Jackson, MS - Nigel Farage, a key figure in the successful campaign to get Britain out of the European Union, lent his support to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying Trump represented the same type of anti-establishment movement that he masterminded in his own country. Farage appeared with Trump before a cheering crowd of thousands at a rally in Jackson, Mississippi. Farage partly based his Brexit drive on opposition to mass immigration to Britain that he said was leading to rapid change in his country. His appearance came as Trump sought to moderate his own hardline stance against illegal immigration. In remarks broadcast on Wednesday, Trump backed further away from his vow to deport millions of illegal immigrants, saying he would be willing to wo...
Ramapo, NY - A fatal collision last night on a major thoroughfare in Monsey took the life of an 18 year old young woman from a well known local family. Shaindy Mashinsky, daughter of Rabbi Yosef Mashinsky, was crossing Route 59 at approximately 8:50 PM Tuesday near Augusta Avenue just west of Route 306 with her younger sister when she was struck by a minivan traveling eastbound on the busy roadway.  The younger Miss Mashinsky, whose name and age were not released by the Ramapo Police Department, had just reached the south side of Route 59 when the collision occurred, but the elder girl was still in the roadway. Paramedics treated Shaindy Mashinsky on scene and transported her to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla in serious condition with injuries to her head and body...
Washington - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to slap tariffs on Chinese products to show Beijing that the United States is “not playing games anymore” when it comes to leveling the field on trade. Addressing a rally in Tampa, Florida, Trump said that if he was elected in November, he would instruct the U.S. trade representative to bring cases against China both in the United States and at the World Trade Organization. Tariffs would be necessary in some cases “because they have to understand that we’re not playing games anymore,” he added. Trump had previously pledged a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Trump said on Wednesday that the trade deficit with China was more than $500 billion, although the figure g...
Washington - Hillary Clinton defended her family’s charitable foundation on Wednesday against criticism from Donald Trump, saying it had provided more transparency than her Republican rival’s sprawling business interests. Clinton called into CNN’s “AC360” to address Trump’s suggestions that the foundation started by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had been used to facilitate a pay-for-play scheme during her time at the State Department. “What Trump has said is ridiculous. My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policies based on what I thought was right,” Clinton said. She said the foundation had provided “life-saving work,” adding that neither she nor her husband had e...
New York - U.S. retailer Bed Bath & Beyond on Wednesday said it ordered an external audit of textiles from Welspun India, after Target Corp last week accused the Indian manufacturer of passing off cheap sheets as premium Egyptian cotton for two years. This could compound the woes of Welspun, which supplies to several large U.S. retailers and has seen its shares plummet percent since Target’s announcement on Friday. The incident also highlights the problems large retailers face with quality control and compliance when procuring from suppliers spread around the world. Bed Bath & Beyond spokeswoman Leah Drill said the retailer will pursue an investigation and take appropriate action. Bed Bath & Beyond’s announcement comes after the world’s largest ret...
Toronto - Canada’s national police force recently permitted its women officers to wear the hijab. The Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently approved the change in policy, allowing Muslim women to wear the garment, a veil that covers the head and chest, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s spokesman said Wednesday. Scott Bardsley said it is intended to better reflect the diversity of Canada and to encourage more Muslim women to consider a career with the force. The Mounties faced a public backlash more than 25 years ago when a Sikh man took the government to court and won the right to wear his traditional turban instead of the usual Mountie headgear. Canadians have long since accepted the change. Bardsley noted police services in the cities of ...
Yorba Linda, CA - Overseas reaction to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974 was mixed: The Soviets expressed worry about the future of detente. North Korea reacted brashly, calling Nixon’s exit the “falling out” of the “wicked boss” of American imperialists. South Vietnam put its forces on high alert because it feared the North Vietnamese would take advantage of the vulnerable U.S. political situation. The international response to the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s fall is noted in 2,500 newly declassified intelligence documents the CIA released on Wednesday. The 28,000 pages — many still with lengthy redactions — represent eight years of the top-secret President’s Daily Brief prepared for Nixon and his success...
