Wednesday Briefing: Harris picked a running mate

August 7, 2024

	By Justin Porter

Good morning. We’re covering Kamala Harris’s choice for vice president and a new political leader for Hamas.

Plus, breaking’s debut at the Paris Olympics.

🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024

The presidential election is less than 100 days away. This is what we’re watching.

Tim Walz smiles and talks while standing behind a lectern with a sign saying "Harris for President." Walz is wearing a baseball hat and a T-shirt.

Tim Walz’s rural roots, liberal policies and buzzy takedowns of Donald Trump put him on the map. Caroline Yang for The New York Times

Harris picked Tim Walz to be her running mate

Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday named Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a former football coach and schoolteacher who championed state-funded programs to support families, as her running mate.

Walz, 60, edged out better-known contenders for the job with his straight-talking style, which saw him declare Donald Trump and some other Republicans “weird” — a word that caught on fast.

“Walz’s ‘weird’ attack has delighted Democrats who have been looking for resonant attacks on Trump for eight years,” my colleague Jess Bidgood, who writes our On Politics newsletter, said. “Add in his rural background, his support of liberal policies like paid family leave and his merry sense of humor, and you have something most Democrats can be happy about in a moment when unity is seen as paramount.”

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:

Harris secured the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, winning the support of 99 percent of delegates during a virtual roll call.
Harris is locked in a very tight race against Trump in three battleground states, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Do you have questions about the election? Send them to us, and we’ll find the answers.

Stay up to date: Live coverage | Poll tracker | The “Run-Up” podcast | On Politics newsletter

Yahya Sinwar looks at the camera. He wears a purple shirt and a black blazer. He has grey hair and a beard.

Yahya Sinwar. Adel Hana/Associated Press

Hamas appointed a new political leader

Hamas announced yesterday that Yahya Sinwar, the presumed mastermind of the deadly Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, was selected as the group’s new political leader. The move consolidates his power as Hamas fights Israel in Gaza.

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 underneath the enclave. Born in the Gaza Strip, he spent years in an Israeli prison before his release in a prisoner exchange with Israel in 2011.

West Bank: Israeli forces have killed at least 12 Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, in raids across the occupied West Bank since Monday, Palestinian officials said.

Israel: Hezbollah launched a drone attack into northern Israel, which it said was a response to an Israeli strike a day earlier that Israel said had killed a field commander.

Lebanon: Ordinary citizens can do little more than watch and wait as an escalation with Israel appears more likely.

Iraq: U.S. troops were wounded in a rocket attack on an air base. The strike resembled previous ones carried out by Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups.

A man in a blue shirt stands in front of a blurred group in the background.

Muhammad Yunus. Rehman Asad/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A Nobel laureate will lead Bangladesh’s interim government

Accommodating demands by protesters, the president of Bangladesh appointed Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in microfinance and a Nobel laureate, to oversee an interim government.

Yunus has two immediate tasks. First, to restore order in a country of 170 million people that has been roiled by weeks of student protests and violent clashes with security forces that have killed more than 100 people. And second, to 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

A group of people, some waving England flags and others in balaclavas, hemmed on to a pavement by mounted police.

Police officers were deployed on horseback to Sunderland, northeastern England, on Friday. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

U.K.: In Sunderland, an English city recently hit by rioting, frustrations run deep after years of economic deprivation and joblessness.
U.S.: The F.B.I. arrested a Pakistani man for trying to hire a hit man to assassinate U.S. leaders, possibly including Donald Trump.
Stocks: Wall Street recouped some of the losses from the previous day. Stocks in Japan, the hardest hit by recent selling, jumped 10 percent.

China: Hu Xijin, an influential nationalist on social media, has suddenly gone quiet. Some think one of his posts praising Beijing may have backfired.
Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro and the rest of his government were confident of winning the election. Then their supporters rebelled.
Ukraine: Toretsk, a city in the Donetsk region, is now on the front line of the war with Russia.
U.S.: Georgia and the Carolinas declared states of emergency and warned residents to prepare for catastrophic flooding from Tropical Storm Debby.
Iran: Weeks after electing a reformist leader, the authorities executed a man who was arrested during protests in 2022.
Health: Men still have more orgasms than women during sex, a new study found.
David Lynch: The director said that he had emphysema, but that he would not retire.

Olympics

Sophia Smith wears red shorts and a white shirt. She kicks a soccer ball on the green field. Another player run behind her.

The U.S. forward Sophia Smith, left, and Germany’s midfielder, Klara Buehl. Arnaud Finistre/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Women’s soccer: The U.S. defeated Germany in the semifinal, and will play Spain or Brazil on Saturday.
Pole vault: Armand Duplantis, better known as Mondo, set a world record and won his second straight Olympic gold medal.
Men’s basketball: Serbia knocked Australia out of medal contention.

MORNING READ

An animated GIF of a person in black sweatpants and a gray sweatshirt breaking.

Noah Throop and Emily Rhyne/The New York Times

More than 50 years since it first appeared, breaking will debut as an Olympic sport in Paris. It’s a watershed moment for the dance form, invented by Black and Hispanic youth in the Bronx. But it no longer belongs solely to New York City. Breakers representing Japan, Lithuania, Morocco and more will vie for gold and glory.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Break the bank: An artist broke into a bank (with permission). Then he rented it for $1 a month and turned it into sort of an art-centric community center.
Style: What’s with men wearing baseball hats everywhere? Our fashion critic explains.
A brighter outlook: A U.S. survey found promising signs that sadness among teens, especially girls, seems to have improved since the depths of the pandemic.

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

ARTS AND IDEAS

The skyline of a city is seen in the haze, surrounded by lush mountains.

Jecheon, South Korea. Jun Michael Park for The New York Times

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. Other cities have tried offering money to entice newlyweds or free housing to parents of school-age children.

Kim Chang-gyu, the mayor 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 South Korea, which has only reluctantly taken in limited numbers of migrant workers.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A pot of chicken with sauce and bay leaves.

Christopher Testani for The New York Times.

Cook: Our version of chicken adobo has a mouthwatering sauce with an irresistible tang.

Travel: Southern Sardinia is wild, beautiful and often overlooked.

Read: “The Missing Thread” delves into ancient history through the lives of women.

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

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

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