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Yamina and New Hope, will have the same weight as those of the other six parties in the coalition combined in the cabinet and the Ministerial Committee on Legislation.

In the security cabinet, there will be 12 ministers, six each from the Right bloc and the remaining six parties, to keep the two blocs equal.

The coalition agreement also calls for updating the Norwegian Law, which allows ministers and deputy ministers to resign from the Knesset to be replaced by the next candidate on their party’s list, to give the coalition parties more MKs to work for them in the Knesset. If the ministers quit their posts, they would return to the Knesset automatically.

New Hope and Meretz, which have six seats each, could have three new MKs enter the Knesset. Yamina, Labor and Yisrael Beytenu, which have seven seats, and Blue and White, which has eight, could have four MKs join, and Yesh Atid, which has 17, could have five.

Each party will decide on its own how and when to implement the law. But every party in the coalition is expected to implement it at least partially.

Kamala: OK I’m Not at the Border

Vice President Kamala Harris pushed back on criticism that she hasn’t visited the U.S.-Mexico border in an interview aired on Tuesday by arguing that her travel had been limited during the early days of the Biden administration.

In an interview that took place in Guatemala during Harris’ first foreign trip since taking office, NBC’s Lester Holt asked Harris whether she had plans to visit the U.S. Southern border.

“At some point, you know, we are going to the border,” Harris said. “We’ve been to the border. So this whole, this whole, this whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”

Holt responded, “You haven’t been to the border.”

“I, and I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t – I don’t understand the point that you’re making,” Harris said with a laugh. “I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”

Harris has been tasked by President Biden to lead efforts to stem the flow of migration from Central America. Her comments come as Republican critics have tried to make Harris the face of the Biden administration’s response at the border, where a record number of unaccompanied children crossed into the U.S. this spring.

“I care about this, and I care about what’s happening at the border. I’m in Guatemala because my focus is dealing with the root causes of migration,” Harris said. “There may be some who think that that is not important, but it is my firm belief that if we care about what’s happening at the border, we better care about the root causes and address them.”

Harris met with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday and flew to Mexico on Tuesday to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Cicada Causes Car Crash

A man in Ohio crashed his car on Monday after a cicada flew into his car through his open window.

The man was driving near Cincinnati when the insect flew in through an open window and struck the driver in the face. He was temporarily stunned and crashed into a utility pole.

Thankfully, the driver was wearing a seatbelt. The airbag also helped to mitigate the harm, although the car was totaled.

Cincinnati Police Department noted, “The heavy swarm in the area and dead cicada on the floorboard proved he wasn’t lying.”

In a tweet, the police used a hashtag that said: “Nothing good happens with cicadas.”

As a result, Cincinnati drivers have been warned to “remember to keep [their] windows rolled up until our little red-eyed friends are gone.”

Cincinnati police have noted that “cicadas have historically been attributed to car crashes when they emerge.”

Cicadas are at or near their peak in Cincinnati, Ohio. Brood X cicadas appear every 17 years after living underground. Billions of cicadas are appearing in the Cincinnati area and will remain for a few weeks before dying off in late June and into July.

Cicadas will also be emerging in Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Monopoly Game Leads to Most Fights

One of five people have banned a board game for causing problems on game night, Study Finds reported.

In a recent survey of over 2,000 U.S. residents, 20% say game night is “often” or “always” disrupted by competitive or unfriendly behavior. Typically, this is because someone is losing (46%), accusing someone else of cheating (44%), or at least two people are arguing (44%).

Among those who have banned games, the most common games that have been banned are Monopoly (44%), Uno (37%), and Sorry (27%).

According to data compiled by OnePoll on behalf of Z-Man Games, just 11% of respondents have witnessed a physical fight. However, 22% of respondents banned certain games, and another 22% have had to ban a player. In addition, 13% of respondents confessed to being the problem player “every time” or “most of the time.”

Among those over 57 years of age, 71% are “never” the problem player, while among those aged 41-56, just 57% are “never” the problem player.

Among respondents aged 25-40, just 38% say they are never the problem player; and just 24% of those aged 18-24 can say they never cause the problems. Younger players are also more likely than older players to ban participants, the survey showed.

The survey also showed that the coronavirus pandemic caused a 13% drop in game nights last year in comparison to previous years, partly due to the rise in remote gaming.

Finally, when asked why they play games, 41% said winning is important, but just 29% said they are actively concerned with “beating everyone else”; 75% of respondents are in the game just to have fun.

Feds Recover $4.3M Ransom

The federal government has recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency paid in ransom to cybercriminals whose attack prompted the shutdown of the country’s largest fuel pipeline and gas shortages across the southeastern U.S. last month, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.

On May 8, Colonial Pipeline paid a ransom worth roughly $4.3 million in bitcoin to the Russia-based hacking group known as DarkSide, which had used malicious software to hold the company hostage. Paying the ransom allowed Colonial to restore fuel transport through its pipeline, which stretches from Texas to the Northeast and delivers 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast.

