Ammar Awad/Reuters
“Israel stands on the cusp of a watershed moment.
Lawmakers will hold a vote today that would remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power, replacing the country’s longest-serving leader with the head of a fragile alliance formed from eight ideologically diffuse parties.
The coalition is united in one goal: ousting Netanyahu. If it wins the vote of confidence in the Knesset, Naftali Bennett, a right-wing former leader of a settler movement, will be Israel’s next prime minister. We’ll have live updates here.
In a compromise, Yair Lapid, a leading centrist politician who would become foreign minister in Bennett’s government, will take over as prime minister in 2023. While Bennett would take the stage first, he wouldn’t be leading without Lapid, who coaxed the unlikely alliance into existence.” Read more at New York Times
Doug Mills/The New York Times
“Leaders of the Group of 7 are wrapping up a summit today, having taken on the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and China.
President Biden, pictured with President Emmanuel Macron of France, pushed for a more unified approach to combating the pandemic. The leaders are expected to sign a declaration on global health intended to ensure that the pandemic’s toll is never repeated.
To counter China’s influence, Biden urged European nations and Japan to offer hundreds of billions in loans to developing nations. While the countries agree that China’s influence is worrisome, how they’ll come together on the next steps is unclear.
Biden will head to Brussels for a NATO meeting tomorrow before sitting down with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Geneva on Wednesday. But the two leaders will not hold a joint news conference — a move designed to deny the Russian leader an international platform.” Read more at New York Times
“Russia and the United States — along with 23 other countries — recently reaffirmed that states should not hack each other’s critical infrastructure in peacetime or shelter cyber criminals who conduct attacks on other countries.
But Russia, which was among the states originally agreeing to the norms at the United Nations, has violated them repeatedly over the years. Experts are skeptical those violations will halt unless the United States and its allies impose far more serious consequences.
President Biden is on an eight-day trip to Europe that will culminate in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. He will raise issues of cybersecurity, including his concern that Moscow is harboring hackers who have carried out damaging ransomware attacks against some of the United States’ most critical sectors. An attack last month led to a days-long shutdown of the country’s largest refined fuel pipeline, followed by an attack that disrupted the world’s largest meat processor.” Read more at Washington Post
“While the U.S. and other wealthy nations are reporting fewer Covid cases and deaths, many other countries are facing worrisome new surges in infections.
Russian officials are scrambling to slow the spread of a new wave of the coronavirus, ordering workers in Moscow to take next week off and pleading with residents to make use of widely available vaccines. Above, the Krylatskoye Ice Palace in Moscow was converted to a Covid hospital. The Delta variant is spreading in southeastern China, and doctors say that the infected are getting sicker, and faster.
Separately, the F.D.A. said a Baltimore factory that rendered 75 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine useless failed for weeks to seal off a preparation area for vaccine ingredients.” Read more at New York Times
“HOUSTON – In the first federal ruling on vaccine mandates, a Houston judge Saturday dismissed a lawsuit by hospital employees who declined the COVID-19 shot – a decision that could have a ripple effect across the nation.
The case involved Houston Methodist, which was the first hospital system in the country to require that all its employees get vaccinated. U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes said federal law does not prevent employers from issuing that mandate.
After months of warnings, Houston Methodist had put more than 170 of its 26,000 employees on unpaid suspension Monday. They were told they would be fired it they weren't vaccinated by June 21.
The hospital already had made it clear it means what it says: It fired the director of corporate risk – Bob Nevens – and another manager in April when they did not meet the earlier deadline for bosses.” Read more at USA Today
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
“Private equity firms have conquered the American tax system.
The $4.5 trillion industry has avoided paying billions in taxes and has managed to derail efforts to increase its tax burden, thanks to lobbyists and campaign contributions. Firms are rarely audited despite whistle-blowers’ claims of tax dodges.
Private equity’s ability to vanquish the I.R.S. and Congress goes a long way toward explaining the deep inequities in the U.S. tax system.
Meanwhile, a comprehensive survey of the 200 highest-paid chief executives at publicly traded companies revealed some of the biggest pay packages on record.” Read more at New York Times
Tom Brenner for The New York Times
“Recent disclosures about the Trump administration’s seizure of data from House Democrats and reporters have left more questions than answers.
The reports prompted an immediate backlash from the top: President Biden ordered prosecutors to stop seizing reporters’ phone and email data, and the Justice Department watchdog opened an investigation into the matter. Apple said it had unknowingly turned over the data under a subpoena request that merely listed email addresses and phone numbers.
