America Has a Free Speech Problem  —  The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values.  It is separate from the newsroom.  —  For all the tolerance and enlightenment that modern society claims …

Readout of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Call with President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China  —  President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China (PRC).  The conversation focused on Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Specialist Ukrainian drone unit picks off invading Russian forces as they sleep  —  An elite Ukrainian drone unit has destroyed dozens of “priority targets” by attacking Russian forces as they sleep, The Times can reveal.  —  Aerorozvidka, a specialist air reconnaissance unit within the army …

What the Russia Invasion Teaches Us About the Right  —  Contrarians aren't critical thinkers.  They're gullible reactionaries, vulnerable to conspiracy theories. … I want to share with you two remarkably similar numbers.  At first glance, they should have nothing to do with each other.

Ukraine is getting Switchblade.  It should be just the first wave of loitering munitions for Kyiv.  —  Loitering munitions — essentially small suicide drones capable of tracking a target and then striking it — have been around for years, but the technology emerged as a key weapons in the 2021 conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

How Putin Bungled His Invasion of Ukraine  —  Faulty assumptions, terrible logistics, and a ferocious Ukrainian resistance have turned Russian President Vladimir Putin's Ukrainian adventure to ashes—for now.  —  Three weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, social media around the world …

POLITICO Playbook: A retiring moderate Democrat unloads on the party  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  SCOOP: DEMS TO HAUL BIG OIL TO THE HILL AMID GAS SURGE — As prices at the pump soar, House Democrats are readying a strategy to try to redirect the nation's ire away from President JOE BIDEN and toward oil companies.

Ukraine Is Wrecking Russian Tanks With a Gift From Britain  —  In video after video taken in Ukraine, a puff of smoke and a brief flash of light signal that another clutch of Russian troops are about to die.  —  Sometimes it is only a split second before that light streaks to a tank …

‘Madison is wrong’: GOP backlash over Cawthorn grows after Zelensky insult  —  (CNN)When House Republicans gathered on the baseball field Friday morning for their weekly practice, members were abuzz about one topic: Rep. Madison Cawthorn.  —  The North Carolina Republican infuriated members …

Why is J.D. Vance getting canceled by his fellow Republicans?  —  A fascinating mystery has arisen around Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance.  And it raises pressing questions about a larger phenomenon: The drift toward Putinism among some in the GOP, and the effort by other Republicans to paper it over or purge it outright.

Baseless OAN attack on Ketanji Brown Jackson echoes QAnon conspiracy theory  —  RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JASMINE GEONZON & GIDEON TAAFFE  —  Following Sen. Josh Hawley's (R-MO) Twitter rant yesterday against Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a segment on OAN took …

Florida Republicans are living in a Trumped-up dystopia — and everyone's invited  —  When Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Florida's conservative lawmakers finally shut down the 2022 state legislative session on Monday, I had a dispiriting epiphany.  These state's Republicans are living in a Trumped-up dystopia.

Researchers warn that Christian nationalists are becoming more radical and are targeting voting  —  New research linking Christian nationalism with a desire to limit voting.  People citing their faith as the reason they support trucker convoys that shut down the border over covid protections.

Inside the transfer of foreign military equipment to Ukrainian soldiers … ON THE POLAND-UKRAINE BORDER — There were no passport officers on the dirt road, no customs lane, no signs marking this isolated patch of farmland for what it has become: a clandestine gateway for military supplies entering Ukraine.

Cheney Says Greene One of Kremlin's ‘Useful Idiots’ After Ukraine Remarks  —  Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, slammed Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, after she equated Ukraine's actions with those of Russia, saying “both sides” had violated peace agreements.

It's 70 degrees warmer than normal in eastern Antarctica.  Scientists are flabbergasted. … The coldest location on the planet has experienced an episode of warm weather this week unlike any ever observed, with temperatures over the eastern Antarctic ice sheet soaring 50 to 90 degrees above normal.

Will ‘Trump Enablers’ Eat Lunch in This Town Again?  —  As the clock ran out on the profoundly unfamiliar year of 2020, Washington settled — briefly, awkwardly — into a profoundly familiar Beltway ritual: a presidential transition.  Appointees of the outgoing administration looked for onward employment.

House passes CROWN Act banning discrimination against Black hairstyles  —  CROWN stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.  It prohibits “discrimination based on an individual's texture or style of hair.”  —  The House on Friday passed the CROWN Act, which would ban hair-related discrimination.

Firing-squad executions get the greenlight in South Carolina  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina has given the greenlight to firing-squad executions, a method codified into state law l ast year after a decade-long pause in carrying out death sentences because of the state's inability to procure lethal injection drugs.

People's Convoy Reveals Ridiculous New Goal: ‘Take Back’ Black Lives Matter Plaza  —  ‘TAR & FEATHERED’  —  On Friday morning, the so-called “People's Convoy” seemed to reveal a new goal for the right-wing trucker movement: Reclaim the two-block-long Black Lives Matter Plaza in downtown Washington …

Generic Congressional Ballot  —  Republicans Lead by 11 Points on Congressional Ballot: Sponsored by Miranda Devine's LAPTOP FROM HELL: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide  —  The 2022 midterm elections are now 235 days away, and Republicans …