Elections

Ms. TerBlanche played Gillian Andrassy, a Hungarian princess whose story line was beloved by fans.Esta TerBlanche, a South African actress best known for her role on “All My Children,” died on Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 51.Her death was confirmed by her publicist, Lisa Rodrigo. An autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner was pending, Ms. Rodrigo said.The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner did not immediately respond to requests for comment.From 1997 to 2001, Ms. TerBlanche played Gillian Andrassy, a Hungarian princess who is sent to live with her cousin. Her enemies-to-lovers story line with Ryan Lavery, played by Cameron Mathison, was popular at the time.Esta TerBlanche was born on Jan. 7, 1973, in Rustenburg, South Africa.She began her career at 16 years old as the host of a television show for children called “K-T.V.” and a math show called “Math No Problem,” she said in an interview in April on the podcast “Conversations With Nicole.” In 1991, she was crowned Miss Teen South Africa.Ms. TerBlanche landed a recurring role as Bienke Naudé Hartman on South Africa’s longest-running soap opera, “Egoli: Place of Gold,” about three families in Johannesburg that are steeped in drama, sex, scandal and intrigue, according to News24 in South Africa.She moved to the United States when she was 23 to pursue acting. In the podcast interview, she recalled arriving at Los Angeles International Airport with two suitcases and a stomach full of fear and doubt, wondering whether she should go home.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Powerful leaders of the Democratic establishment quickly embraced Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday after President Biden’s shocking exit from the race, hoping that a seamless succession could end a month of damaging chaos and transform a contest widely believed to be tipping toward Republicans.By Sunday evening, Ms. Harris appeared to have a glide path to the nomination: No other top Democrats announced plans to challenge her, though some stopped short of an endorsement, including the party’s top congressional leaders and former President Barack Obama.With breathtaking speed, she took control of Mr. Biden’s enormous political operation and contacted Democratic leaders in Congress and state houses to ask for their support. The Biden campaign formally renamed itself “Harris for President,” giving her immediate access to an account that had $96 million in cash at the end of June. On an internal call, the Biden campaign’s leaders told staff members that they would now work for Ms. Harris.“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Ms. Harris said in a statement. “We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”The rapid turn of events plunged the party and the nation into unfamiliar political territory, giving unelected Democratic officials the final say over the party’s nominee. Complicated decisions loom. Ms. Harris must choose a running mate, take charge of the campaign with little time before early voting begins in some states in September, rebuild support among voters who had fled Mr. Biden and prepare to withstand a full-blown Republican assault.Speculation immediately turned to her potential running mate, with many Democrats privately arguing that Ms. Harris should pick a white man to widen her appeal and provide demographic balance to the ticket. A flotilla of governors — including Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota — as well as Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona have been frequently mentioned by donors, officials and other lawmakers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Rhaenyra sends a gift to the small folk. There may be some strings attached.Season 2, Episode 6The hug lasts 45 seconds before they kiss. Yes, I counted. In the terms of that episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” where Larry hugs Auntie Rae for a little too long, it’s nine “five Mississippi”s. And like any long, drawn-out take on this densely packed show, it stops everything in its tracks.For three quarters of a minute, we watch empathy, respect, gratitude, warmth, heat, curiosity, desire and, finally, passion all play out in the silent embrace between Queen Rhaenyra and her friend and counselor Mysaria. For the first time in their lives, each of these two very different people has found somebody she sees as an equal, and who sees her as an equal in turn, and the thought quickly goes from comforting to intoxicating. Dragons are flying, men are burning, reigns are teetering, but for as long as that embrace lasts, the world of “House of the Dragon” exists between these two women’s arms.But this week’s episode of “Dragon” specialized in all kinds of people getting the things they want and need — or trying to, anyway — in all kinds of ways. Rhaenyra and Mysaria’s interrupted clinch was just one example.In King’s Landing, the acting regent prince, Aemond, is throwing his weight around. He boots his mother from his small council, and rejects Lord Larys Strong for the position of hand in favor of his cunning but loyal grandfather, Otto Hightower. He then sends Ser Criston — the man who knows he tried to murder his brother, King Aegon — off to root Daemon out of the hotly contested Riverlands, with his uncle Ser Gwayne Hightower in tow. The two men look as if they still haven’t washed off all the ash from their previous encounter with a hostile dragon, and this time Aemond is playing coy about when, or even if, he’ll fly out to protect them.Aemond saves his harshest cruelties for his big brother the king, whom he torments in his sickbed, the threat of murder hanging thick in the air. “I remember nothing,” the barely conscious Aegon repeatedly croaks, clearly scared for his life. Fortunately for Aegon, though, someone else recognizes what’s going on: the Clubfoot, Larys Strong.In his most emotionally unguarded moment to date, the cagey Master of Whisperers lays bare the pain and humiliation of a lifetime of being looked down upon because of his physical deformity and disability. This, he says with a tear falling from his eye, is the life Aegon now has to look forward to. But it comes with an upside: He will now be underestimated, and he can use that to his advantage.