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September 29, 2016 at 3:15 pm
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Latest on funeral preparations and a nation in mourning at the death of Israel's ninth President, Shimon Peres (all times local):
9:45 p.m.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with former U.S. President Bill Clinton ahead of the funeral for former Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Netanyahu said Clinton wrote a warm message in a guest book at the meeting Thursday night. He did not elaborate.
Earlier in the day Clinton joined thousands of mourners paying respects outside Israel's parliament building in Jerusalem where Peres' casket lay in state.
Clinton is among dozens of world leaders and dignitaries attending Peres' funeral on Friday.
It is expected to be the largest such gathering in Israel since the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak ...
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September 29, 2016 at 3:08 pm
NY Governor Cuomo was on the plane heading to attend the funeral of Shimon Peres when the train crash occurred. He has since gotten off the plane, and is now heading to the scene of the train crash in Hoboken, NJ.
The following initial statement was just delivered to YWN by Governor Cuomo.
“At approximately 8:45 a.m. this morning, a New Jersey Transit train originating in Spring Valley, NY collided with the platform at the Hoboken Train Station in New Jersey. The train was carrying a large number of New Yorkers. While we are still learning more about the accident, recent reports indicate that at least 65 riders were injured and one person has been tragically killed.
“The state is working closely with New Jersey Transit and New Jersey authorities, as well as all local a...
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September 29, 2016 at 1:13 pm
Just as the ticking of the seconds become minutes which become hours and which become days, the days become weeks, become months and become years. What is the worth of marking time?
What makes one day different than the next? How do we value the boxes on our calendars that help us to distinguish one day from another, with birthdays, anniversaries, business meetings, doctor appointments and holiday celebrations? In an interesting way, we are very much as our calendars present us. Do we take “one day at a time” or a full week? Do we plan for the immediate, or do we plan long-range?
I speak not of a “calendar” in the theoretical, philosophical sense; that is, the lines we place on time so that it progresses in a way tha...
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September 29, 2016 at 12:45 pm
The issue is not so far-fetched. As it stands now, both candidates have Jewish sons-in-law. But what if we were to take things one step further?
What if there were a mandate that both candidates, in the debates and in the times directly before and after, would also have to follow halacha?
Let’s explore this a bit.
LYING
During the actual debate on Monday evening at Hofstra University, both candidates told some whoppers. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fully denied saying things that they had actually said. Regarding the prohibition found in parshas Mishpatim of “MiDvar Sheker Tirchak – stay away from a false matter (Shmos 23:7) ” we have three opinions: The Chofetz Chaim writes in his Sefer Ahavas Chesed that the verse MiDvar Sheker Tirchak is a full-blown...
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September 29, 2016 at 12:24 pm
Jerusalem, Israel - Sept. 29, 2016 - Inside the Israeli Knesset Building, on Thursday, the corridors were quiet. The main Chagall Hall had a desk with two chairs, ready for international visiting dignitaries to sit and sign a memory book for the former President of Israel Shimon Peres z'l.
Outside was a very different scene. Israeli flags flew at half mast, as thousands of Israelis, young and old, religious and secular, some waiting in line in the hot sun for over an hour, slowly passed by the Israeli flag draped casket of Shimon Peres z"l.
One had to pass multiple security layers to reach the Knesset, but the public was invited and they came. One man had a framed photo of Peres who years ago visited his home. The youngsters from the Peace Team soccer came as a group. Bus...
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September 29, 2016 at 12:23 pm
On the last day of Moshe Rabbeinu’s life he gathers the entire nation one last time to initiate them into the covenant of G-d. He emphasizes how every single one of them stands before G-d equally in their responsibility to G-d and one another, each to their own ability.
You are standing today, all of you, before G-d, your Lord,: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers - all the men of Israel; your small children, your women, and your proselyte who is in the midst of your camp, from the hewer of your wood to the drawer of your water...
Who are these ‘woodchoppers’ and ‘water carriers’ that are singled out and noted by their profession rather than by their essence?
Rashi informs us that these were Canaanites who presented themselves to Moshe ...
