Statement by President Joe Biden on Supreme Court Ruling on Texas Law SB8  —  The Supreme Court's ruling overnight is an unprecedented assault on a woman's constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade, which has been the law of the land for almost fifty years.  By allowing a law to go into effect …

Latest Updates: Death Toll Rises as New York Region Struggles With Ida Destruction  —  Rescues continued and bodies were retrieved from flooded basement apartments.  Our reporters and photographers are sending in live updates.  —  RIGHT NOW Philadelphia is inundated by floodwaters as Ida leaves …

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 …

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.

The Harms 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 of mandatory-masking policies …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

Manchin Tells Democrats to ‘Pause’ on Biden's $3.5 Trillion Plan  — West Virginia senator's vote could determine fate of package  — Manchin had questioned the size of tax-and-spending plan  —  Key moderate Senator Joe Manchin said fellow Democrats should “hit the pause button” …

Approval of Labor Unions at Highest Point Since 1965  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sixty-eight percent of Americans approve of labor unions.  Though statistically similar to last year's 65%, the current reading is the highest Gallup has measured since 71% in 1965.

The new GOP rage-fest at Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger contains a big tell  —  In today's GOP, open proponents of political violence and the overturning of elections through mob insurrection are met with little to no punishment.  They regularly earn celebrity treatment on the GOP's primary propaganda channel.

The effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom is struggling, new California poll shows  —  Most likely California voters are opposed to the Republican-led recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom and a growing number fear the consequences of removing him from office with a hard-right conservative best positioned …

The election gambit that's sending Georgia Democrats into a frenzy  —  Georgia Republicans say it's merely an attempt to improve a chronically mismanaged elections administration.  —  But a newly-formed election review panel in Atlanta's Fulton County is nevertheless sparking outrage …

Stop Death Shaming  —  A record of the plague dead: Stacy Forbess, 55, an Alabama twirling coach; Haley Mulkey Richardson, 32, a pregnant Alabama nurse; Cindy Dawkins, 50, a Florida restaurant worker; Martin and Trina Daniel, 53 and 49, a Georgia couple married for some 20 years …

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 …

“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.

Joe Rogan has covid-19, is taking unproven deworming medicine  —  Joe Rogan, host of a wildly popular podcast who has downplayed the need for coronavirus vaccines, announced Wednesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus.  —  In a brief video, Rogan told his 13.1 million Instagram followers …

The threat from the illiberal left  —  Don't underestimate the danger of left-leaning identity politics  —  Something has gone very wrong with Western liberalism.  At its heart classical liberalism believes human progress is brought about by debate and reform.

JD Vance Surrenders to the Politics of Hate  —  Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance was already some way along a journey when he took the stage at the first “National Conservatism Conference” in July 2019.  —  In the runup to 2016, he had been an outspoken critic of Donald Trump's candidacy.

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 …

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.

A legal setback for Donald Trump Jr. on false claims — as he spreads more of them  —  It was a telling moment in the GOP's continual descent into a post-truth party in the Donald Trump era.  Even though multiple fact-checkers debunked a claim that the Taliban hanged a man …