EXCLUSIVE: A group of Justice Department prosecutors believe there is sufficient evidence to charge Donald Trump with obstruction of justice, but the path to an actual indictment is far from clear trib.al/f3d6E8U The team that’s part of the classified records probe has not yet made a formal recommendation to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who would ultimately approve or reject such a move, according to people familiar with the matter trib.al/f3d6E8U

Donald Trump’s political creation has grown beyond his wildest dreams — and now appears ready to live on with or without him trib.al/ovqKPDg The MAGA movement may have put Trump in the White House and transformed the GOP, but the midterm primaries are revealing that it is his brash brand of politics and his “America First” ideas, more than the man himself, that is driving Republican voters trib.al/ovqKPDg

Voters in Iowa, South Dakota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and California are heading to the polls today.

Here's what we're watching this #ElectionTuesday ⬇️ In Los Angeles, California, voters have a choice between two very different mayoral candidates leading the pack: Rick Caruso, a billionaire one-time Republican making his first bid for elected office, and veteran Democratic politician Karen Bass trib.al/lpiJSl7

The deadly assault on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 shocked viewers around the world.

But the short-lived horror wasn’t enough to shake political divisions — in fact, some candidates who disputed the election outcome are winning in landslides trib.al/9ASkIlm As Congress prepares for a series of televised hearings on the assault, polls show the GOP is on track to make big gains in midterm elections despite fielding candidates who embrace the false narrative of election fraud that fueled the riot trib.al/9ASkIlm

Amid signs of internal discord, the US Supreme Court is waiting until the bitter end to do the largest share of its work in more than 70 years trib.al/Mu7ZkpD The court is due to issue 33 opinions, a whopping 53% of its expected total in argued cases, as its 2021-22 term comes to an end in the next month trib.al/Mu7ZkpD

John Fetterman didn’t look like a typical Senate candidate when he rolled into Pennsylvania’s Lebanon County on a recent Saturday wearing gym shorts and an oversized Carhartt hoodie coated in dog hair.

But that’s the point trib.al/huCWr1p Fetterman, with a beatnik-style goatee and tattoos, is out to prove that conventionality has been a loser for Democrats in the small towns and rural hamlets that he thinks are ripe for recapture from Republicans trib.al/huCWr1p

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. officials and the European Union are in talks over steps the EU could take to restrict oil imports from Russia and cut the income that Moscow makes from sales trib.al/DJDxWM3 The options discussed include a ban, a price cap and a payment mechanism to withhold revenue that Russia’s generated since the start of the war in Ukraine, sources said trib.al/DJDxWM3

Emmanuel Macron is closer to winning another term at the helm of Europe’s second-largest economy as nationalist leader Marine Le Pen runs out of time to narrow the gap between them before the French presidential runoff ballot on Sunday trib.al/J7kTo9c Both candidates are holding their last rallies in areas where they came out on top in the first round two weeks ago.

Le Pen chose the northern Hauts-de-France region, while Macron is in the southern town of Figeac trib.al/J7kTo9c

Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a measure to strip Disney of its self-governance privileges trib.al/Z3cmO7u The legislation could lead to the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District created in 1967 in parts of Orange and Osceola counties to allow Disney to carry out certain municipal functions on its own trib.al/Z3cmO7u

On one side is hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin, a rising power in GOP money circles.

On the other is Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat and billionaire heir to the Hyatt fortune.

Aurora, Illinois has suddenly become a big-money political battleground trib.al/Yp9vnyW Griffin, founder of Citadel, is the richest person in the state, and one of the richest anywhere in the country, with a net worth of about $30 billion trib.al/Yp9vnyW

EXCLUSIVE: Russian central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina sought to resign after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, only to be told by the president to stay trib.al/96gXiMJ Nominated for a new five-year term last week, Nabiullina’s current views couldn’t be learned. She is left to manage the fallout from a war that’s quickly undone much of what’s she’s accomplished in the nine years since she took office trib.al/96gXiMJ

Ketanji Brown Jackson’s toughest questioning during Senate hearings this week will be from Republicans seeking to score political points by implying the Supreme Court nominee is soft on crime.

Here’s a look at some of the GOP’s top lines of attack ⬇️ trib.al/zJHMxts During Jackson’s appeals court confirmation proceedings last year, she said she didn’t have a “judicial philosophy per se.”

Some question how it’s possible she has no philosophy after serving on the bench and clerking for three judges trib.al/zJHMxts

BREAKING: The Biden administration is poised to impose a ban on U.S. imports of Russian energy as soon as Tuesday trib.al/RXVd9ha The ban will include Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal, according to two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The decision was made in consultation with European allies, who rely more heavily than the U.S. on Russian energy, a source said trib.al/RXVd9ha

Younger Canadians and those who can’t work from home register more support for the demonstrators who occupied downtown Ottawa, calling attention to a new potential political challenge for Trudeau trib.al/HRDjk4s The blockades were generally unpopular across all groups, according to a Nanos Research Group survey. Only 22% of Canadians said they were at least somewhat sympathetic with the anti-government movement, compared with three-quarters who said they weren’t trib.al/HRDjk4s

NEW: Russia has vaulted past Iran and North Korea to become the world’s most-sanctioned nation in the span of just 10 days following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine trib.al/3EK7dDF Russia became the target of 2,778 new sanctions designations, bringing them to more than 5,530, according to a global sanctions-tracking database trib.al/3EK7dDF

Biden directed the National Archives to release Trump’s White House visitor logs for Jan. 6 to Congress, rejecting claims that the logs are subject to executive privilege trib.al/L7XFN5e “The president has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to these records and portions of records,” White House Counsel Dana Remus wrote trib.al/L7XFN5e

Protesters against France’s Covid-19 vaccine passes are fed up.

Now, they’re driving toward Paris in an attempt to block the capital trib.al/xRzK7rH Over in New Zealand, protesters blared horns and snarled traffic in the capital city of Wellington

https://twitter.com/quicktake/status/1492033187693928458?s=21

NEW: America's about to have its first Black female justice. The question is who?

Take a look at the pros and cons of President Joe Biden's likely top three picks trib.al/mk5lP08 The women topping the list offer varying combinations of traditional educational and career credentials and also would bring unique life experiences and professional backgrounds to the court trib.al/mk5lP08

More predictability. More polarization.

The fight to gerrymander their way to more seats in Congress means fewer swing states and less political competition between Democrats and Republicans trib.al/w3uIMfs There are just 13 toss-up seats out of the 269 districts in redistricting completed so far, according to the Cook Political Report.

The U.S. has 435 congressional districts and not all state maps are yet completed, with some facing legal challenges trib.al/w3uIMfs

Boris Johnson had a torrid week.

Diplomatic efforts to decrease tensions with Russia over Ukraine continued.

Meanwhile, Xi Jinping is presiding over the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Here are some of this week’s most compelling political images ⬇️ trib.al/IHTRlKd A police officer in front of a billboard in Shanghai, China. Xi is hosting 21 world leaders at the Winter Olympics starting Friday, and a majority of them preside over non-democratic regimes trib.al/IHTRlKd

📷: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

1/ THREAD: A build-up of Russian military on Ukraine's border is sparking international tensions. But what about the ordinary people caught in the middle? Bloomberg's @marcchampion1 visited the last inhabited house before the front line.

Read more ⬇️ bloom.bg/3FBHSnV @MarcChampion1 2/ Valentyna and her daughter Halyna live at the edge of the Ukrainian-held town Mar'inka. Their home has been repeatedly hit by shells including one that Valentyna carried away, wrapped in her apron. Halyna has extracted shrapnel from her own stomach. bloom.bg/3FBHSnV