He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump's Failure on the Virus  —  An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response.

Herald drafted a suit seeking ALF records.  DeSantis aide pressured law firm not to file it  —  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' general counsel called a representative of the Miami Herald's law firm seeking to quash a public records lawsuit that would force the state to divulge the names …

White House rejects bailout for U.S. Postal Service battered by coronavirus  —  The pandemic has pushed USPS to the brink, but Trump and Mnuchin shot down emergency aid  —  Through rain, sleet, hail, and even a pandemic, mail carriers serve every address in the United States …

The odds on who Joe Biden will pick as his female vice president candidate  —  With Sen. Bernie Sanders out of the race, the Joe Biden campaign is now moving into the fraught and delicate process of choosing a running mate.  —  Biden, at age 77, would be the oldest president ever elected …

WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange fathered two children inside the Ecuadorian embassy with lawyer, 37, who fell in love with him while helping his fight against extradition to the US  —  Julian Assange secretly fathered two sons while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Trump administration has many task forces — but still no plan for beating covid-19  —  The Trump administration still has no clear plan for ending the coronavirus crisis, but it does have many task forces.  —  There is the official task force led by Vice President Pence that meets daily …

U.S. Overtakes Italy as Country With Most Confirmed Coronavirus Deaths  —  The United States reached a grim milestone Saturday as it surpassed Italy in the total number of confirmed deaths from the coronavirus with the total toll reaching past the 20,000-mark, higher than the 19,468 in Italy.

New signs suggest coronavirus was in California far earlier than anyone knew  —  A man found dead in his house in early March.  A woman who fell sick in mid-February and later died.  —  These early COVID-19 deaths in the San Francisco Bay Area suggest that the novel coronavirus had established itself …

Conservative Operatives Float Plan to Place Retired Military, Police Officers as GOP Poll Watchers on Election Day  —  On Election Day in November, some polling places could be patrolled by off-duty police officers and veterans, according to a plan hatched by Republican operatives.

Whoosh!  That Car That Just Soared by Might Be Heading for the Coast  —  With far less traffic thanks to coronavirus-induced quarantines, drivers are pushing down hard on their accelerators.  Tickets, and records, are the result.  —  NOVATO, Calif. — A white 2019 Audi A8 L sedan …

Trump Administration Tells Employers Not To Worry About Recording COVID-19 Cases  —  Only health care facilities and select other employers will have to figure out if infections happened at work.  Safety advocates are beside themselves.  —  The Trump administration announced Friday afternoon …

We Are All Living in the 19th Century Right Now  —  It's not the 19th century.  It just feels like it.  —  It's been a hundred and two years since the last major pandemic swept America: the 1918 flu pandemic (known as the Spanish flu because Spain was the only country to accurately report it).

Stanley Chera, titan of NYC retail, dies of coronavirus  —  Crown Acquisitions founder built one of city's most prominent property portfolios; was key figure in Trump's rise  —  Stanley I. Chera, who parlayed his father's Brooklyn department store business into one of New York real estate's …

How a stockpile of 39 million masks was exposed as fake  —  A powerful California union that claimed to have discovered 39 million masks for healthcare workers fighting the novel coronavirus was duped in an elaborate scam uncovered by FBI investigators, the U.S. attorney's office said Friday.

Kansas court strikes down GOP measure allowing in-person Easter church services, lets coronavirus restrictions stand  —  LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Kansas Supreme Court on Saturday struck down a Republican-led effort to allow the continuation of in-person church services across the state despite …

Why Ron DeSantis' popularity has taken a hit since the pandemic started  —  The approval ratings of most governors have soared during the crisis.  DeSantis has seen his support plummet amid a confusing, conflicting response.  —  TALLAHASSEE — From New York to Ohio to California …

Alaska Democrats say they received almost double the ballots than in 2016 in vote-by-mail primary  —  The Alaska Democratic Party said Saturday that the final number of ballots received by the cutoff in the state's entirely vote-by-mail primary was over 19,813.

Abortion providers ask Supreme Court to ease pandemic-related ban  —  Abortion rights advocates asked the Supreme Court on Saturday night to overturn part of the Texas governor's sweeping ban on abortions during the coronavirus pandemic — the first of similar restrictions to reach the high court.

We know what good leadership in a crisis looks like.  This isn't it.  —  James B. Comey is a former director of the FBI and former deputy attorney general.  —  The Queen of England recently spoke to her people about the novel coronavirus pandemic and offered a master class in leadership.

Experts fear ‘national naivete’ on COVID optimism  —  After an unprecedented month of strict social distancing and an economic lockdown that has cost tens of millions of jobs and untold billions in damage, Americans saw the faintest glimmers of hope last week that the worst of the coronavirus crisis may be passing.

Life and Death as Hospitals Fight the Coronavirus in the Bronx  —  “If people saw this, they would stay home.”  What the war against the coronavirus looks like inside two Bronx hospitals.  —  This is not a time to die.  —  Terror, pain and loneliness mingle in the air with the coronavirus in the …

As feds play ‘backup,’ states take unorthodox steps to compete in cutthroat global market for coronavirus supplies  —  Rushing to stave off a shortage of medical-grade protective gear to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Minnesota officials leaned on a local company's global connections …

Coronavirus In Five States  —  The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation produces the coronavirus model that currently seems to be getting the most attention.  For now, IHME is sticking with its projection of 61,545 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. by August 4.

Trump's Socially Distanced Campaign Backed by a new loyalist press secretary, the president's coronavirus briefings have replaced reelection rallies.  —  We're committed to keeping our readers informed. … Donald Trump glances up at the TVs on the wall or down at the newspapers on his desk.

Live updates: U.S. surpasses Italy for most confirmed coronavirus deaths with more than 20,000 fatalities  —  The Washington Post is providing this story for free so that all readers have access to this important information about the coronavirus.  For more free stories, sign up for our daily Coronavirus Updates newsletter.