First Thing: Democrats rush for new strategy as Kamala Harris emerges as party favorite

Endorsements for Harris have flooded in after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential re-election race and endorsed the vice-president to be the Democrats’ candidate. Plus, a drug that could extend women’s fertility by five years

Good morning.

Joe Biden has withdrawn from the presidential re-election race and endorsed Kamala Harris, the vice-president, to be the Democrats’ candidate after he faced mounting pressure to drop out.

Harris has confirmed she will run. “I am honored to have the president’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”

Donations from small individual donors piled in after the announcement, with more than $46.7m donated on ActBlue in the first five hours, the fundraising platform said. Sources said that Donald Trump’s campaign was rushing to reposition itself against Harris with attack ads on her record in office and her past as a California prosecutor.

Does she have competition? No coordinated opposition has so far transpired against Harris, with most of the figures who are considered to be possible candidates saying they endorsed her or would not run themselves – though Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator who left the Democrats to become an independent this year, is reportedly considering returning to the party so he can run.

Who could join her on the ticket? Some of the names being talked about include the Arizona senator Mark Kelly and the governors of Kentucky (Andy Beshear), Pennsylvania (Josh Shapiro) and North Carolina (Roy Cooper).

Drug could extend women’s fertility by five years, study suggests

A drug that could lengthen women’s fertility window by five years is safe for a young, healthy population, according to the early results of a study, with researchers describing it as “a dream come true”.

The study has tested whether the immunosuppressant rapamycin can slow ovaries’ ageing, which as well as extending fertility, would delay menopause and reduce the risk of age-related diseases, in turn helping patients to live longer in better health.

The study’s co-leader, Prof Yousin Suh of Columbia University, said the early results suggested the drug could realistically cut ovary ageing by 20%, without patients experiencing the immunosuppressant’s side-effects.

How many participants are taking part in the study? It now has 34 participants aged up to 35, but will eventually include more than 1,000 women.

How significant could this be? Very – it’s the first study to try to slow down ovarian ageing; so far, research has only looked at menopause symptoms.

Child safety experts accuse Apple of failing to report sexual images of children

Apple is failing to check for images and videos of child sexual abuse, child safety experts have alleged, increasing concerns about how it will be able to handle the predicted rise in such content associated with advances in artificial intelligence.

The gap between the number of suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM) cases reported by Apple and other companies on their platforms to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is stark. In 2023, Apple made just 267 reports, while Google reported more than 1.47m and Meta more than 30.6m.

In late 2022 Apple ditched its plan to roll out a tool that would have scanned images before they were uploaded to iCloud, comparing them against a database of known child abuse imagery. It was dropped after pushback by digital rights groups.

How common is AI-generated CSAM? We only have a partial picture, but one study found 12,000 new AI-generated child sexual abuse images posted on one dark web forum in a single month.

In other news …

Women in the city of Omdurman have said they are being forced to have sex with Sudanese army soldiers in return for food as more than half the country faces high levels of “acute food insecurity” amid its civil war.

Two exiled Hong Kong democracy activists have been locked out of their pensions, depriving them of access to tens of thousands of US dollars, as Hong Kong’s national security law allows the authorities to freeze the assets of anyone charged with violating it.

A 24-year-old woman accused of targeting a young mother in a fatal hit-and-run attack in Brisbane has been remanded in custody after police charged her with murder.

Stat of the day: Most new HIV infections occurred outside sub-Saharan Africa ‘for first time’

Last year was the first time the majority of new HIV infections were recorded in countries outside sub-Saharan Africa, a UNAids report said. The number of infections in sub-Saharan Africa has fallen by 56% since 2010, compared with 39% globally over the same period.

Don’t miss this: the musicians preserving Afghan music in Portugal

When the Taliban seized power in August 2021, the future of the country’s young musicians looked bleak. Fearing the worst, Ahmad Sarmast, the director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, pleaded for help from politicians around the world, but only one country immediately responded. It resulted in 273 musicians, instructors and staff being evacuated to Portugal, 4,000 miles away. Three years on, amid the Taliban’s ban on music, the group is working to preserve Afghan music.

Climate check: half of tree species in world’s biggest botanical collection at risk of death due to climate crisis

Half of the tree species in Kew’s Royal Botanical Gardens in London – home to the world’s largest botanical collection – are at risk of death because of the climate crisis, a study has found. The researchers found that more than 50% of Kew’s tree species could be vulnerable by 2090.

Last Thing: Kamala IS Brat, says Charli xcx

As Joe Biden struggled to cling on to his US presidential candidacy and the vice-president, Kamala Harris, was increasingly seen as his successor, a viral video was making the rounds, sometimes with music from the album of the summer – Charli xcx’s Brat – laid over it. I’m talking, of course, about Harris’s “You think you just fell out a coconut tree?” moment. If you have no idea what I’m on about, this handy explainer is for you.

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