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A mentally ill man who killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 was convicted Monday of murder and faces life in prison. Defense attorneys did not dispute that Ahmad Alissa, who has schizophrenia, fatally shot 10 people including a police officer in the college town of Boulder. But he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with the defense arguing he couldn’t tell right from wrong at the time of the attack. In addition to 10 counts of first-degree murder, the jury found Alissa guilty on 38 charges of attempted murder, one count of assault, and six counts of possessing illegal, large-capacity magazines. First degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence in Colorado. Sentencing in the case was due to occur later Monday, during which victims and family were expected to address the court. Alissa did not visibly react as the judge began reciting the guilty verdicts against him. He sat at a table with his attorneys and appeared to trade notes with members of the defense team, speaking quietly at times with one of his attorneys. Judge Ingrid Bakke had warned against any outbursts. There were some tears and restrained crying on the victims’ side of the courtroom as the murder convictions were read. The courtroom was packed largely with victims’ families and police officers, including those who were shot at by Alissa. Several members of Alissa’s family sat just behind him. Nikolena Stanisic, whose only sibling, Neven, was killed, recalled going out to ice cream with her brother the night before he was shot and how he would sometimes help her with her bills. She told the court that their household — once filled with talk and laughter — is now mostly silent. “To the person that’s done this, we hope that you suffer for the rest of your life. You are a coward,” Stanisic said. “I hope this haunts the defendant until the end of time. The defendant deserves the absolute worse.” Alissa started shooting immediately after getting out of his car in a King Soopers store parking lot in March 2021. He killed most of the victims in just over a minute and surrendered after an officer shot him in the leg. Prosecutors had to prove Alissa was sane. They argued he didn’t fire randomly and showed an ability to make decisions by pursuing people who were running and trying to hide from him. He twice passed by a 91-year-old man who continued to shop, unaware of the shooting. He came armed with steel-piercing bullets and illegal magazines that can hold 30 rounds of ammunition, which prosecutors said showed he took deliberate steps to make the attack as deadly as possible. Several members of Alissa’s family, who immigrated to the United States from Syria, testified that he had become withdrawn and spoke less a few years before the shooting. He later began acting paranoid and showed signs of hearing voices, they said, and his condition worsened after he got COVID-19 in late 2020. Alissa was diagnosed with schizophrenia after the attack and experts said the behaviors described by relatives are consistent with the onset of the disease. State forensic psychologists who evaluated Alissa concluded he was sane during the shooting. The defense did not have to provide any evidence in the case and did […]

Donald Trump Jr. slammed the Biden DOJ on Monday for releasing a letter written by would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh that promised a reward for anyone who takes out former President Donald Trump.

“For the life of me, I do not understand why the Kamala-Biden DOJ is publicly releasing a letter from Ryan Wesley Routh announcing a $150,000 bounty on my dad’s head,” Donald Trump Jr. said. “They’re putting his life even more at risk with this reckless decision.”

 

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” Routh allegedly wrote in the letter, which the Justice Department released during Routh’s pretrial detention hearing Monday. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”

Trump Jr. shared similar remarks in a post on X.

“WTF!? Why is Kamala’s DOJ publicizing Ryan Wesley Routh putting a bounty on my dad’s head???”

{Matzav.com}

 

 

