WORLD BRIEFING: July 19, 2024

Democratic megadonors believe Joe Biden is close to exiting the White House race after they threatened to halt funding for his campaign and party grandees indicated they now considered his candidacy untenable. Donors from Wall Street to Hollywood have in the past three days heaped new pressure on party grandees including Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi, urging them to persuade Biden to drop out. One megadonor close to Schumer, who has spoken with people close to the Senate majority leader in recent days, said: “I think it’s going to end very shortly.” “The pressure is insurmountable,” said one senior Democrat in Washington, predicting that Biden would be “out by Monday”. Other people close to the party leadership said it could happen earlier. “Biden’s gotten the message that there’s not another dollar of fundraising,” said one Wall Street bundler — a donor tasked with raising money from other backers. “Members of Congress are getting more aggressive . . . He’s just not going to be able to withstand it.” The moves gained momentum in recent days as a damaging split-screen for the president unfolded on national television, showing Republicans rallying around Donald Trump after he was nearly assassinated, while Biden defied calls from his party to quit and on Thursday was seen struggling to climb aboard Air Force One after testing positive for Covid. - FT

American Airlines, United and Delta have asked the FAA for global ground stop on all flights, according to an alert from the FAA on Friday morning. The FAA is telling air traffic controllers to tell airborne pilots that airlines are currently experiencing communication issues. Meanwhile, flights in the air will stay in the air, but no American, United or Delta flights will take off. It is unclear how widespread the issue is but Melbourne Airport in Australia has also said they are "experiencing a global technology issue" which is impacting their check-in procedures. Global IT outages have also been reported in many countries across the world as airlines, airports, banks and media companies all seem to be experiencing outages and disruptions, including Berlin Airport in Germany, the London Stock Exchange, Google Cloud and Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom. Crowdstrike, the U.S. cybersecurity company, has admitted to being responsible for the error and are working to correct it. - ABC News

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Friday claimed responsibility for a deadly drone blast in Tel Aviv, the Iranian proxy group’s latest attack in what it says is a response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The explosion in a central district home to a number of diplomatic missions, including a US Embassy branch office, killed a 50-year-old man and injured at least 10 others, according to Israeli emergency officials and police. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sare’e said the “significant military operation” was successfully carried out with a new drone capable of “bypassing the enemy’s interception systems.” - CNN

An Italian journalist has been ordered to pay Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of €5,000 (£4,210) over social media posts making fun of her height. A judge ruled that two tweets by Giulia Cortese, who was also handed a suspended fine of €1,200, were defamatory and amounted to "body shaming". It followed an exchange in which Ms Cortese described Ms Meloni as a "little woman" and told her: "I can’t even see you." Reacting to the verdict, Ms Cortese said the Italian government had a "serious problem with freedom of expression and journalistic dissent". - BBC

In a landmark appeal, leading global health experts and advocates are calling for the end of Big Soda’s sponsorship of sporting events throughout the world. This move comes amid rising concerns about the negative impacts of sugary beverages on public health and the environment. A new campaign, “Kick Big Soda Out of Sport,” highlights these harms and urges the global community to support this call to action. Citing escalating rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases associated with consumption of sugary beverages, these groups assert that the International Olympic Committee's association with unhealthy products undermines its commitment to promoting a healthy society through sport. “Serving as a major sponsor of the Olympics allows companies to blanket venues and events with their logos, reaching an audience of over 3 billion watching at home,” said Trish Cotter, Global Lead of the Food Policy Program at global health organization Vital Strategies. “Alongside growing opposition to soda’s involvement in sport, athletes themselves are beginning to speak up about which companies should be permitted to sponsor sporting events. For example, at Euro 2020 Cristiano Ronaldo made a strong statement when he pointedly removed two bottles of Coca-Cola that were placed in front of him at a news conference.”