'It's a nightmare': Covid Delta variant rocks a recovering Capitol complex  —  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's trip to Israel got postponed.  Nearly half of House members are masked on the floor again.  One Senate Democrat even floated a “proof of vaccination” card to enter the Capitol.

'I'm sorry, but it's too late' Alabama doctor on treating unvaccinated, dying COVID patients  —  Dr. Brytney Cobia said Monday that all but one of her COVID patients in Alabama did not receive the vaccine.  The vaccinated patient, she said, just needed a little oxygen and is expected to fully recover.

Ted Cruz is blocking diplomats from being confirmed, and it has nothing to do with their qualifications  —  Washington (CNN)An extraordinary effort by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to block nominees from being confirmed to vital jobs in the State Department is creating hurdles …

U.S. Life Expectancy Fell by 1.5 Years in 2020, the Biggest Decline in Generations  —  Covid-19, drug overdoses and homicides drove longevity down; Hispanic men suffered largest decline  —  Life expectancy in the U.S. fell by 1.5 years in 2020, the biggest decline since at least World War II …

White Alabama City Councilman Refers to Fellow Council Member as a ‘House N****r’  —  ‘WILL SHE PLEASE STAND UP?’  —  An Alabama city councilman referred to a fellow city council member as a “house n—  r” at a meeting on Monday evening.  Tarrant, Alabama city councilman Tommy Bryant loudly asked, “Do we have a house n—

Bezos Landed, Thanked Amazon Workers And Shoppers For Paying, Gave Away $200 Million  —  Moments after returning from the edge of space, Jeff Bezos thanked the Blue Origin team that made his flight possible.  He also thanked the Texas town of Van Horn, which hosted Tuesday's launch.  And then he said this:

Top U.S. Catholic Church official resigns after cellphone data used to track him on Grindr and to gay bars  —  The top administrator of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops resigned after a Catholic media site told the conference it had access to cellphone data that appeared to show …

Right-wing media could end the pandemic — without giving an inch in the culture war.  Here's the script.  —  No one took Geraldo Rivera very seriously last year when he proposed naming the coronavirus vaccine in honor of the just-defeated president.  —  “With the world so divided …

Capitol attack committee chair vows to investigate Trump: ‘Nothing is off limits’  —  Bennie Thompson tells Guardian he will pursue wide-ranging inquiry to uncover root causes of January 6 attack  —  Congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the new House select committee to scrutinize …

Women's Handball Players Are Fined for Rejecting Bikini Uniforms  —  Norway's beach handball players were each fined 150 euros for wearing shorts rather than the required bikini bottoms.  A spokeswoman for the International Handball Federation said she didn't know the reason for the rule.

Paul Gosar was a beloved dentist.  Now he's a MAGA congressman.  His former patients need a spit bowl.  —  Coreen Anderson didn't want to see the dentist.  —  She hadn't had her teeth cleaned for the better part of a decade, and was “super fearful” of the experience.

Cyberhacks: What does China have on Biden?  —  Does anybody remember the bluster Joe Biden emitted when he ‘confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin’ over Russian hacking at his June 16 Geneva summit? … Tough, tough, tough.  And as far as public knowledge goes, it's not completely certain …

Allen Weisselberg resigned from the top of the Trump Organization.  So who's running the company now?  —  Earlier this month, Allen Weisselberg — the Trump Organization's most powerful employee not named “Trump” — resigned his post in the company's leadership.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo Is Losing Major Political Donors Amid Federal, State Probes  —  The defections could complicate the New York governor's expected re-election bid as he fights off allegations that he sexually harassed staff and mishandled the pandemic  —  For over a decade …

College Republicans Erupt in Civil War Over Kid Rock Cash  —  ‘SELFISH AMBITIONS’  —  A year out from the midterms, young Republicans are at war over the American Bad Ass' contributions and a disputed leadership race.  —  Decades ago, future GOP operatives like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort …

China Can Lock Up A Million Muslims In Xinjiang At Once … This project was supported by the Open Technology Fund, the Pulitzer Center, and the Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism.  —  For the first time, BuzzFeed News can reveal the full capacity of China's previously secret network …

Love-Bombs and Buzzwords: How Authoritarian Cults Work  —  Welcome back to Lucid!  This week I'm thinking about cults.  Here is the first of two essays on authoritarian cults.  Next week's piece will be about disengagement.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's interview with Amanda Montell, author of Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism.

Abstract  —  In this Article, we introduce our planned ten-part series that provides the first comprehensive examination of the offices and officers of the Constitution.  This series will explain the original public meaning of twelve clauses of the Constitution that refer to six categories of offices and officers.

Extremist Heimbach To Relaunch Hate Group, Says He Supports Violence  —  Content advisory: What you are about to read contains highly disturbing ideas.  Newsy is reporting on them because they speak to a trend of growing national  security concerns.   

Tom Brady Joins Biden to Laugh at Trump in Worst Day of Trump's Life The sum of all Trump fears.  —  Tom Brady visited the White House Tuesday to celebrate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl, where he joked around with President Biden at Donald Trump's expense.

Fed Chair Powell Enjoys Support For Reappointment, but He's Not a Lock  —  If President Biden does seek change, Fed governor Lael Brainard is the most likely candidate  —  President Biden's selection of the next Federal Reserve chair is likely to be a choice between keeping the current chief …

Former Advisor to Presidential Candidate Among Three Defendants Charged with Acting as Agents of a Foreign Government  —  Defendants Allegedly Acted and Conspired to Act at the Direction of Senior United Arab Emirates Officials to Influence a Presidential Campaign, Public Opinion and the U.S. Government

How America lost its commitment to the right to vote  —  The Supreme Court isn't even pretending that it's bound by legal texts in its voting rights cases.  —  The Supreme Court, Justice Elena Kagan lamented in a dissenting opinion earlier this month, “has treated no statute worse” than the Voting Rights Act.

New York to Require Vaccination or Weekly Testing for City Health Workers  —  The new city policy takes aim at improving vaccination rates at public hospitals.  Around 60 percent of workers in the city's public hospital system are vaccinated.  —  For months, Mayor Bill de Blasio …

Wildfire smoke pouring into Mid-Atlantic prompts air-quality alert for D.C. and Baltimore  —  Air quality is expected to improve by Thursday as a cold front pushes most of the smoke away  —  Smoke from wildfires in the western United States and southern Canada is spilling into the eastern United States …

New York supermarket chains pull Ben & Jerry's over Israel boycott  —  “Seasons has removed all Ben and Jerry's products from all its stores as a result of the ice cream maker's decision to cease sales in parts of Israel.  We stand with Israel.  Always.”  —  By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Personal threats, election lies and punishing new laws rattle election officials, raising fears of a mass exodus  —  (CNN)Maribeth Witzel-Behl had run elections in Madison, Wisconsin, for 15 years when the 2020 election arrived, bringing challenges like no other: a global pandemic, a crushing workload, lawsuits and a recount.

Florida authorities take new action on Arizona audit group linked to Sidney Powell  —  A Dow Chemicals' heir started Sidney Powell's fundraising operation but now uses his own unregistered nonprofits to raise money supposedly going to Maricopa County.  —  5 hr ago