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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Monday, August 16, 2021

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An Israeli firefighter works to battle a second day of wildfires near Shoresh, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, August 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Fire chief: Massive blaze near Jerusalem hopefully contained but may surge again

Greece, Cyprus ready to help as fire on capital’s outskirts still burning in 100 hotspots; 2,000 evacuated; 5,000 acres destroyed; Hadassah Hospital safe for now after long battle

Most of massive Jerusalem-area blaze brought under control, but hotspots remain

Houses burn as huge wildfire forces evacuation of six Jerusalem-area communities

By ToI Staff and Judah Ari Gross

Huge Jerusalem-area wildfire burns into the night as police hunt for missing man

Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021. (AP/Zabi Karimi)

Taliban sweep into Kabul presidential palace, capping shock Afghanistan takeover

By AP

Spokesman says group will enter talks on forming ‘inclusive Islamic government’; chaos grips capital as Westerners, Afghans attempt to flee

Taliban fighters sit over a vehicle on a street in Laghman province on August 15, 2021. (AFP)

Afghan president flees the country as Taliban forces enter Kabul

By ahmad seir, Rahim Faiez, TAMEEM AKHGAR and Jon Gambrell

Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Kandahar province southwest, of Afghanistan, August 15, 2021. (Sidiqullah Khan/AP)

While Taliban promise peace, Afghans fear return to brutal Islamic rule

By Rahim Faiez, TAMEEM AKHGAR and Joseph Krauss

5 killed at Kabul airport amid reports of shooting, stampedes, falling stowaways

By ToI Staff and AP

Chaos at airfield as desperate Afghans and foreigners try to leave; US officials admit American troops fired in air to dispel crowds; reports of stowaways falling from plane wheels

A wounded man wearing Afghani military uniform is treated by medics in Uzbekistan, August 15, 2021. (Video screenshot / Twitter)

Afghan military plane crashes in Uzbekistan amid Taliban takeover

Afghans crowd at the tarmac of Kabul airport on August 16, 2021, to flee the country as the Taliban take control of Afghanistan after then-President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and conceded the insurgents had won the 20-year war. (Photo by AFP)

Chaos on the runway: Kabul airport mobbed as Afghans make desperate dash to exit

By AFP

A military instructor adjusts the helmet of an Afghan Army soldier during a house-to-house search at a training facility in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, May 8, 2013. (Anja Niedringhaus/AP)

As Afghan army routed, officials say Pentagon vastly overestimated its power

By Sylvie LANTEAUME

In series of mistakes, US said to have exaggerated military’s numbers, introduced high-tech methods and systems beyond troops’ capabilities, ignored high defection rate

President Ebrahim Raisi delivers a speech after taking his oath as president in a ceremony at the parliament in Tehran, Iran, on August 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran’s Raisi: ‘Defeat’ of US in Afghanistan is chance for lasting peace

By AFP

Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Kandahar, southwest Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. (AP/Sidiqullah Khan)

Officials fear Taliban conquest of Afghanistan could boost other terror groups

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Good Faith Effort

A Tale of Two Jewboys

How do we confront the new antisemitism in America and the rise of anti-Israel animus on the New Left? Rabbi Ari Lamm and actor and comedian Elon Gold do a deep dive

Firefighter planes try to extinguish a wildfire at Giva'at Ye'arim outside Jerusalem on August 16, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Live updates (closed)

Top firefighter: Blaze outside Jerusalem is same scale as 2010 Carmel fire

Hadassah Hospital says patients won’t be evacuated from Ein Kerem for now; Greece and Cyprus to send help fighting massive fire; Italy, France and others also asked

6:33 pm

IDF to offer COVID booster shots to 1,300 troops
6:11 pm

Fire chief: Blaze not moving in direction of Hadassah Hospital
6:10 pm

Islamic Jihad hails 'liberation' of Afghanistan after Taliban conquest

Knesset member Yael German at a committee meeting in the Knesset on January 1, 2018. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

'In France, knowledge of the language is critical'

Parlez-who? Lapid’s pick for Paris posting pilloried for being sans French

By Lazar Berman

Yael German is widely respected, but without mastery of the language and diplomatic experience, many experts question whether she is the right person for the important task

Iron Dome missile defense system fires interception missiles toward incoming rockets from the Gaza Strip, May 17, 2021 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

2 Gaza rockets fired at south in first major attack since May flareup

By Judah Ari Gross

One intercepted, second lands in Strip; no injuries or damage reported; launches follow threats by terror groups over slow reconstruction, deaths of operatives in Jenin

Israeli forces during an arrest operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, July 12, 2021. (Israel Police)

4 terror suspects killed, 1 injured in gun battle with Israeli troops in Jenin

By Judah Ari Gross and Aaron Boxerman

Medics with Magen David Adom transfer a coronavirus patient to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, due to full capacity in other hospitals, following a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus infections in Israel, on August 15, 2021. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Schools set to open as scheduled on September 1

Israel’s active COVID cases pass 50,000, just 2 months after they hovered at 200

41 deaths in 24 hours; 531 serious cases; positive test rate highest since February; 500 at-risk kids age 5-11 vaccinated, with mild or no side effects; new travel rules start

A man receives a third dose of the coronavirus at a health center in Katzrin, on the Golan Heights, August 16, 2021. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

Arrival of Lambda variant would force lockdown, Health Ministry warns

By Stuart Winer

People walk past a sign instructing the public to wear face masks in closed places, outside the Cinema City in Jerusalem, on August 12, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Health Ministry unveils new caps on gatherings, mask mandate

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome, on June 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool, File)

Lapid slams Poland’s ‘antisemitic threats,’ casts Warsaw as ‘anti-democratic’

By ToI Staff and AFP

Foreign minister hits back at Polish PM as officials in both countries continue war of words over new Holocaust restitution law

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, on May 24, 2021. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool via AP, File)

‘Outraged’ Poland rejects Israel’s accusation restitution law is antisemitic

By AFP and ToI Staff

The Kabul moment of American decline

Anyone who wanted America’s backing should take a look hard look at what is happening and determine whether US support means anything at all

Repentance without the anxiety and guilt

Every Jewish year ends with the same regrets: too much time at the office, not enough at the gym. Too much screen time, not enough play. Again. I needed a change

Amy Shreeve developed the Twitter account 'This Used to Be a Synagogue' as a rhetoric and history major at the University of Texas-Austin. (Courtesy/ via JTA)

'You wonder, what used to be here? Who gathered here?'

