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.

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 are in intensive-care units, some in areas where hospitals are close to capacity.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

F.D.A. to Authorize Third Vaccine Dose for People With Weak Immune Systems  —  The decision to expand the emergency use of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines is meant to help transplant recipients and others whose immune systems are similarly compromised.

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

Why Only 27 Percent of Young Black New Yorkers Are Vaccinated  —  As the Delta variant courses through New York City, many young Black New Yorkers remain distrustful of the vaccine.  —  A construction site safety manager in Queens said that as a Black man, he was more worried about the prospect …

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 …

Cuomo dynasty ends; search for ‘tough liberal’ persists  —  And so, another political dynasty has ended.  Like the Kennedy dynasty before it, the Cuomo dynasty ends in tragedy and personal failure.  —  By preparing to run for a fourth term, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was clearly trying …

House socialists may hold infrastructure bill hostage.  Let them.  —  I'm old enough to remember when the media was crowing about how the passage of the $1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill in the Senate was “another big win for Joe Biden's agenda.”  Some of those talking heads may need …

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.

Business Is Using Less Carrot and More Stick on Vaccinations  —  Forget incentives like paid time off or free concert tickets.  Governments and employers increasingly worry that mandates are the only answer for the fast-spreading delta variant.  —  The belief that vaccination should be a matter …

Biden on Afghanistan: Not my problem  —  As the Taliban blitz across Afghanistan and U.S. officials scramble to assess just how quickly the government in Kabul could fall, President Joe Biden is recalibrating his message to Americans.  —  Where he once insisted that two decades of U.S. backing …

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.

Texas Sen. Carol Alvarado's filibuster against GOP elections bill passes twelve hours  —  The Houston Democrat has been on her feet speaking, not allowed to sit or lean against her desk, and unable to take bathroom breaks or drink water, since Wednesday evening.

University to create equity-based honors program for students of color  —  San Jose State University scholars developing ‘(un) Honors College’  —  Higher education honors programs have traditionally been designed to give high-achieving students a chance to push themselves further …

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.