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A 13-foot (4-meter) Burmese python was confiscated from an upstate New York man who was keeping the still-growing snake in a small tank, authorities said. The state Department of Environmental Conservation said it got a complaint about an illegally owned snake in New Hartford on Aug. 28. Environment Conservation Police Officer Jeff Hull responded and found the snake in a 4-to-5-foot (1.2-to-1.5-meter) tank. The snake weighed 80 pounds (36 kilos) and measured 13 feet 2 inches (4 meters) in length. It appeared to be in good health and was still growing, the Department of Environmental Conservation said in a news release. The snake was relocated to the Fort Rickey Discovery Zoo in Rome, which has the state-required permits for such an animal, the agency said. The snake’s owner said he had not been prepared for how fast the snake would grow, the department said. He was ticketed for possessing wildlife as a pet and for possessing dangerous wildlife without a permit. Burmese pythons are native to southeast Asia and have become popular pets in the United States. They are an invasive species in Florida, where they prey on native wildlife. Burmese pythons can grow to be 16 feet (5 meters) long. The animal seized in New York, an albino Burmese python, was yellow with an arrowhead-like design on its head. (AP)

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Rescued Bedouin hostage Farhan Al-Qadi was interviewed this week by Channel 12 News and revealed that he was shot in the leg by Hamas terrorists after he refused to help them find Jews. Farhan, a 52-year-old father of 11, worked for decades as a security guard at a packaging factory near Kibbutz Magen in the Gaza border area. He was at his post on October 7 at 6:30 a.m. when terrorists infiltrated the kibbutz. “I thought it was just another round of rockets,” he said. “I went into the safe room and then I got a phone call from my brother telling me that there was an infiltration. I went outside and I saw three Hamas terrorists about 100 meters away shooting in my direction and running toward me.” “I dropped my phone and raised my hands. One of them hit me with his weapon and a second one kicked me. They knocked me to the ground and tied my hands. A foreign worker passed by and they shot him right next to me.” “I spoke to them in Arabic. I told them I was Muslim. They tested me to see if I was telling the truth and then they said, ‘Take us in your car to where the Jews are.’ I was ready to die rather than point out a Jew, not even a cat. All the people on the kibbutz are good friends of mine.” “That’s how we were raised,” he said. “That how my grandfather was raised, my father was raised, and that’s how my children were raised.” The terrorists then shot him in his leg, dragged him to a vehicle and brought him to Gaza through a breach in the security fence. When they reached the other side, the car stopped after about 150 meters. He noticed foreign workers being abducted and taken to a tunnel shaft in the ground. “You see them suddenly disappear,” he said. “I was in a lot of pain from my leg. I fell a few times on the way. There was a guy who decided to take me to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.” When he finally got to the hospital, he couldn’t stand on his feet anymore. “I couldn’t walk from the pain; I had to crawl up the stairs on all fours. They said, ‘Look, our dog is walking.’ There were a lot of people around and you could see their joy. They felt like they had won.” They took an X-ray of his leg, which was broken and then a doctor carried out surgery without anesthesia, a form of torture that at least one other hostage also endured. Later, he arrived in Khan Younis. He recounted that residents started evacuating the city in anticipation of Israeli forces entering. The terrorists decided to take advantage of this opportunity. “When the residents began to leave, they mixed me in with them,” Al-Qadi explained. He walked the streets of Khan Younis, accompanied by his guards, along with thousands evacuating to a refugee tent camp. Eventually, he was taken into a tunnel 40 meters deep. “You tell yourself – there’s no way out from here.” He was given a mattress and a blanket and stayed there under Hamas guard for no less than 8 months. Farhan said: “For them, I’m a greater enemy […]

On Wednesday, Merrick Garland and the DOJ announced a crackdown on Russian disinformation intended to affect the outcome of the 2024 U.S. election.

The DOJ seized more than 30 web domains linked to a Russian campaign known as “Doppelganger.”

 

From Politico:

Experts recently saw evidence of the campaign spreading Russian disinformation related to the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, and the Biden administration has worked to counter the campaign’s efforts in recent months.

The legal actions, which also included the indictment of two Russian employees of the Kremlin-backed media outlet RT, underscored previous warnings this year by the Biden administration that foreign adversaries are looking to interfere in the upcoming vote. The new details about the Russian efforts are likely to increase concerns about continuing interference by foreign governments as the U.S. presidential campaign enters its final stretch.

“The Justice Department’s message is clear: We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference announcing the crackdown.

