HAPPENING NOW: Blast at Iran gas plant, as Israel said bracing for retaliation for fire at nuke lab * Abbas aide warns of 3rd Intifada * Crisis warning from airport chief

[Times of Israel]( [The daily edition]( Saturday, July 4, 2020 Presented by IDC Herzliya [Explosion reportedly damages power plant in Iran, the latest in series of blasts]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( [Incident in city of Ahvaz in southwest follows mysterious explosions at nuclear facility and site near Tehran, which prompted regime to issue warning to Israel and US]( [Israel said bracing for retaliation as Tehran points fingers over nuke site fire]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( [Analysts say blast destroyed lab where Iran develops next generation centrifuges to speed up uranium enrichment; one source says Iran nuclear program set back two months]( [Iran warns it will respond if fire at nuclear site proves to be a cyberattack]( By [Jon Gambrell]( [EU says Iran has triggered nuclear deal dispute mechanism]( By [AP and TOI staff]( Op-Ed [David Horovitz]( [The day Abbas moved from rebuffing Trump to joining forces with terrorists]( [Broadcasting the Fatah-Hamas ‘unity’ event on official TV, the PA president made plain his strategic choice: Israel, and any prospect of reconciliation, out; Hamas, in]( [Russia welcomes Fatah and Hamas unity pledge]( By [AFP]( [At Brooklyn pro-Palestine rally, calls to eliminate both Israel and US]( By [TOI staff]( [Abbas adviser warns of third intifada if Israel goes ahead with annexation]( By [TOI staff]( [Nabil Shaath says he expects the potential uprising to be funded by the Arab world, adds that the West Bank and Gaza would ‘combine forces’]( [Group of former world leaders warn against Israel’s annexation plan]( By [AP and TOI staff]( [MK urges Joint List head’s ejection from Knesset for attending Fatah-Hamas event]( By [TOI staff]( [PM declares ‘major outbreak’ as active virus cases soar past 10,000 for 1st time]( By [TOI staff]( [Health Ministry says 1,130 cases confirmed and 24,732 tests performed Thursday, both single-day records; Netanyahu: ‘You can’t hug your grandfather and grandmother now’]( [Border police head diagnosed with virus after attending event with Gantz, Rivlin]( By [TOI staff]( [Cyprus says it won’t waive quarantine requirement for Israeli tourists]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( [Despite lockdown, Israel sees rise in cases of sexually transmitted infections]( By [TOI staff]( [Airport chief warns Israeli aviation is ‘days away from point of no return’]( By [TOI staff]( [Ben Gurion CEO Shmuel Zakay calls to renew flights, says months-long stagnation under pandemic endangers tens of thousands of jobs, could cause ‘huge strategic damage’]( [Netanyahu said to threaten Gantz with new elections in tiff over budget]( By [TOI staff]( [Likud minister says assertion some Israelis have nothing to eat is ‘bullshit’]( By [TOI staff]( From the blogs [Sally Abrams]( [The American alef-bet for the prayer we need now]( [The US is reeling — from the pandemic, financial catastrophe, civic unrest, and the upcoming presidential election. This Independence Day, we need to remember what binds us]( [CRM]( [At Rushmore, Trump tells crowd that race protests seek to ‘wipe out our history’]( By [STEPHEN GROVES and DARLENE SUPERVILLE]( [Addressing thousands for July 4 as virus cases spiral, US president says left wants to ‘defame our heroes, indoctrinate our children’; Native Americans protest nearby]( [Washington Redskins to have ‘thorough review’ of name amid race debate]( By [STEPHEN WHYNO]( [US heads into Independence Day besieged by virus, with record 57k daily cases]( By [Sarah TITTERTON]( [Trump Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle contracts coronavirus]( By [Agencies]( Top Ops [David Sedley]( [The infamy of Blackbeard]( [What happens when a man coasts on his reputation for just a little too long? And what if that man is prophet? Or a pirate? (Balak)]( [Marc Kornblatt]( [WATCH: In search of America]( [Five years ago, I traveled the US to film what people had to say about society, the environment, the economy, and more. Seen now, what I captured with my camera is chilling]( covid-19 [Ira Tolchin Immergluck]( [‘Stuck’ Israeli family gives New Zealand lockdown five stars]( [Though a dream trip turned into a plague-cation with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the Shabtai family says government response was better than anything they’d get at home]( [Spain locks down 200,000, Australia shuts off housing blocks as virus surges]( By [AP]( [Despite surge in cases, Brazil’s Bolsonaro waters down law requiring face masks]( By [MARCELO DE SOUSA and David Biller]( [First orders: Fears of chaos as English pubs reopen at 6 a.m. as lockdown eases]( By [Phil HAZLEWOOD]( inside story [Josefin Dolsten]( [What it’s like to come out as a trans woman when your wife is the rabbi]( [Samantha Zerin, who is married to a female pulpit rabbi in Providence, Rhode Island, has navigated between public and private when coming out to family — and the Jewish community]( [Putin mocks US embassy rainbow flag, says it ‘shows something’ about staff there]( By [AFP]( Author interview [UK Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner’s book on resilience could hardly be more timely]( By [Anne Joseph]( [UK’s Prince Andrew under fresh scrutiny after Maxwell arrest in Epstein case]( By [AFP]( [The once popular royal has seen his reputation shredded by his friendship with the late billionaire and convicted sex offender, amid claims he had sex with plaintiffs]( [The Maxwells: Scandal, conspiracy and more than a few days in court]( By [Florence Biedermann]( [Arrest of Epstein cohort Maxwell becomes new test for plea deal]( By [Tom Hays and Michael R. Sisak]( [Crumbs of comfort: Montreal kosher bakery builds bridges, one babka at a time]( By [Aviva Engel]( [Locked down? Open up to… Jewish partisans resisting Nazis in ‘Defiance’]( By [Stephen Silver]( More Headlines [‘Heroic’ Israeli drowns after rescuing woman and her 3 kids from lake in south]( By [TOI staff]( [IDF mulls scrapping reserve soldiers’ training amid virus surge – report]( By [TOI staff]( [UK woman handed life sentence for plot to blow up St. Paul’s Cathedral]( By [AP]( [Jewish groups turn parking lots into safe lodging for thousands of LA homeless]( By [Josefin Dolsten]( [EU authorizes use of remdesivir to treat coronavirus]( By [AFP]( [White Michigan couple charged after gun pulled on Black family]( By [Corey Williams and Sara Burnett]( [Leading UK historian quits Cambridge post after slavery remarks]( By [AP]( [Scale it back / Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue vandalized with ‘racist fish’]( By [AP]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( Email not displaying correctly? 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