Live updates Opening statements expected in Trump hush money trial  —  NEW YORK — Opening statements are expected Monday morning in Donald Trump's trial for allegedly falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

The Supreme Court Should Rule Swiftly on Trump's Immunity Claim  —  On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Donald Trump's arguments that he is immune from prosecution for his efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election.  It is likely that all — or nearly all …

Columbia University faces full-blown crisis as rabbi calls for Jewish students to ‘return home’  —  Columbia University is facing a full-blown crisis heading into Passover as a rabbi linked to the Ivy League school urged Jewish students to stay home and tense confrontations on campus sparked condemnation …

Republicans Are Suing for the Right To Harass Election Workers  —  You might think that even in today's highly polarized election environment there would be a bipartisan consensus to protect election workers from intimidation and harassment.  If you thought so, you would be wrong.

How Trump has become angrier and more isolated on Truth Social  —  For years, Donald Trump was among Twitter's loudest and most inescapable voices: a brash, bomb-throwing businessman turned president who could capture the global news cycle with a single tweet.

House Republicans blame Greene and Freedom Caucus for lack of border wins … - GOP leadership brought up border security provisions alongside their foreign aid package — but the package was blocked by Republicans from reaching the House floor under normal rules.

No Strange New Respect For Mike Johnson  —  At least not until he explains why he sacrificed thousands of lives, swaths of territory, and perhaps the future of Ukraine for nothing.  —  ∙ Paid  —  A weekend of important news has quickly overshadowed something striking that led up to it …

Papua New Guinea leader takes offense after Biden implies an uncle was eaten by cannibals  —  MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape accused Joe Biden of disparaging the South Pacific island nation by implying that an uncle of the U.S. president had been eaten by …

Supreme Court to decide if Biden administration can regulate ‘ghost guns’  —  The latest gun rights dispute concerns the Biden administration's effort to regulate gun-making kits the same way as commercially available firearms.  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed …

Americans who want to protect democracy need to stand up for public libraries  —  Public libraries, once considered the backbone of America's civic infrastructure, are now under attack in many places across the country.  Every day, librarians are harassed, threatened and intimidated for doing …

John Legend says Trump believes ‘to his core’ that ‘Black people are inferior’  —  Singer John Legend says former President Trump is a racist down “to his core.”  —  Speaking to MSNBC's Jen Psaki on Sunday, Legend spoke of Trump's response to the Black Lives Matter protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

Vance versus McConnell defines GOP Ukraine fight  —  First-term Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) are the faces of the debate over Ukraine that has split the GOP for months and raises the question of who is in charge of the Republican Party.

How Biden Can Press His Ukraine Advantage  —  A great new spot from our pals at Republican Voters Against Trump is out this morning.  “I was wondering if you guys are hiring right now,” the narrator toting the hidden camera asks a sequence of mall-store managers.  “I'm currently facing 88 felonies.

Russian Who Bankrolled Trump's Truth Social Set Up Dodgy Sex Pill Sites  —  HARD TO SWALLOW  —  Russian banker—who reportedly has family links to the Kremlin—was key backer of Donald Trump's Truth Social.  But that wasn't his only controversial project.

Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal solar power grants  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities.

‘Civil War’ is terrifying not for what it says about America, but about journalism  —  Around 2 p.m. on Friday, I opened my laptop and bought a ticket on Fandango for that night's showing of Civil War, the No. 1 movie in America that depicts a not-too-distant U.S. future of killing fields, refugee camps and bombed-out shopping malls.

Israel has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, Colonna report says  —  Exclusive: Review finds government has yet to substantiate claims UN relief agency staff have ties to Hamas or Islamic Jihad  —  Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees …

Paying for it doesn't make it a market (permalink)  —  Anyone who says “If you're not paying for the product, you're the product” has been suckered in by Big Tech, whose cargo-cult version of markets and the discipline they impose on companies.  —  Here's the way that story goes …

Trump's a Fraud When It Comes to Law and Order and ‘Backing the Blue’  —  FAKE JUSTICE  —  He pardoned crony crooks against DOJ's recommendations, and he's promised to let Jan. 6 insurrectionists—who brutally attacked cops—off the hook. … Donald Trump likes to project himself …