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Laura Dershewitz’s first solo puzzle is a musical Monday grid.MONDAY PUZZLE — Laura Dershewitz created her first crossword puzzle for The New York Times with Katherine Baicker in March. Now she is back with a solo puzzle just as clever and challenging as her collaborative debut. This crossword has it all: tricky fill, unconventional clues and a satisfying theme to bring it all together.Joel Fagliano, a puzzle editor for The Times, appreciated the puzzle’s musicality. “Musical note themes are tried and true, but the elegance of this one set it apart,” he said. He added that the theme was executed well and had “a pleasing consistency.”Mr. Fagliano complimented Ms. Dershewitz on her use of “clean Monday vocabulary” that made the puzzle feel “lively and fresh.” I couldn’t agree more — this puzzle pleased my beginner’s heart. I solved it without looking anything up and learned new phrases in the process.Today’s ThemeThe circular overlays in this puzzle tip us off to the theme. Let’s look at the corresponding clues: 21A, [Explain something in steps]; 31A, [Acts like one’s true self, colloquially]; and 41A, [Was understated in one’s description]. The answer to 21A is BREAK IT DOWN, 31A is KEEPS IT REAL and 41A is PUT IT MILDLY.What do these answers all have in common? The revealer at 50A suggests it has something to do with “sticky yellow squares” — POST-IT NOTES. We can look to the circled letters to find our next clue. They’re notes on a scale: DO, RE, MI. The notes come after the letters I and T in all of the answers, so they’re literally “post-IT” notes.Tricky Clues16A. To [get one’s story straight?] is to EDIT. I liked this witty take on an idiom that typically means to communicate clearly and accurately. Editing is one way to achieve that.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Democratic voters said they were relieved that President Biden was ending his campaign, but many said they remain worried about the political path ahead.For Democratic voters who have spent much of the summer brooding about President Biden’s fitness for office, his decision on Sunday not to seek re-election came as a relief. Now, they figured, their political party might stand a chance in November — though many still expressed deep doubts.“I’m overjoyed, absolutely overjoyed,” said Mark Oliver Rylance, 67, a Democrat from Columbus, Ohio, said about Mr. Biden’s announcement. Just last weekend, Mr. Rylance participated in a demonstration outside of the Ohio Democratic Party convention calling for Mr. Biden to step aside.“If Biden had stayed in, we would have lost absolutely everything,” he added, echoing the feelings of many Democrats. “We would have lost the House, would have lost the Senate, and it could very well have been a landslide.”The delicate subjects of whether Mr. Biden, 81, was fit for another term and how long he might stay in the race after his disastrous debate performance last month had found their way into conversations at dinner parties, neighborhood parks and church gatherings. The end of Mr. Biden’s candidacy on Sunday shifted some Democrats’ emotions from profound anxiety to hopeful determination, even if what comes next for their party remains unclear.There was also plenty of resignation to the idea that no Democrat might be able to pull off a victory against former President Donald J. Trump.Mr. Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the ticket drew quick support from some voters eager to chart a path forward. But, underscoring the party’s tumult, others were certain that Ms. Harris, whose own presidential campaign four years ago fizzled, would face ugly attacks and rejection.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Many of the marquee names in Democratic politics began quickly lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday, but one towering presence in the party was conspicuously and purposefully absent: Barack Obama.The former president has not yet endorsed Ms. Harris; in fact, he did not mention her once in an affectionate — if tautly written — tribute to President Biden that was posted on Medium shortly after he decided to bow out on Sunday.“Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me,” wrote Mr. Obama, who chose Mr. Biden as his running mate in 2008 because he said at the time that he wanted an older, more experienced running mate with “gray in his hair” and limited future presidential ambitions.