Data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reveals a significant rise in the number of Israelis leaving the country permanently, according to a report from Channel 13. The increase comes amid the ongoing war in Gaza, heightened tensions with Hezbollah on the northern border, and the aftermath of last year’s civil unrest over the government’s judicial overhaul plan. In 2021, around 31,000 Israelis left the country, with 29,000 returning. The numbers rose in 2022, with 38,000 departing and 23,000 returning. In 2023, the trend accelerated sharply, with 55,300 Israelis emigrating and only 27,000 coming back, marking a jump of over 50% compared to the previous year. Unverified data from the first half of 2024 suggests that 40,400 more Israelis have left, according to Channel 13. Israeli journalist Matan Hodorov commented that the spike may partly be due to a change in the definition of emigration. Previously, emigration was defined as staying abroad for at least a year, but the new standard considers anyone who spends at least 275 days outside the country in a one-year period. Hodorov also pointed out that the sharp rise in 2023 could be more closely tied to political unrest over the judicial overhaul rather than the ongoing war. “Either way, the trend is not changing but is currently increasing,” he said, noting that more married and educated Israelis, including doctors, researchers, programmers, and engineers, are leaving the country. “This is an initial confirmation of the prevailing feeling among young people from the middle class, that many around us are leaving,” Hodorov wrote. He also warned that the emigration of highly skilled professionals could have a damaging effect on Israel’s GDP and tax revenues. In July, a separate report from Channel 12 cited CBS data showing that Israeli emigration spiked after Hamas’s October 7 massacre and the subsequent outbreak of war in Gaza, though the numbers reportedly stabilized in the following months. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Georgia is not only a battleground state with an influential role in choosing the next president, but it is also a beautiful place to live with wonderful natural vistas from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the north down to the islands, estuaries, and beaches by the Atlantic Ocean. There is no shortage of photographs bearing witness to its beauty so Donald Trump’s campaign must have had some other reason for using images of the wrong Georgia in Facebook ads urging potential voters to check their voter registration status.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the meadowed mountain range providing the backdrop to the Trump ad was taken from Shutterstock’s photo library and appears to be in the former Soviet republic, a very different type of battleground where, no doubt, the U.S. would love to win hearts and minds, but are not so bothered about votes. Read more at Raw Story.

Sen. John Fetterman voiced strong support for Israel’s handling of terror groups in a Sunday interview with NBC News, distancing himself from criticism leveled by Sen. Bernie Sanders regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions in the region. During the interview on Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker played a clip of Sanders accusing Netanyahu of escalating tensions with neighboring hostile groups to maintain his hold on power. Sanders had said, “Every time a deal appears close, Netanyahu moves the goalposts, introducing new demands and torpedoing the deal. It is clear to me that Netanyahu is prolonging the war in order to cling to power.” When asked if he agreed with Sanders’s assessment, Fetterman firmly disagreed. “No, not at all, and I want to be very clear,” Fetterman responded. “I thought what Israel chose to do about blowing up the pagers and then the walkie-talkies, and then targeting and eliminating membership and leadership of Hezbollah—I absolutely support that, and in fact, if anything, I love it.” Fetterman went on to praise the IDF for their operations in Lebanon, where they reportedly used creative tactics to eliminate Hezbollah operatives. “Israel demonstrated that they will not allow terrorists to avoid accountability, and I fully support that,” Fetterman added. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

