E.U. promises swift retaliation after Belarus forces airliner to land and detains dissident  —  RIGA, Latvia — European leaders on Monday were considering a plan to sever Belarus from the rest of the continent's airspace, a day after Belarusian authorities forced a commercial airliner to land …

Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate On Covid-19 Origin  —  Report says researchers went to hospital in November 2019, shortly before confirmed outbreak; Adds to calls for probe of whether virus escaped lab  —  WASHINGTON—Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute …

Commerce Department security unit evolved into counterintelligence-like operation, Washington Post examination found  —  An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department's officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation …

It's the Media's ‘Mean-Too’ Moment.  Stop Yelling and Go to Human Resources.  —  In public radio, there is either an epidemic of bullying or an epidemic of whining, depending on whom you ask.  —  For 20 years, the WNYC radio show “On The Media” has been the sort of place where the hosts …

They tried to overturn the 2020 election.  Now they want to run the next one.  —  Republicans who sought to undercut or overturn President Joe Biden's election win are launching campaigns to become their states' top election officials next year, alarming local officeholders and opponents …

Whitmer apologizes after photo shows her at bar violating her own order  —  Lansing — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an apology Sunday after a photo emerged showing her at a restaurant with 12 other people gathered around tables pushed together in violation of her health department's current epidemic order.

BLM activist Sasha Johnson in critical condition after gunshot to the head  —  Shooting in Southwark, London came after numerous death threats, says her Taking the Initiative party  —  The Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is in a critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound …

How Joe Biden Can Win a Nobel Peace Prize  —  Leon Trotsky once supposedly observed, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”  To President Biden I'd say today, “You may not be interested in Middle East peacemaking, but Middle East peacemaking is interested in you.”

Key impeachment witness Gordon Sondland sues Mike Pompeo and U.S. for $1.8 million in legal fees  —  President Donald Trump's former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, is suing former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for $1.8 million to compensate …

Are U.S. Officials Under Silent Attack?  —  The Havana Syndrome first affected spies and diplomats in Cuba.  Now it has spread to the White House.  —  During the final weeks of the Trump Administration, a senior official on the National Security Council sat at his desk …

Weightlifting, Gatorade, birthday calls: Inside Biden's day  —  During a speech in Pittsburgh in March, President Biden held up the index card he keeps in his right breast pocket to track the nation's covid deaths, inadvertently revealing a glimpse of his private schedule on the back side.

If Democracy Is Dying, Why Are Democrats So Complacent?  —  Democrats are unwilling to match their language of urgency with a strategy even remotely proportional to it.  —  Staff writer at Jacobin magazine  —  If you've followed recent Democratic messaging, you'll have heard that American democracy …

What if the Unorthodox Arizona Audit Declares Trump Won?  —  Sitting in the press booth at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, several rows above where some two dozen tables of counters were retallying the 2020 presidential votes of the citizens of Maricopa County …

Biden administration moves toward making the pandemic work-from-home experiment permanent for many federal workers  —  As the Biden administration contemplates how to return the massive federal workforce to the office, government officials are moving to make a pandemic experiment permanent …

Lucy Lang Vies for Progressive Mantle in Manhattan District Attorney Race  —  The former prosecutor has emerged as the problem-solving candidate in a field of eight Democrats  —  As a Manhattan prosecutor in 2017, Lucy Lang secured murder convictions against two masked shooters who opened fire …

Dismissed in 2012, this diagnosis of GOP ills has now become undeniable  —  (CNN)The essay described congressional extremists, their rejection of truth, a party turning into authoritarians or “an apocalyptic cult.”  It bore a striking headline:  —  “Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem.”

Top MAGA ally under fire for ‘squishiness’ on Trump  —  Former Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken briefly defended a home-state congressman who voted for impeachment.  It could sink her Senate bid.  —  Jane Timken, right, speaks to supporters at the Hamilton County Board of Elections as people arrive …

Why Arkansas Is a Test Case for a Post-Trump Republican Party  —  Sarah Huckabee Sanders seems likely to bring the Trump brand to Arkansas politics in a big way.  But the state is a testing ground for different possible futures for the party.  —  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — For decades …

Rand Paul says he won't get a Covid vaccine  —  Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday he is not getting vaccinated because he already had Covid-19.  —  Speaking with a conservative radio host on WABC radio, Paul, an Ophthalmologist, said he won't change his mind unless he sees evidence that people …

Conservatives have a new target: Biden's IRS plan  —  Add another obstacle to the growing list President Joe Biden faces in his negotiations over his massive spending plans: mounting opposition to one of the ways to pay for his proposal — growing the IRS.  —  Conservative groups have launched …

How UFO sightings went from joke to national security worry in Washington  —  In 2007, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid called his colleagues Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye to a specially secured room in the Capitol where highly classified information was discussed.

It's time to get impatient about lingering COVID lockdowns  —  The pandemic is over, as far as the United States is concerned.  The brief period during which we should be expected to tolerate continued restrictions on our freedom, and especially on our children, is coming to an end, too.

Lawmakers worry the toxic atmosphere on Capitol Hill will follow them home, raising safety concerns  —  As House members head out of Washington for three weeks, anger at each other is turning into fear of what could await them back home.  —  Tensions among lawmakers have been running high since …