1. All eyes on Wisconsin

Defying requests from state and local officials, who asked President Trump to stay away to avoid further inflaming tensions, Trump visited the embattled city of Kenosha, Wisc., yesterday. He met with various community leaders and business-owners and toured areas of the city that have been destroyed by fires in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug. 23. Trump called the violence "domestic terror" and urged greater support for law enforcement. Blake remains hospitalized and paralyzed after a white police officer shot him seven times in the back. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will pay a visit to the city tomorrow. —The Wall Street Journal

• — Trump denies systemic racism. James Ward and Sharon Ward, pastors for Julia Jackson, the mother of Blake, joined the president for a roundtable discussion on public safety issues. A reporter asked the Wards whether they believed police violence was a systemic issue. Trump interjected, saying, "I don't believe that. I think the police do an incredible job, and I think you do have some bad apples. You do have the other situation, too, where they're under tremendous pressure, and they don't handle it well. They call it choking, and it happens." —CNN
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• — Business-owner corrects the record. Kenosha resident Tom Gram has owned Rode's Camera Shop, which burned down on Monday, since he bought the business eight years ago. He refused the White House's request to take part in Trump's visit. "I think everything he does turns into a circus, and I just didn't want to be involved in it," Gram said. So imagine his surprise when the president showed up with the store's former owner, making it seem like the store was still his. —WTMJ
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• — State senate pulls a McConnell move. To address the issues in Kenosha and elsewhere, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers had called for a special session of the legislature on police violence and social justice. But when the state Senate and Assembly met on Monday, both chambers gaveled in and out almost immediately. "Senators do not need to be present," the Senate president's chief of staff told reporters, "and no bills are being taken up." Wow. —Rolling Stone

2. Capehart: Trump can't fix this

"A cornered animal will fight its way out of it. And Trump is using fear to fight his way out, even if it means exacerbating racial tensions. That's why he went to Kenosha to visit law enforcement. That's why he can't see fit to denounce right-wing militias who support him. That's why he absolutely must be defeated in November." —The Washington Post

MORE: Waldman: Republicans of conscience have one more chance to retain their honor —The Washington Post

3. WHO cares? US out of global vaccine efforts

The Trump Administration said it will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture, and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine, in part because the World Health Organization is involved—a decision that could impact not only the course of the pandemic but also international diplomacy. The announcement comes as President Trump is both urging domestic production of a vaccine before the November election and embracing a controversial "herd immunity" strategy being pushed by new White House coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas. —The Washington Post

• — Ernst jumps on the conspiracy train. At an event yesterday, Sen. Joni Ernst pushed a debunked conspiracy theory that claims just 6% of people reported dead from COVID-19 in the U.S. actually died from the disease. Trump has retweeted tweets pushing the same idea, forcing Dr. Anthony Fauci to clarify this morning that the percentage "does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of COVID didn't die of COVID-19. They did... It's not 9,000 deaths from COVID-19, it's 180-plus thousand deaths." —The Daily Beast
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• — Pandemic election advertising? As the presidential election fast approaches, the Department of Health and Human Services is bidding out a more than $250 million contract to a communications firm as it seeks to "defeat despair and inspire hope" about the coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal HHS document. The contract comes as the administration's health agencies face growing questions about their independence in recent weeks. —Politico
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• — Some good news. The Trump Administration issued an order yesterday banning landlords from evicting tenants from properties they can no longer afford to rent due to income lost to the coronavirus pandemic. The order, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would make it illegal to evict any individual who expects to make less than $99,000 or a joint-filing couple that expects to make less than $198,000 in 2020. —The Hill

4. Some progress, but many concerns at USPS

The U.S. Postal Service's internal inspector general has outlined a number of ongoing concerns about the agency's ability to manage the influx of mail-in ballots for the presidential election in November. In a report issued yesterday, the IG outlined several potential problems in the way mail was being processed, including ballots mailed without bar code mail-tracking technology and out-of-date voter addresses.

• — "Resolving these issues will require higher-level partnerships and cooperation between the Postal Service and various state officials," the report notes. "Timely delivery of election and political mail is necessary to ensure the integrity of the U.S. election process."
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• — The IG's audit took place during the May and June special and primary elections and did not include a review of cost-cutting measures implemented by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, which have drawn bipartisan criticism.
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• — The watchdog recommended a number of steps to improve processes, including working more closely with state and election officials and to "continue educating election officials on identified best practices to increase nationwide election and political mail readiness." —NPR

5. Lutz: Why didn't Mueller go further?

"Trump didn't just emerge from the probe [by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller] unscathed; he ultimately came out of it more powerful than ever, knowing he could get away with anything. Armed with that knowledge, and with Republicans' complicity and cooperation, Trump has only gotten more aggressive in his corruption." —Vanity Fair

