Israel’s airport authority on Friday listed the departure of a commercial Israeli airliner to the United Arab Emirates on its planned schedule for the first time.
Why it matters: The milestone flight is another sign of progress in the U.S.-brokered normalization deal between the two countries that was announced two weeks ago.
Most people across 14 wealthy countries surveyed by Pew tend to think their country has handled the pandemic well — and in Denmark and Australia that view is near-universal.
The flipside: There are two exceptions to the generally positive outlook: the U.S. and U.K. Americans were also by far the most likely to say the pandemic has divided their country (77%), rather than uniting it (18%).
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that he will resign once a new leader of his party is elected due to ongoing health issues with ulcerative colitis, per the AP.
Why it matters: Abe, who many thought might retire when his term ended in 2021, has been a key international ally of President Trump and a steady hand at the top of Japanese politics for a long time. The country had been known for its frequent prime ministerial turnover, but Abe has been in power since 2012 — following a short stint from 2006 to 2007.
Microsoft is working with Walmart on its efforts to buy TikTok's U.S. business from China's ByteDance, Axios has learned from multiple sources close to the process.
The state of play: The idea would be to helpturn TikTok U.S. into more of an e-commerce app for creators and users, much like what TikTok parent company ByteDance does with a similar app in China.
New Zealand's High Court sentenced the Australian white supremacist who admitted killing 51 people in two Christchurch mosques to life in prison with no parole.
Why it matters: Brenton Tarrant, 29, is the first person in New Zealand to receive the sentence. The 2019 attack is considered the worst in the country's history and one of the world's worst shootings by a single gunman. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she'd been moved by the dozens of survivors who faced him in court to give victim impact statements this week.
