Wednesday Briefing: A Look at Harris’s Polling Lead
🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION 2024
The presidential election is less than 70 days away. This is what we’re watching.
A look at Harris’s polling lead
Vice President Kamala Harris has enjoyed an extraordinary month, taking leads in most national and battleground states. Multiple events have allowed her bask in the national spotlight, from her entry into the race to the Democratic National Convention. But will she be able to sustain this political sugar high?
The coming weeks will tell. Voters haven’t cemented their views on Harris, but Donald Trump has struggled to cast her in a negative light. And though Harris hasn’t faced any real roadblocks in her campaign (like obvious missteps, tough news cycles, hard-hitting investigations), “at some point, expect this to change,” my colleague Nate Cohn writes. “It typically does.”
One thing the Harris and Trump campaigns share is their embrace of tariffs as a way to protect American manufacturing and workers, though their approaches vastly differ.
A hostage was rescued in Gaza
Israeli forces rescued an Arab citizen of Israel during an operation in southern Gaza, the Israeli military said. Farhan al-Qadi, 52, is a member of the country’s Bedouin minority and the first Israeli Arab hostage to be rescued alive since the Oct. 7 attacks.
Israeli soldiers and special forces appeared to have found al-Qadi by chance as it was combing through a tunnel network for Hamas fighters, according to two senior officials who spoke anonymously. He was discovered alone and unguarded, in a room roughly 25 yards underground.
Ataa Abu Al-Mudaygham, the former mayor of Rahat, Israel, said al-Qadi had told him he had been held for months in more or less total darkness. “What he described was terrible captivity,” said Al-Mudaygham. “His eyes were still struggling to adjust from seeing the light.”
A top U.S. aide is visiting China
Jake Sullivan arrived in Beijing yesterday for talks aimed at showing that U.S. and China can manage their differences. It will be his fifth meeting with Wang Yi, China’s top foreign policy official, in less than 18 months. There is much to talk about — but probably little on which they will agree.
The U.S. wants to talk about limiting the spread of fentanyl and expanding high-level military contacts, as well as about China’s support of Russia. Both sides plan to bring up Taiwan, and Beijing indicated that it wanted the U.S. to ease its controls on technology exports.
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Love can be found in the most unexpected places, and Shanghai’s older singles are looking in them. Corners of public parks — and, inexplicably, an Ikea cafeteria in the upscale Xuhui district — have become thriving social hubs for the lonely and retired. They are searching for what has become known in China as “twilight love.”
Lives lived: Mariah Carey’s mother, Patricia, and sister, Alison, died on the same day over the weekend, the pop star announced.
Tim Burton revisits ‘Beetlejuice’
Tim Burton got the band back together — more than thirty years since “Beetlejuice” cemented itself as a cult classic. Now, the principal cast has reunited for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” debuting at the Venice Film Festival today. Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara and Burton assembled from time zones far and wide for a video call with The Times, and looked back at the first film, their ghost comedy’s afterlife and that iconic “Day-O” scene.
“It was like falling back into it, like no time had passed,” Ryder said.