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September 24, 2017 at 12:57 pm
Washington - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday said President Donald Trump wants to avoid nuclear war with North Korea and “will do everything we can” to avoid conflict.
“I can assure you the president’s number one priority is the safety of the American people and our allies,” Mnuchin said on ABC News. “The president doesn’t want to be in a nuclear war, and we will do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t occur.”
Trump has dialed up the rhetoric against North Korea over the weekend, warning the country’s foreign minister that he and leader Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer,” as Pyongyang staged a major anti-U.S. rally.
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September 24, 2017 at 12:37 pm
Federal agencies grappled Saturday with the vast scale of the disaster in Puerto Rico left by Hurricane Maria, the third major storm to strike the U.S. in less than a month.
Three days after the massive hurricane crossed the U.S. territory, towns remained without fresh water, fuel, power or phone service.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said meals and water and supplies were being delivered to the island and that some airports were reopening. But it was not clear how quickly relief would reach people, and fully restoring power and communications was expected to take some time.
“This is going to be a long and frustrating process for everybody. There is tremendous damage on the island,” said William Booher, director of public affairs for FEMA.
Booher said there was no...
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September 24, 2017 at 12:31 pm
As in past years, Agudath Israel of America's Washington Office has worked closely with agencies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help avoid potential problems for travelers carrying arba minim.
Both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have notified their respective field personnel about the upcoming Sukkos holiday and the increased level of travel by persons of the Jewish faith, many of whom will be carrying arba minim.
The notifications, which have been sent out to federal officials at airports and border crossings, emphasize the religious significance of these items and outline the rules and procedures that would help allay possible security and health issues that are of concern to the federal governmen...
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September 24, 2017 at 12:18 pm
A spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office has been launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying the classified NROL-42 satellite lifted off at 10:49 p.m. PDT Saturday. All systems were going well when the launch webcast concluded about three minutes into the flight.
The launch was expected to be visible across a wide area of California, weather permitting.
National Reconnaissance Office satellites gather intelligence information for U.S. national security and an array of other purposes including assessing impacts of natural disasters.
U.S. officials have not revealed what the spacecraft will be doing or what its orbit will be.
United Launch Alliance is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
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September 24, 2017 at 12:06 pm
Millions of Germans are casting their votes in the country's federal elections, with Chancellor Angela Merkel tipped to retain power.
She is seeking a fourth term in office and to keep her conservative CDU/CSU alliance's status as the largest presence in Germany's parliament.
Its coalition partner, the social democratic SPD, is its main rival, while the right-wing AfD is likely to gain its first parliamentary seats.
Voter turnout looks set to be moderate.
By 14:00 local time (12:00 GMT) 41.1% of registered voters had cast their ballot, compared to 41.4% by the same time in the federal elections four years ago, according to Germany's federal returning officer.
Mrs Merkel cast her vote at a polling station in Berlin; the SPD's candidate for chancellor, Martin Sc...
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September 24, 2017 at 12:02 pm
Israel has condemned Iran’s latest ballistic missile test as a “provocation” amid growing concerns over the Islamic Republic’s behavior and U.S. threats to end the 2015 landmark nuclear agreement.
On Saturday, Iran announced that it successfully tested a new ballistic missile with a range of up to 1,200 miles. Iran said in its announcement that the Khorramshahr missile could carry several warheads.
Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Saturday that the missile test was "not just a provocation and an act of defiance directed at the U.S. and its allies, including Israel, it is also further proof of Iran's aspirations to become a world power and to threaten not just the Middle East but all the countries of the free world."
"Imagine what would h...
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September 24, 2017 at 11:57 am
Sen. Susan Collins on Sunday all but closed the door to supporting last-ditch Republican health care bill, leaving her party’s drive to uproot President Barack Obama’s health care law dangling by an increasingly slender thread.
Already two GOP senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, have said they would vote against the legislation, and if Collins, a Maine moderate, were to join them, the bill would die. All Democratic senators oppose the measure, so “no” votes from three of the 52 GOP senators would kill the plan.
“It’s very difficult for me to envision a scenario where I would end up voting for this bill,” Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
A showdown vote would have to occur this week for R...
