Wednesday Briefing – The New York Times
🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024
The presidential election is less than 100 days away. This is what we’re watching.
Harris and Walz made their debut in Philadelphia
Kamala Harris appeared for the first time alongside her newly announced running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a former social studies teacher and football coach with a straight-talking style, introducing him yesterday at a packed rally in Philadelphia.
“Tim Walz was the kind of teacher and mentor that every child in America dreams of having and that every kid deserves,” Harris said. “The kind of coach — because he’s the kind of person — who makes people feel like they belong and then inspires them to dream big. And that’s the kind of vice president he will be.”
Walz responded, beaming, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.”
Democrats proved quick to embrace their new ticket on Tuesday, and the Harris campaign said it had raised more than $20 million in the hours since Walz’s selection became official.
Background: Born in Nebraska, Walz served for 24 years in the National Guard, taught social studies and coached a high school football team. He got his start in politics in 2006 by winning a congressional race in a rural, largely conservative district of Minnesota. Here are 19 things to know about Walz.
Politics: After his election as governor of Minnesota, Walz has worked to enact an ambitious agenda of liberal policies: free college tuition for low-income students, free meals for schoolchildren, legal recreational marijuana and protections for transgender people. He has also championed climate issues but has faced criticism for his response to the George Floyd protests.
Here’s what else to know:
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Hamas appointed a new political leader
Hamas announced yesterday that Yahya Sinwar, the presumed mastermind of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, had been selected as its new political leader, consolidating his power over the militant group as it continues the war with Israel.
Sinwar will replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in an explosion last week in Tehran. Hamas and Iran blamed Israel for the assassination, although Israel has not publicly taken responsibility.
Sinwar has served as the leader of Hamas in Gaza since 2017 and is widely believed to be hiding out in tunnels under the enclave. Born in the Gaza Strip, he spent two decades in Israeli prisons before his release in a prisoner exchange with Israel in 2011. He is viewed by Israeli officials as a sophisticated strategist with a keen understanding of their society.
More news from the Middle East:
An interim leader for Bangladesh
Accommodating demands from protesters, the president of Bangladesh appointed Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in microfinance and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, to oversee an interim government.
Yunus has two immediate tasks. He must first restore order in a country of 170 million people that has been roiled by weeks of student protests and violent clashes with the security forces that have killed more than 100 people. And then he must define the role of the interim government and its mandate until Bangladesh holds elections to choose a new leader.
Her final hours: Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina insisted that she could hold on as an angry crowd closed in on her residence. Her family urged her to go.
MORE TOP NEWS
Based in Britain, the Bookshop Band performs music inspired by books. “They read a book, get a general impression of it and come up with a series of lyrics which don’t necessarily reflect back onto the book,” said Pete Townshend, the guitarist and singer for the Who, who produced the Bookshop Band’s 14th album and plays on every track.
To save his city, a mayor looks to Central Asia
Like many South Korean cities, Jecheon is being eroded by rapid aging and rock-bottom birthrates. To solve that demographics problem, other cities have tried offers like money to newlyweds or free housing for parents of school-age children.
Kim Chang-gyu, the mayor of Jecheon and a retired diplomat, looked farther afield: a pocket of about a half-million Koreans who emigrated to Siberia 100 years ago and were deported by Stalin in 1937 to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Kim said he hoped the Koreans from Central Asia would be more readily accepted in a country that feels strongly about blood ties.
That’s it for today’s briefing. And a correction: Yesterday’s briefing misstated which nation the pole-vaulter Mondo Duplantis competes for. He competes for Sweden, not Italy.
See you tomorrow. — Natasha
Reach Natasha and the team at [email protected].
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