With its larger-than-usual half-point cut to its key interest rate last week, the Federal Reserve underscored its belief that it’s all but conquered inflation after three long years. The public at large? Not so much. Consumer surveys, including one released Friday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, show that most Americans remain unhappy with the economy, still bruised by an inflation rate that hit a four-decade high two years ago as the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession. Yet in the view of some economists, the shift toward steadily lower borrowing rates could eventually boost consumer sentiment. Inflation has sunk for more than two years and is nearly back down to the Fed’s 2% target. Though that means overall prices are still rising, they’re doing so much more slowly. The costs of some high-profile consumer goods, from used cars to grocery prices, have actually been falling. Economic history suggests that a low, stable inflation rate, with prices rising only gradually, eventually leads Americans to adapt to higher price levels. One favorable factor is that average incomes are now rising faster than prices, allowing more households to afford necessities. The issue remains a heated one in the political campaign. Seeking to capitalize on public discontent, former President Donald Trump has blamed the Biden-Harris administration’s policies for having caused inflation to spike. Yet Friday’s AP poll found that voters are now roughly split on who they think would better handle the economy, Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris. Back in June, an AP poll had found that six in 10 disapproved of President Joe Biden’s economic record. That is a sign that, at least seen through a political prism, Americans’ economic views have begun to brighten. Powell also provided a colloquial definition of the Fed’s mandate to seek “price stability.” “A good definition of price stability,” he said, “is that people in their daily decisions, they’re not thinking about inflation. That’s where everyone wants to be — back to, ‘What’s inflation?’ Just keep it low, keep it stable.” Powell did not suggest that the Fed had fully succeeded in that goal. He acknowledged that consumers are still “experiencing high prices, as opposed to high inflation,” which he said is “painful.” But, he added, “I think we’ve made real progress.” Sofia Baig, an economist at the polling firm Morning Consult, noted that Americans still see high prices as a financial burden. When people think about inflation, she said, they are likely thinking about how much lower prices were two or four years earlier. Fed officials and economists, by contrast, typically measure success in shorter-term durations — prices compared with a year ago, six months ago, even one month ago. Over time, Baig said, consumers typically adjust to higher prices, particularly as their incomes catch up. “You hear your grandparents talking about a bottle of Coke costing some egregiously low amount,” she said. “So inflation has always been happening, but, at a certain point you kind of take in the new prices and get used to it.” Some of the gloom surrounding the economy has likely been heightened by the political attacks Trump and his Republican allies have waged for three years against the Biden-Harris administration, focused relentlessly on inflation. Many economists have noted that high inflation was a global phenomenon […]

Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy has ordered an immediate investigation after video footage surfaced showing police officers using batons to brutally beat Chareidi protesters in Beit Shemesh. The demonstrators were protesting against an event being held at a local community center. In a statement, Levy said, “If it turns out during the inspection that the police officers acted illegally, they will be dealt with severely.” The incident, which took place earlier this evening, has sparked outrage after the footage showed officers forcefully dispersing the protesters. The investigation will determine whether the officers involved acted within the bounds of the law or used excessive force during the protest. The case has drawn attention to the methods used by law enforcement in dealing with protests, particularly within the Chareidi community. Further details are expected to emerge as the investigation unfolds. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

New Jersey’s interpretation of a U.S. Department of Education rule, which went into effect on March 11 and makes it harder for employers to consider workers independent contractors, is threatening the way that Jewish New Jerseyans stay informed about what is going on in their community and, more broadly, in the nation and the world.

For nearly 200 years, those who deliver newspapers—a cornerstone of U.S. democracy—have operated as independent contractors. But New Jersey’s interpretation of the Biden administration’s new rule, which has a six-part test to determine employment status, treats part-time delivery people as full-time staff who are dependent on their employer, rather than in business for themselves.

The change presents “a crisis” for newspapers in the state “that threatens the existence of some and substantial job losses at others,” Richard Vezza, government affairs chairman of the New Jersey Press Association and former The Star-Ledger editor and publisher, wrote in an op-ed.

Under the new regulations, papers in the state have to make difficult decisions, including whether to increase subscription prices, lay off staff or both. “We’ve estimated the increased cost to be between 86% to 128%—a crushing financial blow,” Vezza wrote.

New York, California and other states brought legislation to define whether workers like Uber drivers are independent contractors, although many work 40 hours or more weekly. Both also carved out exceptions for newspaper delivery services. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, and his Labor Department have not pursued such exceptions.

Moshe Kinderlehrer, the co-founder and co-publisher of the New Jersey Jewish Link, told JNS that his weekly, which serves the growing Jewish communities in and around Bergen County, faces an additional challenge. The Jewish Link, which does not sell subscriptions, delivers the paper to readers for free.

That leaves little to no room for Kinderlehrer to pass the added costs, which he noted are substantial, along to others, threatening the paper’s longevity.

In 2022, he received a call from the lobbying head of the association of New Jersey publishers, informing him about the state’s interpretation of the new federal rule. “I was horrified by what I was being told,” he told JNS.

