Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s early campaign wins, a Palestinian unity agreement, and India’s newly unveiled budget.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s early campaign wins, a Palestinian unity agreement, and India’s newly unveiled budget.
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Harris Rises to the Top
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday clinched the pledged support of enough delegates to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for president ahead of the party’s August vote, as endorsements from prominent party officials and leaders continued to pour in following U.S. President Joe Biden’s Sunday announcement that he was suspending his reelection campaign.
According to a survey conducted by The Associated Press, as of late Monday, Harris had received the promised backing of more than the 1,976 delegates needed to win the nomination in the party’s first round of voting, which is expected to take place between Aug. 1 and Aug. 7. Pledged support is not binding, though, and is not official until delegates cast their votes.
“When I announced my campaign for president, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination,” Harris said in a statement. “Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee.”
With just over 100 days until Election Day, the Harris campaign also announced that it had received more than $100 million in donations between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening.
During her visit to the campaign headquarters in Delaware, the president’s home state, the vice president on Monday acknowledged the “roller coaster” situation that the country finds itself in. In a speech that left the crowd cheering, Harris also slammed former President Donald Trump, who recently accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination after narrowly ducking an assassination attempt.
“I know Trump’s type,” Harris said, alluding to her time as a prosecutor and the attorney general of California, when she took on “predators,” “cheaters,” and “fraudsters.” (Harris also made similar comments at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday.) Biden, who was still recovering from COVID-19, joined the Monday event by phone and urged the campaign staff to back the vice president and help her win the November election. (The White House said on Tuesday that Biden’s symptoms have resolved and that he is now testing negative for the virus.)
The Trump campaign and political action committees that support Trump have also quickly pivoted to targeting their new opponent, launching ads accusing Harris of being an even more “radical” liberal than Biden and arguing that she is “complicit” in covering up Biden’s alleged health decline.
As observers mull over who the vice president’s running mate in the election will be, she has tapped former Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. to oversee her vetting process, according to Reuters, which first broke the news on Monday.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Palestinian unity agreement. Hamas and Fatah, longtime rival Palestinian factions, signed an agreement in Beijing on Tuesday “ending division and strengthening Palestinian unity.” The unity agreement, aimed at forming an interim government to maintain Palestinian control over postwar Gaza, also involved 12 other Palestinian groups and followed reconciliation talks hosted by China that began on Sunday.
The deal, dubbed the “Beijing Declaration,” includes four key components: the establishment of an interim national unity government, the formation of unified Palestinian leadership ahead of future elections, the free election of a new Palestinian National Council, and a general declaration of unity in the face of ongoing Israeli attacks.
“This creates a formidable barrier against all regional and international interventions that seek to impose realities against our people’s interests in managing Palestinian affairs postwar,” senior Hamas official Hussam Badran said, referring to the agreement.
However, experts are skeptical that the deal will come to fruition. The announcement did not provide further details on when or how a unity government will be formed, and previous resolution attempts between Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip for over 15 years, and Fatah, which is part of the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority, have failed since the two groups fought a brief civil war in 2007.
Trouble in Kampala. Uganda’s main opposition leader, Bobi Wine, said security forces stormed the headquarters of his party, the National Unity Platform, on Monday, and “violently arrested” party officials, ahead of a planned anti-corruption demonstration against the government. Though the Uganda Police Force did not confirm the arrests, it said it was taking precautionary steps to prevent the protest from snowballing, describing it as “potentially anarchic.”
The country’s recent protests are aimed at denouncing alleged high-level corruption and human rights abuses under the administration of President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the country since 1986. Museveni has warned organizers that they are “playing with fire” and has deployed the police and military to various parts of the capital. Dozens of people who tried to march to the parliament building have already been arrested, but some protesters remain defiant.
India’s new budget. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s newly elected government unveiled its annual budget to Parliament on Tuesday. Following its relatively slim election victory, Modi’s government, led by his Bharatiya Janata Party, aimed to cement its coalition and appease voters by prioritizing job creation and the middle class.
“India’s economic growth continues to be the shining exception and will remain so in the years ahead,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The budget, which totals $576 billion, earmarks $24 billion over the next five years to address the country’s unemployment woes, while scaling down its fiscal deficit to 4.9 percent of GDP (as compared to its current target of 5.1 percent).
The budget also includes $18 billion to support the country’s agriculture sector as well as a 5 percentage point reduction on corporate tax for foreign companies, in a bid to woo investors. Modi said the budget would shape the next five years of his term and “become a strong foundation” of “a Viksit Bharat [developed India].”
Odds and Ends
Ready, set, baguette! Ahead of the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony in Paris on Friday, organizers have shared their plans to bring the crème de la crème of French cuisine to the Olympic Village. Though alcohol and chicken nuggets are off the menu, a network of six restaurants will work around the clock to feed the 15,000 athletes competing this summer. From pain au chocolat to crispy mushroom croquettes, the village will serve more than 40,000 daily meals, catering to a diverse array of dietary and cultural requirements. Let the games—and the feast—begin!
The post Kamala Harris Moves to Clinch Democratic Nomination appeared first on Foreign Policy.
