Briefly

ISRAEL

Snap election closer with Knesset vote

Israel was heading on Wednesday toward its fifth election in less than four years, plunging it deeper into political uncertainty as it grapples with rising living costs and renewed international efforts to revive a nuclear deal with Iran. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett moved last week to dissolve parliament after infighting made his ruling coalition no longer tenable. The Knesset set a deadline for midnight on Wednesday for a final vote to dissolve. Once the calling of a snap election gets the Knesset's final approval, Israel's center-left foreign minister, Yair Lapid, will take over from Bennett as prime minister of a caretaker government with limited powers. But even with lawmakers grappling over the exact election date, either Oct 25 or Nov 1, the campaign has already become dominated by the possible comeback of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

JAPAN

Tokyo sizzles on hottest June day yet

Japan braced on Wednesday for its hottest day yet of a record-breaking June heat wave, as fears grew about a shortage of electricity to keep air conditioners whirring and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida calling for a ramp-up of nuclear power use. As some manufacturers announced plans to scale back production to save electricity, temperatures of around 40 C were predicted in areas surrounding Tokyo on the fifth day of a heat wave that has seen the Japanese capital sizzle under its worst June heat since records began in 1875.

UNITED STATES

Epstein associate Maxwell gets 20 years

Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years in prison for helping the financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. The stiff sentence was a victory for a group of women who spent years fighting for justice after an earlier generation of prosecutors failed to pursue the predatory power couple. Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, exploiting vulnerable girls as young as 14. Prosecutors said he could not have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion.

Agencies via Xinhua