Vice President Kamala Harris has secured enough pledges of support from delegates to the Democratic National Convention to win the party’s presidential nomination, with no obvious challenger. On Monday, Harris traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, where she rallied campaign staff and supporters. Harris defended the Biden administration’s accomplishments and referenced her work as a courtroom prosecutor who went after perpetrators of all kinds.

Vice President Kamala Harris: “Before I was elected as vice president, before I was elected as United States senator, I was the elected attorney general, as I’ve mentioned, of California. Before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I 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.”

The Democratic National Committee confirmed it will hold a “virtual roll call” to confirm its presidential nominee by August 7, roughly two weeks before the DNC kicks off in Chicago on August 19.

The Harris campaign says it raised $81 million during the first 24 hours of her candidacy — a record haul. This comes after Harris’s campaign received nearly $100 million of previously raised funds for President Biden’s now-canceled reelection campaign. Several Republican campaign finance lawyers have promised to challenge the transfer in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission. We’ll have more on these stories after headlines. 

In Gaza, Israeli forces are continuing their new ground invasion of the southern city of Khan Younis, where thousands of people are fleeing airstrikes and heavy artillery fire. At least 84 Palestinians were killed over the past day, with more than 300 others wounded. Medical staff at the Nasser Medical Complex report they are completely overwhelmed and have been forced to treat patients on hospital floors. Relatives gathered outside the hospital Monday to mourn the dead. This is Ahmed Sammour, who lost his infant child and several relatives when an Israeli airstrike destroyed the home where they were sheltering. 

Ahmed Sammour: “We are tired. We are tired in Gaza. Every day our children are martyred. Every day, every moment. This is the blood of our children. It has not yet dried. … No one told us to evacuate. They brought four floors crashing down on civilians.”

Israel’s military says it has begun vaccinating its soldiers against the paralytic disease polio after poliovirus was detected in several wastewater samples in Gaza. The World Health Organization warns the risk of further spread remains high while Gaza’s children go unvaccinated during Israel’s assault, which has devastated Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Public health officials have called it a major setback for global efforts to eradicate polio.

Israeli military raids on the West Bank have killed at least seven Palestinians, including a paramedic who died in a drone strike on the Tulkarm refugee camp.

Elsewhere, several international activists were hospitalized in the West Bank after they were assaulted by illegal Jewish settlers in the town of Qusra. Israeli soldiers who witnessed the attack reportedly fired warning shots but made no arrests. This comes just days after the International Court of Justice ruled Israel’s decadeslong occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is unlawful.

Meanwhile, representatives from rival Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, have been meeting with Chinese mediators in Beijing, where earlier today they announced an interim national unity government responsible for the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington, D.C., Monday ahead of his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Activists opposing Israel’s assault on Gaza are planning major protests across D.C., while dozens of Democrats say they will boycott the address. Last week, some 230 Capitol Hill staffers signed a letter calling on their bosses to either protest or boycott Netanyahu’s speech. Vice president and presumptive presidential candidate Kamala Harris will not preside over the address and will instead attend an event with the Zeta Phi Beta sorority in Indianapolis. But Harris is reportedly planning to meet privately with Prime Minister Netanyahu during his visit. There are also reportedly plans for Biden to meet with Netanyahu on Thursday, though it’s unclear if Biden would be well enough to do so as he recovers from COVID. A possible meeting between Netanyahu and Donald Trump has also not been confirmed.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee grilled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Monday over security failures ahead of the July 13 Trump assassination attempt, which Cheatle admitted was her agency’s “most significant operational failure.”

Kimberly Cheatle: “The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed. As a director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.”

Both Democrats and Republicans are calling on Cheatle to resign after she repeatedly stonewalled lawmakers when pressed on more specifics around what went wrong. Among the few things Cheatle did reveal was that her agency was informed about a suspicious figure multiple times before the shooting and that the roof the gunman shot from had been identified as a potential security vulnerability. She also said the shooter was not considered a “threat” until “seconds before the gunfire started.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans used Monday’s hearing to lash out at the Secret Service’s DEI policies — that’s diversity, equity and inclusion — in a series of misogynistic attacks. Tim Burchett of Tennessee told Cheatle, “Ma’am, you are a DEI horror story,” while Texas lawmaker Michael Cloud asked Cheatle, “Does every Secret Service agent meet the same qualifications, or do you have different standards for different people?”

