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Zionist Union’s No. 2 drops bombshell 12 hours before election; Netanyahu, Herzog accuse each other of ‘panicking’. The Zionist Union’s Tzipi Livni announced Monday evening that she would give up the rotation of the premiership with the slate’s leader, Isaac Herzog, an agreement the two made months ago when her Hatnua party merged with his Labor Party. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign up! In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the party was “panicking,” while Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett...

If you can't stand the heat, get out of your second kitchen. Ed Miliband today sought to cool the row over his unusual domestic arrangements, insisting he prefers the 'functional kitchenette' where he was seen posing for TV cameras. The Labour leader, who has repeatedly insisted he is not interested in photo opportunities,was filmed sipping tea at home with his wife Justine in a modest kitchen at his £2million North London home. Now it has emerged that the image of the Labour leader as a man of the people with a run-of-the-mill home was not all it appeared. For Mr...

As robots increasingly adopt human qualities, including those that allow them to replace actual human labor, economists are starting to worry.  As the Wall Street Journal reported last week, some “wonder if automation technology is near a tipping point, when machines finally master traits that have kept human workers irreplaceable.”The fears of economists, politicians and workers themselves are way overdone.  They should embrace the rise of robots precisely because they love job creation.  As my upcoming book Popular Economics points out with regularity, abundant job creation is always and everywhere the happy result of technological advances that tautologically lead to job destruction.Robots...

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog announced Tuesday he will not be traveling to the US to appear before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference, amid growing tensions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on March 3. "Netanyahu's spin about who is going to Washington must stop," Herzog told a gathering of foreign media in Israel. "My firm position against a nuclear Iran is known by every Israeli and American, including the US president, and I know how to voice it in a sharp, clear manner - from here, not from there." Herzog added: "A...

What is Zionism? The ideological question, rooted in the 19th century, has gained surprising urgency in an Israeli election campaign that seems more open than had been expected. Seeking to take votes from the nationalistic right of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the relatively liberal opposition has rebranded itself as the Zionist Union—sparking a debate about a concept that some considered resolved when the Jewish state was declared and widely recognized in 1948. […] On the left, politicians speak of true Zionism as requiring the establishment of peace and equality in the land, including by making peace with the Palestinians and...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The nation's top labor official flew Monday to California in an attempt to resolve a damaging contract dispute between West Coast dockworkers and their employers. U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez headed for San Francisco, where months-long negotiations between the dockworkers union and a maritime association of companies have come to a halt. So, too, has the movement of billions of dollars of cargo that is supposed to pass through 29 seaports from Southern California to Seattle. The ports are a critical trade link with Asia and the gateway not just for imports such as electronics,...

With four weeks until elections for the 20th Knesset, Likud and Labor-Hatnua appear to be neck and neck. According to a survey conducted by the Midgam Institute for Channel Two, Labor, running under the moniker the "Zionist Camp" just barely inches by Likud with 25 seats. Likud is one behind with 24 mandates. It has been noted that even if Likud comes in behind, the party with the greatest chance of forming a coalition is given first crack, meaning the outcome of the close competition remains up in the air. The joint Arab list comes in as the third largest...

The Cuban government conspired with a Curacao ship repair company to provide practically slave labor fixing up vessels, including Miami-based cruise ships, and kept workers under harsh conditions, a lawsuit filed in U.S. District court in Miami alleges. The civil suit filed before Judge James Lawrence King alleges that up to 100 Cuban shipyard workers are forced to work against their will at Curacao Drydock Co., a ship repair company with an agent in Delray Beach, Klattenberg Marine Associates. The suit, filed by three workers who escaped and now live in Florida, alleges they were ordered to work 16-hour shifts...

Zionist Union connected to V15, an organization working to bring down the government, which has received funding from non-Israeli citizens, Likud charges. Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog has violated laws prohibiting accepting funds from non-Israeli citizens and foreign funded organizations and governments, Likud MKs said Sunday at a Tel Aviv press conference. Deputy ministers Tzipi Hotovely and Ophir Akunis, MKs Miri Regev and Yariv Levin, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's lawyer presented evidence connecting the Zionist Union to V15, an organization working to bring down the government, which has received funding from non-Israeli citizens S. Daniel Abraham and Daniel Lubetzky....

Two New Jersey teens got a lesson in government regulations this week then they decided to go door to door offering snow shoveling services ahead of the Blizzard of 2015. The blizzard ended up being a bit underwhelming in N.J., but forecasts ahead of time predicted it would be a whopper. High school seniors Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, both 18, decided to go door to door Monday evening handing out flyers offering snow shoveling services for the next morning, NJ.com reported. Unfortunately they didn't know about their town's ordinance related to soliciting, which prohibits people from selling services door-to-door...

