Prosecutor in Trump criminal probe convenes grand jury to hear evidence, weigh potential charges  —  NEW YORK — Manhattan's district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict former president Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself …

Leader McCarthy Condemns Comparisons to the Holocaust  —  Washington, D.C. - House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) released the following statement:

Tech company running Arizona ballot audit backs out: ‘They were done’  —  Jen Fifield Andrew OxfordArizona Republic  —  The Pennsylvania-based IT company that was in charge of running the hand recount of Maricopa County ballots is no longer involved in the audit.

Nevada GOP thrown into turmoil after avowed Proud Boys member said he participated in censure vote of state official  —  The leaders of the Nevada Republican Party are facing an internal revolt after an avowed Proud Boys member said he was invited with friends to attend a state party meeting …

Kathryn Garcia leads field in new poll, 4 weeks ahead of Election Day  —  Former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia is leading the Democratic field of mayoral contenders, with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams hot on her trail, according to a new poll four weeks ahead of Election Day.

Bipartisan group of senators prepares new infrastructure plan as talks stall between White House and GOP  —  Romney and several others are trying to craft a deal that they hope can win support from lawmakers in both parties  —  A small bipartisan group of senators is privately sketching …

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs stripped of roles by Appropriations Committee  —  PHOENIX — Political score-settling is not supposed to be part of the budgeting process, but you will have a hard time convincing Democratic members of the House Appropriations Committee of that.

We Are Critics of Nikole Hannah-Jones.  Her Tenure Denial Is a Travesty.  —  Political intervention in hiring will badly damage higher ed.  —  Today's rampant political polarization has led to alarming interference in academic affairs, threatening basic principles of openness and faculty authority …

Faulty redactions in court document show federal investigators seized more info in case against Rudy Giuliani than previously disclosed  —  New details emerge about investigation into Giuliani  —  (CNN)New York federal prosecutors investigating Rudy Giuliani have seized material from a wider array …

The Teen Who Filmed George Floyd's Murder Shared How It Changed Her Life In A Touching Tribute  —  Darnella Frazier, the teen who recorded the viral video of George Floyd's murder, reflected on witnessing his final moments and the impact it has had on her life in a powerful post on the anniversary of his death Tuesday.

Schumer to force vote on Jan. 6 commission this week  —  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is planning to hold a vote before the Memorial Day recess on whether to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the events of Jan. 6, according to several senators.

Steve Bannon's fraud case dismissed after months of haggling over Trump pardon  —  NEW YORK — A federal judge on Monday formally dismissed the fraud case against Stephen K. Bannon, the conservative provocateur and ex-adviser to President Donald Trump, ending months of litigation …

Senate confirms DOJ nominee Kristen Clarke with just one Republican vote  —  Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted yes with all Democrats, and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., did not vote  —  Fox News Flash top headlines for May 25  —  The Senate confirmed Kristen Clarke as the first Black woman …

Scoop: States warn banks — Drop coal, and we drop you  —  More than a dozen Republican state treasurers are threatening to pull assets from large financial institutions if they agree to decarbonize their lending and investment portfolios, Axios has learned.

Biden ready to name Eric Garcetti ambassador to India  —  President Biden is ready to nominate Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as his ambassador to India, sending a trusted political ally to the world's biggest democracy, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

Trump responds to insurrection lawsuit by claiming immunity while he was President  —  ‘Storm the Capitol!’:  Rioters react to Trump speech  —  Washington (CNN)Donald Trump's attorney defended the ex-President's incendiary speech on January 6, saying he is protected under the First Amendment and had …

AI emotion-detection software tested on Uyghurs  —  A camera system that uses AI and facial recognition intended to reveal states of emotion has been tested on Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the BBC has been told.  —  A software engineer claimed to have installed such systems in police stations in the province.

What Biden Didn't Realize About His Presidency  —  Joe Biden had been president for less than two weeks when he told me something he'd heard from a friend after the election.  Biden was like the dog that caught the car, the friend told him—after a lifetime of dreaming of becoming president, he'd finally done it.

France Suspects Russian Role in Campaign to Discredit Pfizer Vaccine  —  Several French bloggers said they received emails offering to pay for social-media videos criticizing the Covid-19 vaccine  —  PARIS—French counterintelligence authorities are investigating whether the Russian government …

Scoop: Israeli spy chief in talks to join Mnuchin's investment fund  —  The boss of Israel's spy agency has been in private talks with former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin about joining his investment fund that will work with Gulf countries, two sources familiar with the conversations tell Axios.

After democracy dies … The normal solution in a 50/50 state to legislators acting like sociopaths and doing extremely unpopular things would be to defeat them at the ballot box.  But Wisconsin Republicans have conveniently ended democratic elections for legislature in the state.  Weeee!

The Native Scholar Who Wasn't  —  More than a decade ago, a prominent academic was exposed for having faked her Cherokee ancestry.  Why has her career continued to thrive?  —  To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

The End IS Near.  No, Seriously.  —  The tone of some recent writing about this pandemic has seemed — to me, anyway — strangely defeatist.  —  Friends keep asking me questions like: “Is what I'm hearing true?  We'll never reach herd immunity?”  —  The subtext is we'll never really be safe …

Pompeo-led effort to hunt down Covid lab theory shut down by Biden administration over concerns about quality of evidence  —  US still not sure on the origins of Covid-19 pandemic  —  Washington (CNN)President Joe Biden's team shut down a closely-held State Department effort launched late …

Poets in Myanmar Are Killed After the Coup  —  More than 30 poets have been imprisoned since the military seized power in Myanmar, a country where politics and poetry are intimately connected.  —  After the first and second poets were killed, the third poet wrote a poem.

Newsom ordered to pay $1.35 million for COVID-19 church discrimination  —  California's embattled Gov. Gavin Newsom has been dealt a fresh blow after a federal judge ordered him to pay $1.35 million over the state's draconian lockdown of 3,000 churches during the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections Reported to CDC — United States, January 1-April 30, 2021  —  CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Case Investigations Team (View author affiliations)  —  COVID-19 vaccines are a critical tool for controlling the ongoing global pandemic.

Red Lines  —  The Constitution invites us—and politics compels us—to consider redrawing state and local borders.  —  The following essay is the first in a new feature from The American Mind on the possibilities—and necessity—of rearranging our political map.  —  In September of 2020, I published a book entitled The Stakes.

Justice Dept. releases part of internal memo on not charging Trump in Russia probe  —  The Justice Department late Monday night released part of a key internal document used in 2019 to justify not charging President Donald Trump with obstruction, but also signaled it would fight a judge's effort to make the entire document public.

How the G.O.P. Primary for Mayor Turned 2 Friends Into Bitter Rivals  —  Two long-shots, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, and Fernando Mateo, a restaurateur, are in a heated fight to be their party's nominee.  —  The two Republicans running for mayor of New York City used to be friends.

The U.S. is distributing stimulus aid to victims of domestic abuse, who faced even greater hardship in the pandemic.  —  The Biden administration has begun to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in funds to support victims of domestic abuse, a group that faced greater hardships …