“What they told me was my rate would go from, let’s say, 50 cents per copy to close to 80 cents a copy,” Kinderlehrer said. “I want you to understand that’s not a small number. I’m delivering 10,000 papers. At 50 cents a copy, that’s $5,000 a week. At 80 cents a copy, that’s huge. That’s crushing.” (JNS sought comment from the New Jersey governor’s office, the president of the state Senate and the state’s Labor Department.)

Although Kinderlehrer told JNS that he is running a profitable paper, “I’m not printing money,” he said.

Kinderlehrer started the Jewish Link of Bergen County in 2013. Having seen that the growing Jewish population in the Five Towns in southwestern Nassau County, N.Y., could support three weekly Jewish papers, he figured Bergen County could handle one.

“The question was, how in the world do I get it to people?” he told JNS. “I came out of the fundraising world, and I had been collecting for years every single shul and school address list that I could get my hands on. I also had the whole Yeshiva University undergraduate alumni list.”

“So basically, I had a mailing list,” he told JNS.

Kinderlehrer didn’t think the Five Towns method of dropping papers in stores and synagogues would work in Bergen County, where that culture didn’t yet exist. So he contracted with a company called PCF, which until the early 1980s served as the circulation department for The New York Times.

The Times spun PCF off into its own department so it could handle other publications as well, and the company went national, with a vast portfolio in the northeast part of the country.

When he first opened the paper, Kinderlehrer was delivering about 5,000 copies per week, at a charge of 35 cents per paper.

Since then, the publication has grown; it now has more than 20,000 copies printed per week, which are sent off to some 10,000 addresses at a delivery cost of about 50 to 55 cents per copy, which Kinderlehrer pays.

His advertisers are drawn to the idea of a free newspaper, which is readily available to anyone who wants a copy. He estimates that the paper is about evenly split between news and paid content.

There was hope in 2022 when legislation introduced in the state Senate sought to carve out an exception to the gig economy laws for newspaper delivery companies. But the legislation died in committee.

Kinderleher told JNS that he is treating 2024 as a test under the new rules.

“I want to see if I could still survive and make a profit with the crazy-high home delivery costs right now. I’m not so happy with the numbers, and I’m going to have to make changes for 2025,” he said. “I’m under threat of having to completely revamp my distribution.”

That includes potentially placing paper boxes on every busy corner that he can in his distribution area.

“I’m looking at almost every possible way to do this. I also think about starting my own home delivery company, which I really don’t want to do,” he said. “I didn’t get into this business to do home delivery.”

(JNS)

The Islamic resistance in Iraq releases a video claiming to have launched Arfad drones towards a target in the Golan.

In a tense exchange on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer sidestepped questions from host Jake Tapper about whether Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s comments accusing Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel of bias were anti-Semitic. The controversy arose after Nessel charged nearly a dozen individuals involved in pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Michigan. The charges included attempted ethnic intimidation and assaulting or obstructing a police officer. Rep. Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, criticized Nessel’s actions, saying, “It seems that the Attorney General decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.” Nessel, who is Jewish, responded, calling Tlaib’s remarks anti-Semitic: “Rashida Tlaib should not use my religion to imply I cannot perform my job fairly as Attorney General. It’s anti-Semitic and wrong.” Tapper pressed Whitmer, asking, “Do you think Tlaib’s suggestion that Nessel’s office is biased was anti-Semitic?” Whitmer gave a vague response, replying, “All I can say is that I know that our Jewish community is in pain, as is our Palestinian and Muslim and Arab communities in Michigan. I know that seeing the incredible toll that this war has taken on both communities has been really, really challenging and difficult, and my heart breaks for so many. But as governor, my job is to make sure that both these communities are protected and respected under the law in Michigan, and that’s exactly what I’m going to stay focused on.” Refusing to let the issue drop, Tapper pressed further, asking if Tlaib’s accusation that Nessel’s actions were influenced by her Jewish identity had any merit. “That’s quite an accusation. Do you think it’s true?” Whitmer again deflected, saying, “Like I said, Jake, I’m not going to get in the middle of this argument that they’re having. I can just say this: We do want to make sure that students are safe on our campuses, and we recognize that every person has the right to make their statement about how they feel about an issue, a right to speak out. And I’m going to use every lever of mine to ensure that both are true.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Israeli Cabinet approved declaring an emergency for the entire country on Monday night amid escalating cross-border rocket, missile and drone attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon, local media reported.

