Dozens of demonstrators identified with extremist factions blocked Route 10 at the entrance to Beit Shemesh on Sunday evening, protesting the draft law and the arrest of yeshiva students accused of draft evasion.
The protest reached a dramatic peak when demonstrators placed a chilling display in the middle of the roadway, featuring mock coffins meant to symbolize their opposition to the policy.
The coffins bore the names of Yosef Eisenthal z”l and Naftali Tzvi Kramer z”l, two bochurim who were tragically killed during protest-related incidents in recent weeks.
Police forces arrived at the scene and worked to clear the road, which was blocked for a short period of time.
The closure caused heavy traffic congestion at both the entrance to and exit from the city before traffic was eventually restored.
{Matzav.com}
President Donald Trump on Sunday pressed Democratic governors and mayors across the country to work with federal immigration officials, arguing that resistance to cooperation has produced “dangerous circumstances” and resulted in the deaths of two American citizens.
In a statement posted on Truth Social, Trump laid out four steps he said Democratic officials must take to support his administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.
First, Trump said state and local authorities should hand over all criminal illegal migrants currently in state prisons or local jails — as well as those with outstanding warrants or known criminal records — to federal officials for immediate deportation.
Second, he called on local police departments to transfer custody of all illegal migrants they arrest directly to federal immigration authorities.
Third, Trump said local law enforcement agencies should be required to assist federal officials in locating, apprehending, and detaining illegal migrants wanted for crimes.
Fourth, he urged Democratic jurisdictions to actively partner with the federal government to quickly remove criminal illegal migrants, pointing to cities such as Memphis and Washington, D.C., which he said have cooperated with federal authorities and experienced improvements in public safety.
Trump singled out Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing them of refusing to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and of encouraging resistance to federal enforcement actions.
The president argued that Republican-led states have shown that close coordination between local and federal authorities can lead to effective enforcement without public disorder. He said that Texas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Louisiana saw more than 150,000 criminal illegal migrants arrested by ICE over the past year without protests or riots, crediting cooperation between law enforcement agencies for the outcome.
Trump contrasted that with what he described as obstruction by Democrat-run “sanctuary cities and states,” accusing them of placing the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of law-abiding citizens and creating unsafe, volatile conditions for both officers and the public.
He also called on Congress to pass legislation banning sanctuary city policies nationwide, describing those policies as “the root cause” of the current problems. Trump said American cities should be “safe sanctuaries for law-abiding American citizens only.”
The remarks come as immigration enforcement continues to dominate national political debate, with Republicans and Democrats sharply divided over public safety, local cooperation with federal authorities, and the role of state and municipal governments in enforcing immigration law.
{Matzav.com}
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sharply criticized Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney over a new agreement with China on electric vehicles, cautioning that Canada could face steep penalties if it enables Beijing to flood the U.S. market with low-priced goods.
President Donald Trump initially played down the agreement, telling reporters, “If you can get a deal with China, he should do that.” A day later, however, Trump escalated the response, warning that Canada could be hit with 100% tariffs.
“There’s a possibility of a hundred percent tariffs if they do a free trade deal, if they go further — if we see that the Canadians are allowing the Chinese to dump goods.,” Bessent said Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week.”
Bessent noted that Canada had previously aligned with Washington on trade enforcement against Beijing. “The Canadians, a few months ago, joined the U.S. in putting high steel tariffs on China because the Chinese are dumping,” he said. “The Europeans also have done the same thing. And it looks like Prime Minister Carney may have done some kind of about-face.”
Canada imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024, mirroring U.S. policy. Under the new arrangement, however, China will be permitted to sell up to 49,000 EVs in Canada at a 6.1% most-favored-nation tariff rate, as part of a broader agreement between Ottawa and Beijing aimed at expanding cooperation on green energy.
Carney’s shift toward China has been widely interpreted as a signal of resistance to Trump, who last year slapped broad tariffs on Canada over alleged drug trafficking and border security issues.
“I don’t think he’s doing the best job for the Canadian people,” Bessent said of Carney.
Trump has previously joked about annexing Canada, and his aggressive trade posture reportedly led then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to break down in tears in public.
Last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Carney told global leaders that the international system had fundamentally shifted amid Trump’s threats to assert control over Greenland.
“We know the old order is not coming back,” Carney said. “We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy, but we believe that from the fracture, we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just.”
“This is the task of the middle powers, the countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and most to gain from genuine cooperation.”
On Sunday, Trump renewed his attacks on Canada, accusing the country of “systematically destroying itself” and striking “one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history.”
“China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone!”
{Matzav.com}A massive winter storm sweeping across the US triggered what is shaping up to be one of the worst air travel meltdowns since the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing some major airlines to cancel more than half of their scheduled flights.
More than 16,000 US flights have been canceled through Monday, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightAware, as the storm pushed into major population centers and snarled airline networks nationwide. Airlines scrapped more than 10,300 US flights on Sunday alone, according to FlightAware.
Sunday marks the highest number of cancellations since the pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. There were 22,751 flights scheduled for March 30, 2020, with 12,143 cancellations.
Carriers with large hubs in the storm’s path were hit especially hard. American Airlines canceled more than 55% of its Sunday schedule, while JetBlue Airways scrapped more than 70% of flights. Delta Air Lines cut more than 40%, and United Airlines canceled nearly 38%, according to Cirium.
