AP sources: White House aware of Russian bounties in 2019  —  Top officials in the White House were aware in early 2019 of classified intelligence indicating Russia was secretly offering bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans, a full year earlier than has been previously reported …

Trump's ‘white power’ retweet set off ‘five alarm fire’ in White House  —  President Donald Trump set off a “five alarm fire” in the White House Sunday morning after he retweeted a video of one of his supporters saying “white power,” according to two White House officials.

Carl Reiner Dead at 98  —  REMEMBERING CARL REINER  —  Carl Reiner, one of the most prolific entertainers in the history of show business has died ... TMZ has learned.  —  We're told Reiner died Monday night at his Beverly Hills home.  We're told his family was with him when he passed.

Trump hoping for Supreme Court vacancy as way to boost a flagging campaign  —  (CNN)As the Supreme Court hands his administration successive defeats at the same time his political standing craters, President Donald Trump has begun to raise both publicly and privately the potential boon another nomination …

Remembering My Friend Betsy Rothstein  —  I don't know what I expected Betsy Rothstein to look like, but I guess I wasn't expecting a woman who made her living filleting media personalities and nurturing feuds to be so tiny in stature.  When she approached me on the grass outside …

The Fall of Jeff Sessions, and What Came After  —  The former attorney general is fighting for his political life in Alabama's Senate race, in the shadow of a president who still despises him.  —  To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Flu virus with ‘pandemic potential’ found in China  —  A new strain of flu that has the potential to become pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.  —  It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.  —  The researchers are concerned …

S. Dakota Gov. Noem says ‘we will not be social distancing’ at July 3 celebration with Trump at Mount Rushmore  —  Thousands of people are expected for the event.  Masks are optional, too.  —  WASHINGTON — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says the thousands of people who attend the July 3 celebration …

‘Fox & Friends’ host: Trump should wear a mask  —  Fox News' Steve Doocy implored President Donald Trump on Tuesday to wear a mask in public to model best practices for Americans — echoing Republican leaders and other conservative commentators who have expressed new support for face coverings as Covid-19 cases surge nationwide.

Republicans have been skipping House Intelligence meetings for months  —  Democrats see a boycott motivated by partisan politics.  Republicans argue they have legitimate security concerns.  —  Either way, GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee have skipped all but one of the panel's proceedings …

Uppercasing ‘Black’  —  The Times will start using uppercase “Black” to describe people and cultures of African origin, both in the U.S. and elsewhere.  Read more in this note from Dean Baquet and Phil Corbett.  —  Dear Colleagues,  —  At The Times and elsewhere, the nationwide protests …

Trump Isn't Even Good at Inventing Mean Nicknames Anymore  —  Unable to manage an escalating pandemic, an economic crisis, and social unrest, and finding himself sinking farther behind in the polls, President Trump has reexamined his operations and arrived at the Trumpiest possible conclusion …

CDC says U.S. has ‘way too much virus’ to control pandemic as cases surge across country  — The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to get it under control as some other countries have, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday.

The white-collar revolt against Trump is peaking  —  (CNN)From his open defiance of public health officials when holding rallies to his increasingly explicit embrace of White racial backlash, President Donald Trump has set a course for his reelection campaign that could produce the GOP's largest deficit …

Three Families.  Nine Weeks.  ‘Things Are Getting Annoying.’  —  There we go.  Good.  There we go.  Yay.  Yay.  [MUSIC PLAYING] We're the Pauls.  We're the Orangos.  We are at the Carter-McLaughlin-Milstein family.  Or Mill Carterstein McDonlaughlinsons.  We spent the first three weeks just butting heads.

Momentum Building in States to Require Campus ‘Intellectual Diversity’  —  “You need to get out!”  Above, a First Amendment clash at the University of Missouri in 2015 when a faculty member sought to restrict a student photojournalist.  —  After leaving Evergreen State College in Olympia …

Publisher's wife played undisclosed role for Melania Trump  —  The owner of the news outlet that published the columns at the center of the Ukraine scandal helped secure an unpaid White House position for his wife — a fact the publication did not disclose to readers.

Latest Seattle CHOP shooting sees at least 2 injured, police say  —  Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said both victims were African-American  —  A 16-year-old boy has died and a 14-year-old boy has been hospitalized in critical condition Monday following the latest shooting at the Seattle area known …

Council agrees to start lifting travel restrictions for residents of some third countries  —  The Council today adopted a recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU.  Travel restrictions should be lifted for countries listed in the recommendation …

The Second Battle of Charlottesville  —  The image of President Donald Trump holding aloft a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church is destined to be a defining image of his presidency.  The events that led up to that moment reveal the essential elements of his rise to power.

Christian activist: I'd rather be ‘beheaded’ than be a ‘slave’ who wears a mask  —  In a video posted to YouTube this Saturday, right-wing anti-LGBT crusader Scott Lively jumped on the anti-face mask bandwagon, saying that he'd rather face death than be forced to put on a mask by the government.

The Strategies of Dementia Politics  —  Stoke chaos, obstruct economic recovery, and hide Biden in the basement till Election Day.  —  Joe Biden is tragically suffering a mental eclipse and sliding away at a geometric rate.  Understandably, his handlers have kept him out of sight.

Biden tells donors: I'm going to get rid of most of Trump's tax cuts ‘and a lot of you may not like that’  — Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden told potential donors to his campaign that he would roll back most of President Donald Trump's multitrillion-dollar tax cuts - even though “a lot of you may not like that.”