Ahead of Yom Yerushalayim Tuesday evening and Wednesday, which this year celebrates 57 years since the city was reunified in the Six-Day War, the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research has published its 38th annual report on the city, which provides an in-depth statistical look at the capital.
With a population of 1,005,900 in 2022, Yerushalayim’s population is double that of Tel Aviv’s, according to the latest census figures.
Construction in Jerusalem hit a new high in 2023, with work beginning on 5,800 housing units—the largest number to date. In 2023, the labor force participation rate among Arab women in the city continued rising as well, reaching 29%.
While 7,600 new immigrants chose Yerushalayim as their first destination in Israel in 2022, continuing an upward trend, the city’s overall migration balance remained negative at -7,200 compared to -6,600 the previous year.
The top destinations for those migrating out of Yerushalayim were Beit Shemesh (18%), Bnei Brak (4%), Givat Ze’ev (4%), Tel Aviv-Jaffa (6%), Modi’in (3%), Beitar Illit (3%), Modi’in Illit (2%), Ma’ale Adumim (2%) and Kochav Ya’akov (1%).
On the education and tourism fronts, Yerushalayim led the country with 41,300 students at its institutions of higher learning in the 2022/23 academic year and 2,735,400 foreign visitor overnight stays in 2023.
Public transportation use was up 13% in 2023 compared to the year before, with light rail ridership increasing 20%.
The report additionally detailed the impacts of the Swords of Iron war, including 13,800 evacuees absorbed in Yerushalayim’s hotels and homes.
Moreover, there was a spike in jobseekers to 26,000 in November 2023—double the number before the war—before a recovery in employment, and an 80% drop in tourist overnight stays in the final quarter of the year.
{Matzav.com}
North Korea said it will stop sending trash-carrying balloons into South Korea, claiming Sunday that its campaign left the South Koreans with “enough experience of how much unpleasant they feel.” The North’s announcement came hours after South Korea said it would soon punish North Korea with “unbearable” retaliatory steps over its balloon activities and other recent provocations. Observers say South Korea will likely restart front-line loudspeaker broadcasts into North Korea that include criticism of its abysmal human rights situation, world news and K-pop songs. North Korea is extremely sensitive to such broadcasts because most of its 26 million people have no official access to foreign TV and radio programs. It wasn’t immediately unclear if South Korea would move ahead with its punitive measures following North Korea’s suspension of balloon launches. On Sunday night, Kim Kang Il, a North Korean vice defense minister, said that the North will temporarily suspend its balloon activities. He said they were a countermeasure against previous South Korean leafleting campaigns. “We made the ROK (Republic of Korea) clans get enough experience of how much unpleasant they feel and how much effort is needed to remove the scattered wastepaper,” Kim said in a statement carried by state media. He said that if South Korean activists float anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets via balloons again, North Korea will resume flying its own balloons to dump rubbish hundreds times the amount of the South Korean leaflets found in the North. Earlier Sunday, South Korea’s military said that more than 700 balloons flown from North Korea were discovered in various parts of the country, in addition to about 260 balloons found a few days earlier. Tied to the balloons were manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth, waste paper and vinyl, but no dangerous substances, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Kim, the North Korean official, said North Korea flew 3,500 balloons carrying 15 tons of wastepaper. South Korea’s national security director Chang Ho-jin said earlier Sunday that the government decided to take “unbearable” measures against North Korea in reaction to its balloon launches, alleged jamming of GPS navigation signals in South Korea and simulation of nuclear strikes against the South in recent days. Chang called the North’s balloon campaign and its alleged GPS signal jamming “absurd, irrational acts of provocation that a normal country can’t imagine.” He accused North Korea of aiming to cause “public anxieties and chaos” in South Korea. North Korea often responds with fury to South Korean civilian leafleting because they contain propaganda messages critical of the North’s authoritarian rule and outside news. In 2020, North Korea exploded an empty, South Korean-built liaison office in the North in anger over the South Korean balloon activities. Experts say North Korea’s balloon campaign, reportedly the first of its kind in seven years, is meant to stoke an internal divide in South Korea over its conservative government’s tough policy on the North. They say North Korea is also expected to further ramp up tensions ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Since 2022, North Korea has sharply increased a pace of weapons tests to build a bigger nuclear arsenal. Last week, it fired a barrage of nuclear-capable weapons into the sea in a drill simulating a preemptive attack on South Korea. (AP)
The terrorist who killed two Israel Defense Forces soldiers outside the city of Shechem in the Shomron on Wednesday evening has yet to be handed over by the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, local media reported on Sunday.
