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July 17, 2018 at 5:12 pm
Jerusalem - Amid rumors of warming ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Palestinian groups have lashed out against a recently released documentary series from Saudi-owned television news channel Al-Arabiya that depicts the lead-up to and the creation of the Jewish state.
The two-part series, titled The Naqba, is rich with imagery from the Holocaust and from the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish population. It interviews Israelis, Arabs and historians in what it says is an attempt to depict the controversial topic in an unbiased light.
The documentary “reconstructs the story of the birth of Israel in a way that is free of ideology or partisanism” by reviewing the crucial “moments of this chapter of the 20th century through testimonies and interviews with eyewitnesses and his...
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July 17, 2018 at 5:12 pm
New York - Twitter suspended at least 58 million user accounts in the final three months of 2017, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. The figure highlights the company’s newly aggressive stance against malicious or suspicious accounts in the wake of Russian disinformation efforts during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Last week, Twitter confirmed a Washington Post report that it had suspended 70 million accounts in May and June. The huge number of suspensions raises questions as to whether the crackdown could affect Twitter’s user growth and whether the company should have warned investors earlier. The company has been struggling with user growth compared to rivals like Instagram and Facebook.
The number of suspended accounts originated with Twitter&rsquo...
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July 17, 2018 at 5:07 pm
Washington - Special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking immunity for five potential witnesses in the upcoming trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
Mueller’s office told a federal judge in Virginia on Tuesday that they were seeking to compel the witnesses to testify under condition of immunity.
Prosecutors have not identified the witnesses and say they have not been publicly identified with the case.
Prosecutors say the witnesses have indicated they won’t testify “on the basis of their privilege against self-incrimination.” Prosecutors say that if they do testify, they are requesting “use immunity.” That means the government couldn’t use their statements against them.
Manafort is scheduled for trial on ...
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July 17, 2018 at 4:34 pm
Jerusalem, Israel - July 17, 2018 - The RCA Israel Region held a Yom Iyun on Rav Avraham Yitzhak Ha-Cohen Kook, z"l, in partnership with the Center for Religious Affairs in the Diaspora of the World Zionist Organisation in Jerusalem, Israel, at the Jewish Agency Building.
Rav Kook served as the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He was born in Latvia in 1865, educated in the Volzhin Yeshiva, and died in Jerusalem in 1935.
Introductory remarks were given by Rabbi Yechiel Wasserman, Head of the Center for Religious Affairs in the Diaspora.
Rabbi Dr. Yehudah Mirsky, spoke on "Rav Kook on the Meaning of Machloket: Multiple Perspectives in Thought and Action.” As a young yeshiva student in Israel, coming from the United States, Mirsky began hi...
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July 17, 2018 at 4:22 pm
Jerusalem - Russian President Vladimir Putin is both a “believer in Israel” and a “fan of Bibi,” US President Donald Trump said Monday evening, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname.
Trump’s comment came in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News following the president’s summit and press conference with Putin.
The US president said that he and Putin “came to a lot of good conclusions” during the meeting, including “a really good conclusion for Israel, something very strong.”
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Though Trump did not spell out what the conclusion was, he said Putin is “a believer in Israel; he is a fan of Bibi and really helping him a lot – and will help a lot, which is good for all of u...
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July 17, 2018 at 4:20 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Blistered by bipartisan condemnation of his embrace of a longtime U.S. enemy, President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to "clarify" his public undermining of American intelligence agencies, saying he had misspoken when he said he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
"The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why I wouldn't, or why it wouldn't be Russia" instead of "why it would," Trump said, in a rare admission of error by the bombastic U.S. leader. His comment came — amid rising rebuke by his own party — about 27 hours after his original, widely reported statement, which he made at a Monday summit in Helsinki standing alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I accept our intelligen...
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July 17, 2018 at 3:34 pm
HELSINKI (AP) — The writer and political activist who was forcibly removed from a room where U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were about to give a joint news conference says he wasn't trying to protest.
Sam Husseini, a contributor to The Nation magazine, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he held up a piece of paper with "Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty" printed on it to get attention so he could ask a question "on Syria's nuclear policy."
Finnish police said Husseini was removed and detained for interrupting the packed event at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, which was being covered live. He was released later Monday.
CNN White House reporter Kate Bennett tweeted that Husseini had spent hours at the palace's press area "passin...
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July 17, 2018 at 3:33 pm
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have used kites and balloons to try to start wildfires across the border in Israel — and now a bird, according to Israeli authorities.
A falcon, outfitted with a harness tied to a steel wire with flammable material at the end, was found hanging in a tree near the Gaza border, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority said in a statement Tuesday. Inspectors putting out a fire nearby found the dead bird Monday afternoon, the authority said.
This is the first time an animal has been used to ignite fires during weekly border protests that began in late March, according to the authority. The organization said it’s considering filing a complaint under international treaties over the use of an animal for what it called terrorism.
“Apparently it&rsqu...
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July 17, 2018 at 3:30 pm
President Trump addresses nuclear proliferation, European Union and media attacks. On ‘Hannity,’ the president calls Strzok a ‘disgrace’ to the country and FBI.
