Six months into the pandemic, Donald G. McNeil Jr., science and health reporter for The New York Times, tells Michael Barbaro where we’re at.

The Vice President blatantly lies to reporters about the trajectory of COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma, ahead of Saturday’s Trump rally.

The Fed begins purchasing up to $250 billion in individual corporate bonds.

One New Mexico hospital's secret coronavirus policy separates Native women from their newly born babies.

A good podcast episode records a week in the life of Dr. Timothy Sheahan, a virologist working on vaccines and treatments. 

See also, from April: “Inside the High Stakes New Life of a Coronavirus Specialist”

Yesterday’s landmark Supreme Court LGBTQ rights decision, explained in five simple sentences.

Related: Michelle Goldberg, conservative wailing, and so much for “But Gorsuch.”

A thorough review of the damning reasons given by NFL teams for not signing Colin Kaepernick.

Jelani Cobb: George Floyd’s name has become a metaphor for the stacked inequities of the society that produced them.

“I’d have to be insane to let you quote me.” While the world is in turmoil, New York's media elite are in the Hamptons.

See also: Billionaires often freeze up while trying to give away their wealth. Twitter's Jack Dorsey offers a slightly different model.

Taipei's Songshan Airport offers a fake vacation abroad, complete with immigration control and boarding a plane. Meanwhile, Poland accidentally invaded the Czech Republic in a “minor misunderstanding.”

In Washington, a town starts issuing wooden dollars that can only be spent at local businesses. 

In Kentucky, a tattoo parlor covers up hate and gang symbols for free.

What is the next act for America? Because if this moment was in a movie, we’d all be experiencing “the dark night of the soul.”

Images from Debbie Grossman's "My Pie Town," in which all-female families survive the Great Depression.

For some Latinx millennials, caring for plants is less about interior design, more about connecting to mental health and the rasquachismo tradition.

Also, what if minimalism was actually a consumer trend intended to make you shop more? And what if clutter is a sign of moral achievement?

People discuss which new habits they want to preserve post-quarantine.

A poem for your week, from Emily Dickinson, “After great pain, a formal feeling comes – (372).”

And! Based on new calculations, there are likely between four and 211 civilizations in the Milky Way today capable of communicating.