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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

Arizona Senate wants to keep nearly 2,900 audit-related documents from public view  —  The Arizona Senate is continuing its fight to keep secret nearly 3,000 emails and text messages sent by lawmakers and others that relate to the Maricopa County election audit, their lawyer told a judge Wednesday.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

It's time to own our mistakes and look to the future in Afghanistan  —  After the failure of a U.S.-supported invasion of Cuba by exiles seeking to overthrow communist dictator Fidel Castro in 1961, President Kennedy said, “Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”

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 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.

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 …

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 …