WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates are up for the fourth consecutive week, with the key 30-year rate reaching its highest level since May. Costs for would-be homebuyers continue to climb. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages jumped to 4.65 percent, from 4.60 percent last week. The average rate has increased from 3.83 percent a year ago. The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans rose to 4.11 percent this week from 4.06 percent last week. The primary factors driving rates higher include the strong economy, trade tensions between the U.S. and other countries, and the U.S. government stepping up sales of its debt, according to Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater. The expanded U.S. debt sales suppress Treas...
Nearly half of the residents in the nation’s five biggest cities do not speak English at home, choosing instead their native language, according to the latest Census Bureau data that details the impact of a decade of soft immigration policies. Overall, a record 67 million do not speak English at home, said the bureau. That is nearly double in 27 years. In its just-released analysis of the Census data, the Center for Immigration Studies said, “As a share of the population, 21.8 percent of U.S. residents speak a foreign language at home — roughly double the 11 percent in 1980.” The Center added, “In America's five largest cities, 48 percent of residents now speak a language other than English at home. In New York City and Houston it is 49 perce...
New York - Google employees brainstormed ways to alter search functions to counter the Trump administration’s controversial 2017 travel ban, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing internal emails. Google employees discussed how they could tweak the company’s search-related functions to show users how to contribute to pro-immigration organizations and contact lawmakers and government agencies, the WSJ said. The ideas were not implemented. https://on.wsj.com/2DePzWh President Donald Trump’s travel ban temporarily barred visitors and immigrants from seven majority Muslim countries. It spurred public outcry and was revised several times. Trump said the travel ban was needed to protect the United States against attacks by Islamist militants, and the Supreme Cou...
Fort Worth, TX - American Airlines is threatening to prohibit customers from making changes to nonrefundable tickets if Congress makes good on a proposal to crack down on unreasonable airline fees. American CEO Doug Parker says his airline would be acting just like many other businesses when customers want to swap their ticket for a different flight or for another day. “We — like the baseball team, like the opera — would say, ‘We’re sorry, it was nonrefundable,’” Parker said this week. Parker made the comments as the airline industry’s main trade group mobilizes to defeat a proposal in Congress to limit airline fees. Changing a domestic ticket on the largest airlines typically costs $200. Last year, U.S. carriers collected nearly $2.9 bil...
New York - Walmart Inc has issued a warning in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that it may have to raise prices due to tariffs on Chinese imports, CNN Money reported. “The immediate impact will be to raise prices on consumers and tax American business and manufacturers,” Walmart said, according to the CNN Money report. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would impose 10 percent U.S. tariffs on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Walmart was not immediately available to comment outside business hours.
Kampala, Uganda - The death toll rose above 100 after a ferry capsized and sank on Lake Victoria, Tanzania state radio reported Friday, while a second day of rescue efforts raced the setting sun. The toll was likely to go up, John Mongella, commissioner for the Mwanza region, told The Associated Press after dozens of security forces and volunteers resumed work at daybreak. “More than 200 people are feared dead,” based on accounts from fishermen and others nearby, because passengers had been returning from a busy market day, Tanzania Red Cross spokeswoman Godfrida Jola told the AP. “But no one knows” just how many people were on board. Such ferries often carry hundreds of passengers and are overcrowded. President John Magufuli urged the country to remain calm. A...
As Jewish communities around the world are gearing up for this year’s annual Shabbos Project, the team at Project Inspire announces a brand new venue and an innovative experience in our area. Rabbi Yaakov Giniger, Director of Programming at Project Inspire, explains:  “This year, our Shabbos Project will become a Shabbos Retreat, to be held at the Sheraton Parsippany New Jersey.  Participants will experience an outstanding weekend that will pamper the body and inspire the soul.”  The event, which is scheduled for the weekend of October 26-28th, promises to be a groundbreaking experience.  It will include a full roster of inspiring speakers, thrilling entertainment and stand up comedy, zumba classes, sports activities, a gourmet cuisine, and so much mo...
