- Home

- World

- US

- Business

- Technology

Home

- Biden Faces Democratic Doubts as Trump Basks in G.O.P. Embrace

- Biden Called ‘More Receptive’ to Hearing Pleas to Step Aside

- MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Urges Biden’s Advisers to Help Him Exit Race

- Biden Tests Positive for the Coronavirus, and Senators Berate Secret Service Chief

- Watch Rare Siamese Crocodiles Hatching

- Marine Tondelier, the ‘Other Marine’ of French Politics, Hits Back

- Are China’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Plateauing?

- Zelensky Among European Leaders Meeting in Churchill’s Birthplace

- Ukraine Loses Hard-Won Position Near Dnipro River in the South

- Keanu Reeves Wrote a Book. A Really Weird One.

- ‘J.D. Vance Brought What Team Trump Needed’: Best and Worst Moments From Night 3

- When Will Democrats Stand Up to Biden?

- The Myth of Migrant Crime

- Late Night Taunts Former Critics Who Changed Their Minds About Trump

- Why China Is So Interested in Kazakhstan

- ‘My Property, My Trees’: New Tree-Cutting Law Divides N.Y. Town

- A Daily Pill to Prevent S.T.I.s? It May Work, Scientists Say.

- If Maduro Wins, Venezuelans Vow to Leave

2024 at a Crossroads

The president’s Covid diagnosis, coming at a galvanizing moment for his opponent, resulted in starkly different images of the two campaigns at a pivotal moment in the race.

Less than a week after his father survived an assassination attempt — and standing in front of an image taken just afterward — Donald Trump Jr. spoke on Night 3 of the Republican National Convention.

By Shane Goldmacher and Lisa Lerer  18 Jul, 2024

The 2024 presidential race hurtled toward a consequential crossroads on Thursday, as top Democrats ratcheted up pressure to deny President Biden his party’s nomination while bullish Republicans prepared for a balloon drop to formally select a bandaged Donald J. Trump as their standard-bearer.

An extraordinary three weeks in American politics took another surprise turn, after the White House announced on Wednesday that Mr. Biden had contracted Covid, forcing the president into physical isolation just as his presidential candidacy hung in the balance.

A race that not long ago seemed a staid rematch came to a dramatic pivot point after a head-spinning series of events: a disastrous debate late last month that made longstanding questions about Mr. Biden’s age unavoidable, and then a shocking attempted assassination of Mr. Trump less than 48 hours before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

For a fleeting few hours on Wednesday, the two presidents presented starkly dueling images that fed into the very story line Republicans were unspooling at their convention — that Mr. Trump was strong and Mr. Biden was weak. One was flying to his beach house on Air Force One to enter seclusion as his party fractured around him; the other was welcomed as a wounded hero by thousands of cheering supporters, some of whom bandaged their ears in a show of solidarity.

“Teddy Roosevelt’s man in the arena has a name, and it’s Donald J. Trump,” Donald Trump Jr. told the delegates, invoking the attempted assassination of Mr. Roosevelt in Milwaukee in 1912 while he was campaigning to return to the White House. “There is tough. Then there is Trump tough.”

Two presidents have not run against each other since that race in 1912. And never have any two seemed to switch roles so completely. The convicted felon is now embraced — even beloved — by a party that spent years bitterly divided over his leadership. And the incumbent with a legislative record more accomplished than many of his White House predecessors is at risk of being cast out by his supporters.

President Biden stepped off Air Force One on Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews in Delaware after he canceled campaign events in Las Vegas because he had tested positive for Covid.

Former President Donald Trump greeted supporters on Day 3 of the Republican National Convention.

For months, Democrats have argued that when voters were faced with the contrast between what they saw as Mr. Biden’s steady leadership and Mr. Trump’s chaotic administration, the country would choose continuity over change.

But with Republicans thoroughly rallying behind Mr. Trump, many Democrats now fear the opposite has happened, and are circulating increasingly bleak private polls showing Mr. Biden not just losing the Electoral College but also putting at risk states like New Jersey and Colorado that the party has not lost for 20 years.

The Trump campaign announced Wednesday’s theme as “Make America Strong Again” long before Mr. Trump survived a would-be assassin’s bullet. The contrasting image with Mr. Biden, fresh from a Covid diagnosis and gingerly making his way up, and later down, the short Air Force One stairway, supercharged that narrative in the convention hall — and, Republicans hope, for millions of viewers watching at home.

For Mr. Trump, the juxtaposition could not have been more politically advantageous. Here was a political figure who had struck directly at long-held democratic institutions by stoking a violent siege on the Capitol, refused to accept the results of the 2020 election and pushed forward with his presidential bid even as he faced criminal charges in four jurisdictions.

Over the course of the evening on Wednesday, Mr. Trump was lionized — supporters onstage repeatedly called him a “lion” — by his relatives, allies and military families as a heroic survivor willing to take a bullet for his country.

“My father didn’t just show his character, he showed America’s character,” the younger Mr. Trump told delegates. “When he stood up with blood on his face and the flag at his back, the world saw a spirit that could never be broken and has the true spirit of America.”

Mr. Trump’s party continues to embrace his convicted felon status. Republicans were selling shirts emblazoned with his mug shot on the convention concourse while a series of past and present advisers — including some who served time for criminal activity — circled the hallways.

Peter Navarro, Mr. Trump’s former trade adviser, received thunderous applause hours after leaving a federal prison where he had served a sentence for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Mr. Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who went to prison for financial crimes and was pardoned by Mr. Trump, mingled on the floor with delegates.

Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio accepted his vice-presidential nomination on Wednesday night.

Delegates applied bandages over their ears in support of Mr. Trump.

But the focus of the evening was J.D. Vance, the young Ohio senator, who studded his acceptance speech with a series of attacks on Mr. Biden’s age.

“Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington for longer than I’ve been alive,” Mr. Vance said. “For half a century, he’s been the champion of every major policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”

Trump allies believe that Mr. Vance, who gained fame with his best-selling memoir of growing up poor in Appalachia, could help Mr. Trump win in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the trifecta of battleground states that both sides believe could determine the outcome of the election.

After his home-state delegation from Ohio cheered at one point, Mr. Vance jokingly chided, “We’ve got to chill with the Ohio love. We’ve got to win Michigan, too, here!”

It all added up to a reminder that a Republican convention that Democrats had once dreamed would provide them with hours of video clips showing radical Trumpism has instead served mostly to unify their opposition.

On Tuesday, as a parade of Republicans whom Mr. Trump had defeated in the 2016 and 2020 Republican primaries stepped onstage one by one — Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis — the rapid response account of the Biden campaign was stuck recirculating old clips of them because the new material all toed the pro-Trump party line.

Mr. Biden was flying back from a trip to Nevada when Donald Trump Jr. was speaking, after cutting short a campaign swing in Nevada and taking his first dose of the antiviral drug Paxlovid.

The Biden campaign, which since the debate has been struggling with major donors — including some who have frozen a combined $90 million to his super PAC — made what appeared to be an awkward attempt to capitalize financially on the president’s illness.

President Biden greeted supporters before a campaign event in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Support for Mr. Biden has dwindled since his poor debate performance last month.

“I’m sick,” Mr. Biden wrote on X. Two minutes later, in a thread, he posted a second message that finished the sentence, saying that he was actually sick of Elon Musk and “his rich buddies trying to buy this race.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Representative Adam Schiff, a prominent congressman closely allied with the former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and who is likely to be the next senator from the Democratic stronghold of California, appeared to shift the political winds when he publicly announced what he had said privately for days: Mr. Biden should be replaced.

A cascade of leaks about private meetings followed: Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the two top Democrats in Congress, had each told Mr. Biden privately over the past week that their members were deeply concerned about his chances in November along with the fates of House and Senate candidates should he remain at the top of the ticket. Jeffrey Katzenberg, a co-chairman of the Biden campaign, told the president on Wednesday that donors had stopped giving to his campaign.

Mr. Biden has steadfastly refused entreaties to exit the race, but after congressional leaders privately warned of potential losses this fall, he sounded increasingly receptive to arguments about why he should step aside.

The president landed in Delaware shortly after the Republicans finished their program. As he exited the plane, he paused, waved and offered only four words about the state of things.

“I am doing well,” Mr. Biden said.

Biden Called ‘More Receptive’ to Hearing Pleas to Step Aside

The president has given no indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race but is said to be more willing to listen to the case for bowing out.

President Biden continues to face discontent from within his party over his decision to proceed with his campaign.

By Carl Hulse, Michael S. Schmidt, Reid J. Epstein, Peter Baker and Luke Broadwater  17 Jul, 2024

President Biden has become more receptive in the last several days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his re-election bid, Democrats briefed on his conversations said on Wednesday, after his party’s two top leaders in Congress privately told him they were deeply concerned about his prospects.

Mr. Biden has not given any indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race, the Democrats said, but has been willing to listen to rundowns of new and worrying polling data and has asked questions about how Vice President Kamala Harris could win.

The accounts suggest that Mr. Biden, privately at least, is striking a more open-minded posture than he did last week when he lashed out at a number of House Democrats who pressed him to step aside.

One person close to the president said that it would be wrong to call him receptive to the idea of dropping out but that he “is willing to listen.” But this person emphasized there was no sign that Mr. Biden was changing course at this point.

The descriptions emerged after Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the two top Democrats in Congress, each told Mr. Biden privately over the past week that their members were deeply concerned about his chances in November and the fates of House and Senate candidates should he remain at the top of the ticket, according to two people briefed on the conversations.

The White House suggested that Mr. Biden was unmoved by their discussions.

“The president told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families,” said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman.

The separate exchanges between Mr. Biden and the congressional leaders, described on the condition of anonymity because they were confidential discussions on an exceedingly sensitive topic, came to light as Democrats’ rebellion against Mr. Biden intensified on Wednesday.

Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries, both of New York, privately prevailed upon party officials to delay the start of Mr. Biden’s nomination by a week, prolonging the debate over the viability of his candidacy.

Representative Adam B. Schiff of California became the highest-profile Democratic lawmaker to call on Mr. Biden to end his run. And Jeffrey Katzenberg, a co-chairman of the Biden campaign, told the president that donors had stopped giving to his campaign, according to a person with knowledge of the exchange. Mr. Katzenberg’s message was reported earlier by Semafor.

With his campaign mired in crisis, Mr. Biden tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday evening. That sidelined the president just as his campaign was hoping to step up his public appearances in a bid to show he is up to remaining in the race.

After a brief pause in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump, conversations among Democrats on Capitol Hill and elsewhere about replacing Mr. Biden at the top of the ticket have resumed with vigor. The details of Mr. Schumer’s private talk with Mr. Biden last week at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., reported earlier by ABC News, were the latest indication that top Democrats are seeking to make a compelling case to the president, who has so far refused to heed calls that he must step aside not only for his own good, but for that of his party as well.

In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Schumer, the majority leader, did not deny ABC’s report but called it “idle speculation,” adding: “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”

Mr. Jeffries, the minority leader, told House Democrats last week that in a visit to the White House on Thursday night, he had “directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward” among them to Mr. Biden.

Both Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries made clear during their conversations with Mr. Biden that they wanted to convey their assessments to him privately but that they would not necessarily stay that way for long, according to a Democrat close to congressional leadership.

Both leaders were frustrated that Mr. Biden did not appear to be listening to their dire warnings, the Democrat added. The subsequent sense among some Democrats that Mr. Biden had become more willing to listen was first reported on Wednesday by CNN.

Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month, his uneven public appearances and his struggles in the polls have fueled deep worries among Democrats. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats want him to quit the race, according to a survey released on Wednesday by The Associated Press and NORC, an independent research institution at the University of Chicago.

Even more concerning to Democrats is data they have received in recent days that reveals the extent of the political damage that could come to the party’s incumbents from remaining supportive of Mr. Biden, with one poll suggesting that voters are deeply distrustful of elected officials who vouch for the president’s mental capacity and endorse him.

One Biden adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions, said that the decision came down to hard facts and that there were three that mattered: polling, cash and which states are in play. And, as this adviser put it, none of those are trending in the right direction for Mr. Biden.

It was against that backdrop that Mr. Schumer weighed in this week to appeal to party leaders to hold off on beginning a swift virtual roll call they had considered starting as soon as next week to cement Mr. Biden as the nominee, according to a person familiar with his thinking who insisted on anonymity to describe it. The Senate leader spoke with Mr. Jeffries, and both agreed to push the party to put off the start of that process, according to a second person familiar with their involvement, who also declined to be named discussing it.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the co-chairman of the party’s rules committee, which determines when and how the nomination will proceed, called Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Biden campaign chief, on Tuesday afternoon to inform her that the roll call should be delayed, according to a person made aware of the call who described it on the condition of anonymity.

Bowing to the pressure, top Democratic National Committee officials announced on Wednesday that the virtual roll call would take place during the first week of August instead.

Mr. Schiff, a candidate for Senate in the state and a top ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, called on Mr. Biden to drop out of the race.

“Our nation is at a crossroads,” he told The Los Angeles Times. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November.”

Mr. Biden insisted again, in an interview with BET News that aired on Wednesday, that he had no intention of leaving the race and that he would consider doing so only if a doctor informed him he had a medical condition that made it necessary.

Representative Jared Huffman of California, who in recent days had organized fellow Democrats to pressure the D.N.C. to delay nominating Mr. Biden, called the party’s new, slower timeline “a positive step,” but said it was not likely to alleviate concerns about Mr. Biden’s viability.

“It’s a heck of a lot better than a jammed process that will tear us apart next week,” said Mr. Huffman, who had spearheaded a letter that he said dozens of congressional Democrats were ready to sign calling for a delay.

Mr. Huffman scrapped his plans to send the letter after the party announced the delay, but he suggested that Mr. Biden was delusional about his political standing.

“Many of us are perplexed that he continues to say he’s either tied or winning in the polls,” Mr. Huffman said. “We don’t understand what factual universe that is coming from.”

Democratic leaders have come to their conversations with Mr. Biden armed with grim new data. According to a poll from Blue Rose Research, a firm that formed from but is no longer affiliated with Future Forward, the super PAC supporting Mr. Biden, just 18 percent of voters and only 36 percent of people who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 believe he is mentally fit and up to the job of being president.

Mr. Schumer, according to the Democrat close to him, was also given data from a leading Democratic super PAC showing Mr. Biden’s deficit growing to 5 percentage points or more in the must-win states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and his deficit in three other key states — Nevada, Georgia and Arizona — outside the margin of sampling error.

So far, just 20 members of the House and one senator have publicly called on the president to withdraw from the race. But privately, many more have expressed deep concerns and said they believe he is on track to lose the White House and drag down their chances of controlling Congress.

Those concerns bubbled up during a tense exchange between Mr. Biden and members of the centrist New Democrat Coalition on a video call on Saturday, one of several the president conducted with various Democratic groups on Capitol Hill. The president grew noticeably agitated with House Democrats who questioned his fitness to run and chances of winning.

During the meeting, Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, told the president that voters in his district were concerned about national security should Mr. Biden serve again, and “want a commander in chief who can project strength, vigor and inspire confidence at home and abroad,” according to a partial transcript obtained by The New York Times. Fair or not, despite his successes and the dangers posed by Mr. Trump, Mr. Crow told the president, “many voters are losing confidence you can do this in a second term.”

That prompted Mr. Biden to lash out at Mr. Crow, a former Army Ranger, calling him “dead wrong,” before rattling off his foreign policy accomplishments.

“Name me a foreign leader who thinks I’m not the most effective leader in the world on foreign policy,” Mr. Biden said, adding, “Tell me who the hell that is.”

Mr. Biden’s exchange with Mr. Crow was reported earlier by Puck News.

Annie Karni contributed reporting from Milwaukee.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Urges Biden’s Advisers to ‘Do the Right Thing’

The host, who had been blunt but sympathetic toward Mr. Biden after the president’s debate performance, all but called on aides to help him exit the race.

MSBC host Joe Scarborough called on President Biden’s aides to help him end his candidacy.

By Maggie Haberman  18 Jul, 2024

Joe Scarborough, the former congressman, ally of President Biden and influential host of the MSNBC show “Morning Joe,” on Thursday morning all but called on Mr. Biden’s aides to help him exit the race.

Mr. Scarborough has been blunt that the president’s debate performance against former President Donald J. Trump on June 27 was calamitous but has also interviewed Mr. Biden since and was sympathetic to him in the days following the debate. On Thursday, the host cited polling for the president that has taken a massive slide and fund-raising that has disappeared.

He did not lay the blame at Mr. Biden’s feet, but instead at what he described as a “bubble” of people around the president who were shielding him.

The host’s remarks came after a day of cascading events, including reports that Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, and Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, had both spoken to Mr. Biden and warned that his re-election chances were becoming dire, and that Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, had bluntly told the president that Democratic candidates were likely to lose down-ballot races. On the same day, California Senate candidate and Pelosi ally Adam Schiff publicly called on Mr. Biden to leave the race.

On “Morning Joe” Thursday, Mr. Scarborough spoke into the camera about the message Mr. Biden’s team was receiving, “when you’re told by members of Congress that they’re losing, they’re going to lose the House and the Senate if he stays on the ticket. He added that people were telling the Biden team that their swing-state poll numbers are in peril and that money from campaign donors has dried up.

“It’s really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and help the president, and help the man they love, and do the right thing,” Mr. Scarborough said. “This is not going to end well if it continues to drag out. Look at the events of yesterday, the events of the last three weeks.”

He added: “The anger that I hear is not at Joe Biden. The anger I hear are the people who are keeping him in a bubble.” Some of those people, he said, may have their own interests in keeping him in the race.

“That’s not just the anger from inside Congress,” the host said. “That is anger from inside the political, his own political camp, and it is widespread.”

There have been many complaints from Democrats that Mr. Biden’s circle has shrunk, and that they are unsure about the quality of information he is being given. Mr. Scarborough appeared to echo that point, suggesting that the people around the president are failing him.

Mr. Scarborough said bluntly: “Joe Biden deserves better. He deserves better than he is getting from those closest to him.”

Biden Tests Positive for the Coronavirus, and Senators Berate Secret Service Chief

Plus, a plunge in the Seine ahead of the Olympics.

Hosted by Michael Simon JohnsonFeaturing Adam SatarianoProduced by Ian Stewart and Michael Simon JohnsonEdited by Jessica Metzger

On Today’s Episode:

- Biden Called ‘More Receptive’ to Hearing Pleas to Step Aside, by Carl Hulse, Michael S. Schmidt, Reid J. Epstein, Peter Baker and Luke Broadwater

- Biden Tests Positive for Covid, by Michael D. Shear

- J.D. Vance Plants His Appalachian Roots in the 2024 Race, by Michael C. Bender

- At R.N.C., Senators Berate Secret Service Director Over Assassination Attempt, by Jonathan Swan

- Gunman’s Phone Had Details About Both Trump and Biden, F.B.I. Officials Say, by Glenn Thrush, Jack Healy and Luke Broadwater

- A Blind Spot and a Lost Trail: How the Gunman Got So Close to Trump, by David A. Fahrenthold, Glenn Thrush, Campbell Robertson, Adam Goldman and Aric Toler

- An Algorithm Told Police She Was Safe. Then Her Husband Killed Her, by Adam Satariano and Roser Toll Pifarré

- Mayor of Paris Takes an Olympian Plunge in a Beautified Seine, by Roger Cohen

President Biden said he felt “good” after having tested positive for the coronavirus. A White House spokeswoman said he planned to isolate and continue carrying out his duties.

Tune in, and tell us what you think at theheadlines@nytimes.com. For corrections, email nytnews@nytimes.com.

For more audio journalism and storytelling, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

For These Nearly Extinct Crocodiles, Life Found a Way

The largest population of the endangered Siamese crocodiles this century hatched in Cambodia, a big moment for the conservation of a wild species once on the brink of extinction.

[Embedded video available]

By Austyn Gaffney  17 Jul, 2024

Tiny snouts and long tails. Checkerboards of black and brown scales. Eggs the size of oranges cracking alongside hatchlings mewling and chirping like a choir of baby birds.

The birth of 60 Siamese crocodiles in the wild last month was all very Jurassic Park.

The hatchlings were the largest population born this century, representing two decades of conservation efforts. While the babies slipped and waddled through their trio of nests, their marble-like eyes blinked upon a bright new world for a species once nearly as extinct as the dinosaurs.

“There’s a biodiversity crisis around the world, but in the tropics of Southeast Asia it’s particularly acute,” said Pablo Sinovas, the country director for the Cambodia program of Fauna and Flora, the conservation group monitoring the comeback. “The fact that we’ve been able to help these crocodiles recover and see this landmark breeding event, it’s very significant.”

A hatching Siamese crocodile.

Siamese crocodiles were first listed as virtually extinct in the wild in 1992. While captive populations lived in zoos and crocodile farms, decades of poaching of the animals for their soft, coppery hides that were used in the fashion industry, along with habitat degradation, had razed the wild population.

In 2000, a very small population was recorded in the remote Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia. The Indigenous population of Chorng people had protected the crocodiles, which they considered sacred, for generations. The species is smaller and less aggressive than its saltwater crocodile relative, and there is no recorded evidence of attacks by the animals on humans, including people who wash clothes and children who swim in the rivers the crocodiles call home.

For the last two decades, Fauna and Flora has worked with government agencies and local people to formalize species protection through a program that provides a modest stipend, along with work clothes, GPS devices and transportation like kayaks and motorcycles.

“The community members already protecting the sites is key to why this program works,” Mr. Sinovas said. “Instead of a group coming from the outside, we’re supporting what’s already there.” At last count, a very rough estimate of 250 adult crocodiles persisted in Cambodia, according to Fauna and Flora, and between 500 and 1,000 existed in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Siamese crocodiles “are a charismatic, large predator, so they naturally fascinate humans, and they have cultural importance,” Mr. Sinovas said, noting that their conservation could have ripple effects.

“If we’re able to conserve Siamese crocodiles, which requires the conservation of wetlands they inhabit,” he said, “then by default we’re conserving the biodiversity that depends on those wetlands.”

But bringing a species back from the brink is slow going, and the Siamese crocodile is still considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Mr. Sinovas said he hoped the effort to save the largest population of the animals in Cambodia could be a blueprint for smaller groups that have been found in Laos and Borneo.

Another part of that blueprint is captive breeding, and this spring, Fauna and Flora celebrated a different milestone: the largest ever release of captive-bred Siamese crocodiles, with 50 juveniles set loose in the Cardamom Mountains. It will take about a decade for the juveniles and the newest batch of hatchlings to reach sexual maturity. Then, scientists and local residents will have a better understanding of how likely the wild population is to survive and grow.

“They’re very resilient animals,” said Iri Gill, the manager for coldblooded animals, which includes snakes and crocodiles, at the Chester Zoo in Britain. “If you give them the right protection, they will bounce back.”

Mr. Gill’s ringtone is a recording of the chirping sound hatchlings make when they’re born, a synchronous call for their siblings to emerge alongside them and their mother to find them. That first sound, he said, shows how they gain strength in numbers.

France’s Left Has a New Star, and a Fresh Crisis

Marine Tondelier, leader of the Green Party, helped bring the left together to win France’s parliamentary elections. Now can she help keep it from falling apart?

Marine Tondelier, the Green leader, applauding the results of the second round of France’s legislative election in Paris on July 7.

By Roger Cohen  18 Jul, 2024

When Marine Tondelier, the leader of the Greens, is told that she is sometimes called “the other Marine” of French politics, she hits back firmly. “No!” she says. “Le Pen is the other Marine.”

Given how rapidly Ms. Tondelier’s star has risen in recent months, her response is not outrageous. The French left has produced a new star in this garrulous, straight-talking ecologist who seems suddenly to appear on every TV and radio show and whose meadow-green jacket has become so iconic it has its own account on X.

Ms. Tondelier, 37, who was born in Hénin-Beaumont, a depressed northern town in the constituency of the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, was the driving force behind the creation of the New Popular Front, herding disparate parties into a left-wing alliance that won a surprise victory in parliamentary elections this month.

Less than two weeks later, the profoundly intractable new National Assembly of three large political blocs — left, center and nationalist right — gathers for the first time on Thursday. As it does, one question looms over a left-wing alliance that seems more fractured by the day: What to do with its about 190 seats in the 577-seat lower house when that is far short of an absolute majority?

President Emmanuel Macron has complicated that question further by making clear he has no intention of naming a left-wing prime minister. On Tuesday, he accepted the resignation of the centrist government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, but asked it to stay on in a caretaker capacity “for a certain period,” estimated at several weeks by some departing ministers, even into September.

That said, Mr. Macron demonstrated with the way he called a snap election that his political moves are entirely unpredictable.

President Emmanuel Macron accepted the resignation of the centrist government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, but asked it to stay on for a period in a caretaker role.

The French Fifth Republic, established in 1958 with a powerful presidency conceived to curb parliamentary instability, had never previously been without a government for weeks or months on end, a situation familiar to countries like Germany, Italy and the Netherlands that have parliamentary systems.

In this sense, France has entered a new and unpredictable phase in its politics on the eve of the Paris Olympic Games, which open in eight days. Mr. Macron, who has sole power to name a prime minister, remains the “master of the clocks,” in the words of Philippe Labro, an author and political commentator. But nobody knows to what end he wants to deploy time, although his inclination seems to be to lean rightward rather than to the left.

“Our voters are screaming, ‘Do not betray us!’’’ Ms. Tondelier said in an interview last week in the modest headquarters of the Greens in the 10th District of Paris, an area once known principally for its two big train stations but which has, of late, acquired a hip reputation. “We have to be a government of combat, a government of action, of social justice,” she added. “It won’t be simple, easy, evident or comfortable, but we must make the effort.”

With her home and family in Hénin-Beaumont, she sleeps upstairs from the office in a makeshift bedroom. Her one condition for staying there — other options were too expensive — was that the shower worked. Her famous green jacket, a regular splash of color in gray political debates, hangs there.

“The natural ecosystem of the Greens is adversity,” she said with a smile, showing the small room.

Since that conversation, Ms. Tondelier’s words have been borne out as the parties of the alliance — the Greens, the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the far-left France Unbowed of Jean-Luc Mélenchon — squabble. They have deadlocked over nominations for prime minister, taken to reciprocal insults, broken their promise of unity and generally floundered.

France Unbowed, whose pugnacious Mr. Mélenchon sees himself as the figurehead of the entire French left, has accused the Socialist Party of “vetoing any candidacy from the New Popular Front with the sole aim of imposing its own.” Olivier Faure, the Socialist leader, responded that he did not see “why the word of one should be imposed on all the others.”

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the hard-left party France Unbowed, at the National Assembly last week.

All this has been too much for Ms. Tondelier, who by Wednesday was in an incandescent mood in an interview with the France 2 television network. “I am angry, disgusted and fed up,” she said. “And I feel desperate at the spectacle we are offering the French people.”

Every minute of the “ridiculous” internecine fights of the left only “won votes for the National Rally,” she said. She warned she would be unresponsive “when you come running to me looking for my green jacket in 2027 and say, ‘Help, we need a Republican front!’” — the traditional alliance of parties that has kept Ms. Le Pen and her far-right party from winning the presidency. Mr. Macron is term-limited and must leave office that year.

It is still conceivable that the New Popular Front will come together to nominate a possible prime minister. It did unite on Wednesday behind a candidate for the presidency of the National Assembly, André Chassaigne, a member of the Communist Party who has been a lawmaker for 22 years. That vote will take place on Thursday.

The left’s travails and divisions are nothing new. But for the seven million people who voted in the decisive second round of the election for the New Popular Front, the current disarray is dispiriting. Ten days ago, they danced in the streets. Their hopes were as varied as an improved minimum wage and protection for disappearing bird life in the French countryside.

“I know that the needed ecological transition can only happen with social justice in order for it to be acceptable,” Ms. Tondelier said. The Greens have suffered because, urged to buy electric cars, for example, many farmers and workers respond that they cannot afford them. “But we cannot escape the fact that for children born this year, nobody can guarantee that the planet will still be habitable when they turn 30.”

Ms. Tondelier grew up in Hénin-Beaumont, an area that never entirely recovered from the closure of its coal mines. It is still so environmentally afflicted that pregnant women are advised not to drink the tap water. Life spans are shorter there than in Paris. The many industries that replaced the mines also damaged the environment.

Ms. Tondelier arriving at a polling station to cast her vote in the first round of parliamentary elections in Hénin-Beaumont, France, on June 30.

All of this affected Ms. Tondelier. “I come from a place where a lot of people were sick, and then I started hearing about the ozone layer and then the climate and then water and then pollution. And here I am.”

The child of a doctor and a dentist, she would vacation regularly with them in Vanoise National Park in the French Alps. There, she learned to love nature. “My 5-year-old son is there now with his grandparents and just saw his first chamois mountain goat and groundhog!” she said.

Ms. Tondelier also learned of the methods of Ms. Le Pen, who grew up in the affluent western Paris suburbs. Ms. Tondelier calls her “the vulture” because of the way she pounced on the region and chose it as her political base, seeing how hardship and poverty could lead many people to embrace the nationalist, anti-immigrant policies of a National Rally party promising a glorious future. Ms. Le Pen won 58 percent of the vote in the election’s first round, enough to be elected before going to the second-round runoff.

“The vulture is an opportunistic animal, and the National Rally is an opportunist party,” Ms. Tondelier said.

As for her green jacket, with its @VesteTondelier X account created by one of Ms. Tondelier’s fans, it has been a small counterpunch to the slick social media onslaught of the National Rally, particularly its young party leader, Jordan Bardella, 28, who has 1.9 million followers on TikTok. The green jacket has 15,000 X followers, and Ms. Tondelier herself has over 130,000.

Despite Mr. Bardella’s repeated boasts about his coaching in how to debate, “he did not dare debate with me,” she noted. “He’s a coward; he has no courage. All bark and no bite.”

In France, the arduousness or risk of a job may be factored into pensions. One National Rally lawmaker, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, did debate Ms. Tondelier and lived to regret it. He attacked her relentlessly, saying that “France will suffer again” if the left takes power. She shot back: “I suffer listening to you every single second, I can confirm that. In fact, I am going to add you to my hardship experiences for the purposes of my pension.”

A sign supporting Ms. Tondelier during a celebration of the election results at Place de la Republic in Paris on July 7.

Why the Era of China’s Soaring Carbon Emissions Might Be Ending

Analysts are seeing promising signs from the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

A solar farm in China. Last year China installed more solar panels than the United States has in its entire history.

By Max Bearak  18 Jul, 2024

China, the world’s biggest source of planet-warming greenhouse gases for most of the past two decades, is seemingly on the verge of bending its emissions curve from years of steep growth into a flat plateau.

The implications for climate change could scarcely be greater. Since China’s emissions surpassed those of the United States in 2006, China’s global share has grown to almost a third — a huge number, even with population differences taken into account.

A recent spate of data from China’s government, as well as reports by energy analysts, have provided positive signs that while China’s emissions may not decrease significantly, they also may not grow. China’s president, Xi Jinping, had pledged to reach that turning point by 2030.

“The important thing to understand is that when China’s emissions stop growing, it likely follows that the world’s stop growing, too,” said Dave Jones, global insight director at Ember, an energy think tank.

The biggest factor in the shift is changes to how China produces its electricity. In short, renewable sources are replacing coal, the most polluting fossil fuel.

Last year alone, China installed more solar panels than the United States has in its entire history, and connected most of them to its electricity grid.

Almost two-thirds of big wind and solar plants under construction globally are in China, according to a report last week from Global Energy Monitor. That is more than eight times the wind and solar capacity being planned in the United States.

And in May, China generated 53 percent of its electricity from coal, its lowest share since its government began publishing energy data decades ago, while nearly all the rest of it came from non-fossil-fuel sources. “This indicated that China may have peaked” its emissions, said Belinda Schäpe, a China analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

However, some observers caution that “peak” was perhaps the wrong word to describe the current trend in China.

“We’ve been talking about whether there’s been a peak for almost a decade,” said Li Shuo, the director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “Peaking assumes persistent emissions decline after it is passed. That’s not an assumption we can or should make.”

Mr. Li said it was more likely that China’s emissions would plateau. And he cautioned that while growth in renewable energy was responsible for replacing coal in electricity generation, other factors — such as China’s recent real estate crisis and sluggish post-pandemic economy — have led to less consumption of energy overall, which might skew the data downward, but only temporarily.

“If you look at China’s emissions profile of the past two decades, one particular source was hugely significant: real estate and construction, whose supply chain made up about a third of all emissions,” he said. “That’s cooling off.”

More reliable signs have come from recent policy shifts, he said. In particular, a new ban on permits for steel factories that would use coal to fire their blast furnaces could have far-reaching effects. A huge push toward electric-vehicle production has also dampened demand for oil.

But, ultimately, China’s emissions trajectory will come down to how quickly renewables can displace coal from its electricity mix. While coal’s share has fallen, China is still investing in it as a power source.

China alone accounted for two-thirds of the world’s newly operating coal plants last year. In 2023, new coal-plant construction hit an eight-year high in China. If China were to build all the others it has proposed, it would add the equivalent of one-third of its current operating fleet. Today, China accounts for around 60 percent of the world’s coal use.

Some of China’s coal build-out is meant to provide a fallback option for when wind and solar generation dips. But China is also investing heavily in pumped-storage hydropower. Pumped hydro is a way to store energy by pumping water uphill to a reservoir during times of low demand for electricity, then releasing it later to generate extra electricity if demand surges.

Those systems could help reduce the demand for coal power during peak times.

Oil and gas are also used in Chinese industry as power sources. But Mr. Li cautioned that while both China’s domestic production of petrochemicals was growing as well as its imports of them, the deciding factor in China’s emissions trajectory will be coal’s decline.

In the coming months, China’s government is expected to unveil new commitments to reduce emissions ahead of November’s United Nations-sponsored climate summit, COP 29, in Azerbaijan.

“Diplomatic attention is fixated on the question: Has China peaked or not,” said Mr. Li. “You could imagine that if the answer is yes, so far ahead of schedule, it might give China more reason to be even more ambitious with its reduction targets.”

Russia Threat Reaches ‘Across Europe,’ U.K. Leader Tells Summit

More than 40 European leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, are meeting in England. Fears over the continent’s security loom large.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, surrounded by the leaders of Denmark, Ukraine, the European Council and Moldova, at the summit in Blenheim Palace, near Oxford, England, on Thursday.

By Stephen Castle  18 Jul, 2024

The venue is an opulent 18th-century palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. The guests include more than 40 of Europe’s leaders. And King Charles III is on hand to host a reception.

Yet despite the serene grandeur of the surroundings at Blenheim Palace, near Oxford, the continent’s top politicians are meeting in Britain on Thursday in a mood of heightened anxiety and with a growing urgency to find common cause in an unsettled world.

“We will face down aggression on this continent together because the threat from Russia reaches right across Europe,” said Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, as he opened the summit while sitting alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

Mr. Zelensky invoked his surroundings in his address to the group, saying that bravery had defined Churchill, and asking: “Will Europe be a continent that neither surrenders nor sells itself to tyrants?”

Rolling out the red carpet as host, Mr. Starmer is pushing to strengthen British relations with European governments on security, migration and trade, as the world contemplates the prospect of a return to the White House for former President Donald J. Trump.

President Emmanuel Macron of France and the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, are among those attending the meeting, which is the fourth of the European Political Community. The group is the brainchild of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who wanted countries inside and outside the European Union to work more closely together to confront collective challenges after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Mr. Starmer greeting President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine outside Blenheim Palace on Thursday.

There is no shortage of those today, with Ukraine battling to contain Russian advances and the possibility of a second term for Mr. Trump, who has threatened to undermine NATO by withdrawing protection from countries that fail to pay their way. Some European lawmakers have worried openly that a Trump administration could end support for Ukraine and embolden President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. In March, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, warned that Europe was in a “prewar era” and should prepare accordingly, and the presence in Blenheim of Mr. Zelensky was a reminder of the raised stakes.

“Clearly events in Milwaukee will hang over this summit,” said Kim Darroch, a former British national security adviser, referring to this week’s Republican National Convention, where Mr. Trump announced J.D. Vance, a critic of U.S. support for Ukraine, as his vice-presidential nominee.

Sophia Gaston, head of foreign policy at Policy Exchange, a British research institute, said the possibility of a second Trump presidency would be the “elephant in the room,” adding: “There is going to be a bit of pressure on Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland — the big security actors in Europe — to make some kind of demonstration that Ukraine’s future is in hand.”

Despite the troubled backdrop, the meeting is an opportunity for Mr. Starmer to restore Britain’s reputation as a leading player in Europe, and to draw closer to the European Union, after 14 years of Conservative government during which ties with close neighbors were ruptured after Brexit.

Leaders gathered on Thursday “will fire the starting gun on this government’s new approach to Europe,” said Mr. Starmer in a statement released by his office, “one that will not just benefit us now, but for generations to come.”

President Emmanuel Macron of France arriving at Blenheim Palace on Thursday. Mr. Macron launched the European Political Community summits in 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Not everyone signs on to Mr. Macron’s ambition of bolstering Europe’s autonomy. Divisions inside the 27-nation European Union have intensified since Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, assumed the bloc’s six-month rotating presidency. He has aligned himself with Mr. Trump and recently visited Mr. Putin in Moscow, prompting criticism from across Europe.

At Blenheim, the leaders are discussing Ukraine and, in smaller groups, migration, energy and defending democracy. There will be no formal summit conclusions, removing the need for diplomats to wrangle over wording, but there will be a closing media conference at which Mr. Starmer will summarize the outcome. “It’s the best of both worlds because he basically sets the story of the summit, and you avoid officials locked away in an airless room arguing about single words in written conclusions,” said Mr. Darroch, a former top British diplomat in Washington and Brussels who is now a member of the House of Lords.

Mr. Starmer plans to move closer to the European Union by striking a security pact with the bloc and improving a minimalist post-Brexit trade agreement reached by Boris Johnson, a former prime minister.

Exploratory talks began earlier this week in Brussels but are unlikely to move far on Thursday, partly because the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, cannot attend as she faces a vote to confirm her reappointment. But Mr. Starmer met Simon Harris, the Irish prime minister, on Wednesday and he is scheduled to hold a one-on-one meeting on Thursday with Mr. Macron, whose help he will need to build bridges with Brussels.

Visitors to Blenheim Palace in 2019. The historic building was the birthplace of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Mr. Starmer also wants to build on his predecessor Rishi Sunak’s relationship with Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister who has led her far-right party into the mainstream. They spoke on the day he became prime minister, and he will attend a session on migration that she will jointly chair.

On Ukraine, European diplomats will want to coordinate their efforts to try to persuade Mr. Trump to maintain support for the government in Kyiv, Mr. Darroch said, by arguing that without it, Russia would be in a dominant position, weakening Mr. Trump’s own ability to negotiate an end to the war on reasonable terms for Kyiv.

“If he sticks behind Ukraine, somewhere down the track there is going to have to be a settlement which he can try to claim credit for,” Mr. Darroch added, “but which wouldn’t be bad for Ukraine in the way that the one he is proposing immediately would be.”

Things have changed since Mr. Trump was last in the White House, when he demanded an increase in European military spending. Now 23 of the 32 NATO member nations are on course to hit a target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. In 2016 only five hit the target, and one of those was the United States.

Mr. Starmer, who is under pressure in Britain to say when he will raise spending to 2.5 percent of G.D.P., this week announced a strategic defense review, with work starting immediately “in recognition of the urgency of the threats facing the U.K.”

Still, given the international backdrop, Europe’s most powerful military nations, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain, may need to go further in bolstering their security cooperation.

The Blenheim meeting could show what Britain’s rapprochement with its continental allies can unlock, Ms. Gaston said. “We will see both opportunities from that effectiveness and good will,” she said, “and also see some of the realities and limitations.”

Ukraine Loses Hard-Won Position Near Dnipro River in the South

Soldiers and military analysts said an operation to establish a foothold on the river’s Russian-controlled eastern bank was bloody and hard to justify.

A Ukrainian soldier with an anti aircraft cannon in the Kherson region last month.

By Constant Méheut  18 Jul, 2024

Ukrainian troops have lost a hard-won position on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, near the southern city of Kherson, after months of bloody fighting to hold on to a piece of land in what some Ukrainian soldiers and military analysts have described as a futile operation.

The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday night that fighting continued on the eastern bank but that most of the main positions in the village of Krynky, where its troops had gained a foothold, “were destroyed by intense, combined and prolonged enemy fire.” The statement came after several Ukrainian news media outlets reported that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from the village, which now lies in ruins.

The operation to establish a bridgehead on the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnipro had been controversial from the start. Launched last fall, it was seen as an attempt to open a new front in the south that would disrupt Moscow’s logistics and tie down its troops in the area. But military analysts warned that the operation, which consisted of dangerous river crossings, was vulnerable in its logistics and unlikely to lead to rapid breakthroughs.

Ukrainian gains were limited to small pieces of land near the river, of which Krynky was the most notable.

As fighting to secure the position dragged on for months, Ukrainian soldiers involved in the operation complained that it was brutal and senseless. Soldiers crossing the river on boats were easy targets for Russian drones and mortars. Once they landed on the eastern bank, they had nowhere to hide because the bombed-out terrain had been reduced to a mass of mud and flattened houses.

“From a military point of view, I find it difficult to find some grounds for this operation,” said Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group. “Whatever the initial goals of the operation were, they have most likely not been met.”

The Dnipro River divides the two armies in the south. Ukraine has controlled the western bank since the fall of 2022, when a successful counteroffensive drove the Russians out of the city of Kherson and pushed them across the river.

A trench system overlooking a lake on the Dnipro River, in the Kherson region last year.

Ukrainian assaults on the eastern bank began about a year later. They were initially shrouded in secrecy, with small groups of soldiers harassing Russian forces in night raids, arriving from small boats at various points along the meandering river.

Officials remained tight-lipped about the fierce fighting until last November, when they announced that their troops had seized a sliver of land on the Russian-controlled bank, including Krynky. One of the goals of the operation appeared to draw Russian troops to the area and prevent them from being dispatched to other parts of the front where Moscow was on the offensive, such as in the east.

Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Ukrainian military analyst, said that Russia had concentrated tens of thousands of troops in the area to repel Ukrainian attacks. “Let’s imagine that this resource of 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers appeared in the Belgorod region, supplementing the northern troop groups,” he said, referring to Russia’s recent offensive in northeastern Ukraine. “Would the Russians then have been able to capture Vovchansk and Lyptsi completely? Yes.”

Vovchansk and Lyptsi are two towns in the north where fierce fighting has raged but which Russia has been unable to capture.

But holding on to Krynky also cost Ukraine many lives. Ukrainian soldiers said they were stuck for days in muddy terrain with little to no cover from Russian artillery, drones and airstrikes.

An article published on Wednesday by Slidstvo Info, an investigative Ukrainian news outlet, reported that at least 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed on the eastern bank or are missing. That figure could not be independently confirmed.

By winter, with casualties mounting and Ukraine failing to expand its presence on the eastern bank, Mr. Kastehelmi, of the Black Bird Group, said the operation had become “more politically motivated,” with the goal of showing that Ukraine could still be on the offensive, as doubts increased among Western allies that Kyiv could win the war.

Mr. Kastehelmi said Ukraine did not have the resources to sustain such an attritional fight for months. “It’s a fair question to ask if the operation should have been ended faster and if Ukrainian brigades could have been better used in other areas,” he said.

Keanu Reeves Wrote a Book. A Really Weird One.

What if the star of “The Matrix” worked with a sci-fi novelist to tell the story of an 80,000-year-old warrior who can rip people’s arms off but struggles with loneliness?

China Miéville, left, and Keanu Reeves collaborated on “The Book of Elsewhere,” a novel set in the world of the BRZRKR comics that Reeves imagined and co-wrote.

By Alexandra Alter  18 Jul, 2024

Keanu Reeves doesn’t know exactly where the idea came from, but one day — sometime around the release of “John Wick: Chapter 2,” starring Keanu Reeves, and before he started shooting “The Matrix Resurrections,” also starring Keanu Reeves — he imagined a man who couldn’t die.

“It became a series of what ifs,” he said. “What if they were 80,000 years old? Where did this character come from? What if they came from a tribe that was being attacked by other tribes and wanted to ask the gods for a weapon, and what if a god replied, and what if that birthed a half-human, half-god child?”

From there, Reeves added, “It went from this simple premise and gained in complexity and continued to grow.”

For a while, the character only existed in Reeves’s head. Then he wondered, What if this immortal warrior became the basis for a comic book? An action movie? An animated series?

“And then, there’s another what-if,” he said. “What if it became a novel?”

Reeves’s ancient warrior has since become the anchor of a growing multimedia franchise. The comic he imagined and co-wrote, BRZRKR (pronounced “berserker”), grew into a 12-issue series that has sold more than two million copies. A live-action film, starring and produced by Reeves, and an animated spinoff are in development at Netflix.

Panels from Reeves’s BRZRKR comic series, which has sold more than two million copies.

And now, Reeves is releasing his debut novel, “The Book of Elsewhere,” which he co-wrote with the British science fiction author China Miéville.

Set in the world of the BRZRKR comic, “The Book of Elsewhere” is a mash-up of sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction and mythology, with a heavy dose of existentialism.

To call it a weird book doesn’t begin to capture its genre-defying, protean strangeness. It centers on Reeves’s 80,000-year-old warrior — called Unute or sometimes B — who is freakishly strong, able to rip people’s arms off and punch through their chests, but has grown weary of his deathless state. It’s a pulpy, adrenaline-fueled thriller, but it’s also a moody, experimental novel about mortality, the slippery nature of time and what it means to be human.

[Embedded audio available]

At first, Reeves and Miéville might seem an odd pairing. Reeves is a movie star who has starred in billion-dollar action franchises like “The Matrix” and “John Wick,” as well as cult classics like the stoner time-travel comedy “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and the surfer crime thriller “Point Break.” Miéville is a Marxist who holds a doctorate in international relations from the London School of Economics. He’s known in literary circles for his heady, politically charged sci-fi and fantasy novels, among them “Kraken,” which features a squid-worshiping cult, and “Railsea,” set in a dystopian world that’s covered in railroad lines and populated by giant naked mole rats, which is both a homage to “Moby Dick” and a critique of modern capitalism.

“It was important to us approach this in a way that did something new,” Miéville, standing, said. “It’s another version of storytelling, which I love,” Reeves said.

But from another angle, the Reeves/Miéville partnership makes aesthetic, cultural and even philosophical sense. Both pose mind-bending questions about the mysteries of existence in their work and often smuggle in those ideas through action-filled plots. Reeves grew up devouring science fiction by William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, and later came to love Miéville’s short stories, which he called “a wonder.” Miéville, for his part, loves how, in movies like “The Matrix” and “Johnny Mnemonic,” Reeves was able to “combine propulsion with astonishing spectacle, with heretical philosophical provocation and investigation.”

