Today we'll be discussing some of the biggest stories including the Elon Musk allegations and the party gate revelations, whether Boris Johnson has dodged a bullet but first the Israeli government losing their majority.
Israel's governing coalition has lost its majority in the Knesset following the defection of a lawmaker, raising the prospect of yet another election in the country. Rinarui Zahabi who is an Arab-Israeli quit the small left-wing merits party saying that the coalition leaders had again and again adopted hawkish, hardline and right wing positions, citing recent police violence as a final straw. The governing coalition has been reduced to 59 seats versus the opposition 61, but this doesn't mean that the government automatically collapses, though. The opposition whose biggest parties Benjamin Netanyahu's liked would need to vote to dissolve the Knesset and call early elections. However, this would need the support of the entire fractured opposition, including Zahabi and the six members of the Arab joint list. If this happens, Israel will be headed for its fifth election since April 2019.
Moving on to Elon Musk now and a SpaceX flight attendant accused him of exposing himself and propositioned her for s*x according to documents seen by business insider. After she reported the incidents to SpaceX, she was paid 250 thousand dollars as part of a severance payment, the report says. The details come from a signed declaration by a friend of the flight attendant and other documents prepared in support of her case. Musk tweeted that the allegations are utterly untrue when business insider originally contacted musk ahead of publishing the story asking for comment, he replied asking for more time to respond and said that there was a lot more to this story. Musk, who recently announced that he would vote for the Republican Party, has called the story a politically motivated hit piece and suggested that the story was designed to interfere with his Twitter acquisition.
Canada has announced that it will ban two of china's largest telecom equipment providers Huawei and ZTE from its 5g networks. Announcing the move, Canada's innovation minister stressed banning the two would protect the safety and security of Canadians. Companies that have already installed equipment made by either Huawei or ZTE, be it for 5g or 4g networks, will be required to cease its use and remove it. The federal government will not be compensating companies. The move hasn't come as a surprise to well anyone, until yesterday Canada has been the only member of the five eyes intelligence sharing alliance not to impose some kind of restriction on either Huawei or ZTE. China has warned in the past that a ban on Huawei could prompt retaliatory measures, whether and how they follow through on that is anyone's guess.
Having just gotten through the coronavirus pandemic, many countries are opening up and probably hoping they never have to hear the word virus again. Unfortunately, though, it seems that another virus is doing the rounds, this time it's monkeypox. New cases have been found in many European countries including the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. The disease is a viral infection which most people recover from in a few weeks, and luckily it does not spread easily between people, this means that there is a very low risk to the public, and it is unlikely that it will become the next covid. Here in the UK, it will be announced by health officials later today that there have been a further 11 cases, more than doubling the current outbreak domestically.
Staying in the UK and the metropolitan police have concluded their investigation into coronavirus rule breaking at the heart of government having handed out 126 fixed penalty notices. This now means that number 10 Downing Street is the most fined building in the UK, while some staffers have received multiple fines as part of this investigation it has been confirmed that the prime minister has not. While a few months ago the revelation of widespread rule breaking may have threatened Johnson's position, it now seems that thanks to beergate and the slow release of information about partygate the electorate are more willing to move on and look past it. Perhaps the imminent publication of the full report will change things if it is catastrophic enough for the government, but that is far from guaranteed.