Wednesday morning news: August 7, 2024

HARRIS: And now, welcome the next vice president of the United States, Tim Walz!

Kamala picks Walz » And with that, Vice President Kamala Harris introduced her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to a cheering crowd at a Philadelphia rally.

Walz voiced his support for a number of Democratic cornerstones, including abortion access, and what he characterized as common-sense gun regulations.

He also took aim at his opponent, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance.

WALZ: Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community. Come on! That’s not what middle America is!

But Vance had his own criticism yesterday, calling Walz a San Francisco-style liberal.

VANCE: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz do make an interesting team because if you remember, the rioting in the Summer of 2020, Tim Walz was the guy who let rioters burn down Minneapolis, and then Kamala Harris was the one who bailed the rioters out of jail, so they’re an interesting team in that sense.

Both Harris and Walz are expected to be officially nominated at the party’s convention later this month.

Debby update » The remnants of Hurricane Debby have drenched coastal cities in the southeast, and the system is not finished dumping heavy rain.

The storm is blamed for at least six deaths in Georgia and Florida.

David Greene with Colleton County Emergency Management in South Carolina.

GREENE: We still have significant rainfall that we’re going to experience over the next several days. And we already have a lot of flooded roads and trees down and that sort of thing.

The storm roared ashore on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Monday. And the system has already stirred up tornadoes and submerged streets in waist-high flood waters across the southeast.

It has been called a possibly historic rainfall event as it moves slowly across the region.

Israel/Hamas new leader » The Palestinian terror group Hamas says it has chosen a leader to take the place of its former leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed by a missile strike while in Tehran.

In a defiant move, Hamas has chosen Yahya Sinwar to lead the group. Sinwar was the mastermind behind Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken says Sinwar was already a powerful figure within Hamas.

BLINKEN: He has been and remains the primary decider when it comes to concluding the cease-fire.

Unlike Haniyeh, who had lived in exile in Qatar for years, Sinwar has remained in Gaza.

UNRWA accusation » The United Nations has confirmed that nine workers from its Palestinian aid agency were fired after evidence emerged suggesting they may have participated in Hamas’ terrorist attack against Israel.

U.N. Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said Monday that 19 staffers were originally accused of taking part in the massacre.

Haq: For nine people, the evidence was sufficient to conclude that they may have been involved in the 7th of October attacks.

Israeli leaders first accused U.N. aid workers of participating in the massacre and provided the United Nations with evidence to support the claim.

Boeing hearing » Boeing was back in the spotlight in Washington on Tuesday.

 HOMENDY: This hearing is an important part of our ongoing investigation of the accident that occurred on January 5th, 2024 in Portland, Oregon.

The National Transportation Safety Board held a hearing about a panel that blew off the side of an Alaska Airlines flight mid-air earlier this year.

NTSB Investigator in charge, John Lovell, said the panel in question, known as a “door plug” left a manufacturing plant in Renton, Washington …

LOVELL:  And was delivered to Alaska Airlines without the four bolts having been installed that were required to secure it to the fuselage.

Boeing factory workers say they were pressured to work too fast and asked to perform jobs that they weren’t qualified for.

The safety board is expected to officially determine a probable cause for the incident, but that report could take another year or longer to be released.

Bangladesh » A Nobel laureate will head up Bangladesh’s new interim government as the country steers through a political crisis. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Muhammad Yunus will lead the interim government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her rule.

A government spokesman says protest leaders, the country’s military chiefs, and civil leaders met Tuesday with the country’s president, President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

After many hours behind closed doors, they decided on Muhammad Yunus to head the government.

Yunus is an economist and banker. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing microcredit markets.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: A look at the Harris-Walz presidential campaign on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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