Our daily jaunt around the world

🇮🇱 Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to temporarily pause his controversial judicial reform plan following mass protests. Since early January, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated against a proposed law that would allow Parliament to override Supreme Court decisions, restrict the Court’s ability to block laws, and give the government full control over appointing new judges. Supporters argue the changes are necessary to balance the court, while critics claim the reforms give Netanyahu nearly unchecked power and weaken the court. After Israeli citizens staged a general strike yesterday – the size of which multiple sources called “unprecedented” – Netanyahu said he would postpone a vote on the plan until the next Parliament session on April 30.

🇩🇪 Speaking of strikes: German workers participated in the largest nationwide walkout since 1992 yesterday. The 24-hour strike, which drew nearly 3 million participants, marked the beginning of three days of negotiations between the German government and local trade and transportation unions. Workers are seeking a pay raise of at least 10% due to increased inflation in Germany, which stood at 9.3% over the year-long period ending last month.

🇳🇴🇸🇪🇫🇮🇩🇰 Four Nordic countries have agreed to combine their 250 advanced fighter jets into a single fleet. The joint military agreement between Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark features two current NATO members, and two other countries that are in the midst of applying to join the global military alliance (Sweden and Finland). On a related note, Hungary officially approved Finland’s NATO application yesterday, putting the nation on track to join the alliance by the end of next month.