Former President Barack Obama is at an impasse.

After eight years in office, Obama was ready for a break, and still doesn't seem inclined to get back in the ring to promote the candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden. But he still knows he needs to be an "enthusiastic supporter" of the Biden campaign, leaving him stuck trying to balance campaigning for the Democrat without furthering a "proxy war" between himself and President Trump, The New York Times reports.

Obama largely retreated from the spotlight after Trump's unexpected 2016 win, and wasn't eager to get too involved this time around. But Biden's presumptive nomination has given Obama a "semi-starring role in a production he has not written or directed," especially as Biden proves "covetous of [Obama's] support and fiercely determined to win on his own," the Times writes. Obama has reportedly been hesitant to headline more Biden fundraisers for this reason, and when some people close to Obama suggested it's just his attempt to avoid "overshadowing" Biden, Biden aides told the Times, "by all means, overshadow us."

Still, Obama "takes pride" in the fact that he has millions more Twitter followers than Trump even though he seldom uses his account, the Times reports. And while aides tell the Times that Obama isn't trying to make himself into a "proxy" for Biden, he has been closely following recent polls and finds himself "tickled by the lopsided metrics of their competition of late," the Times continues. Read more about what Obama is up to at The New York Times. Kathryn Krawczyk

President Trump's taxes are safe from Congress for now, but not forever.

In a 7-2 decision in Trump v. Mazars issued Thursday, the Supreme Court didn't unilaterally say the House's subpoenas for President Trump's financial records were invalid. But it decided lower courts didn't look closely enough at the subpoenas and the separation of powers issues they entailed, sending the case back to those courts. That means a final decision on whether Congress can see those records will likely be delayed until after the November election.

Trump's appointees and Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's liberal wing for the decision regarding the House subpoenas. The same group ruled in favor of the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance in Vance v. Trump, allowing the prosecutor to access Trump's financial records for a grand jury case against him. Trump's legal team requested "temporary presidential immunity" from the records request while Trump is in office. Kathryn Krawczyk

President Trump can't block a subpoena for his financial records from a New York prosecutor, the Supreme Court has ruled.

In a 7-2 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. can see financial records from Trump's accounting firm, The Washington Post reports. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, who Trump nominated to the Supreme Court, sided with the majority, while Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, per CBS News.

"The president is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers nor entitled to a heightened standard of need," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

Prosecutors in New York had subpoenaed eight years of the president's personal and business tax records as part of an investigation into hush money payments made to two women who allege they had affairs with Trump. Trump's legal team requested "temporary presidential immunity" while Trump is in office.

Vance in a statement celebrated the Supreme Court's ruling, saying it's a "tremendous victory for our nation’s system of justice and its founding principle that no one — not even a president — is above the law." Brendan Morrow

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sided with the court's liberals — and delivered a powerful decision — in a case over whether Native Americans can be prosecuted by states.

The court ruled 5-4 Wednesday in favor of the Creek Nation against the state of Oklahoma, saying they and other Native Americans cannot be tried in a state court for "major crimes committed in Indian country." Gorsuch wrote the court's majority opinion, channeling the history of how the Creek Nation was forced along the Trail of Tears to their current tribal lands and declaring that land was set to be "secure forever." Kathryn Krawczyk

Italy has hit an incredible milestone in its fight against COVID-19.

As of Wednesday, Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, Italy has no more COVID-19 cases in its ICU ward, Italy's wire service ANSA reports. It's the first time the hospital can say that since it admitted its first coronavirus case on Feb. 23, 137 days ago.

Bergamo is at the center of Italy's Lombardy region, which was one of the earliest and hardest hit areas in the coronavirus pandemic. Italy at one point had the most COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, and Lombardy led that count, ABC News notes. Nearly 35,000 people have died in Italy due to COVID-19, giving it the fourth highest death toll of any country.

Meanwhile the U.S. has taken over as the coronavirus capital of the world, and shows no sign of slowing down. Where Italy announced 193 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the U.S. reported a record 62,751 — and proportional differences between the two countries' populations don't explain away that yawning gap. Kathryn Krawczyk

Another 1.31 million Americans filed initial unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

This number of new claims was less than economists expected, as experts were projecting there would be about 1.39 million claims, CNBC reports. Last week, the number of new jobless claims was a bit more than economists expected, topping 1.4 million. This news on Thursday somewhat lessened "concerns of a renewed downturn in the labor market," Bloomberg writes.

Additionally, continuing unemployment claims on Thursday fell "sharply," CNBC reports, declining by 698,000 to 18.06 million. Still, CNBC notes that this is the 15th week in a row that new initial unemployment claims have topped one million; before the coronavirus pandemic, the record for most claims filed in a week was 695,000.

These new numbers come after last week, the Labor Department released a better-than-expected jobs report for June, which showed 4.8 million jobs were added and the unemployment rate declined to 11.1 percent. Experts were quick to note, though, that this unemployment survey was taken in June prior to COVID-19 cases surging in numerous states. Brendan Morrow

The total number of U.S. coronavirus cases reached 3 million on Wednesday as officials confirmed a record 60,000-plus new cases over the previous 24 hours, and the national death toll rose above 132,000. States in the South and West continued to report spiking new infections. California and Texas both reported more than 10,000 new cases on Wednesday. U.S. deaths, which had been trending downward, rose by more than 900 for the second straight day, the highest level since early June, Reuters reports. Hospitalizations also have increased in the states where infections have jumped, including Florida, where 56 intensive care units this week reached capacity, and Arizona, where ICUs are rapidly filling up, too. Infections have risen in 42 of the 50 states over the past two weeks, according to Reuters. Harold Maass