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American conservative commentator Candace Owens made several controversial and conspiratorial assertions during Wednesday’s episode of her show. Among her claims were that Stalin was Jewish, Freud was a Kabbalist and pedophile, and that Jews ethnically cleansed Germans after World War II.

Owens was joined by Tristan Tate, an American-British influencer known for his previous legal troubles, including charges of assault and human trafficking in the UK and Romania.

Throughout the episode, the pair delved into various topics, while also discussing Israel and Jews. Their conversation propagated several antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Owens alleged that Stalinists were “part of the Jewish cabal.” The word “cabal” is frequently used as an antisemitic slur.

Owens also suggested that the portrayal of Stalin and Lenin as antisemitic figures was a media fabrication. “For a very long time, the media tried to convince us that Stalin and Vladimir Lenin were antisemitic, and then I learned Stalin was married to a Jew,” Owens stated. She further claimed that Stalin was Jewish, citing a “friend who understands Georgian” as her source.

Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, in his biography Young Stalin, notes that Stalin received his education at an Orthodox Christian seminary. Neither of Stalin’s wives is documented to have Jewish ancestry, though Stalin’s daughter did marry a Jewish man.

Svetlana, Stalin’s daughter, recounted in her memoir Twenty Letters to a Friend that “the fact that Kapler was a Jew was what bothered [her father] most of all.” Despite this, Svetlana went on to marry another Jewish man, and Stalin notably did not attend the wedding.

Owens, with Tate’s agreement, also argued that Germans were subjected to ethnic cleansing after WWII, alleging that “so many of the people who executed those crimes [against Germans] were then protected by the state of Israel.”

She specifically mentioned Solomon Morel, a Polish NKVD concentration camp commander whom Israel refused to extradite to Poland. Owens claimed that her “German friends were privately thanking [her]” for acknowledging the atrocities committed against their ancestors, who were “slaughtered, murdered, or ethnically cleansed and pushed out.”

Owens also compared the defense of Israel by Jews to the defense of George Floyd by Black Americans, arguing that just because someone is Jewish or Black does not obligate them to defend certain actions.

“You’re not required to defend the stuff that Theodore Herzl and Netanyahu were up to simply because you’re Jewish,” she asserted.

She further remarked, “Many Jewish people that I grew up with have fallen victim to the same trap of BLM in Black America where they teach you traumas about your history in the classroom, and then you have this like fear this like slavery is going to come back,” implying that the fear of slavery or antisemitism is unfounded.

Tate interjected, stating that whenever he criticizes Israel, “people start [to say] oh, the Holocaust is going to come back.” He clarified, “No, I have no interest in the Holocaust coming back,” but reiterated his belief that “the state of Israel are war criminals,” while noting that he doesn’t harbor personal animosity toward Israelis, only their government.

Owens also accused Sigmund Freud of being a “cabalist,” alleging that his study of Kabbalah led to his supposed pedophilia. She claimed that Freud created psychoanalysis to justify inappropriate desires, saying, “No, they were being [assaulted] when they were 7 years old because that’s what you do, uh, when you worship the Kabbala.”

{Matzav.com}

Newly obtained security footage captures Israelis dousing a couch with lighter fluid on the balcony of a home in the Palestinian village of Jit before setting it ablaze and fleeing as the rest of the house catches fire. The footage also shows others torching a vehicle on the outskirts of the village during a violent rampage last night. Despite the severity of the attacks, Hebrew media reports that the only suspect arrested after the violence has already been released. Reports indicate that the suspect was not arrested for involvement in the attacks but for allegedly obstructing the work of Border Police near the illegal Israeli outpost of Havat Gilad. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)  