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September 29, 2016 at 11:34 am
A commuter train plowed into the bustling Hoboken rail station during the morning rush hour Thursday, killing at least one person and injuring more than 100 others, some critically, in a tangle of broken concrete, twisted metal and dangling cables, authorities said.
Witnesses reported seeing one woman trapped under concrete and many people bleeding after the arriving New Jersey Transit train crashed through a barrier at the end of the track. The train came to a halt in a covered area between the station’s indoor waiting area and the platform, collapsing a section of the metal shed roof.
Sources have confirmed to YWN that the train is the Pascack Valley Line, and originated in Spring Valley NY. It is train #1614. The train left Spring Valley 7:30AM.
Nancy Bido, a passenger on the t...
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September 29, 2016 at 10:30 am
FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that the Justice Department gave immunity to top Hillary Clinton aide and attorney Cheryl Mills, not the bureau.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) questioned Comey on the matter at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.
“Who authorized granting Cheryl Mills immunity?” Sensenbrenner asked.
“It’s a decision made by the Department of Justice. I don’t know at what level inside,” Comey said. “In our investigations, if anything, any kind of immunity comes from the prosecutors, not the investigators.”
Sensenbrenner then asked if Mills requested the immunity.
“I don’t know for sure what the negotiations involved,” Comey said. “I believe her lawyer asked for...
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September 29, 2016 at 10:00 am
A Farewell to Shimon Peres, Israel's ninth President.President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein lay memorial wreaths by President Peres' coffin at the Knesset Plaza.
1fd1ec51-a303-4194-b122-316d08d48ff7 from BaltimoreJewishLife.com on Vimeo.
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September 29, 2016 at 9:30 am
Former US president joins thousands at the Knesset, where the late president lies in state ahead of the funeral Friday
Former US President Bill Clinton paid his respects to former Israeli president and prime minister Shimon Peres immediately after landing in Israel on Thursday, viewing the late statesman’s coffin where it lay in state at the Knesset.
Clinton drove directly from Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv to the Knesset in Jerusalem, where Peres’s casket has been placed. He was welcomed to the Knesset with a “warm embrace” from President Reuven Rivlin, according to the Knesset spokesman. Rivlin, together with Speaker Yuli Edelstein, then accompanied Clinton to the Knesset plaza to pay his last respects to Israel`s ninth president.
Clinton is one...
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September 29, 2016 at 9:01 am
Organization of Israeli pilots appeals to transportation minister: ‘passengers were given an inferior product, unidentified planes, foreign technicians and pilots with unknown credentials;’ El Al: ‘The safety procedures and checks exist and the ground services are provided by El Al personnel.’
An Israeli organization of pilots is launching a campaign against El Al under the banner of “Israeli flights only with Israelis” in an effort to halt the selling of what are incorrectly believed by many Israeli passengers to be Israeli airline tickets.
Over the last few months the Israeli airline El Al leased seven planes from foreign airlines and has been selling flights to various destinations including central Europe and South American as “El Al...
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September 29, 2016 at 8:41 am
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas intends to attend Shimon Peres’s funeral in Jerusalem tomorrow, at the head of a PA delegation.
Abbas’s office contacted the head of Israel’s civilian authority in the Palestinian territories, Yoav Mordechai, to coordinate the president’s attendance.
Abbas will be joined by a delegation comprising senior officials...read more at Times of Israel
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September 29, 2016 at 8:29 am
(AFP). The United States said Wednesday it conducted drone strikes against Al-Qaeda in Yemen last week, killing four members of the terror group.
The first attack occurred on September 20 in Marib province and left two Al-Qaeda operatives dead, the military’s central command for the Middle East said in a statement.
The second attack, on September 22 in central Baida province, killed two Al-Qaeda members, it said.
The two drone strikes had been reported by Yemeni security officials but this was the first time the United States claimed them.
Washington has been involved in a years-long unmanned drone campaign in Yemen and considers Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based franchise — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) — to be its most dangerous.
“These were Al-Qa...
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September 29, 2016 at 8:27 am
(AFP). The US Congress passed a spending bill late Wednesday and staved off a government shutdown, after reaching agreement on funding for a tainted water crisis in Flint, Michigan that had bedeviled earlier proposals.
