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November 20, 2019 at 3:20 pm
BRUSSELS—A few hours after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the United States no longer views Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria as violating international law, E.U. foreign-affairs chief Federica Mogherini stated that the European Union’s position on the issue “is clear and remains unchanged.”
“The E.U. position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged: All settlement activity is illegal under international law, and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace, as reaffirmed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334,” she said.
“The E.U. calls on Israel to end all settlement activity, in line with its obligations a...
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November 20, 2019 at 3:19 pm
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani issued a warning to protesters this week, saying during a government meeting that Iran would not tolerate rioting, and has monitoring systems and cameras that enable it to identify cars used to block roads, as well as their drivers.
Since the government cannot raise taxes or export more oil, it had no choice but to cut subsidies, added Rouhani, whose remarks were aired on Iran’s Channel 1 television on Monday.
The following is a partial transcript of Rouhani’s address:
Hassan Rouhani: “I feel like I should say a few words to our dear public about the events of the past three days. The main goal of the government in its plan to support livelihood under the economic sanctions, and in light of the pressure on the public’s livel...
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November 20, 2019 at 3:16 pm
Below is the Israeli law concerning elections.Tomorrow, President Rivlin will inform the Speaker of the Knesset that, for the first time in Israel’s history, no candidate was able to form a government.Tomorrow at 13:15, President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin will hand an official announcement to the Speaker of the Knesset regarding the expiration of the mandate, and the two will then give statements to the press. An announcement regarding press arrangements at Beit HaNasi for tomorrow will be issued in the morning.According to the text of the announcement that the president will hand to the speaker, the 28 day period that was given to MK Benny Gantz to form a government have passed and he was unable to do so, and therefore according to paragraph 10 of Basic Law: The Government (2001), from T...
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November 20, 2019 at 1:57 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – Ambassador Gordon Sondland told House impeachment investigators Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani had pushed a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine that he had to go along with because it’s what President Donald Trump wanted.
“Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the president,” Sondland said of his dealings with Trump’s personal attorney.
Sondland, the most highly anticipated witness in the public impeachment probe, made clear that he believed Trump was pursuing his desire for investigations in return for the Oval Office meeting that the Eastern European nation’s president sought. Sondland said he later came to believe military aid for Ukr...
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November 20, 2019 at 1:51 pm
BERLIN (AP) – A Jewish group condemned an auction of Nazi memorabilia in Germany on Wednesday that included items such as Adolf Hitler’s top hat, a silver-plated edition of his book “Mein Kampf” and a black cocktail dress owned by his long-time partner Eva Braun.
“It’s wrong to make money off these blood-soaked items, especially in Germany of all places,” the European Jewish Association, or EJA, said about the auction at Hermann Historica in Munich.
In a letter to the auction house earlier this month, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the chairman of the EJA, had asked Hermann Historica to cancel the auction given the millions who lost their lives during the Nazi years including around 6 million Jews in death camps. He also said that the sale was inapprop...
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November 20, 2019 at 1:49 pm
BERLIN (AP) — Austrian authorities say the house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 will become a police precinct, ending years of uncertainty over the building that’s become a pilgrimage site for people who glorify the Nazi dictator.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Peschorn said late Tuesday that the “the future use of the house by the police should send an unmistakable signal that this building will forever be removed from the commemoration of national socialism.”
Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, shortly before launching a campaign of military conquest and racist extermination across Europe that cost tens of millions of lives.
The house in Braunau am Inn, near the German border, will be redesigned following an international architectural competition.
It was e...
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November 20, 2019 at 1:47 pm
PITTSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina county removed a Confederate statue from a historic courthouse early Wednesday, joining the handful of places around the state where such monuments have come down in recent years despite a law protecting them.
Preparations began Tuesday night to carefully dismantle the statue of a soldier outside the historic Chatham County courthouse, where it had stood since 1907, and continued for hours overnight, said county spokeswoman Kara Lusk Dudley. By dawn, even the base was gone.
A subdued crowd of several dozen people watched the work unfold. Television news footage showed workers atop motorized lifts secure the statue, which was then hoisted away by a crane as a few people cheered.
The removal comes months after Winston-Salem officials removed a...
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November 20, 2019 at 1:46 pm
Mark Heminway of ‘Real Clear Investigations’ on what ties Hunter Biden to the center of the impeachment inquiry.
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November 20, 2019 at 1:34 pm
Liberman says there is “no chance” his Yisrael Beytenu party will join a minority or narrow majority government after unity talks with Gantz and Netanyahu break down.
“We won’t join either a narrow majority government or a minority government,” he says. “Whatever sort of government it is, it won’t survive.”
Read more at Times of Israel.
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November 20, 2019 at 1:34 pm
The ADL is offering $10,000 reward for information in the heinous attack of a Monsey resident earlier this morning.
The victim, a 29-year-old father of four, was beaten and stabbed on his was to shul on 2 Howard Drive at 5:40 this morning.
The victim has been taken to Westchester Medical Center, where he underwent surgery and is in critical condition. Everyone is asked to daven for Mordechai ben Brocha.
Police are still investigating the attack which was caught on security cameras that showed two men jumping out of a vehicle and assaulting the victim before tearing off. No motivation has been assigned to the attack, which may have been a hate crime.
Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said during a news conference at 12:30 p.m. that he could not speculate the motivation for the attack...
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November 20, 2019 at 1:33 pm
Baltimore City may be gearing up for a lawsuit against gun manufacturers.
