The Washington Post
The Take
Analysis

In picking Harris, Biden makes history and plays it safe

Politics and history conspired to bring the former vice president to select his former rival as his running mate.

Inside the selection process: Tough questions, 11 finalists and many lawyers

Candidates were asked what they thought Donald Trump would nickname them, among other things.

Biden and Harris, once at odds, find common ground on criminal justice

(Video: Mahlia Posey, Blair Guild/The Post; photo: Melina Mara/The Post)
The choice of Kamala D. Harris, the senator from California and former state attorney general, comes at a moment when the country is grappling with its racial past and future.
Analysis: No, Harris didn’t call Biden racist
Analysis: What Trump has said about Harris
Harris grew up in a mostly White world. Then she went to a Black university in a Black city.
CORONAVIRUS

White House acknowledges there is less jobless aid than Trump first said

An order signed by President Trump to boost unemployment benefits is creating headaches for state officials, raising the potential that millions who are out of work because of the pandemic will see little to no additional aid any time soon.

Trump weighs blocking Americans at the Mexico border, but legal authority is shaky

The Debrief

Trump’s call into a sports radio show reveals the politics behind his push to restart college football

Amid the pandemic, the First Fan has again inserted himself into the cultural mix from the sidelines, delivering hot takes with the enthusiasm reminiscent of overheated sports talk radio.
As Big Ten and Pac-12 cancel fall seasons, college football splinters and teeters
People attend a concert Sunday at the Full Throttle Saloon in Stugis, S.D. (Getty Images)
People attend a concert Sunday at the Full Throttle Saloon in Stugis, S.D. (Getty Images)

South Dakota health officials watch for the coronavirus as motorcyclists descend

Roughly 250,000 people are expected at the 10-day-long 80th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Health officials noted that such big events make contact tracing difficult if cases emerge.
RACE & RECKONING

White supremacists made Charlottesville a symbol of racism. Black residents say it still is.

Three years after the deadly Unite the Right rally, Black activists are still pressing for change even as racial-justice protests grip much of the rest of the country.
From The Magazine

Professor Cornel West asks: Is the U.S. ‘even capable of treating the masses of Black people with decency and dignity?’

The Harvard professor and commentator reflects on where the aftermath of George Floyd’s death may take the country.
  • By KK Ottesen
  • 15 hours ago
Video
(Rhonda Colvin, Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)
How a pandemic and protests affected voter registration
How a pandemic and protests affected voter registration
Play Video 5:08
Going into convention season, Trump is in a foul mood
Play Video 3:16
What Trump has said about Kamala Harris
Play Video 1:14
Lebanon was already in crisis. Then catastrophe struck.
Play Video 6:31
Opinions
The qualities that hampered Harris’s campaign could be the ones that make her an ideal running mate
Kamala Harris met the most important qualification for Biden’s running mate
Stop justifying school reopening based on false statements
Trump’s (tremendous) Gettysburg address
Stories You’ll Want to Hear

Mailing it in: The November election edition

The anxieties around voting by mail ahead of November. How the White House failed to contain the coronavirus as the summer cases crept up. And Beijing cracks down in Hong Kong.
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More Top Stories
Rep. lhan Omar speaks during an informational picket about nurses’ safety and benefits outside a Minneapolis hospital in 2019. (Jenn Ackerman for The Post)
Rep. lhan Omar speaks during an informational picket about nurses’ safety and benefits outside a Minneapolis hospital in 2019. (Jenn Ackerman for The Post)
Election 2020

Rep. Omar vanquishes primary challenger, the latest victory for liberals

The victory by the Minnesota Democrat put to bed weeks of speculation that her career on Capitol Hill could be cut short by an opponent who argued that Ilhan Omar was more interested in fame than representing her district.
QAnon conspiracy theory believer wins GOP congressional runoff in Georgia
Drawing lessons from chaotic primaries, officials scrambled to head off voting problems
Election 2020
Analysis

A new poll spotlights a key reason Biden is the 2020 favorite

A poll shows very little appetite for third-party candidates in 2020 — a contrast to 2016 and a big reason for Joe Biden's lead over President Trump at the moment.

