Top Items:
Joel Achenbach / Washington Post:
New study on delta variant reveals importance of receiving both vaccine shots, highlights challenges posed by mutations — New laboratory research on the swiftly spreading delta variant of the coronavirus is highlighting the threats posed by viral mutations, adding urgency to calls to accelerate vaccination efforts across the planet.
Discussion:
Morning Shots, Wall Street Journal, Axios, Washington Examiner, Los Angeles Times, WTOP, Mail&Guardian, HuffPost, USA Today and Common Dreams
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Reuters:
Pfizer to ask FDA to authorize booster dose of COVID vaccine as Delta variant spreads — Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) plans to ask U.S. regulators to authorize a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine within the next month, the drugmaker's top scientist said on Thursday, based on evidence of greater risk …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg, BizPac Review, Forbes, Mediaite, Gizmodo, Fox News and Reuters
New York Post:
Don't buy the hysteria: The Delta variant is actually less dangerous — On Wednesday, the Delta variant became America's dominant COVID strain. Yet it's no cause for panic: The numbers — especially in Britain, which Delta hit hard — show it causes far fewer hospitalizations and deaths …
Discussion:
Alternet.org
Michaeleen Doucleff / NPR:
The Delta Variant Isn't Just Hyper-Contagious. It Also Grows More Rapidly Inside You
The Delta Variant Isn't Just Hyper-Contagious. It Also Grows More Rapidly Inside You
Discussion:
Mercury News, CNN, naked capitalism and Florida Politics
Lauran Neergaard / Associated Press:
Pfizer to seek OK for 3rd vaccine dose; shots still protect
Pfizer to seek OK for 3rd vaccine dose; shots still protect
Discussion:
HotAir, Breitbart, Axios, Balloon Juice, Washington Examiner, Boston.com, New York Times, Joe.My.God., Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Toledo Blade
Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
Citizens, Not the State, Will Enforce New Abortion Law in Texas — The measure bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. And it effectively deputizes ordinary citizens to sue people involved in the process. — People across the country may soon be able to sue abortion clinics …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog
Matt Gertz / Media Matters for America:
Fox's ongoing assault on the coronavirus vaccination campaign is going to kill its viewers — On Thursday morning, a few hours after the world marked the 4 millionth known coronavirus death, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade offered a critique of President Joe Biden's response to the pandemic.
Discussion:
Vanity Fair, Washington Post and Raw Story
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The White House:
FACT SHEET: Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy … The economy is booming under President Biden's leadership. The economy has gained more than three million jobs since the President took office—the most jobs created in the first five months of any presidency in modern history.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Politico, Insider, Bloomberg, Reason, New York Post, KOIN-TV, Protocol, The Verge and CNBC, more at Techmeme »
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New York Times:
Biden to Urge More Scrutiny of Tech Mergers and Data Privacy — The order is the president's latest acknowledgment of concerns that the tech giants have obtained outsize market power. — WASHINGTON — President Biden on Friday will encourage federal agencies to crack down on the way major …
New York Times:
Scripps Spelling Bee 2021: Live Updates — Zaila Avant-garde spells her way to victory! — The last few words were rattled off fast between the two final finalists, Chaitra Thummala and Zaila Avant-garde. — First was fewtrils (things of little value), which Chaitra got right.
Roger Sollenberger / The Daily Beast:
Trump Organization Indictment May Spell Trouble for Trump Spawn — The indictment against the Trump Organization named seven specific companies within the overall business. Guess who's connected to those companies. — The indictment filed last week against the Trump Organization …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Alternet.org
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Associated Press:
2 US men, ex-Colombia soldiers held in Haiti assassination — PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Seventeen suspects have been detained so far in the stunning assassination of Haiti's president, and Haitian authorities say two are believed to hold dual U.S.-Haitian citizenship and Colombia's government …
Discussion:
Washington Post, New York Post and KRDO
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Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:
The Christian Right Is in Decline, and It's Taking America With It — The presidency of George W. Bush may have been the high point of the modern Christian right's influence in America. White evangelicals were the largest religious faction in the country.
