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January 21, 2019 at 3:05 pm
Rav Shalom Cohen, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Porat Yosef and nosi of the Shas party’s Moetzet Chachmei Hatorah, was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center after falling on Shabbos.
A series of tests are being conducted at the hospital.
Rav Cohen had participated in a Shabbaton in Tel Mond. As seudah shlishis, Rav Cohen stumbled from the chair on which he had been sitting and sustained a heavy blow to his shoulder.
A doctor who arrived at the scene at the conclusion of Shabbos and a second doctor who later arrived at the home of Rav Cohen in the Old City of Yerushalayim determined that there were no fractures, but after consulting with his personal physician, it was decided that, due to his immense pain, he should be taken to the hospital.
All are asked t...
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January 21, 2019 at 3:04 pm
An accident in Poland left two Bnei Brak residents on their way to the kever of Rav Elimelech M’Lizehnsk with serious injuries.
It’s not yet clear what caused the accident but officials noted that one of the reasons is probably skidding on the road, as the accident occured when the temperature was -9 degrees and the road was ice. One of the occupants in the car escaped with only minor injuries. The other is in more serious condition.
Please daven for Yitzchak Shlomo ben Shoshana.
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January 21, 2019 at 3:02 pm
President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his latest bid for border wall funding and blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a partial government shutdown that is now on its 31st day as a bipartisan group of governors warned that some states are close to running out of money to help the poorest Americans.
In a flurry of morning tweets, Trump rejected conservative complaints that his offer of temporary deportation protections for young immigrants amounts to amnesty and said that Pelosi and other Democrats “turned down my offer yesterday before I even got up to speak.”
“She is so petrified of the ‘lefties’ in her party that she has lost control,” Trump said of the House speaker.
Pelosi, of California, fired back at Trump on Twitter, urging him to “r...
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January 21, 2019 at 3:00 pm
U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt slammed the Palestinian leadership on Sunday after a key official criticized the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and accused it of bias toward Israel.
Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator and a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, had tweeted earlier that the U.S. has ‘zero credibility’ and thus should not be trusted when it comes to various statements on its anticipated peace plan.
“@DrHananAshrawi: you may dislike our policies & decisions, but to say we have zero credibility is simply not factual. @POTUS has kept his commitments, such as recognizing #Jerusalem as the capital of #Israel & moving our Embassy to #Jerusalem [and] the peace plan it is wor...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:59 pm
President Trump in an early morning tweet on Sunday suggested global warming could be helpful as a massive snowstorm dropped several inches of snow and sent temperatures plunging across the Midwest and swaths of the Northeast United States.
“Be careful and try staying in your house,” Trump advised. “Large parts of the Country are suffering from tremendous amounts of snow and near record setting cold. Amazing how big this system is. Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!”
The president, who has repeatedly cast doubt on the existence and effects of climate change, has regularly cited significant winter storms to mock the concept of global warming. He sent similar tweets in 2017 and 2011.
Read more at The Hil...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:57 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal team – attorneys Navot Tel-Zur, Amit Hadad, Tal Shapira, and Judge (ret.) Oded Mudrik – met on Monday with Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit in an attempt to dissuade him from announcing his decision to indict Netanyahu in Case 4,000, pending a hearing.
Officials in the legal system think that Mendelblit will summon Netanyahu to a hearing on the case – which involves hefty benefits allegedly offered to Bezeq telecom controlling shareholder Shaul Elovitch in exchange for positive coverage of the Netanyahu family on the Bezeq-owned news website Walla – in February.
“Because this is [the attorney-general’s] decision, he decided to meet with Netanyahu’s representatives. He couldn’t hear their ar...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:56 pm
In honor of the Tu B’Shevat holiday—the day on the Hebrew calendar marking the “New Year for Trees”—Israel’s Defense Ministry purchased 10 tons of nuts and dried fruits to distribute to Israeli soldiers across the country.
