Nearly 24 years after a Hamas suicide bomber blew apart a crowded Sbarro pizzeria in the heart of Jerusalem, killing 16 people including seven children, the father of one victim is calling on the United States to end what he calls a shameful failure of justice. Arnold Roth, whose 15-year-old daughter Malki hy”d was among those murdered in the August 9, 2001, attack, is urging the Trump administration to force Jordan to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, the convicted Hamas terrorist who orchestrated the massacre. Tamimi, a Jordanian national who at the time was a 21-year-old journalism student and the first woman to join Hamas’s terrorist ranks, personally scouted the pizzeria because of its popularity with Jewish children and its location near a yeshiva. On the day of the attack, she escorted a bomber carrying a guitar case filled with explosives and nails to the restaurant’s entrance before walking away. The blast left families shattered across Israel and the U.S. Tamimi later confessed in an Israeli court and was sentenced to 16 life terms with a recommendation that she never be released. But in 2011, Israel freed Tamimi as part of the deal to secure the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. She returned to Jordan to a hero’s welcome, later hosting a television program and openly glorifying terrorism in interviews, including boasting that she deliberately targeted Jewish children. Three of the victims in the Sbarro attack were Americans, including Malki Roth. In 2017, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed charges against Tamimi and requested her extradition under a 1995 treaty with Jordan. That same week, Jordan’s highest court declared the treaty invalid—a move U.S. officials later dismissed as baseless. Despite repeated State Department statements that the treaty remains binding, Jordan has continued to refuse extradition while receiving $1.7 billion annually in U.S. aid. “For too long, U.S. taxpayer dollars have protected our daughter’s murderer, abetting her status as a kind of divinely sanctioned icon,” Roth wrote. Roth accused successive U.S. administrations of treating his family “as a nuisance” while Jordan shields Tamimi for domestic political reasons. He pointed to President Donald Trump, saying he has the leverage to end the deadlock. “President Trump can break this cycle by demanding Jordan extradite Tamimi as the treaty requires,” Roth wrote. “Justice—for Malki and other Americans murdered by jihadist terrorists—demands that Middle Eastern leaders rediscover some respect for the United States.” Roth and his wife Frimet, who established the Malki Foundation in memory of their daughter, have spent years petitioning diplomats, lawmakers, and the media, but say they have been met with indifference. “Jordan plays a cynical game, appeasing its Islamist base while reaping American aid and praise,” Roth charged. “It’s time the U.S. showed that breaking a treaty and harboring terrorists has consequences.” For the families of the American victims, the case has become a litmus test of U.S. credibility in counterterrorism. While Jordan continues to present itself as a moderate ally, Roth says Washington’s tolerance of Amman’s defiance is a betrayal. “Extraditing Tamimi would underscore that the U.S. prioritizes American life and honor over political deal-making,” he wrote. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The Trump administration is preparing to take the unprecedented step of removing COVID-19 vaccines from the U.S. market “within months,” according to Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a close ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Malhotra, a British cardiologist and outspoken vaccine skeptic, told The Daily Beast that the move is under serious consideration among Kennedy’s circle and “influential” members of President Donald Trump’s family. Neither Kennedy nor the Trumps hold scientific credentials. The prediction, if borne out, would mark a seismic break from established public-health policy. The COVID-19 vaccines remain widely endorsed by the medical community as safe and effective, despite arguments by Kennedy and his advisers that they pose a greater risk than the virus itself. Malhotra said the administration’s decision could come in one sweeping action or in stages, pending a review of so-called “vaccine injuries” by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. “It could also come with one clean decision,” he added, even while acknowledging fears it would unleash “chaos” and invite legal challenges. Kennedy, long a leading figure in the anti-vaccine movement, has already slashed $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine development. He has repeatedly referred to the COVID shot as “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” despite no credible evidence supporting the claim. Kennedy’s advisers, including Malhotra, often cite a 2022 paper in the journal Vaccine that argued recipients of mRNA vaccines faced a higher risk of “serious adverse events.” The study has been widely criticized as methodologically flawed and misleading. Mainstream experts say it grossly underestimates