In a joint video interview, Reeves, from his home in Los Angeles, and Miéville, in Berlin, both used the word “preposterous” to describe how surreal it felt to work with the other. They spoke about their first meeting, in Berlin during the summer of 2021, in the giddy way a new couple talks about how they first got together.

“The Book of Elsewhere” is due out on Tuesday.

“China, you were very prepared, which I really appreciated. He had a little book and a pencil, which I loved, I was like, yes,” Reeves recalled. “And he was like, I’m going to do a bad China” — he broke into a British accent, imitating Miéville — “‘I’ve been thinking, and I have a few questions for you.’ And I was like, please.”

At the meeting, Reeves told Miéville that apart from a couple of key plot points and character traits that had been established in the comic, Miéville could do what he liked with the source material.

Reeves’s openness convinced Miéville that he would be able to write something narratively interesting, and deliver a book that didn’t feel like comic-book merch or a tie-in.

“It was important to us approach this in a way that did something new, that did something that was very specifically literary in the sense of using the novel and using the novel form, that nonetheless was unabashedly and joyfully a BRZRKR novel and that honors the source material,” Miéville said.

As for why he wanted to write a novel, and how his literary projects intersect with his film career, Reeves had an answer that he apologetically acknowledged was “so obvious and reductive.” “It’s another version of storytelling, which I love,” he said.

Reeves in, clockwise from top left, "The Matrix Reloaded," "Point Break" (with Patrick Swayze), "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" and "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (with Alex Winter). Clockwise from top left: Warner Bros.; 20th Century Fox; Niko Tavernise/Lionsgate; MGM

One of his collaborators on the comic book series, Matt Kindt, has another theory about why Reeves has invested so much in the warrior character. He thinks Reeves, who has remained a rather enigmatic figure despite his decades in the spotlight, sees aspects of himself in the warrior — a figure who is worshiped and gains a cultlike following, but is lonely, treated as alien, burdened by other people’s misguided ideas about who he is.

“I could tell it was a very personal story,” Kindt said.

In some ways, he added, the story seems like an oblique response to Reeves’s iconic roles in hyper-stylized action movies, as a larger-than life, invincible figure who kills again and again but can never die.

Reeves said he didn’t realize at first how much of himself he was putting into the warrior character, but he’s since come to see how his metaphysical preoccupations shaped the story.

“It surprised me in the creative act, what gets revealed to oneself,” he said. “Maybe the creative act is a kind of talking, you know. And so maybe I have father issues and mother issues. And maybe I think about death.”

He continued.

“Maybe I don’t understand the violence of the world. I don’t understand that we all know we’re going to die, and we kill each other over things that are, perhaps as you look back at them, not so important. Maybe I wonder about the world, you know, how did we get here, who are we.

“I wonder about technology. I wonder about this kind of extinction motive that it seems the species has. I don’t know why we’re in such a rush to get off the planet and become digitized. Maybe I wonder about love. And the power of it. Why is death so strong and love so frail, and yet it’s the strongest force on the planet? So, I like to think about those things, and I thought maybe I found that they could come out in a comic book.”

In addition to “The Book of Elsewhere,” the BRZRKR comic is inspiring a live-action film and animated spinoff.

Besides the peculiarities of the novel itself, there is also the weirdness of the fact that Keanu Reeves wrote a novel. Other movie stars have done it — see Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Sean Penn, Ethan Hawke, Jim Carrey — with mixed results.

That Reeves handpicked an award-winning novelist as his wingman, rather than quietly conscripting a ghostwriter, was a sign of his utter seriousness. They mapped out the plot together, but when it came to the actual writing, Miéville took the reins, creating an outline and delivering a draft, and making revisions based on Reeves’s suggestions.

Still, some might dismiss a Keanu Reeves novel as a vanity project, akin to a celebrity releasing a perfume or a tequila. Already, “The Book of Elsewhere” is proving to be somewhat polarizing. It drew praise from one of Reeves’s literary idols, William Gibson, who called it “exceptionally innovative,” and won accolades from Kirkus Reviews for its “playful, even poetic language.” But it got a deflating pan in Publishers Weekly, which called it “leaden” and “tedious.” A Booklist critic was both enchanted and baffled, positing that the narrative might be a meta-commentary on “some of the popular Reeves internet memes,” like Sad Keanu, inspired by an image of a glum-looking Reeves eating a sandwich alone on a park bench. “Whatever it is, it works,” the review concluded.

At first, “The Book of Elsewhere” reads like a propulsive black-ops spy thriller, with scenes of carnage that bring to mind Reeves’s role as a puppy-loving assassin in “John Wick.” It opens with a scene of grotesque violence, as a secret military unit is ambushed by a suicide bomber targeting B, the warrior, who has agreed to let the U.S. military use him as a weapon in exchange for their help solving the mystery of his existence.

But pretty quickly, the novel veers into denser philosophical territory.

“It’s a big ideas novel that’s run through with an action story,” said Ben Greenberg, who acquired and edited the novel for Random House, where it is being released by the imprint Del Rey. “It feels very diffuse until it starts to congeal slowly. I don’t think people would be expecting that from a Keanu Reeves novel.”

“Show business looks at it like, What else can we do, but I come at it from the artist’s side, like, What else can we make,” Reeves said.

“The Book of Elsewhere” is punctuated with dreamy, second-person interludes from B’s lonely eons upon the earth, as he observes the rise and fall of civilizations, technologies, species, religions, languages and ideologies. There’s an extended cameo from Sigmund Freud, who tries to treat the warrior’s incurable melancholy. B reflects on meeting Karl Marx (“always much funnier than most people make him out to be”) and the playwright Samuel Beckett, who, in the novel’s loopy alternate history, once cast B in his absurdist play “Krapp’s Last Tape.” There’s a central plot element that involves a magical, immortal deer-pig — specifically, a wild, tusked Indonesian pig called a babirusa — who has been hunting B for 78,000 years, and becomes both his nemesis and the closest thing he has to family.

The narrative is littered with arcane facts and references. Among the terms I had to Google: sastrugi (snow that’s been shaped into wavelike peaks by wind), smilodon (a fanged feline predator that lived in the Pleistocene epoch), Urschleim (a term coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel for a primordial slime from which all life emerged), khesheph (a kind of ancient near-Eastern magic) and glyptodon (a giant armadillo that went extinct around 12,000 years ago but, in B’s telling in “The Book of Elsewhere,” managed to survive in France until the 400s A.D.).

“There is play in this as well,” Miéville said. “It’s not all existentialism and Freud. It’s an opportunity to imagine glyptodons in early Burgundy.”

At the mention of glyptodons, Reeves rolled backward in delight, letting out a high-pitched “hee-hee” and flashing the rock n’ roll sign with both hands.

Reeves has other ideas for new works based on the character, including, possibly, an epic poem.

“Show business looks at it like, what else can we do, but I come at it from the artist’s side, like what else can we make,” Reeves said. “From the very beginning I was hoping that other creators and artists could play, as China said, with the toys.”

He’s not sure yet how the version of the character that Miéville developed in the novel will influence the comic and other projects going forward. But he’s fairly certain it will surprise him.

“That’s to be revealed to me,” Reeves said. “There’s a lot to think about, what it can be and how it will affect the canon, as I go back and play with my own toys.”

‘J.D. Vance’s Speech Was Masterly’: Best and Worst Moments From Night 3

Kimberly Guilfoyle and J.D. Vance

By New York Times Opinion  18 Jul, 2024

Welcome to Opinion’s commentary for Night 3 of the Republican National Convention. In this special feature, Times Opinion writers rate the evening on a scale of 0 to 10: 0 means the night was a disaster for Donald Trump; 10 means it could lead to a big polling bump. Here’s what our columnists and contributors thought of the event, which included speeches from Peter Navarro, Kimberly Guilfoyle and J.D. Vance.

Best Moment

Kristen Soltis Anderson, contributing Opinion writer How can you not feel the heartbreak of the Gold Star families? A powerful reminder of the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, as well as President Biden’s incorrect assertion during the debate that no service members died overseas on his watch. Most important, a powerful reminder of the price of freedom.

Charles M. Blow, Times columnist Usha Vance, talking about her husband, J.D. Vance, and the veterans and families of soldiers killed or taken captive — they were the most effective and affecting speakers. Personal stories delivered with deep emotions, whether love or loss, break through the noise.

David Brooks, Times columnist The Gold Star families. The core Republican argument is that Biden has left regular Americans behind. These parents told that story with raw emotion. It was a moment when passion met the theme.

Family members of the 13 service members killed in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Michelle Cottle, political writer for Opinion J.D. Vance brought what Team Trump needed: a fresh face who can deliver even tough hits smoothly, with a charming smile and a sprinkling of humor. The political parts of his speech were nothing special. But the biographical bits were kinda glorious. The story from his youth about how his mamaw threatened to run over a local drug dealer was pure gold. And when Vance introduced his mother, who was in the crowd, “10 years clean and sober”? Chef’s kiss.

Ross Douthat, Times columnist Vance’s mother, 10 years sober, edging out the cuteness of Donald Trump’s granddaughter. Overall, an effective buildup with the Gold Star families and the 98-year-old World War II vet that squandered some momentum with Donald Trump Jr. and finished with Vance delivering a speech that was solid on charm and anecdote and likability but shorter on narrative and rhetorical sweep.

David Firestone, deputy editor, the Times editorial board The emotional gathering of family members of the 13 service members killed in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. They were assembled by convention planners to capitalize on a particularly dumb debate gaffe made by Biden, who said he was the only president in the decade who didn’t have any troops die on his watch. Trump was the president who ridiculed military sacrifice, and Biden’s mistake gave the G.O.P. an important way to neutralize that weakness.

David French, Times columnist Vance’s personal story is genuinely inspiring. Any time he can focus on what he’s overcome and how he’s helped his family members improve their lives, the more people will respond to him.

Dan McCarthy, editor of the periodical Modern Age Vance’s speech was masterly and more than a moment. The night’s most powerful individual moment, however, was hearing the Gold Star father Herman Lopez, whose son Hunter died in the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, credit Trump with “a proven record of keeping the peace and honoring those in uniform,” in contrast to Biden’s forgetfulness about sacrifices like his son’s.

Megan K. Stack, contributing Opinion writer Vance’s polished and populist pitch landed like a cleaner and more heartfelt version of Trump’s guttural monologues. He skipped deftly from trade agreements to “cheap Chinese goods” to forgotten, drug-soaked communities like his hometown. He extolled the working man, “union and nonunion alike,” while disparaging Wall Street, the ruling class and undocumented immigrants.

Zeynep Tufekci, Times columnist The best moment for the Trump campaign came when families that had lost loved ones in the American withdrawal from Afghanistan took the stage to vouch for Trump — he’d apparently reached out to them and clearly left a positive impression — and to condemn Biden for not mentioning the names of their loved ones publicly. When Biden interacted with them, they found him uncaring.

Peter Wehner, contributing Opinion writer The extremely moving video recounting Biden’s greatest failure, the botched American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and especially the comments by the Gold Star families. The grief etched on their faces and the anger in their voices were painful and entirely justified.

Worst Moment

Anderson There were a few speakers who clearly overstayed their welcome. Early in the night, the former Trump official Peter Navarro’s overlong postprison appearance might have energized the room but came across as strange on television.

Blow Wednesday night brought the anger, fear and defiance. Immigrants were the enemies. Speakers condemned forever wars, honored veterans and stoked fights over campus culture. The theme of the night was “Making America Strong Again” — but Republicans reminded the country that freedom, to them, means isolationism and expulsions. And Vance’s long, rambling speech was the ultimate anticlimax, like being served a bowl of tapioca at meal’s end.

Brooks Kimberly Guilfoyle could set the world record for worst convention moments if she keeps this up. Four years after her last convention speech, she still doesn’t seem to know that a microphone is a device for amplifying your voice and that you don’t need to bellow from coast to coast.

Cottle I had assumed it would be the reliably terrifying Guilfoyle, but nope. I failed to anticipate Navarro ranting about the “Department of Injustice” and telling the crowd, “I went to prison so you won’t have to!” It was a poisonous, self-indulgent, Trumpian performance.

Peter Navarro spoke hours after walking out of a federal prison Wednesday morning after serving four months for contempt of Congress.

Douthat The rhetorical stylings of Guilfoyle.

Firestone Donald Trump Jr.’s slashing speech undermined his claim that many Americans are afraid their “country was being torn apart.” He used his platform to accuse the legal system of “copying” Vladimir Putin for prosecuting and gagging his father (a man who admires Putin) and resorted to low-rent culture-war attacks on the left for teaching kids that “there are 57 genders, but they can’t even define what a woman is.”

French When Vance called Trump our nation’s “last, best hope.” If Trump is our last, best hope, our nation is already gone. In general, however, it’s destructive to our political culture to put so much hope in one man. No single president can save us, and no single president can sink us.

McCarthy Gov. Doug Burgum gave remarks on the important theme of what he called “energy dominance,” but his delivery was no better than adequate. After so much speculation about the governor as a vice-presidential prospect, viewers had a right to expect more.

Stack Given the precarious state of reproductive rights and recent conservative rumblings about ending no-fault divorce, playing “It’s a Man’s World” while Trump swept victoriously into the hall felt like meanspirited mockery.

Tufekci Navarro went to the convention just a few hours after he was released from federal prison, to give a speech to much applause. He’d been active in the Trump campaign’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and was convicted of contempt of Congress.

Wehner The sustained standing ovation for Navarro. The outpouring of affection and support for one of the nation’s chief election deniers and conspiracy nuts epitomizes the moral compass of the current Republican Party.

What Else Caught Your Eye?

Anderson I loved the subtle moments when Usha Vance’s sense of humor came through while introducing her husband. I couldn’t help but smile as she described his working to impress her mother by learning to cook Indian food.

Blow A trend is emerging: condemning trans people while claiming to include gay people. Republicans have had success creating and exploiting divisions within minority groups — for instance, between established immigrants and new ones — and they may be attempting to do the same to the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

Brooks The Vance speech was interesting. At first, I thought it was a disappointment. The delivery was low-key. He literally has a cinematic story. I thought he could have done a lot more to connect with viewers and trace the emotional arc of his life. But the crowd gradually began to lift him up so that it became a playful conversation. Not what you’d expect from a candidate whose campaign is fired by righteous indignation at betrayal.

Cottle The convention organizers have been working hard to soften Donald Trump’s image, with lots of stories from various speakers about what a decent and caring guy he is. Wednesday night’s appearance by his 17-year-old granddaughter, Kai (Don Jr.’s eldest), was less eye rolling than most. Not too saccharine or overwrought, with plenty of material poking fun at her grandpa.

Donald Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter, Kai.

Douthat If he doubted his V.P. pick, the Burgum snoozer was an indicator that Trump chose wisely.

Firestone Pretty unusual in this crowd for Usha Vance to tell the convention that her husband cooks Indian food for their family and has adapted to her vegetarian diet. And even more unusual that in introducing J.D. Vance, she mentioned Trump not even once.

French Republicans are dishing out the red meat before the network cameras come on later in the evening. They’re playing to both sides of their base: The Fox News and social media obsessives hear all their talking points early on, and the more casual voters get the more normal G.O.P. later in the evening.

McCarthy The rapturous reception of Navarro, just released from federal prison, demonstrated how lawfare has backfired. Politically freighted prosecutions of Navarro, Steve Bannon and Trump have only raised their stature in their supporters’ eyes, and seeing such esprit and high morale helps win over the wavering.

Stack When Donald Trump Jr. marched out his 17-year-old daughter to talk about “Grandpa,” it smacked of a depressing desperation to fill time. But then! “A lot of people have put my grandpa through hell, and he’s still standing,” she said. And Trump … appeared to fight tears? It felt soft and authentic in a way I don’t associate with Trump events.

Tufekci Many speakers made the case that Putin wouldn’t have dared attack Ukraine had Trump been in the Oval Office, that Biden was weak and that that weakness encouraged wars around the world against U.S. allies and interests. This theme came up a lot when I interviewed Trump voters and seems to get a lot less attention than it deserves. Representative Michael Waltz even told the room that Trump had threatened Putin, saying that if he tried anything, Trump would “take the tops off the Kremlin.”

Wehner Republicans landed some devastating blows against Biden. If he steps aside, which is increasingly likely, the positive effects of this week will be largely nullified. If he isn’t the nominee, the Democratic Party will be liberated and energized, the Republican Party will be crestfallen, and the race will significantly tighten.

Charles M. Blow, David Brooks, Ross Douthat, David French and Zeynep Tufekci are Times columnists.

Kristen Soltis Anderson is a contributing Opinion writer, a Republican pollster and the author of “The Selfie Vote.”

Michelle Cottle writes about national politics for Opinion and is a host of the podcast “Matter of Opinion.”

David Firestone is the deputy editor of the Times editorial board.

Dan McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.

Megan K. Stack is a contributing Opinion writer and the author, most recently, of “Women’s Work.”

Peter Wehner is a contributing Opinion writer and the author, most recently, of “The Death of Politics.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, X and Threads.

The Way That Democrats Aren’t Standing Up to Biden Is Awfully Familiar

By Nicholas Kristof  17 Jul, 2024

Before I get to President Biden, let me tell you about my love for a different presidential candidate.

In 1972, when I was 13 years old, I knocked on doors to canvass for George McGovern, the Democratic senator who wanted to end the Vietnam War. McGovern was an honorable man but was regarded by much of the public as too leftist.

We dismissed skeptics. How could voters instead re-elect a crook like President Richard Nixon? When more sober-minded Democrats pushed to nominate former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had the virtue of being electable, the McGovern faithful fought back and Humphrey’s bid collapsed.

At the time of the 1972 Democratic National Convention, McGovern was down 20 points in a Harris poll. But we cheered McGovern and believed in him — until Nixon won that November by a 23-point landslide, carrying 49 states.

So in 2024 will Democrats again be loyal to a flawed candidate who is likely to lose — and whose nomination might well lead to G.O.P. control of both houses of Congress — or will they be loyal to the goals they believe in?

We can’t be sure that Biden will lose just because polls show him behind nationally and in most or all of the battleground states. The betting markets give Biden almost a one-in-five chance of being elected. But they give Trump a two-in-three chance of being elected, and is that a risk that Biden wishes to accept as his legacy?

Polling and election history suggest that Trump is a weak candidate but that the Democrats are on course to nominate one who is even weaker. There is a surprising subservience within the Democratic Party to the person of President Biden over the goals that Democrats say they are committed to achieve.

In part, I fear, that’s cowardice.

It’s hard to buck a system and challenge a president; it’s easier to flatter power and bask in its glow, so the tendency is to avert one’s eyes and let someone else speak up. Democratic officeholders understand that the party is probably on a trajectory toward disaster; Representative Adam Schiff of California reportedly told donors in a private meeting over the weekend that the party was on course for a wipeout. Yet most officeholders are passive, waiting for the avalanche rather than helping the party escape it.

This is a failure of leadership in the Democratic Party. For a party that insists that Trump poses a fundamental threat, how is such loyalty to a losing candidate in the national interest?

In 2020, Biden was chosen as the Democratic nominee not because he was the most beloved of candidates but because he was the one most likely to beat Trump — and that is no longer true.

We’ve seen this before, this deference to a president of one’s own party, the pretense that the emperor is clothed — but previously we saw it in the Republican Party, and Democrats rightly excoriated this deference.

Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and many other Democrats scolded the Republican Party for becoming a personality cult, elevating one person above issues, goals and common sense. But there were a few Republicans brave enough to resist, and their words should remind Democrats of their duty. “Keeping your head down in capitulation to a rogue president makes you little more than furniture,” former Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, wrote in 2021. Ben Sasse, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, said the same year, “Politics isn’t about the weird worship of one dude.”

I recognize that Biden may not withdraw, and in that case this debate within the Democratic Party may increase the likelihood of a Trump victory. But it’s worth doing everything possible to encourage Biden to make the right decision for his nation and his legacy, and in any case it’s important for the integrity of the party to have this discussion.

The risk with Biden is not just that he will lose in November but also that he may not be able to perform the job for the next four years. The issue is not just politics but also national security.

The evidence on Biden’s capacity is mixed. None of us can be sure, but it seems clear that Biden is mostly “on” but that the televised catastrophe of a few weeks ago was not just a one-off or simply a bad debate night, as former President Barack Obama put it. Given that Biden’s capacity appears to have diminished since 2020, it’s reasonable to expect further deterioration.

True, I’m confident that Biden and his aides would handle a crisis better on a bad night than Trump would on a good night. But that’s an evasion, not an answer.

For years, the Republican responses to questions about Trump have been diversions such as “What about Hunter Biden?!” It’s sad to see Democrats now engage in similar question-dodging and whataboutism.

Many Republicans know in their hearts that Trump isn’t fit to be elected president in November, and increasingly many Democrats fear the same is true of Biden. Yet too many in both parties are silent, placing comity and ties to power over the national interest. Finally, sadly, we see something in America that is truly bipartisan: leadership failure.

Democrats may be reluctant to acknowledge it, but Trump handled the assassination attempt with courage and aplomb, and it may well make the polling even more skewed. That’s all the more reason for Democrats to press Biden to stand down and make way for Vice President Kamala Harris or (as I have suggested) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. I hope party leaders and elders — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama — are working behind the scenes to save the day.

Families all across America are responsible enough to engage in difficult conversations about taking the car keys from beloved elderly parents who think they can still drive. If the humblest household can manage this conversation, so can Democratic leaders.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, X and Threads.

The Myth of Migrant Crime

Republicans suggest that immigrants are especially likely to be criminals. The data shows the opposite.

Migrants waiting to be taken to a shelter in Chicago.

By German Lopez  18 Jul, 2024

Throughout the first three days of the Republican National Convention, officials have highlighted a surge in what they call “migrant crime.” President Biden “has welcomed into our country rapists, murderers, even terrorists, and the price that we have paid has been deadly,” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas claimed last night. The day before, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said, “Every day, Americans are dying” in crimes committed by migrants. Donald Trump has made similar remarks on the campaign trail.

But there is no migrant crime surge.

In fact, U.S. rates of crime and immigration have moved in opposite directions in recent years. After illegal immigration plummeted in 2020, the murder rate rose. And after illegal immigration spiked in 2021 and 2022, murders plateaued and then fell.

Over a longer period, there is no relationship between immigration and crime trends. The number of foreign-born Americans has increased for decades, while the murder rate has gone up and down at different times, as these charts by my colleague Ashley Wu show:

Yes, some migrants have committed violent crimes. There are more than 45 million immigrants in the U.S., and invariably some of them — just like people of any other group — will do bad things. Similarly, thousands of native-born Americans commit violent crimes in any given week.

Trump and other Republicans have suggested that immigrants are especially likely to be criminals. They point to a few anecdotes. But the data shows the opposite: Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes. There are genuine issues with the border and illegal immigration, but more crime is not one of them.

More migrants, less crime

If more immigration led to more crime, you would expect that crime rates would spike along with immigration flows, locally and nationally. The statistics would show that migrants were disproportionately likely to commit criminal or violent acts. Instead, the opposite is true.

New York, Chicago and Denver have had an influx of immigrants in the past couple years. Over that same period, murder rates in those cities have fallen. Similarly, border counties in Texas have lower violent crime rates than the state and country overall, the crime analyst Jeff Asher has found.

The individual crimes committed by migrants that Trump and his allies highlight simply do not add up to a bigger trend.

In reality, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S. Immigrants have had lower incarceration rates — a measure for crime — than native-born Americans for at least 150 years, a recent study concluded. Undocumented immigrants have lower felony arrest rates than legal immigrants or native-born Americans, another study found.

Why? Consider migrants’ motives. Many risk their lives by crossing dangerous jungles, rivers and deserts through Latin America to reach the U.S. so they can find better jobs that offer higher pay. In many cases, they are fleeing crime and violence back home. If they came here illegally, they have an incentive to avoid trouble with the law so they do not get caught by the authorities and deported.

The bottom line

People have legitimate reasons to be frustrated with illegal immigration and to worry about what happens at the border. Liberal mayors have learned as much in the past few years; the surge of illegal immigrants to their cities has drained public resources, particularly housing. A porous border also contributes to security concerns, such as the flow of fentanyl and the risk of terrorism. When an undocumented immigrant does commit a crime, it can lead to a sense of lawlessness and chaos.

But more immigration has not caused more crime. The myth that crime is up can perpetuate stereotypes and racism. Immigrants who arrived in New York recently told The Times that local residents were often hostile. They make rude comments under their breath or move away in subway cars. One Venezuelan lamented that people now saw all migrants in the same way: “violent.”

Related: The brother of a woman killed on a scenic trail — a crime in which an undocumented immigrant has been arrested — spoke at the Republican convention.

More from the Republican convention

Senator J.D. Vance

- Accepting the vice-presidential nomination, Senator J.D. Vance recounted growing up poor in a working-class Ohio town that he said had been “cast aside” by Biden and other politicians. “I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” he said.

- Vance also sounded economically populist notes, criticizing big corporations and praising “the working man, union and nonunion alike.” Here are more takeaways from Night 3.

- The speech didn’t mention abortion. Vance has supported a national ban and opposed exceptions for rape and incest.

- Usha Vance, his wife, spoke about meeting him in law school, poked fun at his beard and described him as a “meat and potatoes kind of guy” who nevertheless learned to cook Indian food for her mother.

- Donald Trump Jr., who spoke before Vance, aggressively criticized Biden. He has become a major figure in the party, building what he calls a “MAGA bench for the future.”

- Antisemitism was another theme of the night. A Harvard graduate endorsed Trump’s call to deport foreign students who harass Jewish students. The parents of a Hamas-held American-Israeli hostage chanted “bring them home.”

- How well do you know Milwaukee, the city hosting the convention? Take our quiz.

- The late night hosts joked about Vance and Nikki Haley backing away from their opposition to Trump.

THE LATEST NEWS

President Biden

President Biden

- Biden tested positive for Covid while campaigning in Nevada and has mild symptoms. “Doing well,” he said after flying back to Delaware.

- Biden has become more open to hearing arguments about why he should leave the race, after Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic congressional leaders, privately expressed lawmakers’ concerns.

- In an interview, Biden said he’d consider stepping aside if his doctors told him he had a medical condition.

- The Democratic National Committee delayed an expedited plan to nominate Biden. Representative Adam Schiff said Biden should drop out.

- Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say Biden should step aside, according to a new poll.

- Jeffrey Katzenberg, a co-chairman of Biden’s campaign, told the president that donors had stopped giving. Some are calling lawmakers to persuade Biden to drop out.

- The Trump campaign declined to agree to a date for a vice-presidential debate, saying that doing so before the Democratic convention would be unfair to “whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate.”

The Trump Shooting

- The gunman who tried to assassinate Trump searched for the dates of Trump events and the Democratic National Convention, the F.B.I. told Congress.

- The F.B.I. has found no evidence that the shooter held strong partisan views. A former classmate said he disdained politicians in both parties.

- Local police at Trump’s rally saw the gunman acting suspiciously and circulated a photo of him, though they did not know he had a weapon. The Secret Service let Trump go onstage despite the threat.

- A Times investigation, constructed from videos and photos taken at the rally, shows how law enforcement failed to stop the shooting.

International

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris.

- The mayor of Paris swam in the Seine, to prove that the river was clean enough to host Olympic events.

- Milan’s main airport is now named after Silvio Berlusconi, the scandal-prone former prime minister. Left-leaning lawmakers are protesting.

- Officials in Spain hoped an algorithm could predict how much danger victims of domestic violence were in. Some women they sent home on its recommendation were killed.

Other Big Stories

Damage from storms in Rome, N.Y.

- Four tornadoes swept through upstate New York, destroying buildings and killing at least one person.

- Vaccines significantly reduce the risk of long Covid, researchers reported. Here’s what you need to know.

- Two Canadians died, and 10 others fell sick, from listeria in plant-based milk substitutes. The authorities recalled products from two brands, Silk and Great Value.

- The police arrested a Brooklyn councilwoman who they said had bitten a police chief during a protest.

- The Navy posthumously exonerated hundreds of Black sailors who were punished in the 1940s because they objected to unsafe conditions after a port explosion.

- A spade-toothed whale washed ashore dead in New Zealand. It’s the world’s rarest whale species: Scientists have never seen one alive.

Opinions

As Americans consider electing Trump to a second term, Times Opinion created a timeline of his first four years — an era of lies, violence and chaos.

The Olympics should reverse its decision to welcome Afghanistan, whose female athletes live in exile, Friba Rezayee writes.

In the 1990s, tabloids tore apart Shannen Doherty. In hindsight, she wasn’t volatile or difficult; she was just a young women enjoying fame, Jennifer Weiner writes.

Here are columns by Carlos Lozada on Trump’s call to “Fight!” and Nicholas Kristof on Biden loyalists.

MORNING READS

Matter of taste: In an era of viral hybrid pastries, the plain croissant is still the best croissant.

Swirls of color: Scientists scanned the brains of people on psychedelic drugs. The results were trippy.

City with a female face: A community in Vienna was designed specifically to benefit women.

Lives Lived: Renauld White walked the runways for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan and was the first Black American model to appear on a GQ cover. He died at 80.

SPORTS

W.N.B.A.: Caitlin Clark set a league record with 19 assists against the Dallas Wings.

Soccer: Philadelphia Union’s Cavan Sullivan, 14, became the youngest player to appear in an M.L.S. game.

Golf: The Open Championship teed off this morning at Royal Troon, Scotland. All eyes are on Rory McIlroy, whose recent collapse at the U.S. Open was crushing for fans — especially those in his hometown.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Hiroyuki Sanada in a scene from “Shogun.”

Two FX series topped this year’s Emmy nominations. “Shogun,” a period drama set in Japan, received 25 nods, while the tense restaurant workplace comedy “The Bear” had 23. Some other highlights:

- The 23 nominations for “The Bear” are the most ever for a comedy, beating a record that “30 Rock” set in 2009.

- HBO trailed Netflix and FX in total nominations. It hasn’t been third since 1996, before “The Sopranos” or “Sex and the City” had premiered.

See the full list of nominees, and the shows that our critic felt got snubbed.

More on culture

- Sotheby’s sold an unusually complete stegosaurus fossil for $44.6 million — 10 times the estimated price.

- A new album from Childish Gambino, Donald Glover’s rap project, comes out tomorrow. It will be his last under that name.

- The armorer on the film “Rust,” sentenced to 18 months over a fatal shooting on the set, is requesting a new trial after the collapse of the case against Alec Baldwin.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …

Combine a few pantry staples for a satisfying angel hair pasta.

Celebrate “summerween,” an excuse to get spooky in July.

Pack for a three-day trip with one small bag.

Grow a lush garden using these steel tubs.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was uninvited.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. —German

Late Night Taunts Former Critics Who Changed Their Minds About Trump

J.D. Vance and Nikki Haley, among other Republicans at the convention, seem to have gotten over their reservations about the former president.

Jimmy Fallon said J.D. Vance, the Republicans’ vice presidential nominee, had taken back “that comparing-Trump-to-Hitler stuff.”

By Trish Bendix  18 Jul, 2024

Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.

Walking It Back

A recurring theme of this week’s Republican National Convention has been former critics of Donald Trump singing his praises, including Nikki Haley and, most notably, J.D. Vance, who accepted the vice presidential nomination on Wednesday.

“Vance started by saying, ‘All that comparing-Trump-to-Hitler stuff? Full take-backsies,’” Jimmy Fallon said on “The Tonight Show.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSjDUEwQaNM

“While speaking last night at the Republican National Convention, Nikki Haley said, ‘There are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100 percent of the time.’ For example, all the speakers of the R.N.C. just a few months ago.” — SETH MEYERS

“That’s right, Nikki Haley spoke at the R.N.C. last night and said that former President Trump has her ‘strong endorsement, period.’ And then Mike Johnson tried to have her arrested for saying ‘period.’” — SETH MEYERS

“You are a total sellout with no spine. Period.” — ANTHONY ANDERSON, guest host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwGNlk8R5Ng

The Punchiest Punchlines (Babydog Edition)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU5B_sl8NEE

“And I think no matter what your politics, we can all agree that Babydog is fantastic. Honestly, if Republicans had nominated Babydog for president, I’d be [expletive] torn. I think even Biden would be like, ‘[expletive], maybe I should drop out.’” — SETH MEYERS on Gov. Jim Justice’s bulldog, who appeared beside him onstage at the convention

“Really undercuts your message of doom when the camera cuts to a super-happy dog just chillin’ in a chair. Your words say, ‘If Biden wins, the country will be destroyed,’ but her face says, ‘I’m doing [expletive] great, no matter who wins.’” — SETH MEYERS

“Why do I feel like they share a sleep apnea machine?” — JIMMY FALLON

“Looks like a Friar’s Club roast on Animal Planet.” — JIMMY FALLON

The Bits Worth Watching

Howie Mandel shared his fondness for pranking Heidi Klum, his fellow "America’s Got Talent” judge, during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Wednesday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9i8v2mvlbh/

What We’re Excited About on Thursday Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1tRWJgkLIs

Senator Bernie Sanders will appear live on Thursday’s “Late Show” after the Republican convention wraps up.

Also, Check This Out

“Shogun,” an FX drama, captured the most nominations, with 25.

“The Bear,” “Shogun” and “Baby Reindeer” are among the television shows with the most Emmy nominations this year.

Why China Is So Interested in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s bounty of so-called critical minerals has enriched the country and grabbed the attention of entrepreneurs scrambling to control the ingredients needed to fight climate change.

By Daisuke WakabayashiPhotographs and Video by Chang W. Lee  18 Jul, 2024

Kenges Rakishev, one of the richest men in Kazakhstan, stepped off a private jet at a Soviet-era airport and hopped into the lead car of a convoy of sport utility vehicles. The cars tore down a two-lane road, zipping past the snow-covered steppe in eastern Kazakhstan at 90 miles per hour.

Riding shotgun, Mr. Rakishev gestured toward the vast emptiness.

“Nothing, right?” he said with a chuckle. “But it’s a unique opportunity.”

That opportunity is in nickel, a key mineral used in electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies. Kazakhstan, a mineral-rich country in Central Asia, has a lot of nickel, and Mr. Rakishev is investing tens of millions of dollars to extract it.

The global search for critical minerals is bringing investors to the country’s stark landscape.

Mr. Rakishev, 44, is always chasing the next big investment. In February, he was the driving force behind the public offering of a Canadian maker of plant-based instant noodles on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Before that, it was blockchain technology. And before that, it was an Israeli photo-sharing app, called Mobli, that tried to become the next Instagram.

He has connections to Kazakhstan’s ruling elite that are apparent in his energy investments and his purchase of a bank seized by the government. His close ties with a former prime minister of Kazakhstan brought him into the orbit of Hunter Biden, the American president’s son whose business dealings became the focus of an impeachment inquiry by House Republicans.

But Mr. Rakishev’s next big investment is much closer to home.

Kenges Rakishev, a Kazakh businessman, is investing heavily to mine for nickel in the country.

The world’s transition to renewable energy, including electric cars, requires huge amounts of nickel, copper, lithium and other so-called critical minerals. Kazakhstan has many of them, and China, the biggest producer of electric vehicles and batteries, is right next door and eager to buy.

“Everything is going to China,” Mr. Rakishev said.

A former Soviet Republic, Kazakhstan borders Russia to the north and China to the east and retains close trade ties to Russia. But China is a much larger customer for Kazakhstan’s critical minerals, using them to feed the insatiable needs of its factories churning out electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels. Kazakhstan said that it was also courting buyers from the West and that it did not play favorites when it came to investors in mining.

“If somebody is doing geological exploration, I don’t care what flag they carry,” said Kanat Sharlapayev, Kazakhstan’s minister of industry and construction and a former Citigroup executive in Kazakhstan and the Middle East.

Mr. Sharlapayev spoke from his office in Astana, the capital city, in a massive building known as the “House of Ministries.” He had just returned from Canada, where he had attended an international mining conference.

In recent years, Kazakhstan has signed pacts with the European Union and Britain to cooperate on critical minerals. The United States held initial discussions with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries this year. On his trip, Mr. Sharlapayev stopped in Washington to meet with officials at a U.S. foreign development agency.

The presidential palace in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan is a longtime oil exporter, and Mr. Sharlapayev said years of working closely with American oil companies was proof that Astana was open to Western investment.

But after a short pause, he added, “Geography cannot be ignored, of course.”

China’s Europe Link

It’s not just critical minerals that China wants from Kazakhstan. Beijing has invested billions of dollars, much of it as part of its Belt and Road foreign policy initiative, into upgrading Kazakhstan’s railways and other infrastructure to establish easier trade routes to Europe, an essential trading partner of China.

China’s economic influence is now apparent across the country. In Almaty, Kazakhstan’s wealthiest city, new car dealerships for Chinese electric vehicle brands are popping up.

A freight rail carrying containers from China crossing the Kazakh border in Khorgos.

On the Chinese-Kazakh border, the two countries built the Khorgos Gateway, the world’s biggest port used exclusively for handling cargo containers carried by trains. On Kazakhstan’s western border along the Caspian Sea, China invested in a container hub in the port city of Aktau.

This is now a railway alternative for sending goods from China to Europe in half the time it takes for sea cargo to travel from Shanghai to Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

During a visit to Kazakhstan this month, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said the two countries had agreed to double their bilateral trade “as soon as possible” by cultivating growth and cooperation in areas such as important minerals.

“We are a natural, organic partner to China,” said Nurlan Zhakupov, the chief executive of Samruk-Kazyna JSC, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. “We are very safe economically and politically.”

[Embedded video available]

For all the economic ties and expressions of friendship, there is a well of anti-Chinese sentiment and mistrust among some Kazakhs — especially among those outside the political class or the business elite.

China’s detention of Uyghurs and members of other largely Muslim groups, including ethnic Kazakhs, in camps in Xinjiang has added to the misgivings. Roughly two-thirds of Kazakhstan’s population is Muslim.

‘The New Oil’

In three decades as an independent country after the fall of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has built an economy that is reliant on its natural resources. Through its state-owned mining firms, Kazakhstan is a leading supplier not only of oil and uranium but also of chromium, gold and copper.

For years, global miners stayed away from investing because it seemed risky. Kazakhstan was viewed as promising, but bogged down by bureaucracy, a lack of transparency and corruption. And eventually, new mining opportunities dried up.

Kazakhstan recognized it had a problem and rewrote its mining rules in 2018, using the investment-friendly regulations of Australia, a mining juggernaut, as a model.

A miner at a copper mine near Karaganda, a city in central Kazakhstan.

Still, foreign investors did not come pouring in.

First, Covid-19 struck. Then violent protests erupted in Kazakhstan, pitting loyalists of the longtime ruler, Nursultan Nazarbayev, against the government of the current president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The unrest was quelled with the help of Russian forces. Mr. Tokayev became the country’s undisputed leader and pledged to increase business privatization, combat corruption and limit the role of monopolies and oligopolies.

In a national address last year, Mr. Tokayev said he wanted to prioritize the development of rare and rare-earth metals, which he called the “new oil.”

One of the prospectors lured to the country was Alex Walker, a 40-year-old Australian entrepreneur who relocated to Kazakhstan after a mining project of his in Sweden had failed. Looking for a new place to explore for valuable minerals, he ruled out Canada and Australia, which were already heavily mined. Africa was too complex to operate in. But Kazakhstan had potential.

“It looked like a place where you could really get things done,” he said.

Mr. Walker secured exploration licenses in partnership with Tau-ken Samruk JSC, the country’s national mining company, and moved his family to Kazakhstan in 2021. But in January 2022, days before he was preparing to list his company on the London Stock Exchange, the protests, now known as “Bloody January,” broke out. More than 200 people died, and thousands were arrested.

“The timing was horrible,” Mr. Walker said. “We were trying to present this as a very safe jurisdiction.”

Despite the upheaval, no investors bailed on the stock offering. Mr. Walker said his decision to search for critical minerals in Kazakhstan had proved to be the right move. BHP Group, the world’s largest mining company, selected his company’s copper exploration project for a grant among hundreds of applicants.

[Embedded video available]

Western interest in mining Kazakhstan is picking up momentum like a “snowball rolling down a hill,” said Kaisar Kozhamuratov, a partner at Aurora Minerals Group, a mining advisory company in Astana.

So far this year, the number of exploration licenses in Kazakhstan is on a pace to nearly double the average annual amount issued over the previous six years.

‘A Pure Businessman’

Mr. Rakishev, the investor in nickel mining in eastern Kazakhstan, is not backed by a multinational mining giant, but he casts a long shadow in the country.

His company, the Fincraft Group, has holdings in oil and gas operations and a handful of technology start-ups. It recently sold its stake in a bank that Mr. Rakishev had bought from the state a decade earlier. Mr. Rakishev also owns a private school and a cosmetics company that he started with his wife, Aselle Tasmagambetova, an ecologist, a philanthropist and the daughter of Imangali Tasmagambetov, a former prime minister.

Mr. Rakishev seems to know every prominent Kazakh in the country. He and his wife started a charity program with Vyacheslav Kim, Kazakhstan’s richest person, doling out grants to entrepreneurs. The former middleweight boxing world champion Gennadiy Golovkin, a national hero better known as GGG, is a friend and texting buddy. Mr. Zhakupov, the chief executive of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is a former classmate.

Mr. Rakishev, in the background, in the lab of an ecological research firm that his wife, Asel Tasmagambetova, built, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in March.

But these close relationships can create complications. In 2015, Mr. Rakishev accompanied Karim Massimov, Kazakhstan’s prime minister at the time, on a visit to the United States. During that trip, the two men attended a group dinner at an Italian restaurant in Washington with Joseph R. Biden Jr., then the vice president, and his son Hunter.

That dinner — and a business relationship with a company affiliated with Hunter Biden — put Mr. Rakishev on the radar of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

The investigation found that Mr. Rakishev had wired $142,300 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a company affiliated with the president’s son, in April 2014. The money was transferred to a car dealership to buy a vehicle for Hunter Biden, according to testimony by Devon Archer, Mr. Biden’s former business partner.

In closed-door testimony with a House oversight committee, Mr. Archer said Mr. Rakishev was “a prominent businessman” from a “prominent family,” according to a transcript.

In an interview, Mr. Rakishev said that he had met Mr. Archer in Kazakhstan and that they had become friends. He was planning to do business with Mr. Archer’s firm, Rosemont Seneca, in mining and real estate. He said he had bought a car for the new venture’s U.S. office. It was not supposed to be for Hunter Biden, whom he said he had met on several occasions. His understanding was that he, too, would drive the car when he visited.

President Biden and his son Hunter Biden in 2023.

“I don’t have any business relationship with Hunter. I didn’t ask him for any favors,” Mr. Rakishev said. He said he had attended the dinner with the elder Mr. Biden as part of Kazakhstan’s “official delegation,” but had not spoken with him. A representative for Hunter Biden did not respond to requests for comment.

Despite his political connections and his wealth — an estimated $435 million, according to Forbes — Mr. Rakishev said it was incorrect to call him an oligarch. In his mind, an oligarch is a businessperson with the power to change the government.

“I am a pure businessman,” he said.

Mr. Rakishev’s company, Kaznickel, is producing nickel and cobalt in the Abay region of eastern Kazakhstan. The project resembles a modest farming outpost, nothing like the open-pit sites used to extract nickel in countries like Indonesia. In fields blanketed with fresh snow, boreholes stick out of the ground every few feet. Kaznickel injects a chemical solution into the ground through the openings. The nickel dissolves in the solution, which is then pumped to the surface and processed in a metal storehouse next to the site.

Nickel hydroxide, used widely in electric vehicle batteries, collected from a deposit in eastern Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan has used a similar approach for decades to mine almost half of the world’s uranium. Its use for nickel is more novel.

The Kaznickel project was started five years ago as a pilot. Mining requires a lot of patience and foresight — a lesson that, Mr. Rakishev said, other countries would be wise to heed.

The West, he said, is lagging behind when it comes to critical minerals. China started to secure supplies of lithium, cobalt and graphite decades ago.

“You need to have patience like China,” he said. “They think strategically.”

‘My Property, My Trees’: New Tree-Cutting Law Divides N.Y. Town

A Westchester County suburb updated its law about tree removals from yards, upsetting tree advocates, who want stricter rules, and residents who don’t want to be told what to do.

[Embedded video available]

By Hilary Howard  18 Jul, 2024

When Robert Herbst returned to his hometown about 30 miles north of New York City in 1992, he wanted his children to be immersed in the lush greenery of his childhood. But over the decades, he noticed more trees coming down to make way for bigger houses.

Mr. Herbst, a lawyer, and other like-minded residents of Mamaroneck, N.Y., view the vanishing trees as a serious threat in the era of climate change.

“We should be protecting trees for our own survival,” said Jacob Levitt, a dermatologist who lives in Mamaroneck. “It’s suicidal not to do it.”

But some residents say they should have the right to remove any and all trees on their properties to make way for more sunlight or a home expansion, or simply because they want them gone.

“People want to landscape the way they want to landscape,” said Eve Neuman, a realtor who lives in the area.

Robert Herbst is part of a group of residents in Mamaroneck, N.Y., who are fighting a new law that they say makes it too easy to remove needed trees.

Recently, the debate has become more heated because of a new law that expands the town’s oversight of where and when trees can be cut down.

Mamaroneck’s old tree law was drafted in the 1980s and required tree removal permits only on lots 20,000 square feet and larger. The new measure, enacted in February, requires permits on smaller lots that make up about 80 percent of the town that is covered by the law.

Homeowners no longer need to explain their removal requests, describe the trees or let their neighbors know a permit has been issued. They have to either replace removed trees or get approval to donate $300 per tree to a planting fund instead. No permit is needed to remove dangerous or dead trees, which can become a hazard. Otherwise, small properties can remove up to three trees a year; on larger lots, up to seven.

“It’s just a regulated way of cutting down trees,” said Andrea Hirsch, a local lawyer who is representing a group of tree advocates to challenge the new law in court. She added that the new law no longer requires an environmental review before removals, and that property owners can get approval to exceed the per-year cap if trees interfere with a desired use of the property, like putting a swing set in the backyard.

Some homeowners support the law, but feel it is an overreach. “My property, my trees,” wrote John Phillipson, a longtime resident, in an online comment, adding, “We are overregulated by government as it is.”

The lawsuit is pending, and both parties are due back in court later this month.

With the Long Island Sound to its east and two major rivers that traverse the town, Mamaroneck has a flooding problem. But it’s also a popular place to live: The median price for single-family homes sold this year is around $1.5 million. The town is part of Westchester County, a region in southeastern New York that is seeing ongoing, intense development.

Across Westchester, tree canopy cover — the amount of foliage and branches that shade the ground — is in decline, according to a 2022 study led by Andrew Reinmann, an assistant professor at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and at Hunter College. He spoke at a public meeting in Mamaroneck during the tree law deliberations.

