The Morning: Biden’s public test - frederick.lapides@gmail.com

July 12, 2024

Good morning. Today, we’re covering President Biden’s press conference, as well as the Book Review’s unveiling of the best books of the 21st century.

A programming note: We’re introducing a new format in today’s newsletter that we expect to use sometimes during periods of intense news. At the top of the newsletter, we will give you a brief summary of the big news — which today is about the presidential campaign. We’ll then turn to a Times colleague who will explain another major story, usually unrelated to politics.

President Biden Doug Mills/The New York Times

Biden’s moment

President Biden looked sharper during his press conference last night than he did in his debate two weeks ago, but he didn’t exactly look sharp. His mixed performance demonstrated why Democrats remain so anxious about his candidacy — and why they have failed to persuade him to step aside.

Taking reporters’ questions for almost an hour after a NATO summit in Washington, Biden offered detailed, complex answers about world affairs, and he talked about both his economic record and his future agenda. He passionately criticized gun violence and Donald Trump. “There’s so much we can do still,” Biden said, “and I’m determined to get it done.”

Yet Biden rarely looked vigorous. He spoke softly and struggled to complete his own thoughts at times. He described the campaign polls in overly rosy ways — and also suggested that people should ignore the polls. Among other mistakes, he described Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.” (Earlier in the day, he incorrectly introduced President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine as “President Putin” before catching himself.)

Biden looks, in short, like an 81-year-old man who isn’t what he once was.

Overall, yesterday’s events — both the press conference and the growing criticism of Biden from other Democrats — seemed to leave the situation largely where it was when the day began. Privately, many top Democrats believe Biden is too weak to win. And my colleague Jonathan Swan reported that Trump’s advisers were “thrilled” with the press conference because they want to run against Biden. Nonetheless, Biden appears committed to remaining on the ballot.

“The president’s first news conference since the debate amounted to a competent presentation, if not a compelling performance,” my colleagues Shane Goldmacher, Lisa Lerer and Reid Epstein wrote. “But it remained in doubt whether it was enough to stop the bleeding of Democratic support that has threatened to hemorrhage.”

More Biden news

Eight more House Democrats called on Biden to step aside yesterday, bringing the total number to 17. See who has spoken publicly.
The Biden campaign is testing Harris’s strength against Trump in a hypothetical poll.
Some longtime Biden advisers, believing he will ultimately need to quit the race, are quietly talking about how to persuade him.
Biden argued that age gave him wisdom and said he would take another neurological exam if his doctors told him he should. Read more takeaways from the press conference.
Late night hosts joked about George Clooney calling for Biden to drop out.

Julia Gartland for The New York Times

Writers’ favorites

By Tina Jordan

I’m the deputy editor of The New York Times Book Review.

My colleagues and I talk constantly about books. We all have opinions about what we love and hate; we all keep lists; we’ve all run out of bookshelf space at home. But as we began debating the best books of this century, we wondered: What does the rest of the book world think? So we messaged novelists, scholars, poets and nonfiction writers, asking them to tell us what they thought the best books published in the U.S. on or after Jan. 1, 2000, were.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when the votes began rolling in. How would people define “best”? Would we see mostly recent books? Would we end up with a list of the usual suspects, very good but very predictable prizewinners?

I was happily surprised. The list is vibrant and eclectic, brimming with gems. I didn’t expect Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s brilliant sociological study Random Family to be on it, but it turns out that, like me, a lot of folks have been thinking about it since it was published in 2003. (LeBlanc spent a decade following two young women in the Bronx, Jessica and Coco; I’ve always wondered what happened to them.)

But nothing delighted me more than finding My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante’s stormy novel of female friendship, at No. 1. Before the results came in, we had speculated that authors of series might not end up on the list at all, since votes might get split among their books. And while this may be the reason you won’t find Karl Ove Knausgaard or J.K. Rowling on the list, other writers — Ferrante, Hilary Mantel and Marilynne Robinson — weren’t affected. Not only did “My Brilliant Friend” end up at No. 1; one of its sequels, The Story of the Lost Child, is No. 80, and a third Ferrante novel, The Days of Abandonment, is No. 92.

