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I want to bring to your attention a valuable resource for those who believe their relatives held life insurance policies in Europe before the Holocaust. The New York State Department of Finance – Holocaust Claims Processing Office (HCPO) is offering free assistance to help individuals claim unpaid policies, even if the original policy documents are no longer available. My own family’s experience is a testament to the importance of this service. My grandmother often spoke about her father’s life insurance policy with Generali, a prominent insurance company in Eastern Europe during that time. Twenty years ago, I attempted to file a claim with Generali, the Insurance Commission for Holocaust Era Claims (ICHEC), and the NYS DoF-HCPO, but all three organizations rejected my claim due to lack of policy documentation. Recently, I read an inspiring article in Ami Magazine about the NYS DoF-HCPO’s dedication to helping a Jewish family recover a life insurance policy from their grandfather. This motivated me to try again, and this time, we were successful. We discovered that my grandfather’s policy was worth $1000, which has a current value of $25,000. Although not the millions I had hoped for, it was still a significant amount. More importantly, it was a touching moment for my mother and uncle to receive a payout from their grandfather, who perished in Treblinka. If you have a similar story or believe your relative may have had a life insurance policy in Europe before the Holocaust, I encourage you to reach out to the NYS DoF-HCPO for assistance. Their contact information is below: Inna Kushnirsky (800) 695-3318 Inna.Kushnirsky@dfs.ny.gov Thank You, A Reader

A man who was working as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Florida pleaded guilty this week to stealing about $18,700 in cash from arriving fliers during airport screenings.

According to a plea agreement, William Joseph Timothy, 43, stole from 18 passengers between mid-2023 and January of this year while on duty at Naples Airport. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Naples Airport, which calls itself “The Best Little Airport in the Country,” does not have commercial airline service but – alongside flight schools and sightseeing tours – hosts wealthier clientele taking private charters. With the Caribbean close by, many flights are international and necessitate border enforcement and customs screenings.

CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigated Timothy’s case and uncovered 17 total incidents, including one involving two passengers. In a criminal complaint filed in January, Senior Special Agent Sapphia Small outlined one theft caught on camera.

In May 2023, video surveillance footage showed, Timothy conducted a border and currency inspection for a passenger who had traveled to Naples on a private aircraft from the Bahamas. Footage showed the passenger handing over his cash to Timothy, who, while counting it, set aside about $2,200 worth of $100 bills and covered them up with customs declarations forms.

After the passenger departed, Timothy picked up the forms and the concealed cash and walked away, according to the complaint. The passenger realized afterward their cash was missing.

Timothy went on to steal at least $2,000 from passengers on three more occasions, according to court documents, and at least $1,000 from six others.

Timothy pleaded guilty Tuesday to converting property of another as an officer or employee of the United States. As part of the plea agreement, he also agreed to pay “full restitution” to victims and resign immediately from the CBP, the U.S. attorney’s office for Middle Florida said.

A sentencing date has not yet been set.

The Washington Post left a message for Timothy’s defense attorney, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CBP did not immediately provide comment.

Naples Airport served more than 200,000 passengers in fiscal year 2023, according to the Naples Airport Authority. Southwest Florida International Airport, the region’s commercial hub, last year served more than 10 million.