As of 2021, canopy cover in Mamaroneck had retreated to around 41 percent of the town’s land area, a concerning loss of about 7 percent since 2011, Dr. Reinmann said.

“As tree canopy cover declines, you can see tangible increases in local temperatures and an increased reliance on electricity for cooling homes and buildings,” he said. Trees provide shade, intercept rainfall and release moisture back into the air.

Tree canopy is on the decline across Westchester County, according to a recent report. The area surrounding Mamaroneck, outlined in green, has lost about 7 percent since 2011.

But some homeowners in Mamaroneck bristle at being told what to do.

Since a residential building went up in an empty field behind Mr. Phillipson’s house in the 1990s, flooding has worsened in his backyard, and his vegetable garden was cast in a shadow, he said. To allow for more sunlight, he removed two trees on his property, he said, adding that he was able to do so without seeking permits. And he would like to keep that right.

“I’d like to see the law more relaxed and give the homeowner a chance to do what they need to do,” said Mr. Phillipson, a retiree who bought his house in Mamaroneck 40 years ago.

The debate over how to balance environmental concerns and property rights is becoming more common, said Max Besbris, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in housing and climate change. “There’s a very real anxiety” over best practices, he said, especially since a house is the biggest purchase many people will ever make.

The new tree law came about because the town’s environmental advisory group had become concerned about the rising number of felled trees coinciding with rising temperatures and floods.

The town supervisor, Jaine Elkind Eney, who is also a real estate lawyer, got to work with her four board members. “It was a lot of give and take,” she said.

But when the board passed the new law unanimously, there was an outcry from the tree advocates. They argued that the new measure had made it too easy to remove trees and its annual limits were too generous, while older trees, which have a powerful effect on the environment, had lost some protections.

The new law does include a scale for the number of replacement trees that must be planted for each tree removed. A mature tree with a trunk diameter of over a foot and a half, for example, would need to be replaced by four young trees.

“We’ll be increasing the tree canopy, albeit over time,” Ms. Elkind Eney said.

Frank Buddingh’, a local arborist, said that replacing an old tree with four new ones isn’t an equal exchange. Producing as much oxygen as a 100-year-old tree that has been cut down — with its carbon storage capacity and extensive crown and root system — would require hundreds of young trees, he said.

Jaine Elkind Eney, Mamaroneck’s supervisor, said the Town Board had tried to “strike a balance” with the new tree law between people who were concerned about property rights and those who wanted strict protections for trees.

In Westchester County, about half of all municipalities have tree laws. New York and most other states put the onus on municipalities to come up with tree regulations for private property and public spaces, while most public forests are regulated by state and federal agencies.

Mr. Buddingh’ would like trees to be viewed as valuable resources to be protected and regulated, like air, he said. “They should be on an asset list and not on an expenditure list,” he said.

A Daily Pill to Prevent S.T.I.s? It May Work, Scientists Say.

A common antibiotic, doxycycline, greatly reduced cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia when taken every day, a study found.

The C.D.C. recommends that gay and bisexual men and transgender women who have had an S.T.I. in the last year or who may be at risk for one take doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

By Apoorva Mandavilli  18 Jul, 2024

A daily dose of a widely used antibiotic can prevent some infections with syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia, potentially a new solution to the escalating crisis of sexually transmitted infections, scientists reported on Thursday.

Their study was small and must be confirmed by more research. Scientists still have to resolve significant questions, including whether S.T.I.s might become resistant to the antibiotic and what effect it could have on healthy gut bacteria in people taking it every day.

The approach would be recommended primarily to people at elevated risk of sexually transmitted infections during certain periods, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, an infectious diseases physician at the University of Southern California who was not involved in the new work.

“The number of people who are really going to be offered this and take this is still very small,” he said. “In general, the more choices we have for people, the more prevention options we have, the better.”

The results will be presented next week at a conference of the International AIDS Society in Munich.

The United States now has the highest rate of new syphilis infections since 1950, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in January. In 2022, the last year for which data are available, there were 1.6 million cases of chlamydia and nearly 650,000 new cases of gonorrhea.

Previous studies have shown that the antibiotic doxycycline substantially cuts the risk of new infections if taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex. The C.D.C. now recommends taking doxycycline after “oral, vaginal or anal sex.”

The recommendation applies only to gay and bisexual men and transgender women who have had an S.T.I. within the previous year or who may be at risk for one. There is not enough evidence that the strategy, called doxy-PEP, works for other groups, the agency concluded.

The new study took a different tack, looking instead at preventing S.T.I.s with a daily dose of the drug, which may be better for individuals with frequent exposure to infections.

Some providers have suggested that patients might balk at taking antibiotics every day. But many patients told the researchers it would be easier for them to remember to take a daily dose along with a daily pill for H.I.V. prevention or treatment, said Dr. Troy Grennan, who heads the H.I.V. program at the BC Center for Disease Control in Vancouver and led the study.

“Health care providers and researchers make a lot of assumptions about what the community would prefer, and they are often wrong,” he said.

A 2015 study looked at the daily use of doxycycline before sex for preventing S.T.I.s in gay and bisexual men who have H.I.V., but the sample was small and there was no placebo group.

Inspired by that study, Dr. Grennan and his team tested the approach in 41 gay and bisexual men in Toronto and Vancouver. The men were already taking a daily pill to treat H.I.V., and they added 100 milligrams of doxycycline each day for 48 weeks.

The researchers tested the men for S.T.I.s every three months and monitored microbial resistance to the antibiotic. They found that daily doxycycline slashed the rate of syphilis infections by 79 percent, chlamydia by 92 percent and gonorrhea by 68 percent.

The team has since found similar results in gay and bisexual men and trans women who do not have H.I.V.

Dr. Grennan said he was surprised to see that the strategy worked so well against gonorrhea, because about 60 percent of cases in Canada are resistant to tetracyclines, a class of antibiotics that includes doxycycline.

A similar study in France, where the rate of gonorrhea resistance is 65 percent, found that doxycycline after sex did not prevent new cases. Steady exposure to the antibiotic might be more effective than a single dose that drops off quickly, Dr. Klausner said.

Consistent with prior studies, the use of doxycycline to prevent S.T.I.s did not seem to increase microbial resistance to the antibiotic. But the study was too small to be sure, some experts warned.

The approach “required participants to take considerably more antibiotics,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the S.T.I. center at the C.D.C.

Dr. Grennan and his colleagues aim to recruit 560 men and trans women with and without H.I.V. to compare whether doxycycline taken every day is as effective as the antibiotic taken only as needed after sex.

Another study at the conference suggested that patients who take pills to prevent H.I.V. infection were not more likely to get S.T.I.s if they were screened twice a year instead of four times a year, as is currently recommended.

The reduced frequency may be more palatable and practical for patients, and may increase adherence to H.I.V. preventives, the researchers said.

The study, in the Netherlands, followed 448 gay and bisexual men in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Nijmegen who were taking H.I.V. preventive pills over 18 months. About half were scheduled to be screened for S.T.I.s every three months and the other half every six months.

Some participants in the six-month group sought out S.T.I. testing between the planned clinic visits. Even so, their overall visits were fewer than for those in the three-month group. Yet the rate of infections in the six-month group was only slightly higher.

Frequent S.T.I. screening is “burdensome” for many patients, especially for those who may need to take time off work or travel long distances, said Marije Groot Bruinderink, a graduate student at the University of Amsterdam who led the work.

More frequent screening also may lead to overtreatment, especially of asymptomatic cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea that may clear on their own, Dr. Klausner noted.

Publicly funded sexual health clinics in the United States are overwhelmed and don’t have enough staff or time to diagnose and treat more urgent cases of S.T.I.s, including syphilis in pregnant women, let alone asymptomatic cases, he said.

While asymptomatic infections may cause lasting harm to patients, including infertility, there’s no evidence that frequent screening and treatment for chlamydia and gonorrhea decreases rates in the population at large, Dr. Klausner said.

Losing Hope, Venezuelans Vow to Leave Their Country if Maduro Wins

As many as one-third of Venezuelans would consider migrating if the country’s authoritarian leader is given another six years in power in an election set for July 28, one poll showed.

Leonela Colmenares, 28, a Venezuelan opposition activist, is considering leaving if President Nicolás Maduro retains his hold on power. She has protested everything from failing public services to the jailing of activist colleagues.

By Julie TurkewitzPhotographs by Adriana Loureiro Fernandez  18 Jul, 2024

A young opposition activist planning to trek through seven countries and a perilous jungle to reach the United States. A journalist ready to abandon everything to build a new life abroad. A lawyer in her 60s, fearful that her last daughter is about to leave.

For thousands of Venezuelans, the decision to remain or flee their homeland depends on a single date: July 28. On that day, the country will vote in a high-stakes presidential election.

If the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, declares victory, they say they will go. If the opposition candidate wins, they will stay.

“Everyone says the same thing,” said Leonela Colmenares, 28, the opposition activist. “If Maduro wins, they are leaving.”

Roughly a quarter of Venezuela’s population has already left, with almost eight million people living in other countries, according to the United Nations, forming one of the largest migration crises in the world.

The exodus has torn apart families and stripped the country of its talent — and created an enormous challenge for President Biden, who has had to contend with record levels of migration from Venezuela and other countries during his administration.

Overall, U.S. crossings are down in recent months over last year, amid efforts by the Biden administration to discourage people from seeking asylum at the southern border.

But August, September and October have traditionally been the most heavily traveled months through the Darién Gap, the dangerous jungle straddling Colombia and Panama that has become one of the world’s busiest routes for migrants moving north.

Not all Venezuelans will head to the United States, and not all who come to the United States will seek entry at the southern border. But any spike in migration would present another significant test for Mr. Biden just ahead of the U.S. election.

Venezuelans arriving in the United States in recent years have filled shelters in New York and stretched budgets in cities like Denver. But the exodus has been felt just as deeply, if not more so, inside Venezuela, which has lost its teachers, doctors and engineers — and seen families scattered across the globe.

Some Venezuelans who have stayed behind did so because they thought they could promote change or serve their country from within. Now, after years of protests, an unyielding autocratic government and rounds of opposition leaders who have promised to push out Mr. Maduro — only to fail — many say they see this election as their last hope.

It’s not just a grinding economic crisis — spurred by government mismanagement and exacerbated by U.S. sanctions — that has lasted nearly a decade. In recent months, the government has also ramped up detentions of people it perceives as dissidents, leading to fears of further persecution if Mr. Maduro stays in power.

Nearly 300 political prisoners are in government custody, according to a watchdog group, Criminal Forum.

“I did everything I could for my country,” said Jesús Zambrano, 32, a journalist who is considering leaving for Germany. “But I’m not ready to go to prison for doing my job.”

One private poll by the company ORC Consultants, conducted in June, suggests that as many as one-third of Venezuelans are considering the possibility of migrating if the current government remains in power. Half of those said they would leave in the six-month period after the July 28 vote.

Some analysts are skeptical that the exodus would be that large, or that sudden.

Nevertheless, migration is one issue that cuts across Venezuela’s socioeconomic and political lines, uniting a people severed by distance in a collective longing for reunification.

And it has become a key issue in this month’s election.

The country’s main opposition leader is María Corina Machado, an energetic former legislator whose central message is a promise to bring Venezuelans home by restoring democracy and getting the economy back on track.

The opposition leaders María Corina Machado, in white, and Edmundo González, in red, during a rally for Mr. González’s presidential campaign this month.

“This fight is so that you return!” Ms. Machado shouted at a rally in the eastern city of Maturín, where a woman in the crowd had held up a cellphone connected to her daughter in a far-off country.

Banned by Mr. Maduro’s government from running in the election, Ms. Machado is not actually on the ballot. Instead, her coalition has put a surrogate on the ticket, a former diplomat named Edmundo González.

Ms. Machado has gone on the campaign trail for Mr. González, and has sought to cultivate a nearly religious presence. She often appears dressed in white, a cross swinging from her neck, embracing supporters who shout “María! María!” everywhere she goes.

The González-Machado campaign has promoted videos of Venezuelans overcome with emotion, desperate for them to win and bring their families back.

“They’ve all gone! All of my relatives!” shouted one young woman at a camera at a recent opposition event, her voice cracking in pain.

“Where is your family?” the cameraman asked.

“In the United States,” she gulped. “Peru. Ecuador. Colombia. I’m so tired of it.”

Ms. Machado at a campaign rally in Caracas. She has mobilized her popularity to help propel the opposition's presidential campaign.

In recent years, photos of weary Venezuelans hiking through the treacherous Darién jungle and up to the U.S. border have made the troubles inside the country all the more real for the rest of the world.

Mr. Maduro has long blamed the country’s mass migration on U.S. sanctions, the most severe of which were placed on the oil industry in 2019.

Facing a serious electoral challenge, he has started mentioning the diaspora more often — and not simply accusing the United States of causing the mass flight. He is also appealing to citizens to come home.

On his television show last month, he claimed that a new program, called the Grand Mission Return to the Homeland, would offer returnees “comprehensive socioeconomic protection that only the humanist, Christian Bolivarian revolution of Venezuela can give.” (The “Bolivarian revolution” is his socialist movement.) But he did not offer concrete details.

“Venezuela is back in style!” he asserted.

Supporters of President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas this month.

Ms. Colmenares, 28, the opposition activist, has been advocating for a change of government since she was 15. She helped to found a political party called Popular Will and spent years protesting everything from failing public services to the jailing of her activist colleagues.

She has been in and out of university, often unable to afford tuition, and tried migrating to neighboring Colombia where she worked as a waitress and said that she only made enough to eat.

Now Ms. Colmenares is the primary breadwinner for her mother and father, who have health problems. She works as a university administrator and also sells pastries and drives her friends around in her car-turned-taxi.

Still, she cannot afford her mother’s medication.

Like many young people, Ms. Colmenares is pouring all her energy into supporting the González-Machado campaign. But if Mr. Maduro wins another six-year term, she plans to travel to Colombia, then through the Darién, Central America and Mexico, to the United States border, where she will seek asylum.

Ms. Colmenares with a copy of the presidential ballot, showing people how to vote.

Ms. Colmenares has considered applying for a legal entry program known as parole, but would need someone in the United States to sponsor her. She knows no one who could do that, she said. And even if she did, acceptance could take months or years, or never arrive.

Zuleika Meneses, 33, a friend of Ms. Colmenares, is also planning to leave Venezuela if the Maduro government keeps its hold on power. Ms. Meneses, who is also a founding member of Popular Will, said she had been an activist since she was 14.

“I don’t want to leave my country,” she said. “I dream of being a legislator, of being a governor, of being the president of Venezuela.”

Zuleika Meneses, 33, also said she plans to leave Venezuela if the Maduro government keeps its hold on power. The July 28 election represents her last hope for political change in the country, she said.

It’s not just the economic situation pushing her out. She is also fearful of a wider crackdown in the coming months. She rattled off the names of jailed activists.

“I don’t want to be another name on the list,” she said.

Marisol Ríos, 62, is a lawyer with three daughters. Two have already left the country, one is in the United States, and another in Colombia. At her home in the state of Táchira, on the country’s western edge, she said that her youngest and only remaining daughter, María Paulina, 24, was now considering her own exit.

María Paulina’s boyfriend, a violin teacher, played softly in the background as Ms. Ríos cried, pondering the idea of spending the rest of her life without her children.

“It would be very painful if Paulina left, because she is my right hand,” Ms. Ríos said. “But I am not in a position to clip her wings — because she has a right to live.”

Two of Marisol Ríos’s daughters have left Venezuela, and her third is considering leaving.

Reporting was contributed by Isayen Herrera and María Victoria Fermín from Caracas, Venezuela; Nayrobis Rodríguez from Sucre, Venezuela; and Lorena Bornacelly from Táchira, Venezuela.

World

- Same-Sex Couples in South Korea Win Landmark Rights Ruling

- Why Is Venezuela’s President, Nicolás Maduro, on the Ballot 13 Times?

- Evan Gershkovich, Wall Street Journal Reporter, Returns to Court in Russia

- In Argentina, Milei’s Devotion to Judaism Influences His Politics

- French Lawmakers Will Vote to Elect New National Assembly President

- As Many South Koreans Shun Marriage, Two Women Try to Redefine Family

- Student Protests in Bangladesh Turn Deadly: What to Know

- Von der Leyen Secures Second E.U. Term, but It’s a New World Out There

- Two Dead in Canada From Contaminated Milk Substitutes

- U.K. Failed in Handling of Covid Pandemic, Inquiry Report Says

- Pressure Mounts on Netanyahu to Seal a Cease-Fire Deal Before Speech to Congress

- America’s Allies in Middle East See Some Advantages in Potential 2nd Trump Presidency

- Fire at Shopping Mall in Southwestern China Kills 16

- Thursday Briefing

Same-Sex Couples in South Korea Win Landmark Rights Ruling

The country’s Supreme Court said same-sex couples qualify for dependent coverage under the national health insurance, a decision that could have wider ramifications.

[Embedded video available]

By Choe Sang-Hun  18 Jul, 2024

In a landmark ruling for gay rights in South Korea on Thursday, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples qualify for the national health insurance’s dependent coverage, a decision that rights activists hoped could pave the way for legalizing same-sex marriage in the country.

The decision would allow same-sex couples in the country to register their partners as dependents in national health insurance coverage, as married couples or couples in a common-law marriage can. Numerous other benefits are denied to same-sex and other couples living outside the traditional norms of family in South Korea.

In its ruling on Thursday, the country’s highest court ruled that denying a same-sex couple national health insurance dependent coverage “just because they are of the same sex” constitutes a serious discrimination that infringed upon citizens’ “dignity and values, their rights to pursue happiness, their freedom of privacy and their rights to be equally treated by the law.”

The plaintiff, So Seong-wook, filed the legal complaint in 2021. Mr. So wanted to register in the national health insurance program as a dependent of his partner, Kim Yong-min, arguing that their union should be treated as a common-law marriage. But South Korea’s health insurance service rejected his request and told him to pay a separate monthly insurance premium — a decision later affirmed by a district court.

But in February last year, an appeals court overturned the lower-court ruling. It said that although Mr. Kim and Mr. So’s union could not be considered a common-law marriage under South Korean laws, they should still qualify for the national health insurance’s dependent coverage.

In its final say on the case on Thursday, the Supreme Court endorsed the appeals court ruling. It said that same-sex couples formed an “economic cohabitation tantamount to” married and common-law couples.

“I hope today’s ruling will serve as a steppingstone toward enabling sexual minorities to gain equality in the system of marriage,” Mr. So said in a news conference on Thursday.

Mr. Kim said while he describes himself as Mr. So’s “husband” and “companion,” he has never been able to enjoy those titles legally in South Korea.

“I am so happy that the court recognized some of that today,” he said.

Borang Jang, an East Asia researcher at Amnesty International, the rights group, described the ruling as historic.

“The court has taken a significant step towards dismantling systemic discrimination and ensuring inclusivity for all,” she said in a statement. “The case itself is a sobering reminder of the lengthy judicial processes that same-sex couples must endure to secure basic rights that should be universally guaranteed.”

There is no official data on how many people live together in same-sex unions in the country. But between 2016 and 2022, the number of people who live together in “non-kin households” — people living together outside legal marriage — doubled to 1 million, according to government data.

Conservative Christians in South Korea have long campaigned against legalizing same-sex marriage or introducing an anti-discrimination law that protects people of any gender, age, sexual identity or physical ability. But attitudes are changing. At the turn of the century, only 17 percent of South Koreans were in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, according to Gallup Korea, a survey company. By May of last year, that figure had grown to 40 percent.

Why Does Venezuela’s President Appear on the Ballot 13 Times?

By Genevieve Glatsky and Gray Beltran  18 Jul, 2024

“We haven’t seen anything similar to this,” said Staffan Darnolf of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a group outside Washington that advises more than 30 countries on electoral operations.

The ballot’s layout, he added, seems to provide Mr. Maduro a clear upper hand.

“It is an advantage to be on the top part of a ballot, because normally that’s what people are looking at,” he said.

Mr. Maduro’s government has thrown up numerous obstacles to a free and fair vote. It has disqualified candidates, arrested opposition activists and prevented millions of Venezuelans living abroad from registering to vote.

To many government critics, the ballot’s layout is another measure by the authoritarian government to skew the vote in its favor even as surveys suggest overwhelming support for the opposition.

“As the election has become less and less competitive, the voting instruments become more confusing,” said Eugenio Martínez, the director of Votoscopio, an electoral monitoring organization.

Venezuela’s electoral authority did not respond to a request for comment.

It is not unusual in some countries for multiple parties to nominate the same candidate, several election experts said.

That has long been the case in Venezuela, and the fact that a candidate appears more than once on the ballot is not by itself a sign of a flawed election, said Carlos Medina, a director of the Venezuelan Electoral Observatory, an independent group.

What is worrisome, he added, is that many of the parties on the ballot have been co-opted by the Maduro government to nominate either Mr. Maduro or candidates rubber-stamped by the government.

“In the case of Venezuela, it is a tradition that the voting options look that way,” he said. “The problem is in the origin of the political parties that are supporting Nicolás Maduro 13 times in this case.”

About six years ago the government started targeting some of the country’s oldest and most established political parties and replacing their leaders with government loyalists.

At the same time it approved the creation of a raft of new parties to preserve a facade of democracy by nominating candidates not seen as legitimate challengers by political experts and many Venezuelan voters.

Fourteen of the 38 parties on the ballot were created in the past six years.

Under Venezuelan law, the party that won the most votes in the previous election gets the first choice of placement on the election ballot, and any allied parties supporting the same candidate are placed together.

But the three parties backing Mr. González are not placed together because when the ballot’s configuration was determined those parties were not supporting the same candidate. So his three images do not appear consecutively.

“They’re trying to keep the facade of an election, but gradually limit the ability of people to vote for what they want,” said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, an expert on Venezuela for the Inter-American Dialogue, a research organization in Washington. “And the ballot is a clear example of that.”

Closing Arguments for Evan Gershkovich Expected Friday in Russian Court

Mr. Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, appeared at a hearing in his espionage trial. The United States and The Journal have strongly rejected the charge against him.

Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, during a hearing in Russia last month.

By Ivan Nechepurenko  18 Jul, 2024

The espionage trial of Evan Gershkovich, the imprisoned reporter for The Wall Street Journal, appears to be moving ahead quickly, with the court in Russia where he appeared on Thursday scheduling closing arguments for Friday.

Mr. Gershkovich appeared in a courtroom in the city of Yekaterinburg for the second hearing in his espionage trial, the court’s press service said, according to RIA Novosti, a state news agency. The court said that it had finished investigating evidence in Mr. Gershkovich’s case and was ready to move to closing arguments.

The hearing was initially scheduled to take place on Aug. 13. According to Mediazona, a Russian news outlet, the court moved it ahead at the request from Mr. Gershkovich’s lawyers.

Vladimir A. Zherebenkov, a Russian lawyer who worked on a similar espionage case, said the court’s proceedings were “fast.” An espionage trial usually takes about four months in Russia but can take up to a year, according to lawyers who have worked on such cases. The first hearing in Mr. Gershkovich’s case happened on June 26.

Mr. Zherebenkov said the court was likely to recess to formulate a ruling after the closing arguments, and that Mr. Gershkovich could make a statement too.

The hearing on Thursday came a day after the Russian foreign minister, Sergei V. Lavrov, reiterated that Russia and the United States were holding talks on a possible prisoner exchange involving Mr. Gershkovich.

Speaking on Wednesday at a news conference at the United Nations in New York, Mr. Lavrov also said that Russia had “irrefutable evidence” that Mr. Gershkovich had been engaged in “espionage activities.”

Because Mr. Gershkovich’s case is classified, his lawyers are prohibited by law from speaking publicly about the case, under penalty of imprisonment.

The hearing came more than 15 months after Mr. Gershkovich, 32, was detained by security agents in Yekaterinburg, which is about 900 miles east of Moscow. After spending more than a year in a high-security prison in Moscow, Mr. Gershkovich was transferred back to Yekaterinburg to stand trial.

Mr. Gershkovich, the first Western reporter to be detained on an espionage charge in Russia since the Cold War era, had worked in Russia as a journalist for various publications for more than five years before his arrest.

His employer and the U.S. government have denied the charges against him, calling them politically motivated. The State Department has designated Mr. Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” which effectively compels it to work for his safe release.

Held behind closed doors, the trial is unlikely to shed more light on the prosecution’s case. But the verdict is in little doubt. The Russian justice system overwhelmingly produces guilty verdicts.

The Russian authorities have suggested that any potential prisoner swap would come only after a verdict is handed down.

In June, Russian prosecutors said they had finalized the espionage indictment against Mr. Gershkovich. They said that “under instructions from the C.I.A.” and “using painstaking conspiratorial methods,” Mr. Gershkovich “was collecting secret information” about a factory that produces tanks and other weapons in the Sverdlovsk region.

The prosecutors’ statement was the first time that Russian state representatives revealed details about the accusations against Mr. Gershkovich. But they have yet to provide any evidence to back up the charge.

The trial is being heard by Andrei N. Mineev, a judge on the Sverdlovsk regional court in Yekaterinburg, according to a statement from the court. In a 2021 interview with a Russian news website, Mr. Mineev said that he had only delivered about four acquittals in his decades-long career. If convicted, Mr. Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.

The Wall Street Journal has called the proceedings a “sham trial.”

Mr. Gershkovich is one of several American citizens who have been detained in Russia in recent years, and his case has raised fears that the Kremlin is seeking to use American citizens as bargaining chips to be exchanged for Russians held in the West.

On Thursday, a court in Moscow sentenced Michael Travis Leake, an American rock musician who had been living in Russia, to 13 years in a high-security penal colony after prosecutors accused him of organizing a drug trafficking ring. Mr. Leake’s plea has not been made public.

The court also sentenced Veronika Grabanchuk, whom it identified as his accomplice, to eight years in a penal colony.

Other Americans held in Russia include Paul Whelan, a Marine veteran; Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; and Marc Fogel, a teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, who in 2022 was sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony for drug smuggling.

In June, a Russian court sentenced Yuri Malev, who holds both American and Russian citizenship, to three and a half years in a penal colony after he criticized Russia, its leadership and its war in Ukraine on social media.

In Argentina, a Catholic President and His Rabbi

Javier Milei has developed a public devotion to Judaism unusual for a leader of a predominantly Roman Catholic country.

President Javier Milei of Argentina, right, during an emotional visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem in February with his rabbi, Shimon Axel Wahnish.

By Jack Nicas and Daniel Politi  18 Jul, 2024

President Javier Milei of Argentina is a Catholic who leads Pope Francis’s native country.

He also regularly studies the Torah, attends Shabbat dinner and has said that perhaps his most important adviser is his rabbi.

Over the past several years, Mr. Milei has taken an intense and, among most world leaders, unusual interest in Judaism.

He has posted Hebrew verses from the Torah on social media, traveled internationally to meet rabbis, called Moses an inspiration and said that, if it were not for the challenges of observing the Jewish Sabbath while serving as president, he would convert to Judaism.

His growing devotion to the Jewish faith has also begun to inform Argentine policy.

The nation has become Latin America’s fiercest defender of Israel, declaring Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, a terrorist organization. Mr. Milei has pledged to move Argentina’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. And he has appointed his personal rabbi, Shimon Axel Wahnish, as Argentina’s ambassador to Israel.

He has also promised renewed efforts to seek justice for the 85 victims of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The 30th anniversary of that attack is on Thursday.

The aftermath of the bombing in 1994 that killed 85 members of the Jewish community in Buenos Aires.

“We’re not here to do more of the same. We’re here to propose a break from what various governments have done” in response to the bombing, Mr. Milei said Wednesday night at a memorial event in Buenos Aires.

The attack has long been an open wound for Argentina’s Jewish community because no one has ever been held legally responsible for it.

Argentine courts have found that Iran was behind the attack and that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah executed it. The courts named specific people, but the suspects have remained at large despite Interpol arrest notices. Argentine courts and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have also found that past Argentine officials hindered investigations into the bombing.

In April, when a top court in Argentina reaffirmed the earlier findings on Iran’s role, Mr. Milei’s office hailed the decision, saying it “brought an end to decades of delays and cover-ups.”

Mr. Milei’s increasing connection to Judaism as the leader of an overwhelmingly Christian nation reflects his unorthodox approach to politics, which helped carry him to the presidency last year.

Mr. Milei was elected after telling Argentines that they must withstand more pain to fix the nation’s economic crisis. And while that so far has proved true — the pain part, anyway, with poverty soaring and the Argentine peso collapsing — his approval rates have remained high, around 50 percent.

Mr. Milei has even suggested that Judaism might deliver the answers to solving Argentina’s economic mess. “The rabbi who helps me study says that I should read the Torah from the perspective of economic analysis,” he told El País last year.

Argentines have become inured to economic turmoil, but they are not as accustomed to a leader who appears to have a stronger connection to Judaism than to Christianity, the faith that nearly 80 percent of the country says it follows.

Carlos Menem, Argentina’s president from 1989 to 1999, was raised Muslim but converted to Catholicism as he entered Argentine politics. Mr. Milei was raised Catholic but has called Francis an “imbecile” and a “dirty leftist.” He later apologized.

In April, while receiving the “ambassador of light” award at a Hasidic synagogue near Miami, Mr. Milei said that he had gotten his “Jewish values” from a grandfather who, shortly before death, discovered he was Jewish.

Rabbi Wahnish said he met Mr. Milei in 2021 for a short conversation that ended up lasting hours. They spoke about Jewish texts and values, and it quickly resonated with Mr. Milei.

“It was as if he already knew, but he just didn’t know it was Judaism,” Rabbi Wahnish said. The two now speak frequently, with Mr. Milei calling the rabbi his “spiritual adviser” and taking him along on international trips, including to meet the billionaire Elon Musk.

Argentina, a nation of 46 million, has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, with about 200,000 people in the country identifying as Jewish. Arriving in waves of immigration that began at the end of the 19th century, many sought refuge during World War II. Argentina also became a haven for fugitive Nazis.

A 2015 commemoration of the bombing.

Mr. Milei’s embrace of Judaism has been met with mixed reaction from Argentina’s Jewish community.

Rabbi Daniel Avruj, who leads a Conservative synagogue in Buenos Aires, said that Mr. Milei was a welcome change. When terrorists bombed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the Jewish community center two years later, he said, “there was no president who wanted to talk about Judaism and Moses.”

He said Mr. Milei’s defense of Israel after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 has made him “proud — not as a Jew, but as an Argentine.”

Some other Jewish Argentines disagree. The head of the Anne Frank museum in Buenos Aires has publicly worried that Mr. Milei’s criticism of Hamas could again make Argentina a target. Hamas said Argentina designated the group as terrorists to justify “genocide and ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip.

Others note that Mr. Milei has aligned himself with a particularly Orthodox sector of Judaism. In his first trip abroad as president-elect last year, he went to New York to visit the tomb of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, an influential Hasidic leader known as the Rebbe.

And some accuse Mr. Milei of becoming interested in Judaism because he sees himself in the image of Moses as a liberator of the oppressed.

“Judaism allows him to see himself as someone supported by the ‘forces of heaven,’ sent to save Argentina,” said Pablo Gorodneff, a leader of the Argentine Jewish Appeal, a leftist Jewish group.

“Forces of heaven” was a sort of campaign slogan for Mr. Milei. He has also called Moses “the greatest liberator of all humanity” and one of his most important references.

Mr. Milei holding an Israeli flag while campaigning for the presidency last year in Argentina.

On Thursday, Mr. Milei planned to attend a memorial service for the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the community center, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, or AMIA, where a siren will sound at the same time that the attack occurred.

Mr. Milei’s government is pushing a bill that would greenlight trials in absentia for the Lebanese and Iranian citizens who Argentine courts have said were involved in the attack. Past efforts to approve trials in absentia failed to make it through Argentina’s Congress, and some in Argentina have questioned whether it is the right move.

Amos Linetzky, current president of the AMIA, said the organization had historically opposed the approach because it would rather see those responsible punished, not merely convicted in absentia. Yet he welcomed Mr. Milei’s efforts to pursue justice.

“Milei has shown total willingness and concern and a desire to prioritize the issue,” he said.

In February, Mr. Milei visited Pope Francis at the Vatican. The two Argentines, despite their past tensions, hugged and spent an hour together. The Vatican later called the meeting “cordial.” Mr. Milei told Italian television, “I’m Catholic, though I’m basically a practitioner of Judaism.”

Mr. Milei brought along several advisers to meet the pope, too. They included his rabbi.

French Parliament to Test New Power Balance for First Time

Lawmakers gathered for the first time since an election produced a deadlocked Parliament to elect a new president of the National Assembly. It was unclear who would come out on top.

Andre Chassaigne, a member of the Communist Party, speaks in the French National Assembly in Paris in February. Lawmakers will vote on Thursday to select a new president of the Assembly.

By Emma Bubola  18 Jul, 2024

French lawmakers prepared to elect the president of the National Assembly on Thursday, in a vote seen as a test of the power balances between the country’s political forces and as a potential indicator of the direction any new government would take.

The gathering of the Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, was its first since no party gained an outright majority in the second round of a snap election on July 7. It was unclear which political force the new president of the Assembly would emerge from.

The president of the National Assembly does not have executive powers, but this election could mark the emergence of a majority, even if not an absolute one, that could weigh on President Emmanuel Macron’s choice of the next prime minister.

In Paris on Wednesday at the National Assembly, its neoclassical portico decorated with colorful Olympic statues as the city prepares to host the games, lawmakers engaged in frantic negotiations and projections.

The left-wing coalition that won the most seats in the election, a jumble of parties spanning from the center left to the far left, has spent most of its time since the election bickering. But it managed, at last, to select a candidate: André Chassaigne, a member of the Communist Party who has been a lawmaker for 22 years.

Other candidates include Yaël Braun-Pivet, the former president of the assembly from Mr. Macron’s party, and Sébastien Chenu, a senior figure in Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.

Lawmakers were set to vote in a secret ballot starting on Thursday afternoon, when the newly elected Assembly sits for the first time since Mr. Macron dissolved the body last month after suffering a rout in European parliamentary elections.

The voting will be held in rounds: If no outright majority emerges from the first two rounds, a third will be held where a candidate only needs the most votes to win.

Gabriel Attal, the French prime minister, tendered his resignation on Tuesday but will stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed — which could potentially happen after the Paris Olympics, which start in a week.

There is no deadline for the selection of a new prime minister, whom Mr. Macron alone can appoint. Thursday’s election in the National Assembly will likely play a role in influencing that choice, according to Patrick Weil, a historian at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

“If the candidate supported by the left loses it will give Macron an option to try to create a more right-wing government,” Mr. Weil said on Wednesday. “That’s why tomorrow’s vote is important.”

Since lawmakers have little trust in Mr. Macron to oversee talks, Mr. Weil added, he hoped that the new president of the Assembly could help coordinate discussions between parties and make a coalition work.

The National Assembly that emerged from the snap election is split between three large blocs. The New Popular Front left-wing alliance has about 190 seats, the centrist Renaissance party of Mr. Macron has 150, and the far-right National Rally 142. The remaining seats are divided between smaller parties.

Mr. Macron is under no obligation to choose someone from any group in parliament as prime minister and has offered no indication that he will appoint someone from the left, despite the fact that it is the biggest bloc in the Assembly.

The New Popular Front has, however, claimed the right to propose a name for prime minister. But the two biggest parties in the coalition — the moderate Socialist Party and far-left France Unbowed — have not been able to agree on who that should be.

France Unbowed, the party of firebrand far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, supported the candidacy of Huguette Bello, the president of the regional council of La Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, and a former member of the local Communist Party.

The Socialist Party, the second biggest party in the left-wing coalition, put forward Laurence Tubiana, a veteran climate negotiator. Both parties have refused to back the other’s ideas.

“The French left, we don’t like each other,” said Emmanuel Grégoire, the former deputy mayor of Paris and a newly elected lawmaker with the Socialist Party. “We fight all the time.”

Mr. Grégoire accused France Unbowed of being “people who shout very loud.”

Lawmakers with France Unbowed, on the other hand, have accused the Socialist Party of lacking the courage to reject “Macronism,” a mishmash of centrist ideas whose core is simply the personality of the president, and to turn away from less regulated policies.

“We don’t want the Socialist Party to become a central force with a policy of accommodating the system,” said Aurélie Trouvé, a lawmaker with France Unbowed.

For now, though, formal discussions about the eventual prime minister will have to wait until after Thursday’s vote.

As Many South Koreans Shun Marriage, Two Women Try to Redefine Family

Hwang Sunwoo and Kim Hana, who are single and live together, say South Korea’s laws should reflect the alternative unions that many of its people have chosen.

Hwang Sunwoo, left, and Kim Hana in Seoul. The two women, who have a best-selling book and a podcast, call themselves “a DIY family.”

By Choe Sang-Hun  18 Jul, 2024

The event was to celebrate and discuss the book written by Hwang Sunwoo and Kim Hana, both 47, about their life together as single women in South Korea. But a man in the audience was there to offer criticism. He told the two women that they were making the country’s birthrate, already the world’s lowest, even worse. Their book, he argued, would encourage other women to follow suit.

“The irony was that the man, of our age, was unmarried himself,” Ms. Hwang said. “More people choose not to marry or not to have children, but it’s usually women to blame.”

South Korean society is deeply patriarchal and built around the traditional idea of family. Many government benefits — tax, housing, insurance and other incentives — are tailored for families. In return, families are expected to shoulder much of social welfare, such as caring for sick or elderly relatives.

Such longstanding norms may yet change. On Thursday, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples qualify for the national health insurance’s dependent coverage, a decision that rights activists hoped could pave the way for legalizing same-sex marriage in the country.

But with millions of South Koreans shunning the institution of marriage, the family-centered support system is rapidly unraveling. The nation’s quality of support network — measured by whether people have someone to rely on in a time of need — is the lowest among developed nations. South Korea also has the highest suicide rate among those nations.

For Ms. Kim and Ms. Hwang, who say they are not romantically involved with each other or anyone else, the solution is to redefine the concept of family. Their 2019 book, “Two Women Live Together,” has become a best seller, and their subsequent weekly podcast, “Two Women Talk Together,” attracts hundreds of thousands of listeners — giving voice to South Koreans, especially women, who have challenged the traditional family structure by forming cohabiting unions outside of marriage.

By law, a family in South Korea can only include spouses, parents and children. But with housing and education costs skyrocketing, nearly 42 percent of all households in the nation now comprise just one person.

“Two Women Talk Together,” the weekly podcast from Ms. Kim and Ms. Hwang, has hundreds of thousands of listeners.

Ms. Kim and Ms. Hwang describe themselves as “a DIY family.” Their way of life is an option for women who want neither singlehood nor a typical South Korean family — in which the husband spends only 54 minutes per day on household work but the wife spends more than three hours, even when both hold full-time jobs.

“We combine the freedom of being single and the benefit of living together,” Ms. Kim said.

Historically, a Korean woman’s duty was becoming “a wise mother and good wife.” When Ms. Hwang was younger, people asked her marital status “as casually as if they talked about the weather.” Today, middle-aged women are routinely addressed as “eomeonim” or “samonim” — honorifics for a woman with children or a wife — regardless of their marital or parental status.

Ms. Hwang and Ms. Kim’s book recounts how they live together despite their differences. When Ms. Hwang moved into the apartment they bought together in 2016, Ms. Kim, a minimalist, gasped at Ms. Hwang’s “natural disaster-size” heap of clothes and other belongings.

But they found each other complementary. Ms. Hwang, a former fashion magazine editor, loved to cook while Ms. Kim, a former copywriter, liked cleaning dishes. Both wrote books and kept cats, two for each. They loved to chat — a talent they successfully channeled into their podcast, where they discuss everything from books and movies to how to overcome anxiety and stay fit in middle age. They now make their living as authors and podcasters.

“The main takeaway is that it’s OK to be a woman in her 40s and not married,” Ms. Kim said. “It’s not a failed life.”

Kook Dongwan, 44, a visual artist in Seoul, said she enjoyed the podcast because “there is tons of content out there but not much of middle-aged women talking about their lives in a way fellow women can empathize.”

Yumi Choi, 37, said married people are overrepresented in mass media while people in alternative unions are marginalized.

“The surprising success of ‘Two Women Talk Together’ shows that there is a thirst for a platform respecting non-kin or unmarried households.”

“We combine the freedom of being single and the benefit of living together,” Ms. Kim says. By law, a family in South Korea can only include spouses, parents and children.

In 2022, the National Human Rights Commission recommended legalizing civil unions to give unmarried couples, including those of the same sex, most of the tax and other benefits and legal protections of marriage, including medical power of attorney. Last year, a government survey found that a majority of South Koreans believed that if the country supported unmarried couples by introducing civil unions, it would help reverse its declining birthrate.

Ms. Hwang and Ms. Kim realized how South Korea’s social support system excluded unmarried cohabitants in everyday life when they were shopping for a car: They were denied the discount in insurance premiums available for married couples. They also could not benefit from cellphone service discounts and airline mileage sharing available to married couples.

No matter how long cohabitants have lived together, they cannot take a leave of absence from work to look after a sick partner as a married co-worker can. They also cannot become legal representatives for each other in medical emergencies, as spouses can.

“It’s a great challenge for South Korean democracy whether it can embrace diversity,” said Hwang Doo Young, an author of a book about civil partnerships. Mr. Hwang, no relation to Ms. Hwang, said the country urgently needed to introduce civil unions, given the rising number of people who die alone with no one caring for them.

But in Parliament, the mere idea of women not marrying or not having children has faced a backlash from traditionalists. During her confirmation hearing in 2019, Joh Sung Wook, then 55, who had been nominated to lead the Fair Trade Commission, was chastised by a conservative male lawmaker for being single with no child.

“If you had that, you would have been a perfect nominee,” said the lawmaker, Jeong Kab-yoon, then 69.

Last year, conservative lawmakers and the Justice Ministry opposed two bills on allowing civil unions, warning that they would “effectively legalize same-sex marriages.”

But the traditional family structure is losing appeal.

In a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2020, nearly 70 percent of respondents said that people who live together and share costs must be considered a family even if they are not bonded by marriage or blood ties. The ministry also found that unmarried partners were happier — and fairer in dividing household work — than married couples. A 2022 government survey found that nearly 81 percent of young South Koreans embraced the idea of unmarried cohabitation.

A few businesses, like the mobile telephone carrier LG Uplus, have begun offering a special bonus and vacation to workers who decided not to marry in order to match similar benefits for newlyweds.

Ms. Kim and Ms. Hwang are public faces of a growing phenomenon in South Korea: the decline of traditional family structure.

In 2022, a woman in her 40s made news by adopting her cohabitant, her junior by four years, as her daughter. That was the only way the two women could make themselves a legally protected family.

Ms. Hwang and Ms. Kim don’t plan to go that far. But it has become inevitable for South Korea to introduce civil unions, they said.

“It will happen by the time we get old,” Ms. Hwang said.

What to Know About the Student Unrest in Bangladesh

Seventeen people have been killed in violent clashes between the police and students protesting a quota system used to fill coveted civil service jobs.

Clashes between the police and people who oppose a quota system n Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on Thursday.

By Anupreeta Das and Saif Hasnat  18 Jul, 2024

Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi citizens took to the streets on Thursday, joining students who have been agitating for weeks about a quota system for government jobs that benefits certain groups, including the descendants of those who fought for independence from Pakistan.

The protests have turned increasingly violent in recent days, resulting in a groundswell of anger against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after she unleashed a brutal crackdown by deploying the police and paramilitary forces to tame the protesters. As of Thursday, 17 people, most of them students, had been killed and hundreds of others injured. Large areas of Dhaka, the capital, remained empty, and the city shut down its only metro rail service.

Anisul Huq, the Bangladesh law minister, said on Thursday that the government was in favor of overhauling the quota system. Mr. Huq said the government would sit down with student leaders to find a resolution, although he added that the final decision would be made by the Supreme Court.

The protesters, who have launched counterattacks on the police, said they would not negotiate with the government. On Thursday, they targeted the headquarters of the national television station, setting fire to the building.

Here’s what to know about why the quota system has become such a point of contention.

What has happened so far in Bangladesh?

Students at the University of Dhaka, the country’s top institution, started the demonstrations on July 1, and they later spread to other elite universities. Initially peaceful, the protests turned violent when members of the pro-quota student wing of the governing party, the Awami League, began attacking the protesters, said Zahed Ur Rahman, a political analyst. Mr. Rahman added that the group’s assault on female students further inflamed the situation.

A police officer being beaten by several people during a clash in Dhaka on Thursday.

Besides sending the police and paramilitaries into the streets, including the Rapid Action Battalion, an antiterrorism unit, the government has also locked down schools and colleges, citing the need to protect students. Officials said they had slowed down internet connectivity to stop the spread of rumors and protect citizens from harm, making it harder for protesters to organize and make plans via social media platforms like Facebook. The police have also used rubber bullets, sound grenades and tear gas to disperse crowds. But the protests still continue.

Why are the students protesting?

At their heart, the protests are about coveted government jobs and who is entitled to them. An old quota system, reinstated recently by the Supreme Court, reserves more than half of those jobs for various groups. The students say the system is unfair and have argued that most of the positions should be filled based on a candidate’s merit. The students consider it an urgent demand in a country where the pace of job creation, according to a World Bank report, has slowed in recent years. Bangladesh is one of the world’s least developed countries, according to a United Nations trade body.

The paucity of jobs has disproportionately affected workers between the ages of 15 and 29, even as more of them graduate from college, the report found. That makes public-sector jobs — already coveted because they are seen as stable and brimming with benefits — even more desirable.

Why were quotas put in place?

The quota system was introduced in 1972 by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whom Bangladesh citizens call the “father of the nation.” Mr. Rahman led his country’s fight for independence from Pakistan in 1971. That war, the Bangladesh War of Independence, was a brutal one, and thousands of protesters and fighters were killed.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who introduced the quota system, waving to crowds on the streets of Dhaka in 1972.

The quota system ensured that the descendants of those considered freedom fighters would always be taken care of by the state. Today, a total of 56 percent of government jobs are reserved, a majority of which are for those whose family members fought in the war. Smaller quotas were later introduced for women, minorities and those with disabilities. Protesting students are also calling for the quotas for women and people from certain districts of Bangladesh to be removed, but they are in favor of reserving jobs for disabled people and minorities.

Wasn’t the quota system abolished once?

Yes. In 2018, two students from the University of Dhaka and a journalist petitioned a Dhaka high court, asking for the quota system to be overhauled. The appeal was accompanied by student protests, although they weren’t as violent as this time around. After months of demonstrations, Ms. Hasina, who was prime minister then as well, abolished the system. (She is the daughter of Mr. Rahman.) But in June, the Supreme Court reinstated the quotas after some families of freedom fighters filed suit.

“Under her rule, the judiciary is completely under her control,” said Asif Nazrul, a professor of law at the University of Dhaka who works closely with the student protesters.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2023. She abolished the quota system in 2018 amid calls for its overhaul.

