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[] | 2016-08-28T10:48:46 | null | 2016-08-28T05:39:50 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fbulldozers-work-to-clear-out-italys-quake-hit-towns%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP16240621344880-300x196.jpg | en | null | Italy Probes to See if Criminal Negligence Raised Quake Toll | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 5:39 am |
Firefighters work outside the Hotel Roma in Amatrice, central Italy, Aug. 27. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
AMATRICE, Italy (AP) - Bulldozers with huge claws and other heavy equipment rolled through Italy’s quake-devastated town of Amatrice on Sunday, pulling down dangerously overhanging ledges and clearing rubble as investigators tried to figure out if negligence in enforcing building codes added to the quake’s high death toll.
Investigations will focus on a number of structures, including an elementary school in Amatrice that crumbled when the quake hit Wednesday. The school was renovated in 2012 to resist earthquakes at a cost of €700,000 ($785,000).
Questions also surround a bell tower in Accumoli that collapsed, killing a family of four sleeping in a neighboring house, including a baby of 8 months and a 7-year-old boy. That bell tower also had been recently restored with special funds allocated after Italy’s last major earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009.
The quake early Wednesday killed 291 people and injured hundreds as it flattened three medieval towns in central Italy. Giuseppe Saieva, the prosecutor in the regional capital of Rieti, said the high human death toll “cannot only be considered the work of fate.”
He said for now, police investigators remained focused on recovery efforts but once that emergency phase has passed, they will concentrate on the investigations.
Italy’s state museums, meanwhile, embarked on a fundraising campaign, donating their proceeds Sunday to relief and reconstruction efforts in the earthquake zone.
The 6.2-magnitude quake flattened three medieval towns in central Italy, destroying not only private homes but also centuries-old cultural treasures. The idea is to use art for art — harnessing the nation’s rich artistic heritage to help recover and restore other objects of beauty in the hard-hit towns.
Culture Minster Dario Franceschini had appealed to Italians to “go to museums in a sign of solidarity with people affected by the earthquake.”
It’s one of several efforts that have sprung up to help the towns rebuild — restaurants in Italy and elsewhere are also serving up pasta Amatriciana, the region’s most famous dish, in another fundraising effort.
Amatrice bore the brunt of the destruction with 230 fatalities and a town turned to rubble. Eleven others died in nearby Accumoli and 50 more in Arquata del Tronto, 16 kilometers north of Amatrice.
Overnight was relatively calm, the first since the quake struck without strong aftershocks. In all, the region has seen 1,820 aftershocks, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
Nobody has been found alive in the ruins since Wednesday, and hopes have vanished of finding any more survivors. The number still missing is uncertain, due to the many visitors seeking a last taste of summer in the Apennine mountains.
President Sergio Mattarella arrived by helicopter Saturday and was shown the extent of the damage in Amatrice by its mayor, Sergio Pirozzi. The president thanked rescue workers who have been working around the clock.
On Tuesday, a memorial service will be held for the dead of Amatrice on the battered town’s outskirts.
Hundreds of people have been left homeless by the quake, with many spending their nights in tent cities and a gym in Amatrice, where volunteers are working to provide basic services. Longer-term housing for earthquake survivors will be another key issue that Italian authorities need to address. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/bulldozers-work-to-clear-out-italys-quake-hit-towns/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/857df9bb7c2a44b9461fed270963bf86ee78d796675c5758f83f14df0df424cb.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:51:45 | null | 2016-08-26T03:56:01 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fblast-at-police-hq-in-southeast-turkey%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/TURKEY-SECURITY-KURDS-300x165.jpg | en | null | 11 People Dead, Dozens Wounded in Blast at Police HQ in Southeast Turkey | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 3:56 am |
Smoke rises from buildings at the site of a car bomb explosion at a police headquarters in Cizre, located in Turkey’s Sirnak Province bordering both Syria and Iraq, Friday. (Reuters)
ANKARA (Reuters) - A car bomb at a police headquarters in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast killed at least eleven and wounded dozens on Thursday, officials said, two days after Turkey launched an incursion against Islamic State and Kurdish terrorists in Syria.
The state-run Anadolu news agency blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a terror group which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy and has been involved in almost daily clashes with security forces since a ceasefire collapsed more than a year ago.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Large plumes of smoke billowed from the site in Cizre, located in Turkey’s Sirnak province bordering both Syria and Iraq, footage on CNN Turk showed. The broadcaster said a dozen ambulances and two helicopters had been sent to the scene.
Hospital sources initially told Reuters that nine people were killed and 64 wounded, but an official later said the toll was eight. It was not clear whether the casualties were civilians or police officers.
Photographs broadcast by private channel NTV showed a large three-floor building reduced to its concrete shell, with no walls or windows, and surrounded by grey rubble.
Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes launched their first major incursion into Syria on Wednesday in support of Syrian rebels, in an operation President Tayyip Erdogan has said is aimed both at driving Islamic State away from the border area and preventing territorial gains by the Kurdish YPG militia.
Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the rebels took up arms in Turkey in 1984.
Turkish troops fired on YPG terrorists in northern Syria on Thursday. Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the PKK of attacking a convoy carrying the country’s main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
The government has blamed the PKK for a series of terror attacks this month in the southeast. The group has claimed responsibility for at least one attack on a police station. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/blast-at-police-hq-in-southeast-turkey/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/3c3ae8b2f9ffa672ad116976a42350504bbec2667a97cfddaa6b79d56d4a0bc8.json |
[
"Geir Mouslon"
] | 2016-08-28T08:48:41 | null | 2016-08-28T03:26:32 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fin-depth-europes-refugee-crisis-simmers-despite-efforts-to-solve-it%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/01/rtrlseven410250-300x200.jpg | en | null | IN DEPTH: Europe's Refugee Crisis Simmers Despite Efforts to Solve It | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 3:26 am |
Refugees and migrants are silhouetted as they wait to cross Greece’s border with Macedonia near the Greek village of Idomeni, in 2015. (Reuters/Alexandros Avramidis)
BERLIN (AP) - Faced with more than 1 million migrants flooding across the Mediterranean last year, European nations tightened border controls, set up naval patrols to stop smugglers, negotiated an agreement with Turkey to limit the numbers crossing, shut the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands, and tried to speed up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers.
Yet many issues still remain.
European nations continue to squabble about whether, and how, to share the newcomers between them, and the issues that drove refugees to Europe in the first place — such as Syria’s unrelenting war — are unresolved.
Overall, 2,901 people have died or disappeared crossing the Mediterranean in the first six months of 2016, most along the dangerous central route to Italy — a 37 percent increase over last year’s first half, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Here’s where things stand in key countries:
TURKEY
Turkey is hosting some 3 million refugees, including more than 2.7 million Syrians. Most refugees there don’t get government support, but the agreement with the EU calls for the bloc to provide up to €6 billion ($6.8 billion) to help Syrian refugees in Turkey.
The deal also provides for one Syrian refugee from Turkey to be relocated to EU countries for each Syrian who arrives illegally in Greece and is sent back. So far, only 1,152 have been resettled under the program — more than half of them to Germany and Sweden.
GREECE
The numbers of migrants arriving in Greece have dropped dramatically since the March agreement with Turkey, but several thousand a month still make the journey, some 160,000 in the first half of this year.
Over 58,000 people remain stuck in the financially struggling country, most hoping to continue north to nations like Germany or Sweden. The majority have applied for asylum, hoping to be relocated among EU nations — but the program is moving at a snail’s pace amid fierce resistance from eastern and central European countries.
So far, only around 4,400 people have been relocated from southern Europe under a plan that’s supposed to see 160,000 moved over two years through September 2017. Yet there’s little Brussels can do to force any nations to comply.
New arrivals now are insignificant compared to 2015, but they have increased since the July 15 attempted coup in Turkey, topping 2,300 in the first three weeks of August. This is straining resources on the eastern Aegean Sea islands and the government has promised to build more housing on the mainland.
Fears are also growing that the EU-Turkey deal might fall apart as Ankara presses for the 28-nation bloc to allow its citizens visa-free entry.
ITALY
About 70,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean into Italy from January to June this year, similar to the same period last year. But with routes northward now restricted, there’s nowhere for them to go and, as smugglers resort to more dangerous practices, more migrants are dying en route.
Migrants are sleeping in hotels, homeless shelters, train stations and tent camps. The Tuscan city of Capalbio is putting them in fancy villas and Milan is readying a jail to take in some.
Nigerians make up the biggest group of newcomers to Italy, followed by Eritreans, Gambians, Ivorians and Sudanese, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
The wave of arrivals is testing Italy’s social services and Premier Matteo Renzi’s patience as he faces domestic resistance from the anti-immigrant Northern League and reluctance from Italy’s EU partners to resettle asylum-seekers. To date, only 961 would-be refugees have moved out of Italy, according to the IOM.
Earlier this month, France returned to Italy some 200 migrants who plunged into the sea at the Ventimiglia border crossing. The latest hot spot is Como on the Swiss border. Authorities have approved a tent camp there to house the estimated 300-500 migrants who have camped out at the train station after taking trains daily into Switzerland, only to be returned.
GERMANY
Germany has seen a much-reduced number of newcomers this year after taking in hundreds of thousands in 2015, the majority of those entering Europe.
Up to the end of July, 238,424 new arrivals were recorded — 92,000 of them in January, before the Balkan route was shut down. The figure has since leveled out at around 16,000 per month.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has stuck to her insistence that Germany will give shelter to those who need it and that Germany “will manage” the refugee crisis. That mantra has fueled ongoing strife in her conservative bloc, and benefited the nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party.
Two attacks this summer by asylum-seekers that were claimed by the Islamic State group have also fueled concerns.
Meanwhile, Germany has moved to tighten asylum rules, deport more rejected asylum applicants and turn more people back at the border.
Merkel has criticized other European countries’ unilateral moves to shut the Balkan migration route at Greece’s expense but was a leading advocate of the Turkey-EU agreement. She insists the deal remains necessary, despite tensions with Ankara over visa-free travel.
AUSTRIA
The discovery of 71 suffocated people in the back of a smuggler’s truck in Austria a year ago triggered an outpouring of support for refugees. That now seems a distant memory.
Then-Chancellor Werner Faymann urged Austrians to open their arms to the migrants, but faced increasing concerns that the country couldn’t cope. Faymann changed course early this year, suddenly backing calls to shut Austria’s border. He resigned in May amid falling support.