(c) Washington Post

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has failed to qualify for next week’s debate in Atlanta, according to host network CNN, falling shy of benchmarks both for state ballot qualification and necessary polling. The missed markers mean that the June 27 showdown will be solely between Democratic President Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. That denies Kennedy a singular opportunity to stand alongside the leading candidates in an attempt to lend legitimacy to his longshot bid and convince potential supporters that he has a shot at winning. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns fear that Kennedy could play spoiler in what’s anticipated to be a close general election. According to the criteria set out by CNN, candidates would be invited to participate in the debate if they had secured a place on the ballot in states totaling at least 270 votes in the Electoral College, the minimum needed to win the presidency. Biden and Trump have easily cleared the polling threshold but won’t be certified for the ballot until their parties formally nominate them later this summer. Both have secured enough delegates to lock in their nominations. Kennedy’s campaign says he has satisfied the requirements to appear on the ballot in 22 states, with a combined 310 electoral votes, though not all have affirmed his name will be listed. California, the largest prize on the electoral map with 54 votes, will not certify any candidates until Aug. 29. Candidates were also required to reach a polling threshold of 15% in four reliable national polls by June 20, another metric CNN said Kennedy failed to meet. According to the network, Kennedy has received at least 15% in three qualifying polls so far and is currently on the ballot in six states, making him currently eligible for 89 Electoral College votes. Last month, Kennedy filed an election complaint alleging CNN is colluding with Biden and Trump to exclude him from the June 27 debate, alleging that the participation requirements were designed to ensure only Biden and Trump would qualify and claiming that he is being held to a higher standard. CNN has said the complaint is without merit. Kennedy’s campaign did not immediately respond to a message Thursday seeking comment on CNN’s announcement and asking if he planned to take any further action about his exclusion. Last month, Biden and Trump agreed to the CNN debate and a second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC, bypassing the nonpartisan commission that has organized debates for nearly four decades. After winning a coin toss, Biden’s campaign chose the right podium position, meaning that he will be on the right side of viewers’ screens, with Trump on the left, according to CNN. Trump’s campaign then opted to deliver his closing statement after Biden. Both campaigns have agreed to appear at podiums, and microphones will be muted except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak. (AP)

Agam Goldstein-Almog, an 18-year-old girl who was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, attended her high school graduation ceremony on Wednesday, Ynet reported.

On October 7th, Agam was kidnapped together with her mother and two younger brothers from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. That morning her father Nadav and older sister Yam were murdered by Hamas terrorists. Agam, her mother and her surviving siblings were released after 51 days of captivity on Novermber 26th, as part of the hostage and ceasefire deal.

On Instagram, Agam wrote a letter to her father expressing her feelings on graduating without him and her sister. “You don’t know that Yam wasn’t there either. You don’t know how sad it is when I should also be happy. You don’t know how much we talked about you and how much I felt you were with me there yesterday. In every heartbeat, in every tear, and every smile – you were there.”

Reflecting on a new phase in her life when she is struggling to adapt to a world without her father and sister, she wrote: “How sad and how joyful it is to live; how joyful it is to celebrate things I never thought I would achieve.”

Agam recently spoke about her difficult experiences after her release, saying: “On the day that I returned, I thought, ‘Wow, this morning I relieved myself in a tunnel.’ I see that the hostages who returned are overcome with feelings. They aren’t returning to their lives, they are rebuilding them from nothing. I still haven’t returned to life, I’m not in my house, I am contending with loss, I still haven’t touched the trauma,” she said.

“I am hurt by the citizens of Israel for things I did as well. I, 18-year-old Agam, lost my father and brother, but as far as the state is concerned, I’m Agam, and I returned from captivity. I received shocking reactions from people who live here on the same land as me. I came back after living with Arabs for 51 days. I got reactions as if you’re my enemies. Why would they react badly? It finished me.”

{Matzav.com}

 

Yale University failed to reveal over $15 million in funding from Qatar, the country that supports Hamas’s top leadership, in violation of federal reporting laws, The Washington Free Beacon reported. The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) found that Yale received at least $15,925,711 from Qatari entities since 2012 but only reported one grant worth $284,668. Yale’s failure to report the Qatari funding is a violation of federal disclosure laws that mandate US universities to semi-annually list all foreign-funded gifts and contracts exceeding $250,000. “It is difficult to ascertain the exact amount” of Qatari money flowing to the university, “as Yale does not disclose all its foreign funding,” the watchdog group said. “This despite the fact that, by law and according to the ethics guides of most major universities, all agreements, contracts, [memoranda of understanding], and service-in-kind arrangements should be made public.” ISGAP determined that many U.S. schools, including Yale, “remain in breach of these rules and regulations and are thus engaged in illegal activity. If the law were to be enforced properly, these universities would face serious consequences.” Qatar has provided $5.6 billion to 61 American schools since 2007, including Stanford University and Ivy Leagues such as Yale, Harvard University, and Cornell University, according to funding records reviewed by the Free Beacon in February. Experts say that Qatar played a large part in mainstreaming anti-Isreal propaganda at universities and used its money to avoid condemnation of its ties with Hamas and Iran. ISGAP’s latest report “highlights financial activities that could be classified as criminal and could potentially form the basis for litigation against several U.S. universities, including Yale.” The report also notes that Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs collaborates closely with the Qatar Foundation. Additionally, former Biden administration Iran envoy Robert Malley, who is being investigated for mishandling classified information that made its way to Iran, recently joined the school as a senior fellow. Charles Asher Small, ISGAP’s executive director, said that Yale’s financial relationship with Qatar has fueled anti-Israel attitudes on campus. Yale is one of many schools facing a federal investigation into unchecked anti-Semitism that has endangered Jewish students on campus. “The omission of substantial Qatari grants in Yale University’s financial statements raises questions about academic integrity and foreign influence,” Small said. “As demonstrated in ISGAP’s previous research, anti-Semitic incidents are more prevalent on campuses receiving Qatari funding compared to universities that do not receive Qatari funds. Therefore, there is concern that the same is happening at Yale, which has seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitism on campus since the October 7 attacks in Israel.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Wednesday of the potential outbreak of a wider conflict with Hezbollah, as the Iranian-backed terror group continued to launch rockets and drones at the Jewish state.

