Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. We’re covering President Trump’s return to the campaign trail, a new phase of the coronavirus pandemic and David Sedaris in quarantine. |
 | | Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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1. President Trump tried to reinvigorate his re-election campaign at a much anticipated rally in Tulsa, Okla., buffeted by the devastating health and economic crises, and nationwide protests against racism. |
Mr. Trump ignored pleas from local officials, shrugging off health warnings and dismissing the grim symbolism of restarting his rowdy rallies in a city where a white mob once massacred hundreds of black people. The rally, his first in months, came one day after Juneteenth, which celebrates the abolition of slavery in the U.S. |
In the end, turnout was far from the BOK Center’s 19,000 seat capacity. Mr. Trump blamed the media for reporting on health concerns ahead of the indoor rally for suppressing the crowd size, and claimed that he wanted to “slow the testing down” for the coronavirus. |
Throughout his speech, Mr. Trump tried to target Democrats. He blamed the “unhinged left wing mob” for desecrating the country’s history and tearing down monuments, and demonized people who had mostly been demonstrating peacefully as radical “rioters.’’ |
 | | Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times |
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2. President Trump fired the top U.S. attorney in Manhattan, who had been at the forefront of corruption inquiries into the president’s inner circle. |
Mr. Trump removed the prosecutor, Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, above, after he refused to step down on Friday night. The ouster heightened criticism that Mr. Trump was purging his administration of officials whose independence could be a threat to his re-election. |
Mr. Berman’s office has successfully prosecuted the president’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who went to prison, and has been investigating Mr. Trump’s current personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani. |
 | | Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times |
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A virus once defined by shifting epicenters is now distinguished by wide and expanding scope: Eighty-one countries have seen a growth in new cases over the past two weeks. Only 36 have seen declines. Here’s our latest case count and maps. |
Beijing and Seoul have had a recent surge; in Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Arizona, daily counts of new cases reached their highest levels so far of the pandemic this week. Texas, above in Austin this week, has seen confirmed cases double in the past month. Some businesses, like Apple and AMC Theaters, are now readjusting their reopening plans. |
 | | Victor J. Blue for The New York Times |
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The collapse of talks came after both parties had promised sweeping changes as George Floyd’s killing turned their state into a focal point of nationwide fury over police reform and systemic racism. Above, Minneapolis this month. |
 | | Erik Branch for The New York Times |
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5. The police killing of Breonna Taylor has changed the Kentucky Senate race. |
With a war chest of $40 million, Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who earned a national following in 2018, was considered a safe bet in the Democratic primary. |
6. “It is every foreign correspondent’s nightmare: a family emergency when you are half a world away.” |
For our Tokyo bureau chief, Motoko Rich, the call came last month. It was her 76-year-old father, who was dying from congestive heart failure. During the coronavirus pandemic, many people have been unable to make it to the bedside of their dying relatives. She was one of the lucky ones. |
“Suddenly, I was facing questions unique to the pandemic — whether it would be wise to travel, or whether I could forgive myself if I didn’t,” she writes. The two are pictured above in January. |
 | | Victor J. Blue for The New York Times |
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It marked the return of big-time sports to New York, but on a much smaller scale. |
It has been 100 days without sports. The pandemic has brought disruptions, drama and, frankly, unparalleled weirdness to professional sports. (Robots, mannequins and cardboard cutouts are the same thing as fans, right?) |
 | | The New York Times |
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8. The ballroom community has vogued its way through decades of change and social unrest; 2020 has taken that to a whole new level. |
The ballroom scene began in the 1970s as a competitive arena for drag queens, who are grouped in “chosen families” known as houses, and later as a haven for black and Latino L.G.B.T.Q. people. |
“Being part of this movement is natural to us,” Leiomy Maldonado, a ballroom icon, said. |
 | | Vincent Tullo for The New York Times |
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9. “Everywhere I go it smells the same, and it smells like my breath.” |
David Sedaris, the author and humorist, has been in lockdown just like the rest of us. With two books in the works but all plans on hold, the writer is pacing New York City and destroying his friends on Fitbit, the physical-activity-recording device. |
“Like, I might be walking 130 miles a week, and they’re walking 30 miles a week,” he said. |
There have been other changes, too: He has finally subscribed to Netflix and has somehow made it through the pandemic without a single Zoom, FaceTime or Skype call. |
 | | David Maurice Smith for The New York Times |
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Jon Stewart is back to weigh in, wild platypuses make a mighty return in Australia, above, the meaning of Pride Month in 2020 and more stories top this week’s roundup. |
For more ideas on what to read, watch and listen to, may we suggest these 10 new books our editors liked, a glance at the latest small-screen recommendations from Watching and our music critics’ latest playlist. |
Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern. |
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