His successor, Christian Kern, has continued on the restrictive path welcomed by most Austrians, even as he urges them to be open-minded toward new arrivals.
Austria was the main force in the shutdown early this year of the Balkan route. After accepting more than 80,000 migrants last year, the country stands ready to turn back the first would-be refugee over the 37,500 limit it has set as a quota for 2016.
SERBIA and HUNGARY
The flow of migrants into Serbia has diminished drastically but not dried up entirely.
Instead of thousands a day registering at organized centers, hundreds a day now try to enter illegally. Illustrating the dangers, a 20-year-old Afghan migrant crossing illegally from Bulgaria was shot and killed last week by a hunter in an apparent accident.
Human Rights Watch says migrants and refugees at Hungary’s border with Serbia are being forced back, in some cases violently.
UNHCR estimates that some 4,400 asylum-seekers are now stranded in Serbia, mostly since Hungary started enforcing new regulations in July that allow authorities to “escort” migrants and refugees caught within five miles of the border back to Serbia.
Two “transit zones” on the Serbian side now process around 30 asylum applications a day, while 1,000 or more people are waiting in poor conditions to file asylum claims, most of which are rejected.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called migrants “poison” and said Friday that Hungary will build a new, “more massive” fence on its southern border to defend against a possible surge in numbers. A government-initiated referendum on Oct. 2 is meant to rally political support against any EU plan to resettle migrants among the bloc’s members.
FRANCE
Migrant numbers in Calais have soared this month, even though authorities shut down half of the city’s wretched camp earlier this year, and the British and French governments erected security fences and announced measures to deter new arrivals.
The French government says the number of migrants in the makeshift Calais camp known as the “jungle” has reached its highest official level yet: 6,901. Aid groups say it’s closer to 9,000.
This week, a Sudanese migrant died after a clash between groups of Sudanese and Afghans, the 11th migrant to die in Calais this year. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/in-depth-europes-refugee-crisis-simmers-despite-efforts-to-solve-it/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/16ca796cf9a76b4c012818e9319a001644645485d3cd3a01522f09b364d24ba8.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T14:49:49 | null | 2016-08-30T09:57:47 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Ftop-democrat-urges-fbi-probe-allegations-russia-seeking-influence-vote%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2013/05/Congress-Democrats_Werd-300x221.jpg | en | null | Top Democrat Urges FBI Probe of Allegations Russia Seeking to Influence Vote | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 9:57 am |
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is calling on the FBI to conduct a quick and thorough investigation into concerns the Russian government is trying to undermine the presidential election, including by tampering with official election results.
“The prospect of a hostile government actively seeking to undermine our free and fair elections represents one of the gravest threats to our democracy since the Cold War,” Reid said in a letter to FBI Director James Comey.
“It is critical for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to use every resource available to investigate this matter thoroughly and in a timely fashion,” Reid added. The letter, dated Aug. 27, was obtained by The New York Times and posted on its website on Monday.
Comey, speaking at a cyber security conference on Tuesday, declined to give details about what the FBI was investigating in connection with the political hacking but indicated the agency was closely watching what foreign countries are doing.
“We take very seriously any effort by any actor, … especially nation states, that moves beyond the collection of information … and offers the prospect of an effort to influence the conduct of affairs in our country, whether that is an election or something else,” he said.
Reid’s letter follows a spate of hacking attacks targeting U.S. political databases, including some that officials and cyber security experts have blamed on hackers with links to the Russian government.
The FBI discovered breaches in voter registration databases in Illinois and Arizona but did not specify who might have been behind it.
Officials and cyber security experts say recent breaches at the Democratic National Committee and elsewhere in the Democratic Party were likely carried out by people within the Russian government. Kremlin officials have denied that.
Reid, a Democrat, said that the threat of Russian government tampering in the election was “more extensive than widely known and may include the intent to falsify official election results.”
He also voiced concerns about possible Russian government efforts to manipulate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign, and to use it as a vehicle to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/top-democrat-urges-fbi-probe-allegations-russia-seeking-influence-vote/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/9d0721fe5f5345c840e9e53ff2319005413f93f0a2331198af178368674c8e9b.json |
[
"Melissa Healy"
] | 2016-08-31T00:50:00 | null | 2016-08-30T18:54:39 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fu-s-pediatricians-pushing-back-vaccine-hesitancy%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/21089205_xxl-300x251.jpg | en | null | U.S. Pediatricians Pushing Back on Vaccine ‘Hesitancy’ | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 6:54 pm |
(Los Angeles Times/TNS) - U.S. pediatricians are pushing back against parents who resist having their children vaccinated against a broad range of dangerous diseases by calling on states to stop offering waivers to those with nonmedical objections to the practice.
In a policy statement issued Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics also said that if parents continue to refuse vaccinations despite exhaustive efforts to change their minds, it would be acceptable for doctors to exclude these families from their practices.
The pronouncements are intended to guide U.S. pediatricians as they grapple with a rising tide of vaccine “hesitancy” on the part of parents. Among doctors who are members of the nation’s largest organization of pediatricians, 87 percent have been challenged in the last year by parents who refused to have their children immunized, up from 75 percent in 2006.
Imperturbable in the face of colicky babies, toddlers’ tantrums and teen angst, many pediatricians have reached the end of their patience with parents who are unconvinced of vaccines’ lifesaving benefits. In 2013, 12 percent of pediatricians routinely asked parents to find another physician if they weren’t willing to vaccinate their children. In 2006, only 6 percent routinely showed such parents the door, according to surveys by the academy.
That step should be a last resort, the group said.
In a lengthy report also released Monday by the academy, 23 specialists in pediatrics and infectious diseases said doctors should begin discussing the benefits of vaccines as early as the first prenatal visit. In doing so, they should be prepared to explain the scientific evidence supporting vaccines’ use.
The panel also urged pediatricians to “personalize” the message that vaccines are safe, effective and powerful by sharing their own decisions to vaccinate their children or grandchildren. This particular advice was prompted by studies showing that skeptical parents tend to value the safety and comfort of their own children over arguments emphasizing the role of vaccines in benefiting the public at large.
Even as it gave physicians its blessing to dismiss vaccine refusers from their practices, the pediatricians’ group acknowledged a widely held view among rank-and-file members: that for a profession dedicated to the well-being of children and their families, the decision to show patients the door is often difficult.
“It was gut-wrenching,” said Dr. Alison Ziari, chief of pediatrics at the Austin Regional Clinic, a multi-specialty practice with 70 pediatricians in Texas that adopted a vaccinate-or-leave policy in July 2015. “These are our families. We love them and we want to care for them.”
The survey results show that parents’ concerns about vaccines have shifted in recent years. In 2006, pediatricians reckoned that nearly three-fourths of parents reluctant to vaccinate their children were motivated by fear that some vaccines could cause autism or have other adverse effects on a child’s safety.
By 2013, safety concerns and the discredited link between vaccines and autism appeared to be less prominent causes of parental resistance. Instead, physicians attributed a growing number of parental objections to the view that vaccines are an unnecessary discomfort for their young children.
Such complacency is a common, if ironic, response to vaccines’ success, doctors and epidemiologists say. Before a measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, virtually everyone got measles as a child, and hundreds of Americans died of the disease each year. Today, few parents of young children have even seen it.
“In a way, immunization has been a victim of its own success,” said Dr. Sydney Spiesel, a pediatrician in Woodbridge, Conn., who has dismissed several families from his practice for refusing to vaccinate their children. “If you don’t see terrible things happening, you’re not seeing the risks” of failing to vaccinate.
The new guidelines follow a steady uptick in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, most notably measles and whooping cough. In 2015, a measles outbreak originating at Disneyland sickened 147 people in the United States, including 131 in California. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in March found that people who refused to vaccinate themselves or their children played a key role in initiating and accelerating those outbreaks.
Although all 50 states and the District of Columbia require that schoolchildren be immunized against a broad range of diseases, most states allow parents to opt out if they have a religious objection to vaccines and 18 allow for “philosophical exemptions” for those who object based on personal, moral or other grounds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Disneyland outbreak helped spark an acrimonious debate over these nonmedical exemptions. Last month, a California law removing the state’s “personal belief” exemption took effect, making California one of three states — along with West Virginia and Mississippi — that no longer grant nonmedical exemptions to vaccines.
“It’s clear that states with more lenient exemptions policies have lower immunization rates, and it’s these states where we have seen disease outbreaks occur as the rates slip below the threshold needed to maintain community immunity,” said Dr. Geoffrey R. Simon, lead author of the medical exemptions policy statement. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/u-s-pediatricians-pushing-back-vaccine-hesitancy/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/0956850488e77b66341a00fa48b2807f39e1f2065ed3689b5e5c060742248d7b.json |
[
"Zalman Ahnsaf"
] | 2016-08-30T20:49:59 | null | 2016-08-30T16:23:37 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fsaudi-media-reflects-thaw-israel%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Saudi Media Reflects Thaw With Israel | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 4:23 pm |
YERUSHALAYIM - In the latest sign of warming relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the state-run media have lowered the level of hostility toward their Jewish neighbors and the prospect of normalization is being discussed for the first time, The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.
Recent reports of informal contacts between officials of the two countries have now been followed by a softening of treatment of Israel in such outlets as al Arabiya and Riyadh newspapers. The villification of Israel as the source of all evil and the enemy of all Arabs has been replaced with a more moderate approach, which observers take as an indication that the leadership is seeking to prepare the people for a diplomatic shift.
“The key here is that everybody understands this is not going to turn around overnight, and it’s probably not going to convince a lot of people. But that’s not really the point,” said David Pollock, an expert on the region at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The point is to establish this as a debatable proposition, and to break the taboo of even debating about it– about the prospect of normalizing relations.”
“Once you’ve done that, you’ve made it legitimate,” Pollock added. “There are suddenly two sides.”
An official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry agreed there was a positive change, but cautioned that it should not be exaggerated.
“These are positive signs, but I would not say they are game changers,” the official said. “Good things are happening. But rather than seeing this as trying to prepare the ground for something, I’d say it is a sign that there is less enmity.”
A source in the Prime Minister’s Office sees it the same way. While acknowledging a few columns from “some pretty big journalists” that suggested hating Jews was no longer in the national interest, he has no information that the change has been directed from the top.
