Hundreds of Israelis protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, calling on the long-serving leader to resign just days after the country was plunged into a new national election. The protesters have been gathering outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence for months, slamming him for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and saying he cannot lead the country while under indictment for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate corruption cases. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing.

Israeli aircraft struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip late Friday night in response to two rockets fired into Israel on Friday evening. “IDF fighter jets and aircraft attacked Hamas terror targets in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF stated. “In the course of the attack, a rocket weapon production site, underground infrastructure and a Hamas military post were hit. The attack was carried out in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory.” עזה:3 מטרות של חמאס עם מעל עשרה רכיבים: פיר מנהרה לוגיסטית, מתקן לייצור רקטות ורחפנים, ועמדת שמירה. צהל עדיין לא יודע ירה אמש ב8. פיצוצי משנה שנגרמו מפיצוץ רקטות שנתקפו גרמו לנזק למתקנים אזרחיים סמוכים כמו בי״ח לילדים שניזוק בשכונת תופאח.

Yeshivas Kol Torah was engulfed in mourning on Motzei Shabbos when the bitter news reached the yeshivah of the petira of HaGaon HaRav Shalom Povarsky, who served as one of the yeshiva’s Roshei Yeshivah for decades. The Rosh Yeshivah, z’tl, 85, was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem on Wednesday due to breathing difficulties caused by the coronavirus. His condition deteriorated and at the end of the week, he was sedated and ventilated and on Shabbos, he was niftar. HaRav Povarsky was born in Europe, the youngest son of the late Rosh Yeshivah HaGaon HaRav Yehoshua Dovid Povarsky, z’tl, Rosh Yeshivas Ponevezh and author of Yeshuas Dovid. When he was four he moved with his parents to Eretz Yisrael. As a bochur, HaRav Povarsky learned in Ponevezh.

Federal agents converged Saturday on the home of a possible person of interest in the explosion that rocked downtown Nashville as investigators scoured hundreds of tips and leads in the blast that pulverized city blocks on Christmas morning and damaged dozens of buildings. More than 24 hours after the explosion, a motive remained elusive as investigators worked round-the-clock to resolve unanswered questions about a recreational vehicle that blew up on a mostly deserted street on a sleepy holiday morning and was prefaced by a recorded warning advising those nearby to evacuate. The attack, which damaged an AT&T building, continued to wreak havoc Saturday on cellphone service and police and hospital communications in several Southern states.

Two German WWII graves bearing Nazi swastikas have been removed from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery and replaced with new headstones. The pair of headstones had become a long controversy over whether they were historical artifacts worth preserving or emblems of hate that should be destroyed, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The cemetery director, Aubrey David, led several workers to the graves of German prisoners of war Alfred P. Kafka and Georg Forst at around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday. “Clearly, it took a long time for this to happen, and it’s obviously the right thing to have been done,” said Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which advocates against unwanted religious proselytizing in the armed services.

California became the first state to record 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases, reaching the milestone on Christmas Eve as nearly the entire state was under a strict stay-at-home order and hospitals were flooded with the largest crush of cases since the pandemic began. A tally by Johns Hopkins University showed the nation’s most populous state has recorded 2,010,157 infections since January. At least 23,635 people have died from the virus. The first COVID-19 case in California was confirmed Jan. 25. It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on Nov. 11. Just 44 days later, the number topped 2 million.

The nurses of California are afraid. It’s Christmas Eve, and they aren’t home with their families. They are working, always working, completely gowned up — and worn down. They’re frightened by what people are doing, or not doing, during a coronavirus pandemic that has already killed more than 320,000 nationwide and shows no signs of slowing down. They’re even more terrified of what’s next. “Every day, I look into the eyes of someone who is struggling to breathe,” said nurse Jenny Carrillo, her voice breaking. A charge nurse at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, Carrillo is haunted by the daily counts of COVID-19 patients. Dark shadows circle her eyes.

A massive explosion rocked downtown Nashville, Friday morning. Black smoke and flames were seen billowing from the area. Buildings shook in the immediate area and the blast was felt miles away after. Police and fire crews were on the scene. A Nashville Police spokesman says investigators believe explosion in downtown Nashville was an “intentional act” – FBI & ATF are responding The Metro Nashville Office of Emergency Management told Nashville television station WKRN that a parked recreational vehicle exploded and damaged several buildings. No injuries were immediately reported. Buck McCoy, who lives near the area, posted videos on Facebook that show water pouring down the ceiling of his home.

The United States will require airline passengers from Britain to get a negative COVID-19 test before their flight. The U.S. is the latest country to announce new travel restrictions because of a new variant of the coronavirus that is spreading in Britain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says airline passengers from the United Kingdom will have to get negative COVID-19 tests within three days of their trip and provide the results to the airline. The agency says the order will be signed Friday and go into effect on Monday. The CDC says because of travel restrictions in place since March, air travel to the U.S. from the U.K. has been cut by 90%.

With nearly one percent of the entire population in the country having received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in less than three days, Israel ranked the highest country in the world in the number of people vaccinated per capita. The information came from official data collected by Our World in Data and was published on Wednesday afternoon. Israel is joined by the United Kingdom in leading the way in terms of percentages, with Israel ranking at 0.83% of the populace vaccinated already, and the UK with 0.74%. The third highest-ranking is that of the US which has a much lower ranking of 0.19%, but a much bigger population. According to the data, the world average stands at 0.03%.