the overwhelming benefits of vaccination. Still, Malhotra insisted the data sparked a firestorm inside Kennedy’s team when he presented it at a July meeting attended by senior HHS aides. He now plans to personally brief Trump in September. “He’s in a position to fix it,” Malhotra said, framing the move as a potential legacy issue for the president. The speculation comes at a volatile moment. Earlier this month, an anti-vaccine extremist opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, killing a police officer. Investigators believe the shooter targeted the agency over his hatred of the COVID vaccine. In response, more than 750 current and former staffers at the CDC, HHS, and NIH signed a letter accusing Kennedy of spreading dangerous misinformation and undermining the nation’s public-health infrastructure. They demanded he retract his claims and affirm the CDC’s scientific integrity. “HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is complicit in dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information,” the letter read. The HHS defended Kennedy in a statement, insisting he “stood firmly with CDC employees” after the Atlanta shooting. The White House dismissed Malhotra’s claims. “The Administration is relying on Gold Standard Science and is committed to radical transparency to make decisions that affect all Americans,” spokesman Kush Desai said. “Unless announced by the Administration, any discussion about HHS policy should be dismissed as baseless speculation.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump administration military leaders are considering whether the U.S. should acquire equity stakes in major defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, which he described as “basically an arm of the U.S. government.” His comments came just days after Washington purchased a 10% stake in Intel in a $9 billion deal.
A judge rejected former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attempt to prolong a taxpayer-funded court battle with a woman who accused him of assault, saying it wasn’t in the public’s interest to keep litigating for the purpose of repairing the Democrat’s reputation as he runs for mayor. “Cuomo has not advanced any viable argument for why the taxpayers of this state should continue to foot the bill for his continued use of civil litigation discovery devices to further his efforts to resurrect his public image,” state Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman wrote in a decision posted online Monday. The decision comes more than a month after New York agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit from Brittany Commisso, an ex-aide who alleged Cuomo harassed while he was in office. Cuomo, who has denied the allegations, resigned as governor in 2021 after a report from the state attorney general determined that he had harassed at least 11 women. Cuomo, a co-defendant with the state, opposed Commisso’s request to discontinue the lawsuit. Relatedly, he sought to make public text messages produced under discovery he claims refute Commisso’s allegations. Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin had told a judge that ending the case is a matter of “enormous public interest” as Cuomo runs for mayor. Hartman allowed Commisso to drop the civil suit and denied Cuomo’s motion on the texts. Cuomo is running for mayor as a independent after losing the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani by more than 12 percentage points. With the race heating up this summer, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa has needled Cuomo over the harassment allegations. And incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who also is running as an independent, recently placed whistles on reporters’ chairs at a news conference. Adams explained they were for female reporters interviewing Cuomo, in case they needed to call for help. A spokesman for Cuomo said Tuesday that the public deserves to see what is in the texts. “Governor Cuomo will continue to fight for the release of all the evidence because it shows he didn’t… harass anyone and further discredits the AG’s political report. Release the evidence and let the public decide,” Rich Azzopardi said in a written statement. Commisso filed her lawsuit in late 2023, just before the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a law that created a yearlong suspension of the usual time limit to sue over an alleged assault. She later filed a criminal complaint with accusations against Cuomo but a local district attorney declined to prosecute, citing lack of sufficient evidence. (AP)
Trump: “The governor of Illinois should be calling me and he should be saying, ‘Could you send over the troops please? It’s out of control.’ In New York it’s out of control.”
POTUS: “We’re putting America First and we’re going to be putting the American worker first. The Republican Party has picked up 4 million new people. The Democrats have lost 2.5 million… they’re very depressed.”
Hagaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch to bochur arrested by the army: “Tell your mother that with Siyata Dishmaya it will be good, we are working on this through various means.”
