The Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, overwhelmingly voted for a resolution rejecting the creation of a Palestinian state. The resolution was the work of both the parties of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and the right-wing opposition and also had the support of Benny Gantz’s party. The members of Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid’s party, left the Chamber at the time of the vote.

“A Palestinian state in the heartland of Israel would constitute an existential threat to Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilise the region,” the resolution reads.

‘No peace without a Palestinian state’

‘There is no peace or security for anyone without the establishment of a Palestinian state in accordance with international law,’ Nabil Abu Rudeina, spokesperson for President Abu Mazen, said in response to the Resolution approved by the Knesset.

“These decisions,” added Abu Rudeina, “confirm the insistence of Israel and its governing coalition in wanting to throw the entire region into the abyss”. Abu Rudeina then accused the US of being “responsible because of its partiality and unlimited support” for Israel.

Trump gets standing ovation as he enters stage for RNC speech

The crowd went wild at the Republican National Convention after former President Trump made an appearance following the assassination attempt against him.

Former President Trump has formally accepted the Republican nomination for president on the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention, where he delivered his first speech since he narrowly survived an assassination attempt over the weekend.

Turning to his policy goals, Trump vowed to reverse what he said are the failures of the current administration regarding inflation, immigration policy and America’s standing abroad.

“Just a few short years ago, under my presidency, we had the most secure border and best economy in the history of our country,” Trump said.

Veering from topic to topic, he criticised the Biden administration for its record on inflation, insisting he’ll help bring prices down. Trump said the borders will be “totally secure” and the economy will “soar”. He also vowed to achieve peace and harmony on the international stage.

But in order for that to happen, Trump said the current leadership needs to be replaced. He said that carefully, without mentioning Mr. Biden’s name. 

The close of the convention comes as a new CBS News poll shows Trump has gained ground on President Biden in the aftermath of the shooting, both nationally and in key battleground states. Democratic fears over the president’s ability to defeat Trump in November have emerged once again, with several more lawmakers now calling for him to step aside.

Biden appears to accept he may have to leave the race

Several people close to President Biden said on Thursday that they believe he has begun to accept the idea that he may not be able to win in November and may have to drop out of the race, bowing to the growing demands of many anxious members of his party.

One of the people close to him warned that the president had not yet made up his mind to leave the race after three weeks of insisting that almost nothing would drive him out. But another said that “reality is setting in” and that it would not be a surprise if Biden made an announcement soon endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris as his replacement. Biden could drop out of the presidential race as soon as this weekend, according to Axiom.

The New York Times says this account is based on interviews with four people close to the president, all of whom described the situation as extremely delicate and spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending the president. Biden remained in isolation at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after being diagnosed with Covid on Wednesday.

Many other Democrats more distant from the White House said expectations were rising within the party that the president would soon relent – a shift from just days ago when many were in despair about changing his mind. But there was also caution about reading signs from a president with an exceedingly small circle of confidants.

The latest Democratic defection to become public came from Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a key member of the House committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A letter he sent to Biden on July 6 and obtained by The New York Times on Thursday compared the 81-year-old commander in chief to a tiring baseball pitcher and urged him to consult with fellow Democrats about whether to continue his campaign.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats she believed Biden “could soon be convinced to leave”, according to The Washington Post. Meanwhile, a new CBS News / YouGov poll reveals that after the attack, Donald Trump increased his lead and would have 52 per cent of the vote against 47 per cent. Little changes in the case of a match against Vice President Kamala Harris, at 48 per cent, compared to 51 per cent for the former president.

Biden would lose by a landslide – Dem polls

A detailed report compiled by the Democrats reveals that Joe Biden would lose in a landslide in the Electoral College that sent alarm bells ringing through the party leadership leading to fresh public and private calls for the president to step down.

The data, based on voter surveys conducted by the Democratic firm Blue Rose Research and seen by the Wall Street Journal, show that Biden lost not only every swing state but also that he is behind in New Hampshire, Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia and Maine.

Biden leads by just 2.9 percentage points in New Jersey.

 A major concern for Democrats is the fact that half of voters, including 28 per cent of those who supported Biden in 2020 and 52 per cent of undecided voters, believe party leaders lied about the president’s mental fitness. The report says voters are likely to view Democrat’ defence of Biden as dishonest by a ratio of two to one.

Ursula von der Leyen re-elected for EU top job

Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected as president of the European Commission in a make-or-break vote on Thursday that represented the single greatest test of her political legacy, forged across a succession of crises that have rattled the bloc’s foundations.

Following a grilling in the European Parliament, the incumbent received 401 votes in favour and 284 against, a large majority to support her second five-year term.

The comfortable result is a decisive backing of her stewardship and marks a significant turnaround from the last time she faced the hemicycle: back in 2019, she made it through with a record-breaking, razor-thin margin of just nine votes.

“The last five years have shown what we can do together,” she said. “Let us do it again. Let us make the choice of strength. Let us make the choice of leadership.”

The resolution caps intense days of closed-door negotiations that saw the 65-year-old German politician frantically meet with the Parliament’s main groups – in some cases, several times – to secure as many endorsements as possible.

