Melinda French Gates endorsed President Biden on Thursday, her first-ever presidential endorsement, she wrote on the social media platform X. Why it matters: French Gates is one of the most wealthy women philanthropists in the world. While she hasn't immediately committed any money to Biden's campaign, the endorsement is a signal boost for the president as other mega-donors have backed former President Trump. French Gates said earlier this year that she was resigning from the Bill &...

Shortly after Judge Aileen M. Cannon drew the assignment in June 2023 to oversee former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case, two more experienced colleagues on the federal bench in Florida urged her to pass it up and hand it off to another jurist, according to two people briefed on the conversations. The judges who approached Judge Cannon — including the chief judge in the Southern District of Florida, Cecilia M. Altonaga — each asked her to consider whether it would be...

In the runup to the season’s first presidential debate set for June 27, longshot third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. managed to satisfy two of the prerequisites for a run at the Oval Office: being born in the United States, and filing an official statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. However, the longtime anti-vaxxer and brainworm survivor failed to clear the bar on two other requirements, namely, reaching a threshold of at least 15 percent in four major...

Washington and Beijing are talking more regularly to avoid a conflict in the South China Sea despite their “contentious and competitive” relationship, the United States ambassador to China has told the BBC. “Our militaries are operating in very close proximity to one another in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait. You don’t want to send the wrong signal,” Nicholas Burns said in an interview in Beijing earlier this week. The South China Sea has become a dangerous flashpoint, where...

An unsigned, one-page bombshell of a letter made the rounds at Kirkland & Ellis, the world’s largest law firm by revenue. It threatened havoc for the firm and others that did business before the most powerful bankruptcy judge in the U.S. The letter alleged that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones, chief of the bankruptcy court in Houston, was in a romantic relationship with Elizabeth Freeman, a Texas attorney who as Kirkland’s co-counsel helped the firm shepherd multibillion-dollar...

A new bill would change Medicare Advantage for seniors, and many might benefit from faster prior authorization times. A bipartisan group of senators proposed the Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act, which would make the prior authorization process more efficient, enabling seniors to get faster treatment and reduce unnecessary paperwork. Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said prior authorization is the biggest administrative problem health care providers face, as they're...

China has been buying up strategically placed farmland next to military installations across the US, raising national security fears over potential espionage or even sabotage. The Post has identified 19 bases across the US from Florida to Hawaii which are in close proximity to land bought up by Chinese entities and could be exploited by spies working for the communist nation. They include some of the military’s most strategically important bases: Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in...

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a Texas ex-councilwoman who was thrown in jail in an act of political retaliation.  Sylvia Gonzalez and her attorneys at the nonprofit Institute for Justice (IJ) sued Castle Hills Mayor JR Trevino and other officials, alleging they plotted to remove her from office as retaliation for criticizing the city manager, thereby violating her First Amendment rights.  A Fifth Circuit court tossed her case, saying she didn't present required...