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February 10, 2019 at 10:51 am
The Charedi community asked the world to join them in tefila for those injured in a fatal bus accident that killed two and injured 41 passengers on Sunday morning. Specifically the community sent a message on WhatsApp requesting people to say psalms, liturgical hymns often said when Jews find themselves in difficult situations. The message published the name of some of the injured along with the words for Psalms Chapter 121, which is traditionally recited for those who are sick, hoping for a quick recovery.
The message urged those to spread the names stating, "Whoever prays for his friend is answered first," a well-known Talmudic saying urging those to pray for others because those are the prayers that are answered. The names of those injured that the community that were r...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:32 am
Bnei Brak, Israel - Feb. 6, 2019 - Rising among the mix of small old and new buildings in the heart of Bnei Brak is the headquarters of Achiya, the Israeli nonprofit organization, dedicated to helping thousands of children achieve their full learning potential.
Achiya was established approximately 25 years ago by Rav Avroham Gombo (founding principal) and Yitzhak Levin (founding CEO). Their dream began with programs for a few students in a maze of tiny rooms in an old, rundown building. Today, not far from its original location, is the The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Early Learning Center, Achiya's headquarters, and the home of a facility in which educators and paramedical specialists help to transform the lives of thousands of chi...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:30 am
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is hosting their Minority Health Conference (MHC) on February 22 featuring keynote speaker Linda Sarsour. Sarsour is known for her hostility towards Israel, having said “Northing is creepier than Zionism” and advisingMuslims not to “humanize” Israelis. Sarsour once tweeted against the feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a survivor of genital mutilation, by saying she wishes she could take Ali’s vagina away.
The MHC Planning Committee is composed of UNC students. Public records indicate that a co-chair, Afsaneh Mortazavi, and two other Planning Committee members – Teja Vemuganti and Karla Jiminez – signed an anti-Israel petition provided to the Durham, NC City Council i...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:30 am
Jerusalem - Security officials say that 29-year-old Arafat Irfayia from Hebron has confessed to the killing of 19-year-old Ori Anspacher, and reconstructed the murder for police on Sunday morning ahead of his arraignment in court.
IDF troops meanwhile mapped the killer’s home ahead of its likely demolition. Troops entered Hebron in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday in order to measure the structure “to evaluate ways to demolish it,” the army said in a statement.
Irfayia was arrested near Ramallah less than 48 hours after Ori Ansbacher, from the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, was found naked and with multiple stab wounds in the Ein Yael forest in Jerusalem on Thursday.
The Shin Bet General Security Service said that the suspect “left his home in Hebron with a knife and...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:28 am
Talks between lawmakers over border-security funding have broken down, an aide familiar with the negotiations said Sunday, increasing the likelihood of another government shutdown at week’s end.
Democrats and Republicans on the bipartisan negotiating committee are disagreeing over the number of detention beds at the border that would be set up under any agreement. Without an agreement on the number of beds, talks on funding levels and physical barriers have stalled, and it wasn’t clear when the discussions would resume, the aide said.
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February 10, 2019 at 10:07 am
Richmond, VA - Virginia’s governor pledged to work at healing the state’s racial divide Saturday, even as calls mounted for the lieutenant governor to resign - capping an astonishing week that saw all three of the state’s top elected officials embroiled in potentially career-ending scandals.
Two women have accused Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of assault, and he has emphatically denied both allegations. After the second allegation was made Friday, Fairfax — who stands to become the state’s second black governor if Gov. Ralph Northam resigns over a racist photo — was barraged with demands to step down from top Democrats, including a number of presidential hopefuls and most of Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Meanwhile, Northam - now a year into his ...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:01 am
Washington - Congressional bargainers are working toward a border security deal amid indications that the White House is preparing to accept a bipartisan agreement that would give President Donald Trump a fraction of the money he’s demanded for his proposed southern border wall.
Participants said they expect money for physical barriers to end up well below the $5.7 billion that Trump has sought to begin construction of the wall, which has attained iconic significance for him and his conservative supporters. Underscoring the clout he’s lost during a battle that’s dominated the opening weeks of divided government, the amount seems sure to fall much closer to $1.6 billion, the participants said, a figure that was in a bipartisan Senate bill last year.
“That’s w...
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February 10, 2019 at 9:58 am
Washington - Republicans have vilified Nancy Pelosi for years as a San Francisco liberal and now they’re trying to portray her as a captive of resurgent left-wingers in her Democratic Party.
But in her early moves so far as House speaker, Pelosi is displaying her pragmatic streak. She’s set to endorse a split-the-differences deal on government funding that appears on track to give President Donald Trump at least some barriers on the border, after she had said Trump’s border wall idea was “immoral” and promised he wouldn’t get a penny for it.
And as the Democratic Party’s progressive wing pursues dreams such as “Medicare for all” and a “Green New Deal,” Pelosi is keeping her distance.
“We are results-oriented, values...
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February 10, 2019 at 9:54 am
Washington - Ivanka Trump says her father, President Donald Trump, did not play a role in granting security clearances to her or to her husband, Jared Kushner.
Ivanka Trump — a senior White House adviser — discussed the process during an interview on ABC’s “The View” Friday. She says “the president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husband’s clearance.”
The House Oversight and Reform Committee is starting an investigation into the handling of security clearances by Trump’s White House and presidential transition.
Kushner worked without a full security clearance for the first year of the administration. He was granted a full clearance in the spring of 2018 after a lengthy background check.
Trump recently told ...
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February 10, 2019 at 9:52 am
Washington - The Senate’s top Democrat is introducing legislation to “hold China accountable” and sanction laboratories and other traffickers who export fentanyl to the United States.
