Key Storylines
- AFRICA: President Cyril Ramaphosa denied interfering with South Africa’s judiciary over delays in the presentation of the final report of a corruption inquiry.
- AMERICAS: The National Liberation Army (ELN) is open to advancing peace talks with the incoming government of Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro and called for reforms to tackle social exclusion and inequality.
- ASIA: South Korea successfully launched its first homegrown space rocket.
- EUROPE: French President Emmanuel Macron will hold talks with main party leaders after his centrist alliance failed to win an absolute majority in parliamentary elections.
- MIDDLE EAST: Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Egypt starting his first tour outside the Gulf region in over three years.
- TECH & COMMUNICATIONS: NASA fueled its huge moon rocket for the first time and completed a countdown test despite a fuel line leak.
Top Story
- Israel: The Country Heads for New Elections as Coalition Moves to Dissolve Parliament.
- Israeli lawmakers will vote this week to dissolve parliament, opening the way for the country’s fifth election in three years, after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett could not contain the rising pressure on his fragile ruling coalition.
- Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will become the caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed in the aftermath of elections, which are expected to be held in October.
- Lapid thanked Bennett for “putting the country before his personal interest” but said the inability of the coalition to survive indicated that Israel “is in need of serious change”.
- Bennett cited the coalition’s failure earlier this month to extend a law that grants West Bank settlers special legal status as the main reason for new elections.
- The Israeli ruling coalition has been teetering on the brink of collapse as three members, including two from Bennett’s own right-wing Yamina party, defected, stripping the government of its majority and its ability to pass legislation.
- The decision ends an unusual period in Israeli politics, when a coalition from the country’s center, right, left and an independent Arab party came together for the first time to form a government.
- Reuters, AP, AFP, WSJ, Axios, NYT
Africa
- Mali: The government said more than 130 civilians were killed by jihadists in three neighboring towns over the weekend. (BBC)
- Nigeria: Long queues have been witnessed at petrol stations in most parts of Lagos state after a decision by some fuel marketers to shut their operations. (BBC)
- Rwanda: Leaders from the 54 Commonwealth countries gather in Kigali under tight security this week for a long overdue but controversial summit that was twice postponed by Covid. (AFP)
- South Africa: President Cyril Ramaphosa denied interfering with the country’s judiciary over delays in the presentation of the final report of a corruption inquiry. (BBC)
- Tunisia: The coast guard retrieved the bodies of four migrants after their boat sank off the port city of Sfax. (BBC)
Americas
- Colombia: The National Liberation Army (ELN) is open to advancing peace talks with the incoming government of President-elect Gustavo Petro and called for reforms to tackle social exclusion and inequality. (Reuters)
- Ecuador: Thousands of Indigenous demonstrators marched through Quito urging President Guillermo Lasso to agree to demands for economic and social support. (Reuters)
- Honduras: A court sentenced a former energy executive to over two decades behind bars for his role in the murder of Berta Caceres. (Reuters)
- Mexico: Prosecutors and Police announced that the bodies of two Canadians were found in an apartment in the resort city of Playa del Carmen. (AFP)
- Panama: President Laurentino Cortizo said that he has blood cancer, although the 69-year-old feels well and is in “good spirits.” (AFP)
Asia
- Region: Floodwaters inundated Bangladesh and northeast India as authorities struggled to reach more than 9.5 million people stranded with little food and drinking water after days of heavy rain. (Reuters)
- China: Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the country’s south amid floods and landslides triggered by the heaviest rainfall the region has seen in decades. (AFP)
- Indonesia: President and current chair of the G20 Joko Widodo is due to visit Moscow later this month to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)
- Myanmar: Hearings for the trial of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be moved to a prison compound in the military-built capital Naypyidaw. (AFP)
- South Korea: The country successfully launched its first homegrown space rocket. (AP)
Europe
- France: President Emmanuel Macron will hold talks with main party leaders after his centrist alliance failed to win an absolute majority in parliamentary elections. (AP)
- Poland: The country’s ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has given up his role as a deputy prime minister in the government in order to focus on the party and upcoming elections. (AP)
- Russia: Security council chief Nikolai Patrushev warned Lithuania of “serious” consequences over restrictions on the rail transit of EU-sanctioned goods to Moscow’s exclave of Kaliningrad. (AFP)
- Ukraine: EU officials said that there was no opposition to granting Ukraine “candidate status”, ahead of a summit expected to green light the move. (AFP)
- United Kingdom: Tens of thousands of railway workers have walked off the job, bringing the train network to a crawl in the country’s biggest transit strike in three decades. (AP)
Middle East
- Region: A US Navy warship fired a warning flare to wave off an Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboat coming straight at it during a tense encounter in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. (AP)
- Saudi Arabia: De facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Egypt starting his first tour outside the Gulf region in over three years. (Reuters)
- Syria: A flight by a private airline has landed at an airport used by Russia’s military in the country’s coastal province of Latakia. (AP)
- Syria: The Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on a civilian bus in the north that killed thirteen people and wounded three. (AP)
- United Arab Emirates: The country will build a new Red Sea port in Sudan as part of a $6 billion investment package. (Reuters)
Tech & Communications
- Technology: NASA fueled its huge moon rocket for the first time and completed a countdown test despite a fuel line leak. (AP)
World
- Cyclones: Nothing to Report.
- Hurricanes: Nothing to Report.
- Earthquakes: Nothing to Report.
- Volcanoes: Nothing to Report.
- Global Disease Outbreaks:
- COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease: Global (as of 21JUN22)
- Confirmed cases: 539,783,312
- Deaths: 6,320,517
- Countries with confirmed cases: 192
- Sourcing: John Hopkins University
- COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease: Global (as of 21JUN22)
Tomorrow’s Outlook (22UN22)
- Event: Jamestown Foundation discussion on implications of the Russia-Ukraine War for Taiwan.
- Event: Wilson Center 8th annual ‘Building a Competitive U.S.- Mexico Border’ conference.
- Austria: Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Meeting. (to 23JUN)
- Cambodia: 16th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers Meeting in Phnom Penh.
- China: BRICS Business Forum Keynote Address by President Xi Jinping.
- Croatia: Anti-Fascist Struggle Day.
- Europe: European Commission to table proposed revision to laws on pesticides and biodiversity.
- France: US AG Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas attend US-EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial.
- Germany: ILA Berlin Air Show. (to 25JUN)
- Israel: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak to Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
- Italy: World Meeting of Families.
- Japan: Upper house candidates to begin campaigning.
- Rwanda: Commonwealth Business Forum. (to 23JUN)
- Tanzania: East African Court of Justice expected to rule on Massai eviction legal challenge.
- Türkiye: Visit by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
- United Kingdom: Visit by US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Jewel Bronaugh.
- United States: Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the proposed accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO.
- United States: House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on administration policy objectives in the MENA region.
- United States: House Foreign Affairs subcommittees joint hearing on migration and private sector investment in Central America.
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