The Purchasing Manager of the Minister of Defense and the Food Center of the Technology and Logistics Division acquired 500 kilograms of almonds (1,100 pounds), 1 ton of peanuts, 2.2 tons of rains, 500 kilograms of walnuts, 1,500 kilograms of dried apricots (3,300 pounds), 500 kilograms of dried cranberries and 1,000 (2,200 pounds) kilograms of banana chips.
On Sunday, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel urged Israeli consumers to begin buying fresh fruits grown in Israel for their Tu B’Shevat celebrations, noting that dried fruits ...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:55 pm
Israel’s military struck at Iranian targets early on Monday after it intercepted a rocket fired from Syrian territory hours earlier.
Taking the rare step of publicly announcing the attack while it was going on, the IDF later confirmed that it had carried out the attack as retaliation for a surface-to-surface missile that was fired “by an Iranian force from Syria into Israeli territory, intended to damage the northern Golan Heights.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said they were the deadliest Israeli strikes in Syria since May last year. IDF said targets included munitions stores, a site at Damascus International Airport, an Iranian intelligence installation and an Iranian military training camp.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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January 21, 2019 at 2:55 pm
An attempted terrorist attack occurred at the Police headquarters in the Shomron Monday evening.
The terrorist attempted to stab the officers stationed there and was neutralized.
No casualties were reported.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
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January 21, 2019 at 2:54 pm
Former President Jimmy Carter urged Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to run for president in an Instagram Live video on Sunday.
“I’m very glad to have you here this morning, and I hope you come back,” Carter said to the visiting Booker. “And I hope you run for president.” Booker thanked Carter, telling him: “You encouraging me means more to me than you can imagine.”
Booker is one of a slew of potential Democratic candidates generating buzz ahead of the 2020 election, though he has not yet announced his candidacy.
Read more at The Hill.
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January 21, 2019 at 2:54 pm
In its 2017 budget, the Palestinian Authority allocated NIS 550 million ($150 million) to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners and released terrorist prisoners.
The salaries paid to these recipients, among them murderers, ranged from NIS 1,400 ($378) per month to NIS 12,000 ($325) per month. The beneficiaries of these payments are no more than a few tens of thousands of Palestinians.
In contrast, the P.A. spent only NIS 605 million (nearly $165 million) to provide financial assistance to needy Palestinian families. According to the P.A. budget, the 118,000 needy families received payments ranging between 750 shekels (about $200) to 1,800 shekels (about $490) per quarter.
Of the NIS 605 million expenditure, NIS 515 million ($140 million) was funded by the international community (NIS 165 ...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:49 pm
New York - The fears of a slowing economy that sent stocks falling the past few months may be spreading to small business owners who have been quite optimistic in recent years.
The problem for businesses is consumer spending that, while strong now, is showing signs of slippage. Economists predict consumer spending will begin slowing later in the year, in part because taxpayers won’t be getting the surge in take-home pay many got in 2018 after the new tax law took effect. Many small businesses like retailers, restaurants and service providers rely on consumers for their revenue, making them vulnerable to a drop in spending.
The monthly survey that the advocacy group National Federation of Independent Business takes of its members showed a small dip in optimism during November and De...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:49 pm
Davos, Switzerland - The world economy will be more sluggish this year, the International Monetary Fund warned Monday, citing trade disputes that have seen China slow to its weakest pace in 30 years as well as the impact of rising U.S. interest rates.
The IMF cut its forecast for global growth this year to 3.5 percent, from the 3.7 percent it had predicted in October and down from 2018’s 3.7 percent.
“After two years of solid expansion, the world economy is growing more slowly than expected and risks are rising,” said IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde as she presented the new forecasts at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Underscoring the wobbly state of the global economy: China, the world’s second-biggest economy, on Monday reported 2018 gro...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:49 pm
Berlin - When Hilde Schramm inherited several paintings collected by her father, Hitler’s chief architect and Armaments Minister Albert Speer, she was only sure of one thing: she didn’t want them.
Despite determining they probably hadn’t been looted from Jews during World War II, she wanted their legacy to somehow benefit others. So she huddled with friends around a rickety green table at her home-office in Berlin and came up with a plan to sell them and use the proceeds to support Jewish women’s creative projects in Germany.