According to Justice Department officials, the FBI was able to track and recover 63.7 bitcoins, currently valued at about $2.3 million.

The operation marks a rare ransom recovery for the critical infrastructure company that fell victim to the devastating cyberattack, as the “ransomware-as-a-service” business model booms. It marks the first recovery by the department’s new Ransomware Task Force.

“Earlier today, the Department of Justice has found and recaptured the majority of the ransom Colonial paid to the DarkSide network,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Monday. “Using technology to hold businesses, and even whole cities, hostage for profit is decidedly a 21st-century challenge, but the old adage ‘follow the money’ still applies.”

Justice Department officials said investigators tracked the bitcoins on the cryptocurrency’s public ledger and identified the virtual currency account known as a “wallet” used by DarkSide to collect payment. The FBI obtained the wallet’s private “key,” enabling agents to seize the funds under a court order by a federal judge in the Northern District of California.

“Today, the FBI successfully seized criminal proceeds from a Bitcoin wallet that DarkSide ransomware actors used to collect a cyber ransom payment from a victim,” FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said. “Since last year, we’ve been pursuing an investigation into DarkSide, a Russia based cybercrime group. The DarkSide ransomware variant is one of more than 100 ransomware variants that the FBI is currently investigating.”

Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray likened the threat of ransomware to the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Justice Department also issued a memo to federal prosecutors elevating ransomware probes to the same priority level as terrorism investigations.

During the Colonial attack, the hackers threatened to publicly release company data, prompting the company to shut down operations. The stoppage led to fuel shortages in more than a dozen states, sending gas prices soaring and threatening to halt airline travel.

Last month, the Biden administration said pipeline companies must report cyber incidents to federal authorities. The directive required pipeline owners and operators to designate “a 24/7, always available cybersecurity coordinator” to coordinate with both the Transportation Security Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the event of a cyber incident, but fell short of addressing other critical infrastructure sectors.

Jewish Athlete Forced to Eat Pork

ter a Jewish athlete was forced to eat pepperoni pizza as punishment for missing a team weight-lifting session, Newsweek reported.

According to Edward Gilbert, the student’s father and attorney, the Jewish student was forced to sit in the middle of the gym and eat an entire pepperoni pizza in front of the rest of the team. If he refused, he was told that his standing on the team would be in jeopardy and his teammates would be forced to run extra drills.

Gilbert added that the football program was aware of the laws of kosher and that the student observed them.

In a press release, the Canton City School Board announced: “In a 5-0 vote, the board determined that Head Football Coach Marcus Wattley, along with six assistant coaches, Cade Brodie, Joshua Grimsley, Romero Harris, Frank McLeod, Zachary Sweat, and Tyler Thatcher, will no longer be coaches at Canton McKinley High School or anywhere else in the district. No contracts will be renewed.”

In a statement, Board President John Rinaldi said, “The Canton City School District holds our coaching and general staff to the highest professional and ethical standards. Anything short of these standards is unacceptable and will not be permitted.”

On Tuesday, Gilbert told ABC News 5, “This is a First Amendment issue, and yes, there will most likely be a lawsuit. The coach was inappropriate in the way he handled this. It was a stupid act.”

Protecting the Salmon

The fate of Bristol Bay in Southwest Alaska, its multibillion-dollar commercial fishing and tourism in-

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dustry, and the indigenous people who live there has been contested for more than a decade. Although many of Alaska’s elected officials have supported mining there, an unusual coalition of environmentalists, Republicans, commercial fishermen, and Alaska Natives helped persuade the Trump administration to block an open-mine gold and copper project last year.

For those with ties to the small village of Pedro Bay on the shore of Lake Iliamna, the state’s largest lake and a natural nursery for Bristol Bay’s spawning salmon, the threat that some future version of a mine could damage this precious salmon habitat remains a chilling possibility. “The salmon sustained us for how many thousands of years,” said Sarah Thiele, vice chair of the Pedro Bay Corp.’s Board of Directors. “So you really have to be very conscious that you don’t disturb their habitat.”

Late last month, nearly 90 percent of the corporation’s shareholders voted to let the Conservation Fund, an environmental nonprofit organization, buy conservation easements on more than 44,000 acres and make the land off limits to future development — including the mining road.

In exchange for the surface rights, the corporation would receive nearly $20 million, including $500,000 for education and cultural programs for those in the village.

The deal will make it difficult for backers of a massive open-pit gold and copper mine to carry out their project because the new protections cover a portion of a critical route the Pebble Limited Partnership plans to use to transport ore from the mine.

Pedro Bay residents would retain ownership of their land and be allowed to access it for subsistence hunting and fishing as well as cultural practices and some forms of economic development, such as tourism, said Larry Selzer, president and chief executive of the Conservation Fund.