The situation has become politicized.

Pro-quota groups are supporters of Ms. Hasina, who won her fourth straight election in January. The student wing of Ms. Hasina’s party also supports the quotas. After some of them attacked the protesters earlier this month, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the main opposition to Ms. Hasina’s party, began calling for more protesters to get involved.

On Wednesday, Ms. Hasina addressed the nation and said the government would create a judicial committee to investigate the deaths — there were six at that time — and that students would get justice. It remains unclear who caused their deaths. Her statements were a change from a few days ago, when she questioned whether the reserved jobs should be allocated to “razakar” — a derogatory term used to describe those who sided with the Pakistanis during the 1971 war. Many in Bangladesh took that comment to be a veiled reference to the students demanding quota reform.

“The prime minister’s comments, where she seemingly compared the protesting students to ‘razakars,’ fueled the protests,” Mr. Rahman, the political analyst, said.

On July 10, the Supreme Court paused the reinstatement of the quotas for four weeks because of the protests.

A protester in Dhaka on Wednesday. The protests are about coveted government jobs and who is entitled to them.

Von der Leyen Secures Second E.U. Term, but It’s a New World Out There

The German conservative, a steadfast U.S. ally, gained European Parliament approval to lead the European Commission for another five years. She’ll face tumult at home and abroad.

Ursula von der Leyen addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Thursday.

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff  18 Jul, 2024

After a pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis and a major war in Europe, not many feel nostalgia for the past five years. Ursula von der Leyen soon might.

On Thursday, Ms. von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, secured European Parliament approval to lead the European Union’s executive branch for a second five-year term.

It looks set to be even messier than the first, if that is possible. With the war in Ukraine in its third year and the prospect of a second Trump administration looming, the world is becoming a very different place from the one Ms. von der Leyen has helped the European Union navigate since 2019.

Not least, Europe’s own politics continue to be roiled by a nationalist far right whose strong showing in E.U.-wide elections in June threatened to deny her a new term. A German conservative politician, Ms. von der Leyen was confirmed after a decisive approval vote at the Parliament on Thursday.

She secured 401 votes in favor — 40 more than the 361 required for the majority of the 720-seat assembly. The comfortable majority (she was confirmed by just nine votes in 2019) reflects her successful efforts in rallying pro-European Union, pro-Ukraine centrist forces around her, particularly as a potential counterweight to a Trump presidency across the Atlantic.

Greens and liberals also backed her in Thursday’s vote, while representatives from nationalist, nativist and hard-line anti-migrant parties, including representatives aligned with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, voted against her.

Ms. von der Leyen, 65, was previously largely unknown in Europe, having served in cabinets in Germany under the Chancellor Angela Merkel without much distinction. She emerged from the wings in 2019 as the bloc leaders’ pick for the commission president role, leaving observers perplexed given her inexperience and lack of profile.

Five years on, Ms. von der Leyen has gained prominence with voters and on the global stage. Her detractors assert that she is a micromanager who has overextended her office’s powers with little accountability, particularly in her handling of the Covid pandemic. She has also been criticized for seemingly unqualified support for Israel in its war against Hamas, a position not shared by most E.U. nations.

Ms. von der Leyen with President Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine in February. She has personally pushed for greater European Union support for Ukraine.

But she has also helped strengthen the bloc’s role through each successive crisis, while ushering in ambitious climate policies and overseeing an overhaul of the E.U. asylum system. She also emerged as a staunch ally of President Biden in Europe, playing a vital role in orchestrating the bloc’s support for Ukraine.

She will now be essential if a second Trump presidency forces Europe to stand more fully on its own. Her reappointment as president puts her in charge of the bloc’s significant bureaucracy and army of experts, and in position to shape legislation for its 27 member countries.

On Thursday morning, in her speech to the Parliament, she pledged to keep Europe steady in a chaotic world, push to streamline its notorious bureaucracies, and bolster its defense.

The European Union and the United States have been the foremost supporters of Ukraine’s efforts to beat back Russia’s invading forces. Ms. von der Leyen has personally pushed for bigger financial aid for weapons and reconstruction, and spearheaded the opening of formal talks to let Ukraine into the European Union as a full member. She also helped forge E.U. support for economic sanctions against Russia, in lock step with the Biden administration.

A Trump presidency would largely withdraw support for Ukraine and push for a rapid peace deal, according to a letter relayed to a top E.U. official by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, after a discussion last week with Mr. Trump.

The European Union and the United States could also end up facing off in a number of other important ways under a Trump White House — over trade rules and tariffs, as well as aggressive European regulation of American technology giants.

Ms. von der Leyen could also face a disrupted political landscape in Europe, with France and Germany — major E.U. governments — distracted over domestic troubles and facing rising challenges of their own from the far right.

That could help her get her policies through. It could also leave her without vital allies among member states that need to approve those initiatives.

Although she has built a reputation for strengthening executive power bestowed on the Commission, she has also faced criticism that she stretched it too far.

On Wednesday, she received a painful ruling by the General Court of the European Union, the bloc’s second-highest court, which found that the Commission had inappropriately withheld details of the joint procurement contracts for Covid vaccines, the terms of which remain secret.

The New York Times has sued the European Commission as part of a freedom of information request, seeking access to text messages Ms. von der Leyen exchanged with Pfizer’s chief executive over the vaccine deal. That case is pending in the European court.

Listeria in Milk Alternatives Kills Two Canadians and Sickens 10 More

The Silk and Great Value brand drinks made from nuts, oats and coconuts were pulled from stores last week.

Unsweetened almond milk carrying the Silk brand was among the drinks recalled by the Canada Food Inspection Agency last week.

By Ian Austen  18 Jul, 2024

Two Canadians died from infections caused by listeria after drinking popular milk substitutes based on almonds, oats, cashews and coconuts that were sold under the Silk and Great Value brands, the country’s health department said Wednesday night.

Another 10 infections, most of them affecting residents of Ontario, have been confirmed by laboratory tests, the department, Health Canada, said in its health notice.

Silk, which is owned by Danone, the French food giant, said on its website that the contaminated drinks were made in a “third-party manufacturing facility.” It did not identify that factory, but said it remains closed while the cause of the contamination is being determined. Jennifer Vincent, a Danone spokeswoman, would not name the manufacturer. But she said the plant is in Ontario and that none of the products were distributed outside of Canada.

Because of Canada’s privacy laws, no personal information about the victims was released.

Last week, the Canada Food Inspection Agency announced a recall of 18 of the drinks sold by the Canadian subsidiary of Danone, which also produces a number of traditional dairy products and owns several mineral water brands including Evian. The refrigerated plant-based products are sold in milk cartons and are viewed by some as a healthier alternative to cows’ milk.

“The news in this notice is devastating,” Frédéric Guichard, the president of Danone Canada, said in a statement. “We are working with the utmost seriousness and in close partnership with the authorities to thoroughly investigate and shed light on the circumstances surrounding this event.”

Health Canada said that 10 of the people who were made ill live in Ontario and that two others come from Quebec and Nova Scotia. It also said that nearly 60 percent of the people infected are older than 60.

Older people are more likely than others to die from the bacterial infection, according to Health Canada. The health department said products containing the bacteria generally do not have any odors or other signs of contamination. Listeria can cause nausea, gastrointestinal discomfort, vomiting, persistent headaches, brain infections and fever.

In 2008, cold cuts contaminated with listeria made by Maple Leaf Foods, one of the country’s largest meatpackers, killed 22 people and made 57 others ill. The Conservative government at the time was criticized by some members of the medical community for its handling of the crisis.

U.K. Failed in Handling of Covid Pandemic, Inquiry Finds

The British authorities prepared for the wrong pandemic, with an outdated plan overly focused on influenza, an official investigation reported.

The Royal Free Hospital in London in March 2020. The report is the first from an inquiry established in 2021 by the then prime minister, Boris Johnson.

By Lynsey Chutel  18 Jul, 2024

Britain’s government “failed” the country’s citizens in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a damning report from an official public inquiry said on Thursday, partly because officials had prepared for “the wrong pandemic.”

The arrival of Covid-19 in 2020 exposed flaws in Britain’s public health system and its pandemic preparedness that had been ignored for years, the report said. During the early waves of infections, Britain’s per capita death rate was among the highest in Europe, eventually leading to more than 225,000 deaths in total, according to official data.

“Had the U.K. been better prepared for and more resilient to the pandemic, some of that financial and human cost may have been avoided,” the report said.

Before the spread of the coronavirus, the authorities in Britain worked on the assumption that the country had a resilient health care system and a strong pandemic plan that was prepared to meet a disease outbreak head on. That was wrong, the report found.

Britain had a plan, but it was “outdated and lacked adaptability,” the report said.

It was also too focused on the possibility of a flu pandemic. “Although it was understandable for the U.K. to prioritize pandemic influenza, this should not have been to the effective exclusion of other potential pathogen outbreaks,” the report said.

In addition, the report said, too many different organizations had responsibility for pandemic preparedness, meaning the overall system was “labyrinthine” and hard to navigate. It also found that the plan, dating from 2011, failed to take into account growing inequalities in health care provision, and the worsening health of vulnerable groups in the population, after years of government cuts during the 2010s.

The report is the first from an inquiry established in 2021 by the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, to examine Britain’s response to the pandemic. The inquiry team met with dozens of experts and considered more than 200 witness statements. It is led by Heather Carol Hallett, a retired judge who also led the inquest into the 2005 London bombings and is a nonpartisan member of the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of the British Parliament.

Mr. Johnson, who was prime minister during the pandemic, also appeared before the inquiry, as did his former senior adviser Dominic Cummings.

Part of the failure, the report said, was because of poor communication between government ministers and experts. Ministers, who are political appointees, did not have access to a broad enough range of scientific research and opinions that would have informed their policies.

“The advice offered to ministers and international bodies may well have been affected by a degree of ‘groupthink’ on pandemic preparedness,” the report said.

The report found that the disaster response let down people with vulnerabilities like chronic disease and disability, and failed to properly work with communities of ethnic minorities. These groups, the report said, were disproportionately affected by Covid.

Along with its criticism of the British government and its agencies, the report also made 10 recommendations to prepare for the next pandemic, which included planning for a wider range of scenarios and creating a more coordinated emergency response.

“It is not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic will strike but ‘when,’” Baroness Hallett wrote in her introduction to the report. “The evidence is overwhelmingly to the effect that another pandemic — potentially one that is even more transmissible and lethal — is likely to occur in the near to medium future.”

As a result, “there must be radical reform,” the report said. “Never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering.”

Pressure Rises on Netanyahu Over Cease-Fire Deal Ahead of His Congress Speech

The Israeli leader’s speech before a divided Congress next week is likely to be contentious, particularly if he does not close a deal with Hamas to end the war before he travels to Washington.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

By Ephrat Livni  18 Jul, 2024

World leaders are pushing for a cease-fire agreement. Protesters are taking to the streets across Israel. And hostage families are pleading with their leader to just make a deal.

These are just some of the pressures piling up on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ahead of his scheduled visit to Washington next week. His speech there before a divided Congress figures to be contentious, particularly if he cannot close a deal with Hamas to end the war before he travels.

Mediators in Qatar and Egypt have been negotiating over a framework for a deal that would stop the fighting and return about 120 living and dead hostages taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, among other terms.

On Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu told the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, that applying more military pressure on Hamas would yield more concessions in negotiations, suggesting that a deal was not imminent.

Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, on Wednesday called on Mr. Netanyahu to cancel his speech to Congress on July 24 — unless he planned to announce an agreement.

“He needs to declare a hostage deal — without inventing conditions or raising obstacles every 10 minutes,” Mr. Lapid said on Israeli news radio, alluding to reports that Mr. Netanyahu had complicated negotiations by adding conditions that Hamas would likely resist.

The Hostages Families Forum, which represents relatives of the hostages, organized rallies at 30 locations across Israel on Wednesday, urging Mr. Netanyahu to close a deal.

“Bring everyone back before you fly off for political tours in other countries,” Ella Ben-Ami, whose father Ohad Ben-Ami is a hostage, said at the rally in Tel Aviv, video released by the hostage family group showed.

Mr. Ben-Ami is a dual Israeli and German citizen who was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7 with his wife, Raz Ben-Ami, who was released as part of a temporary cease-fire deal in November. Ella Ben-Ami added: “Start here at home, earn your citizens’ trust and make this deal happen.”

On Monday, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, told some families of hostages that no security considerations stood in the way of an agreement and that it was crucial to “exhaust all efforts” before Mr. Netanyahu’s trip, according to a statement from the Hostages Families Forum. “Afterward, it will be much more difficult and complicated,” Mr. Gallant told the families.

Protesters calling for the release of hostages abducted during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Some in Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition have urged him to oppose a deal with Hamas. Mr. Netanyahu’s grip on power relies on the support of two far-right parties opposed to any agreement that would leave Hamas in power in Gaza. Critics say this has made him wary of committing to a deal that could lead to the collapse of his government and prompt early elections that polling suggests he would lose.

But others in his ruling bloc are calling on him to ignore the political threats. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party sent a letter to Mr. Netanyahu on Wednesday offering support and telling him “not to fear the voices within the coalition who oppose the deal.”

Some of the most persistent pressure has come from world leaders, health organizations and human rights groups, which have condemned Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza. The war has killed more than 38,000 people and led to widespread hunger, according to Gazan health authorities. In a State Department briefing in Washington on Wednesday, the spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that, given the scale of Palestinian suffering in Gaza, reaching a cease-fire agreement was an “urgent priority.”

Some Democratic lawmakers have said they plan to skip Mr. Netanyahu’s speech in Congress, to signal discontent with his far-right government’s policies and its conduct of the war.

A group of 500 Israeli academics sent Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who invited Mr. Netanyahu, a letter on Tuesday asking him to disinvite the prime minister, saying he “has demonstrated his indifference to the ongoing hell endured by the hostages.”

Some relatives of hostages plan to travel to the United States to protest Mr. Netanyahu’s speech, while others are expected to accompany him, highlighting divides over his leadership in Israel.

Dani Elgarat, whose brother, Itzik, was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, responded Wednesday to Israeli news media reports that Noa Argamani, one of four hostages rescued in an Israeli military operation in June, would be joining Mr. Netanyahu in Washington. On social media, Mr. Elgarat asked her not to go, saying her presence would undermine the chances of bringing home more hostages.

Mr. Elgarat said he hoped that he and other hostage relatives traveling to the United States to protest against Mr. Netanyahu would not find themselves in the “absurd situation” of also being in conflict with the former hostage accompanying him.

America’s Allies in Middle East See Some Advantages in Potential 2nd Trump Presidency

As Republicans meet this week for their convention, leaders in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are considering what a second Trump presidency could mean for their domestic and regional agendas.

Then-President Donald J. Trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in 2020.

By Patrick Kingsley, Vivian Yee and Vivian Nereim  18 Jul, 2024

This week’s Republican convention in Milwaukee has brought the prospect of former President Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House into focus, and leaders in Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the principal U.S. allies in the Middle East, are calculating what it could mean for their domestic and regional agendas.

There are perceived advantages for all the leaders, many of whom had warm relations with Mr. Trump. Central to those calculations is how a Trump presidency could impact Washington’s approach to the war in Gaza, which has already upended Israeli politics and rattled Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel angered Mr. Trump by congratulating Mr. Biden after the presidential election in 2020 — a move that Mr. Trump considered disloyal and strained their relationship for years. But the pair had a strong tie during the first Trump presidency and Mr. Trump’s return is expected to benefit Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing government, particularly if the war in Gaza extends into next year.

Mr. Trump has said that Israel should “do what you have to do” in Gaza and denounced pro-Palestinian protesters on U.S. campuses. He has criticized the Israeli government for posting videos of the destruction they have caused, but only because such videos harm Israel’s image. In addition, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, is strongly pro-Israel.

Mr. Trump is also more closely aligned with Mr. Netanyahu on Iran. He ended an Obama-era agreement that aimed to restrict Iran’s nuclear program, pleasing Mr. Netanyahu, and he backed landmark deals that forged diplomatic ties between Israel and three Arab states. If he wins the presidency, he is also expected to push ahead with Mr. Biden’s efforts to forge a similar arrangement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

At the Republican convention on Wednesday, the party put Israel front and center, including by inviting the parents of an American citizen still held by Hamas in Gaza on stage. The couple, Orna and Ronen Neutra, led the crowd in a chant of “bring them home,” after recounting how Mr. Trump had called them after their son, Omer, was taken hostage.

States in the Arabian Peninsula, a region rich in fossil fuels, also have reasons to welcome a second Trump term. Two weeks ago, the Trump Organization signed a deal with a real estate company in Saudi Arabia to build a residential high-rise tower there, extending the family’s close ties with the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is the primary investor in the investment firm that Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, set up after he left his post as a White House adviser to Mr. Trump. And another major source of new revenue for the Trump family has been LIV Golf, a professional league backed by the sovereign fund.

During his presidency, Mr. Trump had warm relations with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, defending him after the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul. Mr. Trump’s first foreign visit as leader was to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

But as president, Mr. Trump was also unpredictable, Gulf officials say in private, and they often lament that he did not respond more strongly to an Iran-backed attack on Saudi oil fields in 2019. Recently, as Saudi Arabia has gradually won over members of President Biden’s administration, the kingdom’s officials have emphasized their ability to work with both parties.

Egypt also enjoyed warm relations with Mr. Trump, though some senior Egyptian officials took a dim view of what they saw as anti-Muslim bias among Mr. Trump’s advisers. The president himself once reportedly called the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, “my favorite dictator.”

Mr. Trump’s administration rarely criticized Mr. el-Sisi, who has cracked down on political opponents, and Mr. el-Sisi’s government has received at least $1 billion in annual aid from the United States since becoming the first Arab country to make peace with Israel in 1979.

When President Biden took office after a campaign in which he promised “no more blank checks” for Mr. el-Sisi, Cairo at first appeared to be in for a rude awakening. The new administration threatened to withhold more aid over Egypt’s human rights abuses and denied it the high-level official visits and presidential handshakes Mr. el-Sisi craved.

But Egypt’s role as a mediator in the May 2021 war between Israel and Hamas, as well as in conflicts in neighboring Sudan and Libya, reinforced its image as a pillar of regional stability and ties with the Biden administration warmed.

For Egypt, the shift back to the status quo reinforced a basic principle: U.S. presidents come and go but the United States needs Egypt. Analysts said Egyptian leaders were confident that the country would continue to be a regional partner, especially given its role as a key mediator in the war in Gaza and as a player in any postwar scenario.

Indeed, if Mr. Trump’s tone toward Mr. el-Sisi remains as friendly as it was in his first term, it could ease any remaining pressure on Egypt to reform, analysts say.

Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed reporting.

Fire at Shopping Mall in Southwestern China Kills 16

Dozens were trapped inside the building when the fire started on Wednesday evening in Sichuan Province, local authorities said.

[Embedded video available]

By Yan Zhuang  18 Jul, 2024

A fire broke out at a shopping mall in southwestern China on Wednesday evening, trapping dozens inside and killing 16 people, the authorities said.

The fire started at about 6 p.m. in the shopping mall in Zigong, a city in Sichuan Province, according to a statement from local officials. Emergency services rushed to the scene and rescued 75 people trapped inside, the statement said. Rescuers found 11 bodies at the scene, and the fire was put out at about 8:50 p.m.

By Thursday morning, the death toll had risen to 16 people, according to a second statement released by the Zigong government. A preliminary investigation had determined that the fire was caused by construction work. As of Thursday morning, 39 people had received medical treatment.

Witnesses describe seeing massive flames and smoke billowing out of the shopping center. The building has 14 floors, local media reported.

“The fire was huge. The smoke was black and thick,” said Cao Xiaohong, who saw the fire from her home about 200 feet away. “I had never seen anything like this before.”

Li You contributed reporting and research.

Thursday Briefing

President Biden tests positive for Covid-19.

By Natasha Frost  18 Jul, 2024

President Biden’s third bout with Covid sidelined him as he was trying to re-energize his campaign in Nevada.

Biden’s still in but ‘willing to listen,’ Democrats say

President Biden has become more receptive in the last several days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his re-election bid, Democrats said, after Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s top leaders in Congress, privately told him they were deeply concerned about his prospects.

The president tested positive for Covid yesterday, according to the White House, forcing him to cancel an event in Las Vegas and most likely sidelining him for days. A spokeswoman said he was “experiencing mild symptoms” and would “carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.”

Three weeks after Biden’s disastrous debate performance, allies and supporters continue to press him to quit the race, saying he has little chance to defeat Donald Trump in November. Democratic Party leaders agreed to delay the start of Biden’s nomination by a week, prolonging the debate over the viability of his candidacy.

Quotable: One person close to the president said he was “willing to listen” to the case for dropping out but had no plans to abandon his campaign.

A growing rebellion: Nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters want Biden to quit the race, according to a recent survey. And Congressional Democrats have warned that his sagging prospects will make it much harder for them to win critical House and Senate races in November.

Biden’s mind-set: What would cause the president to drop out of the race? He has offered a list of scenarios — which has recently grown.

Secret Service snipers before Donald Trump’s fateful rally on Saturday.

New details emerge about Trump’s would-be assassin

In a private call, F.B.I. officials told members of Congress that the gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump had searched for images of Trump and President Biden, as well as for the dates of Trump appearances and the Democratic National Convention. Yet the bureau has found no indication that he had strong partisan political views, based on their analysis of two phones that were among his possessions. Read our analysis of how the gunman slipped past the police.

The director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, will face sharp scrutiny next week over the assassination attempt. She is scheduled to appear before two congressional committees that are examining the shooting, and inquiries by law enforcement departments, Congress and federal agencies are also underway.

Representative Ronny Jackson, Republican of Texas, who was Trump’s White House doctor, described the former president’s injuries. “The bullet took a little bit off the top of his ear in an area that, just by nature, bleeds like crazy,” he said. “The dressing’s bulked up a bit because you need a bit of absorbent. You don’t want to be walking around with bloody gauze on his ear.”

At the Republican National Convention: In a prime-time speech, Donald Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, accepted their party’s nomination for vice president and connected his difficult upbringing to challenges confronting the American working class. Read highlights from the speech.

The Upshot: Times reporters asked 65 convention attendees six questions about their political views.

King Charles III reading the King’s Speech in Parliament on Wednesday.

Britain’s new government lays out its priorities

King Charles III formally opened Britain’s Parliament yesterday, presenting the new Labour government’s center-left legislative agenda, which includes efforts to curb climate change and cultivate closer ties with the E.U.

The new government plans to create two new public companies, Great British Energy, which would invest in clean-energy projects across the country, and Great British Railways, which would put Britain’s private rail companies back into public ownership. And it will no longer exempt private schools from paying value-added tax, using the revenue raised from that to hire 6,500 teachers for public schools.

Poker face: Nothing in the king’s demeanor suggested that he was any more enthusiastic about this year’s agenda than he was about last year’s, even though this one aligns more closely with his stated interests. That’s the product of a lifetime of studied political neutrality, Mark Landler, our London bureau chief, writes.

MORE TOP NEWS

- New Zealand: A carcass of the world’s rarest whale — so elusive that the species has never been documented alive — washed up on a South Island beach.

- Thailand: Investigators in Bangkok found traces of cyanide in a luxury hotel room where six people died.

- Hong Kong: A Wall Street Journal reporter said she was fired for leading a journalists’ union that had been criticized by Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leaders.

- Taiwan: In an interview, Trump said Taiwan should pay the U.S. for defending it from China.

- ISIS: The number of attacks claimed by the group in Iraq and Syria this year is on track to double last year’s total, the U.S. military said.

- Science: A major study found that frequent moves in childhood had a bigger effect on the risk of depression in adulthood than poverty did.

- Coronavirus: New research suggests that vaccines significantly reduce the risk of developing long Covid among those who are infected.

- Emmys: The FX series “Shogun” dominated the awards race with 25 nominations, and “The Bear” notched 23, the most in a single year for a comedy.

News From Europe

- E.U.: A court reprimanded the European Commission for refusing to disclose the terms of its contracts to purchase Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

- Ukraine: The country’s war-ravaged energy grid is contending with another threat: a sizzling heat wave.

- Italy: The renaming of Milan’s airport to honor Silvio Berlusconi has prompted protests from left-leaning lawmakers, a barrage of memes and an online petition.

- France: The last-minute surge of voting against the far right was driven in part by collective memory of the Vichy government’s collaboration with the Nazis.

- Paris: The city’s mayor swam in the cleaned-up Seine and fulfilled a promise that has become a symbol of the Paris Olympics.

- Romania: Lawmakers voted to double the number of brown bears that hunters can kill, after a wild bear attack led to the death of a hiker last week.

SPORTS NEWS

- Copa América: The French Football Federation plans to file a legal complaint over an “unacceptable, racist and discriminatory” chant sung by Argentina’s soccer team after it won the championship.

- Golf: Here’s a guide to the British Open, where short holes can befuddle golfers. Brian Harman reflected on his victory last year in an interview.

- Wimbledon: The Athletic picked the players, matches and moments that made this year’s tournament.

- Cycling: At the Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar is closing in on his third victory.

MORNING READ

Tired of predictable travel experiences, the writer Ben Buckland set out to walk across Switzerland without a smartphone or a planned route. Instead, over 12 days, he relied on maps hand-drawn by people he met along the way. Read more about his journey.

Lives lived: Winston, a silverback gorilla at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park whose 451-pound frame concealed a tender personality, has died at 52.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

- Tips for a happy life: Dr. Ruth’s best advice on sex, relationships and how to approach delicate subjects.

- Ancient treasure: The National Museum of Ireland received two copper Bronze Age ax heads in a porridge box. Now it needs to figure out who sent them.

- Farewell, Childish Gambino: Donald Glover plans to retire his rap alter ego for good after the release of his sixth album, “Bando Stone & the New World.”

- Dressing the ultrarich: How stylists developed looks for family members at the wedding of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of India’s richest man.

ARTS AND IDEAS

The best croissant

In the competitive and often absurd era of extreme croissants, elite pâtissiers around the world are stuffing the pastries with exotic fillings, sculpting them into modish forms and decorating them with fragrant ganache.

But the best croissant, our food critic Tejal Rao writes in this appraisal, has none of these fripperies — just a crisp outside, housing a tender, bubbled interior. A first bite wafts warm, butter-scented air into the face of the eater, she says.

The plain croissant may not be made for the camera. But its simultaneous crispness and softness has a special magic, Tejal writes: “The way it can embody such a mind-boggling extent of textures within just a few bites, from the dark, crackling crisp of its edge, to the pale, weightless puff of its honeycomb.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

Cook: Bake eggs in a tomato sauce that’s scented with cardamom and garam masala.

Consider: Here’s how to weigh artificial sweeteners against sugar.

Read: A new telling of Alexander the Great’s final years shows what happened when dreams of conquest met reality.

Streamline: Pack for a three-day trip with a single “personal item” bag.

Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today’s Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Natasha

Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

US

- Nevada Conservative Accused of Fraud Over Fund-Raising for Charity

- ‘Our Nation Is Not Well’: Voters Fear What Could Happen Next

- What It Would Take to Deport Millions of Immigrants

- How Yale Propelled J.D. Vance’s Career

- Pelosi Tells Biden She Is Pessimistic About His Re-election Chances

- Here Are the Speakers at Tonight’s 2024 Republican Convention

- A Party Now Molded in Trump’s Image Prepares for a Coronation

- Trump Says ‘I Got Lucky’ in Surviving Assassination Attempt, Video Shows

- What to Know About California’s Covid Surge

- Five People Die on Mt. Fuji in Deadly Start to Climbing Season

- Republicans Put Trump in Soft Focus, Editing Out Years of Rancor

- How Trump Dominated His Own Party on a New G.O.P. Platform

- Takeaways From Night 3 of the RNC

- Read the Transcript of J.D. Vance’s Convention Speech

- Usha Vance, J.D. Vance’s Wife, Entered the Spotlight. It’s an Unfamiliar Role.

- Republicans Seek to Remind R.N.C. Viewers About Deadly Afghanistan Withdrawal

- RNC Speakers Put Israel and Antisemitism Front and Center, Courting U.S. Jews

Nevada Conservative Accused of Fraud Over Fund-Raising for Charity

Michele Fiore, a colorful figure in the state’s politics, took donations intended for a slain officer’s statue and used them for personal expenses, prosecutors said.

Michele Fiore in Reno, Nev., in 2022.

By Jacey Fortin  17 Jul, 2024

Michele Fiore, a Nevada politician known for her fiery brand of conservatism, was indicted on fraud charges on Tuesday for what prosecutors said was a scheme to spend charitable donations on personal expenses.

Ms. Fiore, 53, a justice of the peace in Pahrump, Nev., was a city councilor for Las Vegas in 2019 when, federal prosecutors said, she asked for donations to build a statue memorializing a police officer who had been killed while on duty.

In a statement on Wednesday, the prosecutors said that tens of thousands of dollars had been donated to Ms. Fiore — as well as to her political action committee, and to a charity she established in 2019 — but that none of the funding had been spent on the statue, as she had promised.

Instead, according to the statement, “the donations were used to pay her political fund-raising bills and rent and were transferred to family members, including to pay for her daughter’s wedding.”

A grand jury charged Ms. Fiore with four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If she is convicted, she could face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count. An arraignment has been scheduled for July 29.

“I have always approached my duties with utmost integrity and dedication,” Ms. Fiore said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. “Now that these accusations have been made, I look forward to my day in court and have faith in our judicial system.”

For years, Ms. Fiore cultivated a reputation as a staunch conservative and a colorful figure in Nevada politics. During a brief run for governor in 2021, she released a campaign video in which she parked a pickup truck in the desert and used a handgun to fire shots at beer bottles with labels that said “voter fraud” and “vaccine mandates.”

She opted out of the governor’s race the following year and campaigned to become the state treasurer instead, an election she ultimately lost to her Democratic opponent.

Ms. Fiore was an early supporter of former President Donald J. Trump, and she has long been known for her fierce defense of gun rights. She made national headlines in 2015, when she and several members of her extended family posed with guns in a photograph that she shared online as a Christmas greeting.

In 2016, Ms. Fiore played a pivotal role in assisting negotiations to end a standoff at the Malheur Federal Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon between federal officials and an armed group of anti-government activists who demanded more local control of the refuge. Ms. Fiore and others, including the evangelist Franklin Graham, persuaded the occupiers to surrender without a fight.

The F.B.I. special agent in charge said afterward that Ms. Fiore’s help had been important and thanked her for “significant assistance.”

Ms. Fiore seemed to have sympathy for the group’s charismatic leader, Ammon Bundy, just as she had two years earlier for his father, Cliven Bundy, who in 2014 rallied supporters to join him in defending his cattle from what he described as federal overreach in southern Nevada.

Ms. Fiore served in Nevada’s state assembly beginning in 2012. She lost a bid to join the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016, then won an election in 2017 to become a member of the City Council in Las Vegas.

It was during that term, according to the indictment, that Ms. Fiore told donors that she was collecting money to fund a statue in honor of one officer, Alyn Beck. She had also mentioned plans to memorialize another, Igor Soldo. Both men had been working as patrol officers when they were shot and killed at a pizzeria in June 2014.

Prosecutors said that even as she was collecting donations, Ms. Fiore already knew that a real estate development company had already agreed to pay for the statue of Mr. Beck, which was unveiled when the park opened in Jan. 2020.

In her statement, Ms. Fiore said that the indictment “has been years in the making and has profoundly impacted my life, the lives of my adult children and grandchildren, my friends and especially my constituents. This is unacceptable.”

‘Our Nation Is Not Well’: Voters Fear What Could Happen Next

There is growing anxiety that the country’s political divide is nearly beyond repair, and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump only made things worse.

National discord has descended on Butler with force after the attempt on the former president’s life.

By Emily Cochrane, Shawn Hubler, Rick Rojas, Kurt Streeter and Amy Qin  17 Jul, 2024

Before Saturday, when Butler, Pa., became the latest stunned backdrop for the nation’s political fury, Mayor Bob Dandoy thought of his town as a place that had learned to work around party lines. A Democrat in a Republican stronghold, he had campaigned on consensus.

“I’ve never seen a Republican or Democratic pothole,” Mr. Dandoy, 71, a retired high school English teacher, would tell voters. “Or a Republican or Democratic playground. Or a Republican or Democratic fire that the fire department needs to put out.”

He was at dinner with his family on Saturday when a city councilman texted. One spectator was dead at Donald J. Trump’s campaign rally on the farm show grounds, two more were critically injured. The former president’s right ear had been grazed by a bullet. The gunman, an isolated 20-year-old with an AR-15-style rifle, was fatally shot by the Secret Service. All this, in the town of about 13,000 where Mr. Dandoy has lived “all my life.”

Since then, national discord has descended on Butler with such force that this week it crashed the town’s website. E-mailers charged that the city failed to protect Mr. Trump, maybe even wanted him to be a target. Callers demanded that the city admit that Mr. Trump’s supporters staged the shooting. The mayor has tried to remind everyone that Butler is a community that accomplishes good things, that has worked through disagreements together. And yet, he said, the trauma has been overwhelming.

“People are in a state of shock,” he said. “And I can’t lob a platitude or give a speech and say everything is fine.”

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, that unease is not limited to Butler. In interviews from the West Coast to the Deep South, Americans across party lines say they are deeply apprehensive, and not just because of last weekend’s attempt on a presidential candidate’s life.

“People are in a state of shock,” said Bob Dandoy, the Butler mayor.

Roiled by culture wars, reeling since the pandemic, broiling under biblical heat and besieged by disinformation, voters and community leaders say they already are on edge in ways for which their experience has not prepared them. Gaza. Ukraine. Migrants. Home prices. Climate change. Fentanyl. Gun violence. Hate speech. Deep fakes.

And overlaying it all is a nonstop barrage of political hostility and vilification, and the sense, for a third straight presidential election, that something essential is broken in our politics.

“It’s like this dark cloud is looming over us, and it’s just not ending,” said Fredes Asuncion, 34, the owner of a small business in Sacramento, Calif.

“It’s time for us to have, no pun intended, a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting,” said the Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant, the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Ga., calling the shooting an “unrolling of the moral code of the country.”

Brent Leatherwood, the leader of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm in Nashville, said he had heard from several conservative church leaders since the shooting, their concerns a chorus he echoed. “Our nation is not well,” he said.

National polls do not yet fully reflect the shooting on Saturday or President Biden’s call the next day to “lower the temperature in our politics.” Nor do they yet factor in the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Mr. Trump, the G.O.P. presidential nominee, named Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate. On Saturday, Mr. Vance, without evidence, wrote on the social media site X that Biden campaign rhetoric “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Trump campaign advisers have said that the former president — whose tenure opened with warnings of “American carnage” and was capped by the Jan. 6 insurrection — will call for unity on Thursday when he speaks at the convention. Yet they have also said that Mr. Trump would focus on “what I did and how I’m going to do it again.”

Capturing the partisan divisions: the news media near the entrance to the Butler Farm Show grounds, where the Trump rally was held.

There’s no missing the nation’s deep ideological, cultural and partisan divisions. Polling shows Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump locked in a tight race. Neither turmoil over the president’s age and mental acuity nor Mr. Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts over hush-money payments has inspired that much change.

Nearly two-thirds of American adults told The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in December that democracy itself could depend on who wins the November presidential election. Eighty-seven percent of Democrats said Mr. Trump would weaken democracy if he were re-elected, and 82 percent of Republicans said the same about President Biden.

At the same time, voters have bristled at the fall ticket — a majority told the Pew Research Center that if they could, they would replace Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden. They disapprove, decisively, of the Supreme Court and Congress.

And even before the shooting in Pennsylvania, Americans “were barely on speaking terms with each other,” noted Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian who teaches at Columbia University. The result, he said, has been a national mood that has been “unstable, restless, uncertain, irritating and anxious” since the 2016 election.

In May, a Marist poll found such dug-in disdain that many Americans considered a second civil war likely or very likely in their lifetime.

Since the shooting, political leaders across the spectrum, including Mr. Biden, have condemned political violence. But they are undercut by partisan fury.

The Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Ga.

“Democrats wanted this to happen,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted. A state senator from Tennessee wrote, and then deleted, a post saying that “the extremism from the MAGA regime has brought us to this moment.” On Facebook, a field director for Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, wrote, and then deleted, “please get you some shooting lessons.” The congressman’s office disavowed it.

In Tennessee, the Democratic mayor of Nashville, Freddie O’Connell, said that in recent days, a rainbow crosswalk painted in honor of the city’s L.G.B.T.Q. community had been defaced. White supremacists waving Nazi flags had made repeated appearances downtown. “My biggest fear,” he said, “is that social fabric, even at the local level, continues to deteriorate.”

In Wisconsin, Dan McNeil, 71, a Democratic school board member in the farming town of Barron, called the situation “scary.” “You walk into a place in town, and it is, like, ‘Whose side are you on? Are you a liberal Democrat or a Trumper?’”

An hour away in St. Croix County, Scott Miller, 42, who said he is a member of the local Republican Party, wondered if it was already too late: “These corporations are putting out millions and trillions in profits, donating unlimited amounts to politicians,” he said. “How can the average person compete?”

In California, Frank Xu, 46, of San Diego, expressed deep disillusionment in the dysfunction he saw in the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting, a far cry from the political and civic wonderland he embraced when he moved to the United States in 2005 from China. Like many young Chinese in the 1980s and 1990s, he said, he had been conditioned to stay out of politics and to be suspicious of political officials and their motives. A Republican, he had organized against affirmative action in his state, wide-eyed at the difference one person could make in this country.

Then came the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, which left him wondering whether to leave his presidential ballot blank in November. He has leaned back toward voting for Mr. Trump since the shooting. But like many other naturalized citizens, he has been viscerally reminded of the instability and violence he sought to escape in the United States.

“It’s like this dark cloud is looming over us, and it’s just not ending,” Fredes Asuncion, from Sacramento, Calif., said.

Garen Wintemute, an emergency physician who directs the California Firearm Violence Research Center at the University of California, Davis, said Americans who are not extremists urgently needed to become more assertive.

In a national study that is now in its third year, two-thirds of Americans in 2022 and three-fourths in 2023 rejected political violence as never justified, and even among those who condoned political violence, a vast majority said they would not commit it themselves. Many people not only recoil from political fights, but avoid politics entirely, Dr. Wintemute noted.

“Americans in the middle have been acting like spectators at a train wreck, but we’re all on the same train,” he said. “And if the train goes over a cliff, we’ll all go with it.”

Like any unhealthy behavior, he said, political violence can be largely deterred if a majority explicitly rejects it.

“A person’s decisions about their health behaviors are powerfully influenced by what their family, friends, communities, clergy members and so forth say and do,” he said. “We need to say, I will not accept political violence. I will not be part of it.”

That goes for the candidates, Dr. Naftali, the presidential historian, said.

“Where we go now will depend on a number of factors,” he said. “But if previous cycles of political violence tell us anything, one of those factors will be how our leaders — and I define that broadly — explain to themselves, and to us, where we are and where we are going. And one of the most important voices will be the voice of the victim himself.”

He said President Biden had already made the traditionally appropriate gestures, calling Mr. Trump to wish him a speedy recovery and making a televised address deploring the attack and insisting that “we can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”

Now, he said, it is Mr. Trump’s turn, even though history shows that he often ramps up rhetoric, rather than tones it down.

“I’m not naïve,” he said. “Not everybody can be changed. But when we think of where we go from here, we have to keep in mind that Donald Trump has it in his power. Because he was the victim, and because of the devotion of his followers, and because his convention is first, his will be the loudest and most influential voice in determining the direction the country takes at this inflection point.”

“Sometimes it takes a crisis for Americans to break a stalemate," he added. “Of course, I thought that crisis would be Jan. 6. And that obviously wasn’t enough.”

In Butler, Mayor Dandoy said he wished the candidates would transcend the toxicity of the past three election cycles.

“Harry Truman was president when I was growing up,” he said. “Then Dwight Eisenhower. Then J.F.K. Inspirational men. Where are they now? Where are Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill settling things at the end of the day with a hidden bottle of Irish whiskey? I want leaders to step up.”

What It Would Take to Deport Millions of Immigrants

Donald Trump is calling for the biggest deportation program in American history. The costs and hurdles would be enormous.

Migrants waiting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in June.

By Miriam Jordan  17 Jul, 2024

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he vowed to build a wall to seal the border and keep criminals from entering the country. This campaign season, his immigration agenda has a new focus: a mass deportation program unlike anything the country has seen.

His party’s platform, ratified at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, promises the “largest deportation effort in American history,” and immigration was the theme of Tuesday’s gathering.

What would it take to deport millions of people? Is it even possible?

How many undocumented immigrants are in the country?

There were 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States in 2022, according to the latest government estimates, and more than eight out of 10 have been in the country for more than a decade. Mr. Trump said during the debate last month that there were 18 million, which is unsubstantiated.

Fleeing political and economic turmoil, migrants from countries like Venezuela have crossed the border in record numbers during the Biden administration.

Who would be targeted for deportation, and how easy would it be to remove them?

Mr. Trump and the Republican platform have made broad declarations but thus far offered scant details about their intended operation.

The former president has suggested that any undocumented immigrant is subject to removal.

The party platform states that “the most dangerous criminals” would be prioritized.

It also said: “The Republican Party is committed to sending illegal aliens back home and removing those who have violated our laws.”

The consensus among immigration experts and former homeland security officials is that logistical, legal, bureaucratic and cost barriers would make it virtually impossible to carry out the mass deportations Mr. Trump seeks in the span of a four-year presidential term.

“It’s enormously complicated and an expensive thing to decide to deport people who have been here years,” said Laura Collins, an immigration expert at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas.

It would cost “billions of dollars. It would probably take 20 years. It would cause the economy to shrink,” she said.

It would require an enormous influx of resources throughout the enforcement system and billions in new appropriations.

“Even if he had a Congress willing to enact dramatic statutory reforms and appropriate the tens of billions required, there is no way such a system could be fully functional within a four-year period,” said John Sandweg, a homeland security official in the Obama administration.

What other obstacles would there be?

Undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for years have legal protection and the right to due process.

Those who have entered the country unlawfully in recent years have been processed at the border and then released with orders to appear in court for deportation hearings. While their cases are winding through the immigration court, which typically takes several more years, they have the right to remain in the United States.

“Trump would need to triple the size of the immigration court to achieve anywhere near the numbers he is talking about,” said Mr. Sandweg. “Even then, he would need funding to build new courthouses, hire support staff and train judges.”

Migrants talk with Texas National Guard troops and Texas law enforcement officers on the U.S.-Mexico border in June. Mr. Trump has said he would enlist the National Guard and other resources in the military to execute his plan.

Decades of underfunding and vast number of asylum claims have exacerbated backlogs.

“An individual must be issued a deportation order; a president couldn’t just override that,” said Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security secretary during the Obama administration. “You would need a change in the law, and Congress would have to be an active partner in this.”

In addition to the cost, a polarized Congress, even one controlled by Republicans, would still have to reach a consensus on the substance of the operation, a daunting prospect considering Congress has failed to overhaul the immigration system for more than two decades.

Are there enough personnel, facilities, planes and other transport for a deportation operation?

During the Trump administration, there were some 936,000 deportations, according to official data. As of February, about 340,000 people had been removed by the Biden administration.

To identify and arrest millions of people in the interior of the country would require tens of thousands more immigration agents, said Ms. Napolitano.

Mr. Trump has said he would enlist the National Guard and other resources in the military to execute his plan.

Local law enforcement could be deputized to identify undocumented people and turn them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has happened in the past in some localities.

But Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are just a few cities that refuse to collaborate with ICE, out of concern such cooperation would promote racial profiling and land immigrants who have committed minor offenses, such as traffic violations, in deportation proceedings.

“You’ll have areas that don’t want to have anything to do with it,” said Michael Neifach, a border security expert who was principal legal adviser to Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the George W. Bush administration.

Currently, ICE agents focus on locating and deporting convicted criminals, such as child molesters and others suspected of being a threat to public or national security.

Some one million immigrants with final removal orders living in the country could be a targeted group.

“Let’s say you find these people. You then have to detain them,” said Mr. Neifach. “How are you going to expand detention in a way that won’t blow the bank?”

A woman in shackles is patted down before boarding a deportation flight in Texas in October while immigration agents with Enforcement and Removal Operations stand by.

Every potential deportee is held in a detention facility, and in the current fiscal year, Congress funded the detention of 41,500 immigrants daily at a cost of $3.4 billion, which would need to increase exponentially.

And many immigrants hail from countries that do not have diplomatic ties with the United States or that refuse to take back their nationals. They cannot be immediately flown out of the country, and the Supreme Court has ruled that people cannot remain detained for limitless periods awaiting removal.

The ICE budget for transportation and deportation in fiscal 2023 was $420 million, and the agency deported 142,580 people that year.

Where is there room for Trump to accelerate the pace of removals?

Another Trump administration could speed up deportations by terminating programs that the Biden administration has introduced.

For example, since 2022, some 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have been allowed to fly to the United States and live and work for two years, provided they have a financial sponsor. Mr. Biden has also allowed nearly 700,000 migrants who make an appointment on a mobile app to cross the border through an official port of entry and receive work permits.

“Trump could flick the switch and revoke it,” said Mr. Neifach. But, he added, many of the migrants could make asylum claims and become part of the clogged courts.

Expedited removal at the border enables the swift deportation of migrants without a hearing, unless they convince an agent that they would face the threat of violence back home, and Mr. Biden in June issued an executive order currently being challenged in court to amplify use of this tool.

Mr. Trump could try to extend it to the interior, though he would likely face court challenges.

Would there be any exceptions among the deportees?

Mr. Trump has not addressed whether he would exercise any discretion, or make any exceptions.

More than one million Americans are married to an undocumented person, and a large share of undocumented immigrants have children who are U.S. citizens.

“When you are talking those kinds of numbers and law enforcement presence, you have to think at the end — what does that do to the atmosphere in the country?” said Ms. Napolitano, the former Homeland Security secretary.

How Yale Propelled J.D. Vance’s Career

The G.O.P. vice-presidential nominee is remembered as a warm and personable student. But some are perplexed by what they see as his shift in ideology.

When Yale Law accepted J.D. Vance for the fall of 2010, it offered him a nearly full ride.

By Stephanie Saul  17 Jul, 2024

When J.D. Vance applied to law school, he viewed it as a pathway out of his chaotic upbringing in working-class Middletown, Ohio.

Then he won a spot at his dream school. Yale Law not only accepted him for the fall of 2010, but also offered a nearly full ride.

Over the next three years, Yale dramatically influenced the trajectory of his life, leading to important connections, a job in venture capital and marriage to a classmate.

Even his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” was partly the outgrowth of a paper he wrote in a Yale class. And he leveraged the story, which chronicles his childhood and the alienation of the working class, into a best seller, a movie deal and a political career — winning election to the U.S. Senate in 2022, at age 38.