However, that might make it even more significant; not an orchestrated campaign but a spontaneous breaking down of anti-Israel attitudes at a lower level. If so, it could mean that an eventual move toward formal relations with Israel would meet with a receptive public, making it easier to achieve. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/saudi-media-reflects-thaw-israel/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/a5a78898989505d11c89485cc44490a4df8a3218a4b76f591c48788c1b2298ad.json |
[
"Samia Nakhoul",
"Angus Mcdowall"
] | 2016-08-31T12:50:21 | null | 2016-08-31T07:58:20 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fanalysis-death-islamic-states-tactician-comes-critical-moment%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/CRISIS-ISLAMIC-STATE-SYRIA-300x269.jpg | en | null | ANALYSIS: Death of Islamic State's Tactician Comes at Critical Moment | null | null | hamodia.com | Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 7:58 am |
IS spokesman and head of external operations Abu Muhammad al-Adnani is pictured in this undated handout photo, courtesy the U.S. Department of State. (U.S. Department of State/Handout via Reuters)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.S. air strike believed to have killed Abu Mohammad al-Adnani has deprived the Islamic State terror group of the architect of its attacks on the West, as it faces the loss of swathes of its heartlands.
One of the last survivors of the al-Qaida terrorists who originally formed Islamic State last decade in Iraq, including its self-appointed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Adnani had risen to become one of its most influential leaders.
“It’s a major morale and propaganda blow to the group because it shows that their top leadership is being targeted by an effective and organised chain,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the joint operations command of Iraq’s army, told Reuters in Baghdad.
Not only did Adnani orchestrate Islamic State’s propaganda effort, an undertaking at the heart of its quest to lay waste modern nation states, but he also served as one of its principle military planners.
If his death is confirmed, those skills will be hard to replace, even in a group as resilient as Islamic State, after a series of territorial losses and killings of top leaders.
In recent months Islamic State’s losses in Iraq have mounted. Fallujah has fallen in the west and Iraqi forces have captured key approaches to Mosul, the ancient Tigris city whose fall in 2014 signaled the group’s lightning rise.
Meanwhile, advances by a U.S.-backed coalition in Syria have all but cut Islamic State off from the Turkish border, after the loss of the key town of Manbij, and started to press into its Euphrates valley heartland.
Few people expect further advances against Islamic State to be rapid or straightforward, but the group’s enemies have built a clear momentum in both Iraq and Syria that has pushed it to adopt a strategy of attacks overseas.
Adnani was the man behind that policy, demonstrating an ideological and tactical flexibility that allowed the group first to capitalize on its seizure of land, and then to adapt as it was forced to retreat.
In doing so, Islamic State has made a switch in emphasis from its dreams of unifying all Muslims under a single, militant caliphate, to an older jihadist strategy of striking terror into its enemies by attacking them in their own countries.
But it has done this partly by harnessing shock tactics and social media to inspire and guide attacks by radicalized amateurs, rather than rely solely upon the highly trained but cumbersome militant cells of an earlier era. This, in part, was Adnani’s legacy.
Islamic State said on Tuesday Adnani was killed “while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo. It pledged to avenge his death but did not disclose details on how he died or who was killed with him.
A U.S. defense official told Reuters the United States targeted Adnani on Tuesday in a strike on a vehicle travelling in the Syrian town of al-Bab. He stopped short of confirming Adnani’s death, however. Such U.S. assessments often take days and often lag behind official announcements by terror groups.
Adnani’s presence in the Aleppo countryside may reflect its strategic and symbolic importance to Islamic State. The northwest has become both the most active theater of Syria’s war and an arena for competing regional and global powers.
The government and mainstream rebel groups, which between them hold most of Syria’s western, most populous, regions, have focused on their battle for control of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the war, and a strategic prize.
But to the north and east, a secondary conflict has played out as U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters and Turkey-backed rebels, who are also fighting each other, have squeezed IS’s once expansive tracts along the Turkish border and Euphrates basin.
These advances have all but cut off Islamic State from its last foothold on the Turkish border, its link to new foreign recruits, while a steady push from the north has brought its enemies to within 18 miles of its Syrian capital Raqqa.
But these strategic setbacks are not Islamic State’s only interest in the Aleppo countryside: just 18 miles northwest of al-Bab, where Adnani was reportedly killed in an airstrike after arriving to tour the battlefield, is the village of Dabiq.
A few streets surrounded by fields, it will be the site, says an Islamic prophecy, of a final battle between Muslims and infidels that will herald the apocalypse.
So important is this event in Islamic State propaganda, of which Adnani was the chief, that Dabiq was the name chosen for its online magazine that sought to inspire new recruits to its terror cause and instruct them in the ways of global jihad.
Hammered by two years of U.S.-led coalition air strikes and military losses on the ground, Adnani increasingly called in audio messages for attacks against the United States and Western countries. His group said it was behind deadly attacks in Paris, Nice and Brussels.
The shift was partly born of tactical necessity after Western and regional governments made it harder for would-be militants to travel to Syria or Iraq to join the group.
“If the tyrants close the door of migration in your faces, then open the door of jihad in theirs and turn their actions against them,” he said in an audio clip.
Born in 1977 as Taha Subhi Falaha in Syria’s Idlib Province southwest of Aleppo, he pledged allegiance to Islamic State’s predecessor, al-Qaida, more than a decade ago and was once imprisoned by U.S. forces in Iraq.
He left Syria to travel to Iraq to fight U.S. forces there after its 2003 invasion, and only returned to his homeland after the start of its own civil war in 2011, a person who knew his family said. A biography posted on terror websites says he grew up with a “love of mosques” and was a prolific reader.
A U.S. counter-terrorism official who monitors Islamic State said Adnani’s death would hurt the terrorists “in the area that increasingly concerns us as the group loses more and more of its caliphate and its financial base … and turns to mounting and inspiring more attacks in Europe, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.”
Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based security analyst that advises the Iraqi government on IS affairs: said: “As a military target, Adnani is less important than (ex war minister Omar) al-Shishani … (killed earlier this year in Iraq). His death is mainly a blow to their morale, he is the one who inspires the fighters to join in Syria.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/31/analysis-death-islamic-states-tactician-comes-critical-moment/ | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/62f132c80ab3b089685b9aeb8a271e5cb31e389c74bba4d5d3d9a43e8baad18f.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T08:49:13 | null | 2016-08-29T04:17:53 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Ftrump-plans-major-ad-buy-monday%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/USA-ELECTION-TRUMP-2-300x200.jpg | en | null | Trump Plans Major Ad Buy Monday | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 4:17 am |
A supporter holds up a sign before Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, vice presidential candidate Mike Pence, attend a campaign event at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa. (Reuters/Eric Thayer)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald Trump’s campaign is planning its biggest ad buy to date — upward of $10 million on commercials airing over the next week or so.
The campaign expects the ads to air as soon as Monday in nine swing states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where the campaign has already been on the air, along with New Hampshire, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney lost eight of those nine states.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has so far been badly outspent by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and groups supporting her. Since clinching her party’s nomination in early June, Clinton has spent more than $77 million on media advertising, largely targeting voters in battleground states, according to Kantar Media’s political ad tracker.
Trump finally hit the airwaves earlier this month with an ad focused on immigration, and so far has only spent about $5 million.
The new investment comes amid signs that Trump’s lagging poll numbers may be improving against Clinton’s following a campaign reboot.
Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said in a statement that the billionaire businessman’s “positive message of economic opportunity is working and we see the national and battleground state polls all moving in the right direction.”
“With Hillary Clinton off the campaign trail yet again this week and continuing to take many communities’ votes for granted, we see this as the right time to show voters the benefits of an American economy under the leadership of Mr. Trump,” he added.
Clinton will be spending much of the week in private fundraisers in the Hamptons, the wealthy enclaves of eastern Long Island, New York.
Trump is also expected to unveil on Monday his second ad of the general election. It will focus on his economic message, contrasting his approach with Clinton’s. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/trump-plans-major-ad-buy-monday/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/5e867caa1cab57536ae3747831e83b5a5c2248d4fc421f17f5422495ee7f71b9.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T00:48:32 | null | 2016-08-27T20:33:54 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fu-s-intelligence-indicates-a-weaker-is%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/NIGERIA-VIOLENCE-300x200.jpg | en | null | U.S. Intelligence Indicates a Weaker IS | null | null | hamodia.com | Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 8:33 pm |
An Islamic State flag. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)
WASHINGTON (Tribune Washington Bureau/TNS) - The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies view the Islamic State terror group as a shrinking and increasingly demoralized military force, a sharp shift from the seemingly invincible army that declared an Islamist caliphate two years ago.
The revised assessment comes after surprisingly swift and relatively bloodless victories this summer near Syria’s border with Turkey and in the Sunni heartland of Iraq, two areas where Islamic State had appeared entrenched.
The rapid recapture this past week of Jarabulus, the terrorists’ last garrison by the Turkish border, helped close off a boundary region that was crucial for movement of recruits, supplies and money in and out of the group’s quasi-state.
It also was the latest fight to suggest the Sunni terrorists are no longer willing to fight to hold territory against a sustained assault. Only one terrorist was reported killed in the assault led by Turkish tanks. Several hundred others apparently fled.
Partly as a result, U.S. officials have hinted that the long-delayed assault on Mosul, Islamic State’s self-declared capital in Iraq, may be launched this fall. The city of 1 million has been increasingly cut off by advancing Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces.
Michael Knights, Iraq fellow at the nonpartisan Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said taking back Mosul. along with the Syrian towns of Deir ez Zour and Raqqah, will mark the end of the caliphate.
“After the fall of those cities, [Islamic State] will be just another terror group,” he said. “They might be able to throw a couple car bombs in city centers and mount small arms attacks, but they will no longer engage in heavy fighting on a daily basis. In other words, we’ll be back to where we were in 2013.”
Despite the optimism, U.S. intelligence officials say Islamic State’s ability to inspire or organize terrorist attacks abroad is unimpaired — and may be a bigger threat as foreign sympathizers are unable to reach the cut-off caliphate.
“Despite the progress, it is our judgment that [Islamic State’s] ability to carry out terrorist attacks… has not to date been significantly diminished,” Nicholas Rasmussen, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the House Homeland Security Committee recently.
Terrorists still detonate car bombs or launch suicide attacks nightly in Baghdad. They could devolve into the kind of sectarian insurgency that turned Iraq into a slaughterhouse after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, or into a stateless global terrorist network like al-Qaida became after 2001.
