Author: CNN

Members of European Parliament attend a plenary session in Brussels on April 10.

The European Parliament is the legislative branch of the European Union and one of the bloc’s three main institutions, along with the European Commission, which is the executive branch, and the European Council, which is made up of ministers from the governments of the 27 member states.

The parliament sits primarily in Brussels, Belgium, but moves roughly once a month to Strasbourg, France.

It is the only EU institution where representatives are directly elected, and MEPs pass laws which are applied all over the bloc. In order for any legislation to be implemented, both the council and parliament have to agree.

One of the parliament’s most crucial roles is approving the makeup of the commission, which is ultimately responsible for the political direction of the world’s largest trading bloc, and it has the final say on who is appointed as president of the commission. Currently the top job is filled by Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a second term at the helm.

The parliament also has ultimate approval over the billions of euros allocated in the EU budget. It often has the final word on major policy issues such as the budget, trade and sanctions on foreign nationals.

The parliament can also put major international objectives in the deep freeze. For example, A comprehensive mutual investment agreement between the EU and China is effectively on hold while some MEPs are under sanctions from China. The parliament as a whole has refused to advance the agreement until the sanctions are lifted.

More than 40% of India’s 1.4 billion people are under 25: a tech-savvy and mostly English-speaking labor force. Like millions of migrants, many of them are drawn to the country’s financial capital Mumbai, full of aspiration and ambition. And it’s stories like these that inspire them. 

The tech developer: Growing up in the slums of Mumbai, Javed Khatri never used a smartphone or computer.  

But unlike many children in the slums, he completed 10th grade – the first person in four generations of his family to do so – then studied computer science at an engineering college.  

He is now building an online platform to connect tech firms with engineers. He moved his family out of the slum, and supports his parents. Both his siblings went to college and pursued their own careers. 

None of this would have been possible a generation ago, he says. 

The influencer: Apoorva Mukhija hadn’t planned to be a content creator, so after graduation she took a job with a tech firm in Bangalore, the southern city known as “India’s Silicon Valley.” 

“Then one day I just woke up, realized … (my job) just didn’t pay as well as content did, and I hated living in that city,” Mukhija, 22, tells CNN from a pastel-pink couch at her new apartment in Mumbai, which she says is her “dream city.” 

Her career has thrived, winning her recognition from local media and amassing 1.3 million Instagram followers. 

The internet holds a wealth of opportunities for young Indians. The country’s influencer marketing industry is expected to be worth more than $281 million in 2024, according to consultancy EY India. Smartphones and social media are fueling this growth.  

The shoemaker: At age 13, Jameel Shah ran away from his village in Bihar, India’s poorest state, where his father wasn’t earning enough from farming to send the kids to school.  

In Mumbai, he saw an opportunity in the expensive imported dance shoes required for dance classes. 

He took two samples back to the narrow alleys of Dharavi, a hub for leather and textile manufacturers. With their expertise, and his own experience working in bag and wallet factories, Shah began experimenting. 

The business grew, attracting stylists and choreographers who redistributed the shoes to dance studios. And they even made it onto the big screen. 

Almost two decades later, Shah Shoes has helped support his family. He’s bought a house for his parents and started an education center in his home village teaching literacy to those who can’t afford school. 

A key tool was the rise of social media, particularly Facebook, helping him find customers – which Shah credited to Prime Minister Modi’s push for a “digital India.” 

Read the full story. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland said he has never spoken to Hunter Biden, as a Republican lawmaker grilled him over the Department of Justice’s handling of the criminal investigation into the president’s son.

When GOP Rep. Ben Cline asked Garland if he spoke with the president’s son when they were both in attendance at a state dinner at the White House in May, Garland said, “I have never spoken to Hunter Biden in my life as far as I know.”

Garland also denied various accusations that Cline brought forward about DOJ’s handling of the case into the president’s son and maintained that he cannot discuss ongoing legal cases.

When asked if he attempted to obstruct the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, Garland said, “absolutely not.”