A “Special Situation on the Home Front,” which the Cabinet reportedly approved until Monday, Sept. 30, authorizes the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command to impose restrictions on gatherings and civilian movement throughout the Jewish state, the Kan News broadcaster said.

The declaration does not affect citizens directly, with the Home Front Command defensive guidelines remaining unchanged as of Monday night, but enables the military to decide on new restrictions quickly.

The decision, which came at the proposal of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, was taken against the threat of a large-scale Hezbollah attack targeting all areas of the country, according to the Kan News report.

Earlier on Monday night, an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh—the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut—targeted Ali Karaki, the terror organization’s No. 3 man. It was not immediately clear if he was killed or wounded.

Karaki heads Hezbollah’s southern front, which is responsible for the Iranian-backed terrorist army’s cross-border attacks on Israel. He was said to have been chosen to succeed Ibrahim Aqil, Hezbollah’s top “military” commander, who was assassinated by Israel on Friday.

Monday night’s aerial attack marked the fourth time that Israeli Air Force jets struck the Lebanese capital since Hezbollah joined the war against the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the wake of Oct. 7.

Following Monday’s IAF strike in Beirut, air-raid sirens sounded across northern Israel, warning of renewed Hezbollah rocket and missile fire.

The Magen David Adom medical emergency response group said that a 23-year-old man was evacuated to Chaifa’s Rambam Medical Center in moderate condition after he was hit by shrapnel in the Upper Galil.

Hezbollah has attacked Israel nearly daily since Oct. 8, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 40 people and caused widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the violence.

Also on Monday, a terrorist rocket from Lebanon hit just outside the Israeli community of Peduel, located just east of the security barrier in northern Shomron and less than 10 miles from Israel’s central region.

The projectile, believed to have been aimed at the Tel Aviv area, traveled at least 100 kilometers (62 miles), the Ynet news outlet said.

(JNS)

The United States is deploying additional troops to the Middle East amid heightened tensions in the region, the Pentagon announced on Monday.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, would not provide any details to the Associated Press about how many additional forces Washington would send or what their mission would be, the wire reported.

“In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region,” Ryder told the AP. “For operational security reasons, I’m not going to comment on or provide specifics.”

The United States currently has some 40,000 troops in the region, according to the Pentagon. On Monday, the aircraft carrier USS Truman, two destroyers and a cruiser departed from Norfolk, Va., towards the Mediterranean for a scheduled deployment.

The new troop increase is the latest indication that the United States is concerned about a military escalation in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Israel and Lebanon.

On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces struck more than 1,000 targets across Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah from firing rockets across the border.

The U.S. State Department updated its travel advice for Lebanon on Saturday to urge U.S. citizens to depart the country while commercial flights remain available. The United States has advised Americans to not travel to Lebanon since July.

In 2022, the State Department estimated that some 86,000 Americans live in Lebanon.

(JNS)

The IDF recently retrieved several bodies from Gaza and conducted DNA tests to determine if any of them matched Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, according to a report by Channel 12. All the tests came back negative, confirming that none of the bodies belonged to Sinwar. This development comes amid growing, but unsubstantiated, speculation that Sinwar may have been killed in recent weeks. The rumors stem primarily from the fact that the Hamas leader has been incommunicado for an extended period, though this is not unprecedented during the ongoing war. Sinwar has gone silent for extended periods before, fueling similar rumors. As of now, there is no confirmed information regarding Sinwar’s whereabouts or status. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A hurricane, which will be named Helene, is expected to form and rapidly intensify this week in the Gulf of Mexico before hitting Florida on Thursday or early Friday. Over the weekend, risks increased of a major hurricane landfall in the state – with the greatest likelihood of direct impacts currently in Florida’s Big Bend and Panhandle areas.