As in other insurgencies, terrorists may be running away from battles now to survive and fight again — at a time and place of their choosing, experts warn. They could be sent to other battles or used as suicide bombers.
Moreover, Islamic State still has vast sway. It controls half the area it seized in Iraq in 2014 and 70 percent of its territory in Syria, according to U.S. estimates, and continues to haul in millions of dollars from taxes, fees and extortion.
Current U.S. intelligence estimates say the group now fields as few as 16,000 fighters — half its army of a year or so ago, but still a potent force.
But U.S. officials point to progress two years and more than 14,000 air strikes after President Barack Obama first ordered a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets.
“The number of fighters on the front line has diminished,” Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of U.S. forces against Islamic State until this week, said in a teleconference from Baghdad. “They’ve diminished not only in quantity, but also in quality.
“All I know is when we go someplace, it’s easier to go there now than it was a year ago. And the enemy doesn’t put up as much of a fight.”
As an example, he said that after U.S.-backed Iraqi forces recaptured Fallujah, key to the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad, in late June, terrorists fled their former stronghold in a large convoy that coalition aircraft quickly spotted and destroyed.
“They kind of made themselves easy targets for us,” MacFarland said. “I don’t think they would have made that mistake a year or two ago.”
Each defeat has added pressure on the terrorists by cutting off routes used to move arms, supplies and reinforcements. That affects command, unit cohesion and efficiency.
“Now they have to go get somebody and bring them all the way across the desert to reconstitute somebody who gets killed fighting near Ramadi or Haditha or someplace like that,” he said. ”And there’s a good chance we’ll spot them long before they get there.”
In addition to losing the border towns of Jarabulus and Manbij in northern Syria, the terrorists have been routed this month in Khalidiyah and Qayyarah in western Iraq. They previously were ousted from Hit, Al Hawl and Rutbah in Iraq.
Islamic State’s overseas operations also are under siege.
Fighting raged from mid-May until this past week in Sirte, the group’s stronghold on the coast of Libya. U.S. air strikes and British commando raids helped Libyan government forces finally retake the battered city.
Elsewhere, Boko Haram, the group’s affiliate in Nigeria, has lost territory to government troops. Islamic State branches in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and in eastern Afghanistan, also have suffered sharp defeats. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/27/u-s-intelligence-indicates-a-weaker-is/ | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/9dce24f88496d5adb1465bc4c6bca4448c26ff08587078ce279120e37235dec1.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T12:50:18 | null | 2016-08-31T08:23:03 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Funited-airlines-flight-diverts-ireland-16-hurt-turbulence%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/01/United-Airlines-Pilot_Appe-300x198.jpg | en | null | United Airlines Flight Diverts to Ireland After 16 Hurt in Turbulence | null | null | hamodia.com | Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 8:23 am |
United Airlines planes are parked at their gates at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Fourteen passengers and two crew members were injured on Wednesday when a United Airlines flight ran into severe turbulence and had to divert to Ireland’s Shannon Airport, the airport said.
Ambulances were at the scene when the Boeing aircraft that was en route from Houston to London Heathrow landed at 5:55 a.m. local time. Ten of the passengers and the two crew members were taken to a local hospital, a United Airlines spokesman said.
The casualties, three of whom were children, had soft tissue injuries, minor head injuries and lacerations, University Hospital Limerick said in a statement. All but one person had been discharged by 10:30 a.m.
The 207 passengers on the flight would continue their journey to London later on Wednesday on an alternative aircraft, United Airlines said. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/31/united-airlines-flight-diverts-ireland-16-hurt-turbulence/ | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/aa1d54f97c5a4d212dd417fa7562f1d5e0f4578a4554bafdbfab3bccf7f68aa2.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:49:26 | null | 2016-08-29T08:53:21 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fu-s-consumer-spending-posts-slower-growth-in-july%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | U.S. Consumer Spending Posts Slower Growth in July | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 8:53 am |
WASHINGTON (AP) - American consumers boosted spending at a slower pace in July, while their incomes accelerated slightly.
The Commerce Department says spending grew 0.3 percent in July following a 0.5 percent increase in June. The slowdown had been expected, given an earlier report that retail sales were flat in July. Incomes grew 0.4 percent in July, up from a 0.3 percent increase in June.
Economists are counting on solid gains in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, to power overall growth in the second half of the year.
The deceleration in July is likely to be followed by stronger spending increases in coming months. For July, spending on durable goods such as autos rose by a solid 1.6 percent, but spending for nondurable goods fell. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/u-s-consumer-spending-posts-slower-growth-in-july/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/a46c58c2b2dadb0c90b13adcc9918b691bcc8722a8d34b90910bc1ad8d9943aa.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:50:02 | null | 2016-08-30T20:03:07 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fbusiness-briefs-august-30-2016%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Business Briefs | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 8:03 pm |
U.S. Bank Earnings in 2Q Climbed 1.4 Percent to $43.6B
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. banks’ earnings in the April-June period rose 1.4 percent from a year earlier as growth in lending fueled interest income.
The data issued Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed continued strength in the banking industry eight years after the financial crisis struck. However, the impact of low oil prices on energy companies led banks to continue to post bigger losses on commercial and industrial loans.
The FDIC reported that U.S. banks earned $43.6 billion in the second quarter, up from $43 billion a year earlier. It marks a record profit for the industry.
France Wants Halt to ‘Imbalanced’ EU-U.S. Trade Deal Talks
PARIS (AP) — The French government wants the EU to end talks with the United States on forging a sweeping trade deal that it sees as too friendly to U.S. businesses.
French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that talks on a landmark trade deal between the United States and EU are unbalanced and cannot be completed before President Barack Obama leaves office.
It’s the latest blow to the proposed free-trade zone that would encompass half the world’s economy. There’s resistance on both continents, and the talks are complicated by Britain’s planned exit from the EU and presidential elections in the United States and France.
Seattle Weighs New Rules For Businesses With Hourly Workers
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle leaders have proposed new rules for retail and food-service businesses with hourly employees, including requiring them to schedule shifts two weeks in advance and compensate workers for some last-minute changes.
It’s the latest push by a city that has led the nation in mandating worker benefits. Seattle was among the first to phase in a $15 hourly minimum wage, mandate sick leave for many companies and offer paid parental leave for city workers.
Now, leaders are targeting erratic schedules they say make it difficult for people to juggle child care, school or other jobs or to count on stable income. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/business-briefs-august-30-2016/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/685b7e8ac7232ea2212ee868f1ec3947dd06826c6eea52908a85141a6e83bd37.json |
[
"Nicolas Loris",
"Katie Tubb"
] | 2016-08-28T20:49:08 | null | 2016-08-28T15:46:46 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fenergy-efficiency-regulations-hurt-consumers%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | OPINION: Energy Efficiency Regulations Hurt Consumers | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 3:46 pm |
(The Heritage Foundation/TNS) - You have houseguests and you may not even know it. Indeed, they can be found in virtually every room of your home.
We’re referring to federal regulators. They’re determined to reduce your energy use, no matter how much it costs you or takes decisions out of your hands.
Take a look around your kitchen. Many appliances are regulated by the federal government, from the oven and refrigerator, down to the standby light on the microwave.
Step into other rooms, and even outdoors. Showers, air conditioners and heaters, washers and dryers, swimming pools, toilets — these are just some of the other things the federal government regulates.
And it’s getting worse. The Department of Energy recently churned through a list of energy efficiency regulations. Just since June, the DOE has set or initiated standards for dehumidifiers, ceiling fans, battery chargers and wine coolers.
At issue isn’t health or safety, or even unfair business practices. Through the DOE, the federal government is busying itself regulating how much energy the appliances Americans buy are allowed to use.
Now, energy efficiency isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s an important factor in many Americans’ purchasing decisions — because let’s face it, people love to save money. But there are several reasons why the federal government shouldn’t be mandating it:
—Energy efficiency regulations reduce choices. Regulations prioritize efficiency over other preferences such as safety, size, performance, durability and cost. Americans weren’t without energy-efficient appliances before federal mandates. The DOE is essentially trying to make “better” decisions for people by limiting their options to “acceptable” ones.
—Regulations have very little impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Regardless of one’s opinion on global warming, these regulations have almost no impact. The DOE’s projected benefits from reducing greenhouse gas emissions total a paltry 1 percent.
—Savings benefit the rich, often at the expense of the poor. According to Sofie Miller at the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, DOE cost-benefit calculations best describe households making $160,844 or more. In reality, energy-efficiency costs and benefits vary widely depending on income, education and race. Higher energy costs hit poor families the hardest.
—Mandates hinder innovation. Government-created energy standards set an artificial target for manufacturers, rather than allowing the market to drive economic efficiency and what consumers want. Efficiency standards effectively take investment decisions away from the company, which stifles innovation that would yield better economic and environmental results.
—Savings promised by standards are misleading. Considering the costs and benefits, Americans are essentially paying to have their choices restricted. There have also been problems with how the DOE estimates upfront costs, payback horizons, overstated energy savings, and future energy prices. For example, the DOE assumed in a washing machine proposed rule that households used washers 392 times per year — more than seven times per week — meaning most families would never reap the benefits of more efficient, but more expensive, washers.
—Standards easily play into corporate welfare. Companies lobby for regulations and subsidies that most benefit them, in an attempt to squeeze out competition from smaller companies. If these products save customers as much as advertised, they shouldn’t be subsidized by the taxpayer or mandated by regulators.
But if the government didn’t set mandates, wouldn’t companies stop producing energy-efficient products? Refrigerators, which the DOE points to as a success story, are just one example of why there’s no reason to worry:
“The Standards Program has driven remarkable gains in the energy efficiency of household appliances and equipment, resulting in large energy bill savings. For example, today, the typical new refrigerator uses one-quarter the energy than in 1973 — despite offering 20 percent more storage capacity and being available at half the retail cost.”
One problem: The first federal efficiency standards for refrigerators did not go into effect until 1990. Refrigerator manufacturers were improving energy use and design for nearly two decades before the government got involved.
As customers, Americans put importance on energy efficiency without the government nudging. And the free market is only too willing to supply.
Americans also respond well to prices. When energy prices increase, whether at the meter or at the pump, families will conserve energy, either by buying more energy-efficient appliances or a more fuel efficient car.