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July 17, 2018 at 3:29 pm
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Monday that he is in talks with the Trump administration about ways to restart key ObamaCare payments that the administration abruptly suspended this month.
The administration’s surprise suspension of $10.4 billion in payments to insurers this month set off a round of warnings of rising premiums and condemnation from Democrats who said it was further GOP “sabotage” of the health-care law.
Brady, a key congressional Republican on health-care issues, told reporters Monday that he is talking with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and others about how to restart the payments.
“The administration wants to restore those payments, so we’re looking at ways that we can help them do that,&...
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July 17, 2018 at 3:29 pm
The U.S. military is expecting to repatriate from North Korea the remains of as many as 55 service members who were killed during the Korean War, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
The repatriations would probably take place next week or the week after, the official said. It would be the first time that remains believed to be those of U.S. troops have been directly returned by North Korean officials in 13 years.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the plan and spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that the timing and the number of remains could still change. Citing practical difficulties, the official said that 55 was a “ballpark” figure and that further testing by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency would be required to confirm the number.
The...
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July 17, 2018 at 3:03 pm
Washington - President Donald Trump says he meant the opposite when he said in Helsinki that he doesn’t see why Russia would have interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.
Back at the White House on Tuesday, the president told reporters that he said he meant he doesn’t see why Russia “wouldn’t” be responsible.
He also said he accepts the American intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election, but he denied that his campaign had colluded in the effort.
Trump spoke a day after returning to the U.S. to nearly universal condemnation of his performance at Russian President Vladmir Putin’s side in Helsinki. Putin said he wanted Trump to win the race against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In Helsinki, Trump delivered no condemnati...
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July 17, 2018 at 3:03 pm
Washington - The Washington political playbook suggests President Donald Trump should make clear — and fast — that the U.S. isn’t in the pocket of Russia President Vladimir Putin. But apologies and clarifying statements just aren’t Trump’s style.
Here’s a look at Trump’s dilemma and what his options are:
UNDER PRESSURE TO RETRACT
Trump is under tremendous pressure by his own party to apologize for his remarks. America’s collective groan seems to have already reached his ears because he fired off a tweet from Air Force One on Monday saying he has confidence in “MY intelligence people” and on Tuesday he blamed “Fake News.”
But those tweets still don’t align Trump with U.S. intelligence agencies, which long ago ...
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July 17, 2018 at 3:00 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York state Senate leader and his son were convicted on Tuesday of extortion, wire fraud and bribery charges of pressuring businesses to give the son no-show jobs or else risk losing the powerful Republican's political support.
A jury in federal court in Manhattan deliberated over the course of four days before reaching the verdict at the trial of Dean Skelos and his son, Adam. The top count, extortion, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison but they are likely to receive far less time.
The trial was one of the most important in a spate of recent cases that have cast a harsh light on corruption in Albany. Former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, was convicted in May of corruption.
Prosecutors in the Skelos trial had told ...
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July 17, 2018 at 2:57 pm
Baltimore, MD - July 17, 2018 - Shomrim of Baltimore was privileged to participate in the JCC First Responder Day along with the men and women of law enforcement, Fire Dept, and EMS that give their all every day in keeping our community safe.
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July 17, 2018 at 2:37 pm
The story about Starbucks ending its Kosher friendly store program, is now a National story. The following is an unedited report from the Associated Press:
BALTIMORE (AP) — A leading company in Kosher certification has dropped some Starbucks drinks from its acceptable consumption list.
The Baltimore Sun reports Star-K said this month it's dropping drinks with "syrups, sauces, toppings, powders, soy or almond milk" after the coffee behemoth ended an expanded kosher certification program with the Baltimore-based company. Starbucks' Americanos, espressos, cold brew coffee and iced lattes remain on Star-K's kosher list.
Rabbi Zvi Holland oversees Star-K's certification of Starbucks. He says the Seattle-based chain teamed up with Star-K to create...
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July 17, 2018 at 2:37 pm
Las Vegas - One suspect was killed and a second wounded during a shootout on July 11 with police in downtown Las Vegas, hours after the pair was involved in the fatal shooting of another man, authorities said. Body camera video was released by police on Monday showing one of their own fire his weapon through the windshield.
The gunfire began at around 7:30 a.m. that when an unidentified man was fatally shot at a car wash.
About two hours later, police said they saw a vehicle matching the description of the one the suspects were driving, Las Vegas police Capt. Yasenia Yatomi said.
Police traded gunfire with the two suspects during a chase that ended with the SUV crashing into a wall at an elementary school, Yatomi said. Police said the suspects fired 34 shots at officers along the busy...
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July 17, 2018 at 2:34 pm
Albany NY - New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland are suing the federal government over the Republican-led tax overhaul.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York.
The tax law passed by Congressional Republicans and signed into law last year by Republican President Donald Trump caps a deduction for state and local taxes at $10,000. The deduction was especially popular in high-tax, Democratic states, where many homeowners will see big increases in their federal tax bill.
Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the tax bill was crafted specifically to hurt blue states. He says it’s also unconstitutional because it interferes with state taxing authority.
Supporters of the tax overhaul dismiss the lawsuit as political and say that the changes actu...
