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July 27, 2016 at 9:29 pm
Moscow - Bias is often in the eye of the beholder, and President Barack Obama’s claim that Russia’s news media favor Donald Trump isn’t an open-and-shut case. But informal surveys of Russia’s main outlets suggest that Trump gets plenty of praise — especially for his “anti-establishment” stance — and that favorable assessments of Hillary Clinton are comparatively rare.
Trump’s unorthodox campaign often draws a kind of backhanded praise. Dmitry Kiselyov, whose vehement and provocative views have made him Russian television’s most prominent commentator, chose colorful phrasing to describe him in one broadcast: “He’s a dangerous person ... He is anti-establishment ... In the Republican nest, Trump is like a chick...
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July 27, 2016 at 8:10 pm
Chicago - President Barack Obama’s presidential library will be built in a park along the shores of Lake Michigan and a short walk from the university where Obama taught constitutional law on Chicago’s South Side, a personal familiar with the selection process told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The Barack Obama Foundation decided to build the library at Jackson Park near the University of Chicago, according to a person briefed on the selection. The library is expected to be a boon to nearby communities struggling with gang violence and unemployment.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak about the decision ahead of a formal announcement.
The park was selected over nearby Washington Park, which also was pro...
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July 27, 2016 at 7:42 pm
Geneva - The head of the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday he would not get into an argument with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has described the global trade body as a “disaster” and threatened to quit it.
But WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo told a news conference he thought the arguments in favor of global trade needed to be put more forcefully.
He said he had warned before Britain’s referendum last month of the risks of leaving the European Union, saying it would require years of complex trade talks to complete, but “sometimes people don’t want to hear the arguments”.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on July 24, Trump said U.S. companies that move production to Mexico should be taxed...
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July 27, 2016 at 7:38 pm
Since its founding in 1999, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in Riverdale has carved out a space to the left of Yeshiva University’s increasingly right-leaning rabbinical school. Along the way, the seminary has championed a more “open” brand of Orthodoxy and embraced the controversial partnership minyan, in which women lead certain parts of the Shabbat service.
Now, a group of YCT alumni is protesting the practice. In a letter to The Jewish Week, the 10 signatories write that they are “deeply uncomfortable” with such services “and their place within the Orthodox community.”
Partnership minyanim seek to maximize women’s participation in the Shabbat service while still following Orthodox law. While leaders of YCT continue to support the practice, mo...
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July 27, 2016 at 7:13 pm
Seoul, South Korea - LG Display Co., a supplier of Apple’s iPhone screens, said Wednesday that it will invest 1.99 trillion won ($1.75 billion) to produce flexible displays for smartphones, in a sign that more high-end smartphone makers may adopt flexible screens in the near future.
The South Korean company said mass production of flexible displays will start in late 2018, at a scale that will supply enough 5.7-inch sized flexible screens for 3 million handsets per month.
The flexible displays will be made of advanced materials called OLEDs, or organic light emitting diodes, which display more saturated colors, such as a darker black, than LCDs.
While Apple still uses LCD screens for its iPhones, a growing number of mobile phone makers have adopted OLED screens for their ...
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July 27, 2016 at 7:12 pm
New York - A man accused of flinging a fake bomb into a police van in Times Square is headed for a psychiatric examination to determine whether he’s fit to stand trial.
A Manhattan judge ordered the exam Wednesday, as Hector Meneses was arraigned by video from a hospital where he’s been held since his arrest last Thursday. He’s due back in court next month for the results of the psychiatric exam.
When police caught up with him after the bomb scare, he engaged them in an hours-long standoff in a prominent intersection near Central Park while falsely claiming to have explosives strapped to him, police said.
Meneses, 52, hasn’t yet entered a plea to the false-bombing and false-reporting charges. His lawyer didn’t immediately return a call.
Sgt. Hameed...
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July 27, 2016 at 5:56 pm
Washington - U.S.-backed forces fighting to drive Islamic State out of northern Syria have gathered a massive trove of documents and data belonging to the militant group, potentially shedding more light on its operations, a U.S. military official said on Wednesday.