Over the years, the DOE, empowered by Congress through the Energy Policy Conservation Act of 1975, has quietly expanded the list of products it regulates for energy efficiency. Congress should eliminate all mandatory efficiency regulations — and leave these decisions to consumers.
—
Nicolas Loris is the Herbert and Joyce Morgan fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Katie Tubb is a policy analyst in Heritage’s Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. Paul J. Larkin Jr., a senior legal research fellow at Heritage, also contributed to this article. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/energy-efficiency-regulations-hurt-consumers/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/aa1ccf4d5ddab46cef03064edee844fdbde82db0f7c61d4b04b36396980b0da4.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T08:48:45 | null | 2016-08-28T03:15:05 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Firan-detects-malware-in-petrochemical-plants-says-not-linked-to-fires%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2013/10/Iran-Nuclear_Werd-300x178.jpg | en | null | Iran Detects Malware in Petrochemical Plants, Says Not Linked to Fires | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 3:15 am |
A worker rides a bicycle in front of the reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran. (AP Photo/Mehr News Agency, Majid Asgaripour, File)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has detected and removed malicious software from two of its petrochemical complexes, a senior military official said on Saturday, after announcing last week it was investigating whether recent petrochemical fires were caused by cyber attacks.
The official said the malware at the two plants was inactive and had not played a role in the fires.
“During a periodical inspection of petrochemical units, a type of industrial malware was detected and the necessary defensive measures were taken,” Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran’s civilian defense, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
Iran is alert to the threat of cyber attack by foreign countries. The United States and Israel covertly sabotaged Iran’s nuclear program in 2009 and 2010 with the now-famous Stuxnet computer virus, which destroyed Iranian centrifuges that were enriching uranium.
The National Cyberspace Council announced last week that it was investigating whether the recent petrochemical fires were triggered by a cyber attack.
But when asked if the fire at Iran’s Bu Ali Sina refinery complex last month and other fires this month were caused by the newly-discovered malware, Jalali said that “the discovery of this industrial virus is not related to recent fires.”
The oil minister said last week that most of the fires in petrochemical plants happened because the privatized petrochemical companies have cut their budgets for health and safety inspections. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/iran-detects-malware-in-petrochemical-plants-says-not-linked-to-fires/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/6b0e0577bf472febab944b6f3a0e58006de99f8d915cc01a3a8a6f38d68c0fd5.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:49:56 | null | 2016-08-30T16:21:04 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Findictment-woman-used-feds-fake-university-get-visas%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Indictment: Woman Used Feds’ Fake University to Get Visas | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 4:21 pm |
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A federal grand jury indicted a New York City woman Tuesday for her alleged role in a student visa “pay to stay” scam uncovered after federal authorities set up a fake university.
Ting Xue faces one count of conspiracy and seven counts of visa fraud.
The bogus school, the University of Northern New Jersey, was set up by undercover agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Cranford, a small town about 15 miles outside New York City.
Xue, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Queens, allegedly used her consulting business to recruit foreign nationals to enroll in the school so they could fraudulently obtain or keep student or work visas.
She was one of 21 people charged in April with helping more than 1,000 foreigners get the bogus documents over a two-and-a-half-year period.
The school had no instructors, classes or degree programs, but its authentic-looking website promised “a high quality American education to students from around the world.” The site contained links to academic programs; a message from the “president,” a Dr. Steven Brunetti, PhD; and photos of young people sitting around a library table or consulting with a faculty member.
The U.S. attorney’s office says Xue and the others, as well as the foreigners, knew the university was bogus but didn’t know it was a sting operation. They allegedly paid the undercover agents running the school thousands of dollars to produce paperwork that made it look as if the foreigners were enrolled.
Most of the foreigners who benefited from the scam were from China and India and were already in the U.S. on student visas, federal prosecutors said in April.
An attorney listed for Xue didn’t return an email seeking comment Tuesday. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/indictment-woman-used-feds-fake-university-get-visas/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/377e8770f9c3442458b6a5c5d058fbd4ad97765b60611f11e7fd50e7556edc56.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T02:49:04 | null | 2016-08-28T20:57:21 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fchristie-sandy-hit-towns-can-apply-new-grant-money%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Christie: Sandy-Hit Towns Can Apply for New Grant Money | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 8:57 pm |
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) - Gov. Chris Christie announced on Friday that nine New Jersey counties devastated by Superstorm Sandy will be able to apply for reimbursement of funds they spent immediately after the storm.
Christie said in Toms River that towns could apply to get a share of $42 million in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds. They had been required to front the cost of 10 percent of recovery immediately after the storm, with FEMA picking up the rest. Christie said that for some towns that percent cost up to $1 million.
“Rather than see property taxes increase in these hard-hit communities, the state is stepping in to cover these costs,” Christie said.
Towns can start applying for the money on Monday with a deadline of Oct. 18. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/christie-sandy-hit-towns-can-apply-new-grant-money/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/181a665ef7aa7fd480e2a66989a79a4ae4d07879b64435ccd4e0a505ef9f07fa.json |
[
"Yisrael Price"
] | 2016-08-30T16:49:58 | null | 2016-08-30T12:30:12 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fpm-spokesman-u-n-envoys-remarks-distort-history%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/Netanyahu-Calls-UN-Envoy’s-Criticism-“Absurd”-300x200.jpg | en | null | Netanyahu Calls U.N. Envoy’s Criticism ‘Absurd’ | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 12:30 pm |
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday. (Reuters/Abir Sultan/Pool)
YERUSHALAYIM - It is not Israel’s building policies, but the U.N.’s refusal to recognize its right to build, which is the real obstacle to peace, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday in response to criticism from the U.N. Mideast envoy.
In a briefing to the Security Council on Monday, the envoy, Nicolay Mladenov, said that expansion in Yehudah and Shomron and east Yerushalayim is among the biggest obstacles to peace with the Palestinians. He noted plans for over 1,000 new Jewish housing units and steps being taken to legalize Israeli outpost communities in the region.
“It is difficult to read in these actions a genuine intention to work toward a viable two-state solution,” Mladenov said. “This appears to reinforce a policy, carried out over decades, that has enabled over half a million Israelis to settle in territory that was occupied militarily in 1967.”
“The U.N. envoy to the Middle East’s remarks to the Security Council distort history and international law and push peace farther away,” Netanyahu said in a statement released on Tuesday.
“Jews have been in Yerushalayim, Yehudah and Shomron for thousands of years and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace. The obstacle to peace is the unending attempt to deny the Jewish People’s connection to parts of their historic land and the obdurate refusal to recognize that they are not foreigners there.
“The claim that Jewish construction in Yerushalayim is illegal is as absurd as the claim that American construction in Washington or French construction in Paris is illegal. The Palestinian demand that a future Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews is outrageous and the U.N. must condemn it instead of adopting it.”
Following Mladenov’s briefing, the Security Council decided to hold a meeting in October to address the issue. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/pm-spokesman-u-n-envoys-remarks-distort-history/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/6339c4ab02592020996c876eacc21e0b3490c6dea2af16b506f437ce5f9dbd5e.json |
[
"Shimon B. Lifkin"
] | 2016-08-30T20:50:05 | null | 2016-08-30T15:31:23 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fgovernment-tells-banks-salary-cap-stays%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/Government-Tells-Banks-Salary-Cap-Stays-On-300x200.jpg | en | null | Government Tells Banks: Salary Cap Stays On | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 3:31 pm |
Israeli banks Discount, Bank HaPoalim and Bank Leumi stand next to each other in central Tel Aviv. (Miriam Alster/Flas90)
YERUSHALAYIM - The Israeli government defended the recently passed law limiting executive compensation against claims by banks and insurance companies that it impinges on free market rights. The state did concede, however, that the law should not be construed to deprive anyone of accumulated pension rights, according to Globes on Tuesday.
The State Attorney’s Office rejected the arguments to roll back the law, which sets a ceiling on salaries recognized for tax purposes of the highest paid employee to 35 times that of the lowest paid in a company.
The state said that any impairment of freedom of occupation and freedom of contract, as cited by the petitioners, are not such as to justify rescinding or revising the law.
Furthermore, the state attorneys pointed out, the financial institutions can elevate compensation for their top executives within the framework of the new law by bringing up the company’s minimum salaries. They cited the example of insurance company Harel, which raised the lowest salary in the company to NIS 6,000, higher than the legal minimum.
Regarding pensions, the report endorsed a proposal by Deputy Attorney General Avi Licht for excluding rights accumulated in the past from the provisions of the law.
Failure to recognize those rights could have serious consequences for the industry. At Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi, the two biggest in Israel, it has been estimated that as many as 215 personnel are likely to quit if the law is applied to pension rights accumulated to date.
Supervisor of Banks Hedva Ber has warned that if this were to occur, the entire system could be severely disrupted.
It appears unlikely to come to that, though, since everyone involved in creating the law on executive pay, from Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon down, has said that there was no intention to touch the pension rights of managers at the banks. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/government-tells-banks-salary-cap-stays/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/48f9723608cfebaad49616b2ff2b5d81640d140c8d68861cdc9f7c42070992a8.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:48:51 | null | 2016-08-28T10:13:20 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fthree-days-learning-dorog-beis-medrash-bnei-brak%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/resized_DSC_0091-300x200.jpg | en | null | Three Days of Learning in Dorog Beis Medrash in Bnei Brak | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 10:13 am |
Learning in the Dorog beis medrash in Bnei Brak during the three-day learning. (JDN)
The Dorog Rebbe, shlita, initiated last week a unique learning seder, of non-stop learning for the duration of three days. This is based on a segulah of the Ramchal, zt”l, who writes learning three days and night uninterrupted can cancel decrees facing Klal Yisrael, chas veshalom, like the three days of Torah and tefillah that Mordechai Hatzaddik held before Esther risked her life and managed to annul the decree of Haman.
The seder was held in the Dorog beis medrash in Bnei Brak, with hundreds of Chassidim learning throughout the days and nights.
Learning in the Dorog beis medrash. (JDN) | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/three-days-learning-dorog-beis-medrash-bnei-brak/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/a23fa151940de51fe198caaa8d40f217c72e860812d9f18a201f4062cbee579c.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T14:50:19 | null | 2016-08-31T10:13:11 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fu-s-appeals-court-voids-655-5m-award-vs-pa-plo%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | U.S. Court Dismisses Award Against PA, PLO Over Terror Attacks | null | null | hamodia.com | Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 10:13 am |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday threw out a $655.5 million judgment against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization after they had been found liable to a group of American families who accused them of supporting terrorist attacks in Israel.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said a lower court judge erred in concluding he had jurisdiction over the defendants with regard to the plaintiffs’ claims. The appeals court ordered the lawsuit be dismissed.
