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January 16, 2020 at 10:01 am
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation Wednesday expanding the definition of terrorism under state law in response to last month’s fatal attack on a kosher market in Jersey City.
Murphy said the new law will make it clear that New Jersey is committed to the elimination of “hate in all its forms.” The legislation passed unanimously in the Democrat-led Legislature on Monday, about a month after the attack that left a Jersey City police detective dead, along with three people inside the market.
Authorities have said that the attackers, David Anderson and Francine Graham, who both died in a gunfight with police, had expressed hatred of Jews and law enforcement.
“This legislation is crucial to making it clear that hatred w...
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January 16, 2020 at 10:00 am
A cutlery company has created a range of knives with blunt tips in response to knife crime statistics in the UK.
In October 2019, it was reported that knife crime had reached a record high in England and Wales, with more than 44,000 offenses involving a knife or a sharp instrument recorded by police in the 12 months leading up to June.
In a bid to tackle knife crime, British cutlery and kitchenware firm Viners, which was founded in Sheffield in 1901, has designed a new range of knives with square ends.
The company says the range, named the “Assure collection,” has been created “in response to rising knife crime statistics and new government legislation.”
Read more at INSIDER.
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January 16, 2020 at 9:59 am
Gov. Ralph Northam announced a temporary ban on firearms and other weapons on the grounds of the state Capitol Wednesday, saying he was taking precautions in response to credible threats.
The governor, a Democrat, is declaring a state of emergency from Friday evening to Tuesday night and prohibiting weapons on Capitol grounds, including firearms, sticks, bats, chains.
The move comes just days after the Virginia legislature’s newly empowered Democratic majority banned guns from the Capitol building and an adjacent legislative office building. And it comes just ahead of a gun rights rally planned for Monday, which organizers say could draw tens of thousands to Capitol Square.
As Democratic lawmakers vow to pass a variety of gun-control measures, the rally has drawn interest from mil...
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January 16, 2020 at 9:57 am
In a historic first, Israel began exporting natural gas to Egypt on Wednesday according to the terms of a landmark agreement between the two countries.
The Egyptian company Dolphinus Holdings is purchasing 85 billion cubic meters of gas, worth $19.5 billion, from Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar offshore fields in a 15-year deal, Reuters reported.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz and his Egyptian counterpart Tarek el-Molla announced the event in Cairo on Wednesday morning. The two energy ministers released a joint statement saying that the beginning of gas export from Israel to Egypt was an “important development” that would “serve the interests of both sides,” Israel Hayom reported.
The gas is being exported by a subsea pipeline through the Sinai peninsu...
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January 16, 2020 at 9:52 am
The impeachment battle is shifting to the Senate ahead of a weeks-long trial expected to get underway next week.
With the House voting Wednesday to transmit the articles, Chief Justice John Roberts and senators are expected to be sworn in on Thursday. A fierce rules fight and opening arguments will get started on Tuesday.
Though the outcome of the trial is pre-baked, the high-profile proceeding, the third in the chamber’s history, will put a spotlight on a handful of key potential swing votes, as well as the 2020 contenders.
Here are seven things to know.
McConnell to make it as ‘painful’ as possible
Senators are getting a list of strict rules they have to follow once the trial starts.
According to decorum guidelines circulated Wednesday, senators will not be able t...
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January 16, 2020 at 9:49 am
Gov. Larry Hogan was in studio with C4 Wednesday to talk about his proposed $43.7 billion budget for the 2021 fiscal year. The budget document was released after a morning meeting with top lawmakers in Annapolis.
"We've been able to fully fund all of our priorities with absolutely no tax increases, no cutting of services and without raiding the special funds like they've been doing for years," Hogan said. "But it's exactly what people wanted and what they voted for."
The budget includes tens of millions of dollars to assist local police departments, including $12.2 million earmarked for crime prevention, prosecution, witness protection and support staff in Baltimore City alone.
"It's completely out of control and unacceptable and the response particularly h...
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January 16, 2020 at 9:47 am
In a last-minute merger late Wednesday night, Israel’s Bayit Yehudi broke its unity deal with the far-right Otzma Yehudit to join forces with National Union and New Right. The three parties will run together as the United Right in Israel’s March 2 election.