Beirut blast may be linked to storage of flammable items next to ammonium nitrate, official says

Accounts of port workers suggest that a hazardous mix of materials were stored together inside a warehouse, said the head of search and rescue for the fire crew at the port.
Don’t Miss
Battle for the Ballot

Thousands of women fought against the right to vote. Their reasons still resonate today.

  • By Samantha Schmidt

Disinformation for profit: How a Fla. ‘dealmaker’ turns conservative outrage into cash

A son’s curiosity upends an abandoned baby story

  • By Jonathan M. Pitts
  • 1 day ago
The upper section of seating at President Trump’s June 20 rally in Tulsa. (Jabin Botsford/The Post)
The upper section of seating at President Trump’s June 20 rally in Tulsa. (Jabin Botsford/The Post)

End of an era? Trump says he won’t hold rallies with empty seats.

The rollicking, combative performance art that is the Trump rally is on pause for the pandemic, and its future is as uncertain as the president’s.
Analysis

Poll exposes potentially fatal flaw in Trump’s reelection strategy

The president’s efforts to turn people against Joe Biden are not gaining much traction — and may not help him anyway.

Supreme Court again stops pandemic-related decision on election procedures

The ruling will keep a referendum on partisan gerrymandering off the November ballot in Oregon.
An old cruise ship docked in the port was capsized by the explosion. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Post)
An old cruise ship docked in the port was capsized by the explosion. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Post)
The explosion destroyed grain silos on the waterfront. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Post)
The explosion destroyed grain silos on the waterfront. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Post)
Members of a French search team walk on corn that spilled out of grain silos in the explosion. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Post)
Members of a French search team walk on corn that spilled out of grain silos in the explosion. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Post)

At Beirut’s shattered port, a crater nearly 50 yards deep and small signs of previous lives

The scene on the Beirut waterfront after the devastating explosion last week looks straight out of “Mad Max,” a tortured landscape washed in sepia, littered with the husks of cars.

Israel enlists the army to gain control of a second wave of coronavirus infections

The expanded role for the military will include the deployment of about 3,000 additional soldiers and civilian staffers to aid in testing and contact-tracing programs, including the call-up of about 2,000 reservists, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said.

Former aide ties Mexican ex-president Peña Nieto to millions in bribes

The allegations are the most serious yet against Peña Nieto, who has maintained that his campaign did not receive illegal donations.
Freshmen check their academic schedules. (Ted Richardson for The Post)
Freshmen check their academic schedules. (Ted Richardson for The Post)

UNC-Chapel Hill launches the school year in person amid coronavirus crisis

Masks and sanitizer are everywhere. But the face-to-face strategy poses a pandemic risk.

Meet the self-effacing doctor who holds the fate of a coronavirus vaccine in his hands

A top Food and Drug Administration career official, Peter Marks is likely to decide in the next several months whether a vaccine is safe and effective enough to be given to Americans.

Wearing a neck gaiter may be worse than no mask at all, Duke researchers find

‘Broadened’ health-care exemptions keep many workers from getting new paid leave, report finds

Critics have seized on the report as another sign that the Trump administration is abandoning commitments to uphold worker safety provisions.
Color of Money
Perspective

Some Black promoters of illegal pyramid schemes are using the Black Lives Matter movement to justify ‘sou-sou’ scams

Promoters are misappropriating a legitimate savings practice called a “sou-sou” to entice people to participate in an illegal pyramid scheme. Here's how to tell the difference.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks during a news conference on July 14 in Greenville, Ky. (Greg Eans/Messenger-Inquirer/AP)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks during a news conference on July 14 in Greenville, Ky. (Greg Eans/Messenger-Inquirer/AP)

An economic crisis in Kentucky has workers, businesses furious with Sen. Mitch McConnell

Unemployment is high, benefits are running out, and local leaders say they need the kind of aid that the Senate’s most powerful figure has yet to endorse.
Perspective

College football is caught in a coronavirus culture war. Caution is the smart choice.

College presidents in the Power Five conferences should hit the pause button on the season.
Perspective

The NHL playoffs in a bubble will be weird, wacky and unprecedented. Strap in.

What once seemed unlikely now seems probable: an entire playoff hockey tournament played inside two bubbles.
Ron Rivera is introduced as Washingon’s head coach in January. (John McDonnell/The Post)
Ron Rivera is introduced as Washingon’s head coach in January. (John McDonnell/The Post)
Perspective

Ron Rivera again answered for a controversy he did not create. He better get used to it.