Abeed Shtayyeh, from the village of Beita just south of Nablus, turned himself in to Palestinian police in Nablus shortly after running over and fatally injuring IDF Staff Sgt. Eliya Hilel, 20, and Staff Sgt. Diego Shvisha Harsaj, 20.
Instead of being transferred to the Israel Defense Forces in accordance with longstanding agreements between Jerusalem and the P.A., the terrorist was released from P.A. custody and moved into hiding, allegedly by operatives of Ramallah’s General Intelligence Service, according to Channel 14.
The governor of Nablus told the terrorist’s family that the P.A. could no longer shelter him due to Israeli threats to launch an arrest raid on the police station, Channel 14 correspondent Baruch Yedid reported.
An inquiry to the IDF about the reports went unanswered, with the military referring JNS to the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which did not respond by press time.
On Saturday night, hundreds of Israelis from Samaria and the Jordan Valley blocked the entrances to Shechem in protest, Arutz 7 reported.
The demonstration erupted after the parents of Hilel called for a siege on the city until their son’s murderer was handed over to Israeli forces “alive or dead,” the outlet said.
Choosing Life, a forum of terror victims and bereaved families that helped organize the rally, stated, “The Israeli government needs to sober up and quickly order the immediate arrest of the head of the General Intelligence Service, Majed Faraj, who gave an order not to hand over the terrorist.”
Almost 80 members of the U.S.-trained and armed P.A. police forces have been implicated in terrorism against Israeli civilians and military personnel in the past three years alone, according to research published by the Yerushalayim-based Regavim Movement think tank in March.
In addition, the Hamas terrorist group has recruited “dozens” of P.A. operatives, using them as combatants and for intelligence gathering, Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reported last year.
{Matzav.com}
Two weeks ago, Peleg held a protest against the Chareidi draft law during which protesters blocked Sarei Yisrael. In a video sent to B’Chadrei Chareidim, a police officer picked up an 11-year-old boy and slammed him back on the street. The boy started crying from pain. A while later, he was evacuated to the hospital. The boy’s father told B’Chadrei that the medical staff rushed to release him after performing basic tests because they couldn’t stand the smell of the sunk spray the police had sprayed on them. At home, the boy’s condition deteriorated and he began feeling dizzy with strong pain in his legs, although his legs were uninjured. By Lag B’Omer he couldn’t stand on his feet and had to be transported in a wheelchair. His father took him back to the hospital for more testing and they are waiting for the results. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Iran opened a five-day registration period Thursday for hopefuls wanting to run in the June 28 presidential election to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash earlier this month with seven others. The election comes as Iran grapples with the aftermath of the May 19 crash, as well as heightened tensions between Tehran and the United States, and protests including those over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini that have swept the country. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, maintains final say over all matters of state, presidents in the past have bent the Islamic Republic of Iran toward greater interaction or increased hostility with the West. The five-day period will see those between the ages of 40 to 75 with at least a master’s degree register as potential candidates. All candidates ultimately must be approved by Iran’s 12-member Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei. That panel has never accepted a woman, for instance, nor anyone calling for radical change within the country’s governance. Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s interior minister, opened the registration period. The Interior Ministry, in charge of the country’s police, run Iranian elections with no substantial international observation. “These elections, like the parliamentary elections, will be held in complete safety and health, with good competition and wide participation of all dear people,” Vahidi said. Raisi, a protege of Khamenei, won Iran’s 2021 presidential election after the Guardian Council disqualified all of the candidates with the best chance to potentially challenge him. That vote saw the lowest turnout in Iran’s history for a presidential election. This year’s parliamentary vote saw an even-lower turnout amid widespread boycott calls. That likely was a sign of voters’ discontent with both a hard-line cleric sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in mass executions in 1988, and Iran’s Shiite theocracy over four decades after its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Who will run — and potentially be accepted — remains in question. The country’s acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, a previously behind-the-scenes bureaucrat, could be a front-runner, because he’s already been seen in