Here is one more item about a bellwether business category that until recently had been an indicator of downtown renewal and locally focused entrepreneurship—and which now is figuring out how and whether it can survive.I am talking about the small, independent, start-up breweries and distilleries whose numbers have increased by the thousands in the past decade—but many of whose members are now just trying to hang on.

GETTY / THE ATLANTICThe pandemic is complicating the very act of voting. As Election Day 2020 approaches, prepare for problems—and a possible last-minute twist as the votes are tallied.Our writers explain:Brace for a potential “blue shift” in the days after the election.In recent cycles, votes counted last have tended to skew Democratic—sometimes to the point of reversing the outcome.

The MV Wakashio, a bulk carrier ship loaded with about 4,000 tons of fuel oil, ran aground off the coast of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, on July 25. After sitting on a reef for days, battered by waves while awaiting salvage workers, the vessel has leaked an increasing amount of oil near a marine park and populated beaches. Mauritius has declared a “state of environmental emergency,” as the growing spill threatens nearby reefs and lagoons.

Shortly after he arrived on the RV Polarstern at the end of February, Alexey Niubom learned he would not be going home as planned. The 32-year-old engineer from St. Petersburg, Russia, was among roughly 100 crew members staffing the third leg of a yearlong Arctic research campaign aboard the German icebreaker.

The racial-justice movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd has had two quite different effects on Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. It has intensified the pressure on Biden to choose a Black woman as his running mate. And it has also intensified the pressure on him to choose a running mate with a history of challenging police brutality.