Gallant made the comments during a situation assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi at the military’s Northern Command.

“We are achieving readiness on land and in the air, strengthening our intelligence systems and preparing for every scenario,” said Gallant. “We must all remember that Hezbollah started a war against us on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas [attacked Israel], and since then, it has not stopped. We have an obligation to change the situation in the north, and to ensure the safe return of our citizens to their homes, and we will find a way to achieve this,” he added.

Gallant thanked the troops and IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi for their determination in the conduct of the war to date. “They have conducted their missions in a professional, accurate and responsible manner, and this will continue to be the case even if we reach a reality in which the fighting will be on a different scale in the north,” he said.

Later on Wednesday, Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened an invasion during a televised address.

“An invasion of the Galilee remains on the table if the confrontation escalates,” Nasrallah proclaimed.

He warned that Israel, not Hezbollah, should be fearful and that nowhere in Israel would be safe in the case of a wider war. The terror group was not seeking such a war, but would fight it with “no rules” and “no ceilings,” he said.

He added that the terror group would continue to support Hamas in Gaza until a “complete and permanent ceasefire” is in place.

Hezbollah has been pounding northern Israeli communities since joining the war in support of Hamas just one day after the Oct. 7 massacre. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been evacuated from border communities, and Hezbollah rockets and drones have resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries, in addition to widespread physical destruction and of late, major fires, on the Israeli side.

On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces’ Northern Command announced the approval of operational plans for a war against Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.

Following a two-day lull in hostilities, Hezbollah resumed its attacks on Tuesday afternoon, launching three “suspicious aerial targets” toward towns in the Upper Galilee, the IDF said.

Also on Tuesday, Hezbollah published video captured by a surveillance UAV of the Haifa Port, one of Israel’s most important commercial shipping gateways.