meetings with Khamenei. Also discussed as possible aspirants are former hard-line President Mohammad Ahmadinejad and former reformist President Mohammad Khatami — but whether they’d be allowed to run is another question. Among those registering Thursday was Saeed Jalili, a former Iranian nuclear negotiator who ran in 2013 and registered in 2021 before withdrawing to support Raisi. “Today, we are in a historic opportunity,” Jalili told journalists. “If we miss this, we will fall behind the path of progress.” The five-day registration period will close on Tuesday. The Guardian Council is expected to issue its final list of candidates within 10 days afterwards. That will allow for a shortened two-week campaign before the vote in late June. The new president will take office while the country now enriches uranium at nearly weapons-grade levels and hampers international inspections. Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine, as well as launched a drone and missile attack on Israel amid the war in Gaza. Tehran also has continued arming proxy groups in the Middle East, like Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Meanwhile, Iran’s economy has faced years of hardship over its collapsing rial currency. Widespread protests have swept the country, […]
A court in Russia on Friday ordered a detained Russian American journalist to be held until at least Aug. 5, pending investigation and trial, a further step in the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent and free speech. Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, was taken into custody on Oct. 18 and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent while collecting information about the Russian military. Later, she was also charged with spreading “false information” about the military. A court in Tatarstan on Friday ordered her to remain behind bars at least until Aug. 5, according to OVD-Info, a Russian rights group that tracks political arrests. Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen who lives in Prague with her husband and two daughters, could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to RFE/RL. Russian authorities have intensified a crackdown on Kremlin critics and independent journalists after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, using legislation that effectively criminalized any public expression about the conflict that deviates from the Kremlin line. Kurmasheva was the second U.S. journalist detained in Russia last year, after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges in March. Gershkovich and his employer have rejected the charges, and U.S. authorities designated him wrongfully detained. He has spent a year in custody. Kurmasheva was initially stopped on June 2 on the way out of Kazan International Airport after traveling to Russia the previous month to visit her ailing mother. Officials confiscated Kurmasheva’s U.S. and Russian passports and fined her for failing to register her U.S. passport. She was waiting for her documents to be returned when she was arrested on other charges in October. RFE/RL has called for her release. RFE/RL was told by Russian authorities in 2017 to register as a foreign agent, but it has challenged Moscow’s use of foreign agent laws in the European Court of Human Rights. The organization has been fined millions of dollars by Russia. (AP)
Thousands are marching in New York City’s annual Celebrate Israel Parade on Sunday, with heightened security measures against the backdrop of the war against Hamas.
The route of the parade, which has been held annually in New York City since 1964, runs north on Fifth Avenue from 57th to 74th streets.
This year’s theme is “Bring the Hostages Home,” a reminder of the 125 hostages that have been held captive in the Gaza Strip for 239 days.
Celebrations kicked off around 11:30 a.m. and are expected to draw more than 40,000 participants, including Israeli diplomats, celebrities and hostages’ families.
New York Mayor Eric Adams told reporters on Friday that the New York City Police Department would double its regular presence.
“This is the first major large Jewish event since October 7, and we are extremely conscious of the over 3,000 protests that took place in our city since that day,” Adams said at a press conference.
NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban said the parade would include “screening checkpoints at points of entry, as well as bike teams, aviation, K-9, transit and our other specialized units.”
The NYPD’s Counterterrorism and Intelligence Bureau personnel will also be deployed, he said, while stressing that there are “no specific or credible threats to the parade or to New York City in general.
“For 60 years, people from around the world have come to New York to celebrate our city’s proud Jewish heritage. Sunday’s parade is the largest celebration of its kind outside of Israel, and the NYPD will be there to make sure everything runs smoothly,” Caban said.
A survey of New York Jews last week showed concern over safety heading into the parade. Only one in five respondents who attended the parade in the last five years plans to do so again this year, with 16% “probably attending” and 5% saying they will “definitely” attend.
