Netanyahu makes last attempt to stay in power

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NEED TO KNOW:

The last time France passed any sweeping laws related to intelligence gathering was in 1991. Some of you might remember that glorious time, when cellphones and the internet were pretty much unknown and sophisticated computer hacking still remained the fantasy of sci-fi moviemakers.

Times sure have changed. That's part of the justification by French lawmakers who just moved to vastly expand the government's surveillance capabilities. Although the bill has been in the works since last year, it's also been spurred on by the Charlie Hebdo shootings in January, which killed 17 people. It will now go to the senate, where it is likely to pass without much resistance.

As it stands now, according to The New York Times, the law would allow intelligence agencies to tap cellphones and read email. It would also allow them to force internet providers to give access when requested to all of their customers' online activity and communications. Bulk collection of metadata, that very controversial practice embraced by the US National Security Agency, would also be allowed.

The law is essentially France's Patriot Act, and it is making a lot of people nervous. In other parts of Europe, like in the United States, there is an ongoing and robust debate about how to balance surveillance and monitoring terror threats with civil liberties. In France, the surveillance law is poised to pass overwhelmingly.

France, though, has long had some of the Western world's harshest counterterrorism laws, some of which go well beyond the Patriot Act. “At this stage, they’re looking at their wish list and thinking, what else would I like?” one expert told GlobalPost Senior Correspondent Corinne Purtill after the shootings in Paris.

WANT TO KNOW:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost didn't win re-election in March. Polls were so close ahead of the vote that the conservative and controversial Israeli leader made a last-minute and rather dramatic appeal to his conservative base.

And in the process he made a lot of people — all over the world — really angry. He pledged to build more settlements in the West Bank, which is considered illegal under international law. And he told Israeli media that he didn't support the idea of a Palestinian state. Those two agenda items would pretty much rule out the possibility of peace in the region.

The strategy worked. After his party won, he immediately began the process of backtracking from his election-eve comments.

Netanyahu's Likud party won the most seats. But that didn't mean that Netanyahu would be prime minister. He still had to form a coalition. Today he is now hours from a deadline to do just that, and it's looking more and more like he could fail. Major parties have backed out and joined the opposition, leaving Netanyahu scrambling to assemble a coalition of smaller parties.

If he does fail, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin would appoint someone new to form a coalition government. And that government could look a lot different from the hawkish one Netanyahu has led since 2009.

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

When Filipino boxing champ Manny Pacquiao lost to American Floyd Mayweather last weekend, many in the Philippines were devastated. But for Pacquiao there was a silver lining: he still made millions upon millions of dollars just participating in the fight.

Now he might lose those millions. It turns out that Pacquiao injured his shoulder weeks before the fight. And he didn't tell the organizers, even though the injury likely impacted his winning odds. So the Nevada Athletics Commission is suing him for $5 million.

Not everyone thinks Pacquiao is guilty. In fact, some think it was Mayweather who may be in the wrong (so it goes when millions are wagered). Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is one of Southeast Asia's last-remaining strongman leaders, told the media he wouldn't pay a $5,000 bet he made on the fight because he thought the whole thing was rigged.

“Fighting on their (American) land, they would not allow us to win unless Floyd was beaten to death,” he said. Like many in the Philippines, he wants a rematch.