Scoop: Centrists back $3.5T package  —  Two of the nine House centrists who demanded Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) bring the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill to the floor by Monday are now publicly promising to vote for the separate $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package, Axios has learned.

Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks  —  In 2017, as Julian Assange began his fifth year holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London, the CIA plotted to kidnap the WikiLeaks founder, spurring heated debate among Trump administration officials …

Goldman Sachs, Ozy Media and a $40 Million Conference Call Gone Wrong  —  The digital media company has raised eyebrows for its claims about its audience size for years.  Then came the strange voice on the phone.  —  This past winter, Goldman Sachs was closing in on a $40 million investment in Ozy …

As Treasury scrambles to pay bills, pandemic fuels uncertainty over calamitous ‘X Date’  —  Administration officials rule out more heterodox ideas, such as minting $1 trillion coin, to resolve debt ceiling impasse  —  Treasury officials face an unusually difficult task this fall …

Glenn Youngkin's play: Forever- and Never-Trumpers  —  Standing on a flatbed hitched to a John Deere tractor in red Rockingham County, Virginia, Glenn Youngkin decried California liberalism and bashed his rival, Terry McAuliffe.  He also encouraged early voting.  Two words he avoided: Donald Trump.

Abbott says he'll hire Border Patrol agents who whipped at migrants  —  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Sunday defended the actions of U.S. Border Patrol agents who charged at Haitian migrants on horseback, blaming the Biden administration for not preventing them from crossing the border.

The survival of U.S. democracy may hinge on this decision by Pa.'s next governor  —  To millions of Americans, what just happened in Arizona's largest county was a laughingstock, a bad joke that blew up in the face of Donald Trump and his cultists like some exploding cigar from a 1940s cartoon.

Shutdown Plan B  —  The Senate will hold a futile vote Monday night — just 72 hours before a potential shutdown — on a House-passed bill to fund the government through Dec. 3 and raise the debt limit.  —  Why it matters: The bill is going to fail.  Period.

At Mackinac, Betsy DeVos offers veiled criticism of GOP's ongoing passion for Trump  —  MACKINAC ISLAND — Michigan businesswoman, political megadonor and former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos implicitly criticized the GOP's ongoing capture by former President Donald Trump in a Saturday address …

Photographer, social media star Matt Mathews: Opossum taken by the state was his ‘baby’  —  Maybe he should have played possum.  —  Matt Mathews, one of the most sought-after boudoir photographers in the Southeast and a multiple time world-qualifying barrel racer, is also a fierce animal advocate …

Liz Cheney on being a Republican while opposing Donald Trump  —  Liz Cheney tells Lesley Stahl about running for re-election as an anti-Trump Republican in Wyoming, as her own party there has called for her resignation, and joining the House Select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

An elections supervisor embraced conspiracy theories.  Officials say she has become an insider threat.  —  In April, employees in the office that runs elections in western Colorado's Mesa County received an unusual calendar invitation for an after-hours work event, a gathering at a hotel in Grand Junction.

President Biden is making the world a more dangerous place  —  Last week, President Biden gave his first address to the United Nations General Assembly.  He continues to claim that “America is back,” and that the United States intends to “lead on all of the greatest challenges of our time.”

Group opposing indoor vaccine mandate storms food court on Staten Island … MORE ON:  —  A group opposed to New York City's vaccine requirement for restaurants and other indoor activities stormed a Staten Island food court over the weekend — refusing to show proof-of-inoculation before sitting down to eat.

Cargo Piles Up as California Ports Jostle Over How to Resolve Delays  —  U.S. shipping operations remain clogged as ports, truckers and warehouses can't find enough workers or agree on 24/7 operations  —  Nike Inc. doesn't have enough sneakers to sell for the holidays.

As more Californians head to Texas, how do the states really stack up?  —  After the pandemic shut down all of his construction sites last year, San Jose homebuilder Dan Dang decided to start a new kind of real estate venture.  —  First came a YouTube channel, then a Facebook group with the same name …

Johnson prepares to call in army as panic buying drains UK petrol pumps  —  Competition rules eased with more than half of garages outside motorway network estimated to have no fuel  —  Boris Johnson is preparing to draft in hundreds of soldiers to tackle the UK's fuel crisis as at least half …

What If 2020 Was Just a Rehearsal?  —  Rick Hasen isn't getting much sleep these days.  —  One of the nation's foremost experts on the laws that hold together democracy in America, Hasen used to be concerned about highly speculative election “nightmare scenarios”: the electrical grid …