{Matzav.com}
Former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen claims he’s worried about Donald Trump’s potential imprisonment, citing the risk of Trump revealing classified information to the wrong people. In an interview with MSNBC’s The Weekend, Cohen stated, “I’m more concerned for you and for all of us, and our families, and for the American people.” Cohen, who played a crucial role in Trump’s recent criminal trial as the prosecution’s star witness, highlighted Trump’s history of loose lips and willingness to divulge sensitive information for personal gain. “He did it with the Australian billionaire at Mar-a-Lago. He sat there in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin talking about national security issues, but nobody was around except for Vladimir Putin’s translator. These are not normal things,” Cohen said. “You now have a Republican leading candidate who’s a felon, who’s going to be debriefed on national security issues, knowing how loose-lipped he is,” Cohen warned. Cohen also referenced a specific incident where Trump revealed sensitive information about nuclear warheads on a military vessel, saying, “We know for a fact that he gave away information on how many nuclear warheads are on a specific nuclear ship. One of our military vessels! I mean, think about how dangerous the information in that guy’s head is. And he doesn’t think, and we saw that from yesterday’s press conference.” Cohen claimed that Trump will willingly classified information in prison in exchange for personal gain or simply for bragging rights. “He will do it because he doesn’t care,” he warned. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced Friday he has switched his registration to independent, raising questions about his political plans since the move could help his chances should he seek elected office again in a state that has turned heavily Republican. Manchin, 76, has often been at odds with the Democratic Party and an obstacle to many of President Joe Biden’s legislative priorities. But he played a central role in helping Biden get a landmark climate change and health care bill over the finish line in 2022. He had already announced in November that he wouldn’t seek re-election to the Senate, giving Republicans a clear path to picking up his West Virginia seat in their bid to retake the majority next year. Manchin has served in the Senate since 2010 and is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He said in a statement that over the past 15 years he has seen both major political parties leave their constituents behind for “partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy.” “Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground,” Manchin said. “To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.” Manchin will continue to caucus with Democrats and keep his chairmanship, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was granted anonymity to share his plans. The move helps Democrats preserve their slim 51-49 majority in the Senate. Still, facing potential retirement from politics, Manchin appears to be keeping other options open. He has long wanted to switch his party affiliation to become an independent, according to a second person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss it. But a looming deadline in West Virginia forced the issue. Candidates must file their political affiliation 60 days prior to a Aug. 1 deadline to run in this year’s election. Now registered as an independent, Manchin still has time to mount another Senate race or a potential run for governor, a position he held from 2005 to 2010. He had gone back and forth for months before announcing he wasn’t running for reelection to the Senate. Many questioned whether he could win against the immensely popular Gov. Jim Justice, the Republican Senate nominee who Manchin helped recruit to run for governor as a Democrat in 2016. Justice switched to Republican at a rally with then-President Donald Trump not long into his first term. Should the Senate candidates stumble, Manchin could be poised to try to keep his seat. But a run for governor could be more favorable. Manchin has defeated the Republican nominee for governor, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, once before, in 2018. That Senate campaign was Manchin’s toughest in his three-plus decades in West Virginia politics. He defeated Morrisey by just over 3 percentage points. Steve Williams, who is the Democratic nominee for governor and the mayor of Huntington, said last week he doesn’t believe Manchin intends to enter the gubernatorial race, adding that they’ve been friends for decades. West Virginia Democratic Party officials said Friday Manchin did not give them a heads up he was switching to independent. In a statement […]
