U.S. ELECTION 2024
The presidential election is less than 80 days away. This is what we’re watching.
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| Vice President Kamala Harris in Chicago last night. Erin Schaff/The New York Times |
The biggest speech of Kamala Harris’s life
Vice President Kamala Harris ceremonially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president last night, issuing a call for unity and a warning that Donald Trump is an “unserious man” whose return to the White House could have devastating consequences for the U.S. Here’s the latest.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past,” she said. And she warned, of Trump: “Consider the power he will have — especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled he would be immune from criminal prosecution.”
Harris also devoted time to her personal biography, explaining that she was driven to be a prosecutor to protect people like a high school friend who had confided to her that she was being sexually assaulted by her stepfather.
The speech culminated Harris’s swift ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket — and kicks off what will surely be a furious 74-day sprint to Election Day.
Trump visits Arizona: Trump traveled to the southwestern border to highlight immigration, an issue Republicans believe will give them an edge in November. Talking about the 2020 election results, he seemed to actually acknowledge his defeat. “I got many millions more votes than I got the first time, but didn’t quite make it — just a little bit short,” he said.
Related:
| Trump appears preoccupied with Harris’s looks. “I’m a better-looking person than Kamala,” he said this week.Harris’s tax plan would aim for $5 trillion in increases over the next decade, drawn from the wealthiest Americans and corporations.Trump spoke glowingly of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid reports that Kennedy would end his troubled campaign and was considering endorsing the former president.A hip-hop mash-up of years-old, anti-Trump comments by JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, is spreading widely on TikTok. |
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| Volodymyr Zelensky meeting Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany. Pool photo by Jens Büttner |
German support for Ukraine comes under strain
Amid severe clashes over the budget and increasing evidence that Ukraine was behind the blowing up of natural gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, the German government has come under increasing pressure at home to roll back its support for Ukraine and push harder for negotiations to try to end its war with Russia.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has insisted that Berlin will not diminish its aid and will remain, as he said in Moldova this week, “Ukraine’s biggest national supporter in Europe.” But his three-party coalition government is increasingly unpopular and facing critical state elections in September, with pressure from both the left and the right.
The primary burden on the government, which can seem paralyzed in making major financial decisions, is the constitutional requirement to keep new budget debt to no more than 0.35 percent of G.D.P. That constraint has put pressure on military spending in general, as well as the government’s aid to Ukraine.
Russia: Negative feelings about President Vladimir Putin have appeared to increase across the country since Ukraine’s incursion, according to an attitude-tracking firm.
Press freedoms: Russia announced that it had opened a criminal case against three reporters on charges of entering the country illegally while reporting on an incursion into the Kursk region by Ukraine’s armed forces. They are not being held in the country.
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| As of yesterday, Italian recovery teams had retrieved six bodies. Alberto Pizzoli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Tech entrepreneur’s body found after yacht sinking
The body of the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was among those recovered by Italian divers off the Sicilian coast, an official said, confirming that he was killed when a violent storm struck his yacht this week. Of the 22 people on board, nine crew members and six passengers survived.
As of yesterday afternoon, Italian recovery teams had retrieved the bodies of the one remaining crew member and five passengers who had been on the yacht. They were still searching for Lynch’s daughter Hannah.
| MORE TOP NEWS |
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| Dado Ruvic/Reuters |
| Thailand: Health officials have confirmed a case of the version of mpox that prompted the W.H.O. to declare a global health emergency.Gaza: Thousands of Palestinians fled their homes and shelters after the Israeli military ordered a new round of evacuations.Israeli hostages: A group representing relatives of those taken in Hamas’s attacks said that autopsies revealed bullets in the bodies of six recovered captives.Canada: After almost all rail freight traffic came to a halt following a lockout of employees by the two main rail companies, the federal government told a labor board to end the shutdown and ordered arbitration.Pakistan: The authorities arrested a man for spreading fake news that helped set off violent riots in Britain following a deadly stabbing attack last month.Venezuela: The country’s highest court ruled that its authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, won the July election, despite evidence that his opponent garnered the most votes.Iceland: A volcano in the southwest spewed ash and lava, the sixth such eruption since December, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.Botswana: A 2,492-carat stone that was found in a mine is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century. |
Arts & Culture
| Movies: A new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” was pulled after using fake quotes from critics to promote the film.Climate change: Political art can be heavy-handed. Two sculptors are taking a softer approach.Publishing: Rick Steves, the popular travel guidebook writer, said he was being treated for prostate cancer.Festivals: The Sarajevo Film Festival, now celebrating its 30th anniversary, has become the premier movie industry event in the Balkan region. |
| SPORTS NEWS |
| Soccer: The Nottingham Forest player Danilo will undergo surgery after breaking his ankle last week.Basketball: Driven by the loss of his mentor, Naz Reid of the Minnesota Timberwolves has made the fight against cancer personal.U.S. Open: There are 32 unclaimed spots in the tournament, and the math is as brutal as it is simple: Win three matches, and you’re in.Paralympics: Christie Raleigh Crossley, a swimmer with neurological impairments, is going for gold in Paris. Some question her invisible disability. |
| MORNING READ |
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| Piyal Adhikary/EPA, via Shutterstock |
Is India a safe place for women? The brutal story of a trainee doctor who was raped and killed at her own hospital has brought up uncomfortable truths about a country that wants to be a global leader.
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
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| Illustration by Tala Safie; Photos: MGM; Sony Pictures; Touchstone Pictures; Spyglass Entertainment Group; Jon Farmer/Touchstone Pictures; Merie W. Wallace/Warner Bros. |
Our critic’s best year for movies
Wesley Morris, who writes about art and popular culture for The Times, looks back on 1999, a year of cinematic abundance that overwhelmed him as a 23-year-old critic.
It was the year of “The Sixth Sense,” “The Blair Witch Project” and “American Beauty,” which went on to win the Oscar for best picture. “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” and “The Matrix” also came out, along with existential identity crackups like “Fight Club,” crass hits like “American Pie” and one of Wesley’s favorites, “The Thomas Crowne Affair.”
“It was the last most-exciting period for American moviegoing,” Wesley writes. “It was the last most-exciting time to write about the movies.” Read his essay.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
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| Andrew Purcell for The New York Times |
Cook: Asian flavors and Mexican crunch come together with a bang in these Indian-ish nachos