Washington’s NFL coach brings self-awareness and prudence to a broken franchise. It’s a start.
CORONAVIRUS
A coronavirus testing location in Leonardtown, Md. (AFP/Getty Images)
A coronavirus testing location in Leonardtown, Md. (AFP/Getty Images)

Maryland’s average daily caseload drops to lowest level in weeks

The decline comes as health experts say the greater Washington region could be putting a lid on recent infection spikes.
Perspective

Black psychiatrists are few. They’ve never been more needed.

Anxiety and depression among African Americans is rising as they combat a pandemic and a reckoning over race.
Known deaths and cases

Md. judge orders firms to continue building Purple Line amid cost disputes with state

A temporary restraining order requires the companies to stay on the job until at least Sept. 14 as they and the state argue about hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns.

Disgraced W.Va. bishop Michael Bransfield has gone incommunicado, his successor says

More than a year after Pope Francis ordered Bransfield to make personal amends for alleged sexual and financial misconduct, there has been no word about a restitution proposal.

Man shot by Secret Service agent outside White House shouted, ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ officials say

Second victim found dead in rubble from explosion that rocked Baltimore neighborhood

(Nikki Ernst for The Post)
(Nikki Ernst for The Post)

The stress of the unknown is taking a massive toll on parents

One of many challenges: “Learning to be comfortable with not being comfortable.”

Need a place to stash your stuff? Here’s how to get the best deal on self-storage.

  • By Kevin Brasler | Washington Consumers' Checkbook
  • 17 hours ago
Perspective

Teaching children how to navigate conflict

  • By Kristin Lesko
  • 13 hours ago
Anthony Anderson as Dre in the 2018 “Blackish” episode “Please, Baby, Please” that never aired on ABC. It was released Tuesday on Hulu. (Ron Tom/ABC)
Anthony Anderson as Dre in the 2018 “Blackish” episode “Please, Baby, Please” that never aired on ABC. It was released Tuesday on Hulu. (Ron Tom/ABC)
Analysis

ABC finally released the political ‘Blackish’ episode it refused to air two years ago. It feels fresher than ever.

Tensions over the 2018 episode led to "Blackish" creator Kenya Barris's departure from ABC Studios.
Review

In ‘The Queen of Tuesday,’ Darin Strauss dreams up an affair between Lucille Ball and his grandfather

Smash Mouth is the latest band to play a concert for the unmasked masses

(Photo by Goran Kosanovic for the Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Post)
(Photo by Goran Kosanovic for the Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Post)

These 5 galette recipes are ready for their Instagram moment

From honeyed-fig and walnut to mixed summer berry, these galettes come together faster than traditional pie.
Perspective

These food memoirs promised something different. But the lack of diversity is the same old story.

  • By Charlotte Druckman
  • 1 day ago

This no-churn saffron pistachio ice cream recipe is golden

  • By Shadi HasanzadeNemati
  • 14 hours ago
(Airbnb)
(Airbnb)

You can now rent the world’s last Blockbuster for a ’90s-themed slumber party

Dust off your membership card — this Airbnb listing is available for a movie-marathon sleepover.
  • By Shannon McMahon
  • 10 hours ago

Disney World to cut hours after reopening to smaller-than-expected crowds

  • By Shannon McMahon
  • 1 day ago

Restaurants in Italy are bringing back ancient ‘wine windows’ used during the plague

Visual Stories
(Rodrigo Abd)In Sight
(Rodrigo Abd)
On the outskirts of Lima, this man is continuing to preside over burials, bringing comfort and solace to families experiencing death during the pandemic
(The Washington Post)Graphic
(The Washington Post)
Harris is the pick, but women of color remain underrepresented in government
(The Washington Post)Graphic
(The Washington Post)
A vaccine, or a spike in deaths: How America can build herd immunity to the coronavirus
Visual Story
Surviving on, and maybe losing, a contested land
(NashCo Photo )Story
(NashCo Photo )
Trump sent agents to quell unrest. But protest is what Portland does best.
(Wojtek Jargilo/Shutterstock)Photos
(Wojtek Jargilo/Shutterstock)
Here are 16 of the week’s best photos
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