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September 24, 2017 at 11:56 am
White Marsh, MD — Two new candidates are emerging to take the place of Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, who announced on Monday his candidacy for governor.
Although outnumbered 2 to 1 by Democrats, Republicans believe they have a shot at winning this seat, and it may hinge on the popularity of Gov. Larry Hogan.
With thunderous applause and an introduction by Hogan, Republican Al Redmer officially declared an in-your-face campaign for Baltimore County executive on Saturday.
"We are going to clean up the cronyism. We are going to clean up the gangs. We are going to clean up those good ol' boys' sweetheart deals. We are going to clean up the trash. We are going to clean up the midges. We are going to clean up those long-tailed rats," Redmer said.
It's a...
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September 24, 2017 at 11:46 am
The federal government is telling election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems last year, although in most cases the systems were not breached.
States that told The Associated Press they had been targeted include Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. In most cases, they had not known until notified Friday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security officials tell the AP that in September hackers believed to be Russian agents targeted voter registration systems in more than 20 states.
The disclosure to the states comes as a special counsel probes whether there was any coordination during the 2016 presidential campaign between Russia and associates of Donald Trump.
Trump won the election and calls the Russia s...
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September 24, 2017 at 11:36 am
In less than 24 hours, Baltimore police have confirmed four fatal shootings and one shooting that left the victim critically injured.
Officers were called at 11:15 p.m. Friday to the 4300 block of Reisterstown Road, where gunshots were heard. Police found a man with gunshot wounds to his chest. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Police said the shooting may have been related to an attempted robbery.
Officers were called around 2 a.m. Saturday to the 500 block of North Curley Street for a reported shooting. Police said officers found a 48-year-old man with gunshot wounds in his torso. Police said the victim was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he died.
Officers were called at 5:25 a.m. Saturday to a shooting at the 1900 block of Griffis Avenue, where a man was shot in the h...
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September 24, 2017 at 11:27 am
Georgia, VT - A Vermont substitute school teacher has been fired after being accused of showing children how to salute Hitler. It apparently happened Thursday at Georgia Elementary School.
School Superintendent Ned Kirsch called the incident disturbing and said the school took immediate action.
In an email sent to parents, Kirsch says the children were seen "standing with their arm out in front of them and the teacher was modeling the position. She then raised her arm slightly and said 'and now we say Heil Hitler.'" Kirsch said in the email the teacher admitted doing this.
The woman had apparently filled in for teachers at the school for several years.
We asked Kirsch if he knew what her intent was and he said he couldn't answer that. In the email, he did say a guidance ...
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September 24, 2017 at 11:21 am
President Donald Trump on Saturday pointed to a reported missile test by Iran to renew his criticism of the nuclear agreement it reached with the U.S. and other nations.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Friday displayed its latest ballistic missile capable of reaching Israel and much of the Middle East. The U.S. opposes Iran’s ballistic missile program and Trump signed a bill last month imposing penalties on those involved with it.
Video of the test firing of a Khoramshahr medium-range ballistic missile aired Friday on Iran’s state TV. The time or location of the test was not mentioned in the report.
Trump tweeted Saturday about the public unveiling of the missile: “Iran just test-fired a Ballistic Missile capable of reaching Israel. They are also working with...
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September 24, 2017 at 11:17 am
Reissuing a Rabbinic statement (Kol Korei) that was first published nine years ago and that remains relevant today, Agudath Israel of America is calling upon the community to exercise care regarding the custom of kapporos before Yom Kippur. Given the size of the community, and the large volume of chickens that will be handled in the upcoming days, the practice of kapporos needs to be conducted in a manner that ensures that proper standards of kashrus, cleanliness, and humane treatment of animals, as defined by halacha, are met. This can be achieved by patronizing only those establishments that are under appropriate rabbinic supervision.
Click here for the kaporos kol korei as a pdf.
Click here for the English translation of the kaporos kol korei
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September 24, 2017 at 11:08 am
The Democrats scored an important victory against hatred and intolerance earlier this month when State Senator Daniel Biss announced that he had dropped his running mate, Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, in his bid for the Democratic nomination for Illinois governor.
