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Israel’s president has tapped opposition leader Yair Lapid to form a new government on Wednesday – a step that could lead to the end of the lengthy rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Reuven Rivlin announced his decision on live television a day after Netanyahu failed to cobble together a governing coalition by a midnight deadline. Rivlin spent the day consulting with all of the parties elected to Israel’s parliament and announced late Wednesday that he believes Lapid has the best chance of forming a coalition.
Source: france24.com
Foreign diplomats in El Salvador have criticised President Nayib Bukele for broadcasting on national television their purportedly private meeting with him, saying the broadcast came as a surprise. Bukele held the talks with a group of envoys on Monday after his party at the weekend ousted the country's top prosecutor and all the key judges who sit on the Supreme Court's constitutional chamber. The removal of the officials had drawn sharp rebukes from Washington, the European Union and rights groups.
Source: reuters.com
Britain criticised France's threat to cut power supplies to the British Channel Island of Jersey after a row over post-Brexit fishing rights and will send two offshore patrol vessels to the area to monitor the situation.
Source: reuters.com
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin will send its first crew to space on July 20 and is offering one of the seats to the winner of an online auction, the company said Wednesday. The trip will last a total of ten minutes, four of which passengers will spend above the Karman line that marks the recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space. The reusable suborbital rocket system was named after Alan Shepard, who sixty years ago on Wednesday became the first American in space.
Source: france24.com
Hyundai is recalling more than 390,000 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada for two problems that can cause engine fires. In one recall, owners are being told to park their vehicles outdoors until repairs are made. The largest recall covers more than 203,000 Santa Fe Sport SUVs from 2013 through 2015. Some are being recalled a second time. Brake fluid can leak into the anti-lock brake computer, causing an electrical short that can lead to fires. Owners should park outdoors and away from structures until the problem is fixed, according to documents posted Tuesday by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Source: apnews.com
Archaeologists will move thousands of bodies from the site of a medieval church that lies along the route of the HS2 railway. The remains of St Mary's Church in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, built in the 11th century, are being carefully excavated to allow work on the high speed line to continue. All discovered remains will be reburied in a local spot to be determined by HS2, with a specially created monument to mark the location.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
A French couple who uncovered letters sent to an English WW1 soldier have made contact with his great-great-nephew after a social media appeal. The letters to lance corporal William Swift, who signed up underage at 16 in 1914, had been hidden for more than 100 years, when workers renovating the couple's home found them under the floorboards.
Source: news.sky.com
Several employees of a pharmaceutical company have been arrested in Indonesia for allegedly washing and reselling used Covid nasal swab test kits. Up to 9,000 passengers at an airport in Medan may have been tested with the reused swab sticks, say police. State-owned company Kimia Farma is now reportedly facing a potential lawsuit launched on behalf of the travellers.
Source: bbc.com
A small civilian plane struck the home late Tuesday in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, leaving four people dead, police said. Details about what led to the crash weren't immediately available.
Source: cnn.com
U.S. air safety officials have asked Boeing Co (BA.N) to supply fresh analysis and documentation showing numerous 737 MAX subsystems would not be affected by electrical grounding issues first flagged in three areas of the jet in April, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The extra analysis injects new uncertainty over the timing of when Boeing's best-selling jetliner would be cleared to fly by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The electrical problems have suspended nearly a quarter of its 737 MAX fleet.
Source: reuters.com
Christie’s said Tuesday it is selling a bottle of French wine that spent more than a year in orbit aboard the International Space Station. The auction house thinks a wine connoisseur might pay as much as $1 million to own it. The Pétrus 2000 is one of 12 bottles sent into space in November 2019 by researchers exploring the potential for extraterrestrial agriculture. It returned 14 months later subtly altered, according to wine experts who sampled it at a tasting in France.
Source: apnews.com
France is "ready" to cut electricity to the British island of Jersey -- just off the French coast -- should the United Kingdom not abide by clauses of the Brexit agreement regarding fisheries, French Maritime Minister Annick Girardin said Tuesday. "As you know, the agreement provides for retaliatory measures, and we are ready to use them," Girardin told the French parliament. Girardin also claimed the Jersey government -- which issued 41 fishing permits to French vessels on April 30 -- had placed "unilateral" restrictions on the trawlers.
Source: cnn.com
The world's oldest person has pulled out of the torch relay for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics because she does not want to spread COVID-19 in her care home. Kane Tanaka, 118, was due to take part in the prestigious event in Fukuoka in southern Japan, on 11 May, but has withdrawn over safety concerns.
Source: news.sky.com
The Australian Defense Forces will stop using Israeli defense company Elbit’s Battle Management System (BMS) starting in mid-June, Australian Defense Magazine reported last week. The ADF informed Elbit Australia about the decision without giving any explanation, the report said. Tensions had been simmering between Elbit and the Australian Defense Department, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported last week. Elbit was imposing “huge premiums” because it has a monopoly on the system, an officer familiar with the matter was quoted as saying.
Source: jpost.com
Manchester City reached the Champions League final for the first time in their history after Riyad Mahrez's double secured a 2-0 victory (4-1 on aggregate) over 10-man Paris Saint-Germain on a historic night at the Etihad Stadium. Pep Guardiola, who reaches the Champions League final for the first time since he won the competition with Barcelona in 2011, will now lead his side against either Chelsea or Real Madrid in the final in Istanbul on Saturday, May 29.
Source: skysports.com
Afghan forces pushed back a string of insurgent attacks on checkpoints across the southern province, where the US military on Sunday handed over a base to government forces as part of its formal pullout that began on 1 May. About 1,000 families have fled their homes to escape the fighting that erupted on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and some other parts of the province, said Sayed Mohammad Ramin, the region’s director for refugees.
Source: theguardian.com
Sotheby's said on Tuesday it would accept bitcoin and ethereum as payment for Banksy's iconic artwork "Love is in the Air", a first for a physical art auction and the latest sign of growing mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies. Bidding for the work is estimated at $3 million to $5 million, Sotheby's said, with the buyer having the option to pay with cryptocurrency. The auction house has tied up with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc (COIN.O) for the sale. Coinbase said in a blog it would help manage price fluctuations during the auction in New York next week.
Source: reuters.com
The soldiers dug the wooden barracks into a cave on the top of Mount Scorluzzo, a 3,095-metre (10,154ft) peak overlooking the Stelvio pass. For the next three-and-a-half years, the cramped, humid space was home to about 20 men from the Austro-Hungarian army as they fought against Italian troops in what became known as the White War, a battle waged across treacherous and bitterly cold Alpine terrain during the first world war. Fought mainly in the Alps of the Lombardy region of Italy and the Dolomites in Trentino Alto-Adige, the White War was a period of history frozen in time until the 1990s, when global warming started to reveal an assortment of perfectly preserved relics – weapons, sledges, letters, diaries and, as the retreat of glaciers hastened, the bodies of soldiers.
Source: theguardian.com
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