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November 17, 2019 at 11:44 am
Hong Kong (AP) – A Hong Kong police officer was hit in the leg by an arrow and protesters set an overhead footbridge on fire Sunday as they fought to keep police using tear gas and water cannons from advancing on their university campus stronghold.
Police said the arrow struck a media liaison officer in the calf and he was taken to a hospital. Photos on the department’s Facebook page show the arrow sticking out of the back of the officer’s leg through his pants.
As riot police moved in from all sides, some protesters retreated inside Hong Kong Polytechnic University while others set fires on bridges leading to it.
A huge blaze burned along much of a long footbridge that connects a train station to the campus over the approach to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, a major road u...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:43 am
WASHINGTON (VINnews) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran as the one behind the latest round of Israeli-Gaza violence.
In a tweet Saturday, Pompeo wrote “Iran uses its terrorist proxy Palestinian Islamic Jihad to strike our great ally Israel. Iran does not want peace in the region. It does not want the Palestinian people to prosper. It wants more conflict. Until we address Iran’s threats, the cycle of violence will continue,” Pompeo tweeted.
It’s actions proves that international pressure is needed to curb Tehran’s aggression, he said.
“The way forward is clear: continued pressure until Iran negotiates a comprehensive agreement that includes halting its support to terror groups like PIJ. Nations around the world can no longer claim t...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:42 am
WASHINGTON (VINnews) – President Donald Trump is frustrated with Israel’s ongoing political deadlock, and has spoken negatively about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to a report today by Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Trump has decided to distance himself from Prime Minister Netanyahu after his failure to secure a clear victory in the April 9 elections and form a government, despite the assistance Israel’s leader received from the president. “The president doesn’t like losers,” the newspaper citing White House sources.
“Americans are discouraged and frustrated by Israeli politics and the current political crisis, which has prevented the White House from unveiling the political part of the deal of the century,” referring to t...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:41 am
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Likud lawmakers during an emergency conference call on Saturday that the Blue and White party intends to form a minority government supported by the Arab parties, something he said would be an “unprecedented disaster” for the State of Israel.
“We know for a fact” Blue and White’s leaders have already agreed on a minority government with the Joint List, said Netanyahu, according to a report in Haaretz.
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has only until Nov. 20 to form a government, after which he must return the mandate to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
“[Going for another] election is a disaster, but setting up a government that depends on the Arab parties is an even bigger disaster. It’s a historic...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:40 am
The Dutch government has allocated $2.56 million for the maintenance and restoration of Jewish cemeteries in the Netherlands, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Saturday.
Culture Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven announced the funding last week in a letter to the lower house of parliament.
“Jewish cemeteries are one of the only remnants of Dutch Jewish culture, which was largely destroyed from 1940 to 1945,” the Organization of Jewish Communities of the Netherlands (NIK) said in a statement .
“The forgotten cemeteries will be maintained for the next five years thanks to the new funds,” said NIK.
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November 17, 2019 at 11:38 am
The United States and South Korea have postponed joint air drills scheduled to take this month in an attempt to save a faltering dialogue process with North Korea, officials announced Sunday.
North Korea said that cancellation of the exercises would be seen as a positive gesture by President Trump to preserve the momentum of negotiations, but threatened “shocking punishment” if the United States went ahead with a “hostile provocation.”
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper announced the postponement of the exercises at a news conference alongside his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Kyeong-doo, on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Bangkok, news agencies reported.
“I don’t see this as a concession. I see this as a good-faith effort … to enable pea...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:37 am
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) set out on a mission last week in response to the escalation of violence in the Gaza region to equip some 500 first response volunteers with protective vests among other objectives. On Wednesday, a number of those vests were delivered to United Hatzalah volunteer first responders in the region.