A Twitter account puts the ghosts of Manhattan’s former synagogues on the map

By Andrew Silow-Carroll

University of Texas student Amy Shreeve, a descendant of Mormon and Irish immigrants who loves Yiddish, is delving into the various congregations that once dotted the Big Apple

A alligator gar that was found in an Israeli shopping mall's ornamental fishpond, August 2021. (Agriculture Ministry)

Oh snap

Meter-long predatory fish bites woman in mall fishpond

Agriculture Ministry investigating how torpedo-shaped alligator gar, illegal in Israel, got into the pond

A Palestinian suspect, dressed up as an IDF soldier, was arrested while carrying a number of weapons, including a firearm, near the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Levona, August 16, 2021. (Israel Defense Forces)

Armed Palestinian dressed as Israeli soldier arrested in West Bank

By Emanuel Fabian

Suspect, said to be from Jenin, was carrying a firearm with ammunition, a meat cleaver and other weapons near the settlement of Ma’ale Levona

View of the illegal Israeli outpost of Evyatar on June 21, 2021. (Sraya Diamant/Flash90)

High Court rejects petition against compromise deal for illegal outpost

An illegal engagement party during a lockdown in Melbourne, Australia, in August 2021. (Screenshot)

After Melbourne lockdown breach, hospital intern says send Jews to ‘gas chamber’

By Stuart Winer and JTA

Police patrol a street in Melbourne on August 12, 2021 as five million people in Australia's second-largest city will remain under stay-at-home orders for at least another week. (William WEST / AFP)

Illicit engagement party during lockdown roils Melbourne Jewish community

By PHILISSA CRAMER

ToI podcast

Daily Briefing Aug. 16 – Could Miri Regev be Israel’s Barack Obama?

Political correspondent Tal Schneider fills us in on why the Likud lawmaker is making headlines; senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur assesses how Israelis view Afghanistan’s collapse

Police investigation in the Bedouin city of Rahat after a shooting incident, April 8, 2021. (Israel Police)

Arab men in Israel 36 times more likely to be shot than Jews, study shows

Ra’am chief Abbas calls for investment in education, employment opportunities as well as law enforcement: ‘Crime and violence is a serious disease’

Artem Dolgopyat (L) President Isaac Herzog (C) and Linoy Ashram (R) with their Olympic gold medals at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, August 16, 2021 (Itay Beit-On/GPO)

Tokyo 2020

‘You’ve inspired future generations’: Herzog, Bennett welcome Olympic delegation

By ToI Staff and Amy Spiro

Record-breaking Israeli athletes attend Jerusalem reception; PM says those who didn’t win medals also deserve praise for the years of work, pride they brought to nation

More Headlines

Les Rowe sits amid panels from a Cardiff synagogue in his 'Tranquility Base' shed. (Cuprinol via JTA)

Wales synagogue’s stained glass windows turn up in award-winning chicken coop

By PHILISSA CRAMER

People recover the body of a deceased person from the rubble of a house destroyed by the earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. (AP/Joseph Odelyn)

Haiti quake toll soars to 1,297 as storm threatens rescue effort

By EVENS SANON and Collin Binkley

Israeli actress Orna Fitousi, during the filming of a movie in 2013. (Moshe Shai/ FLASH90)

Israeli actress fired from TV show after refusing COVID tests

An aerial view shows damaged buildings close to the Ezine Stream after deadly flash floods broke its banks in Bozkurt town in the district of Kastamonu, in the Black Sea region of Turkey on August 14, 2021. (STR / AFP)

Israel offers to dispatch team to Turkey as it battles major flooding

By Judah Ari Gross and Agencies

Travelers at Ben Gurion International Airport, on August 5, 2021. (Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH90)

Israeli envoy predicts progress soon on exempting Israelis from US visa

Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen in an interview with Channel 12 broadcast on June 10, 2021 (Screencapture)

Police open probe against ex-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen over tycoon’s cash gift

A car is set on fire during clashes between Arab and Jews in Acre, northern Israel, May 12, 2021. (Roni Ofer/Flash90)

Police can’t find suspect in arson that killed Acre hotel guest

In this photo from January 16, 2018, Adam Neumann, co-founder and then-CEO of WeWork, attends the opening bell ceremony at Nasdaq, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

WeWork ex-CEO Adam Neumann said to invest NIS 1 million in Israeli soccer team

Ken Loach, left, and Jeremy Corbyn attend the "I, Daniel Blake" people's premiere at Vue West End on October 18, 2016 in London, England. (Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)

UK director Ken Loach booted from Labour, blames antisemitism ‘purge’

By Gabe Friedman

Wu Huan speaks during an interview in a safe house in Ukraine on June 30, 2021 (AP Photo)

Ex-detainee says China operates secret Dubai detention site used to jail Uighurs

By AP

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July	August 2021					September
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2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
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