July 30, 2024

Good morning. We’re covering the U.S. presidential campaign and Nicolás Maduro’s claim of an election victory in Venezuela.

Plus, the math of Olympic swimming.

Kamala Harris said that she would select a running mate by Aug. 7. Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Less than 100 days to go

The U.S. presidential election has been transformed by the events of the last few weeks. From now until Election Day on Nov. 5, we’ll keep you up to speed with contributions from Times journalists covering the biggest news.

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Campaign songs for Nicolás Maduro were played near the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sunday night. Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times

Maduro is declared the winner of Venezuela’s tainted election

With 80 percent of voting stations counted, Venezuela’s election authority claimed that Nicolás Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader, had received 51.2 percent of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election, while the main opposition candidate, Edmundo González, had received 44.2 percent.

Maduro’s government has invented election results before, and the vote was riddled with irregularities. Some officials refused to release printouts verifying the electronic vote count, leaving the country without a way to confirm the result announced by the ruling party.

Reactions: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president and a longtime leader within Latin America’s leftist movement, released a cautious statement that did not salute the president on his win. Colombia, led by Gustavo Petro, a former leftist militant, did not congratulate Maduro and instead called for the tallies to be released. Chile’s leftist leader, Gabriel Boric, said people were right to be skeptical. The U.S. raised serious concerns.

Residents gathered on Sunday at the soccer field in Majdal Shams that was hit by a rocket from Lebanon. Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times

Israel moved to retaliate after an attack from Lebanon

Israel’s security cabinet authorized its leaders to decide on the nature and the timing of a military response to a deadly rocket attack from Lebanon on Saturday, which killed 12 children and teenagers in a Druse Arab village in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

“Our response is coming, and it will be severe,” Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said yesterday.

Israeli analysts said Hezbollah had most likely been aiming at a nearby army base and had not intentionally targeted the village, but its use of inaccurate rockets in an area dotted with civilian communities had led to the kind of unintended consequence that risks all-out war.