Kent Yalowitz, a lawyer for the families, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for the Palestinian groups did not immediately respond to similar requests.
In February 2015 a federal jury found the defendants liable over six shootings and bombings between 2002 and 2004 in the Yerushalayim area that killed 33 people, including several Americans, and wounded more than 450.
Jurors awarded $218.5 million, a sum automatically tripled under a U.S. anti-terrorism law to $655.5 million.
But the appeals court said neither the attacks nor the Palestinian groups had sufficient ties to the United States for the defendants to be subject to federal court jurisdiction. It also found no evidence the attacks specifically targeted American citizens.
“The terror machine gun attacks and suicide bombings that triggered this suit and victimized these plaintiffs were unquestionably horrific,” Judge John Koeltl wrote for the appeals court.
“But the federal courts cannot exercise jurisdiction in a civil case beyond the limits prescribed by the due process clause of the Constitution, no matter how horrendous the underlying attacks or morally compelling the plaintiffs’ claims.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/31/u-s-appeals-court-voids-655-5m-award-vs-pa-plo/ | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/031164c1a042ad949060b39b2e4b1b1bafa3dda67de7ba76f9fead3c7e91035e.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:50:16 | null | 2016-08-31T05:39:41 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Ffocus-u-s-slams-eu-apple-tax-demand-first-issued-washington%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/03/APPLE-SECURITY-300x183.jpg | en | null | FOCUS: U.S. Slams EU, But Apple Tax Demand First Issued in Washington | null | null | hamodia.com | Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 5:39 am |
A 3-D printed Apple logo. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States is furious at the European Union for handing Apple Inc. a $14.5 billion tax demand on Tuesday, but EU officials say it was Washington which put them on to the scheme in the first place.
It was a Senate report in May 2013 revealing the tech giant’s deal with the Irish government to rule a big slice of its global earnings nontaxable that prompted the European Commission to launch its own inquiries the following month.
The U.S. Treasury said the Commission’s order that Apple pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland — which the company and Dublin are appealing — endangers EU-U.S. economic relations just as efforts to reach a transatlantic free trade pact unravel.
A senior Democratic senator said Brussels had made “a cheap money grab” for U.S. revenues.
But his party colleague, Carl Levin, who chaired hearings into Apple’s taxes three years ago, said the Europeans were only trying to take what U.S. authorities had failed to claim by not closing loopholes that allowed firms to hoard profits overseas.
“The IRS has failed to stake a claim for U.S. taxes on those revenues,” he said in a statement, referring to the Internal Revenue Service. “So Europe attempts to fill the vacuum. Shame on Apple for dodging U.S. taxes. Shame on the IRS for failing to challenge Apple’s tax avoidance.”
For Marcel Fratzscher, president of leading German economic think-tank DIW Berlin and author of a new book on growing inequality, the mudslinging between politicians reflects how global corporations have exploited competition for investment to blunt states’ efforts to co-operate against tax avoidance.
“Companies are playing one government against another,” he told Reuters.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, a straight-talking Dane who dismisses talk of leading an anti-American crusade, says the hearings at the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by Levin were what gave her Spanish predecessor grounds to demand disclosure by Apple and Ireland.
“The Commission listened and decided to look deeper into the matter,” Vestager said in June, crediting media reporting and hearings in the British parliament for also providing evidence to help break secrecy around nearly 1,000 cases across Europe.
The Commission said in its judgment on Apple that the United States and other countries were welcome to try and claim some of the unpaid taxes for themselves — highlighting the complaints of Levin and other senators three years ago when they skewered Apple CEO Tim Cook for failing to bring cash home.
As well as Apple, Starbucks Corp. was ordered to pay more Dutch taxes and Amazon.com Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. are still being investigated; a series of EU accusations that Google, part of Alphabet Inc., has abused its market power have also fueled complaints from President Barack Obama’s administration that Europe is out to punish American success.
Competition lawyer Pierre Sabbadini said political pressures drove different responses by different authorities. Leaks and public hearings on tax deals had created pressure among voters for the EU to act in 2013, he said, while the size of the companies targeted gave them clout with political leaders, too.
“When investigation-target companies have grown to the size of Apple, they can reach out for political support,” he said.
The Obama administration has taken its own action to curb tax avoidance schemes lately. In April, amid public controversy over drug company Pfizer Inc’s proposed merger with Allergan Plc of Ireland, it announced plans to curb so-called “tax inversions,” by which U.S. firms have undertaken cross-border mergers in order to switch to a domicile abroad and so avoid U.S. taxes.
Pfizer abandoned the merger. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/31/focus-u-s-slams-eu-apple-tax-demand-first-issued-washington/ | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/cff7ba98c0b5cf04de131a582efbf4e21a0d37b71d5a62ee0da56bb375b74a06.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T00:49:38 | null | 2016-08-29T20:45:19 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fbar-mitzvah-son-harav-yitzchok-david-alter-grandson-pnei-menachem-gur-zyu%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/DSC_0855-300x199.jpg | en | null | Bar Mitzvah for son of Harav Yitzchok David Alter grandson of the Pnei Menachem of Gur Zy”u | null | null | hamodia.com | null | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/bar-mitzvah-son-harav-yitzchok-david-alter-grandson-pnei-menachem-gur-zyu/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/b0f1a9f591ef87b4b714714164eb24469039226a56f5352311205e34ca835d03.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:57:10 | null | 2016-08-25T21:05:21 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F25%2Fblast-sports-stadium-belgium%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP16239127303738-300x200.jpg | en | null | 1 Person Dead, At Last 4 Injured in Belgium in Accidental Blast | null | null | hamodia.com | Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 9:05 pm |
Police inspectors survey the scene of a blast at a sports complex in Chimay, Belgium, Friday. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
CHIMAY, Belgium (AP) - One person was killed and at least four were injured in Belgium in an accidental explosion at a sports center near the French border.
Chimay police Chief Pierre Maton said early Friday that the blast was most likely “a gas explosion,” but an investigation into the cause was ongoing.
The blast in the town of Chimay, 75 miles south of the capital Brussels, happened just after midnight local time.
In this image from Google Maps, the red arrow indicates Chimay, Belgium.
Several dozen police and firefighters were on the scene and the area had been cordoned off, but the damage was not as serious as initially feared. Windows were blown out of the two-story building, and one corner of the structure was badly damaged but there was no major collapse.
Firefighters were on the scene early Friday morning clearing the rubble and securing the building.
Police said they believed they have retrieved all the people from the rubble.
Chimay has a population of about 10,000. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/25/blast-sports-stadium-belgium/ | en | 2016-08-25T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/fef83518e5e1836936017a115d7d2034a2ee4e0db5d32b3e6fee8c100ffff0fc.json |
[
"Yisrael Price"
] | 2016-08-29T22:49:39 | null | 2016-08-29T17:58:01 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fhigh-court-lightens-punishment-young-rock-throwers%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/High-Court-Lightens-Punishment-of-Young-Rock-Throwers-300x200.jpg | en | null | High Court Lightens Punishment of Young Rock Throwers | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 5:58 pm |
A Palestinian rock thrower in the village of Qusra near Shechem, earlier this month. (Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - Israel’s High Court lightened the sentences of several Palestinian youths charged with rock-throwing, effectively rebuffing a law passed less than a year ago by the Knesset calling for tougher punishment.
The Court reduced on Monday the sentences of seven offenders indicted for three different incidents of rock-throwing at vehicles. In one of the incidents, a Jewish victim was injured by the rocks, requiring medical treatment, Arutz Sheva reported.
Lower courts had imposed sentences ranging from one to three years; but on appeal, they were lowered to from two to nine months, with a mandatory compensation of 8,500 shekels ($2,242).
Judge Uri Shoham said that the punishments were severe for minors; for most of them this was their first criminal offense.
“We view the actions of the appellants with the utmost severity, especially since we’re not talking about events which developed spontaneously, but which involved on-site planning, in the framework of which the appellants formed a plan for hurting Jews – because they were Jews,” Judge Shoham wrote.
“Behavior of this kind, motivated by ideological concerns, meant to disrupt daily life in the state – needs a tough and deterring response in the form of tangible punishments. However, one cannot escape the fact that all the appellants were minors, aged 13.5 to 17, at the time the crimes were committed.”
Judges Neal Hendel and Tzvi Zilbertal also participated in the decision.
At the time of voting on the bill in November 2015, Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) presented it to the plenum, saying that “the punishment for throwing rocks is far from reflecting the ramifications and the death they cause. A minimum punishment is necessary to create a deterrent and uproot the assumption that ‘it’s just a rock.’ ” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/high-court-lightens-punishment-young-rock-throwers/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/52f81555b54cc88277f08810db9f8da1a7413c66c45efebd46640c009ac00f6a.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:49:52 | null | 2016-08-29T18:04:06 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fnorth-korea-denounces-u-n-condemnation-warns-u-s-action%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | North Korea Denounces U.N. Condemnation, Warns U.S. of Action | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 6:04 pm |
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - North Korea has denounced a U.N. Security Council statement condemning its four latest ballistic missile launches, calling it “a hostile act” perpetrated by the United States and warning that it could precipitate America’s “self-destruction.”
A Foreign Ministry statement sent to U.N. correspondents on Monday also warned that North Korea “has substantial means capable of reducing aggression troops in the U.S. mainland and the operational theater in the Pacific to ashes in a moment.”
A press statement approved Friday night by all 15 Security Council members, including North Korea’s ally China, called the four launches in July and August “grave violations” of a ban on all ballistic missile activity.
The council expressed “serious concern” that North Korea had carried out the launches after six ballistic missile firings between April and June, “in flagrant disregard” of the council’s repeated demands to halt all missile launches and nuclear tests which violate U.N. resolutions.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of instigating the statement and “abusing” the Security Council, to deter the country’s “legitimate right to self-defense.”
The ministry called the council statement “a reckless provocation harassing peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.”
It accused the Security Council of deliberately disregarding a complaint sent by the North Korean government about U.S.-South Korean military exercises currently underway. North Korea has threatened retaliation for these exercises, which it views as a rehearsal for invasion by the U.S. and other adversaries.