Kim Dotcom, founder of the once wildly popular file-sharing website Megaupload, lost a 12-year fight this week to halt his deportation from New Zealand to the U.S. on charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering. New Zealand’s Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith divulged Friday that he had decided Dotcom should be surrendered to the U.S. to face trial, capping — for now — a drawn-out legal fight. A date for the extradition was not set, and Goldsmith said Dotcom would be allowed “a short period of time to consider and take advice” on the decision. “Don’t worry I have a plan,” Dotcom posted on X this week. He did not elaborate, although a member of his legal team, Ira Rothken, wrote on the site that a bid for a judicial review — in which a New Zealand judge would be asked to evaluate Goldsmith’s decision — was being prepared. The saga stretches to the 2012 arrest of Dotcom in a dramatic raid on his Auckland mansion, along with other company officers. Prosecutors said Megaupload raked in at least $175 million — mainly from people who used the site to illegally download songs, television shows and movies — before the FBI shut it down earlier that year. Lawyers for the Finnish-German millionaire and the others arrested had argued that it was the users of the site, founded in 2005, who chose to pirate material, not its founders. But prosecutors argued the men were the architects of a vast criminal enterprise, with the Department of Justice describing it as the largest criminal copyright case in U.S. history. The men fought the order for years — lambasting the investigation and arrests — but in 2021 New Zealand’s Supreme Court ruled that Dotcom and two other men could be extradited. It remained up to the country’s Justice Minister to decide if the extradition should proceed. Three of Goldsmith’s predecessors did not announce a decision. Goldsmith was appointed justice minister in November after New Zealand’s government changed in an election. “I have received extensive advice from the Ministry of Justice on this matter” and considered all information carefully, Goldsmith said in his statement. “I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving,” German-born Dotcom wrote on X Thursday. He did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment. Two of his former business partners, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, pleaded guilty to charges against them in a New Zealand court in June 2023 and were sentenced to two and a half years in jail. In exchange, U.S. efforts to extradite them were dropped. Prosecutors had earlier abandoned their extradition bid against a fourth officer of the company, Finn Batato, who was arrested in New Zealand. Batato returned to Germany where he died from cancer in 2022. In 2015, Megaupload computer programmer Andrus Nomm, of Estonia, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit felony copyright infringement and was sentenced to one year and one day in U.S. federal prison. (AP)

It is with immense sadness that Matzav.com reports the petirah of R’ Yisroel Shalom Oshry z”l and R’ Mendy Weinberger z”l in a devastating car accident last night in Mountaindale, NY, in the Catskills.

R’ Yisroel Shalom, 27, was from the Belzer kehillah of Boro Park, and R’ Mendy, 28, was from the Satmar kehillah of Boro Park.

The two were traveling at around 10 p.m. when their vehicle flipped over on Church Road and tumbled into a ditch. The vehicle caught fire, and the two were trapped inside.

Hatzalah and Fire Department personnel responded rapidly, but by the time they arrived and the flames were extinguished, R’ Yisroel Shalom and R’ Mendy had succumbed.

The levayah of R’ Yisroel Shalom will take place this morning at the Belzer Bais Medrash at 1350-39th Street in Boro Park and then at the Belzer Bais Medrash at 12 Maple Terrace in Monsey. Kevurah will follow in the Belzer chelkah of the Har Shalom Bais Hachaim in Airmont.

The levayah and kevurah of R’ Mendy will take place at 11:30 a.m. today at the Bais Hachaim in Kiryas Yoel.

Umachah Hashem dimah me’al kol ponim.

{Matzav.com}

The Nickelsburger Rebbe, HaRav Mordechai Jungreis, pleads with everyone to start following vehicle and traffic laws, following an absolutely INSANE number of traffic accidents in the Catskills this summer.

Former U.S. President and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated on Thursday that he has not had any communication with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu since their meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate last month.

Trump made these remarks during a press briefing at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. When asked about a report suggesting that he had spoken with Netanyahu on Wednesday to discuss the Gaza hostage situation and a ceasefire agreement, Trump clarified, “The last time I saw him was at Mar-a-Lago, and he came with his wife and a large group of people…I expect I might be talking to him but I haven’t since then.”

Trump went on to say that Netanyahu “knows what he’s doing,” but mentioned that during their Mar-a-Lago discussion, he advised the Prime Minister to “Get this over with. You want to get it over with. Have victory. Get your victory. And get it over with. The killing has to stop.”

