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October 20, 2017 at 10:48 am
Islamic State terrorists are capable of orchestrating and carrying out an attack against the United States, possibly downing an airplane, even after being evicted from their self-declared Syrian capital of Raqqa, the CIA director said Thursday.
Mike Pompeo said the U.S. is threatened by other militant groups as well.
“IS’ capability to conduct an external operation remains,” Pompeo said. “But I wouldn’t put them in a singular bucket. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has for a long time had this mission statement, which includes the taking down of a commercial airliner bound for a western country. Certainly, among those would be the United States.”
Speaking a day after President Donald Trump’s acting homeland security chief invoked the pos...
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October 20, 2017 at 10:46 am
Members of Congress demanded answers Thursday two weeks after an ambush in the African nation of Niger killed four U.S. soldiers, with one top lawmaker even threatening subpoenas. The White House defended the slow pace of information, saying an investigation would eventually offer clarity about a tragedy that has morphed into a political dispute in the United States.
Among the unresolved inquiries: Why were the Americans apparently caught by surprise? Why did it take two additional days to recover one of the four bodies after the shooting stopped? Was the Islamic State responsible?
The confusion over what happened in a remote corner of Niger, where few Americans travel, has increasingly dogged President Donald Trump, who was silent about the deaths for more than a week.
Asked why, Trump...
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October 20, 2017 at 10:43 am
Re-airing campaign allegations, President Donald Trump is pointing to an Obama era uranium deal as the “real Russia story” in contrast to a broader inquiry into Russian meddling during the 2016 election.
Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office that media outlets have failed to adequately cover the purchase of American uranium mines by a Russian-backed company in 2010, an issue which Democrats have dismissed as widely debunked. The agreement was reached while Hillary Clinton led the State Department and some investors in the company had relationships with former President Bill Clinton and donated to the Clinton Foundation.
“That’s your real Russia story. Not a story where they talk about collusion and there was none. It was a hoax. Your real Russia s...
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October 20, 2017 at 10:41 am
Google’s parent company is throwing its financial support behind ride-hailing service Lyft, deepening its rift with market leader Uber.
Alphabet Inc., which gets most of its money from Google’s digital ad network, is leading a $1 billion investment in Lyft that values the privately held company at $11 billion. The investment announced Thursday is being made through Alphabet’s CapitalG venture capital arm.
Lyft is still far smaller and worth far less than Uber, another privately held company based in San Francisco whose investors have valued it at nearly $70 billion.
But Uber has been enmeshed in internal strife amid management upheaval and allegations of rampant sexual harassment that culminated in the departure of co-founder Travis Kalanick. Uber lured away Expe...
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October 20, 2017 at 10:39 am
The Shas party has declared war against Bnei Brak Mayor Chanoch Zeibert in response to the battle to save Mosdos Ohr David, affiliated with HaGaon HaRav Daniel Zar.
The new storm erupted following the request of the Bnei Brak Municipality to the court to immediately evacuate the building of the girls’ school of Ohr David institutions in Bnei Brak.
Shas notes that the appeal was made despite all the agreements on mediation proceedings and the lowering of all legal proceedings, with the immediate risk that dozens of chareidi girls would be thrown into the street without a place to study.
As a result, the Shas party will hold a protest rally on Sunday in the plaza of the Bnei Brak municipality, attended by Shas MKs and the parents of the students.
Rabbi Zar announced that he h...
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October 20, 2017 at 10:00 am
The leaders of the 28 members of the European Union are showing their support for the Iran nuclear agreement, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s opposition to it.
EU spokesman Preben Aaman tweeted that the EU leaders agreed at a summit Thursday to show their joint commitment to the international agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear program.
The EU leaders called the 2015 deal a pillar of efforts to reduce the global nuclear threat. Some fear that walking away from the deal could compromise chances of encouraging North Korea to negotiate on its nuclear program.
Trump “decertified” the deal Friday, angrily accusing Iran of violating it, and directed the U.S. Congress to make it more stringent.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has certified eight times t...
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October 20, 2017 at 9:58 am
The rioting last month in St. Louis following the acquittal of a white former police officer who killed an African-American man, like all rioting in the wake of unpopular verdicts, was ugly and unjustifiable. While the majority of protesters were peaceful, some hoodlums broke store windows and threw rocks at police.
