U.S. Asks Taliban to Spare Its Embassy in Coming Fight for Kabul  —  The demand seeks to stave off an evacuation of the embassy by dangling aid to future Afghan governments — even one that includes the Taliban.  —  WASHINGTON — American negotiators are trying to extract assurances …

How the Pandemic Now Ends  —  In September 2020, just before COVID-19 began its wintry surge through the United States, I wrote that the country was trapped in a pandemic spiral, seemingly destined to repeat the same mistakes.  But after vaccines arrived in midwinter, cases in the U.S. declined and …

2020 Census Statistics Highlight Local Population Changes and Nation's Racial and Ethnic Diversity  —  U.S. Census Bureau Delivers Data for States to Begin Redistricting Efforts  —  AUG. 12, 2021 — The U.S. Census Bureau today released additional 2020 Census results showing an increase …

Donald's Plot Against America  —  I felt as though I had stumbled across a crime scene so violent that I couldn't process it, let alone synthesize the images in front of me.  The parts remained stubbornly separate, and there was no way to grasp the meaning of the whole.

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 …

Rachel Maddow Seriously Considers Leaving MSNBC  —  As her contract draws to a close, sources told The Daily Beast, the MSNBC icon has been weighing taking her brand elsewhere. … Rachel Maddow has been MSNBC's most high-profile on-air personality for more than a decade …

Rumble, a YouTube rival popular with conservatives, will pay creators who ‘challenge the status quo’  —  The video site has exploded during the pandemic as a home for anti-vaccine misinformation and conservative complaints about Big Tech censorship  —  A fast-growing YouTube rival popular …

WHO scientist: China pressured us not to mention lab leak in the report and maybe there's a reason for that  —  There are really two stories significant stories here both of which come from an interview which Peter Ben Embarek gave to Danish documentary makers.

California dad killed his kids over QAnon and ‘serpent DNA’ conspiracy theories, feds claim  —  A California surfing school owner who was charged with killing his two children in Mexico is a follower of QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories who thought the children “were going to grow …

‘Everybody I Know Is Pissed Off’  —  The vaccinated, across party lines, have kind of had it with the unvaccinated, an array of new polls suggests.  —  While most state and national GOP leaders are focused on defending the rights of unvaccinated Americans, new polling shows that the large majority …

San Francisco to become first major U.S. city to mandate full vaccination for many indoor activities  —  San Francisco will become the first major city in the country to require proof of full vaccination against the coronavirus for a variety of indoor activities, including visiting bars restaurants …

Greg Abbott Surrenders to the Coronavirus  —  A year and a half into the pandemic, Texas is running out of hospital beds.  —  The Texas Tribune reported on Tuesday that nearly 10,000 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized, and that the state's intensive-care units are being overwhelmed.

July was busiest month for illegal border crossings in 21 years, CBP data show  —  The number of migrants detained along the Mexico border crossed a new threshold last month, exceeding 200,000 for the first time in 21 years, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection enforcement data released Thursday.

Next Up for a Trump Tabloid Ally: Trying to Make It in the Hamptons  —  Dylan Howard, known for the “catch and kill” deals during the #MeToo reckoning, teams up with an Italian publisher for a publication aimed at the Hamptons crowd.  —  In late May, the luxury brand Ferragamo threw …

NY Times Lawyers Accidentally Send Private Strategy Memo to Staff Union  —  While locked in a contentious battle over tech staffers unionizing, Times management's counsel mistakenly sent its game plan to the union. … The New York Times is engaged in a contentious back and forth …

‘Karen’ podcast exposes media flaws  —  Over a year ago, in May 2020, New Yorker Amy Cooper briefly became the most hated woman in America — a living symbol of racism — after a viral video showed her making a 911 call in Central Park and frantically shouting that she was being threatened by “an African-American man.”

Fairfax County confronts critical race theory  —  When Nikole-Hannah Jones and her notorious 1619 Project claimed that the War for Independence was fought to “preserve slavery,” scholars quickly debunked her.  The 1619 project surreptitiously removed the absurd claim.

GOP Strategist Arrested for Underage Sex Trafficking  —  The feds just arrested wealthy Republican strategist and frequent Fox News guest Anton Lazzaro on five counts of underage sex trafficking.  —  Anton Lazzaro, a young Republican strategist and former congressional campaign manager in Minnesota …

Trump Hires Iowa Political Veterans, Signaling Interest in 2024  — Political action committee hires Eric Branstad, Alex Latcham  — Trump has been hinting that he may run for president again  —  Donald Trump's fundraising committee has hired two political operatives familiar with campaigns in Iowa …

440 students in Palm Beach County in quarantine two days into school year, superintendent says  —  School started Tuesday in Palm Beach County and already 440 students have been instructed to quarantine after contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.  —  Most of the 440 have not tested positive for COVID.

Harris County judges move to block arrest of more than 40 Texas Democrats as legal fights over quorum bust continues  —  It's unclear how long the orders will remain in place, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has already indicated the state plans to fight them.  —  Copy link

Emails: Senior DOJ officials wrangled over baseless Trump voter fraud allegations  —  During Donald Trump's final weeks in office, top Justice Department officials wrangled over how the FBI should handle a particularly wacky voter fraud allegation promoted by the then-president and his allies.

Cuomo exit isn't stopping push for answers on nursing homes  —  Sexual harassment allegations cost New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo his job.  Now, many want to see him answer for a scandal that cut to the heart of his reputation as a pandemic hero and may have had life-and-death consequences …

What Rosen told U.S. senators: Trump applied ‘persistent’ pressure to get Justice to discredit election  —  Former president Donald Trump's last attorney general has told U.S. senators his boss was “persistent” in trying to pressure the Justice Department to discredit the results of the 2020 election.

Don't Panic, But Breakthrough Cases May Be a Bigger Problem Than You've Been Told Current public-health messaging may understate the scale and risk.  —  The term itself, perhaps, is a problem.  “Breakthrough” sounds bad — implying an immune-escape mutation, likely rare, and therefore alarming.

Texas Senate passes bill with new voting restrictions after a Democrat filibustered for 15 hours to try to stop the measure  —  AUSTIN — The Texas Senate on Thursday approved a bill that contains new voting restrictions after a Democratic senator filibustered for 15 hours to try to stop the legislation …

Launderette, Fresa's no longer requiring proof of COVID vaccination after TABC threatens permit removal  —  Update: Two days after announcing a new policy that required indoor diners to provide proof of at least one round of COVID-19 vaccination, sister restaurants Launderette and Fresa's changed …

FBI Arrests ‘Tunnel Commander,’ An Anti-Abortion Extremist Who Fought Cops On Jan. 6  —  David Mehaffie was charged with attacking law enforcement during a January riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.  —  An Ohio man who was identified by online investigators in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack …