Your Tuesday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
| Chang W. Lee/The New York Times |
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1. President Trump used a visit to Kenosha, Wis., to highlight his law-and-order message, focusing on unrest, and not racism or police violence. Above, supporters of Mr. Trump. |
| Jim Wilson/The New York Times |
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2. The Russian group that meddled in the 2016 election is now using fake accounts and a website set up to look like a left-wing news site, Facebook said. |
The company said it had been warned by the F.B.I. that a so-called troll farm in St. Petersburg had set up the network. While the disinformation campaign, run by a group known as the Internet Research Agency, did not reach as big of an audience as it did in 2016, this time, there was a new wrinkle: The Russians hired real Americans to write for the website. |
It is the first public evidence that the agency is attempting to repeat its efforts from four years ago and push voters away from the Democratic presidential candidate. |
3. The 2020 presidential race will be decided by voters in a dozen battleground states. Our interactive tool lets you plot the ways each candidate can win, or lose, the race. |
Mr. Biden is expected to surpass $300 million raised in August, a record-breaking haul fueled by the convention and his selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate. |
And it’s Primary Day in Massachusetts, where Senator Edward Markey is trying to fend off a challenge from Representative Joseph Kennedy. Here’s what we’re watching for, from the Senate battle on down the ballot. |
| Michael Loccisano/Getty Images |
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4. As children around the world return to classrooms, New York City, home to the largest school district in the U.S., is pumping the brakes. |
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the start of the school year would be delayed by 10 days as part of a deal to avert a teachers’ strike and calm principals and parents anxious about the start of in-person classes. The system’s 1.1 million children will not have any in-person classes until Sept. 21. |
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| Kayana Szymczak for The New York Times |
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5. The U.S. faces a wave of small-business failures this fall if the government does not step in with a new round of financial assistance. |
Many small businesses have survived thanks in part to billions of dollars in federal aid (and some weather-dependent adaptations). Now with cooler temperatures approaching, and the threat of a second round of shutdowns, many businesses are facing a stark choice: Do they try to hold on or cut their losses? The Cheers bar in Boston closed over the weekend. |
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress that the economy was recovering from the pandemic-induced recession but “there is more work to be done” and said that he was continuing to push for a “bipartisan agreement” on another round of economic stimulus. Senate Republicans are pushing a scaled-down stimulus plan that could come to a vote next week. |
| Eve Edelheit for The New York Times |
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6. Florida is severing ties with Quest Diagnostics, a major laboratory, over delays in providing nearly 75,000 coronavirus test results that date to April. |
Covid-19 has opened our eyes to the danger of disease. But has it opened them enough to look past this outbreak? Our video journalist looked at this question in a 14-mimute Times documentary, “How to Stop the Next Pandemic.” |
| Ashley Gilbertson/VII Photo |
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7. Solace and relief are in high demand — and the advertising industry is responding. |
Companies have increased spending on commercials for meditation apps, untested tinctures and stress-busting gummies as the pandemic’s death toll rises, along with economic strain. The cannabis industry in particular has been promoting products with the potential to soothe. |
Are you feeling socially awkward these days? It’s not just you. Deprive people of interactions with peers, and their social skills will atrophy, writes the journalist Kate Murphy in Opinion, another side effect of the pandemic. Above, an awkward moment in New York City last month. |
| Seth Wenig/Associated Press |
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8. Serena Williams is on her quest for a 24th Grand Slam title tonight. She’s playing Kristie Ahn in the first round of the U.S. Open. |
Williams and Ahn, both Americans, didn’t have that far to travel to Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. But others didn’t have the same good fortune: Some traveled thousands of miles and quarantined, only to face the buzz saw of No. 1 seeds. |
Daniil Medvedev plays Federico Delbonis tonight, Karolina Muchova takes on Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters returns from her second retirement to play Ekaterina Alexandrova. Here’s what to watch for. |
| Victor Moriyama for The New York Times |
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9. Conservationists in Argentina are trying to reintroduce jaguars to the wild after more than seven decades of absence. |
Bringing back the top predator to the country’s wetlands, a process known as rewilding, could restore the health of an entire ecosystem. But coaxing five felines with troubled pasts to hunt, and mate, is not easy. Our reporter visited Iberá National Park, where teams of experts are working untold hours to make that happen — from a distance. |
| Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times |
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10. And finally, getting your deep-fried Oreo fix. |
One vendor is accepting direct messages for dishes she can fry, freeze and ship. A food stand owner created a website for pickup orders of pickle dogs, turkey legs and deep-fried Oreos. A business is shipping boxes of Minnesota State Fair food anywhere within the continental U.S. |
When the Oregon Dairy Women took their state-fair soft-serve on the road, the word that customers kept bringing up was “normal,” the group’s president said. “Oh, finally something that feels normal about the summer.” |
Have a scrumptious evening. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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