Federal health regulators are questioning the safety and evidence behind the first bid to use MDMA, the mind-altering club drug, as a treatment for PTSD, part of a decadeslong effort by advocates to move psychedelic drugs into the medical mainstream. The Food and Drug Administration posted its initial review of the drug Friday, ahead of a meeting of outside advisers who could help decide whether MDMA — currently illegal under federal law — becomes the first drug of its kind to win U.S. approval as a medication. In their assessment, FDA scientists said that patients who received MDMA and talk therapy showed “rapid, clinically meaningful, durable improvements in their PTSD symptoms.” But they also called the research “challenging to interpret,” and questioned how long the benefits might last. They said it’s difficult to know how much of the improvement came from MDMA versus simply undergoing intensive therapy, and also raised several safety concerns, including MDMA’s heart risks and potential for abuse. The outside experts will take a nonbinding vote on the drug’s overall benefits and risks during Tuesday’s meeting. The FDA will make the final decision, likely in August. Antidepressants are now the only FDA-approved drugs for post-traumatic stress disorder, which is closely linked to depression, anxiety and suicidal thinking and is more prevalent among women and veterans. If approved, MDMA would be reclassified as a prescription medicine and made available to specially certified doctors and therapists. Currently, the drug is in the same ultra-restrictive category as heroin and other substances the federal government deems prone to abuse and devoid of any medical use. MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, is the first in a series of psychedelics that are expected to be reviewed by the FDA in coming years. It’s part of a resurgence of research into the potential of psychedelics for hard-to-treat conditions like depression, addiction and anxiety. MDMA’s main effect is triggering feelings of intimacy, connection and euphoria. Companies are studying MDMA, psilocybin, LSD and other mind-expanding drugs for numerous mental health problems. Until recently, psychedelic research was mainly funded by a handful of nonprofit advocacy groups, including Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS. The company seeking approval for MDMA, Lykos Therapeutics, is essentially a corporate spinoff of MAPS, which conducted all the studies submitted for FDA review. In two studies, patients received MDMA as part of an intensive, four-month course of talk therapy lasting more than a dozen sessions, only three of which involved taking the drug. The drug is thought to help patients come to terms with their trauma and let go of disturbing thoughts and memories. The approach was studied in nearly 195 adults with moderate-to-severe PTSD who were randomly assigned to undergo the therapy with MDMA or with a dummy pill. Following treatment, patients who received MDMA had significantly lower PTSD scores and were more likely to be in remission. But FDA reviewers noted that the vast majority of patients correctly guessed whether they had received MDMA or a dummy pill, making it “nearly impossible” to maintain the so-called “blinded” objectivity considered essential for high-quality drug research. The agency also questioned how long the drug’s benefits might last. The studies tracked some patients for up to two years, but reviewers noted that about a quarter of patients quickly dropped out of […]
Former President Donald Trump may be banned from the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries should his felony conviction hold up, Breitbart reports.
The former president will likely appeal his conviction, which may or may not be overturned before the November election. Should the former president win the election before the conviction could be overturned, certain countries would have to make an exception if he were to visit on official business. Per The Independent:
Nearly 40 nations – inlcuding Canada and the UK – have strict policies when it comes to allowing individuals with criminal records across their borders, and barring a special accommodation, Trump would be held to those same standards. It’s unclear if he would be allowed to visit if he wins the presidental election in November, but remains a felon.
According to the Canadian government’s tourist hub, any “US Citizen or permanent resident that has a felony conviction on their criminal record may be deemed inadmissible to Canada for the purposes of immigrating, or even if they’re merely coming to Canada to visit.”
Under UK law, a felon can visit Ireland and Scotland with some restrictions and requirements in place. However, Britain can bar access to convicted felons.
Various other nations, such as Israel and Australia, have laws on the books regarding felons who visit the country, which may be subject to interpretation should the former president win the election this November.
The big question now will be whether or not the conviction will be enough to shift momentum away from former President Trump in Biden’s favor going into the November 5 election. While it will take at least a week to get accurate polling on the matter, establishment Republican Karl Rove, who has been critical of Trump in the past, said on Fox News last week that a guilty verdict could potentially cost Trump key swing voters in crucial states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
“If he is found guilty, let’s not underestimate that there is a problem,”
said Karl Rove.
“Think about this. Those numbers, like 11% less likely to vote for him, think about Michigan where they’re, in the RealClearPolitics average, Donald Trump is up by one half of 1% — or Pennsylvania, where he’s up by 2%, or Wisconsin, where he’s up by 3/10 of 1%,” Rove continued. “So in a close race, like we’re likely to have, having 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11% of the electorate less likely to vote for you is a problem.”
Regardless, the former president has not lost favor with his enthusiastic base of supporters, raising a whopping $53 million in campaign donations just 24 hours after the conviction.
