Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his coalition partner Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have decided to hold a vote on dissolving the Knesset next week and call for an early election, the Prime Minister's Office announced Monday.
Why it matters: The collapse of the government comes less than a month before President Biden's visit to Israel, which is planned for July 13. According to the rotation agreement between Bennett and Lapid, once the Knesset is dissolved and an election is called, Lapid will become the acting prime minister.
The legendary Marie Brenner tells me it's "a tonic at this frightening moment in our history":
In "The Desperate Hours: One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines" (out tomorrow), Brenner draws on 200+ interviews for a gripping account of NewYork-Presbyterian's heroics — with too little federal help — as COVID smothered the city.
Why it matters: "COVID would reveal everything — the pressure that made some crumble but also the valor that meant confronting the fragility of the big-business hospital system, with its marble halls and gleaming towers paid for by New York titans," Brenner writes. Brenner writes that Dr. Steven Corwin, the hospital system's president and CEO, had said somberly as he addressed thousands of NewYork-Presbyterian employees at an all-hospital briefing in March 2020:
"We are in this together — the cavalry isn’t coming."
Germany has to cut natural gas consumption and increase the burning of coal as the country moves away from its dependence on Russia for its energy supplies, Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced Sunday.
Driving the news: The Green Party lawmaker in Germany's center-left ruling coalition said in a statement that German gas storage facilities were currently about 57% full and the situation was going to be "really tight in winter" if the government didn't take the action.
Former rebel fighter Gustavo Petro is set to become Colombia's first leftist president after narrowly defeating millionaire businessman Rodolfo Hernández in Sunday's runoff election, early results showed.
The big picture: Petro's running mate, Francia Márquez, will become Colombia's first Black vice president.
Border Patrol agents set an all-time monthly record in May with nearly 223,000 migrant apprehensions at the southwest border, according to recently released U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Why it matters: The data underscores the ongoing logistical, humanitarian and political challenges facing President Biden at the border. Sustained Mexican migration, new flows from farther-flung nations like Ukraine and an increase in multiple attempted crossings are driving the unprecedented numbers.
Swimming's international governing body, FINA, voted on Sunday to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women's swimming competitions.
Why it matters: For athletes like Lia Thomas, who earlier this year became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title and has expressed hopes of swimming in the Olympics, the new policy could dash dreams of competing in such elite events.