Italy - The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Italy rose to at least 247 people early on Thursday after rescue teams worked through the night to try to find survivors under the rubble of flattened towns. The 6.2 magnitude quake struck a cluster of mountain communities 140 km (85 miles) east of Rome early on Wednesday as people slept, destroying hundreds of homes. The provisional death toll has jumped to 247, from the 159 listed on Wednesday night, the Civil Protection department said. Officials said they expected the figure to rise further as the search operation continued. Trucks full of rubble left the area every few minutes, including one in which a dusty doll could be seen lying on top of tonnes of debris. Hundreds of aftershocks have shaken the area sinc...
Kabul, Afghanistan - Twelve people, including seven students, were killed in an attack on the American University in Kabul that sent hundreds of students fleeing in panic, police said on Thursday, before the assault ended when two gunmen were shot dead. The attack began at around 6:30 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Wednesday with a large explosion that officials said was a car bomb followed by gunfire, as suspected militants battled into the complex where foreign staff and pupils were working. Elite Afghan forces surrounded the walled compound and eventually worked their way inside, according to a senior interior ministry official. Sporadic gunfire could be heard through the night and, before dawn, police said the operation had concluded after they killed at least two attackers. There wa...
nei Brak, Israel - Hillary Clinton may become the president of Israel’s most important ally, but her image is banished from a significant swath of the country’s media: the ultra-Orthodox press whose deeply conservative readership chafes at images of women. Clinton’s nomination as Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency is casting light on a longstanding policy that has already applied to other female figures from Germany’s Angela Merkel to Israel’s own prime minister Golda Meir. But whereas the election is causing some discussion among U.S. ultra-Orthodox media, their Israeli equivalents are digging in their heels. “For us there is no question. We will not publish pictures of women, period,” said Meni Shwartz, editor of the ultra-Or...
I´m a stranger in a strange land.. - Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter In Parshat Ekev, we are confronted with one of the most compelling – and counter-intuitive – obligations in all Torah.  “You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deut. 10:19)  This mitzvah actually appears thirty-six times, double chai, in Torah.  We have heard it so often and referred to it so regularly that we often lose sight of its power and unsettling demand.  We do so at our peril and diminishment. Too often, we have “tamed” this mitzvah to fit our needs rather than confront the profound – and gracious – imposition that it places upon us.  But listen to this command with fresh ea...
 Baltimore, MD  Daily Dvar Halacha -  Aug. 25, 2016 /  21 Menchem Av 5776 - Bathroom In The Middle Of The Night, Do I Say Asher Yotsar? 
Charleston, WV - U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin remained mum Wednesday as a pharmaceutical company run by his daughter faced mounting criticism for hiking prices on life-saving allergy injection pens. The Democratic West Virginia senator’s daughter, Heather Bresch, is CEO of Mylan, the manufacturer of EpiPens. A two-dose package, costing around $94 nine years ago, rose more than 600 percent to an average cost of $608 in May, according to the Elsevier Clinical Solutions’ Gold Standard Drug Database. Manchin spokesman Jonathan Kott said Wednesday the senator had no comment right now. His silence contrasted with a growing number of leaders crying foul on the ballooning prices, including fellow senators and the presidential candidate Manchin has endorsed, Hillary Clinton. None o...
Washington - The top naval officer says four Iranian small boats harassed a U.S. Navy warship near the Persian Gulf, but no missiles were fired. The chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, says the incident involving guided missile destroyer USS Nitze (NIT’-zee) reflects the greater competition the U.S. is facing at sea. A U.S. defense official says the Iranian boats approached the Nitze at high speed, in an unsafe manner. The official says the destroyer fired ten flares in the direction of the Iranian boats and sounded the ship’s whistle, but the boats ignored the warnings until they were within 300 yards of the U.S. ship. The USS Nitze was in international waters in the Strait of Hormuz. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the incident publicl...