Cline presented various claims brought forward by IRS whistleblowers who have alleged DOJ deviated from standard investigative procedure on the case, to which Garland said he did not know anything about those individuals and affirmed that special counsel David Weiss will be able to testify about the specifics.

On the accusation that his decision to appoint Weiss to be special counsel was connected to certain statue of limitations in the criminal case lapsing, Garland said, “there is no connection between whatever happened with the statute of limitations, which I don’t know about, and the appointment of Mr. Weiss.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Friday.

Even though Russia has “many more” nuclear bombs than the US and Europe, discussions about a possible nuclear war are not necessary, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday. 

“There is no need to think about it [nuclear war]. And I would ask anyone to not mention anything like that,” he said at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. 

Putin added that Russian forces are “increasing their effectiveness,” about 27 months into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s defense industry has increased shell production by 20%, and its forces are “surpassing the capabilities of our enemies” when it comes to aircraft and tanks, he said.

Veiled threats: Putin has repeatedly made remarks on the possibility of using nuclear weapons. On Friday, the Russian leader said his country has nuclear weapons that are more powerful than the bombs the Americans dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, “but it won’t come to this.” Russia’s total nuclear stockpile is larger than the United States’, at around 6,250 total nuclear warheads, according to the Arms Control Association. The US has more than 5,500.

Legacy of nuclear war: Washington unleashed atomic bombs on both Japanese cities in August 1945, leaving years of destruction and psychological trauma on communities there.

At least 70,000 people were killed in the initial blast in Hiroshima, while approximately 70,000 more died from radiation exposure. The US dropped another bomb on Nagasaki three days later killing up to 80,000 people.

The US remains the only country to ever use an atomic bomb in war.

US President Joe Biden has laid out a three-phase proposal to end the conflict in Gaza, saying, “It’s time for this war to end.”

Biden unveiled the plan Friday in a speech from the White House, saying the proposal was submitted by Israel. The US leader said Hamas has been degraded to a point where it can no longer carry out the type of attack that launched the current eight-month conflict.

Hamas has expressed openness to the proposal, which was also hailed by some world leaders. But Israel has since made statements that seem to contradict Biden’s comments, casting some doubt on the degree of support it has for the proposal as laid out by the president.

Here’s what to know:

The three phases: Biden said the first phase would last six weeks and include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza” and “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”

He said second phase would allow for the “exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.”

“And as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, the temporary ceasefire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposals, ‘the cessation of hostilities permanently,’” Biden added.

In the third phase, the president said, a “major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed will be returned to their families.”

Hamas and Israel respond: The militant group said it “views positively” what was outlined, and said it would respond “constructively” to any ceasefire and hostage plan.

Soon after Biden detailed the proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted in a statement that the country would not end the war until Hamas is defeated. The Prime Minister’s Office added that their proposal allows Israel to “maintain these principles.”

On Saturday, the Israeli prime minister reiterated this stance, saying Israel’s goals for the war “have not changed.”

The statements, which seem to contradict Biden, have left some doubt as to whether Israel supports the proposal as outlined by the US president — who had said Israel itself submitted the plan.

International reaction:

Read more about the peace proposal here.

This post has been updated with the latest reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Monday he supports suspending US grant funding to EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based virus research organization that has been tied to question and controversy around the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19.

The US Department of Health and Human Services in May suspended funding to EcoHealth Alliance and proposed the group be blocked from receiving federal funds in the future, possibly for years.

Asked on Monday if he supposed the suspension and debarment of EcoHealth Alliance, Fauci responded “yes.” 

Before the pandemic, the US gave a $120,000 grant to EcoHealth Alliance with a subaward that funded work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In April 2020, the National Institutes of Health terminated the grant.

Fauci said that he later learned that the White House had called to tell the NIH to cancel the grant. Asked Monday if he agreed or disagreed with the decision at the time, he said that wasn’t his problem with the request.

“It wasn’t a question of agreeing or disagreeing. It was like, ‘Can we really do that? I don’t think that you can do that.’ And as it turned out I was right, because the general counsel of HHS said, ‘By the way, you can’t do that. You’ve got to restore the grant,’ ” Fauci testified.