The Palestinian Authority condemned Jewish groups for blowing the shofar on Har HaBayis during Elul, calling it a “dangerous tool” meant to assert Israeli sovereignty in Yerushalayim and alleging that what is traditionally a millennia-old call to teshuvah has become an attempt to impose control over the Makom HaMikdash, describing the soundings as a “direct assault” on the Al-Aqsa Mosque and holding the Israeli government fully responsible for any repercussions.
One of the nation’s leading operators of automated license-plate reading systems announced Monday it has paused its operations with federal agencies because of confusion and concern — including in Illinois — about the purpose of their investigations. Flock Safety, whose cameras are mounted in more than 4,000 communities nationwide, put a hold last week on pilot programs with the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection and its law enforcement arm, Homeland Security Investigations, according to a statement by its founder and CEO, Garrett Langley. Among officials in other jurisdictions, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias raised concerns. He announced Monday that an audit found Customs and Border Protection had accessed Illinois data, although he didn’t say that the agency was seeking immigration-related information. A 2023 law the Democrat pushed bars sharing license plate data with police investigating out-of-state abortions or undocumented immigrants. “This sharing of license plate data of motorists who drive on Illinois roads is a clear violation of the state law,” Giannoulias said in a statement. “This law, passed two years ago, aimed to strengthen how data is shared and prevent this exact thing from happening,” Flock Safety’s cameras capture billions of photos of license plates each month. However, it doesn’t own that data. The local agencies in whose jurisdictions the cameras are located do, and they’re the ones who receive inquiries from other law enforcement agencies. Langley said the company had initiated pilot programs with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations to help combat human trafficking and fentanyl distribution. The company is unaware of any immigration-related searches the agencies made, but Langley said parameters were unclear. “We clearly communicated poorly. We also didn’t create distinct permissions and protocols in the Flock system to ensure local compliance for federal agency users,” Langley said. The revelation comes two months after Giannoulias announced that police in the Chicago suburb of Mount Prospect had shared data with a Texas sheriff who was seeking a missing woman. The woman’s family was worried because she had undergone a self-administered abortion. Although the sheriff in Johnson County, Texas, said he was simply trying to help the family locate the woman, Giannoulias demanded more vigilance from Flock Safety because of the abortion connection. In addition to halting the pilot programs, Flock has tweaked its system so that federal inquiries are clearly identified as such. And federal agencies will no longer be able to make blanket national or even statewide searches, but only one-on-one searches with particular police agencies. Asked when the federal agency had accessed Illinois data, a Giannoulias spokesperson said the investigation was ongoing. After the June incident, Flock Safety responded to Giannoulias’ request that its system reject searches that includes terms such as “abortion,” “immigration” or “ICE” (for Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Those flag terms have been in effect since late June, a Flock Safety spokesperson said. (AP)
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo torched Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, branding him “dangerous” and warning his agenda would be the “death knell” for New York City. “New York City was built on capitalism,” Cuomo told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “To be anti-corporate, anti-business — that’s a death knell for New York City. And he is dangerous, frankly, for New York City.” Mamdani, backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, stormed through the Democratic primary on a wave of far-left enthusiasm. His platform includes free buses, universal healthcare, and city-run grocery stores — all funded by raising corporate taxes to 11.5% and slapping a new levy on the city’s wealthiest 1%. Cuomo, now running as an independent, said New Yorkers won’t buy it in November. “New York City people are not socialists. They want jobs. They want growth,” he said. The ex-governor laid out his own plan: lure businesses back after an exodus of nearly 160 firms since 2020, add 5,000 cops citywide (including 1,500 to patrol subways), and build 50,000 new affordable housing units a year. “Crime is a real problem,” Cuomo warned. “The socialists pushed this ‘defund the police’ movement — and it made things worse.” Watch the latest video at foxnews.com (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
