Judge Aileen Cannon Is Quietly Sabotaging the Trump Classified Documents Case  —  On Friday, District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a new order in the Donald Trump classified documents case adding to the mountain of evidence that she is firmly in the former president's pocket.

Florida Democrats flip Republican House seat in Special Election  —  ORANGE COUNY, Fla. — Florida Democrats scored a win Tuesday night in a special election to fill a vacant House seat with Tom Keen defeating Erika Booth in a closely watched race that saw major outside spending and an avalanche of mailers and TV ads.

DeSantis Super PAC Begins Layoffs, Even as He Projects Confidence  —  The number of layoffs at the super PAC, Never Back Down, was unclear on Wednesday morning, but an official said that those being laid off were being paid through the end of January.  —  The super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis …

DoJ: Hunter's Laptop Is Real, Spectacular, and So Was the Cocaine on His Holster  —  Say, remember when Joe Biden and fifty-one former intelligence officers declared the Hunter Biden laptop “Russian disinformation”?  National media outlets and social-media platforms combined to bury …

E&C Investigation Uncovers Earliest Known SARS-CoV-2 Sequence Released Outside of China  —  Discovery that shows virus sequence existed two weeks earlier than previously known undercuts China's timeline of events  —  Washington, D.C. — The House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigation …

New Biden rule cracks down on insurers' use of prior authorization  —  A new Biden administration rule released Wednesday aims to streamline the prior authorization process used by insurers to approve medical procedures and treatments.  —  Prior authorization is a common tool used by insurers …

The Suicide of an Alabama Mayor Shows That Pre-Stonewall Horrors Aren't Just Coming Back.  They're Here.  — Many Queers Can't Bring Themselves to Face the Emotion They're Really Feeling Right Now.  We Must.  —  The practice of press outlets terrorizing gender-nonconforming people …

Johnson: Now is not ‘the time for comprehensive immigration reform’  —  Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) voiced his skepticism of a deal being crafted in the Senate to pair border and migration policy changes with Ukraine aid, and said that now is not the time for comprehensive immigration reform.

Right-wing media mogul buys the Baltimore Sun  —  David D. Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group (Sinclair), purchased the Baltimore Sun — the largest newspaper in Maryland — for an undisclosed sum.  The acquisition means another powerful media outlet will be under …

Do You Remember the Ecstasy of Electing Joe Biden?  —  How the coalition that defeated Donald Trump crumbled.  —  We danced in the streets when Joe Biden was elected.  Do you remember?  American cities staged the greatest spontaneous outpouring of joy since V-J Day with cars honking …

Netanyahu Accused of Risking WWIII to Save His Own Skin  —  Critics of the Israeli PM say he is so desperate to avoid political consequences that he is prolonging the crisis and raising the specter of a full-blown war.  —  The Middle East is sitting on a powder keg and the longer …

Let's Look at the Iowa Results With a Cold Eye  —  It was a huge win for Trump.  Don't tell me it's all going to work out fine in November.  —  Let us be completely honest.  There is no silver lining to the results of Monday's Iowa caucuses.  What coverage I watched on TV—truth be told …

The ‘Sleeping Giant’ Case that Could Upend Jack Smith's Prosecution of Trump  —  The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a case that doesn't mention the former president, but that could invalidate half of the Jan. 6 charges against him.  —  There's been a lot of attention paid …

House GOP Hardliners Admit They Can't Stop New Spending Patch  —  'I think it's tough with the way that the speaker changed,' one GOP House lawmaker said Wednesday, adding, ‘Our leader is not the problem’  —  House conservatives vehemently opposed to a short-term spending bill …

China's Population Shrank Again in 2023 as Births Continue to Fall  —  Faced with falling births, China's efforts to stabilize a shrinking population and maintain economic growth are failing.  —  阅读.体中文.閱讀.體中文.

The House G.O.P.'s Incredible Shrinking Majority  —  Another Republican resignation and medical absences are cutting into the party's already shaky hold on the chamber.  —  When Republicans assumed control of the House early last year after winning a narrow majority in the 2022 midterms …

The big reason banks despise the Fed's capital rule  —  Editor's note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 5:15 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use …