The system is currently located east of the Yucatán Peninsula in the northwestern Caribbean and is moving over extremely warm waters. It’s expected to develop into a named storm by Tuesday afternoon before entering the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday.

In addition to inhabitants of the Big Bend and Panhandle areas, residents from Fort Myers, Fla., to Gulfport and Biloxi in Mississippi should remain on alert. There is a chance the storm may trend east of model guidance and bring severe winds and storm surge to Tampa.

The National Hurricane Center is warning of “increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and damaging hurricane-force winds” along the northeastern Gulf Coast, including Florida’s Panhandle and west coast.

Hurricane watches are likely to be posted along the Gulf Coast by late Monday or early Tuesday, and warnings will be issued by early Wednesday. Evacuations will probably begin very early Wednesday – which will mark the final 36 to 48 hours before landfall.

Helene will be the eighth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, and the fourth to make landfall in the United States. Hurricane Beryl struck south of Houston as a high-end Category 1 on July 8, and Debby hit the Big Bend of Florida as a Category 1 in early August. Then Category 2 Francine made landfall southeast of New Orleans on Sept. 12.

Unless there are dramatic changes in modeling before landfall, soon-to-be-Helene could be the strongest storm to strike the United States in the 2024 season.

– – –

Where is the system now, and when could it become a named storm?

As of late morning Monday, the roiling mass of thunderstorms that will become Helene was 350 miles south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. It’s over the northwestern Caribbean and is producing an impressive amount of downpour and thunderstorm activity. The system, with peak winds of 30 mph, is moving nearly due north at 6 mph.

It was beginning to look like the system was developing a low-level center, which is a step in the direction of earning a name. But it appeared as though the low-level center and mid-level circulation had not linked up yet. Once they do, faster strengthening and the construction of an inner core will follow.

It’s likely the storm will be officially designated as Helene very late Monday or, more likely, early Tuesday.

– – –

Where will this storm most likely go? When will it make landfall?

Helene will either thread the gap up the Yucatán Channel – or the open ocean between Cancún and western Cuba – or pass over western Cuba. If it stays over the open ocean, it will have a subtle head start on intensifying. Otherwise, brief land interaction over western Cuba might temporarily disrupt its strengthening – but as Hurricane Ian showed in September 2022, major hurricanes can still come about after a circulation passes over Cuba.

Then it will have about 48 hours over the Gulf of Mexico to strengthen – all the while being tugged northward ahead of an approaching upper-level low pressure system. That low will also help high-altitude air to fan away from Helene, which in turn will create a vacuum effect in the upper atmosphere that pulls warm, moist air upward. That will serve to help Helene’s strengthening, and rapid intensification is probable – particularly as the system takes advantage of extremely warm sea surface temperatures and calm winds in the upper atmosphere.

“The environmental and oceanic conditions appear favorable for significant strengthening,” the Hurricane Center wrote. It said that one of its statistical tools indicate that there is 95 percent chance that the system’s peak winds will increase at least 75 mph in the next 72 hours.

As of now, it appears the storm will make landfall late Thursday. While the greatest risk is in the Big Bend of Florida, there’s a chance the approaching low pressure system could shift it closer eastward toward Tampa. For now, the biggest risk is between Apalachicola and Cedar Key, Fla.

– – –

How strong could it get, and how could it impact the coast?

There is a very real possibility that Helene could be a Category 3 or 4 by early Thursday.

