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November 19, 2018 at 11:34 am
New York - Passengers on the “nightmare” El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv on Thursday night are planning on taking legal action against the airline for a series of decisions that culminated in the group being stuck in Athens throughout Shabbat.
Drafts of letters with demands have been circulating between the passengers over the last couple of days. One passenger said that the group was split into those who were waiting to see what compensation the airline would offer and those who were going to be taking legal action with disregard to whatever the company decided to do.
Sources close to El Al said that the airline was planning to offer compensation to the passengers and would make decisions in the coming days.
Flight LY002 was scheduled to leave New York’s ...
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November 19, 2018 at 11:31 am
Businessman and philanthropist who brought the Giro d’Italia Big Start cycling race to Israel contributes $5M to SpaceIL
YEHUD, Israel, Nov. 19 – SpaceIL announced today that Canadian billionaire and businessman Sylvan Adams, who brought the Giro d’Italia Big Start cycling race to Israel this year, joined the project to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon and contributed $5 million to the organization.
Adams announced his contribution as part of a special tour that took place at the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)’s MBT Space facility in Yehud, where the spacecraft is being assembled. Also attending the tour were SpaceIL’s President Morris Kahn; SpaceIL CEO Dr. Ido Anteby; and other senior IAI officials.
Adams, who is celebrating his 60th birthd...
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November 19, 2018 at 11:14 am
Paris - The U.N. culture and education agency is teaming up with the World Jewish Congress to launch a website to counter Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and WJC President Ronald Lauder unveil the interactive “Facts about the Holocaust ” site at the cultural agency’s Paris headquarters on Monday.
It features a trove of historical information about the Holocaust, including testimonies and it is linked to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Online Holocaust Encyclopedia .
The new site has been conceived to combat what UNESCO calls “increased hate and disinformation online” on Jewish issues. It comes five months after the organization launched the U.N.‘s first educational guidelines on fighting anti-Semit...
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November 19, 2018 at 11:13 am
Tijuana, Mexico - The United States closed off northbound traffic for several hours at the busiest border crossing with Mexico to install new security barriers on Monday, a day after hundreds of Tijuana residents protested against the presence of thousands of Central American migrants.
The U.S. also closed one of two pedestrian crossings at the San Ysidro crossing in a move apparently aimed at preventing any mass rush of migrants across the border.
The installation of movable, wire-topped barriers threatens to complicate life for Mexicans using San Ysidro, where about 110,000 people enter the U.S. every day in 40,000 vehicles.
Long lines backed up in Tijuana, where many people have to cross the border to work on the U.S. side.
Such inconveniences prompted by the arrival of the migrant ...
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November 19, 2018 at 11:13 am
Hamburg, PA - Family and friends are mourning a couple killed in a fiery chain reaction crash while driving to their wedding in Pittsburgh.
State police say 35-year-old Kathryn Schurtz and her fiance, Joseph Kearny, were driving on Interstate 78 on Wednesday when they encountered heavy traffic from an earlier crash. Police say a tractor-trailer was unable to stop and pushed the couple’s vehicle into another tractor-trailer. Their vehicle and two trucks caught fire.
Schurtz lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was head of platform partnerships for Oracle Data Cloud in New York City. No information is available for Kearny.
Her obituary says Schurtz “will be remembered for her voracious appetite for reading, love of cooking, and trailblazing new adventures with Joseph.&rdquo...
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November 19, 2018 at 11:04 am
Baltimore, MD - Nov. 19, 2018:
Dear Community Members,
Since 10/31/18, the Pikesville Precinct experienced four residential daytime burglaries and one attempted residential daytime burglary in the Pickwick area. The first burglary occurred on 10/31/18 in the 2700 block of Woodcourt Road, the second burglary occurred on 11/6/18 in the 2400 block of Willow Glen Drive, the third burglary occurred on 11/8/18 in the 6700 block of Laurelwood Avenue, and the fourth burglary occurred on 11/13/18 in the 6700 block of Chelwood Road. The attempted burglary occurred on 11/8/18 in the 2900 block of Oakton Court. In all incidents, rear doors or windows were physically forced open.
Keep your residences secured at all times. Lock your windows, doors, and use your residential ala...
