For the better part of a year, Senator Edward Markey was a legislator spiraling toward a forced retirement, a veteran progressive whose legacy in Massachusetts would soon be reduced to a footnote in the latest chapter of the Kennedy dynasty. Polls taken last fall showed Representative Joe Kennedy III trouncing Markey in a Democratic primary; at the height of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, it was unclear whether Markey could even muster enough signatures to get on the ballot.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.GETTY / THE ATLANTICThe fight to contain this pandemic is playing out on many fronts. To name just a few: Some researchers are working on vaccines, others on testing. Meanwhile, contact tracers attempt to suppress outbreaks before they begin.

It’s not hard to figure out what Donald Trump is up to at the moment: He’s making every effort to stir up racial tension and provoke violence after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. What’s harder to figure out is why.Today, Trump is traveling to Kenosha, over the objections and pleas of the governor and mayor (both Democrats), who say he will only make the situation worse, which is probably the goal anyway.

Donald Trump has a fondness for bringing up Abraham Lincoln. “Most people don’t even know he was a Republican,” the president declared at a Republican dinner in 2017. Critics mocked this—the GOP is often called “the party of Lincoln,” after all—but he might not have been wrong. Most Americans don’t study history in detail.

The week before Drakeo the Ruler released his latest album, the rapper’s hometown of Los Angeles was swept up in protests, like many other cities around the country. Following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, these demonstrations brought new public scrutiny to the U.S. criminal-justice system’s racist practices.