A week earlier the Evanston Democrat had selected Ramirez-Rosa to run alongside him in the Democratic primary. But the relationship quickly soured over Ramirez-Rosa’s support of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, a fringe anti-Semitic group that calls for the ostracization of companies and institutions that do business with Israel.
Within hours of Ramirez-Rosa’s nomination, Illinois Democrats launched a campaign of protest...
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September 24, 2017 at 11:07 am
Mexico City - Volunteers from Israel’s ZAKA search and rescue organization pulled the body of a local rabbi from an office building that collapsed in a massive earthquake that hit Mexico.
76 year old, Mr. Haim Ashkenazi had been working in the office building when the 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck central Mexico on Tuesday afternoon, rocking Mexico City and causing hundreds of buildings to collapse.
According to the Mexican news site La Silla Rota, Ashkenazi owned a textile factory, located in the area of Colonia Obrera in Mexico City .
The building had four floors, each occupied by a company. One of them was Young Fashion Line , the signature that belonged to Achequenze Azkenazy, according to the informed by the Silla Rota. Employees of the factory would have survived by ...
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September 24, 2017 at 5:02 am
Wal-Mart Stores Inc is testing a service to stock groceries directly to customers’ refrigerators as it seeks to take on e-commerce giant Amazon.com.
The delivery of groceries and meal kits is emerging as the next frontier of competition among retailers.
The world's biggest brick-and-mortar retailer said on Friday it is partnering with August Home, a provider of smart locks and home accessories, to test the service with certain customers in the Silicon Valley. (bit.ly/2ffqqvT)
The grocery business is set to be upended through Amazon’s acquisition of upmarket grocer Whole Foods last month and the online retailer is also entrenching itself more deeply in the restaurants business.
Amazon Restaurants on Friday teamed up with online food ordering company Olo whose netw...
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September 24, 2017 at 4:56 am
Jerusalem, September 24, 2017 - ZAKA volunteers in Mexico, under the command of Marcus Cain, have recovered the body of Haim Ashkenazi, z”l, from the rubble of the office building in which he was working during the time of the earthquake. The ZAKA Mexico volunteers have been working continuously together with the Mexican Jewish rescue and recovery organization Cadena since Tuesday (Sept 19), including throughout Rosh Hashana and Shabbat, in accordance with the rulings of Chief Rabbi of Mexico, Rabbi Shlomo Tawil.
ZAKA International Rescue Unit Chief Officer Mati Goldstein: “Immediately after Shabbat went out in Mexico (early morning Israel time), we received an update from our team in Mexico that they had recovered the body of the missing Jewish man. The ZAKA team, which...
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September 24, 2017 at 4:51 am
Baltimore, MD – Sept. 23, 2017 - It is with deep regret that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah of Mrs. Cecile Berman, z’l, mother of Pinchas Berman and Jeff Berman.
The Levayah will take place tomorrow morning, Sunday, Sept. 24, at 10:00 AM at Bnos Yisroel, 6300 Park Heights Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215. Kevurah will be in Springfield, Pa.
Shiva will take place through Friday afternoon at 5821 Narcissus Ave. Shachris at 6:15 am and Mincha/Maariv at 6:30 pm.
Bila HaMaves LaNetzach...
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September 23, 2017 at 9:44 pm
Uber will lose its license to operate in London because it may be endangering public safety and security, the local regulator said Friday, in a severe blow to a company already facing big questions over its corporate culture.
The company, which has been beset by a litany of scandals over its management style was told it was not “fit and proper” to keep operating in London, where it has 3.5 million passengers and 40,000 drivers.
The regulator, Transport for London, said it “considers that Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications.”
It cited instances in which Uber failed to report serious criminal offences as well as its pench...
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September 23, 2017 at 9:43 pm
The federal government on Friday told election officials in 21 states that hackers targeted their systems before last year’s presidential election.
The notification came roughly a year after U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials first said states were targeted by hacking efforts possibly connected to Russia. The states that told The Associated Press they had been targeted included some key political battlegrounds, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The AP contacted every state election office to determine which ones had been informed that their election systems had been targeted. The others confirming were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tex...
