FiveThirtyEight Senate Forecast: GOP Is Slight Favorite in Race for Senate Control  —  When FiveThirtyEight last issued a U.S. Senate forecast — way back in July — we concluded the race for Senate control was a toss-up.  That was a little ahead of the conventional wisdom at the time …

Obama aide: US sanctions effectively weakening Russia  —  White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken argued Sunday the United States' sanctions are effectively hurting Russia's economy even though they haven't deterred Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Crying Wolf on Religious Liberty  —  This week, the owners of two secular, for-profit corporations will ask the Supreme Court to take a radical turn and allow them to impose their religious views on their employees — by refusing to permit them contraceptive coverage as required under the Affordable Care Act.

N.S.A. Breached Chinese Servers Seen as Security Threat  —  WASHINGTON — American officials have long considered Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, a security threat, blocking it from business deals in the United States for fear that the company would create “back doors” …

France may have found part of jet  —  PERTH, Australia — France on Sunday provided Malaysia with satellite images of objects that could be from a passenger jet that has been missing for more than two weeks, the latest word of such images that officials are hoping will help solve one of the world's great aviation mysteries.

Study: Blacks with white friends are ‘less black’  —  WASHINGTON SECRETS VINCENT GRAY WASHINGTON RACE AND DIVERSITY  —  When Washington, D.C., councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry this week said that whites need to be “more open-minded” about African-American politicians, claiming …

Islamic law is adopted by British legal chiefs  —  Solicitors told how to draw up Sharia-style wills penalising widows and non-believers  —  Islamic law is to be effectively enshrined in the British legal system for the first time under guidelines for solicitors on drawing up “Sharia compliant” wills.

The Washington Post Responds To Me, and I Reply to the Post  —  On Thursday, the Washington Post published an article by Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin titled “The biggest lease holder in Canada's oil sands isn't Exxon Mobil or Chevron.  It's the Koch brothers.”  The article's first paragraph included this claim:

Paul Has Ideas, but His Backers Want 2016 Plan  —  SAN FRANCISCO — In a ballroom at the Olympic Club, a grand, early-20th-century building at the foot of Nob Hill, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, pitched a gathering of venture capitalists last week in an effort to show them that he may be the next big thing.