Tuesday, July 30, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering tonight’s Democratic debate, a major data breach at Capital One, and a new honor for the song “Old Town Road.”

By Chris Stanford

Top Democratic progressives to face off

Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will share the stage for the first time tonight, during the first of two presidential debates in Detroit. Here’s what to watch for.

The lineup also includes Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, who failed to qualify for the debates in June. About half the field is at risk of not qualifying for the next round, which is scheduled for September.

Watch: The debate starts at 8 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on CNN, CNN en Español, CNN International and streaming platforms. The Times will also have live coverage.

Capital One data breach affects 100 million

A software engineer in Seattle has been charged with one count of computer fraud and abuse after breaking into a server holding customer information for the bank, federal prosecutors said on Monday.

The suspect, Paige Thompson, had boasted about the hacking, in which 140,000 Social Security numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers were stolen, the authorities said. The breach, one of the largest thefts of bank data, also compromised one million Canadian social insurance numbers.

The details: The information came from credit card applications submitted as early as 2005 and as recently as this year, according to Capital One. The breach was discovered this month.

Another angle: A settlement involving Equifax promised at least $125 to the credit bureau’s customers after a data breach. That “minimum” could end up being a lot less, one of our Opinion writers notes.

Donald Trump and the Rev. Al Sharpton during friendlier times, in 2006 at Trump World Tower in Manhattan. Jamie McCarthy/WireImage, via Getty Images

President Trump belittles black critics

In a third day of attacks against black figures, Mr. Trump on Monday denounced the Rev. Al Sharpton as “a con man” who “Hates Whites & Cops!” and again criticized Representative Elijah Cummings and his Baltimore-based district.

The president connected the clash to his earlier call for four minority congresswomen to “go back” to their home countries. Mr. Sharpton had traveled to Baltimore to denounce the attacks on Mr. Cummings.

To defend himself against accusations of racism, Mr. Trump invited a group of what he called “Inner City Pastors” to the White House.

Closer look: Mr. Trump and Mr. Sharpton are both veterans of New York’s often inflammatory racial politics, and they have a long history of using each other for their own purposes, whether as foes or friends.

Reaction: Residents of Baltimore, which Mr. Trump labeled “disgusting, rat and rodent infested,” acknowledged that their city had problems, but said the president’s insults were not helpful.

Senators Jerry Moran, center left, and Richard Blumenthal appeared in Washington last year with members of the national gymnastics team. Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

A call for more oversight of Olympic sports

An 18-month Senate investigation has found that the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and U.S.A. Gymnastics “knowingly concealed” the sexual abuse of gymnasts.

As a result, Senators Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, and Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, are set to introduce a bill today that would hold the Olympic committee and national sports governing bodies to more stringent legal accountability for failing to protect athletes.

Background: Congress took new interest in its mandated oversight of the Olympic committee after Lawrence Nassar, a former gymnastics team doctor, was convicted of sexual misconduct for molesting hundreds of girls and women.

If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

A new problem for American farmers

Theo Stroomer for The New York Times

Across much of the Great Plains, this growing season has seemed cursed, starting with the disruptions caused by the trade war, followed by flooding in the spring.

Now, an irrigation tunnel, pictured above, has collapsed, and across more than 100,000 acres of Nebraska and Wyoming, there is no water.

Here’s what else is happening

California shooting victims: A 6-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s were killed in the attack at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday. The 19-year-old gunman was fatally shot by the police.

Hurdles for intelligence pick: Some top Republicans expressed concerns that President Trump’s choice for the director of national intelligence, Representative John Ratcliffe of Texas, was too inexperienced and partisan.

China’s internment camps: Senior officials said today that the authorities had released most detainees held in the mass internment program for ethnic minority Muslims. They provided no details to support their assertion, which could not be independently verified.

Putin rival’s illness: Aleksei Navalny, the most high-profile critic of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, suggested that he had been poisoned in prison over the weekend. Mr. Navalny was sent back to jail over the objections of his doctor, who said that the cause of his symptoms had not been identified.

Bryan Denton for The New York Times

Snapshot: Above, tigers at a reserve in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Officials said on Monday that there were nearly 3,000 Bengal tigers in the wild in India, a 33 percent increase since 2014.

Billboard record: “Old Town Road,” the country-rap song by Lil Nas X, has become the longest-running No. 1 single in the 61-year history of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

A royal editor: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will be the first guest editor of British Vogue’s September issue, considered the most influential edition of the year for fashion magazines.

Gamer wins $3 million: Kyle Giersdorf, 16, said he planned to buy a new desk with the money he won at the Fortnite World Cup.

Late-night comedy: The hosts noted President Trump’s disparaging comments about Baltimore. “The man who tells us ‘love it or leave it’ has now attacked more cities than Godzilla,” Jimmy Kimmel said.

What we’re reading: This essay in The Paris Review. The author, who broke up with her fiancé and headed to Texas to study the whooping crane, paints a picture of her ordeal that could prompt us to examine our own relationships.

Now, a break from the news

Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food styling: Vivian Lui.

Cook: Try chicken schnitzel with smashed, spiced cucumbers. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)

Watch: The directors Anthony and Joe Russo narrate a scene from “Avengers: Endgame” featuring a beer-guzzling Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth.

Go: Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera “Das Wunder der Heliane” has premiered in America nearly a century after it was written. See it at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., through Sunday.

Read: Book reviews in our archives written by some of the biggest names in literature, including Nora Ephron, Thomas Pynchon and Kurt Vonnegut.

Smarter Living: It was once common practice for drivers to flash their headlights at oncoming vehicles that had their high beams on. But using headlights to communicate is a practice that can vary by region and might not always send the intended signal, experts say. Here are some tips.

And we’ve worked with the experts at Wirecutter, a Times site, to compile a list of back-to-school essentials.

And now for the Back Story on …

The glass ceiling

Six female candidates are vying for the Democratic presidential nomination, but almost no one is talking about the “glass ceiling.”

The term dates from 1978, when female employees at Hewlett-Packard and the New York Telephone Company used it to describe their inability to rise beyond the ranks of middle management. Betty Friedan, a founder of the National Organization for Women, told The Times in 1986 that it described women who “get to a middle level and then there’s a glass ceiling — not overt discrimination, just a feeling that you can go this high and no higher.”

The Democratic presidential candidates include, front row from left: Marianne Williamson, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard and Kirsten Gillibrand. Travis Dove for The New York Times

Hillary Clinton made the phrase a staple of her presidential campaigns and noted after her 2016 loss that the U.S. still had not shattered that “highest and hardest glass ceiling.”

The 2020 candidates are using other language: Kamala Harris prefers to talk about her willingness to “break things,” while Elizabeth Warren has vowed to “persist.”

“Words have their moments, especially colloquialisms,” the linguist Robin Lakoff told The Times, noting that glass ceiling “seems tired.”

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Chris

Thank you
Melina Delkic helped compile this briefing. Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford provided the break from the news. Jessica Bennett, the gender editor for The Times, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about Boeing’s 737 Max crisis.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Stylishness (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Amazon has released the first trailer for “Modern Love,” a rom-com anthology series based on the Times column. It premieres Oct. 18, and the cast includes Tina Fey, Anne Hathaway and Dev Patel.