Monday Briefing: A flurry of political activities

Plus, the end of the Olympic Games.

View in browser|nytimes.com August 12, 2024 By Natasha Frost Good morning. We're covering the first week of the Haris-Walz ticket and the end of the Olympic Games. Plus: The juiciest chicken meatballs. 🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024 The presidential election is less than 90 days away. This is what we're watching. Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday. Erin Schaff/The New York Times The Harris-Walz ticket's first week As a remade contest takes shape, the traditional August political doldrums have given way to a flurry of rallies, interviews and public appearances. The summer blitz comes just a week before the Democratic National Convention is set to begin in Chicago, where the newly minted ticket will try to maintain the momentum created by a weeklong introduction to the nation. Both presidential tickets went west over the weekend, with Donald Trump holding a rally in Montana and fund-raisers in Wyoming and Colorado, while Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, held events in the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada before heading to a fund-raiser in San Francisco. Since the first rally for Harris and Walz at the beginning of last week, Democrats have found themselves in a surprising place: on offense. Harris now leads Trump in a national polling average and in a few must-win battleground states, a Times/Siena College poll found. Here are five takeaways from the first week of the Harris-Walz campaign. Biden: In his first interview since ending his campaign, President Biden said it was imperative for the Democratic Party to beat Trump and accused him of being an ally of the Ku Klux Klan. Trump: The former president falsely declared on social media that Harris had used artificial intelligence to create fake images and videos of the large crowds at her rallies. Here's what else to know: The foreign hacking of the campaigns has begun in earnest. This time, it's the Iranians, not the Russians, making the first significant move. The change at the top of the Democratic ticket has scrambled strategies for congressional candidates in both parties. An activist-driven campaign against Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is Jewish and was on the short list to be Harris's running mate, has reignited fears about antisemitism on the left. A small but significant slice of Black men have historically been hesitant to support Black women seeking political power. The numbers could be crucial for a Harris victory. A music festival headlined by Kid Rock, an entertainer who is pro-Trump, offered a snapshot of a maturing American subculture: a hedonistic, beer-guzzling pursuit of happiness. 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 Tom Cruise roared off with the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony. James Hill for The New York Times Closing out the Paris Olympics After more than two weeks of spirited competition, the 2024 Summer Olympics drew to a close last night with a grand and theatrical ceremony at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis that featured hundreds of performers and live music from international pop stars. It offered one last moment for Paris to bask in the joy of the Games. The Olympic flag was then ceremoniously passed to the city hosting the next Summer Games, Los Angeles, via the actor Tom Cruise, who, attached to a cable, soared from the roof and landed among the athletes on the stadium floor. He took the Olympic flag from Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles and the American gymnast Simone Biles and rode away on a motorcycle. The next Winter Games will be held in Italy, in Milan and Cortina, in February 2026. What else to know: Running: Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won what might be the most dramatic and competitive Olympic marathon ever. She earlier won bronze in the 5,000- and 10,000- meter finals. Gymnastics: Jordan Chiles will lose the bronze in the floor exercise. It will instead go to Ana Barbosu of Romania, after a challenge that raised Chiles's score was deemed to have been made four seconds too late. Medal count: The U.S. and China tied with 40 gold medals, while the U.S. won the overall medal count with 126. Here's a full list of the final day's winners. Women's basketball: The U.S. won its eighth consecutive Olympic title with a thrilling one-point victory over France. For more: See our photographers' best pictures from the Games and our favorite moments. Displaced Palestinians fleeing an area of Khan Younis yesterday. Hatem Khaled/Reuters Israel expanded evacuation orders in southern Gaza The Israeli military yesterday ordered civilians to evacuate from part of a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, a city in the southwestern Gaza Strip, saying it was planning to fight in the area because Hamas had "embedded terrorist infrastructure" there. Here's the latest. Israel's military said it was redrawing the border of the humanitarian zone and urged civilians to move to what it said were safe zones. But many people in Gaza say there is nowhere in the enclave that is truly safe. A day earlier, an Israeli strike on a school turned shelter killed more than 90 people, the local authorities said. More than 2,000 displaced people had been staying at the shelter, which the Israeli military said was being used by Hamas and another armed Palestinian group for military operations and attacks on Israel. Kamala Harris, the U.S. vice president, condemned the civilian deaths, telling reporters that "far too many civilians" had been killed in the enclave. On the ground: Dr. Ahmad Yousaf, an American pediatrician who spent three weeks working in one of Gaza's last functioning hospitals, shared a record of what he witnessed, including rare footage from inside Al Aqsa Hospital. MORE TOP NEWS Roman Pilipey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Ukraine: Russia appears to have stalled Kyiv's cross-border incursion. Haiti: A U.N.-backed international security force has calmed parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, so gangs have refocused their terror on the outskirts. Brazil: Officials are investigating why a passenger plane crashed outside São Paulo on Friday, killing all 62 people aboard. Britain: Far-right politicians have successfully exploited economic problems to energize supporters and gain political power — as well as to demonize migrants. Venezuela: The authorities have begun "Operation Knock-Knock," targeting anyone perceived to be challenging the autocratic president's re-election. Technology: Social media posts assailing immigrants have fomented a climate of fear and hatred in Britain, Portugal and other countries. Investigation: China has moved thousands of people to new settlements on its frontiers. It calls such people "border guardians." SPORTS NEWS Soccer: Why Europe's biggest clubs are headed to the U.S. for their preseason. N.F.L.: Caleb Williams demonstrated his playmaking skills in his Chicago Bears debut. MORNING READ Alistair Coombs A researcher at the University of Edinburgh believes he has found the earliest calendar of its kind at Gobekli Tepe, a site in southern Turkey that used to be an ancient complex of temple-like enclosures. The markings on a pillar at the site, he said, may memorialize a cataclysm from 13,000 years ago. Lives lived: Eddie Canales, a human rights advocate who fought to save migrants trekking through harsh terrain of South Texas, died last month at 76. CONVERSATION STARTERS Empty storefronts: San Francisco is among the most devastated cities in the U.S. after the pandemic. It's hoping a free-rent period will lure back businesses. A new media empire: Bari Weiss, the heat-seeking founder of The Free Press, has built her audience by persuading them that she is a teller of dangerous truths. House calls to nomads: Shurentsetseg Ganbold, a health worker in Mongolia, serves a community of seminomadic reindeer herders. ARTS AND IDEAS Alice Ochs/Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty Images The essential Shel Silverstein Shel Silverstein — by turns a Playboy magazine cartoonist; the singer-composer who wrote "A Boy Named Sue"; and a children's book author — was irreverent, absurdist and ahead of his time. The New York Times Book Review compiled a best-of-the-best list by the groovy pied piper who made poetry fun. Here are three standouts. (Read the full list.) The collection "Where the Sidewalk Ends" is "either the ultimate in silliness or the ultimate in good sense," our reviewer writes. "Quite possibly the latter." "Falling Up" has a reasonable claim at having the best pictures of any Silverstein work. The poems are also nothing to sneeze at, but this is the collection to grab if you just want to linger over effortlessly expressive art. And for a surprise, try "Who Wants a Cheap Rhinoceros," which stands out from the rest of the pack. The aesthetics are a little different — a pop of color on its cover and shaky lines inside — and the story has a sweetness you won't find elsewhere in Silverstein's work. 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 Cook: Smother these juicy chicken meatballs in greens. Travel: We talked to frequent travelers about the best ways to handle jet lag. Protect: Avoid online scams. Read: Yoko Ogawa's "Mina's Matchbox" is a novel of family secrets and formative childhood moments. 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 Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. 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