Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. The 60-year-old “exudes Midwestern dad energy” and is considered a safe choice who will upset few Democrats, says The New York Times. But the Trump campaign was quick to attack his left-wing record, calling him a “dangerously liberal extremist”. Thousands of post-menopausal women will benefit from a bone-strengthening drug that has been approved for use in the NHS. Abaloparatide is administered via a daily injection and stimulates the cells which produce new bone, protecting against osteoporosis. The Royal Mint has begun extracting gold from electronic waste at a new industrial plant in Wales. The precious metal is being removed from the circuit boards of old phones, laptops and other devices, then turned into jewellery.

Why Harris picked “folksy” Tim Walz

“Weird things can happen in politics,” says Karen Tumulty in The Washington Post, such as how Tim Walz “popped on to the radar” as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris. In a TV interview two weeks ago, the Minnesota governor described Donald Trump and JD Vance as “just weird”. It wasn’t nasty or alarmist – “more of an eye-roll than a frontal assault” – and it caught on. Calling the Republican ticket “weird” quickly became a core attack line for Democrats, and the “folksy” Walz shot up the vice-presidential pecking order. The 60-year-old has plenty of other electoral attributes too. He’s a gun-owning National Guard veteran, and a “beloved” former high school teacher and American football coach. Many voters will see that as an “appealing, relatable background”.

Perhaps, says The Wall Street Journal, but Harris has done exactly what Trump did: choose a running mate who reinforces the base rather than appealing to swing voters. As governor, Walz has moved Minnesota “sharply to the left”: whacking up income taxes, passing one of the nation’s most permissive abortion statutes, declaring the state a “trans refuge”, and so on. He was heavily criticised for his seemingly lackadaisical response to the 2020 riots, which kicked off on his turf. It’s also telling that Harris chose Walz over the popular Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, seemingly because she didn’t want to upset people on the left who dislike Shapiro for being too pro-Israel. For many people, her choice will confirm their fears that she would run the White House as a left-wing progressive. “Voters who don’t like Mr Trump might decide he’s still better than signing up for that.”

🤔🫡 The announcement of a US vice presidential nominee always reminds me of Dick Cheney, says Rory Stewart on The Rest is Politics. Cheney was appointed by George W Bush in 2000 to lead the search for his running mate. After careful consideration, he told Bush there was only one man for the job: Cheney himself.

Here’s a tip for your next visit to McDonald’s, says Mental Floss: always get a receipt. Outlets know they are frequently checked by so-called “secret shoppers”, who are paid to visit restaurants incognito and report back on their experience. And unlike most diners, secret shoppers always get a receipt – so when people ask for them, staff are more likely to make sure the food is especially fresh and high-quality.

British drivers are turning into “vigilante traffic cops”, says the Daily Mail. New data shows that motorists sent police a record 24,000 dashcam videos in the first six months of this year, up 40% on the same period in 2023 – and those figures don’t include some larger forces, such as the Met. Dashcam company Nextbase say more than 70% of the clips resulted in police action, with half of those cases ending up in court.

When did fetish corsets become workwear?

How often do you wear your fetish corset to the office, asks Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph. Personally, I tend to find that the crushing of my vital organs for eight hours rather affects the quality of my output. And I sometimes think the fishnet tights, high heels and gothic choker I accessorise it with could “distract from what I’m saying in editorial meetings”. Lucky for her, 58-year-old Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale – a trans civil servant who co-chairs the Department of Work and Pensions LGBT+ network – has no such qualms. Her only challenge is with those who object to the “fetish gear” and “gothic evening wear” she likes to wear to work.

I hope I speak for His Majesty’s Government when I say: “No. Just no.” No to anything that wouldn’t look out of place at Ann Summers as outerwear at the office. “I don’t care who you are, how you identify or what your persuasions or proclivities are.” As one government source was quoted as saying: “If you had a female member of staff coming into work every day like that, you would have to have a conversation.” I think in this case it’s not so much the fact that the word “trans” silences all discussion, but that the “cult of identity” has done away with all boundaries at work and “made anything possible”. I wonder if Tweedale is enjoying some kind of prank with her outfits, thinking: “Let’s see how far Emperor’s New Clothes-style cowardice lets me go? Then maybe I’ll up the ante and stroll into work wearing a completely see-through fishnet bodysuit… see if anyone dares say anything then?”

Unzoomed is an online game in which players must identify a city from above. With each incorrect guess, you are told how far away you were, and the map zooms out to reveal a little more of the city. Try for yourself here.

Gen Zs have found a new way to have fun, says The Wall Street Journal: putting on a banging PowerPoint slideshow. Attendees at so-called “presentation parties” create decks based on a certain theme, such as what type of cookie their fellow party-goers resemble, or things from the Twilight saga that give them the ick, or “everyone as Shrek characters”. The fad took off during the pandemic as a way for people to break the ice over Zoom but has now migrated to an “in-person activity” for work colleagues after hours, hen dos and even dinner parties.

It’s Eluned Morgan, who has been confirmed as the first female first minister of Wales after a vote in the Welsh parliament. The new leader of Welsh Labour stepped up after her predecessor, Vaughan Gething, was forced to resign for taking epic bungs from a dodgy businessman convicted of environmental crimes, and lobbying on his behalf. Morgan, who was given a peerage in 2010, promised to add “a vibrant splash of colour” to the Senedd, adding: “the grey suits are out”.

Unzoomed answer: Bristol