Garland added: “We will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by Russia and Iran, as well as China or any other foreign malign actor to interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy.”

Watch Garland’s remarks below:

{Matzav.com}

Hunter Biden plans to change his not guilty plea in his federal tax case, his defense attorney said Thursday just as jury selection was set to begin. Defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the judge about Hunter Biden’s plans to change his previous plea, just months after the president’s son was convicted of gun charges in a separate case, but did not provide further details. Hunter Biden is facing misdemeanor and felony charges over what prosecutors say was a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes while pulling in millions of dollars from foreign business entities. He is already confronting potential prison time after a Delaware jury convicted him in June of lying on a 2018 federal form to purchase a gun that he possessed for 11 days. A last-minute plea would allow Hunter Biden to avoid a trial that was expected to put a spotlight on his foreign business dealings, which Republicans have spent years scrutinizing to accuse his father — without evidence — of corruption in connection with his son’s work overseas. The potential political ramifications of the trial just weeks before the presidential election may have faded somewhat since President Biden’s July decision to drop out of the 2024 race. But the president is deeply concerned with the well-being of his son, so the trial is likely to weigh heavily on him in the final months of his five-decade political career. Hunter Biden walked into the courtroom holding hands with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and flanked by Secret Service agents. Initially, he pleaded not guilty to the charges related to his 2016 through 2019 taxes and his attorneys have indicated they will argue he didn’t act “willfully,” or with the intention to break the law, in part because of his well-documented struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses last year in a deal with the Justice Department that would allow him to avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble. But the agreement imploded after a judge questioned unusual aspects of it, and he was subsequently indicted in the two cases. His decision to change his plea Thursday came after the judge issued some unfavorable pre-trial rulings for the defense, including rejecting a proposed defense expert lined up to testify about addiction. U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, placed some restrictions on what jurors would be allowed to hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden’s family, friends and attorneys say led to his drug addiction. The judge barred attorneys from connecting his substance abuse struggles to the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden from cancer or the car accident that killed his mother and sister when he was a toddler. The indictment alleged that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on other things – “in short, everything but his taxes.” Hunter Biden’s attorneys had asked Scarsi to also limit prosecutors from highlighting details of his expenses that they say amount to a “character assassination,” including payments made to strippers or pornographic websites. The judge has said in court papers that he will maintain “strict control” over the presentation of potentially salacious […]

Hunter Biden suddenly changed plea to guilty in tax case, stunning government lawyers as jury selection was just about to begin.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have been recruiting criminal drug dealers and gang members in recent years to harm Israelis on European soil, according to an investigation by Channel 12.

Tehran does not maintain direct connections with its terrorist cells in Europe so as to preserve a “space of denial.” Using criminals to follow Israelis in Europe and harm them “allows Iran to claim that the elimination operations are criminal in general,” the report said.

The phenomenon is not new, with the first evidence of the Islamic Republic’s use of criminals-for-hire in Europe obtained a decade ago.

“The main Iranian goal was to carry out assassinations of exiled Iranian opposition figures as well as Israeli or Jewish targets. Since 2015, about 20 such attempts have been exposed,” the report states.

The Iran is behind a series of terrorist attacks carried out by criminal gangs targeting Israeli embassies throughout Europe since Oct. 7, the Mossad intelligence agency said earlier this year.

In July, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu stressed the need to adopt a new approach to the threat posed by the mullahs in Tehran.

“The monstrous massacre on Oct. 7 reshuffled the deck. It requires a very different operative concept that takes into account Iran’s efforts to strangle us in a chokehold on seven fronts,” said Netanyahu.

(JNS)

