WORLD BRIEFING: July 24, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris, in the first rally of her 2024 presidential campaign, told supporters in Wisconsin Tuesday that she will spend the coming weeks “continuing to unite our party” ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month and this fall’s showdown with Donald Trump. Speaking about her record as a prosecutor in California, Harris said she “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,” she said. - CNN

French President Emmanuel Macron said he will keep a centrist caretaker government on through the Olympics to avoid “disorder," brushing aside an 11th-hour prime minister nomination by the country's leftist coalition. Macron made his widely expected announcement in a TV interview late Tuesday. Just before that appearance, the leftist coalition that won the most votes in this month's parliamentary elections selected little-known civil servant Lucie Castets as their choice for prime minister. But Macron told the France 2 network that the current government, who resigned last week to take on a purely caretaker role, would “handle current affairs during the Olympics,” staged in Paris and elsewhere in France through August 11. - Euronews

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a long list of critics over the war against Hamas in Gaza. They include fellow Israelis demanding a deal to bring Israeli hostages home, as well as many nations that are moving to isolate Israel internationally. But on Wednesday afternoon, Netanyahu will speak in one of the few places he can count on for support — among Republicans in a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. Yet even in Washington, he'll face a growing number of critics among Democratic lawmakers, as well as protests expected in the streets. On his flight to Washington on Monday, Netanyahu had a baseball cap emblazoned with the words "Total Victory" — which sums up his belief that Hamas must be completely destroyed in Gaza. This is likely to be a central theme in his speech. - NPR

Russian disinformation threatens to interfere with Moldovan elections later this year just as the country begins to make significant progress on reforms under pro-Western President Maia Sandu, U.S. and Moldovan officials said at separate events in Washington on July 23. Moldova is preparing for a vote on October 20 that will include a referendum on membership in the European Union. Sandu, who defeated pro-Moscow socialist Igor Dodon in 2020 and has since said that Moldova’s future is in the EU, will seek reelection, a test for the country wedged between Ukraine and Romania. The election will be "historic and pivotal" for the country of 2.5 million people where the transition to democracy and a market economy has been slower than in many post-Soviet states, Moldovan Ambassador Viorel Ursu said. Ursu said Moldova, which is also contending with about 1,000 Russian troops in its breakaway Transdniester region and coping with an influx of about 1 million refugees from Ukraine, remains in a vulnerable position, as Russia uses it as "a testing ground" for disinformation, which he said "is everywhere" and getting more advanced. - RFE/RL

Prominent Russian economist Valentina Bondarenko was found dead today in front of her Moscow-area apartment building after "falling out of the window accidentally." Elsewhere this morning in Moscow, Andrei Torgashov, Deputy Chief of the 89th Satellite Communications Center of the Russian Armed Forces, was blown up in his Toyota Land Cruiser. The explosion occurred in a parking lot on Sinyavinskaya Street. Torgashov's legs were torn off. The cause of the car explosion was the detonation of an explosive device.

One of Germany's main regional airports has halted all flights after climate activist protesters glued themselves to a runway. Cologne-Bonn Airport after said "unauthorised people" gained access to the airfield on Wednesday morning, leading to all flight operations being suspended as police moved in. A number of inbound flights have been diverted to nearby Düsseldorf, Hahn, Nuremberg and Hannover airports. Dozens of flights leaving Cologne Airport have been subjected to delays or cancellations. In Finland, protesters were pictured blocking security gates at Helsinki Vantaa Airport. Elsewhere, three activists broke the perimeter fence at Oslo's main Gardermoen Airport on Wednesday morning. - BBC