13 June 2021
Israel has a new prime minister for the first time since 2009 after a power-sharing government led by Naftali Bennett survived a confidence vote on Sunday.
Why it matters: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister and the man around whom Israeli politics have revolved for a decade, will now become opposition leader. Bennett, a right-wing former Netanyahu protege, will lead the most ideologically diverse government in Israeli history.
Driving the news: Netanyahu fought desperately to avert this outcome, vehemently denouncing Bennett and pressuring fellow conservatives to abandon him ahead of the vote. Tensions were so high that the head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency warned of potential political violence.
- Netanyahu used his last speech as prime minister to denounce President Biden's Iran policies and claim that Bennett would be too weak to stand up to Washington. As Bennett spoke, Netanyahu allies repeatedly interrupted him.
- Shortly before the vote, Netanyahu was asked by reporters if he was committed to an orderly transfer of power and answered sarcastically: "No, there will be a revolution. What an idiotic question."
What's next: The formal ceremony to mark Bennett's entry into the prime minister's office will take place on Monday morning. The outgoing prime minister would traditionally attend, but Netanyahu has not said whether he'll do so.
- Netanyahu has also promised to quickly bring down the government, which could be quite fragile given its narrow majority and deep ideological divisions.
- Netanyahu, meanwhile, will be leading the opposition while facing a corruption trial.
The big picture: Bennett became prime minister despite winning just 7 of the 120 seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in the March elections.
- In the post-election chaos, he played the kingmaker role because neither Netanyahu nor Yair Lapid, the centrist opposition leader, could form a government without him.
- Bennett ultimately elected to join with Lapid and an eclectic coalition of other parties — including the Islamist United Arab List, or Ra'am, the first Arab party to join an Israeli government in five decades.
- Netanyahu has called Bennett's move the "fraud of the century" because Bennett had promised before the election not to partner with Lapid.
- Under their coalition deal, Lapid and Bennett will both hold vetos on the government's policies, and Lapid will rotate in as prime minister after two years.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.