Europe moves to isolate Belarus after Minsk forces airliner to land and detains dissident  —  RIGA, Latvia — European leaders on Monday were taking steps to cut off air connections with Belarus, barring airlines from flying over the country a day after its leaders forced a commercial jet to land and arrested a dissident journalist.

Florida, in a First, Will Fine Social Media Companies That Bar Candidates  —  The new law is a direct response to Facebook's and Twitter's suspensions of former President Donald J. Trump.  —  WASHINGTON — Florida on Monday became the first state to regulate how companies like Facebook …

McGahn Is Likely to Testify Next Week on Trump's Efforts to Obstruct Russia Inquiry  —  A delay is said to have stemmed from an initial threat by former President Donald J. Trump to intervene, but he apparently reversed course.  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump's former White House counsel …

‘Time to move on’: Infrastructure talks near collapse  —  Washington's bipartisan infrastructure talks may soon look a lot like its cicada population: squashed after staggering around haplessly.  —  Senate Republicans negotiating with the White House sounded dour notes on Monday evening …

How the Liberal Media Dismissed the Lab-Leak Theory and Smeared Its Supporters  —  When Nicholson Baker wrote a cover story for New York laying out the evidence that COVID-19 may have originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, the hypothesis was still highly controversial.

Rand Paul receives death threat package with white powder and violent, profane message  —  On the outside of the envelope was a picture of a bruised and bandaged Paul with a gun to his head  —  Biden facing investigation over $87M migrant hotel housing contract

How influencers have enabled anti-Semitism  —  In July 2005, Mohammed Bouyeri stood trial for the murder of Theo van Gogh.  A year earlier, in broad daylight on a street in Amsterdam, he shot Theo eight times, and then attempted to decapitate him.  Theo's crime, for which Bouyeri meted out a death sentence …

53% of Republicans view Trump as true U.S. president -Reuters/Ipsos  —  A combination picture shows U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaking during the first 2020 presidential campaign debate, held on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic …

Jen Psaki Smashes Peter Doocy As He Tries To Blame Biden For COVID Deaths  —  Video: … Doocy asked, “On the origins of covid, there is a new Wall Street Journal story that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of urology were hospitalized with symptoms consistent with covid-19 and common seasonal illness of November 2019.

Simone Biles Dials Up the Difficulty, ‘Because I Can’  —  The Olympic gold medalist's new vault is so dangerous that gymnastics, for now, limits the scoring rewards for trying it.  Biles says that's unfair.  —  INDIANAPOLIS — Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history …

Arrested insurrectionist visited Ted Cruz's house — and brought 11 molotov cocktails to Jan. 6 riot: report  —  Lonnie Coffman of Alabama will remain in a Washington, DC-area jail until his trial, I federal judge ruled on Monday.  —  “A north Alabama man facing multiple charges in connection …

Support for Israel among young US evangelical Christians drops sharply — survey  —  Since 2018, backing for Israel down from 75% to 33% now; nearly half of evangelicals aged 18-29 say they favor establishment of Palestinian state, voted for Biden over Trump

Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM  —  Deal for the ‘Rocky’ and ‘James Bond’ studio would mark tech company's second largest-ever acquisition  —  Amazon.com Inc. is nearing a deal to buy the Hollywood studio MGM Holdings for almost $9 billion including debt, said people familiar with the matter …

‘The final straw’: How the pandemic pushed restaurant workers over the edge  —  Jim Conway started working in restaurants in 1982, making $2.13 an hour, plus tips.  —  And though the world has changed significantly in the nearly 40 years since then, his hourly wage has not.

Labor shortages end when wages rise, say some local businesses  —  As his six restaurants started ramping up for a post-pandemic world, Brian Will was struggling to find employees, so he went with the classic economics response for hard-to-find things.  —  He paid more.

“Fact-Checking” Takes Another Beating  —  Fact-checkers are great, but the media business keeps trying to solve its credibility problem by misrepresenting what they do  —  The news business just can't stop clowning itself.  The latest indignity is an international fact-checking debacle originating …

AP: Top cop in Black man's deadly arrest withheld cam video  —  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In perhaps the strongest evidence yet of an attempted cover-up in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, the ranking Louisiana State Police officer at the scene falsely told internal investigators …

The difference between Ilhan Omar and MTG  —  A DIVIDE OVER ANTISEMITISM — The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants, which ended 11 days of conflict, is holding.  But America is now grappling with the painful specter of antisemitism after a flurry of reported new attacks against Jews.

American journalist detained in Myanmar while trying to fly out of country  —  (CNN)An American journalist working in Myanmar was detained by local authorities Monday, his family and his news organization told CNN.  —  Danny Fenster, 37, was stopped at the Yangon airport as he tried to board …

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 …

Of inmates and asylums: Today's House Republicans make the John Birchers look quaint  —  With overwhelming bi-partisan support, Congress approved a 9/11 commission almost 20 years ago.  This past week House Republicans decisively opposed a commission to investigate the deadly mob assault on the Capitol Jan. 6.

Progressives' push of racial politics prompts a GOP pushback  —  Republicans have begun to push back against “critical race theory.”  It's about time.  —  Critical race theory is the centerpiece of one of the most cynical “progressive” political strategies ever seen in America …