The grant was reinstated, then suspended pending a compliance review.

Fauci said once he learned that there were compliance issues with the grant, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was told to stay out of it.

Since that time, NIH found numerous violations of grant policies by EcoHealth and has since blocked funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and suspended and proposed blocking NIH funding to EcoHealth as an institution and Dr. Peter Daszak individually.

In a May letter to EcoHealth Alliance and its president, Dr. Peter Daszak, HHS lists 30 pieces of evidence some dating back to 2013 to support its decision. HHS said in a memo that EcoHealth failed to “adequately monitor” virus growth experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, notify the NIH that viruses studied there “appeared to grow beyond permissible thresholds” laid out in a grant or provide requested information in a timely manner.

In a statement last month, a spokeperson for EcoHealth Alliance said the organization was “disappointed by HHS’ decision” and that it would contest the decision.

CNN
 — 

Rex Heuermann left his office near the Empire State Building and strolled down a still-bustling Fifth Avenue as the sun set on a hot Thursday evening in Manhattan.

The architect, whose customers included Catholic Charities, American Airlines and other tenants at John F. Kennedy International Airport, is seen in video obtained by CNN affiliate WABC walking calmly at the end of a work day. A bag was slung over his shoulder, his left hand in his pocket, when he’s approached last July 13 by several men in dark suits and ties.

Tall and heavyset, Heuermann towered over the law enforcement officers who now surrounded him. As passersby strolled leisurely along the avenue, he was taken into custody without incident in connection with a 13-year homicide investigation involving young female victims on the South Shore of Long Island who worked as escorts.

“Yes, the day has finally come when someone so … depraved of heart who would kill individuals, innocent individuals in the prime of their lives, their young lives, is finally brought to justice,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “We are hoping that this will bring justice to this individual but also peace to the families.”

That day came – finally – years after a bestselling nonfiction book, a Netflix drama, and a podcast about a long-running murder mystery that made national headlines and become known as the Gilgo Beach killings.

Heuermann was initially charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Melissa Barthelemy in 2009, and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello the following year, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney.

The alleged killer had been living a double life in a Long Island village a short drive from where their remains were found, prosecutors said.

Heuermann, who told his attorney he’s not the killer, was also the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance and death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, according to a bail application from Suffolk County prosecutors. In January, he was charged with the murder of Brainard-Barnes, who was 25 years when she was last seen. He pleaded not guilty in that case.

Heuermann, 60, was indicted on two new murder charges Thursday: second-degree murder in the 2003 death of Jessica Taylor and the 1993 death of Sandra Costilla, according to a bail application.

Taylor’s remains were discovered in Manorville in 2003 and then additional remains along Ocean Parkway on Gilgo Beach in 2011. Costilla’s remains were found in North Sea in 1993 by two hunters who were in the woods, according to the bail application.

The four victims whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway from 2007 to 2010 became known as the “Gilgo Four.”

The day after his arrest, July 14, Heuermann was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty during a first court appearance.

Heuermann was in tears following his arrest.

“I did not do this,” his court appointed attorney, Michael Brown, said his client told him.

A crucial break in the case came in January when investigators took a swab from leftover pizza crust Heuermann discarded in the trash outside his Manhattan office, according to the bail application.

DNA evidence linked him to a hair found on the burlap sack where Waterman’s remains were found.

The son of an aerospace engineer, Heuermann lived with his spouse and children in the homey village of Massapequa Park, across the bay from where the remains were found, on the southeastern edge of Nassau County.

In a video interview posted online by Bonjour Realty in 2022, as police in Suffolk County formed a multiagency task force to investigate the long-dormant cases, Heuermann said he was born and raised on Long Island. He had been working as an architectural consultant in Manhattan since 1987.

“I do troubleshooting, architectural troubleshooting, and negotiations with the building department,” Heuermann said.

“When a job that should have been routine suddenly becomes not routine, I get the phone call,” he added.

His father had built satellites for a living, Heuermann told the interviewer. His dad also built furniture in a workshop in the house Heuermann grew up in and still lived with his family.

