Emboldened Pelosi takes hard line as relief talks drag on  —  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stood up before a room full of Senate Republicans noshing on lunch Tuesday, compelled to make a declaration about Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  —  “There were press reports that Mark is indecisive and I'm owned by Nancy …

For the first time, Facebook removes post by Trump containing coronavirus misinformation  —  The company is has faced pressure to better moderate its site amid a massive advertiser boycott.  —  Facebook on Wednesday said it removed President Trump's post of a video clip from a Fox News interview …

Trump's Bank Was Subpoenaed by N.Y. Prosecutors in Criminal Inquiry  —  The subpoena, sent to Deutsche Bank, suggests that the inquiry into President Trump's business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known.  —  The New York prosecutors who are seeking President Trump's tax records …

Trump singles out Texas and Florida for help with coronavirus response  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump agreed to continue paying for the full cost of National Guard troops deployed to help with the coronavirus response in just two states — Texas and Florida — after their Republican governors appealed directly to him.

The Unique U.S. Failure to Control the Virus  —  Slowing the coronavirus has been especially difficult for the United States because of its tradition of prioritizing individualism and missteps by the Trump administration.  —  By David LeonhardtGraphics by Lauren Leatherby

Trump campaign uses unauthorized and altered Gazette photo to criticize Biden  —  New ad manipulates photo from Coralville to depict Biden hiding in Delaware basement  —  A new ad from President Donald Trump's re-election campaign uses a manipulated version of a news photo taken in Coralville …

Member of Conservative Think Tank Takes On Reporter Duties on Air Force Two  —  Instead of a member of the White House press corps, the role of pool reporter was filled by Robert B. Bluey, a vice president at the Heritage Foundation.  —  WASHINGTON — When Vice President Mike Pence traveled …

Blame for Beirut Explosion Begins With a Leaky, Troubled Ship  —  The bleak tale of chronic negligence started over six years ago, when an indebted vessel and its volatile cargo pulled into port.  It ended on Tuesday in a giant explosion.  —  CAIRO — The countdown to catastrophe …

The Trump campaign's latest contest is a scam.  Here's proof.  —  This week, the Trump campaign has been heavily promoting a contest to win a “VIP Dinner” with Trump in Southhampton, New York, on August 8th.  Advertisements on Facebook touted the dinner as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to share a meal with Trump.

Davis Statement on His Positive COVID-19 Test  —  f t # e  —  U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill) released the following statement on his positive COVID-19 test:

Kanye West's bizarre ‘campaign’ is designed to help Trump  —  Kanye West announces he's running for president  —  John Avlon is a senior political analyst at CNN.  The views expressed in this commentary are his own.  Read more opinion on CNN.  —  (CNN)We need to talk about Kanye.

'I have no idea how I'm not dead': A Post correspondent recalls doomful night in Beirut  —  Sarah Dadouch, a Beirut-based correspondent for The Washington Post, shared her experience of Tuesday's explosions with The Post's Siobhán O'Grady.  The account was condensed and edited for clarity.

Fearing covid and missed classes, many parents prefer mixing online and in-person school, poll finds  —  Most American parents think it's unsafe to send their children back to school given the risks of the novel coronavirus, and more than 80 percent favor holding school at least partly online …

How to Steal an Election  —  Four ways Trump can still win, 89 days out.  —  If you want the bad news all at once, the TL/DR is this:  —  (1) Trump can use normal tactics to win outright or make the race closer.  —  (2) COVID problems with election administration can take up to 6 percent off of Biden's margin.

Georgia second grader tests positive for coronavirus after first day of school, forcing class to quarantine  —  Two suburban Atlanta school districts that began in-person classes Monday with mask-optional policies face more questions about COVID-19 safety protocols after on-campus pictures showed students packed shoulder-to-shoulder.

Virus ‘Checkpoints’ in N.Y.C. to Enforce Travel Rules?  Well, Not Exactly  —  The mayor is sending the sheriff to city bridges and tunnels to try to ward off a second wave of the coronavirus.  —  The announcement by Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday seemed to signal a new crackdown …

Fauci Reveals He Has Received Death Threats And His Daughters Have Been Harassed  —  Dr. Anthony Fauci says that he has received death threats and his daughters have been harassed as a result of his high-profile statements about the coronavirus pandemic.  —  “Getting death threats …

How COVID-19 Changed Everything About the 2020 Election  —  In the 2020 that might have been, nobody is sick and politics is the center of the universe.  —  The Democratic Party has just nominated Joe Biden and his running mate at its mid-July convention in Milwaukee, while Republicans …

Poll-Based Election Forecasts Will Always Struggle With Uncertainty  —  KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE  — We have no idea how much uncertainty exists in pre-election polls.  That leads to very complex poll-based forecast models.  — The general public lacks the expertise necessary …

Joe Biden's mental ability is a campaign issue that can't be ignored  —  He might be riding high in the polls, but Joe Biden's mental acuity increasingly is an issue in the election campaign, and growling at reporters who ask about it is no way to alleviate voter concerns.

Why Boris Johnson's Brexit trade deal is not so different to no deal  —  LONDON — As the days tick away to the end of the post-Brexit transition period in December it's all starting to feel very 2019.  —  The U.K. government is preparing for the possibility of miles-long lorry queues …

New York's Sidewalk Prophets Are Heirs of the Lascaux Cave Artisans  —  What street art adorning boarded-up storefronts tells us about our shared political realities and the ways our stories are connected.  A critic's tour deciphers the signs and symbols.  —  About 17,000 years ago …

Our nation is in a free fall.  But sure, let's talk about Hillary's emails again.  —  Nearly 5 million covid-19 cases in the United States.  One-hundred fifty-seven thousand dead.  Thirty-two million out of work.  Tens of millions facing eviction, foreclosure and hunger.  —  What do we do now?

Developed countries ‘ban’ mail-in voting, US would be ‘laughing stock’: Report  —  Most developed countries, especially in Europe, ban mail-in voting to fight vast fraud and vote buying that had threatened the integrity of their elections, according to an exhaustive review of voting rules and histories in over 30 major nations.

More Evidence of the Racism of Leftists  —  Prof. Josh Dunn of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs brought my attention to a nasty review of Thomas Sowell's 2010 book Intellectuals and Society by Aidan Byrne, a Senior Lecturer in English and Media/Cultural Studies at Wolverhampton University in Britain.