FBI informant charged with lying about Joe and Hunter Biden's ties to Ukrainian energy company  —  An FBI informant has been charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, a claim that is central …

Donald Trump Will Be the First Former President to Face a Criminal Trial, Judge Rules  —  Trump's New York case will begin in March.  —  A New York judge ruled Thursday that Donald Trump will stand trial in March on charges related to the Stormy Daniels coverup.

Trump permits Jan. 6-related lawsuits against him to advance — for now  —  The former president decided against asking the Supreme Court to intervene and declare him immune but signaled he may challenge the suits later.  —  Donald Trump is passing up the chance to add a fourth case to a trio …

Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader, dies in prison, officials say  —  RIGA, Latvia — Russia's jailed opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died in a Russian prison colony on Friday, Russia's prison service announced early afternoon, without giving the cause of his death.

Rosendale drops Montana Senate bid — after less than a week  —  Rosendale had just launched his long-anticipated Senate bid last Friday.  —  GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale is dropping his Montana Senate bid less than a week after he officially launched it, he confirmed to POLITICO.

Reporter asks Ron DeSantis why he can affirm his height with lifts, but stands against gender-affirming care  —  In a Thursday morning press conference in Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a failed 2024 presidential candidate, flanked by representatives from the Southern Poverty Law …

Greece legalizes same-sex marriage despite church opposition  —  ATHENS, Greece — Greece on Thursday became the first Orthodox Christian country to legalize same-sex civil marriage, despite opposition from the influential, socially conservative Greek Church.

Puck: White House Reporters Knew About Biden All Along  —  According to a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll, 86% of Americans now believe Joe Biden's too old to serve as president.  The mainstream media's fluffing of Biden and deflection to the fitness of Donald Trump hasn't fooled most voters, and that includes 73% of Democrats.

Joe Rogan and Bret Weinstein Promote AIDS Denialism to an Audience of Millions  —  Weinstein repeated discredited theories to Rogan about HIV not being the cause of AIDS, alarming and infuriating public health experts.  —  Bret Weinstein, the evolutionary biology professor turned podcaster …

House GOP sets rule-vote failure record  —  Presented by With assists from POLITICO's Congress team  —  WHY RULE VOTE FAILURES COULD ONLY GET WORSE FOR JOHNSON  —  Failing to pass a rule.  It's typically a process that leadership gives little thought, a minor bump on the path to passage.

Witness Told Feds She Was Paid for Sex Parties With Matt Gaetz  —  The Ethics Committee is investigating Gaetz—and has text messages between the congressman and a woman who claims she had sex with Gaetz at parties she was paid to attend. … When ABC News reported on Wednesday …

Has Wired Given Up On Fact Checking?  Publishes Facts-Optional Screed Against Section 230 That Gets Almost Everything Wrong  —  from the that's-not-how-any-of-this-works dept  —  What is going on at Wired Magazine?  A few years ago, the magazine went on a bit of a binge with some articles that completely misrepresented Section 230.

The Real Dangers Behind the Russian ‘Space Nuke’ Frenzy  —  The “national security threat” that sent American officials scrambling this week can't attack humans, but it can still wreak havoc on the U.S.  —  A “troubling” U.S. national security warning has stirred chaos on both ends …

Senator Blumenthal Pretends To Fix KOSA; It's A Lie  —  from the blumenthal's-lies-will-kill dept  —  As lots of folks are reporting, Senator Richard Blumenthal, this morning, released an updated version of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).  He and co-author Senator Marsha Blackburn …

The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger … On a Tuesday evening this past October, I put $50,000 in cash in a shoe box, taped it shut as instructed, and carried it to the sidewalk in front of my apartment, my phone clasped to my ear.  “Don't let anyone hurt me,” I told the man on the line, feeling pathetic.

Biden isn't sorry about Afghanistan, new book says … - 13 U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing outside Kabul's airport as the U.S. evacuated. … Ending the war was always going to be messy," Politico's Alexander Ward writes in “The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore Foreign Policy After Trump.”