Live updates Judge to hear argument over Trump gag order in Jan. 6 case  —  Special counsel Jack Smith's office is in federal court in D.C. today asking for a gag order that would bar former president Donald Trump from maligning the judge, prosecutors, witnesses and potential jurors in his election obstruction case.

Moderate Democrats get behind temporary speaker fix  —  The News  —  With the House still paralyzed in the absence of a speaker, the idea of giving Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry more power to conduct normal business is picking up growing bipartisan support.

Scholastic's “bigot button”  —  Scholastic, the popular publisher of children's books, is a big business.  It is a publicly-traded company with a market capitalization of $1.15 billion.  Its CEO, Peter Warwick, collected a total compensation of $3,300,361 in 2023, and at least four other executives were paid over $1.3 million.

Playbook: How the attack on Israel has scrambled U.S. politics  —  Presented by With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  Q3 CASH-ON-HAND LEADERBOARD — JOE BIDEN $24,785,201 ... DONALD TRUMP $24,535,602 ... RON DeSANTIS $11,160,604 ... ROBERT KENNEDY JR. $8,713,134 …

Statement from President Joe Biden  —  Jill and I were shocked and sickened to learn of the brutal murder of a six-year-old child and the attempted murder of the child's mother in their home yesterday in Illinois.  —  The child's Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek …

Scoop: Oprah pitched a White House run with Mitt Romney, book reveals … - Romney tells Coppins he dismissed the idea, believing that such a campaign would inadvertently help Trump.

The GOP refusal to condemn Menendez speaks volumes  —  They like gold bars too. … As a general rule of politics, it should be easy to condemn the corruption of someone in the opposition party.  —  Democrats, for instance, have with glee attacked cartoonishly mendacious New York Rep. George Santos …

Senators flummoxed, ‘horrified’ by House leadership vacuum  —  Senators return to Washington this week feeling completely flummoxed by the turmoil in the House and with no clear idea of whether House Republicans will elect a Speaker anytime soon.  —  Republican senators have called …

Blinken meets resistance in courtship of Egypt and Saudi Arabia on Gaza war  —  The secretary of state appealed to the leaders of the two key countries to tamp down anger over Israel's retaliation and to assist in humanitarian aid  —  CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced stiff resistance …

Man targeted 6-year-old boy, mom in deadly Plainfield stabbing because they are Muslim: detectives  —  ‘You Muslims must die’: 71-year-old Joseph M. Czuba facing hate crime charges in death of Palestinian boy Wadea Al-Fayoume  —  PLAINFIELD, Ill. (WLS) — A man stabbed a child to death …