In response to the reports of a conversation between the two, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement on Thursday denying the claim: “Contrary to publications, the Prime Minister did not speak with former U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday.”

During the late July meeting, Trump expressed concern about the difficult situation with the hostages and emphasized the need for their immediate release.

Earlier in the month, while addressing the Republican National Convention, Trump urged Hamas to release the hostages before he potentially returns to office, warning them, “or you will be paying a very big price.”

{Matzav.com}

A woman in Alabama is suing JD Vance, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and a football coach for “6 gazillion dollars.” Let’s hope justice is served.

More evidence has emerged that Mexican authorities disposed of the bodies of dissidents in “death flights” during the country’s 1965-1990 “dirty war. ” Mexico’s governmental Truth Commission said in a report Friday that recollections by witnesses and documents leaked over the years described the chilling last moments of the victims. The executions were part of an effort by the Mexican government at the time to eliminate leftist social and guerrilla movements. The victims, who have not been identified or counted, were pulled one by one to a bench at a military airfield near Acapulco. They believed they were going to have their photographs taken, but were instead shot in the back of the head, and their bodies dumped by plane out in the Pacific ocean. According to testimony by Gustavo Tarín, who served in a military police unit at the time, the same pistol was used so often in the killings that soldiers came up with a nickname for it: “the sword of justice.” Tarín said that as many as 1,500 people may have been killed that way, though he provided no lists nor names of the victims. Some of the victims may have been dying, but not yet dead, when they were pushed out of the planes. Military aviation mechanic Margarito Monroy said he participated in 15 of the flights, and that female victims were sometimes offered release, or the release of their husbands, if they had sex with soldiers, though he never saw any of them released. The truth commission located log books for about 30 flights by one plane from the base between 1975 and 1979. And in a two-decade-old witness statement from a man who claimed to be an armed forces deserter, another 25 flights by another plane are mentioned. That statement, which had long been held in the archives of a now-deceased rights activist, included a list of 183 names of likely victims on the “death flights.” Several of those names match people who disappeared during the government counter-insurgency campaign. Unlike the better-known case of the “death flights” carried out by Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship, little is known about the ones carried out by Mexico, mainly in the 1970s, from a small airbase at Pie de la Cuesta, just west of Acapulco. During a 2012-2017 trial, survivors in Argentina testified that the flights took place at least weekly. The Argentine trial, at which 29 former officials were sentenced to life in prison, proved that the Argentine dictatorship used “death flights” as a systematic mode of extermination. Argentina’s junta is widely considered the most deadly of the military dictatorships that ruled much of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. Human rights groups estimate 30,000 were killed, many of whom disappeared without a trace. In Mexico, the less-widespread executions appeared to target small rural guerrilla movements in Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located. But a broad range of people were apparently swept up in the killings. The Mexican executions appeared a bit more rudimentary and less well-planned: fishermen in the area recalled seeing bodies wash up on shore, after which the military allegedly began placing them in sacks weighted down with rocks before tossing them into the ocean. The revelations were part of a 4,000-page report detailing everything from executions, torture, disappearances and forced displacement carried […]

A new Fox News poll released this week shows former President Donald Trump maintaining a narrow lead over Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris in national polling. Trump holds a slim 50 to 49 percent edge over Harris, a lead that falls within the poll’s margin of error. The result contrasts with other recent surveys, such as those from Emerson and Morning Consult, which have shown Harris ahead by 4 and 3 points, respectively. While the poll provides a boost for Trump amid a challenging campaign, the results were less favorable for his running mate, Senator JD Vance. Only 38 percent of respondents viewed Vance favorably, while 51 percent held an unfavorable opinion of him, placing him at a 13-point deficit in public perception. Trump, though ahead in the presidential matchup, also faces image challenges. His favorability rating sits at 47 percent, with 53 percent viewing him unfavorably, resulting in a 6-point deficit. Trump’s unfavorable numbers are among the highest in the poll, second only to President Joe Biden, who garnered a 61 percent unfavorability rating. Notably, 46 percent of respondents expressed “strong” disapproval of both Trump and Biden. Kamala Harris, on the other hand, is viewed slightly more favorably than her opponents, with a 48 percent favorability rating and a 51 percent unfavorable rating, putting her just 3 points underwater. Her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, fared better than most, achieving a net positive rating of 41 percent favorable versus 39 percent unfavorable. However, 16 percent of those surveyed indicated they had “never heard of” Walz, suggesting he remains a lesser-known figure on the national stage. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

At a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey yesterday, former President Donald Trump was asked by reporter Jake Turx why he believes G-d saved his life.

