THE BIG STORY

The Trump administration wants to pull federal funds from major cities where there are anti-racism protests

President Donald Trump signed a memo that directs a review of federal funds provided to Seattle, Washington DC, New York City, and Portland — cities where, according to the memo, “outrageous acts of violence and destruction have continued unabated.”

Within two weeks, the White House will issue guidance to the heads of federal agencies to submit a report on the federal funds provided to the four cities.

Meanwhile, Attorney General William Barr will publish a list of jurisdictions that “have permitted violence and the destruction of property to persist.”

The move is an escalation between the Trump administration and cities where large scale protests have taken place in the wake of high profile police killings of Black people.

The wider context: During the height of the presidential campaign, Trump administration officials have been promoting the message that “Democrat run” cities are under siege.

Trump in Kenosha on Sept. 1. Mandel Ngan / Getty Images.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

A German test shows Alexei Navalny was poisoned

Last month, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny fell ill on a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk. He was airlifted to a Berlin hospital for treatment.

Now, the German government says Navalny was poisoned with a chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group. The toxicology results will further raise suspicion of the Kremlin’s involvement in the attack.

Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent, was used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the British city of Salisbury in 2018. The substance disrupts the nervous system and causes bodily functions to shut down.

SNAPSHOTS

Joe Biden said the police officers who shot Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor should be charged. Biden made the comments during a press conference ahead of his trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin. “I believe we should let the judicial system work its way,” Biden said.

A video shows police putting a hood on a Black man and pinning him down before he dies of asphyxiation. Daniel Prude, who was detained naked and handcuffed in a street, was taken off life support seven days after the violent encounter with police in Rochester, New York, in March.

A Republican member of Congress threatened to kill armed demonstrators in a Facebook post. Rep. Clay Higgins has spoken at events organized by militia groups. When a rumor spread of a Black militia group protesting police brutality, he said their armed presence would be considered a threat and he'd “drop any 10 of you where you stand.”

John Boyega opened up about being sidelined by Disney in Star Wars because of his race. The actor spoke honestly to GQ, saying his character was “marketed to be much more important than it was” and then pushed aside.

Zendaya reacted to Beyoncé wishing her a happy birthday and it’s a perfectly reasonable reaction. After Bey sent Zendaya birthday wishes on her website, the actor celebrated the shoutout and wrote, “never shutting up about it.” Frankly, I wouldn’t either. My birthday is in March, Beyoncé.

THE RUINS OF TWO DISASTERS

Black people and Latinos already impacted by the pandemic are now picking up the pieces from Hurricane Laura

In Louisiana, Black people and Latinos were already struggling with an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic, and dealing with higher death and infection rates from COVID-19 than white people.

Now, after the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana in 160 years blasted through the state’s southwest region, comes yet another blow, at a time when many say they are least able to absorb it.

Hurricane Laura and its 150-mile-an-hour winds destroyed businesses, snapped telephone poles in half, and ripped the roofs off houses.

Many areas that sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Laura already had poverty rates well above the national average. In Lake Charles, for example, the poverty rate was 23% in 2018 — before the pandemic made things worse.

Read Adolfo Flores’s report on the people whose lives were already difficult, now facing ruin.

NOT MY TYPE OF HOMEWORK

This student was shipped a whole fetal pig because 2020 is the weirdest school year ever

Well, we already know that this is going to be a strange and unusual school year. Right now, college students across the US figuring their way through weird new challenges.

For Julie Taraborrelli, that weirdness involved being shipped a whole-ass fetal pig.

Taraborrelli is a sophomore physiology and medical sciences student. It’s not unusual that she'd have a class involving dissection — but, uh, she will now have to do those dissections from home.

After she was shipped a box full of animal parts, she recorded her reaction to receiving the box for TikTok. It was… something.

Turn inward and pay close attention to what your needs are today,

Elamin