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Willis Sparks
Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado greet supporters during a campaign rally for the presidential election in Valencia, Carabobo State, Venezuela, July 13, 2024.
Who isEdmundo González? He’s the opposition candidate with a chance, at least on paper, to unseat strongman President Nicolás Maduro in this weekend’s Venezuelan election. It’s a surprising position for this 74-year-old former diplomat who has never run for office and was virtually unknown to Venezuelans a few months ago. It’s more surprising that polls show him running ahead of Maduro.
But in a sense, Edmundo González is María Corina Machado, who won more than 90% of the vote in an open opposition primary in late October. Maduro-aligned judges on Venezuela’s supreme court then ruled her ineligible for election. After Machado’s first chosen replacement was also banned, she turned to the soft-spoken González, whose deliberately anodyne campaign message is that all Venezuelans must “come together.”
Meanwhile, it’s Machado on the campaign trail working hard to get out the vote while González remains safely on the sidelines. A vote for González is a vote for the popular Machado.
In the end, none of these opposition gymnastics are likely to matter. Maduro will almost certainly rig the election to stay in power, and it appears the military remains on his side. But this weekend’s vote is still one to watch.
For more on this weekend’s election, check out GZERO’s Viewpoint interview with Eurasia Group expert Risa Grais-Targowhere.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at her Presidential Campaign headquarters in Wilmington, DE, U.S., July 22, 2024.
InKamala Harris’s previous run for president, her campaign was plagued with so much public infighting she was forced towithdraw before the first primary votes were cast. In addition, herapproval ratings during her time as vice president have sometimes fallen below President Joe Biden’s.
So how has she generated so much excitement among Democratic voters and donors so quickly?
Between Biden’s withdrawal announcement on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, the Harris for President campaign says it raisedmore than $100 million, a huge haul by any standard. That adds to the party’s already formidable fundraising this year. Credible Democratic Party challengers quickly endorsed her. By Monday night, Harris had secured enough delegates to lock down the party’s presidential nomination.
In part, her success is a sign of Donald Trump’s perceived weakness. The media’s recent focus on Biden’s unpopularity has obscured the reality that a majority of Americans –57% in a recent poll – want Trump out of the race too. That figure includes 51% of independents and 26% of Republicans. Add the reality that Biden’s exit from the race leaves Trump, 78, as the oldest person ever to win the nomination of a major party for president. Trump remains the betting favorite, but Dems believe, rightly or wrongly, that he’s beatable.
And for anyone wondering what strategy Harris might adopt against Trump, there’s this obvious clue from her first speech as a presidential candidate. Highlighting both her history as a prosecutor and Trump’s status as a convicted felon: “I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Much of the media attention on the Harris campaign will now focus on her choice of a vice-presidential running-mate. But there’s another looming question: Will Harris and Trump debate? ABC News is scheduled to host a second presidential debate on Sept. 10, but Trump has already cast doubt on his plans to attend. Heposted the following on his Truth Social account:
“My debate with Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the history of the United States, was slated to be broadcast on Fake News ABC, the home of George Slopadopolus, sometime in September. Now that Joe has, not surprisingly, has [sic] quit the race, I think the Debate, with whomever the Radical Left Democrats choose, should be held on FoxNews, rather than very biased ABC. “
Beyond that, Trump is keeping his options open.
Finally, Trump faces another challenge he didn’t expect: His new opponent is a woman of African and South Asian descent. He defeated Hillary Clinton eight years ago, but Harris doesn’t come with Clinton’s considerable baggage, and there are plenty of women and people of color who will listen carefully to Trump’s every word for signs of bias against women and/or racial minorities.
In short, Trump faces an opponent with no history of national electoral success of her own but one who poses a series of campaign dangers he didn’t face until Sunday.
Flames and smoke rise from the site of Israeli air strikes at the port of Hodeidah, Yemen July 21, 2024.