Ramallah, West Bank - A lawyer for a Palestinian detainee on a hunger strike for over two months says he has ended his fast. Attorney Sahar Francis says Bilal Kayed, 34, stopped his protest Wednesday after 71 days of fasting, and that there is an agreement that will see him freed in December. Kayed’s relatives say he began the fast in June after Israel ordered him held for six months without charges, immediately following completion of a 14-and-a-half-year prison term. He was arrested in 2001, at the height of an armed Palestinian uprising against Israel. Kayed, a Palestinian policeman at the time, was convicted of shooting at Israeli troops. Palestinian prisoners have used hunger strikes before. Fearing a fasting detainee’s death could spark more violence, Israel h...
Kokomo, IN - Thunderstorms and tornadoes plowed through central Indiana on Wednesday, leveling a Starbucks shop in the city of Kokomo and knocking out electricity to thousands of Indianapolis-area homes, but no injuries were immediately reported, authorities said. The National Weather Service issued a bulletin saying a “confirmed large and extremely dangerous” tornado had struck near Indianapolis, the state’s capital and largest city, and was headed east. The Weather Service also reported that a Starbucks coffee shop was demolished in Kokomo, a city of 45,000 people about 60 miles (97 km) north of Indianapolis, but said there were no immediate reports of injuries. AccuWeather.com reported that two severe thunderstorms had produced tornadoes, one just northwest...
Newark, NJ - Passenger traffic at New York’s three major airports plus Atlantic City is on a record-setting pace. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says more than 60 million travelers used Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and Kennedy airports in the first six months of 2016. Counting Atlantic City Airport, they say 62.4 million travelers passed through Port Authority airports between January and the end of June. That’s an increase of more than 6 percent over the same period in 2015. JFK, Newark and LaGuardia all set individual passenger records in the first six months of this year. JFK served about 28 million passengers, followed by Newark with more than 19 million and LaGuardia with more than 14 million. Atlantic City saw a 1.6 percent increase.
Cape Canaveral, FL - Astronaut Jeffrey Williams has a new record for NASA under his space belt. The commander of the International Space Station marked a U.S. recording-breaking 521st day in orbit Wednesday, a number accumulated over four flights. That surpasses the 520-day record set by Scott Kelly, whose one-year space station mission ended in March. By the time Williams returns to Earth in two weeks to close out his latest half-year trip, he will have logged 534 days off the planet for NASA. His record won’t last long. Space station veteran Peggy Whitson will top that after she flies up in November for another six-month stay. She’s already at the 377-day mark for total space time, a record for a woman. And even that won’t come close to the world record of 87...
New York - An accomplished photographer who lets the public use thousands of her images of America for free has sued the Getty Images photo agency for more than $1 billion, saying it’s improperly selling her work to customers and threatening those who don’t pay. The photographer, Carol Highsmith, whose work has been featured in books, newspapers and magazines and on two postage stamps, said she became aware that Getty was selling her work in December, when she received a letter from an affiliated company accusing her of copyright infringement for using one of her own photographs on the website of her nonprofit group, the This is America! Foundation. The letter demanded a settlement payment of $120. “While we appreciate the effort of removing the material in que...
Baltimore - Baltimore police, using money provided by a wealthy, anonymous donor, have been surveilling the city with a manned plane loaded with cameras that can view 30 square miles. The existence of the program was made public Tuesday in a lengthy report by Bloomberg Businessweek. At a news conference on Wednesday, Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith repeatedly insisted to reporters that the test program, which began in January, was not a secret. “It’s not a secret spy plane,” Smith said as reporters pressed him for an explanation for the lack of information. “There’s no conspiracy to not disclose it.” The test program lets the department evaluate the effectiveness of a potential tool in the department’s crime-fighting arsenal, he s...
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