Former White House adviser Steve Bannon on Friday depicted former President George W. Bush as bumbling and inept, faulting him for presiding over a “destructive” presidency during his time in the White House. Bannon’s scathing remarks amounted to a retort to a Bush speech in New York earlier this week, in which the 43rd president denounced bigotry in Trump-era American politics and warned that the rise of “nativism,” isolationism and conspiracy theories have clouded the nation’s true identity. But Bannon, speaking to a capacity crowd at a California Republican Party convention, said Bush had embarrassed himself and didn’t know what he was talking about. Bannon said Bush has no idea whether “he is coming or going, just like it was whe...
Former presidents are shedding a traditional reluctance to criticize their successors, unleashing pointed attacks on the Trump White House and the commander in chief — but without mentioning him by name. Remarks on the same day by former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama raise the prospect that more dissenters will follow in defiance of President Donald Trump and his policies. In separate speeches, Bush and Obama both rejected cruelty and bigotry. Bush drew his biggest applause when he said, “The only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them.” Obama used a similar approach to denounce Trump’s brand of politics. Presidential spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday the White House does not believe the former presidents&rsqu...
As U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits the Middle East this weekend, he’ll hope to achieve something that has eluded top American diplomats for a generation: sealing a new alliance between Saudi Arabia and Iraq that would shut the doors of the Arab world to neighboring Iran. While the United States strives to heal the rift between the Gulf Arab states and Qatar, and resolve civil wars in Yemen and Syria, Tillerson is the Trump administration’s point man on an even more ambitious and perhaps even less likely geopolitical gambit. U.S. officials see a new axis that unites Riyadh and Baghdad as central to countering Iran’s growing influence from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, particularly as the Iraqi government struggles to rebuild recently liber...
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch says that suppressing disagreement in the name of civility is wrong. Gorsuch tells a conference of lawyers meeting near the high court that he’s worried that college students with unpopular views aren’t “able to express themselves.” The newest Supreme Court justice says civility “doesn’t mean suppressing disagreement.” The 50-year-old justice joined the high court in April. He filled a seat that had been vacant since Justice Antonin Scalia’s death last year. Republicans who control the Senate refused to confirm President Barack Obama’s nominee. President Donald Trump nominated Gorsuch in January and the Senate confirmed him, largely along party lines. He’d served on the federal appeals...
The United States says two more government workers are confirmed victims in the unexplained Cuba attacks. The State Department is increasing the official tally from 22 to 24. But State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says the new victims “do not reflect new attacks.” She says the additional victims were confirmed following medical evaluations of workers attacked earlier in the year. Nauert says the most recent attack is still believed to have been near the end of August. A U.S. official told The Associated Press previously that attack occurred Aug. 21. The official wasn’t authorized to disclose the exact date and requested anonymity. The State Department says it can’t rule out “additional new cases.” The attacks started last year and affe...
A Palestinian Ramallah resident, aged 39, stole a truck on Thursday night in the coastal city of Holon. The driver was heading towards Rishon Lezion when police were alerted to the theft. The police caught up with the driver near the Beit Dagan intersection where they ordered him to stop. The driver proceeded to ram his truck into a private car and a police cruiser. Police finally managed to stop the truck and apprehend the driver on Moshe Dayan Boulevard in Rishon Lezion. While being interrogated by police detectives, the driver admitted to stealing the truck in the hopes of committing a ramming attack against soldiers in the area of central Israel. The Palestinian was brought to an arraignment hearing at the municipal court in Tel Aviv. Police are continuing their investigation to deter...
U.S. naval commanders on Saturday reiterated Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to defend South Korea against North Korean threats as an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier visited a South Korean port following a joint naval drill. Rear Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of Naval Forces Korea, said aboard the USS Ronald Reagan that the drills enhanced the allies’ ability to coordinate operations. The five-day drills that ended Friday involved fighter jets, helicopters and 40 naval ships and submarines from the two countries training for potential North Korean aggression. In an apparent show of force against North Korea, the United States also sent several of its advanced warplanes, including four F-22 and F-35 fighter jets and two B-1B long-range bombers, for...
