CNN Drops Rick Santorum After Racist Comments About Native Americans  —  The former GOP senator lost his contract with the network after claiming there was “nothing” in America before white colonizers arrived.  —  CNN has terminated its contract with senior political commentator Rick Santorum after racist …

The Misery at the Heart of the Conflict  —  An eviction in East Jerusalem lies at the center of a conflict that led to war between Israel and Hamas.  But for millions of Palestinians, the routine indignities of occupation are part of daily life.  —  JERUSALEM — Muhammad Sandouka built …

U.S. seizes $90,000 from man who sold footage of U.S. Capitol riot  —  U.S. authorities have confiscated roughly $90,000 from a Utah man who sold footage of a woman being fatally shot during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, according to court filings.

Ted Cruz turns up the trolling to fill the Trump Twitter void  —  On Nov. 8, 2016, the people of the United States of America elected a Twitter troll as our president.  Yes, that's rather reductive — Donald Trump is certainly many other things — but it's also true.

The ‘gaffe machine’ gets a tuneup: Joe Biden stays surprisingly on message as president  —  WASHINGTON - Joe Biden was four months away from declaring his candidacy for president when an interviewer asked him about his well-documented history of saying precisely the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time …

PolitiFact retracts Wuhan lab theory ‘fact-check’  —  An awful lot of people in the press were eager last year, maybe a little too eager, to dismiss the theory suggesting the COVID-19 virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.  —  It was foolish then to reject the theory outright without any conclusive evidence.

Patrick Leahy signals he'll run for ninth Senate term  —  The Senate's longest-serving Democrat, long assumed to be on the cusp of retirement, is leaning toward giving it another go.  —  Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who has served since 1975 and is in the line of presidential succession …

We Don't Need a Commission to Investigate the Capitol Riot  —  This Democrat-driven project would be hopelessly politicized.  —  NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE  —  W  —  hy do we need a commission for this?  —  That's one of the questions Rich Lowry and I batted around on The McCarthy Report podcast a couple of Fridays ago.

In echo of Arizona, Georgia state judge orders Fulton County to allow local voters to inspect mailed ballots cast last fall  —  A Georgia state judge on Friday ordered Fulton County to allow a group of local voters to inspect all 147,000 mail-in ballots cast in the 2020 election in response …

Maskhole!  Chris Cuomo wears face covering alone in convertible  —  If only he played it this safe with his journalism ethics ...  Fully vaccinated CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has taken mask-wearing to absurd heights — covering his face as he cruised alone in a convertible with the top down amid the latest scandal to hit his family.

Risk of Nuclear War Over Taiwan in 1958 Said to Be Greater Than Publicly Known  —  The famed source of the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has made another unauthorized disclosure — and wants to be prosecuted for it.  —  WASHINGTON — When Communist Chinese forces began shelling islands controlled …

Republicans Move to Limit a Grass-Roots Tradition of Direct Democracy  —  Through ballot initiatives, voters in red states have defied legislators' wishes and produced liberal outcomes in recent years.  Republicans want to make the practice harder, or even eliminate it.

China positions itself as peace broker in Israel-Gaza crisis  —  Beijing's offer to host talks between Israelis and Palestinians is also a chance to seize moral high ground from the US, observers say But the Middle East is not likely to become another arena for US-China rivalries Beijing's offer …

Coronavirus infections drop below 30,000 daily in continuing sign of recovery  —  For the first time in 11 months, the daily average of new coronavirus infections in the United States has fallen below 30,000 amid continuing signs that most communities across the nation are emerging from the worst of the pandemic.

EXCLUSIVE In tactical shift, Iran grows new, loyal elite from among Iraqi militias  —  Nazanin Tabatabaee/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS  —  Iran has hand picked hundreds of trusted fighters from among the cadres of its most powerful militia allies in Iraq, forming smaller …

The Jewish man who was the victim of a gang assault in New York says the level of hatred was troubling  —  Jewish man attacked in a ‘gang assault’ in New York City  —  (CNN)A 29-year-old Jewish man, who was attacked in a New York City gang assault said Friday that he could not understand why there was so much hate directed at him.

Support for Black Lives Matter Surged Last Year.  Did It Last?  —  This article is part of a special section on George Floyd  —  and America, a year after his death.  Read more about this project  —  in a note from deputy Opinion editor Patrick Healy in our Opinion Today newsletter.

If Donald Trump faces criminal charges, few think it will hurt him with his base in 2024  —  WASHINGTON - When Republicans talk about whether Donald Trump will run for president again in 2024, many hasten to add it may depend on what is now a big unknown: His legal troubles.

For Colleges, Vaccine Mandates Often Depend on Which Party Is in Power  —  Hoping for a return to normal, more than 400 colleges and universities are requiring students to be vaccinated for Covid-19.  Almost all are in states that voted for President Biden.

Masks are off — which means men will start telling women to ‘Smile!’ again  —  The photographer at CVS told Quintana Carter to make a “neutral face.”  Not smiling, not frowning, just expressionless.  This was, after all, a photo for a new passport, just in case she decides to leave Boston on her first post-pandemic vacation.

How the GOP lies about the US Capitol insurrection and 2020 election are related  —  (CNN)The events of January 6 and its aftermath can be difficult to fathom.  A number of Republicans don't seem to comprehend them at all.  They have fallen back on the lies that the riots we all saw …