Helene will be moving over a “loop current,” or a corridor off the west coast of Florida with exceptional sea surface temperatures. The Gulf of Mexico currently has record oceanic heat content, or hurricane fuel, and it’s an untapped powder keg of energy for the storm to tap into.

There is a chance that outflow, or high-altitude exhaust air, exiting a tropical storm in the Pacific may disrupt Helene’s strengthening. If that happens, it could slightly curb Helene’s strength. Still, it will probably be a strong storm.

If Helene comes ashore as a major hurricane, winds of 115 mph or greater are possible in the storm’s eyewall, as well as a storm surge of greater than 8 feet.

– – –

What will happen after the storm moves inland?

Once the system moves inland, heavy rains – with totals of at least 5 to 10 inches – are possible, which will cause flooding. Tornadoes are also a concern

Depending on the strength of the storm, and if any dry air invades, it’s likely that a swath of wind damage will sweep through upward of 100 miles inland. That will be particularly true if Helene moves quickly inland Friday.

(c) Washington Post

IDF: “Let me be clear: Hezbollah is responsible for this situation. This is Hezbollah’s plan – to turn southern Lebanon into a battlefield for its attacks on Israel. We cannot accept a terrorist group storing weapons inside people’s homes, and using them to fire at other civilian communities.” Attached is the English video announcement of the IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Thousands of Lebanese civilians are still fleeing their homes due to the ongoing IDF campaign against Hesbollah in southern Lebanon. Highways are at a standstill everywhere.

On a tributary of the Hudson River, a tugboat powered by ammonia eased away from the shipyard dock and sailed for the first time to show how the maritime industry can slash planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. The tugboat used to run on diesel fuel. The New York-based startup company Amogy bought the 67-year-old ship to switch it to cleanly-made ammonia, a new, carbon-free fuel. The tugboat’s first sail on Sunday night is a milestone in a race to develop zero-emissions propulsion using renewable fuel. Emissions from shipping have increased over the last decade — to about 3% of the global total according to the United Nations — as vessels have gotten much bigger, delivering more cargo per trip and using immense amounts of fuel oil. CEO Seonghoon Woo said he launched Amogy with three friends to help the world solve a huge, pressing concern: This backbone of the global economy has not started to transition to clean energy yet. “Without solving the problem, it’s not going to be possible to make the planet sustainable,” he said. “I don’t think this is the problem of the next generation. This is a really big problem for our generation.” The friends met while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In their free time during the COVID-19 pandemic, they brainstormed how to power heavy industries cleanly. They launched their startup in November 2020 in a small space at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The name Amogy comes from combining the words ammonia and energy. They looked for a boat and found the tug in the Feeney Shipyard in Kingston, New York, languishing without a mission. It could break ice, but little to no ice has formed on that part of the Hudson River in recent years, so it was available for sale. “It represents how serious the problem is when it comes to climate change,” Woo said. The project, he said, is “not just demonstrating our technology, it’s really going to be telling the story to the world that we have to fix this problem sooner than later.” They named the tugboat NH3 Kraken, after the chemical formula for ammonia and their method of “cracking” it into hydrogen and nitrogen. Amogy uses its ammonia in a fuel cell, making the tug an electric-powered ship. The International Maritime Organization set a target for international shipping to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by, or close to, 2050. Shipping needs to cut emissions rapidly and there are no solutions widely available today to fully decarbonize deep-sea shipping, according to the Global Maritime Forum, a nonprofit that works closely with the industry. There is a lot of interest in ammonia as an alternative fuel because the molecule doesn’t contain carbon, said Jesse Fahnestock, who leads the forum’s decarbonization work. Ammonia is widely used for fertilizer, so there is already infrastructure in place for handling and transporting it. Ton for ton, it can hold more energy than hydrogen, and it can be stored and distributed more easily. “It certainly has the potential to be a main or even the main fuel,” Fahnestock said. “It has a potentially very friendly greenhouse gas footprint.” Ammonia does have drawbacks. It’s toxic. Nearly all of it currently is made from natural gas in a process that is harmful for the climate. And burning […]

The Tel Aviv District Court ruled on Sunday in favor of the municipality’s ban on gender-separated prayer on public grounds.