Although the three centrist groups – the European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and the liberals of Renew Europe – had enough seats to re-appoint her, internal disagreements hinted at shaky arithmetic, forcing von der Leyen to reach out to the Greens and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) for additional support.

Her overture to the hard-right ECR, led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS), proved controversial for progressive forces, who saw it as a threat to the centrist coalition. Von der Leyen sought to assuage these fears by promising “no structured cooperation” with Meloni’s group and re-committing herself to the goals of the Green Deal, which her centre-right family has increasingly challenged.

The secret nature of the vote makes it impossible to ascertain who voted for and against her candidacy. But the speech delivered on Thursday morning, with several pointed references to climate action, suggests it was the Greens who acted as king-maker.

“We have secured commitments on the Green Deal, making the EU more socially fair and protecting democracy,” the Greens said, confirming their support.

By contrast, the ECR group said a “large majority of national delegations” would move against the candidate. A representative from Meloni’s Brother of Italy confirmed the premier’s group had voted against the aspirant.

A plethora of promises

It was not just the Greens – all centrist groups got something out of von der Leyen.

Her address featured ideas clearly tailored to the Socialists, like a new Commissioner for housing and a roadmap for women’s rights, and the Liberals, who demand member states respect the rule of law in exchange for receiving EU funds.

The EPP saw a great number of its pet projects included in von der Leyen’s guidelines, such as a European Defence Fund, a three-fold increase in Frontex’s personnel and an “SME and competitiveness check” to cut down red tape. von der Leyen also pitched a new agenda to develop “comprehensive partnerships” with Mediterranean countries, code for EU-funded deals to curb irregular migration.

Analysts say that all in all, von der Leyen managed to strike a balance between legislative ambition and political realism, giving centrist parties something to champion without alienating them. She also excoriated Viktor Orbán’s controversial “peace mission” which she described, to loud applause from the chamber, as a “plain appeasement mission”.

“Europe cannot control dictators and demagogues across the world, but it can choose to protect its own democracy,” von der Leyen told lawmakers.

“Europe cannot determine elections across the world, but it can choose to invest in the security and defence of its own continent. Europe cannot stop change, but it can choose to embrace it by investing in a new age of prosperity and improving our quality of life.”

Her next step will be to interview candidates for Commissioners, submitted by each member state, and decide the structure of her new executive. This process will be delicate, as many capitals are demanding high-profile portfolios for their picks.

Once the College is formed, it will face a confirmation vote in the Parliament later this year. If approved, the 27 Commissioners will take office and kick off their work.

Zelensky attacks Orbán at the European summit without naming him

Ukrainian President Zelensky make an indirect attack on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during the fourth European Political Community (EPC) summit underway at Blenheim Palace, near Oxford, in which they are both present.

“If someone in Europe,” Zelensky said polemically, referring to Orbán‘s recent trip to Moscow, without explicitly mentioning him, “tries to solve the problems behind someone else’s back, if someone wants to pay a visit to the war capital and perhaps promise something against our common interest or at the expense of Ukraine or other countries, why would we consider such a person?”

In a brief press statement, Zelensky said that he was also planning a face-to-face meeting with British Prime Minister Sir Keith Starmer, whom he already met on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington, and said he was convinced that the new UK government will continue along the lines of a strong “support for Ukraine”, in continuity with previous Tory administrations.

Starmer himself then hugged him at the top of the entrance staircase to the building.

Zelensky said in an interview with the BBC that working with Donald Trump, if he is re-elected president of the United States, will be “hard work, but we are hard workers”. Zelensky has said he is willing to work with whoever holds power in the United States. Early this mormning it has become known that Trump and Zelensky have scheduled a phone call today, according to CNN, which cited informed sources. It would be their first conversation since the former president left the White House

In recent days Zelensky has said he is in favour of Russia’s participation in a second peace summit. But Moscow retorted: ‘Zelensky cannot tell us which conferences to attend’.Tass reports Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova branded Zelensky “a non-human” and said he cannot be the one to tell Russia which conferences it should attend.

Giorgia Meloni’s height jibe costs Italian journalist €5,000

An Italian court in Milan on Thursday ordered a journalist to pay €5,000 in damages to Giorgia Meloni for “body shaming” the prime minister on social media. The Milan court also gave Giulia Cortese a suspended fine of €1,200 over another post on X, formerly Twitter, about Meloni’s height.

“Italy’s government has a serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent,” Cortese said in reaction to the sentence.

Meloni launched legal action against the journalist three years after the two women clashed on social media. Cortese published a mocked-up photo of Meloni with late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the background on X.

In response, Meloni posted on Facebook that the fabricated photo was of “unique gravity” and had instructed her attorney to take legal action against the journalist. Cortese responded with further tweets, including one that translates as “You don’t scare me, Giorgia Meloni. After all, you’re only 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall. I can’t even see you.”

Cortese was acquitted of the tweet comparing Meloni to Mussolini but was convicted of defamation for comments on Meloni’s height, which the judge said amounted to “body shaming”. Cortese can appeal the sentence. Meloni’s lawyer said she would donate the €5,000 to charity. Meloni has taken action against journalists before: last year, a Rome court fined best-selling author Roberto Saviano €1,000 plus legal expenses after he insulted Meloni on television in 2021 over her hardline stance on illegal immigration.