The weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday was called off for the second time in three weeks amid the continued coalition crisis and ahead of the looming budget deadline on Monday night. However, hope is on the horizon due to a compromise bill proposed by Derech Eretz MK Zvi Hauser which extends Monday night’s deadline to form a budget by 100 days, averting the possibility of a fourth election in 19 months. The bill also calls for the formation of a committee to deliberate on the appointment process of senior officials, with no appointments being made during the 100 day period. The government will instead spend the next 100 days focusing on the dual battle against the coronavirus and the flu ahead of the upcoming winter and the security concerns on both Israel’s northern and Gaza borders.

It was a hot August day in the Israeli summer last week as the Oberlander family contemplated the upcoming shloshim of their grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Yosef Oberlander. Their minds, however, could not stay fixated on the loss of the patriarch of the family, a beloved father and grandfather of many and a renowned askan, to the coronavirus. Instead the Oberlanders were focused on the declining vitals of Rav Moshe Yosef’s son, who was on a ventilator fighting the same disease. Rav Dovid Oberlander, his parents’ only son, passed away exactly 30 days after his father. Rav Dovid was only 38 years old, and left behind a widow & 5 young children.

Every day, like clockwork, to-do lists for those protesting against Belarus’ authoritarian leader appear in the popular Telegram messaging app. They lay out goals, give times and locations of rallies with business-like precision, and offer spirited encouragement. “Today will be one more important day in the fight for our freedom. Tectonic shifts are happening on all fronts, so it’s important not to slow down,” a message in one of Telegram’s so-called channels read Tuesday. “Morning. Expanding the strike … 11:00. Supporting the Kupala (theater) … 19:00. Gathering at the Independence Square.” The app has become an indispensable tool in coordinating the unprecedented mass protests that have rocked Belarus since Aug.

An IDF drone fell inside Lebanon during an IDF operation along the Blue Line over the weekend, the IDF stated on Motzei Shabbos. The IDF added that there was no risk of leaked information. Contrary to the IDF’s statement that the drone fell, a report by the Hezbollah-linked Al-Manar TV claimed that Hezbollah shot down the drone and it is now in the possession of Hezbollah terrorists. The IDF later confirmed the report. הרחפן שנפל/"הופל" בדרום לבנון אמש pic.twitter.com/XKXsmHyq65 — roi kais • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) August 23, 2020 The incident occurred on the background of continued high tensions on Israel’s northern border following the death of a Hezbollah operative in an attack on Syria attributed to Israel last month, for which Hezbollah vowed revenge.

As more universities abandon plans to reopen and decide instead to keep classes online this fall, it’s leading to conflict between students who say they deserve tuition discounts and college leaders who insist remote learning is worth the full cost. Disputes are flaring both at colleges that announced weeks ago they would stick with virtual instruction and at those that only recently lost hope of reopening their campuses. Among the latest schools facing pressure to lower tuition are Michigan State University and Ithaca College, which scrapped plans to reopen after seeing other colleges struggle to contain coronavirus outbreaks. The scourge has killed more than 175,000 people in the United States.

New York state will apply for a federal program for unemployment money now that the state won’t have to come up with additional funds to cover a portion of what the Trump administration had originally proposed, state officials said Friday. Since “the federal government has blinked and will no longer make states provide funding they do not have, New York state will apply for the Lost Wages Assistance program,” Budget Director Robert Mujica said in a statement. President Donald Trump had signed an executive order earlier this month making money available from a Federal Emergency Management Agency fund. It was announced as a $400-per-week benefit, but put the onus on the states to pay $100 a week of that amount. At the time, New York Gov.

Anticipating a wave of mail-in voting this fall, New York state will now give voters a chance to correct missing signatures and other clerical errors so their absentee ballots can be counted — but the exact provisions haven’t yet been made public after last-minute negotiations between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers. Cuomo said late Friday he’d sign – yet temporarily tweak – legislation that calls for notifying voters about such problems and provides for fixing them. Under the version that passed the Legislature last month, the voter would have seven business days to file a form to fix the problem after a notice was mailed, in many situations. Cuomo, a Democrat, said he agreed voters should be able to correct inadvertent mistakes that would otherwise invalidate their mail-in votes.

The Israel Airports Authority extended the ban on non-Israeli citizens from entering Israel on Sunday until October 1 due to the high coronavirus infection rate in the country. A surprising decision was made not to differentiate between potential visitors from “red countries,” where the coronavirus infection rate is high, to “green countries,” with low infection rates. However, according to a Globes report, the Population and Immigration Authority may end the ban at any time. According to Health Ministry Deputy Director-General Prof. Itamar Grotto, an outline allowing tourists to enter Israel will be presented by the end of August.

A western New York couple’s big wedding is off – at least for now – after an 11th-hour court order in a fight between couples and the state over a 50-person limit on social gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. A federal appellate judge in Manhattan on Friday granted a state request that effectively blocks Pamella Giglia and Joe Durolek from having the 175-person celebration they planned Saturday at a Buffalo-area golf club. The order from Judge Denny Chin, of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, leaves New York’s 50-person rule in place at least until a panel of appeals judges can hear arguments, which couldn’t happen before the planned celebration.

Israel’s Health Ministry recorded 720 new coronavirus cases as of Sunday morning in the previous 24 hours, a typically low number recorded every Sunday following a low number of tests performed over the weekend. The number of active patients is currently 22,022, with 408 seriously ill patients, of whom 112 are ventilated. Six additional fatalities were recorded overnight, raising the death toll to 825. According to the Health Ministry, over 500 Israelis have died of the coronavirus in less than two months, from July 1. In the period from March to June, only 320 Israelis died from the virus. Jerusalem is the city with the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the country, followed by Bnei Brak and Modiin Illit. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ will hold a meeting on Sunday at 5:30 p.m.