Monday briefing: ‘Not going back’ – why Kamala Harris has reason to hope

In today's newsletter: The US vice-president has changed the race for the White House - but pitfalls still lie ahead

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Good morning. In the week since Kamala Harris became the de facto Democratic nominee, the contest for the presidency has been transformed. Money has poured in, the polls have tightened, and the campaign is about something fundamentally different. The same Democrats who were almost catatonic over Joe Biden's chances of victory because so many voters saw him as too old to do the job now believe that Donald Trump can be defeated.

But none of that means that Harris is sure of taking the Oval Office - or even that she is the favourite. Today's newsletter explains how she has changed the race, and how much she still has left to do. Here are the headlines.

Social care | Teachers, NHS staff and other key workers who balance part-time work with caring for loved ones are quitting their jobs to avoid being hit with huge cash penalties for breaching carer's allowance rules, according to a study by Carers UK. The report details carers being forced to take desperate measures to avoid breaching tight earnings limits, including quitting their jobs, cutting their hours, turning down pay rises, one-off cost of living payments and performance bonuses, and even working free hours each month.

Israel-Gaza war | Global leaders were engaged in intensive diplomacy on Sunday to dissuade Israel from increasing attacks on Lebanon, in response to a rocket strike that killed 12 children in the occupied Golan Heights. Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he would determine the type" and timing" of the response to Hezbollah's attack.

Immigration and asylum | A woman has died trying to cross the Channel in an overcrowded dinghy, as a number of small boats made the dangerous journey over the weekend.

Home Office | Environmental groups are among 92 civil society organisations who have warned the home secretary Yvette Cooper against the steady erosion of the right to protest" in the UK, and called on her to reverse the previous government's crackdown on peaceful protest.

Venezuela | Nicolas Maduro has been declared the winner of Venezuela's presidential election by the government-controlled electoral authority - a result that appeared to dash opposition hopes of ending 25 years of socialist rule and looked certain to be bitterly contested.