Democrats have come under fire for planning a luxury jaunt to California’s wine country while Washington heads toward a possible government shutdown. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), chaired by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, allegedly invited lawmakers to an expensive two-day Napa Retreat from Oct. 13–14 at Hotel Yountville, a five-star resort with hot tubs and vineyard views, according to an invitation obtained by Politico Playbook. If Congress fails...

It’s often hard to separate the noise from the signal in politics. The noise is that congressional Democrats are fighting President Donald Trump and Republicans over a prospective government shutdown and healthcare spending. The signal is scratchy. But if you turn the squelch knob, you may detect the signal. We won’t know who “wins” or is “blamed” for a government shutdown for weeks. But the government shutdown will...

President Donald Trump is flexing new leverage in the war in Ukraine — allowing the nation to use U.S. weapons to strike deep into Russia, weighing whether to provide Kyiv with Tomahawk cruise missiles and vowing Ukraine can take back all its land — while pressing China and India to slash purchases of Russian oil. Ukraine supporters are cheering the shift, noting that after months of frustration over...