Nation and world news in brief for July 22
Israel’s Netanyahu to meet with recovering Biden on Tuesday
(TNS) — Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he’ll meet U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Tuesday, a day before the Israeli prime minister is due to address a joint session of Congress.
The scheduling takes into account the American leader’s recovery from Covid-19, after he tested positive for the virus on July 17. Biden has been self-isolating at home in Delaware since then.
Netanyahu will depart Israel on Monday morning, his office said in a statement. It’s the Israeli premier’s first trip outside Israel since its war against Hamas began in October.
The White House said in an update on Saturday that Biden’s symptoms — which include “general malaise” as well as a cough and runny nose — “continue to improve steadily.”
Efforts to bring an end to Israel’s nine-month war on Hamas are likely to top the agenda of Netanyahu’s visit.
Delta Air Lines faces widespread flight cancellations after IT outage
(Reuters) — Delta Air Lines struggled to restore normal operations on Sunday after last week’s crippling global cyber outage, canceling about 1,000 flights on top of the 3,500 it had already scrapped.
The Atlanta-based airline, which canceled just over a quarter of its schedule Sunday and delayed another 1,700 flights or 46%, is facing ongoing operational problems caused by the outage’s impact on its crew tracking system.
The issue has stranded thousands of Delta travelers across the country, with some resorting to car rentals to drive hundreds of miles and others facing days for new flights or canceling trips altogether.
Delta has offered no timetable for when normal operations would resume and has already canceled another 137 flights for Monday, according to FlightAware.
Zelenskyy calls for long-range weapons after attack on Kyiv
KYIV (Reuters) — Ukraine needs long-range weapons to protect its cities and troops on the frontline from Russian bombs and drones,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday after a massive overnight drone and missile attack.
Russia launched its fifth drone attack on Kyiv in two weeks overnight, with Ukraine’s air defense systems destroying all the air weapons before they reached the capital, Ukraine’s military said.
Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram that its air defense systems destroyed 35 of the 39 drones and two cruise missiles that Russia had launched overnight. The weapons, the air force said, targeted 10 of Ukraine’s regions.
It was not immediately clear how many drones were launched at Kyiv. There were no casualties and no significant damage reported, Serhiy Popko, head of the Ukrainian capital’s military administration, said on the Telegram.
Fighting in southern Gaza, Israeli strikes hit central areas
CAIRO (Reuters) — Israeli forces battled Palestinian fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, striking areas in the centre of the coastal enclave where thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes have been seeking shelter.
Residents in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, said fierce battles raged between Hamas-led fighters and Israeli forces, especially in the centre and in western areas where tanks had advanced in the previous two days.
The armed wings of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas Islamist militant groups said fighters confronted Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.
The Israeli military said its soldiers had killed a group of fighters who were moving towards them, and destroyed ammunition, tunnel shafts and infrastructure in Tel al-Sultan, in the eastern part of the city.
Boeing sees significant improvement in 737 MAX factory after safety crisis
LONDON (Reuters) — Boeing is seeing a significant improvement in production flow at its 737 MAX factory, its new commercial planes chief said on Sunday, as the U.S. planemaker battles to overcome a safety crisis.
Speaking to reporters in London ahead of this week’s Farnborough Airshow, Stephanie Pope said the changes Boeing was making to the Seattle-area factory were significant.
