JERUSALEM (AP) — The head of Israel's air force on Tuesday revealed that it used the next-generation F-35 fighter jet for the first time during a recent mission. Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin told a conference that he believes it was the first time the fighter has been used in the Middle East, and that the air force is just beginning to understand the "huge potential" of the aircraft. In a brief video clip released by the army, Norkin points to what he says is a picture of the plane "over Beirut." He did not say when the mission occurred, but Syria and Iran have accused Israel of carrying out a number of airstrikes recently in Syria. On May 10, Israel acknowledged striking a series of Iranian targets in Syria in response to an Iranian rocket attack launched from the neighboring cou...
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday said he was expelling the top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela and his deputy for allegedly conspiring against his government and trying to sabotage the country's recent presidential election. "The empire doesn't dominate us here," Maduro said in a televised address, giving charge d'affaires Todd Robinson and his deputy Brian Naranjo 48 hours to leave the country. "We've had enough of your conspiring." Tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela have mounted following Maduro's victory in presidential elections on Sunday, a vote the White House has branded a "sham." Maduro said in his speech that Robinson and Naranjo, whom he referred to as the head of the CIA in Venezuela, both personally pressured severa...
It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing on Erev Shabbos of Mrs. Aliza Grund a”h. Mrs. Grund was the president of N’shei Agudath Israel of America, a position she held for decades, serving in that role with distinction and devotion. Mrs. Grund was a daughter of Rabbi Chaskel Besser z”l, noted askan and dedicated Agudas Yisroel leader who hailed from Katowice, Poland, and later became known for serving as the International Chairman of the Daf Yomi Commission of the Agudah, among his other endeavors and undertakings on behalf of Jewry. Mrs. Grund leaves behind her family, including her siblings, Rabbi Shlomo Besser, Mrs. Debbie Rosenberg and Rabbi Naftali Besser. The levaya will be held today at 1...
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Stock Exchange for the first time in its 226-year history will be led by a woman. Stacey Cunningham, who started her career as a floor clerk on the NYSE trading floor, will become the 67th president of the Big Board. That means that two of the world's most well-known exchanges will be led by women. Adena Friedman became CEO of Nasdaq in early 2017 Cunningham, who is the chief operating officer for the NYSE Group, becomes president Friday, according to International Exchange, they NYSE's parent company. Current NYSE President Thomas Farley, is leaving to head a special purpose acquisition company. The historically male-dominated financial industry has grappled with its own issues tied to the #MeToo movement. Last month it was announced that...
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The director of a seabed hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Tuesday disagreed with a new book's conclusion that the pilot likely flew the plane beyond the search area to deliberately sink it in unexplored depths of the Indian Ocean. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau believes the airliner mostly likely ran out of fuel and crashed after flying far off course en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It believes all 239 passengers and crew on board were likely long dead inside a depressurized cabin and cockpit. Search director Peter Foley, who coordinated the search on Malaysia's behalf, was quizzed by a Senate committee on theories in Canadian air crash investigator Larry Vance's new book "MH370: Mystery So...
SEATTLE (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy activists are asking Amazon to stop marketing a powerful facial recognition tool to police, saying law enforcement agencies could use the technology to "easily build a system to automate the identification and tracking of anyone." The tool, called Rekognition, is already being used by at least one agency — the Washington County Sheriff's Office in Oregon — to check photographs of unidentified suspects against a database of mug shots from the county jail, which is a common use of such technology around the country. But privacy advocates have been concerned about expanding the use of facial recognition to body cameras worn by officers or safety and traffic cameras that monitor public areas, allowing ...
BRUSSELS (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is apologizing for the internet giant's failure to prevent some of the internet tools it has developed from being misused. During a testimony at the European Parliament Zuckerberg said Tuesday that whether it was "fake news, foreign interference in elections and developers misusing people's information. We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibilities." Speaking to a group of EU parliamentary group leaders in Brussels, he said: "That was a mistake, and I'm sorry for it." ___ 11:45 a.m. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces senior European Union lawmakers later Tuesday to answer questions about a scandal over the alleged misuse of the data of millions of Facebook users. In testimony to be broadcast live, Zuc...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the planned Singapore summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un "may not work out for June 12" and is suggesting it could be delayed. Trump is meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in (jah-YIHN') on Tuesday at the White House for consultations ahead of the planned June 12 summit with Kim in Singapore. The meeting is happening as efforts to build peace between the two Koreas have hit a setback. North Korea pulled out of planned peace talks with South Korea last week, objecting to long-scheduled joint military exercises between the U.S. and the Republic of Korea forces. North Korea has also threatened to abandon the planned Trump-Kim meeting over the U.S. insistence on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. ___ 12:20 p.m. ...
LifeBridge Health is notifying more than a half million patients after malware was found on a server that contained electronic medical records. The breach, which happened in September 2016, was discovered in March on the server that hosts the electronic medical records of Potomac Physicians and the shared registration and billing system for some other LifeBridge Health providers. LifeBridge operates Northwest, Sinai and Carroll hospitals. LifeBridge officials engaged a national forensic firm, which found that an unauthorized person accessed the server in September 2016. They don't have reason to believe the information was misused, but notified patients out of what officials say is an abundance of caution. Officials have opened up a dedicated call center and, for patients whose Soc...
The White House circulated an information sheet on Monday titled, “What You Need To Know About The Violent Animals Of MS-13,” doubling down on President Donald Trump’s use of the word “animals” to describe some undocumented immigrants last week, the Daily Beast reports. The descriptor appears in the rundown 10 times as it describes violent acts committed by gang members. “President Trump’s entire Administration is working tirelessly to bring these violent animals to justice,” the statement said. Last week, Trump described immigrants as “animals” during a meeting about sanctuary cities. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders then said that she didn’t think the “term that the president used was strong enough...
