How Republican States Are Expanding Their Power Over Elections  —  In Georgia, Republicans are removing Democrats of color from local boards.  In Arkansas, they have stripped election control from county authorities.  And they are expanding their election power in many other states.

FBI asks Jan. 6 suspect about ties to Congress, extremists groups  —  NBC News reports the FBI have been questioning at least one of the people charged in the Capitol riot about his possible connections to members of Congress.

Targeting Biden, Catholic Bishops Advance Controversial Communion Plan  —  The decision was aimed at the nation's second Catholic president and exposed bitter divisions in American Catholicism.  —  The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States, flouting a warning from the Vatican …

Critical race theory becomes a top issue in Virginia governor's race  —  The power of critical race theory as a political issue will be put to the test in the Virginia governor's race this year, as Republican Glenn Youngkin promises to eradicate the racially based education curriculum …

EXCLUSIVE U.S. triples vaccines for Taiwan with 2.5 million-dose shipment  —  The United States will ship 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan on Saturday, a senior administration official told Reuters, more than tripling Washington's previous allocation of shots for the island …

Don't Ban CRT.  Expose It.  —  There's a liberal way to fight illiberalism.  And it's beginning to work.  —  17 hr ago  —  The stories in the mainstream media this past week about the broadening campaign to ban critical race theory in public schools have been fascinating — and particularly in how they describe what CRT is.

The Supreme Court's Newest Justices Produce Some Unexpected Results  —  In the term so far, including two major decisions on Thursday, the court's expanded conservative majority is fractured and its liberals are often on the winning side.  —  WASHINGTON — The arrival of Justice Amy Coney Barrett …

She Fell Nearly 2 Miles, and Walked Away  —  At 17, biologist Juliane Diller was the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon.  Fifty years later she still runs Panguana, a research station founded by her parents in Peru.  —  On the morning after Juliane Diller fell to earth …

Why Do People Want Jeff Bezos to Buy and Eat the Mona Lisa?  —  An online petition that started as a joke has gone viral, becoming a kind of digital performance art piece all of its own.  —  In order to “imagine a new art, one must break the ancient art,” the French author Marcel Schwob wrote more than 100 years ago.

The Delta Variant Could Create “Two Americas” Of COVID, Experts Warn  —  If you are fully vaccinated, you are most likely to be safe.  But in parts of the US where few people have gotten COVID vaccine shots, the Delta variant could trigger renewed deadly surges.  —  Copy

Statement by Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Ukraine Security Assistance  —  The idea that we have held back security assistance to Ukraine is nonsense.  Just last week—in the run-up to the U.S.-Russia Summit—we provided a $150 million package of security assistance, including lethal assistance.

A small win for the free exercise of religion  —  When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a lifelong Catholic, was questioned on how she could support compelling the Little Sisters of the Poor to violate their consciences by forcing them to provide birth control coverage, she gave a revealing answer: “I do my religion on Sundays.”

Video: Children narrowly missed in Bronx sidewalk shooting  —  MOUNT EDEN, the Bronx — Shocking video released by the NYPD Friday shows the moment two young children were nearly caught in the crossfire on a Bronx street when a gunman shot a man multiple times at close range.

Voting debate roils Washington but leaves many voters cold  —  PLANO, Texas (AP) — Brenda Martinez, a 19-year-old community college student, thinks the government should help immigrant students more.  Donald Huffman is worried about turning 50 next week with no work available …

For Juneteenth, America needs a new flag that all of us can honor  —  Singer Macy Gray says the flag should be redesigned to represent all Americans  —  The Confederate battle flag, which was crafted as a symbol of opposition to the abolishment of slavery, is just recently tired.  We don't see it much anymore.

Why Has “Ivermectin” Become a Dirty Word?  —  At the worst moment, Internet censorship has driven scientific debate itself underground  —  On December 8, 2020, when most of America was consumed with what The Guardian called Donald Trump's “desperate, mendacious, frenzied and sometimes farcical” …

Victoria's Secret Angel Megan Rapinoe Is Under Fire For Anti-Asian Tweet  —  Earlier this week, Victoria's Secret clipped its own wings by leaving attractive women in the dust for Megan Rapinoe, who looks like Tony Hawk's sister.  Now the new face of Victoria's Secret is in hot water for some iffy tweets back in 2011.

New Covid study hints at long-term loss of brain tissue, Dr. Scott Gottlieb warns  — A new U.K. study examined brain imaging before and after a coronavirus infection and looked specifically at the potential effect on the nervous system.  — “In short, the study suggests …

Washington Society Steps Back Out  —  Like a grizzly waking from hibernation, the ruling class is coming out of this thing with an appetite.  —  WASHINGTON — Something surreal was happening on the Potomac one recent night.  A big white tent erected outside the Kennedy Center seemed to be a portal back in time.

Why Shutdowns and Masks Suit the Elite  —  Covid restrictions seem less onerous from the standpoint of ‘expressive individualism,’ which defines the self in terms of ‘its will and not its body.’  —  A marvelous review in these pages last November inspired me to read a new book by O. Carter Snead …

'I'm a Republican.  I'm not sure what that means anymore.'  —  Chuck Hagel, who served as a GOP senator from Nebraska and as the secretary of defense in the Obama administration, discusses the current state of the GOP.