Leave it to Islanders fans and the hashtag #IslesTwitter to remind us just what the trade deadline is all about: a collective group of living, breathing, trade-starved maniacs (in a good way), impatiently waiting to see how the roster is shaped for the stretch run of the season. MORE: Washington wins Shattenkirk sweepstakes Islanders fans took it as far as to track the team plane — which was bound for Dallas as the Isles prep to take on the Stars on Thursday — to see who, if anyone, would be getting off and redirected elsewhere....

The goalie is expected to miss at least six weeks with a lower-body injury suffered in Tuesday’s win over the Penguins, the team announced Wednesday. MORE: Worst injuries of 2015-16 Halak suffered an apparent groin injury with 4:22 remaining in the third period and went straight to the locker room after skating off the ice. Thomas Greiss finished the game in his place. The Islanders have allowed two goals or fewer in five of their last eight games, and Halak has been in net for four of New York’s last seven victories, but the prospect of losing him for an extended period of time could significantly hurt the team’s chances at a postseason run....

And while the score was exactly the same as the final in Game 6 of last year’s battle, the result was different in Game 1 of the 2021 Stanley Cup semifinal series. In this one, the Islanders were the victorious squad, skating away with a 2-1 win. Here are three takeaways from New York’s Game 1 win: Mat Barzal delivered As mentioned in Sporting News’ series preview, Barzal’s play is critical to getting New York into the Stanley Cup Final....

Iranian officials said Monday they had surpassed the 300 kilogram limit agreed in the multilateral Obama-era deal, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. last summer. According to The Times of Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has now claimed that the development translates to an imminent threat to his country. “Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, even if it has to act alone on that,” Katz told Army Radio....

Gantz was speaking during a visit to a defense industry factory in the city of Shlomi, located near Lebanon’s border, the AP reported. He said that if war does break out, Israel “will be prepared to execute operations that haven’t been seen in the past, with means that weren’t in our hands in the past, that will harm the heart of terror and its abilities.” Iran remains a regional rival of Israel after decades of diplomatic and military conflicts....

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid recently told Cabinet members they “have to be very careful because those guys have connections and they can call you on the phone and ask you for things.” “Don’t commit to anything because it could cause diplomatic damage. Say you can’t help them and give them the number of the Foreign Ministry,” Lapid said. Anyone of Jewish descent is automatically granted citizenship in Israel, and an estimated 1 million Jewish people from Russia and other former members of the Soviet Union have moved to the country, the Associated Press reported....

Actually, he was being followed. In a petition filed last week with Israel’s High Court of Justice, a veterans group accuses Israel’s Defense Ministry of hiring private investigators to tail and secretly record PTSD victims to see whether they’re faking symptoms. Dan Dolfin, an official in the Defense Ministry’s rehabilitation unit, says that about half a dozen vets are put under surveillance each year, but only “very, very carefully,” and if “we see the story is outrageous....

Andrew Weissman, a professor of practice for New York University’s School of Law, former federal prosecutor and legal analyst for MSNBC, said in an interview posted to YouTube on Monday that a guilty plea from former CFO Allen Weisselberg would be important because the Trump Organization is set to go on trial in October. “Once Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty, it’s over for the Trump Organization,” Weissman said, explaining that the crimes Weisselberg allegedly committed would get “imputed” to the company founded by former President Donald Trump’s family....

As for the newborn, no one knows just what he makes of Daddy a that first encounter with his father; almost certainly, not much. But before his first year is out, the urgency of his needs-for nourishment, for stimulation, for comfort in a crazy world where a snug, warm diaper can inexplicably transform into a cold and sodden clump-will lead him into a relationship with his father that psychologists call “attachment” but that parents are pleased to think of as “love....

Leave it to television executives to take a stab at responsible programming–and miss. After airing part one of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season finale, the WB network has infuriated fans by yanking part two until school’s out. In the wake of the recent wave of school shootings, WB honchos were worried about their show’s violent graduation scene. Several newspapers have published articles praising the network’s decision, but show devotees say the network suits are just playing politics with the popular teen fantasy series....

It sure is nice to have a partner like Massey-Peabody. You know, the kind that goes 6-0 in a college football weekend? That’s exactly happened last weekend for The Quants, whose official plays were perfect, bringing their record on these selections to 26-13 on the season. Massey-Peabody’s lone official play in the NFL last week – the Dolphins against the Packers – either won or pushed, depending on whether you got +3 or +3....

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany seems willing to try. This month Germany assumes the rotating presidencies of the EU and the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial nations, and Merkel is approaching both missions with zeal and ambition. She wants to fortify bonds between Europe and the United States through an open transatlantic market, build a new strategic partnership with Russia, launch bold initiatives on energy security and climate change, revive the Roadmap toward an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement and break the deadlock over Europe’s constitutional treaty....

The late Time magazine “culture critic” William A. Henry III’s posthumously published In Defense of Elitism (212 pages. Doubleday. $20) says what all these books say: that “the wrong side has been winning.” So what else is new? Not much but an oddball rant on lotteries: “the most destructive egalitarian maneuver of my lifetime.” Henry’s Limbaughian urge to give gratuitous offense (“It is scarcely the same thing to put a man on the moon as to put a bone in your nose”) seems novel only when he mentions his awards for civil-rights reporting and flashes liberal credentials....

The term stems from research done last fall by WCI Communities, a big Florida home builder. It found that boomers are buying second homes at younger ages (47, on average) than their parents did and visiting them more frequently (18 times a year, according to the study). More important, they’re finding ways to use their second homes for both work and play, which allows them to extend their stays. Some of these dual homeowners are migrating so fluidly between houses that terms like “primary residence” and “vacation home” have given way to a new ideal: separate-but-equal residences....

Elián is making the most of his time, swimming and playing. A photo of him wearing the blue scarf of the communist Pioneers youth group prompted charges that his father was “re-educating” him. “As far as I know,” says Juan Miguel’s lawyer Gregory Craig, “the only education he’s getting is reading, writing and arithmetic.” And American constitutional law.

Carlo Longo and Sarah Mollica regularly share content on TikTok about the beauty and quarrels of being a transatlantic couple. Mollica is from America, while Longo is from Italy. According to their videos, they spent most of their first date on Google Translate. Their language barrier may have eased since then, but there’s certainly still another barrier there—the language of food. In a video shared on June 20, Mollica documented a hilarious dilemma the pair faced while ordering food during their summer stay in Italy....

According to the Italian news agency, La Repubblica, a prosecutor officially opened a case against the man for an “aggravated culpable epidemic.” The case stems from an incident that occurred last week at the Parini Hospital in Aosta, a region in northwest Italy. The man went to the hospital for an ordinary nose operation, but just before he was placed in the operating room the anesthesiologist noticed a rise in his body temperature....

Instead, RAI is simply advising against the use of blackface. It responded to multiple requests last week to stop broadcasting shows in which actors put on blackface to do impressions of singer Beyonce and the Tunisian Italian rapper Ghali in skits. “We said we were sorry, and we made a formal commitment to inform all of our editors to ask that they don’t use blackface anymore,” Giovanni Parapini, RAI’s director for social causes, told the AP....