First Thing: Biden re-election campaign to put emphasis on fight for democracy

Biden-Harris camp announces campaign plan that aims to draw sharp contrast between the US president and Donald Trump. Plus, how to get seriously fit from scratch – in 12 easy, enjoyable steps

Good morning.

Ailing in opinion polls, Joe Biden will aim to jump-start his re-election campaign in the coming week with events designed to symbolise the fight for democracy and racial justice against Donald Trump.

The Biden-Harris campaign announced the plans in a conference call with reporters that mentioned Trump by name 28 times in just 24 minutes, a sign of its determination to draw a sharp contrast between the US president and his likely Republican challenger.

On Saturday, Biden will deliver a major address laying out the stakes of the election at Valley Forge, near Philadelphia, the site of a 1777-1778 winter encampment of the Continental Army led by George Washington during the American revolutionary war.

Quentin Fulks, the principal deputy campaign manager, said: “There the president will make the case directly that democracy and freedom – two powerful ideas that united the 13 colonies and that generations throughout our nation’s history have fought and died for a stone’s throw from where he’ll be Saturday – remain central to the fight we’re in today.”

What else is happening in US politics? Donald Trump formally appealed against a decision by Maine’s top election official to remove him from the ballot on Tuesday, asking a superior court to reverse the decision.

Harvard president resigns amid claims of plagiarism and antisemitism backlash

Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University, hasresigned amid pressure over her response to questions about antisemitism at US colleges and allegations that she has plagiarized some of her academic work.

In her resignation letter, Gay announced that she will be returning to her position as a member of the faculty. “As I now return to the faculty, and to the scholarship and teaching that are the lifeblood of what we do, I pledge to continue working alongside you to build the community we all deserve,” she wrote.

Gay’s resignation comes just six months after her presidency began, making hers the shortest tenure in Harvard’s history. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, Gay was appointed the first Black person and the second woman to the lead the Ivy League institution.

What happened when she was questioned about antisemitism? On 5 December, Gay, along with the presidents of MIT and the University of Pennsylvania testified before Congress about their campuses’ handling of accusations of antisemitism, following the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war. All three presidents offered legalistic answers.

What happened after? Following their testimonies, more than 70 US lawmakers signed a letter in response demanding the presidents be removed. The campaign against Gay’s presidency was largely promoted by conservative activists, including those who oppose diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. They argued that Gay was hired not because of her decades of academic work and recognition, but rather because she is Black.

Israeli army ‘prepared for any scenario’ after Beirut strike

The Israeli army has said it is “prepared for any scenario” in the aftermath of a strike in Beirut that killed Hamas’s deputy chief.

The assassination has stoked widespread fears that the nearly three-month-old Israel-Gaza war could become a wider regional conflict.

A high-level security official in Lebanon told AFP that Saleh al-Arouri was killed along with his bodyguards in a strike by Israel. A second security official confirmed the information, while Hamas TV also reported Israel had killed Arouri in Lebanon.

Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari did not directly comment on the killing, but said the military was in “very high state of readiness in all arenas, in defence and offence. We are highly prepared for any scenario.”

What has the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said? A spokesperson for Unifil said the organisation was “deeply concerned” about possible escalation in the region. The spokesperson said: “We are deeply concerned at any potential for escalation that could have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the blue line. We continue to implore all parties cease their fire, and any interlocutors with influence to urge restraint.”

In other news …

A passenger jet that collided with a coastguard plane in a catastrophic accident at Haneda airport in Tokyo had been given permission to land, Japan Airlines executives have said, as police reportedly prepared to investigate whether the crash involved professional negligence.

Japanese rescuers were scrambling to search for survivors as authorities warned of landslides and heavy rain after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 62 people. The 7.5-magnitude quake on Monday that rattled Ishikawa prefecture on the main island of Honshu triggered tsunami waves more than a metre high, sparked a major fire and tore apart roads.

South Korea’s opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung, remained hospitalised in intensive care today, one day after he was stabbed in an attack that shocked the country and launched calls for better protection for politicians. Surgeons operated on Lee for more than two hours to repair a major blood vessel.

The US government cannot enforce federal guidance in Texas requiring emergency room doctors to perform abortions if necessary to stabilize emergency room patients, a federal appeals court ruled, siding with the state in a lawsuit accusing Joe Biden’s administration of overstepping its authority.

Stat of the day: Value of X has fallen 71% since purchase by Musk and name change from Twitter

The social media platform X has lost 71% of its value since it was bought by Elon Musk, according to the mutual fund Fidelity. Fidelity, which owns a stake in X Holdings, said in a disclosure obtained by Axios that it had marked down the value of its shares by 71.5% since Musk’s purchase. Musk acquired Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and renamed the platform X in July 2023. Fidelity’s estimate would place the value of X at about $12.5bn. The number of monthly users of X dropped by 15% in the first year since Musk’s takeover amid concerns over a rise in hate speech on the platform. In September, the European Union issued a warning to Musk after it found that X had the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms.

Don’t miss this: You have one life. Do you really want to spend it looking at your phone?

There are many reasons that we’re tethered to our phones, but the one that I find the most infuriating is that our most time-sucking apps are deliberately designed to hook us – because that’s how their creators make money, writes Catherine Price. These apps are part of what’s known as the “attention economy”, in which it’s our attention (and data about what we are likely to pay attention to) – rather than goods or services – that’s being sold. In this economy, we are not the customers of these apps; advertisers are. We are, essentially, the product, manipulated into giving our most valuable asset – our attention – away for free.

If we recognize that the apps on our phones are designed to be addictive, we can claw back our free time.

… Or this: The strength secret – how to get seriously fit from scratch – in 12 easy, enjoyable steps

Don’t take this the wrong way, writes Zoe Williams, but let’s imagine you are heading into 2024 at fitness ground zero: on to a medium to low baseline, you have heaped a month of doing nothing at all. What can you do to return to fighting form as painlessly as possible? Well, a lot – though, I warn you, it will take time. This 12-month programme starts easily enough, but by December you should have found at least a few activities that really stretch you, or that don’t immediately appeal. Don’t write them off. The best gestalt fitness advice I ever heard came from an Australian tennis coach, who said: “Whatever you’re doing, you need to introduce an activity at which you are not adept.”

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