Despite Yale’s transformative role in his life, Mr. Vance’s relationship with the school could be summed up as conflicted.

Graduating from Yale was “the coolest thing” he had ever done, “at least on paper,” he wrote in his memoir. But he also portrayed himself as an outsider who flubbed law firm interviews and was baffled when asked whether he preferred chardonnay or sauvignon blanc — he had never heard of either. And his classmates remember his sarcasm and cynicism when discussing what he thought of as the school’s liberal bubble.

A photograph of J.D. Vance at Yale Law School, which displays portraits of notable graduates.

Recently, he has adopted a more oppositional tone, taking on tax breaks for top universities. “Elite universities have become expensive day care centers for coddled children,” he wrote on social media.

A close look at Mr. Vance’s record at Yale, though, shows that he adapted rapidly, taking advantage of the school’s heady social and academic opportunities. He cooked for charity fund-raisers, organized reading groups, doted on his German shepherd, Casper, and led The Yale Law Journal’s flag football team. He spent a summer working on Capitol Hill.

Many students and professors remember Mr. Vance as warm, personable and even charismatic. But several also said they were perplexed by what they saw as Mr. Vance’s profound ideological shift. They understood that he was conservative politically, but they viewed him as a Republican in the mold of John McCain or Mitt Romney.

Now, they say that he has abandoned his Never Trumper principles, taking hard lines against immigration and L.G.B.T.Q. rights, positions they believe he would not have previously embraced.

Sofia Nelson, a former classmate who is transgender and was once a close friend of both Mr. Vance and his wife, recalled that Mr. Vance delivered home-baked treats when they underwent top surgery. But years of friendship ended in 2021 over his support for an Arkansas bill opposing transgender care for minors.

“It hurt my feelings when he started saying hateful things about trans people,” they said.

Another classmate, Josh McLaurin, no longer talks to him, either.

As apartment mates during their first year at Yale, Mr. McLaurin felt an affinity to Mr. Vance because they had both graduated from state schools. But their friendship began to fray, Mr. McLaurin said, after he chafed at what he viewed as Mr. Vance’s cynical and sarcastic jokes aimed at Yale elites.

Mr. Vance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday, where he was nominated for vice president.

Even so, the two stayed in touch after graduating in 2013. As the Republican presidential primaries were underway in February 2016, Mr. Vance discussed his dislike for Mr. Trump in a Facebook message. “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” Mr. Vance wrote.

Mr. McLaurin, disturbed by Mr. Vance’s shift to support Mr. Trump, disclosed that message in 2022, during Mr. Vance’s campaign for U.S. Senate.

“He realized that the only way that he could realize and give effect to his own anger in politics was to identify with the MAGA movement,” said Mr. McLaurin, who is a Democratic state senator in Georgia.

In his memoir, Mr. Vance describes arriving at Yale, feeling like an “awe-struck tourist.”

“Yale Law, with its prestige and privilege, was a culture shock unlike anything I had ever experienced,” he wrote.

But he developed a cadre of confidants in a class of about 15 students assigned to remain together through the first semester. In his book, Mr. Vance describes his closest friends in that group as “misfit toys.”

In addition to Sofia Nelson, now a public defender in Detroit, the group included his future wife, Usha Chilukuri, the daughter of Indian immigrants, and Jamil Jivani, a Canadian from a mixed-race family. (Mr. Jivani, now a Conservative member of Canada’s Parliament, remains a close friend to Mr. Vance, but would not comment for this article.)

Some who observed Mr. Vance in the group recall how he at first struggled with assignments. And his book describes comments he got that first year: “Not good at all,” one professor wrote. And on another paper: “This is a vomit of sentences masquerading as a paragraph. Fix.”

Amy Chua, a professor who taught his first-year contracts class, recalled in an interview that he scored near the top of 100 students on the exam, and that he admitted he had studied extra hard for the test.

It appeared, even to Ms. Chua, she said, that he lacked the intense interest in law exhibited by some students.

Mr. Vance worked in a highly regarded law clinic for veterans and drove to Washington to negotiate on behalf of a client, but he was not among the most engaged students. By 2011, he had mostly lost interest in practicing law, he would later write.

George L. Priest, a Yale Law professor who has long identified as a Republican, recalled that Mr. Vance was good enough to be hired as his research assistant but not a standout. “He didn’t distinguish himself in any particular way in my view,” Mr. Priest said.

Mr. Vance won a spot on the staff of The Yale Law Journal — a prestigious position that is often a steppingstone to a coveted appellate court clerkship — but not as one of its top editors. He instead worked with a group of editors whose primary job was to check citations.

An avid Ohio State football fan, he was better known for organizing the publication’s flag football team, which played against other law review teams. In a posting to the Wall, a Yale chat group, he tried to recruit other staff members to the team, dangling a trip to Boston to play The Harvard Law Review. Then, he resorted to self-deprecation.

“My name is JD Hamel,” he wrote on the Wall in September 2012, using the surname acquired from his stepfather, one of several paternal figures in his unstable childhood. “Many of you don’t know me. Those who do understand that I’m a little chubby and a lot slow. If I can play flag football, so can you.”

And in a paragraph that foreshadowed his political ambitions, he wrote: “Football is the most popular sport in America. Twenty years from now, when you’re at the county fair convincing Billy Bob and Gunther to support your fledgling campaign, you damn well better know the difference between offense and defense.”

In 2013, Mr. Vance, again posting as JD Hamel, complained on the Wall that he had filed his taxes in February but hadn’t received a refund by April.

“If I don’t get my refund by the time I graduate and go on vacation, I’ll be left to conclude that the Obama administration targets political enemies through tax laws,” he said, in a remark that appears to have been tongue-in-cheek.

One major influence at Yale, he has said, was a 2011 talk by Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist known for co-founding PayPal and supporting hard-right political candidates.

Mr. Thiel spoke about elite professionals trapped in hypercompetitive but unrewarding jobs while innovation had stalled.

Mr. Vance would later write that the talk led him to forgo a law career; he would practice for less than two years.

“Peter’s talk remains the most significant moment of my time at Yale Law School,” Mr. Vance wrote. “He articulated a feeling that had until then remained unformed: that I was obsessed with achievement in se — not as an end to something meaningful, but to win a social competition.”

Inspired, Mr. Vance decided to track down the billionaire, according to Dan Driscoll, one of a small group of fellow veterans at Yale Law.

“I remember sitting at the kitchen table,” Mr. Driscoll said. “We Googled ‘Peter Thiel @’ for about two hours.” They finally located a Stanford University email address, and Mr. Vance sent him a note, according to Mr. Driscoll.

“Peter wrote back and said, ‘Stop by my house next time you’re out here,’” said Mr. Driscoll, a businessman who ran for Congress from North Carolina in 2022 as a Republican.

Mr. Thiel would become a major supporter of both Mr. Vance’s venture capital firm and his Senate campaign.

Professor Chua was another pivotal connection.

Mr. Vance’s contracts class with her coincided with the release of her book about tough-love parenting, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”

Toward the end of the semester, Mr. Vance, who had read the book, sent her an email, attaching a 20-page piece about growing up with a drug-addicted mother.

“You have a book in you,” she emailed back.

He continued to develop a 60-page manuscript in another class taught by Ms. Chua, international business transactions. Mr. Vance used his family’s story to discuss the ills befalling working-class white people, and infused personal stories with political theory.

“‘This grand theory is not working,’” Ms. Chua said she told him. “‘Turn this into your own memoir.’”

“I think he took another whole year,” she added. “He kept working on it. He did independent studies with me.”

Then she introduced him to her literary agent, Tina Bennett.

He was off.

Sharon LaFraniere contributed reporting.

Pelosi Told Biden She Is Pessimistic About His Chances to Win Re-Election

The former speaker has been marshaling her knowledge of the political map, polling data and fund-raising information to press her case with President Biden.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, in Washington last week. She has told President Biden that she is pessimistic about his electoral chances.

By Carl Hulse  18 Jul, 2024

Representative Nancy Pelosi has told President Biden and House Democratic colleagues in recent days that she is pessimistic about his chances of beating Donald J. Trump as the highest levels of the party leadership intensify pressure on Mr. Biden to reconsider his candidacy.

Ms. Pelosi, according to those who have talked with her, conveyed her sentiments in phone calls with the president and with alarmed colleagues who have reached out to her for guidance on what to do. The former speaker is intimately familiar with the minutiae of campaigns from her years following House races district by district, and she has been marshaling her knowledge of the political map, polling data and fund-raising information to press her case with Mr. Biden.

One ally said that Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden in a recent call that she had seen polling data suggesting that he could not win, and the president pushed back, saying he had polls showing otherwise.

Ms. Pelosi challenged him on that.

“Put Donilon on the phone,” Ms. Pelosi asked the president, referring to Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime aide, according to people familiar with the exchange, which was reported earlier by CNN. “Show me what polls.”

Aides to Ms. Pelosi, a prodigious fund-raiser and a firm believer in the power of money in campaigns, have also sought detailed fund-raising information from the Biden campaign in recent days to help the former speaker assess the status of the campaign, according to two people familiar with the request.

“She does not think he can win,” said one Pelosi confidant who asked not to be identified. People interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

Beyond the risk of Democrats remaining in the House minority and losing more seats, Ms. Pelosi is worried that another Trump administration could unravel decades of her legislative work, including taking aim at the Affordable Care Act, her signature achievement.

The push by Ms. Pelosi meshed with efforts by both Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and majority leader, and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader, to convey to Mr. Biden the rising alarm among congressional Democrats about him losing the election and leaving them in the minority in both chambers of Congress.

In separate face-to-face meetings last week with Mr. Biden, the two leaders laid out in detail the views of colleagues, many of whom believe the president should step aside both to protect his own legacy and their seats.

While aides to Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries have all cautioned that nobody but them and Mr. Biden knows precisely what was said in their confidential conversations, none has denied the nature of the talks, issued a statement endorsing him or called on their colleagues to rally behind him as the party nominee. In fact, Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries intervened this week to slow the process of nominating Mr. Biden, which some party officials had weighed starting as soon as next week, well before the Aug. 19 start of the Democratic National Convention.

“Leader Hakeem Jeffries privately met with President Joe Biden a week ago,” a statement issued on Thursday by Mr. Jeffries’s office said. “On behalf of the House Democratic Caucus, he directly expressed the full breadth of insight, perspective and conclusions reached about the path forward — after extensive colleague to colleague discussions.”

Though she does not hold a leadership post, Ms. Pelosi continues to wield considerable influence and is seen by many Democrats as a key to resolving Mr. Biden’s status.

Ms. Pelosi, 84, has faced her own questions over the years about trying to retain power as she grew older. After Democrats regained the House majority in 2018, she faced a rebellion aimed at preventing her from returning as speaker, though she managed to quell it.

After House Democrats lost the majority in 2022, Ms. Pelosi pondered trying to remain leader but ultimately stepped aside for Mr. Jeffries, 53, allowing a generational change. She now evidently believes it would be best if Mr. Biden did the same.

Reid J. Epstein and Annie Karni contributed reporting from Milwaukee.

Here Are the Speakers for Night 4 of the Republican Convention

Before Donald J. Trump formally accepts his party’s nomination, the event will feature speeches by Hulk Hogan, Tucker Carlson and Dana White.

Senator Steve Daines of Montana will be among the first speakers at the Republican National Convention on Thursday.

By Maggie Astor  18 Jul, 2024

The Republican National Convention will end Thursday night with Donald J. Trump formally accepting the party’s presidential nomination.

Before that, the night will include leaders of the Republican Party’s efforts to retain its House majority and retake the Senate, as well as former Trump administration officials and celebrities — among them the wrestler Hulk Hogan.

The programming will begin around 5:30 p.m. Central time. Here are the major speakers on the agenda, in the order they are scheduled to speak, according to a person briefed on the planning.

5 o’clock hour

- Senator Steve Daines of Montana, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee

- Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee

6 o’clock hour

- Diane Hendricks, billionaire businesswoman from Wisconsin

- Diane Evans, member of the “Trumpettes” group of female Trump supporters

- Linda McMahon, former head of the Small Business Administration

- Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state

- Lorenzo Sewell, “everyday American” and pastor

- John Nieporte, top golf professional at one of Mr. Trump’s clubs

- Steve Witkoff, real estate investor

7 o’clock hour

- Alina Habba, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers

- Tucker Carlson, former Fox News host

- Carrie Ruiz, golf general manager at one of Mr. Trump’s clubs

- Hulk Hogan, retired wrestler

- Annette Albright, former school board candidate in Charlotte, N.C.

8 o’clock hour

- Franklin Graham, evangelical leader

- Eric Trump, Mr. Trump’s son

- Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship

9 o’clock hour

- Former President Donald J. Trump

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

A Party Now Molded in Trump’s Image Prepares for a Coronation

Thursday night, when Donald J. Trump accepts the Republican presidential nomination for the third time, will be the culmination of an extraordinary run of good fortune.

Donald Trump on Wednesday at the Republican National Convention. On Thursday, he will formally accept the party’s presidential nomination for the third time.

By Michael Gold  18 Jul, 2024

Exactly seven weeks ago, Donald J. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts in Manhattan, an unprecedented conviction of a former president that looked like a political rock bottom.

Since then, the Supreme Court handed him a critical legal victory that threw those felony convictions and more cases into limbo. President Biden’s disastrous debate plunged the Democratic Party into a rolling crisis. Two days before the opening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, he narrowly survived an assassination attempt that shocked the nation and quieted Democrats’ criticism and any remaining Republican grumbling.

And hours before Mr. Trump formally received his party’s nomination on Monday, the judge overseeing another of the criminal cases against him — the one involving accusations that he had mishandled classified documents — threw out all of the charges.

Thursday night, when Mr. Trump accepts the Republican presidential nomination for the third time, will be the culmination of an extraordinary run of good fortune and a testament to his political instincts. His address will also in many ways serve as the Republican Party’s coronation of a leader who went from rattling the conservative establishment to refashioning it entirely in his image.

“Eight years ago, Donald Trump shocked the system and defied the doubters,” Kellyanne Conway, the adviser who brought his campaign to the finish line then, said on Wednesday night.

This week, the doubters in his own party proved hard to find. Over the first three days, Republicans of all stripes — elected officials, regular Americans, his family — have taken turns seeking to reintroduce Donald Trump: not the chaotic president from news headlines, but a softer, kinder leader, yet unafraid to fight. With a bandage on his right ear, where the would-be assassin’s bullet went through, he has basked in a hero’s welcome every night.

Mr. Trump, who entered the political arena as a bull in a china shop, has tried to recast himself as the candidate of stability. All the while, Democrats are as fractured as they have been in decades. And he will take the stage anointed a martyr to what speakers have portrayed as a corrupt justice system.

Weeks ago, Mr. Trump was convicted in a trial in Manhattan.

“They punished him for merely speaking the truth,” Donald Trump Jr., his eldest son, said Wednesday night. “We don’t criminalize political differences,” he added later. “We debate them. We vote on them. But we don’t make you choose between picking a party or picking a jail cell.”

And the younger Mr. Trump closed his speech with a pitch to people who have never voted before or were disaffected by politics, a nod to Republican bullishness that Mr. Trump’s appeal can broaden further yet and the sense that the political winds are at his back.

When Mr. Trump took the reins of the Republican Party at its convention eight years ago, he did so as a fractious political outsider behind whom a divided conservative establishment reluctantly united.

Mr. Trump’s convention speech in 2016 should have been a triumphant moment over the political elites he had spent his campaign attacking. Instead, the gathering was marked by discord, as then-popular Republicans delivered speeches that danced around their distaste of their party’s nominee and approved a platform that diverged from his political perspective.

Four years later, Mr. Trump’s second formal nomination should have been more jubilant: He sat firmly atop the party and inside the Oval Office. But the devastating coronavirus pandemic curtailed plans, and instead of a rock star’s welcome in an arena full of cheering delegates, Mr. Trump’s crowning moment was a speech on the White House lawn.

That Mr. Trump would be here in Milwaukee accepting his party’s nomination was hardly a foregone conclusion. His exit from the White House, marked by his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol his election denial inspired, was one of the most ignominious political acts in American history.

But rather than exit into the political wilderness, Mr. Trump firmly kept his grip on the Republican Party and his faithful ideological adherents. Those who spoke out against him, citing their duty or their party or their moral objections, quickly found themselves in exile, outcasts among a movement that put former president above party.

Every seeming bump in the road, ones that might have upended a more traditional political candidate, only served to cement Mr. Trump’s hold on the G.O.P. and its increasing identification with him.

After his defeat in 2020, and after the riot at the Capitol, Mr. Trump kept his grip on the Republican Party.

Any one of the four indictments prosecutors brought against Mr. Trump might have proved debilitating. So, too, might have the large financial judgments in civil lawsuits that required he stake a significant part of his wealth. But Mr. Trump’s insistence that they were the malicious work of partisan operatives hellbent on destroying America only brought many in the party closer to him.

By the time Mr. Trump was convicted in Manhattan, he had so adeptly pushed this narrative that it hardly registered as a stain among the supporters at his rallies or powerful conservative political figures.

And the string of events in the weeks that followed — Mr. Biden’s halting debate performance, the Supreme Court’s decision and his survival of a shooting that killed a supporter — have only convinced Republicans that he is a political savior who will lead them back to the presidency.

Mr. Trump’s responses suggested a political instinct he sometimes lacked in the past. He largely kept quiet while Democrats squabbled over Mr. Biden’s debate performance, effectively making his opponents’ party look like one of chaos. And though some of his allies turned up the political temperature after the shooting, Mr. Trump tried — at least for a brief period — to project calm.

Mr. Trump’s ability to emerge from each travail seemingly stronger was something that Ben Carson — another onetime political outsider who, after competing against Mr. Trump and then embracing him, landed in his cabinet — recounted in awe in his speech on Tuesday.

“First, they tried to ruin his reputation. He is more popular now than ever,” said Mr. Carson, a former neurosurgeon who was Mr. Trump’s secretary of housing and urban development. “And then they tried to bankrupt him. And he’s got more money now than he had before. And then they tried to put him in prison. And he is freer and has made other people free with him. And then, last weekend, they tried to kill him. And there he is over there, alive and well.”

Mr. Trump immediately beamed, watching approvingly from the box in the arena where he was surrounded by close advisers and political confidants. They, along with the delegates on the floor, jumped to their feet.

The former president, basking in the praise from the crowd, rose to join them, responding to their adulation with a grateful pump of his fist.

Trump Says ‘I Got Lucky’ in Surviving Assassination Attempt, Video Shows

A clip first aired by PBS shows Donald Trump addressing a gathering in Milwaukee and discussing the shooting a few days earlier: “God was with me.”

Former President Donald J. Trump was speaking during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. on Saturday when a gunman tried to kill him.

By Maggie Astor  18 Jul, 2024

Former President Donald J. Trump mused to supporters at a private event held near the Republican National Convention on Wednesday about his luck in surviving an attempted assassination.

“This has been our best campaign, and then I got shot! How does that happen?” Mr. Trump said to chants of “fight, fight, fight” from the audience at the event, as seen in a one-minute video clip that was first broadcast by PBS. “But I got lucky. God was with me, I tell you.”

“That’s what they call a close call,” he added. “That was amazing. Horrible thing, amazing thing. In many ways it changes your attitude, your viewpoint on life. And I think honestly, I think you appreciate God even more, I really do, because something happened. Not that it was pleasant. It wasn’t like it was a complete miss. But it was pretty terrible that that can happen. But this has been our best campaign.”

The video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellphone, was “given to PBS News and edited for length,” the news outlet said.

A bullet grazed Mr. Trump’s ear at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday after a gunman fired from a nearby roof. One of the former president’s supporters at the rally, Corey Comperatore, was killed, and two other people were seriously injured.

The Secret Service and local law enforcement are under intense scrutiny for failing to prevent the shooting.

Some of Mr. Trump’s supporters have used the iconography of the attempted assassination for political purposes, distributing merchandise showing a photo of him immediately after the shooting, raising his fist as he was led off the stage. Some attendees at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee have worn ear bandages like Mr. Trump’s in tribute.

What to Know About California’s Covid Surge

There are only a few states where Covid is spreading more.

By Soumya Karlamangla  18 Jul, 2024

Given how back to normal California can feel nowadays, hearing about rising Covid cases can catch some of us off guard.

Editor’s note: Starting next week, California Today will have a new look. It will still arrive in your inbox every weekday morning and feature a curated collection of New York Times articles about the state, but it will no longer include a staff-written introduction each day. For more details, please read Monday’s newsletter.

Once again, we’re in the middle of a summer Covid-19 surge.

This shouldn’t be surprising: Since 2020, there has been a swell in cases in the winter and again in the summer. But given how back to normal California can feel nowadays, hearing about rising Covid cases can catch some of us off guard.

Here’s what you need to know.

Covid never stopped circulating in our communities, and new variants continue to regularly appear on the scene. Currently, two of these variants, known as KP.3 and KP.2, are gaining traction and have been fueling a nationwide rise in cases since May.

We know that cases are rising because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tests sewage for the virus at more than 1,000 wastewater sites across the country, which provides a window into viral trends in a community. This data has become particularly useful as people increasingly take Covid tests at home and may not report their results. And wastewater surveillance can detect Covid in a region even when people aren’t experiencing symptoms or testing.

The wastewater data shows that as of early July, Covid levels nationwide were about as high as they were in March, at the tail end of the last winter surge. The C.D.C. considers that level of spread to be high.

In California, however, Covid levels are considered very high by the C.D.C., according to data from the state’s 43 wastewater reporting sites. There are only three states — Florida, Nevada and Oregon — where Covid is spreading at higher rates, the data shows. The last time levels were this elevated in California was in January, much closer to the peak of our winter surge.

So what to do?

Most of us now have several layers of immunity against the Covid virus through vaccines, past infections or both, so if we are infected again the risk of serious illness is much lower than it once was.

But catching Covid still carries the risk of developing long Covid, and it can lead to hospitalization or death for people who are older or immunocompromised. In July, the percentage of deaths in California that were attributed to Covid spiked, according to state data. (The C.D.C. recommends a booster shot for people 65 and older.)

So watch out for the usual symptoms: sneezing, congestion, headaches, exhaustion, sore muscles, nausea or vomiting. My colleague Dani Blum wrote a great article about how Covid can feel very different each time you have it, so don’t assume that because your symptoms aren’t the same as last time you’re not infected.

Make sure you test if you’re feeling sick, and, if you’re positive, avoid close contact with other people. Ask your doctor about medications that can hasten your recovery, and rest as much as possible. Don’t push yourself, says Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego.

“Some people like to take long walks,” Smith told The New York Times. “I just stay in bed and read a book. Basically, you just suffer through it.”

Representative Adam Schiff at the U.S. Capitol last month. He said on Wednesday that President Biden should end his campaign.

The rest of the news

- Representative Adam Schiff, a top House Democrat running for Senate in California, became the latest within the party to call for President Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

- The Navy exonerated 258 Black sailors who were unfairly convicted after they objected to working following an explosion at a port near San Francisco in 1944.

- X Corp., the parent company of the social media site X, owned by Elon Musk, asked a federal appeals court to revive its challenge of a California law that requires large social media companies to publish their content moderation policies, Reuters reports. A lower court judge declined to block the law last year.

Southern California

- The Chino Valley Unified School District has sued Gov. Gavin Newsom over a new law that prevents educators from having to inform parents of their child’s gender identity changes, The Associated Press reports. A spokesperson for the governor called the lawsuit “deeply unserious.”

- Bob Iger, Walt Disney’s chief executive, and his wife, Willow Bay, dean of U.S.C.’s school for communication and journalism, bought a controlling stake in Angel City F.C. at a valuation of $250 million, which the Los Angeles team says makes it the most valuable women’s sports team in the world.

Northern California

- We mapped heat in three U.S. cities. Here’s where sidewalks in Sacramento topped 130 degrees.

- An Oakland woman was among six people found dead by cyanide poisoning in a Bangkok hotel, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The data shows that while the most popular girl names have remained largely the same for the past decade, it’s a very different story for boys.

And before you go, some good news

Noah and Olivia were the most popular boy and girl names in California in 2023, according to recently released data from the Social Security Administration.

Other names on the Top 10 list included Liam, Mateo and Sebastian for boys, and Mia, Camila and Emma for girls, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The data shows that while the most popular girl names have remained largely the same for the past decade, it’s a very different story for boys. The only boy name that made the Top 10 list in 2013 and has remained there since is Noah.

Parents have long been reluctant to give their boys creative names, but that gender gap has shrunk in the past generation, said Laura Wattenberg, a baby-naming expert and author of “The Baby Name Wizard.”

Noah, she told the news outlet, “embodies the sound of the moment, which is very light and smooth, dominated by vowels. There aren’t many classic boys’ names in that category.”

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.

Halina Bennet and Luke Caramanico contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.

Five People Die on Mt. Fuji in Deadly Start to Climbing Season

Japanese officials are urging climbers to be more careful on the mountain after a string of deaths within weeks of the trails opening.

Hikers on July 1, the first day of the climbing season, on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan.

By Hisako Ueno and Yan Zhuang  18 Jul, 2024

Japanese officials are urging Mount Fuji climbers to be more careful after five people died on the mountain within a week, marking an unusually deadly start to the climbing season.

Three people died within 24 hours on one side of the mountain, in Shizuoka Prefecture, which opened for the climbing season on July 10, the local police said. Another died on July 14.

All four were Japanese men in their 60s and 70s, the Shizuoka police said. One died of a fall, one became sick, and the cause of death for the other two was unclear. All four were solo climbers.

On the other side of the mountain, in Yamanashi Prefecture, where trails opened July 1, a 58-year-old visitor from Hong Kong died on July 8, officials said. The man became unconscious while climbing with his wife, the local media outlet Kyodo News reported.

All of last year, seven deaths were reported on Mount Fuji, the country’s tallest mountain.

Just before this year’s climbing season began, the police said that they had found three bodies near the mountain’s summit. Some, they believed, had been there for months. Separately, a professional climber suffered acute heart failure and died while ascending the mountain days before its trails opened, the police said.

As Mount Fuji’s popularity has soared in recent years, officials have become increasingly worried about overcrowding and dangerous climbing practices on the 12,400-foot mountain. Although the number of people who reach the mountain’s summit has remained steady over the past decade, at about 200,000 to 300,000 each year, the number of people who visit the start of the trails — and who might climb part of the way — increased to five million in 2019 from about three million in 2014, according to data from Yamanashi Prefecture.

After the latest deaths, officials are urging climbers to make sure they are adequately prepared and to avoid overexerting themselves. One of the authorities’ concerns is climbers who are unprepared for the severe and unpredictable weather on the top of the mountain, which can differ drastically from conditions on the ground.

Ryuji Ohashi, a spokesman for the Shizuoka police, said that climbers should stop their ascent if weather conditions begin to deteriorate. The climate on the mountain can change and turn dangerous quickly, which can make it difficult for rescue teams to reach climbers, Mr. Ohashi added.

Climbers “should put the highest priority on their lives,” he said.

The official Mount Fuji climbing social media account posted on Wednesday that there were “many people wearing light clothing that is not appropriate for climbing Japan’s highest peak.”

After the deaths of three climbers within the first 24 hours of trails opening, the Shizuoka police posted a video to social media of rescuers on Mount Fuji kneeling as they were pummeled by heavy winds to illustrate the severe weather conditions. The post urged people to always check the weather forecast before climbing.

“This is a matter of life and death. Choose life over the summit,” the post said.

【緊急配信】静岡県側富士山開山（7/10 9:30）から24時間以内に３人の登山者が命を落とされました。他にも救助要請が多数。登山前に必ず天気予報を確認。暴風雨予報なら登山自体の中止を。生命に関わる事です。山頂より命の選択を。（動画は暴風雨の中、出動した救助隊員）#富士山 pic.twitter.com/XJpt86Tnxb

— 静岡県警察地域部地域課 (@SP_chiiki) July 12, 2024

The authorities have also long worried about climbers who try to ascend the summit without resting overnight at one of the huts that dot the trails. Climbing without breaks through the night can result in altitude sickness and hypothermia, officials have warned.

This climbing season, Yamanashi Prefecture for the first time is capping the daily number of hikers and requiring them to pay a fee equivalent to about $12.50. It has also installed a gate at the start of its trail, which will be closed from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Republicans Put Trump in Soft Focus, Editing Out Years of Rancor

Over three days at the Republican National Convention, Donald J. Trump’s party has tried to soften his image. On Thursday, he’ll speak for himself.

Former President Donald J. Trump watched from the stands as members of his family spoke about his character as a father and grandfather during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

By Adam Nagourney  18 Jul, 2024

Over three nights, the Republican Party has set out to redefine Donald J. Trump, one of the best-known and most polarizing figures on the political stage, methodically portraying him as a kindly and compassionate paterfamilias capable of uniting Americans during a tumultuous time.

It is a brazen effort after nearly a decade in which Mr. Trump’s style — abrasive and norm-breaking — has helped to redefine American politics and made him such a dominant and divisive figure. The goal seems clear: to make Mr. Trump less threatening and more palatable to moderates and women, groups that have been put off by Mr. Trump’s demeanor and actions, but are critical to his hopes of defeating President Biden in November.

The effort came in the videos shown on the convention hall screens — Mr. Trump dancing to the song “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People in one, embracing a soldier in another — and in repeated descriptions of Mr. Trump as transformed by the assassination attempt he survived on Saturday. A procession of people, including his eldest granddaughter and the man he has chosen to be his vice president, rose to present him as a different man than the one America thought it had known over the past 10 years.

“Even in his most perilous moment, we were on his mind,” said Senator J.D. Vance, Mr. Trump’s vice-presidential nominee. “His instinct was for us, for our country. To call us to something higher.”

“They said he was a tyrant,” Mr. Vance said. “They said he must be stopped at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, for national calm, literally right after an assassin nearly took his life.”

The gap between the reality of Mr. Trump and the portrait painted at his nominating convention may prove to be too vast for any Republican makeover. Mr. Trump has spent much of his campaign promising retribution against his enemies should he be returned to the White House and has cast the election as the “final battle.”

Several speakers at the convention have talked about how Mr. Trump escaped death on Saturday in Pennsylvania, often invoking Scripture and God.

Despite what Mr. Vance said about Mr. Trump’s call for national unity in the moments after being shot, the former president’s first public words after rising from the ground were “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Again and again since he entered the political arena in 2016, there has been speculation that Mr. Trump would pivot and become a more conventional politician — speculation dashed with some new moment of outrage delivered by Mr. Trump, from the Oval Office or on social media. He was convicted of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal in New York; another jury found him liable of sexual abuse and defamation in a separate case. He was viewed unfavorably by 55 percent of all voters in the most recent New York Times/Siena College poll.

For the first three nights of the convention, this effort to effectively redefine Mr. Trump was executed with discipline and focus. A test will come on Thursday night when Mr. Trump accepts his nomination and the stage will be his alone.

The delegates began gathering two days after the attempted assassination on Mr. Trump, who has turned up every night with a bandage over his right ear. He has been, understandably, a decidedly sympathetic figure, certainly in this crowd. Speaker after speaker has recalled how Mr. Trump escaped death on Saturday in Pennsylvania, often invoking Scripture and God.

Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, cast the shooting in strikingly personal terms that stilled her audience. Ms. Trump said her family had grown accustomed to death threats and “tasteless and violent comments directed toward us on social media” over the years.

“But none of that prepares you, as a daughter-in-law, to watch, in real time, someone try to kill a person you love,” she said, looking at the former president, who was sitting in a box across the hall. “None of that prepares you, as a mother, to quickly reach for the remote and turn your young children away from the screen so that they’re not witness to something that scars the memory of their grandpa for the rest of their lives.”

The speakers have not so much sought to sugarcoat Mr. Trump’s personality, were that even possible, but to portray it as a hard shell over a soft center, and as essential to what they described as his success when he was president. Kellyanne Conway, a longtime senior adviser to Mr. Trump, acknowledged that many voters were put off by his personality. “We don’t get those policies without that personality,” she said.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas told the crowd how Mr. Trump comforted her when she came under attack in her role as press secretary in the White House.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas spoke at the convention on Tuesday.

“Our president pulled me aside, looked me in the eye and said: ‘Sarah you’re smart. You’re beautiful. You’re tough and they attack you because you’re good at your job,’” she said.

“Thank you, Mr. President,” Ms. Sanders added, gazing admiringly at Mr. Trump across the hall as a wave of applause swept the room. “Thank you.”

The images of Mr. Trump over the first three nights underscored this effort: somber and looking a little shaken the first night; smiling, approving and applauding the second night and third nights.

“I’m speaking today to share the side of my grandpa that people don’t often see,” Kai Trump, 17, the former president’s eldest granddaughter, said from the stage. “To me, he’s just a normal grandpa. He gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking. He always wants to know how we’re doing in school. ”

The convention has been orchestrated to help Mr. Trump on multiple levels, with its focus on immigration and crime, and the belittling of Mr. Biden as weak and feeble. Mr. Trump’s standing on those issues is certainly helping him in his contest with Mr. Biden.

Those were, in truth, fairly standard orchestrations of American political conventions.

But the work in Milwaukee has been more surgical, focusing on those segments of voters that have resisted Mr. Trump’s candidacy: moderates, women and, to some extent, Black voters. Many of these voters supported Mr. Biden in 2020, when he defeated Mr. Trump; the president cannot afford to lose many of them if he wants to win a second term.

So it was that Ms. Conway noted to the delegates that Mr. Trump had named her his campaign manager in 2016 — the first woman to have run a successful presidential campaign. “But that was a natural for Donald J. Trump,” she said.

The most powerful tribute of the first three days came from Lara Trump, whose speech was delivered during the one hour when television networks showed the convention live. She urged Americans to ignore the portrait of Mr. Trump presented by the news media and by his critics, and instead to focus on him as a father and a grandfather.

“I will never forget watching my two children run up to him with their drawings and hugs for Grandpa just moments before he took the elevator down in Trump Tower to address the media the day after his wrongful conviction,” she said. “Despite everything else he had going on, he had no other focus in the entire world, just a man relishing time with his grandchildren.”

She added: “It’s a side of Donald Trump that not enough people get to see.”

How Trump Dominated His Own Party on a New G.O.P. Platform

Donald Trump and his team displayed a ruthless efficiency in the process of making a platform, confiscating delegates’ cellphones and stifling dissent and even debate.

Former President Donald J. Trump gestured on the second day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

By Jonathan Swan, Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman  18 Jul, 2024

Donald J. Trump long ago decided he wanted a very different Republican Party platform in 2024. The delegates who arrived in Milwaukee early last week before the Republican National Convention, with grand plans of drafting a sweeping document of party principles, quickly found out just how determined he was.

Within minutes of their arrival, their cellphones were confiscated and placed in magnetically sealed pouches. There would be no leaks of information. It was only then that the delegates received a copy of the platform language the Trump team had meticulously prepared, which slashed the platform size by nearly three-quarters.

“This is something that ultimately you’ll pass,” Mr. Trump told the delegates by phone and made audible to the room, according to a person who was there and who was not authorized to speak publicly. “You’ll pass it quickly.”

He was right. Within hours, the platform committee had endorsed a document that Mr. Trump had personally dictated parts of, according to two people with direct knowledge of the events, and it all happened before the delegates got their phones back.

The committee passed the platform by a vote of 84 to 18.

The new platform softened language on abortion, excised old language referring obliquely to gay conversion therapy and culled a section about reducing a national debt that Mr. Trump had increased by nearly $8 trillion during his term in office. But the most revealing part was not any particular provision or plank.

It was the ruthless efficiency of a process months in the making that squelched, silenced or steamrolled any forces who might oppose Mr. Trump. The result was the latest evidence of the political maturation of Mr. Trump and his operation.

Delegates on the floor of the Republican National Convention cheer on Monday.

The first years of Mr. Trump’s presidency were defined by obstruction. He was repeatedly redirected by advisers and rebuffed on Capitol Hill. But now, as he is about to formally accept the Republican Party’s nomination on Thursday in Milwaukee for the third consecutive campaign, Mr. Trump is a political veteran who has spent nearly 10 years grinding down his opposition, purging those who are disloyal and remaking the party in his image.

President Biden and his advisers have made the specter of a second Trump term central to their campaign to defeat him, warning that his talk about the “termination” of the Constitution and of political “retribution” is a threat to American democracy. The critical rhetoric was briefly tamped down after Mr. Trump survived an attempt on his life on Saturday by a 20-year-old gunman.

But the official G.O.P. platform — and the way the Trump team muscled it through the party structure — foreshadows much beyond the words on the pages. It showcases a candidate who is increasingly confident of his own vision and who has surrounded himself with a team that knows both the rules and how to bend them.

And if he retakes the White House, the platform push may be a blueprint for how Mr. Trump might govern, aided by a pliant Republican Party and abetted by a federal judiciary that he himself reshaped during his first term.

“What it says is that the Republican Party is Donald Trump’s party,” Chris LaCivita, one of Mr. Trump’s top campaign aides, said in an interview. “Donald Trump has put the imprint, quite frankly, that he should have had in 2016 and 2020 on the party as a whole in 2024.”

Mr. Trump was ushered offstage after gunshots rang out at his rally in Butler, Pa. His right ear was grazed by a bullet.

Shorter, Simpler and More Vague

In 2020, Mr. Trump’s advisers, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, wanted to cut the Republican platform down to one page of principles. It would have been a simple way of entirely removing controversial topics that might prove politically unpopular, such as staunch opposition to same-sex marriage and an allusion to the party’s preference for permitting parents to choose gay conversion therapy for their children. The idea went nowhere.

Too many people had a stake in the platform, and getting Mr. Trump a pared-down document would have caused too fierce a clash inside the party, his advisers concluded. So the Trump team backed off. Citing challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump team ultimately did not have a new platform at all; the 2020 version simply reproduced the 2016 platform — a 66-page document that included many policies that Mr. Trump did not personally agree with.

Mr. Trump made clear to his team that he wanted the 2024 platform to be his and his alone. He wanted it to be much shorter and simpler — and, in some cases, vaguer. He was especially focused on the language about abortion, which he recognized was a potentially potent issue against him in a general election. He wanted nothing in the platform that would give Democrats an opening to attack him, and he made clear to aides that he was perfectly fine with bucking social conservatives, for whom he had delivered a tremendous victory by reshaping the Supreme Court with a conservative supermajority.

Mr. Trump also stressed that he did not want to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Instead, the document contains a vague statement open to interpretation: “Republicans will promote a Culture that values the Sanctity of Marriage.”

Demonstrators marched through downtown Milwaukee protesting Mr. Trump and the convention. He has shifted his language about abortion, a potent issue against him in a general election.

One person involved in the process recalled Mr. Trump saying privately: “Sanctity of marriage. Don’t define it.”

Three months ago, Mr. Trump’s team set about giving him the platform he wanted.

The Trump campaign decided it would go to every delegation in the country to handpick the people who would represent the campaign on committees for rules, credentials and the party platform. It was an enormous organizational exercise overseen by Mr. Trump’s senior adviser James Blair.

A small team was set to draft the platform. A speechwriter, Vince Haley, took the lead. There were only a handful of people on a list of those receiving the text, according to a person involved in the process who was not authorized to discuss the details publicly.

The team of Trump advisers had sessions where the platform was printed out and they would sit around the table at Mar-a-Lago and campaign headquarters in Palm Beach, Fla., to review the language. The group included Mr. Haley; Mr. Blair; Mr. LaCivita; Mr. Trump’s strategist and pollster, Tony Fabrizio; another speechwriter, Ross Worthington; and Mr. Trump’s top political adviser, Susie Wiles.

The first draft came in around 8,000 words, according to two people involved. Then it was slashed to around 5,000. The final document was less than half the length of the original.

The platform reads in part like a Trump campaign speech, with the former president’s idiosyncratic syntax and random capitalization throughout. Mr. Trump himself dictated edits over the phone, including on a late-night phone call in the final days that resulted in a doubling of the number of party principles from 10 to 20, according to a person with direct knowledge of the process.

Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Trump ally, presided over the meeting on the G.O.P. platform ahead of the convention.

A Process That Felt ‘Hostile’

Platform day arrived last Monday. Party regulars arrived in Milwaukee with a sense of excitement. Many of these activists look forward every four years to shaping the Republican Party’s official vision, and they pay their own way to participate in the process.

Members of the platform committee arrived expecting two days of work ahead, prepared to break into subcommittees to draft sections of a document that typically spans thousands of words.

Instead, they handed over their phones to party officials, who sealed them in the magnetic pouches. Mr. Trump and party operatives were allowed to keep their devices. Only delegates and guests were denied the ability to communicate with the outside world.

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, one of Mr. Trump’s staunchest allies in the Senate, presided over the meeting. It became clear very quickly to those who wanted to amend the platform that Mr. Trump’s team controlled the room.

One delegate, a state lawmaker from Arizona, Alex Kolodin, had brought a laptop and printer to be prepared. But there was a quick vote to confiscate those — and any other electronics.

“The will of the body is the will of the body,” Mr. Kolodin said of having his devices taken.

Mr. Kolodin said he had submitted ideas to the Trump team before the platform committee meeting but did not realize those gathered would have no actual say in the final document.

“This is all for show,” Mr. Kolodin said, adding that he wished the party had shared that fact in advance. “We all would have felt more respected by that upfront approach,” he said.

Mr. Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio.

Gayle Ruzicka, who has been attending conventions since 1992 and served on multiple platform committees, said the participants had been told the evening before that there would be subcommittee meetings. Instead, she said, delegates were handed what they were told was a draft on Monday. She said that after roughly two hours and no amendments considered, the draft was ratified in full.

“It was not honest, and that was what bothered me,” Ms. Ruzicka said.

There were roughly two hours of speeches but little to no debate about specific platform provisions, she said, adding, “We ended up voting on the platform we hadn’t even read yet.”

But Ms. Ruzicka, among the social conservatives hoping to offer stronger anti-abortion language, did not blame Mr. Trump. “I don’t think he told his people to lie to us,” she said.

Tabitha Walter, the executive director of the Eagle Forum, a conservative group that focuses on social issues, was a credentialed guest but said that party officials closely shadowed her, with one person seemingly assigned to her individually.

“Anywhere I would go get coffee and go to the bathroom, she would follow me around,” Ms. Walter said. “Any time I would take notes, she would read them.” She added that it “felt very hostile,” calling the platform experience a “strong-arming.”

Suzi Voyles, a Georgia platform delegate, also wanted a firmer stance on abortion and was disappointed to have only two hours — and little say in the platform.

“A draft,” she said, “should not become the final document.”

Mr. LaCivita maintained in an interview that Mr. Trump “has proven his credentials on the issues of import to evangelical voters and otherwise” through his record in office.

Ms. Voyles conceded that Mr. Trump had learned a lot about how to operate the inside game.

“They did a marvelous job on what might be called a whip team,” she said of the Trump vote-counting operation. “He better understands how to effectively accomplish getting from Point A to Point B.”

Takeaways From Day 3 of the Republican Convention

Senator J.D. Vance denounced “Wall Street barons” and illegal immigration as the convention’s previous unity message shifted to more aggressive attacks on President Biden.

“We will build factories again, put people to work making real products for American families, made with the hands of American workers,” Senator J.D. Vance said on Wednesday night as he made his pitch to Midwestern swing states.

By Jonathan Weisman  18 Jul, 2024

The penultimate night of the Republican National Convention belonged to the vice-presidential nominee, J.D. Vance.

Welcomed to the stage by his friend Donald Trump Jr. and introduced by his wife, Usha Vance, he was given nearly an hour to introduce himself to America and articulate his vision of blue-collar conservatism.

It was a relatively low-key address from the 39-year-old Ohio senator, who laid out his remarkable biography and economic vision without much passion. Viewers heard a diagnosis of America’s ills that often blamed policies that Republicans have embraced for decades, and many prescriptions that would break from the party’s orthodoxy.

Here are five highlights from Night 3:

Former President Donald J. Trump tapped Mr. Vance as his running mate to articulate his own vision of nationalist isolationism.

Vance, not always coherently, pushed a nationalist vision.

Listeners might have been forgiven for thinking that President Biden was the architect of economic and foreign policies dating to George H.W. Bush, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, the opening of China to international trade and the war in Iraq.

But between partisan jabs and misplaced responsibility, Mr. Vance laid out an economic vision that in fact blamed his own party and its Wall Street and corporate patrons for the struggles of working Americans. He mentioned policies that might hearten blue-collar voters but would give Republican donors heartburn.

“Wall Street barons crashed the economy,” he said, then accused undocumented immigrants of suppressing wages and saddling the economy with a housing crisis.

“We won’t cater to Wall Street,” he promised. “We’ll commit to the working man.”

“We won’t sacrifice our supply chains to unlimited global trade. We’ll stamp every product ‘Made in the U.S.A.,’” he said. “We will build factories again, put people to work making real products for American families, made with the hands of American workers.”

If those promises sound familiar, they actually echo Mr. Biden’s. And the Biden campaign was quick to note the resurgence of manufacturing that has come since the enactment of the president’s signature domestic laws, all of which included “made in America” provisions.

But with his dry delivery, Mr. Vance did show why former President Donald J. Trump tapped him as his running mate to articulate his own vision of nationalist isolationism.

After days of a unity-forward message, the crowd was eager to hear attacks on Democrats and President Biden.

Republicans took the gloves off.

For the first two nights of the Republican convention, speakers tried imperfectly to show some restraint, holding back their rhetorical attacks on Mr. Biden amid calls for unity and appeals to broaden the pro-Trump coalition.

On Night 3, they let loose, and the tone turned, well, positively Trumpian. Placards proclaimed “Mass Deportation Now.” And Thomas D. Homan, who was Mr. Trump’s head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told undocumented immigrants, “You better start packing — you’re damned right.”

It might have been impossible to restrain the nominee’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who deployed his signature bombast.

“All hell has broken out in America,” he told a crowd that lapped it up, “and it’s impossible to hide anymore.”

Peter Navarro, a former economic adviser in the Trump White House who was fresh from prison, where he had been sent for defying a congressional subpoena, spoke apocalyptically of the consequences for Trump supporters if they did not capture all branches of government in November.

“They stripped me of every possible defense and, just as they did to Donald J. Trump in New York, they threw me to the wolves of an anti-Trump jury,” he said, warning, “Make no mistake, they’re already coming for you.”

Families of Marines who were killed during the evacuation of U.S. forces in Afghanistan spoke from the stage on Wednesday.

Military families questioned the commander in chief.

Portraying Mr. Biden as weak of spirit, soft on crime and lax on immigration has been a central mission of the G.O.P. in the past three days, but on Wednesday night, the convention turned to harsh attacks on his military leadership.

Military veterans questioned the president’s command of the armed forces. Elected Republicans took up Mr. Trump’s line that Russia invaded Ukraine and Hamas attacked Israel only because Mr. Biden was feckless.