The fiscal year ends on September 30. Had Congress failed to pass a bill approving federal spending — or in this case, extending existing spending levels until December 9 — by midnight Friday, some government offices and operations could have been forced to close.
“In addition to keeping the government open, this bill provides funding to train and equip our military, and improve care for our veterans. It also provides needed resources to fight the spread of the Zika virus in the United States and Puerto Rico,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said ...
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September 29, 2016 at 8:15 am
Thousands of Israelis filed past the flag-draped coffin of Shimon Peres outside parliament on Thursday, honoring the former president and prime minister who won worldwide praise for his efforts in peace talks with the Palestinians.
U.S. President Barack Obama is among foreign dignitaries due to attend the funeral on Friday of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who died on Wednesday at 93, two weeks after a stroke.
But with Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations frozen since 2014, it was unclear whether Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who sent a condolence letter to Peres's family, would travel to Jerusalem from nearby Ramallah for the ceremony.
The leaders of Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, were not on the roster...
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September 29, 2016 at 8:12 am
FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that the man who stabbed and wounded 10 people in a central Minnesota mall before he was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer appears to have been inspired, at least in part, by extremist ideology.
While testifying for hours before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, Comey was asked whether authorities had confirmed that the attack earlier this month in a mall in St. Cloud was an act of terrorism. Comey responded that the FBI is “still working on it,” but that it looks like Dahir Ahmed Adan, 20, appears to have been motivated “by some sort of inspiration from radical Islamic groups.”
He said investigators are not yet sure which groups may have inspired Adan or how, adding that investigators still are review...
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September 29, 2016 at 8:09 am
Maryland's historic Ellicott City is preparing for the possibility of flooding over the next couple of days. With heavy rain moving across the state, the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch through Friday morning, and residents and businesses are taking no chances after this summer's deadly flood.
"We're just getting the sand bags ready in case there is a flood tonight," said Michel Tersiquel, owner of Tersiguel's Restaurant. "The last flash flood, as you know, was a more than we had anticipated."
Another local business owner, Brenda Franz, mimicked Tersiquel.
"We don't need 6 more inches of rain in two days or three days," she said.
Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman says emergency officials are keeping an eye on the...
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September 29, 2016 at 8:08 am
Michelle Obama told supporters in Philadelphia on Wednesday that candidates don’t change once they become president and that America “needs an adult in the White House.” The first lady never mentioned Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the rally at LaSalle University. But there was no question that she was warning voters that candidate Trump would be the same as President Trump.
“The presidency doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are,” she told the cheering crowd.
She referred to several comments Trump made during and after Monday’s debate, including his apparent acknowledgment that he’s paid no taxes some years. Trump said that makes him “smart.”
“If a candidate is erratic and threatening, if ...
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September 28, 2016 at 10:34 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators have approved a first-of-a-kind "artificial pancreas," a device that can help some diabetes patients manage their disease by constantly monitoring their blood sugar and delivering insulin as needed.
The device from Medtronic was approved Wednesday for patients with Type 1 diabetes, the kind usually diagnosed during childhood. About 5 percent of the nation's 29 million Americans with diabetes have this type.
Doctors said they have long awaited a device that could help patients around the clock.
"I can't wait to get my hands on it because I can think of a lot of our patients who need this," said the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Betul Hatipoglu. "Now I have a helper who is going to help me to help them."
Type ...
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September 28, 2016 at 9:45 pm
Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama told CNN's Jake Tapper Wednesday that members of Congress made a "political vote" by voting overwhelmingly to override his veto of a measure that allows families of those killed during the 9/11 terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia.
"It's an example of why sometimes you have to do what's hard. And, frankly, I wish Congress here had done what's hard," he said in a CNN town hall before a military audience set to air at 9 p.m. ET.
"If you're perceived as voting against 9/11 families right before an election, not surprisingly, that's a hard vote for people to take. But it would have been the right thing to do ... And it was, you know, basically a political vote," Obama said, adding that Gen. Joseph Dunford, ch...
