TV News LIES

As an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor and a former lawyer, Renee Rabinowitz might seem an unlikely figurehead in Israel’s culture wars.

Rabinowitz has been thrust into the spotlight over an issue that has become an increasingly familiar problem for airlines flying in and out of Israel: ultra-orthodox men who refuse to take their seats next to women, demanding changes in seating and sometimes causing delays.

An estimated 600 high-rise buildings in England contain cladding similar to that used on a London tower block which caught fire, killing at least 79 people, officials said on Thursday.

Flames spread rapidly up the 24-storey residential Grenfell Tower last week, trapping people inside, in what was Britain's worst blaze since World War Two. Exterior cladding added during a refurbishment may have played a part, residents have said.

At least 29 people have been killed after a car bomb exploded outside a bank in Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern Afghan province of Helmand, the provincial governor said.

At least 60 people were wounded in the attack outside the New Kabul Bank branch and most of the casualties were civilians, Hayaullah Hayat said.

The blast took place around 12 noon local time (08:00 GMT), according to the governor's spokesperson Omar Zwak, when civilians and members of the security forces waiting to collect their pay.

More...

Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has changed his pick for a successor, naming his son Prince Mohammed bin Salman as crown prince and deposing Prince Mohammed bin Nayef from the post. At 31, the country's new successor to the throne is 50 years younger than the current monarch.

Mohammed bin Nayef, 57, had served as crown prince since 2015, taking the post shortly after Salman, his uncle, was crowned. He also had been Saudi Arabia's interior minister — another job that will now be filled by Mohammed bin Salman.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has announced the beginning of building work on the first new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank in 25 years, a day before a visit by Donald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy, Jared Kushner, aimed at reinvigorating the stalled peace process.

The new settlement, known as Amichai, is being built to house about 300 hardline residents of the illegal West Bank Jewish outpost of Amona who were evicted by police in February after a court ruled their houses were on privately owned Palestinian land.

Belgian police said an "incident involving an individual" at Brussels Central Station was under control on Tuesday as local media ran reports that a person wearing an explosive belt had been "neutralised".

Traffic was halted following what police described as a "small blast" at the station.

Images of the scene posted on social media showed what appeared to be a small explosion inside the station and a large number of police officers gathered outside.

More...