Asked what his job taught him about himself, Heuermann said: “I think it’s taught me more about how to understand people. Dealing with the technical aspects is something a person can learn … But it’s the people, how they’re all so different and how you deal with the people, I think, is one of the more interesting aspects that has come out of this.”

RH Consultants & Associates was founded by Heuermann and incorporated in 1994, according to the company website.

At the end of his online video, Heuermann put on a pair of sunglasses and posed for a selfie with his interviewer.

“Can you smile?” Heuermann was asked.

“That is,” he replied, indicating he was smiling.

It took investigators nearly 15 years to track down Heuermann.

They first connected him to the killings in 2022 while conducting a review of evidence under a newly formed task force, which included the Suffolk County Police Department, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police and the FBI.

In March 2022, investigators found a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche – the same type of truck a witness believed to have been driven by Costello’s killer – registered to Heuermann at the time of the murders, according to the bail application.

Armed with more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants, investigators began to close in on their suspect.

Evidence revealed the killer had used burner phones to contact victims. Investigators found calls to the victims originated from locations connected to Heuermann.

Investigators said they narrowed cell tower records from thousands of possible individuals down to hundreds and then to a handful of people. They focused on residents who matched a physical description provided by a witness who had seen the killer.

Task force members also learned Heuermann lived close to one Long Island cell site and worked near New York City cell sites where other calls originated.

A series of “taunting” calls in which a male caller admitted killing and sexually assaulting Barthelemy were made from her phone to her family members from the vicinity of Heuermann’s midtown Manhattan office during the summer of 2009, according to the bail application.

Heuermann also used burner phones to contact sex workers or massage parlors, the bail application said. And he created false names for an email account used to search for “sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography,” the bail application said.

One fictitious email account was used to send selfies “to solicit and arrange for sexual activity.” Another was used to search for podcasts and documentaries about the investigation, as well as “images depicting the murdered victims and members of their immediate families,” according to the bail application.

Between March 2022 and June 2023, Heuermann used the same account to conduct more than 200 searches about serial killers and articles about the task force investigating the Gilgo Beach killings, the bail application said.

A rag a bone and a hank of hair

A key break in the case came when investigators recovered Heuermann’s DNA from pizza crust in a crumpled box he discarded in a Manhattan trash can in January 2023.

The initial examination of Waterman’s skeletal remains turned up a male hair from the “bottom of the burlap” the killer used to wrap her body, according to prosecutors. Analysis of DNA found on the victim and the pizza showed the samples matched.

Additionally, hair believed to be from Heuermann’s wife was found on or near three of the murder victims, according to the bail application. The DNA was collected from bottles inside a garbage can outside the Heuermann home.

The hairs were found in 2010 and had degraded. DNA testing at the time yielded no results but recent mitochondrial DNA testing allowed investigators to make the connection, according to Tierney.

Heuermann’s wife and children were out of the state when the three women are believed to have been killed, Tierney said. Investigators said his wife’s hair may have been transferred to the victims from his clothing.

His wife, Asa Ellerup, likely did not know about his life as an alleged killer, said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison.

“If you ask me, I don’t believe that they knew about this double life that Mr. Heuermann was living,” Harrison said of the suspect’s family.

But authorities were not ruling anything out and were continuing to collect information on what the family might have known, Harrison said after the arrest.

Ellerup had filed for divorce from her husband of 27 years, her attorney Robert Macedonio told CNN last year.

Authorities, fearing the Heuermann might be tipped off they were closing in, moved to arrest him.

“We were playing before a party of one,” Tierney told reporters. “We knew the person responsible for these murders would be looking at us.”

The case started with the search for a missing woman in 2010, leading to the discovery of multiple sets of human remains at Gilgo Beach.

By the time the remains of the missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, were found one year later, at least 10 sets of human remains had been recovered across two Long Island counties.

Tierney had said last year the work of the task force was not over.

“There are a lot of other victims, you know, in that area,” he told CNN. “There are a lot of victim’s families that want closure. So that’s what you work towards.”

