Stranger Than Fiction

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• Texas Reopening on Hold; Millions More in U.S. May Have Had Virus, CDC Says “Texas paused reopening plans as new virus cases and hospitalizations increased in many states and a new estimate showed millions more Americans may have contracted the virus than initially thought.” - WSJ

• Arizona hit hard by virus after leaders’ failures, experts say “At critical junctures, state leaders undermined faith in data and misled the public about the severity of the crisis, according to officials monitoring Arizona’s response.” - WaPo

• Jobless Claims Level Off at Historically High Totals in June “The number of workers seeking jobless benefits was steady at a historically high 1.5 million as the job market’s slow recovery faced new coronavirus infections that could impede getting people back to work.” - WSJ

• Facebook Looks to Contain Advertising Boycott Over Hate Speech “Facebook is working to persuade its top advertisers not to pause spending on the social network, as it tries to keep a boycott from a handful of marketers from turning into a widespread revolt.” - WSJ

WHAT I’M READING + WATCHING + LISTENING TO

• Republicans are choosing rosy assessments of coronavirus that do not match reality

• How The Virus Won

• Photographers who fanned out across the Twin Cities after George Floyd’s killing reflect one month later. An oral history of a turbulent week that ignited a movement.

• How Qanon conspiracies thrive on Facebook

THE COMMENT

“In any event, many urban industries will never recover. It’s a given that restaurants, which already have notoriously thin profit margins, will outright collapse in record numbers. (My father, who runs a restaurant in Toronto, has already decided he’s not even going to bother to try reopening, and is selling the building.) J Crew, Nieman Marcus, JC Penney and Hertz are just the start, the American businesses that went bankrupt even while the US government was still drenching them with the money hose. When the faucet squeaks off, our streets will become dried out husks of boarded-up storefronts. City governments, without the property tax base, will go bankrupt. Already, according to a National League of Cities analysis in May, the overall budget shortfall for US cities, towns and villages is expected to top $360bn by 2022. If this destitution leads to less funding for social services and therefore a rise in crime, we might see more aggressive policing in black and brown communities, of the kind that has led to the recent protests.” - Chris Michael

THE STRANGEST

• Thai vets perform mass sterilization as hungry monkeys terrorize tourist city

THE AV ROOM