Texas congressman Tony Gonzales is denying a new report that he had an affair with Regina Santos-Aviles, a staffer who died by suicide last year.

The high level of House and Senate retirements going into the 2026 midterms shouldn’t be surprising given the low ebb of congressional power in the Trump era. It’s just a bad job.

Kennedy once called Monsanto his arch-nemesis, but now he’s happily supporting Trump’s order to boost the company’s production of a potentially carcinogenic weedkiller.

In a new book, Chris Jennings tells the story of the historic siege and how apocalyptic Christianity has influenced right-wing ideology.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in connection to claims that he shared government information with Epstein.

Meta and other AI companies are ramping up their lobbying before politicians figure out how unpopular the data centers are about to be, writes John Herrman.

Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference seemed to apologize for J.D. Vance’s performance last year. Then he made a sinister case for shameless western imperialism.

Jeremy Boal helped convince Governor Kathy Hochul to pass New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act. He may be one of the first people to use it.

Trump’s cabinet members are taking their workout and recovery routines very seriously: RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, and Dr. Oz have all posted photos and videos of themselves in cold plunges this week.

Democrats have called for Florida Congressman Randy Fine to resign over a social media post where he said he preferred dogs to Muslims.

So far any hope that the popularity Trump lost in 2025 is returning in 2026 looks seriously misguided according to the polls, as he is hitting or approaching new lows in net job approval.

Interviewing photojournalist Stephanie Keith, whose photos inside 26 Federal Plaza shed light on how the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration tactics were playing out in New York City.

Jackson didn’t just pave the way for Barack Obama. He envisioned a Democratic coalition and a policy agenda that were ahead of their time.

Black political power in New York is starting to feel precarious. There are steps the mayor can take to shore it up, writes columnist Errol Louis.

From ‘Trump’ to ‘Russian’ to ‘dentist,’ the only way to make sense of the Epstein-files abyss is still one disturbing and confusing search at a time.

In his initial budget proposal, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the city will be forced to raise property taxes if Governor Hochul and Albany refuse to increase taxes on the wealthy.

Embattled U.S. senator John Cornyn is a primary underdog against MAGA zealot Ken Paxton, and Trump won’t give him a boost. The incumbent does have a big money advantage and an argument that Paxton can’t beat James Talarico or Jasmine Crockett.

It’s time for progressives to get more sophisticated about national security and foreign policy, writes columnist Ross Barkan.

In a Truth Social post on Jesse Jackson’s death, Trump said his friendly relationship with the civil-rights leader back in the ’80s and ’90s proves he’s not racist. Trump concluded by attacking the first Black president, Barack Obama.

Will Leitch writes that the wild Olympic curling scandal, in which shameless athletes have exploited a no-refs culture, is an unfortunate sign of the times.

Stephen Colbert said CBS’s lawyers blocked his interview with Texas senate candidate James Talarico, citing the FCC’s ‘equal time’ rule. He’s since posted it online anyway.

The expansion of executive power is a hallmark of Trump’s second term. That could be a permanent condition, writes columnist Ed Kilgore.

Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are competing with gambling apps like DraftKings and FanDuel but operate under a completely different set of rules, writes columnist John Herrman.

Industry giants including Marc Andreessen and Anthropic are already spending millions to promote pro-AI politicians in the 2026 midterms.

Reporter Jack Herrera, who writes about immigration and the border, discusses Trump’s poor standing among Latino voters — a demographic he had been winning over.

In the latest tranche of Epstein materials released by the Department of Justice, “pizza” appears to mean whatever you think it does.

Trump may have already signed his last big piece of legislation. The president signaled that he doesn’t want another Big Beautiful Bill before the midterms. If Democrats win in November he may not be able to pass anything.

Climate change denialism used to be a fringe right-wing tendency. Now it’s the law of the land, and we’ll all suffer from it.

The logistics have been smooth, but 19 deaths suggests serious problems that need to be addressed, writes columnist Ross Barkan.

USAID’s remaining funds are being put towards security costs for OMB director Russell Vought, who pushed cuts that gutted the agency.

Ironically, the shutdown over ICE, which starts midnight Friday, won’t impact immigration enforcement, but it will hurt FEMA, TSA, and the Coast Guard.

A new report revealed chaotic new details of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure, including a claim that she fired a pilot over a missing blanket.

Newly unsealed documents about last month’s FBI raid of a Fulton County elections office reveal just how far the Justice Department is willing to go to will Trump’s election fraud fantasies into existence.

AI insiders and outsiders are both feeling helpless about the same thing, writes technology columnist John Herrman.

Border czar Tom Homan announced the end of Operation Metro Surge, saying that an ongoing drawdown of immigration officers in Minnesota will continue next week.

An arrest of an IDF reservist for allegedly using insider information on a military wager on Polymarket shows the dark side of letting everyone bet on everything.

Matt Shumer, who wrote a viral post about AI’s threat to white-collar jobs, discusses the overwhelming reaction to his cri de coeur.

At her congressional hearing on Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi was seen with a document which listed a Democratic lawmaker’s searches of the DOJ’s Epstein files.

Looking for an edge in college admissions? Just pull your kid from school. Homeschooling, long associated with hippies and religious conservatives in the U.S., is in the middle of a rebrand and a boom.

Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to apologize to Epstein victims attending a House Judiciary hearing today. She also insulted lawmakers and said that Americans should just focus on the stock market. Here are the wildest moments.

The FAA announced a 10 day closure of El Paso’s airspace and then abruptly lifted the restriction as reports claim the advisory was due to Mexican cartel drones.

The party needs to think hard and creatively about how to take control of the single best bulwark to halting MAGA in its tracks, writes columnist Ross Barkan.

Odds of a Homeland Security shutdown are high with Congress at an impasse on ICE reform. Yet mainly FEMA, TSA, and the Coast Guard will suffer.

The rainbow LGBTQ pride flag was removed from the Stonewall National Monument over the weekend due to a federal directive limiting what flags can be flown.

Susan Collins’s luck could finally run out in 2026. After three decades in the Senate, the Maine Republican’s tricks may be getting old. Could she be the key to Democrats flipping the Senate?

The Epstein files reveal Trump said ‘everyone’ knew about Epstein’s abuse in a 2006 call to a police chief. The Trump administration said the call is fake, or maybe real, but either way it “corroborates” everything Trump ever said about Epstein.

The GOP is panicking over noncitizen voting — but it’s imaginary. Trump has made mass voting by noncitizens a core MAGA myth. However, more and more data shows it’s rare and insignificant.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is facing calls to resign after documents confirmed he had deeper ties to Jeffrey Epstein than previously known.

With the installation of Archbishop Roland Hicks, Zohran Mamdani might find an unlikely ally in the Catholic Church.

On the campaign trail, Zohran Mamdani promised that police officers would not be the default response to New Yorkers suffering a mental-health crisis. Now he must follow through on that promise, Errol Louis writes.