In support of Palestinians now under fire in Gaza, Houthi rebels based in Yemen have attacked ships they say are affiliated with Israel in the Red Sea and have sent missiles and drones flying toward Israeli targets. Israel, with help from the US and neighboring Arab countries, has blocked most of those attacks.
But last Friday, the Houthis claimed credit for adrone attack on a Tel Aviv apartment building that killed one Israeli man and injured eight more. Israel responded with air strikes on the Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeidah in Yemen. Authorities there said the Israeli attack killed three civilians and injured 80.
The Biden administration has designated the Houthis a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group,” but has so far stopped short of the more serious label as a ”Global Terrorist Organization” for fear that automatically resulting sanctions would do little to deter the group but deepen the misery of Yemen’s large number of starving people.
There are several questions raised by this dramatic Israel-Houthi escalation.
- Will it distract Israel’s government from the more dangerous fights with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon?
- The Houthis claim the Saudis, who fought the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war, provided the Israeli strike with access to its airspace. Can the Saudis stay out of the conflict?
- How much damage will Iran allow their Houthi allies to sustain before they become directly involved?
- Will the attack on this crucial Yemeni port add to the humanitarian disaster inside Yemen?
Neither the Saudis nor Iran wants to get caught in a shooting war. And despite the escalation, the Israeli-Houthi fight will probably remain contained. But the stakes are high enough that no government in the region can afford to stop watching.
United States Senator JD Vance (Republican of Ohio) at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., on Friday, February 23, 2024.
All running mates bring advantages and disadvantages to presidential candidates, but the choice of JD Vance is a striking sign of the political times. Vance strengthens Donald Trump’s “champion of the working man” message – a Republican rebranding away from its strongly pro-business past. We also saw that emphasis in the striking first-night convention speech from Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, a labor union with 1.3 million members, who accused business and corporate lobbyists of “waging a war against American workers.” That’s not a speech you would have heard at any Republican National Convention of the past century. Vance’s reputation as defender of the globalization-battered working class can help Trump in the electorallycrucial Midwest industrial belt states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
But Vance is also an absolutist on restricting abortion, the Republican’s biggest current weakness, according to polls. He has adopted Trump’s line that abortion rules should be left to the states, but his voting record is striking. He favors banning abortions, even if the mother is avictim of rape or incest, as well as laws that allowpolice to track women who have crossed state lines for an abortion. He has opposed legislation that would protect in vitro fertilization. A poll earlier this month showed that61% of US adults want their state to allow abortion for any reason, and 62% support protections for access to IVF.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump smiles during the Suffolk County Republican Committee fundraising reception in Patchogue, New York April 14, 2016.
63: A new poll from Pew Research finds that 63% of voters describe bothJoeBiden and DonaldTrump as “embarrassing.” Some supporters – 37% of Biden supporters and 33% of Trump supporters – say their own candidate is embarrassing.
75: A new survey from the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency has found a surge in antisemitism in Europe. In particular,75% of the Jewish Europeans interviewed said they felt they were held responsible for the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza because they are Jewish.
1.50: South Korea’s government announced Thursday it will deploy a laser weapons system to intercept North Korean drones, which have created recent headaches for the country’s security. The lasers in question will reportedly cost about$1.50 per shot.
3: US inflation in June eased more than economists expected, extending a recent slowdown in price increases and feeding speculation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this fall. The consumer-price index rose3% year on year.
219: The first four months of this year saw a record219 bear attacks in Japan. Six of them were fatal. In response, Japan’s government reportedly plans to revise poaching laws to lift some restrictions that ban hunters from shooting bears.
70: The spire of a famous Gothic cathedral in the French city of Rouen caught fire on Thursday. Thankfully, about70 firefighters were able to contain the blaze. This spire appeared in a number of paintings by impressionist Claude Monet, and between 1876 and 1880 the church was the world’s tallest building.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks at a NATO event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the alliance, in Washington, on July 9, 2024.
President Joe Biden has made clear he has no plans to exit the presidential race against Donald Trump. Democratic lawmakers and fundraisers who want him to step aside for Vice President Kamala Harris or someone else now know they’ll have to give in or push Biden much harder.
