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November 21, 2019 at 8:15 am
Israel launched a broad wave of precision airstrikes early on Wednesday morning, hitting dozens of Iranian and Syrian military targets, and sending a very strong message that Israel is rejecting Iran’s attempt to force new “rules of the game” against it.
Most of the Iranian military targets that were hit were situated within Syrian military bases, underlying the Iranian tactic of embedding and disguising its threatening presence within the Syrian Arab Army.
According to international media reports, 23 people, including 16 “foreigners”—an apparent reference to Iranian operatives—were killed in the strikes.
The Israeli action came in response to an Iranian-directed rocket attack on Tuesday morning, in which projectiles were launched from the Damas...
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November 21, 2019 at 8:14 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — In the first sign of rebellion with Israel’s ruling right-wing Likud, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top party rival called for a leadership primary should the country go into an unprecedented third election in less than a year, as is expected.
Gideon Saar’s remarks came as Israel’s ceremonial president announced that for the first time in the country’s history, no candidate has been able to form a government following recent elections, setting the beleaguered nation on course for yet another vote after two inconclusive results.
Reuven Rivlin formally informed parliament that neither Netanyahu nor his chief challenger, retired military chief Benny Gantz, have completed the task of building a coalition in the time allotted to them....
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November 21, 2019 at 8:06 am
AMSTERDAM (JNS) — A friend of Anne Frank’s from Amsterdam released a new memoir about the little known German official and lawyer Hans Calmeyer, who saved her family and others from the Holocaust.
In Shedding Our Stars: A Story of Hans Calmeyer and How He Saved Thousands of Families Like Mine, Laureen Nussbaum, 92, explains that Calmeyer was assigned, starting in March 1941, to adjudicate cases in which a person’s Jewish status was questioned.
He successfully convinced his superiors to allow individuals to challenge their Jewish status if their grandparents could not be proven Jewish. During his tenure, he oversaw 5,600 such petitions, according to JTA.
“In two-thirds of the cases, he decided in favor of the petitioner, knowing that he was being cheated,” N...
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November 21, 2019 at 8:05 am
NEW YORK (AP) – People tend to spend a lot of time planning their holiday travel but not a lot preparing for their return home. But returning to a mess — minor bummers like an empty fridge or stinking garbage can, or major problems like frozen pipes — can make it difficult to savor the good times you had while away.
Some simple pre-departure tasks are crucial to a happy homecoming. These include: tidying up, putting your mail on hold, stocking up on frozen or non-perishable food (or scheduling a grocery delivery for when you get home), unplugging appliances, turning off the water supply, putting fresh sheets on the beds and giving a spare key to a friend.
“It’s awful to come home to a cold and messy home,’’ says Amy Panos, home editor of Better H...
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November 21, 2019 at 8:04 am
The Democratic presidential candidates momentarily sidelined the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday night, when they met in Atlanta for the November MSNBC-Washington Post debate.
Below are some winners and losers.
Winners
Pete Buttigieg: Buttigieg has been good in the debates, and now he’s got real momentum in the first contest in Iowa, where a Des Moines Register-CNN poll showed him up nine points there last week. The question has been how he would handled the newfound pressure – and answer questions about whether a young, small-town mayor has the gravitas to win the presidency. “We need somebody who can go toe-to-toe who actually comes from the kinds of communities that [Donald Trump has] been appealing to,” he said, adding: “I know that from the perspectiv...
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November 21, 2019 at 8:03 am
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is suing Fiat Chrysler, alleging that its crosstown rival got an unfair business advantage by bribing officials of the United Auto Workers union.
The unprecedented lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleges that FCA was involved in racketeering by paying millions in bribes to get concessions and gain advantages in three labor agreements with the union.
Details of the racketeering have been exposed in a federal probe of corruption at the union that has resulted in multiple arrests starting in 2017.
Also on Wednesday, the union’s Executive Board filed paperwork to oust President Gary Jones and Regional Director Vance Pearson, both of whom have been implicated in the widening federal probe.
GM’s lawsuit alleges that ...
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November 21, 2019 at 8:02 am
BRONX, NY (AP) – New York’s Department of Health has declared the state’s second death linked to a vaping-associated illness.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that the person who died was a man in his 30’s from Manhattan with a reported history of using e-cigarettes and vapor products.
The first death, on Oct. 4, was of a 17-year-old boy from the Bronx. The state said the teen had been hospitalized in early September for a respiratory illness related to vaping.
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November 21, 2019 at 8:01 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric turned off electricity Wednesday for about 120,000 people in Northern California to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires during a new bout of windy, warm weather.
The nation’s largest utility lowered the number people affected from 375,000 after rain and humidity reduced the fire threat. About 35,000 others were told they could lose power later Wednesday if the weather doesn’t improve, PG&E spokeswoman Ari Vanrenen said.
Those who lose power were expected to get it back Thursday.
Forecasts called for it to be dry and winds to gust up to 55 mph (89 kph), which could fling tree branches or other debris into power lines, causing sparks that could set catastrophic fires, PG&E officials said. A virtually rainles...
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November 21, 2019 at 8:00 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A divided U.S. House committee approved a proposal Wednesday to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level, a vote that was alternately described as a momentous turning point in national cannabis policy or a hollow political gesture.
The House Judiciary Committee approved the proposal 24-10 after more than two hours of debate. It would reverse a longstanding federal prohibition by removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, while allowing states to set their own rules on pot.
The vote “marks a turning point for federal cannabis policy and is truly a sign that prohibition’s days are numbered,” Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, said in a statement.
Cannabis Trade Federation CEO Nea...
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November 21, 2019 at 7:58 am
House Democrats chose Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York on Wednesday as the next chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, a powerful panel that has participated in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump and traditionally taken a lead role in scrutinizing the executive branch.
As the most senior member of the panel, Maloney has been serving as acting chairman since the Oct. 17 death of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. But she faced a challenge from Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, who argued to his colleagues that he was better equipped to handle the rigors of impeachment and battling Republicans intent on protecting the Trump administration from scrutiny.
In the end, Democrats chose to respect seniority, electing Maloney on a 133-86 vote.
“I’m honored by t...
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November 21, 2019 at 7:57 am
‘Fox News Sunday’ anchor Chris Wallace previews the impeachment hearing testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
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November 21, 2019 at 7:56 am
Just hours before Wednesday’s midnight deadline, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz returned the mandate to form a government to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before him, Gantz was unable to form a majority coalition during the 28 days allotted to him to do so.
Now, for the first time in the nation’s history, the mandate goes to the Knesset for a 21-day period during which any of the 120 Knesset members can attempt garner 61 signatures of support and then present themselves to the president as a candidate for prime minister.
In a televised address on Wednesday night, Gantz told the country that he had tried to establish “a liberal, unity government that would serve all,” and laid the blame squarely on Netanyahu for ...
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November 21, 2019 at 7:54 am
An Israeli policeman is to be indicted for “manslaughter” over the killing of a young man of Ethiopian origin in June, an incident that sparked widespread protests, police said Tuesday.
Solomon Teka, 19, was killed by an unnamed off-duty policeman in Kiryat Haim, near the northern port city of Haifa on June 30.
Teka’s death sparked three days of nationwide protests that were often violent over longstanding grievances of Israeli-Ethiopians, who say they are discriminated against and targeted by police.
The policeman, who was placed under house arrest in the weeks following the killing, is accused of manslaughter, according to the findings of a police investigation.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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November 21, 2019 at 7:50 am
The stabbing victim has been stabilized b”h, blood pressure is slowly coming back to normal, if all continues, he'll go into surgery at 7.30am. Tehillim and prayer are needed.
מרדכי בן ברכה לרפואה שלימה
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November 21, 2019 at 7:49 am
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in eastern Europe but steady in its west, according to the results of a survey by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League.
About one in four Europeans hold anti-Semitic beliefs, with such attitudes on the rise in eastern countries and mostly steady in the west, according to a survey.
The poll of 14 European countries, done for the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, found anti-Semitic attitudes most prevalent in Poland, where such sentiment rose to 48 per cent of the population from 37 per cent in 2015, and Ukraine, where the rise was even greater, to 46 per cent from 32 per cent in 2016.
Anti-Semitic views in Hungary were little changed but remained high, increasing from 40 per cent to 42 per cent.
The governments of all three countries have been ...
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November 21, 2019 at 7:44 am
BALTIMORE (AP) — The ex-mayor of Baltimore, a city where law enforcement at all levels has long battled corruption and violent crime, is set to appear Thursday in federal court on fraud and tax evasion charges involving her self-published children’s books.
Catherine Pugh, a Democrat, is scheduled to surrender to U.S. Marshals before her initial appearance on charges in an 11-count indictment that stem from her “Healthy Holly” children’s books — whose sales netted her hundreds of thousands of dollars. The appearance comes against the backdrop of an ongoing fight by federal, state and local authorities to root out corruption and crime that have taken an exhausting toll on Maryland’s largest city.
“We need this to be the final line of a chapte...
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November 21, 2019 at 7:41 am
The ex-mayor of Baltimore is set to appear Thursday in federal court on fraud and tax evasion charges involving her self-published children’s books.
Catherine Pugh is scheduled to surrender to U.S. Marshals before her initial appearance on charges in an 11-count indictment that stem from her “Healthy Holly” children’s books — the sales of which netted her hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Pugh, who was elected in 2016, became Baltimore’s second mayor in less than a decade to step down because of scandal.
If convicted, Pugh faces up to 20 years in prison on each wire fraud count, and five years for each tax evasion count. The federal government also will seek to seize a house owned by Pugh and $770,000 as part of any sentence.
Pugh’s a...
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November 20, 2019 at 6:26 pm
Now Abraham was old, well on in years, and Hashem blessed Abraham with everything.
Bereishit 24:1
Not long ago, another weekly began posting my parasha essays. When I was shown the publication, I realized they were using a photo of me from when I was at least twenty years younger. I looked at the photograph in amazement, recognizing the image but hardly knowing the person. “That’s not me,” I said. “There is no ziknah.” I quickly had my wife take a new photograph of me,...
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November 20, 2019 at 6:17 pm
Baltimore, MD – Nov. 2019 - Every Shabbos table offers every Jewish family an incredible opportunity by which they can share their joy for Shabbos, for Yiddishkeit and for HaShem with their children. Unfortunately, our schedules are hectic and many people don’t have the time to prepare themselves to utilize the Shabbos table to its fullest. Therefore, we at ACHIM created TableTalk as a pre-packaged talking points pamphlet which is attractive, fun and has something for everyone. Limited copies are distributed to many shuls on a weekly basis but they are snatched up very quickly. Get yours ASAP or click on the graphic below and print your own.What’s in it and what’s all the excitement about?TableTalk features• Weekly halachic dilemma creating li...
