Elections

There’s a dollop of good news for Democrats from the British and French elections, but it’s bad news for President Biden.The basic lesson is that liberals can win elections but perhaps not as incumbents. The election results abroad strike me as one more reason for Biden to perform the ultimate act of statesmanship and withdraw from the presidential race.The U.K. elections on July 4 resulted in a landslide for the Labour Party, ending the Conservative Party’s 14 years in power. Keir Starmer, the new Labour prime minister, achieved this result in part by moving to the center and even criticizing the Conservatives for being too lax on immigration. He projected quiet competence, promising in his first speech as Britain’s leader to end “the era of noisy performance.”But mostly, British voters supported Labour simply because they’re sick of Conservatives mucking up the government. The two main reasons voters backed Labour, according to one poll, were “to get the Tories out” and “the country needs a change.” A mere 5 percent said they backed Labour candidates because they “agree with their policies.”British voters were unhappy with Conservatives for some of the same reasons many Americans are unhappy with Biden. Prices are too high. Inequality is too great. Immigration seems unchecked. Officeholders are perceived as out of touch and beholden to elites. This sourness toward incumbents is seen throughout the industrialized world, from Canada to the Netherlands and Japan.Frustration with incumbents was also a theme in the French election, where President Emmanuel Macron made a bet similar to the one that Biden is making — that voters would come to their senses and support him over his rivals. Macron basically lost that bet, although the final result wasn’t as catastrophic as it might have been.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

Henry Hoke’s 2023 novel, “Open Throat,” narrated by an animal in peril in the Hollywood Hills, is adapted for a staged reading.The concept behind Henry Hoke’s 2023 novel, “Open Throat,” is an eyebrow-raising one: It’s a story about overdevelopment and climate change narrated by a mountain lion who muses on the lives of hikers and loved ones.Hoke was loosely inspired by the mountain lion known as P-22 whose regular sightings in the hills surrounding Los Angeles’s Hollywood sign, successful crossing of two freeways and eventual death captured the public’s attention in 2022. In “Open Throat,” according to the book’s publisher, the animal identifies as queer, and uses they and them pronouns.The book is “what fiction should be,” the novelist Marie-Helene Bertino wrote in her review for The New York Times, and it made several end-of-year best-of lists and awards shortlists.With an internal monologue that has poetically broken stanzas and a fluid sense of time and reality, “Open Throat” does not immediately call for theatrical adaptation. Yet a staged version of the work is premiering Wednesday as part of Little Island’s ambitious summer series of live performances at its outdoor amphitheater.The narration is divided among three performers, including Chris Perfetti, who is holding the book, and Calvin Leon Smith. “I think the beauty of it, and the reason we’re intentionally having three different voices, is making it universal,” Perfetti said.Jeenah Moon for The New York Times“It reads beautifully,” Zack Winokur, Little Island’s producing artistic director, said of the book. “The way it’s placed on the page is visually interesting. The way the voice exists is not like anything else. I kept thinking that it being so voice-driven would make an amazing show, and I didn’t know how to do it, which is the greatest thing in the world.”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

I’m a lifelong Democrat; I make no apologies for that. I’m proud of what my party represents and what it stands for. As part of my participation in the democratic process and in support of my chosen candidate, I have led some of the biggest fund-raisers in my party’s history. Barack Obama in 2012. Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joe Biden in 2020. Last month I co-hosted the single largest fund-raiser supporting any Democratic candidate ever, for President Biden’s re-election. I say all of this only to express how much I believe in this process and how profound I think this moment is.I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.Is it fair to point these things out? It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.We love to talk about how the Republican Party has ceded all power, and all of the traits that made it so formidable with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, to a single person who seeks to hold on to the presidency, and yet most of our members of Congress are opting to wait and see if the dam breaks. But the dam has broken. We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth.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

The ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos apologized on Tuesday night after he was surreptitiously recorded earlier in the day saying he did not believe that President Biden could handle another term in office.His remarks — made in passing to a stranger who approached him on the street — came four days after Mr. Stephanopoulos conducted the only major interview with Mr. Biden since the president’s stumbling debate performance.In a grainy video posted by the gossip site TMZ, Mr. Stephanopoulos can be seen in workout clothes walking on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan. An unseen stranger walks up to the anchor but keeps his phone camera angled away; Mr. Stephanopoulos was presumably unaware that the person was recording him.“Do you think Biden should step down?” the stranger asks. “You’ve talked to him more than anybody else has lately.”“I don’t think he can serve four more years,” Mr. Stephanopoulos replies.News anchors and reporters typically avoid voicing their opinions about the topics and people they cover. Mr. Stephanopoulos addressed his remarks hours later. “Earlier today, I responded to a question from a passerby. I shouldn’t have,” he said in a statement.ABC also issued a statement about the incident. “George expressed his own point of view and not the position of ABC News,” the network said.During Mr. Stephanopoulos’s prime-time interview with Mr. Biden, which was seen by 8.5 million people, the anchor respectfully but firmly challenged the president about whether he was being honest with himself about his health.Mr. Stephanopoulos is one of very few people outside of Mr. Biden’s immediate inner circle who has spent extended time with the president since the debate. The anchor received praise for his handling of the interview, which focused on intimate matters of aging and health. More

The network’s C.E.O., Mark Thompson, has promised a more robust digital strategy as people flee traditional cable packages.CNN’s top leader announced 100 job cuts on Wednesday as well as a digital strategy that would include a new subscription-only digital offering by the end of the year.The company is laying off around 100 people, or about 3 percent of its work force. The layoffs would come “across the company,” Mark Thompson, the network’s chairman, said in a memo to employees. CNN last had significant layoffs in late 2022.Mr. Thompson announced the job cuts as the company began to unveil steps on a digital plan that he said would help the network “regain a leadership position in the news experiences of the future.”Mr. Thompson, the former chief executive of The New York Times and a senior leader at the BBC, has been in charge of CNN since October 2023. He has promised a more robust digital strategy as people flee traditional cable packages in favor of streaming entertainment.CNN’s ratings have plummeted over the last two years, more so than those of its primary competitors, Fox News and MSNBC. Additionally, CNN’s parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, has an enormous debt load, and its share price has fallen sharply this year.CNN got a recent shot in the arm when it organized and broadcast the first presidential debate in late June, an event that continued to set off alarm bells within the Democratic Party about the future of President Biden’s campaign. CNN made the debate available for other outlets to broadcast, and it drew more than 50 million viewers overall. About 9.5 million of those watched on CNN.As part of the announcement on Wednesday, Mr. Thompson said CNN.com’s “first subscription product” would debut later this year. He also said the company would create “a growing stable of ‘news you can use’ offerings” in lifestyle coverage. Additionally, he said the company would make a push into artificial intelligence.Mr. Thompson laid out a reorganization that would include merging three separate newsrooms (U.S. news gathering, international news gathering and digital news) under one leader, Virginia Moseley. And on the prime-time television front, he has directed deputies to “increase audience competitiveness and also keep a close eye on production costs.”“Turning a great news organization toward the future is not a one-day affair,” Mr. Thompson wrote in a memo to employees. “It happens in stages and over time. Today’s announcements do not answer every question or seek to solve every challenge we face. However, they do represent a significant step forward.” More

The women died at the scene near London on Tuesday, the police said. The BBC identified the victims as the wife and children of one of its commentators. The authorities in England were hunting on Wednesday for a man who was suspected of killing three women the previous night with a crossbow and possibly other weapons in a small, leafy town north of London, according to Hertfordshire Police.The police said they arrived at the scene just before 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday and found three women with serious injuries. The victims, aged 25, 28 and 61, died shortly afterward at the scene.The BBC reported that the victims were the wife and two daughters of one of its horse-racing commentators. “As we’ve just reported, the three women killed in a crossbow attack in Bushey, near Watford, are Carol Hunt, the wife of the BBC commentator John Hunt, and two of their daughters,” the broadcaster wrote.The police were searching for Kyle Clifford, 26, they said, warning people that “he may be in possession of a crossbow, do not approach.” It was not immediately clear on Wednesday what the relation was between Mr. Clifford and the three women.The police said Mr. Clifford could be in Bushey, the town where the crime happened, or in nearby North London. They had deployed armed officers and specialized search teams across both areas.“Our overarching objective today is to protect public safety and to locate Kyle Clifford,” Chief Superintendent Jon Simpson of Hertfordshire Police said during a news conference, adding that the police believed the murders were a “targeted incident.”Mr. Simpson said that the man had probably used a crossbow in the killings, but that other weapons might also have been used.Mr. Simpson also addressed Mr. Clifford directly during the news conference: “Kyle, if you are seeing or hearing this, please make contact with the police.”For the residents of the quiet corner of England, the killings came as a big shock. A local councilman, Laurence Brass, told the BBC that it was a traumatizing event. “The most dramatic thing that has ever happened here is a bit of illegal fly-tipping,” he said. “And suddenly we are told there are three murders.” More

