Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. A new poll shows that global warming is essentially tied with the Islamic State as the most-feared security threat around the world — except in the U. S., where cyberattacks and ISIS are considered the greatest dangers.
The Pew study also tracked just how far Americans’ views on climate change skew politically. Among the left-leaning, 86 percent cite rising emissions as a dangerous threat, compared with 31 percent on the right.
On to today’s developments in those two realms. Our photojournalist documented harrowing scenes and battlefield calculations at the front lines of the fight against ISIS in Mosul, like the impromptu adoption of a child whose parents were presumed dead. And the Pacific Northwest is bracing for a scorching heat wave. Above, melting sea ice in the Arctic.
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2. There are signs of a bit of Senate realignment — and the direction is away from President Trump. The Senate health committee’s chairman, Lamar Alexander, above, said that he had urged Mr. Trump to continue paying subsidies to health insurance companies and that the panel would begin bipartisan work after the August recess to shore up the Affordable Care Act.
And 45 Senate Democrats sent a letter to the president and their Republican colleagues, urging a bipartisan approach on a tax overhaul .
Our congressional columnist says recent events hold a lesson for Mr. Trump: If he plays hardball with the Senate, he might lose.
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3. Did the White House play a crucial role in creating the false narrative about a Seth Rich conspiracy? A lawsuit charged that the White House urged Fox News to publish an article — later retracted — about the D. N. C. aide’s murder. Fox said the lawsuit was “completely erroneous.”
Bill Shine, a former co-president of Fox News, has spoken with White House officials about a position on the president’s communications team, according to several people briefed on the talks.
And the fallout continued from the firing of Anthony Scaramucci, who was the White House communications director for all of 10 days. On today’s episode of our podcast “ The Daily, ” our White House reporter gives us the play-by-play of how it went down, and we rounded up the best writing from the right and left.
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4. Defense officials told our national security reporter that the Pentagon and State Department have offered the White House a plan to supply Ukraine with anti-tank missiles and other arms.
The proposal comes as fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists has increased in recent days, and as Russia prepares to send 100,000 troops to Belarus .
Vice President Mike Pence, visiting Europe, said that President Trump would “very soon” sign forceful new sanctions against Russia and that Moscow’s “destabilizing activities” and support for rogue regimes “has to change.”
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5. Masked agents of the Venezuelan government barged into the homes of two prominent former mayors overnight, hauling them off to jail in the dark.
They dragged one of them into the street in his blue pajamas as witnesses screamed that he was being kidnapped. (There’s video embedded in our article.)
The two men, both vocal members of the opposition, had been arrested many times before. But as the news spread, many Venezuelans — and others around the world — worried that it was the start of a new dictatorship in South America.
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6. The Department of Homeland Security said it would bypass environmental and land management laws in its efforts to build border walls in the San Diego area. Above, the existing fence.
And prosecutors across the country are facing a new dilemma because of immigration policy that means that a conviction for a minor offense could lead to a “life sentence” of deportation .
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7. Our best-read article this afternoon was another criminal justice piece, this time from the magazine. It’s the story of Noura Jackson, who was convicted of killing her mother in Memphis in 2005, when she was 18. By the time her conviction was overturned, she had spent nine years in prison.
Prosecutors withheld the evidence that would have freed her. The office is being investigated for withholding evidence in other cases, but that sort of prosecutorial error is almost never punished. Ms. Jackson, who maintains her innocence, says she still hopes to find her mother’s real killer. Above, the two of them in the early 2000s.
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8. How do animal shelters decide which dogs get euthanized and which get adopted? They do “aggression tests, ” which are basically doggy death panels.
But researchers, including some developers of the tests, are concluding that process is an unreliable predictor of aggression in the home, setting off consternation in shelters.
“During the most stressful time of a dog’s life, you’ re exposing it to deliberate attempts to provoke a reaction, ” explained one professor of veterinary medicine.
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9. It’s only a few weeks until it’s back to school time. We took a close look at the summer reading U. S. colleges and universities assigned, and found a lot of recently published, accessibly written books on race, class and gender.
Developing a shopping list for fall? Our “Smarter Living” writer says yes to a laptop and tablet, and no to a TV, microwave or printer. And our product experts at The Sweethome list their top dorm room picks.
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10. Finally, the late-night hosts weren’ t ready to say goodbye to Anthony Scaramucci.
“According to White House sources, Kelly let The Mooch go because he wanted ‘more structure, less of “Game of Thrones, ”’ Stephen Colbert said. “That’s not a fair comparison — with ‘Game of Thrones,’ you have to wait a whole week for a new beheading.”
Have a great night.
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