They have millions of followers online. They have been major players in right-wing political discourse since Donald Trump was president. And they worked unknowingly for a company that was a front for a Russian influence operation, U.S. prosecutors say. An indictment filed Wednesday alleges a media company linked to six conservative influencers — including well-known personalities Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson — was secretly funded by Russian state media employees to churn out English-language videos that were “often consistent” with the Kremlin’s “interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition” to Russian interests, like its war in Ukraine. In addition to marking the third straight presidential election in which U.S. authorities have unveiled politically charged details about Russia’s attempted interference in U.S. politics, an indictment indicates how Moscow may be attempting to capitalize on the skyrocketing popularity of right-wing podcasters, livestreamers and other content creators who have found successful careers on social media in the years since Trump was in office. The U.S. Justice Department doesn’t allege any wrongdoing by the influencers, some of whom it says were given false information about the source of the company’s funding. Instead, it accuses two employees of RT, a Russian state media company, of funneling nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based content creation company for Russia-friendly content. After the indictments were announced, both Pool and Johnson issued statements on social media, which Rubin retweeted, saying they were victims of the alleged crimes and had done nothing wrong. “We still do not know what is true as these are only allegations,” Pool said, before referring negatively towards Vladimir Putin. In his post, Johnson wrote that he had been asked a year ago to provide content to a “media startup.” He said his lawyers negotiated a “standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated.” Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They are at large, and it was not immediately clear if they had lawyers. U.S. officials have previously warned of Russia’s use of unwitting Americans to further influence operations in the 2024 election, but Wednesday’s indictment is the most detailed description of those efforts to date. Intelligence officials have said Moscow has a preference for Trump. Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to help Trump in the 2020 election, while his 2016 campaign benefited from hacking by Russian intelligence officers and a covert social media effort, according to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials. With the decline of traditional media like newspapers and limits on direct advertising on social media platforms, influencers are increasingly playing a key role in politics and shaping public opinion. Both the Republican and Democratic parties invited scores of influencers to their respective national conventions this summer. But with little to no disclosure requirements about who is funding influencers’ work, the public is largely in the dark about who is powering the messaging online. Though the indictment does not name the Tennessee-based company, the details match up exactly with Tenet Media, an online media company that boasts of hosting “a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” Tenet’s website lists six influencers who provide content, including Pool, Johnson, Rubin, Lauren Southern, Tayler Hansen and Matt […]

Dear Matzav Inbox,

I write this with great trepidation, as I am not one who is capable of sizing up an entire klal, yet this tzarah has been nagging at me for a while now, and I must speak out.

We have approximately 100 of our brothers and sisters being held hostage in dire circumstances, and our response as a klal of Torah Yidden, in my opinion, has been severely lacking. I am aware that nearly every shul says one to three kapitlach of Tehillim after each tefilah, and I am sure these tefillos carry great value to Hashem. However, I believe we as a klal are failing to truly feel the pain of the hostages and their families. I am sure that many individuals have taken upon themselves an extra mitzvah or tefilah as a zechus for their safe return, but I do not see a collective response that is adequate.

I used to wonder how I and this generation would have felt and responded had we been living in America during the Holocaust. Would we really have felt the pain of the Yidden suffering in Europe? Would our lives have been any different due to their plight? I am horrified to say that it appears that after a few weeks, we would have, by and large, disconnected from their suffering and continued on with our lives as usual. How can this be? The hostages are undergoing their own Holocaust, Rachmana litzlan. Can we take two minutes to think about the conditions they are in—stuck in underground tunnels with no sunlight, little food (if any), under the control of ruthless animals, and so much worse for the women and children (may Hashem protect them all)?

We know that when tzaros happen, they are a wake-up call from Hashem to do teshuvah. We know this is the ultimate purpose of the matzav that Klal Yisroel finds itself in. However, I think we all admit that teshuvah is very difficult. Perhaps this is why Hashem brought this great tzarah to Klal Yisroel. Hashem is not asking for our immediate teshuvah. He wants us to cry out to Him in pain for our brothers’ and sisters’ matzav and beg for their yeshua! This is something that we all should be able to do, as it only requires a little bit of thought about their dire predicament. Any human being, and certainly any Yid, is capable of connecting to and feeling their pain. This tze’akah is what led to Hashem’s salvation in Mitzrayim. Ultimately, this will lead to our teshuvah as well.

I understand that seemingly all of the hostages were secular. Regrettably, this may make it more difficult to connect to their suffering. However, we must remember that each one has a Yiddishe neshama! We would be obligated to be mechalel Shabbos for them if their lives were in danger. These are Hashem’s children! (As an aside, I heard firsthand a recording of one of the freed female hostages speaking to the mother of another female hostage who is, nebach, still being held. She told her that her daughter had taken upon herself to keep Shabbos even as a hostage and that she refuses to obey the commands of her captors when they entail chillul Shabbos! Can we even fathom the level that this baalas teshuvah has reached?)

How can we as a klal bring ourselves to feel their pain? One suggestion is that the gedolim or rabbonim declare a day of fasting, dare I say, once a month. There would be an atzeres in our shuls the night before, with divrei hisorerus from a gadol or rav that each shul could connect to, followed by Tehillim (or the shul could have its own divrei hisorerus and Tehillim). The point is that the klal should be united in crying out to Hashem, begging Him for a yeshua for the hostages and for the entire klal from our enemies. I am not asking that we even cut back on our pleasures and vacations, as this is a lot to ask for many. However, how can we not feel their pain at least once a month for a few hours?

