THE BIG STORY

Trump’s trip to Kenosha wasn’t about Jacob Blake

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump visited Kenosha, Wisconsin, where police shot a Black man seven times in the back. But his visit was not about the police shooting, or systemic racism. It was about forcing the nation into a false and dangerous choice: Are you with the anti-racism demonstrators, or are you with law enforcement?

Increasingly, this is the choice Trump wants to drive home. The president has avoided using the power of his office to soothe the polarization gripping the nation around the protests, which in the past week have turned deadly.

Instead of addressing the root causes for the protests, Trump went to Kenosha to focus on the aftermath of the shooting of Jacob Blake: the destruction of businesses, the assistance of federal law enforcement, and rebuilding efforts.

Upon arrival, the president was greeted with Blue Lives Matter signs and Black Lives Matter signs, an example of the divide happening in America.

Trump tours an area affected by unrest in Kenosha on September 1. Mandel Ngan / Getty Images.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Ed Markey, an atypical progressive darling, beat Joe Kenendy in Massachusetts’ Senate primary

Sen. Ed Markey is 74, and has more than 40 years of experience in Congress already. But his successful win in a primary challenge is perhaps the biggest win for progressives this year.

That’s because the sitting Senator fended off a primary challenge from Rep. Joe Kennedy, the 39-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy and grandnephew of former president John F. Kennedy, who was backed by Nancy Pelosi. A Kennedy had never lost a political race in Massachusetts.

Markey is certainly not the prototypical progressive darling. But the Senator was backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and he highlighted his support for progressive causes like the Green New Deal — which he partnered with Ocasio-Cortez to write.

SNAPSHOTS

Portland police have identified the man killed following clashes between Trump supporters and protesters. Police said 39-year-old Aaron J. Danielson, a Portland resident, was shot and killed. The police chief asked that people give the department time to investigate before drawing conclusions about what happened

An NIH panel said there’s no good data to show that plasma treats COVID, contradicting Trump. Trump and the FDA chief rolled out the emergency authorization for plasma with great fanfare, to the alarm of many scientists. Now advisers to the National Institute of Health called the evidence for it “insufficient.”

More than 20 years later, the world still wants to know what happened between Monica and Brandy. Michael Blackmon wrote about how the two stars decided it was time to bury the hatchet that has shadowed their legendary careers and appear together on the Instagram Live show Verzuz.

BTS just made history as the first Asian act to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their record-breaking single “Dynamite” had the biggest US sales week for a song since Taylor Swift's “Look What You Made Me Do” in 2017, selling around 300,000 copies.

A CURTAIN RAISER

COVID-19 may mean humanity has entered an age of pandemics, Tony Fauci warns

Top US infectious disease scientist Anthony Fauci and other public health experts are warning that humanity has “entered a pandemic era,” with the worldwide coronavirus outbreak likely the first of accelerating epidemics to come.

Fauci and medical historian David Morens, his National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) colleague, wrote in a report that they foresee an accelerating rate of pandemics in the years ahead, driven largely by deforestation, urban crowding, and wet markets for wild game.

The report says increasing environmental degradation worldwide in this century will likely be “the key determinant of disease emergence.”

They conclude that “evidence suggests that SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 are only the latest examples of a deadly barrage of coming coronavirus and other emergences.”

Just a brief note on this: I hate it.

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

A mother fell through a ceiling while her daughter sang in a viral TikTok

Liz San Millan was in the middle of recording herself singing, as you do, when, uh, let’s say she got an unusual cameo.

As Liz hits the higher registers, her mom bursts in. Or, more accurately, bursts through. Liz was shocked to discover that her mom fell through her room’s ceiling and her leg was just hanging above her. Thankfully, Liz’s mom was not injured.

The video is being shared widely, because it’s just spectacular.

Breakthrough performance. TikTok

Give yourself credit for how resilient you've had to be,

Elamin