Why I Won't Support Spending Another $3.5 Trillion  —  Amid inflation, debt and the inevitability of future crises, Congress needs to take a strategic pause.  —  The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future.

TikToker Makes Script to Flood Texas Abortion ‘Whistleblower’ Site With Fake Info  —  An easy to use iOS shortcut lets non-technical users bombard the site, according to Motherboard's tests.  —  Joseph Cox  —  An activist has made a script to flood a Texas website used to solicit information …

Former prosecutor indicted over Ahmaud Arbery case, accused of helping shield suspects in fatal shooting  —  A grand jury on Thursday indicted a former Georgia prosecutor for her handling of Ahmaud Arbery's fatal shooting, on allegations she helped shield men now charged with murder in a case …

Kevin McCarthy among GOP lawmakers whose phone records January 6 select committee asks to be preserved  —  (CNN)House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is among a group of GOP lawmakers whose phone records are of interest to the select committee investigating the deadly January 6 riot on Capitol Hill, CNN has learned.

Heeding Steve Bannon's Call, Election Deniers Organize to Seize Control of the GOP — and Reshape America's Elections  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.

Trump's Plot to Steal Arizona Was Even Wilder Than We Thought  —  A massive data dump of emails, texts, and documents show Trump's allies were heavily involved in the bogus Arizona audit.  —  For months now, we all thought we knew that the bogus Arizona audit was a clown show.

UK defence secretary suggests US is no longer a superpower  —  Ben Wallace also contrasts his department's handling of Afghanistan crisis with Foreign Office response  —  Ben Wallace, Britain's defence secretary, suggested the US could no longer be considered a superpower in an interview …

Sex offending suspect claims transgender harassment in Wi Spa case  —  In June, a group of women complained that a person who identified as female exposed their penis at the Wi Spa in Los Angeles.  The incident led to months of sometimes violent protests, with media outlets declaring …

Americans Don't Really Hate Density  —  They hate other Americans  —  You may have seen a recent Pew survey result making the rounds on urbanism twitter.  It is a dispiriting finding if you believe (which you should believe, because it's simply true) that many of the land use …

The Effects of Increased Funding for the IRS  —  Last month, the Congressional Budget Office published An Analysis of Certain Proposals in the President's 2022 Budget.  Since then, CBO has completed its analysis of another proposal in the President's budget, an increase in spending …

“2016 on Steroids”: The Race to Inherit Trump's MAGA Base Is Already On—And the Knives Are Out  —  With the 2024 election in sight, Republican presidential contenders such as Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, and Mike Pompeo have begun racing each other to the bottom to claim the party's base.

Tree of Life synagogue disputes Biden's claim he visited after massacre  —  President Biden on Thursday told Jewish leaders that he spent time at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the October 2018 mass murder of 11 people there -but the synagogue told The Post he never visited.

The Downsides of Masking Young Students Are Real  —  Scientists have an obligation to strive for honesty.  And on the question of whether kids should wear masks in schools—particularly preschools and elementary schools—here is what I conclude: The potential educational harms …

Trump's Ambassador Craft Steered U.S. Government Business To Her Boss' Hotel  —  While serving as U.S. ambassador to Canada, Kelly Craft directed government business to then-President Donald Trump's Washington, D.C. hotel, according to internal emails released by the State Department.

China bans men it sees as not masculine enough from TV  —  BEIJING (AP) — China's government banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters Thursday to promote “revolutionary culture,” broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality.

We Work at the A.C.L.U. Here's What We Think About Vaccine Mandates.  —  Mr. Cole is the national legal director of the A.C.L.U., and Mr. Mach is the director of its Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.  —  Do vaccine mandates violate civil liberties?  Some who have refused vaccination claim as much.

Biden's Approval Rating Hits A New Low After The Afghanistan Withdrawal  —  Amid the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden's approval rating slid to just 43% in the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.  —  That is down 6 percentage points from a survey conducted …

James Simons, Robert Mercer, Others at Renaissance to Pay $7 Billion to Settle Tax Probe  —  Tax settlement that may be the largest in history  —  Executives of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies LLC will personally pay approximately $7 billion in back taxes and penalties to settle …

Gov. DeSantis' Net Approval Rating Drops 14 Points Amid Covid Spike, Poll Finds  —  Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas have seen their approval ratings dip amid an alarming rise of Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations in both states over the past two months …

Jan. 6 Rioter Goes Back To Jail Over ‘Addiction’ To Online Conspiracy Theories  —  Doug Jensen chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up the stairs as the mob stormed the Capitol.  He's going back to jail.  —  A QAnon conspiracy theorist who stormed the U.S. Capitol in support …

Risk of breakthrough infections remains very rare, 3 studies find  —  The Covid-19 vaccines continue to offer strong protection against severe illness and hospitalization, according to research on more than 1 million people published Wednesday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty  —  In a bid to keep the coronavirus out of the country, Australia's federal and state governments imposed draconian restrictions on its citizens.  Prime Minister Scott Morrison knows that the burden is too heavy.  “This is not a sustainable way to live in this country,” he recently declared.