United Hatzalah Chapter Head of Sderot and the Sha’ar HaNegev region, Nehorai Darshan thanked the IFCJ for their assistance in protecting the first responders who drop everything to go out and save lives even under fire. “The protective vests that the IFCJ donated to us will allow a larger number of our first responders to be active when there is a threat of rocket fire. All of the volunteers in Sderot and the Sha’ar HaNeg...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:36 am
Impeachment inquiry is turning into a waste of our times.
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November 17, 2019 at 11:34 am
Jewish institutions in Italy reported on Friday that the catastrophic flooding in Venice had impacted many of the city’s sites of Jewish interest, including the historic ghetto quarter.
The flooding, which began on Tuesday night, toppled trees and caused some damage at the Jewish cemeteries on the Lido island. It left the main square of the historic ghetto — the Ghetto Nuovo — under water, but did not appear to have caused damage to the historic synagogues, located on upper floors of ghetto buildings, or the Jewish community’s library and archives, according to the Jewish Heritage Europe website.
The Venice Jewish Museum closed temporarily on Wednesday and posted on its Facebook page a dramatic picture of the flooded Ghetto Nuovo. It indicated that there had been ...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:33 am
Israel‘s military said on Friday it was investigating “harm caused to civilians” from an air strike it carried out in Gaza that Palestinian medics said killed eight members of one family including five children.
It was the deadliest incident in two days of hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip earlier this week.
Islamic Jihad and Israel declared a halt to fighting across Gaza on Thursday but a lasting ceasefire appeared tenuous as they differed on terms.
The flare-up was triggered by Israel’s killing early Tuesday morning of Iran-backed Islamic Jihad’s top Gaza commander, having deemed him an imminent threat. Islamic Jihad responded with a barrage of hundreds of rockets into Israel, forcing entire com...
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November 16, 2019 at 9:49 pm
Baltimore, MD - Nov. 16, 2019 - Six Baltimore Chaverim units came to the rescue of a couple whose car, house and work keys fell in to a sewer drain in the Greenspring Shopping Center. It took them all of 5 minutes to accomplish their goal. The Baltimore Chaverim organization is built by individuals who want to positively contribute to our community, with skill they are taught and equipment they are provided. They cannot continue to support the ever-growing community without more volunteers. If everyone does a little, Chaverim can continue to do a lot. Please do not only consider calling Chaverim in your time of need, call Chaverim now to volunteer, in others’ time of need.
Applications are available online at www.chaverimofbaltimore.o...
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November 16, 2019 at 9:46 pm
All are asked to daven for a refuah sheleimah for Rebbetzin Gittel Kaplan of Yerushalayim, who is in need of rachamei Shomayim.
Rebbetzin Kaplan is the wife of Rav Nissan Kaplan, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Daas Aharon and former longtime R”M at Yeshivas Mir Yerushalayim.
Rebbetzin Kaplan is a daughter of Rav Avrohom Gurwicz, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Bais Yosef of Gateshead.
Her name for Tehillim is Gittel bas Sarah.
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November 16, 2019 at 9:32 pm
Two men — including a prominent neo-Nazi activist — have been arrested in connection with the recent vandalization of 84 Jewish tombstones in the central Danish city of Randers, the BBC reported on Thursday.
The cemetery desecration took place last Saturday — the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass,” which was a prelude to the Nazi Holocaust.
One of the detained suspects was identified as 38-year-old Jacob Vullum Andersen, a leader of the Nordic Resistance Movement, while the name of the other, a 27-year-old, was not published.
Andersen has denied involvement, but was quoted as telling Danish news outlet TV2, “We think it is positive that people have finally woken up and recognized that Jewish power and Jewish infiltration in ...
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November 16, 2019 at 9:32 pm
The Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund and American victims of terror have filed an unprecedented lawsuit in Washington, D.C., targeting a U.S. charity tied to the BDS movement that is allegedly funneling donations to Palestinian terror groups.
The lawsuit, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, et al vs. Education for Just Peace in the Middle East dba US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, seeks to hold the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), also known as the Education for a Just Peace in the Middle East, liable for conspiring to provide financial aid and other assistance to Palestinian terror groups, such as Hamas, that make up the Boycott National Committee (NBC), which leads the BDS movement.
