POLITICO Playbook: GOP donors privately pan Trump's ‘horrible’ RNC speech  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  A slew of well-heeled Republican National Committee donors descended on Palm Beach this weekend, excited to be schmoozed, eager for access to DONALD TRUMP and other potential 2024 nominees …

‘Suspicious’ blackout strikes Iran's Natanz nuclear site  —  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's underground Natanz nuclear facility lost power Sunday just hours after starting up new advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium faster, the latest incident to strike …

Maskless Florida woman who coughed on Pier 1 customer gets 30 days in jail  —  A Florida woman who, without wearing a mask, purposefully coughed on another customer in a Pier 1 store last year has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.  —  Debra Hunter, 53, will serve time in Duval County jail …

Twitter Censors Criticism of BLM Founder Buying $1.4 Million Home In Predominantly White Neighborhood  —  We have been discussing the expanding censorship on Twitter and social media.  The latest example involves the story of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37 …

Cheney calls Gaetz allegations ‘sickening,’ stays mum on calls for resignation  —  Cheney declines to say if she was surprised by the allegations  —  Gaetz slams ‘lying’ media  —  U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday she found the sexual misconduct allegations against fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz …

China admits that it's COVID-19 vaccine isn't very effective: official  —  BEIJING — In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country's top disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to give them a boost.

China hasn't been forthright on Covid, Blinken says  —  The world still needs “to get to the bottom of” the origins of Covid-19, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, and that means China still owes the world some answers.  —  “I think China knows that in the early stages of Covid …

Covid-19 hospitalizations among younger people are rising in the US — especially in one region  —  (CNN)The US just hit a record high of about 4.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines reported administered in one day, according to data published Saturday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For immigrants, IDs prove to be a barrier to a dose of protection  —  BOSTON — The line started outside, on a street usually teeming with people waiting to enter college bars, and snaked up the stairs of an old firehouse to the Brazilian Worker Center, where shots of the coronavirus vaccine …

‘We cannot go back to normal’: Boston's Mayor Kim Janey sees a mandate for racial equity in post-Covid era  —  Boston (CNN)For 200 years, Boston has been led by an unbroken string of White men — until now.  Kim Janey, a Black woman who traces her roots in the city back generations …

For years, the Boston Police kept a secret: the union president was an alleged child molester  —  Despite 1995 evidence, Patrick Rose kept his badge, worked on child sexual assault cases, and ascended to power in the police union.  He went on to allegedly molest five other children.

Of hate, crimes and hate crimes: Anti-Asian violence is not quite what city pols want it to be  —  Flipping through the paper on Friday, you could read about:  —  A young Asian man who was at the Home Depot in East New York when a man brandished a two-by-four and asked his girlfriend, “Why you with that little d—k Asian n—

Respectfully, Justice Breyer, court enlargers aren't the problem  —  Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer is an engaging, intellectually serious advocate of judicial modesty and compromise.  Some years ago, he put forward an admirable concept he called “active liberty.”

The GOP commitment to democracy  —  The ongoing attempt by GOP legislators in 43 states to curtail access to voting is the latest in a series of actions by Republican elites that seem designed to undermine our democratic system of government.  These actions raise perhaps the most pressing question …

Police accused of threatening, pulling gun on Black Army lieutenant during Virginia traffic stop … Virginia police pulled guns on a Black Army officer during a traffic stop and threatened to execute him in a parking lot, according to the serviceman's lawsuit and video of the encounter.

Stringer Theory The comptroller's reward for a career in public service?  Third place in the polls.  —  Last fall, Scott Stringer wasn't just confident.  “He was cocky,” said one person close to him.  “He was very aggressive about it, like, 'I am going to be the next mayor …

Google's Secret ‘Project Bernanke’ Revealed in Texas Antitrust Case  —  Program used past bid data to boost tech company's win rate in advertising auctions, according to court filing  —  Google for years operated a secret program that used data from past bids in the company's digital advertising exchange …

Case count, masks and ventilation are key  —  “There are three factors to consider,” said Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, who studies the airborne transmission of Covid-19.  —  “How prevalent is the virus in the population?

Trudeau government threatens Halifax Security Forum over proposed Taiwan award  —  The organizers of one of the world's most prestigious defense gatherings are in the midst of an uncomfortable international standoff between the Canadian government and China over a major award they had planned to give to the president of Taiwan.

'You Can't Trust Anyone': Russia's Hidden Covid Toll Is an Open Secret  —  The country's official coronavirus death toll is 102,649.  But at least 300,000 more people died last year during the pandemic than were reported in Russia's most widely cited official statistics.