{Matzav.com}

A scandal has erupted at Heathrow Airport after security staff were accused of wearing badges with the Palestinian flag and symbols of solidarity with Palestine, creating a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli passengers. The incident occurred on Sunday at Terminal 4’s Fast Track lane, where five security staff were wearing the badges while scanning luggage for passengers bound for Tel Aviv on an El Al flight. Passengers complained that the badges made them feel intimidated and uncomfortable, prompting UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to demand an investigation into the incident. UKLFI alleges that the staff breached Heathrow’s uniform policy and the Equality Act 2010 by wearing the “highly offensive” badges. The security guards were reportedly replaced, and their badges confiscated following passenger complaints. This incident comes after a similar incident on another El Al flight, where passengers were made to feel singled out and targeted at customs. UKLFI has written to Heathrow’s services director, expressing concern that the security staff’s actions created an “intimidating and hostile environment” for Jewish and Israeli passengers. A Heathrow spokesperson responded, “Everyone should feel safe and welcome at Heathrow. We have guidance on what colleagues can wear at work, and if that guidance is not followed, we will ensure those items are removed immediately, as was the case in this instance.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A heat wave extending from the Midwest to New England moved closer to a breaking point Thursday, with millions of people sweating it out for another day. The National Weather Service said the heat wave was expected to peak in the eastern Great Lakes and New England on Thursday, and in the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic on Friday or the weekend. Heat index readings, which combine temperature and humidity, were expected to surpass 100 degrees (37.7 C) in many locations, possibly setting some all-time records, the weather service said. Officials warned that record overnight temperatures would prevent natural cooling and allow the heat danger to build up indoors. In a study published Thursday, a group of international scientists said human-caused climate change has dialed up the heat and drastically increased the odds of experiencing the killer heat that’s been baking the Southwestern United States, Mexico and Central America this month. Last year, the U.S. saw the greatest number of heat waves — abnormally hot weather lasting more than two days — since 1936. It’s made for an unusually early start to extreme summer heat in northern New England this year. In central New Hampshire, Angela Wilcox took her two children and two nephews boating Thursday in search of the coldest swimming spot on Squam Lake, where they’ve stayed at the rustic Rockywold Deephaven Camps for 16 years. “This is the hottest it’s ever been, especially in June,” Wilcox said. “We’re kind of shocked.” Camp workers were delivering large blocks of ice to the cabins for refrigeration. A tradition at the camp for more than a century, the ice is harvested from the lake each winter and then packed with sawdust in an insulated storage hut. The method has kept fresh ice available throughout the summer and into the fall. Further south in Concord, it was already close to 90 degrees as John Dupont opened his kettle corn stand at the city’s 50th annual Market Days Festival. He and his daughter set up two fans and were prepared to drape icy towels around their necks as the temperature climbed. “This year is a little challenging because of all the heat. Our kettle gets up to 150,000 BTUs,” he said. In Burlington, Vermont, Jack Hurlbut said he’s never been so hot in his life. “It sucks,” the 28-year-old said. “I live in Vermont for a reason, you know what I mean?” Hurlbut, who is experiencing homelessness, was hanging out with some others on a church lawn outside of the city’s public library, which was serving as a cooling center. He’d slept nearby the night before and said he was trying to catch the shade without getting kicked out. Officials have urged people to limit outdoor activities when possible and to check in with family members and neighbors who may be vulnerable to the heat. In New York, state parks have free admission Thursday, and select state-run pools and beaches opened early for swimming, Gov. Kathy Hochul said. New York City’s beaches were available but its public swimming pools don’t open until next week. The city has a list of hundreds of air conditioned sites that are free and open to the public. “The humidity is pretty insane,” said Anne-Laure Bonhomme, a health coach who was sightseeing in New York with her family. […]

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the Democratic Party’s leader in the House of Representatives, spoke out in defense of the Jewish state’s mission to destroy Hamas after attending the Nova music festival exhibition in New York City on Tuesday, which runs through this Saturday before moving to Los Angeles.

It was extended an extra week following an especially virulent anti-Israel mob that rallied outside the venue on June 10, led by the hate group Within Our Lifetime. The exhibit opened on April 22 at 35 Wall St. in downtown Manhattan before it was extended through June 22.

It honors the memory of the 364 young people killed by Hamas during its terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

“Having the opportunity to visit the exhibit really brings home, in just a visceral way, how violent, how brutal and how inhumane that attack was on 10/7,” Jeffries said on June 18.

He vowed that “we’re going to continue to do everything that we can to make sure that we bring all of the hostages home, that Israel has the space to decisively defeat Hamas so something like 10/7 can never happen again.”

Labeling Hamas “the obstacle to peace,” Jeffries stated, “I think it’s important for all of us to continue to articulate that loudly, publicly and forcefully.”

{Matzav.com}

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced support for imposing restrictions on smartphones in schools, echoing growing concerns by parents, educators and lawmakers nationwide that excessive screen time during class is distracting and harming students.

Newsom (D) cited U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy’s call this week for imposing tobacco-style warning labels on social media apps to inform users about their deleterious effects on youth mental health. Newsom noted a 2019 law he signed that authorized California school districts to impose limits or bans on smartphones during the school day. The governor did not elaborate on what exact measures he would support, although several proposals are before the California Legislature, which is dominated by Democrats.

“I look forward to working with the Legislature to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day,” Newsom said in a statement Tuesday. “When children and teens are in school, they should be focused on their studies – not their screens.”

Newsom’s announcement came as board members with the Los Angeles Unified School District voted to develop rules to ban smartphone use class hours. The district is the largest in the nation to pass such a measure.

The governor voiced his support for restrictions as elected leaders from both parties and researchers are increasingly scrutinizing how social media apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook impact the mental health of the nation’s youth and affect student performance.

