Your Tuesday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
 | | Pool photo by Kevin Dietsch |
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1. “I’m very concerned because it could get very bad.” |
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned that the U.S. could see 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day. The surge in infections, largely in the South and West, puts “the entire country at risk,” he said. There are currently about 40,000 new daily cases. |
The stark warning came at a Senate hearing where health officials spoke about the need to reassure people about the safety of vaccines. Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency had spent around three months developing a plan to rebuild “vaccine confidence.” |
And if that wasn’t dire enough: A study warns that a new strain of the H1N1 swine flu virus spreading in China should be “urgently” controlled to avoid another pandemic. |
 | | Leah Millis/Reuters |
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2. Masks — and President Trump’s refusal to wear one — were a central topic at a Senate committee hearing. |
Fighting over masks in public has become the new American pastime. But the burden of enforcing rules often falls on essential workers. Now grocery store managers are training their staffs on how to handle screaming customers. |
 | | U.S. Marine Corps, via Associated Press |
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3. The U.S. intercepted financial transfer data that bolstered suspicions about Russian bounties on American troops in Afghanistan, officials say. |
The large transfers came from a bank account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account. The findings are among the evidence pointing to an effort by Russia to covertly offer rewards to the Taliban for killing U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan, and they further undercut White House officials’ claim that the intelligence was too uncertain to brief President Trump. |
Cpl. Robert Hendriks, right, was killed in Afghanistan in 2019 in what may have been a related attack, along with Sgt. Benjamin Hines, left, and Staff Sgt. Christopher Slutman. We spoke with Mr. Hendriks’s father. |
 | | Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times |
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4. We unpacked the details of China’s new national security law for Hong Kong, which gives Beijing sweeping powers to crack down on dissent. |
Despite criticism of the measure from the U.S. and the West, the business world has largely fallen in line behind China’s campaign to tighten its grip on Hong Kong. |
 | | Kristian Thacker for The New York Times |
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5. The government’s centerpiece relief program for small businesses is ending today — with $130 billion left over. |
The Paycheck Protection Program handed out $520 billion in loans to preserve workers’ jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, like West Virginia Eye Consultants, above. But lenders cited two main reasons there was money still in the program’s coffers: Most eligible companies that wanted a loan were ultimately able to obtain one, and the program’s complicated requirements may have put off qualified borrowers. |
As lawmakers prepare for negotiations over another round of stimulus, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, presented a mixed picture of the U.S. economy’s recovery at a congressional hearing. |
 | | Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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6. The Supreme Court ruled that states must allow religious schools to participate in aid programs for private schools. |
Mr. Roberts, now 15 years into his tenure, wields a level of influence that has caused experts to hunt for historical comparisons, our Supreme Court reporter writes. |
 | | Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader, via Associated Press |
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7. Amy McGrath narrowly won Kentucky’s Senate Democratic primary, defeating a progressive rival, Charles Booker, to take on Mitch McConnell in November. |
Ms. McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who built a formidable campaign war chest, fended off a challenge from the left that highlighted the party’s ideological divisions. Mr. Booker had harnessed energy in the final weeks of the campaign from the protests over racial injustice. |
The results came one week after the primary was conducted. Today brings a handful of new contests, including a competitive Democratic Senate primary race in Colorado and a governor’s race in Utah. Here’s what to watch for. |
 | | Harold Filan/Associated Press |
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8. We remember a master of comedy, Carl Reiner, who died at 98. |
Mr. Reiner, pictured in 1967, created “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” one of the most celebrated situation comedies in television history, and teamed with Mel Brooks on the hugely successful “2000 Year Old Man” records. His acting and writing in television’s early days helped define what TV would become, our critic writes. |
9. The boom and rattle of Brooklyn drill has become the soundtrack to a summer of unrest. |
It began as a hyperlocal strain of hip-hop in Chicago that was then tweaked by bedroom producers in the U.K. before taking over Brooklyn. |
 | | Benjamin Lowy |
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10. And finally, an ode to the dogs of the sea. |
We’re talking about sea lions, of course. They play fetch with rocks and starfish, and often seem enamored of the few humans who swim with them, sometimes nibbling on their swim fins. |
In our latest virtual diary from Travel, the photographer Benjamin Lowy takes us to Los Islotes, a small island off the Baja coast, where sea lions populate every rocky outcrop and live up to their nickname. There’s even a small underwater cave that is home to the sea lion “nursery.” |
Hope you find something to smile at tonight. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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