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July 20, 2017 at 10:03 pm
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, once dubbed “disgraceful” by President Donald Trump, said on Thursday that criticism from politicians won’t dissuade judges from doing their jobs.
In a question-and-answer session at the University of Melbourne’s law school, Roberts was asked about political criticism of the courts — a particularly relevant question for the justice, given that he was the target of a withering critique from Trump during the presidential campaign.
“We’re certainly not above criticism — it’s a free country,” Roberts replied. “It certainly doesn’t affect how we go about our job.”
In 2015, then-candidate Trump said in a speech to supporters that Roberts was “disgraceful” an...
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July 20, 2017 at 10:02 pm
The biometric ID cards and passports transition was accompanied by strong opposition from many elements in Israel, which delayed the process for a long time. The fear was that sensitive and personal information about Israeli citizens might leak at the touch of a single button and cause irreversible damage. Finally, the process was launched.
However, it turns out that already at the initial bureaucratic stage, the fear of leaking personal details about civilians – it turns out to be true. Bechadrei Chareidim reports it has been informed of a serious case in which a mail sent by the Population and Immigration Authority to a large list revealed the email addresses of hundreds of people requesting biometric documentation.
The serious case of the leak of email addresses follows th...
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July 20, 2017 at 10:02 pm
A yeshiva bochur from Eretz Yisrael realized he must raise money before his chasunah and he headed to Belgium in the hope of doing just that. A number of askanim planned to assist him in his mission.
According to the Chadrei Chareidim report, he arrived in the airport on Wednesday, 25 Tammuz. Officials questioned him to determine if he has €45 for each day he planned to remain in the country. He was unaware of the regulation and unfortunately, he did not have the required sum on him. Hence, authorities would not permit him to clear customs and enter the country.
He was not permitted to make calls and held by police on the side. Askanim who awaited his arrival tried to intervene on his behalf, but they were not permitted contact with him.
After askan Shmulik Markowitz from Antwerp b...
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July 20, 2017 at 10:01 pm
The ban on laptops in the cabins of planes flying from the Middle East to the U.S. is over, as federal officials say that large airports in the region have taken other steps to increase security.
Those measures include checking electronic devices to make sure they don’t contain a bomb, and pulling more people out of airport lines for additional screening.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that all airlines and airports with flights departing for the U.S. had met the agency’s first phase of new security measures, which were announced in late June but not described in any detail.
In March, the U.S. imposed a ban on laptops in the cabins of planes coming into the country from 10 Middle Eastern airports. This week, King Khalid International Airpor...
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July 20, 2017 at 10:00 pm
New York transit officials are chewing on the notion of a subway snacking ban — and that’s heating up the political rhetoric.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is weighing food restrictions, or even a ban, after a trash fire on the tracks crippled subway service on Monday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday a food ban wouldn’t be fair.
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota told the New York Post that the mayor’s comments are “incendiary.”
Lhota says moveable feasts “feed the rats” in addition to the humans.
Lhota also says police should do more to enforce littering violations. De Blasio favors public education.
The two men have a history as political opponents. Lhota, a Republican, ran for mayor but Democrat de Blasio won in 2013.
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July 20, 2017 at 6:54 pm
Tough conditions on American funding for both the UN and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been approved by the congressional committee overseeing the US Foreign Operations Bill for 2018.
The bill — passed by the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday — places strict restrictions on how the $47.4 billion budget for overseas operations will be disbursed.
A statement from the committee confirmed that there will be “no funding for the (UN) Human Rights Council unless the Secretary of State determines that it is in the national security interest and the Council stops its anti-Israel agenda and increases transparency in the elections of its members.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned back in March that US funding of the council would be terminat...
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July 20, 2017 at 6:54 pm
Britain’s National Archives have released records showing then Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s attempts to cover up a Nazi plot to collaborate with members of the British royal family.
The elaborate plan to install the Duke of Windsor as king, should the Nazis successfully invade Britain, involved luring the abdicated king out of neutral Portugal to Spain to offer him a deal.
Top secret memos, made available on Thursday, showed how Churchill tried to stall the publication of the plot after World War II as he was worried about how the royal couple would be perceived. Churchill even asked President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 to delay publication of the memos.