Bayit Yehudi leader Rabbi Rafi Peretz on Thursday offered an apology to Otzma leader Itamar Ben-Gvir for breaking the pact between their parties.
“This is how politics is played, but I need to be true, first and foremost to myself, and request the forgiveness of my friend Itamar Ben-Gvir, as I was forced with a heavy heart to cancel my pact with him,” said Peretz, according to Ynet.
Peretz was reportedly under great pressure from the Likud Party to jettison Otzma and join New Right and National Union, out of c...
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January 15, 2020 at 10:29 pm
President Donald Trump celebrated news of a group of migrants getting “stuck” trying to climb over a section of his new border wall, branding the incident a “beautiful sight” during a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Tuesday.
Speaking to a packed crowd, Trump told supporters that “two days ago, illegal aliens with drugs on their back were climbing the wall” and “couldn’t get off.”
Appearing to describe that incident during his rally, Trump said: “They go to the top, you know, that panel on top is called a ‘climb resister.’ It’s very slippery and very hot. It’s very hot,” Trump said. “And they got stuck on the wall, they couldn’t get off the wall. You see that?”
“I w...
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January 15, 2020 at 10:26 pm
The Washington Post invited the Democratic presidential candidates not on the stage in Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday to add their thoughts to a key exchange in the debate. Here are the responses from five of them.
– – –
Michael Bennet
The moment: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., says, “We need a candidate who will excite all parts of the Democratic Party, bring everyone in and give everyone a Democrat to believe in.”
In the debate, we heard a lot of talk about electability – about who is best positioned, on experience, track record and ideology, to beat President (Donald) Trump. That’s the question that every voter is asking, and that’s what I have to offer.
I’m the only candidate in this race who has won two elections in a swing stat...
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January 15, 2020 at 9:57 pm
Liberal Democrats are desperately trying to stay united amid a dispute between Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), which has raised fears on the left that they’ll fumble a prime opportunity to nominate a candidate from the progressive wing of the party.
Many on the left had hoped to see the progressive standard-bearers move past a bitter conflict over whether Sanders told Warren at a private meeting in 2018 that a woman could not be elected to the White House.
Instead, the divisions between them appeared to deepen following Tuesday night’s debate, underscored by an unpleasant post-debate exchange caught on video that found them walking away from one another without shaking hands. CNN released audio of the exchange late Wednesday, r...
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January 15, 2020 at 9:22 pm
The Treasury Department’s internal watchdog is planning to investigate the Opportunity Zone program after three Democratic lawmakers called for a closer look at the initiative, acting Treasury Inspector General Richard Delmar told NBC News.
Delmar’s announcement came a few months after Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) and Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) sent him a letter requesting an investigation after news reports indicated that friends of the administration were benefiting. The acting inspector general told NBC News that the report is expected to be completed by early spring.
The Opportunity Zone program was enacted with President Trump’s tax bill in 2017 and was designed to give tax incentives to tho...
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January 15, 2020 at 9:18 pm
President Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He signed an initial “Phase One” trade deal Wednesday, freezing an almost 20-month trade war between Washington and Beijing and giving Trump a political boost as he seeks reelection.
In the agreement, China committed to boosting purchases of U.S. goods and services by $200 billion over the next two years, including $77.7 billion for manufactured goods and $32 billion for agricultural products.
“Today we take a momentous step, one that has never been taken before with China, toward a future of fair and reciprocal trade as we sign Phase One of the historic trade deal between the United States and China,” Trump said at the signing ceremony.
“Together we are righting the wrongs of the past and delivering a futur...
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January 15, 2020 at 9:13 pm
JERUSALEM (Israel Hayom) — In recent months, Israel and Russia have been forging a unique partnership at the United Nations.
Amid the backdrop of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon and his Russian counterpart, Vasily Nebenzya, decided to join forces and convene a historic event to mark the liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp, to be held at United Nations Headquarters in New York next week.
The event will be attended by Auschwitz survivors and Russian veterans who took part in the Soviet military campaign to liberate the camp. Also attending will be U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, other senior U.N. officials, ambassadors from across the globe, and representatives from pro-Israel organizations.