The reporter, whose full name is Avraham Yaakov Terkeltaub, is a correspondent for Ami Magazine and lives in Lakewood. NJ

Terkeltaub began by stating, “Thank you, President Trump. You’ve spoken very passionately about how God saved your life, and I’m wondering, have you put much thought into why God saved your life, as in, for what purpose has he been shielding and protecting you?”

The following is a transcript of Trump’s response, a video of which can be seen above.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: So I don’t know if you heard the question. You’ve spoken about God saving your life, that I’ve spoken passionately about it, and something happened because that was a miracle.

I never looked that way. The audience was massive, and it was in front of me. I never have the – that particular graph – that was a graph on – as you all know now that it’s very – I think everyone knows it very well, but it showed the great numbers on illegal immigration.

It was the lowest point we’ve ever had, and it was one that I used less than 20 percent of the time. It’s always at the end of the speech, not at the beginning of the speech. And it’s always on the left side, not the right side.

And yet, for some reason, I called it – it’s not on a teleprompter. I do things largely without a teleprompter, frankly, because it’s hard to hold an audience if you’re going to go for an hour and a half or two hours reading a script. And I just talked about it, and I moved to my right, turned sharply to my right, ping, and if I didn’t do that, I’m not here with you.

So yeah, God has something to do with it. It’s a miracle, and God had something to do with it. And maybe it’s – we want to save the world.

This world is going down. This world is going down. So it could be.

But I believe that. I believe that. My sons are very good shooters.

They’re like scratch golfers, better, relatively speaking, with shooters. Great shooters. And Eric and Don both told me, from 130 yards, I said, well, that’s pretty far away, isn’t it? They said, no, that’s like a one-foot putt with weapons like the one being used.

Plus, he was a good shooter. This guy was a good shooter. He went to the range and shot a lot, and he was supposed to be a pretty good shooter.

They said a bad shooter would hit the target almost 100 percent of the time.

Donald Trump is seeking to delay his sentencing for falsifying business records until after the November election, a move that would avoid the extraordinary scenario of a presidential candidate receiving a criminal punishment weeks before voters go to the polls.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was convicted of 34 felony counts in May, in a case involving hush money payments before the 2016 election.

His sentencing was already pushed back from July 11 to Sept. 18 so that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan could weigh a request by Trump’s defense lawyers to toss out the criminal conviction because of a July U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave presidents broad immunity for acts committed while they are in office.

Merchan has said he will rule on Sept. 16 on whether Trump’s conviction should stand. If it does, he is scheduled to sentence the former president two days later.

In a letter to Merchan dated Wednesday, Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote that the short turnaround does not give them adequate time to pursue appeals or other legal avenues. They also said the timeline set by Merchan means that the prosecution will probably file a sentencing memo before the judge’s immunity decision, even though there’s a chance the guilty verdict will get tossed out.

“The requested adjournment is also necessary to allow President Trump adequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options in response to any adverse ruling,” Blanche and Bove wrote, adding that a day “is an unreasonably short period of time” for Trump to begin appeals or other legal maneuvers if Merchan rules against him on immunity.

Trump, the first former president convicted of a crime, faces up to four years in jail in the New York case. Some experts say that as a first-time, nonviolent offender, he is unlikely to be incarcerated. Merchan has the option of delaying the imposition of any sentence, possibly until Trump’s appeal is completed. An appellate court could do the same.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office declined to comment Thursday.

