We try harder.
NYT: Takeaways From the First Biden-Trump Presidential Debate
In a testy, personal clash, President Biden failed to ease worries about his age, Donald Trump forcefully made his case (with wild claims and exaggerations) and the moderators held their fact-checking fire.
NYT: Frank Bruni: Biden Cannot Go On Like This
I’m not sure I’d ever watched Donald Trump lie so incessantly, extravagantly and unabashedly, and that’s saying something. On Thursday night he lied about the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He lied about the violence in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. He lied about his relationship with the military, about his concern for the environment — about pretty much any and every subject that came up. He lied with a smile. He lied with a shrug. He lied with a sneer.
That should have been the main, maybe even the only, story of the debate, and it should have made him easy, pitiable prey for his opponent. But President Biden failed to take advantage of it. He seemed — there’s no getting around this — incapable of doing so. And that’s its own big story, one that will only grow over the hours and days ahead.
NYT: How the New York Times Made Its Newest Word Search Game, Strands
As of June 26, Strands has been officially added to the New York Times Games portfolio.
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Strands is also a game that solvers can come back to after their first attempt. “It’s a slightly deeper, longer game than our other ones,” Ms. Bell said.
Updated article.
Guardian: Dozens of Just Stop Oil activists arrested on suspicion of planning to disrupt airports
Twenty-seven Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested on suspicion of planning to disrupt airports this summer, the Metropolitan police have said.
Arrests were made in London, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Essex, Manchester, Surrey, Sussex, Norfolk and West Yorkshire, the force said.
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In a statement, Just Stop Oil said: “Supporters are deeply committed to protecting their families and communities from the tyranny of fossil fuels. If our government refuses to do what is right to protect humanity, then people will step up to do what needs to be done. We refuse to die for fossil fuels and we refuse to stand by while millions are murdered.
“We demand that our government stops the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030 and that they support and finance other countries to make a fast, fair and just transition.”
Protests will eventually, maybe soon, become violent.
NYT: Jonathan Alter: How the Democrats Should Replace Biden
Two weeks ago, a pillar of the Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill told me that if President Biden performed poorly in Thursday night’s debate, Democrats would yank him as a candidate. They simply cannot let him pull down the entire ticket and turn the country over to a would-be dictator.
That fear, as viewers saw on national television, was borne out, and now panicking senior Democrats have a decent shot at prevailing upon the president to withdraw. He should do so gracefully and instruct his delegates to vote for whoever is chosen in Chicago, where the Democratic convention opens on Aug. 19.
CBC: Astronauts to stay on ISS for weeks longer amid probe into Boeing Starliner’s thruster issue
Two NASA astronauts will stay longer at the International Space Station as engineers troubleshoot problems on Boeing’s new space capsule that cropped up on the trip there.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Friday did not set a return date until testing on the ground was complete and said the astronauts were safe.
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As the Starliner closed in on the space station a day after launch, last-minute thruster failures almost derailed the docking. Five of the capsule’s 28 thrusters went down during docking; all but one thruster was restarted.
The Starliner already had one small helium leak when it rocketed into orbit, and several more leaks sprung up during the flight.
Last Updated: 28.Jun.2024 20:45 EDT