Authorities believe the death of Gilbert, whose disappearance sparked discovery of the other victims, may have been accidental and not related to the other killings.

The remains of the Gilgo Four were found in bushes along a quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway over a two-day period in 2010.

The skeletal remains of Barthelemy were discovered near Gilgo Beach on December 11. Barthelemy, who was a sex worker, was last seen July 12, 2009, at her apartment when she told a friend she was going to see a man, according to a Suffolk County website about the killings.

The remains of three other women were found on December 13, 2010: Brainard-Barnes, who advertised escort services on Craigslist and was last seen in early June 2007 in New York City; Amber Lynn Costello, who also advertised escort services and was last seen leaving her North Babylon home in early September 2010; and Waterman, who also advertised as an escort and was last seen in early June 2010 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

Heuermann was surprised when he was surrounded by officers and taken into custody near his office on the evening of July 13, according to Tierney.

When Heuermann was being processed at the jail, he had just one question about his arrest. According to a source, he said, “Is it in the news?”

Speaking of the arrest, Harrison said last year: “Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us. A predator that ruined families. If not for the members of this task force, he would still be on the streets today.”

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated where the remains of the Gilgo Four were found. They were found along a quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway.

Robert Persichitti, a 102-year-old World War II US Navy veteran, died last week while on his way to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, according to Honor Flight Rochester, a veterans organization.

Persichitti was a “wonderful, pleasant, humble guy,” who was “easy to talk to,” said Honor Flight Rochester President and CEO Richard Stewart, who told CNN he learned of his friend’s death last Friday.

“We miss him,” said Stewart.

While Persichitti passed away bound for Normandy — where the Allied forces’ landing on June 6, 1944, laid the foundation for the defeat of Nazi Germany — he served in the Pacific as a radioman aboard the USS Eldorado, Stewart said. His tour of duty included Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Guam, according to Stewart and the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame, into which Persichitti was inducted in 2020.

Persichitti fell ill last week during a stop in Germany while headed for Normandy, Al DeCarlo, a friend who was traveling with Persichitti, told CNN affiliate WHAM. Persichitti was airlifted to the hospital and died soon after, DeCarlo said.

Persichitti had heart problems in the past, “but for 102, I would say he was in superb health,” Stewart told CNN.

Persichitti was born in a coal mining town outside Pittsburgh, Stewart said, describing his friend’s “humble, poor beginnings.” After the war, Persichitti worked as a carpentry teacher in Rochester, New York, according to the Veterans Hall of Fame, and in 1972 received a degree from SUNY Buffalo.

CNN
 — 

In her more than 27 years of marriage to Rex Heuermann, Asa Ellerup likely did not know about the gruesome double life her husband is accused of living, Suffolk County’s top cop says.

“If you ask me, I don’t believe, that they knew about this double life that Mr. Heuermann was living,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said of the suspect’s family.

But authorities were not ruling anything out yet and were continuing to collect information “to see if the family might have known exactly what Mr. Heuermann was up to,” Harrison told CNN’s Erica Hill in a July 2023 interview.

That month, Heuermann was arrested and charged with murder in connection to the killings of three of the “Gilgo Four,” a group of four women whose remains were found along a short stretch of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach in 2010. He also was identified as the prime suspect in the disappearance and killing of the fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who was 25 years old when she was last seen. He was charged with her murder in January and pleaded not guilty.

Heuermann, 60, was indicted on two new murder charges Thursday: second-degree murder in the 2003 death of Jessica Taylor and the 1993 death of Sandra Costilla, according to a bail application.

Taylor’s remains were discovered in Manorville in 2003 and then additional remains along Ocean Parkway on Gilgo Beach in 2011. Costilla’s remains were found in North Sea in 1993 by two hunters who were in the woods, according to the bail application.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Less than a week after her husband’s arrest, Ellerup filed for divorce, her attorney Robert Macedonio told CNN. He did not comment further on the matter.

She was shocked to hear what her husband is accused of, Harrison said.

