…And the World:

We begin today in Japan, whose capital Tokyo has elected a woman governor for the first time. The famously patriarchal society does not allow women to ascend to the throne and has never had a female prime minister. A former newscaster and fluent in Arabic, Yuriko Koike, who did a stint as defense minister, won the governorship after the previous officeholder was felled in a scandal. The campaign itself was marked with mudslinging and naked misogyny. One of the challenges facing Koike is righting the disorganized 2020 Olympics Toyko is hosting.

Elsewhere in women leaders of Asia, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wei apologized for mistreatment of aborigines on the island.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government have tightened their grip on the country’s military following the unsuccessful coup last month.

As investigators grapple with the notion of Russian meddling in a US election, The Times considers Trump adivsor Paul Manafort’s ties to Ukraine and its deposed, Kremlin-linked president.

Pope Francis made a visit to Auschwitz, located near the Polish town of Oswiecim, to quietly honor the victims of the Holocaust and the Third Reich’s reign in Poland. In a visitor’s book, he asked God to forgive humanity’s cruelty.

Pope Francis walks through Auschwitz's notorious gate with the sign "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work sets you free) during his visit to the former Nazi death camp, Poland, July 29, 2016. REUTERS/Filippo Monteforte/Pool #pope #auschwitz #reutersphotos #picoftheday

A photo posted by Reuters (@reuters) on Jul 29, 2016 at 6:09am PDT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing increasingly scrutiny. A Tel Aviv ad firm connected to the PM has been raided by police. YNet, the online alter-ego of an Israeli paper, reports that the Attorney General, the independent chief legal advisor in Israel, has promised to not let up on Bibi despite working for him at one time. The New York Times considers how Netanyahu has survived and whether he will this time.

Amid the party’s broader crisis, Economic advisors to UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have abandoned him in favor of his leadership challenger Owen Smith.

The Feds:

The presidential contest remains fixated on Republican nominee Donald Trump, the real estate tycoon and provocateur, and his fusillade of attacks on the Khan family. Last week during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents to a solider that was killed while on duty in Iraq, appeared and condemned Trump’s Islamaphobic campaign. Trump replied with a series of attacks, including claiming Ghazala did not speak because of her religion—she spoke during an interview Friday and wrote an Op-Ed in The Washington Post.

However, Trump’s utter illiteracy on foreign policy cannot be ignored either. Speaking to ABC News, Trump offered a completely disjointed understanding of the state of world affairs.

Trump’s assault on the Khan has prompted a backlash, including from Republicans. However, many, especially those running for reelection have not retracted their support for Trump. But some longtime Republican operatives are.

Jeb Bush has pointed not endorsed Trump, however.

Last week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination to thunderous applause. Though there were some outspoken Bernie Sanders holdouts earlier on, the convention came off quite well with modest bump in post-convention polling.

The day before, President Obama spoke, in what this blog considered was a valedictory address to Obamaworld (and the country) as much as an exhortation to support Clinton.

Alongside her husband, Bill Clinton, her running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, and his wife, she campaigned across Pennsylvania and Ohio, hoping to spread an economic message and chip away at male voters’ preference for Trump. However, the row over the Khans has dominated the Democratic ticket’s campaign bus tour as well.

The Times looked at Kaine’s efforts to reach out to blacks  as mayor in Richmond, Virginia. The Post considers what it meant to be a white mayor in a city with a divided racial past. The Boston Globe reviewed Kaine’s Harvard years.

The Senate campaign of Orlando-area congressman Alan Grayson is falling apart at breakneck speed. However, he’s still putting his all into Grayson, that is, his wife.

Missouri Republicans will select their nominee to take on Democratic contender Chris Koster, the current Attorney General.

The State of Things:

A mad dash at the end of the 2015-2016 legislative session brought forth compromise bills on ride-sharing, economic development, energy and municipal reform. Politico Massachusetts has a roundup including another round of veto overrides on the budget. The Republican notes that members had mere hours (or minutes) to read the compromise bills. A bill to reign in employer non-compete clauses failed.

Listen to NEPR’s Henry Epp and State House News Service’s Matt Murphy chat about the last-minutes votes.

The ride-sharing bill imposes a slight charge on services like Uber and Lyft and is a little less friendly to the companies than the Senate had suggested. However, the bill requires background checks set by the state and lets the services continue to operate Logan Airport and the Boston Convention center unless their respective operators say otherwise.

Read our report which takes a granular look at how the law alters a precept of municipal finance in Massachusetts.

The energy bill left a lot of Senate Dems disappointed, but does make strides toward wind and hydroelectricity. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said he expects the issue to come up again next session. That wasn’t the only concern Rosenberg had.

Mayor Alex Morse comes out in support of marijuana legalization ballot question.

The East Longmeadow Council selects Denise Menard as its town manager. Menard formerly served as a selectwoman in East Windsor.

The Fourth Estatements:

CNN’s Brian Stelter is getting accolades from media critics for pressing a Trump surrogate over the weekend amid the feud between Trump and the Khan family and on the campaign’s complaints about…

…the presidential debate schedule. The Presidential Commission on debates stands behind the dates it set, despite Trump taking issue with their scheduling during football games.

Western Mass News’s Cherise Leclerc, who came to the station from the WSHM side of the merger with WGGB, is leaving for a reporting gig in New Hampshire.

Haaretz, in an editorial, takes an Israeli minister for task after she questioned the point of a public broadcaster not controlled by the government.

City Slickers:

Opacity and accusations cover the apparent salvation of the Dunbar Community Center. Mt. Zion Baptist Church has allegedly agreed to buy out the Dunbar’s mortgage via the negotiation of Hampden Sheriff candidate Michael Albano. But everything appears up the air, leaving the impression that politics as much as a serious offer is in play here.

The city condemns more apartments on lower Belmont Avenue.

Twitter Chatter:

The furor over Trump’s attacks on the Khans is sucking up a lot of oxygen following the conventions that should go to issues. However, the temperament of one of the candidates is an issue, one that many GOP leaders have been slow to recognize as disqualifying. Even John McCain’s takedown of Trump omitted an abandonment of the alleged billionaire. It goes even further for some Republican. While condemning insulting the parents of a slain war hero, GOP leaders are not even invoking the name of the person responsible. Today we award the tweet prize Justin Miller, a senior editor at the Daily Beast. Juxtaposing Republican complaints about Obama’s taboo on saying “radical Islamic terrorism,” Miller notes how the GOP now can’t say a word central to this Khan uproar: the name of their party’s nominee for president.