Harris-Trump Debate Scheduled; COVID Mystery Solved: NPR

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Today’s most important news

Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump have agreed to a debate on September 10 on ABC. In his first press conference since Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Trump said he was open to three debates in September on three different networks: ABC, NBC and FOX. Harris said she was open to more debates but had not committed to them.

• 🎧 Trump took questions for nearly an hour as he addressed Harris’ race, the scope of her rallies and abortion, NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben reports. First of all. When asked about his comments about Harris only recently starting to come out as black, he repeatedly said, “You’ll have to ask her.” Kurtzleben says questions about Harris’s recent rally crowds have gotten on his nerves. He said 107,000 people showed up to her stop in New Jersey. While it was a large rally, a fact check determined the turnout wasn’t that high. When asked if his FDA would revoke access to mifepristone, he indicated he was open to the possibility. In the meantime, Harris and Walz stopped in the contested state of Michigan to talk to the United Auto Workers Union. Kurtzleben says it’s surprising how excited the two are to be on the trail and make sure people know about it. By contrast, the Biden-Trump race has seemed dull.

Researchers have discovered what led some children to develop a serious but rare condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, weeks after a COVID infection. When the pandemic began, children were showing up in emergency rooms with symptoms including persistent high fever, vomiting, fatigue, and heart inflammation. Scientists knew it was related to COVID, but they didn’t know how. According to a report in the journal NatureResearchers determined that children who developed MIS-C had an out-of-control immune response because their immune systems locked onto a part of the COVID virus that closely resembles a protein found on immune cells throughout the body. This causes the immune system to attack itself instead of the virus.

U.S. track and field athletes celebrated their triumph last night, during the final days of the Paris Olympics. Three gold medals were awarded, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke her own world record in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. But Noah Lyles’ night didn’t go as planned: He won bronze in the 200-meter final and said he had tested positive for COVID two days earlier. In basketball, the U.S. team pulled off a heart-stopping win over Serbia. They will play for Olympic gold against France tomorrow night. The women’s soccer team, recently reinvigorated by a trio of stars, will play its gold medal game against Brazil tomorrow morning.

• ➡️ The United States has so far won more than a hundred medals at the Paris Olympicswith three days of competition left. Here’s a closer look at the count and how the competitors are faring.

From our guests

This essay was written by Michael Martinhost of Morning Edition and Up First.

Did you know that when it comes to files, some people save and others minimize? This means that some people keep every single piece of paper (ok, even a digital file), while others throw things away as soon as they no longer need them.

I live on both sides of the aisle. I tend to save things until I get tired of myself or move, which is why I was surprised to find a ten-year-old binder on my shelf. They were my notes from a town hall that St. Louis Public Radio had asked me to moderate in August 2014. The station had put them together just a few weeks after a young black man named Michael Brown Jr. was shot and killed by a white police officer in a St. Louis suburb called Ferguson, after Brown got into an altercation at a gas station. Numerous investigations later, many people here still disagree about what exactly happened that Saturday afternoon; whether, as investigators believe, Brown tried to grab the officer’s gun or whether the officer shot the unarmed Brown for no reason.

There is no doubt what happened next: 400 days of protests in and around Ferguson. These protests have shed light on issues locals have been struggling with for years: heavy-handed policing practices that were not only unconstitutional, but also more about generating revenue than public safety. Many believe this set the stage for the global wave of protests against police violence after the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

Has anything changed? We’ve been reporting here all week and helping with another town hall. I’m keeping my notes. We’ll see.

Weekend Picks

Look what NPR is watching, reading and listening this weekend:

🎵 Music: Atlanta rapper Killer Mike’s Song for Sinners and Saints offers listeners a new way to experience rap’s deacon of contradictions, from the political to the profane, in the context of his upbringing.

🍿Movie: Colman Domingo protagonist of Sing Sing as the leader of a tight-knit theater group in one of the most notorious maximum security prisons in the United States

📺 Television: Industry is coming back and if you don’t remember what happened, you’re probably not alone. It’s been two years since season two, so here’s a recap to refresh your memory.

📚 Books: Whether you’re traveling or working out to beat the heat, here are three fiction audiobook recommendations to help pass the time.

❓Quiz: It’s been a big week in political news. Want to test your knowledge of all the meme-worthy moments? Plus, there’s an unrelated bonus question. Think you can ace this quiz?

3 things to know before you leave

1. New research shows that cats exhibit behaviors associated with painHow to eat and play less after the death of another cat or dog in the house.
2. Jeremy Green Eche, the self-proclaimed GOAT of cybersquattingis $15,000 richer after selling HarrisWalz.com on Tuesday.
3. Mortgage rates fell to a 15-month low this week. However, buyers are not out of the woods yet: buying a home will likely remain a difficult undertaking for some time.

This newsletter was curated by Susanne Nuyen.