EXCLUSIVE: Cyber expert says his team can't prove Mike Lindell's claims that China hacked election  —  SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The cyber expert on the “red team” hired by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell now says the key data underpinning the theory that China hacked the 2020 election unveiled at the Cyber Symposium is illegitimate.

Texas Hospitals Are Already Overloaded.  Doctors Are ‘Frightened by What Is Coming.’  —  Across Texas, health officials warned of a growing crisis not seen in months, with more than 10,000 Texans hospitalized and intensive care units stretched thin.  —  SAN ANTONIO — At least two hospitals …

Rand Paul discloses 16 months late that his wife bought stock in company behind covid treatment  —  An aide to the Kentucky Republican said he prepared the disclosure last year and only recently learned that it was never transmitted  —  Sen. Rand Paul revealed Wednesday that his wife bought stock …

EXCLUSIVE: ‘The Russians have videos of me doing crazy f***ing sex!’  Hunter Biden is seen in unearthed footage telling a prostitute that Russian drug dealers stole ANOTHER of his laptops for blackmail while he was close to overdosing in a Vegas hotel room  — Hunter Biden claims Russian …

Mississippi's Hospital System Could ‘Fail’ In 10 Days, UMMC Warns As Feds Rush In  —  With COVID-19 patients overflowing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, including in its pediatric center, hospital leaders are warning that the medical system statewide could be on the verge of failing without drastic intervention.

Former U.S. attorney in Atlanta says Trump wanted to fire him for not backing election fraud claims.  —  Byung J. Pak, a former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, told congressional investigators on Wednesday that his abrupt resignation in January had been prompted by Justice Department officials' warning …

U.S. #COVID19 vaccination levels by county OVER TIME  —  As regular readers know, I've become a bit obsessive over tracking COVID-19 vaccination rates at both the state and county levels over the past month or so.  I post the daily rate levels daily on Twitter, and once a week I've been updating …

Giuliani told agents it was okay to ‘throw a fake’ during political campaign  —  Rudolph W. Giuliani's promise of a “big surprise” to help Donald Trump's election in October 2016 led to Democratic accusations the FBI was feeding him secrets about an investigation of Hillary Clinton.

A majority of Americans in highly vaccinated counties now live in covid hot spots, Post analysis finds  —  Two-thirds of Americans in highly vaccinated counties now live in coronavirus hot spots, according to an analysis by The Washington Post, as outbreaks of the highly transmissible delta variant …

Trump Keeps Rejecting Pleas From Allies for Pro-Vax Campaign  —  Donald Trump's former allies keep pleading with him to aggressively back the COVID-19 vaccine.  Trump won't do it.  —  It's been more than six months since Donald Trump left office and, despite pleas from multiple friends and advisers …

Matthew Taylor Coleman: Man ‘Enlightened’ by QAnon to Kill His Kids, Feds Say  —  Matthew Taylor Coleman is a California man who is accused of abducting and killing his young children in Mexico after he said he became “enlightened” by conspiracy theories, including QAnon.

5th graders at Georgia school are sent home due to Covid-19  —  Fifth graders at one suburban Atlanta elementary school were sent home Wednesday for virtual learning due to high numbers of positive Covid-19 cases, according to a school district email sent to parents and obtained by CNN.

Kathy Hochul vows big change from ‘toxic’ Cuomo administration, will fire ‘unethical’ staffers  — New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is ready to take over as governor from Andrew Cuomo, and vowed not to have a “toxic” workplace as Cuomo allegedly has had for three terms.

Redistricting sprint begins with major census data drop  —  The Census Bureau's long-awaited release of redistricting data Thursday will unleash a torrent of new state political maps in the weeks and months to come, starting with the handful of states pressed against early fall deadlines to enact new district boundaries.

The pandemic has become more dangerous for children.  Here's how to help keep them safe.  —  Unvaccinated children will soon be starting school during what might be the most dangerous moment in the pandemic for them.  —  In the week ending Aug. 5, more than 93,000 children tested positive …

Gaetz associate providing feds intel, documents as probe into congressman continues: Sources  —  Former tax collector Joel Greenberg is cooperating with investigators.  —  As the federal investigation into Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz continues into the summer, sources tell ABC News that Gaetz's …

Autonomy for Red America, Part 1  —  In biology, an ecosystem is a complex of living organisms and their interrelationships with their physical environment within a particular unit of space.  —  In American politics today, the ecosystem of the Right is no less complex and interwoven.

After 50 years in prison — 37 in solitary confinement — Philly man's conviction is vacated  —  In 2017, Arthur “Cetewayo” Johnson won the right to leave solitary confinement after a remarkable 37 years on “restricted release” status in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections …

POLITICO Playbook: Pelosi's summer squeeze  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  PELOSI FACES DOWN THE MODS — Speaker NANCY PELOSI is calling the House back from summer recess Aug. 23 to vote on the party's $3.5 trillion budget, but she has a problem: Six moderate House Democrats, our ace House reporters Sarah Ferris …

White House seizes an opportunity to whack DeSantis  —  MIAMI — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made himself the national face of the anti-Biden Covid-response resistance.  —  So the president decided to punch it.  —  For the past two weeks, Biden and his allies have publicly escalated a war …

Kate Clanchy: Author to rewrite memoir amid book's race and ableism row  —  Publisher Picador is considering alterations to Kate Clanchy's Orwell prize-winning memoir amid accusations of racial and ableist stereotyping.  —  Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me sparked online criticism …

Jan 6 Prosecutors admit to possession of “images of officers hugging or fist-bumping rioters, posing for photos with rioters, and moving bike racks”  —  Calls into question the trespassing and related non-violent crimes charged against defendants like Cuoy Griffin.  — Parler  — Gab

78th Secretary of the Navy Message to the Fleet  —  To our Sailors, Marines, civilian employees, and their families and loved ones: … Today, together, we again embrace the most sacred duty - defending our nation and working to build a world more defined by peace than conflict.

The U.N. Climate Panel Tries to Cut Through the Smog  —  Our social world is as polluted as our physical one—can we still see what we must?  —  We all live in two worlds: a physical one and a social one.  The new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was released on Monday …

Iran's Next Foreign Minister: A Diplomat With An ‘IRGC Attitude’  —  Some say the next Iranian foreign minister's views are as hawkish as the fiercest hard-line elements within Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and that improving relations with Western countries will be difficult.

Trooper harassed by Cuomo quickly became his driver  —  The trooper, now an investigator, has retained high-profile attorney Gloria Allred  —  ALBANY — The State Police investigator who said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sexually harassed her had moved up in the ranks of his protective detail quickly …