was a sham, but with its clusters of sweatshops, it was very modern - and in some ways it anticipated the world we live in today

DNA From Beethoven's Hair Unlocks Medical and Family Secrets  —  By analyzing seven samples of hair said to have come from Ludwig van Beethoven, researchers debunked myths about the revered composer while raising new questions about his life and death.  —  It was March 1827 and Ludwig van Beethoven was dying.

Florida GOP's New Anti-Trans Bill Is So Extreme It Could Ban Treatment for Breast Cancer  —  A Florida House of Representatives committee on Wednesday advanced an anti-trans bill that is so broad and so extreme that it could also prevent people from getting treated for breast cancer.

A Broken Pipe in Jackson Left Residents Without Drinking Water  —  As a water shortage ballooned into a crisis in Jackson, Miss., the leak grew bigger and bigger, gouging out a swimming pool-size crater in the earth.  —  Sarah Fowler is reporting on the water crisis in Jackson, Miss. …