Former Prime Minister’s chief of staff Glenn Micallef is Malta’s nominee for European Commissioner, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced Thursday. During an interview with Newsbook’s chief editor Matthew Xuereb, Abela said: “Over the past four years I’ve seen his competencies on EU matters first-hand.”

Abela explained that he is not opting for a cabinet member but a technocat for the role of European Commissioner because he would rather avoid removing key elements of his cabinet “when the country needs focused work in ministries”.

“I believe this is the first time the Commissioner will be someone who doesn’t come from the political camp, and who is quite young,” Abela said.

Questioned on Micallef’s political background, or lack thereof, Abela said Micallef played a key role in cabinet proceedings and would always participate in the decision-making process.

The Prime Minister had to nominate someone else after his first choice, Chris Fearne, definitely pulled out of the nomination when a court ruled he should stand trial in the Vitals hospials case on Wednesday. Micallef is the first Maltese non-politician for the role.

Von der Leyen’s demand for male and female nominees finds no joy

A demand by Ursula von der Leyen for EU countries to put forward two names – one male and one female – to bid for a place in her new team has fallen on deaf ears.

While the member states have until 30th August to propose European Commissioner nominees for the next five-year term, no country has yet indicated willingness to pitch two candidates from both genders in line with von der Leyen’s request.

“I want to pick the best-prepared candidates who share the European commitment. Once again, I will aim for an equal share of men and women at the College table,” von der Leyen told the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg following her re-election last week.

The Commission President formalised her plea with a letter sent to EU governments on Thursday morning. A spokesperson for the executive confirmed that it explicitly lays out von der Leyen’s plan to strike a balance between both genders.

Nine member states have already confirmed their candidates, who will need to be grilled by von der Leyen as of mid-August and then survive a vote in the European Parliament’s committees before they can secure a place in the new ‘college’ of Commissioners.

Of those nine, six member states are fielding new candidates, but none have complied with von der Leyen’s request.

The remaining three – Latvia, the Netherlands, and Slovakia – have chosen to re-nominate their outgoing Commissioners and are therefore not required to field both a man and a woman.

MEPs urge EU to align its position on Israel-Palestine conflict with ICJ opinion

A group of MEPs have urged the EU to align its position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the landmark advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The letter is signed by 21 MEPs, including Malta’s Daniel Attard and Alex Agius Saliba.

The MEPs are asking European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to take action and implement the findings and implications of the ICJ Advisory Opinion through several steps.

These steps include a ban on trade with settlements and a review of Israel’s compliance with Article 2 of the Association Agreement, which states that EU-Israel relations “shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles”.

The MEPs are also asking for a wider, thorough assessment of the implications of the Advisory Opinion for EU and Member States policies and external action, and that this report be made public and presented to the relevant bodies in the European Parliament.

“The ICJ’s historic opinion must be regarded as a pivotal moment for the EU to recalibrate its policy towards Israel so as to bring about the end of its unlawful occupation, enable the two-state solution to the conflict ensuring freedom and safety for both peoples, and resolutely defend the international legal order,” the letter reads.

Last week, the ICJ said in a landmark opinion that Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jersalem. It also called for an end to the “illegal” occupation of all Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip.

The ICJ’s advisory opinion is not legally binding but carries significant political weight and marks the first time the court has pronounced itself on the legality of the decades-old occupation.

Trump labels Harris as ‘ultra-liberal’

In his first campaign event since the presidential race was upended, former President Trump didn’t waste any time in trying to define his new opponent. At a rally in the crucial battleground state of North Carolina, the Republican presidential nominee repeatedly took aim at Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he derogatorily called “lying Kamala Harris”.

Harris has succeeded her boss, President Biden, as the presumptive Democratic Party nominee after Biden – in a blockbuster announcement on Sunday – dropped his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president.

Fox News says the embattled president’s immediate backing of Harris ignited a surge of endorsements of Harris by Democratic governors, senators, House members and other party leaders. By Monday night, the vice president announced that she had locked up her party’s nomination by landing the backing of a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention. She has also hauled in a staggering $129 million since Biden’s announcement, her campaign touted on Thursday morning.

Speaking to a packed arena in Charlotte, Trump aimed to paint Harris as the “most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history”. He charged that Harris “has been the ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe. She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets the chance to get into office.”

And pointing to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the far-left champion and two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, Trump argued that Harris is “more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Can you believe it?”

Throughout his more than 90 minutes of comments, Trump repeatedly slammed the vice president over border security and crime – two top issues in the 2024 election. Analysts say the strategy by Trump, his campaign and allied groups, is simple: define Harris, who is not nearly as well known to Americans as Trump and Biden, before she has the chance to define herself.

Harris is pointing to her hefty law enforcement résumé as she spotlights Trump’s numerous legal controversies, including his 34 felony convictions two months ago in the first criminal trial of a former or current president.

“As many of you know, before I was elected as vice president, before I was elected as a United States senator, I was the elected attorney general of California. Before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said at an event at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. “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,” she emphasised as she pointed to Trump’s multiple lawsuits and criminal cases, many of which are ongoing. Harris repeated the line of attack the next day at a rally in Milwaukee.