A federal judge has sentenced a January 6 rioter who performed a Nazi salute at the top of the Capitol steps to five years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Tyler Dykes, a former marine, also attended the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. During his sentencing hearing, Tyler said, “I stand with President Trump and support him to be the next president of our country.”

In related news, a Republican state senator from Ohio was forced to apologize after he said only a “civil war” would save the country if Trump loses in November. George Lang made the comments during vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s first solo campaign rally in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio.

Sen. George Lang: “I believe wholeheartedly Donald Trump and Butler County’s JD Vance are the last chance to save our country politically. I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil war to save the country. And it will be saved.”

Ohio Senate Democrats said in response, “Inciting violence over an election that hasn’t even occurred yet is irresponsible and undemocratic.”

When JD Vance took to the stage at the Middletown, Ohio, rally, he repeatedly attacked Kamala Harris and went on a tangent about diet Mountain Dew.

Sen. JD Vance: “It is the weirdest thing to me. Democrats say that it is racist to believe — well, they say it’s racist to do anything. I had a diet Mountain Dew yesterday and one today. I’m sure they’re going to call that racist, too. But it’s good.”

Here in New York, activists gathered Monday to observe the Union Square Climate Clock as it ticked down below five years for the first time ever. Democracy Now! spoke to climate activist Gan Golan.

Gan Golan: “We’re here today because it is Climate Emergency Day. It’s the day when the Climate Clock ticks down from five years to four years, meaning we now have four years to rapidly accelerate progress on climate solutions to avoid the worst of climate catastrophe. And it is a very short amount of time, and that is why we need to push politicians, corporations and move the media and everyone to understand that the world has a deadline.”

In Greenland, longtime anti-whaling and environmental activist Paul Watson has been detained in the capital Nuuk under an international arrest warrant issued by Japan. Watson was arrested as his ship docked in Greenland before setting off to the North Pacific on a mission to intercept a Japanese whaling ship. Watson, who’s the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and co-founded Greenpeace, has led countless direct actions over the years. Greenland authorities have refused to grant him bail and could extradite the Canadian American citizen to Japan, where he could face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

A Russian court has sentenced the Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to six-and-a-half years in prison after convicting her of spreading false information about the Russian army. Kurmasheva is an editor with the U.S. government-funded news service Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which called the trial and conviction “a mockery of justice” and demanded Kurmasheva be reunited with her family. Kurmasheva said in a prior courtroom appearance she had not heard her children’s voices in months.

Alsu Kurmasheva: “The last time was in October last year. I don’t have permission to make calls. I have no opportunity to call. I don’t even have the opportunity to correspond. That is, letters by mail take a month and a half.”

Reporter: “And how do you feel?”

Alsu Kurmasheva: “Steadily worse.”

In France, hundreds of people marched in Paris Saturday to protest the participation of the Israeli delegation in the 2024 Summer Olympics amid Israel’s relentless war on Gaza. The Olympic Games kick off in Paris on Friday. Protesters waved Palestinian flags and carried banners that read “Ban Israel” and “Genocide is not an Olympic event.”

Martine: “Israeli athletes’ participation in the Olympics is very shocking, very shocking, especially when we know what has been happening for eight months in Gaza. There are dozens and dozens of young Palestinian athletes who will never be able to participate in the Olympic Games. And they can say 'thank you' to Israel for that, and the international community, because I think that Israel allows itself to behave like this because the international community has only been giving it little slaps on the wrist for decades.”

In Bangladesh, the death toll from a crackdown on massive student protests has risen to at least 174, with more than 2,500 people arrested, after police and soldiers were granted “shoot-on-sight” orders amid the unrest. Internet access in most of Bangladesh remained dark for a fifth day as the government declared a public holiday Monday. Protesters are seeking job security and higher pay and want an end to civil service job quotas they call discriminatory. We’ll have more on Bangladesh later in the broadcast.