A make-or-break moment for our democracy  —  It's a habit of journalism to declare nearly every impending period as a turning point, a “defining moment” that will set a nation or even the world on a course for years or decades to come.  —  The routinization of the momentous is mostly harmless, but over time it has a cost.

Biden Tells Top Democrats He's Preparing Lobbying Blitz on Filibuster Reform, Voting Rights  —  The president, sources say, has promised to lean on centrists to change the filibuster rules and save Democrats' imperiled effort to pass a new voting rights bill

Most Republicans want Trump as the GOP's leader but are divided about whether he'd help them retake the White House  —  Donald Trump is ‘99, 100 percent’ likely to run for president in 2024  —  (CNN)Most Republicans want former President Donald Trump to remain their party's leader, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

Rudy Giuliani rambles during 9/11 memorial dinner  —  Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani at a 9/11 commemoration on Saturday called a top US general an “idiot” and “a-hole,” imitated Queen Elizabeth and distanced himself from Prince Andrew, in a series of rambling soliloquies, video shows.

Democrats wanted Trump gone.  Now they want him on the ballot.  —  LOS ANGELES — Democrats are growing confident that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) will prevail in Tuesday's recall election, averting political disaster by energizing liberal voters.  Across the country his party …

Why Americans Die So Much  —  U.S. life spans, which have fallen behind those in Europe, are telling us something important about American society.  —  About the author: Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he writes about economics, technology, and the media.

The risks of running as Trump-lite  —  Glenn Youngkin is running as Trump-lite; it's a challenging journey.  —  The GOP nominee for governor of Virginia is trying to thread a delicate political needle: to be Trumpian enough to energize the party's hard-core base, but not so much it turns …

A Second Major Seasonal Virus Won't Leave Us Any Choice  —  Businesses and schools must adapt, because the dual threat from COVID and the flu will be too severe. … He is the author of the forthcoming book Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic.

FBI releases 9/11 investigation document that scrutinized Saudis  —  The FBI has released the first of what are expected to be several documents from its investigation into whether agents of the Saudi Arabian government provided support to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot …

Where the Meaning of Flight 93 Can Never End The national memorial was built to allow multiple interpretations.  —  Paul Murdoch did not set out to heal the wound in the Earth, but to preserve it as a scar.  The architect of the Flight 93 National Memorial has spent most of the last two decades refining …

The U.S. is falling to the lowest vaccination rates of the world's wealthiest democracies.  —  Japan initially struggled to get its Covid-19 vaccination program into full gear, but now that it has, the percentage of its population that has received at least one dose has edged past the level achieved …

Elon Musk drives through loophole by launching Tesla on tribal land  —  Tesla opened its first facility in New Mexico this week in partnership with the Nambé Pueblo.  —  Story at a glance  — New Mexico has laws on the books that prohibit car makers from selling directly …

‘Overall crime decreased in 2020’ in the United States, report finds  —  WASHINGTON — After crime rates in the United States surged in the second half of the 20th century, moderate Democrats persuaded the party to toughen up its platform in the 1990s to channel widespread voter concerns spreading from big cities to the suburbs.

Trump's Judges Are Playing A Huge Role In Upholding Anti-Abortion Laws Across The Country  —  WASHINGTON — In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump pitched to Republican voters that even if they didn't like him, they needed him for one big reason: the US Supreme Court.

Doctor says ‘death is imminent’ for a woman on a hospital bed in Michigan who refused the COVID-19 vaccine ‘adamantly’  — Dr. Nicole Linder from Michigan said she watched a patient's COVID-19 symptoms worsen for weeks.  — Her patient, Kathy, refused to get vaccinated, and now it's too late, Linder said.

Taliban say women can study at university but classes must be segregated  —  Women in Afghanistan will be allowed to study in universities as the country seeks to rebuild after decades of war but gender-segregation and Islamic dress code will be mandatory, the Taliban's new Higher Education minister said on Sunday.

Delta is Dying  —  New CDC findings show that we're closer than ever to the end of the pandemic.  —  Covid-19  —  Despite media claims that “We Can't Turn the Corner on Covid,” the numbers of Covid-19 cases, new hospitalizations, and deaths nationwide peaked and started to decline around the beginning of September.

Justice Breyer opposes politics surrounding Supreme Court, supports one possible reform  —  Breyer, 83, plans to retire from the court, but he has not said when that will happen  —  Justice Breyer reacts to Biden's Supreme Court commission on ‘Fox News Sunday’

The 9/11 Era is over.  Good.  —  A few last words as my generation's defining event recedes into history  —  I think this is the last post I'll write about 9/11.  The reason is not just that I, and the world, are running out of things to say about that awful event — although that is certainly true.