Shinzo Abe, former Japanese leader, is shot at campaign event  —  Listen  —  Gift Article  —  TOKYO — Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot at a campaign event Friday, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing Japanese police sources.  —  Party officials cited in Japanese media said Abe is unconscious.

Facing pressure, Biden to sign order on abortion access  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will take executive action Friday to protect access to abortion, according to three people familiar with the matter, as he faces mounting pressure from Democrats to be more forceful on the subject …

Michael Flynn cited for unauthorized foreign payments  —  Retired general and former Trump adviser was notified by the Army that it was seeking to recoup nearly $40,000 from him  —  Listen  —  Gift Article  —  Michael Flynn, the retired Army general and onetime adviser to President Donald Trump …

POLITICO Playbook: Schumer ups pressure on McConnell in USICA-reconciliation dance  —  With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  BREAKING OVERNIGHT — Former Japanese Prime Minister SHINZO ABE was shot and killed during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan.  He was 67.

Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in peril  —  Talks with investors have cooled in recent weeks and Musk's camp believes it can't confirm Twitter's claims about spam accounts  —  Listen  —  Gift Article  —  Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in serious jeopardy, three people familiar …

“More Republicans now call Jan. 6 a ‘legitimate protest’ than a ‘riot’”  —  Aaron Blake in The Fix, on this Monmouth University poll, which finds:  —  Nearly two-thirds (65%) of the public say it is appropriate to describe the incident at the U.S. Capitol as a riot, and half (50%) …

Boris Johnson's fall shows the limits of shamelessness as a superpower  —  Listen  —  Gift Article  —  BoJo has finally lost his mojo.  The United Kingdom's mendacious, buffoonish prime minister is gone, or at least going.  The question historians will ask is how he ascended so high in the first place.

Ukraine Live Updates: Moscow Official Accuses West of ‘Blatant Russophobia’  —  Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, made the comment at a Group of 20 meeting in Bali that was also attended by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.  Mr. Lavrov also blamed Washington for a breakdown in diplomacy.

Film offers inside look at Roger Stone's ‘Stop the Steal’ efforts before January 6  —  Footage shows key moments of planning with fellow activist Ali Alexander to overturn election results in Trump's favor  —  Weeks before the Capitol attack, top Republican political activists Roger Stone …

This couldn't happen anywhere: How coverage of the shooting failed Highland Park  —  Mass shootings are seemingly disparate, but almost all mass shooters are motivated by bigoted extremism that festers online  —  The first moments after finding out about a shooting in my hometown felt like living in slow motion.

Ukraine targets Russia's ammunition depots, undermining its artillery advantage  —  It is an almost everyday occurrence in the Russian-occupied parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.  —  Russia's ammunition depots blow up, with large fires erupting as tons of ordnance detonate for hours.

U.S. Hiring Slowed in June From Robust Pace, Economists Estimate  —  Broader economy has been weakening under the weight of high inflation and rising interest rates  —  Economists estimate that hiring continued at a solid pace in June, but slowed from prior months as the broader economy weakened under …

The FBI didn't finish over 1 million gun background checks in time to stop a sale in 2020 and 2021  —  There were over 1 million opportunities for someone to buy a gun from a licensed dealer without a completed background check in 2020 and 2021, according to an FBI report released last month.

EXCLUSIVE: 1st Amendment Praetorian Goes After Jan. 6 Committee For ‘McCarthy-esque’ Defamation Tactics  —  In short, the committee's treatment of 1AP ‘is a gross affront to the First Amendment.’  —  A lawyer for 1st Amendment Praetorian, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting free speech rights …

No Special Treatment for Brittney Griner  —  WNBA player Brittney Griner on Thursday pleaded guilty in a Russian courtroom to possessing less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage when she landed at a Moscow airport in February.  —  It's a sad story, but Griner is hardly the political prisoner …

Live chat  —  Updates about tonight's races in Pennsylvania  —  🌖Our chat has ended, but you can still read it back.  —  Taking Biden at face value about Michigan and Wisconsin — where, for what it's worth (not that much), the exit poll data looks pretty good for him and he came …

GOP populism is hurting the teaching profession  —  The real consequences of a manufactured crisis  —  We are living in a populist era that frames public officials as corrupt elites.  The effects of the ensuing hostility to the capacity of public institutions to function feels …

GOP race for Arizona governor becomes 2024 proxy war as Ducey defies Trump  —  In a last major test of Donald Trump's Republican power this year, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday endorsed a potential successor who's going up against a candidate backed by the former president.