Your Monday Evening Briefing

August 31, 2020

Your Monday Evening Briefing

By Carole Landry and Hiroko Masuike

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

Amr Alfiky/The New York Times

1. Joe Biden assailed President Trump over the unrest in cities.

As Mr. Trump prepared for a visit on Tuesday to Kenosha, Wis., which has been rocked by protests and riots over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Mr. Biden gave a speech in Pittsburgh, above, asking: “Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is re-elected?”

“Mr. Trump, you want to talk about fear?’’ Mr. Biden asked. “Do you know what people are afraid of in America? They’re afraid they’re going to get Covid. They’re afraid they’re going to get sick and die. And that is no small part because of you.” He noted that more police officers had died from the coronavirus than were killed on patrol.

At a White House press conference later in the day, Mr. Trump fired back at Mr. Biden. “The rioters and Joe Biden have a side — they’re both on the side of the radical left,” he said. The president has tried to make protests and riots his central issue, distracting from the pandemic that continues to kill roughly 1,000 Americans every day.

Over the weekend, Mr. Trump unleashed an especially intense barrage of Twitter messages in which he embraced fringe conspiracy theories claiming that the coronavirus death toll has been exaggerated and that street protests amount to an attempted coup d’état against him.

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Pool photo by Tom Williams

2. The House Oversight Committee will soon subpoena the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, for documents related to mail delays and communications with the Trump campaign.

Over the last two months, members of Congress have sought documents from him concerning delays in election mail since he was appointed in May, the removal of Postal Service machinery and the process by which he was chosen to run the agency.

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Democrats have raised concerns that Mr. DeJoy, a Trump ally and megadonor, is helping sow distrust in voting by mail ahead of an election in which postal ballots are expected to play an outsize role.

Separately, an appeals court ruling means that a Federal District Court judge may go forward with his plans to scrutinize the Justice Department’s request to drop the prosecution of Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser.

Octavio Jones/Getty Images

3. Coronavirus cases are increasing at a faster rate among children.

As some U.S. school districts begin in-person classes, data compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics show that the numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths are increasing at a faster rate among children and teenagers than in the general population.

The increase comes in part from more widespread testing, but an increase in hospitalizations and deaths among children show that the rise is not just on paper.

And like adults, Black and Latino children who contract the virus are more likely to be hospitalized. Above, students waiting for temperature checks today at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Fla.

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Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

4. Spain confronts a second wave.

In the past week, Spain has recorded more than 53,000 new coronavirus cases, far more than anywhere else in Europe.

One of the hardest-hit European countries in the early stages of the pandemic, Spain reined it in with a strict lockdown, but then reopened rapidly. The return of nightlife and group activities has contributed to the resurgence.

But the mortality rate is roughly half the rate at the height of crisis in May. And national coordination is improving. Testing speeds are accelerating. The central government last week agreed to deploy 2,000 soldiers as contact tracers.

“It’s not like the first wave,” said Carmen Cerezo, 38, a train attendant waiting outside the Málaga hospital while her father was tested for coronavirus inside. “We’re calmer now.”

Lance Cpl. Tyler Byther/United States Marine Corps

5. Race, the Marines and a Black officer’s fate.

This week, the Corps’s promotion board will meet to consider its next group of generals. One possibility is Col. Anthony Henderson, above center, who has served in combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and has the respect of those he has commanded and most who commanded him.

In three previous reviews, he has been passed over for promotion to brigadier general. That one-star rank would put him on the path to the top tier of Marine Corps leadership — where there has never been anyone other than white men.

The Corps is now a force of more than 185,000 white, African-American, Hispanic and Asian men and women.

Andrea Verdelli for The New York Times

6. China has come roaring back, with exports soaring to their second-highest level ever.

The country has grabbed a much larger share of global markets this summer from other manufacturing nations, establishing dominance in trade that could last long after the world begins to recover from the pandemic.

The export blitz came despite President Trump’s move to impose broad tariffs on Chinese goods, pressure on companies to shift production away from China, and the pandemic that crippled factories in January.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s resignation is likely to make it harder for the country to recover from the pandemic.

Danielle Parhizkaran/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

7. The U.S. Open is getting started with the stars Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka slated to play opening matches tonight.

We have live updates and tips on the matches to watch for — and reassurance that this year’s diminished field is nothing new.

Organizers of the tennis tournament are under pressure to deliver a success that can lead the way for big events to return to New York City.

The coronavirus has already had an impact: The French player Benoît Paire tested positive and has been withdrawn from competition, and several others the organizers found to have had close contact with him have had to sign an agreement further restricting their behavior within the controlled environment at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and the players’ hotel.

“To sum up, we are in the bubble within the bubble,” one of those required to sign, the French doubles specialist Édouard Roger-Vasselin, said in an interview with L’Equipe, the French newspaper.

Jessica White/The New York Times

8. Sales of tell-all books about President Trump are soaring.

“The Room Where It Happened” by John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, sold more than a million copies this summer. “Too Much and Never Enough,” by Mr. Trump’s niece, Mary L. Trump, has gone into its 20th printing. There are many, many other titles, including a substantial number by his defenders.

Many in the industry wonder if the so-called Trump Bump can be sustained if the president is defeated in November, and whether sales of political books will suffer in a post-Trump slump.

MTV, via Associated Press

9. Lady Gaga’s masks were the real V.M.A. winners.

What has the red carpet become in the Covid world, when most people have given up on party dressing? The answer came from Lady Gaga at the MTV Video Music Awards.

During the live show in New York City on Sunday night, she appeared in seven different outfits, almost every time with a different face mask. In her performance from “Chromatica,” above, with Ariana Grande on the left, she was in a pink and black bodysuit, mask by Diego Montoya.

“I might sound like a broken record, but wear a mask,” she said at the end. “It’s a sign of respect.” Here are some of the other memorable moments of the V.M.A.s.

Marcus Westberg

10. And finally, take a (virtual) trip to Africa.

Malawi is often overshadowed by its better-known neighbors in southeastern Africa: Tanzania, with its abundant wildlife; Zambia, with Victoria Falls; and Mozambique, with its picture-perfect beaches.

The country, in fact, has plenty of natural beauty. But, for the photographer Marcus Westberg, it wasn’t the landscapes that made a lasting impression — but the people.

Here are some of his photographs, paired with an essay by him. Whether on assignment or going to the market for vegetables, he writes, “time and time again I have found myself staying far longer than intended.”

Have a richly connected evening.

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