Monday Briefing: Judge postponed Trump’s sentencing

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September 9, 2024

	By Gaya Gupta

Good morning. We’re covering the delay in Trump’s sentencing and the Venezuelan opposition leader fleeing to Spain.

Plus, measuring the earth’s lungs.

🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION

The presidential election is less than 60 days away. This is what we’re watching.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Doug Mills/The New York Times, Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Trump avoids sentencing before Election Day

The judge who presided over Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan postponed Trump’s sentencing until after Election Day, guaranteeing that the American people will vote without knowing whether Trump, the first former president convicted as a felon, will spend time behind bars. The delay raised a question: Is he above the law?

Despite his legal troubles, Trump has enjoyed remarkably resilient support. A national poll of likely voters conducted by The New York Times and Siena College found Trump narrowly leading Vice President Kamala Harris, 48 percent to 47 percent. The results are in line with polls in the pivotal battleground states, where Harris is tied with Trump or holds slim leads, according to New York Times polling averages.

Your questions:

We’re asking readers what they’d like to know about the election and taking those questions to our reporters. Today, we gave one to Edward Wong, who covers U.S. foreign policy and the State Department.

Europe is watching. How come the candidates don’t talk about the global view on America and the necessity to reconnect to allies? — Yasha Young, Berlin

Edward: The two candidates have very different views on America’s traditional security alliances. If Donald Trump were to be president again, he might not bolster America’s traditional alliances; he could very well weaken them instead. Vice President Kamala Harris has not talked much about foreign policy since becoming the Democratic candidate this summer. But most analysts think she will carry on President Biden’s efforts to strengthen traditional U.S. alliances.

Most American voters do not see foreign policy as a decisive issue or a priority in U.S. elections, unless American troops are directly involved in a disastrous war, so candidates generally do not spend much time talking about U.S. alliances or global affairs. However, we might see journalists ask both Harris and Trump questions about their foreign policy views in the televised debate on Tuesday.

You can send us your questions here.

Here’s what else to know:

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

Law enforcement outside the Argentine ambassador’s residence in Caracas, Venezuela, where six opposition leaders have been sheltering. Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters

Venezuela’s opposition candidate fled the country

Edmundo González, the opposition candidate widely considered the winner of Venezuela’s disputed presidential election last month, fled to Spain on Saturday after voluntarily seeking refuge at the Spanish Embassy in Caracas. He was facing an arrest warrant charging him with conspiracy, usurping power and sabotage, among other things.

The country’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, has faced widespread condemnation for his claim that he won the July election and for the ensuing violent crackdown on demonstrators. Maduro’s security forces have rounded up anyone who appears to doubt his victory declaration, and many Venezuelans are fearful that his forces are crossing borders to go after enemies.

Violence surges in the West Bank

Israeli police near the Allenby Bridge between the West Bank and Jordan on Sunday. Jamal Awwad/EPA, via Shutterstock

A 26-year-old American woman, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and three Israelis were killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank over the past weekend, adding to the rise of violence in the territory.

On Friday, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Turkey, was killed at a protest. In a separate incident, a Palestinian girl in the village of Qaryut, Bana Laboom, was watching violent clashes between Israeli settlers and troops from her window when she was shot, the village’s mayor said. Witnesses and Palestinian officials said Israeli soldiers had fired the shots that killed both.

Yesterday, a gunman killed three Israelis at a sensitive border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank, according to the Israeli military.

Roman Catholic worshipers celebrated Palm Sunday at a church in Dili, East Timor, last year. Antonio Dasiparu/EPA, via Shutterstock

Sports

Aryna Sabalenka celebrated after winning the 2024 U.S. Open women’s singles final. Graham Dickie/The New York Times

A village in Guangdong Province, in China. Phil Behan/VWPics, via Associated Press

In much of rural China, if a woman marries someone outside her village, she becomes a “married-out woman”: Even if she continues to live there, she can lose village-sponsored benefits such as health insurance and other land rights. A growing number of women are now filing lawsuits and petitioning officials to confront this longstanding custom.

Chronicles of lives lived: Robert McFadden, one of the most distinguished bylines at The Times, retired yesterday at 82. Here’s a sampling of his artful obituaries.

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

The Amacayacu parcel in Colombia is one of 30 patches being studied worldwide. Federico Rios for The New York Times

Measuring the earth’s lungs, one tree at a time

Amid the vast emerald expanse of the Amazon, an infinitesimal patch in Colombia spanning less than a tenth of a square mile is a stand-in for the larger whole. Scientists are measuring pretty much every tree in it: 125,000 individual woody plants, from gigantic kapok trees to tightly coiled liana vines.

It is part of a multimillion-dollar effort in dozens of patches across the world aimed at figuring out, to an unprecedented degree of precision, the extent to which forests capture huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the main planet-warming greenhouse gas.

Our reporters spent days with the scientists conducting the Amazon tree census. Read the article here.

Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Lish Steiling.

Cook: You’ll find the perfect bite, known as loghmeh in Persian, in this naan-o paneer-o sabzi, a combination of briny cheese, fresh herbs, walnuts and flatbread.

Listen: Our pop critics’ weekly playlist includes an unreleased live Bob Dylan performance, Linkin Park and more.

Hydrate: Looking for a water bottle you’ll never lose? These five are aesthetically pleasing and functional.

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

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

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

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