Discussion:
Religion News Service, The Daily Caller and New York Magazine
Jamie McIntyre / Washington Examiner:
Biden says US has given Afghans ‘all the tools’ to fend off the Taliban — ‘ALL THE TOOLS’: President Joe Biden says the U.S. military is leaving Afghanistan after 20 years, but not before giving the U.S.-backed government in Kabul a well-trained and equipped military that should be more than a match …
Discussion:
Politico, New York Daily News, The Bulwark, Associated Press, Bangor Daily News and Courthouse News Service
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Saeed Shah / Wall Street Journal:
Pakistan, After Rooting for Afghanistan's Taliban, Faces a Blowback
Pakistan, After Rooting for Afghanistan's Taliban, Faces a Blowback
Discussion:
Washington Post
Erika Edwards / NBC News:
Unvaccinated hospitalized patients say they regret not getting the shot … To describe Dr. Ryan Dare as frustrated would be a gross understatement. — Dare and his colleagues at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock are dealing with a surge in extremely ill Covid-19 patients …
Maria Sacchetti / Washington Post:
ICE to avoid detaining pregnant, nursing and postpartum women — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will no longer detain most pregnant, nursing and postpartum women for deportation, reversing a Trump-era rule that permitted officials to jail thousands of immigrants in those circumstances …
Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Tucker Carlson's Extremely Mad That Journalists FOIA'd His FOIA Request to NSA — The idea that reporters would use basic journalistic tools to verify his claims about the NSA set Carlson off on Thursday night—and he took specific aim at Ken Klippenstein. — Fox News host Tucker Carlson …
Discussion:
PRESS RUN and Fox News, more at Mediagazer »
Alice Miranda Ollstein / Politico:
POLITICO-Harvard poll: Most Americans believe Covid leaked from lab — Most Americans now believe that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China, according to a new POLITICO-Harvard poll that found a dramatic shift in public perception of Covid-19's origins over the last year.
Discussion:
National Review
Fred Hiatt / Washington Post:
Legally, Trump's tech lawsuit is a joke. But it raises a serious question. — Former president Donald Trump's lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been rightly derided as wrong on the facts, preposterous on the law and doomed to be thrown out of court.
Discussion:
MyNorthwest.com
Politico:
Feds agree to pay $6.1M to create database for Capitol riot prosecutions — The Justice Department has agreed to pay $6.1 million to a technology contractor to create a massive database of videos, photographs, documents and social media posts related to the Capitol riot as part of the process …
Discussion:
The Hill and Joe.My.God.
Ronald Brownstein / The Atlantic:
The Democrats' New Voting-Rights Obstacle — There is a gnawing anxiety among voting-rights advocates that even if Democrats find a way to roll back the Senate filibuster and pass new federal legislation safeguarding access to the ballot, the Republican-appointed majority on the Supreme Court might still strike it down.
Discussion:
New York Magazine
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Becket Adams / Washington Examiner:
The press's Avenatti humiliation is 100% of their own making — Nobody knows how to humiliate the press quite like the press. — Not even former President Donald Trump. — Former media darling and convicted felon Michael Avenatti has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for attempting to extort Nike.
Issues & Insights:
The Nation That Wouldn't Get Out Of Bed And Go To Work — A country of roughly 330 million has more than 9 million job openings, and 9.5 million unemployed. This is a disgrace, a clear indication that our American character and work ethic are slipping, a rolling tragedy that's been authored by the Democrats.
Discussion:
New Republic
Sky Palma / Raw Story:
Lincoln Project scores a win against the ‘Sedition Caucus’ after latest ad targeting Toyota — This Thursday, the anti-Trump conservative PAC Lincoln Project released a new ad targeting Toyota for being part of a string of corporations “lavishing massive campaign donations on Republicans …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Townhall, CBS News and New York Times
City Journal:
Progressive Policies Won't Stop the Crime Wave — An approach to crime-fighting that scorns policing and incarceration relies on empirical and conceptual errors. — Public safety — With last year's devastating homicide spike continuing, some proponents of “progressive” …
SFGATE:
Too hot to hike? Yosemite to hit 111 degrees this weekend. — The mercury in Yosemite hit 103 degrees Thursday at 2 p.m., and it's still rising. The national park is forecast to hit 106 degrees today at the start of a heat wave that will broil the U.S. West Coast through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Kyle Smith / New York Post:
California and Florida battle for the soul of a nation — Thanks to the blessings of decentralization, life can vary greatly in America depending on where you sit. Those differences are growing into a chasm of philosophical and practical contrasts between two basic models for the American future.
Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Tom Cotton's slimy attack on a ‘critical race theory’ professor is full of holes — Sen. Tom Cotton is calling for the firing of a U.S. Air Force Academy professor after she admitted to discussing critical race theory with cadets. But even a cursory look at the Arkansas Republican's slimy argument shows …
Howard Husock / The Hill:
The Supreme Court donor ruling is a defeat for Kamala Harris — Many media pundits will reflexively view the recent Supreme Court decision to strike down the California rule mandating that nonprofit groups disclose their top donors as a victory for conservatives such as Charles Koch.
Cammy Pedroja / Newsweek:
GOP Women's Group Shuns ‘Carnival Barkers’ Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert — A powerhouse political fundraiser known for supporting Republican women has intentionally been keeping distance from Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, calling them “carnival barkers” and “shameless self-promoters.”
Discussion:
HuffPost, National Review, The Hill and Joe.My.God.
Henry Olsen / Washington Post:
J.D. Vance is scaring America's elite. Good. — Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance is being attacked by critics on the left and right for his populist economics and his changed views on former president Donald Trump. That's a good sign that Vance's message is getting through and that he can win.
Discussion:
Election Law Blog, New Republic, HotAir and Althouse