Despite reporting a dire need for medical equipment, the Hamas terror organization turned back two shipments of medical supplies for their populace because the goods bore labels from the Israel Defense Forces. On Tuesday, Israel expedited deliveries of medical equipment into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing, which Israel had reopened a day earlier after Palestinians burned it on Friday. Four of the supply shipments were sent from the Palestinian Authority, two from the United Nations Children’s Fund, and two from the Israel Defense Forces’ Technological and Logistics Directorate. The IDF reported that its shipment included IV fluids, bandages, disinfectants, hospital gowns, pediatric supplies and fuel for hospital generators. Though the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday that she was unaware of intelligence assessments concluding that Russia favored President Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The U.S. intelligence community said in a January 2017 assessment that Russia had tried to influence the election to benefit Trump. "I do not believe I've seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win. I'm not aware of that," Nielsen said, responding to a reporter's question after briefing House members on election security efforts. She said she believed the Russians have attempted to manipulate public confidence on both sides. "We've seen them encourage people to go to a protest on one side. We've seen th...
WONSAN, North Korea (AP) — A small group of foreign journalists arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to cover the dismantling of the country's nuclear test site later this week, but without South Korean media initially also scheduled to participate. Pyongyang is allowing the limited access to the site to publicize its promise to halt underground tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. It unilaterally announced that moratorium ahead of a summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. The eight South Korean journalists were excluded because Pyongyang has cut off high-level contact with Seoul to protest an exercise with the U.S. military — a protest the North's media reiterated Tuesday, saying saber-ratt...
The world’s highest fence against anti-tank missiles, closed-circuit cameras and radar equipment affixed to roughly 210-foot poles and a 21-mile security fence: This is just part of the defensive infrastructure that will make the Ramon International Airport safe. Expected to open in March 2019, the airport is in the final stages of construction in the Timna Valley in southern Israel, near the resort city of Eilat. The airport is named after the first Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who perished in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, and his son Assaf Ramon, who died six years later when his F-16 fighter jet crashed in a training accident. The 21-mile-long fence stands 20 feet tall, surpassing the 16-foot-tall security fence along the Egyptian border. It comes at a cost of n...
"Some in the media helped Hamas by publishing its lies rather than the facts," Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis writes in Wall Street Journal • He says journalists ignore Hamas' "theatrics" and that it "forced" its commanders and operatives to go to the border. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday,  IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis slammed Western media outlets for letting the Hamas terrorist group get away with lies over the weekly violent demonstrations near the Gaza Strip border fence. In the most recent clashes, when tens of thousands of rioters tried to storm into Israel, around 60 Palestinians were killed after they tried to target Israeli troops and perpetrate terrorist activities. Manelis' 1,000-word piece, titled "The Truth About Hamas a...
Four suspects are in custody after a Baltimore County police officer died Monday afternoon following an encounter in the Perry Hall area.  The officer, identified in charging documents as Officer Amy Caprio, was responding around 2 p.m. to a call for a suspicious vehicle on Linwen Way. She was critically injured and was taken to MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, where she died around 2:50 p.m. Caprio was a three-year, 10-month veteran of the department. A 16-year-old, identified as as Dawnta Anthony Harris, has been arrested and charged with with first-degree murder as an adult as court documents state that Harris admitted he "drove at the officer" when she told him to get out of a Jeep while accomplices burglarized a house. "He admitted that he partially opened the dri...
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has told the city’s police chiefs that it’s time to stop arresting people who are caught smoking marijuana in public, CNN reports. The mayor reportedly told the NYPD this weekend to issue summonses for smoking pot in public instead of making arrests. The NYPD has already set up a working group to review its marijuana enforcement procedures, but the mayor made it clear this weekend that ending public marijuana smoking arrests is one of the changes he wants. However, any changes to NYPD’s policy on smoking in public would not take effect until the end of the summer. De Blasio’s call to end arrests comes after Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said he would end prosecution of marijuana possession and smoking cases, starting in...
SHANGHAI (AP) — Global airlines are obeying Beijing's demands to refer to Taiwan explicitly as a part of China, despite the White House's call this month to stand firm against such "Orwellian nonsense." The Associated Press found 20 carriers, including Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa, that now refer to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers Chinese territory, as a part of China on their global websites. There are just three days left for dozens of foreign airlines to decide whether to comply with Beijing's orders, or face consequences that could cripple their China business, including legal sanctions. Many have already sided with Beijing. The spread of "Taiwan, China" on the drop-down menus and maps of airline websites represents another victo...
SANTA FE, Texas (AP) — A 17-year-old student accused of fatally shooting 10 people at a Texas high school should be seen as a "victim" because he may have recently been bullied, causing him to lash out, his father said. In a phone interview over the weekend with Greece's Antenna TV, Antonios Pagourtzis said he wished he could have stopped the killing Friday at Santa Fe High School. His voice cracked as he described how he told police to let him inside the school so his son, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, could kill him instead. He said he suspects his son was under pressure, perhaps due to bullying. "Something must have happened now, this last week," he told the station. "Somebody probably came and hurt him, and since he was a solid boy, I don't know what could have happened. I ca...
PERRY HALL, Md. (AP) — Authorities in Baltimore County say three additional teenagers have been taken into custody after a female officer was killed. Baltimore County's public safety department tweeted Tuesday morning that the teenagers are suspects in area burglaries. The department did not say whether the three played any role in the officer's death. Another suspect, 16-year-old Dawnta Anthony Harris, was arrested Monday. He is charged as an adult with first-degree murder. According to court records, Harris told a detective he was waiting in the driver's seat of a Jeep while associates committed a burglary. The records say he told the detective he drove the vehicle at the officer. Police spokeswoman Louise Rogers-Feher says she can't immediately ...
More articles