Lawyers with supreme court business paid Clarence Thomas aide via Venmo  —  Payments to Rajan Vasisht, an aide from 2019-21, underscore ties between the justice and lawyers who argue cases in front of him  —  Several lawyers who have had business before the supreme court …

Murdochs Start to Sour on DeSantis: ‘They Can Smell a Loser’  —  The conservative media kingmakers' preferred candidate to knock off Donald Trump is not meeting expectations, and the family's patriarch is getting tired of waiting … But in recent weeks, the Murdochs have grown increasingly displeased …

Democratic jitters grow over Cornel West's third-party bid  —  Cornel West's third-party presidential campaign is stirring up unpleasant flashbacks to 2016 for members of the Democratic Party, some of whom are starting to grow anxious about the effect it could have on President Biden's reelection.

CPI Report Shows Inflation Eased to 3% in June  —  Fed officials are still likely to raise interest rates when they meet later this month  —  U.S. inflation eased last month to its slowest pace in more than two years as underlying price pressures moderated more than expected.

Hollywood Studios' WGA Strike Endgame Is To Let Writers Go Broke Before Resuming Talks In Fall  —  EXCLUSIVE: Regardless of whether SAG-AFTRA goes on strike this week, the studios have no intention of sitting down with the Writers Guild for several more months.

Milan Kundera, Author of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being,’ Dies at 94  —  The author of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” he was known for sexually charged novels that captured the suffocating absurdity of life in his native Czechoslovakia.  —  Milan Kundera, the Communist Party outcast …

This Is One Republican Strategy That Isn't Paying Off  —  Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C., on politics, demographics and inequality.  —  In 2011, determined to push back the ascendant Democratic coalition that elected America's first Black president …

China-based hackers breached email accounts, Microsoft says  —  Microsoft said late Tuesday a known group that primarily focuses on hacking Western governments to spy on them had successfully breached some accounts.  —  Hackers in China recently broke into the email accounts of around 25 organizations …

Trump Lashes Out at Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa  —  The former president snubbed one influential Iowa leader and attacked another, testing his immunity to traditional political pitfalls in a crucial state.  —  Iowa may be the most important state on Donald J. Trump's early 2024 political calendar …

‘He was free and clear’: How the leak of Jon Gruden's email led to the fall of Commanders owner Dan Snyder  —  AS HE HOPPED on a call with Roger Goodell, Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis had no plans to fire his head coach.  —  It was the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 8, 2021.

Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds  —  Some of the nation's largest tax-prep companies have spent years sharing Americans' sensitive financial data with tech titans including Meta and Google in a potential violation of federal law …

NASA releases spectacular image to celebrate James Webb Space Telescope  —  The James Webb Space Telescope was designed to tunnel deeper into space and farther back in time than any previous observatory, with the audacious goal of seeing the very first galaxies that lit up the young universe.

On Biden's watch, Lady Justice has been weaponized.  But Merrick Garland can't do this one thing  —  When a prosecutor wants to protect the boss' son more than the country, we've got a problem  —  PROGRAMMING ALERT: Watch House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Fox Business Network's “Mornings with Maria” on Wednesday, July 12 at 8 am ET.

Executed Russian sub commander may have been tracked on a fitness app  —  As with any news coming out of Russia, there's almost no telling what is true and what is not.  What we do know for certain is that a former Naval officer and sub commander who Ukraine had accused of war crimes was killed …

Southern border ‘eerily quiet’ after policy shift on asylum seekers  —  EL PASO — On the border bridge from Mexico, about 200 asylum seekers lined up on a recent morning with their phones open to a Customs and Border Protection mobile app, ready for appointments at a reception hall on the U.S. side.

Thiel, Brock & a Gutter Oppo Campaign for Our Times  —  When Peter Thiel emerged as the right's potential heir to Sheldon Adelson during the '22 midterms, a highly connected Democratic operative launched a guerilla opposition research campaign to chill his political influence.

GOP Lawmaker Banned From Wikipedia for Self-Editing Spree  —  Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), one of the House GOP's most vulnerable members, may have been a little too eager to polish his online resume. … Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) is a notable alumnus of Manhattan College—at least according …

Georgia election workers say Giuliani failed to turn over key evidence in defamation suit  —  “He failed to take any steps to preserve relevant electronic evidence,” their attorneys said of Giuliani.  —  Amid Donald Trump's desperate bid to subvert the 2020 election, a top adviser …

F.T.C.'s Lina Khan Faces Fresh Questions After Microsoft Ruling  —  Lina Khan has said a fear of defeat should not deter the agency from suing big tech companies.  But after Microsoft won a ruling this week, her critics say that strategy is flawed.  —  Reporting from Washington

How Many Bidens Live in the White House, Anyway?  —  Who is living in the Biden White House right now, anyway?  The question has come up because a bag of cocaine hydrochloride (a crack cocaine precursor) was found at the White House and a hazmat team was called out in a panic.

Biden's approval rating lingers at 40%, economy remains top worry, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows  —  U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval rating held steady at 40% in early July, close to the lowest levels of his presidency, as economic worries continued to trouble Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.

'We're not Amazon': UK defence secretary suggests Ukraine could say thank you more  —  Ben Wallace says west would like to see gratitude for help, as Zelenskiy complains over caution on Nato membership  —  The British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has suggested Ukraine needs to put …

Ukraine Needs NATO—and NATO Needs Ukraine, Too  —  Last week, an opinion article in Foreign Affairs argued for locking Ukraine out of NATO.  The authors, Justin Logan and Joshua Shifrinson of the Cato Institute, offered five claims to support their arguments.