More than a dozen states have passed laws seeking to curb children’s use of social media, efforts that have been challenged by the tech industry and remain the subject of ongoing legal battles. In 2022, Newsom signed a bill that established strict safeguards on data collection of underage online users; the law was temporarily blocked by a court.

Debates over excessive smartphones in schools are escalating in tow. Educators have long complained about students sending text messages, scrolling social media feeds and even shopping during class. Researchers have blamed devices as contributing to declining academic performance and bullying. Some school districts are suing social media companies over the mental health impacts on young people.

About a third of U.S. teens say they use social media “almost constantly.” A Common Sense Media report last fall found that kids and teens receive hundreds, even thousands, of phone notifications daily – with use during school typically adding up to about 43 minutes per day. Many districts already restrict usage, but enforcement is patchy. Some schools now use magnetically sealed pouches to keep students from their devices during class.

Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a Newsom political rival, signed the nation’s most restrictive school smartphone law, banning student use during class time and blocking social media access on campus wireless systems. Indiana passed a bill this spring requiring districts to adopt policies banning wireless devices during class. States such as Vermont, Virginia and Oklahoma are also considering similar measures.

Earlier this year, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) also called on districts and educational leaders to remove cellphones during class time to “help our teachers teach and out student learn,” citing studies that students become more engaged and talk to each other more when phones are kept in backpacks or lockers.

(c) Washington Post

Physically and mentally, Joe Biden is cooked. There’s really no way to beat around the bush about it anymore. One new video shows President Joe Biden struggling to climb into a Secret Service SUV upon arriving in Delaware. The video, initially shared by the Trump War Room X account, shows Biden gingerly approaching the vehicle and using his arms to push himself into the SUV. “Crooked Joe Biden—who is hardly ambulatory at this point—had a really hard time getting into the SUV,” the Trump War Room wrote. In a separate incident, Biden forgot the name of his Secretary of Homeland Security during a speech, further fueling concerns about his mental acuity. These incidents come as a significant majority of voters (67%) believe Biden is too old to serve a second term, according to a Quinnipiac poll from February. Moreover, an overwhelming 82% of Americans express concerns about Biden’s physical and mental health, as revealed in a May poll. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has dismissed such videos as “cheap fakes” published in “bad faith.” Which raises an obvious question: if Biden is sprightly, why not have him out in public more, doing live interviews and demonstrating for everyone how vigorous he is? (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a tax on foreign income over a challenge backed by business and anti-regulatory interests, declining their invitation to weigh in on a broader, never-enacted tax on wealth. The justices, by a 7-2 vote, left in place a provision of a 2017 tax law that is expected to generate $340 billion, mainly from the foreign subsidiaries of domestic corporations that parked money abroad to shield it from U.S. taxes. The law, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by then-President Donald Trump, includes a provision that applies to companies that are owned by Americans but do their business in foreign countries. It imposes a one-time tax on investors’ shares of profits that have not been passed along to them, to offset other tax benefits. But the larger significance of the ruling is what it didn’t do. The case attracted outsize attention because some groups allied with the Washington couple who brought the case argued that the challenged provision is similar to a wealth tax, which would apply not to the incomes of the very richest Americans but to their assets, like stock holdings. Such assets now get taxed only when they are sold. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his majority opinion that “nothing in this opinion should be read to authorize any hypothetical congressional effort to tax both an entity and its shareholders or partners on the same undistributed income realized by the entity.” Underscoring the limited nature of the court’s ruling, Kavanaugh said as he read a summary of his opinion in the courtroom, “the precise and very narrow question” of the 2017 law “is the only question we answer.” The court ruled in the case of Charles and Kathleen Moore, of Redmond, Washington. They challenged a $15,000 tax bill based on Charles Moore’s investment in an Indian company, arguing that the tax violates the 16th Amendment. Ratified in 1913, the amendment allows the federal government to impose an income tax on Americans. Moore said in a sworn statement that he never received any money from the company, KisanKraft Machine Tools Private Ltd. Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote in dissent that the Moores paid taxes on an investment “that never yielded them a penny.” Under the 16th Amendment, Thomas wrote, the only income that can be taxed is “income realized by the taxpayer.” A ruling for the Moores could have called into question other provisions of the tax code and threatened losses to the U.S. Treasury of several trillion dollars, Kavanaugh noted, echoing the argument made by the Biden administration. The case also had kicked up ethical concerns and raised questions about the story the Moores’ lawyers told in court filings. Justice Samuel Alito rejected calls from Senate Democrats to step away from the case because of his ties to David Rivkin, a lawyer who is representing the Moores. Alito voted with the majority, but did not join Kavanaugh’s opinion. Instead, he joined a separate opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett wrote that the issues in the case are more complicated than Kavanaugh suggests. Public documents show that Charles Moore’s involvement with the company, including serving as a director for five years, is far more extensive than court filings indicate. (AP)

Under Biden, rhe number of migrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border from Tajikistan, a country known as a hotbed of ISIS recruitment has skyrocketed.

