Top Items:

Tucker Carlson Calls Journalists ‘Animals.’ He's Also Their Best Source. — His platform on Fox News made him a big player in Donald Trump's circle. Off camera, he shapes the coverage of Trump's world and Fox's own internal politics. — Last month, I texted Tucker Carlson to ask …
Discussion:
Insider, The Irish Times, The Guardian, Mediaite, Raw Story, HuffPost, The Wrap and HuffPost UK, more at Mediagazer »
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How Critical Race Theory Ate Fox News — The anti-"critical race theory" mania is this year's Tea Party — and Fox News is central to it. — Recent footage of crowds packing school board meetings has made something clear: the panic over ‘critical race theory’ is the Tea Party of our time …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Outside the Beltway

POLITICO Playbook: This week in Washington: Biden takes on rising crime — DRIVING THE DAY — FOR YOUR RADAR: Violent crime has been spiking across America for more than a year. The issue has been at the top of the GOP agenda and constitutes a major portion of Fox News programming.
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Liz Cheney's Unlikely Journey From G.O.P. Royalty to Republican Outcast
Discussion:
The Hill, Mother Jones and Daily Kos
Sam Brodey / The Daily Beast:
The Race to Replace Liz Cheney Is a Trump Sideshow
The Race to Replace Liz Cheney Is a Trump Sideshow
Discussion:
Raw Story

The Man Who Controls the Senate — Will Joe Manchin's search for common ground wreck the Democrats' agenda? — On a frosty night in February, Joe Manchin III, the senior senator from West Virginia, invited a few colleagues over for dinner aboard the houseboat he docks on the Potomac.
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Iran's president-elect says he won't meet with Biden — DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's president-elect said Monday he wouldn't meet with President Joe Biden nor negotiate over Tehran's ballistic missile program and its support of regional militias, sticking to a hard-line position following …
Discussion:
CBS News, Associated Press and The Times of Israel
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Taliban Enter Key Cities in Afghanistan's North After Swift Offensive — The setbacks come at a harrowing moment for Afghanistan, just as American and international troops are set to leave the country in coming weeks. — KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban entered two provincial capitals …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal and The Daily Beast
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Kathy Gannon / Associated Press:
AP Interview: Former president says US failed in Afghanistan
AP Interview: Former president says US failed in Afghanistan
Discussion:
Fox News and Just The News

New book offers fresh details about chaos, conflicts inside Trump's pandemic response — At one point, the president mused about transferring infected American citizens in Asia to Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. — In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic …

Reporters, activists rush to judge Florida Pride parade crash before investigation — Fort Lauderdale mayor Dean Trantalis initially labelled the incident a “terrorist attack” — Fox News Flash top headlines for June 20 — Reporters and liberal activists were quick to label …
Discussion:
The Federalist, UPI and RedState
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U.S. Preparing More Sanctions Against Russia, Sullivan Says — The national security adviser raised the issue of more penalties in the poisoning of Aleksei A. Navalny days after President Biden met with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. — WASHINGTON — President Biden's national security adviser …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Rolling Stone and Politico
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‘What threat did I pose?’: Heartbroken dad blames NY State Police trooper for ramming his SUV and causing crash that killed his 11-year-old Brooklyn daughter — Handcuffed in the back seat of a New York State Trooper's car, Tristin Goods could only seethe quietly and watch helplessly …

Tight Labor Market Returns the Upper Hand to American Workers — Employers competing for low-wage workers are offering signing bonuses and other perks — Low-wage workers found something unexpected in the economy's recovery from the pandemic: leverage. — Ballooning job openings …

How Democrats are ‘unilaterally disarming’ in the redistricting wars — Democrats have greater control of state legislatures than in the last round of redistricting but have turned over map-making powers in some states to independent commissions. — Only a handful of states …
Discussion:
New York Magazine

Scoop: White House eyes ending migrant family expulsion by July 31 — The White House is considering ending — as early as July 31 — the use of a Trump-era public health order that's let U.S. border officials quickly turn back migrant families to Mexico, Axios has learned.
Discussion:
National Review

In Rift With Biden, a Dramatic Show of Force by a Conservative Catholic Movement — A vote by the U.S. bishops was the most dramatic example of the conservative Catholic movement's reach since Joseph R. Biden was elected. But the contingent had been gaining strength throughout the Trump era.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner

The economy isn't going back to February 2020. Fundamental shifts have occurred. — A new era has arrived of greater worker power, higher housing costs and very different ways of doing business — The U.S. economy is emerging from the coronavirus pandemic with considerable speed …

Three Countries Ask Israel for COVID Vaccines if Palestinians Nix Deal, Source Says — The Palestinian Health Ministry has said that it intends to resume negotiations with Israel and Pfizer about ‘safe vaccines that meet our standards’ — Israel is holding talks with three other countries …
Discussion:
The Times of Israel and Breitbart
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Chaotic N.C. Senate primary tests Trump's sway over the GOP — Donald Trump has endorsed conservative Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina's critical Senate race, the former president's first foray into an open primary in a battleground. That state's retiring Republican senator has other ideas.
Discussion:
Raw Story

New York State Coffers Swell, Riding Covid-19 Recovery — Some fiscal watchdogs question increased income taxes on high earners — A better-than-projected economic recovery and a massive influx of federal aid have stuffed New York state's once-bare coffers, a reversal of fortune that is leading …

Hong Kong's Apple Daily to Decide Monday on Shutting Down Paper — Company has no access to bank accounts, top adviser says — National security police arrested top editors last week — The board of Next Digital Ltd., which publishes Hong Kong's Apple Daily …
Discussion:
Insider, Raw Story, Japan Times and One America News Network, more at Mediagazer »

How the Justice Department swept up records of two congressional Democrats and Trump's lawyer — (CNN)The subpoena that swept up the records of two Democratic congressmen, their staff and family members in 2018 appears to have been the result of a leak investigation that initially included scrutinizing …
Discussion:
Political Wire and Raw Story

Joe Biden is better on the world stage than any president since George H.W. Bush — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump all came into office with little or no international affairs experience. And it showed. — Joe Biden has had more foreign policy experience than any other president in U.S. history.
Discussion:
Daily Kos