VOTE ON JUDICIAL OVERHAUL DRAWS PROTESTERS AND PROPONENTS ON TO STREETS OF ISRAEL

Mass demonstrations for and against the government’s judicial overhaul took place in Israel on Sunday night as lawmakers debated the controversial legislation in the Knesset parliament ahead of a vote on Monday.

After 28 weeks of the biggest mass protest movement in the country’s history, a huge crowd of opponents of the judicial reform gathered close to the Knesset in Jerusalem, while supporters of the government held a counter rally in Tel Aviv entitled The Million Come to Tel Aviv.

From afar, the gatherings looked identical: tens of thousands of protesters waving Israeli flags – a mirror image of a country torn in two.

The Bill, which is expected to be approved by lawmakers on Monday afternoon, is only a small part of the initial radical legislation which is designed to weaken the power of the judiciary and which opponents claim will undermine Israeli democracy by altering the traditional system of constitutional checks and balances.

It will cancel the “reasonableness clause” which allows the high court of justice to block government decisions if it deems them unreasonable.

Coalition members have vowed to introduce other Bills in the future which will give the government control over appointing judges and weaken the power of government legal advisers. Members of the right wing and religious coalition claim the overhaul is needed to curb what they claim are the excessive powers of unelected, liberal judges. The move comes with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in hospital, having been fitted with a pacemaker.

BLINKEN SAYS UKRAINE RECLAIMED 50% OF SEIZED TERRITORY

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while Ukraine has recaptured half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv faced "a very hard fight" to win back more.

"It's already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized," Blinken said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

"These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough," he said, adding: "It will not play out over the next week or two. We're still looking I think at several months."

Late last month, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that the counteroffensive's progress against Russian forces was "slower than desired."

RUSSIA STRIKES ODESA CATHEDRAL, PUTIN CLAIMS KYIV’S COUNTEROFFENSIVE ‘FAILED’

Kyiv: Russia’s latest strike on Odesa on Sunday killed two people and severely damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine’s leader. The 18th century Transfiguration Cathedral is the biggest Orthodox church in Odesa.

The strike on the port city came just hours before Russian President Putin met his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. Putin claimed Kyiv’s counteroffensive had “failed” as he met Lukashenko — the first time since Minsk helped end a revolt by Russian Wagner fighters.

The Transfiguration Cathedral — originally built in 1794 —was demolished under Stalin in 1936 and rebuilt in 1990s after the Soviet Union collapse. Ukraine said it had been “destroyed twice by Stalin and Putin”. It said the cathedral strike was a “war crime”. Russia blamed the cathedral damage on Ukraine saying the sites were being used to prepare “terrorist acts” against Russia.

SPAIN VOTES IN ELECTION THAT COULD SWING NATION TO RIGHT

Madrid : Spaniards voted in a close-run general election on Sunday. Polls suggest the centre-right People's Party led by Alberto Nunez Feijoo could win, but to form a government, they might need to partner with the far-right Vox party. This would be the first time a far-right party enters government since the 1970s. Results are expected by midnight, and coalitions will be necessary to form a government with at least 176 seats in the 350-seat lower house of congress. Negotiations between parties can take months, and a hung parliament or repeat election is also a possibility. The election took place during the summer holidays and amid intense heat, and postal votes set an all-time record.

PAK FINANCE MIN ISHAQ DAR LIKELY TO BE NAMED INTERIM PM

Islamabad :The ruling PML-N party is considering proposing the name of finance minister Ishaq Dar as the caretaker prime minister once the term of the current National Assembly ends next month, a media report has said.

The tenure of the current government will end on August 14 and the election commission will announce the date for the next general election, PM Shehbaz Sharif has said. The local media has reported that Sharif may dissolve the national assembly on August 8, days ahead of the expiry of its term. If the national assembly completes its term, polls are to be held within 60 days. But if its is dissolved prematurely, even if by a day, it would give the government 90 days to conduct elections. The caretaker PM will administer the country till anew government is formed.

Dar’s name came into focus as the government mulled changes in the Elections Act to empower the caretaker set-up to take decisions beyond its constitutional mandate, with a view to ensure continuity of the recently rolled out economic plan, reported Express Tribune.