Blanche and Bove have argued that much of the prosecution’s case relies on documents and testimony that should now be considered out of bounds given the July 1 Supreme Court ruling, which gave presidents broad immunity for official acts and said evidence related to official acts could not be used against a former president in court.

Prosecutors have said that the case is strong enough without those aspects to uphold the conviction.

(c) 2024, The Washington Post · Shayna Jacobs 

As conflict casts a shadow across the Middle East, people are getting rich in Dubai. The desert sheikdom’s economy is buzzing with tourism and construction as it positions itself as a safe haven in a region that’s resting on a knife’s edge following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. “Dubai is in a very unique position. We happen to be the net beneficiary of crisis in the region, for good or bad,” Zhann Jochinke, the chief operating officer of real estate consultancy Property Monitor, told The Associated Press. Dubai has a long history of indirectly benefiting from crises in the region. When the ultra-wealthy worry about turmoil, the city offers stability, low taxes and a friendly visa system. The current turmoil has situated Dubai to capitalize once again, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Demand is running red hot in Dubai’s real estate market, catapulting glitzy properties to record-breaking valuations. Not even historic flooding in April could dampen the bull market. State-backed Emaar Properties, whose name is splashed across Dubai’s skyline, announced that its development business made $8.1 billion in sales through the first half of the year, up from $5.2 billion over the same time period last year. Across the city, valuations for Dubai’s upscale villas have set a new record, increasing around 38% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to last year, according to real estate consultancy ValuStrat. The average price for a villa — the local term for any freestanding home — exceeded $2.7 million for the first time in a decade. Rises in premium apartments are close behind with locations in Palm Jumeirah, a man-made archipelago jutting out into the Persian Sea, already surpassing 2014 peaks. Tariq Shah, the head of sales at Pat & Co., a brokerage firm that deals in high-end properties, said the demand from his clientele seeking to buy has risen exponentially. “The demand for luxury is way above the expectation,” Shah told the AP. Meanwhile, Dubai International Airport — the world’s busiest for international travel — saw a record 44.9 million travelers in the first half of this year. Dubai plans to move operations to a nearly $35 billion new airport in the next decade. “We are heading for a forecast number for the balance of the year of 91.8 million passengers through DXB, which is again another record for us,” Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths told the AP. Some 9.3 million tourists visited the global hub through the first half of the year, beating pre-pandemic heights, according to research from the Dubai government-owned bank Emirates NBD. The city state’s population has grown from 3.2 million in 2018 to nearly 3.7 million in 2024, with an additional 1.1 million who temporarily live in the city or commute there for work each day. The hereditary monarchy seeks to increase Dubai’s population to 5.8 million by 2040. But some analysts are asking just how long the record-breaking upswing can last. Some warned that an oversupply of housing could eventually slow the market if demand does not keep pace. “From 2025 and 2026, there will be a vast new supply of new units that started construction back in 2021,” Tatjana Lescova, an analyst at S&P Global, told the AP. “It is by that time […]

Hezbollah has released a propaganda video showcasing an underground facility used to store and launch precision missiles. The facility, dubbed “Imad 4,” appears to be located in Lebanon. The highly edited video provides a glimpse into the secret facility, revealing rows of missiles and launching positions for the projectiles. The voice of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah can be heard in the video, boasting about the group’s advanced missile capabilities. The release of the video is seen as a provocative move by Hezbollah, aiming to showcase its military prowess and deter Israel. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

In a security cabinet meeting yesterday, senior security officials warned Israeli ministers of a potential assassination plot by Iran and Hezbollah. According to a report by Ynet, the officials cautioned that the groups may target high-ranking Israeli figures, including ministers, lawmakers, IDF officers, and senior officials in the Shin Bet and Mossad. The warning comes in the wake of the recent assassinations of Fuad Shukr in Beirut and Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, with intelligence officials saying that instead of launching traditional attacks with missiles and drones, Iran and Hezbollah may opt for targeted assassinations as a form of retaliation. The security officials emphasized the need for heightened vigilance and caution among Israeli officials, citing the potential threat to their safety and security. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

An alleged hack at a background check company grabbed headlines this week for potentially exposing billions of social security numbers. Don’t panic, though – this incident is par for the course as companies amass data on consumers, cybersecurity experts say.