But the emotional punch came from the Gold Star families of the Marines killed in a tragic bombing during the evacuation of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

[Embedded video available]

In a heart-wrenching video, the families of the fallen Marines recounted the day they were informed their loved ones had died. They spoke of meeting Mr. Biden at the air base in Dover, Del., where repatriated military remains are returned; they said he had been distracted.

Then the families were invited onto the convention stage to make the matter personal, and to lay responsibility for their children’s deaths at the president’s feet.

“Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice,” one Gold Star mother, Christy Shamblin, told the convention.

President Biden cut his trip to Las Vegas short after testing positive for Covid.

Republicans lined up behind Israel.

Hamas’s massacre in Israel and Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza crashed into the convention in prime time on Wednesday, as the Republican Party tried to make Israel’s fight its own — and to further fracture the Democratic Party’s longstanding bond with American Jews.

A coterie of fresh-faced fraternity brothers from the University of North Carolina was invited onstage and celebrated for defending the American flag from pro-Palestinian protesters who had tried to take it down. An Orthodox Jewish student from Harvard, Shabbos Kestenbaum, castigated the Democratic Party he once supported as “ideologically poisoned” by “far-left antisemitic extremism.”

And Orna and Ronen Neutra, the parents of an American citizen still held by Hamas in Gaza, led the crowd in a chant of “bring them home,” after recounting how Mr. Trump had called them after their son was taken hostage.

It was a tricky two-step for a party whose nominee dined in 2022 with an outspoken antisemite, Nick Fuentes, and who has long perpetuated stereotypes about Jews himself.

But it underscored how the war in Gaza has badly strained a Democratic Party that is struggling to balance its ties with American Jewry and its support from American Muslims, even as Mr. Biden has staunchly backed Israel and its right to defend itself. The Republicans let it be known no such strains were afflicting their position. They were standing with Israel, regardless.

Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of an American citizen still held by Hamas in Gaza, led the crowd in a chant of “bring them home.”

Democrats revive questions about Biden.

Mr. Biden has had the worst three weeks of his long political career, but Wednesday felt like salt in the wounds. First, Representative Adam B. Schiff, the likely next senator from California, became perhaps the most prominent elected Democrat to publicly call for him to step aside.

Then, in yet another twist in the 2024 campaign, Mr. Biden came down with Covid, which forced him to cancel a campaign appearance in Nevada and retreat to his beach house in Delaware to self-isolate.

Also on Wednesday, it emerged that Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the two top Democrats in Congress, were said to have each told Mr. Biden privately over the past week that their members were deeply concerned about his chances and the party’s if he remained in the race.

The Democratic National Committee considered holding a “virtual” roll call of states as early as next week to officially make Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris its ticket for 2024. Loud protests from House Democrats not ready to see that happen forced the party to push it back.

And with the president leaving the campaign trail, his political future is once again in question.

Read the Transcript of J.D. Vance’s Convention Speech

The Ohio senator officially accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination.

Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio accepted the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nomination at the party convention on Wednesday night.

By The New York Times  18 Jul, 2024

Greetings, Milwaukee. My fellow Americans and my fellow Republicans, my name is J.D. Vance, from the great state of Ohio.

Tonight —

O-H-I-O.

You guys, we gotta chill with the Ohio love. We gotta win Michigan too here, so.

My friends, tonight is a night of hope. A celebration of what America once was, and with God’s grace, what it will soon be again. And it is a reminder of the sacred duty we have to preserve the American experiment, to choose a new path for our children and grandchildren.

But as we meet tonight, we cannot forget that this evening could have been so much different. Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning. For the last eight years, President Trump has given everything he has to fight for the people of our country. He didn’t need politics, but the country needed him.

Now, prior to running for president, he was one of the most successful businessmen in the world. He had everything anyone could ever want in a life. And yet, instead of choosing the easy path, he chose to endure abuse, slander and persecution. And he did it because he loves this country. I want all Americans to watch the video of a would-be assassin coming a quarter of an inch from taking his life. Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump. And then look at that photo of him defiant — fist in the air. When Donald Trump rose to his feet in that Pennsylvania field — all of America stood with him. And what did he call for us to do for his country? To fight. To fight for America.

Even in his most perilous moment we were on his mind. His instinct was for us, for our country. To call us to something higher. To something greater. To once again be citizens who ask what our country needs of us. Now consider what they said. They said he was a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, for national calm literally right after an assassin nearly took his life. He remembered the victims of the terrible attack, especially the brave Corey Comperatore, who gave his life to protect his family. God bless him.

And then President Trump flew to Milwaukee and got back to work.

Now that’s the man I’ve gotten to know personally over the last few years. He is tough, and he is, but he cares about people. He can stand defiant against an assassin one moment and call for national healing the next. He is a beloved father and grandfather, and, of course, a once-in-a-generation business leader. He’s the man who’s feared by America’s adversaries, but two nights ago, and I’ll share a moment, said good night to his two boys, told them he loved them, and made sure to give each of them a kiss on the cheek. And I will say, Don and Eric squirmed the same way my 4-year-old does when his daddy tries to give him a kiss on the cheek. Sorry, guys.

He is all those things, but tonight, we celebrate. He is our once and future president of the United States of America.

Now, I want to respond to his call for unity myself. We have a big tent on this party, on everything from national security to economic policy.

But my message to you, my fellow Republicans, is — we love this country and we are united to win.

Now I think our disagreements actually make us stronger. That’s what I’ve learned in my time in the United States Senate, where sometimes I persuade my colleagues and sometimes they persuade me. And my message to my fellow Americans, those watching from across the country, is shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?

That’s the Republican Party of the next four years: united in our love for this country, and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.

And so tonight, Mr. Chairman, I stand here humbled, and I’m overwhelmed with gratitude to say I officially accept your nomination to be vice president of the United States of America.

Now, never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I could be standing here tonight.

I grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved their God, their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts.

But it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington.

When I was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of Joe Biden supported NAFTA, a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to Mexico.

When I was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good American middle-class manufacturing jobs.

When I was a senior in high school, that same Joe Biden supported the disastrous invasion of Iraq.

And at each step of the way, in small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania or Michigan, in other states across our country, jobs were sent overseas and our children were sent to war.

[Crowd chants “Joe must go.”]

I agree.

And somehow, a real estate developer from New York City by the name of Donald J. Trump was right on all of these issues while Biden was wrong. President Trump knew, even then, that we needed leaders who would put America first.

Now, thanks to these policies that Biden and other out-of-touch politicians in Washington gave us, our country was flooded with cheap Chinese goods, with cheap foreign labor— and in the decades to come, deadly Chinese fentanyl.

Joe Biden screwed up, and my community paid the price. Now, I was lucky. Despite the closing factories and the growing addiction in towns like mine, in my life, I had a guardian angel by my side. She was an old woman who could barely walk but she was tough as nails.

I called her “Mamaw,” the name we hillbillies gave to our grandmothers.

Mamaw raised me as her own — excuse me —

Mamaw raised me as my mother struggled with addiction. Mamaw was in so many ways a woman of contradictions. She loved the Lord, ladies and gentleman. She was a woman of very deep Christian faith.

But she also loved the F word. I’m not kidding. She could make a sailor blush.

Now, she once told me, when she found out that I was spending too much time with a local kid who was known for dealing drugs, that if I ever hung out with that kid again, she would run him over with her car.

That’s true. And she said, “J.D., no one will ever find out about it.”

Now, now thanks to that Mamaw, things worked out for me.

After 9/11, I did what thousands of other young men my age did in that time of soaring patriotism and love of country: I enlisted in the United States Marines. Semper Fi to my fellow Marines.

Now I left the Marines after four years and went to The Ohio State University. I’m sorry Michigan, I had to get that in there.

Come on, come on. We’ve had enough political violence. Let’s —

Now after Ohio State I went to Yale Law School, where I met my beautiful wife, and I then started businesses to create jobs in the kinds of places I grew up in.

Now, my work taught me that there is still so much talent and grit in the American heartland. There really is. But for these places to thrive, we need a leader who fights for the people who built this country.

We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business, but answers to the working man, union and nonunion alike. A leader who won’t sell out to multinational corporations, but will stand up for American companies and American industry. A leader who rejects Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s Green New Scam and fights to bring back our great American factories.

We need President Donald J. Trump.

Some people tell me I’ve lived the American dream, and of course they’re right. And I’m so grateful for it.

But the American dream that always counted most was not starting a business or becoming a senator or even being here with you fine people, though it’s pretty awesome. My most important American dream was becoming a good husband and a good dad. Of being able to give —

I wanted to give my kids the things that I didn’t have when I was growing up.

And that’s the accomplishment that I’m proudest of.

That tonight I’m joined by my beautiful wife, Usha, an incredible lawyer and a better mom. And our three beautiful kids, Ewan who’s 7, Vivek who’s 4, Mirabel who’s 2.

Now they’re back at the hotel, and kids, if you’re watching, Daddy loves you very much but get your butts in bed. It’s 10 o’clock.

But, my friends, things did not work out well for a lot of kids I grew up with. Every now and then I will get a call from a relative back home who asks, “Did you know so-and-so?”

And I’ll remember a face from years ago, and then I’ll hear, “They died of an overdose.”

As always, America’s ruling class wrote the checks. Communities like mine paid the price.

For decades, that divide between the few, with their power and comfort in Washington, and the rest of us only widened.

From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who govern this country have failed and failed again.

That is, of course, until a guy named President Donald J. Trump came along.

President Trump represents America’s last best hope to restore what — if lost — may never be found again. A country where a working-class boy born far from the halls of power can stand on this stage as the next vice president of the United States of America.

But, my fellow Americans, here in this stage and watching at home, this moment is not about me; it’s about all of us, and it’s about who we’re fighting for.

It’s about the auto worker in Michigan, wondering why out-of-touch politicians are destroying their jobs.

It’s about the factory worker in Wisconsin who makes things with their hands and is proud of American craftsmanship.

It’s about the energy worker in Pennsylvania and Ohio who doesn’t understand why Joe Biden is willing to buy energy from tinpot dictators across the world, when he could buy it from his own citizens right here in our own country.

You guys are a great crowd. Wow.

And, it’s about, our movement is about single moms like mine, who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up.

And I’m proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober.

I love you, Mom.

And, you know, Mom, I was thinking. It’ll be 10 years officially in January of 2025, and if President Trump’s OK with it, let’s have the celebration in the White House.

And our movement, ladies and gentlemen, it’s about grandparents all across this country, who are living on Social Security and raising grandchildren they didn’t expect to raise.

And while we’re on the topic of grandparents, let me tell you another Mamaw story. Now, my Mamaw died shortly before I left for Iraq, in 2005. And when we went through her things, we found 19 loaded handguns. They were —

Now, the thing is, they were stashed all over her house. Under her bed, in her closet. In the silverware drawer. And we wondered what was going on, and it occurred to us that towards the end of her life, Mamaw couldn’t get around very well. And so this frail old woman made sure that no matter where she was, she was within arms’ length of whatever she needed to protect her family. That’s who we fight for. That’s American spirit.

Now, Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington for longer than I’ve been alive. Thirty-nine years old. Kamala Harris is not much further behind.

For half-a-century, he’s been the champion of every major policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.

And in four short years, Donald Trump reversed decades of betrayals inflicted by Joe Biden and the rest of the corrupt Washington insiders.

He created the greatest economy in history for workers. It really was amazing. There’s, there’s this chart that shows worker wages. And they stagnated for pretty much my entire life, until President Donald J. Trump came along. Workers’ wages went through the roof. And just imagine what he can do with four more years in the White House.

Months ago, I heard some young family member observe that their parents’ generation — the baby boomers — could afford to buy a home when they first entered the work force. “But I don’t know,” this person observed, “if I’ll ever be able to afford a home.”

The absurd cost of housing is the result of so many failures. And it reveals so much about what’s broken in Washington. I can tell you exactly how it happened.

Wall Street barons crashed the economy and American builders went out of business.

As tradesmen scrambled for jobs, houses stopped being built.

The lack of good jobs, of course, led to stagnant wages.

And then the Democrats flooded this country with millions of illegal aliens.

So citizens had to compete — with people who shouldn’t even be here — for precious housing.

Joe Biden’s inflation crisis, my friends, is really an affordability crisis.

And many of the people that I grew up with can’t afford to pay more for groceries, more for gas, more for rent, and that’s exactly what Joe Biden’s economy has given them. So prices soared, dreams were shattered.

And China and the cartels sent fentanyl across the border, adding addiction to the heartache.

But ladies and gentlemen, that is not the end of our story.

We’ve heard about the villains and their victims; I’ve talked a lot about that. I’ve talked a lot about that. But let me tell you about the future.

President Trump’s vision is so simple and yet so powerful. We’re done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We’ll commit to the working man.

We’re done importing foreign labor, we’re going to fight for American citizens and their good jobs and their good wages.

We’re done buying energy from countries that hate us; we’re going to get it right here, from American workers in Pennsylvania and Ohio and across the country.

We’re done sacrificing supply chains to unlimited global trade, and we’re going to stamp more and more products with that beautiful label, “Made in the U.S.A.”

We’re going to build factories again, put people to work making real products for American families, made with the hands of American workers.

Together, we will protect the wages of American workers — and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of American citizens.

Together, we will make sure our allies share in the burden of securing world peace. No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.

Together, we will send our kids to war only when we must.But as President Trump showed with the elimination of ISIS and so much more, when we punch, we’re going to punch hard.

Together, we will put the citizens of America first, whatever the color of their skin.

We will, in short, make America great again.

You know, one of the things that you hear people say sometimes is that America is an idea. And to be clear, America was indeed founded on brilliant ideas, like the rule of law and religious liberty. Things written into the fabric of our Constitution and our nation. But America is not just an idea. It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.

Now, it is part of that tradition, of course, that we welcome newcomers. But when we allow newcomers into our American family, we allow them on our terms. That’s the way we preserve the continuity of this project from 250 years past to hopefully 250 years in the future. And let me illustrate this with a story, if I may.

I am, of course, married to the daughter of South Asian immigrants to this country. Incredible people. People who genuinely have enriched this country in so many ways.

And, of course, I’m biased, because I love my wife and her family, but I it’s true.

Now when I proposed to my wife, we were in law school, and I said, “Honey, I come with $120,000 worth of law school debt, and a cemetery plot on a mountainside in Eastern Kentucky.”

And I guess standing here tonight it’s just gotten weirder and weirder, honey. But that’s what she was getting. Now that cemetery plot in Eastern Kentucky is near my family’s ancestral home. And like a lot of people, we came from the mountains of Appalachia into the factories of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Now that’s Kentucky coal country, one of the 10 —

Now, it’s one of the 10 poorest counties in the entire United States of America.

They’re very hardworking people, and they’re very good people. They’re the kind of people who would give you the shirt off their back even if they can’t afford enough to eat.

And our media calls them privileged and looks down on them.

But they love this country, not only because it’s a good idea, but because in their bones they know that this is their home, and it will be their children’s home, and they would die fighting to protect it.

That is the source of America’s greatness.

As a United States senator, I get to represent millions of people in the great state of Ohio with similar stories, and it is the great honor of my life.

Now in that cemetery, there are people who were born around the time of the Civil War. And if, as I hope, my wife and I are eventually laid to rest there, and our kids follow us, there will be seven generations just in that small mountain cemetery plot in eastern Kentucky. Seven generations of people who have fought for this country. Who have built this country. Who have made things in this country. And who would fight and die to protect this country if they were asked to.

Now. Now that’s not just an idea, my friends. That’s not just a set of principle. Even though the ideas and the principles are great, that is a homeland. That is our homeland. People will not fight for abstractions, but they will fight for their home. And if this movement of ours is going to succeed, and if this country is going to thrive, our leaders have to remember that America is a nation, and its citizens deserve leaders who put its interests first.

Now we won’t agree on every issue of course, not even in this room. We may disagree from time to time about how best to reinvigorate American industry and renew American family. That’s fine. In fact its more than fine, it’s good.

But never forget that the reason why this united Republican Party exists, why we do this, why we care about those great ideas and that great history, is that we want this nation to thrive for centuries to come.

Now eventually, in that mountain cemetery, my children will lay me to rest.

And when they do, I would like them to know that thanks to the work of this Republican Party, the United States of America, it is strong, and as proud and as great as ever.

That is who we serve, my friends. That is who we fight for. And the only thing that we need to do right now, the most important thing that we can do for those people, for that American nation that we all love, is to re-elect Donald J. Trump president of the United States.

Mr. President, I will never take for granted the trust you have put in me.

And what an honor it is to help achieve the extraordinary vision that you have for this country.

Now I pledge to every American, no matter your party, I will give you everything I have. To serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family and your country will be possible once again.

And I promise you one more thing. To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and every corner of our nation:

I promise you this — I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.

And every single day for the next four years, when I walk into that White House to help President Trump, I will be doing it for you. For your family, for your future and for this great country.

Thank you, God bless all of you, and God bless our great country.

Usha Vance, J.D. Vance’s Wife, Entered the Spotlight. It’s an Unfamiliar Role.

The couple met while attending Yale Law School. Republicans hope Ms. Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants, will become the second lady.

Usha Vance, the wife of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, spoke on the third day of the Republican National Convention.

By Neil Vigdor  18 Jul, 2024

Usha Vance, the wife of Senator J.D. Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, introduced herself to the nation on Wednesday night during a prime-time speech at the party’s national convention.

She leaned into the story about her husband’s impoverished upbringing and the laws of opposites attracting, highlighting their different backgrounds.

“When J.D. met me, he approached our differences with curiosity and enthusiasm,” Ms. Vance said. “He wanted to know everything about me, where I came from, what my life had been like.”

The couple met at Yale Law School, where Ms. Vance helped Mr. Vance organize his ideas about social decline in rural white America, the basis of his breakout memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” They were married in 2014 in Kentucky and have three children. She is the daughter of Indian immigrants.

Ms. Vance, 38, has shied away from the spotlight during her husband’s quick political ascent, which began during the midterm elections in 2022 when he was elected to the Senate in an open race.

Ms. Vance preceded her husband onstage. During his speech, the last of the night, he formally accepted the party’s nomination to be Donald J. Trump’s running mate.

She cast Mr. Vance, the junior senator from Ohio, as “a working-class guy” who had overcome childhood traumas that she could barely fathom.

“It’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American dream, a boy from Middletown, Ohio,” Ms. Vance said, explaining that she came from a very different background and grew up in a middle-class neighborhood of San Diego. As of 2014, she was a registered Democrat, though she is a registered Republican now.

[Embedded video available]

She praised Mr. Vance for embracing her background and customs.

“Although he’s a meat and potatoes kind of guy, he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learned to cook food for my mother, Indian food,” she said.

Ms. Vance also received her bachelor’s degree from Yale and was selected for a Gates Fellowship at Cambridge, springboards to a career as a corporate lawyer with a prestigious San Francisco law firm.

She clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh when he was an appeals court judge.

Ms. Vance spoke for about five minutes, telling the delegates that her husband’s focus in the Senate — keeping people safe and creating opportunities — would continue as vice president if he is elected in November.

She said that Mr. Vance had not changed since they first met.

“Except for that beard,” she said.

Joseph Bernstein contributed reporting.

Republicans Seek to Remind R.N.C. Viewers About Deadly Afghanistan Withdrawal

Relatives of several service members who were killed when a suicide bomb exploded at a gate to the airport in Kabul in August 2021 delivered an anguished tribute.

Relatives of several service members who were killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 took the stage at the convention.

By Neil Vigdor and Michael Crowley  18 Jul, 2024

Republicans used the deaths of 13 American service members during the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2021 to criticize President Biden’s handling of foreign policy and national security.

“They were just kind of left there, hung out to dry,” Cheryl Juels, whose niece, Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, was one of the 13 troops who were killed, said in a video appearance.

And in an anguished tribute onstage, relatives of several service members who were killed when a suicide bomb exploded at a gate to the airport in Kabul in August 2021 blamed Mr. Biden for the situation. The families held photographs of their fallen loved ones and received a standing ovation from former President Donald J. Trump and thousands of G.O.P. delegates.

[Embedded video available]

Mr. Biden has repeatedly expressed heartbreak over the deaths of those troops. He also traveled to Dover Air Force Base to receive their remains, and met privately with their family members beforehand.

Mr. Trump has frequently criticized Mr. Biden over how he handled the situation in Afghanistan, after Mr. Biden made the final decision in 2021 to withdraw America’s military from Afghanistan, ending an occupation of nearly 20 years. But it was Mr. Trump who clinched a deal with the Afghan Taliban, setting a timeline for America’s exit.

Still, on a night focused on foreign policy, Afghanistan repeatedly came up. And it was used it to assail Mr. Biden and cast him as weak and mismanaging military operations.

The Biden campaign referred requests for comment on Wednesday night to Adrienne Watson, a National Security Council spokeswoman.

Families who lost relatives in Afghanistan got a standing ovation at the convention.

“President Biden cares deeply about our service members, their families, and the immense sacrifices they have made,” Ms. Watson said in a statement. She added: “As he said then and continues to believe now: Our country owes them a great deal of gratitude and a debt that we can never repay, and we will continue to honor their ultimate sacrifice.”

Christy Shamblin, Sergeant Gee’s mother-in-law, told delegates on Wednesday night that Mr. Trump had spent six hours with her and other family members of troops killed in Afghanistan at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

“I had expected to meet an arrogant politician,” she said. “Instead, I met a man who had empathy for us.”

G.O.P. Puts Israel and Antisemitism Front and Center, Courting U.S. Jews

Convention speakers included college students who defended the U.S. flag from pro-Palestinian protesters and the parents of an American still being held by Hamas.

Israel and antisemitism were given prominence at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday.

By Jonathan Weisman  18 Jul, 2024

Hamas’s brutal massacre in Israel and Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza crashed into the Republican National Convention in prime time Wednesday night, as former President Donald J. Trump’s Republican Party moved to make Israel’s fight its own — and to further fracture the Democratic Party’s longstanding bond with American Jews.

A coterie of fresh-faced fraternity brothers from the University of North Carolina was invited onstage to be celebrated for defending the American flag from pro-Palestinian protesters who had tried to take it down. An Orthodox Jewish student from Harvard, Shabbos Kestenbaum, castigated the Democratic Party he once supported as “ideologically poisoned” by “far-left antisemitic extremism.”

And Orna and Ronen Neutra, the parents of an American citizen still held by Hamas in Gaza, led the crowd in a chant of “bring them home,” after recounting how Mr. Trump had called them after their son was taken hostage.

Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of Omer Neutra, an American citizen still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

Then Lee Zeldin, once one of two Jewish Republicans in the House before running unsuccessfully to be New York’s governor, accused President Biden of pandering to antisemitic protesters.

It was a tricky two-step for a party whose nominee dined in 2022 with an outright and outspoken antisemite, Nick Fuentes, and for a convention that had also featured Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, who has spouted Holocaust denial, and Charlie Kirk, the youthful conservative leader who stirred controversy last fall by defending Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

But it underscored how the brutal war in Gaza has badly strained a Democratic Party that is struggling to balance its long ties with American Jewry and its support from American Muslims.

The Republicans let it be known no such strains were afflicting their position. They were standing with Israel, regardless.

Business

- Carlos Espina is a One-Man Telemundo on TikTok

- Tucker Carlson, Ousted by Fox, Roars Into Milwaukee as a Top Trump Ally

- WNBA Players Seek Expert Advice as They Assess Next Union Contract

- E.C.B. Leaves Rates Unchanged but Keeps Door Open for September

- How Trump’s Running Mate J.D. Vance is Connected to Silicon Valley

- Is Maddow in Milwaukee? No, That’s an LED Screen on MSNBC.

- Ford Will Make Gasoline Trucks Not Electric Vehicles in Canada Plant

- How Elon Musk May Influence Donald Trump’s Policies

- China’s Leaders Offer High Hopes, but Few Details for Road to Recovery

- Help! We Had to Sleep in the Hotel’s Breakfast Room. We Would Like a $215 Refund.

- U.K. Climate Change Committee Urges Speed in Cutting Emissions

- Stocks on Wall Street Drop, Led by Semiconductor Shares

- Britain Approves Lab-Grown Meat for Pet Food

- A Milan Airport Is Now Named for Berlusconi. Cue the ‘Bunga-Bunga’ Memes.

- E.U. Court Rebukes European Commission Over Covid Vaccine Contracts

- Amazon Workers Narrowly Reject Union Drive at British Warehouse

- Bird Flu Is Spreading. Why Aren’t More People Getting Tested?

- The Fed Under Trump 2.0

- To Revitalize Britain’s Economy, a Plan for a Stronger Government Role

A One-Man Telemundo on TikTok

Carlos Espina is among a new kind of social media personalities whom politicians, especially those in the Biden White House, view as modern-day broadcasters.

Carlos Eduardo Espina has more TikTok followers than Beyoncé or Reese Witherspoon.

By Sapna Maheshwari and Ken Bensinger  18 Jul, 2024

On a recent scorcher of a Houston afternoon, Carlos Eduardo Espina was driving to a restaurant that specializes in Nicaraguan and Puerto Rican food when he received a news alert on his iPhone: The former president of Honduras had been sentenced to 45 years in a U.S. prison for drug trafficking.

“Oh, I need to make a video, actually, in the car,” Mr. Espina, 25, said apologetically as he pulled his Honda crossover S.U.V. into the restaurant’s parking lot. He skimmed a Honduran newspaper’s Instagram post about the news and then opened TikTok, where he has 9.4 million followers. He turned the camera on himself while his girlfriend, who was sitting behind him, crouched out of the frame, clearly used to this sort of drill.

His hazel eyes widened, and he boomed, “Importante noticia de última hora” — Spanish for “important breaking news” — then shared a one-minute recap. The video racked up more than 100,000 views during lunch, which Mr. Espina received for free because the restaurant owner was thrilled to recognize him from TikTok.

Mr. Espina created TikTok content on his phone while dining at a Nicaraguan restaurant in Houston.

Mr. Espina watching Mexico play Venezuela in the Copa América at a Venezuelan food truck in College Station, Texas. Mr. Espina, whose videos are mainly in Spanish, has flown under the radar in the national press.

Mr. Espina, a recent law school graduate who lives in College Station, Texas, has become something of a one-man Telemundo for millions of Latinos in the United States and one of the White House’s favored social media personalities. He posts almost constantly, sharing earnest and personal news about immigration and the Latino community, along with videos about food, sports and politics — and often championing the Biden administration’s agenda.

Despite having more TikTok followers than Beyoncé or Reese Witherspoon, he has received little attention in the national press, perhaps because his videos are mainly in Spanish. But he drew attention last month with videos that he filmed with President Biden as he announced two new immigration measures.

“I’ve basically become, for many people, their main informer on immigration,” said Mr. Espina, who’s often found in jeans and a man bun. “People will be watching Telemundo and if they see something on immigration, they’ll immediately go to my profile and say, ‘Hey, what is Carlos saying about this?’”

Mr. Espina is part of a roster of social media personalities whom politicians, especially those in the Biden White House, view as modern-day broadcasters, offering them briefings and unique access to administration officials in hopes of reaching their audiences as more people get their information in places beyond traditional news media.

In August, the White House will host its first conference on the social media creator economy, and the group running the Democratic National Convention will, for the first time, hand out credentials to creators like Mr. Espina, giving them access to the party’s marquee event normally reserved for the press.

Mr. Espina is quick to emphasize that he doesn’t consider himself a journalist, but his TikTok account isn’t far from journalism, blending aspects of reporting with political commentary and entertainment. It’s a potent combination on an app that has become a meaningful source of news for a growing number of Americans.

It’s a lucrative gig. Last year, Mr. Espina said, he brought in $1.3 million, most of it from TikTok, with additional income from other social media platforms and paid sponsorships.

Tom Perez, a senior White House adviser and a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has become a mentor to Mr. Espina, whom he called “gifted.”

“He has a unique capacity to separate the wheat from the chaff,” Mr. Perez said, “and to explain things in ways that are accessible to people.”

Stumbling Into Virality

Mr. Espina with fans while out to eat in Houston.

Like many of TikTok’s young stars, Mr. Espina started posting to the platform while he was stuck at home in 2020.

But unlike so many of his peers, Mr. Espina didn’t claim his initial fame with dancing, cooking or comedy. Instead, it was through videos on how to pass the U.S. citizenship test.

Mr. Espina, a U.S. citizen, was born in Uruguay, where his father is from. His mother is an immigrant from Mexico. The family settled near College Station, where his father teaches Latin American poetry at Texas A&M.

During his junior year of high school, he started tutoring students who had migrated from Central America. He also began teaching citizenship classes on the weekends with a local nonprofit. By the time he went to Vassar College, he knew he wanted to be an advocate for Latino immigrants.

He graduated early, but the coronavirus pandemic upended the job he had lined up. Instead, he taught virtual citizenship classes on Facebook for the nonprofit he had worked with in high school, and they quickly grew in popularity.

Friends encouraged him to post similar fare on TikTok. His first video surpassed 100,000 views. Soon, he branched out into adjacent topics, like explaining different types of visas.

His account took off in 2020 as he threw his support behind Mr. Biden and debated TikTok users who supported Donald J. Trump, then the president, often posting five to 10 times daily. By the time of Mr. Biden’s inauguration, he had more than one million followers. He enrolled in law school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2021.

His posts, which can number a dozen in a single day, cover a lot of ground — flagging deadlines for work visas, warning followers about the location of Border Patrol agents or highlighting racist incidents like a video of a woman at Disneyland who said she hated Mexicans. He can be farcical, like the time he pretended to endorse Mr. Trump; he also has a penchant for crying on camera, such as when he introduced his mother on TikTok in May.

“I’ve basically become, for many people, their main informer on immigration,” Mr. Espina said.

Mr. Espina also regularly posts about money that he gives away to the Latino community. Last year, he said, he donated $50,000 “to give help to my followers or help people in difficult situations.” He said half of his earnings would go toward a community center for Latino immigrants that he planned to build in Houston. All of this content is interspersed with videos capturing his daily life, from visiting local restaurants to cheering at soccer matches in stadiums around the country.

“There’s a lot of Spanish-speaking creators talking about stuff going on in Mexico or South America,” he said. “But there was no one speaking Spanish talking about politics and Latino issues and immigrant issues here in the United States.”

Mr. Espina’s TikTok account blends aspects of reporting with political commentary and entertainment.

‘Two-Way Street’

In the United States, Hispanic adults are more likely to use TikTok than Black, Asian and white adults are, and more likely to prefer social media for news, according to Pew Research. Latinos are also tuning in less to legacy Spanish-language television networks like Telemundo and Univision, said Melita Garza, an associate professor and expert in Spanish-language news media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“You’re seeing some of the same trends that we see in the English-speaking community, but they’re much more pronounced in the Latino community, especially the immigrant community,” she said.

The Biden administration, hoping to secure the critical Latino vote, has been trying to tap into that trend. Creators have been a pillar of the Biden administration’s communications strategy, joining State of the Union watch parties and spreading the word about vaccines and foreign policy. The approach has recently stumbled as Mr. Biden’s policies on Gaza and immigration face criticism from the left, especially from Gen Z.

The White House’s office of digital strategy has aimed to give creators time with policymakers while leaning on them “to better understand what the American public thinks,” said Christian Tom, its director. “When we have a chance to bring a creator to the White House complex, it is a two-way street.”

Mr. Espina had been frustrated by what he viewed as inaction on immigration reform, even spearheading a national protest in 2022. But he connected with the White House this year after signing with Palette, a talent management firm that represents many creators invited to the administration’s events and that the D.N.C. has paid to help with social media influencers.

“I was someone who was very skeptical going into it,” Mr. Espina said.

Although the White House was frequently in touch with him, he said it didn’t pressure him to put up sympathetic posts. Mr. Espina and his manager at Palette said he had not received compensation from the White House, the Biden campaign or the D.N.C.

In February, he was invited for private meetings with immigration experts and Mr. Perez, the senior White House adviser. He later joined a roundtable with Vice President Kamala Harris before the State of the Union address. He also participated in a gathering of Latino climate leaders in April and a Cinco de Mayo event that included meetings with the first lady, Jill Biden, and the secretary of education.

Mr. Espina produced a fount of clips on TikTok last month as Mr. Biden announced new protections for immigrants. Mr. Espina hyped the news while standing in front of the White House (7.7 million views); the president hugged him after making his formal announcement (11.1 million views); Mr. Espina teared up while meeting Mr. Biden in the Blue Room as he described what the policies would mean for his undocumented friends (14.5 million views); and he taped an explainer that displayed the news releases in Spanish behind him (4.3 million views).

Mr. Espina said White House staff had asked about his plans for his video conversation with Mr. Biden and filmed it on a separate device, but that was the extent of their involvement.

“You got to take people where they are,” Mr. Perez said, adding, “The days of Walter Cronkite and three television stations where everybody gets their news are long gone.”

Tucker Carlson, Ousted by Fox, Roars Into Milwaukee as a Top Trump Ally

After time away from the spotlight, the right-wing host is increasingly welcomed by Trump’s inner circle. He also made a surprise visit to Fox’s convention studio.

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, left, and former President Donald J. Trump on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

By Michael M. Grynbaum and Jim Rutenberg  18 Jul, 2024

All of a sudden, Tucker Carlson has roared back to the forefront of Republican politics.

Once the top-rated anchor on Fox News — only to be abruptly ousted 15 months ago, his national platform yanked out from under his feet — Mr. Carlson has made an improbable re-emergence into America’s living rooms at this week’s Republican National Convention.

He was the first person to greet Donald J. Trump after the former president’s dramatic entrance in the convention hall on Monday, and cameras later caught them joking together in Mr. Trump’s friends and family box, just two seats apart. He is even returning to prime time: Mr. Carlson is set to deliver a televised address to the convention on Thursday in a coveted slot shortly before Mr. Trump accepts his party’s nomination.

Mr. Carlson once electrified Fox viewers with racial grievances and flimflam conspiracy theories. Spurned by the network, he found mixed success with a self-produced video series on X and a subscription streaming service that failed to generate much buzz, although a recent pivot to lengthy, Joe Roganesque podcasts has attracted more listeners.

But behind the scenes over the past year, Mr. Carlson has become more deeply allied with Mr. Trump than at any point in his long relationship with the former president, a man for whom the broadcaster once expressed deep ambivalence.

Mr. Carlson lobbied Mr. Trump to select Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who had been a frequent guest on his Fox show, as his running mate, and he helped broker a meeting in Milwaukee between Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate.

He and a longtime producer of his shows, Justin Wells, recently visited Mar-a-Lago to pitch Mr. Trump on a fly-on-the-wall docuseries about his campaign. Mr. Trump granted access, and the series is set to be released on Mr. Carlson’s streaming platform before the election; Mr. Wells and a cameraman were filming several feet away from the former president in Pennsylvania on Saturday when he was shot by a would-be assassin.

Mr. Carlson has also intensified a friendship with Donald Trump Jr., whose fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, overlapped with Mr. Carlson at Fox News (and was also forced to leave by the network). This week, the younger Mr. Trump said that Mr. Carlson would make an excellent vice president. “He’s one of the great thought leaders of the party these days,” Mr. Trump told Axios. “He’s an incredible part of the movement. I’m so glad we have him.”

Mr. Carlson’s newfound place at the former president’s side is all the more extraordinary given last year’s revelations that Mr. Carlson had turned on Mr. Trump toward the end of his presidency. “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” Mr. Carlson wrote in a text message in 2021 made public as part of the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case against Fox, which the network settled for $787.5 million. “I hate him passionately.”

In a short interview on Thursday morning, Mr. Carlson dismissed those past comments as merely venting frustration to a colleague.

“I got pissed at Trump. So? I get pissed at my wife,” he said. “I’m a human being.” Asked if he had cleared the air directly with Mr. Trump about those remarks, Mr. Carlson said, “I never talked to anyone about it.”

Mr. Carlson said that he has recently felt more ideologically simpatico with Mr. Trump, in particular the former president’s position on curbing immigration and the brand of economic populism that is espoused by Mr. Vance. “Joe Biden is evil,” he added. “Not wrong. Evil.”

This week in Milwaukee, Mr. Carlson has cut a gleeful and confident figure. He was greeted with cheers at a Heritage Foundation summit and schmoozing in the lobby of the Trade Hotel, where Mr. Trump’s inner circle is staying.

He has also tried to make old foes squirm.

Mr. Carlson stunned executives at Fox News by turning up unannounced at its packed studio inside the convention venue, the Fiserv Forum, on Tuesday, sporting a megawatt grin as former colleagues like Jeanine Pirro, Jesse Watters, Brit Hume and Charlie Hurt came to warmly greet him.

Crisply dressed in a blue gingham shirt and marina-ready navy blazer, Mr. Carlson looked every bit the cat who ate the canary. He had swept into the Fox green room as part of the entourage of Donald Trump Jr., who was preparing for an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show. Mr. Carlson held court chatting with Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate, as party grandees like Newt Gingrich circled — and crew members sneaked arch glances at their ousted former colleague.

Approached inside the Fox studio by a reporter, Mr. Carlson demurred when he was asked how it felt to be back at his old stomping ground. “What do you mean?” Mr. Carlson said, adding, puckishly, “I’m too important. When you’re a world historic figure you don’t talk to The New York Times.” (He later agreed to a short interview.)

Adding to the intrigue, Rupert Murdoch, the media titan who owns Fox News, had visited the studio just minutes earlier. Mr. Carlson did, however, bump into Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, earlier in the week; a person familiar with their encounter said that it had been cordial.

In the interview on Thursday, Mr. Carlson praised Mr. Murdoch — “he has 19th century manners, which I really appreciate” — and said he retained no bitterness toward his former boss. “I’ve never felt anything but gratitude to him, and I mean that,” he said. “It’s not the first time I’ve been fired and every time I get fired I thank god for it. It forces you to confront your own weaknesses and make a change, and it’s a great, great experience.”

As for the reasons behind his ouster from Fox, Mr. Carlson said, “I honestly don’t know what it was about.”

Mr. Carlson’s path back is not unlike the journey of Mr. Trump, who secured the Republican nomination and is leading polls in the presidential contest despite two impeachments, four criminal indictments and a felony conviction.

Mr. Carlson was drummed out of Fox News in 2023 after a series of on-air flare-ups and off-air antics. His behavior had angered his superiors, the Murdochs and, ultimately, Fox’s board of directors, which was alarmed when company lawyers discovered a private message in which Mr. Carlson shared inflammatory views about violence and race.

Technically, Mr. Carlson is still beholden to his contract with Fox, which runs through the end of this year. The contract effectively grants Fox the right to keep Mr. Carlson out of sight until 2025 but the company has not enforced the terms.

Tucker Carlson Network, the host’s streaming service, gained attention in February by securing a rare interview with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. But Mr. Carlson had otherwise struggled to match the influence he wielded at Fox News.

He is now shifting from formal interviews to more freewheeling conversations in the vein of Mr. Rogan; recent guests included the journalists Matt Taibbi and Catherine Herridge. As of Thursday, “The Tucker Carlson Show” was ranked No. 11 on the Apple podcast charts.

Mr. Carlson, though, is still drawn to the incendiary. Last year, he hosted the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his show, telling listeners that he “is not a crazy person.” The interview helped prompt Elon Musk to reinstate the X account of Mr. Jones, who has promoted the false claim that the 2012 shooting in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax.

Given Mr. Trump’s mercurial nature and shifting allegiances, it is not clear how his relationship with Mr. Carlson will ultimately shake out.

Around Milwaukee, Mr. Carlson has sought to shrug off his Monday night cameo in Mr. Trump’s box, suggesting that the appearance came together on the spur of the moment and that he did not have time to change out of his casual plaid shirt and loafers.

Mr. Trump downplayed it, too — although with a different spin. Speaking with people at Fox News this week, the former president said that Mr. Carlson sat in the box only because he had asked to be in the box, according to a person familiar with Mr. Trump’s remarks.

Nick Corasaniti contributed reporting from Milwaukee.

W.N.B.A. Players, Bargaining Power Soaring, Seek Expert Advice on Labor Deal

With the league’s popularity rising, players have never had more leverage when it comes to issues like salaries, travel accommodations and revenue sharing.

Star rookies like Angel Reese, left, have helped increase the league’s visibility and popularity.

By Tania Ganguli  18 Jul, 2024

W.N.B.A players have never had more leverage than they have right now.

A sparkling rookie class, headlined by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, has catapulted a league that was already growing into a new stratosphere in terms of popularity and visibility. Attendance and viewership records are being shattered, and everyone wants to know why the players’ salaries aren’t higher. The league is about to receive a windfall from a newly negotiated media rights deal which is expected to earn it at least six times what it does in the current deal, according to a person familiar with the numbers who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been finalized.

It would seem an ideal time to take advantage of the opportunity they have this fall to opt out of their collective bargaining agreement, two years before it is set to expire.

But the players’ union doesn’t want to be too hasty. So last month, it created a five-person advisory committee consisting of lawyers, academics and financial and media professionals to help its members parse the decision.

“What we need to do as players and as part of the P.A. is we make a united decision, but also listen to the pros and the cons both ways,” said Breanna Stewart, forward for the New York Liberty and the league’s most valuable player last season. “Staying in, opting out — what are our goals going forward, especially after the things that have changed this year?” said Stewart, a vice president for the union.

The advisers are Claudia Goldin, a Harvard professor who won the Nobel Prize in economics last year for her work on women in the labor market; W. Charles Bennett, a former F.B.I. agent, as well as an accountant and fraud investigator; Deborah Willig, managing partner at the Philadelphia law firm Willig, Williams and Davidson, who has negotiated on behalf of other players’ unions; Tag Garson, a longtime executive in sports and entertainment; and David Cooper, a communications specialist and professor at New York University.

The professional credentials of the advisory group are a sign of the importance the union is placing on the next contract. Travel arrangements — players hope to codify charter flights into the next C.B.A. — salaries and the structure of revenue sharing are expected to be significant issues.

The union, led by its executive director, Terri Jackson, could vote to opt out of its current contract before it expires in 2027.

“This time, we’ve got to be great,” said Terri Jackson, the executive director of the union. “Everybody’s talking about ‘transformational C.B.A.’ Whether it’s now or two years from now, we’ve got to be great. These folks who have stepped up for us, they’re better than great.”

The league’s current C.B.A. is set to expire in 2027 unless either the league or the players decide to opt out. If either side chooses to opt out by Nov. 1 of this year, then the C.B.A. will conclude on Oct. 31, 2025, giving the sides about a year to negotiate a new agreement.

Opting out comes with the risk that negotiations could take longer than a year, potentially leading to a lockout. Players on the executive committee and team player representatives will vote on the opt out.

The advisory team will meet about twice a month with the rest of the union’s C.B.A. committee, which includes a group of players and union executives. The first of those meetings was held on June 26.

“I learned that I have a lot to learn,” said the Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum, the union’s first vice president, who was the first overall pick in the W.N.B.A. draft in 2017. “They’re asking questions I didn’t even really think of.”

Goldin said she had been inundated with requests since winning the Nobel and had said yes to a “countably small” number of them.

“One of them was being on ‘Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!’,” Goldin said, referring to the comedic news show on National Public Radio. “And one of them is being the part of the team that will aid the amazing players of the W.N.B.A.”

The advisory group is primarily providing counsel at the moment, though a few members have been given specific tasks. In the interest of transparency, the W.N.B.A. shared some financial documents with the union, something Jackson cited as a positive sign for the negotiations. Bennett and Garson have been asked to examine those.

“I try to identify the revenues of the league and tie the players to the growth and that revenue stream to make sure the players keep pace in terms of salaries and benefits as revenues grow,” said Bennett, who has helped players’ associations monitor revenue sharing and salary cap programs since 1989.

Garson, who used to call women’s basketball games while a student at Northwestern University more than 30 years ago, has also been asked to keep a close eye on media rights negotiations involving the league, including the next TV deal for the N.B.A., which will include rights for the W.N.B.A.

The N.B.A. Board of Governors approved a deal on Tuesday with Amazon, Comcast and Disney, which would allot $200 million a year for W.N.B.A. rights, according to the person familiar with the deals. The W.N.B.A. is expecting to earn at least another $60 million a year from other partners, likely CBS and Ion, which currently broadcast W.N.B.A. games. Under the current media rights deals, the W.N.B.A. has been earning $43 million in rights fees.

Other issues on players’ minds include pensions for retirees, roster sizes and improving parental and fertility benefits. The C.B.A. currently stipulates that players must have played for eight years before receiving a $20,000 benefit for family planning services like adoption and egg freezing — a threshold many players never reach.

There was a time when W.N.B.A. players, perhaps worried about the league’s long-term viability, were more cautious in conversations about the C.B.A.

“I personally experienced more players perhaps making decisions out of fear of losing something so special, and being very grateful for whatever few or little resources were being allotted to the W,” said the Seattle Storm’s Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the union, who was drafted in 2012. “That was in my first couple of years. From that, I’ve learned that we have way more power than we actually understand.”

As the league matured, players became more engaged with the last C.B.A., which was ratified in 2020, and interest in understanding the process has remained high.

Stewart wasn’t involved during the last negotiation, and she said that made her want to be active this time and use her leverage “being one of the faces of the league, showing up for these important meetings and being there when we’re going head-to-head and fighting for what we want.”

Breanna Stewart said she got involved in the negotiations because she wanted to use her leverage as “one of the faces of the league.”

She recalled Sue Bird, with whom she played in Seattle, urging her early in her career to get involved. Bird did the same for Plum while they were both at U.S.A. Basketball camps.

The veterans would love to see their star rookies get involved, but they realize they are already facing intense scrutiny. Plum said they’d already done “more than their part” to help their fellow players.

“It’s just amazing to see how young they are, but how they carry themselves and how they continue to move their games forward and also the league forward,” Plum said.

Ogwumike expects the league’s new media rights deal to change things for the W.N.B.A.

“This time is crucial,” she said. “For the future of the W, for the future of women in sport, for women in sport and business, and I’m really glad to be learning through the history.”

E.C.B. Leaves Rates Unchanged but Keeps Door Open for September

The central bank left its key deposit rate at 3.75 percent as inflation in the eurozone is expected to fluctuate throughout the rest of the year.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, said officials “are not pre-committing to a particular rate path.”

By Eshe Nelson  18 Jul, 2024

European Central Bank policymakers held interest rates steady on Thursday, as they reiterated their cautious approach to cutting rates as inflation bumps around above the bank’s target.

The bank kept the key deposit rate at 3.75 percent, which it expects to be restrictive enough to tamp down demand for household and business loans, slow the eurozone economy and restrain inflationary pressures. Last month, policymakers cut the interest rate a quarter point, the first reduction in nearly five years and a tentative step toward easing.

