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November 17, 2019 at 3:48 pm
President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was in “very good” health after undergoing the first phase of an annual medical check the previous day.
Trump tweeted that he had the first phase of checks at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington. “Everything very good (great!). Will complete next year,” he said.
The White House said Trump had undergone a quick exam and some laboratory tests.
“Anticipating a very busy 2020, the President is taking advantage of a free weekend here in Washington, DC, to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam at Walter Reed,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement on Saturday.
She said the president also visited the medical staff and thanked them for their care of w...
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November 17, 2019 at 3:48 pm
JERUSALEM (JNS) — As rockets fell on southern and central Israel last week, a team of U.S. firefighters worked side by side with their Israeli counterparts to extinguish brush and building fires and deal with other emergencies.
The U.S. firefighters are part of the Emergency Volunteer Project (EVP), which trains U.S. firefighters and medical personnel and deploys them to Israel in times of need. However, according to EVP Emergency Deployment Director Eitan Charnoff they were already in the country when the flare-up in hostilities between Israel and Gaza-based terrorist groups broke out.
“They were originally deployed because of anticipated high winds later in the week,” said Charnoff. “We were fortunate to have them here given the unexpected rocket attacks.”...
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November 17, 2019 at 3:47 pm
The Faroe Islands is planning to establish an official diplomatic mission in Yerusalayim and recognize the long-contested city as Israel’s capital, the Danish newspaper Politiken reported on Friday.
The foreign minister of the self-governing archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean – which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark — was quoted as saying the goal was to open the Yerusalayim office in September or October 2020.
In the nearly two years since US President Donald Trump recognized Yerusalayim as Israel’s capital and subsequently moved the American embassy to there from Tel Aviv, several countries have made noises about following suit, but none — except for Guatemala — have turned word into deed.
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November 17, 2019 at 3:45 pm
France experienced another disarming rise in antisemitic offenses during the first six months of 2019, the head of the French Jewish community disclosed in a media interview on Friday.
Speaking to “Le Talk,” an online show produced by leading news outlet Le Figaro, Francis Kalifat — president of the French Jewish representative body CRIF — declared that “antisemitism continues to grow in our country.”
Addressing the fresh rise in antisemitic offenses, Kalifat spoke of “a very strong increase in reported antisemitic acts.”
“In the first half of the year, we are almost 76 percent higher than in the first half of 2018, which was already a bleak year,” Kalifat remarked.
Kalifat was speaking in advance of CRIF’s national conv...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:50 am
NICOSIA, CYPRUS (AP) – Cypriot police have confiscated a van reportedly loaded with sophisticated surveillance equipment and have questioned its Israeli owner following media reports that the vehicle was being hired out to spy on people.
Police said Saturday that officers also searched the office of the Israeli’s Cyprus-registered company that’s being investigated on possible violations of privacy rights laws.
Police chief Kypros Michaelides told private radio station Astra that authorities are also questioning the Larnaca-based company’s other Cypriot shareholders and are looking into how this van and other surveillance equipment was imported into the country.
The police probe was initiated after local media highlighted an earlier Forbes report on the Israeli it...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:49 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Many older American adults may inaccurately estimate their chances for developing dementia and do useless things to prevent it, new research suggests.
Almost half of adults surveyed believed they were likely to develop dementia. The results suggest many didn’t understand the connection between physical health and brain health and how racial differences can affect dementia risk.
Substantial numbers of people who rated their health as fair or poor thought their dementia chances were low. At the same time, many who said they were in excellent health said they were likely to develop the memory robbing disease.
Many said they tried at least one of four unproven memory-protecting methods, including taking supplements like fish oil and ginkgo. The most popular strat...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:49 am
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has stunned Republicans again, narrowly winning a second term Saturday as the Deep South’s only Democratic governor and handing Donald Trump another gubernatorial loss this year.
In the heart of Trump country, the moderate Edwards cobbled together enough cross-party support with his focus on bipartisan, state-specific issues to defeat Republican businessman Eddie Rispone.
Coming after a defeat in the Kentucky governor’s race and sizable losses in Virginia’s legislative races, the Louisiana result seems certain to rattle Republicans as they head into the 2020 presidential election. Trump fought to return the seat to the GOP, making three trips to Louisiana to rally against Edwards.
The president’s inten...
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November 17, 2019 at 11:48 am
AVENTURA, FL (AP) – Florida authorities say a woman died when her SUV was hit by a high-speed train at a railroad crossing.
Authorities told news outlets that a woman was driving a Mercedes SUV Friday afternoon near the suburb of Aventura and was trying to cross the tracks when a Brightline train struck her. She was pronounced dead at the scene, but her name has not been released.
Federal Railroad Administration records show that 11 people were killed by Brightline high-speed trains between Jan. 1 and May 31. Media reports show at least eight more deaths since then.
Brightline connects Miami and West Palm Beach.
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November 17, 2019 at 11:45 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Former Vice President Joe Biden brought an alarmist warning to a diverse crowd of Democrats late Saturday in early-caucus Nevada during a town hall at an elementary school in a historically minority Las Vegas neighborhood.
Biden opened the event saying that as long as Donald Trump is president, the security and future of the United States is at risk.
“As long as he’s there, everything we care about as a nation, and the issues we care about, are in the balance,” Biden said.
Trump state campaign chief Adam Laxalt responded that voters in 2020 will reject Biden and the Democratic “extremist liberal vision for America” and “choose freedom and economic growth instead.”
With fewer than 100 days before Nevada Democratic party caucuses...
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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...
