Today in one sentence: A group of historians warned Biden that the current moment in America is among the most dangerous to democracy in modern history; Attorney General Merrick Garland "personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant" for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and asked a Florida judge to unseal the warrant; a man wearing body armor and carrying an AR-15 style rifle fired a nail gun into the FBI's Cincinnati office; the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average over the past 40 years; gas prices dropped below $4 a gallon for the first time in more than five months; the number of Americans filing new unemployment claims reached its highest level this year; rental costs in the U.S. are rising at their fastest pace in more than three decades; and the U.S. murder rate climbed 6% in 2021.

1/ A group of historians warned Biden that the current moment in America is among the most dangerous to democracy in modern history, comparing the threat to democracy to the pre-Civil War era and to pro-fascist movements before World War II. The group of scholars focused on the rise of totalitarianism around the world and the threat to American democracy. (Washington Post)

2/ Attorney General Merrick Garland “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant” for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and asked a Florida judge to unseal the warrant. Garland said he filed the motion to unseal both the warrant and the receipt that lists the items seized, citing the “substantial public interest” in the matter. Garland said the Justice Department “does not take such actions lightly” and first pursues “less intrusive” means to retrieve material, referring to the grand jury subpoena Trump received this spring for classified documents he improperly took to Mar-a-Lago when he left the White House. Investigators reportedly believed that the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago were so sensitive and related to national security that the Justice Department had to act. (New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / ABC News)

  • FBI Quest for Trump Documents Started With Breezy Chats, Tour of a Crowded Closet. (Wall Street Journal)

3/ A man wearing body armor and carrying an AR-15 style rifle fired a nail gun into the FBI’s Cincinnati office. The man exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers after fleeing the area. The attack came days after FBI agents executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and a day after FBI Director Christopher Wray called the violent threats circulating online against federal agents and the Justice Department “deplorable and dangerous.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press / Politico / NPR)

4/ The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the global average over the past 40 years. Scientists previously estimated that the Arctic is heating up about twice as fast as the rest of the planet, yet a new study finds that the region has warmed 3.8 times faster than the globe overall. (New York Times / NPR / Washington Post / CNN)

5/ Gas prices dropped below $4 a gallon for the first time in more than five months. The national average price has fallen for 58 consecutive days. (Associated Press / Washington Post / New York Times / CNBC)

6/ The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims reached its highest level this year. Initial jobless claims rose 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 262,000 for the week ended Aug. 6 – slightly above July’s peak of 261,000 and above the 2019 weekly average of 218,000. (Wall Street Journal / Reuters)

7/ Rental costs in the U.S. are rising at their fastest pace in more than three decades, with the median rent surpassing $2,000 a month for the first time ever. Over the past year, rent was up 6.3%. In the years before the pandemic, the cost of rent typically climbed 3.5% a year. Mortgage rates, meanwhile, jumped back above 5%, after briefly dipping below that level for the first time in months a week earlier. Last year, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.87%. About 40% of households – roughly 5.4 million households – that are not current on their rent or mortgage payments said they could face eviction or foreclosure in the next two months. (Bloomberg / New York Times / CNN / Yahoo News / Washington Post)

8/ The U.S. murder rate climbed 6% in 2021, a modest increase compared to 2020, when the U.S. murder rate climbed nearly 30%. There were roughly 21 million guns sold in the U.S. in 2020, while in 2021 fewer than 19 million guns were sold. (CNBC)

poll/ 49% of voters approve of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. 42% said Trump either “definitely” or “probably” broke the law while he was president. (Politico)