Senate that ‘sucks’ gets a dose of reality from Biden  —  Senate Democrats ended a frustrating day in a frustrating week with President Joe Biden acknowledging that his sweeping social spending bill will wait until next year — a setback that comes as the party also spins its wheels on election reform.

F.D.A. Will Permanently Allow Abortion Pills by Mail  —  The decision will broaden access to medication abortion, an increasingly common method, but many conservative states are already mobilizing against it.  —  The federal government on Thursday permanently lifted a major restriction on access to abortion pills.

How Ashley Biden's Diary Made Its Way to Project Veritas  —  New details shed light on the federal investigation into the conservative group's acquisition last year of a journal kept by the president's daughter.  —  In the final two months of the 2020 campaign, President Donald J. Trump …

GOP agrees to pay up to $1.6 million of Trump's legal bills in N.Y. probes  —  The Republican Party has agreed to pay up to $1.6 million in legal bills for former president Donald Trump to help him fight investigations into his business practices in New York, according to Republican National Committee members …

A theory: How Trump's Jan. 6 coup plan worked, how close it came, why it failed  —  The first time many Americans learned that a large pro-Donald Trump protest in Washington was planned for January 6 was 18 days earlier when the 45th president tweeted about it - “Will be wild!”

Select Committee Subpoenas James P.  “Phil” Waldron  —  Washington—Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) today announced that the Select Committee has issued a subpoena to James P.  “Phil” Waldron for records and testimony.  Mr. Waldron appears to have been involved with efforts to promote claims about fraud in the 2020 election.

WSJ News Exclusive |  Senate Parliamentarian Rejects Democrats' Immigration Proposal in $2 Trillion Bill  —  The proposal marked Democrats' third effort to provide temporary deportation protections and work permits to millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Six Bay Area Men Arrested For a Staggering 70 Attacks on Asian Women  —  The suspects allegedly targeted Asian women exclusively, according to the Santa Clara DA, and had a pattern of attacking women walking alone to their cars.  —  In the wave of attacks on Asian Americans since …

Harvard won't require SAT or ACT through 2026 as test-optional push grows  —  The fast-spreading movement aims to limit the role of the standardized exams in college admissions  —  Harvard University will extend for four years a policy begun soon after the coronavirus pandemic emerged …

Judge tosses $4.5 bln deal shielding Purdue's Sackler family from opioid claims  —  A federal judge has thrown out a $4.5 billion settlement that would have shielded the Sackler family, which owned OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, from future lawsuits over opioids, upending the company's plan to reorganize in bankruptcy court.

The puzzle of Joe Biden's unpopularity  —  I find President Biden's unpopularity puzzling.  He is rounding out his first year in the White House with the lowest end of first-year approval ratings of any elected president in modern times with the exception of Donald Trump.  Why?

Dominion Voting wins key decision in lawsuit against Fox News  —  (CNN Business)A judge in Delaware has found that Fox News' coverage of election fraud after the 2020 election may have been inaccurate, and is allowing a major defamation case against the right-wing TV network to move forward.

Washington Post Grasps for New Direction as Trump-Era Boom Fades  —  News outlet's audience is down sharply, amid sector-wide declines; subscription growth has stagnated as readers look beyond politics  —  Top Washington Post officials gathered last week and discussed how to respond …

Chris Noth Accused of Sexual Assault by Two Women  —  Triggered by the recent ‘Sex and the City’ reboot, the women allege two incidents of misconduct they say took place more than a decade apart.

Why Are Republicans Siding With Russia?  —  Because Putinism is catnip to a new breed of American losers.  —  There's been a lot of anger this week over Fox News's born-again populist, Tucker Carlson, going all in on attacking NATO and siding with Russia at the very moment …

Kamala Harris Says She and Biden Haven't Discussed Running for Re-Election in 2024  —  'I don't think about it, nor have we talked about it,' she said in an interview, noting it's their first year in office amid a pandemic  —  Vice President Kamala Harris said that she and President Biden …

Giant Kites That Drag Cargo Ships Across Oceans Go on Trial  —  Add ships being dragged along by giant kites to the list of things the industry is exploring in its quest to decarbonize.  —  At the start of next year, the Ville de Bordeaux, a 154-meter-long ship that moves aircraft components for Airbus SE …

America Is Not Ready for Omicron  —  America was not prepared for COVID-19 when it arrived.  It was not prepared for last winter's surge.  It was not prepared for Delta's arrival in the summer or its current winter assault.  More than 1,000 Americans are still dying of COVID every day, and more have died this year than last.

Omicron outbreak inducing whiplash for many Americans  —  With the omicron variant sending coronavirus cases spiking across the country, the pandemic is once again upending daily life and evoking the early days of the outbreak as scientists race to understand the still-unknown implications of this new type of coronavirus.

The FBI Said It Busted A Plot To Kidnap Michigan's Governor.  Then Things Got Complicated.  —  The case seemed like a lock — until an informant and one FBI agent were charged with crimes, another was accused of perjury, and a third was found promoting a private security firm.  And that wasn't all.

‘The Media Variant’ Hits New York City  —  Yesterday, I jumped in line at my local City MD, at Lexington and 79th.  By the time I got swabbed two hours later, the blue check mafia had worked itself into a full-on Omicron meltdown.  What remained of the media-holiday-party industrial complex collapsed in a single afternoon.

Redo the first two amendments  —  Speech and guns: two of the most contentious issues in America today, with controversies fueled not only by personal passions and identity politics but by competing interpretations of the Constitution.  Perhaps more than any other parts of the Constitution …

Why 1,320 Therapists Are Worried About Mental Health in America Right Now  —  As Americans head into a third year of pandemic living, therapists around the country are finding themselves on the front lines of a mental health crisis.  Social workers, psychologists and counselors from every state …