Tennessee abandons vaccine outreach to minors — not just for COVID-19  —  The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach - not just for coronavirus, but all diseases - amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean.

George W. Bush says ending U.S. military mission in Afghanistan is a mistake  —  Former president George W. Bush said he believes the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is a mistake, in rare public remarks on the military intervention he launched nearly two decades ago.

Inside Facebook's Data Wars  —  Executives at the social network have clashed over CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned data tool that revealed users' high engagement levels with right-wing media sources.  —  One day in April, the people behind CrowdTangle, a data analytics tool owned by Facebook, learned that transparency had limits.

How Tucker Carlson became the voice of White grievance  —  Tucker Carlson huddled in a low-ceilinged dungeon that had served as a holding pen for Africans bound for enslavement in the United States.  It was a July day in 2003 in Ghana, and Carlson stood alongside some of America's most prominent civil rights leaders.

Senate Democrats reveal $3.5 trillion plan to invest in health care, climate change and more … WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leaders announced an agreement Tuesday evening to advance a $3.5 trillion spending plan to finance a major expansion of the economic safety net.

Drug overdoses soared to a record 93,000 last year  —  Deaths from drug overdoses soared to more than 93,000 last year, a staggering record that reflects the coronavirus pandemic's toll on efforts to quell the crisis and the continued spread of the synthetic opioid fentanyl in the illegal narcotic supply …

The Moral Collapse of J. D. Vance  —  What do we call a man who turns on everything he once claimed to believe?  For a practitioner of petty and self-serving duplicity, we use “sellout” or “backstabber.”  (Sometimes we impugn the animal kingdom and call him a rat, a skunk, or a weasel.)

Top U.S. General Said Trump Preached ‘Gospel of the Führer’  —  General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, likened Donald Trump's effort to hold on to power after the 2020 election to Adolf Hitler, saying the president was preaching “the gospel of the Führer” …

Bolsonaro in hospital as hiccups persist for more than 10 days  — President, 66, to be observed by doctors for next 48 hours  — Speculation grows over health of Brazil's far-right leader  —  The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been admitted to hospital complaining of abdominal pain …

Michigan GOP executive who blamed Trump for election loss resigns leadership post  —  Dave Boucher Clara HendricksonDetroit Free Press  —  A Michigan Republican Party leader who faced grassroots pushback after saying the 2020 presidential election wasn't stolen and blaming ex-President Donald Trump …

Poll: 1.8 million Americans have turned down jobs due to unemployment benefits  —  About 1.8 million out-of-work Americans have turned down jobs because of the generosity of unemployment insurance benefits, according to Morning Consult poll results released Wednesday.

‘We are seeing people passing quicker than before’: What hospitals look like in US Covid hot spots  —  (CNN)Dr. Sergio Segarra says when Covid-19 patient numbers in the Miami hospital he works in dipped below 20 last month, he began feeling optimistic.  —  “I remember seeing articles …

Robin DiAngelo Wants White Progressives to Look Inward  —  The author of “White Fragility” discusses her new book, “Nice Racism.”  —  In 2018, Robin DiAngelo, an academic and anti-racism consultant, published the surprise best-seller “White Fragility.”  The book, which argues that white people tend …

‘He wished he had gotten the vaccine:’ Local man battling COVID-19 from ICU for months  —  GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Blake Bargatze, 24, was the only one in his family to not get vaccinated and now he remains in a hospital ICU more than three months after contracting COVID-19, according to his family.

New Book Details Eric Trump ‘Flipped Out’ On Election Night  —  Donald Trump's son reportedly screamed at campaign aides as his father's lead against Joe Biden narrowed, according to Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker's new book.  —  Eric Trump “flipped out” on the night of the 2020 election …

The Deeply Racist Dimensions To Ashli Babbitt's Martyrdom  —  “Who killed Ashli Babbitt?”  —  It's a question that, in recent weeks, has become a mainstream rallying cry among the MAGA crew after growing in volume for months on the far-right fringes.  Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has asked it repeatedly …

Inside the Industry That Unmasks People At Scale  —  Unique IDs linked to phones are supposed to be anonymous.  But there's an entire industry that links them to real people and their address.  —  Joseph Cox  —  Tech companies have repeatedly reassured the public that trackers used …

Merkel versus mania  —  It's a head-spinning week.  It would be convenient if the Iranian attempted kidnappings, Latin American political arrests, possible twin migration crises, last-minute APEC summit, climate policy knife fights among allies, and Olympic drama all packed neatly into one narrative.

My Friends Were Sent to the Camps  —  If you took an Uber in Washington, D.C., a couple of years ago, there was a chance your driver was one of the greatest living Uyghur poets.  Tahir Hamut Izgil arrived with his family in the United States in 2017, fleeing the Chinese government's merciless persecution of his people.

Florida Dems to Biden: Don't blow ‘golden opportunity’ on Cuba  —  MIAMI — Donald Trump and the GOP dominated Florida's elections last November in part due to the former president's hardline Latin America policy and rhetoric.  —  Now, in Cuba's historic uprisings, Florida Democrats …

Family of five charged for allegedly storming the Capitol after tipster provides social media screenshots  —  For five people arrested this week after they were charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly storming the U.S. Capitol, the Jan. 6 insurrection appeared to be a family affair.

Inside Shepard Smith's Post-Fox News Crash on CNBC  —  The ex-Fox anchor's much-hyped new show has failed to bring in viewers and, per insiders, it has struggled with some internal turmoil, including “regular tantrums” from Smith.  —  Whether it's a poor time slot, behind-the-scenes squabbles …

Norwegian Cruise Line sues Florida over prohibition on vaccine requirements.  —  The fight over requiring vaccinations for travel is heating up.  —  Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings sued Florida's surgeon general on Tuesday, accusing the state of preventing it from “safely and soundly” …

Biden's civil rights nominee remains unapologetically divisive on Title IX  —  The Department of Education's former civil rights head Catherine Lhamon has not changed much over the past four years.  —  On Tuesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing …

Can the Black Rifle Coffee Company Become the Starbucks of the Right?  —  The company doubled its sales last year by leaning into America's culture war.  It's also trying to distance itself from some of its new customers.  —  To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

She says vaccines make you magnetized.  This lawmaker invited her testimony, chair says.  —  After a discredited doctor's conspiracy theories involving COVID-19 vaccines, magnetics and 5G towers made a mockery of the Ohio House of Representatives, the Health chairman blamed the sponsor …

Ex-Kamala Harris staffers have bad memories of a toxic culture in her past offices and are texting each other about it  — Some former Harris staffers are feeling vindicated after reports of dysfunction in her office.  — They're texting one another and having flashbacks about their time working for her.

There Goes Biden's ‘Moderate’ Brand  —  President Biden's implicit promise to turn down the temperature and restore normal patterns of rhetoric to the presidency can no longer be taken seriously after yesterday's ridiculous episode of hyperventilation disguised as a speech.

US to begin evacuation of Afghans who aided US military  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is set to begin evacuations of Afghans who aided the U.S. military effort in the nearly 20-year war during the last week of July, according to a senior administration official.

The tedium of the Trump-books news cycle  —  “The Trump books are coming.”  Late last month, Katie Rogers, a White House correspondent at the New York Times, warned us that we could soon expect a raft of new titles about Trump's final months in office to hit bookstores …

More than 150 companies back update to Voting Rights Act  —  More than 150 companies, including PepsiCo, Amazon and Target, threw their support behind updating the Voting Rights Act in a letter released Wednesday.  —  The signatories, all U.S. employers, urged Congress to enact …