Embattled Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax compared himself to Jim Crow-era lynching victims in a surprise speech Sunday, as he resists widespread calls to resign prompted by allegations of sexual assault. "I've heard much about anti-lynching on the floor of this very Senate, where people were not given any due process whatsoever, and we rue that," Fairfax said, referencing legislation the General Assembly passed expressing "profound regret" for lynchings in Virginia between 1877 and 1950. "And we talk about hundreds, at least 100 terror lynchings that have happened in the Commonwealth of Virginia under those very same auspices. And yet we stand here in a rush to judgment with nothing but accusations and no facts and we decide that we are willing to do the same thing," Fairfax said.

The reputed boss of New York's Gambino crime family was shot to death in front of his home by a gunman who may have staged a car accident to lure him outside, dying a virtual unknown compared with his swaggering 1980s-era predecessor, John Gotti. Police said Thursday they were reviewing surveillance-camera video of the attack on Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali, 53, who was gunned down Wednesday night at his red-brick colonial-style house in a quiet Staten Island neighborhood. The assailant sped off in a pickup truck, police said. No immediate arrests were made.

"Illness and disease are a perfect laboratory for conspiracy theories, disinformation and propaganda. Disinformation is itself a pathogen that flourishes where there is fear, ignorance and powerlessness. In fact, the World Health Organization calls falsehoods generated by the COVID-19 outbreak an 'infodemic,'" writes Richard Stengel. "If it could be charted, the graph of fake news would likely run parallel to that of the disease itself. In the United States, its rise and spread may be especially contagious: With the president constantly uttering falsehoods and misinformation along with a few actual facts, he gives aid and comfort to the peddlers of conspiracy and prevarication."

President Donald Trump has picked budget director Mick Mulvaney to be his acting chief of staff, ending a chaotic search in which several top contenders took themselves out of the running for the job. It was not immediately clear why the president decided to make Mulvaney's appointment temporary. One senior White House official said there was no time limit on the appointment and Mulvaney would fill the role of chief of staff indefinitely, regardless of the "acting" title.

A report compiled by private researchers and released by the Senate intelligence committee Monday says that "active and ongoing" Russian interference operations still exist on social media platforms, and that the Russian operation discovered after the 2016 presidential election was much broader than once thought.

To Democratic supporters, the Green New Deal is a touchstone, a call to arms to combat climate change. To Republican opponents, it’s zealous environmentalism, a roadmap to national bankruptcy. Lost in the clamor is the reality that, if passed, the much-hyped Green New Deal would require the government to do absolutely nothing.

A baby gray whale heading south with its mother was spotted swimming alongside dolphins and sea lions off the Southern California coast.

A visit from friend and fellow former president, Bill Clinton, inspired him to wear a pair emblazoned with Clinton's face. He wore Houston Texans' socks when meeting with the head coach. At the funeral for his wife, Barbara Bush, former President George H.W. Bush wore socks featuring books as a tribute to her work promoting literacy. Bush, who was a naval aviator in World War II, will be buried this week wearing socks featuring jets flying in formation — a tribute, his spokesman says, to the former president's lifetime of service.

The mother of a 9-year-old Illinois boy who is charged with murder in connection with a mobile home fire that killed five people says the child is "not a monster." During interviews Thursday with local and national media organizations, the woman said her son "made a terrible mistake," adding that "he's a child."

President Donald Trump challenged France, Germany and other countries on Wednesday to take back citizens captured fighting for the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Otherwise, he warned, the U.S. "will have no choice but to release them into the countries from which they came."