Danon and N...
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January 15, 2020 at 8:57 pm
LONDON (JNS) — The Board of Deputies of British Jewry on Sunday unveiled “10 pledges” that it calls on each of the Labour Party’s candidates for leader and deputy leader to accept in order to “begin healing its relationship with the Jewish community” following the anti-Semitism crisis the party faced under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
The pledges include the promise to resolve outstanding cases of alleged anti-Semitism and to make sure the party’s disciplinary process is independent to avoid “the risk of partisanship and factionalism.”
The remaining pledges are to:
Ensure transparency;
Prevent re-admittance of prominent offenders;
Provide no platform for those who have been suspended or expelled for anti-Semitism;
Adopt the ...
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January 15, 2020 at 8:54 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — CNN is drawing fire from Bernie Sanders supporters for a debate moderator’s question that appeared to dismiss his denial of a story that he had told rival Elizabeth Warren that a woman couldn’t win the presidential election.
The issue, first raised in a story reported by CNN earlier this week, became a part of CNN’s coverage Tuesday of a debate between Democratic presidential candidates co-sponsored with the Des Moines Register.
Sanders was pressed by CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip, one of the debate moderators, who asked him: “I want to be clear here. You’re saying that you never told Senator Warren that a woman could not win the election?”
“That is correct,” he replied.
She then turned to Warren and asked...
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January 15, 2020 at 8:53 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday that he won’t release women from confidentiality agreements they’ve signed relating to allegations of a hostile work environment at his company.
“We don’t have anything to hide, but we made legal agreements which both sides wanted to keep certain things from coming out,” Bloomberg said on ABC’s “The View.”
Bloomberg, a former New York City mayor, runs a financial data and media company bearing his name. ABC News reported last year on several lawsuits accusing Bloomberg of making crude comments in the 1990s and creating an uncomfortable work environment for women. He has denied the allegations.
But Democratic primary rival Elizabeth Warren, the Massachu...
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January 15, 2020 at 8:52 pm
LONDON (AP) — London Mayor Sadiq Khan pledged 300,000 pounds ($390,000) to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation in Poland on Monday, arguing that the institution plays a vital role in educating Londoners visiting the site on the horrors of the Holocaust.
London joins Paris and dozens of nations in giving money to preserve the site and the remains of the Nazi German death camp. Some 1.1 million people...
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January 15, 2020 at 8:50 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jane O’Meara Sanders, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, has a clear message about the simmering dispute between her husband and Elizabeth Warren: It’s over.
O’Meara Sanders defended her husband’s integrity during a Wednesday interview, but she declined to attack Warren — or inflame the feud in any way — a day after the Massachusetts senator reiterated during a nationally televised debate that Sanders, a Vermont senator, told her privately that a woman couldn’t defeat President Donald Trump.
“I think that this discussion is over,” O’Meara Sanders told The Associated Press.
The leading liberal presidential contenders have been trying to de-escalate the feud almost since Warren ine...
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January 15, 2020 at 6:35 pm
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 15, 2020 - BJL wishes a hearty Mazel Tov to Avrohom Benyowitz and Miriam Schwartz (Cherry Hill) on their engagement.
Mazel Tov to Rabbi & Mrs. Yoel Benyowitz
יה"ר שיזכו לבנות בית נאמן בישראל. אמן
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January 15, 2020 at 5:57 pm
Jerusalem, Israel - Jan. 15, 2020 - For the past fourteen years, since the end of the Second Lebanon War, Israeli residents along the northern border have lived a mostly quiet life. They have not had to endure the consistent firing of missiles and rockets and incendiary devices like the residents of the Gaza Envelope. With the killing of Iran Quds Force Commander, Qasem Soleimani revenge by Hezbollah targeting Israel along the northern border is possible.
The population of the Israeli northern communities consists mostly of Jews, Muslims, Druze and Arab Christians. They live near each other in a beautiful part of the country, a vast area covered in green from winter rains, in coexistence and cooperation.
However, with the border of Lebanon is only a few miles awa...