In 1994, that became the Zurueckgeben foundation, a project for which Schramm is receiving an Obermayer German Jewish History Award on Monday. The honor was established by an American Jewish philanthropist to recognize the efforts of non-Jewi...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:48 pm
West Palm Beach, FL - A Florida police department says an officer ran over two people who were lying in a dark roadway to watch Sunday night’s lunar eclipse.
In a statement to The Palm Beach Post , West Palm Beach Police said the man and the woman were treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said around 11:30 p.m., at the height of the eclipse, the officer was patrolling in a park and driving around 5 mph (8 kph) when his vehicle struck the pair.
The statement said the man and the woman live nearby. Because the park was “extremely dark,” officials believe they were trying to watch the eclipse when they were run over.
The officer was placed on administrative leave. Police said the man and the woman were both 24 years old; their names were not re...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:48 pm
Jerusalem - Israel’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is leaving Monday evening to attend the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The economic policy, development and international cooperation conference is considered to be one of the most significant international conferences.
“The Israeli economy is in its best state since the establishment of the country,” said Kahlon. “This is not a coincidence, but rather a result of professional and responsible economic policy that we have been leading in recent years.”
Kahlon is planning on meeting with the Swiss president, finance ministers and senior representatives from the private sector to discuss ways to promote Israel as a world leader in technology and industry.
“Our goal on this tr...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:48 pm
San Francisco - Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp messenger service is globally limiting the number of times a user can forward a message to five, in a bid to fight “misinformation and rumors”, company executives said on Monday.
“We’re imposing a limit of five messages all over the world as of today,” Victoria Grand, vice president for policy and communications at WhatsApp, said at an event in the Indonesian capital.
Previously, a WhatsApp user could forward a message to 20 individuals or groups. The five-recipient limit expands globally a measure WhatsApp put into place in India in July after the spread of rumors on social media led to killings and lynching attempts.
WhatsApp, which has around 1.5 billion users, has been trying to find ways to stop misuse of t...
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January 21, 2019 at 2:47 pm
Berlin - Germany has banned Iran’s Mahan Air from landing in the country with immediate effect, citing security concerns and the airline’s involvement in Syria, officials said Monday.
Mahan Air is on a U.S. sanctions list and Washington has long urged allies to ban the airline from their territory.
The decision to ban it came after consultations with European allies and the U.S., Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters.
“It cannot be ruled out that this airline carries out transports to Germany that affect our security concerns,” he said.
“This is especially true against the backdrop of terrorist activities, intelligence on terrorist activities from the Iranian side and Iranian entities in Europe in the past.”
U.S. ...
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January 21, 2019 at 11:34 am
Baltimore City is under a code blue extreme cold alert until Tuesday morning.
It's the fourth code blue declaration this season. Baltimore City officials are urging residents to stay inside.
The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has reported three cold-weather-related deaths this season.
A code blue extreme cold alert can be declared when temperatures, including wind chill, are expected to be 13 degrees or below, or when other conditions are severe enough to present a substantial threat to the life or health of city residents.
During a code blue, the city's response partners work to ensure those in need find shelter.
For those who have to be outside, officials suggest dressing in layers, wearing a hat and scarf and drinking plenty of fluids.
"The weather today i...
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January 21, 2019 at 11:32 am
Eilat - Israel opened a new international airport outside its Red Sea resort of Eilat on Monday, hoping to boost winter tourism from Europeans and provide an alternative for times of conflict to its main gateway in Tel Aviv.
Abutting the Jordanian border some 19 km (12 miles) north of Eilat, Ilan and Asaf Ramon Airport cost $500 million and will replace the city’s cramped municipal airport as well as Ovda, an Israeli desert airbase that also accommodates civilian traffic.
Named after an Israeli astronaut lost in the 2003 space shuttle disaster and his eldest son, who died in a 2009 air force accident, the single-runway Ramon is designed for wide-body planes and an annual capacity of 2.5 million passengers.
Jordan and Egypt, Red Sea neighbors which both have peace treaties with Isr...
