Top Items:

Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide … Dana Priest, a reporter at The Washington Post for 30 years, covers national security issues. Recently, she has investigated Russian disinformation operations, censorship around the world …
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Project Pegasus: A new investigation by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International together with 17 news outlets reveals how Israel's NSO's cyber spy tech is used against journalists Credit: Forbidden Stories — Khadija Ismayilova's home in Baku had become like a prison.
Discussion:
Washington Post and The Guardian

Revealed: leak uncovers global abuse of cyber-surveillance weapon — Spyware sold to authoritarian regimes used to target activists, politicians and journalists, data suggests — Human rights activists, journalists and lawyers across the world have been targeted by authoritarian governments …
Discussion:
Washington Post

FT editor among 180 journalists identified by clients of spyware firm — Data leak and forensics suggest NSO's surveillance tool used against journalists at some of world's top media companies — David Pegg and Paul Lewis in London, Michael Safi in Beirut, Nina Lakhani in Ciudad Altamirano

In Undervaccinated Arkansas, Covid Upends Life All Over Again — While much of the nation tiptoes toward normalcy, the coronavirus is again swamping hospitals in places like Mountain Home, in a rural county where fewer than one-third of residents are vaccinated.
Discussion:
Mother Jones and Twitchy

Nationals Game in Washington Is Halted After Shooting Outside Stadium — Fans poured out of Nationals Park in a scene of fear and confusion. The police said three people had been injured in a shootout. — Three people were shot outside of Nationals Park in Washington on Saturday night during …
Discussion:
CNN, Washington Examiner, NBC4 Washington, ABC News, ESPN and ABC7

Biden nets positive marks for handling pandemic, but vaccine resistance, Delta concern remains - CBS News poll — Six months into President Biden's administration, Americans are less apprehensive about the year than they were at the start of it. — They think the battle against the pandemic …
Discussion:
Politico and Political Wire

Sorting out Trump's comments on the Arizona audit — PHOENIX — Former President Donald Trump issued three statements in two days falsely claiming that voting fraud and irregularities cost him Arizona's electoral votes. — Trump relied on comments made Thursday by contractors hired …
Discussion:
Insider, Raw Story, Arizona Republic, Washington Examiner and News Corpse
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U.S. Hits Highest Number of Daily New Coronavirus Cases in the World Again: Nearly 80,000 — FEELS FAMILIAR — The United States recorded 79,310 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number is the highest in the world, exceeding recorded totals from Indonesia …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars and Political Wire

Can the Southwest Survive With Less Water? — Sometime next month, for the first time, the federal government is likely to declare a water shortage at Lake Mead. — This vast turquoise reservoir, formed in 1935 when the Hoover Dam corked the Colorado River in Arizona and Nevada …
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
52 years after the moon landing, Republicans reject science and America is unraveling — There is no Democratic or Republican way to land on the moon.I was 10 years old on the Sunday afternoon of July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 made its more-hairy-than-we-realized touchdown on the lunar surface …
Discussion:
Washington Post

Facebook Tells Biden: ‘Facebook Is Not the Reason’ Vaccination Goal Was Missed — The social network hit back at the president's criticism of social media for spreading vaccine misinformation. — WASHINGTON — Facebook pushed back on Saturday against the Biden administration's denouncing …
Discussion:
The Big Picture, The Guardian, BizPac Review and The Hill
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Guy Rosen / About Facebook:
Moving Past the Finger Pointing
Moving Past the Finger Pointing
Discussion:
Fox News, The Guardian, Slate, Washington Times, Insider, HotAir, Fox Business, The Verge, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, Reuters and CNBC, more at Techmeme »

College Republicans Poised for Splinter after ‘Stolen’ Election — The election is over, but the stakes are still quite high. — Courtney Britt, the candidate who incumbent College Republican National Committee Chairman Chandler Thornton hoped would succeed him, triumphed today over Judah Waxelbaum.
Discussion:
Raw Story

Radio host Larry Elder not on list of CA recall candidates — LOS ANGELES (AP) — California on Saturday released a list of 41 candidates running in the recall election targeting Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that was striking for who wasn't on it: conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder.
Discussion:
Politico, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, Mercury News and Washington Examiner

Police search for killer of 6-year-old girl remembered for her energy and smile — She liked to mimic her grandmother, so a week ago, Nyiah Courtney got her hair braided. — “We twins now,” the smiling 6-year-old told Andrea Courtney. — It was one of the last times the two talked.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast

‘Shadow State’: Embracing corporate governance to escape constitutional limits — Teddy Roosevelt gave a speech in 1902, “The Control of Corporations,” which warned of the danger of corporate power over citizens' lives. Calling corporations “creatures of the state,” he said they must be controlled by …

Pennsylvania election audit gets GOP campaign trail embrace — HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election have been debunked by the courts, his own Justice Department and scores of recounts. — But in the battleground state of Pennsylvania …
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Scorched, Parched and Now Uninsurable: Climate Change Hits Wine Country — If any nook of American agriculture has the means and incentive to outwit the climate crisis, it is Napa Valley. But so far, vineyards here show the limits of adapting to a warming planet.

In this summer of covid freedom, disease experts warn: ‘The world needs a reality check’ — Maria Van Kerkhove, a World Health Organization epidemiologist, was in her Geneva office last weekend preparing for a keynote address when a simple phrase came to mind.
Discussion:
The Week

GOP negotiator: Senators ditch tougher IRS enforcement as way to pay for bipartisan infrastructure plan — Senator explains why IRS enforcement was pulled from infrastructure proposal — Washington (CNN)A Republican senator who's helping to negotiate a bipartisan infrastructure proposal …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Associated Press, NBC News, Washington Examiner, Politico, Bloomberg and One America News Network

Death of a legend: Louisiana's Edwin Edwards didn't stoop to racism — There may be no Southern politician who was more colorful, controversial and consequential than Edwin Edwards, who dominated Louisiana politics for more than three decades. — Everything about Edwards, who died this week at 93 …

Democratic schism on display in Ohio special — The battle to succeed HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge has turned into an expensive, all-out ideological war between moderates and progressives, pitting James Clyburn against AOC. — CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio —The battle for the soul of the Democratic Party …

Delta variant takes hold in developing world as infections soar — Poorer countries with low vaccination rates face surge in Covid cases and deaths — The Delta coronavirus variant that has rapidly become dominant across much of the world is exacting a grim toll on dozens of developing countries …