Trump responded at Wednesday’s rally, saying, “I don’t think people are going to buy it.” And he argued that the vice president “was one of the worst prosecutors in history” and that “she destroyed San Francisco”.

The former president touted his support for law enforcement and landed the backing of the National Association of Police Organisations, as the group’s president, Michael McHale, joined Trump on the podium to formally endorse the Republican nominee.

The jabs by Trump come as Harris is in the process of taking full control of the Biden campaign, cementing her nomination, which will formally come as early as next week during a virtual roll call ahead of the Democratic National Convention, and choosing a running mate by early next month.

Harris says she will debate Trump on 10 September

Kamala Harris said that she has agreed to debate Donald Trump on September 10. In May, the campaigns of Trump and Biden had accepted ABC News’ invitation to debate on that date, in what would have been their second match up after the CNN event on June 27.

Harris told reporters Thursday, “You have been asking me about the debate and I’ll tell you I’m ready to debate Donald Trump. I have agreed to the previously-agreed upon September 10 debate. He agreed to that previously. Now, here he appears to be back-pedaling, but I’m ready, and I think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage, and so I’m ready. Let’s go.”

There has been no official word on whether Trump will still accept that date. He has lately said that he would debate Harris, but wants to do so at a Fox News-hosted event. He has been bashing ABC News as biased against him.

Trump loses 5 points in latest major survey – but still leads Harris

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are in a neck-and-neck contest about 100 days before the election, with the latest poll showing Harris gaining five points on Trump. A New York Times/Siena poll of 1,142 voters conducted July 22-24 shows Trump up by one point, 48 per cent to 47 per cent, among likely voters and up two points, 48 per cent to 46 per cent, among registered voters – the latest survey showing Harris making a dent in Trump’s lead over Biden, who trailed Trump by six points in the groups’ early July survey.

Democrats are far more enthusiastic about Harris than they were Biden, the Times/Siena survey found, with nearly 80 per cent of voters who lean Democrat saying they would like Harris to be the nominee, compared to 48 per cent of Democrats who said the same about Biden three weeks ago.

Two polls taken since Biden dropped out show Harris leading: Morning Consult’s weekly presidential race poll, conducted July 22-24 among 11,297 registered voters, shows her with 46 per cent support, compared to Trump’s 45 per cent, while she is up 44 per cent to 42 per cent over Trump in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Monday and Tuesday.

Four other polls show Trump winning: he leads Harris by three points, 49 per cent to 46 per cent, in an online CNN/SSRS survey taken July 22-23; by two points, 47 per cent to 45 per cent, in another Morning Consult poll; by one point, 46 per cent to 45 per cent, in a NPR/PBS/Marist poll; and by three points, 44 per cent to 41 per cent, in an Economist/YouGov poll conducted Sunday-Tuesday that also found Kennedy with five per cent support.

US arrests Mexican drug lord ‘El Mayo’ and El Chapo’s son in Texas

The US justice department has arrested two leaders of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including the cartel’s co-founder, for leading deadly fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking networks. The arrests were made in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges against cartel leaders Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as “El Mayo”, one of the group’s co-founders, and Joaquin Guzman. Both men face several charges in the United States for allegedly leading the cartel’s criminal operations.

“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced,” said Garland on Thursday. “The justice department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable.”

The charges are part of a crackdown on Sinaloa cartel leaders. Last year, the US justice department charged more than two dozen members of the Sinaloa cartel, including the sons of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, accusing them of supplying precursor chemicals required to make fentanyl.

Over 12 million child slaves in the world

There are almost 50 million people worldwide who are victims of various forms of modern slavery, of which over 12 million are minors, especially “in forms of forced labour which includes those for the purposes of sexual exploitation, work and illicit activities, and in forced marriages”, with a “growing” trend.

This is stated in the “Piccoli Schiavi Invisibili” report, now in its 14th edition, drawn up by Save the Children and released on the occasion of the International Day against Human Trafficking.

The report says that “among the minors, 3.3 million are involved in forced labour, mainly for sexual exploitation (1.69 million) or for labour exploitation (1.31 million), in areas such as domestic work, agriculture, manufacturing, construction, begging or illicit activities, while 320,000 are subjected to forced labour by states, as prisoners, political dissidents, or members of persecuted ethnic or religious minorities.

Paris Olympics opening ceremony tonight

Paris will launch its Summer Games 2024 opening ceremony tonight along the Seine, marking the first time the event is held outside a stadium, set to begin on Friday at 7:30 pm. The ceremony is expected to draw an audience of over 300,000 spectators with more than one billion viewers expected to tune in around the world.

Over 10,000 athletes from 206 delegations will glide along the river on nearly 100 boats for a spectacle lasting almost four hours.

Paris Olympics Day 2 results: Women’s Football: Group A: Canada-New Zealand 2-1; Spain-Japan 2-1; France-Colombia 3-2;  Group B: Germany-Australia 3-0; US-Zambia 3-0; Group C: Nigeria-Brazil 0-1

Day 3 Men’s Football schedule: 3pm: Argentina v Iraq; Dominican Rep. v. Spain; 5pm: Ukraine v. Morocco; Uzberikistan v. Egypt; 7 pm: New Zealand v USA; Israel v. Paraguay; 9pm: France v. Guinea; Japan v. Mali