In photos: Over 1,000 Trump guests pack into White South lawn for RNC  —  President Trump will officially accept the Republican nomination for president before a crowd of more than 1,000 people on the White House South Lawn Thursday night.  Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered outside in Lafayette Park to protest his administration.

The Malign Fantasy of Donald Trump's Convention  —  Using the White House as his prop, the President makes war on Joe Biden, and pretends the pandemic is all but defeated.  —  For four years, Donald Trump has been asking us to believe the unbelievable, to accept the unthinkable, to replace harsh realities with simple fantasies.

This Is How Biden Loses  —  Here is a prediction about the November election: If Donald Trump wins, in a trustworthy vote, what's happening this week in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will be one reason.  Maybe the reason.  And yet Joe Biden has it in his power to spare the country a second Trump term.

Shinzo Abe, Japan's Longest-Serving Leader, to Resign Because of Illness  —  Mr. Abe has been prime minister for nearly eight consecutive years, a significant feat in a country accustomed to high turnover in the top job.  —  TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan will resign because of ill health …

Instead of Evolving as President, Trump Has Bent the Job to His Will  —  In a 40-minute phone call this week, Mr. Trump struggled to describe how he has changed in office.  “I think I've just become more guarded than I was four years ago,” he said.  —  WASHINGTON — For a man on the edge of history …

‘She was the aggressor’: Former Liberty student alleges sexual encounter with Becki Falwell  —  A former Liberty University student says Becki Falwell, the wife of the university's then-President Jerry Falwell Jr., jumped into bed with him and performed oral sex on him while he stayed …

Secretly recorded audio of Trump's sister prompts new call for investigation into his admission to Penn  —  A professor at the University of Pennsylvania has renewed a request to investigate how President Trump was admitted to the school in 1966, citing what he called “new evidence” …

Biden Needs a Sister Souljah Month  —  Democrats need to convince voters that they really are against riots.  —  I suggested a little while ago that Joe Biden needs a Sister Souljah moment, a reference to an incident in the 1992 presidential campaign when Bill Clinton criticized a race-baiting black rapper.

What if Facebook Is the Real ‘Silent Majority’?  —  Right-wing influencers are dominating the political discussion on Facebook, raising questions about whether it will translate into electoral success in November.  —  Listen, liberals.  If you don't think Donald Trump can get re-elected in November …

White House says it is creating ‘very large’ dossier on Washington Post journalist and others  —  New York (CNN Business)The White House said in a story published Thursday that it was compiling a “very large” dossier on a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter and others who it said are a …

Against Self-Doubt  —  It took me until the last night, but I finally figured out the theme of this convention.  And it's not really “American Carnage 2.0.” The riots were mentioned but not by a yelling cop like Sheriff Clarke.  Instead, it was by Melania Trump.  —  There were some hard-edged messages at the RNC.

Trump and the RNC abandoned the Republican platform and the legacy of Ronald Reagan  —  Time was, you could highlight Republican principles on a flash card, particularly when it came to national security.  At the 1980 Republican National Convention— when Republican clarity about the party's ideals …

Trump Botches His Big Speech and No One Will Care  —  He didn't put much effort into addressing voters other than his most avid supporters.  —  Nomination speeches at normal conventions are easy.  Joe Biden even showed last week that nomination speeches given remotely during a pandemic aren't that hard.

David Dorn's daughters oppose father's widow speaking at RNC  —  'She should not politicize our father's death for Trump's agenda'  —  David Dorn's daughters want it known that their late father did not support President Donald Trump and would not want his name or image to be used to further Trump's political agenda.

Trump Stomps on the Rules, but the Pandemic Isn't as Easily Trampled  —  “We're here and they're not.”  The president shows that he didn't need a party in a big arena when the White House lawn was available.  —  President Trump made a dramatic entrance from the South Portico to deliver …

Biden snags ‘Keep America Great’ domain in latest act of Trump trolling  —  After trolling Republicans throughout their convention, the Biden campaign has pulled its final act of the week: acquiring the web domain KeepAmericaGreat.com.  —  When Trump launched his reelection campaign last year …

Viral pro-Trump tweets came from fake African American spam accounts, Twitter says  —  Twitter has taken action to stop a spam operation that pushed messages from fake accounts about Black people abandoning the Democratic Party.  —  The company removed two fake accounts and deleted the account …

Steele Associate Offered To ‘Feed’ Michael Flynn Story To WaPo Columnist, Ex-Spy Testified  — David Kramer, who was BuzzFeed's source for the Steele dossier, offered to “feed” stories about Trump associates to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, according to text messages read at a defamation trial against Christopher Steele.

Chinese Covid-19 Vaccine Maker in Talks With Countries on Early Approval  —  Executive at CanSino Biologics says it is asking nations to agree to distribute vaccine before final phase of clinical trials is complete  —  A Chinese pharmaceutical maker is in talks with several countries …