The Nazi plot failed, and the memos were eventually published in 1957 when Churchill was no longer prime minister.
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July 20, 2017 at 6:14 pm
This week’s parsha is complex with many aspects to it.
One of the most interesting things is after the section of Nedorim, we pick up where the beginning of Parshas Pinchos leaves off. At the beginning of last week’s parsha Hashem merely informs Klal Yisroel that there will be a war against Midian with no details provided. Here in our parsha Hashem tells Moshe to take revenge against Midian for Klal Yisroel before you depart from this world. Moshe starts to recruit for the war right away—without delay. Why?
Moshe Rabbeinu is an eved Hashem. A slave’s entire identity is serving his master and subjecting his will to the will of his master. That is his entire being. At the end of V’Zos Habrochoh, Moshe is given the epithet of “Eved Hashem”.
At the ...
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July 20, 2017 at 6:14 pm
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Wednesday that states should not be wary of asking for the federal government’s help to strengthen election systems in light of Russian meddling in last year’s election.
“All of the input that I get from all of the states is that ‘We don’t want you involved in our election process. It’s a state responsibility,'” Kelly said at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual gathering of national security and intelligence experts.
He said he agreed with Jeh Johnson, his predecessor who made election systems part of the U.S. critical infrastructure and then told the states that the federal government was there to help.
“I think they’re nuts if they don’t because in the world we live in cyber-wi...
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July 20, 2017 at 6:06 pm
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and the Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), MK Amir Peretz, met at the Knesset on Wednesday 25 Tammuz with PAM President Pedro Roque of Portugal and 12 MPs from Turkey, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Monaco, Romania and Cyprus, who are members of the organization.
Speaker Edelstein told the guests, “We are trying with all our strength to develop cooperation with parliaments in the region, for the benefit our nation and the region`s nations. It is not always easy. Sometimes various actions take us back years, such as the outrageous comments of the Speaker of the Jordanian Parliament, who praised the terrorists who murdered police officers on the Temple Mount. This is not our way.”
Edelstein addressed the absen...
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July 20, 2017 at 5:56 pm
The Trump administration has withdrawn or delayed 860 proposed regulations in its first five months, the beginnings of a regulatory overhaul meant to bolster economic growth.
Federal agencies have withdrawn 469 proposed regulations compared to a fall 2016 report when Barack Obama was president, according to figures the White House budget office. This includes 19 regulations with an economic impact of $100 million or more. Another 391 regulations have been delayed for further evaluation and consideration.
“It’s really the beginning of a kind of fundamental regulatory reform,” Neomi Rao, head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said Wednesday. A report on the regulatory actions was being released Thursday.
Federal agencies expect to complete ...
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July 20, 2017 at 5:53 pm
HaGaon HaRav David Yosef, a member of Shas’ Moetzas Gedolei Yisrael, called on Shas Jerusalem councilmen to oppose the planned eviction of the Sephardi Sanhedrin Talmid Torah to make more room for the Seminar HaYoshon as planned. While there is no alternate venue for the talmid torah, city officials plan to remove it to address serious overcrowding in the Beis Yaakov.
The rav explained this would never occur to a school in the Bnei Yosef Shas-affiliated education network, adding “However, we must feel responsible for all Sephardim”.
Rav Yosef, who is currently in New York, spoke to the necessary officials from there in the hope of Shas elected officials preventing this from occurring. He concluded this is yet another proof for the need for a strong Shas-affiliated netwo...
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July 20, 2017 at 5:51 pm
An object fell from a Bnei Brak building on Rav Alexsandroni Street on Thursday morning, 26 Tammuz, striking a child.
The accompanying photo shows the piece of aluminum struck the head of an 18-month-old child who was with his mom in a park. The child was transported by MDA to Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petach Tikvah, where it was determined that he suffered a fractured skull.
Three persons were detained at the scene including a work supervisor and two workers. According to the first report, they were operating with the necessary permits. The police investigation continues.
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July 20, 2017 at 5:51 pm
President Donald Trump has decided to halt the CIA’s years-long covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the regime of the nation’s president Bashar al-Assad. Russia had long pushed the United States to end the program.