The data in question appeared on hacker forums in April and contains millions of rows of data, some of which are authentic names and social security numbers, multiple cybersecurity researchers told The Washington Post. Still, the scale and severity of the alleged breach has been overstated in some reports, they said. It’s still unclear how much of the data is genuine and whether it all really came from hacking a company, as opposed to scraping publicly available sources.

Posters in hacking forums claimed responsibility for the breach and offered to sell or share the data, which they said included personal information from billions of people across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. While researchers have confirmed the authenticity of some data, the set is large enough to suggest some fake or reused data, security expert Troy Hunt told The Washington Post. A class-action lawsuit filed in August and first reported by Bloomberg Law accused the background check company National Public Data of not safeguarding personal information including names, addresses and social security numbers.

National Public Data and the Social Security Administration didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rob Shavell, CEO at consumer security company DeleteMe, said his team hasn’t seen signs that a wave of new stolen data is hitting online markets.

James E. Lee, chief operating officer at Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps consumers deal with fraud, said that there is “nothing new” about this particular data haul and that SSNs already circulate online.

“The steps you need to take today are the steps you needed to be taking for years,” Lee said.

– – –

Freeze your credit

A credit freeze blocks any new lines of credit, so a bad actor couldn’t open new cards or accounts in your name. You can initiate a freeze without impacting your credit score. Just visit the websites of the three major credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You might have to scroll down the page or click on one of the menu tabs at the top to find a “manage freeze” or “add a freeze” button. You’ll fill out a form and might get asked to set up an account of verify your identity – it this case go ahead and do so.

You can pause or remove the freeze at will by going back to the website or by contacting the reporting agency by phone or mail.

– – –

Turn on two-factor authentication

This is the thing that sends you a text message with a code as you log in. “Two factor” just means you need to authenticate your identity in multiple ways before accessing an account.

Turning on two-factor authentication – either when you set up an account or later in the settings – is one of the best and easiest ways to keep accounts secure, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps consumers deal with fraud. Still, maybe people skip this step. Always say “yes” to two-factor authentication, whether that’s through text messages, emails or a stand-alone authenticator app that asks “is that you?” every time you sign in.

If you haven’t set up two-factor authentication, start with your most sensitive accounts such as banking and health care, Shavell said.

– – –

Consider dark web monitoring

Data brokers collect details about individuals to build profiles they sell to advertisers and even law enforcement. If your Social Security number turned up in a broker’s database, it would be hard to hunt down on your own. You can sign up for a service that monitors the web for your personal info and sends removal requests on your behalf.

– – –

Revisit your password hygiene

It’s 2024, and we’re not using the same password for multiple websites anymore. Each account you own should have a long, distinct password containing a mix of letters, numbers and special characters.

Worried about remembering all those? Get a password manager such as DashLane or 1Password, which automatically generate secure passwords and autofill them next time you log in. (Both of these products cost about the same as a Netflix subscription, but Apple and Google have their own free password managers that come with your operating system.)

If you’re still refusing to use a password manager, try to keep your passwords free of personal information such as your pet’s name or your birthday – those make it easier for bad actors to guess, said Ginny Fahs, director of research and development at consumer advocacy nonprofit Consumer Reports.

– – –

Don’t forget about visibility

If you don’t mind making your social media accounts private, doing so can cut down on the personal information criminals can access. A bunch of public Facebook posts, for instance, could make it easier for a hacker to impersonate you in a phishing attack targeting one of your friends or family members. Don’t forget to check your privacy settings in apps such as Venmo and YouTube as well. Just last month, reporters at Wired found that the public Venmo transactions of vice-presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) provided a glimpse into the politician’s social connections.

– – –

Delete accounts you don’t use

Don’t just abandon accounts you don’t use any more – go ahead and delete them. It reduces the amount of personal info you have sitting online, such as an old Myspace account, and in some cases prevents companies from sharing or selling your data down the line.