Unwilling to put the tussling behind, President Donald Trump on Saturday jabbed back at the Democratic lawmaker who has slammed him for his words of condolence to a military widow, calling Rep. Frederica Wilson “wacky” and contending she is “killing” her party. Trump’s broadside came a day after the White House defended chief of staff John Kelly after he mischaracterized Wilson’s remarks and called her an “empty barrel” making noise. A Trump spokeswoman said it was “inappropriate” to question Kelly in light of his stature as a retired four-star general. The fight between Trump and the Miami-area Democrat began Tuesday said Trump told the pregnant widow of a service member killed in the African nation of Niger that her 25-y...
On Friday, United Hatzalah volunteers responded to a call of a motor vehicle accident that occurred on Highway 99 near the Dan interchange in the north of Israel where a car had an accident with a motorcycle. The volunteers who arrived found that the motorcycle driver was none other that Ayal Gershuni, a new volunteer of the organization who had been riding his private motorcycle. Following lengthy resuscitative efforts, his death was pronounced at the scene of the accident. An official statement was made by the organization: “Ayal, may his memory be a blessing, recently finished his EMT training course and was volunteering as a trainee with the organization in the Kiryat Shmona chapter. His desire to save lives and help others was tremendous. The entire United Hatzalah family share...
Was it the incitement that followed the demonstrations of the Peleg faction that caused the serious attack? An avreich in Rishon L’Tzion was attacked this week for no reason at Shefa Deal on Rothschild Street in the center of the city. The incident was recorded on security cameras. His father-in-law Yaakov Rob tells told Kikar Shabbos News about the shocking and severe incident: “My son-in-law stood by the store quietly and suddenly the same person attacks him for no reason – beat him and put him on the ground. He was badly beaten in the middle of the street for no reason.” “I do not know if it’s because of religious hatred, or maybe it’s not normal, but what’s certain is that we’re dealing with a serious case,” says the f...
Just after 5:00 a.m. on Shabbos morning, four rockets landed in Israel’s Golan Heights causing Red Alert sirens to sound across the region. The rockets were fired from Syria prompting a military response from the IDF. The IDF issued a statement saying that they marked five launches from Syria territory aimed at Israel and responded by destroying three artillery batteries belonging to Assad’s governmental forces. An IDF spokesperson was quoted by Israeli media as saying: “Even if we are talking about a trickle of aggression coming from the other side of the border, we want to make clear that continued actions of this sort will be met with an increase of force in Israel’s response.” Syrian sources said that: “Israel is instructing the rebels to fir...
Terror group denounces Trump administration demand that Hamas disarm, recognize Israel. 'No one can disarm Hamas.' A senior Hamas leader denounced demands by the Trump administration that the terror group be disarmed, and that its leadership must recognize the State of Israel following the reconciliation agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Last week, Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization-led Palestinian Authority inked a “final” reconciliation agreement, forming a united government for the first time in a decade. Following the signing of the agreement, Israel announced it would not negotiate with the Hamas-PLO unity government. On Wednesday, President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt demanded that in li...
(CNN) Members of an exclusive club are making a rare joint appearance Saturday. All five living former US presidents will take part in a benefit concert in Texas to raise money for hurricane relief efforts, while President Donald Trump will appear in a taped video message to the concertgoers, the White House announced Saturday. Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter will attend Saturday night's event, named "Deep From the Heart: The One America Appeal," at Reed Arena at Texas A&M University in College Station. Trump will use his taped message to hail the resiliency of the American people following the devastation of this year's deadly hurricanes and wildfires. In it, he calls the eff...
Hurricane Harvey's floodwaters damaged many homes in the Texas city of Dickinson, and residents are applying for assistance and working to repair their properties. But Dickinson's application for repair grants is raising eyebrows. Alongside standard items such as project descriptions and grant amounts, the city application reads:
"By executing this Agreement below, the Applicant verifies that the Applicant: (1) does not boycott Israel; and (2) will not boycott Israel during the term of this agreement."
