President Donald Trump seemed to understand the severity of the coronavirus threat as he told the nation back in March that it was no worse than the flu. Trump told Watergate reporter Bob Woodward on March 19 that he deliberately minimized the danger. “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump said in the taped conversation. Some 190,000 Americans have now died from the virus, with worst-case projections for three times that by Jan. 1. Trump’s Democratic rival for the White House, former Vice President Joe Biden, said the tapes show the Republican “knowingly and willingly lied about the threat,” costing “tens of thousands of lives.” Biden called the revelation “beyond despicable.” This latest bombshell comes as Trump faces continuing fallout from reports that he called U.S. soldiers who died in combat “suckers” and “losers,” and his unwillingness to challenge Vladimir Putin over the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny or intelligence reports that Moscow offered bounties for the murder of U.S. military personnel. Also on Wednesday, it was reported that a senior Homeland Security official alleged Trump aides directed him to stop analyzing Russian efforts to tilt the 2020 election because it makes Trump “look bad,” and to downplay the threat posed by domestic white supremacist groups. —David E. Rovella

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Here are today’s top stories

Mail-order prescription drug deliveries have encountered “significant delays” after U.S. Postal Service capacity reductions by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, two U.S. senators said.

The European Union is mulling potential legal action against the U.K. over plans to breach the agreement governing Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc.

Californians, many without power, awoke to a dark orange sky and ash-coated cars as hundreds of fires stoked by a record heatwave and a powerful windstorm blanketed the disaster-weary state.

The Justice Department is seeking to take over Trump’s defense in a defamation suit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her two decades ago. The move could further delay the case, in which Carroll is demanding potentially damaging evidence from Trump during the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

The luxury industry’s biggest takeover is unraveling as LVMH moved to call off a $16 billion purchase of Tiffany, which countered with a lawsuit to try to keep the deal on track.

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Humanity Is Losing The Race Against Heat

Greenhouse gas emissions are projected to experience their steepest drop in modern history. But at the same time, the world remains on track to potentially mark its hottest year. The two facts demonstrate the relentless pace of climate change and the extreme measures we need to take to slow it down. It’s a perverse race: The later we cut emissions, the faster the planet warms. Right now, it’s one humanity is losing: See just how badly with these graphics.

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