Meanwhile, the United States has managed to vaccinate around three percent of its citizens, although it clearly has a much larger population and has, administered more doses in total than the Middle Eastern nation. Data from the Israeli Health Ministry’s coronavirus dashboard shows that just over two million people in the country have received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine out of a population of nearly 9.3 million—according to figures from the nation’s Central Bureau of Statistics....

Gantz told the executives of Facebook and Tik Tok during a Zoom meeting Thursday that the current round of violence is being “intentionally stirred through social media by extremist elements” aimed at destroying Israel, a spokesman for the minister told the Associated Press. A Facebook spokesman told Newsweek that the company is working to make sure its services are a safe place. “We will continue to remove content that violates our Community Standards, which do not allow hate speech or incitement to violence, and will proactively explain and promote dialogue on these policies to policymakers,” the spokesman said....

Israel has acted in the past to prevent Iraq and Syria from obtaining nuclear capabilities. Netanyahu warned in a 2012 speech to the United Nations that a red line must be drawn on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. Now Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei says Iran could increase the levels of enrichment to 60 percent. This is a nuclear numbers game that Iran uses like a game of chicken with the U.S., hoping the Biden administration will blink and jump right back into an Iran Deal 2....

On Monday, the Israeli government reported 9,831 new COVID-19 cases, nearing the country’s record in January when 10,118 new cases were recorded in just one day. Officials began warning of potentially implementing new gathering restrictions during the Jewish High Holidays when they begin in September. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday that research is revealing rising infections in those that are middle aged and received two COVID-19 shots earlier in 2021 but have not yet gotten a booster shot....

On Tuesday, host Zheng Junfeng of overseas channel CGTN asked if the U.S.’s support for Israel was based on shared democratic values. He said, “Some people believe that U.S. pro-Israeli policy is traceable to the influence of wealthy Jews in the U.S. and the Jewish lobby on U.S. foreign policymakers.” In a tweet, the embassy wrote, “We have hoped that the times of the ‘Jews controlling the world’ conspiracy theories were over, unfortunately antisemitism has shown its ugly face again....

The worst Palestinian suicide attack on Israel in five years is threatening to push the region deeper into the hovel of violence and gloom. But in the vagaries of Israeli-Palestinian relations, it also pointed to a way out after eight months of fighting. Hours after the attack, under threat of an imminent Israeli reprisal, Palestinian leader Arafat took a few tenuous steps towards a truce. It wasn’t much-a call for a cessation of violence and a condemnation of the bombing-but it was enough to fend off for at least for a day Israel’s retaliation....

A recall is on the cards some four years after his last outing for the Azzurri, with Roberto Mancini selecting him for a January camp that was intended to keep a talented squad in shape and coming together before the critical 2022 World Cup play-off mini-bracket in late March. MORE: No away goals in Champions League A meeting with North Macedonia is first up, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal likely to come after that, with Balotelli raring to go after being forced to miss out on a successful Euro 2020 campaign that he found difficult to take in from afar....

The Astros reliever pitched throughout last year with a fracture in his right foot that grew increasingly painful as the season came to a close and required surgery once it ended. PHOTOS: Injuries that’ll make you cringe | MORE: Best Astros, all time Neshek was even kind enough to share a photo of the circular piece of bone removed from his foot with Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle at the team’s spring training facility on Thursday....

Most telling of all, Rhino Records has just released “Like Omigod! The 80’s Pop Culture Box (Totally)”: seven CDs packaged in black vinyl with Day-Glo lettering. Not just such songs as “Bette Davis Eyes,” “Valley Girl” and “White Lines,” but bits of aural memorabilia–the “Hill Street Blues” theme, Billy Crystal’s “You look marvelous” routine, a dismal speech on trickle-down economics by the Gipper himself. And a how-to chart of ’80s club moves, from the King Tut (“hands in, knees out”) to the Mannequin (“lock elbows and knees, right arm in front of chest”)....

