The New York Times: Ο αντιπρόεδρος του Ντόναλντ Τραμπ και η ζοφερή διάθεση των Δημοκρατικών – Οι πανταχού παρούσες τσάντες βιβλίων της Ιαπωνίας – Ο J.D. Vance είναι η επιλογή του Τραμπ για αντιπρόεδρο – «Η ατμόσφαιρα είναι ζοφερή» για τους Δημοκρατικούς – Συζητήσεις για μια ισραηλινή αποχώρηση από τα σύνορα Γάζας-Αιγύπτου – Ουκρανία: Οι ρωσικές δυνάμεις πιέζονται στο νότιο χωριό Urozhaine, την τελευταία από πολλές αργές αλλά σταθερές προόδους – Στην Ιαπωνία, μια τσάντα για βιβλία, μολύβια και παράδοση

J.D. Vance, once a critic of Donald Trump, is now his running mate. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

J.D. Vance is Trump’s pick for vice president

On the first day of the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump announced his running mate: J.D. Vance, a 39-year-old senator and ex-Marine who, over the last few years, has transformed from a sharp critic of the former president into one of his most loyal allies.

Vance is an ambitious ideologue who relishes the spotlight and has shown he can energize donors. He has been a vocal opponent of U.S. aid for Ukraine, leading an unsuccessful campaign in the Senate to block a $60 billion package. If Trump wins a second term, Vance’s selection will position him as a potential successor. Here’s what to know about him.

Trump: The former president, his right ear bandaged, made his first public appearance since a gunman tried to kill him on Saturday night. People at the convention pumped their fists and shouted “fight,” echoing the gesture Trump made as the Secret Service rushed him to safety. That moment has become a rallying point for his supporters.

Assassination attempt: Former high school classmates described the gunman, Thomas Crooks, as intelligent but solitary, someone who tried to avoid being teased. The F.B.I. said it had gained access to his phone, but it was not immediately clear whether it had yielded clues.

Classified documents case: In a bombshell decision, a federal judge, Aileen Cannon, threw out all the charges against Trump involving his handling of classified documents, ruling that the special counsel who filed the indictment had been unconstitutionally appointed to his job. The ruling upended 25 years of Justice Department procedure.

President Biden addressed the American public from the Oval Office on Sunday, a day after the attempt on Donald Trump’s life. Pool photo by Erin Schaff

‘The vibe is grim’ for Democrats

As the Republican convention opened yesterday, many Democrats were gravely concerned about President Biden’s chances in the November election. They are divided over how to proceed with a weakened leader in a scrambled political environment, insiders said.

The attempted assassination of Trump complicated what Biden’s campaign considered one of its most potent messages: that the former president poses a significant threat to American democracy. Trump’s in-the-moment response to the shooting — the raised fist and bloodied face that instantly became a defining image — sent Democrats into yet another tailspin.

Polling since Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month has been mixed. The latest New York Times/Siena College polls found Biden trailing Trump in Pennsylvania and just slightly ahead in Virginia, two must-win states. So far, there is little indication of how the attack on Trump might have shifted the race.

Analysis: “The vibe is grim,” said Matt Bennett, the co-founder of Third Way, a Democratic think tank. “I haven’t talked to a single Democrat who is like, ‘Things are fine.’ It’s universal.”

Biden: In a televised interview, the president said it had been “a mistake” for him to say last week that he wanted to put Trump in “a bull’s-eye.” The assassination attempt has raised questions about how far language should go in a heated campaign, our chief White House correspondent writes.

A view from Egypt of its border with the Gaza Strip. Giuseppe Cacace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Talks over an Israeli pullback from the Gaza-Egypt border

Israel and Egypt have privately discussed a possible withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Gaza’s border with Egypt, officials said. That could remove one of the main obstacles to a cease-fire deal with Hamas after more than nine months of war in the Gaza Strip.

Negotiations for a truce appear to have gained momentum in recent days, but points of contention remain. One involves the length of a cease-fire: Hamas is demanding that it be permanent, while Israel wants a temporary one. Hamas has also called for an Israeli withdrawal from areas that include the Egypt-Gaza border.

Context: The Israeli military took control of Gaza’s southern border over May and June, forcing Hamas away from a strategically important axis through which it had smuggled arms and supplies into Gaza. The seizure has also strained Israel’s ties with Egypt.

Related: China will host senior Palestinian officials from Hamas and Fatah for a meeting next week to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip.

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

From Africa

James Hill for The New York Times

Call it dinner theater: As it prepares to host the Olympics, France is creating a from-scratch collection of pop-up dining experiences on a scale far beyond the offerings at any past Games. Think lobster ravioli and equestrian events at Versailles, or moules frites and beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower.

Some 80 temporary restaurants are being set up where competitions will be staged, to serve an average of 30,000 diners a day. (For more, read our guide to Paris’s best bakeries.)

Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times

In Japan, a bag for books, pencils and tradition

As a child at an international school in Tokyo, my colleague Motoko Rich, now The Times’s Tokyo bureau chief, envied Japanese kids’ “supercool leather backpacks,” called randoseru — so much that, years later in Brooklyn, she bought one on eBay for her daughter.

When Motoko moved back to Japan as an adult, “randoseru were just part of the normal visual landscape” on streets and train platforms, she told me. “Rarely did I see an elementary child with any other kind of school bag,” she added. The backpacks are not required, but strong social norms lead most families to purchase them for their children.

It was only when a Korean journalist compared carrying the bag to hauling days’ worth of rations in a backpack during his army service that she thought of writing about the randoseru “as a microcosm of Japanese culture,” Motoko said. “This large burden carried by children, but also a representation of remarkable consistency and entrenched traditions.”

Read more about randoseru.

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Cook: This is a recipe for roast chicken at its simplest and best.