Between October 2020 and May 2024, more than 1,500 migrants from Tajikistan are known to have crossed the border, according to leaked border dated obtained by the NY Post. This year alone, at least 500 Tajiks have been caught.

However over the previous 14 years, only 26 Tajik nationals were found crossing the border.

It’s unclear how many of the Tajik migrants were released into the US mainland, but we know the vast majority of migrants caught at the border claim asylum and are allowed to stay while they await a court hearing.

Tajikistan is small Central Asian country, bordering both China and Afghanistan. It has become a major source of terrorists for ISIS and Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), an extreme offshoot of the Islamic State militant group.

According to Javed Ali, a former counterterrorism official who now teaches at the University of Michigan, the influx of Tajik nationals could include ISIS “seeding people into the United States” to prepare for a possible attack.

The NY Post recently reported that ICE arrested eight Tajik migrants with suspected ties to ISIS who crossed the southern border and settled in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Tajikistan citizens who joined ISIS-K were responsible for a massive attack on a concert hall in Moscow, that killed 145 people and wounded hundreds more on March 22.

According to Edward Lemon, a professor at Texas A&M who studies the region: “Tajiks have been recruited to and played a key role in terrorist organizations like Islamic State to a greater degree than many neighboring countries in recent years. They have become key to [ISIS-K]’s externally-focused campaign as it seeks to gain attention and more recruits,”

“Tajikistan is one of the most migration dependent countries in the world, with over a million of the country’s 10 million people living in Russia. As life in Russia has become more difficult since the invasion of Ukraine, they have sought other destinations such as Europe, the Gulf and US,” Lemon said.

“Most come here, like so many others, to seek a better life,”

ISIS and its affiliates are interested in recruiting and inspiring attacks globally, and have set their sights set on Tajiks.

“One of the things that they’ve actively and deliberately done is try to expand their recruits geographically. So not only Afghans and Pakistanis, but they want to bring in a big central Asian component,” Colin Clarke, Director of Research at The Soufan Group, said.

{Matzav.com}

The Melbourne office of Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns was vandalized and set on fire early Wednesday morning. The perpetrators smashed windows, started a fire at the front of the office, and scrawled “Zionism is fascism” in red paint on the wall. Burns denounced the attack as a “politically motivated” act, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese strongly condemned the incident. “This is an escalation of the attacks that we’ve seen. We’ve been talking about this. We’ve got to dial this down,” Albanese said. “For some people, they feel very strongly about issues in the Middle East. But it’s no reason to target MPs half a world away in Australia, and in particular the targeting of a Jewish MP is very distressing.” “This has got to be seen as an attack on someone who’s a Jewish MP, someone who is running an office that looks after people’s interests,” he added. “How people think that they advance their cause through activities like this is beyond me. It does nothing. It undermines the cause that people purport to represent. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

On Feb. 3, 2023, a train carrying toxic chemicals crashed in northeastern Ohio, sending up a large black cloud over Ohio and Pennsylvania after officials decided to burn off the hazardous materials. As the chemicals lofted into the air, the pollution spread as far as 16 states, according to a new study.

“I didn’t expect to see an impact this far out,” said David Gay, lead author of the study. “There’s more going on here than most people would have guessed, including me.”

Toxic chemicals rained down from South Carolina to Wisconsin to New England following the accident, according to the new analysis in the Environmental Research Letters journal. Overall, the pollution spread over 540,000 square miles, or 14 percent of U.S. land area.

People closer to the accident reported rashes, nausea and headaches – but Gay said the low chemical concentrations farther away from the accident weren’t “toxic, but are pretty unusual at a lot of places.” Many of those pollutants can run off and affect marine and plant life.

