Notes today:

• There are about 31,000 new cases every day in the U.K., but that’s not stopping Boris Johnson from plowing full steam ahead with reopening. 

• China state media criticized video games as “spiritual opium,” ...  It seems that Beijing is worried about where the huge flows of hot money are going and is afraid it will create rival power centers. 

• Joe Biden set a goal for electric vehicles to make up half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030, and Detroit automakers are taking it seriously.

• 
  
  July was the worst month for wildfires on record, as large areas in North America, Siberia, Africa and the Mediterranean continue to burn.