We are honoring the Top 9 winners of our Student Open Letter Contest by publishing their entries. This one is by Casey Goldstein, age 17.This letter, by Casey Goldstein, 17, of Byram Hills High School in Armonk, N.Y., is one of the Top 9 winners of The Learning Network’s Student Open Letter Contest, for which we received 8,065 entries. You can find the work of all the winners, as we publish them, here.Dear New York State Senators, Let me make myself clear that I did not want hearing aids. “Social suicide,” as my sister described it. Arriving at school with new glasses hails compliments from friends or teachers, but when you come to school with new hearing aids, the best compliment is none. You hope no one notices them and even grow out your hair for full coverage. When I found out that I needed hearing aids during my junior year of high school, I simply refused. But, in the following weeks, I began to notice how many times I said “What?” in conversations, how many frustrated friends stared back at me for interrupting the story yet again. I became aware of the missed lunchtime drama that unfolded in muted discourse around me as I retreated inside my head with only pieces of conversations I understood. I was excluded, a non-participatory, lonely friend adapting to a fragmented life. I became aware that hearing aids were no longer an option I could refuse. That’s when I learned that to most insurance companies, hearing aids are an option they can refuse, and they do. The same device with the power to reorganize brain pathways that have been altered due to hearing loss is deemed as not medically necessary, considered equal to cosmetic surgeries. No state mandates in New York require non-Medicaid insurance support for hearing aids. Why, then, are there over 25 other states that mandate specific coverage for hearing aids, whether for a certain age or amount of coverage, while New York has nothing? There was a glimmer of hope on Oct. 17, 2022, when the F.D.A. introduced cheaper over-the-counter hearing aids, yet they were not made for children and are even potentially harmful to them. That means, currently, anyone under the age of 18 living in New York has no other option; their family needs to muster up thousands of dollars for hearing aids, or they try to get through their 18 years without the device essential for learning and development. There is currently a bill in the New York State Senate Committee that “requires all insurance policies to provide coverage for medically necessary hearing aids for children less than 18 years of age.” I implore you, as a child who has experienced firsthand the transformative power of hearing aids, that you support this bill and its respective fight unequivocally. In a world full of high social anxiety, there is no reason why any child should feel further socially isolated or inferior in intelligence simply because they are denied the fundamental right to hear. I was there, and hearing aids changed my life. Now, I ask that you let them change the lives of all the others. Sincerely, Casey GoldsteinWe 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

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker, suggested on Wednesday that President Biden should reconsider his decision to remain in the presidential race, the strongest public push yet from a senior member of his party for him to weigh dropping out.Despite mounting concerns that his candidacy could cost Democrats not only the White House but both chambers of Congress, Mr. Biden has been unequivocal about his intention to seek a second term, telling members of Congress in a letter on Monday that his mind is made up and “I’m firmly committed to staying in this race.” On Wednesday, Ms. Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the president should continue to weigh his options.“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” she said. “We’re all encouraging him to to make that decision. Because time is running short.”When pressed on whether she wanted him to seek re-election, Ms. Pelosi said: “I want him to do whatever he decides to do. And that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with.”Ms. Pelosi said she wanted to delay the conversations about Mr. Biden’s future until after the NATO summit he is hosting this week in Washington, which on Thursday will include the president’s first news conference since his disastrous debate performance that raised questions about his mental acuity and fitness to remain in the race.“Let’s just hold off,” she said. “Whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”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