Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. Election Day, the firing of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and North Korean weapons tests.
America Votes
Millions of Americans flocked to the polls on Tuesday to elect the next president of the United States: either Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party or Republican Party nominee and former President Donald Trump. The winner will not only steer the helm of the world’s wealthiest, most powerful democracy, but also shape global foreign-policy decisions to come, from competition with China to wars in Europe and the Middle East.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. Election Day, the firing of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and North Korean weapons tests.
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America Votes
Millions of Americans flocked to the polls on Tuesday to elect the next president of the United States: either Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party or Republican Party nominee and former President Donald Trump. The winner will not only steer the helm of the world’s wealthiest, most powerful democracy, but also shape global foreign-policy decisions to come, from competition with China to wars in Europe and the Middle East.
Most polls are still open at time of writing, and results might not be in until later this week. But initial New York Times polling has Harris narrowly ahead. A candidate needs at least 270 Electoral College votes to win. But at the end of the day, experts believe that just seven U.S. swing states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—will likely determine the outcome.
Still, both candidates made a last-ditch effort on Tuesday to sway uncertain voters to their side. The Harris campaign said its staff and volunteers have knocked on more than 100,000 doors in Pennsylvania by midday Tuesday, while Harris herself is doing local radio interviews in each of the seven battleground states. Trump spent Election Day in Florida, where he cast his ballot, reiterated immigration concerns among voters, and prepared for his watch party in Palm Beach County.
Many voting stations have reported high traffic and few major voting system issues. However, U.S. intelligence has warned of potential political violence in the coming days, depending on the results.
The New York Times reports that far-right groups backing Trump have sent messages to poll-watchers to be ready to dispute the final tallies in Democratic areas; posters in dozens of Telegram channels have questioned the electoral process’s integrity and threatened interference to bolster Trump’s success; and at least one local chapter of the extremist Proud Boys (who helped lead the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021) has suggested that anything less than fighting for a Trump victory would be accepting “the yoke of tyranny and oppression.”
Several Republican-led states have also attempted to block the U.S. Justice Department from monitoring the vote. Officials in Florida said they will prevent federal election monitors from entering polling stations on Tuesday, and Missouri and Texas filed lawsuits on Monday seeking similar action. But judges in both states issued overnight decisions that denied or prompted the withdrawal of the requests, clearing the Justice Department to proceed with monitoring as planned.
U.S. intelligence agencies have also warned that adversaries such as Russia and Iran are working to sow chaos during and after the election. Foreign nations are peddling disinformation “at a greater level than ever before,” said Jen Easterly, the head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, on Monday, and a declassified National Intelligence Council memorandum has accused Moscow and Tehran of trying to “foment or contribute to violent protests” once the results are in.
On Tuesday, the FBI accused Russia of being behind a series of bomb threats made against polling stations across several U.S. states, though “none of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.”
For more up-to-date analysis and expert commentary, follow FP’s live election coverage.
Today’s Most Read
- The Global Stakes as America Votes by FP Staff
- Why Electoral Violence Starts—and How It Can End by FP Contributors
- Trump’s Foreign-Policy Influencers by FP Staff
What We’re Following
New defense chief. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, saying that “significant gaps on handling the battle” in Gaza had developed between the two men. “At the height of a war, complete trust is needed between the prime minister and the defense minister,” Netanyahu said. “In recent months, that trust between the defense minister and I was damaged.” Foreign Minister Israel Katz will replace Gallant, and Knesset parliamentarian Gideon Saar will take on Katz’s previous role.
Gallant has long been seen as a more moderate figure in Netanyahu’s cabinet, having disparaged the prime minister’s goal of “total victory” over Hamas in comments made in August. Yet rights groups remain critical of Gallant’s handling of the war, and in May, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Gallant (as well as Netanyahu and three senior Hamas officials) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Gallant posted on X on Tuesday that Israel’s security “was and will always remain my life’s mission.”
Weapons posturing. North Korea test-fired a slew of short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday, just five days after it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile with the ability to hit the mainland United States. Tuesday’s weapons flew roughly 248 miles before landing in waters east of the Korean Peninsula, according to South Korean military intelligence, and Seoul expects more such testing to come. “In preparation for additional launches, our military has strengthened surveillance and alertness,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that it was sharing live tracking with Washington and Tokyo.
Pyongyang’s weapons posturing comes at a moment when Seoul and the European Union are demanding that North Korea immediately withdraw its troops stationed in Russia. On Monday, Ukrainian forces said they fired for the first time on North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia’s Kursk region—bringing a third country directly into the conflict and potentially escalating it into a larger regional war.
“We are working and we will be destroying the Russians, the North Korean soldiers, and anyone who will threaten Ukraine,” Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said. North Korea is believed to have sent more than 10,000 troops, including 1,500 elite special forces, to Russia to assist Moscow in its war against Ukraine.
Terrorist threats. Police in Germany and Poland arrested eight people, including an elected official with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, on Tuesday for alleged involvement in a plot to seize areas in the German state of Saxony as well as Poland to carry out ethnic cleansing against “unwanted” groups. Prosecutors say the suspects had “racist, antisemitic, and partially apocalyptic ideas” driven by Nazi ideology and the belief that Germany was close to collapse.
The AfD said it had no connection with the extremist separatist group. However, the right-wing party has a history of Nazi-leaning rhetoric and policies, such as when AfD leader Maximilian Krah said in May that Nazi paramilitary SS officers weren’t automatically “criminals” despite being responsible for the Holocaust.
Meanwhile, Western officials have accused Moscow of planting two incendiary devices at DHL logistics hubs in Germany and the United Kingdom in July as part of a covert operation aimed at starting fires aboard cargo or passenger planes flying to the United States and Canada. Lithuanian and Polish police have arrested several suspects allegedly tied to the plot. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.
Island election. Palau held a general election on Tuesday that could determine how close the Pacific Island nation gets to Washington’s interests. Incumbent President Surangel Whipps Jr., who recently approved the expansion of U.S. military interests across the archipelago, is challenging former President (and brother-in-law) Tommy Remengesau Jr., who has cautioned against sidling too close to the United States for fear of retribution from China.
Both candidates support ongoing diplomatic ties with Taiwan, making Palau one of only 12 countries to do so. But Whipps has accused Beijing of using travel bans and suspected cyberattacks to pressure Palau into switching sides. This year, Whipps renewed a Compact of Free Association deal with Washington that will give Palau $890 million in economic assistance over 20 years in exchange for the U.S. military’s continued access to the country’s territory.
Odds and Ends
It’s not every day that the Scottish capital plays host to one type of Interpol, let alone two. Yet if you were asking for directions to Interpol’s event in Glasgow late Monday, you could have received one of two answers: how to get to the International Criminal Police Organization’s general assembly at the Scottish Event Campus, or how to get to the New York City-based post-punk band at the city’s Royal Concert Hall. It’s unclear which event the attendees had more fun at.