President Joe Biden announced Sunday he is dropping his bid to seek reelection, in a move upending the presidential race just four months before Election Day. In a letter posted Sunday, Biden wrote he was stepping aside “in the best interest of my party and the country.”

Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who quickly received the backing of many powerful Democrats but could still face a challenge for the party’s nomination. If elected, Harris would become the first woman to serve as U.S. president. She made history in 2020 when she became the first Black person, first person of South Asian descent and first woman to be elected vice president.

The 81-year-old Biden faced tremendous pressure to drop out following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised questions about his physical and mental health, as well as his ability to beat Trump. Biden announced the decision while at his beach home in Delaware, where he has been isolating after testing positive for COVID.

Biden’s decision makes Trump, who is 78, the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history.

Questions about Biden’s candidacy have been growing since at least last year. The activist group RootsAction launched a campaign called Don’t Run Joe 20 months ago. During the primary season, more than a half-million voters chose “uncommitted” instead of Biden to protest his support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Biden’s decision comes just four weeks before the Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago on August 19, though the DNC has considered holding a virtual roll call vote to lock in a nominee before the convention. The DNC rules committee will meet on Wednesday. The last open Democratic convention took place in 1968 in Chicago after Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to seek reelection.

On Sunday, Harris wrote, “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.” Harris has already picked up endorsements from 32 senators, 153 representatives and 10 governors, as well as former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. New York Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Harris, writing, “it is crucial that our party and country swiftly unite to defeat Donald Trump and the threat to American democracy.” AOC had warned against the effort to push Biden out, saying the demand was being driven by wealthy donors.

Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have yet to make any endorsement. Neither has independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who praised Biden as “the most pro-working class president in modern American history.”
Many Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, responded to Biden’s announcement by calling on him to immediately resign as president.

We’ll have more on Biden’s decision and the Democratic race after headlines.

In Gaza, Israel has killed at least 39 Palestinians so far today in Khan Younis. One Israeli strike hit a tent used by journalists near Al-Aqsa Hospital. Israel began attacking Khan Younis just moments after it ordered 400,000 Palestinians to evacuate the area. The official death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza has topped 39,000, with over 90,000 wounded, though the true total is believed to be far higher.

The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel’s 56-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal. In a major decision announced on Friday, the court ruled that Israel “is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible.” The court also said other nations are obligated “not to render aid or assistance” to Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Territories. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki praised the ruling.

Riyad al-Maliki: “All states and the U.N. are now under obligation not to recognize the legality of Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to do nothing to assist Israel in maintaining this illegal situation. They are directed by the court to bring Israel’s illegal occupation to an end.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Washington, where he will address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday. Dozens of Democratic lawmakers plan to boycott the speech. Netanyahu’s visit comes two months after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced he was seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. The Center for Constitutional Rights has urged the Justice Department to investigate Netanyahu for genocide, war crimes and torture.

Israel attacked the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on Saturday, killing six people and injuring 83. The strike came a day after Houthi fighters launched a drone strike on Tel Aviv that killed one person. The attacks raised fears Israel’s war on Gaza could spark a broader regional conflict. Israel is also continuing to launch strikes on southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese photojournalist Christina Assi of Agence France-Presse carried the Olympic torch in Paris on Sunday to honor journalists wounded or killed on the job. Assi lost her leg in the same Israeli attack that killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah. Christina Assi spoke Sunday.

Christina Assi: “Of course, this is all for my best friend, Issam Abdallah, and all the other journalists who we have lost this year. This is all for them and to pay tribute and to honor them, to honor their memory. And I will keep Issam’s memory alive in everything I do. It’s all for him.”

In Bangladesh, the government rolled back, but stopped short of abolishing, its highly contested quota system for public sector jobs, after massive student protests that killed 160 demonstrators amid a brutal crackdown. This is a lawyer for the students.

Shah Monjurul Hoque: “The Supreme Court, according to Article 104, gave a final solution to this quota system. That is 93% quota for general people, 5% quota for freedom fighters and their kin, 1% for the ethnic minority community and 1% for third gender and physically disabled.”

Over 500 others have been arrested since Bangladesh’s High Court reinstated the quota last month, which reserved up to 30% of the coveted government positions for the relatives of soldiers who fought in Bangladesh’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971. But students are vowing to resume the now-suspended protests until the new rule is implemented, a curfew fully lifted, schools reopened, and detained students and protest leaders released. In response to the student uprising, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered the army to use deadly force against protesters and imposed a nationwide curfew and a communications blackout.

At least 40 people have died after a boat carrying asylum seekers caught fire off the coast of Haiti. Another 41 were rescued. Aid groups warn a growing number of people are attempting to flee Haiti amid a spiraling security and humanitarian crisis.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is traveling to Haiti today to show support for the Kenya-led international military mission that is now operating on Haitian soil.
In related news, over 40 Haitian gang leaders, police and officials were charged last week over the November 2018 massacre in Port-au-Prince, which killed dozens of civilians. The police officers involved had been working with a U.N. mission. One of those charged on Thursday was notorious officer turned gang leader Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, who is accused of financing the operation.

Consumer and digital rights groups are calling for Big Tech monopolies to be broken up following Friday’s global Microsoft outage that grounded flights and caused chaos at banks, media companies and mass transit around the world. The advocacy group NextGen Competition said, “For decades, Microsoft’s pursuit of a vendor lock-in strategy has prevented the public and private sectors from diversifying their IT capabilities. … Millions are feeling the consequences … of the greed and ego of one of the most egregious offenders in Big Tech.”

In Illinois, a former sheriff’s deputy has been charged with first-degree murder for fatally shooting Sonya Massey, an unarmed 36-year old Black woman, in the face inside her own home. Sean Grayson, who is white, was responding to a 911 call on July 6 from Massey, who reported a prowler near her home. But instead of helping her, the officer yelled at her and shot her three times, despite no signs of danger and as she held her hands up in fear. He also told his partner not to render aid to Massey after shooting her. The police killing has prompted community outrage and protests calling for justice for Sonya Massey.

Longtime Texas Democratic Congressmember Sheila Jackson Lee has died at the age of 74. Jackson Lee, who was a tireless fighter for civil rights and progressive causes throughout her three decades in the U.S. House, announced last month she had pancreatic cancer. In 2002, Congressmember Jackson Lee was an early and outspoken opponent of the disastrous and illegal invasion of Iraq. She was also an impassioned advocate for reparations.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: “Black people in America are the descendants of Africans kidnapped and transported to the United States with the explicit complicity of the U.S. government and every arm of the United States lawmaking and law enforcement infrastructure. The dehumanizing and atrocities of slavery were not isolated occurrences but mandated by federal laws that were codified and enshrined in the Constitution. The role of the federal government in supporting the institution of slavery and subsequent discrimination directed against Blacks is an injustice that must be formally acknowledged and addressed.”

Sheila Jackson Lee also led the charge to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday, which was finally signed into law in 2021, making it the first new federal holiday in nearly four decades.