The material, gathered as fighters moved from village to village surrounding the town of Manbij, includes notebooks, laptops, USB drives, and even advanced math and science textbooks rewritten with pro-Islamic State word problems, Colonel Chris Garver, the U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said in a news briefing.
The U.S.-backed fighters - an alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces - have gathered more than 4 terabytes of digital information, and the material, most of it in Arabic, is now being analyzed by the U.S-led co...
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July 27, 2016 at 5:42 pm
Brooklyn, NY - A police investigation into several acts of vandalism against the recently constructed Crown Heights eruv has been turned over to the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force.
The Crown Heights eruv was completed in mid-June and has been the subject of heated debate, with supporters contending that an eruv is a vital community institution that is allowed under Jewish law and opponents saying that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, opposed the construction of an eruv in Crown Heights.
Two booklets available for download on Chabad news site COL Live give voice to the two different sides of the issue, with one explaining why there can be no eruv in Crown Heights and another proclaiming the eruv as completely kosher, albeit not necessarily in ...
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July 27, 2016 at 5:40 pm
Baltimore, MD Daily Dvar Halacha - July 27, 2016 / 21Tammuz 5776 - Change Tablecloth For Shabbos During 9 Days? Linen?
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July 27, 2016 at 5:27 pm
West Milford, NJ - A New Jersey man who spent three weeks looking for survivors in the days after the 9/11 attacks is using billboards in a push to have his kidney disease added to the list of covered conditions by a fund to help Ground Zero workers with health problems.
Mike Megna has a rare kidney disease he believes was caused by dust from the rubble of the fallen World Trade Center towers.
The 44-year-old West Milford resident has rented two billboards in New Jersey near New York City that plead, “Add Kidney Disease for 9/11 Rescue Workers!” The signs include Megna’s name and picture.
A spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which administers the fund, says there’s not enough evidence yet to connect the condition to Gro...
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July 27, 2016 at 4:29 pm
New York - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “will not be releasing” his tax returns due to a federal audit, his campaign manager said on Wednesday, despite pressure to release them and provide a window into his finances before the Nov. 8 election.
“Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit, and he will not be releasing them,” campaign manager Paul Manafort said in an interview with CBS on Wednesday. “That issue will be dealt with when the audits are done.”
His Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, has released tax returns and called on Trump to put out his. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has called it “disqualifying” for a party’s White House nominee not to make tax returns public.
Trump has com...
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July 27, 2016 at 4:28 pm
Successful Heal-A-Thon Campaign Brings in Over $500,000 for Regional Bikur Cholim to Rescue Hundreds of Children of Dysfunctional Homes in Our Community | Gala Achievement Event at Mahwah Sheraton Hotel on Tuesday July 12 to Express Appreciation for Heroes and Largest Donors
Upstate NY—Two weeks after Regional Bikur Cholim’s Achievement Event of July 12th at the luxurious Mahwah Sheraton Hotel the evening is still on everyone’s lips. For those heroes and donors that experienced it in person, this was an evening to be remembered for a lifetime.
The occasion for this event was to express appreciation for successfully reaching the “Day of the Children” and completing goal of the Heal-A-Thon 2016 Campaign in raising half a million dollars to benefit the children...
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July 27, 2016 at 3:47 pm
Istanbul - Turkey’s state run news agency says close to 1,700 officers have been formally discharged from the military following the country’s failed coup.
Anadolu Agency also says the government has decided to close down dozens of media organizations, including 45 newspapers and 16 television stations.
The government says a U.S.-based Muslim cleric is behind the failed uprising by a faction within the military that led to some 290 deaths on July 15. Thousands have been detained for suspected links to the coup. Tens of thousands have also been purged from state institutions.
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July 27, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Philadelphia - Meet the new Hillary Clinton, repackaged and updated from previous versions. But will voters notice or care?
After decades in the public eye, Clinton is being presented to Americans again at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, this time as a barrier-breaking liberal champion who fights for families and children.
