USA - Kamala Harris has said she is looking forward to “formally accepting the [presidential] nomination” of the Democratic party after she earned enough support from delegates including hundreds from her native California. “When I announced my campaign for President, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination,” she said in a statement late Monday. “Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top. I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.” Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi made the motion to endorse Harris for president at a virtual meeting of California’s DNC delegation on Monday evening, a spokesperson confirmed.

USA - The biggest abortion rights groups in US politics are lining up behind Kamala Harris’s bid for president, a show of faith in a politician who has already become the face of the White House’s fight over abortion rights – which is not only one of the election’s biggest issues but one of the few where Democrats have the advantage. Within hours of Joe Biden’s stunning announcement on Sunday that he would drop out of the presidential race and endorse the vice-president, Emilys List, which champions Democratic women who support abortion rights, and Reproductive Freedom for All, which advocates for abortion access and was previously known as Naral Pro-Choice America, officially endorsed Harris. Emilys List plans to pour at least $20 million into the race in support of Harris. Two-thirds of the voters who describe abortion as their most important issue say it should be legal in all or most cases. The voters who think it should be legal in all cases tend to be Democratic, Black, female or between the ages of 18 and 29.

EUROPE - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is the only EU leader retaining ties with Vladimir Putin in light of the unlawful Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been punished by Brussels for his self-styled "peace mission" to Russia, heavily criticised by most EU leaders across the bloc. Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1 and is set to retain the role until the end of the year. This position would normally give the country the right to host a meeting of foreign and defence ministers to discuss the global issues and foreign policy decisions awaiting the bloc. But the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has stripped Mr Orban of this privilege. Now, the event set to take place between August 28 and 30 will happen in Brussels instead of Budapest.

USA - Furious Democrats and Republicans peppered the embattled Cheatle with questions about how would-be assassin Thomas Crooks, 20, was able to open fire on the former president and told her to resign. She avoided directly answering questions about whether she denied Trump a bigger protection detail, whether she focused on diversity and inclusivity during hiring, and doubled down on not having an agent on the gunman's roof during the brutal hearing on Capitol Hill. In a staggering moment, Cheatle also admitted that her agents on the ground had been warned between two and five times how many times a 'suspicious person' was reported before Trump took the stage.

USA - A Republican has deemed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle a 'DEI horror show' as she took attacks from both sides of the aisle on Monday during a Capitol Hill hearing. During questioning from lawmakers, Cheatle offered few straight answers and often hid behind the ongoing Secret Service internal probe. She remained obstinate amid calls to resign from both Republicans and Democrats. Cheatle could not answer the number of agents on the ground, how the shooter got on the roof, how many shots were fired, how many casings were recovered, the shooter's motive and other questions from lawmakers. She could not tell lawmakers how many times there had been security breaches of Secret Service protectees or provide a timeline of the day of the shooting and when Secret Service had been made aware of the threat.

USA - Announcements of this magnitude are typically presaged with an alert to the media. Early reports are that Biden's top campaign staff didn't know about the letter, with a handful told just one minute before someone pushed 'publish'. It all raises more questions. Such as: Who wrote it? When was it drafted? Was it his decision alone, or was he coereced? Why didn't Biden, like LBJ before him, announce his monumental decision to stand down during a primetime televised address from the Oval? Is he that far gone — unable to read prepared marks from a teleprompter?

USA - Joe Biden has become the first president in 56 years to call off his campaign for re-election, brought down by a disastrous performance in his late June debate against Republican nominee Donald Trump that caused a marked decline in his public support, and sparked a pressure campaign by his fellow Democrats to convince him to bow out. The president announced his decision on Twitter/X, as well as his support for Kamala Harris to take his place. The vice-president replied that “my intention is to earn and win this nomination”, while Democratic chair Jaime Harrison said “the party will undertake a transparent and orderly process” to find a new candidate.

UK - Last night detectives continued to scour hundreds of photos, videos and hours of CCTV footage in search of the identities of any culprits responsible for the frightening disorder in the inner-city area of Harehills, [Leeds]. Footage shows dozens of rioters who helped set the area ablaze by hurling large fridges and dustbins on to several fires in the roads, and torching a double-decker bus. Other clips show thugs ripping up a pavement and launching bricks at police officers, while on a different residential street a mob gleefully smashed up and overturned a police car.

