Vox Sentences: The scariest man in Israeli politics is now the country’s defense minister

The most right-wing government in Israeli history; security forces turn against protesters in Iraq; new Nutrition Facts labels coming in 2018.

Vox Sentences is written by Dylan Matthews and Dara Lind.

TOP NEWS

"The brink of madness"

(MOD via Getty Images)

• Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is about to form a governing coalition with the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party — including appointing its head, Avigdor Lieberman, as defense minister.

  [Reuters / Jeffrey Heller]

• The current defense minister, Moshe Ya'alon, was expected to be offered another job in the Cabinet. Instead, he resigned from the government entirely.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• For Israel's hyper-Zionist right, this is a win-win. They were angry with outgoing defense minister Ya'alon for speaking out against the killing of a wounded Palestinian by an Israeli soldier during a thwarted knife attack in April. (The soldier is now on trial.)

  [Times of Israel]

• Instead, they get Lieberman — who is himself a settler in the occupied territories and who has called for the execution of Arab members of the Israeli Parliament.

  [The Guardian / Rory McCarthy]

• Netanyahu's Likud Party had a one-seat majority in Israel's Parliament. Lieberman's party gives him six more seats in the coalition. But in courting Lieberman, Netanyahu spurned the center-left Zionist Union Party — which has 24 seats.

  [Reuters / Jeffrey Heller]

• The resulting coalition's being called the most right-wing in Israeli history. But if you look at it a certain way, it's just codification of what most Israel-watchers already knew: The Netanyahu government isn't interested in a two-state solution.

  [Reuters / John Lloyd]

This will end well

(Haydar Hadi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

• Protests in Iraq escalated Friday; protesters breached the Green Zone (the compound that houses Parliament and is barred to civilians) again, and security forces fired tear gas at protesters and live ammunition in the air.

  [NYT / Omar Al-Jawoshy and Falih Hassan]

• The government eventually dispersed the protesters, and has declared an indefinite curfew.

  [Al Jazeera ]

• Friday's protest represents a big change in the response of security forces to the protests that have been going on for months in Baghdad, inspired by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

• While the protests originally targeted corruption and bad governance, last month's ISIS bombings have inspired protesters to add the government's inability to protect them to their list of grievances.

  [Reuters / Stephen Kalin and Kareem Raheem]

• The problem is that al-Sadr is calling for a whole new Cabinet — something that threatens the basic structure of the Iraqi government, which is based around quotas to ensure that each major ethnic and religious group has a voice.

  [Al Jazeera / Ibrahim Al-Marashi]

• And the instability of the Iraqi government, in general, has been a key factor in allowing ISIS to survive to begin with.

  [Politico Magazine]

One serving of newsletter contains 0 added sugars

(FDA)

• The FDA announced Friday that (as of 2018) "Nutrition Facts" labels on US food will be revamped, in the hopes that Americans will actually pay attention to the important parts of them.

  [Vox / Julia Belluz]

• The Washington Post runs down all the changes: Calories will be displayed more prominently; serving sizes will make more sense; and fat and sugars will be broken down in ways that reflect their actual health risks.

  [Washington Post / Ariana Eunjung Cha]

• That last change is a huge loss for the sugar industry. The new labels will specifically display "added sugars" — a change they've been lobbying against for years.

  [Los Angeles Times / Evan Halper]

• For the food and drink manufacturers who use added sugars, meanwhile, the new requirements are coming at a time when demand for sugary products is already falling. The combination of the two might inspire them to consider new formulations of their products.

  [WSJ / Annie Gasparro and Mike Esterl]

• That's the best argument for calorie labeling at restaurants, too — not that people will start watching their calories better (the jury's still out), but that restaurants will feel the need to offer healthier food themselves.

  [Eater / Whitney Filloon]

MISCELLANEOUS

Most mass shooters aren't mentally ill. So why do politicians keep suggesting mental health treatment as a solution? [Washington Post / Michael Rosenwald]

• Worried about getting hit by a Google self-driving car? Don't be. The company's patented a technique for putting a strong adhesive on its cars — letting it stick pedestrians to them, like flies to flypaper.

  [Gizmodo / Alissa Walker]

• The DC Metro catches fire, on average, over four times per week. For more see IsMetroOnFire.com.

  [FiveThirtyEight / Leah Libresco]

• Vince from Entourage has MANY FEELINGS about whales.

  [Slate / LV Anderson]

• Meet the "Elephant Curve": the one graph that explains why globalization has been great for the global poor, but hurt developed countries' working classes.

  [The American Prospect / Miles Corak]

VERBATIM

"The average federal tax rate on the top 1 percent has risen quite a lot. In fact, it’s roughly back to what it was in 1979, pre-Ronald Reagan." [NYT / Paul Krugman]

• "You don’t love us! You don’t even love yourself. You just love your money."

  [Donald Trump Jr. to his father, via Washington Post / Dan Zak]

• "Between 2012 and 2016, the percentage of $1 million+ homes in San Francisco grew a gobsmacking 37.8 percent, rising to represent 57.4 percent of the homes in the city."

  [CityLab / Kriston Capps]

• "Money doesn’t just shield us from obvious daily stresses, this study tells us, but can actually buy us the most basic of our psychological needs – human connection. The higher our income, the less likely we are to experience loneliness."

  [The Guardian / Ruth Whippman]

• "I am a teenager with nonspeaking autism. I prefer this term rather than low functioning, because if I am typing you this letter, which I am, I am clearly functioning."

  [Gordy Baylinson via Washington Post / Colby Itkowitz]

WATCH THIS

Authoritarianism: The political science that explains Trump [YouTube / Amanda Taub and Joss Fong]

(Vox/Joss Fong)