For a while now, the modern Democratic Party, captured by big business and cowed by the Right, has tended to emphasize the symbolic and rhetorical, the great speeches and history-making milestones that the West Wing mistaught a generation was the essence of politics. And the Democratic National Convention is its four-yearly apotheosis, a purely symbolic and rhetorical affair briefly ensconcing American liberals in an imagined version of what their country could one day look like, but — as their party continually insists the other 361 days of the year — never will. So given that much of what Democrats now offer their most die-hard supporters is pure symbolism, what does this year’s DNC tell us about the party? Namely, that the party is no longer even delivering on that paltry front either. The DNC is taking place in the midst of what may be the largest protest movement in US history, driven by rage at police brutality and mass incarceration, and demands for racial justice. Naturally, the DNC’s speaking roster this year is stacked with the very people who created that system and turned it on poor, predominantly non-white Americans.

The St. Louis couple who became famous after wielding guns at protesters on their private street will be part of the largely digital Republican National Convention next week, Trump advisers said this week. The couple — Patricia and Mark McCloskey — will appear on behalf of the president during the virtual weeklong event and express their support for him, the officials said. A spokesman for the convention declined to comment on the appearance.

U.S. states claimed they are owed $2.2 trillion to address harm from OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP’s alleged role in America’s opioid epidemic, accusing the drugmaker in new filings of pushing prescription painkillers on doctors and patients while playing down the risks of abuse and overdose.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday accused NATO of deploying tanks and planes to Belarus' western border, a claim the military alliance rejected. Speaking at a rally of his supporters in central Minsk, the 65-year-old leader dismissed opposition calls for a new election and urged Belarusians to defend their country. "I called you here not to defend me, but for the first time in a quarter-century, to defend your country and its independence," he said to the estimated 5,000 strong crowd, just as tens of thousands of protesters once again hit the streets in several cities demanding his ouster. Opposition presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled to neighboring Lithuania on Tuesday, wants an election recount and is forming a national council to facilitate a power transfer.

So 6% of his presidential bid cost?

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that would scrap ObamaCare's nondiscrimination protections for sex and gender identity, one day before it was set to take effect. According to Judge Frederick Block of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, the Trump administration's rule is contrary to a recent Supreme Court ruling that outlawed workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The rule was issued in mid-June, during Pride Month. It made clear that the government's interpretation of sex discrimination would be based on "the plain meaning of the word 'sex' as male or female and as determined by biology."

When cared for by white doctors, black babies are about three times more likely to die in the hospital than white newborns

The ruling means transgender athletes wanting to participate in sports that match their gender identity can do so this fall.

A spike in mortgage delinquencies says more bad results are coming, particularly with no new stimulus in sight.

For the past three months, shipbuilders at Bath Iron Works in Maine have been waging the US’s biggest private sector strike of the year. With a tentative agreement now in place, it’s looking like they’re in for a big win.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill abruptly decided it will no longer hold in-person classes on campus after about 130 students tested positive for Covid-19 in the first week since classes began.

Thousands of artifacts including coins, parts of guns and swords, and pieces of English clothing mingle with arrowheads, beads and rock tools of the natives. The English colonists who settled the so-called Lost Colony before disappearing from history simply went to live with their native friends — the Croatoans of Hatteras, according to a new book. “They were never lost,” said Scott Dawson, who has researched records and dug up artifacts where the colonists lived with the Indians in the 16th century. “It was made up. The mystery is over.” Dawson has written a book, published in June, that details his research. It is called “The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island,” and echos many of the sentiments he has voiced for years. A team of archaeologists, historians, botanists, geologists and others have conducted digs on small plots in Buxton and Frisco for 11 years. Dawson and his wife, Maggie, formed the Croatoan Archaeological Society when the digs began. Mark Horton, a professor and archaeologist from England’s University of Bristol leads the project. Henry Wright, professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, is an expert on native history.

His Bay State tussle with Ed Markey is illuminating some raw truths about youth, dynasty, and a Democratic Party stuck between generations... But whatever happens in this particular race, Joe Kennedy III’s denouncement of the Massachusetts political establishment⁠—that bromide against the status quo delivered by a campaign to put a member of America’s foremost political dynasty back in the United States Senate—should live on in memory as one of the most shameless ploys ever attempted in modern Democratic politics, an act of hypocrisy so surreal and audacious it practically liquifies the rational mind.

The Canadian Football League will not play a shortened season in 2020. The league's board of governors announced the decision on Monday, after the federal government denied its request for a $30 million interest-free loan.

A-level student Lani Hernandez-David has picked up his results while wearing a homemade Oderus Urungus from GWAR costume.

A union-busting, vote-suppressing, anti-choice, former Lehman Brothers exec and Fox News host will headline the first night of festivities

Although Hawaii has laws meant to preserve disappearing shorelines, beachfront property owners have been able to bypass them. That’s what happened at an expansive coastal estate officials say the Obamas will live in.

From Lee J. Carter on Twitter: "If you're wondering why they dug up an obscure crime like "conspiracy to commit injury to a monument," it's because they need a felony to arrest a Senator within 15 days of a session. It's not supposed to stick. The purpose is to prevent her from voting to rein in the cops."

The Univeristy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announced that all in-person classes would shift to remote learning after more than 130 students tested positive for COVID-19 and 349 were placed in quarantine. After one week of classes, the rate of positive cases at the 30,000-student flagship school spiked to 13.6% from 2.8% at the campus health system, a letter from the Kevin Guskiewicz, UNC chancellor and Robert Blouin, provost, said. Of the 954 students tested this week, 117 have been put in isolation and 349 are quarantined, administrators said.

The Secret Service paid for a product that gives the agency access to location data generated by ordinary apps installed on peoples' smartphones, an internal Secret Service document confirms. The sale highlights the issue of law enforcement agencies buying information, and in particular location data, that they would ordinarily need a warrant or court order to obtain. This contract relates to the sale of Locate X, a product from a company called Babel Street.