Biden vs Trump, who is in the lead?

Plus, Britain's Conservative Party all-but concedes election defeat.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters  Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Joe Biden pulls even with his Republican challenger Donald Trump in polls, Britain's Conservatives say Labour rivals are heading for a record-breaking election win, and Hurricane Beryl bears down on Jamaica. Plus, meet Count Binface, Elmo and AI Steve - these are the unusual candidates in Britain's elections. Today's Top News   Biden and Trump each had 40% support among registered voters. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid and Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo Elections  US President Joe Biden pulled even with his Republican challenger Donald Trump this week in the race to win the November election, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll also showed that, following a disastrous debate, about one-in-three Democrats think Biden should drop out of the race. Some elected Democrats loyal to Biden raised fresh questions about his 2024 re-election bid. Sources say VP Kamala Harris is the top choice to replace him if he steps aside. Britain's Conservative Party all-but conceded election defeat to Keir Starmer's Labour a day before polling stations opened, warning that the opposition party was on course for a record-breaking victory. Plus, have you heard of Count Binface? We round up the election's most unusual candidates. In other news The death toll from a stampede at a Hindu religious congregation in northern India has risen to 121. A police report said the number of people present at the function was more than triple the permitted capacity. Hurricane Beryl barreled toward Jamaica as a powerful Category 4 storm, threatening to dump rain on parts of Hispaniola after killing at least three people on smaller islands in the eastern Caribbean. Here's everything you need to know about the deadly storm. Rising water levels in the Yangtze River following intense rains in southern China have prompted eastern regions downstream to prepare for possible flooding. Farmers in southern Lebanon are wondering if white phosphorous, used by the Israeli military in cross-border clashes has contaminated their soil. Listen to Maya Gebeily on the Reuters World News podcast discussing the farmers' efforts to find out.  The plan for post-war Gaza that Israel pitched to US allies is to run the strip in cooperation with powerful local families. But there's a problem: in a place where Hamas still wields ruthless influence, none want to be seen talking to the enemy. Business & Markets   A bond market crisis that rocked Britain's economy two years ago has cast a long shadow over the country's July 4 election which will likely linger as a new government finds its feet. Germany's VDA auto association has urged the European Commission to drop its planned tariffs on China-made electric vehicles in a last-ditch effort to influence negotiations ahead of the tariffs kicking in. India has asked power companies to order equipment worth $33 billion this year to fast track capacity additions of coal-fired power in the years ahead, as the South Asian nation struggles to meet booming electricity demand, two government officials said. Lufthansa won EU antitrust approval to buy 41% of Italy's ITA Airways for $350 million after ceding routes and slots in a deal that will boost its presence in the lucrative southern European market. China is far ahead of other countries in generative AI inventions like chatbots, filing six times more patents than its closest rival the United States, U.N. data showed. Generative AI is exploding with more than 50,000 patent applications filed in the past decade. Sanofi and partner Regeneron won European Union approval for wider use of their Dupixent injection in patients with a chronic lung disease, a rare case of the EU clearing a drug faster than the United States. Online-gambling giants conquer US with tactics deemed too tough for Britain    Online betting companies offer incentives to lure new customers such as bonus bets, which are credits that can be used for wagering. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Amid a US boom in betting online, the European companies behind FanDuel and BetMGM are using features in America that they dropped in Britain after acknowledging them as risks to gamblers. Read our special report And Finally... A carpenter ant caring for the leg wound of the other ant. Bart Zijlstra/Handout via REUTERS Limb amputations are performed by surgeons when a traumatic injury such as a wound from war or a vehicle accident causes major tissue destruction or in instances of serious infection or disease. But humans are not alone in doing such procedures. New research shows that some ants perform limb amputations on injured comrades to improve their survival chances. Read more Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement © 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036