But Biden’s sweeping vow to ban a practice he called ‘simply, simply wrong’ left crucial questions unanswered. Among them: How broad are the new protections? And could they be changed by future administrations? The unresolved details are expected to be a focus of a meeting tomorrow between Attorney General Merrick Garland and leaders of The Times, The Post and CNN.” Read more at New York Times
“At least 14 people were injured in a shooting early Saturday in downtown Austin that unfolded as crowds filled the city’s popular entertainment district, police said.
Authorities said there were no deaths, but two people were in critical condition. Twelve people were in stable condition. One male suspect was in custody, and another remained at large Saturday evening, the Austin Police Department said. The motive is unclear, interim police chief Joseph Chacon said before the arrest Saturday afternoon.” Read more at Washington Post
Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times
“A Times investigation shows the serious construction flaws that led to the collapse of a Mexico City metro viaduct in May, killing 26 people.
We took thousands of photographs of the crash site and shared the evidence with several leading engineers, who reached the same conclusion: The steel studs that were vital to the strength of the overpass appeared to have failed because of bad welds. Thousands of pages of internal government and corporate documents showed more than a decade of warnings and concerns about safety before the fatal crash.
The disaster has spiraled into a political crisis for two of Mexico’s most prominent figures: the president’s foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, who was mayor of Mexico City when the new metro line was built; and Carlos Slim, one of the world’s wealthiest businessmen, whose construction company built the portion of the line that collapsed.” Read more at New York Times
Jim Wells/Associated Press
‘Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement’
Fifty years ago today, that headline ran on the front page of The Times as the newspaper published a bombshell scoop that exposed the lies behind the Vietnam War: the Pentagon Papers. The Times knew the government would sue, but as the newspaper’s general counsel at the time said, ‘the fate of journalism’ was on the line.
The Supreme Court ruling in New York Times Company v. United States defined the balance of power between the news media and the government. We spoke to some of the reporters, editors, researchers and lawyers who made the call. Read all of our anniversary coverage, and look for a special print section in today’s paper.
The Times won the Pulitzer Prize for public service when it published the Pentagon Papers. The newspaper won that prize again on Friday for its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s the full list of winners.” Read more at New York Times
Benoit Tessier/Reuters
“A busy weekend of competition, and not just for humans.
The unseeded Barbora Krejcikova defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her first Grand Slam final appearance, winning the French Open women’s singles title. Novak Djokovic will try to win his 19th Grand Slam title today, facing Stefanos Tsitsipas. The match begins at 9 a.m. Eastern.
In soccer, the UEFA European Championship is underway in 11 countries. Fans witnessed a frightening moment when Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen collapsed during a match, but he was later said to to be OK. Today’s games include England vs. Croatia and Netherlands vs. Ukraine.
And today is the final day of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Four new breeds join the party this year: the barbet, the Belgian Laekenois, the Biewer terrier and the dogo Argentino. Best in Show is at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. Here’s what to watch for and a first glimpse at some of the contestants.”
Hannah Yoon for The New York Times
“A year ago, oyster growers in New York and New Jersey were fighting for survival. This summer is a very different story.
As coronavirus restrictions lift and restaurant orders are back, oyster farmers in the region are ready for a ‘bonkers’ summer, as one put it. The turnaround stems in part from two conservation buyback programs (millions of oysters, which are great natural filters, were purchased and placed on coastal reefs) as farmers were hustling to find new places to sell their shellfish.
That same demand has exacerbated a New England seafood tradition in a different way: Up and down the coast of New England, the price of lobster is at historic highs. Would you pay $34 for a lobster roll?” Read more at New York Times
Brynn Anderson/Associated Press
“Since the season began in April, Major League Baseball’s umpires and league officials have been collecting baseballs by the thousands. Balls from games are inspected, with the most suspicious specimens being sent to an independent laboratory for analysis.
A forensic investigation found that a majority of those balls had some kind of illegal foreign substance — presumably applied through sleight of hand by a pitcher on the mound — with tests still being done to determine exactly what was placed on them. The purpose of the substance is fairly clear: To help pitchers make the baseball curve, dip and hop more than it normally would.
The study of the balls is part of a wider investigation, which has involved video, high-tech analysis of the rate of spin on pitches and witness accounts. It is the latest — and currently loudest — cheating scandal in a sport that seems to have a new one every few years.
After the sport dealt with illegal steroids and illicit sign-stealing, now comes foreign substances on baseballs, a skyrocketing trend that is believed to have played a key role in turning the sport into a monotonous procession of strikeouts and low-scoring games.” Read more at New York Times