Inflation in the eurozone has fallen a long way from its double-digit highs in late 2022, and policymakers are trying to ensure it returns to their 2 percent target sustainably. Average inflation across the 20 countries that use the euro was 2.5 percent in June, slightly lower than it was in May but higher than in April.

“Inflation is expected to fluctuate around current levels for the rest of the year,” Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, said at a news conference in Frankfurt.

Though recent economic data supports the bank’s view of the region’s inflation outlook, policymakers “are not pre-committing to a particular rate path,” she added.

Investors widely expected the bank to hold rates at this meeting, but are still betting that there will be one or two more rate cuts this year. The E.C.B. next meets to set policy in mid-September, when it will also present new inflation and growth forecasts by the bank’s staff. Traders are betting that there is about an 80 percent chance of a cut at that meeting.

The E.C.B., like other major central banks, has been searching for a balance of interest rates that are high enough to maintain low inflation but not so high they cause excessive damage to the economy. Some other European central banks, including in Sweden and Switzerland, have cut rates. The U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of England have not, but their officials have indicated that rate cuts are the most likely next step.

European policymakers said that most measures of underlying inflation were stable, but domestic price pressures were high and inflation in the services sector, which includes hospitality, was “elevated.” Headline inflation, which includes often volatile elements like food and energy, would also stay above target “well into next year,” policymakers said.

Services inflation, which is heavily influenced by wage costs, was 4.1 percent in June, the same as the previous month, and the highest it has been since October. Unlike other components of inflation, such as food or energy prices, prices in the services sector have remained buoyant as households spend more on travel and leisure and their wages, on average, have gone up.

Europe is also having a busy tourism season. On top of traditional summer vacations, visitors have traveled for big concerts and the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Germany. And later this month, the Olympics begins in Paris.

“The question of September and what we do in September is wide open,” Ms. Lagarde said.

How a Network of Tech Billionaires Helped J.D. Vance Leap Into Power

Mr. Vance spent less than five years in Silicon Valley’s tech industry, but the connections he made with Peter Thiel and others became crucial to his political ascent.

David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur and podcaster, left, and J.D. Vance, the Ohio senator and vice-presidential hopeful, middle, at the Republican National Convention on Monday.

By Ryan Mac and Theodore Schleifer  17 Jul, 2024

Last month, J.D. Vance flew to San Francisco to hold a fund-raiser for Donald J. Trump and to host a private dinner afterward with two dozen tech and crypto executives and investors.

The location was the opulent Pacific Heights mansion of David Sacks, an entrepreneur and podcaster whom Mr. Vance had met through the tech investor Peter Thiel. Mr. Vance, now 39 years old, had worked for one of Mr. Thiel’s investment firms in San Francisco in 2016.

During the $300,000-a-person dinner that night, Mr. Trump, seated between Mr. Sacks and another tech investor, Chamath Palihapitiya, informally polled the room about whom to choose as his running mate. Even with another vice-presidential hopeful, Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, in attendance, Mr. Sacks, Mr. Palihapitiya and others all had the same answer: Pick Mr. Vance, they told Mr. Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the exchange.

A screenshot from a video of a June fund-raiser for former President Donald J. Trump at the home of David Sacks.

Mr. Vance, the Ohio senator selected by Mr. Trump this week to be his running mate, spent less than five years in Silicon Valley’s tech industry, where he worked as a junior venture capitalist and a biotech executive. But while he made little mark on the tech scene, it was a formative period that has powered Mr. Vance’s stunning ascent in the Republican Party — and is likely to influence his political future.

Mr. Vance’s stint in tech was crucial for forging connections with billionaire executives and investors, including Mr. Thiel, Mr. Sacks and Elon Musk, who owns X. Over and over, those men have funded Mr. Vance’s political ambitions, raised his profile among other wealthy donors and on social media, and lobbied Mr. Trump to choose him as his running mate.

Before the 2022 midterm elections, Mr. Thiel gave $15 million to support Mr. Vance’s campaign for the Senate. Mr. Sacks donated $1 million to a political action committee backing Mr. Vance’s run. In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Mr. Trump cited Mr. Vance’s “very successful business career in Technology and Finance” as one reason he was chosen as his running mate.

Mr. Sacks spoke at the Republican National Convention on Monday. “This is who I want by Trump’s side,” he posted on social media about Mr. Vance.

“His experience in tech has absolutely influenced his thinking,” Nathan Leamer, the chief executive of Fixed Gear Strategies, a tech policy consulting firm, said of Mr. Vance. “He built rapport with some important influencers now onboard with Trump.”

Yet if Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are elected to the White House in November, it is unclear whether Mr. Vance will be on the same page with Silicon Valley’s interests. He has praised the Federal Trade Commission, which has brought antitrust cases against tech’s biggest companies, and called for the breakup of Google because it was an “explicitly progressive technology company.”

Representatives for Mr. Vance, the Trump campaign and Mr. Sacks did not respond to requests for comment.

“J.D. is an exceptional pick,” Mr. Palihapitiya said in a text message. “We will all be better off as he works on all of our behalfs.”

Mr. Vance’s path to the tech industry began when he was a student at Yale Law School. In 2011, he met Mr. Thiel after the investor delivered a speech at Yale, where he derided the professional prospects of law students and argued that their time might be better spent in Silicon Valley.

“Peter’s talk remains the most significant moment of my time at Yale Law School,” Mr. Vance wrote in a 2020 essay for a Catholic literary journal.

Mr. Vance, who graduated from Yale Law in 2013, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and worked as an executive at Circuit Therapeutics, a biotechnology company.

Frederic Moll, the chief executive of Circuit at the time, said he hired Mr. Vance because “he was a very smart guy with an impressive background in the law, but also it was a favor to Peter,” referring to Mr. Thiel. Mr. Thiel’s venture capital firm had previously invested in one of Dr. Moll’s companies.

Mr. Vance kept in touch with Mr. Thiel, who wrote a promotional blurb for Mr. Vance’s 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” Mr. Thiel also encouraged the hiring of Mr. Vance for a role at Mithril Capital, a venture firm that Mr. Thiel co-founded, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Mr. Vance joined the firm in 2016 as a principal. Colleagues mostly remember him for introducing them to the ultra-sweet Big Red soda, a far cry from the La Croix seltzers that define Silicon Valley culture, one fellow investor said.

Peter Thiel, a tech investor, backed Mr. Vance’s run for the Senate and helped introduce him to Mr. Trump.

Around then, Mr. Vance’s profile began rising as “Hillbilly Elegy” became a best seller. While Mr. Thiel had gained attention for his support of Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance went in a different direction, calling himself a “never-Trump guy” in an interview with Charlie Rose that fall.

Several months later, Mr. Vance left Mithril Capital after butting heads with the firm’s managing partner, Ajay Royan, three people familiar with the situation said.

“J.D. is a friend, and he was a talented, valued member of the Mithril team,” Mr. Royan said in a statement.

In 2017, Mr. Vance became a partner at Revolution, a venture firm founded by the America Online co-founder Steve Case, and began splitting his time between Ohio and Washington, where the firm was based. He worked there for about 18 months.

In interviews, Mr. Case has said Mr. Vance “wasn’t really working that much” at Revolution. Mr. Case declined to comment through a spokeswoman.

In 2020, Mr. Vance founded his own venture firm, Narya Capital, in Cincinnati. He turned to his tech connections, including the former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, the billionaire investor Marc Andreessen and Mr. Thiel, to raise a $120 million fund. Mr. Thiel agreed to serve on Narya’s leadership advisory committee, a person with knowledge of the relationship said.

During this time, Mr. Vance became interested in backing tech platforms favored by conservatives, including the social network Parler. He advised Rebekah Mercer, Parler’s controlling shareholder and a major Republican donor, and considered investing in the company, two people with knowledge of the discussions said.

Narya did not ultimately invest in Parler, but invested alongside Mr. Thiel in Rumble, a YouTube competitor favored by conservatives, in 2021. Narya also invested in AppHarvest, a Kentucky-based indoor farming company, which went public in late 2020. AppHarvest filed for bankruptcy last year.

Around that time, Mr. Vance co-founded a network of major conservative donors with some tech leaders, called the Rockbridge Network. In July 2021, he announced a run for Ohio’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat. Mr. Thiel agreed to back him and brokered talks between Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance, who sought support from the former president.

“Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades,” Mr. Trump said when he eventually endorsed Mr. Vance’s Senate run.

Mr. Thiel’s relationship with Mr. Trump has since soured while Mr. Vance’s ties to the former president have strengthened. At a conference in Aspen, Colo., last month, Mr. Thiel said he would vote for Mr. Trump only “if you hold a gun to my head.”

Mr. Thiel placed calls to encourage Mr. Trump to choose Mr. Vance, two people briefed on the calls said. With Mr. Vance now Mr. Trump’s running mate, Mr. Thiel is significantly more likely to back the ticket, two other people close to the investor said. After Mr. Trump announced Mr. Vance as his pick on Monday, Mr. Thiel messaged close associates to express his excitement, they said.

Mr. Vance “was very much a friend of the Thiel network going back years,” said Crystal McKellar, a venture capitalist who worked with Mr. Vance at Mithril Capital. “It seemed like Peter saw something really special in him and wanted to encourage it.”

Mr. Musk also encouraged Mr. Trump to choose Mr. Vance in private communications recently. On Monday, Mr. Musk called Mr. Vance’s selection an “excellent decision.”

Mr. Vance has relied on Mr. Sacks, whom he called “one of my closest confidants” in politics at a gala this spring. After that event, Mr. Vance introduced Mr. Sacks to Mr. Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

The former president has been impressed by Mr. Sacks’s wealth and media profile, a person familiar with Mr. Trump’s thinking said, and Mr. Sacks spoke on Monday at the Republican National Convention.

At the San Francisco fund-raiser for Mr. Trump last month, Mr. Sacks returned the favor to Mr. Vance. The high-profile event, which raised $12 million for Mr. Trump’s campaign, would not have happened without Mr. Vance, Mr. Sacks said, according to a person with knowledge of his remarks there.

“This is who I want by Trump’s side,” Mr. Sacks posted on X on Monday, adding, “God bless JD, God bless Trump, and God bless the USA.”

Sharon LaFraniere contributed reporting. Alain Delaquérière contributed research.

Is Maddow in Milwaukee? No, That’s an LED Screen on MSNBC.

A production technique gave the impression that Rachel Maddow and other star anchors were reporting in Milwaukee, not from 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

MSNBC has been broadcasting from a studio in Midtown Manhattan, as a live feed of the convention floor is shown on a screen behind them.

By Michael M. Grynbaum  17 Jul, 2024

MSNBC’s prime-time coverage of the Republican National Convention has featured a typical TV tableau: anchors at a desk perched high above the convention floor, pontificating as the starred-and-striped political pomp unfolds below.

But Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Jen Psaki, Joy Reid and the rest of MSNBC’s A-list anchor team have not been inside the convention hall. They were not even in Milwaukee.

Instead, they were broadcasting from a studio in Midtown Manhattan, as a live feed of the convention floor was projected onto an LED screen behind them.

The arrangement — which several veteran television news producers described as unorthodox — has created something of a trompe l’oeil effect. A casual glance at the screen would suggest that MSNBC’s top anchors were covering the convention in person.

MSNBC’s decision to place its Manhattan-based anchors in front of a live feed of the convention floor raised some eyebrows among several TV veterans.

MSNBC announced last week that Ms. Maddow and its other marquee personalities would not travel to Milwaukee. For on-the-ground anchoring, the network sent its 11 p.m. host, Stephanie Ruhle, who arrived on Tuesday, and Katy Tur, a daytime host who focuses on reporting and analysis. (Several journalists from NBC News, the network’s corporate cousin, have also been reporting from Milwaukee.)

The anchors in Manhattan have not claimed to viewers that they are in Milwaukee, though they have mentioned their location sparingly throughout many hours of evening coverage.

On Monday at 7 p.m., Ms. Maddow opened the hour by saying she and her colleagues were “at MSNBC headquarters”; about two hours later, she told a correspondent that “we say hi here from MSNBC HQ in New York.” On Tuesday at 8 p.m., Chris Hayes welcomed viewers by saying, “Good evening from New York.”

“At the top of every broadcast, hosts identify themselves as being in New York or at MSNBC headquarters,” an MSNBC spokesman said on Wednesday.

Asked if the use of a live video feed from the convention floor behind the anchors could leave the misimpression that the anchors were inside the convention hall, the spokesman replied, “No.”

It is common for cable news hosts to broadcast remotely: Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough often film MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” from a home studio, and Fox News stars like Sean Hannity do the same. On election and debate nights, news anchors at many networks frequently oversee coverage from studio headquarters in New York or Washington.

Still, MSNBC’s decision to place its Manhattan-based anchors in front of a live feed of the convention floor created some odd, and arguably misleading, moments.

On Monday night, the NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie led a 9 p.m. newscast, shown on NBC’s broadcast affiliates, from the network’s skybox inside the Fiserv Forum. At one point, she introduced the MSNBC host Ms. Psaki as an analyst. The women appeared in side-by-side onscreen boxes, each with the convention floor behind them.

It appeared that Ms. Guthrie and Ms. Psaki were both speaking from different vantage points inside the convention hall. In fact, only Ms. Guthrie was there.

On Monday night, the NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie and Jen Psaki appeared in side-by-side onscreen boxes, each with the convention floor behind them.

Frank Sesno, a former Washington bureau chief for CNN, said in an interview that advances in LED screen technology have allowed broadcasters more flexibility in their visual presentations. But he warned that the use of the realistic video feed could raise some ethical concerns.

“News organizations need to be very careful and very transparent about what they represent and how they represent it,” Mr. Sesno said. “It can feel like a frivolous thing — oh, well, gee, we’re just using the pictures behind them — but there’s something profoundly important here. If news organizations don’t represent where they are clearly, then how is the audience to have faith and confidence in the actual content of the reporting?”

Mr. Sesno added that the audience churn in cable news — with viewers dropping in and out throughout the telecast — meant that the network could have taken additional opportunities to remind viewers where the anchors were seated. “How does someone who joins seven minutes later know where they’re coming from?” he said.

In one incident from 1994, the ABC News anchor Cokie Roberts apologized after she appeared on-air in a winter coat in front of an image of the United States Capitol, making it appear that she was outdoors; in fact, she was standing in a studio.

Covering a political convention — and all the travel, lodging and logistical hurdles it involves — is a pricey proposition for TV news divisions. Several networks cut back their convention coverage plans in 2024 compared with eight years ago, as the industry struggles with declining viewership, budget cuts and corporate consolidation. In 2016, NBC News and MSNBC relocated major political shows like “Meet the Press” and “Morning Joe” to the convention host cities; this time around, those programs originated from their usual sets on the East Coast.

Ms. Guthrie and the “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt are co-anchoring NBC News’s convention coverage in person from Milwaukee for the rest of the week.

Ford Will Make Gasoline Trucks, Not Electric Vehicles, in Ontario Plant

Ford will build large pickups at a Canadian factory that it had previously slated to produce electric vehicles, sales of which have slowed in recent months.

Ford said it would build its Super Duty pickup trucks at a plant in Ontario.

By Neal E. Boudette  18 Jul, 2024

Ford Motor said on Thursday it would retool a plant in Canada to produce large pickup trucks rather than the electric sport-utility vehicles it had previously planned to make there.

The move is the latest example of how automakers are pulling back on aggressive investment plans in response to the slowing growth of electric vehicle sales. On Wednesday, General Motors said it now expected to make 200,000 to 250,000 battery-powered cars and trucks this year, about 50,000 fewer than it had previously forecast.

The Ford plant, in Oakville, Ontario, recently stopped making the gasoline-powered Ford Edge S.U.V., and was slated to shift to new electric versions of the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, both three-row S.U.V.s. Instead, Ford will turn the factory in Oakville into a third production location for its Super Duty pickup trucks, which are among its most profitable models.

Jim Farley, the chief executive of Ford, said the company’s two other Super Duty plants, in Kentucky and Ohio, were running at full capacity but couldn’t produce as many vehicles as its commercial customers wanted. Super Duty trucks are typically used to haul heavy equipment and materials by building contractors, oil and gas companies and other businesses.

“We can’t meet the demand,” he said in a statement.

In recent months, Ford and G.M. have slowed the pace of their investments in electric vehicles, delaying some new models and work on battery plants they had been rushing to build. Just a few years ago, G.M. and Ford expected to make more than one million electric vehicles a year by the middle of the decade. Mary T. Barra, the chief executive of G.M., said this week that the company might not meet that goal.

Tesla, the leading producer of electric cars, has responded to slower growth by repeatedly cutting the prices of its electric cars. The company has also slowed its plans to build an electric-car factory in Mexico and canceled a meeting between its chief executive, Elon Musk, and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to discuss building a plant in that country.

Ford said the Oakville plant should start making Super Duty trucks in 2026, with a capacity of 100,000 vehicles a year. The move will secure about 1,800 jobs at the plant, as well as 50 others at an engine plant in Windsor, Ontario.

In April, Ford said it would delay the start production of the electric Explorer and Aviator in Oakville from 2025 to 2027, raising concerns about the status of jobs at the plant.

The Canadian auto workers union, Unifor, welcomed the new plan for pickup production. “We came to an agreement that will not only see our members back to work sooner, it protects our members’ jobs well into the future,” Lana Payne, the president of Unifor, said in a statement.

Ford said it still planned to make the electric Explorer and Aviator, but did not say when or where it would do that.

How Musk May Influence Trump Policy

Space, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence: The tech mogul could influence policy in these areas and others should Donald Trump win re-election.

By Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ravi Mattu, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Lauren Hirsch and Ephrat Livni  18 Jul, 2024

Elon Musk may push a second Trump administration for policies that benefit his businesses, or suit his ideology.

The potential Musk-Trump agenda

Elon Musk has given Donald Trump his endorsement, and perhaps soon, millions of dollars to help his re-election campaign. A big question now is what Musk would most likely push for if the former president prevails in November.

DealBook spoke with Musk watchers to figure out how the Tesla and SpaceX chief could influence a potential second Trump administration. The short of it: Much of the policies he wants would benefit his companies, but some would just line up with his ideology.

The context: Musk is gaining sway over the former president. Beyond the money he could pump into a pro-Trump super PAC, the billionaire tech mogul is also offering his views on policies including business oversight and immigration.

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Trumpdiscussed offering Musk an advisory role if he is re-elected.

Tech giants could face more heat, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. Musk has spoken often about his fears that the technology could threaten humanity, and sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of prioritizing profits over safety.

While some tech moguls backing Trump argue that President Biden is going too far in regulating A.I., Musk has called for more guardrails. Those may benefit upstarts like his xAI, but Musk also appears to genuinely believe in the dangers of unfettered A.I. advancement.

Musk may call for a less adversarial relationship with China. Though Trump has long espoused nationalist policies, including imposing tariffs on Chinese goods, he has backpedaled from some of his more confrontational stances. (Exhibit A: He now opposes a ban on TikTok, the app he once sought to cripple in the name of national security.)

Musk has plenty of reasons to call himself a “kind of pro-China” executive. Tesla’s Shanghai factory is its largest and most productive manufacturing hub, and China is a hugely important market for the company. He’s already feeling heat from Chinese E.V. brands eroding Tesla’s lead there, and probably wouldn’t want to further antagonize Beijing.

“About the only major topic on which he exercises message discipline is China,” Dan Wang, a visiting scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, said of Musk. The mogul’s primary motivation, Wang added, is to “protect Tesla’s production and market access.”

Should Trump win, it’s possible that Musk could serve as the sort of interlocutor for Chinese interests that was previously played by the likes of Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone and Steve Wynn, the onetime gaming magnate.

Electric vehicle makers and others could lose crucial subsidies. Musk has repeatedly said that the E.V. sector — and businesses more broadly — shouldn’t get government handouts. “Remove subsidies from all industries!” he posted on X recently.

Musk has argued that Tesla was founded without the safety net of a federal tax credit for customers, and that his company doesn’t need them. He’s also said that the government shouldn’t be funding E.V. charging networks: “Do we need support for gas stations? We don’t,” he said in 2021.

Eliminating subsidies would suit Musk just fine: “It will only help Tesla,” he posted on X, suggesting that rivals were more dependent on tax credits to lure buyers. His company has focused more recently on cutting prices to stay competitive.

That said, others have noted how Musk’s businesses have received billions in support over the years, while tariffs imposed by Biden on Chinese E.V.s have benefited Tesla. And Starlink received $885 million in subsidies from a fund set up in 2020 to promote rural broadband internet access, though the Federal Communications Commission revoked those last year.

Musk’s space businesses could enjoy more relaxed oversight. SpaceX is already a major federal contractor, helping NASA and U.S. armed forces send satellites and astronauts into orbit. While in office, Trump identified space as a major national security concern, and would most likely view American orbital superiority as a priority.

Musk may argue that U.S. national interests would be served by helping his company. “It’s highly likely that there are certain regulatory processes that will get streamlined for SpaceX,” including easing safety and environmental conditions for rocket launches, Mo Islam, a co-founder of the space industry news publisher Payload, told DealBook.

One thing that a second Trump administration probably wouldn’t do, and that Musk wouldn’t ask for, is hindering rivals like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Islam said. But it’s unlikely that the former president would take action on competitors’ complaints about anticompetitive behavior by SpaceX on issues like pricing.

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

Warner Bros. Discovery is said to be weighing a split. Executives at the media giant are discussing options including a spinoff of its streaming operations from its legacy television businesses, which would retain most of the company’s $39 billion in debt, according to The Financial Times. Warner Bros. Discovery has long been the subject of M.&A. speculation; last week, its C.E.O., David Zaslav, predicted more sector consolidation.

Deere & Company scales back its D.E.I. initiatives after a conservative backlash. The farm equipment giant said it would end some diversity, equity and inclusion policies after a campaign on X by Robby Starbuck, an activist. It’s the latest instance of big companies abandoning such initiatives amid attacks by conservatives, some of whom now cite the recent shooting of Donald Trump as a unsubstantiated reason to attack D.E.I. efforts.

Disney and Netflix dominate Emmy nominations. Two shows by the media giant’s FX network — “Shogun,” the TV series that’s mostly in Japanese, and “The Bear,” the critically acclaimed restaurant dramedy — garnered 48 nods combined, while Netflix shows collectively got 107, the most of any network. HBO, the traditional Emmy leader, came in third with 91 nominations; the last time the network ranked that low was in 1996.

A brutal day for Biden

President Biden is still fighting to stay in the re-election race but has had a rough 24 hours, and was forced to cancel a campaign event after testing positive for the coronavirus.

But perhaps more worrying for his embattled re-election campaign was an uptick in pressure for him to quit that emerged on Wednesday — including from the top two Democrats in Congress — and donors closing their wallets.

Is Biden losing Senator Chuck Schumer? The Senate majority leader, and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, each told the president privately over the past week that their members were increasingly worried about his chances of victory, The Times reports. Schumer and Jeffries also successfully pushed for a delay of the virtual roll call vote that would have cemented Biden as the nominee.

On Wednesday, Representative Adam Schiff of California became the highest-profile lawmaker to publicly call for Biden to step aside, saying he had “serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump.” (The comments by Schiff came days after former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a close ally, suggested publicly that Biden might want to reconsider staying in the race and would need to decide soon; she has also reportedly pointed to polls showing he can’t win.)

And Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey told CNN that “a lot of us are doing everything we can behind the scenes to really talk openly and honestly with the president.”

Big donors are holding back, too. Their patience has been wearing thin for weeks but Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul and co-chairman of the Biden campaign, told the president that many financial backers had now stopped giving. Some are continuing to float potential replacements for Biden on the ticket.

Biden is becoming more receptive to Democrats’ warnings, The Times reports. At least in private, the president appears to be more willing to hear about bad polling data and has engaged in conversations about how Vice President Kamala Harris could win.

The difference between the growing pressure on Biden and a triumphant Trump is stark. The Republican Party has united behind its candidate at its national convention this week. Trump will address the event this evening, knowing that he now dominates the party that once spurned him.

The sympathy vote for Trump after last weekend’s assassination attempt could pass. But Republicans are pretty sure that the worries about Biden that they can exploit won’t.

A new chip war?

Geopolitical jitters partly spurred by Donald Trump and President Biden are socking the chips sector again this morning, as Wednesday’s sell-off deepens despite more evidence that the artificial intelligence boom is driving big profits.

In Taipei, shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company sank more than 2 percent, even though the chip giant reported better-than-expected quarterly profit, and raised its full-year outlook on A.I.-fueled demand for its semiconductors.

Trump and Biden are weighing on TSMC and the sector. Trump signaled in a Bloomberg Businessweek interview this week that Taiwan should pay the U.S. to defend it from China. And besides, he added, “Taiwan took our chip business from us, I mean, how stupid are we?” The U.S. is legally committed to defending Taiwan, but would Trump stick to that if he’s re-elected?

Separately, the Biden administration is reportedly considering tightening trade restrictions on chip exports to China. That only adds to the pressure on chipmakers like TSMC and Nvidia, as well as ASML, the Dutch chips equipment maker.

Wednesday’s rout knocked nearly a half-trillion dollars worth of market value off the Philadelphia Semiconductor index, a grouping that includes big chip makers like Nvidia and TSMC.

Investors are now more concerned about geopolitics than inflation, some say. Those were the findings in Bank of America’s latest survey of global fund managers, released this week. Respondents ranked geopolitical tensions as the top risk that could stall a bull market rally that’s propelled the S&P 500 to 38 records this year, largely on the back of investor fervor for A.I. stocks.

On Wednesday, tech shares had their worst day of the year, and the S&P 500 fell 1.4 percent. But it wasn’t a total wipeout: Roughly half of the companies on the benchmark index rose.

Interest rates are in focus, too. After a string of tamer inflation reports, Fed officials have become more dovish. Christopher Waller, a Fed governor, said on Wednesday that “the time to lower the policy rate is drawing closer.”

The questions hanging over the markets: Will the Fed cut come before Election Day, and will such a policy shift be enough to squelch investors’ concerns over geopolitical risks?

THE SPEED READ

Deals

- Anthropic and Menlo Ventures announced a $100 million investment fund to back start-ups — and get them to use the artificial intelligence company’s technology. (CNBC)

- One of Vista Outdoor’s biggest shareholders, Gates Capital Management, said it now opposes the company deal to sell its ammunition business for $2.1 billion. (Gates Capital Management)

Elections, politics and policy

- Donald Trump’s promise of tax cuts and higher tariffs could hurt poorer American households. (NYT)

- “What It Would Take to Deport Millions of Immigrants” (NYT)

Best of the rest

- “An Algorithm Told Police She Was Safe. Then Her Husband Killed Her.” (NYT)

- More American towns are pushing back against the proliferation of megamansions. (WSJ)

We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.

China’s Leaders Offer High Hopes, but Few Details for Road to Recovery

Top officials emerged from a high-stakes meeting about lifting the economy out of its malaise with few signs of a fundamental rethink.

Security personnel outside the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing as the Communist Party held a meeting of leaders, known as a Third Plenum, which started Monday.

By Keith Bradsher and Chris Buckley  18 Jul, 2024

Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, called officials together this week to hammer out ideas to pull the country’s economy out of its doldrums. But if the official summary of the meeting is a guide, Mr. Xi believes he already has many of the answers.

His message to the 363 other officials who gathered in Beijing seemed to be: stick with his state-led, tech-focused strategy, only do it better. That is, make it cleaner, more fair and keep a careful eye on national security.

Some critics fault Mr. Xi’s heavy-handed ways for China’s economic stumbles, but the official summary of the four-day meeting, known as the Third Plenum of the Central Committee, focused on the hazards of a turbulent world, and the opportunities of innovation.

China faces “a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation,” said the summary, released by official media on Thursday.

Investors in China, dispirited by the country’s economic troubles, have been waiting for promising signals, but the post-meeting statement gave only a broad description of any plans, clad in Communist Party slogans.

More specific proposals may be made public in the coming days, if past sessions are a guide. Here’s how to read the official communiqué and what to look for as more details emerge.

Economic security: ‘High-quality development and a high level of security’

At the Third Plenum in 2013, Mr. Xi promised to give market competition a bigger role in parts of the economy. He also promised a new commission to strengthen national security, which in China focuses on defending Communist Party rule.

But in the years since, China’s expanding national security apparatus has often called the shots, policing more areas of life and, critics say, impeding innovators and foreign investors.

The meeting hinted that China’s leaders want to strike a more nuanced balance between security and growth. The summary said China must “achieve healthy interaction between high-quality development and a high level of security.”

Elsewhere, the document indicated that the party’s controls on public opinion will remain tight. A few words also hinted that Mr. Xi’s ambitions for a bigger international voice were undimmed.

China must, the statement said, “guide global governance, and actively shape a benign external environment.”

Business conditions: ‘Actively expand domestic demand’

Nearly three years of stringent “Covid zero” restrictions, Mr. Xi’s regulatory crackdowns on tech giants and a sweeping series of tax audits have created broad apprehension across China’s private sector. Cautious consumer spending has deterred businesses from expanding when they cannot be sure of finding customers.

But in the end, the Chinese leadership made no mention of the private sector at all. Officials said they would “better maintain market order” as well as establish a “high-level socialist market economy.” The statement also called for steps to “actively expand domestic demand and develop new quality productivity in keeping with local conditions.”

In other words, markets have a place in China, as long as they serve the party’s grander goals.

Fiscal policy: ‘Improve the macro-control system’

One of the Chinese government’s biggest challenges is shrinking revenue. The official communiqué offered few clues on how this would be addressed.

Local and provincial governments provide almost all of the country’s pensions, health care and schooling. Many of them are deep in debt and now find their revenues falling fast.

Third Plenums in 2003 and 2013 suggested that China introduce a broad-based property tax, which would give local governments a more sustainable flow of revenue. Except for a couple of small experiments, this was never done.

The communiqué noted that “it is necessary to improve the macro-control system, coordinate the reform of key areas such as finance and taxation.”

Social policy: ‘Two-way flow of urban and rural factors’

Nearly 300 million Chinese work or live in a different city from their legal residency, often migrating from inland villages for jobs in coastal factories. Their children seldom qualify to attend public schools in the towns where they work, so they must leave them with relatives in their hometowns — China’s millions of “left behind” children.

Allowing families to live together where they want could reinvigorate the birthrate and stimulate demand for new apartments in big cities.

Big cities have been wary of providing benefits for many migrants. The statement called for a “two-way flow of urban and rural factors,” as well as “narrowing the gap” between urban and rural areas and “deepening reform of the land system.” But that sounds like less than the sweeping end to barriers that some economists urge.

The mystery of ‘Comrade Qin’

The fate of China’s former foreign minister, Qin Gang, has for a year been a mystery. Mr. Qin, who rose rapidly as an enforcer of Mr. Xi’s wishes, disappeared abruptly a year ago. He was replaced as foreign minister, but the party has been silent about what misdeeds or mishaps may have caused his downfall.

The Central Committee accepted Mr. Qin’s resignation and removed him from the committee. Yet the summary also referred to him as “Comrade,” suggesting that, at least so far, he has not been totally ostracized. The mystery continues.

Help! We Had to Sleep in the Hotel’s Breakfast Room. We Would Like a $215 Refund.

A couple arrived in New York after midnight, and a failed “contactless check-in” process and M.I.A. customer service made their hotel room inaccessible.

By Seth Kugel  18 Jul, 2024

Dear Tripped Up,

Last September, my husband and I flew to New York City and headed to the Ridge Hotel on the Lower East Side to spend a few days before a cruise. Since the Ridge had “contactless check-in,” we had received two codes to get in the front entrance and our room. When we arrived after midnight, we had no problems getting into the hotel with the first code. But we couldn’t get into our room with the second code. There were no staff on duty, so we called the hotel’s number. But the woman who answered could not help and subsequent calls went to voice mail. I also sent messages through the Booking.com app, the online travel agency with which we made the reservation, but the staff there couldn’t solve the issue. So we spent the night in the hotel’s breakfast room, where the restroom also required a code that we did not have. The next morning, the hotel staff sent an apologetic message with the right code, and promised us a refund for that night, about $215. But we never got the money, even though the hotel insists they returned it to Booking. Can you help? Roberta, Boise, Idaho

Dear Roberta,

Any hotel rate under $300 a night in a fun Manhattan neighborhood would normally count as a bargain in these inflationary times. But paying that much to sleep fitfully in the breakfast room with no access to a bathroom and (I’m guessing) no 24-hour waffle maker? That’s totally unacceptable. You and your husband are obviously due a refund, and you’re generous not to ask for more. Is everyone in Boise this nice?

I got in touch with the owners of the Ridge Hotel and the communications team at Booking, and quickly figured out what happened: The hotel had sent your money back to Booking, but Booking didn’t realize it was there and thus didn’t pass it along to you.

Both organizations gently blamed the other for the communications breakdown. I have no idea who’s right, but the important thing is that Booking has now refunded you, along with a $150 credit — enough to get you a night’s stay in a pretty nice hotel in many parts of the world.

But why couldn’t the hotel help you that night? And are we really entering an era of reception-desk-free hotels with minimal services that mirrors what travelers are getting used to when they book short-term rentals?

Samantha Gladstein oversees the day-to-day operations of the 44-room Ridge for her family’s company, the CS Hospitality Group, which owns Ridge and five other hotels and hostels in New York and Florida. She told me that your late night call would have been routed to Miami, where the group has a hotel and a hostel. The person on duty that night no longer works for the company, Ms. Gladstein said, so she could not ask her for details. “I am assuming they didn’t know what to do,” she said, “and I apologize for that.”

A spokeswoman for Booking told me that the hotel had not fully completed the process to get a refund issued. Angela Cavis, Booking’s director of communications for North America, also issued a statement.

“While we are not responsible for check-in as that is up to our property partners, we have issued a credit for the guest to use toward a future trip given the experience did not meet the expectations we have for our guests,” she wrote.

You have told me you received the refund and credit and are happy with the outcome, and that the rest of your stay in the hotel was pleasant — you especially enjoyed the Ridge’s outdoor patio — though you said you would not stay there again.

Ms. Gladstein explained to me at length the company’s decision to reduce staff and allow customers to head straight for their rooms.

She said that when the pandemic hit in 2020, the Ridge reopened without a manned front desk for most of the day out of health concerns for workers and guests. Instead, the hotel sent guests door codes by email or through the agency with which they made the reservation. The company has increased the hours reception staff are physically present at either the Ridge or the group’s other New York hotel, the Chelsea Inn, to 20 hours a day. A designated “fire and life safety director” was present 24 hours a day as required by law, she said, although he or she may have been in the basement when you arrived.

Not having 24-hour staff at each location saves the company on labor costs, Ms. Gladstein said, and they can pass that savings onto customers.

The CS Hospitality Group is not the only hotel company moving in that direction, said Jordan Hollander, a co-founder of the Hotel Tech Report, a site that reviews technology used by hotels.

He has seen an increasing number of hospitality companies work toward lowering room prices by reducing staffing — which means in some places, there’s no longer a coffee-drinking, TV-watching front desk clerk on duty through the wee hours.

“There are limited-services hotels where you’re not really trying to deliver this elevated guest experience,” Mr. Hollander said. “They have been able eliminate a lot of the on-property labor that you would ordinarily have.”

These limited-personnel hotels, along with many hotel chains and Airbnbs, frequently provide guests mobile keys, often through smartphone apps, to allow them to bypass the front desk. The Ridge Hotel has so far not invested in those, in part because of the expense, said Ms. Gladstein, and has stuck with the code-via-email approach.

But at the end of the day — or in your case, deep into the night — this was a customer service issue.

“It’s also just unacceptable for the hotel not to have a process for what happens in this instance,” Mr. Hollander said.

If you need advice about a best-laid travel plan that went awry, send an email to TrippedUp@nytimes.com.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation.

Britain Needs to Move Faster on Climate, Monitoring Group Says

A report by a government body that oversees efforts to reduce greenhouse gases will help underpin the Labour Party’s plans to accelerate renewable energy and other measures.

A steel works factory in South Wales earlier this year. Emissions from steelmaking declined last year, the Climate Change Committee said.

By Stanley Reed  17 Jul, 2024

An influential government body gave what amounts to strong support Thursday to one of the main planks of the new British government’s plans to revitalize the economy: a crash program to accelerate efforts for dealing with climate change.

In a report to Parliament, the Climate Change Committee, a statutory body that monitors progress on the reduction of greenhouse gases in Britain, warned that the country was “not on track to hit” a 2030 interim target of reducing emissions by 68 percent compared with 1990 levels. Britain is legally required to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

“The new government will have to act fast to hit the country’s commitments,” the committee said.

Speeding up the building of wind farms and solar farms is precisely what the new government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to do. He also hopes to hasten other measures like replacing natural gas boilers in homes with electric-powered heat pumps.

Mr. Starmer is betting that tackling climate change will not only help protect the environment but stimulate what has been a stagnant British economy.

The new government has already signaled its intentions by quickly approving three large solar farms whose developers were seeking a green light.

On July 9, Ed Miliband, the energy and net zero minister, appointed Chris Stark, who had been chief executive of the committee until April, to a new position leading the clean energy push. Mr. Miliband is also changing planning rules that have effectively prevented the building of land-based wind farms in England.

“They have really done some quite good things in their first 10 days,” Piers Forster, the committee’s interim chairman, told reporters during a news conference, referring to the Labour government.

The committee, which says it is independent, criticized the previous Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, for signaling “a slowing of pace” on measures like the shift to electric vehicles and the adoption of heat pumps. The government also “gave inconsistent messages on its commitment” to the steps needed to achieve net zero, the committee said.

Britain has been considered a pacesetter in climate law, having passed in 2008 a climate change act with binding targets. The committee, which was established under that legislation, said Britain had met its previous targets and was about halfway toward the goal of net zero.

The committee also estimated that Britain had achieved a substantial 4 percent reduction of emissions last year, when Mr. Sunak was prime minister. It credited that gain to several factors, including relatively high natural gas prices, which reduced consumption, and greater imports of electricity from France, which produces large amounts of low-carbon nuclear power.

However, it said much of what had been achieved in the past was a result of the phasing out of coal in electric power generation.

“We now need to rapidly reduce oil and gas as well,” the committee said.

It made a series of recommendations intended to discourage consumption of fossil fuels and stimulate additional use of electric power, which is forecast to be the main form of clean energy in the future. Among them: cutting electric bills, which would encourage greater use of electricity and the purchase of heat pumps, which Britons have been slow to adopt. The panel suggested removing some items from electric bills, including moving some costs of subsidizing renewable energy to either gas bills or the general government budget.

The committee also recommended tightening various requirements that Mr. Sunak had loosened, including reinstating the date for ending the sales of fossil fuel powered cars in Britain by 2030.

Environmental groups, who had criticized the Conservative Party for jeopardizing what they said had been Britain’s leadership role in the effort to curb climate change, found much to applaud.

“This report provides a clear path to victory,” Doug Parr, chief scientist of Greenpeace UK, said in a statement. “Now the new government just needs to deliver.”

Chip Shares Tumble, Dragging Wall Street to Its Worst Drop in Weeks

The S&P 500 had its worst day since April. The Nasdaq composite saw its biggest single-day decline since late 2022.

By Danielle Kaye  17 Jul, 2024

Shares of some of the world’s biggest chipmakers tumbled on Wednesday, pulling the stock market down to its worst day in months, as investors reacted to U.S. trade tensions with China and comments made by former President Donald J. Trump about Taiwan.

The S&P 500 fell 1.39 percent, its biggest drop since late April, just one day after the index reached a record. The technology-heavy Nasdaq dropped 2.77 percent, its worst day since late 2022.

The decline was led by global chip stocks, with shares of some of the biggest players in the chip industry — including ASML, Nvidia and TSMC — plunging in response to geopolitics and the former president’s remarks. Shares of these companies have surged this year amid a rise in demand for advanced artificial intelligence chips.

“Stocks that have outperformed so well and for so long can often be more susceptible to bouts of fundamental bad news,” said Steve Sosnick, the chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “Excellent, sustained performance, such as we saw in the semiconductor sector, may have led the trade to become ‘crowded,’ and therefore more fragile.”

Here’s what to know about the trading.

- Five companies in the semiconductor industry — Applied Materials, Lam Research, Qualcomm, Advanced Micro Devices and KLA — were among the worst-performing companies in the S&P 500 on Wednesday, with shares of each down more than 8 percent. Nvidia, the largest of the semiconductor companies in the S&P 500, was down more than 6 percent.

- The Biden administration is considering tightening its restrictions on companies’ exports of their chip-making equipment to China, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, an extension of President Biden’s efforts to clamp down on Chinese access to chip technology. News of these looming trade curbs, which could dampen chipmakers’ sales, most likely contributed to investors’ concerns, prompting a sharp drop in chipmaker stocks.

- Mr. Trump’s comments on Tuesday about Taiwan, a country that is crucial to the global chip supply chain, also hurt chip stocks and factored into the market decline. The former president told Bloomberg Businessweek that Taiwan should pay the United States for its defense and accused the country of stealing business from U.S. semiconductor companies. His remarks sent the Taiwanese company TSMC’s U.S.-listed shares down 8 percent. TSMC is the largest contract chip maker in the world.

- Investors have also been rotating out of tech and toward smaller companies in response to broader macroeconomic dynamics. Consumer Price Index data released last week showed a further cool-down in inflation, solidifying investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve would start to cut interest rates in September. Lower rates would benefit smaller companies’ shares.

Britain Approves Lab-Grown Meat for Pet Food

British dogs and cats are set to become the first animals in Europe to chow down on meat cultivated from chicken cells.

Meatly, a British company that grows meat from chicken cells for pet food, won approval to sell its products in Britain.

By Amelia Nierenberg  17 Jul, 2024

Britain has approved the sale of lab-grown meat for pet food, becoming the first European nation to give its blessing to a process that has prompted opposition in other countries.

The move, which became an opportunity for entrepreneurs after Britain’s split from the more-regulated European Union, is a victory for the biotech industry, which the British government hopes to build into a superpower.

The landmark approval went to Meatly, a British company that grows meat from chicken cells for pet food. Its product, which will begin feeding trials in August, arrives at a time when the worldwide market for pet food is expected to grow 5 percent this year to $151 billion, according to the research firm Statista.

And it is more sustainable and kinder to animals, said Owen Ensor, the chief executive of Meatly.

“It allows you to still feed the meat that your pets crave and that you want to feed your pet — while providing all the nutrients that your pet needs,” said Mr. Ensor, who added that he had fed the product to his cats, Lamu and Zanzi.

When it comes to lab-grown meat, Britain is ahead of countries in the European Union primarily because it is no longer beholden to the bloc’s tighter regulations and often slow-moving approval process for technological developments, advocates of alternative proteins said.

“Europe is cutting itself off from innovation,” said Linus Pardoe, the U.K. policy manager at the Good Food Institute Europe, which works to advance technological alternatives to animal proteins. “The U.K. has a much more straightforward system now that we’ve left the European Union.”

That has been wielded as a political win for Brexit fans, said Tom MacMillan, the chair of rural policy and strategy at the Royal Agricultural University, who has studied farmer perceptions of lab-based meat.

“The last government had a bit of an exercise of hunting around for dividends for Brexit,” he said, adding that food regulations were one of the few areas in which Britain and the European Union might be able to diverge.

Britain has also recently stepped up a push to expand its biotech sector, which includes lab-grown meat.

The market for pet food is expected to grow 5 percent worldwide this year to $151 billion.

And many of the top British science universities are used to working closely with the country’s biotech companies, Mr. Pardoe said. “The U.K. has got a big scientific brain that it can apply to developing and scaling cultivated meat,” he said.

Advocates said the shift would have climate benefits. Farming is a major source of pollution and requires an enormous amount of water and land use.

“We also need to be considering the environmental impacts of pets,” said Andrew Knight, a veterinary professor affiliated with Murdoch University School of Veterinary Medicine in Australia and an expert on the sustainable pet food sector.

Various studies, he said, show “that a medium-sized dog has a dietary paw print that is equivalent to that of an average person.” In 2020, dogs and cats in the United States consumed an average of 20 percent of all the livestock bred for consumption in the country, according to his research. Globally, dogs and cats ate about 9 percent in 2018.

Entrepreneurs say they can solve what is sometimes called “the animal-lovers paradox” — people love their pets, but do not want a chicken to die in a factory farm to feed them.

“We don’t need to raise or kill any animals,” Mr. Ensor said, laying out the vision for Meatly, which got its cells from a single chicken egg. “Instead of 50 billion chickens a year, it’s one egg, one time, and we’ve created an infinite amount of meat.”

But lab-grown meat and other alternative proteins (along with oat, soy and almond milks) have become a political football in both Europe and the United States.

Italy, a gastronomic tinderbox, banned the sale of cell-cultivated meat last year, as right-wing lawmakers argued that they were protecting the country’s farmers and national heritage. France is trying to police the language around lab-grown meat, banning what it calls “foodstuffs containing vegetable proteins” from being labeled “filet” or “steak,” among others; Austria and Hungary are holding similar debates.

In the United States, lab-grown meat has become a temperature check for both the right and the left. Florida banned the food in May after two California companies received approval to start selling their meat last year.

Britain, notably, has not yet approved the meat for human consumption.

That’s partly because of regulatory challenges — and partly because it may not pass a national ick-test: A study in 2022 by the University of Winchester found that about 40 percent of meat-eaters would be willing to try cultivated meat. But about 81 percent of them would feed it to their pets.

To Meatly, that’s good news for its product. “Pet food allows us to sidestep some of those issues,” Mr. Ensor said.

A Milan Airport Is Now Named for Berlusconi. Cue the ‘Bunga-Bunga’ Memes.

The decision to name Italy’s second-largest passenger hub after the divisive media mogul and politician, who died in 2023, has prompted outrage and protests.

Terminal 1 at Milan’s Malpensa Airport, which is now named International Airport Milan Malpensa — Silvio Berlusconi.

By Elisabetta Povoledo  17 Jul, 2024

Millions of travelers pass through Italian airports every year, but most probably don’t know that Rome’s airport is named for Leonardo da Vinci, Pisa’s is named for Galileo Galilei, and Palermo’s is named for Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two prosecutors who were murdered in 1992 as payback for their anti-Mafia crusades.

But the decision this month to name Milan’s main international airport after Silvio Berlusconi, the media mogul and former Italian prime minister who died last year at age 86, did not go unnoticed.

The renaming of Milan Malpensa Airport as International Airport Milan Malpensa — Silvio Berlusconi has unleashed a maelstrom of protests from left-leaning lawmakers, a barrage of memes and an online petition to block the designation, which as of Wednesday had more than 160,000 signatures.

It also has made global headlines.

“Why not Bunga-Bunga airport,” said one, in a German-language publication, referring to the sex-fueled bacchanals at Mr. Berlusconi’s villa that he described as merely “elegant dinners.”

