Wednesday Briefing: Kamala Harris unites Democrats

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July 24, 2024

	By Daniel E. Slotnik

Good morning. We’re covering how Kamala Harris is closing in on the Democratic nomination and the Secret Service director steps down.

Plus, A.I. is a poor math student.

Kamala Harris at her first campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday since taking over the Democratic ticket. Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Democrats united behind Kamala Harris

The top two Democrats in Congress endorsed Kamala Harris as their party’s presidential candidate yesterday, after she received commitments from enough delegates to secure the nomination.

The Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, had waited to endorse Harris so they would not be seen as dictating the selection process.

“Now that the process has played out from the grass roots, bottom up, we are here today to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris,” Schumer said at a joint news conference in Washington.

Harris held the first rally of her campaign in the swing state of Wisconsin yesterday, telling an energized crowd that she’d convicted fraudsters and cheaters as a prosecutor and knows “Donald Trump’s type.” She highlighted the $100 million that her campaign had received in contributions since Sunday and took a victory lap for effectively wrapping up the Democratic presidential nomination within 48 hours. Follow our coverage here.

Trump: Harris’s candidacy may bring out the former president’s tendency to personally attack female rivals.

Biden: The president said he would address the nation tonight for the first time since he ended his bid for re-election.

Memes: The videos and photos once used to denigrate Harris have been flipped into celebrations of her candidacy.

Kimberly Cheatle on Capitol Hill on Monday. Kenny Holston/The New York Times

The head of the U.S. Secret Service stepped down

The director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned yesterday. She has faced intense criticism from lawmakers in both parties over the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

In an email to Secret Service employees, Cheatle said that one of the agency’s foremost duties was to protect the nation’s leaders and that it “fell short of that mission” in failing to secure a campaign rally where a gunman opened fire on July 13. Lawmakers have pointed to glaring security lapses that allowed the near-miss attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pa.

“It’s clear that the job of the Secret Service is harder than it used to be,” said my colleague David Farenthold, who has been covering the shooting. “They protect more people now than they used to, especially during campaign season, and it’s clear that their resources were stretched. But the problems in Butler went beyond the budget — there was a lack of imagination and of clear accountability.”

For more, The Times created a 3-D model showing how the gunman had an edge over the countersnipers stationed around the rally.

Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister, at her office in Dhaka last year. Atul Loke for The New York Times

An unbending leader’s deadly response

Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, has fought Islamic militancy, lifted millions of people out of poverty and deftly kept both India and China at her side. She steamrolled her opposition to win a fourth consecutive term just a few months ago.

But Hasina has also deeply entrenched her authority and divided Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million people. Those who kissed the ring were rewarded with patronage, power and impunity. Dissenters were met with crackdowns, endless legal entanglement and imprisonment.

This month, her bloody response to sustained protests about a quota system for government jobs has left at least 150 dead and has grown into the biggest challenge yet to her dominance.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Biden in New York last year. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Israel’s prime minister speaks to Congress

The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, will address Congress today. He faces mounting anger over the prolonged war in Gaza as the U.S. is caught up in political upheaval of its own.

Netanyahu, who is trying to shore up U.S. support for Israel’s war effort, will meet with President Biden, Harris and Trump while he’s here. In Netanyahu’s last address to Congress, he railed against the Obama administration for its nuclear deal with Iran.

Mahmoud al-Aloul, the deputy leader of the Fatah party; Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister; and Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior member of Hamas, in Beijing on Tuesday. Pool photo by Pedro Pardo

Business

Sports

Simone Biles competing on the uneven bars in Minneapolis last month. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

A wall of fame at the home of Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic champion in the javelin, in Khandra, India. Atul Loke for The New York Times

India’s Neeraj Chopra won the javelin competition at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the country’s first gold medal in track and field. His triumph inspired athletes across India and helped spark a national ambition for something even bigger: a chance to host the Summer Games for the first time.

Lives lived: Noriko Ohara, who voiced a boy who befriends a robot cat in the long-running children’s anime “Doraemon,” died at 88.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.

Sean Dong

A.I. can write sonnets, but it can’t do math

Chatbots like Open AI’s ChatGPT can compose poetry and summarize books, often with human-level fluency. But despite the efforts of the world’s smartest computer scientists, A.I.s often fail at simple arithmetic.

That’s because A.I.s are based on neural networks, which find patterns in vast amounts of data but don’t follow simple deterministic rules. It’s possible to improve their performance on math tasks, much like a human, though they still make mistakes.

“They’re usually fine, but usually isn’t good enough in math,” said one high school math teacher. “It’s got to be right.”

Cold rice noodles with grilled chicken and peanut sauce. Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Cook: Toss cold noodles with grilled chicken and peanut sauce.

Watch: “My Lady Jane,” inspired by the fleeting reign of a Tudor monarch, has fun rewriting history.

Date: Beat sweltering weather with beach picnics and romantic park strolls.

Sip: These 10 French wines are a perfect pairing with the Olympics.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Dan

P.S. The Times politics reporter Reid Epstein was at his son’s birthday party when he learned Biden was withdrawing from the race. Read about how he covered the news.

We welcome your feedback. Send us your suggestions at briefing@nytimes.com.

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