Warsaw, Poland - Police in the Polish city of Gdansk have detained a 27-year-old man suspected of smashing a synagogue window during the Yom Kippur holiday earlier this week. Security footage showed a man hurling a rock at the New Synagogue on Wednesday evening. Several people were nearby inside, including children, but nobody was hurt. Police said they detained the man around noon Friday in the community of Trabki Wielkie, south of the city. They said he seemed surprised at being apprehended but did not resist. His detainment came a day after the publication of security footage of the incident triggered a number of calls to police. Police did not give the man’s name or identify a motive, and said they would hand their evidence to prosecutors.
Washington - President Donald Trump challenged the woman accusing his Supreme Court nominee of assault by name Friday, saying that if the alleged attack was that “bad” then she would have filed charges. Abandoning his previous restraint, Trump tweeted: “I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!” The president previously had avoided naming Christine Blasey Ford or casting doubt on her account. Ford alleges Judge Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her more than 30 years ago when they were teenagers. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations. Trump&...
Jerusalem - Israel will cut the tax revenue it transfers to the Palestinian Authority if it pays the family of the killer of an American-Israeli settler, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said on Friday. Kahlon said he had instructed that any sum paid to the attacker’s family be withheld from tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) under interim peace deals. “I will examine other ways to limit the economic activity of the terrorist’s family,” he said on Twitter. American-born Ari Fuld, 45, was stabbed at a shopping mall in the Etzion bloc of Jewish settlements south of Jerusalem on Sunday. His attacker, Khalil Youssef Jabarin, 17, from a village in the occupied West Bank, was shot at the scene and has since been in Israeli custody...
Washington - President Donald Trump on Friday delayed the planned release of documents from the FBI’s Russia investigation, saying the Justice Department’s inspector general has been asked to review the records amid concerns from law enforcement and U.S. allies about their disclosure. Trump said in a pair of tweets that the watchdog office had been asked to review the records, which he had ordered declassified earlier this week as part of an effort to expose “really bad things at the FBI.” He tweeted that he “believes that the office “will move quickly.” “In the end I can always declassify if it proves necessary. Speed is very important to me - and everyone!” Trump added. Trump said in an interview with Fox News Thursday that several...
United Nations - A top UN official issued a rare condemnation against Palestinian glorification of terror attacks against Israelis during a UN Security Council briefing in New York on Thursday. US Special Coordinator to the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov included this week’s terror attack at the Gush Etzion junction that claimed the life of Israeli-American Ari Fuld in his monthly report to the council. “It is reprehensible that Hamas and other Palestinian factions chose to glorify this attack,” Mladenov said condemning Palestinian incitement against Jews and Israelis. “Hamas leaders continued to incite violence, with one senior official speaking of “cleansing Palestine of the filth of Jews,” and threatening to decapitate Israeli leaders,...
New York - Police say five people, including three infants, were stabbed at an overnight day care center in New York City. Authorities say the stabbings happened just before 4 a.m. Friday at a home in Queens. A 3-day-old girl and a 1-month-old girl were stabbed in the abdomen, and a 20-day-old girl suffered cuts to her ear, chin and lip. Police say the father of a child at the center and a woman who worked there were also stabbed. All are in critical but stable condition. A 52-year-old woman was found in the basement of the home in the Flushing neighborhood. Police say she had slashed her own wrist and is in custody at a hospital. Charges are pending. Police say a butcher knife and meat cleaver were found at the scene. A motive hasn’t been determined. It isn’t clear wheth...
Warsaw, Poland - Poland’s president is fighting back against criticism at home over a photo posted by Donald Trump that some say shows the Polish leader in a subservient role during a White House visit. Trump tweeted photos of himself with President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday, including one of them signing a strategic cooperation agreement in which Trump is sitting at his desk and Duda is standing. Both leaders look into the camera, Trump with a stern look on his face and Duda grinning. Critics of Duda, a conservative, have accused him of allowing himself and Poland to be dishonored, even humiliated. Some have reposted the photo with one of Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sitting together at a table as they signed a memorandum in June. The message: even a dictator gets bett...