“With this lawsuit, we’re exposing the link between org...
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November 16, 2019 at 9:25 pm
NEW YORK (VINnews) — Last April, a complaint was filed by Adela Cojab,a 22-year-old senior at NYU, about anti-Semitism on campus. Her complaint mainly centered around a group called Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an on-campus pro-Palestinian group. According to the complaint, Adela alleges that SJP has created a “hostile atmosphere” for Jewish students, and that NYU has allowed “extreme anti-Semitism” to thrive.
Initially, the NYU administration declined to take any steps against the hostile organization. “It was breaking my heart and I immediately went to the administration from the very time SJP put Zionism in the same equivalent as Nazism,” Adela told Fox News. “I told the administration that SJP was creating an unsafe envi...
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November 16, 2019 at 9:22 pm
REDMOND, WA (AP) – Microsoft is hiring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review its investment in a facial recognition startup that scans faces at Israeli military checkpoints.
Microsoft said in a statement Friday that Holder will lead a team of former federal prosecutors conducting an audit.
Its aim is to determine whether Israeli firm AnyVision’s technology applications comply with Microsoft’s ethical principles against using facial recognition for mass surveillance.
AnyVision announced a $74 million investment in June from a group including Microsoft’s venture capital arm. The firm and its Microsoft backing attracted public scrutiny as the Israeli military installed face scanners at border crossings where Palestinians enter Israel from the West Bank....
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November 16, 2019 at 8:14 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump spent more than two hours at Walter Reed National Medical Center on Saturday for what the White House said were medical tests as part of his annual physical.
The appointment wasn’t on Trump’s weekend public schedule, and his last physical was in February. Press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the 73-year-old president was “anticipating a very busy 2020” and wanted to take advantage of “a free weekend” in Washington to begin portions of his routine checkup. She was not more specific about the testing.
Trump’s 2018 and 2019 physicals were announced in advance and appeared on his public schedule.
The February checkup showed he had put on some pounds and was now officially considered obese. His Body Ma...
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November 16, 2019 at 8:13 pm
An adviser to Vice President Mike Pence told House impeachment investigators this month that President Trump's request for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his family "struck me as unusual and inappropriate" and "shed some light on possible other motivations behind a security assistance hold."
The three House committees overseeing the impeachment inquiry against Trump released hundreds of pages of closed-door testimony by Jennifer Williams, a special adviser to Pence on Europe and Russia, and Tim Morrison, the former senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council. Morrison was interviewed Oct. 31 and Williams was interviewed Nov. 7.
Both Will...
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November 16, 2019 at 8:04 pm
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. —The boy accused of shooting five students on Thursday, killing two, at his Los Angeles-area high school on his 16th birthday died Friday afternoon, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
A homicide official said earlier Friday that investigators did not find a diary, manifesto or note belonging to the suspect.
No motive or rationale has been established yet in the Thursday morning shooting at Saugus High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita, said sheriff’s homicide Capt. Kent Wegener.
Officials gave the update Friday outside the Santa Clarita police station.
The teenager opened fire around 7:30 a.m. and authorities estimated that the suspect took just 16 seconds to pull out the weapon, shoot five classmates and the...
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November 16, 2019 at 8:01 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Transcripts released Saturday in the impeachment inquiry show Ambassador Gordon Sondland playing a central role in President Donald Trump’s effort to push Ukraine to conduct political investigations as a condition for receiving needed military aid.
The fresh details come from hundreds of pages of testimony from Tim Morrison, a former top official at the National Security Council. They contradict much of the ambassador’s own testimony behind closed doors. Both Morrison and Sondland are expected to testify publicly before the House next week.
While some, including Trump himself, have begun to question Sondland’s knowledge of events, Morrison told House investigators the ambassador “related to me he was acting — he was discussing these m...
