“Divisions within Israel’s war cabinet over the lack of post-war plans for the Gaza Strip have erupted in a rare public row, with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant saying the country should not be involved in ruling the besieged and bombarded territory once the fighting ends. On Wednesday, Gallant said he was opposed to the Israeli military control or taking responsibility for the governance of Gaza. … Netanyahu, who has indicated Israel intends to maintain open-ended control over security affairs in the enclave, responded to Gallant’s call saying he was not ‘prepared to exchange Hamastan for Fatahstan.'” (05/16/24)
“Slovakian Deputy Prime Minister Tomas Taraba said he believes Prime Minister Robert Fico will survive Wednesday’s assassination attempt and is ‘not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.’ … The shooting took place after an off-site government meeting in the central Slovak town of Handlova. The suspected gunman was among a small crowd of people waiting to greet the prime minister on the street outside the cultural center where the meeting took place, local media reported. … Based on ‘initial interviews with the suspect,’ Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said the assassination attempt was politically motivated. He said the suspect decided to carry out the attack after the presidential election.” (05/15/24)
“President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to hold two campaign debates — the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC — setting the stage for the first presidential face-off in just weeks. The quick agreement on the timetable to meet followed the Democrat’s announcement that he will not participate in fall presidential debates sponsored by the nonpartisan commission that has organized them for more than three decades. Biden’s campaign instead proposed that media outlets directly organize the debates with the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees, with the first to be held in late June and the second in September before early voting begins.” (05/15/24)
“Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other party leaders agreed on a coalition deal early Thursday that veers the Netherlands toward the hard right, capping a half year of tumultuous negotiations that still left it unclear who would become prime minister. The ‘Hope, courage and pride’ agreement introduces strict measures on asylum seekers, scraps family reunification for refugees and seeks to reduce the number of international students studying in the country. … Wilders has already reluctantly acknowledged that he will not succeed Rutte at the country’s helm. The parties still have to agree on a prime minister, who is expected to be a technocrat from outside the party structures.” (05/16/24)
“The French government has said it will deploy troops to secure ports and the main airport in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia as unrest continues. Clashes erupted on Monday after lawmakers in Paris backed changes to voting rolls that the indigenous population say will dilute their political influence. At least four people, including a police officer, have been killed in the violence. Speaking after chairing a crisis meeting, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said a ban on TikTok and a fresh curfew were being introduced to try to restore calm. President Emmanuel Macron had earlier declared a state of emergency, warning that the violence would be met with a strict response. The unrest started after lawmakers in Paris proposed granting French residents who have lived in the territory for 10 years voting rights in the province. The changes were approved by the French parliament on Wednesday morning.” (05/15/24)
“The US Justice Department on Tuesday notified Boeing that it breached terms of its 2021 agreement in which the company avoided criminal charges for two fatal 737 Max crashes. After a series of safety missteps earlier this year, including a door plug that blew off an Alaska Airlines flight shortly after takeoff in January, the Department of Justice said Boeing is now subject to criminal prosecution. … The Biden administration said in its letter that it has not yet determined how it will proceed, however, and Boeing will have an opportunity to respond to its breach of the agreement – and steps it has taken to remediate the situation – by June 13.” (05/15/24)
“Millions of middle-aged people have been mistakenly led to believe they are not obese, according to an Italian study that looked at body fat instead of weight related to height. Using a new, lower cut-off for obesity would give a truer picture of who is affected, the researchers say. With age, muscle declines and fat builds up around organs in the waist region, often with no change in weight. The challenge is to find a tool that easily screens for obesity. The standard way of categorising people’s weight is by calculating their body mass index, or BMI, which means dividing an adult’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres. It is a quick and easy method, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), and pretty accurate in most people most of the time — but cannot differentiate between fat, muscle and bone.” (05/15/24)
“Scientists once thought of dinosaurs as sluggish, cold-blooded creatures. Then research suggested that some could control their body temperature, but when and how that shift came about remained a mystery. Now, a new study estimates that the first warm-blooded dinosaurs may have roamed the Earth about 180 million years ago, about halfway through the creatures’ time on the planet. Warm-blooded creatures — including birds, who are descended from dinosaurs, and humans — keep their body temperature constant whether the world around them runs cold or hot. Cold-blooded animals, including reptiles like snakes and lizards, depend on outside sources to control their temperature: For example, basking in the sun to warm up. Knowing when dinosaurs evolved their stable internal thermometer could help scientists answer other questions about how they lived, including how active and social they were.” (05/15/24)
“Inflation eased slightly in April, providing at least a bit of relief for consumers while still holding above levels that would suggest a cut in interest rates is imminent. The consumer price index, a broad measure of how much goods and services cost at the cash register, increased 0.3% from March, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. That was slightly below the Dow Jones estimate for 0.4%. On a 12-month basis, however, the CPI increased 3.4%, in line with expectations.” (05/15/24)
“Jordan has foiled a suspected Iranian-led plot to smuggle weapons into the U.S.-allied kingdom to help opponents of the ruling monarchy carry out acts of sabotage, according to two Jordanian sources with knowledge of the matter. The weapons were sent by Iranian-backed militias in Syria to a cell of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan that has links to the military wing of Palestinian group Hamas, the people told Reuters. The cache was seized when members of the cell, Jordanians of Palestinian descent, were arrested in late March, they said.” (05/15/24)
