Dubai - Bahrain is defending its decision to host a White House-engineered conference to address the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, saying its only objective is to support the “brotherly Palestinian people.” The Palestinian Authority has rejected the economic conference planned for next month, saying any peace push that ignores the Palestinian people’s aspirations for an independent state is doomed to fail. Bahrain’s foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, said his country supports the Palestinian demand for an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital. He tweeted Tuesday that it also respects the Palestinian leadership’s steadfast position safeguarding Palestinian rights. The Trump administration hopes to rally Arab Gulf countries to ...
Nearly 400 members of Congress sign letter calling on Trump to safeguard Israel’s interests with Syria’s civil war coming to an end. Nearly 400 members of Congress have signed a bipartisan letter to President Donald Trump calling on him to safeguard Israel’s interests with Syria’s civil war coming to an end, JTAreported on Monday. The letter, sent from members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, urged Trump to ensure that Israel has the support and materiel to maintain its qualitative military edge in the region. It also wants economic and diplomatic pressure on Russia and Iran to retreat from their support for the Assad regime, and intensifying sanctions on Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist militia that is Iran’s ally. “With the r...
If a person has the opportunity to do the mitzvah of Kiddush Levana and the mitzvah of sefiras ha’omer, which mitzvah should he do first? The issue at hand is the concept of “tadir ush’eino tadir tadir kodem.” If something comes around more often than something else, the priority goes to what comes more often. There is another question as far as how to interpret what is considered more often. Do we measure by the amount of times one does the mitzvah, or do we rather measure the mitzvah by how often we experience this mitzvah throughout the year? On one hand, Sefiras Haomer is done more often since we count for forty-nine days, whereas KiddushLevana is done twelve...
Pittsburgh - A county judge ordered Pittsburgh on Friday not to enforce firearms restrictions inspired by the deadly synagogue shooting in the city until lawsuits filed by gun owners are resolved, a decision reached after all parties agreed to the stay. Attorney Eric Tirschwell of gun-control advocacy organization Everytown Law, who is representing the city for free, said the stay was “consistent with the city’s goal all along, which is to put this in front of the court, let the courts decide whether these ordinances are permissible under Pennsylvania law,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported . Attorney Joshua Prince, who represents Firearms Owners Against Crime and the Allegheny County Sportsmen’s League, said he wanted the public to know that there would be no ...
An email sent by former FBI Director James ComeyOpens a New Window. to his staff could reveal some very bad news for former CIA Director John Brennan, according to Judge Andrew Napolitano. Former Congressman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures”Opens a New Window. that Comey wrote, in an email to his leading upper echelon staff including James Baker, the former general counsel at the FBI, former agent Peter Strzok, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, that Brennan insisted the dossier be included in the intel assessment charge. Brennan has been accusing Trump of treason for the last two years, but if the email is accurate, it would show that it was Brennan who said use the dossier in the intel assessment that Ru...
Albany, NY - Lawmakers in New York are seeking to sharply narrow a proposal that would grant congressional committees access to state tax returns filed by President Donald Trump to address concerns that it could jeopardize the privacy of anyone who pays taxes in the state. Amendments filed over the weekend would revise the bill, so it only applies to elected leaders and top public officials, as well as companies in which they have significant ownership or control. The change, expected to be supported by the Democrat-led Senate and Assembly, could ease the way for passage of the overall bill as early as this week. Under earlier wording, the bill would have applied to any individual or corporation that pays New York taxes. Democrats say the measure is needed to give congressional committe...
Washington - Four days in Tokyo. Then it’s off to see Queen Elizabeth before a jaunt to Normandy, France, and perhaps time in Ireland. A return trip to Japan? Why not. And throw in Seoul. Then it’s back to France for President Donald Trump for a summit with world leaders. The homebody president is preparing for a jet-setting summer of travel as he heads into 2020, with an itinerary that will see Air Force One fly more than 36,000 miles — almost 1.5 times the earth’s circumference — not counting helicopter trips and motorcades. The flurry of international travel is a marked change of pace for a president who likes to sleep in his own bed and rarely strays far from the White House unless it’s to his own properties. The packed calendar is the product of ...
Washington - President Donald Trump warned on Monday Iran would be met with “great force” if it attacked U.S. interests in the Middle East, and government sources said Washington strongly suspects Shi’ite militias with ties to Tehran were behind a rocket attack in Baghdad’s Green Zone. “I think Iran would be making a very big mistake if they did anything,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Monday evening for an event in Pennsylvania. “If they do something, it will be met with great force but we have no indication that they will.” His comments came as two U.S. government sources said the United States strongly suspects Shi’ite militias with ties to, and possibly encouragement from, Iran fired a rocket on Sunday into Ba...
Ukraine on Monday inaugurated comedian and political newcomer Volodymyr Zelensky as its new president, a month after he scored a landslide electoral victory that dealt a stunning rebuke to the country’s political establishment. Zelensky, 41, was sworn-in to office in a ceremony held at Ukraine’s parliament in Kiev becoming the country’s youngest post-Soviet president. Taking the oath of office, Zelensky, who is Jewish, pledged to “protect the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine” evoking the defensive prowess of Israel. “We must become Icelanders in soccer, Israelis in defending our land, Japanese in technology,” he was quoted by the BBC as saying. Read more at i24NEWS.
