Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. While the announcement felt half-hearted to some, Josh Voorhees writes, it was nonetheless significant; Sanders “made sure to acknowledge the legitimacy of Clinton’s primary victory” and removed a wild-card obstacle to Clinton’s potential success. Meanwhile, Jamelle Bouie points out that the Democratic platform, drafted this past weekend, “represents a victory for Sanders and his backers, with planks that reflect the aims of his campaign.”
Why would Ruth Bader Ginsburg defy long-standing tradition to speak out against Donald Trump in interviews, as she’s done a few times over the past days? “Ginsburg has decided to sacrifice some of her prestige in order to send as clear a warning signal about Trump as she possibly can,” Mark Joseph Stern writes. “The subtext of Ginsburg’s comments, of her willingness to comment, is that Trump poses an unparalleled threat to this country—a threat so great that she will abandon judicial propriety in order to warn against looming disaster.”
In a wide-ranging and effusive interview, the New York Times’ Rukmini Callimachi tells Isaac Chotiner what it’s been like to report on ISIS for the paper for the past four years. “As journalists we are taught to be very skeptical of these people, much more skeptical than when we deal with almost any other entity,” Callimachi told Chotiner. “In fact, my interactions with them have been different from that. Sure, there are plenty of them who lie. But there are also good sources among them who tell you things that are truthful.”
Lily Hay Newman, a longtime Pokémon fan, explains the Pokémon Go craze to those of us who are starting from scratch. (Just in time—today brings stories of people chasing Pokémon in D.C.’s U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and including mentions of the game in real estate listings, so we’re pretty much around the bend on this one.)
For fun: This book of the world’s hidden wonders, put together by our friends at Atlas Obscura, is director Guillermo del Toro’s “favorite travel guide.” An endorsement provoking a delightful mix of foreboding and fascination! Sign me up.
For awe: The five best still photos to emerge from this past weekend’s Olympic trials in U.S. women’s gymnastics.
Simone Biles for president,
Rebecca