Jerusalem - An Israeli military official says its “deconfliction line” with Russia for their air forces in Syria will be examined after a Russian plane was hit by Syrian forces responding to an Israeli raid. He spoke anonymously according to protocol Friday after an Israeli delegation returned from Moscow where they briefed officials on the incident that killed 15 Russians. Israel says its jets struck a Syrian facility Monday that provided weapons for Iran’s proxy Hezbollah, noting it alerted Russia ahead of time as per “deconfliction” agreements Russia has charged the warning came less than a minute before the strike, leaving its aircraft in the line of fire. The official said a “much longer” alert was given and blamed “reckless” S...
Brooklyn, NY - A 90 year old Holocaust survivor making his nightly trip to the synagogue to say Kaddish for his daughter died tonight after being struck by a car. Nissen Krakinowski was crossing Ralph Avenue near Avenue L just before 7:30 across from Congregation Beit Hillel of Flatlands when he was struck by a southbound blue Jaguar. Krakinowski, who suffered severe head trauma, was pronounced dead on arrival at Brookdale Hospital.  The driver of the Jaguar remained on scene and no arrests were made. Police said that Krakinowski was not crossing at a crosswalk and are continuing their investigation into the accident. Sources said that Krakinowski was a widower who lived alone, having lost one adult daughter approximately two years ago and another within the past year. He travele...
NEW YORK (AP) — Police seeking to secure the United Nations General Assembly are on guard for would-be assassins like the two men accused of poisoning a former Russian spy in England. There have been no specific threats. But the New York Police Department's top counterterrorism official, John Miller, said Thursday that the department has consulted with authorities in Great Britain on how to prepare for incidents involving the weapons-grade nerve agents. "We've compared notes with our colleagues in the U.K. very closely on this," Miller said at a news conference about security measures for the gathering of world leaders at the United Nations. Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the NYPD has taken extensive measures to guard against biological or chemical strikes. But the B...
Washington - President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer says he is providing “critical information” as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other charges last month, said Thursday he is providing the information to prosecutors without a cooperation agreement. Trump’s longtime fixer-turned-foe could be a vital witness for prosecutors as they investigate whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russians. For more than a decade, Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer, and he was a key power player in the Trump Organization and a fixture in Trump’s polit...
HaAzinu marks the final time in the Torah where Hashem foretells the future generations of Klal Yisroel after they enter Eretz Yisroel.  Indeed, some M’phorshim understand that HaAzinu contains detailed allusions to everything that will happen to the Jewish people.  After predicting that there would be many years of peace and plenty, the Torah warns that B’nei Yisroel will become “fat”. (HaAzinu 32:15) Inevitably, we would then enjoy our blessings and forget from where they come.  Hashem then describes the calamities which would befall us as a result of our transgressions. (32:22-26). Curiously, the Torah then tells us that Hashem will temper his wrath, so that our enemies do not question the existence and presence of Hashem.  (32:27) This same ...
Note: It is not a double parsha this week, we are just publishing early due to the busy nature of this time of the year 1) Praising Hashem “HaAzinu Hashamayim va’adabeira” (Devarim 32:1). Moshe calls to the heavens and the earth, they’re going to give testimony about the Jewish people keeping the Torah and the mitzvos. Moshe says, “ki Sheim Hashem ekra, havu godel LEilokeinu.” Ramban explains a cryptic comment here. “Ki Sheim Hashem ekra baShamayim.” When I call to God in heaven, “havu godel LEilokeinu ba’aretz”, give respect to G-d in the land.   We recite this pasuk before we start Mussaf and Mincha Shemoneh Esrai. We’ve explained in the past, based on the Seforno, a beautiful, beautiful p’shat, which m...
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