Thursday Briefing: Why Biden quit the race

"I revere this office, but I love my country more."

View in browser|nytimes.com July 25, 2024 By Natasha Frost Good morning. We're covering speeches by President Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, and Paris's Olympic preparations. Plus: Singapore's lab-grown meat. "Nothing — nothing — can come in the way of saving our democracy," President Biden said from the Oval Office. "That includes personal ambition." Pete Marovich for The New York Times Why Biden stepped down In a brief prime-time address from the Oval Office, President Biden said he had abandoned his re-election bid despite believing that his record and his leadership merited a second term. He declared that it was time for "new voices, fresh voices — yes, younger voices" led by a new generation of leadership in America. "I revere this office, but I love my country more," he said in his first speech since passing the torch to Kamala Harris, now the Democrats' presumptive nominee. "Nothing — nothing — can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition." Biden did not directly address the concerns about his age and his health that led him to quit the race. Instead, he pledged to keep working on foreign and domestic policy, seeking to advance his agenda for the next 180 days, even as a lame-duck president. Donald Trump: The former president described Harris as a "radical-left lunatic" who would destroy the country, called her "Lyin' Kamala" and repeatedly mispronounced her first name. Harris campaign: The vice president continued an energetic sprint around the country, saying that Trump wanted to return America to a "dark past." Here's a timeline of how she locked down her party's nomination in just 48 hours. Trump assassination attempt: The F.B.I. director said the gunman had researched John F. Kennedy's assassination and flown a drone near the Trump rally site before the shooting. In his speech, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Israel's war in Gaza as part of a larger conflict between Iran and the U.S. Kenny Holston/The New York Times Netanyahu addresses Congress In Washington yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a full-throated defense of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and angrily pushed back on criticism of its conduct of the war, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. "We're not only protecting ourselves," he said in an hourlong address, "we're protecting you." Netanyahu, who described the war as part of a larger conflict between Iran and the U.S., did not discuss the status of cease-fire talks with Hamas that have been underway for weeks. Here are six takeaways from the speech. The war has eroded a longstanding bipartisan consensus to back Israel in Congress. Dozens of Democratic members boycotted the speech, and the standing ovations Netanyahu received were mostly partisan. Republicans applauded loudly, and Democrats hung back. Outside: More than 5,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators massed near the Capitol, some wearing Palestinian kaffiyehs, chanting for the U.S. to stop arming Israel and calling Netanyahu a "war criminal" and the "prime minister of genocide." Related: Britain's new government is likely to withdraw objections to the International Criminal Court prosecutor's pursuit of a warrant for Netanyahu's arrest, edging away from the stance of the U.S., its closest ally. The Summer Games' opening ceremony will take place on the Seine, not in a stadium. Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times Paris is transformed for the Olympics The heart of Paris has fallen silent in preparation for the 2024 Summer Games' opening ceremony tomorrow. The ceremony, the first ever held outside the secure confines of a stadium, will float through the city on the Seine. It will depict 12 scenes from French history, intermingled with a parade of 10,000 athletes in boats. The city's security measures have thinned tourist crowds to a trickle and hurt businesses. Eleven million visitors are expected, down from earlier predictions of 15 million. For more: "A city that has seen it all." Let Roger Cohen, our Paris bureau chief, take you on a tour. In other news from the Games: The tennis star Coco Gauff will be the flag-bearer for Team USA. France has promised an unusually heavy blanket of security for Israeli athletes. In its first test, it pulled out all the stops. Jannik Sinner, the world's top-ranked male tennis player, has withdrawn from the Games with tonsillitis. Salt Lake City will host the Winter Games in 2034. MORE TOP NEWS Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times Italy: The authorities in Sicily are working to save the tourism season from one of the region's worst droughts in decades. Ukraine: The country's top diplomat met with China's foreign minister yesterday, a sign of Kyiv's increased willingness to seek a diplomatic solution to the war. Media: Rupert Murdoch is locked in a secret legal battle with three of his children as he tries to preserve a conservative editorial bent in his media empire. Climate: Sunday was the hottest day recorded on Earth — until Monday. Cold cases: Nashville reopened investigations into three unsolved bombings during the civil rights era after a local author identified possible suspects. Germany: The authorities banned the Islamic Center Hamburg, accusing it of supporting Hezbollah and acting as a front for Iran. New Zealand: A commission of inquiry estimated that more than 200,000 people had been abused while under the care of state and religious organizations from 1950 to 2019. Royals: Profits from the Crown Estate, which oversees the British royal family's land and property holdings, doubled as a result of deals with offshore wind power producers. News From Asia Taiwan: Typhoon Gaemi made landfall after killing at least six people in the region. Nepal: A plane crashed while taking off from an airport in Kathmandu, killing 18 people. North Korea: Balloons loaded with trash and launched across the border hit a symbolically significant target: the South Korean president's office. SPORTS NEWS Soccer: During his 25 years as commissioner, Don Garber has helped Major League Soccer thrive in the U.S. Golf: Could Xander Schauffele be chosen as PGA Tour player of the year over Scottie Scheffler? MORNING READ Ore Huiying for The New York Times Huber's Butchery in Singapore is different from other butchers: The meat it sells is grown in a lab. The city-state, which has very little land to farm and imports 90 percent of its food, has become a world leader in "cultivated meat." Its success could have global significance. Lives lived: John Mayall, the pioneering British blues musician, died on Monday at 90. CONVERSATION STARTERS Cooking with Kamala: No candidate this close to the White House has ever had the kitchen skills of the Democrats' presumptive nominee. Cocaine sharks: Researchers discovered traces of the drug in 13 sharks from waters off Rio de Janeiro. Grandma's pasta: A company in a small town outside Rome enlisted real nonnas to teach people to make fettuccine and ravioli by hand. Cash or check: Why paper checks refuse to die. ARTS AND IDEAS Netflix A pandemic series about haves and have-nots Set against the background of the Black Death, "The Decameron," a new Netflix series loosely based on a 14-century book by Giovanni Boccaccio, is a comedy about a group of nobles who try to escape the plague by taking refuge in a villa, some with their servants. Kathleen Jordan, the showrunner, was inspired by the coronavirus pandemic — particularly by various instances of "tone deafness in celebrity culture," she said. At the time, some starlets in multimillion-dollar mansions said they felt like they were in prison, while frontline emergency workers struggled to save lives. The resulting show is a soapy tale of romance and intrigue that delivers edge-of-your-seat plot twists with a dark sense of humor. Read more about the series. We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. RECOMMENDATIONS Johnny Miller for The New York Times Bake: A press-in graham cracker crust makes this peaches and cream pie stand out. Compete: These video games let you experience Olympic glory without all the sweating. Watch: A rarely seen David Bowie rom-com is getting a refresh. Read: "The Secret Lives of Numbers" highlights overlooked contributions to mathematics. Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today's Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here. That's it for today's briefing. See you tomorrow. — Natasha P.S. Melissa Hoppert will be the next editor of The Times's Express desk, which handles breaking news. Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Morning Briefing: Europe Edition from The New York Times. To stop receiving Morning Briefing: Europe Edition, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018