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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

‘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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

‘Our Luck May Have Run Out’: California's Case Count Explodes  —  Los Angeles County, which has been averaging more than 2,000 new cases each day, surpassed 100,000 total cases on Monday.  —  SACRAMENTO — Only a few weeks ago, thousands of Southern Californians were flocking to beaches …

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 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.

Woke censorship is basically a superstitious cult  —  The irrational obsessions behind our woke fever  —  We live in a society gripped by a quasi-religious fervor — and obsessed with symbols and irrational fears.  —  Anything that is thought to have the slightest association with ­racism …

Why Rioters Will Eventually Turn Their Rage On Christianity If Not Stopped  —  The outrage over statues and the ‘white’ depictions of Christ is meant to detract us from the real endgame: the ‘canceling’ of Christianity itself.  —  Towards the end of his reign, Tuthmosis III of Egypt ordered …