“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead,” Mr. Obama wrote in the post. “But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”Republicans interpreted that as a snub. But people close to Mr. Obama, who has positioned himself as an impartial elder statesman above intraparty machinations, said not to read too much into it — and had no alternate candidate in mind when he made the decision not to immediately endorse Ms. Harris.Mr. Obama adopted an identical stance four years ago when Mr. Biden’s aides pressured him to endorse early in the Democratic primaries before Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out. (Mr. Obama’s favored phrase back then was “I don’t want to thumb the scale.”) Endorsing too early now would also be a political mistake — fueling criticism that Ms. Harris’s nomination, should it come, was a coronation rather than the best possible consensus under rushed circumstances, they said.Instead, Mr. Obama sees his role as helping to quickly “unite the party once we have a nominee,” a person familiar with his thinking said.But there are other more personal considerations, exacerbating Mr. Obama’s innate caution.Mr. Biden is a deeply prideful man, and he has never fully forgiven Mr. Obama for quietly backing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign, and Mr. Biden still believes he could have beaten former President Donald J. Trump that year if given the chance. Nor was Mr. Biden pleased when Mr. Obama told him that he should consider sitting out 2020, too, people in his circle have said.Mr. Obama wanted Sunday to be about Mr. Biden, a celebration of his accomplishments — and does not feel pressured to act hastily, according to a former White House official who speaks with the former president regularly. More

Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said the bipartisan group of experts would get to the bottom of decisions that allowed a gunman to wound the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania.The homeland security secretary, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, on Sunday announced the members of a panel to conduct an independent review into security failures after a gunman was able to wound former President Donald J. Trump last weekend at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.The Secret Service, which answers to Mr. Mayorkas, is facing criticism for its decisions in planning security for the event, and Republican leaders have called for the agency’s director, Kimberly A. Cheatle, to resign. Mr. Mayorkas’s announcement on Sunday promised that the panel would get to the bottom of what went wrong and what changes the Secret Service should make to protect the country’s leaders.“This independent review will examine what happened and provide actionable recommendations to ensure they carry out their no-fail mission most effectively and to prevent something like this from ever happening again,” Mr. Mayorkas said in a statement.The panel — described by Mr. Mayorkas as bipartisan — that will be conducting the 45-day review will be made up of Janet Napolitano, a former homeland security secretary; Frances Townsend, a former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush; Mark Filip, a former federal judge and a deputy attorney general under Mr. Bush; and David Mitchell, a former secretary of the Delaware Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security. Mr. Mayorkas said he could invite additional experts to join the panel in the coming days.Ms. Cheatle said in a statement on Sunday that she was eager to cooperate with the review.The announcement comes as Mr. Mayorkas is under scrutiny for his handling of the events surrounding the assassination attempt, especially whether he has been able to get adequate answers from Ms. Cheatle. Her tenure grew more tenuous over the weekend after the Secret Service revised public comments that it had not denied requests for additional security for Mr. Trump the past two years.Ms. Cheatle is expected to testify on Monday before the House Oversight Committee and will face a barrage of questions about the Secret Service’s decisions before, during and immediately after the failed assassination on July 13. It is likely to be a pivotal moment in the search for what happened at the campaign rally and how federal law enforcement was unable to protect the former president.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

President Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the Democratic ticket left some Black voters anxiously wondering whether Americans were ready to elect a Black woman to the nation’s highest office.“It’s kind of sad, but I don’t think Harris will do well nationwide,” said Kristy Smith, 42, who is from Atlanta and works in sales.As a Black woman herself, Ms. Smith said she thinks Ms. Harris is entering the race with two strikes against her. “America is just not ready for a woman president — especially not a Black woman president,” she said.“As much as I would love to see Kamala become president, I just don’t think it’s going to happen,” Ms. Smith said, adding that Ms. Harris could lose some voters who were with Mr. Biden until he decided to drop out.Don Johnson, a 65-year-old truck driver from Milwaukee, said he always supports Democrats and generally supports candidates who, like him, are Black. But he has his doubts about whether voters would back Ms. Harris.“Even in 2024, America is not ready for a Black, female president,” he said, adding that he would support Ms. Harris. “I think she’s a pretty good politician but overall it boils down to race and gender. And America is going to hold that against her.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More