Again, I am not one to give mussar, as I fall short in many areas as well. However, I feel that Hashem may be demanding more of us and waiting to hear our cries before He brings their yeshua.

Sincerely,

Waiting for Our Collective Cry

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European intelligence agencies have successfully thwarted a series of Iranian-backed terror plots aimed at Jewish institutions in France and Germany, according to a report by German daily Der Spiegel. The plots, which relied on organized crime groups, were uncovered after a terror cell carried out four arson attacks against Israeli-owned companies in southern France last year. The cell’s leader, a drug dealer from Lyon, France, was identified as the mastermind behind the attacks. Further investigation revealed that one of the suspects, currently detained in France, had also conducted surveillance on a lawyer with Israeli clients in Berlin and an Israeli family in Munich. This is not the first time Iranian involvement in European terror plots has been exposed. Last month, Der Spiegel reported that the head of the now-banned Hamburg Islamic Center (IZH) in Germany received direct instructions from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, including guidance on how to portray Hamas’s October 7 massacre. The report comes on the same day that a terrorist opened fire with an M-16 rife outside the Israeli embassy in Munich on Thursday morning. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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August was the most intense month in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group so far, with more than 1,300 attacks on the Jewish state recorded, authorities said on Thursday.

According to the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), Hezbollah terrorists fired no fewer than 1,307 rockets, missiles and drones last month, up 20% from July.

The figure included the some 320 missiles and drones fired as part of Hezbollah’s Aug. 25 attack, which the terrorist organization said came in retaliation for Israel’s targeted killing of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

The Shin Bet recorded 855 attacks in June, 1,000 in May, 744 in April, 746 in March, and 534 in February. The August figure marked an increase of 400% compared to January, when 334 projectiles were launched across Israel’s northern border.

Between the start of the Hezbollah attacks on Oct. 8 and Dec. 31, a total of 2,000 attacks were recorded.

Hezbollah has attacked the Jewish state nearly every day since Oct. 8, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones at Israel, killing more than 40 people and causing widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.

Shortly before midnight in Israel on Wednesday night, the Israeli Air Force said that it hit more than 10 Hezbollah “military infrastructures and launchers” at three sites in Southern Lebanon.

The launchers “posed a threat to the citizens of the State of Israel,” the IAF said.

Earlier in the day, Hezbollah fired 65 rockets from Lebanon into Israel.

JNS

The pro-terror mob is standing outside a kosher NYC restaurant and screaming “shame on you” at the Jews inside.

Rav Dovid Yosef speaks to the parents of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin as they sit Shiva.

An Islamist gunman opened fire on Thursday near the Israeli consulate in Bavaria. German security personnel shot the aggressor during an exchange of fire and the suspect died at the scene.

No other injuries were reported.

Joachim Herrmann, interior minister for Bavaria, confirmed the suspect’s death. Authorities are treating the shooting as a “possible attack on an Israeli institution,” he told Agence France-Presse.

The Israeli mission released a statement saying, “A shooting incident occurred near the Israeli Consulate General in Munich. The consulate is closed today due to a memorial ceremony for the Munich Olympics massacre, and none of the consulate staff were harmed in the incident. The shooter was neutralized by German security forces, and the situation is under their control.”

Munich police tweeted that “police officers saw a person who appeared to be carrying a firearm. The officers used their service weapons and the person was hit and injured. There are currently no reports of any other injuries.”

Local media identified the suspect as an 18-year-old man from Austria who had been known to authorities as an Islamic extremist. Germany’s Der Spiegel, citing local police sources, said the suspect resided in the Salzburg region of Austria and traveled to Germany by car.

 

The police said that there were no indications of other suspects or incidents in the Bavarian state capital.

Local law enforcement appealed to the public not to post images of the incident to social media.

Der Spiegel reported that a “major police operation” was underway in the area, which has been blocked off and closed to traffic.

The Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism is also located close to where the incident took place.

Shortly after the attack, Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with his German counterpart and “dear friend” Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“Together we expressed our shared condemnation and horror at the terror attack this morning near the Israeli consulate in Munich,” Herzog wrote on X.

“On the day our brothers and sisters in Munich were set to stand in remembrance of our brave athletes murdered by terrorists 52 years ago, a hate-filled terrorist came and once again sought to murder innocent people,” he continued.

