An opinion poll on Friday showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party would form the largest single party in parliament.

That would be if an election were held now, underlining a gradual recovery since the Oct. 7 attacks last year.

The poll, published in the left-wing Ma’ariv daily, showed Likud winning 24 seats, against 32 at present, its highest score in the Ma’ariv poll since Oct. 7.

It put the National Unity Party led by centrist former general Benny Gantz on 21. 

Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition with a clutch of nationalist-religious and ultra-Orthodox parties would lose any election held now, with 53 seats in the 120-seat parliament, against 58 for the main opposition bloc, according to the poll.

Nevertheless, Likud’s advance shows how far Netanyahu has moved since last year when his standing was hit by public fury at the security failures when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.

Earlier in the war against Hamas in Gaza, opinion polls regularly showed Likud gaining no more than 16-18 seats in parliament.

The survey also showed Netanyahu’s standing as prime minister recovering, with respondents favouring him over any alternative potential candidate apart from former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is now out of politics.

Despite the coalition, tensions between Netanyahu and several ministers, and regular protests by Israelis demanding a deal to bring home the Gaza hostages, the government has held together for almost two years.

An election is not due until 2026.

Netanyahu has clashed with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, from his party, and two hardliners – National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

While Likud has climbed steadily, support has not followed for the two nationalist religious parties, Jewish Power, led by Ben-Gvir, and Religious Zionism, under Smotrich, giving both parties an incentive not to leave the government. 

– Reuters

A Federal judge from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Google has violated the U.S. antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly in the online search market.

Judge, Amit Mehta on Tuesday agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that Google has a monopoly in “general search services” and the general search text ads market.

”Having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reached the following conclusion:

”Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” according to the court’s ruling.

It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Google controls about 90 per cent of the online search market and 95 per cent on smartphones, said the ruling, capping a years-long case.

The DOJ reportedly sued in 2020 over Google’s dominance in online search, which was the first time in a generation that the U.S. government accused a major corporation of an illegal monopoly.

This landmark decision holds Google accountable, DOJ antitrust Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said in a statement.

It said that it paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans.

Kent Walker, Google’s president of Global Affairs, said the company intended to appeal to Mehta’s ruling.

This decision recognised that Google offered the best search engine, but concluded that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available, according to the statement.

“As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.”

Google’s fate will be decided in the next phase of proceedings, which could determine potential fixes possibly including a breakup of Google’s parent Alphabet.

The next separate antitrust trial between the DOJ and Google would start on Sept. 9 in Virginia.

However, the case would focus on whether Google has illegally monopolised advertising technology.

Amazon, Apple, and Meta will now all face monopolisation lawsuits from the U.S. government. 

– Xinhua

…As 2 killed by Russian artillery fire on Ukrainian village

 Yemen’s Houthi group on Friday claimed responsibility for launching a drone and missile attack against a ship in the Gulf of Aden.

“The Lobivia ship was hit accurately by several missiles and drones,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised statement aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV.

Earlier in the day, Sarea in another televised statement claimed responsibility for launching a drone attack against what he said was a vital target in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

He didn’t identify the target. 

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported the attack killed a person and injured 10 others.

The Houthi group, which controls much of northern Yemen, has been targeting ships linked to Israel since November 2023, in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The group threatens to escalate its attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden until the conflict stops in the besieged Palestinian territory. 

In another development, two women were killed and several others injured by Russian artillery fire that travelled across the Dnipro River and hit a village in southern Ukraine, local authorities said on Friday.

One of the injured is a doctor, Alexander Prokudin, military governor of the Kherson region, announced on Telegram.

Where he posted that Russian troops fired 40 shells from a rocket artillery launcher at the village of Biloserka on the north bank of the Dnipro during the night.

Meanwhile, around 60 houses were damaged.

And one woman was killed in her house.

The body of a second woman was later discovered under the rubble.

Russia occupied Biloserka, along with the rest of the Kherson region, in the spring of 2022, shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February of that year.

However, Russian forces were driven from the area in late autumn of 2022.

Since then, the wide lower reaches of the Dnipro have formed the front line in most places.

Russia’s Defence Ministry in Moscow announced, without specifying the exact location that Russian artillery had knocked out the command centre of a Ukrainian battalion on the other bank of the river.

Separately, nine people were injured by Russian shelling in the city of Chuhuiv in the eastern region of Kharkiv, according to military governor Oleh Synyehubov.

Several buildings were damaged, while some cars were burnt.

The governor did not specify which weapons were used to fire on the city.

Chuhuiv is an important transport hub for supplying Ukrainian units on the front east of Kharkiv.

– Xinhua

– With additional information from DPA/NAN