Fox Will Pay $787.5 Million to Settle Defamation Suit  —  The settlement with Dominion Voting Systems was the latest extraordinary twist in a case that exposed the inner workings of the most powerful voice in conservative news.  —  Reporting from Wilmington, Del.

Playbook: How Trump ambushed DeSantis in D.C.  —  Presented by The U.S. Chamber of Commerce  —  With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  POPPING THIS MORNING — We've gotten our hands on a “confidential discussion draft” of a debt ceiling proposal being circulated …

Inside the secret list of websites that make AI chatbots sound smart  —  AI chatbots have exploded in popularity over the past four months, stunning the public with their awesome abilities, from writing sophisticated term papers to holding unnervingly lucid conversations.

Man arrested after 2 Woodlands Elite cheerleaders were shot outside HEB near Austin, police say  —  Police say Payton Washington was one of two Woodlands Elite cheerleaders hit when someone opened fire near a grocery store outside Austin.  One man is in custody.

Grand jury indicts torch carriers in 2017 Charlottesville rally  —  At least three men who marched with blazing tiki torches at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville are now facing criminal charges, according to indictments unsealed this week.  —  A grand jury in Virginia indicted …

Key Senate Democrats remain non-committal on Biden's labor secretary pick ahead of confirmation hearing  —  President Joe Biden's pick to be the next labor secretary, Julie Su, has yet to secure the support of key Democrats ahead of her nomination hearing on Thursday, suggesting she faces an uphill battle to confirmation by the Senate.

FBI arrests guardsman who applied for job on RentAHitman.com  —  Josiah Garcia reportedly told undercover agent he was an excellent shot and willing to torture people and cut off fingers or ears  —  Fake website RentAHitman.com has snagged another would-be killer-for-hire after a US soldier applied …

U.S. charges four Americans with aiding Kremlin efforts  —  Charges are the latest Justice Department effort against secret foreign propaganda networks on U.S. soil  —  Federal authorities charged four Americans on Tuesday with roles in a malign campaign pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda …

Ukraine war: The Russian ships accused of North Sea sabotage  —  Russia has a programme to sabotage wind farms and communication cables in the North Sea, according to new allegations.  —  The details come from a joint investigation by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

It's Time for Dianne Feinstein to Resign  —  The 89-year-old California senator has been a trailblazer.  But a public servant needs to serve the public—and Feinstein is no longer doing that.  —  We should not hold a United States senator to a lower standard than that to which we hold all other Americans.

People should say why they are running for president  —  Chris Christie may be a long shot if he runs in 2024, but he has one extremely important idea that other Republicans could learn from: Candidates should say why they'd be a better choice than their top rivals.

China Is on Track to Become Nuclear Superpower, Ushering in New Age  —  China is on track to massively expand its nuclear arsenal, just as Russia suspends the last major arms control treaty.  It augurs a new world in which Beijing, Moscow and Washington will likely be atomic peers.

Boycott Budweiser for Validating Trans Hate  —  As a long-time PR veteran, I have always been skeptical about brands engaging social media stars for ads, social posts, or campaigns.  —  Without being too specific, about six years ago, I helped coordinate a publicity initiative on a global issue …

House Republicans may not have the votes to pass border security bill  —  While the dynamics remain fluid as negotiations continue, there are enough votes to kill the legislation in its current form if it comes to the House floor  —  Several House Republicans will vote against a border security package …

Florida's phony “exceptions”  —  Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed a near-total abortion ban into law.  The law, the “Heartbeat Protection Act,” prohibits “physicians from knowingly performing or inducing a termination of pregnancy” after six weeks — before many even know that they are pregnant.

GOP drops $1M on Manchin as Justice preps run  —  Republicans are seeking to tie the West Virginia Democrat to his party's marquee tax, health care and climate law, betting it will drag down his prospects in the deep-red state.  —  The GOP push to knock out Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is on — 18 months before Election Day.

Tennessee moves to shield gun firms after school shooting  —  In the wake of a deadly school shooting last month, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee awarded final passage Tuesday to a proposal that would further protect gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers against lawsuits.

Harlan Crow Is ‘Collateral Damage’ of a Smear Campaign Against Clarence Thomas  —  In an effort to delegitimate the Supreme Court, left-leaning journalists libel him as a Nazi sympathizer.  —  Resize  —  Dallas  —  American politics lately feels like an endless game of—pardon the infelicitous word—delegitimation.

Biden's Black Astronaut Reads Anti-White Poem to Prep for Mission  —  Are they ‘astronauts’ or ‘cosmonauts’?  —  Don't know if we should be calling these woke folks, ‘astronauts’ or ‘cosmonauts’.  But it was also expected that the people they picked for a hypothetical lunar mission would be leftists who hate America.

China readies supersonic spy drone unit, leaked document says  —  The Chinese military could soon deploy a high-altitude spy drone that travels at least three times the speed of sound, according to a leaked U.S. military assessment, a development that would dramatically strengthen China's ability to conduct surveillance operations.