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November 19, 2018 at 10:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday that his administration will release a full report in the next two days about the death of a Saudi journalist, which has created a diplomatic conundrum for the president: How to admonish Riyadh for the killing yet maintain strong ties with a close ally in the Middle East.
"We'll be having a very full report over the next two days, probably Monday or Tuesday," Trump said. That will include "who did it," he said.
Reporters asked Trump about the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who was slain Oct. 2 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia's top diplomat has said the crown prince had "absolutely" nothing to do with it.
American intelligence agencies have concluded that the crown p...
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November 19, 2018 at 10:23 am
Istanbul - Pakistan’s prime minister has fired back after President Donald Trump accused the country of harboring Osama bin Laden despite getting billions of dollars in American aid.
Imran Khan tweeted Monday that Pakistan had suffered 75,000 casualties and lost $123 billion in the “US War on Terror” that followed 9/11, despite the fact that no Pakistanis were involved in the attacks. He says the U.S. has only provided a “miniscule” $20 billion in aid.
In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Trump said “everybody in Pakistan” knew bin Laden was there and no one said anything despite the U.S. providing $1.3 billion a year in aid. Trump said he had cut off the aid “because they don’t do anything for us, they don’t do a...
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November 19, 2018 at 10:22 am
Washington - President Donald Trump said there is no reason for him to listen to a recording of the “very violent, very vicious” killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which has put him in a diplomatic bind: how to admonish Riyadh for the slaying yet maintain strong ties with a close ally.
Trump, in an interview that aired Sunday, made clear that the audio recording, supplied by the Turkish government, would not affect his response to the Oct. 2 killing of Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who had been critical of the Saudi royal family.
“It’s a suffering tape, it’s a terrible tape. I’ve been fully briefed on it, there’s no reason for me to hear it,” Trump said in the interview with “Fox News Sunday.” ‘&...
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November 19, 2018 at 10:20 am
Washington - It turns out there is more than one Trump who can employ a few well-chosen words as a poison dart.
With a bombshell public statement this week, it was first lady Melania Trump who revealed her ability to carry out a political hit. Her extraordinary call for the removal of a top administration official forced the president to banish a top aide, exacerbated tensions within the White House and provided fresh insight into the first marriage.
Above all, the moment showed that the enigmatic first lady is increasingly prepared to flex her muscles. While it was President Donald Trump who repeatedly promised to shake up his Cabinet and staff, it was his wife who forced one of the first moves after the midterm elections. And while first ladies have long held unique positions of ...
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November 19, 2018 at 10:17 am
Long Island City - Shawn Smith has heard the promises before. When new hotels sprang up near the public housing complex in Queens where he’s lived for 17 years, residents were told they would bring jobs and economic opportunity.
He hasn’t seen any of it. So he’s cynical about the announcement this week that Amazon will build a headquarters for 25,000 workers on the Long Island City waterfront, a half mile from his home. Elected officials gleefully promised that Amazon’s presence will buoy all of western Queens. Smith is not so sure.
“The hotels here, they’re not hiring nobody. They’re bringing their own kind,” said Smith, who commutes to a construction job in New Jersey. “That’s how I feel about Amazon.”
His wasn’t ...
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November 19, 2018 at 10:15 am
Warsaw, Poland - Poland’s culture minister has compared the treatment of members of his conservative ruling party by political opponents to the way Jews were treated by Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
Piotr Glinski, who is also a deputy prime minister, was describing how members of his ruling Law and Justice party were treated when they were still in the political opposition before 2015 and now. He said that while in the opposition “we were excluded, treated like lepers” and now “we are compared to fascists, dictatorships.”
In an interview published Monday by the news magazine Wprost, he said the language often used to describe the party is meant “to dehumanize” and that party members are “treated like Jews by Goeb...
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November 19, 2018 at 9:35 am
Helsinki - Finland’s president isn’t sure where U.S. President Donald Trump got the idea that raking is part of his country’s routine for managing its substantial forests.
Trump told reporters Saturday while visiting the ruins of the Northern California town where a fire killed at least 76 people that wildfires weren’t a problem in Finland because crews “spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things” to clear forest floors.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said in an interview published Sunday in the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper that he spoke briefly with Trump about forest management on Nov. 11, when they both were in Paris for Armistice Day events.
Niinisto said their conversation focused on the California wildfires and the surveillance syst...