NATO - On the occasion of NATO’s 75th anniversary meeting, only two leaders of NATO member states dared openly speak about issues that in a reasonable organization shaped by mutual respect that seeks the most effective and responsible policies would be the subject of intense debate among all members. The president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, made their dissent clear on the eve of the meeting. A third leader, Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, issued an urgent warning afterwards, arguing that making Ukraine a NATO member – not the same as the misguided but fortunately non-binding talk about ‘irreversibility’ that the meeting proudly produced – would be a “guarantee of World War III.”

UK - This week it was revealed that BBC Arabic had asked its viewers the following question about the cold-blooded murder of a 79 year-old Jewish woman by Hamas terrorists: “How do you view this kind of operation, terrorism or resistance?” Edna Bluestein was among a group of Israeli civilians who were attacked in a car-ramming and stabbing incident in the town of Ra’anana. She was dragged from her car and stabbed to death before terrorists commandeered her vehicle and tried to kill more Jews. Why anyone at the BBC would think it acceptable to pose this question to viewers about a terrorist murder might once have been hard to understand, but these days the reason appears to be very clear.

USA - For Nebraska delegate Fanchon Blythe, 63, a mother of four, seeing Donald Trump in the flesh was proof of divine intervention. 'The hand of God came down and protected him from that bullet. I believe he was saved for a reason,' she said as tears rolled down her cheeks. 'When that bullet hit his ear, his first reaction was to stand up and fight. I believe God has sent him to save our country and fight for my children's future and my grandchildren's future.' There is no doubt that Trump's die-hard supporters now regard him as a deity. At last week's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, $75 Trump bibles were on sale next to T-shirts embossed with the now iconic image of Trump raising his fist, face bloodied, with the American flag behind him. For Ms Blythe, who is on the party's powerful national committee, it is the fusion of faith and politics which she believes will send Trump back to the White House.

USA - Donald Trump confessed what he really thinks about the Secret Service in an interview after they put his life at risk - and disclosed another glaring oversight. The Republican presidential candidate revealed he was not warned about his attacker by the Secret Service - despite agents receiving worrying reports from rally-goers before Trump even got on stage. In an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters, the former president discussed his ill-fated rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump told the interviewer that 'nobody mentioned' Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman, despite the fact that he was being monitored for 'an hour' before the shooting. 'Mistakes were made,' Watters told Trump. 'They were monitoring this guy for an hour beforehand. No one told you not to take the stage?'

USA - The shock decision leaves the Democratic nomination wide open just four months before the November election. Joe Biden has withdrawn from the race for the US presidency, an extraordinary decision that plunges the Democratic nomination into uncertainty just months before the November election against Donald Trump, a candidate he has warned is an existential threat to American democracy. “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter announcing his decision.

USA - When Ernest Hemingway wrote that bankruptcy happens in two ways – “gradually then suddenly” – he can hardly have foreseen that 98 years later, his words would neatly describe the decline of the Democratic leadership of America. Joe Biden has Covid. This latest indignity comes after a woeful period that started with the toe-curling presidential debate, progressed through the “vice president Trump” and “President Putin” gaffes, and ended with the attempted assassination of his rival, which may have succeeded only in killing Biden’s campaign. On top of all this, even more influential democrats – including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, a close ally of Nancy Pelosi, and Hakeem Jeffries, the party’s top representative in the House – have lined up to pressure him to step down.

USA - Barack Obama turns on Joe Biden as he 'tells allies President should mull stepping down'. US President Joe Biden has been under pressure to drop out of the presidential race following a poor performance during a TV debate against Donald Trump. Mr Obama reportedly believes Mr Biden's chances to win have greatly diminished, the Washington Post has reported. Yet, Mr Obama believes the incumbent president needs to make the decision to quit himself. These bombshell reports came just hours after it was claimed that top Democrats believe US President Joe Biden may be persuaded to drop out of the presidential race as soon as this weekend.