Thursday morning news: July 4, 2024

SOUND: [Wind and rain in Jamaica]

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Hurricane » Hurricane Beryl lashed Jamaica Wednesday with violent winds, dangerous storm surge and sideways rain.

MICHAEL BRENNAN: The core winds of a Category-4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of over 140 miles per hour.

National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan.

The storm had already killed six people in the southeast Caribbean before taking aim at Jamaica and later, the Cayman Islands.

The storm is expected to weaken tomorrow, as it passes over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

BRENNAN: But then expected to reintensify and be at or near hurricane strength as we go from Saturday into Sunday and Monday.

That’s when the storm will take a northwestern turn toward northern Mexico and/or south Texas.

Presidential polling » The numbers aren’t looking good for President Biden in the wake of last week’s concerning debate performance. WORLD’s Christina Grube reports.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: In a New York Times/Siena poll conducted since the Thursday debate, a sampling of 1,500 likely voters disapproved of Biden’s job performance by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

And they backed Donald Trump over Biden by a six-point margin.

The Wall Street Journal sampled 1,500 registered voters and found the same result: A 6-point edge for Trump.

On the top issues, the Republican challenger’s lead is even more pronounced in the New York Times poll.

By a roughly 20-point margin, voters trust Donald Trump more on border security … and the economy.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.

White House: Biden isn’t going anywhere » Though the Biden campaign has taken on a lot of water, the president says he will not abandon ship.

A reporter asked the president’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if he's considering bowing out of the race …

JEAN-PIERRE: Absolutely not. And you heard, I believe, directly from the campaign as well.

Administration officials are forcefully pushing back against media reports that Biden is considering stepping aside.

And his chief of staff is trying to calm nerves throughout the White House.

JEAN-PIERRE: Jeff Zients did have an all-staff call. He wanted to gather the team across the building and acknowledge what the president has said himself, right, that the last few days have been challenging.

And Reuters reports that the president joined a call with concerned members of his campaign team to reassure them that he’s not going anywhere.

Biden damage control w/lawmakers » But for a growing number of Democrats, his commitment to stay in the race is not particularly reassuring. Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas said Wednesday:

LLOYD DOGGETT: I hope that he will put country first and decide to step aside. I think there are a number of candidates that could come in and provide a stronger message.

Democratic Congressman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona is also openly calling for Biden to bow out.

Others are expressing their concerns, while stopping short of publicly calling for Biden to step aside. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says the president must reassure members of his party.

WHITEHOUSE: That the president and his team are being candid with us, that this was a real anomaly, and not just the way he is these days, and that, you know, they’ve got a plan to win.

President Biden has been reaching out to leaders on Capitol Hill as he works to contain the fallout from the debate.

UK election preview » Meantime, voters in the UK are set to cast ballots in a national election today.

They are widely expected to do something they have not done since 2005: Elect a left-of-center Labour Party government.

Election analyst Leon Blackman says the poll numbers are not promising for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party.

BLACKMAN: At the moment, this kind of shows Labour’s predicted dominance — 451 projected seats.

Sunak, though, says it be will counted ballots, not poll numbers that determine the winner, and he’s urging conservatives to get out and vote.

SUNAK: I can tell you, it is not over until that final whistle blows, my friends! 

And while Labour has enjoyed a solid double-digit lead since before the campaign began, the party is also warning its supporters not to take the election results for granted.

Title IX » A federal district court judge in Kansas has blocked the Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations from taking effect in four states over concern about potential harm to women and girls. WORLD’s Mary Muncy has more.

MARY MUNCY: Under the changes to Title IX, schools would be forced to allow boys who claim to identify as girls to use female locker rooms and compete on women’s sports teams.

In his ruling, the judge found that the Department of Education did not take into account the potential harm to female students.

One of the plaintiffs, an Oklahoma student named Katie Rowland, said she stopped using the restrooms at her public school because of males using the girl’s bathroom.

The judge also asserted that Title IX was clearly written with the traditional view that there are only two sexes.

Two judges last month halted the regulations from taking effect in 10 other states.

A total of 26 states have filed lawsuits against the changes.

For WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Analysis of Supreme Court opinions. Plus, the Stars and Stripes Forever.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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