Your first month is free in The New York Times app. Download now → Good morning. Votes are still trickling in for one of the biggest primary races of the year, the Democratic contest for a Senate seat in Michigan. We’ll start there.
Still countingA marquee Senate race in Michigan, which Democrats are watching to gauge the strength of a left-wing insurgence that has swept through primary elections this year, remains too close to call this morning. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, leads Representative Haley Stevens by just over one percentage point, with more than 95 percent of votes counted in the state. But the largest share of uncounted votes is in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, where Stevens has held an edge. See live results here. Recent polls had forecast a comfortable victory for El-Sayed, who promised to end U.S. military aid to Israel and attacked Stevens repeatedly for taking at least $30 million from AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group. The race wound up a lot tighter. “We knew this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Stevens told supporters shortly before 1 a.m. Left-wing candidates have won plenty of primaries this year, despite seemingly endless Democratic hand-wringing about their ability to court mainstream voters come November. But their victories have been largely confined to highly educated and heavily blue areas in urban America. El-Sayed wants to break that trend. At least one progressive candidate scored a decisive win last night: Down ballot in Michigan, the left-wing organizer William Lawrence prevailed in one of the most competitive House districts in the country after his two centrist opponents, each refusing to drop out of the race, split the moderate vote. When I interviewed Lawrence over the weekend, he told me it was his priority “to stop these stupid wars around the world that are wasting trillions of our dollars, including for war crimes committed by Israel.” More elections resultsIn Kansas …
In Missouri …
And in Virginia: Democratic primary voters chose former Representative Elaine Luria to face Representative Jen Kiggans, a Republican, in a House race expected to be one of the most competitive in the country this fall. See all of the results from last night’s races.
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Everyone needs a hobby. For Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary biology, it was carnivorous plants. He obsessed over them, studied their features and wrote about them with obvious excitement. He once remarked that he cared more about sundews — plants that lure insects into gluey traps and eat them — “than the origin of all the species in the world.” Can you blame him? I can’t. I love carnivorous plants, too. When I was 10 or 11, I spent months begging my parents for a Venus fly trap. (They wouldn’t budge, so I settled for a mini red cactus I found by the checkout line at Home Depot.) In 1875, Darwin theorized that alpine plants with sticky hairs reminiscent of his beloved sundews, in the genus Saxifraga, could be flesh-eating. He tempted two species with insects but ultimately couldn’t prove they were carnivores. Now, more than 150 years later, scientists have vindicated Darwin’s hypothesis. A team of researchers served tiny flies to a Saxifraga species in China and found that the plants could digest and absorb nutrients from their prey. A botanist at Michigan State University said there could be hundreds, even thousands, of other species with similarly sticky hairs, including the common tomato. Some of them may be secretly carnivorous.
What objects best represent American culture? A writer makes the case for the red solo cup, the plastic lawn flamingo, the dog stroller and 22 more curiosities. Gun culture, a cowboy ethos and rural isolation have contributed to a suicide crisis in Wyoming, German Lopez writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today.
We’ve made these links free for you. Hot for being cool: The Hague, a diplomatic capital and the home of the International Criminal Court, has become Europe’s latest vacation destination. Clearing the air: China consumes roughly half the world’s cigarettes. Nonsmokers, many of them younger, have started provoking fights over secondhand smoke. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the name change of one of the world’s smallest countries.
100— That is the number of endangered plant and animal species that will benefit from a new $200 million project involving organizations started by Jeff Bezos and Leonardo DiCaprio. Bezos’ involvement has raised questions for some conservationists, given that Amazon is helping fuel the problems the fund seeks to solve. “Does it fully offset their responsibility?” said one. “No, but this is a really cool fund that is super needed.”
N.F.L.: Bijan Robinson and the Atlanta Falcons agreed on a three-year deal that makes him the highest-paid running back in league history by average annual salary. Tennis: Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of the upcoming Cincinnati Open to continue rehab on his injured wrist. With the U.S. Open a little over three weeks away, the defending champ could miss a third straight Grand Slam. |
