‘Goldilocks virus’: Delta vanquishes all variant rivals as scientists race to understand its tricks  —  The variant battle in the United States is over.  Delta won.  —  Since late last year, the country has been overrun by a succession of coronavirus variants, each with its own suite …

Cuomo's Top Aide, Melissa DeRosa, Resigns as He Fights to Survive  —  The governor's confidante helped lead efforts to retaliate against one of the women who accused him of sexual harassment, the attorney general's report found.  —  ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's top aide …

Earth is warming faster than previously thought, scientists say, and the window is closing to avoid catastrophic outcomes  —  (CNN)As the world battles historic droughts, landscape-altering wildfires and deadly floods, a landmark report from global scientists says the window is rapidly closing …

Trump's coup attempt grows even more worrisome as new details emerge  —  What happened on Jan. 6 was horrifying: an attempted coup, inflamed by social media, incited by the defeated president and televised in real time.  What happened before Jan. 6, we are coming to learn, was equally horrifying …

What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind  —  When Bobby McIlvaine died on September 11, 2001, his desk at home was a study in plate tectonics, coated in shifting piles of leather-bound diaries and yellow legal pads.  He'd kept the diaries since he was a teenager, and they were filled with the usual diary things …

As Taliban Capture Cities, U.S. Says Afghan Forces Must Fend for Themselves  —  The muted American response to the Taliban siege shows in no uncertain terms that the U.S. war in Afghanistan is over.  —  WASHINGTON — If the Taliban had seized three provincial capitals in northern Afghanistan a year ago …

Trump Sails Away as Rudy Giuliani Drowns in Legal Bills  —  As Rudy Giuliani struggles with mounting legal bills, the former president's longtime friend can't even get a Retweet.  —  As Rudy Giuliani's legal bills have piled up in recent months—and as federal investigators intensify …

POLITICO Playbook: What Biden, Schumer, McConnell, Sinema and Portman learned from BIF  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  BREAKING: Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN weighs in on Congress' handling of the debt ceiling.  —  “In recent years Congress has addressed the debt limit through regular order …

How cancel culture hurts the Left  —  There's a running joke on the Left about people who claim to have been silenced for their conservative views — while standing atop the platform of a podcast, TV show, or newspaper column that has an audience of millions.

For first time, average pay for supermarket and restaurant workers tops $15 an hour  —  $15 an hour is suddenly the rule, not the exception, for U.S. workers.  It's a major shift from pre-pandemic norms.  —  The U.S. labor market hit a new milestone recently: For the first time …

What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State  —  An updating tracker of proposed congressional maps — and whether they might benefit Democrats or Republicans in the 2022 midterms and beyond.  —  National Overview  — STATES WITH PROPOSED MAPS  — National Overview  —  STATES TO WATCH

Why Liberals Hate Hungary's Viktor Orban So Much  —  Hungarian President Viktor Orban was a once a dissident against communism.  Then he turned to faith and flag—and became a heretic against liberalism.  —  “The right's entrancement with [Hungarian President Viktor] Orban has emerged fitfully over the last decade.

Latvia warns of risk of ‘incident’ between Nato and Russia  —  Belarus ‘border crisis’ and military exercise could cause ‘misunderstanding’, says foreign minister  —  The “weaponisation” of migration by Belarus on its border with Lithuania and an imminent military exercise involving Russian …

Judge rules Florida can't ban Norwegian Cruise Line ‘vaccine passport’  —  A judge ruled on Sunday that Norwegian Cruise Line is permitted to ask customers to show proof of vaccination before boarding a ship, dealing a blow to Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R-Fla.) law that prevented “vaccine passports” from being utilized in the state.