The bill, which will be introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York later this week, is likely to add to growing tension between the U.S. and China, days before Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will lead high-level trade talks in China.
In December, China agreed to label fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of American drug deaths annually, as a controlled substance.
Schumer’s legislation — known as the Fentanyl Sanctions Act — would direct U.S. officials to publicly identify foreign ...
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February 10, 2019 at 9:43 am
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea and the United States struck a new deal Sunday that increases Seoul's contribution for the cost of the American military presence on its soil, overcoming previous failed negotiations that caused worries about their decades-long alliance.
South Korea last year provided about $830 million, covering roughly 40 percent of the cost of the deployment of 28,500 U.S. soldiers whose presence is meant to deter aggression from North Korea. President Donald Trump has pushed for South Korea to pay more.
On Sunday, chief negotiators from the two countries signed a new cost-sharing plan, which requires South Korea to pay about 1.04 trillion won ($924 million) in 2019, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The statement said the two countrie...
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February 10, 2019 at 5:21 am
The bus was photographed on its side, punctured by the highway's guard rail outside of Modi'in
wo people died and at least 41 were injured on Sunday when a #304 bus on a Jerusalem-Tel Aviv suburb highway overturned, Magen David Adom paramedics have confirmed.
Of the 41 injured, two were in serious condition, five were moderately wounded and 34 were lightly injured, MDA said in a statement.
The bus, which was outside the city of Modi'in ear Beit Horon on Highway 443, was photographed on its side punctured by the highway's guard rail, with the entire front windshield blown out.A photo posted on social media showed a rescue worker carrying an infant from the scene, pictured feet from the overturned vehicle. Paramedics said four children were among those injured, i...
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February 9, 2019 at 8:58 pm
Baltimore, MD - Feb. 9, 2019 - The Skulener Rebbe, shlita, arrived in Baltimore early Friday morning. On very short notice and with the assistance of local Skulener Chasidim who learn in the Chasidishe Kollel of Khal Chasidim, Bikur Cholim of Baltimore arranged for the Rebbe to have minyanim with a Sefer Torah provided by Misaskim of Baltimore.
At the request of Bikur Cholim, Johns Hopkins Hospital designated an area for minyanim and for the Rebbes gabaim and entourage. Many guests stayed at the Tikva House run by Jewish Caring Network (JCN).
Having such a great elder tzaddik in our midst is a big Zchus for the Baltimore community.
The tzibbur is requested to continue to daven for Yisroel Avrohom Ben Shaina Rochel l’refuah shlaimah.
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February 9, 2019 at 8:30 pm
Vice President Mike Pence visited the Port of Baltimore on Friday to thank U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and defend the administration's immigration goals.
"It is remarkable to think about how long the port of Baltimore has played a role in this nation... and it continues to play a vital role in the commerce of our nation today," Pence said.
Prior to his speech, Pence was briefed by officials from the CBP and its Baltimore field office and was shown some of the methods officers use to scan shipments, including scanners and K9 unit. He was joined by Rep. Andy Harris, the sole Republican in Maryland's congressional delegation.
The Baltimore field office seized more than 3,500 pounds of drugs illegally smuggled into the country last year alone.
Delivering a message...
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February 9, 2019 at 8:24 pm
Birmingham, AL - A Muslim man was executed in Alabama on Thursday, as originally scheduled, after the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the execution, denying his request for an imam’s presence in the execution chamber.
Attorneys for Domineque Ray, 42, had argued that Alabama’s execution policy favored Christian inmates because a chaplain is allowed in the room, often kneeling next to the death row prisoner, and praying with the inmate if requested.
Ray was executed by lethal injection at 10:12 p.m., a spokesman of the Department of Corrections told Reuters in an email. No other information was immediately available.
Ray’s imam, Yusef Maisonet, watched the execution from an adjoining witness room, multiple media reports said, including the Birmingham News. Read mor...
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February 9, 2019 at 8:11 pm
New York - Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that he’ll decide by the end of the month whether to seek the presidency.
The 76-year-old businessman, one of the richest men in the world, has been openly contemplating a Democratic White House bid since late last year. In an interview with The Associated Press, Bloomberg said he has “three more weeks” to make his decision in line with his plan to announce his intentions before the end of February.
He also rejected a recent report suggesting he likely would not run if former Vice President Joe Biden enters the race.
“My decision doesn’t depend on what other people are going to do,” Bloomberg said. “My decision depends on whether or not I think I can make a difference.”
B...
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February 9, 2019 at 8:10 pm
San Francisco - Get ready to say good riddance to the checkout line.
A year after Amazon opened its first cashier-less store, startups and retailers are racing to get similar technology in stores throughout the world, letting shoppers buy groceries without waiting in line.
If they work, cashier-less stores will not only save time but maybe money too. From cameras and sensors, the stores will know when shoppers pick up a product and put it down, and can send them a discount to tempt them to buy it. Merchants will receive more insights into how people shop. They can create more space for merchandise, better track when shelves need replenishing and draw more business from the hordes of customers who detest long lines.
But the monitoring system underlying cashier-less technology is bound to...
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February 9, 2019 at 8:09 pm
Albany - Gov. Andrew Cuomo warns that what he calls “political pandering” to critics of Amazon’s proposed secondary headquarters could sink New York’s biggest-ever economic development deal. But opponents say they’ll keep fighting a project they consider corporate welfare.
Friday’s back-and-forth comes after The Washington Post reported that Amazon is reconsidering its planned New York City headquarters because of some local politicians’ opposition to the $2.8 billion incentive package.
Amazon only says publicly that it’s “working hard to demonstrate what kind of neighbor” it will be.
Noting the report, Cuomo accused the state Senate of “governmental malpractice” and pandering. He says it’s “trying to st...