The phasing out of the secret program was reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday. Officials told the newspaper that ending the operation reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia.
The program was a key component begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to relinquish power. But even its supporters have questioned its usefulness since Moscow sent forces in Syria two years later.
Russia long saw the anti-Assad program as an assault on its interests. Ending the plan, in addition to a...
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July 20, 2017 at 5:45 pm
On Wednesday evening, well over 1,000 men and women filled the Fountain Ballroom on Vassar Avenue in Lakewood for the largest ever Lakewood community event to guide locals regarding the intricacies of tax law and regulations of various family support programs.
This unprecedented standing-room-only turnout at the symposium, which is the latest step in the extended “Community Conversations Series,” underscored how the Lakewood community’s grassroots and leadership have joined forces to promote maximum compliance with the law and an adherence to the principles of ethics at every step. The success of this event was a result of the coordinated efforts of The Lakewood Vaad, Agudath Israel’s New Jersey office, the Lakewood Resource and Referral Center (LRRC) and the Lakew...
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July 20, 2017 at 5:35 pm
Jerusalem, Israel - July 20, 2017 - On Friday, two Druze policemen were murdered by terrorists, while on guard duty at an entrance to Har Habayit, at Lion's Gate, in Jerusalem's Old City. Thousands of Israelis honored them by going to the northern Galil for their funerals, in Horfeish and Maghar. All this week, thousands more have traveled north, to offer condolences to the mourning families of Staff Sargent Kamil Shnaan, 22, and Major Haiel Sitawe, 30.
President Reuven Rivlin was one of the Israeli officials photographed meeting with the fathers mourning their sons. In Druze traditional mourning, men and women are seated separately. Mourners are not to be touched by members of opposite gender.
BJL joined an all-day excursion sponsored by OneFamily, the organi...
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July 20, 2017 at 2:59 pm
Islamic leaders have been fueling the situation since last Friday’s fatal terror attack on Har Habayis. Amid this, there are calls that all PA (Palestinian Authority) residents head to Har Habayis on Friday for prayers instead of visiting their local mosque.
Jerusalem police are reportedly taking unprecedented steps to prepare for possible Islamic violence on Har Habayis on Friday. Ynet reports that in addition, the IDF has placed five battalions on alert should they be needed. They would be responding to violence in areas of Yehuda and Shomron, which may in in sync with activities on Har Habayis.
The Jerusalem Waqf is also calling on Israeli Arabs to head to Jerusalem, and many are reportedly heading to the capital before Friday in the event Israel Police prevent buses from arrivi...
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July 20, 2017 at 2:59 pm
The State Department is facing harsh criticism for claiming in an official report that Israel is to blame for terrorism attacks committed by Palestinians and accusing the Jewish state of being largely responsible for an impasse in peace negotiations, according to a leading member of Congress who is calling on the State Department to correct its "inaccurate and harmful" characterization of Israel.
The State Department, in its latest annual report on the global terrorism situation, blames Israeli security policies for stalling the peace process and claims that Palestinians rarely incite terror attacks.
The claims are coming under fierce criticism from pro-Israel advocates and have prompted one leading member of Congress to formally call on the Trump administration to amend the report to mo...
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July 20, 2017 at 2:51 pm
EMS units were dispatched to a fire in factory on Carmel Street in the Kiryat Ata industrial area. EMS units from both MDA and United Hatzalah responded along with Haifa district firefighters.
MDA reports that paramedics transported a 25-year-old male in moderate condition with injuries to his extremities, apparently caused by a blast.
An eyewitness explains “We heard explosions and then we saw cans flying up in the hair and then emergency services began arriving”
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July 20, 2017 at 2:50 pm
The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the nomination of President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI.
Christopher Wray’s nomination will now move to the Senate floor. The former Justice Department official won unanimous support from the panel, with senators from both parties praising his promise at his hearing last week never to let politics get in the way of the bureau’s mission.
“Beyond credentials, I believe Mr. Wray has the right view of the job,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Wray would replace James Comey, who was abruptly fired by Trump in May amid an investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and possible ties to Trump’s campaign. The Judiciary panel is also investigating Russian i...
