Germany’s Bundestag is about to vote on same-sex marriage. The first vote this morning will be to put the issue on the day’s agenda and the second vote is expected to follow within the hour. Watch below. Here’s how this came about so quickly: The way was paved for a vote on Monday night when Merkel said she wanted the …

The Associated Press reports: The White House on Thursday tapped a Washington labor lawyer known for representing large companies in discrimination lawsuits to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Eric Dreiband’s nomination immediately drew criticism from activists about his commitment to their priorities. The groups have been closely watching how Attorney General Jeff Sessions reshapes the division, which traditionally …

The New York Daily News reports: The top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe threatened to subpoena the White House if it doesn’t give more information about whether there were recordings of meetings between President Trump and former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday. Reps. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the White House’s …

From the Wall Street Journal: Before the 2016 presidential election, a longtime Republican opposition researcher mounted an independent campaign to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clinton’s private server, likely by Russian hackers. In conversations with members of his circle and with others he tried to recruit to help him, the GOP operative, Peter W. Smith, implied he …

Mediaite reports: Fox News anchor Julie Banderas pleaded with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel to stop trying to defend President Donald Trump’s Thursday morning tweet attacking Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski. McDaniel replied with what has now become a typical defense of Trump’s vicious tweet attacking the appearance of a TV anchor: “the GOP and the president are …

Trump watches this insanity. Media Matters has the transcript: ROBERT DAVID STEELE: This may strike your listeners as way out but we actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20 year ride. So that once they get to Mars they have no alternative but …

Vanity Fair reports: A few days shy of her six-month mark on air, Van Susteren’s business is finished on MSNBC, according to people familiar with the situation. The anchor, whose show struggled to gain traction even as the rest of her colleagues were buoyed by anti-Trump hysteria, has parted ways with the network. She will not appear on the show …

The Associated Press reports: Serbian lawmakers have elected a lesbian as the country’s first female prime minister, making history in the predominantly conservative Balkan country. Parliament voted 157-55 on Thursday to approve the government of 41-year-old Ana Brnabic, who became the nation’s first openly gay head of government. Serbia’s powerful President Aleksandar Vucic nominated the Western-educated Brnabic for the post …

Reporter: “You talk about being personally affected by all of this as well – and that there’s nothing wrong with the president fighting fire with fire – is the argument that you’re making. You have stood here and talked about your family at this podium. Are you going to tell your kids this behavior is OK?” Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “Look, …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week at the G20 summit, the White House confirmed Thursday. Trump’s highly-anticipated first meeting with his Russian counterpart will come on the sidelines of the summit in Hamburg, Germany, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster told reporters in an off-camera briefing. McMaster, joined by National Economic Council …

TMZ reports: Even Kellyanne Conway has NO defense for President Trump’s verbal attack on Mika Brzezinski … because she tried every possible tactic to avoid the topic. We got Trump’s Counselor Thursday morning on Capitol Hill — just a few hours after his brutal tweets about Mika. We barely got the question out when she launched into every pivot in …

Via Mediaite: The White House has confirmed that Deputy White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders would lead an on-camera press briefing at 2:00 p.m. EST on Thursday. The once daily pressers have become a thing of the past, with reporters typically in the dark over whether they will be held on camera, off camera, or at all. The briefings have …

Another unexpected move from Sessions. Via Politico: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is vowing to aggressively enforce federal hate crime laws, countering concerns among civil rights groups and some of his former Senate colleagues that he might put such prosecutions on the back burner. “I know the responsibility that we have, and we have a responsibility to protect people’s freedom, their …

The New York Times reports: Over the past several weeks, Monalisa Perez of Halstad, Minn., and her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz III, began their quest for YouTube fame by creating and posting videos of mostly harmless pranks: Mr. Ruiz climbing onto a tenuous tree branch and falling a short distance, or Ms. Perez feeding him a doughnut covered in baby powder …

American Family Association radio host Sandy Rios yesterday addressed an anti-immigrant hate group in Washington DC where she delivered some of her trademark Christian love. Safiyah Riddle reports at Right Wing Watch: “Listen, I am being very impolitic here,” Rios admitted, “but, as a female I find that bathrooms have just become unbearable because I think the people coming in …

The Associated Press reports: Cardinal George Pell, a top adviser to Pope Francis, took a leave of absence as the Vatican’s financial chief Thursday to fight criminal charges in his native Australia that alleged he committed sexual assault years ago. Pell forcefully denied the accusations, denounced what he called a “relentless character assassination” in the media and said he would …

Talking Points Memo reports: After the President sent out a vicious tweet attacking MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski and claiming she had a “face lift,” deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended President Donald Trump, saying he “fights fire with fire.” “Look, I don’t think that the president’s ever been someone who gets attacked and doesn’t push back. There …

The Hill reports: Two GOP senators assailed President Trump’s Thursday morning Twitter attack on the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” saying the insults were “beneath the dignity” of the office of the president. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Ben Sasse (Neb.) joined a loud chorus on social media denouncing the president’s latest tweets. Trump savaged “Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika …

Germany’s The Local reports: “The interior and justice ministries have always been of the opinion that same-sex marriage can’t happen without a change to the constitution,” Günter Krings [photo] told the Rheinische Post on Wednesday. “There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the proposed change to the law will contravene the constitutional definition of marriage.” The Grundgesetz (German …

Via Think Progress: An ad the National Rifle Association is using as a recruiting tool on its Facebook page stops just short of openly declaring war on the mainstream media and anti-Trump progressives. In the one-minute spot, conservative media personality and NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch says progressives “bully and terrorize the law abiding,” adding that “the only way we stop …