{Matzav.com}
A Chassidish visitor to Beitar Illit was chased by a pack of dogs in the early hours of Shabbos morning as he was walking from the mikvah to shul. A resident of the city told B’Chadrei Chareidim that the teen had to be hospitalized after the ordeal as the dogs had bitten him. The incident occurred on Rechov Rabbi Akiva at about 6:40 a.m. Another resident said that the frightening phenomenon is nothing new. “I work at night and it’s just scary. Packs of dogs roam the city unhindered.” The Beitar Illit municipality responded: “These are wild dogs that roam around the city. The municipal veterinarian is working to prevent them from entering the city but unfortunately, there are cases where they manage to enter. “Unfortunately, the Ministry of Agriculture creates many difficulties in poisoning wild dogs that pose a threat to residents. These shocking images that we see now are chilling. We will continue to act to put an end to this dangerous phenomenon.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves Sunday into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of Allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler’s fall, helping free Europe of his tyranny. All along the Normandy coastline — where then-young soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6, 1944 — French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying “merci” but also goodbye. The ever-dwindling number of veterans in their late nineties and older who are coming back to remember fallen friends and their history-changing exploits are the last. Part of the purpose of fireworks shows, parachute jumps, solemn commemorations and ceremonies that world leaders will attend this week is to pass the baton of remembrance to the current generations now seeing war again in Europe, in Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and British royals are among the VIPs that France is expecting for the D-Day events. On Sunday, three C-47 transport planes, a workhorse of the war, dropped three long strings of jumpers, their round chutes mushrooming open in the blue skies with puffy white clouds, to whoops from the huge crowd that was regaled by tunes from Glenn Miller and Edith Piaf as they waited. The planes looped around and dropped another three sticks of jumpers. Some of the loudest applause from the crowd arose when a startled deer pounced from the undergrowth as the jumpers were landing and sprinted across the landing zone. After a final pass to drop two last jumpers, the planes then roared overhead in close formation and disappeared over the horizon. Dozens of World War II veterans are converging on France to revisit old memories, make new ones, and hammer home a message that survivors of D-Day and the ensuing Battle of Normandy, and of other World War II theaters, have repeated time and time again — that war is hell. “Seven thousand of my marine buddies were killed. Twenty thousand shot up, wounded, put on ships, buried at sea,” said Don Graves, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Iwo Jima in the Pacific theater. “I want the younger people, the younger generation here to know what we did,” said Graves, part of a group of more than 60 World War II veterans who flew into Paris on Saturday. The youngest veteran in the group is 96 and the most senior 107, according to their carrier from Dallas, American Airlines. “We did our job and we came home and that’s it. We never talked about it I think. For 70 years I didn’t talk about it,” said another of the veterans, Ralph Goldsticker, a U.S. Air Force captain who served in the 452nd Bomb Group. Of the D-Day landings, he recalled seeing from his aircraft “a big, big chunk of the beach with thousands of vessels,” and spoke of bombing raids against German strongholds and routes that German forces might otherwise have used to rush in reinforcements to push the invasion back into the sea. “I dropped my first bomb at 06:58 a.m. in a heavy gun placement,” he said. “We went back […]
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sharply criticized the decision by congressional leaders to invite Prime Minister bIBI Netanyahu to speak before Congress and declared he would boycott the address.
In his statement – on Shabbos, of course – Sanders did not hold back, referring to Netanyahu as a “war criminal.”
“It is a very sad day for our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited – by leaders from both parties – to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress,” said the self-hating Jew.
While acknowledging Israel’s right to defend itself following the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th, Bumbling Bernie emphasized that “it did not, and does not, have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people.”
“Israel does not have the right to kill more than 34,000 civilians and wound over 80,000 – 5% of the population of Gaza. It does not have the right to orphan 19,000 children. It does not have the right to displace 75% of the people of Gaza from their homes. It does not have the right to damage or destroy over 60% of the housing in Gaza. It does not have the right to destroy the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, to obliterate water and sewage systems, and deny electricity to the people of Gaza. It does not have the right to annihilate Gaza’s health care system, knocking 26 hospitals out of service and killing more than 400 health care workers. It does not have the right to bomb all 12 of Gaza’s universities and 56 of its schools, or deny 625,000 children in Gaza the opportunity for an education,” Sanders said.
“It most certainly does not have the right to block humanitarian aid – food and medical supplies – from coming in to the desperate people of Gaza, creating the conditions for starvation and famine. It does not have the right to condemn hundreds of thousands of children to death by starvation. This is a clear violation of American and international law,” Sanders continued.
