Netanyahu government rocked as key party quits coalition
The party's departure stems from deep disagreements over a proposed bill that would enshrine military draft exemptions for its constituents, a contentious issue in Israel.
This move, which becomes official within 48 hours, will leave Netanyahu with a slim majority, potentially increasing his reliance on far-right parties.
The political shake-up occurs amidst ongoing, stalled truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas, with far-right coalition members opposing concessions.
The split doesn't immediately threaten Netanyahu's rule due to procedural reasons, and the summer parliamentary recess offers Netanyahu a window for potential reconciliation with United Torah Judaism.
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The Independent
23 minutes ago
- The Independent
Federal agency shifts stance on transgender discrimination complaints, but hurdles remain
The federal agency responsible for enforcing laws against workplace discrimination will allow some complaints filed by transgender workers to move forward, shifting course from earlier guidance that indefinitely stalled all such cases, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. The email was sent earlier this month to leaders of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the subject line 'Hot Topics,' in which Thomas Colclough, director of the agency's Office of Field Programs, announced that if new transgender worker complaints involve 'hiring, discharge or promotion, you are clear to continue processing these charges.' But even those cases will still be subject to higher scrutiny than other types of workplace discrimination cases, requiring approval from President Donald Trump 's appointed acting agency head Andrea Lucas, who has said that one of her priorities would be 'defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights.' Since Trump regained office in January, the EEOC has moved away from its prior interpretation of civil rights law, marking a stark contrast to a decade ago when the agency issued a landmark finding that a transgender civilian employee of the U.S. Army had been discriminated against because her employer refused to use her preferred pronouns or allow her to use bathrooms based on her gender identity. Under Lucas's leadership, the EEOC has dropped several lawsuits on behalf of transgender workers. Lucas defended that decision during her June 18 Senate committee confirmation hearing in order to comply with the president's executive order declaring two unchangeable sexes. However, she acknowledged that a 2020 Supreme Court ruling — Bostock v. Clayton County — 'did clearly hold that discriminating against someone on the basis of sex included firing an individual who is transgender or based on their sexual orientation.' Colclough acknowledged in his July 1 email that the EEOC will consider transgender discrimination complaints that 'fall squarely under' the Supreme Court's ruling, such as cases involving hiring, firing and promotion. The email backtracked on an earlier policy, communicated verbally, that de-prioritized all transgender cases. The EEOC declined to comment on the specifics of its latest policy, saying: 'Under federal law, charge inquiries and charges of discrimination made to the EEOC are confidential. Pursuant to Title VII and as statutorily required, the EEOC is, has been, and will continue to accept and investigate charges on all bases protected by law, and to serve those charges to the relevant employer." But even the cases that the EEOC is willing to consider under Bostock must still be reviewed by a senior attorney advisor, and then sent to Lucas for final approval. This heightened review process is not typical for other discrimination charges and reflects the agency's increased oversight for gender identity cases, former EEOC commissioner Chai Feldblum told The AP in a Monday phone interview. 'It is a slight improvement because it will allow certain claims of discrimination to proceed," Feldblum said of the new policy. 'But overall it does not fix a horrific and legally improper situation currently occurring at the EEOC.' Colclough's email did not clarify how long the review process might take, or whether cases that include additional claims, such as harassment or retaliation, would be eligible to proceed, and the EEOC declined to address those questions. "This is not the EEOC being clear to either its own staff or to the public what charges are going to be processed," Feldblum said. 'This is not a panacea." ________ The Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Leader Live
25 minutes ago
- Leader Live
UN says malnutrition in Gaza has doubled as Israeli strikes kill more than 90
It comes as new Israeli strikes killed more than 90 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children, according to health officials. Hunger has been rising among Gaza's more than two million Palestinians since Israel broke a ceasefire in March to resume the war and banned all food and other supplies from entering Gaza, saying it aimed to pressure Hamas to release hostages. It slightly eased the blockade in late May, allowing in a trickle of aid. UNRWA, the main UN agency caring for Palestinians in Gaza, said it had screened nearly 16,000 children under age five at its clinics in June and found 10.2% of them were acutely malnourished. By comparison, in March, 5.5% of the nearly 15,000 children it screened were malnourished. – New airstrikes kill several families One strike in the northern Shati refugee camp killed a 68-year-old Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature, as well as a man and a woman and their six children who were sheltering in the same building, according to officials from the heavily damaged Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken. One of the deadliest strikes hit a house in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa district on Monday evening and killed 19 members of the family living inside, according to Shifa Hospital. The dead included eight women and six children. A strike on a tent housing displaced people in the same district killed a man and a woman and their two children. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes. Gaza's Health Ministry said in a daily report on Tuesday afternoon that the bodies of 93 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, along with 278 wounded. It did not specify the total number of women and children among the dead. The Hamas politician killed in a strike early on Tuesday, Mohammed Faraj al-Ghoul, was a member of the bloc of representatives from the group that won seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the last national elections, held in 2006. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas. But daily, it hits homes and shelters where people are living without warning or explanation of the target. – Malnutrition grows Unicef, which screens children separately from Unrwa, has also reported a marked increase in malnutrition cases. It said this week its clinics had documented 5,870 cases of malnutrition among children in June, the fourth straight month of increases and more than double the around 2,000 cases it documented in February. Experts have warned of famine since Israel tightened its long-running blockade in March. Israel has allowed an average of 69 trucks a day carrying supplies, including food, since it eased the blockade in May, according to the latest figures from Cogat, the Israeli military agency in charge of co-ordinating aid. That is far below the hundreds of trucks a day the UN says are needed to sustain Gaza's population. On Tuesday, Cogat blamed the UN for failing to distribute aid, saying in a post on X that thousands of pallets of supplies were inside Gaza waiting to be picked up by UN trucks. The UN says it has struggled to pick up and distribute aid because of Israeli military restrictions on its movements and the breakdown in law and order. Israel has also let in food for distribution by an American contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. GHF says it has distributed food boxes with the equivalent of more than 70 million meals since late May at the four centres it runs in the Rafah area of southern Gaza and in central Gaza. More than 840 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,600 others wounded in shootings as they walk for hours trying to reach the GHF centres, according to the Health Ministry. Witnesses say Israeli forces open fire with barrages of live ammunition to control crowds on the roads to the GHF centres, which are located in military-controlled zones. The military says it has fired warning shots at people it says have approached its forces in a suspicious manner. GHF says no shootings have taken place in or immediately around its distribution sites. – No breakthrough in ceasefire efforts The latest attacks came after US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two days of talks last week that ended with no sign of a breakthrough in negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release. Israel has killed more than 58,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 139,000 others in its retaliation campaign since Hamas' October 7 2023, attack, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Just over half the dead are women and children, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack 21 months ago, in which militants stormed into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They abducted 251 others, and the militants are still holding 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive.
The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Official who caused disastrous data breach still employed by government
A Ministry of Defence official inadvertently leaked a spreadsheet in February 2022 containing sensitive data of up to 100,000 Afghans seeking sanctuary in the UK. The data breach, which included names, contact details, and case statuses of applicants to the Afghan resettlement scheme, put thousands of lives at risk from the Taliban. Despite the catastrophic nature of the leak, the official responsible has not been fired and remains employed by the government, though not in the same role. An unprecedented superinjunction, lasting almost two years, was imposed in September 2023 to prevent news of the leak from being published, which has now been lifted. The incident prompted the secret evacuation of thousands of Afghans to Britain under a new resettlement scheme, with calls for an in-depth inquiry into the matter.