The Likud party intends to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday in which it will expose details about “V15 – Victory in 2015,” a campaign it says is using foreign money, and lots of it, to boost Labor and Meretz in the elections. Likud has filed a motion to the Elections Committee, according to which V15 is carrying out an illegal indirect campaign with a connection to Labor and Meretz. V15 is “making criminal use of foreign sources of funding,” adding that the sums involved were “very high” and their sources unknown. Likud's press conference will include MK...

The Likud party intends to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday in which it will expose details about “V15 – Victory in 2015,” a campaign it says is using foreign money, and lots of it, to boost Labor and Meretz in the elections. Likud has filed a motion to the Elections Committee, according to which V15 is carrying out an illegal indirect campaign with a connection to Labor and Meretz. V15 is “making criminal use of foreign sources of funding,” adding that the sums involved were “very high” and their sources unknown. Likud's press conference will include MK...

Poll fever continues ahead of March 17 elections, and while results have shown Likud and Labor neck and neck, the latest survey by Channel 10 gives Labor a full four mandate gap over Likud. According to the poll, conducted by the Dialog Institute under the supervision of Prof. Camil Fuchs, Labor - which erased the word "Zionism" from its Arabic ad campaign - would get 24 mandates, while Likud would only receive 20. Coming in at third Jewish Home stays at 16 seats, followed by a joint Arab list that would receive 12 mandates. Such a joint list - formed...

4 Factors Weighing On Labor Markets—And Implications For Fed Policy (Part 1 of 5) Labor markets are weaker than they appear, leading the Fed toward continued accommodative monetary policy. Still, the central bank may find that weakness difficult to overcome, as much of it stems from serious long-term issues and not merely short-term lack of demand. In recent posts, my colleague Russ Koesterich outlined why the U.S. labor market recovery will continue to frustrate the Fed, and Jeff Rosenberg examined one key reason why the central bank is set to keep rates low for some time. I agree with these...

Ed Miliband launches Labour’s election campaign on Monday by calling on supporters to knock on four million doors. The party leader will vow to fight the Tories and Lib Dems “house by house, street by street and town by town” until polling day on May 7. In a rallying call in Manchester, he will say: “Today is day one of our general election campaign. This is nothing less than a once in a generation fight about who our country works for.” Vowing not to be intimidated by the big-spending Tories, he will add: “We will offer hope, not falsehood. We...

Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog has vowed to shut down the World Zionist Organization's Settlement Division, which functions as an operational arm of the government to build and establish communities and infrastructures in Judea and Samaria - leaving hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the region without governmental representation. "As Prime Minister I will close the Settlement Division and open it later to serve the Negev and the Galilee," Herzog stated during an interview on "Meet the Press" Saturday night. "We see again and again the same group takes over the interests of the state and Netanyahu gave in to it."...

A BBC investigation for Panorama has exposed poor working conditions in factories making Apple products in China. The undercover team secretly filmed the iPhone production line and found Apple's promises to protect workers were routinely broken. One undercover reporter - making parts for Apple computers - had to work 18 days without a day off. Other workers were filmed falling asleep. Apple say they will investigate any concerns brought to them. The BBC's Richard Bilton reports from Shanghai. [VIDEO]

A BBC investigation for Panorama has exposed poor working conditions in factories making Apple products in China. The undercover team secretly filmed the iPhone production line and found Apple's promises to protect workers were routinely broken. One undercover reporter - making parts for Apple computers - had to work 18 days without a day off. Other workers were filmed falling asleep. Apple say they will investigate any concerns brought to them. The BBC's Richard Bilton reports from Shanghai. [VIDEO]

>With more than 330 million people using the service to list their resumes, find jobs, or find new hires, LinkedIn has a lot of data about the job market. To close out 2014, the company released a list of the top skills people who got hired this year had listed on their profiles and that recruiters searched for the most. These are the 10 skills that got people jobs this year:

Allow me to unite America's left, right and center in just three words: No, Jeb, No. Former GOP Florida governor Jeb Bush made the obvious official this week when he announced on Facebook that he's "actively exploring" a 2016 White House run. Of course, he's running. That's what inveterate politicians do. Well, I hate to break it to Jeb Inc. There's no popular groundswell for Bush Part III. None, zip, nada. Independents, progressives and conservatives are all weary of the entrenched bipartisan dynasties that rule Washington and ruin America. Only in the hallowed bubble of D.C. and New York City...