“The International Criminal Court recently announced that it is seeking warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas. The ICC is right. Both of these people are engaged in clear and outrageous violations of international law,” he declared.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend,” Sanders concluded.
Sanders has consistently been a vocal critic of Israel’s government, labeling it as “racist” and advocating for the US to make its aid to Israel conditional.
He has previously urged Congress to reject the $10.1 billion in unconditional military aid proposed for Israel, arguing that the funds would enable the Israeli government “to continue its brutal war against the Palestinian people.”
Even though Sanders has intensified his criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, he has not supported a permanent ceasefire, arguing that it could lead to more attacks by Hamas.
{Matzav.com}
Vermont has become the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. Republican Gov. Phil Scott allowed the bill to become law without his signature late Thursday, saying he is very concerned about the costs and outcome of the small state taking on “Big Oil” alone in what will likely be a grueling legal fight. But he acknowledged that he understands something has to be done to address the toll of climate change. “I understand the desire to seek funding to mitigate the effects of climate change that has hurt our state in so many ways,” Scott, a moderate Republican in the largely blue state of Vermont, wrote in a letter to lawmakers. Scott, a popular governor who recently announced that he’s running for reelection to a fifth two-year term, has been at odds with the Democrat-controlled Legislature, which he has called out of balance. He was expected by environmental advocates to veto the bill but then allowed it to be enacted. Scott wrote to lawmakers that he was comforted that the Agency of Natural Resources is required to report back to the Legislature on the feasibility of the effort. Last July’s flooding from torrential rains inundated Vermont’s capital city of Montpelier, the nearby city Barre, some southern Vermont communities and ripped through homes and washed away roads around the rural state. Some saw it as the state’s worst natural disaster since a 1927 flood that killed dozens of people and caused widespread destruction. It took months for businesses — from restaurants to shops — to rebuild, losing out on their summer and even fall seasons. Several have just recently reopened while scores of homeowners were left with flood-ravaged homes heading into the cold season. Under the legislation, the Vermont state treasurer, in consultation with the Agency of Natural Resources, would provide a report by Jan. 15, 2026, on the total cost to Vermonters and the state from the emission of greenhouse gases from Jan. 1, 1995, to Dec. 31, 2024. The assessment would look at the affects on public health, natural resources, agriculture, economic development, housing and other areas. The state would use federal data to determine the amount of covered greenhouse gas emissions attributed to a fossil fuel company. It’s a polluter-pays model affecting companies engaged in the trade or business of extracting fossil fuel or refining crude oil attributable to more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions during the time period. The funds could be used by the state for such things as upgrading stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; relocating, elevating or retrofitting sewage treatment plants; and making energy efficient weatherization upgrades to public and private buildings. It’s modeled after the federal Superfund pollution cleanup program. “For too long, giant fossil fuel companies have knowingly lit the match of climate disruption without being required to do a thing to put out the fire,” Paul Burns, executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement. “Finally, maybe for the first time anywhere, Vermont is going to hold the companies most responsible for climate-driven floods, fires and heat waves financially accountable for a […]
Donald Trump lawyer Alina Habba said that despite Trump’s 34 felony convictions, “nothing will change” in his campaign for president this November.
In an interview with BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the attorney spoke about “corruption” in the judicial system and characterized Trump as a “victim.”
“Donald Trump is the victim of political selective prosecution,” Habba said.
Kuenssberg then asked if Trump would continue to run for president from a jail cell should his appeal fail, to which Habba replied, “He is running for president. Nothing will change there.”
As Kuenssberg pressed again, Habba said, “I recommend you find the latest polls in this country from the people that live in this country,” an apparent jab at Kuenssberg’s British nationality.
Trump awaits sentencing set for July 11. Read more at BBC.
North Korea sent its second wave of balloons filled with human waste, trash, and other refuse across the border into South Korea, the South Korean military said.
The latest round of flying stink bombs came within a week of the first launch, which saw more than 260 balloons filled with waste and excrement floating toward South Korea. On Motzoei Shabbos, officials found about 90 balloons filled with paper and plastic trash and cigarette butts around Seoul and the Gyeonggi province, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
There were no reports of injuries or damage to property, though the military advised people not to touch the objects and to beware of items falling from the sky.