The city’s acting police chief, Lawrence O’Toole, came under fire for stating, after calm was restored, “I’m proud to tell you the City of St. Louis is safe, and the police owned tonight.” Georgetown law professor Paul Butler retorted that if “the police actually are in charge, if they actually own the night, that’s a police state, not a free country.”
He’s wrong. Empowered police are essential to a free country.
The ...
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October 20, 2017 at 9:54 am
Republicans must now shift their focus to enacting President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax plan, a far heavier lift than the $4 trillion budget plan they’ve muscled through the Senate to lay the groundwork for the first tax overhaul in three decades.
The GOP on Thursday narrowly backed the budget plan, a prerequisite to major tax legislation. The Senate methodically worked through a pack of amendments, with Republicans rebuffing Democrats’ successive attempts to reshape the blueprint and derail the tax cuts in the Senate. The final vote was 51-49 with deficit hawk Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky the lone opposing GOP vote.
Republicans will have a far harder time approving a complex plan to bring steep tax cuts, especially for corporations, and overhaul the nation’s...
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October 20, 2017 at 9:54 am
The last two of eight prototypes for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall took shape Thursday at a construction site in San Diego.
The prototypes form a tightly packed row of imposing concrete and metal panels, including one with sharp metal edges on top. Another has a surface resembling an expensive brick driveway.
Companies have until Oct. 26 to finish the models but Border Patrol spokesman Theron Francisco said the last two came into profile, with crews installing a corrugated metal surface on the eighth model on a dirt lot just a few steps from homes in Tijuana, Mexico.
As the crews worked, three men and two women from Nepal, ages 19 to 30, jumped a short rusted fence from Tijuana into the construction site and were immediately stopped by agents on horseback.
F...
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October 20, 2017 at 9:54 am
Earlier this week, Mayor de Blasio came to speak to residents of the area, and many long-standing issues – from parking restrictions hurting Sabbath observers, to working-families waiting for Child Care and After School services, and many other issues throughout the council-manic district – were resolved.
Among the announcements that the Mayor made at the district’s Town Hall, hosted by Councilman Stephen Levin, were that the city will send out letters this week to working parents who are on the Child Care and After School Vouchers wait list for years offering them a voucher. The city will fund 1,700 new vouchers, thanks to over 15 million dollars in additional funding provided by the Mayor and the City Council in the current budget years. The issuance of those vouchers ...
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October 20, 2017 at 9:53 am
Following the arrest of twelve suspects in an ongoing probe into alleged fictitious billing of the IDF, netting millions, authorities on Wednesday 28 Tishrei arrested additional suspects.
An air force captain and NCO were taken into custody in connection with the billing scheme, in which the military was billed for work never performed. All the suspects in the case have been arraigned and remanded.
As reported earlier, two officers were arrested along with employees of a civilian company which provided services to the IDF. Channel 2 News reports one of the suspects is a relative of IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott.
Members of Eizenkott’s staff responded to the report, explaining he has no connection with the relative, with whom he last communicated wit...
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October 20, 2017 at 9:53 am
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson is calling on the U.S. State Department to investigate a bizarre string of attacks on diplomats in Cuba.
The South Carolina Republican and House Foreign Affairs Committee member made that request Thursday in a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
At least 22 American diplomats, intelligence agents and their spouses in Havana have been harmed in unexplained, invisible attacks over the last year.
President Donald Trump has blamed the island nation for the attacks, even though Cuba’s government has repeatedly denied both involvement in and knowledge of the incidents.
Earlier this month, the U.S. expelled 15 of Cuba’s diplomats to protest its failure to protect Americans from the unexplained attacks, plunging diplomatic ties between the countri...