With 1.2 million cases and more than 73,000 deaths, the United States has had the largest outbreak of coronavirus in the world. The first projection put out by the Institute for Health and Metrics (IHME) on March 26 showed that about 81,000 people would likely die from the virus, and estimates have gone up and down in the weeks since. An updated projection released on April 29 by the Institute for Health and Metrics (IHME) estimated that 72,433 people would die by August 4....

Naturally, we TV folk squirmed. We’d ask, “Can our programs actually make a nonviolent kid violent? Will you settle for ‘reinforce’?” They’d answer, “But why would you even want to reinforce violence in children?” Nice point. Or we’d say, “Where are the parents? Didn’t they ever hear of flipping?” They’d shoot back, “What about latchkey kids, whose single parents have no choice but to use the TV as babysitter?”...

Since August, Gucci, Prada, Bulgari, and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton had each been duking it out for a piece of Fendi, the Rome-based house owned and run by five sisters: Carla, Anna, Paola, Franca and Alda. The luxury-goods conglomerates even had competition from an American leveraged-buyout fund, the Texas Pacific Group. For a while it appeared that Gucci had the deal in the bag, so to speak. Late last month Gucci CEO Domenico De Sole bragged that he’d convinced four out of five of the Fendi sisters to sell....

Governor Brian Kemp’s decision to start reopening the state on April 24 came under heavy scrutiny for being too much too soon. On Monday, the governor acknowledged the differing opinions on how best to reopen and what the path forward should look like. But he defended lifting restrictions on the basis that the data showed positive trends and that the state had the ability to test, contact trace and provide sufficient medical care....

Many hoped that those issues would resolve themselves as the pandemic eased. But hopes that inflation would prove transitory have been dashed by current events in Ukraine and Shanghai—events which prove not only that the supply chain crisis is ongoing, but that it spells the end of most global supply chains as we know them. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sparked geopolitical tensions unseen since 1989. Russia’s aggression—and the West’s anti-Russia sanctions—have shattered key foundations of global supply chains built after the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago....

As a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation in Jericho, I am keenly aware of how much more there is to do to ensure equal rights for us Palestinians. It is obvious that the status quo does not serve the interests of either side. And yet, after a generation of living under Israeli occupation, it has become increasingly clear to me that the Palestinian leadership deserves much of the blame for the lack of progress....

On Iraq, it’s time to move beyond vague declarations about regime change–which is a wish, not a policy–and start building support for military action. That means rounding up allies and taking the issue to Congress and the public. Were the administration to try, it would even be able to get the United Nations to bless the intervention. A senior diplomat at the Security Council told me, “If the United States wanted us to authorize action against Iraq and pressed for it, and seriously outlined its case and postwar goals, no one in the Council would mount an opposition....

Tite expressed his sympathies with all those affected by the disaster last week and this weekend was visibly moved by the emotional scenes during the memorial service. The Selecao boss was joined by a number of high profile guests, including CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez, FIFA head Gianni Infantino and Brazil’s president Michel Temer. “I cannot ever remember a moment that was so profoundly moving, with so much sentiment expressed....

The question is how to best combat the antisemitism that has lurked, not so secretly, within hate-spewing figures such as Louis Farrakhan and noxious organizations such as the Black Hebrew Israelites. Sometimes, such as in the Al Sharpton-incited 1991 Crown Heights pogrom that killed Yankel Rosenbaum, this antisemitism bursts out into the open and has lethal consequences. Kanye’s horrific recent tirades have not come out of nowhere. He didn’t learn his bizarre conspiracies in a vacuum....

On paper, anyway. If we’ve learned anything since Pete Carroll left Southern California it is this: just because you land elite recruits doesn’t mean you can develop elite recruits. And more important: win championships. MORE: ‘Christmas’ at USC on Signing Day? | Top 25 recuits | Best recruiters | What to watch “Our future,” says USC coach Steve Sarkisian, “is ridiculously bright.” It was bright under Lane Kiffin, too. Heck, it was bright for two months while Ed Orgeron played caretaker....