Some prominent Democrats have signaled their support for Biden this week. House Minority LeaderHakeem Jeffriesof New York told reporters on Monday that “I support Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket.” Prominent progressives in the House, likeAlexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, have also offered continuing public support for Biden. Sen.John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a key Biden ally, urged Biden doubters “to get a spine or grow a set.”
But as the president prepared to host a historic NATO summit, Jeffries convened a closed-door meeting with other Democratic lawmakers, some of whom fear Biden’s weakness will sink their own reelection bids, to air differences. Senate Dems used their weekly lunch on Tuesday to discuss Biden’s candidacy.
No clear verdict has yet emerged from either meeting. Asked whether Democrats were on the same page on Biden’s future, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee warned, “We’re not even in the same book.”
Biden gave a rousing speech at the NATO summit on Tuesday night, touting the alliance's strength and focusing heavily on the war in Ukraine — announcing that the US and its partners will provide air defense systems to Kyiv. Unlike in the debate, the president was forceful and didn't repeatedly struggle to string sentences together, though he was reading from a teleprompter.
We'll be watching to see if Biden's performance at the NATO summit will be enough to prove the naysayers wrong. Meanwhile, Michael Bennet of Colorado on Tuesday became the first Democratic senator to publicly state that Biden can't beat Trump in November, which is indicative of the uphill battle the president faces in this regard.
US President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, June 28, 2024.
President Joe Biden is doing his best to discourage expectations he will leave the presidential race. On Monday, he made a surprise appearance (via phone) on TV talk show “Morning Joe.” “I’m getting so frustrated by the elites … the elites in the party who … they know so much more,” Biden complained. “Any of these guys don’t think I should, run against me: Go ahead, challenge me at the convention.”
His reasoning is simple: Voters have his back. “The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to be the nominee of the party. Do we now just say this process didn’t matter?”
He also signaled his intentions in aletter to Democrats in Congress dated Monday. “I am firmly committed to staying this race, to running this race until the end, and to beating Donald Trump.
For now, Biden is making clear he won’t bow out without a fight, but thepolling isn’t moving in his favor, and anxiety appears to be growing among some Democratic lawmakers and big donors that he has no clear strategy to reverse his slide.
The next few days are shaping up as a war of wills between the president and a growing number of power brokers within his party.
Palestinians, who fled the eastern part of Khan Younis after they were ordered by Israeli army to evacuate their neighborhoods, make their way, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 2, 2024.
250,000: The Israeli Defense Forces ordered the evacuation of250,000 Palestinians from the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis on Monday – an untold number have fled by any means possible – before launching strikes overnight in response to rocket attacks on Israel from inside the city. Israeli officials warn that Hamas continues to use Palestinian civilians as human shields.
3: The mother of rescued Israeli hostage Noa Argamani has succumbed to brain cancer justthree weeks after her daughter was freed in a raid on a Hamas hideout in Gaza. Liora Argamani, who was 61, had made public pleas after Oct. 7 for her daughter to be returned so that she could see her again before she died.
300,000: The UN Children’s Agency says that gang violence in Haiti has forced more than300,000 children from their homes since March. Meanwhile, the gangs have said they are gearing up for a war against the Kenyan police mission, which arrived in Haiti this past week.
35 million: The Biden administration has proposed regulations that will require employers to provide workers with rest areas and water when the heat index reaches 80 degrees or higher. This rule could apply to about 35 million Americans who work both indoors and outdoors.
10: A court in Cambodia has sentenced10 activists from a youth-led environmental group to between six and eight years in jail following charges of plotting against the government. Three of the activists were also convicted of insulting the king.6: The Atlantic’s first hurricane of the season, Beryl, has wreaked destruction in Grenada, Venezuela, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, killing at least six people. The storm is now moving toward Jamaica, where it is “expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to Jamaica,” according to the hurricane center.