Major airports across the eastern half of the country were effectively shut down. By 10 a.m. New York time, more than 80% of departures were canceled at Newark Liberty International Airport, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airport, while Washington Reagan National topped 90% cancellations, Cirium data show. Boston Logan, Charlotte Douglas and Chicago O’Hare were also among the hardest hit.
Weather impacts stretched well beyond the Northeast. Texas and parts of the South were among the first regions hit, with freezing rain and ice snarling operations at major hubs including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin. Data from the Federal Aviation Administration show multiple airport closures across the South and Midwest as of Sunday as ice and snow made runways unsafe, contributing to cascading disruptions throughout airline networks.
The storm is expected to continue battering the East through Monday. New England could see as much as 18 inches of snow, according to the US Weather Prediction Center, with up to a foot possible in New York City. Some of that precipitation may fall as sleet, increasing the risk of heavy icing on roads and runways.
Airlines had begun rolling out contingency plans ahead of the storm. Delta is allowing passengers to rebook flights without fare differences across 41 airports in the South and Southeast, including Atlanta, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Charleston and Memphis, through Jan. 28. United Airlines is waiving change fees and fare differences for travelers affected at 61 airports, including Boston, Newark and New York’s LaGuardia.
(c) Bloomberg
{Matzav.com}
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operations to the capture of Anne Frank during a Sunday press conference, as he pressed the White House to pull ICE and Border Patrol agents out of his state.
Walz made the remarks while calling on Trump to withdraw federal immigration authorities from Minnesota following the fatal shooting of protester Alex Pretti a day earlier, an incident that has intensified opposition to recent raids.
The governor said children who are in the country illegally, as well as children of illegal immigrants, are living in fear and reluctant to attend school because of the enforcement actions, warning that history will render a harsh verdict on the administration.
“Allow our children to go back to school. We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz said. “Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”
Critics have argued that the analogy breaks down on several fronts, noting that Frank was a German citizen before the Nazi regime stripped Jews of their citizenship, and that the United States is not deporting immigrants to death camps.
Frank and her family were hiding in the Netherlands to evade Nazi occupation forces before being discovered and arrested in 1944. She died the following year at age 15 in a concentration camp, and her diary, later published after World War II, became one of the most widely read personal accounts of life under Nazi persecution.
Walz has previously used similar rhetoric, having described ICE last year as President Trump’s “modern-day Gestapo.” He is not alone among Democrats in invoking Nazi-era comparisons in opposition to the administration’s immigration policies.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker drew a similar parallel last October, likening Trump’s ICE raids to Nazi stormtroopers seizing Jews and other targeted groups.
“This is how authoritarian regimes do it. They create these kind of fake ideas that there’s an enemy out there and it could be sitting next to you at one of these tables. So just somebody sitting at your table that you don’t like might be one of those enemies,” Pritzker said at the time. “So let’s round them up, let’s make sure they are the subjects of the laws that we’re passing, because we don’t like who they are. That is what authoritarian regimes do.”
{Matzav.com}
President Donald Trump said Sunday that efforts to block construction of a new ballroom at the White House are futile, arguing that the project is already underway despite a lawsuit recently filed to challenge it.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the ballroom is being built without public money, calling it “a GIFT (ZERO taxpayer funding) to the United States of America.” He put the price tag at $300 million and said the project is being paid for entirely through private contributions.
Trump said the legal challenge was filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and faulted the organization for acting only after construction had begun.
“Why didn’t these obstructionists and troublemakers bring their baseless lawsuit much earlier?” he wrote.
He also dismissed arguments about preserving the East Wing, saying it has undergone multiple changes over the years and no longer resembles the original structure. Trump wrote that the East Wing was “changed, built and rebuilt over the years” and that “it bore no resemblance or relationship to the original building.”
The ballroom project was publicly announced on July 31 by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said the administration plans to build a 90,000-square-foot space designed to host roughly 650 seated guests while maintaining the White House’s classical architectural style.
The White House currently lacks a formal ballroom, and the new structure is slated to replace the existing East Wing.
Since returning to office, Trump has moved quickly to alter the appearance of both the White House and surrounding federal landmarks, putting a distinct stamp on the executive complex.
Among the changes previously unveiled is a proposed monument known as the “Arc de Trump,” which is intended to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.
Trump has said the arch, modeled closely on Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, will serve as a gateway for visitors entering Washington from Arlington National Cemetery via the Arlington Memorial Bridge.
Inside the White House, Trump’s aesthetic preferences are evident in the Oval Office, where gold-colored elements now feature prominently, reflecting a taste for grandeur.
He has expanded those design touches to include gilded trim along the ceiling and doorways, and even the cherubs set into the door frames were redone with gold finishes.
Beyond the Oval Office, the administration has also rolled out what it calls the “Presidential Walk of Fame,” lining the West Wing colonnade with portraits of former presidents.
One of those portraits, depicting former President Joe Biden, includes his signature produced by an autopen, a device that mechanically reproduces handwriting. Large gold-framed mirrors have also been installed along the same walkway.
Trump has also highlighted renovations elsewhere in the building, including changes to the Lincoln bathroom, which he said did not align with the historical period it was meant to represent.
“I renovated the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House. It was renovated in the 1940s in an art-deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era,” Trump wrote in an Oct. 31 Truth Social post.
{Matzav.com}
