Cover-up: Ukraine rebels destroying all links to MH17 air atrocity  —  UN demands full inquiry but armed Russian separatists block access to crash site amid confusion over black boxes  —  Russian separatist groups in eastern Ukraine are hastily covering up all links to the Buk missile battery suspected …

Understanding What Hamas Wants  —  Five observations about the Gaza conflict, including praise for an ex-president's insight into the particular nature of Hamas' evil  —  1. We can thank former President Bill Clinton for perfect clarity in his comments about the chaos and horror of Gaza.

Could southern black voters save the Senate for Democrats?  —  Yes, that could happen.  Nate Cohn has a terrific piece today arguing that, for the first time since Reconstruction, southern black voters could be pivotal to the outcome of a national election.  That would be the battle for the Senate this fall:

Some candidates' super PACs are a family affair  —  Is a super PAC independent when it's funded and run by your Mom and Dad?  —  WASHINGTON — An outside political committee has spent thousands of dollars on signs and billboards to boost Florida Democrat Gabriel Rothblatt's long-shot bid for Congress.

Bodies rained down on Ukraine village after plane disaster  —  (Reuters) - First came the loud explosion that made buildings rattle: then it started raining bodies.  —  One of the corpses fell through the rickety roof of Irina Tipunova's house in this sleepy village, just after Malaysia …

For the G.O.P., Fine Line Seen on Migration  —  WASHINGTON — In 1996, when a surge in illegal immigration collided with the overheated politics of a presidential election, Republicans demanded a strict crackdown.  —  They passed a measure in the House that would have allowed states …

Islamic State overwhelms Iraqi forces at Tikrit in major defeat  —  IRBIL, IRAQ — Islamic State gunmen overran a former U.S. military base early Friday and killed or captured hundreds of Iraqi government troops who'd been trying to retake Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit …

Income Inequality Is Not Rising Globally.  It's Falling.  —  Income inequality has surged as a political and economic issue, but the numbers don't show that inequality is rising from a global perspective.  Yes, the problem has become more acute within most individual nations …

Report: ‘Vast majority’ of asylum claims granted  —  BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL CONGRESS IMMIGRATION NATIONAL SECURITY BORDER SECURITY HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE LAW  —  Democrats who oppose changing the law to allow quicker removals of families and unaccompanied young people illegally crossing …

The Pentagon's War Against Climate Change  —  U.S. conservatives make at least two arguments against action on climate change: We don't have enough conclusive evidence to prove it is happening, and even if we did, the cost of cutting our carbon emissions would be too high.