“I want to thank the German security services for their swift action, and send my support to all those targeted. Together we stand strong in the face of terror. Together we will overcome,” Herzog said.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described the shooting as “a serious incident” and said that she is in contact with emergency services but did not want to speculate on further details.

She said that the protection of Israeli institutions in Germany was the highest priority.

Talya Lador Fresher, consul general to southern Germany, said, “We are grateful for the cooperation of the Munich police. An event like this shows how dangerous the rise in antisemitism is. It is important that the public raise its voice against it.”

The attack comes on the 52nd anniversary of the 1972 Munich Massacre, when eight gunmen from the Palestinian terrorist group Black September burst into the Israeli team’s Olympic village quarters, killing two Israelis and kidnapping nine. West German neo-Nazis gave the group logistical assistance.

All nine hostages, as well as eight terrorists and a German police officer, died during a botched rescue effort by West German police. The three surviving perpetrators were arrested and then released the next month in a hostage exchange that followed the hijacking of Lufthansa Flight 615. JNS

{Matzav.com}

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday was as clear as he has ever been about how he views a ceasefire and hostage agreement with Hamas. “There’s not a deal in the making,” he told Fox News. “Unfortunately, it’s not close.” He denied reports that the US Administration believes that an agreement is 90% completed. “It’s exactly inaccurate. There’s a story, a narrative out there, that there’s a deal out there.” Hamas “don’t agree to anything. Not to the Philadelphi Corridor, not to the keys of exchanging hostages for jailed terrorists, not to anything. So that’s just a false narrative.” In the Fox News interview, Netanyahu said that Hamas has obstructed a deal. “The obstacle to the end of this war is Hamas. The obstacle to the release of hostages is Hamas. The ones who butchered in a sling, murdering six people in cold blood, riddling them with bullets and then firing bullets into their heads is Hamas. It’s not Israel. It’s not me.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

In what seems to be a quite belated realization and perhaps because the Biden administration is losing hope that it will pull off a hostage deal that it can tout as a major accomplishment amid an election period, it is now “questioning whether Hamas even wants a deal.” In a change from his usual tactic of blaming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the lack of a deal, Axios reporter Barad Ravid, who is viewed as a mouthpiece for the Biden administration, reported on Thursday that Biden and his top advisers “were shocked” after Hamas murdered six hostages and have “started to rethink the way forward in the negotiations over the deal.” “We still think the deal is the only way to save the lives of the hostages and stop the war. But the executions not only increased our sense of urgency but also called into question Hamas’ willingness to do a deal of any kind,” a U.S. official said. According to the report, one of the main arguments made during a meeting of President Biden, Vice President Harris and their national security team on Monday, was that in the wake of the murder of the hostages, including an American, the US should apply more pressure on Hamas instead of advancing a proposal that grants the terror group additional concessions. Another concern that was raised is that the US could pressure Israel to reduce IDF forces on the Philadelphi Corridor or regarding other issues, and then discover that Hamas refuses to agree to other parts of the deal. But the new proposal with further Israeli concessions to Hamas would then become the new foundation for future negotiations. A US official said that the issue of control over the Philadelphi Corridor is not the only sticking point. Hamas has backtracked from its previous position regarding the number of Palestinian terrorists to be released, including many serving life sentences for murdering Israelis, and are now demanding a higher number. “We had a very frustrating process around that in Doha last week. Hamas presented demands that were different from what was agreed on in the past,” a U.S. official said. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Rav Gershon Ribner, rosh kollel of Kollel Nesivos Hatorah and son-in-law of Rav Shneur Kotler, has succeeded in applying classical Talmudical analysis and methodology to understanding all areas of Yiddishkeit, bringing out its profundity and sense.

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The Chinese government is no longer allowing foreign adoptions of the country’s children, a spokesperson said Thursday. The only exception will be for blood relatives adopting a child or a stepchild, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said. She didn’t explain the decision other than to say that it was in line with the spirit of relevant international conventions. Many foreigners have adopted children from China over the decades, visiting the country to pick them up and then bringing them to a new home overseas. China suspended international adoptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The government later resumed adoptions for children who had received travel authorization before the suspension in 2020, the U.S. State Department said in its latest annual report on adoptions. A U.S. consulate issued 16 visas for adoptions from China in the 12 months from October 2022 through September 2023, the first in more than two years, the State Department report said. It wasn’t clear if any more visas had been issued since then. In January, Denmark’s only overseas adoption agency said it was winding down operations after concerns were raised about fabricated documents and procedures, and Norway’s top regulatory body recommended stopping overseas adoptions for two years pending an investigation into several cases. (AP)