Earlier in the week, Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong said the balloons were in retaliation for the anti-North Korean leaflets defectors in the south had sent across the border for years. She called the poop balloons “sincere presents” from the North. Read more.
The bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cows is prompting development of new, next-generation mRNA vaccines — akin to COVID-19 shots — that are being tested in both animals and people. Next month, the U.S. Agriculture Department is to begin testing a vaccine developed by University of Pennsylvania researchers by giving it to calves. The idea: If vaccinating cows protects dairy workers, that could mean fewer chances for the virus to jump into people and mutate in ways that could spur human-to-human spread. Meanwhile. the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been talking to manufacturers about possible mRNA flu vaccines for people that, if needed, could supplement millions of bird flu vaccine doses already in government hands. “If there’s a pandemic, there’s going to be a huge demand for vaccine,” said Richard Webby, a flu researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. “The more different (vaccine manufacturing) platforms that can respond to that, the better.” The bird flu virus has been spreading among more animal species in scores of countries since 2020. It was detected in U.S. dairy herds in March, although investigators think it may have been in cows since December. This week, the USDA announced it had been found in alpacas for the first time. At least three people — all workers at farms with infected cows — have been diagnosed with bird flu, although the illnesses were considered mild. But earlier versions of the same H5N1 flu virus have been highly lethal to humans in other parts of the world. Officials are taking steps to be prepared if the virus mutates in a way to make it more deadly or enables it to spread more easily from person to person. Traditionally, most flu vaccines are made via an egg-based manufacturing process that’s been used for more than 70 years. It involves injecting a candidate virus into fertilized chicken eggs, which are incubated for several days to allow the viruses to grow. Fluid is harvested from the eggs and is used as the basis for vaccines, with killed or weakened virus priming the body’s immune system. Rather than eggs — also vulnerable to bird flu-caused supply constraints — some flu vaccine is made in giant vats of cells. Officials say they already have two candidate vaccines for people that appear to be well-matched to the bird flu virus in U.S. dairy herds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used the circulating bird flu virus as the seed strain for them. The government has hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses in pre-filled syringes and vials that likely could go out in a matter of weeks, if needed, federal health officials say. They also say they have bulk antigen that could generate nearly 10 million more doses that could be filled, finished and distributed in a matter of a few months. CSL Seqirus, which manufactures cell-based flu vaccine, this week announced that the government hired it to fill and finish about 4.8 million of those doses. The work could be done by late summer, U.S. health officials said this week. But the production lines for flu vaccines are already working on this fall’s seasonal shots — work that would have to be interrupted to produce millions more doses of bird flu vaccine. So the government […]
Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir made it clear that they would resign from the government if the hostage release plan proposed by President Joe Biden on Friday was implemented.
Finance Minister Smotrich stated, “I spoke with the Prime Minister and made it clear to him that I will not be part of a government that agrees to the proposed outline and ends the war without the destruction of Hamas and the return of all the hostages. We will not agree to an end to the war before the destruction of Hamas, nor to a serious harm to the achievements of the war so far through the withdrawal of the IDF and the return of Gazans to the north of the Gaza Strip, and not for the wholesale release of terrorists who will return, God forbid, to murder Jews.”
He further expressed, “We demand the continuation of the fighting until the destruction of Hamas and the return of all the hostages, the creation of a completely different security reality in Gaza and Lebanon, the return of all residents to their homes in the north and south and a massive investment in the accelerated development of these parts of the country.”
Minister of National Security Ben Gvir commented that “the deal as was published today – means the end of the war and giving up on eliminating Hamas. This is a reckless deal, which constitutes a victory for terrorism and a security threat to the State of Israel. Agreeing to such a deal is not the absolute victory – but rather the absolute defeat. We will not allow for the war to end without the complete elimination of Hamas.”
He warned, “If the Prime Minister implements the reckless deal under the conditions published today, which mean the end of the war and the renouncing of Hamas, Otzma Yehudit will dissolve the government.”
Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid responded, “The threats of Ben Gvir and Smotrich are a neglect of national security, of the hostages and of the residents of the north and south. This is the worst and most reckless government in the country’s history. As far as they are concerned, let there be war here forever, zero responsibility, zero management, a complete failure.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
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