“It’s not death and destruction. It’s fairly low concentrations, but they are very high relative to the normal that we typically see – some of the highest we’ve measured in the last 10 years,” Gay said.

The accident occurred around 9 p.m. on Feb. 3 near East Palestine, a town of almost 5,000 residents on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. The train, operated by Norfolk Southern, experienced a mechanical issue that caused more than 50 cars to derail. Some of the trains were carrying hazardous materials, including a known human carcinogen called vinyl chloride.

In an emergency decision, officials authorized a controlled burn of the hazardous chemicals to prevent a catastrophic explosion. But as the vinyl chloride burned, it broke into separate chloride and hydrogen ions in the atmosphere that got carried by the wind to other locations.

When it began to rain in various places, the pollutants were pushed from the air and deposited on the ground. The National Atmospheric Deposition Program, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, collects these ground depositions weekly across 260 sites across North America. Gay, who serves as coordinator of the program, routinely analyzes the data to monitor air pollutants.

“If you have a lot of pollution in the atmosphere, you get a lot of wet deposition pollution at the ground,” Gay said.

He and his team analyzed ground depositions from the week of and following the train accident (Jan. 31 to Feb. 14), and then compared them to the previous decade or so. Many samples taken during the week of the accident in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and New York were flagged for contamination, showing soot, ash and dirt.

Initially, Gay expected to see only a few abnormally high chloride signals nearby in Pennsylvania, but the impact was much higher than he anticipated. High chloride concentrations spanned as far as Virginia, South Carolina and Wisconsin. The highest concentrations were located near the Canada-New York border, which was downwind of East Palestine.

The pollutants disappeared within two to three weeks after the accident.

The data also showed another unusual trend for the researchers. Gay explained that typically rain without pollutants is a bit acidic, meaning it has a good amount of hydrogen ions. However, the collected samples showed less hydrogen ions than usual, making the rain more basic than expected. Gay suggests that metals emitted from the fire, like calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium, helped to suck up a bunch of those hydrogen ions that are normally present in our atmosphere.

“This study is unique and elegant as it clearly documents the impact that these kinds of accidents can have,” said Juliane Beier, a leading expert on the effects of vinyl chloride who was not involved in the study.

But she said this is not the first time researchers have seen distal effects of local environment events, and it’s unclear what long-term impact such environmental exposures could have on communities.

“I think we should be concerned,” Beier said.

(c) Washington Post

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at least a dozen deals with his Vietnamese counterpart on Thursday and offered to supply fossil fuels, including natural gas, to Vietnam during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset its growing international isolation over its war in Ukraine. Putin and President To Lam agreed to further cooperate in education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration and clean energy. The two countries also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam. Of the 12 publicly announced agreements, none overtly pertained to defense but Lam said there were other deals that were not made public. Putin said the two countries share an interest in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region with no room for “closed military-political blocs.” Lam added that both Russia and Vietnam wanted to “further cooperate in defense and security to cope with non-traditional security challenges.” The agreements between Russia and Vietnam were not as substantial as the pact Putin signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Wednesday, which pledged mutual aid in the event of invasion, said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and a former British ambassador to Belarus. Putin’s recent visits to China and now North Korea and Vietnam are attempts to “break the international isolation,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. Giang said Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons: It is the biggest supplier of military equipment to the Southeast Asian nation, and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain Vietnam’s sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea. Vietnam also has licensed Russian state-controlled oil company Zarubezhneft to develop an offshore block of its southeastern coast. On the South China Sea, Lam said that both sides would “support and ensure security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation” and the resolution of disputes peacefully and in accordance to international law without the use of force, according to official Vietnamese media. Putin arrived in Hanoi on Thursday morning from North Korea after signing the strategic pact, which comes as both countries face escalating standoffs with the West and could mark their strongest connection since the end of the Cold War. In Hanoi, Putin also met Vietnam’s most powerful politician, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, according to the official Vietnam News Agency. Putin drove to Vietnam’s Presidential Palace on Thursday afternoon, where he was greeted by school children waving Russian and Vietnamese flags. Much has changed since Putin’s last visit to Vietnam in 2017. Russia now faces a raft of U.S.-led sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the International Criminal Court in Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes, making it difficult for the Russian leader to travel internationally. The Kremlin rejected the warrant as “null and void,” stressing that Moscow doesn’t recognize the court’s jurisdiction. Putin’s trip resulted in a sharp rebuke from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, which said that “no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.” If Putin is allowed to travel […]

Hundreds of people gathered in Paris on Wednesday to demonstrate against Jew-hatred in the wake of the antisemitic assualt of a 12-year-old girl that shocked the country over the weekend, local media reported.

