Why I Won't Vote to Add Sweden and Finland to NATO … The Senate will soon vote on adding Sweden and Finland to NATO.  According to the terms of NATO's founding treaty, that means the United States would be obliged to defend both countries in the event of a military attack.  I intend to vote no.

Manchin-Schumer side agreement would overhaul environmental review  —  The deal would also approve a West Virginia gas pipeline.  The West Virginia senator and Democratic leaders forged a separate deal to expand energy infrastructure that would have to be voted on outside the party's energy package

Capitol rioter Guy Reffitt gets longest Jan. 6 sentence, but no terrorism enhancement  —  WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump fan from Texas who attempted to storm the U.S. Capitol while armed with a gun was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison on Monday after a judge denied the Justice Department's request …

U.S. kills Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri in drone strike: Sources  —  President Joe Biden plans to give a speech about “a successful counterterrorism mission” at 7:30 p.m.  —  The United States killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike over the weekend, two people briefed on the operation told POLITICO.

Jon Stewart shows Democrats how to respond to GOP cruelty  —  Senate Republicans last week provided Americans with a vivid example of their party's abject cruelty when they rejected the PACT Act, which would provide veterans with benefits to cover the health consequences they endured from exposure …

Why the Democrats Are Funding My Far-Right Opponent  —  They said Trump was a threat to democracy.  Now they are they propping up my MAGA challenger.  —  Tomorrow I'm facing off against John Gibbs in the Republican primary for Michigan's Third Congressional District.  The race is close.

Vast New Study Shows a Key to Reducing Poverty: More Friendships Between Rich and Poor  —  Over the last four decades, the financial circumstances into which children have been born have increasingly determined where they have ended up as adults.  But an expansive new study …

The cautious calculation behind whether Fox will dump Trump  —  The symbiotic, mutually advantageous bond between Rupert Murdoch's media empire and Donald Trump has often been described as a romance or a love fest.  —  Now that the relationship looks as if it may be headed to divorce court …

Nicholas Kristof Returns to The Times  —  The journalist who first started here in 1984 and began writing columns for us in 2001 returns to Times Opinion.  Read more in this note from Opinion Editor Kathleen Kingsbury.  —  In his “farewell” column before running for governor of Oregon …

Trump Supporters Think They're in a Fight to the Death  —  For all the defects Donald Trump has as a politician, he does possess certain skills, among them an almost preternatural ability to tap into the sensibilities—the id—of the American right.  More than any other Republican candidate in 2016 …

It's time to retire the ‘third’ party conceit  —  There is a 62-year-old woman in Baltimore County, Md., who has an unusual distinction: She is the only registered member of the Grass Roots Party in the United States.  —  Maryland is also home to the only registered member of the Natural Party …

Right-wing sheriffs are doing some really shady political organizing against the election system  —  The New York Times recently published a must-read investigation into right-wing activist efforts to organize county sheriffs for the purpose of challenging the electoral system based on 2020 election rigging disinformation.

The Bill Russell I Knew for 60 Years  —  Since I was 14, Bill Russell showed me how to be a better player—and a better man.  —  When I learned that my friend Bill Russell had died, I tweeted this response: “Bill Russell was the quintessential Big Man—not because of his height but because of the size of his heart.

Fact Check-Video does not show Biden being distracted by music from an ice cream truck  —  Social media users are sharing a video of U.S. President Joe Biden walking away momentarily during a speech given by U.S. First Lady Jill Biden and claiming that he was distracted by an ice cream truck.

American Motherhood  —  This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday.  Sign up for it here.  —  I looked at the clock glowing on the nightstand in my bedroom and it read 1:23, one-two-three, a neat set of numbers.

GOP Consultants: Stop Blaming Others For the Problems You Created  —  The New York Times ran a big story last week on how GOP online donations are down 12% even as GOP enthusiasm seems to be surging.  —  The consultant class of the GOP is pushing the mythology that Google and Apple are flagging …

Republicans Say Biden's Plan Taxes the Middle Class.  That's False. … Over the weekend, a congressional tax committee analyzed a portion of the tax Inflation Reduction Act Senator Joe Manchin struck with Senator Chuck Schumer and President Biden.  Republicans inaccurately claimed …

Trans cheerleader, 25, is given assault citation after ‘choking out’ teammate, 17, who called her a ‘man with a penis’ at cheer camp as video taken afterwards shows attacker saying ‘I barely touched her’  — Averie Chanel Medlock, 25, was booted from the Ranger College cheerleading camp …

She Traveled 200 Miles for an Abortion She Never Wanted  —  Madison Underwood was thrilled to learn she was pregnant.  But when a rare defect in the developing fetus threatened her life, she was thrust into post-Roe chaos.  —  CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Madison Underwood was lying on the ultrasound table …

The ticking time bomb still threatening the big climate deal  —  Though days have passed since Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) shocked the political world by coming out for a big climate and health-care package, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has remained ominously silent.

Why It's So Hard to Find an Affordable Apartment in New York  —  There simply aren't enough places to live, a crisis decades in the making and one that poses a threat to the city's continuing recovery.  —  A half a century ago, city planners warned that New York had the potential to swell into a “monster city” of 55 million people.

Kushner and Bannon Tag-Teamed to Kneecap ‘Radioactive’ Chris Christie  —  In his new book, Jared Kushner wrote Steve Bannon enlisted his help to keep Chris Christie from becoming chief of staff in the Trump White House. … It was days before the 2016 election and Steve Bannon was in a “panic.”

American-made rocket launchers not used in Ukraine prison strike, U.S. assesses  —  The U.S. has assessed that Ukraine did not attack a prison in a Russian-occupied eastern region of Donetsk with American-made rocket launchers last week, directly contradicting Russian claims, according to two U.S. officials.

Dollar-Store Dinners and Vats of Shampoo Help Families Cope With High Prices  —  With energy and grocery prices rising, many are cutting their spending on essentials  —  Behind Dollar General's Strategy to Dominate Rural America … More Americans are embracing frugality as they face rising prices at every turn.

The Kamala Conundrum  —  Political news rarely gets much grimmer than it did for Joe Biden on July 26, when he was greeted by a surprise poll showing that, were he to run again in a contested primary in New Hampshire, he might command less than one-fifth of the vote.