But even as Democratic Party stars delivered one testimonial after another this week, some voters watching from the convention floor said they already know Clinton, or think they do, through her years as first lady, senator and secretary of state, and not all views are favorable. That presents a unique challenge for Clinton and her supporters as they try to reintroduce one of the country’s most visible women to voters who’ve been watchin...
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July 27, 2016 at 3:43 pm
Philadelphia - It’s Hillary Clinton’s show, but rival Donald Trump is doing his best to steal it.
The Democrats’ historic handoff to Clinton arrived with affection from one ex-president and an endorsement from an outgoing one. But also came with a warning: That last glass ceiling isn’t shattered yet and the Republican nominee is a formidable and unpredictable foe.
Clinton formally captured the Democratic nomination Tuesday night and declared the barrier keeping women from the presidency nearly broken. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton offered a personal testimonial, and President Barack Obama was on deck to make the case for electing his former secretary of state.
But Wednesday morning, Clinton’s rival touched off a firestorm with his call ...
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July 27, 2016 at 3:34 pm
Washington - The ALS Association is crediting money raised through the Ice Bucket Challenge for the discovery of a gene’s connection to the progressive disease.
Those who accepted the challenge allowed buckets of ice water to be dumped on their heads to raise awareness and money for ALS.
The challenge became a viral sensation in 2014 and raised $115 million for the association. Figures from the ALS Association show $1 million of that helped fund a global effort to help find genetic drivers of the condition called Project MinE.
The ALS Association says a paper published this week in the journal Nature Genetics reveals Project MinE researchers have identified the NEK1 gene’s connection to ALS. It says understanding the gene’s role will help in developing new targ...
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July 27, 2016 at 3:32 pm
Paris - More horrifying details emerged Wednesday about an attack on a French village church even as the country’s main religious leaders sent a message of unity and solidarity after meeting with President Francois Hollande in Paris.
Two attackers took five hostages Tuesday at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in northwest France and slit the throat of the elderly priest saying morning Mass. One of three nuns at the Mass slipped out to raise the alarm and both attackers, one of them a local man, were then killed by police outside the church.
Emotions in France are still raw after the July 14 Bastille Day attack in Nice that killed 84 people — and only became more frazzled Tuesday when the church in Normandy was attacked. With the attack threat for the country r...
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July 27, 2016 at 3:26 pm
Berlin - The online magazine of the Islamic State group has described how a 27-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker who blew himself up at a bar in the southern German town of Ansbach spent months planning the attack, once even hiding his home-made bomb in his room moments before a police raid.
The weekly Al-Nabaa magazine’s report, published late Tuesday, added that Mohammad Daleel had fought both in Iraq and Syria with a branch of al-Qaida and the IS group before arriving in Germany as an asylum-seeker two years ago.
Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when the bomb exploded in a wine bar Sunday night after he wasn’t allowed entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didn’t have a ticket.
The Ansbach attack was the last one of four attacks in the countr...
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July 27, 2016 at 3:24 pm
Miami, FL - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took a shot Wednesday at Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, for doing a terrible job as governor of New Jersey.
The problem, of course, is that Kaine was governor of Virginia.
“Her running mate, Tim Kaine, who by the way, did a terrible job in New Jersey,” Trump said at a news conference in Miami. “He was not very popular in New Jersey, and he still isn’t.”
Trump might have confused Kaine with former Republican New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, pronounced the same as Kaine. Kean led the state from 1982 to 1990 while Trump was building his casino empire in Atlantic City.
New Jersey also might have been on Trump’s mind because its current governor, Republican Ch...
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July 27, 2016 at 3:21 pm
Washington - After terrorism fears permeated Republican speeches a week ago, Democrats have barely mentioned the Islamic State group through two days of their convention.
That is perhaps a result of the militant group’s emergence from a localized, Middle East insurgency to a self-proclaimed caliphate and worldwide terrorism threat during President Barack Obama’s time in office. It also reflects a Republican strategy to blame Obama — and, by extension, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — for allowing the Islamic State group to expand.
“After four years of Hillary Clinton, what do we have?” Republican nominee Donald Trump said at his party’s convention. “ISIS has spread across the region, and the entire world.”
Clinton served...
