Earth’s hottest month ever * Afghanistan: Taliban takeover; Biden to blame? * German talk show attempts humor about Jews * Mass vaccine drive st arts tonight in Tel Aviv

[Times of Israel]( [The daily edition]( Saturday, August 14, 2021 [July was world’s hottest month on record, US agency says]( By [Agencies]( [‘New record adds to disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe,’ top climate official says of data]( [At least 40 killed in severe floods in northern Turkey]( By [ZEYNEP BILGINSOY]( [‘Heavy to extreme’: Mild heatwave to settle across Israel starting Saturday]( By [TOI staff]( [Biden faces mounting blame for chaotic Taliban takeover of Afghanistan]( By [Shaun Tandon]( [US president said a month ago that the now-unfolding situation would be ‘highly unlikely’; 3,000 troops rushed back to evacuate embassy staff and Afghans who worked with Americans]( [US embassy in Kabul told to get rid of sensitive material as Taliban advance]( By [AFP]( [Britain’s former headquarters in Afghanistan overrun by Taliban]( By [Pan Pylas]( [Taliban nears gates of Kabul as embassies prepare for evacuations]( By [Elise BLANCHARD]( [Overnight mass vaccine drive to be held at Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square]( By [TOI staff]( [Vaccine stations to begin operating at 8 p.m. Saturday, with aim of getting shots in arms of partygoers, youngsters who aren’t yet immunized; those over 50 can also get boosters]( [52-year-old woman hospitalized after likely allergic reaction from COVID booster]( By [TOI staff]( [Top health official opposed boosters for over-50s, citing insufficient data]( By [TOI staff]( [Arab bus driver hospitalized after assault by apparent anti-mask settler]( By [TOI staff]( [Muhammad Kak says he asked man to mask up, but the latter, realizing he was Arab, started swearing at him, then attacked him mid-drive; police arrest 21-year-old suspect]( [Health official under threat: ‘My son asks why people call me a child killer’]( By [TOI staff]( [Swastikas daubed on French vaccination centers, in apparent Nazi comparison]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( [All clichés are on the table in German TV’s ‘Friday Night Jews’ talk show]( By [Joe Baur]( [Tied to a year-long sponsored celebration of 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany, state-sponsored program uses humor to familiarize Germans with Jewish culture]( Top Ops [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]( [Pandemic travel: Brave or foolish?]( [Getting away meant we were able to ‘wind down’ in a powerful way, we enjoyed each other’s company, and we read our books at a speed we cannot achieve at home]( [Rivka Nehorai]( [I used to judge ex-Orthodox Jews. Then I started listening to them]( [If we dismiss those who are critical of the Orthodox world, we miss out on our greatest means of improvement. Those voices are our checks and balances]( [Ilana Kaufman]( [Our community can and must do better for Jews of color]( [The vast majority have faced discrimination in Jewish settings, yet they aren’t giving up their sense of shared history, collective memory, or Jewish values]( [David Sedley]( [All the king’s horses]( [We are easily tempted to rely on whatever strategies have served us well already, but if we cannot adapt to new ideas and better technology, we are sure to fail]( [Chabad rabbi tweets unusual 3-week Jewish heritage road trip deep into Turkey]( By [Cnaan Liphshiz]( [Mendy Chitrik, chair of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, works to support Jewish life in Muslim countries while busting cultural myths]( [Postpone start of school year by a month, urges minister]( By [TOI staff]( [Public Security Minister Omer Barlev argues that Jewish High Holiday period, rising coronavirus cases warrant delay to October 1]( [Just 1 in 3 Israelis expected to abide by a new lockdown if imposed — report]( By [TOI staff]( Analysis [Lazar Berman]( [With goverment facing growing trials, Lapid shines spotlight on Morocco ties]( [As COVID-19 spirals and some diplomatic appointments are questioned, FM uses personal charm and mutual interests to make progress in Rabat]( [CRM]( [Wiesenthal Center urges UN to nix Durban anti-racism meet over past antisemitism]( By [TOI staff and AFP]( [Rabbi Abraham Cooper tells Antonio Guterres it’s time for the world body ‘to finally bury Durban, not celebrate it’]( [Progressive US Jewish groups slam AIPAC over ads targeting Ilhan Omar]( By [Ben Sales]( [Porn sites fail to remove antisemitic content, says watchdog]( By [Cnaan Liphshiz]( [US State Department pans Israeli plan for new settlement homes]( By [TOI staff and Jacob Magid]( [Spokesman says expected approval of several thousand new housing units ‘will make achieving a two-state solution much more difficult’]( [Palestinians clash with Israeli forces over work at Hebron’s Tomb of Patriarchs]( By [Emanuel Fabian]( [Bennett said blocking Gantz from meeting with PA chief Abbas]( By [TOI staff]( [Israel to permit entry of Gaza merchants for first time in 18 months]( By [Emanuel Fabian]( Interview [Filmmaker follows young US Jew who ‘watched’ the Israeli-Palestinian conflict]( By [Andrew Lapin]( More Headlines [With death toll near 100,000, Iran to impose 6-day COVID ‘general lockdown’]( By [AP]( [Israel to partially renovate hazardous bridge to Temple Mount — TV]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( [Sculptor, painter Igael Tumarkin dies aged 87]( By [TOI staff]( [Last known surviving fighter of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising dies at age 97]( By [TOI staff]( [Smack Down / Arnold Schwarzenegger pans anti-maskers as ‘schmucks’]( By [TOI staff]( [Ukraine okays Uman pilgrimage for vaccinated arrivals]( By [JTA]( [Poland’s ruling populists risk isolation in bid to stay in power]( By [Bernard OSSER]( [Last pastramis / LA loses a century-old Jewish deli as Greenblatt’s shutters permanently]( By [JTA and TOI staff]( [California man, a convert to Islam, guilty of plotting to bomb far-right rally]( By [AFP]( [University of South Carolina to open Anne Frank Center]( By [Cnaan Liphshiz]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( Email not displaying correctly? 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