“If you’re no longer using that site, there’s no reason for that company to have your information,” Fahs said.

In many cases, deleting your profile doesn’t mean the company has deleted the data it stores about you. But some states have privacy laws that require companies to honor a deletion request and purge your information from its servers. Consumer Reports made a tool called Permission Slip that lets you send multiple data deletion requests in one place.

(c) 2024, The Washington Post · Tatum Hunter 

{Matzav.com}

HYIn a bid to avoid disrupting ongoing negotiations for a potential hostage deal in Qatar, Hezbollah may postpone its expected retaliatory attack on Israel, a source close to the group told The Washington Post. Hezbollah had previously vowed to avenge the killing of its high-ranking military leader, Fuad Shukr, while Iran has pledged retaliation for the Israeli assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Despite this, negotiations in Qatar, which began on Thursday, have led Hezbollah to believe that immediate retaliation is not necessary. “Hezbollah will not launch its retaliation during the Qatar talks because the party does not want to be held accountable for disrupting the talks or a potential deal,” the source said. There are rising concerns that Hezbollah and Iran might coordinate a joint response to the Israeli actions. However, Western and regional countries are urging restraint, hoping to avoid further escalation that could trigger a wider Middle Eastern conflict. The potential hostage deal is seen as crucial to avoiding such an outcome, with many linking a delay in Hezbollah’s response to progress in the negotiations. Hezbollah has insisted, however, that its retaliation for Shukr’s assassination would not be tied to any ceasefire agreement related to the Gaza conflict. The hostage negotiations have drawn the involvement of high-level officials, including CIA Director William J. Burns and White House Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk on the U.S. side, and Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar and Mossad Director David Barnea from Israel. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egyptian Intelligence Chief Abbas Kamel are also playing significant roles in the talks. White House Spokesperson John Kirby said the talks are making progress, with only a few remaining hurdles left to clear. “The gaps can be closed,” Kirby said on Thursday. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he thinks he’s “entitled to personal attacks” on his Democratic rival, adding he’s “very angry” at Vice President Kamala Harris and questioning her intelligence. Trump was asked during a news conference whether his campaign needs more discipline as he faces a Democratic ticket newly energized since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the party’s presidential candidate. “As far as the personal attacks, I’m very angry at her because of what she’s done to the country. I’m very angry at her that she would weaponize the justice system against me and other people, very angry at her. I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” Trump said at his New Jersey golf club, where he invited reporters in his quest to saddle Harris with Biden’s unpopular economic record. “I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence and I think she’ll be a terrible president,” he added. Trump also took issue with Democrats branding him and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as “weird.” Harris is “weird in her policy,” he said. Trump stuck close to his scripted economic message for more than half an hour, reading from a binder in front of him. Later, he veered into familiar stories he enjoys telling at his rallies. A day earlier, he had struggled to make a sustained case for his economic policies during a meandering speech that his campaign had billed as a major policy address. “Kamala Harris is a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world, frankly,” Trump told reporters. Trump was flanked by popular grocery store items, including coffee, breakfast cereals and pastries, laid out on tables as he highlighted the cost of everything from food to car insurance to housing. Posters showed the increase of prices for grocery staples. At one point, as Trump talked about the 2020 election he lost, he noticed a box of cereal. “I haven’t seen Cheerios in a long time,” Trump said. “I’m going to take them back to my cottage.” As he turned to walk back inside, Trump did not respond to shouted questions about when he last went grocery shopping. The event came one day after the Labor Department announced year-over-year inflation had reached its lowest level in more than three years in July — the latest sign that the worst price spike in four decades is fading. But consumers are still feeling the impact of higher prices — something Trump’s campaign is banking on to motivate voters this fall. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that Americans are more likely to trust Trump over Harris when it comes to handling the economy and immigration, issues he has put at the center of his case for returning to the White House. Harris is planning her own economic policy speech Friday in North Carolina, promising to push for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries. Trump predicted he would beat Harris by more that he would have beaten Biden by “once she’s exposed.” “People don’t know who she is,” Trump said. A small crowd of Trump supporters watched his news conference from the periphery, occasionally cheering him on. But without a crowd of thousands to please with red meat attacks on […]

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his campaign were served grand jury subpoenas last month as part of an ongoing corruption probe, the New York Times first reported Thursday.