MORE: BDN Ed Board: Americans need to know about election interference —Bangor Daily News

6. Media riles Trump into stroke denial

According to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, Vice President Mike Pence was placed on standby to take over presidential powers temporarily if President Trump had to be anesthetized during an unannounced trip to Walter Reed Medical Center last November. "It never ends! Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes," Trump tweeted in response yesterday. Schmidt notes, "Book says nothing about mini-strokes." The Trump camp also called for CNN to fire commentator Joe Lockhart, who mused on Twitter on Monday whether Trump had "a stroke which he is hiding from the American public." —Politico

• — Drudge's about-face. Influential conservative website "The Drudge Report" prominently featured a headline on Trump's health yesterday, drawing scorn from the president. The Drudge Report frequently boosted Trump during the 2016 election, and called into question Hillary Clinton's health. But more recently, conservatives have criticized the site for its blunt and at times critical coverage of Trump. —Mediaite
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• — That's what happens when you label them the "enemy of the people." They get treated like enemies. A group of veteran Voice of America journalists wrote to VOA Acting Dir. Elez Biberaj saying that Michael Pack, the new CEO of VOA's parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is endangering the livelihoods of contract journalists as well as U.S. national security interests. They point to Pack's recent remarks in an interview with The Federalist as proof of his malicious intent. —Axios
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• — News from the center? That's the stated goal of "NewsNation," a national telecast that launched this week from WGN studios in Chicago. Marni Hughes and Joe Donlon co-anchor the program, intended to offer a hard-news alternative to the opinion shows that typically fill the primetime slots on other networks. We shall see. —Chicago Business Journal

7. Roberts: China's war on the Uyghurs

"What is happening to the Uyghurs...has little to do with an alleged 'terrorist threat' and is much more like other historical examples of indigenous people being decimated, marginalized, and displaced by a settler colonial power when they resist complete capitulation and assimilation. In this sense, the 'war on the Uyghurs' is not really a war in the traditional sense, but a process of conquest, occupation, and ultimately displacement and ethnically profiled marginalization [by China]." —The Diplomat

Ed. Note: Sean R. Roberts, the director of the International Development Studies Program at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, is the author of "The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority."

MORE: Trump blows past the intelligence to accuse China of backing Biden —Politico

8. Tensions with Russia intensify

Already fraught with fresh evidence of election interference, the relationship between the U.S. and Russia has grown more tense after several recent military encounters. Russian fighter jets repeatedly veered 100 feet in front of a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber over the Black Sea; six Russian warplanes flew close enough to Alaska that Air Force F-22s scrambled to intercept them; and seven U.S. soldiers were injured when a Russian armored vehicle deliberately rammed an American patrol in northeast Syria—all with nary a mention from the White House.

• — "Russia's approach is to always push the envelope just a bit and wait for response," said Alina Polyakova, the president and chief executive of the Center for European Policy Analysis. "This ongoing pattern of Russian behavior means that we have not imposed serious consequences to prevent ongoing escalation in all arenas where the Russians are seeking to undermine U.S. interests." —The New York Times

• — Putin critic was "without doubt" poisoned. German authorities announced today that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, the same type of Soviet-era nerve agent that British authorities identified in a 2018 attack on a former Russian spy. Navalny remains in serious condition, though his condition is improving.
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• — "Navalny is the victim of a crime." German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "He was meant to be silenced, and I condemn this in the strongest possible manner." She added, "There are very serious questions now that only the Russian government can answer, and must answer." —Associated Press

9. NYT Ed Board: Intel knows what Russia is doing. We should too

"The fact that Russia's fingerprints are all over the 2020 campaign on Trump's side, or that to a lesser degree China and Iran are mucking around social media against Trump, are outrages about which the American public and their representatives must have full, reliable, and up-to-date information. Secret briefings for a handful of legislators, as [Director of National Intelligence John] Ratcliffe suggested, and written statements potentially vetted by Trump loyalists are insufficient." —The New York Times

MORE: Ignatius: Trump's choking hazard: Cutting off intelligence to Congress —The Washington Post

10. An American Story: Every dog has its day

In some parts of the country, animal shelters are so full that the euthanasia rates reach as high as 90%. Peter Rork devotes his time to rescuing animals from overcrowded shelters and flying them to shelters where they will get a new chance at life.

• — Since the creation of his nonprofit, Dog Is My CoPilot, in 2012, Rork has saved more than 16,000 animals. Rork found purpose in his nonprofit, which he created shortly after the death of his wife.
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• — Dog Is My CoPilot works with a network of over 100 animal shelters and rescue missions from 15 states. Most dogs are rescued from overcrowded shelters in states like California, Texas, and Arizona and then flown to states like Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
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• — "We're now busier than ever and have been flying every single day. Now that I'm eight years into it, I'm already looking forward to the next eight. As much as I rescue them, they rescue me." —The Washington Post

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