Yeshiva World News

Berlin Still Bears Scars 80 Years After Pivotal Battle That Sealed The Defeat Of Nazi Germany

Central Berlin was in ruins after the Red Army completed the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in an intense fight for the capital in May 1945. After decades of division and its revival as the capital of a reunited, democratic Germany, the city is now transformed, blending painstakingly restored buildings with modern architecture. But the scars of the past remain visible in many places: facades riddled with holes from bullets and shrapnel, or gaps in rows of houses sometimes plugged by new buildings. An Associated Press story from May 9, 1945, painted a stark picture. It read: “This town is a city of the dead. As a metropolis it has simply ceased to exist. Every house within miles of the center seems to have had its own bomb.” Berlin, the epicenter of Adolf Hitler’s power, was the ultimate prize as the Allies closed in from east and west on the disintegrating German defenses in the final stage of World War II. “We all had a little case next to the bed, even the children,” recalled Eva-Maria Kolb, now 89, of the constant aerial bombing in the last six months of the war. “When there was an air raid warning you had to pull something on quickly and then go down to the basement.” The final Battle of Berlin in late April and early May 1945 reduced much of what was left of the city to rubble. The Soviet military attacked from several directions with an enormous concentration of troops, who faced a struggle to cross rivers and canals and an intensifying street fight as they moved deeper and deeper into the city. On April 25, Berlin was encircled. Hitler killed himself in his bunker on April 30; and on May 2, the commander of German military forces in Berlin, Gen. Helmuth Weidling, capitulated to Soviet forces. “Berlin was a heap of rubble — because of these last 10 days, almost everything in the center was ruined,” said Jörg Morré, the director of the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, located in the building where Germany’s final surrender was signed. But “the infrastructure could be repaired relatively quickly — the sewerage system wasn’t so badly damaged. They managed to get the water supply and pipes going again. A lot of old Berliners are still familiar with hand pumps … electricity came, so that the trams starting running again, and the commuter trains.” Kolb said: “It was, of course, a great relief in ‘45 that the war was over and Hitler was no longer alive … everyone who wasn’t a Nazi was very, very grateful that the war was over.” She recalled that parts of the city were rubble, but she went to a school in the Tempelhof district, south of the center, “that was only half-ruined. It no longer had a roof and the second or third floor was missing — but we had lessons. Only when it rained were lessons canceled.” ‘This marked the end’ Post-war Berlin was divided into sectors controlled by the wartime allies. That hardened into a Cold War division that saw two separate German states founded in 1949 and ultimately led to the building in 1961 of the Berlin Wall, which fell 28 years later as communist rule collapsed in East Germany. Germany was reunited in 1990 and the national government moved to Berlin in 1999. Parliament […]

HORRIFYING: Radar Blackout At Newark Airport Triggers Travel Meltdown And National Outcry

A 90-second radar and communications blackout at the air traffic control center overseeing Newark Liberty International Airport has sent shockwaves through the nation’s air travel system, and the fallout is still being felt. The April 28 failure, caused by nothing more than a burnt piece of copper wire, left air traffic controllers effectively blind and deaf, unable to see or communicate with aircraft under their supervision. According to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), the incident was so traumatic that several controllers at the Philadelphia-based TRACON facility responsible for Newark were forced to take trauma leave under the Federal Employees Compensation Act. “For a full minute and a half, they had no radar, no communication — no way to guide planes in one of the busiest air corridors in the country,” a source familiar with the incident told the New York Post. “It was chaos.” The system failure and its psychological toll on FAA workers have triggered a cascade of delays and cancellations at Newark — the second-busiest airport in the New York area. Since Friday, the airport has seen more than 400 canceled flights and nearly 2,000 delays. United Airlines, which operates roughly 75% of flights at Newark, has slashed 35 daily roundtrips, blaming chronic understaffing and the failure that pushed 20% of the area’s air traffic controllers to “walk off the job.” NATCA disputed that claim, saying controllers took federally protected trauma leave but did not stage a walkout. At a press conference Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded an Inspector General investigation into what he called a “travel nightmare” at an airport that handled nearly 50 million passengers last year. “The technology is old and must be updated,” Schumer said. “One of the things that happened at Newark is a copper wire burnt. Why are we using copper wire in 2025? Have they heard of fiber?” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy echoed the criticism, acknowledging that “we use floppy disks. We use copper wires. The system we’re using is not effective to control the traffic we have in the airspace today.” United CEO Scott Kirby, in a letter to customers, described the Philadelphia TRACON as “chronically understaffed for years,” and pointed to the outdated infrastructure and understaffing as the core causes of the cascading delays. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Tourist Boats Capsize In Sudden Storm In Southwest China, Leaving 10 Dead

Four boats capsized in a sudden storm at a tourist spot in southwestern China, killing 10 people, state media said Monday. More than 80 people fell into a river when strong winds hit the scenic area in Guizhou province late Sunday afternoon, state broadcaster CCTV said. The boats capsized after a sudden rain and hail storm on the upper reaches of the Wu River, a tributary of the Yangtze, China’s longest river. In one video shared by state media, a man could be seen performing CPR on another person, while one of the vessels drifted upside down. Initial reports said two tourist boats had capsized, but state media said on Monday that four boats were involved. The other two boats had no passengers, and the seven crew members were able to save themselves, CCTV said. Guizhou’s mountains and rivers are a major tourism draw, and many Chinese were traveling during a five-day national holiday that ended Monday. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to find the missing and care for the injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Sunday. Seventy people were sent to a hospital, most with minor injuries. Noting a recent series of fatal accidents, Xi underscored the importance of strengthening safety at tourist attractions, large public venues and residential communities, as well as for the rush of people returning at the end of major holidays. CCTV said the capsized boats had a maximum capacity of about 40 people each and were not overloaded. An eyewitness told state-owned Beijing News the waters were deep but that some people had managed to swim to safety. However, the storm had come suddenly and a thick mist obscured the surface of the river. (AP)

WATCH: IDF Yemen Strikes Coordinated with U.S.

WATCH: The IDF strikes in Yemen are believed to be part of a coordinated operation with the United States, with Axios journalist Barak Ravid citing a senior U.S. official who said the assault was carried out “in concert” with American forces.

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