“This is an illegal action taken by the world body to side with the U.S. in the acute standoff between the DPRK and the U.S. without an iota of impartiality,” the ministry said, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea singled out the council’s condemnation of the latest submarine launch of a ballistic missile on Aug. 24, days after the U.S. and South Korea began their annual military exercises.
North Korea usually responds to the annual South Korea-U.S. military drills with weapons tests and fiery warlike rhetoric
South Korean officials said the missile flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles), the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon. That means all of South Korea, and possibly parts of Japan, are within its striking distance.
The Foreign Ministry recalled its warning to the U.S. of military action if it criticized the submarine missile launch and “enraged people of the DPRK.”
“Now that the U.S. posed threats to the dignity and the right to existence of the DPRK, defying its serious warning, it will continue to take a series of eventful action steps as a full-fledged military power,” the statement said.
Acquiring the ability to launch missiles from submarines would be an alarming development because missiles fired from submerged vessels are harder to detect in advance. U.S. Strategic Command said last week that the latest North Korean missile launch did not pose a threat to North America but that the U.S. military “remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations.”
North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons development programs have brought heavy international sanctions down on its head, but Pyongyang says they are justified because of the threat posed by the U.S. and South Korea. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/north-korea-denounces-u-n-condemnation-warns-u-s-action/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/6148e3fff085eb0a52fbf20f34e0980e38eb6f9d703f26083eb704342b848c81.json |
[
"Dov Benovadia"
] | 2016-08-28T08:48:47 | null | 2016-08-28T04:01:09 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fisrael-denies-drone-brought-down-over-gaza%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/04/F140323ARK01-300x200.jpg | en | null | Israel Denies Drone Brought Down Over Gaza | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 4:01 am |
A flying drone camera in Gaza City. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - Israel on Sunday denied claims by Hamas that an Israeli drone had been downed over Gaza. Reports Motzoei Shabbos said that the Israeli drone had failed and fallen to the ground in southern Gaza. Hamas sources reported that “unidentified forces” had shot the drone down, but denied doing it themselves.
On Sunday the IDF said in a statement it was unaware of the loss of any drones. Hamas did not supply photos or other evidence to substantiate its claim that the drone was on the ground in Gaza.
Overnight Motzoei Shabbos, IDF troops arrested five Arabs near the Mevo Dotan army base in northern Shomron. The five, who were stopped as they drove in their car near a checkpoint, were found to be carrying a rifle and ammunition. The Arabs, residents of the village of Araka near Jenin, were taken into custody.
Overnight Motzoei Shabbos, security officials said they arrested 11 wanted security suspects in other areas in Yehudah and Shomron. The suspects were wanted for participating in rioting and throwing stones and firebombs that endangered Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. Several of the suspects were also charged with belonging to Hamas. All were being questioned on their activities by security forces. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/israel-denies-drone-brought-down-over-gaza/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/17a66c9d755c47b3fde42413600e42fa46d2fd48a26334d02fcf5fb19901d22b.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T14:49:20 | null | 2016-08-29T09:26:40 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fmylan-to-launch-generic-epipen-at-half-the-price-of-original%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/MYLAN-EPIPEN-COMPETITION-300x220.jpg | en | null | Mylan to Launch Generic EpiPen at Half the Price of Original | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 9:26 am |
EpiPen auto-injection epinephrine pens manufactured by Mylan NV pharmaceutical company for use by severe allergy sufferers. (Reuters/Jim Bourg/File Photo)
(Reuters) - Mylan said it would launch the first generic version of its allergy auto-injector EpiPen at half the price of the branded product, the drugmaker’s second step in less than a week to counter a wave of criticism over the product’s high price.
The company reduced the out-of-pocket costs of EpiPen for some patients last week, but kept the list price at about $600, a move that lawmakers said was not enough. EpiPen cost about $100 in 2008.
Mylan said on Monday it expected to launch the generic product “in several weeks” at a list price of $300, an highly unusual move considering the branded product is still under patent protection and rival treatments have failed to get regulatory clearances.
Chief Executive Heather Bresch has defended EpiPen’s high price, saying Mylan had spent hundreds of millions of dollars improving the product, including making the needle invisible, since acquiring it from Germany’s Merck KGaA.
The company has said that it recoups less than half of EpiPen’s list price because pharmacy benefit managers, which often require discounted prices or rebates from drugmakers, are involved, along with insurers and others.
“Our decision to launch a generic alternative to EpiPen is an extraordinary commercial response,” Bresch said on Monday. “We determined that bypassing the brand system in this case and offering an additional alternative was the best option.”
Netherlands-based Mylan said it also intends to continue to market and distribute branded EpiPen.
EpiPen is a preloaded injection of epinephrine (adrenaline) used in case of a dangerous allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis that could cause death if untreated.
Anaphylaxis can occur in as little as a couple of minutes of exposure to the allergen, which can come in the form of food such as peanuts or insects such as bees.
U.S. health regulators rejected Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp’s rival treatment to EpiPen in June. Sanofi has pulled its device from the market and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries was forced to delay the launch of its version.
Mylan is the latest company to be caught up in the growing outrage, including from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, at apparently egregious drug price increases.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and privately held Turing Pharmaceuticals have both been publicly excoriated for similar price increases.
Mylan’s shares were up about 2 percent at $43.90 in premarket trading. The stock had fallen 12 percent last week. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/mylan-to-launch-generic-epipen-at-half-the-price-of-original/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/c5a1ed61df99252c2b35bf5ec14c925469aa29d65deae48098635c391a9b7e97.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T14:50:25 | null | 2016-08-31T09:10:15 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fsurvey-u-s-companies-add-solid-177000-jobs-august%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/07/Jobs-4-300x200.jpg | en | null | Survey: U.S. Companies Add a Solid 177,000 Jobs in August | null | null | hamodia.com | Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 9:10 am |
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. businesses added a solid 177,000 jobs in August, according to a private survey, suggesting that hiring remains healthy after two months of strong gains.
Payroll processor ADP says the job growth was driven by services firms such as retailers, financial services firms, and professional and business services, which includes higher-paying jobs like accountants, engineers and architects.
Construction firms cut jobs and manufacturing employment was unchanged.
The steady hiring could help fuel stronger growth in the second half of this year. Growth slumped in the winter and spring, falling to an annual rate of just 1 percent.
The ADP data cover only private businesses and often diverge from the official figures. Economists forecast that the government’s jobs report, to be released Friday, will show a gain of 180,000 jobs. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/31/survey-u-s-companies-add-solid-177000-jobs-august/ | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/141b3e0bda7e903dd02273f53bda264cf353bbafe6a560199797313143e00ec0.json |
[
"Hamodia Staff"
] | 2016-08-28T20:49:02 | null | 2016-08-28T16:21:31 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fstudy-child-pedestrians-distracted-cellphones-adults%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/Study-Child-Pedestrians-300x125.jpg | en | null | Study: Child Pedestrians More Distracted by Cellphones Than Adults | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 4:21 pm |
Fig.1. Dome projection facility and pedestrian simulator at the BGU Virtual Environment Simulation Laboratory.
Left: A child participant viewing the scenario on the Dome screen with the eye tracker strapped to his head.
Right: A perspective of a participant facing the dome.
(Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
YERUSHALAYIM - Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have determined that a child pedestrian’s ability to safely cross the road is hindered more during a cell phone conversation than an adult’s.
“Although many children carry cell phones, the effect that cell phone conversations have on children’s crossing behavior has not been thoroughly examined,” said Prof. Tal Oron-Gilad, head of BGU’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.
“Over a third of the road traffic deaths in low- and middle-income countries are among pedestrians. This high level of involvement is particularly meaningful for child pedestrians as the proportion of child pedestrian fatalities is significantly high relative to adults,” she adds.
“It is important to take these findings into account when aiming to train young pedestrians for road safety and increase public awareness with children going back to school,” Prof. Oron-Gilad says.
The study was conducted at the BGU Virtual Environment Simulation Laboratory, one of the world’s most sophisticated traffic research facilities, which enables researchers to measure pedestrian reactions to virtual reality scenarios. The pedestrian dome simulator consists of a 180-degree spherical screen aligned with a highly accurate three-projector system large enough to immerse a participant within its circumference.
The simulator experiment was conducted in a virtual city environment with 14 adults and 38 children who experienced road crossing scenarios paired with pre-determined cell phone conversations. The subjects were requested to press a response button whenever they felt it was safe to cross while the researchers tracked their eye movements.
“The results showed that while all age groups’ crossing behaviors were affected by cell phone conversations, children were more susceptible to distraction,” says Prof. Oron-Gilad, “When busy with more cognitively demanding conversation types, participants were slower to react to a crossing opportunity, chose smaller crossing gaps and allocated less visual attention to the peripheral regions of the scene.”
The study was published recently in Safety Science (Elsevier). | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/study-child-pedestrians-distracted-cellphones-adults/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/7923b0d164a705e36a537c9fb04ea54c5065fa5fa26864a512e24c081e82634f.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T10:48:45 | null | 2016-08-28T06:33:39 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Ftrump-says-would-track-immigrants-to-ensure-no-visa-overstays%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/USA-ELECTION-TRUMP-1-300x200.jpg | en | null | Trump Says Would Track Immigrants to Ensure No Visa Overstays | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 6:33 am |
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) speaks before Republican nominee Donald Trump arrives at “Joni’s Roast and Ride” in Des Moines, Iowa, August 27. (Reuters/Carlo AllegriU)
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Saturday he would seek to develop a tracking system to ensure illegal immigrants who overstay their visas are removed from the United States.
Under fire for giving mixed messages on his signature issue, illegal immigration, Trump used a campaign speech in Des Moines to provide some fresh details.
“I am going to build a great border wall, institute nationwide e-verify, stop illegal immigrants from accessing welfare and entitlements, and develop an exit-entry tracking system to ensure those who overstay their visas are quickly removed,” Trump said.
“If we don’t enforce visa expiration dates, then we have an open border – it’s as simple as that.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/trump-says-would-track-immigrants-to-ensure-no-visa-overstays/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/a5c0af36acb54b64dd5bb3e915146c05ddc2911d8a5659c61ba75333caaac5ae.json |
[
"Shimon B. Lifkin"
] | 2016-08-28T22:48:59 | null | 2016-08-28T16:52:20 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fenvironment-ministry-cracks-recycling-scofflaws%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/Environment-Ministry-Cracks-Down-on-Recycling-Scofflaws-300x168.jpg | en | null | Environment Ministry Cracks Down on Recycling Scofflaws | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 4:52 pm |
The Rami Levy supermarket branch in Givat Shaul, Yerushalayim. (Yoninah)
YERUSHALAYIM - The Ministry of Environmental Protection has pegged Rami Levy Chain Stores as a recycling scofflaw and has threatened heavy fines and criminal proceedings, according to Globes.
