The Independent: “A last-gasp legal challenge by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to thwart a bid by a rival rightist to head a new government was rejected on Tuesday as his opponents raced to seal a pact that would unseat him. Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu’s former defence minister, announced on Sunday he would join a proposed alliance with centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, serving as its premier first under a rotation deal. They have until midnight Wednesday to present a final pact to Rivlin, who handed Mr Lapid the task of forming a new government after Netanyahu failed to do so in the wake of a close election on 23 March. Hoping to beat the deadline, Lapid, Bennett and other party leaders convened to clinch coalition agreements, sources briefed on the talks said. In a letter to the legal counsels of the presidency and parliament, Netanyahu’s conservative Likud said Lapid was not authorised to cede the premiership to Bennett.”