The polemics began immediately after the transportation minister, Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party and a political ally of Mr. Berlusconi, announced on July 5 that the country’s Civil Aviation Authority had approved a request from regional leaders to name the airport after Mr. Berlusconi. Mr. Salvini described him as “ a great businessman, great Milanese and great Italian.” The new name became official less than a week later, Mr. Salvini announced on social media.

Outrage followed.

“Airports are undoubtedly named after people who have brought prestige to Italy, and while Silvio Berlusconi was certainly a great entrepreneur and certainly a part of Italian politics, he was a divisive figure, loved by millions of Italians and opposed by as many millions of Italians who believed he used politics for personal gain,” said Silvia Roggiani, a national lawmaker with the center-left Democratic Party and the party’s regional secretary in Lombardy, where the airport is located, some 30 miles northwest of Milan.

Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, in 2021.

She added in a telephone interview that Mr. Berlusconi’s multiple legal travails, as well as his treatment of women — he promoted women as showgirls on his television channels and had dalliances that caused him legal headaches — did not make him an ideal candidate.

Ms. Roggiani said that her party’s youth wing had sponsored the petition to block the naming, and on Monday the party participated in a demonstration at the headquarters of the Lombardy region, which is run by the center-right. She said that the Democrats would also support legal actions being considered by nine small towns surrounding the airport, which were upset that they had not been involved in the decision to rename it.

Mr. Berlusconi was expelled from the Senate because of a tax fraud conviction and was barred from holding public office for several years, reason enough for to disqualify the honor, his critics said.

Calling the nomination a “purely political act,” Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, posted an appeal on Instagram last week to Mr. Berlusconi’s daughter, Marina. “You experienced firsthand how much your father was loved and hated. Wouldn’t it have been better to wait, to let tempers cool,” he wrote.

According to Italian law, a person has to be dead at least 10 years before a street, piazza or public building is named after him or her. Exceptions can be made, though.

Marina’s brother, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, said that the family had not been informed about the decision until the last minute.

Not everyone is against the naming. “It’s a recognition for someone who did something for Italy. He was more than just talk, like a lot of other politicians,” said Ugo Barelli, a mechanical designer from Milan who was in Malpensa Airport on Tuesday. Rosanna Filomeno, a retired office cleaner in Milan, said, “Why not,” adding, “I liked him, as a public figure.”

At Monday’s protest, feelings were less generous. Demonstrators held signs of other potential airport naming nominees, including the Nobel Prize-winning neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini and Giacomo Matteotti, a socialist politician who was killed by fascists in 1924. A trade union posted a petition nominating Carla Fracci, the principal dancer of Milan’s La Scala opera theater, who died in 2021.

Stefano Bellaria, the center-left mayor of Somma Lombardo, one of the towns that may sue over the decision, said the airport should have been named after someone who had connections with the area and its aeronautical history.

“They day they build a heliport in Arcore, it’s right that its dedicated to Berlusconi, because he used helicopters, but he has nothing to do with here,” Mr. Bellaria said, referring to the town where Mr. Berlusconi had a villa.

It would have made more sense, he said, to select someone like Gianni Caproni, an aviation pioneer who in 1910 flew the first plane in the area. Another option, Mr. Bellaria said, was Amalia Ercoli Finzi, 87, a local and the first Italian woman to graduate with a degree in aeronautical engineering who has served as a scientific adviser for NASA and the Italian and European space agencies.

“Why not fly high and find a name that will unite?” he asked.

E.U. Court Rebukes Bloc’s Executive Arm Over Covid Vaccine Contract Secrecy

The court ruled that the European Commission wrongly withheld information, casting a shadow on its leader, Ursula von der Leyen, before a crucial vote on her future.

A woman received a Covid-19 vaccine near Paris in 2021. The European Union’s initial vaccine campaign was marred by a slow start.

By Jenny Gross  17 Jul, 2024

The European Union’s second-highest court delivered an unusual reprimand to the European Commission on Wednesday, ruling that it did not give the public sufficient information about its agreements to purchase Covid-19 vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision by the General Court in Luxembourg gives new momentum to critics of Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who led the bloc’s response to the pandemic. It came just ahead of what is expected to be a tight vote on Thursday that will determine if she will serve another term as the European Union’s top official.

The European Union has refused to disclose the terms of the contracts it secured for Covid-19 vaccines, publishing redacted purchasing agreements. Green members of the European Parliament and private individuals had sued the commission, the bloc’s executive arm, seeking to gain access to the contracts and terms it negotiated with vaccine manufacturers.

On Wednesday, the court found that the European Commission was wrong to redact parts of the purchasing agreements that it published online, saying that it “did not demonstrate that wider access” to the details would undermine commercial interests. The court also said that the commission should have disclosed conflicts of interest by members of the team who negotiated the purchase of the vaccines.

The European Commission said in a statement that it would “carefully study” the court’s findings and their implications. It noted that the commission had needed to “strike a difficult balance” between giving the public and members of the European Parliament access to information, while satisfying the legal requirements of the vaccine contracts.

“In fact, in many cases in the past,” the statement said, an E.U. court has “recognized the need to protect the business interests of a contractual partner.” It added that the commission had provided the European Parliament “full information” on the vaccine contracts.

The European Union’s initial vaccine campaign was marred by a slow start compared with Britain and the United States, with the bloc taking a more conservative, budget-conscious approach. But the European Union later caught up and even surpassed other major countries after Ms. von der Leyen secured a contract with Pfizer-BioNTech, announced in May 2021, worth billions of euros.

At the time, the deal was backed by all E.U. member states, and Ms. von der Leyen was widely praised for securing access to the Pfizer vaccines. In 2021, when 70 percent of E.U. adults had been fully vaccinated, Ms. von der Leyen hailed the milestone and lauded the bloc’s coronavirus response.

But in the following years, concern has grown that the bloc, under Ms. von der Leyen’s direction, ordered too many vaccines, resulting in some going to waste.

In a separate case, The New York Times last year sued the European Commission as part of a freedom of information request that sought access to text messages between Ms. von der Leyen and the chief executive of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, as they negotiated a deal for Covid-19 vaccines. The case is pending in the European Court of Justice.

The New York Times welcomed the ruling on Wednesday.

“We are very pleased to see the court recognize and reinforce the importance of freedom of information in the European Union,” Maria Case, a spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Criticism of Ms. von der Leyen’s secrecy over the vaccine contracts is one of the more serious shadows she faces in terms of her record. In 2022, the European Commission said that it could not find the relevant text messages between Ms. von der Leyen and Dr. Bourla.

Concerns about the lack of transparency on the vaccine contracts, which come amid a recent surge in far-right politicians gaining seats in the European Parliament, have contributed to a sense of distrust among European voters about how officials have spent taxpayer money.

Because Thursday’s vote to determine whether Ms. von der Leyen can serve a second five-year term as president of the European Commission is secret and party discipline in the European Parliament is loose, she will need to rely on a broad coalition to secure the 361 votes needed to be confirmed by the 720-seat assembly.

In addition to members of her own party, Ms. von der Leyen will most likely need votes from center-left lawmakers including the Greens, who have been incensed by the way she handled the coronavirus crisis. Still, Ms. von der Leyen is expected to narrowly win.

Amazon Workers Narrowly Reject Union Drive at British Warehouse

The vote, which would have forced the tech giant to negotiate collectively with workers, was the closest an Amazon center in Britain had come to being unionized.

More than 3,000 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Coventry, England, were eligible to vote on the union drive.

By Eshe Nelson  17 Jul, 2024

A fight to form the first union at an Amazon warehouse in Britain came to an end this week, as organizers of the effort fell short by just 28 votes.

About 2,600 employees at the warehouse in Coventry, in the Midlands of England, took part in a ballot for union recognition, which would have forced Amazon to negotiate collectively with the bulk of workers there over working conditions, as well as pay, holiday and other benefits. More than 3,000 Amazon workers were eligible to vote.

But in the end, the effort failed, with only 49.5 percent voting in favor in a poll approved by the Central Arbitration Committee, a government body. It is the closest any Amazon center in Britain has come to being unionized.

The results come amid accusations by GMB, a nationwide union, lawyers and some workers that the American tech giant had been heavy-handed in its efforts to discourage unionization. Amazon has a history of pushing back against union movements. In the United States, only one warehouse, on Staten Island, has a formally recognized union. A labor union in Germany has been trying to get collective bargaining powers for more than a decade.

The vote fell “agonizingly short” of a majority, said GMB, which counts Amazon employees among its 500,000 members from various occupations.

“Amazon bosses have created a culture of fear for low-paid workers trying to improve their pay, terms and conditions,” said Stuart Richards, an organizer at GMB.

Striking workers outside the Amazon depot in Coventry last year.

Amazon defended its workplace practices. “We place enormous value on engaging directly with our employees,” said Tim Hobden, a spokesman for Amazon, adding that the company has “always worked hard to listen to them, act on their feedback and invest heavily in great pay, benefits and skills development — all in a safe and inclusive workplace.”

GMB cannot make another bid for formal recognition for three years, but workers are continuing a legal claim that accuses Amazon of illegally trying to induce employees to quit the union.

Workers claimed the company pressured them to attend several seminars that suggested the union would jeopardize employees’ pay and benefits. They also said the company liberally displayed QR codes to make it easy to cancel union membership, which lawyers said was a breach of British law that prohibited companies from making offers to employees to not be in a union. Amazon said that attending the meetings was voluntary and that GMB also held meetings in the warehouse.

“Amazon has thrown everything at it,” said Rosa Curling, a director at Foxglove, a legal group whose cases focus on big tech companies and is representing about 900 Amazon workers in a claim against the company.

Paramanathan Pradeep, 42, has worked at the Coventry warehouse for about six years alongside his wife and parents. He said the company had tried “scaring” workers by suggesting that union recognition could mean the end of overtime, an important source of additional income for many workers.

Over the past two years, about 1,200 workers at the Amazon warehouse in Coventry signed up for the GMB union.

In the Coventry warehouse, union activities have been intensifying for the past two years. But the fight for unionization has been a long and halting journey. In August 2022, employees walked off the job to protest a pay increase that they felt was insulting after working during the hectic days of the pandemic. Impromptu cafeteria sit-ins broke out in several locations. Since then, about 1,200 workers in Coventry signed up with GMB, which gives them individual representation in the workplace but not collective bargaining powers.

“The last two years have been monumental for us,” said Amanda Gearing, a GMB organizer who has been supporting Amazon workers for more than a decade. “These workers have taken off on a massive journey.”

At the warehouse, which is about 400,000 square feet spread over two floors, employees tend to work 10-hour shifts, four days a week, as well as overtime. The site handles only small packages, filled with things like candles, hand soap and baby clothes, which arrive from suppliers and are sorted and sent out to other distribution centers within a few hours.

In the past year and a half, there have been more than 30 days of strikes as some employees are calling for the higher hourly pay of 15 pounds (about $19.50). The wage for associates, a majority of the workers at Amazon facilities, is £12.30 to £13 per hour, depending on the location. That has increased 20 percent in the past two years and is above the national minimum wage of £11.44.

Bird Flu Is Spreading. Why Aren’t More People Getting Tested?

Even as the H5N1 virus evolves, gaps remain in the nation’s contingency plans for human testing, scientists say.

While officials have tested thousands of cows and are monitoring hundreds of farmworkers, just 60 people have been tested for bird flu.

By Apoorva Mandavilli  17 Jul, 2024

The first step in combating any infectious disease outbreak is detection. Without widespread testing, health officials have little sense of who is infected, when to treat patients and how to monitor their close contacts.

In that sense, the bird flu outbreak plaguing the nation’s dairy farms is spreading virtually unobserved.

As of Monday, the virus had infected 157 herds in 13 states. But while officials have tested thousands of cows and are monitoring hundreds of farmworkers, only about 60 people have been tested for bird flu.

Officials do not have the authority to compel workers to get tested, and there is no way for workers to test themselves. In the current outbreak, just four dairy workers and five poultry workers have tested positive for H5N1, the bird flu virus, but experts believe that many more have been infected.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the mpox (formerly monkeypox) outbreak in 2022 revealed deep fissures in the U.S. approach to testing for emerging pathogens. Those failures prompted federal agencies to move toward policies that would allow rapid scaling of testing during an outbreak.

But progress has been sluggish, interviews with more than a dozen academic and government experts suggest.

“The timeline seems slow, given the number of infectious disease emergencies is clearly increasing,” said Dr. Jay Varma, the chief medical officer at SIGA Technologies and a member of a committee that evaluated lab operations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fumbles with testing set back the response to Covid in the crucial early weeks of the pandemic. The nation was slow to develop the rapid tests that for many became mainstays of pandemic life.

During the outbreak of mpox, federal officials already had a diagnostic test. But for many weeks, clinicians needed to order it from public health laboratories, which created painful delays in diagnosis.

It took the C.D.C. several weeks to engage with commercial labs to make mpox tests more widely available.

This time around, tests for bird flu are plentiful: There are 140,000 of them at public health labs, 750,000 additional tests available if needed, and another 1.2 million on the way.

Federal officials said that the number of tests at hand was more than adequate. But the tests that can pinpoint H5N1 are again available only at public health labs.

Most clinics have tests for influenza generally, but they must send samples to one of the labs or to the C.D.C. to confirm infection with bird flu in particular.

“It doesn’t matter how many tests you can do if they’re not in the right place,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University.

An electron microscope image of a H5N1 virion.

Federal officials have repeatedly said that H5N1’s risk to the general public is low. But the virus has adapted to new hosts at an alarming pace. It may yet mutate to spread among people, some experts have warned.

If that were to happen, the nation would need tests not just in public health labs, but in homes, schools, workplaces and wherever else people might need speedy answers.

That requires federal officials to rapidly scale up by helping academic, commercial and hospital labs develop, manufacture and distribute tests.

A full-throated response to outbreaks would include a variety of tests to suit people’s needs and preferences, said Mara Aspinall, an expert in clinical diagnostics and a partner at Illumina Ventures, which invests in health care start-ups.

“One solution is not enough for this country,” she said. “The implementation of a testing plan cannot be single threaded.”

As the pandemic receded, several independent teams of experts called on the C.D.C. to establish flexible partnerships with commercial manufacturers that would begin at the first signs of an outbreak. The manufacturers would be asked to allocate production capacity to bird flu tests as soon as needed.

“We’ve been making these recommendations for some time,” said Susan Van Meter, the president of the American Clinical Laboratory Association, which represents 40 commercial labs. “While there has been increased pace of getting work done to ensure responsiveness, we think there are many more steps that could be taken,” she added.

Bureaucracy and lack of funding may have hobbled progress. The C.D.C. has been discussing tests for H5N1 with 15 companies since last year. Eight have signed licenses to adapt the agency’s test. None have released a test yet.

The C.D.C. has “started having very preliminary conversations” about the technology, and the sensitivity and the specificity required for rapid tests, said Dr. Nirav Shah, the agency’s principal deputy director.

Dr. Shah disagreed with the notion that the process had been slow. Federal officials have to “think carefully” about whether a new test should be specific to H5 flu viruses, including H5N1, or should also detect others with pandemic potential, he said.

In the meantime, he said, the current testing process is adequate for picking up H5N1 cases.

Most clinics have tests that can pick up flu, but do not distinguish between seasonal flu and unusual strains like H5N1.

Public health labs analyze a subset of these tests as part of routine surveillance. Since March 3, the labs have tested roughly 30,000 samples, of which only four were positive for H5N1.

Large hospitals may send samples for further testing once a week, and smaller clinics once a month. But if a patient comes in with flulike symptoms and known risk for bird flu, “there’s no medium speedboat, there’s no slow boat,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the director of the C.D.C.’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In that situation, the doctor would instantly alert the local or the state public health department or the C.D.C., and the agency could turn results around in about six hours, he said.

But other experts said that strategy was based on a series of assumptions.

For it to work, farmworkers must know about their risk of H5N1, recognize the symptoms, get to a clinic with an affordable consultation fee and be comfortable having their employer potentially find out the results, said Bethany Alcauter, the director of research and public health programs at the National Center for Farmworker Health.

“We have heard from many sources that there’s herds that are infected where public health agencies aren’t necessarily monitoring the workers, for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Workers aren’t getting any education in those situations, and they’re definitely not getting any testing.”

Six dairy workers in four states, including four from counties with infected herds, recently told Dr. Alcauter they had never heard of the bird flu virus.

The federal strategy also presumes that clinicians, even those in remote areas where dairy farms tend to be, would think to test for flu after the flu season has ended, are familiar with the procedure to send samples to public health labs and have the time to do so.

Distributing rapid tests to farmworkers and the organizations they trust can circumvent all these potential hurdles, Dr. Alcauter said: “The fewer steps in the process, the fewer chances for it to break down.”

A warning outside a Michigan farm. Federal officials have repeatedly said that H5N1’s risk to the general public is low, but the virus has adapted to new hosts at an alarming pace.

Dr. Nuzzo and colleagues from multiple organizations, including the Association of Public Health Laboratories, interviewed dozens of experts within and outside the government and compiled a playbook for diagnostic testing.

Their recommendations set a high bar. They call for deployment of tests for a new pathogen to more than 120 labs in the C.D.C.’s network within 48 hours and to hospital and commercial labs within one week, and the development of point-of-care tests — which can be done in a doctor’s office or even at home — within 30 days.

By contrast, the National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan, developed by the White House, sets a 30-day goal for deployment of new tests and a 90-day target for point-of-care tests.

Part of the problem is that the C.D.C. has not historically asserted itself as a leader that can convene commercial and academic labs, said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the committee that evaluated the C.D.C.’s lab operations.

In February 2023, the committee reported that within the agency “there was no clear leader responsible for emergency planning for laboratories” and that major decisions about tests required input from more than 100 people.

In response to the committee’s recommendations, the C.D.C. has streamlined some of its lab operations. “My sense is very much that it is shifting,” Dr. Sharfstein said, referring to the C.D.C. The agency “is a lab organization and is now really starting to act like one.”

But the agency’s many fiefs remain, according to several people with knowledge of its operations.

In a report from November 2023, C.D.C. officials said the agency had hired a firm to create a road map for teaming up with commercial and academic laboratories for testing. A draft of the plan should be available late this year, according to a spokesman.

The C.D.C. also asked potential partners what they would need to enter into advance agreements that could be activated during outbreaks. That information is being assessed, and a request for proposals will be posted in the coming weeks, according to the spokesman.

Some experts questioned the need for more research before taking action.

“I don’t think it needs to be further studied,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “This is the kind of thing that should be hammered out very quickly.”

But others said the C.D.C. was doing its best with limited resources.

“Do we all wish our government did move faster?” said Jill Taylor, the senior adviser for scientific affairs at the Association for Public Health Laboratories and another member of the lab work group. “You bet. But I do think that they are absolutely moving in the right direction.”

“It must be recognized that the C.D.C. has received no funding to support this initiative,” she added. “I think they are doing what they can on fumes.”

The Fed Under Trump 2.0

Donald Trump says he will not fire Jay Powell as chair of the central bank if he is re-elected president, after threatening to do so. But whether the president even has the authority is open to question.

By Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ravi Mattu, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Lauren Hirsch, Ephrat Livni and Jeanna Smialek  17 Jul, 2024

As president, Donald Trump tapped Jay Powell to run the Fed, a decision that he has sometimes questioned and threatened to reverse.

Trumponomics and the Fed

One of the hot debates on Wall Street this election cycle is how Donald Trump would deal with the Fed if he is re-elected and, in particular, if he would fire or demote Jay Powell as chair, The Times’s Jeanna Smialek writes for DealBook.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek conducted before last weekend’s assassination attempt, Trump said that he did not plan to fire Powell, allowing him to serve out his term. But he also added some drama by making the statement conditional, saying that he would keep Powell on “especially if I thought he was doing the right thing.”

That said, it’s not clear that Trump could legally fire Powell even if he wanted to, but Trump’s phrasing seemed to imply that he believed he had a choice.

Trump appointed Powell, but turned on him over interest rate policy. The former president was displeased when the central banker refused to cut rates to bolster economic growth. President Biden reappointed Powell to a new four-year term that started in 2022.

There have been questions about whether Trump would fire Powell. Rates are much higher now than when Trump was in office. Given his history of criticizing Powell’s policies, investors and economists have been wondering if Trump might actually try to fire the Fed chair if he were to win in November.

Trump still wants low rates, eventually. Asked to describe his philosophy for the economy, Trump talked about “low interest rates and taxes.” But there’s a hitch: The Fed sets rates independently of the White House. Some conservatives have suggested that Trump could try to wrestle Fed policy under White House control, but Trump did not talk about that in this interview. Instead, he spoke about bringing down inflation, which would in turn allow the Fed to cut borrowing costs.

But Trump does not want the Fed to move until after the election. Even if Trump wants lower borrowing costs, he called rate cuts before the election “something that they know they shouldn’t be doing.” That’s at odds with market expectations: Futures traders this morning were pricing in a 98 percent chance of a rate cut in September, with a second to come on Nov. 7, two days after the election. Those expectations have helped fuel a market rally, with the S&P 500 up 10 of the past 11 sessions, and notching 38 highs this year.

Trump faces another conundrum with the dollar. The Republican candidate and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, have both railed against a strong dollar as a threat to corporate America’s global trading prowess and to jobs, especially in manufacturing. Yet that position appears to be at odds with the Republican Party’s official platform of preserving the greenback as the world’s reserve currency.

HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING

President Biden weighs backing a major overhaul for the Supreme Court. Among the changes he may support are imposing term limits on justices and an enforceable code of ethics. Such moves would be a shift for Biden and could energize liberal critics of the court, though they would require congressional approval, something unlikely given Republican control of the House and Democrats’ slim hold on the Senate.

Amazon’s Prime Day event threatens worker safety, a Senate report finds. The annual event, which drastically increases orders on the e-commerce platform, has been a “major cause of injuries,” with the tech giant accused of pressuring employees to work longer hours and shirk safety protocols, according to Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. An Amazon representative disputed the report’s findings.

Elon Musk says he’ll move the headquarters of X and SpaceX to Texas. The tech billionaire blamed a new California law that is intended to protect transgender children from being outed to their parents. Musk, who has repeatedly criticized California for its approach to regulation, previously moved Tesla’s headquarters to Austin. He has also been outspoken on transgender issues.

Carlos Watson, the founder of Ozy Media, is convicted of fraud. The media entrepreneur and his company were found guilty of trying to deceive investors and lenders about the business — including via fabricated contracts, inflated revenue numbers and a phone call with Goldman Sachs bankers in which an Ozy co-founder impersonated a YouTube executive. Watson, who faces up to 37 years in prison, plans to appeal.

“Little tech” backers for Trump

After securing the support of Elon Musk, Donald Trump has won the endorsement of more Silicon Valley moguls: the outspoken venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

It’s the latest sign of a political divide in the tech world, between progressives and a libertarian wing that is increasingly asserting its views publicly — and embracing the promise of deregulation that they believe would come in a second Trump administration.

Andreessen and Horowitz view Trump as better for start-ups, or what they’re calling “little tech.” The two have long asserted that tech could transform the world, publishing missives like “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” that argue that start-ups are the most important source of global growth.

On their podcast and in an essay posted to their firm’s website, Andreessen and Horowitz said that President Biden had been too hard on two sectors they see as wellsprings of innovation, crypto and artificial intelligence.

They also argued that the Biden administration’s tougher antitrust enforcement made it harder for start-ups to be acquired by bigger rivals.

The two also sharply criticized a Biden proposal to tax unrealized capital gains, which Andreessen called “the final straw” in persuading him to support Trump. Such a move, they said, would badly hurt start-ups, venture capital firms and “everybody who’s building anything.”

By contrast, Trump said that he supported cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, from its current level of 21 percent.

Andreessen rejected arguments that Biden would better safeguard the rule of law, saying that his administration has “basically subverted the rule of law” to attack crypto and led “a brutal assault on a nascent industry.”

Andreessen and Horowitz join the ranks of techie Trump backers, a largely libertarian group that includes Musk; the investors Peter Thiel (who pushed for Senator J.D. Vance as Trump’s running mate), Joe Lonsdale and Doug Leone; Palmer Luckey, the founder of the defense tech start-up Anduril; and crypto entrepreneurs, like the Winklevoss twins.

Many of them see Vance as their champion, especially given his pro-crypto views and his brief stint as a venture capitalist. (His track record as an investor, however, appears to be mixed.)

Andreessen and Horowitz acknowledge that their view won’t be universally popular. Many rank-and-file tech workers tend to vote Democratic, and Biden counts industry leaders like Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder, as major donors.

Noting that their decision would be unpopular with friends and family, Horowitz added, “Sorry, Mom, but we had to do it.”

A counterpoint: The financier and former Trump administration official Anthony Scaramucci warned fellow corporate moguls on X that he once believed Trump would be good for business, but now believes the policies he might adopt “will be bad for America and the world.”

“There was a time where if you wanted to survive in the Republican Party, you had to bend the knee to him or to others. I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”

— Donald Trump Jr., suggesting to Axios that Rupert Murdoch’s influence on Republican politics is not as strong as before.

The Angel City F.C. soccer team, and women’s sports in general, are on a roll.

Media titans buy into women’s soccer

Bob Iger, Disney’s C.E.O., and his wife, Willow Bay, have acquired Angel City Football Club in a deal that values the Los Angeles-based soccer team at $250 million — the highest for a U.S. women’s sports team.

The new owners will spend at least $50 million on the club’s growth. Iger and Bay, a journalist and the dean of U.S.C. Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, have not disclosed the size of the full investment. But under National Women’s Soccer League rules, they would need at least a 35 percent stake to control a team.

They join a list of celebrity backers. The club has been one of the soccer league’s gems, thanks partly to its star power. Investors include the actors Natalie Portman, Jennifer Garner and Eva Longoria, as well as Serena Williams, the retired tennis player. Iger and Bay will replace Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder and Williams’s husband, as the controlling shareholder.

The business of women’s sports is on a roll. In basketball, Caitlin Clark, the rookie star, has helped sell out stadiums and generated record viewership for the W.N.B.A. In women’s soccer, match attendance is also hitting records. Last year, the league announced a four-year media deal for $240 million — about 40 times as much as its last contract.

But its biggest challenge is profitability as major sports leagues see huge growth. The money flowing into men’s sports has eclipsed gains on the women’s side. Major League Soccer signed a $2.5 billion, 10-year media deal. “We think this momentum is strong and sustainable,” Bay told DealBook of women’s sports.

Investors are taking note. Last year, the firm Sixth Street Partners was part of a consortium that bought the rights for a new Bay Area team for $125 million. Carlyle, the private equity firm, is part of a group buying into Seattle Reign F.C.

THE SPEED READ

Deals

- The N.B.A.’s Board of Governors approved a set of broadcasting and streaming agreements that could pay the league about $76 billion over 11 years. (NYT)

- EssilorLuxottica, the European eyewear giant, agreed to buy the streetwear brand Supreme from VF Corporation for $1.5 billion. (Reuters)

Artificial intelligence

- In regulatory news: The Federal Trade Commission is said to be examining Amazon’s deal to hire top executives from the A.I. start-up Adept, and the British authorities are investigating Microsoft’s hiring of employees from Inflection AI. (Reuters, FT)

- Jeff Dean, the chief scientist of Google DeepMind and Google Research, argued that A.I. wasn’t responsible for the sharp increase of carbon emissions from data centers. (Fortune)

- Fei-Fei Li, the top artificial intelligence researcher at Stanford, has reportedly raised hundreds of millions for a new venture that is valued at $1 billion after just four months. (FT)

Best of the rest

- Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, was convicted of participating in a vast international bribery scheme. Prosecutors said he had received gold and other payoffs in exchange for political favors. (NYT)

- HSBC named its finance chief, Georges Elhedery, as its new C.E.O., as Europe’s biggest bank by assets navigates escalating tensions between the West and China. (FT)

- After 12 years and hundreds of meals — as well as health concerns — Pete Wells is stepping down as The Times’s restaurant critic. (NYT)

We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.

To Revitalize Britain’s Economy, a Plan for a Stronger Government Role

The Labour Party’s economic agenda, like many other programs around the world, puts political leaders more firmly in charge of industrial policy.

The challenges facing Britain are formidable, including slow economic growth, low productivity and investment, and high taxes.

By Patricia Cohen  17 Jul, 2024

The last time a freshly minted Labour government unabashedly campaigned on an ambitious national industrial policy to revive the British economy was 50 years ago, and the results were generally viewed as disastrous.

The 1974 program of subsidies, state ownership and power sharing among business, unions and government resulted in strikes that paralyzed the nation. And the government’s goal of picking industrial winners turned into a policy of backing losers like the automaker British Leyland and British Steel Corporation.

The current Labour Party has clearly jettisoned that ’70s era legacy. Keir Starmer’s new government, which formally laid out its economic agenda as Parliament opened on Wednesday, is nonetheless embracing the idea that the government must play a key role in driving Britain’s stagnant economy.

Policies that put political leaders more firmly in charge of the economy have taken hold all over the world. India, Brazil, Malaysia and many European capitals have all signed on. Leading the way is the United States, which for decades had spearheaded the campaign for open markets and hands-off government. The movement is largely aimed at challenging China, which has used top-down planning to move firmly into the No. 2 spot among global economies, as well as financing programs to stem the ravages of climate change.

Keir Starmer, the day after Labour’s landslide win. His government is planning to play a big role in driving Britain’s stagnant economy.

The growing lineup of government interventions inevitably means they will end up competing to some extent with one another. With one of the world’s largest advanced economies, though, Britain’s latest experiment is being watched particularly closely.

Labour’s industrial policy is getting a belated start and has severely limited funding, but it is likely to have easier politics to navigate than some other governments do. Mr. Starmer’s landslide victory gives him a comfortable parliamentary majority.

Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a research organization in Brussels, ticked off some of the actions taken just since the election less than two weeks ago: the launch of a public company investing in renewable energy projects, the announcement of a National Wealth Fund and the creation of cross-governmental panels led by the prime minister.

It “all represents a textbook example of how modern industrial policy should be structured,” Mr. Tagliapietra said. “And not many countries have done it all in once.”

The challenges are still formidable. The economy is suffering from lackluster growth, public services starved of funds, and anemic productivity and investment. Taxes are already the highest they have been in decades, while the government’s debt adds up to more than 90 percent of its total output.

A National Health Service hospital in Ilford, England. Public services in Britain, including the N.H.S., have been underfunded for years.

Labour is responding with a small-budgeted spinoff of a multibillion-dollar industrial policy put in place by President Biden, whose administration seeks to build up critical advanced technologies like semiconductors and electric batteries.

Washington’s policy is much better funded, but Mr. Starmer’s 174-seat majority means he will not have to battle nearly as much over green initiatives. With a lack of bipartisan consensus on climate and just a single-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, the Biden administration has had to negotiate with the critical swing vote — Senator Joe Manchin III, a conservative from West Virginia who railed about the administration’s “radical climate agenda.”

Mr. Starmer, by contrast, is likely to avoid such combat.

Ed Miliband, Britain’s new energy secretary, already announced approval of three solar farms that could power 400,000 homes despite opposition from members of Parliament and the communities they represent. He added that the government would end rules that in effect allowed communities to ban onshore wind projects in England.

A wind turbine factory in Hull, England. In a move to jump-start infrastructure spending, the new energy secretary announced approval of three solar farms that could power 400,000 homes.

In a speech last week, Rachel Reeves, Britain’s new chancellor of the Exchequer, said the overall approval process on critical infrastructure would be reviewed. That could mean decisions about where to install projects like large wind farms would be made on a national level, sidestepping local opposition.

Such resistance has frustrated wind development throughout the European Union despite emergency measures that were created to speed approval of renewable energy projects. In the Netherlands, dozens of projects were canceled or delayed in recent years because of local opposition that cited concerns about health, noise and the ruin of natural landscape, according to the Energy Monitor.

Ms. Reeves said the government would also reinstate requirements that local authorities build a minimum number of new homes, a mandate that the previous government scrapped. Labour has set a goal of building 1.5 million homes over the next five years. To help, 300 new planning officers will be dispatched to assist.

George Dibb, associate director for economic policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London, listed other actions that the Labour government could quickly take, such as tightening regulations on internal combustion engines and phasing in a requirement that households and businesses replace gas boilers with heat pumps.

Britain has a wider set of policy tools than the United States, Mr. Dibb said. A lot of incentives like tax breaks were included in the American plan, he said, but not many punitive measures like a carbon tax or a cap on emissions.

The Labour government has set a goal of building 1.5 million homes over the next five years.

Other economists expect that Labour will try to encourage reluctant private investors to develop green technology by limiting risk through loans and other government guarantees.

The European Union, too, has assiduously worked to put together a better coordinated and financed industrial strategy. Last year, it passed a Green Deal Industrial Plan focused on the energy transition. And this year, it approved its first industrial policy for defense, and approved regulations to step up production of essential raw materials within the bloc.

But the 27 nations that make up European Union must agree on any joint industrial strategy brick by brick despite often different priorities and outlooks.

And now there are more hurdles. Elections last month for the European Parliament increased the number of seats held by right-wing parties with strong nationalist agendas and skepticism toward green initiatives. The political center’s reduced majority could also slow progress on some of the European Union’s most ambitious proposals, including the creation of a single capital market and joint investments in green technology and defense.

Rising costs and regulations affecting farmers, which spurred angry protests in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Spain, have already caused some backtracking on the green agenda.

There are also deep divisions between Germany and France over issues like how much preferential treatment European-made products should receive when it comes to government contracts and how much industrial consolidation is required.

The European Union is also developing an industrial strategy, but the 27 nations that make up the bloc must agree on any joint policy despite often different priorities and outlooks.

In the United States, spending is already underway, and many projects are likely to continue to attract support if former President Donald J. Trump wins the November election. Still, it is possible that green projects involving public transit, renewable energy, electric vehicles and pollution controls could be scaled back or abandoned.

Of course, Britain faces its own set of hurdles. Diane Coyle, a professor of public policy at the University of Cambridge who has analyzed the country’s history of industrial policies, pointed to examples like a fragmented set of institutions and the lowest investment rate among the Group of 7 countries.

But “when there are huge transformations in digital and energy, not having an industrial policy,” she said, is “just a bad choice.”

Technology

- J.D. Vance’s A.I. Agenda: Reduce Regulation

- Halloween in July? Welcome to ‘Summerween.’

J.D. Vance’s A.I. Agenda: Reduce Regulation

Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick has indicated he favors a hands-off approach to A.I. but also wants to increase scrutiny of the biggest tech firms in the field.

J.D. Vance, former President Donald J. Trump’s pick for vice president and a former tech investor, is expected to take a more laissez-faire approach to A.I. regulations than the Biden administration.

By Cecilia Kang  17 Jul, 2024

Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, is a strong skeptic of regulating artificial intelligence. He’s also in favor of reining in Big Tech, companies he says have grown so powerful that they stymie smaller companies’ ability to succeed.

That seeming contradiction could play a role in shaping the Trump administration’s stance on A.I. policy if former President Donald J. Trump is elected later this year. Mr. Vance — the Republican pick for vice president and a former tech investor — has pushed for looser regulations and has vocally supported open-source A.I., the public release of underlying code that can be copied and altered to create new technology.

But he has also broken with his party to support Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, for her aggressive stance on antitrust action against Big Tech. And he has strong ties with some of the tech industry’s most powerful backers, many of whom fund smaller A.I. start-ups.

Last week, during a committee hearing on privacy and A.I., Mr. Vance accused Big Tech companies of predicting that A.I. could destroy humanity in order to solicit new regulations that only the largest companies could comply with.

Those regulations would “entrench the tech incumbents that we actually have, and make it actually harder for new entrants to create the innovation that’s going to power the next generation of American growth” and jobs, Mr. Vance said.

Mr. Trump has not said whom he would ask to lead the administration’s policymaking on A.I if he reclaims the presidency in November. But Mr. Vance could heavily influence the growing industry.

Tech policy experts expect that Mr. Vance would take a more laissez-faire approach to A.I. regulations compared with the Biden administration’s. The president has issued an executive order requiring safety testing and urged further regulation. Mr. Vance would most likely favor rolling back some of the current A.I. guardrails in place for the U.S. military, which has taken a cautious approach to using the new technology. He has also urged more investment in U.S. companies to help them compete against China, which is racing to dominate A.I.

Still, Mr. Vance’s competing visions for looser regulation on A.I. and strong accountability for Big Tech, which is currently leading in creating and improving the technology, may be hard to balance, the experts say.

“Vance is of two minds and I don’t know if he can reconcile those things,” said Matt Mittelsteadt, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Mr. Vance did not respond to a request for comment. He hasn’t previously directly addressed the apparent contradiction in his regulatory views.

Generative A.I., a form of the technology that powers humanlike chatbots and creates realistic images, has prompted concerns worldwide that the technology could wipe out jobs, fuel disinformation and eventually replace the need for humans completely.

The resulting scramble to regulate the industry has led to laws in Europe that ban the riskiest uses of A.I., such as the collection of biometric data by law enforcement, and force companies to reveal when A.I. is being used on consumers. Domestically, dozens of states have passed or are in the process of creating laws for A.I. that require security testing and transparency for consumers.

While Congress has held forums and hearings with A.I. creators, academics and company chiefs, there hasn’t been movement on federal legislation.

Mr. Vance has participated in policy forums hosted by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, on how A.I. will affect security, copyright, discrimination and labor. He previously worked for Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, and was recently a co-host of a Trump fund-raiser with David Sacks, a venture capital investor.

In 2020, Mr. Vance founded Narya Capital, a venture capital firm based in Cincinnati and backed by Mr. Thiel and other Silicon Valley investors.

Mr. Vance said he was hoping to find a company to compete with Google’s ad tech business, but realized it was too dominant.

“We want innovation and we want competition, and I think that it’s impossible to have one without the other,” he said in February.

He has criticized Meta and Apple for “parasitic” business practices and has called for the breakup of Google, but hasn’t specifically addressed what to do about the most powerful A.I. companies, which include private companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Kara Frederick, the director of the Tech Policy Center at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Vance would most likely buoy the A.I. industry and prioritize start-ups in the field.

“He has more firsthand experience to understand how new entrants have not been able to compete in a genuine free market,” Ms. Frederick said.

Halloween in July? Welcome to ‘Summerween.’

Spookiness meets the heat in a holiday now gaining traction online.

At a Summerween party in Tennessee, jack-o’-lanterns were made out of watermelons.

By Steven Kurutz  17 Jul, 2024

On a hot summer day, Bonnie Barton hosted a festive backyard gathering that looked different from the typical summertime pool party.

Jack-o’-lanterns were fashioned out of melons, instead of pumpkins. A novelty skeleton chilled out in an inflatable pool. Guests played ring toss, flinging plastic orange hoops onto pointy black witches’ hats.

Ms. Barton, 35, a social media influencer in Austin, Texas, was celebrating a novel holiday: Summerween.

A mash-up of a summer celebration and Halloween, the event seems to have been assembled, Frankenstein-style, out of social media’s insatiable need for content, retailers’ desire to drum up excitement in the dead zone of July and August and an enthusiasm among certain people for ghouls and goblins so strong that it cannot be satisfied by one holiday a year.

When Did It Start?

The term “Summerween” originated on “Gravity Falls,” an animated mystery TV series that had a two-season run on the Disney Channel and is now available on Disney+.

In Season 1, episode 12, which premiered Oct. 5, 2012, the residents of the fictional town of Gravity Falls, Ore., love Halloween so much that they decide to celebrate twice a year. For the summertime version, they carve jack-o-melons instead of pumpkins and tell tales of the Summerween Trickster, a creature that eats children who don’t show Summerween spirit.

The idea seemed to lay dormant until earlier this year, when an audio mash-up comprising dialogue of “Gravity Falls” characters discussing the holiday and the Pet Shop Boys song “West End Girls” started spreading on TikTok.

Ms. Barton included this mash-up on the soundtrack for the TikTok video of her Summerween party. “Summerween?” says the “Gravity Falls” character played by Kristen Schall. “Sounds unnatural.”

Other social media influencers jumped on the trend, as did retailers like the craft-store chain Michaels, which has more than 1,300 locations in North America. It stocked shelves with Summerween items, including flowery jack-o’-lanterns, hot-pink novelty gravestones and cheerful throw pillows emblazoned with human skulls.

“It has absolutely blown up this year,” said Miranda Enzor, 40, the publisher of Spooky Little Halloween, a quarterly magazine and website. “The online Halloween community started using it to Halloween-ify the other seasons and holidays.”

How Is It Celebrated?

The general idea is to take summertime social gatherings — pool parties, barbecues, beach days — and combine them with Halloween décor, imagery and traditions. That may look like carving watermelons and topping your grilled hamburger with jack-o-lantern-shaped cheese. Or sunbathing on the beach with a spooky beach towel. Or simply carrying a watermelon-shaped jack-o'-lantern handbag.

“What’s fun when it starts in the summer is to put a twist on color, a twist on the aesthetic, so it’s hitting those Halloween feels but it’s in keeping with the summer vibe,” said Toni Gabriele, 41, who, along with her friend Laurie Necco, 42, runs Ghost Girl Greetings, a company that sells Summerween-themed greeting cards, stickers and flip-flops.

Another popular activity is to take in a horror movie, long a summertime box-office staple. This year’s crop includes “MaXXXine” and “A Quiet Place: Day One.”

“Everyone defines it for themselves,” Ms. Barton said. “But come June, especially when it gets super hot, it does get you excited for the fall that’s to come after the hellscape. Nobody likes 100-degree days.”

Costumes are not yet a common part of the Summerween ritual. Fans of other traditional Halloween favorites, like haunted hay rides, pumpkin spice lattes and chunky knit sweaters, will also have to wait till fall.

Is There a Particular Day?

The residents of “Gravity Falls” celebrate Summerween on June 22. But for Ms. Barton and other “freaks who are obsessed with Halloween,” as she calls her fellow celebrants, there appears to be no fixed date. Any day from mid-June onward is OK for a Summerween party.

Ms. Enzor would be happy to celebrate Springween and Winterween as well.

“There would be no complaints from me if we took over every other holiday and season with Halloween,” she said. “For me, it never really ends.”

Table of Contents

New York Times: 18 Jul, 2024

Home

Biden Faces Democratic Doubts as Trump Basks in G.O.P. Embrace

Biden Called ‘More Receptive’ to Hearing Pleas to Step Aside

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Urges Biden’s Advisers to Help Him Exit Race

Biden Tests Positive for the Coronavirus, and Senators Berate Secret Service Chief

Watch Rare Siamese Crocodiles Hatching

Marine Tondelier, the ‘Other Marine’ of French Politics, Hits Back

Are China’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Plateauing?

Zelensky Among European Leaders Meeting in Churchill’s Birthplace

Ukraine Loses Hard-Won Position Near Dnipro River in the South

Keanu Reeves Wrote a Book. A Really Weird One.

‘J.D. Vance Brought What Team Trump Needed’: Best and Worst Moments From Night 3

When Will Democrats Stand Up to Biden?

The Myth of Migrant Crime

Late Night Taunts Former Critics Who Changed Their Minds About Trump

Why China Is So Interested in Kazakhstan

‘My Property, My Trees’: New Tree-Cutting Law Divides N.Y. Town

A Daily Pill to Prevent S.T.I.s? It May Work, Scientists Say.

If Maduro Wins, Venezuelans Vow to Leave

World

Same-Sex Couples in South Korea Win Landmark Rights Ruling

Why Is Venezuela’s President, Nicolás Maduro, on the Ballot 13 Times?

Evan Gershkovich, Wall Street Journal Reporter, Returns to Court in Russia

In Argentina, Milei’s Devotion to Judaism Influences His Politics

French Lawmakers Will Vote to Elect New National Assembly President

As Many South Koreans Shun Marriage, Two Women Try to Redefine Family

Student Protests in Bangladesh Turn Deadly: What to Know

Von der Leyen Secures Second E.U. Term, but It’s a New World Out There

Two Dead in Canada From Contaminated Milk Substitutes

U.K. Failed in Handling of Covid Pandemic, Inquiry Report Says

Pressure Mounts on Netanyahu to Seal a Cease-Fire Deal Before Speech to Congress

America’s Allies in Middle East See Some Advantages in Potential 2nd Trump Presidency

Fire at Shopping Mall in Southwestern China Kills 16

Thursday Briefing

US

Nevada Conservative Accused of Fraud Over Fund-Raising for Charity

‘Our Nation Is Not Well’: Voters Fear What Could Happen Next

What It Would Take to Deport Millions of Immigrants

How Yale Propelled J.D. Vance’s Career

Pelosi Tells Biden She Is Pessimistic About His Re-election Chances

Here Are the Speakers at Tonight’s 2024 Republican Convention

A Party Now Molded in Trump’s Image Prepares for a Coronation

Trump Says ‘I Got Lucky’ in Surviving Assassination Attempt, Video Shows

What to Know About California’s Covid Surge

Five People Die on Mt. Fuji in Deadly Start to Climbing Season

Republicans Put Trump in Soft Focus, Editing Out Years of Rancor

How Trump Dominated His Own Party on a New G.O.P. Platform

Takeaways From Night 3 of the RNC

Read the Transcript of J.D. Vance’s Convention Speech

Usha Vance, J.D. Vance’s Wife, Entered the Spotlight. It’s an Unfamiliar Role.

Republicans Seek to Remind R.N.C. Viewers About Deadly Afghanistan Withdrawal

RNC Speakers Put Israel and Antisemitism Front and Center, Courting U.S. Jews

Business

Carlos Espina is a One-Man Telemundo on TikTok

Tucker Carlson, Ousted by Fox, Roars Into Milwaukee as a Top Trump Ally

WNBA Players Seek Expert Advice as They Assess Next Union Contract

E.C.B. Leaves Rates Unchanged but Keeps Door Open for September

How Trump’s Running Mate J.D. Vance is Connected to Silicon Valley

Is Maddow in Milwaukee? No, That’s an LED Screen on MSNBC.

Ford Will Make Gasoline Trucks Not Electric Vehicles in Canada Plant

How Elon Musk May Influence Donald Trump’s Policies

China’s Leaders Offer High Hopes, but Few Details for Road to Recovery

Help! We Had to Sleep in the Hotel’s Breakfast Room. We Would Like a $215 Refund.

U.K. Climate Change Committee Urges Speed in Cutting Emissions

Stocks on Wall Street Drop, Led by Semiconductor Shares

Britain Approves Lab-Grown Meat for Pet Food

A Milan Airport Is Now Named for Berlusconi. Cue the ‘Bunga-Bunga’ Memes.

E.U. Court Rebukes European Commission Over Covid Vaccine Contracts

Amazon Workers Narrowly Reject Union Drive at British Warehouse

Bird Flu Is Spreading. Why Aren’t More People Getting Tested?

The Fed Under Trump 2.0

To Revitalize Britain’s Economy, a Plan for a Stronger Government Role

Technology

J.D. Vance’s A.I. Agenda: Reduce Regulation

Halloween in July? Welcome to ‘Summerween.’