The ruling was on a petition asking the court to order the municipality to allow gender-separated tefillos on Yom Kippur on Dizengoff Square.

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“On separation, I found no grounds to substitute the municipality’s discretion with my own as I was not convinced that the [municipality’s] decision diverges in the extreme from the realm of what is reasonable administratively. It relies on clear reasoning and I found in it no elements of authoritarianism, discrimination, unfairness or irrelevant considerations,” Judge Erez Yakuel wrote in his 24-page ruling.

In the petition filed last month by 14 residents along with the Rosh Yehudi nonprofit, one of the arguments was that the city’s refusal to allow gender-separated prayer on public grounds was discriminatory in light of its non-interference during multiple Muslim gender-separated religious events on public grounds.

The municipality last month declined to approve Rosh Yehudi’s request to hold its annual Yom Kippur event, which features the separation of the genders, on Dizengoff Square. The holy day begins this year at sunset on Oct. 11.

Despite stating that the municipality’s refusal was non-discriminatory, Yakuel acknowledged in the same ruling that the municipality failed to treat Jews and Muslims equally. “The municipality clearly did not make the necessary effort to enforce its policy on all residents. It should do so in the future in real time whenever a violation becomes known—including vis-à-vis the Muslim population,” he wrote.

The events of last year’s Yom Kippur prayer at Dizengoff Square, which Rosh Yehudi held with a permit, shocked Jews and others across the world. Secular activists interrupted the event, tearing down Rosh Yehudi’s dividers—frames made of flexible materials to symbolically separate the genders while respecting the municipality’s ban on physical barriers. Some activists threw siddurim into the square’s fountain as they harassed and chased away Jews trying to pray on Judaism’s holiest day.

The municipality has insisted it could not allow gender-separated prayer on public grounds because this would discriminate against women, despite arguments to the contrary by multiple religious women, including feminist ones.

Yakuel said the municipality should allow Rosh Yehudi, whose mission statement is to strengthen Jewish identity, to hold the event if it is done without separating the sexes. Yet the subject of the petition and the main bone of contention was that separation.

In a statement, Rosh Yehudi, headed by Israel Zeira, noted that halacha requires separating the genders during prayer.

The court “failed to address the central issue,” Rosh Yehudi wrote. “In practice, it delivered an absurd and offensive outcome. It’s difficult to accept that in the Jewish state, halachic prayer on Yom Kippur is banned for those who wish to engage in it, even for just a few hours. Painful and regretful.” JNS

{Matzav.com Israel}

A report from JLens, now part of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), suggests that the endowments of the top 100 U.S. universities could face a collective loss of $33.2 billion over the next decade if they boycott companies doing business with Israel. The ADL’s “first of its kind” report analyzed two hypothetical large-cap U.S. equity portfolios: one broadly diversified and another excluding companies targeted by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. The findings revealed a significant financial gap between the two portfolios, with the one boycotting Israel lagging behind by 1.8 percentage points in returns—11.1% compared to 12.9%. Major companies affected by BDS campaigns include Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft. According to the ADL, universities that choose to divest from such companies could face substantial financial setbacks. “Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Princeton are projected to collectively lose more than $8 billion in estimated returns on their endowments over the decade,” the report stated. Brown University, which is considering demands for Israel divestment, could miss out on approximately $309.8 million in returns on its $6 billion endowment. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt warned of both moral and financial consequences if universities choose to boycott Israel. “Calls for universities to divest from companies doing business in Israel are not only morally dangerous, but may also be financially dangerous. University investment committees have a fiduciary responsibility to prudently steward institutional resources,” Greenblatt said. (YWN World headquarters – NYC)