For the Conservation Fund, the “primary objective” of the agreement is to protect the critical salmon habitat, but a secondary benefit is “to eliminate the threat of the potential construction of an industrial transportation route as part of the proposed Pebble Mine project.”

Global Tax Deal Goes to Congress

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen secured an international tax agreement last week and now faces the challenge of passing it through Congress, The New York Times reported.

The Biden administration is banking on collecting over $3 trillion in tax increases levied on corporations and wealthy Americans and plans to use the funds to pay for jobs and infrastructure proposals.

On Saturday, Yellen convinced the Group of 7 advanced economies to agree to a global minimum tax of at least 15% for companies – regardless of where they are based.

In a Sunday interview, Yellen defended U.S. President Joe Biden’s plans to raise corporate taxes from 21% to 28%, saying, “We think it’s a fair way to collect revenues.” She added: “I honestly don’t think there’s going to be a significant impact on corporate investment.”

Acknowledging that a compromise on the issue of corporate tax maybe

necessary, Yellen expressed hope for a bipartisan infrastructure agreement, despite the Republican resistance to changing the 2017 law which lowered corporate taxes to 21%.

It is not yet clear if Republicans will support the international agreement, which critics have said cedes authority to other governments. If the legislation does not pass, negotiations regarding the global agreement will be in vain.

Hoover Dam Losing Water

The Hoover Dam, located on the Arizona-Nevada state line, is facing a severe water shortage, USA Today reported.

Built for purposes of flood control, irrigation, water storage, power, and navigation and completed in 1935, the dam towers over 700 feet above the Black Canyon, taming the Colorado River.

But years of severe droughts and rising temperatures have caused the water level in the dam’s reservoir, Lake Mead, to drop approximately 140 feet since the turn of the century, placing it at approximately 37% capacity, USA Today noted, adding that the reservoir is headed for its first-ever official shortage.

With the reservoir headed towards its lowest-ever level, the water supplies of cities and farmlands may be at stake: The reservoir has decreased over 16 feet during the past year, and is expected to drop another nine feet by the end of 2021, reaching below an elevation of 1,066 feet – below the federal government’s “red line” of 1,075 feet, when a shortage is declared.

If the reservoir drops below 950 feet, it will no longer be able to generate power. Hoover Dam’s normal capacity is 2,074 megawatts, enough for around 450,000 households. However, the current level provides only 1,567 megawatts of electricity, enough for around 350,000 homes. Every foot of water lost leads to a decrease of around six megawatts of power-generating capacity. At 950 feet, the lake would be able to produce around 650 megawatts of power.

Water can still be pumped down to a level of 895 feet.

Tennis Upsets

Serena Williams fell behind in the fourth round at Roland Garros, losing 6-3, 7-5 to Elena Rybakina.

Williams’ defeat came just hours after Roger Federer withdrew, saying he needed to let his body recover ahead of Wimbledon.

Williams has won the French Open three times. She has also won 23 Grand Slam titles, while Federer has won 20. The game was the last in the tournament for both parties, who will turn 40 later this year.

For Rybakina, 21, who is ranked 22nd, this was the seventh Grand Slam appearance and the first time she has made it past the second round.

“I am so happy with my match today. It was amazing,” said Rybakina, who is from Kazakhstan. “Of course, I was nervous. I was not serving that well before. But I’m just happy that I just managed.”

Rybakina now faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who advanced with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 victory over two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka.

FDA Approves Drug for Alzheimer’s

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a drug to treat the process of Alzheimer’s, marking the first time the organization has done so.

The new drug, Aducanumab, has been shown in studies to lower the rate of clinical withdrawal in early-stage Alzheimer’s patients. It received FDA approval despite opposition from the FDA’s independent advisory committee and some Alzheimer’s experts, who claim there is not enough evidence that the drug is helpful.

The drug will be sold under the brand name Aduhelm and is administered via intravenous infusion once a month.

Produced by Biogen and Japan’s Eisai Co., it does not reverse Alzheimer’s but is designed to slow cognitive decline. Clinical trials showed that those taking Aducanumab experienced a 22% lower decline in their thinking skills than those who received a placebo. Due to failed trials, however, the FDA approved the use of Aducanumab only so long as Biogen performed a new clinical trial.

The new trial will continue over the next few years, and during that time, the drug will be available to patients. If the post-trial study does not prove its efficacy, the FDA can revoke its approval.

According to Biogen, the new drug will cost approximately $56,000 per year of treatment, and the price will remain stable for four years. The follow-up trial is expected to be completed in 2030.

Jeff Bezos Heads to Space

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will travel to space next month when his company, Blue Origin, launches its first passenger-carrying mission, Bloomberg reported.

Bezos, 57, will travel together with his brother Mark, the Amazon chief announced on Monday on Instagram.

Takeoff is scheduled for approximately two weeks after Bezos retires from his position at Amazon.com Inc.

In an Instagram post, Bezos wrote, “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to