In Poll, Trump Falls Far Behind Biden in Six Key Battleground States  —  NYT UPSHOT/  —  SIENA COLLEGE POLL  —  Joe Biden holds a strong lead among registered voters in six battleground states carried by Donald Trump in 2016.  —  2016 Result NYT/Siena  —  Michigan  —  Trump  —  +11 Biden

Trump's pick for Manhattan U.S. attorney refuses to say he would recuse from probes of president's associates  —  President Trump's nominee to take over the Manhattan federal prosecutors office after the abrupt dismissal of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman refused on Thursday to say whether …

Inside Barr's Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in N.Y.  —  The firing of the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan was foreshadowed by a disagreement over a case linked to President Trump.  —  Shortly after he became attorney general last year, William P. Barr set out to challenge …

Judge Tosses Trump Family Attempt to Block Mary Trump's Tell-All  —  A Queens County Surrogate Court Judge cited “several improprieties” in Robert Trump's attempt to block niece Mary's tell-all, slated to be published this fall.  —  A New York judge has tossed an application …

Facebook faces trust crisis as ad boycott grows  —  What started out as a few whispers about advertisers pulling Facebook ads has turned into a growing boycott of the social network over its content moderation policies — a situation the company is now describing as a “trust deficit.”

North Texas family shaken after 18 relatives test positive for COVID-19 following family gathering  —  Three are now hospitalized, including two elderly family members and one woman battling breast cancer.  —  CARROLLTON, Texas — As North Texas watches COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surge …

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff Charged in Crypto-Currency Case, U.S. Says  —  Jack Abramoff, the onetime Washington insider who went to prison in a lobbying scandal, was charged with a criminal conspiracy related to crypto currency and lobbying disclosure, a U.S. prosecutor said.

New research explores how conservative media misinformation may have intensified the severity of the pandemic  —  The three studies paint a picture of a media ecosystem that entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking steps to protect themselves and others

CDC says COVID-19 cases in U.S. may be 10 times higher than reported  —  The true number of Americans who've been infected with COVID-19 may top 20 million, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  —  “Our best estimate right now is that for every case that's reported …

Brad Parscale, Other Trump Staff in Quasi-Quarantine After Tulsa COVID Cases  —  The move, a campaign spokesperson said, was being made out of an abundance of caution.  —  Donald Trump's reelection campaign manager, Brad Parscale, is one of a group of campaign staffers in quasi-quarantine …

Defense Secretary Faces White House Pressure on Aides and a Military Promotion  —  Senior Defense Department personnel who are perceived as White House critics are resigning or facing reprisal.  —  WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is facing a hemorrhage of talent as senior officials resign amid continued efforts …

It's time to rethink the presidential debates  —  Given how many ugly turns this presidential election year has already taken and how many more are surely yet to come, it is probably a fool's errand to go in search of silver linings in 2020.  —  But the realities of campaigning amid a pandemic …

Gov. Jared Polis appoints attorney general to investigate Elijah McClain's death  —  Amid a growing national outcry, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday designated Attorney General Phil Weiser as a special prosecutor to investigate the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain following a violent encounter with Aurora police last year.

Treasury sent more than 1 million coronavirus stimulus payments to dead people, congressional watchdog finds  —  The checks sent to dead people as of April 30 totaled nearly $1.4 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office  —  The federal government sent coronavirus stimulus payments …

How the Virus Won  —  Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere.  The United States ignored the warning signs.  We analyzed travel patterns, hidden infections and genetic data to show how the epidemic spun out of control.  —  Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere.  The United States ignored the warning signs.

The coronavirus surge is real, and it's everywhere  —  The coronavirus pandemic is getting dramatically worse in almost every corner of the U.S.  —  The big picture: The U.S. today is getting closer to the worst-case scenario envisioned in the spring — a nationwide crisis …

Moscow Held Back Dirt So It Could Slime President Hillary  —  “They fully expected Hillary Clinton to become president, and [the Russians] wanted to have bullets they could use during her presidential term,” John Brennan said.  —  BEAST INSIDE  —  After four years, 34 indictments …

NASCAR releases image of noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage, says concern was ‘real’  —  NASCAR on Thursday completed its investigation into the garage pull rope formed as a noose that was found in Bubba Wallace's garage at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, with president Steve Phelps saying …

She Wanted to Be a Republican President.  She's Voting for Biden.  —  Republicans who say Donald Trump should lose in November but insist they won't vote for Joe Biden aren't being honest, Carly Fiorina argues.  —  Fiorina was a Republican candidate for president just four years ago …

The dirty secret behind Ben Shapiro's extraordinary success on Facebook  —  Founder of The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro.  (MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)  —  The success of The Daily Wire, the website run by right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro, on Facebook is mind-boggling.

In Racist Screed, NYT's 1619 Project Founder Calls ‘White Race’ ‘Barbaric Devils,’ ‘Bloodsuckers,’ Columbus ‘No Different Than Hitler’  —  In an indication of what was to come, the founder of the New York Times' 1619 Project penned a lengthy racist screed attacking all white people in 1995.

A Devastating New Stage of the Pandemic  —  Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers.  Find the collection here.  —  For the past few weeks in the United States, the awful logic of the coronavirus seemed to have lifted.  Stores and restaurants reopened.

Trump Overhaul of Campus Sex Assault Rules Wins Surprising Support  —  The new approach finds unlikely allies among some feminist scholars, who say colleges and universities were failing to sufficiently protect the rights of young men accused of sexual misconduct.

US virus cases near an all-time high as governors backtrack  —  NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus crisis deepened in Arizona on Thursday, and the governor of Texas began to backtrack after making one of the most aggressive pushes in the nation to reopen, as the daily number of confirmed cases across …

Fired Wilmington cop: “We are just going to go out and start slaughtering them f—  ni—.  I can't wait.  God, I can't wait.  " [Free read]  —  Editor's note: This article contains extremely graphic and racist language, reader discretion is advised.  —  WILMINGTON — “We are just gonna …