In doing so, the application appears to make eligibility for hurricane relief funds contingent on political beliefs regarding Israel, which the American Civil Liberties Union describes as unconstitutional. "The First Amen...
12-year-old Jewish child suffers head injury, temporarily loses consciousness after Arab hurls rocks at group of Jewish children. A 12-year-old boy from the Jewish community in Hevron was injured Saturday afternoon when an Arab hurled rocks at the victim and at two other Jewish children in Avraham's Spring. The large rock caused a cut to the boy's head, and he temporarily lost consciousness, falling into the spring. Miraculously, the boy survived the fall. According to local reports, the two other children quickly ran to ask a neighbor for medical help for the injured boy. The unconscious boy was taken to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital for treatment. Hospital staff stitched the cuts to the boy's head. The boy is currently suffering head pain, and has bee...
WASHINGTON — President Trump has decided to release a final batch of thousands of classified government documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Mr. Trump announced in a tweet on Saturday morning. “Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. The release of the information being held in secret at the National Archives — including several thousand never-before-seen documents — was mandated to occur by Oct. 26 under a 1992 law that sought to quell conspiracy theories about the assassination. Mr. Trump has the power to block the release of the documents, and intelligence agencies have pressured him to...
The U.S. military said Friday it carried out a drone strike this week against al-Shabab in Somalia, shortly after the extremist group was blamed for the country’s deadliest attack, while thousands of anguished Somalis gathered at the site of the truck bombing to pray. “This pain will last for years,” said a sheikh leading the prayers, with long lines of mourners standing in front of flattened or tangled buildings. More than 300 people were killed and nearly 400 wounded in Saturday’s attack, with scores missing. The U.S. drone strike occurred Monday about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, the U.S. Africa Command told The Associated Press. It said it was still assessing the results. Al-Shabab has not commented on the bombing, which...
This past Wednesday, 28th of Tishrei, was the yahrtzeit of my dear friend, Daniel Scarowsky, a"h. This week's shtikle is dedicated leiluy nishmaso, Daniel Moshe Eliyahu ben Yitzchak.   After HaShem instructs Noach on how to bring the animals into the ark, we are told (6:22) that "Noach did all that HaShem commanded him to do, so he did." Later, (7:5), we are told again that Noach did all that HaShem commanded him. Rashi, obviously bothered by the apparent redundancy, says that this pasuk refers to Noach's coming into the ark (whereas the previous one referred to his gathering of the animals).   R' Shimon Schwab in Ma'ayan Beis HaShoeiva points out that the first pasuk ends with the phrase kein asah whereas ...
“Beyond our wildest dreams and expectations.” – Rabbi Nissan Gewirtzman, President, Yeshiva Consulting Services “An event like this… we are amazed and impressed at what Agudah has done and continues to do.” – Rabbi Shmuel Kutten, Assistant to the Executive Director, Torah Vodaath “Professional, and more importantly, useful!” - Yeshiva Principal “The respect and courtesy showed to Agudah employees by the New York State Education Department was unbelievable. We were reminded, yet again, how crucial Agudas Yisroel is to all of Klal Yisroel, and especially our Yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs.” - Rabbi Mordechai Levin, Menahel, Bais Yaakov Academy - BYA “I certainly hope this will be the first of many such events.&rdq...
The number of U.S. adults without health insurance is up nearly 3.5 million this year, as rising premiums and political turmoil over “Obamacare” undermine coverage gains that drove the nation’s uninsured rate to a historic low. That finding is based on the latest installment of a major survey, released Friday. The Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index asks a random sample of 500 people each day whether they have health insurance. The survey found that the uninsured rate among adults was 12.3 percent during the period from July 1-Sept. 30, an increase of 1.4 percentage points since the end of last year. The increase in the number of uninsured is more striking because it comes at a time of economic growth and low unemployment. The annual sign-up season for subsidized p...
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