There has been a recent wave of antisemitic incidents in the coastal resort town of Bournemouth in the UK, which has a Jewish kehilla with about 2,000 members. This past Shabbos, a Jewish boy was shot with an air rifle from a passing car in the East Cliff area. A police spokesman said, “At around 2:50 pm on Saturday, August 23, two people were walking on Manor Road in Bournemouth when the driver of a car stopped and made offensive remarks to them. One of them, a child, was then shot with an air rifle. He suffered a minor head injury. The incident is being treated as a hate crime.” “Officers are working in cooperation with the local community and are conducting patrols in the area. We encourage anyone with information or concerns to speak to an officer.” In addition, swastikas have begun appearing on buildings throughout Bournemouth, according to The Times. The popular seaside resort is experiencing a sharp rise in Nazi symbols on walls and houses. Rabbi Benzion Alperowitz, who runs the Chabad house in Bournemouth, found a swastika on the wall of his house on his way to the shul on Shabbos morning with two of his five children. Rabbi Alperowitz said, “I was born and raised in Bournemouth, and this is not the Bournemouth I know. Bournemouth is a beautiful place, and I feel that it is still like that for the vast majority of people here.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
The Palestinian Authority condemned efforts by Jewish groups to blow shofar on Har HaBayis during Elul, absurdly describing it as a “dangerous tool” used to show Jewish sovereignty in Yerushalayim. In a statement, the P.A.’s Jerusalem Governorate alleged that the shofar — which Klal Yisroel has used for millennia as a call to teshuvah — is “no longer a passing religious ritual,” but rather a supposed attempt by Israel to “impose its sovereignty” on the Makom HaMikdash. The statement went so far as to label the soundings of the shofar as a “direct assault” on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and held the Israeli government “fully responsible for repercussions.” Ramallah claimed that tekias shofar is tied to “declaring victory and control,” and accused Israel of trying to turn Har Habayis into a “center for Talmudic rituals.” The P.A. called on the United Nations to intervene to “protect” Islamic and Christian sites in Yerushalayim. Separately, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry joined in the condemnations, blasting what it called “provocations, including blowing the shofar,” and denouncing Israel for allowing “extremists” onto the site. The shofar has been a central part of Yiddishkeit since the days of Avrohom Avinu. Most well-known as the mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, its piercing blasts are a clarion call to teshuvah. Throughout the month of Elul, in kehillos worldwide, the shofar is sounded daily after Shacharis to arouse Yidden to prepare for the Yemei Hadin. That being said, rabbanim across the spectrum have stated unequivocally that going on the Har Habayis is an issur kareis and is assur gammur. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
A senior Breslover Rav warned that chassidim will hold large protests and disrupt the operations at Ben Gurion Airport if the plan being advanced by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to allow “draft dodgers” to travel to Uman is declared illegal. The report comes after Israeli media reported that the IDF is preparing a large-scale arrest operation of Breslover “draft dodgers” at Ben-Gurion Airport. “We are talking about hundreds and thousands who will stop the activity at Ben Gurion Airport and seek to leave in any way,” the Rav said. “No one will succeed in preventing a chassid from reaching his Rebbe.” The Rav emphasized that “even the Rabbanim won’t have control over these young people. Protests will take place at Ben Gurion Airport and in front of the Attorney General’s house.” Yisrael Porush, the chairman of the Magen U’Moshiah organization, said in an interview with Kol Chai that “if necessary, we will bring 20,000 people to the airport and block the place. If we don’t fly, no one will fly. What is permissible for the left is permissible for us. Right now, the Gedolei Yisrael have asked us not to do this, but it may still happen. Solutions are being worked on, but all options are still on the table.” A source in Agudas Israel says, “I remind you that these are people who, during the COVID pandemic, when there were no flights, went through forests on foot or crossed frozen rivers with an inflatable boat. They are willing to invest a lot to reach the tzaddik. For them, it is a great mitzvah for which they are willing to give their lives, and they will shake the country if they try to stop them from flying.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Sec. Sean Duffy announces enforcement actions against California, New Mexico, and Washington for failing to comply with the Trump Administration’s English Language Proficiency Standards for commercial truck drivers.
