Protests erupt across Israel over judiciary changes
Masses of Israelis blocked roads in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and around the country last night after the parliament passed a law limiting the Supreme Court’s ability to overturn decisions made by government ministers.
Some protesters, furious over what they called an affront to democracy, gathered near the Supreme Court in Jerusalem waving Israeli flags. Some yelled “For shame!” The police arrested several demonstrators and sprayed crowds with water cannons. In Tel Aviv, officers mounted on horses tried and failed to push protesters off the road. A vehicle drove into protesters on a highway in central Israel, injuring three.
More than 10,000 military reservists were threatening to resign from duty, potentially hobbling some functions of the armed forces.
The law passed only after a chaotic debate. Opposition lawmakers walked out of the session of the Knesset, as the legislature is officially named, and those remaining passed the measure 64 to 0.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a televised address to try to quell the unrest. He suggested postponing until late November a broader judicial overhaul plan being undertaken by his government, the most right-wing and religiously conservative in Israel’s history. The protesters rejected his comments as lies.
Political moves: Parliament adjourns at the end of this month, and most likely won’t revisit the judicial overhaul legislation until October. Opposition leaders plan to ask the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the law passed yesterday.
“If the court takes up the case, any ruling could take weeks or months,” my colleague Isabel Kershner said from Jerusalem. “If it strikes down the law, Israel would be facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis.”
The conservative opposition came out ahead in the vote on Sunday, but it did not have an absolute majority. The hard-right Vox party, with whom the opposition might have partnered to form a government, saw its support crater. Spaniards seem to have rejected extremism: Most votes were divided between the center right and center left.
What’s next: Pedro Sánchez, the Socialist prime minister, will remain as the leader of the caretaker government. There may be weeks of horse trading — or a new election later this year.
E.U. repercussions: The political turmoil comes as Spain holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, which is facing down Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Twitter rebrands as X
Elon Musk replaced Twitter’s bird logo with “X,” a term for what he described as an “everything app.”
The stylized X symbol was projected onto Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco. Musk, a tech billionaire, is hoping that X can be a way to combine social media, instant messaging and payment services, like the Chinese app WeChat.
But it is also a risky gamble to reinvent a business that has struggled since Musk paid $44 billion for it last year. Third-party data suggests Twitter user numbers are falling, and it’s not clear how much runway he actually has to get X off the ground.
The makeover: Musk was very clearly behind the change, having long been fascinated by the X identity. His second start-up was X.com (which became PayPal), and he incorporated “X” into the name of SpaceX and Tesla’s first car model. His new A.I. start-up is called xAI.
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Asia Pacific
Some mothers in Iran are risking their lives to escape to Iraq or other nearby countries. They want to build better lives for their daughters and spare them one spent under authoritarian rule.
ARTS AND IDEAS
The new luxury is quiet
Lately throughout gentrified Brooklyn, the brownstone superrich signal domestic chic with a $220 light switch. Elsewhere in the same strata, they might buy dress sneakers that cost $1,600, or wear bangles made by a designer that doesn’t “really give prices.” (One was auctioned in June at Christie’s London for $13,000.)
This approach to displaying luxury is not quite understated Old Money, nor is it the excesses of New Money. Instead, it’s an in-the-know discretion: a version of Kendall Roy’s Loro Piana baseball cap in “Succession.” Invisible, that is, unless you know what to look for.
“It’s code,” a novelist and editor said. “You telegraph status without seeming to do it.”
PLAY, WATCH, EAT
What to Cook
Caramelize bell peppers with anchovies to make this sweet, colorful pasta.
What to Read
“Empress of the Nile” is about a female archaeologist who broke into Egyptology.
What to Watch
In “Bawaal,” a Bollywood production, a narcissistic teacher reconnects with his wife on a trip through Europe.
What to Buy
Fizz your own soda with Wirecutter’s equipment picks.
Now Time to Play
Play the Mini Crossword, and a clue: Porcelain dishes (five letters).
Here are the Wordle and the Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Amelia
P.S. Patrick LaForge, our breaking news editor, wrote about silent meditation retreats, which offer him a respite from a demanding job.
“The Daily” is on bureaucratic snarls in the U.S. military.
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