MUSK SAYS X.COM NOW POINTS TO TWITTER.COM; BIRD LOGO TO GO

Elon Musk said he was about to make one of the most visible changes to Twitter since he took control of the social media company last fall: replacing its widely recognised bird logo. Musk on Sunday tweeted that the x. com URL will now point to the microblogging site.

In a tweet earlier, Musk said that “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds. ” He added shortly after, “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight,” it would “go live worldwide tomorrow. ” “X” is a term for what Musk has described as an “everything app” that could combine social media, instant messaging and payment services, akinto the popular Chinese app WeChat. Musk has said that buying Twitter is “an accelerant to creating X”, and the corporate entity he created to purchase and control Twitter is called X Holdings.

Musk spoke on a Twitter audio livestream early Sunday to say he was changingTwitter’s logo. “It should have been done a long time ago,” he said. “Sorry it took so long. ” A few hours later, Musk said in an email to Twitter’s employees that “we are indeed changing to X” and that it was happening “today. ” “This is my last message from a Twitter email,” he wrote, before signing off with a salute emoji.

Musk has few barriers to making such alterations at the firm after taking it private as part of his acquisition of the firm. But he could still encounter resistance from the banks that have lent him billions of dollars and the private investors he brought into the deal, who could raise concerns about jettisoning one of Twitter’s most visible assets.

19,000 EVACUATED AS WILDFIRE RAGES ON THE GREEK ISLAND OF RHODES

ATHENS: Smoke rises from a burnt hotel complex during a wildfire on the Greek island of Rhodes. Some 19,000 people have been evacuated as wildfires continued burning for a sixth day on three fronts, Greek authorities said on Sunday. The government said it was “the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country”. Ap

HEAVY RAINS IN AF AND PAK UNLEASH FLASH FLOODS, 44 DIE

Islamabad : Heavy flooding from seasonal rains in Afghanistan killed at least 31 people and left dozens missing over the past three days, while in neighbouring Pakistan 13 people died and seven were injured due to intense rains and landslides.

Shafiullah Rahimi, the Taliban’s appointed spokesman for Afghanistan’s state ministry for natural disaster management, said on Sunday that at least 31 people were killed, 74 were injured and 41 others were missing. Flash floods hit the capital, Kabul, the Maidan Wardak and Ghazni provinces. He added that the majority of the casualties were in west Kabul and Maidan Wardak.

In Pakistan, rainfall and thunderstorms damaged at least 74 houses in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The provincial authorities declared an emergency in the Chitral district as rainfall triggered flash floods in the mountainous area.

IRAN BANS FILM FESTIVAL OVER ACTRESS POSTER WITHOUT HIJAB

Tehran : Iranian authorities have banned a film festival that put out a publicity poster featuring an actress who was not wearing a hijab headscarf, state media reported.

The ban comes after the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA) released a poster for its upcoming short film festivalfeaturing Iranian actress Susan Taslimi in the 1982 film “The Death of Yazdguerd”. “The culture minister has personally issued an order to banthe 13th edition of the ISFA Film Festival, after using a photo of a woman without a hijab on its poster in violation of the law,” state news agency IRNA reported late Saturday. The festival had been scheduled to be held in September.

Wearing a hijab, covering the head and the neck, has been compulsory for women in Iran since 1983, shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

However, Iranian women have increasingly flouted the strict dress code since mass protests began last September calling for an end to compulsory hijab. The months-long protests were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police for allegedly breaching the strict Islamic dress code. Earlier this month, police said patrols have been relaunched to catch the increasing number of women ignoring the law.

CAMBODIA’S RULING PARTY ON COURSE FOR ‘LANDSLIDE’ IN ONE-SIDED ELECTION

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen of the Cambodian People’s Party raises a ballot before voting at a polling station at Takhmua in Kandal province on Sunday. The incumbent Prime Minister and his party is all but assured a landslide victory thanks to the effective suppression and intimidation of any real opposition.

PERU POLICE CLASH WITH PROTESTERS DEMANDING PRESIDENT STEP DOWN

LIMA: Anti-government protesters clash with the police in Peru capital Lima on Saturday. The protesters renewed demonstrations against Peru’s interim President Dina Boluarte, demanding she step down and hold elections. Ms. Boluarte came to power in December after former leftist President Pedro Castillo was ousted and arrested.