The rally in the French capital was organized by Collectif Nous Vivrons (“We Will Live Collective”), which was founded following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the ensuing wave of antisemitism in Europe.

“This antisemitic rape is a continuation of a climate hostile to Jews, fueled in particular by irresponsible political declarations,” the NGO said ahead of the protest at city hall, which was called at short notice.

Participants included representatives from Jewish organizations in Paris and nationwide, as well as current and former government officials, most notably Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti.

“The government is on your side,” stated Dupond-Moretti in his speech, declaring: “To attack a Jew is to attack the Republic and France.”

Attendees also held signs reading, “Raped at 12 because she was Jewish” and “Antisemitism is not residual,” according to French media reports.

A protest in Lyon, France’s third-largest city, drew approximately a hundred people. Activists held signs reading, “Jew raped, Republic in danger,” as well as banners that blamed the far-left La France Insoumise Party for the rise in Jew-hatred, and sang the country’s national anthem.

The brutal assault of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb has drawn condemnation from across France’s political spectrum amid a heated campaign ahead of snap parliamentary elections later this month.

Three minors were arrested for their part in the attack, during which they allegedly used force to commit multiple disgusting, brutal crimes against the young girl, called her a “dirty Jew” and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

France is home to the largest Muslim population in Europe and has seen a surge in antisemitic acts since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Antisemitic acts have tripled in the first months of 2024 compared to the same period last year, France 24 reported, citing official numbers.

At a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron “spoke solemnly and seriously about the scourge of antisemitism” and called for “dialogue” on racism and hatred of Jews to stop “hateful speech with serious consequences” from “infiltrating” schools.

{Matzav.com}

The World Health Organization warned that fake batches of Novo Nordisk A/S’s hit diabetes drug Ozempic have been circulating amid soaring demand for the medicine, which some patients use to lose weight.

Three falsified batches were identified in Brazil and the UK in October of last year and in the US in December, the WHO said on Thursday. Though the global public health body has been monitoring growing numbers of reports of fake semaglutide, as Ozempic is known generically, since 2022, this is the first time it has issued an official warning notice.

The counterfeit products could harm patients’ health because they don’t contain the correct ingredients, and in some cases they may even contain a different drug – such as insulin – which could be dangerous when taken incorrectly, the WHO said. Ozempic is a diabetes treatment; semaglutide is sold for obesity under the brand name Wegovy.

Fake weight-loss drugs are a growing concern as runaway demand for the medicines feeds a ballooning gray market. In the US, regulations allow compounding pharmacies to sell copycat versions of the drugs because they’re in shortage. Novo and its US rival Eli Lilly & Co. have sought to link the compounded medicines with the possibility of outright counterfeits, with Lilly saying on Thursday that some compounded medicines contained a different chemical than the Food and Drug Administration-approved medicine.

Patients should avoid “unfamiliar or unverified sources, such as those that may be found online,” the WHO said.

(c) Washington Post

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill on Wednesday requiring every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments. “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses who got the commandments from G-d,” Landry said. He also told reporters that he “can’t wait to be sued over it.” Louisiana is the first state to pass such a law but similar bills have been proposed in Utah, Oklahoma, Texas and other states. The Lousiana bill mandates a poster-size display in classrooms from kindergarten to university with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.” The law describes the goal of the law as not religious but that the Ten Commandments are “foundational documents of our state and national government.” Additionally, the posters will be funded through donations rather than state funds. State Representative Michael Bayham told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the new law is related to historical law. “Our sense of right and wrong is based on the Ten Commandments,” he said. “The Ten Commandments is as much about civilization and right and wrong; it does not say you have to be this particular faith or that particular faith.” The Louisiana chapter of the  American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation responded to the bill in a joint statement Wednesday afternoon by saying that it “violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional.” “Even among those who may believe in some version of the Ten Commandments, the particular text that they adhere to can differ by religious denomination or tradition. The government should not be taking sides in this theological debate.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)