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October 20, 2017 at 9:52 am
Noach was a remarkable individual, a wunderkind from the outset. His arrival in the world was announced as a transformative event in history. The inability of the earth to produce anything other than קוץ ודרדר, thistles and thorns as a result of the sin of Adam and Chava was now at an end after seven long generations. His name reflects this renewal of the very nature of the world - נח has roots suggesting leaving behind the past, being renewed, refreshed (see Rashi on Breishis 5:29). The implication is even greater than just a fresh start though. The Zohar indicates that Noach had the potential to bring the Geula, to be the Moshiach. Now that the sin of Adam and Cain would be rectified, world history would reach its zenith and God's intentions in creating the world would be ...
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October 19, 2017 at 10:03 pm
Senate Republicans adopted a budget for the next fiscal year, clearing a critical hurdle in the GOP push to overhaul the tax code.
The Senate's late Thursday passage of the budget blueprint, in a 51-49 vote primarily along party lines, helps unlock a procedure that Republicans plan to use to rewrite the tax code with just GOP votes.
See More Coverage »
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October 19, 2017 at 10:01 pm
The European Union is well-known for ignoring Israeli law and funding major construction projects. Eight EU countries led by Belgium, have sent an official protest to Israel, demanding $35,400 in compensation from the Government of Israel after the latter razed the illegals structures, Haaretz reported on Wednesday, 28 Tishrei.
Israel has razed illegal structures built by the EU in the past and according to the Haaretz report, this marks the first time a protest was filed with the Israel Foreign Ministry demanding compensatory payment. The report is based on a senior EU official speaking with Haaretz.
It does not come as a surprise that the eight nations (in alphabetical order); Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Spain, and Sweden are members of the “West B...
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October 19, 2017 at 9:54 pm
Parshas Noach / Shabbos Rosh Chodesh/ Baltimore Zmanim / Eruv is UP!
Baltimore, MD – Oct. 20, 2017
Parshas: Noach
Today: 30 Tishrei (1st Day Rosh Chodesh MarCheshvan)
Chatzos: 12:51 PM
Hadlakas Nairos: 6:02 PM
Shkiah: 6:20:24 PM
Tzais HaKochavim: 7:11 PM
Rosh Chodesh Mar Cheshvan: Friday, Oct. 20 and Shabbos, Oct. 21
Kiddush Levanah: Oct. 23 @5:52 AM through Shabbos, Nov. 4, @12:14 AM
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October 19, 2017 at 9:43 pm
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson heads to the Middle East, South Asia and Europe this week on a diplomatic mission focused on conflicts in Iraq and Syria and blunting Iranian influence in the region, the State Department said Thursday.
Tillerson departs on Friday for travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan and India before returning home through Switzerland on Oct. 27, the department said in a statement.
In Riyadh, Tillerson will explore ways of improving relations between Saudi Arabia and Iraq by participating in the first meeting of the two countries’ new coordination council, it said. That effort, which U.S. officials say Tillerson has pushed for months, is aimed reducing Iran’s increasing influence in Iraq by encouraging Baghdad to align more closely with Riyadh.
S...
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October 19, 2017 at 9:00 pm
After the debacle of the deluge, G-d sought to rebuild mankind through Noach and his descendants. However, after the misguided united effort to build the Tower of Babel in defiance of G-d’s dominion, once again G-d was forced to play His hand by dispersing the populace to the far corners of the globe, foiling their rebellion. The stage was now set for one man to establish a family that would lead the world back to its former hope and glory, by promoting the unadulterated truth of G-d’s oneness and absolute benevolence.
Before Avraham Avinu sets out on that journey the Torah details the family of mankind, zeroing in on the objective of all creation, the descendants of Terach. It first details his three sons, Avram, Nachor and Haran, adding that Haran was the father of Lot. It t...
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October 19, 2017 at 8:20 pm
Police have opened an investigation after a swastika was found daubed outside homes in the predominately Jewish neighborhood of Stamford Hill, in north-east London.
Shocked families discovered the antisemitic graffiti painted on the roadway on Geldeston Road on Wednesday afternoon.
Shomrim Stamford Hill was contacted by local residents, who then alerted Metropolitan Police and the local Council.
On Thursday morning, Shomrim tweeted that the swastika graffiti had now “been removed by Hackney council”.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police confirmed that “the incident happened between 12:30hrs and 16:30hrs on Wednesday, 18 October” and that an investigation was under way. No arrests had been made so far.
The spokesperson added that patrols in the area ...