Today, we unveiled the complete list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. And — drum roll — we’ve got a stunning Top 5:

5. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen

4. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones

3. Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

2. The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson

1. My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein

The list reflects the collective view of some of the biggest names in publishing. Many have written for us at the Book Review over the years, including Stephen King, Curtis Sittenfeld, Knausgaard and Colson Whitehead, to name just a few. To assemble our poll, we emailed them — and a thousand others — and asked what they thought. Five hundred and three responded, and some of them even agreed to let us run their ballots.

A few interesting things to note about the final list:

Three quarters of the books are fiction — much of it literary fiction, but also science fiction, dystopian fiction, fantasy, historical fiction and story collections.
Only three authors had three books on the list: Ferrante, Jesmyn Ward and George Saunders.
Thirteen of the books are translated.

As the Book Review’s editor, Gilbert Cruz, said to The Times staff, “There’s a book here for everyone, and if you walk away from this list, and do not find something you have read or would like to read, you might be an A.I. bot.”

See the list of the best books of the 21st century.

THE LATEST NEWS

U.S. Economy

Karl Russell

Inflation cooled last month more than economists had forecast, welcome news for Federal Reserve officials who are considering when to cut interest rates.
Biden hailed the inflation data as a “great economic report” and criticized Trump’s pledge to raise tariffs, which could increase prices.
The Biden administration has strengthened I.R.S. enforcement. So far, the change has yielded $1 billion from rich taxpayers who owed money.

NATO and Europe

NATO allies committed more weapons to Ukraine. Still, it won’t be enough for Kyiv to launch a major counteroffensive against Russia until next year, Western officials said.
Trump met with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s right-wing prime minister. Last week, Orban met with Vladimir Putin in Russia.
Russia plotted to assassinate the chief executive of a German company that makes weapons for Ukraine, according to Western intelligence.

Weather

In Las Vegas. Mikayla Whitmore for The New York Times

The Las Vegas area reached 115 degrees for five straight days, a record-setting streak. “It’s like being in front of an exhaust pipe,” one visitor said.
The power is still out for many in Houston after Hurricane Beryl, and people are struggling to get generators.

MORNING READS

In Copenhagen. Jane Beiles for The New York Times

Perks: Copenhagen is offering free museum tours and other benefits to climate-friendly tourists.

Haters: Online creators share their tips for dealing with a harsh comments section.

Narcissism: How to recognize it — and how to deal with the narcissist in your life.

Weather: Some airplane cabins feel like saunas.

Lives Lived: David Liederman’s innovative chocolate chip cookies were studded with irregular pieces of dark Swiss chocolate, and they were an instant hit. His first store opened in 1979, and more than 100 branches of David’s Cookies followed. He died at 75.

SPORTS

Jonas Vingegaard stands up out of his bicycle saddle while racing on an asphalt road against Tadej Pogacar, who is wearing yellow.

Jonas Vingegaard, left, and Tadej Pogacar. Stephane Mahe/Reuters

Tour de France: The race is headed for a brutal stretch of mountains, and for a duel between the world’s two best cyclists.

M.L.B.: The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes continued his dazzling rookie season, throwing seven hitless innings with 11 strikeouts in a win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Tennis: Jasmine Paolini advanced to the Wimbledon final, her second in successive Grand Slams, with a three-set win over Donna Vekic.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Sen Dog and B Real of Cypress Hill, dressed in black, perform with the London Symphony Orchestra on a stage in front of an audience.

In London. Lorne Thomson/Redferns

The London Symphony Orchestra and the stoner rap group Cypress Hill seem like a strange pairing — so strange, in fact, that it was the premise of a joke on “The Simpsons” nearly 30 years ago. But that joke became reality this week, when the two acts performed a joint concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The Times’s Amelia Nierenberg reported that, considering the venue, there were “more neck tattoos and vapes than usual.”

The Morning: Biden’s public test -