A heat wave may force authorities to ban Lag Ba’omer bonfires. Lag Ba’omer falls on Wednesday night and Thursday, and the National Fire and Rescue Authority has already prohibited lighting bonfires in public parks, forests, and other potentially dangerous areas Thursday will see a heat wave, affecting most of Israel. All areas of Israel will see heavy or extreme heat, and firefighters are liable to ban Lag Ba’omer bonfires due to the risk that the flames may quickly spread out of control. Read more at Arutz Sheva.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day wrote a letter to President Trump requesting that an executive order be issued or new laws be created to require foreign travelers present immunization records before entering the country. “I want the federal government to implement procedure that will demand presentation of immunization records to travelers coming into this country,” Day said. “I don’t see what the big issue would be other than advising people that if you want the right to come to this great country called the United States of America, you need to be immunized, period,” said the Rockland County executive. The White House has yet to respond to Day’s request. It remains unclear how the rule would be enforced. The measles outbreak in America has spread ...
A total of 17 people have been detained and 11 questioned as criminal suspects, with four others placed under house arrest, in connection to the collapse on Sunday of a crane at a construction site in Yavne that killed four people. Two more people were injured in the incident, which occurred when part of a crane broke apart as a team tried to disassemble it. According to a report in Israel’s Walla news, the crane’s counter-jib with its concrete ballast blocks collapsed, killing three construction workers, who were declared dead at the scene. A fourth victim dangled for approximately an hour as emergency medical and rescue personnel tried to reach him, before he, too, was declared dead at the scene. Only one of the victims has been named: Gil Hazazi of Hadera, a 51-year-old ...
Iran has increased by fourfold the rate of enrichment of low-enriched uranium, an official in Natanz nuclear facility was cited as saying by Tasnim news agency on Monday, a week after Iran officially stopped some commitments under an international nuclear accord. Under the agreement, Tehran was allowed to produce low-enriched uranium with a 300-kilogram limit. Tehran could ship the excess amounts out of the country for storage or sale. Iran said this month the cap no longer applies as it scaled down commitments in reaction to America’s unilateral withdrawal from the deal. It was not clear how far Iran’s stock of low-enriched uranium was from the 300-kilogram limit. Under the deal Iran can enrich uranium at 3.67 percent, far below the 90 percent of weapons grade. It is also ...
District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday ruled in favor of a subpoena issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee for President Trump's financial records from the accounting firm Mazars. In a 41-page opinion, Mehta found that "President Trump cannot block the subpoena to Mazars." Trump's attorneys had argued that the subpoena, issued by Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), was unconstitutional because it wasn't tied to legislation. But attorneys for the House said the records will help the panel strengthen ethics and disclosure laws and monitor whether Trump is in compliance with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. In his ruling, Mehta, an Obama appointee, noted that the panel's "broad investigative power is not new," pointing to investigations c...
Bogota, Colombia - With Julian Assange locked away in a London jail, a new battle has broken out over what may contain some of the WikiLeaks founder’s biggest secrets: his computers. On Monday, judicial authorities from Ecuador carried out an inventory of all the belongings and digital devices left behind at the London embassy following his expulsion last month from the diplomatic compound that had been his home the past seven years. It came as Sweden announced it was seeking Assange’s arrest on suspicion of rape, setting up a possible future tug-of-war with the United States over any extradition of Assange from Britain. It’s not known what devices authorities removed from the embassy or what information they contained. But authorities said they were acting on a reques...
Paris - The Eiffel Tower was evacuated and closed down Monday after a man scaled nearly to the top of the Paris monument and refused to come down for several hours. Members of a special firefighter climbing unit and police negotiators eventually persuaded the man to surrender, a Paris police official said. The official said the man was “under control and out of danger” Monday night. Managers said the tower would reopen Tuesday morning as usual and promised to reimburse people with reserved tickets whose visits were thwarted. Security agents spotted the man climbing up from the second floor in the early afternoon, triggering an operation to evacuate the 2,500 visitors on the monument, the tower management company said in a statement. That included people dining on the second ...
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s new president, a comedian before he turned to statecraft, made a dramatic entrance to the political stage Monday by disbanding parliament minutes after his inauguration. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who won 73% of the vote last month, justified his contentious decision on the grounds that the legislature, controlled by allies of the man he defeated, is riddled with self-enrichment. Elections to the Supreme Rada were scheduled for Oct. 27, which raised the prospect of Zelenskiy struggling to enact his agenda in the face of a hostile parliament over his first few months in power. A snap parliamentary election will be held within two months of his signing a formal dissolution decree. Zelenskiy, a comedian who played the role of a Ukrainian president on a...
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — A man who opened fire on police responding to a domestic disturbance report, killing one officer and wounding two others, was arrested Monday and charged with capital murder, authorities said. Grady Wayne Wilkes, 29, was being held without bond in the shooting death of Officer William Buechner, who had been with the Auburn Police Division for more than 13 years. Wilkes also was charged with attempted murder in the wounding of officers Webb Sistrunk and Evan Elliott, said Police Chief Paul Register. Both are expected to recover. District Attorney Brandon Hughes said authorities would seek capital punishment: “If you shoot a police officer, we’re going to seek the death penalty, absolutely,” he said. The chief described Wilkes as a former membe...
Four shootings left one dead and three others injured on Sunday, Baltimore Police said, ending a violent weekend in Baltimore. Ten people were shot — three fatally — from Friday night to Monday morning in the city. Just after 7 p.m. Sunday, officers responded to a shooting in the 1800 block of West Fayette St. in the Franklin Square neighborhood, where they found a 24-year-old man with gunshot wounds to his body, police said. The man was transported to an area hospital where he later died, police said. Earlier on Sunday, at 12:49 a.m. police in the Northern District responded to an area hospital where a 34-year-old man walked in with a gunshot wound to his foot. The man is in stable condition. Later, at about 8:20 p.m. Sunday, officers were called to the 4900 block of...
As part of the preparations of the Israel Police for the celebration for Lag BaOmer, the police closed the entrance of private vehicles to Mount Meron. The public is asked to arrive at the Terminal 2 parking lot where free shuttle buses began to operate for the convenience of visitors to and from the site.
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