Agudath Israel of America has announced that it will be having The Agudah Convention this coming November – specifically, with a change from the usual date to November 18 – November 21, 2021 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Stamford, CT.
The convention has always been the organization’s signature event of the year, bringing together the “Agudah family” for several days of chizuk, chavershaft and practical planning in the presence of many of the leading Gedolei Yisroel of our time.

Americans are growing more negative about the track the country is on, according to a new poll.
More than half of those surveyed in the ABC News/Ipsos poll published Sunday, or 55 percent, said they are pessimistic about the direction of the country. In May, 36 percent indicated the same thing.
Forty-five percent of respondents now report feeling optimistic about the way things are going in the United States. Almost two in three – 64 percent — agreed in the May survey, however.
Optimism is currently down about 20 points among Democrats and Republicans, pollsters found, and down 26 points among independents.

GOP legislators in Michigan have abolished the law that allowed Democrat governor Gretchen Whitmer to continuously lock down the state since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
TheBlaze reports that the state House, which is led by the GOP, voted 60-48 Wednesday to repeal the Emergency Powers of the Governor Act of 1945, which granted Whitmer the authority she used in locking down Michigan indefinitely. The law gave extensive authority to governors in issuing emergency declarations and setting rules to “protect life and property or to bring the emergency situation within the affected area under control.”
The state Senate, also held by the GOP, voted 20-15 to repeal the law last week.

Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team will change its name to Guardians, the franchise announced Friday, dropping the racially offensive name it has been known as for more than a century.
The change was announced in a video on Twitter narrated by Oscar winner Tom Hanks, who worked in Cleveland early in his acting career and starred in the women’s baseball movie “A League of Their Own.”
The name Guardians is a reference to well-known art deco statues located on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, which spans the Cuyahoga River and connects downtown Cleveland to the city’s trendy Ohio City neighborhood. Those statues are known as the “Guardians of Traffic.”

Microsoft first threatened to resurrect the infamous Clippy, and now the company is following through.
In a Medium post detailing a new set of Office 365 emoji, the Windows maker says the default paperclip emoji is being replaced by the digital Office Assistant of the Windows 97 era, though with a slightly more modern, flatter design.
Clippy joins a group of 1,800 refreshed emoji across the various apps and programs bundled with Microsoft 365, most of which now have a new animated 3D look. Microsoft says the new emoji are coming to Flipgrid starting today and will come to Teams and Windows later this year, and then onward to Yammer, Outlook and more apps in 2022.

Vaccine effectiveness in preventing serious COVID-19 infection among the elderly has fallen to 50 percent, according to new Israeli figures, but some prominent experts are saying the data shouldn’t be taken seriously.
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines were wowing Israelis with sky-high effectiveness rates until the rise of the Delta variant. But according to data recently raised at a top-level Health Ministry meeting, the immunization’s effectiveness in preventing serious illness is now at 80% for the general population and 50% for the elderly.
Israel’s national research body for epidemiology, the Gertner Institute, conducted the research, and Dr. Amit Huppert from its bio-statistical unit told The Times of Israel that policymakers should pay attention.

Popular ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s announced this week it will no longer sell its products in specific areas of Israel, including Judea and Samaria.
So, who is responsible for making this anti-Israel decision?
Joseph Cohen of the Israel Advocacy Movement exposes “hardcore anti-Zionist” Anuradha Mittal, head of Ben Jerry’s Board of Directors, revealing her steadfast support for boycotts of the Jewish state.

Israel’s government on Thursday approved the reinstatement of the so-called “green pass” vaccination certificates in light of the hike in coronavirus infections in the country.
Those attending restaurants, parties, gyms, conferences, tourist attractions and shuls will have to show the Health Ministry certificate at the entrance, according to the new rules.
Whereas at events such as weddings and Bar Mitzvas with over 100 attendees, all attendees over the age of 12 will be required to present either a certificate of vaccination or recovery, or a negative COVID test from the past 72 hours.
The ruling will go into effect next Thursday.

The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the director of the opening ceremony on Thursday because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998.
Organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said a day ahead of the opening ceremony that director Kentaro Kobayashi has been dismissed. Kobayashi used a joke about the Holocaust in his comedy act, including the phrase “Let’s play Holocaust.”
“We found out that Mr. Kobayashi, in his own performance, has used a phrase ridiculing a historical tragedy,” Hashimoto said. “We deeply apologize for causing such a development the day before the opening ceremony and for causing troubles and concerns to many involved parties as well as the people in Tokyo and the rest of the country.”

Israeli planes carried out airstrikes Syria for the second night this week, Damascus said early Thursday.
The state-run SANA broadcaster reported that Syrian air defenses were confronting “Israeli aggression” in the skies over Homs.
Video published by the agency showed what appeared to be anti-aircraft missiles streaking into the night sky, and witnesses on the ground reported hearing explosions.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}