The investigation, which was first launched in 2023, has seen FBI investigators raid the home of his top fundraiser and confiscate his phone and iPad. Investigators are reportedly also looking into ties between Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign and the government of Turkey—including alleged “straw donor” contributions from a Turkish-backed construction firm. The latest round of three subpoenas targeted documents, text messages, and other communications from Adams to City Hall and his election committee, according to the Times.

Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York have not commented on the ongoing investigation.

“As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has been clear over the last nine months that he will cooperate with any investigation underway,” Fabien Levy, the mayor’s spokesperson, told CNN in a statement. “Nothing has changed. He expects everyone to cooperate to swiftly bring this investigation to a close.” Read more at The New York Times.

Thousands of people in northern Japan were ordered to evacuate Friday because of the risk of flooding and mudslides from a powerful typhoon approaching in the Pacific Ocean. Flights and trains in the Tokyo area were canceled as warnings were issued for strong winds and heavy rainfall from Typhoon Ampil, expected to reach waters near Tokyo in the evening and then continue north, bringing stormy conditions to the northern Kanto and Tohoku regions on Saturday. It had sustained winds of 162 kph (101 mph) with higher gusts Friday morning and was moving north at 15 kph (9.3 mph), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Ampil was not expected to make landfall and could weaken to a tropical storm by Sunday. Power was out in more than 5,000 households, mostly in coastal Chiba and Ibaraki Prefectures, east of Tokyo, but also in Saitama to the north. An evacuation order was sent to the more than 320,000 residents of the city of Iwaki in Fukushima prefecture. More than 30 places were offered as safe locations to stay, including school gymnasiums and community centers. Evacuation warnings were also sent to at-risk areas in the cities of Asahi and Mobarashi in Chiba. Ampil was expected to reach the waters off Chiba by Friday evening. Tokyo’s Disneyland, usually open until 9 p.m., closed at 3 p.m. because of the typhoon. Yamato Transport, which makes Amazon and other deliveries in Japan, said no deliveries would be made in Tokyo and nearby affected areas on Friday and Saturday. Shinkansen bullet trains running between Tokyo and Nagoya were halted for the entire day, a common response to typhoons. Bullet trains serving northeastern Japan and some local Tokyo trains were halted or switched to a slower schedule. A decision will be made early Saturday on whether trains will start running again as usual, the railway company said. Dozens of departing and arriving flights were canceled at Tokyo’s two airports, Haneda and Narita, as well as at Kansai, Osaka and Chubu airports. The flight cancellations affected about 90,000 people, according to Japanese media reports. Airports and train stations had been packed Thursday with people seeking to avoid travel disruptions from the typhoon. Friday was drizzly and windy in Tokyo. Traffic and crowds on the streets were sparse, mostly because of the Obon summer holiday period, not just the weather. Stores remained open. Officials warned people to stay away from rivers and beaches and be wary of powerful winds. “We foresee extremely fierce winds and extremely fierce seas,” said Shuichi Tachihara, the meteorological agency’s chief forecaster. Japanese TV broadcasts showed residents of the island of Hachijojima boarding up windows. Ampil moved past the Hachijo group of islands south of Tokyo by midday as it headed northward. (AP)

The Secret Service has approved a new security plan that will allow former President Donald Trump to use bulletproof glass while speaking at outdoor rallies, sources first confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.

This method of security is typically reserved only for sitting presidents and vice presidents. The specialized glass is sourced through the Department of Defense.

“Former presidents and candidates don’t normally get bulletproof glass or support from DoD,” a Secret Service source told the Washington Post. “This glass needs to be brought in on trucks and vans.” The security ramp up comes just over one month after a gunman opened fire at the former president while he was speaking at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump, whose large, outdoor gatherings have become a hallmark of his three campaigns for the presidency, has not held an event outdoors since then. Read more at ABC News.