But she unknowingly played a key role in her husband’s arrest: it was her DNA, among other evidence, that authorities say helped tie Heuermann to the crimes.

Here’s what we know about his wife, their life together and the unexpected role she played in the case.

Heuermann and Ellerup were married in April 1996, the suspect said in a 2018 deposition. Since then, they lived in Heuermann’s red and green childhood home in the Long Island suburb of Massapequa Park with their daughter and Heuermann’s stepson.

But despite their long stint in the neighborhood – and though Heuermann’s life was long rooted in the same community, neighbors knew little detail about the family.

Neighbors described the home as creepy and the family as distant, according to the Long Island Press, a monthly magazine serving Long Island.

“The family is very to themselves, quiet,” neighbor Frankie Musto told the publication. “We never saw anything suspicious.”

In his 2018 deposition, Heuermann said he had been married once before. That marriage, he said, lasted three years and they had no children.

When the victims were first discovered, there were pieces of degraded hair recovered by authorities – but DNA testing at the time could not provide the answers investigators hoped for.

Technological improvements soon helped yield results.

Hair that is now believed to belong to Ellerup – which presumably had been unintentionally carried by the suspect on his clothes – was found on or near the three victims, prosecutors alleged in the bail application, citing DNA testing.

That DNA came from 11 bottles inside a garbage can outside the Heuermann home, the court document says. Authorities had been surveilling Heuermann and his family for months after they identified him as a suspect in early 2022, and during that time collected DNA samples from items the family threw away.

Though her hair was found with the victims, Ellerup and their daughter were both traveling when the killings were committed and Heuermann was “alone in the tri-state area,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at a news conference last summer.

“It’s very significant in as much as it then limits it down to him,” criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson told CNN’s Jake Tapper about the finding. “If the suspect’s wife is out of town, then why would her hair be there if he’s in town?”

Suffolk County authorities say DNA evidence also linked Heuermann to a male hair found on the burlap sack where one victim’s remains were found.

Harrison told CNN last summer he was informed that once authorities told Ellerup and her daughter about the crimes Heuermann is accused of, the two were “shocked, they were disgusted, they were embarrassed.”

Their reaction, he said, is why he believes they were not aware of what he was doing.

“But, time will tell,” he added. “And once again, there are still a lot more questions that need to be done to the family and friends.”

CNN has made multiple attempts to contact Heuermann’s wife and daughter.

The attorneys representing Ellerup said last July she and her family “are going through a devastating time in their lives” and are asking for privacy.

“The sensitive nature of her husband’s arrest is taking an emotional toll on the immediate and extended family, especially their elderly family members,” said a statement from the Macedonio & Duncan law firm. “Ms. Ellerup does not wish to comment further and has requested the public and press to please respect the family’s privacy at this time.”

Following his arrest, Heuermann was remanded without bail. He entered a not guilty plea through his attorney.

Israel’s National Unity party, led by war cabinet member Benny Gantz, has proposed a bill to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and trigger new elections in the fall. 

“This is a continuation of the initiative led by the chairman of the State Camp, Minister Benny Gantz, to hold elections with broad consensus by October, one year after the massacre,” Gantz’s press office said in a statement. 

Knesset member Pnina Tamano-Shata submitted the bill on Thursday. 

“October 7th is a disaster that requires us to regain the people’s trust and establish a broad and stable unity government that can lead us safely through the enormous challenges in security, the economy, and above all, in Israeli society. Submitting the bill now will allow us to advance it further in the current session,” Tamano-Shata said in a statement. 

By proposing the bill, the National Unity Party members will now have the opportunity to table it during the Knesset’s summer session in which they will hold a vote to decide whether to dissolve parliament in September and hold fresh elections in October. 

Some context: Currently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a 64-member governing coalition that gives him a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

While Gantz had performed well in polls from earlier this year, recently his favorability has dropped, according to CNN global affairs analyst Barak Ravid. 

Gantz has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu’s leadership throughout the conflict in Gaza.  Earlier this month, Gantz threatened to withdraw from the government if the war cabinet did not lay out a plan by June 8 to free the hostages and eliminate Hamas.