The giant supermarket company allegedly ignored written notices to contract with one of the two corporations authorized to collect and recycle electronic waste and now faces a 150,000 shekel fine.
“Rami Levy and his staff know that requirements involving packing and electronic waste apply to them, but they choose to ignore the fact,” Ministry of Environmental Protection deputy director general Guy Samet stated.
“We have received no answer from them, despite repeated messages from us. The announcement of the fine that will be imposed on Levy if he does not contract with the recycling corporations, as legally required, within several weeks, is only the beginning. If the company continues to ignore the legal regulations, we will open criminal proceedings against it.”
The supermarket tycoon Rami Levy claimed innocence. “I don’t know what they’re talking about. People from the ministry probably contacted inactive companies registered with the Registrar of Companies. Any response that has to be made I’ll make to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, because in cases in which there are requirements that apply to companies that are active, we have contracted with those we should have under the law.
“I suggest that the Ministry of Environmental Protection do what it’s supposed to do, such as regulating the market for collecting empty beverage bottles for recycling,” he added.
Levy wasn’t the only business cited for such violations in recent days. There were 14 others, including Maslamani Group, Family Line Marketing, and Klinton International Trade.
Ministry of Environmental Protection figures show that 40 percent of the companies active in the market have not yet contracted with one of the two corporations for recycling electronic waste. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/environment-ministry-cracks-recycling-scofflaws/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/f67a9f09e494277a162356dd292bb4c158da84f4c112acae301f2e0d6f54ae8f.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:49:11 | null | 2016-08-28T15:45:07 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fwine-collection-indicted-oil-exec-died-auctioned-chicago%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Wine Collection of Indicted Oil Exec Who Died is Being Auctioned in Chicago | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 3:45 pm |
CHICAGO (Chicago Tribune/TNS) - In the market for a double-magnum of 1990 Chateau Le Pin that once belonged to Oklahoma oil-and-gas magnate Aubrey McClendon?
Well then, you’re in luck. McClendon’s collection of more than 4,600 bottles will be auctioned Sept. 17 at Tru restaurant in Chicago, according to Hart Davis Hart, the Chicago-based wine vendor conducting the auction.
McClendon, the 56-year-old CEO of American Energy Partners and a partial owner of a professional basketball team, died in a car wreck March 2, a day after he was indicted by a federal grand jury over alleged bid-rigging. His wine is expected to garner as much as $7.6 million.
Ben Nelson, president of Hart Davis Hart, called McClendon’s stock “one of the largest collections of Bordeaux we’ve ever seen.”
McClendon was known for his fondness of large-format bottles, which he would often open and share at business meetings, Nelson said. At the end of the meeting — and the bottle — everyone would sign the label as a sort of keepsake for McClendon.
“It’s a special sale. It’s really a large quantity of large-format bottles, the likes of which I just haven’t seen in my career and probably won’t see again,” Nelson said.
The auction’s open to the public, but thrifty drinkers should probably look elsewhere. The wine will be sold in lots, varying in quantity, at an average estimated price of about $7,000.
The cheapest lot is a single double-magnum bottle of 1998 Joseph Phelps Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon with a wine-stained label, estimated to sell in the range of $80 and $120. The most expensive lot, a case of 2000 Chateau Petrus, is expected to range up to $55,000.
On March 1, the Department of Justice said in a statement that McClendon was suspected of orchestrating a scheme between two large energy companies, which were not named in the indictment, from December 2007 to March 2012. In a statement released the same day, McClendon denied the charges.
In early June, following an autopsy, the Oklahoma medical examiner’s office ruled McClendon’s fatal crash to be an accident.
Online bidding has already begun. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/wine-collection-indicted-oil-exec-died-auctioned-chicago/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/181f8b08e9a21719d9c48bd73436c791b081933ed8501f53f1a159d450b1afc7.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:50:04 | null | 2016-08-30T17:42:47 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fcdc-chief-says-money-fight-zika-will-run-next-month%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP_16217756972610-218x300.jpg | en | null | CDC Chief Says Money to Fight Zika Will Run Out Next Month | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 5:42 pm |
Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, shown here after a news conference, about Zika, in Doral, Fla., earlier this month. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
(The Washington Post) - The federal agency leading the public health response to the Zika virus in the United States will run out of funding to combat the mosquito-borne virus by late September, its director said Monday.
“The cupboard is bare,” said Tom Frieden, who heads the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Basically, we’re out of money, and we need Congress to act to allow us to respond effectively.”
Of the $222 million that the CDC was allocated for domestic Zika response this year, about $200 million has been committed, Frieden said during a media roundtable in Washington. “The rest will be gone by the end of September.”
The timing further raises the threat for high-risk states along the Gulf Coast, particularly if Congress again fails to act on the Obama administration’s emergency funding request when lawmakers return to Washington next month.
“We’re in peak mosquito season” — which typically lasts through the end of October in the United States — and if transmission starts occurring more broadly, CDC “might not have the resources” to respond and send teams to support local and state officials, Frieden said.
The CDC has already issued unprecedented travel advisories for two areas in Florida where mosquitoes are actively spreading the virus: a one-square-mile section of Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood and a 1.5-square-mile zone in Miami Beach. Expectant women are urged to stay out of both areas because of the danger Zika poses to a fetus.
Negotiations in Congress over a $1.9 billion Zika spending package fell apart in late June. Federal health officials have shifted money from elsewhere in the Department of Health and Human Services to fund the domestic response. That includes $38 million from fighting Ebola, $44 million from general public health emergency funds and, most recently, $81 million from programs at the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
The money has gone to help states track the virus, provide assistance about birth defects caused by Zika and increase mosquito-control efforts. Within CDC itself, officials also have pulled resources from programs on immunization,and disease infection, Frieden said.
Researchers continue to detail ever-graver consequences for babies born to mothers infected with Zika. A report from Brazil, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, described a newborn in Sao Paolo who had Zika virus in his blood for more than two months. While the baby had no obvious illness or visible birth defects at birth or when doctors examined him at about eight weeks, by six months he had developed severe Zika-related brain damage.
The first trimester of pregnancy is thought to be when Zika infection poses the greatest risk. In this case, however, the baby’s mother was infected late in her second trimester.
At the same time, the virus continues to spread to the rest of the world. The latest outbreak is in Singapore, a Southeast Asia travel hub, which typically has 500 full-time inspectors working to eliminate standing water where mosquitoes can breed. The fact that Zika is spreading there, with at least 56 cases now confirmed, shows how “it’s going to be really tough” for other places to control.
During the coming weeks in the United States, Frieden expects there will be more cases of infants born with Zika-related neurological problems. As of mid-August, 17 babies infected in utero had been diagnosed with microcephaly, a condition defined by an abnormally small head and often serious brain damage.
In hard-hit Puerto Rico, the CDC estimates that 6,000 to 10,000 expectant women will become infected during this mosquito season and that at least 100 to 270 infants will be born with microcephaly.
Without additional funding, Frieden said, the CDC won’t be able to undertake key projects to better understand and control the virus, including Zika’s longterm impact on infants and diagnostics to identify if a person has been previously infected.
Frieden said the few additional cases that have surfaced in other parts of South Florida are considered single cases that don’t represent a greater spread of the virus.
The travel advisories will be lifted after 45 days with no new cases from local transmission — the equivalent of three mosquito incubation periods. The Wynwood area is about halfway through that period, he said, but Miami Beach is still experiencing new cases. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/cdc-chief-says-money-fight-zika-will-run-next-month/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/fb90c58a0840538ca687ed5166d5ef3e2c18246c9b80b1f8ad3b1665ebbb2f0e.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T08:49:16 | null | 2016-08-29T03:18:43 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fasian-stocks-lower-except-tokyo-on-yellen-speech%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2015/12/Japan-Financial-Marke_Gold-300x209.jpg | en | null | Asian Stocks Lower, Except Tokyo, on Yellen Speech | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 3:18 am |
People walk by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
TOKYO (AP) - Most Asian stocks slipped Monday on remarks from the U.S. Federal Reserve late last week that the case has strengthened for raising interest rates, but the Tokyo market was an exception and gained on prospects for a strong dollar.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 2.2 percent to 16,719.31 in early trading. Japanese stocks generally gain on a weak yen because the earnings of the nation’s giant exporters are boosted. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.3 percent to 2,031.36 in morning trading. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.5 percent to 22,788.02, while the Shanghai Composite lost nearly 0.3 percent to 3,062.52.
U.S. Fed Chair Janet Yellen made comments on Friday that were bullish on the economy but gave no timetable for future rate increases. But that set off speculation among investors about an interest rate hike later this year, and that in turn set off worries about global growth.
U.S. shares fell Friday. Seven of the 10 sectors of the Standard and Poor’s 500 index had fallen, led by a 2.1 percent drop in utilities. The S&P 500 slipped 3.43 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,169.04. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 53.01 points, or 0.3 percent, to 18,395.40. The Nasdaq composite rose 6.71 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,218.92.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 61 cents to $47.03. It had risen 31 cents to close at $47.64 a barrel on Friday. Brent crude, used to price oil internationally, lost 53 cents to $49.62.
The dollar rose to 102.10 yen from 100.51 yen late last week in Asia. The euro fell to $1.1196 from $1.1289. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/asian-stocks-lower-except-tokyo-on-yellen-speech/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/4682d4272d949c524605bfb830d643cb39fbe61c6a005edcbf907609512269f5.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T02:50:01 | null | 2016-08-30T21:16:10 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Finvestigation-mylan-epipen-price-hike%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/3-House-Oversight-Committee-Investigating-Drugmaker-Mylan-Over-Epipen-Price-Hike-300x231.jpg | en | null | Investigation Over Mylan EpiPen Price Hike | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 9:16 pm |
Frank Scavo of Old Forge, Pa., refused to pay what he felt were exorbitant prices for an EpiPen. This nearly cost him his life last Tuesday evening, but he made it to the hospital. With no other choice, he bought an EpiPen for $600 on Thursday, