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 …

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

New York attorney general seeks to dissolve NRA in suit accusing gun rights group of wide-ranging fraud and self-dealing  —  The chief executive of the National Rifle Association and several top lieutenants engaged in a decades-long pattern of fraud to raid the coffers of the powerful gun rights group …

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 …

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 …

New polls suggest Trump's position has stabilized  —  (CNN)There's little doubt that former Vice President Joe Biden has the upperhand against President Donald Trump at this point.  Biden has led in poll after poll nationally and in almost every poll in the core six battleground states …

Exclusive: NRA Plans to Spend ‘Tens of Millions’ in Battleground States  —  NRA has added 1,000 new members each day since June  —  The National Rifle Association plans to spend tens of millions of dollars to sway close races throughout the country for the 2020 election.

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.

How inequality is changing the Republican Party — and breaking American politics  —  President Donald Trump shakes hands in 2017 with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, as Vice President Mike Pence beams.  Bill Clark-Pool/Getty Images  —  A new book tries to untangle the relationship between …

Tulane Canceled a Talk by the Author of an Acclaimed Anti-Racism Book After Students Said the Event Was ‘Violent’  —  Life of a Klansman: A Family History of White Supremacy is the latest book by Edward Ball, whose award-winning 1998 book Slaves in the Family traces the histories of people enslaved by Ball's own ancestors.

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 …

Meghan McCain Won't Commit to Voting Biden Over Trump  —  “I'm not saying who I'm voting for, but I'm not voting for Trump,” “The View” host said nonsensically on “Watch What Happens Live” Wednesday night.  —  Meghan McCain officially signed off of The View for the summer last week.

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.

Biden dominates the electoral map, but here's how the race could tighten  —  WASHINGTON — When you're leading a presidential race nationally by double digits, you're set to exceed 300 electoral votes.  —  And that's where we have Joe Biden in our first battleground map of 2020 …

Snapchat adds in-app voter registration targeted at young people  —  Snapchat is rolling out a slew of new tools and features to help prepare young people to vote in the November election.  —  Why it matters: Snapchat has unparalleled reach into Gen Z and Millennial demographics.

Trump's DC Hotel Jacked Up Its Prices as Trump Began Plotting a DC-Based Convention  —  The president hasn't committed to giving his acceptance speech at the White House.  But his nearby hotel has conspicuously begun charging way more for the weekend it's scheduled.  —  BEAST INSIDE

Schwarzman's Wallet Props Up Wall Street Elite's Giving to Trump  — Within industry's top 31 firms, some worry about a backlash  — Blackstone CEO has provided three-quarters of cash from group  —  A few years ago, Stephen Schwarzman was just the latest deep pocket on Wall Street to open up to Donald Trump.

Trump Impeachment Lawyer Eric Herschmann Leaves Kasowitz Benson for White House  —  Eric Herschmann, who'd joined Kasowitz Benson Torres in 1996, argued for Trump at his impeachment trial.  Herschmann revealed his new role as a White House senior adviser in court filings in New York.

WATCH: Biden Says He Wouldn't Stand In The Way Of A Trump Prosecution  —  Joe Biden says that he believes prosecuting a former president would be a “very unusual thing and probably not very ... good for democracy,” but he would not stand in the way of a future Justice Department pursuing criminal charges …

A Mississippi town welcomed students back to school last week.  Now 116 are home in quarantine.  —  Last week, schools in Corinth, Miss., welcomed back hundreds of students.  By Friday, one high-schooler tested positive for the novel coronavirus.  By early this week, the count rose to six students and one staff member infected.

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.

'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.

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.

Terrorism Experts Say QAnon Conspiracy Theory a Threat to National Security  —  A new report from West Point's Combating Terrorism Center details violence related to the group and warns how dangerous and complicated fighting it will be.  —  Matthew Gault  —  Qanon is going mainstream and that's bad.

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 …

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 …

‘See you in court’: ACLU files nearly 400 cases versus Trump  —  NEW YORK (AP) — The day after Donald Trump's election in November 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union posted a message to him on its website: “See you in court.”  —  As president, Trump hasn't personally squared off …

Twitter Staffer Who Announced Trump Censorship Used to Work for Kamala Harris...  On Wednesday, Twitter deleted a Trump campaign video showing President Donald Trump saying that children are “almost immune” from COVID-19, claiming that the president's claim was “misinformation,” …

TMI Report Prompts Dem Party FEC Complaint Against Ilhan Omar's Opponent  —  Antone Melton-Meaux's campaign has routed 78 percent of its spending through anonymous vendors to get around DCCC blacklist.  —  2 hr  —  This post is written by TMI editor/reporter Andrew Perez.

Biden's Milwaukee Trip Is Canceled, and So Is a Normal Presidential Campaign  —  The Democrats bowed to the realities of the pandemic and canceled the major in-person speeches that were still planned for their convention this month.  —  WASHINGTON — Joseph R. Biden Jr. acknowledged …

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 …