Israel opts to dissolve parliament, election slated for November
JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament voted Thursday to dissolve itself, triggering the country’s fifth election in just over three years and thrusting veteran politician Yair Lapid into the role of interim prime minister as he tries to persuade a deeply polarized nation to embrace his centrist vision.
Polls indicate it will be difficult for Lapid to defeat his main rival, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a divisive figure at the heart of Israel’s protracted political crisis.
The election is scheduled for Nov. 1.
Lapid, a former author, newspaper columnist and TV host, was the architect of the outgoing coalition government — an alliance of eight diverse parties spanning the Israeli political spectrum that was bonded largely by their shared antipathy toward Netanyahu. The coalition ended the 12-year reign of Netanyahu, who was Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
As with the previous four elections, November’s vote promises to be another referendum on Netanyahu, who is adored with cultlike reverence by his admirers and reviled by his opponents. The elections focused on his fitness to lead while facing criminal charges of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The current government collapsed after just over a year due to infighting and defections. As part of their power-sharing deal, the current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, will step aside for Lapid, who officially takes office Friday. Bennett will not run in November.
In Israeli politics, no party has ever singlehandedly captured the 61-seat parliamentary majority in parliament required to form a government. Instead, the leader of the party who can cobble together a majority coalition with other parties becomes prime minister.
That sets up a de facto battle between Netanyahu, whose Likud party is projected to be the largest party, and Lapid, whose party is expected to be the second-largest but may be better positioned to form a coalition.
Polls by Israeli media show Netanyahu and his allies are projected to gain seats, although it is unclear whether they would have enough to form a majority outright.
U.S. regulators told COVID19 vaccine makers Thursday that any booster shots tweaked for the fall will have to add protection against the newest omicron relatives.
The Food and Drug Administration said the original vaccines would be used for anyone still getting their first series of shots. But with immunity waning and the super-contagious omicron family of variants getting better at dodging protection, the FDA decided fall boosters needed an update.
The recipe: combination shots that add protection against omicron relatives BA.4 and BA.5 to the original vaccine. Those mutants together now account for just over half of new U.S. infections.
The FDA’s decision comes after its scientific advisers this week recommended that any boosters for a fall campaign should contain some version of omicron — but left undecided whether it should be the omicron mutant that caused last winter’s surge or the genetically distinct relatives that have replaced it.
COVID-19 boosters:
Texas synagogue standoff: A man who sold a pistol to a man who used it to hold four hostages inside a Texas synagogue before being fatally shot by the FBI in January pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal gun crime, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Henry “Michael” Dwight Williams, 32, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, prosecutors said.
Williams sold Malik Faisal Akram the weapon Akram used when he entered Congregation Beth Israel in the Dallas-area suburb of Colleyville on Jan. 15 and held the synagogue’s rabbi and three others hostage, according to prosecutors.
Williams faces up to 10 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been set.
Akram, a 44-year-old British citizen, held hostages while demanding the release of a federal prisoner.
The standoff ended after more than 10 hours when the temple’s rabbi threw a chair at Akram and fled with
the remaining hostages.
Sen. Leahy hospitalized: . Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was set to undergo surgery Thursday after he broke his hip in a fall at his home, according to his spokesman.
The 82-year-old fell Wednesday night in McLean, Virginia, a statement said. Doctors advised repairing the hip as soon as possible.
Leahy spokesman David Carle said an unnamed hospital in the Washington area “was able to fit (the senator) in for surgery in the late morning.”
Leahy is the longest-serving sitting senator. He announced in November that he will not seek reelection this fall. When his term expires in January 2023, he will have served 48 years in the Senate.
Leahy is the last of the so-called Watergate babies, the surge of congressional Democrats elected in 1974 after President Richard Nixon resigned in order to avoid impeachment.
Tropical weather: A storm that has pelted the southern Caribbean and the northern shoulder of South America was expected to hit Central America as a tropical storm over the weekend and eventually develop into a hurricane over the Pacific, forecasters said Thursday.
The disturbance known as Potential Tropical Cyclone Two has been drenching parts of the Caribbean since Monday without meeting the criteria for a named tropical storm.
On Thursday evening, it passed the northernmost part of Colombia and was centered about 540 miles east of Bluefields on Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. A hurricane watch was in effect from the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border to Laguna de Perlas in Nicaragua.
It was moving west at 20 mph and projected to hit the Nicaragua-Costa Rica area as a tropical storm by late Friday or Saturday.
The storm was expected
to drop 3 to 5 inches of rain on parts of northern Colombia, then 4 to 8 inches on Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Slain cyclist: A Texas woman suspected in the fatal shooting of professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson at an Austin home has been arrested in Costa Rica, the U.S. Marshals Service said Thursday.
Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, 34, was arrested Wednesday at a hostel in Provincia de Puntarenas, the Marshals Service said in a statement.
Wilson, 25, was found dead May 11, and Austin police on May 19 issued a murder warrant for Armstrong.
Wilson, a competitive gravel and mountain bike racer and Vermont native known as “Mo,” had been in the Texas capital city for a cycling event. According to an affidavit, Wilson had previously dated Armstrong’s boyfriend, cyclist Colin Strickland, who has cooperated with investigators and is not a suspect.