At a City Council hearing Tuesday, Baltimore City Solicitor Andre Davis said that the decision to move forward with the suit would depend on a case being looked at by the Supreme Court.
Earlier this month, the court said that a survivor and relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting can pursue their lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 26 people.
The justices rejected an appeal from Remington Arms, which argued it should be shielded by a 2005 federal law preventing most lawsuits against firearms manufacturers when their products are used in crimes.
The case is being watched by gun control advocates, gun rights supporters and gun manufacturers across the country because it h...
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November 20, 2019 at 1:32 pm
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz returned the mandate to form the government to President Reuven Rivlin Wednesday evening, signalling the end of his attempts to form a coalition.
Both Gantz and incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have failed to form a government more than two months after the last elections.
Members of the Knesset will now have the opportunity to recommend a candidate for prime minister over the next three weeks, However, a third round of elections appears likely.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
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November 20, 2019 at 1:27 pm
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has shared with three prominent Republicans that he wants to resign and run for Senate next year in Kansas, Time reports.
The Republicans told Time that Pompeo’s original plan was to stay at the State Department until next spring, but because of the House impeachment inquiry, he’s thinking about making an early — and hopefully smooth — exit.
Pompeo represented Kansas’ 4th Congressional district from 2011 to 2017.
Read more.
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November 20, 2019 at 9:54 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria on Wednesday, carrying out a “wide-scale” strike in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the day before.
A Britain-based war monitoring group said the Israeli airstrikes killed 11 people, including seven non-Syrians who are most likely Iranians. Syrian state media only reported that two civilians were killed.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets hit multiple targets belonging to Iran’s elite Quds force, including surface-to-air missiles, weapons warehouses and military bases. After the Syrian military fired an air defense missile, the Israeli military said a number of Syrian aerial defense batteries were also destroyed.
The death toll of 11 was...
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November 20, 2019 at 9:51 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli kingmaker politician Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday refused to endorse a candidate for prime minister, blaming both the contenders engaged in a tense standoff that has paralyzed Israeli politics and pushing the country toward a likely third election in less than a year.
Lieberman’s comments came ahead of a midnight deadline for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz, to form a coalition. Without Lieberman, Gantz appears unable to secure the required majority in parliament to be prime minister.
If Israel is forced into a third election, it would be entering uncharted waters, with opinion polls already predicting a very similar deadlock. But a new campaign could benefit the embattled Netanyahu, who is expected to be indicted on cor...
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November 20, 2019 at 9:50 am
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is expressing concern that “recent decisions” could undermine regional stability in the Middle East, in an apparent reference to the U.S. reversal of position on Israeli settlements.
The Vatican on Wednesday didn’t specifically cite the U.S. conclusion that Israel’s West Bank settlements don’t violate international law. But the reference appeared clear when it spoke of “the recent decisions that risk undermining further the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the already fragile regional stability” in the Middle East.
The Holy See reiterated its support for a ‘’two-state solution for two peoples, as the only way to reach a complete solution to this age-old conflict.”
It said it supports I...
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November 20, 2019 at 9:49 am
Several media organizations were forced to make retractions Tuesday after falsely attributing a staggering Obama-era migrant child-detention statistic to President Trump.
On Monday, Manfred Nowak, an expert from the U.N. Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, claimed that 100,000 migrant children were detained by the Trump administration and indicated that it was the "world's highest rate" of detained children. The following day, however, he acknowledged that the cited number actually was from 2015 -- under President Obama.
A separate report last week from The Associated Press and the PBS series "Frontline" found 69,550 migrant children have been held in U.S. government custody in the last year.
Nowak's admission prompted several media...
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November 20, 2019 at 9:46 am
Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is facing federal charges related to what prosecutors say was a plot to enrich herself through sales of her self-published children’s book series, according to a grand jury indictment made public Wednesday.
Pugh, 69, is expected to self-surrender to U.S. Marshals Thursday before her first court appearance before U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow, according to a news release.
The former mayor, who resigned her post in May amid the book sale controversy, is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, seven counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of tax evasion. The indictment was returned Nov. 14.
Prosecutors say Pugh, who became Baltimore's 50th mayor on Dec. 6, 201...
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November 20, 2019 at 9:31 am
BALTIMORE — Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is under investigation for her book deals through her Healthy Holly LLC that were made while she was a member of the University of Maryland Medical System Board of Directors. Here's what you need to know.
March 14, 2019
City Solicitor Andre Davis says Mayor Pugh was not required to disclose her position as a UMMS board member in city ethic filings.
March 15, 2019: Governor calls on UMMS board members to resign
Gov. Larry Hogan calls on members of the UMMS board to resign and clear conflicts of interest.
March 18, 2019: Mayor Pugh resigns from UMMS board
Mayor Pugh resigns from the University of Maryland Medical System's Board of Directors.
March 20, 2019: Mayor Pugh returns $100K payment to UMMS
May...
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November 20, 2019 at 9:25 am
Baltimore, MD - Nov. 20, 2019 — An 11-count federal indictment against former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh was made public Wednesday morning.
Pugh, 69, is federally charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, seven counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and two counts of tax evasion. Pugh was charged on Nov. 14 and the charges were made public Wednesday.
Pugh is scheduled for an initial appearance and arraignment in U.S. District Court in Baltimore before U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow on Nov. 21 at 1 p.m. Pugh is expected to self-surrender to the U.S. Marshals prior to the hearing.
Pugh has been under investigation for her book deals through her Healthy Holly LLC that were made while she was a member of the University of Marylan...