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November 19, 2018 at 9:34 am
Tallahassee, FL - Florida’s outgoing governor, Republican Rick Scott, was declared the winner of the state’s hard-fought U.S. Senate race on Sunday, following a recount of ballots in the tight contest against three-term Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.
In the recount of the Nov. 6 election, Scott won by 10,033 votes out of 8.19 million cast statewide, Florida elections officials said on Sunday. Scott took 50.05 percent, compared with 49.93 percent for Nelson, the officials added.
Nelson, first elected to the Senate in 2000, became the latest incumbent Democratic senator toppled in the midterm congressional election in which President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate but lost control of the House of Representatives.
Scott, who was...
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November 19, 2018 at 9:31 am
Sunday, November 18, 2018 - The third Jerusalem Leaders Summit Public Policy Conference was held in the ballroom of the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel. Awards were presented to Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, who were keynote speakers.
The International Leaders Summit is an independent think tank dedicated to strengthening the rule of law, advancing economic freedom and free trade, and featuring contributions from the fields of innovation and technology.
Welcome and introduction were given by Joel Anand Samy, Co-Founder International Leaders Summit and Jerusalem Leaders Summit. Natasha Srdoc, Co-Founder, International Leaders Summit and Elizabeth Saunders, President, Sanford Saunders...
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November 19, 2018 at 9:29 am
Buffalo, NY - Officials say a squirrel is to blame for power outages that affected thousands of people in upstate New York.
New York State Electric and Gas says the squirrel got into its substation in the Buffalo suburb of Lancaster on Sunday and knocked out three substations, leaving 12,000 customers without power.
NYSEG says people in Alden, Marilla, Cheektowaga and Clarence were affected.
Officials say two substations were restored by 2:45 p.m. Sunday. The third was restored at 3 p.m.
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November 19, 2018 at 9:28 am
Washington - The Trump administration is threatening to again suspend White House press credentials for CNN reporter Jim Acosta.
After a federal judge ordered that Acosta’s credentials be temporarily restored Friday, the White House sent Acosta a letter saying they had made the “preliminary decision” to suspend his pass when the judge’s order expires.
The White House argues Acosta did not follow “basic standards” at a news conference when he scrapped with President Donald Trump.
In a court filing Monday, CNN said the administration was creating “retroactive due process.” The network tweeted that the White House “is continuing to violate the First and Fifth amendments of the Constitution.”
A judge last week issued a ruling of a...
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November 19, 2018 at 8:57 am
Washington - President Donald Trump isn’t committing to a previous pledge to keep chief of staff John Kelly for the remainder of his term, part of widespread speculation about staffing changes that could soon sweep through his administration.
Trump, in a wide-ranging interview that aired on “Fox News Sunday,” praised Kelly’s work ethic and much of what he brings to the position but added, “There are certain things that I don’t like that he does.”
“There are a couple of things where it’s just not his strength. It’s not his fault. It’s not his strength,” said Trump, who added that Kelly himself might want to depart.
Asked whether he would keep Kelly in his post through 2020, the president offered only that “it c...
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November 19, 2018 at 8:57 am
Philadelphia, PA - Around two dozen traders sit in an open-layout second floor of a building in suburban Philadelphia. Surrounded by computer monitors, loud conversation and ringing phones, the energy on this trading floor is high and the commodity is blingy.
At the headquarters of Govberg, they’re not dealing in diamonds or gold but preowned luxury watches, of which company sells about $200 million worth a year.
Some 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast, 23-year-old Christian Zeron sits in his parents’ dining room in suburban New Jersey looking at around 30 preowned vintage watches. In a few days, he’ll put them up for sale on his company’s website, theoandharris.com, which sells $2 million worth of watches annually.
Govberg, in the watch business for 35 years, ...
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November 19, 2018 at 8:51 am
Jerusalem - Israel avoided early elections after a key coalition partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said on Monday that he would not withdraw his party, keeping the coalition intact despite a crisis triggered by a violent flare-up with Gaza militants.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett said his hard-line, pro-settler Jewish Home party would give Netanyahu another chance to address the security challenges facing Israel, listing off threats from Gaza and Lebanon, among others, which he wanted dealt with more firmly.
“I tell the prime minister here: we are withdrawing right now all of our political demands and will stand to help you in this great mission of getting Israel to win again,” he said.
“If the government would really start leading to...
