Obama plans Martha's Vineyard birthday bash as Delta variant rages on  —  The party will be held outdoors, all guests are asked to be vaccinated and there will be a COVID-coordinator.

Susan Collins says Trump shouldn't testify to Jan. 6 panel, criticizes it as ‘partisan’  —  WASHINGTON — Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., over the House's select committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack, while lamenting the collapse …

Senate finishing crafting $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure proposal, setting delicate debate in motion  —  Senate Democrats and Republicans on Sunday finalized a roughly $1 trillion proposal to improve the country's roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections …

GOP lawmaker who once spurned masks urges people to take covid-19 seriously after eight-month illness  —  A Tennessee legislator who went from unmasked gatherings with fellow legislators to being placed on ventilator days later has emerged with a message for constituents after a harrowing eight-month experience with long-haul covid-19:

How Local Media Spreads Misinformation From Vaccine Skeptics  —  Facebook and other social media have been under scrutiny for vaccine misinformation, but local outlets have also sometimes been active.  —  The Freedom's Phoenix, a local news site in Phoenix, and The Atlanta Business Journal …

Don't Let Anyone Normalize January 6  —  While he was president of the United States, Donald Trump tried to overthrow the election of 2020, first by fraud, then by violence.  His efforts were defeated in great part because of the integrity and courage of state-level Republican officials.

What I Heard in the White House Basement  —  One phone call changed my life.  —  On Thursday, July 25, 2019, I was seated at the table in one of the two Situation Rooms in the basement of the West Wing.  The bigger room is famous from movies and TV shows, but this room is smaller …

Florida breaks record for COVID-19 hospitalizations  —  ORLANDO, Fla. - A day after it recorded the most new daily cases since the start of the pandemic, Florida on Sunday broke a previous record for current hospitalizations set more than a year ago before vaccines were available.

The Anti-vaccine Con Job Is Becoming Untenable  —  Something very strange has been happening in Missouri: A hospital in the state, Ozarks Healthcare, had to create a “private setting” for patients afraid of being seen getting vaccinated against COVID-19.  In a video produced by the hospital …

DC Mayor Bowser officiates maskless indoor wedding after reinstated mask mandate  —  Fewer than 24 hours after Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser celebrated her 49th birthday with a DJ and comedian Dave Chappelle, she officiated a wedding at The Line DC, a four-star hotel in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of the city.

Democrats are on the verge of repeating a voting rights blunder that led to the rise of Jim Crow  —  (CNN)There comes a point in every awful horror movie where a character does something so careless and shortsighted a viewer loses faith in the storyteller.  —  There's the hapless victim …

Future president?  Kamala Harris now ‘underwater’ as sinking popularity alarms Democrats  —  Vice president to be sent abroad to raise her profile  —  Kamala Harris has become the most unpopular US vice president six months into an administration since at least the 1970s, according to polls.

Fauci warns ‘things are going to get worse’ with COVID  —  He doesn't believe lockdowns aren't likely to return, however.  —  As the country grapples with a surge in the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, Dr. Anthony Fauci believes that lockdowns the country saw last year are not likely to return …

Sky News Australia barred for week by YouTube over Covid misinformation  —  YouTube has barred Sky News Australia from uploading new content for a week, saying it had breached rules on spreading Covid-19 misinformation.  —  It issued a “strike” under its three-strike policy, the last of which means permanent removal.

A tsunami of deferred debt is about to hit homeowners no longer protected by a foreclosure moratorium  —  Over 2 million homeowners are delinquent on their mortgage, and billions in federal aid has yet to be distributed  —  Only one week after New Orleans enacted a citywide stay-at-home order in March 2020 …

Behind the Bombshell Allegation Buried in the WaPo Lawsuit  —  DISCLOSURE FOR THEE...  A star reporter's lawsuit against her employer has dredged up a years-old allegation against another WaPo reporter—and newsroom concerns about managerial hypocrisy.

US, UK blame Iran for deadly strike on ship with Israel ties, weigh response  —  Blinken: ‘We are confident that Iran conducted this attack’; Britain's FM Dominic Raab condemns ‘unlawful and callous attack’ that killed a Briton and a Romanian  —  This Jan. 2, 2016 file photo shows …

An embassy wall falls, upending a rising Afghan diplomat's career  —  For foreign diplomats, a top posting in Washington is typically a career-capping assignment, or a steppingstone to the highest government echelons at home.  That is especially true in Afghanistan, where America ranks as chief financial backer and most powerful ally.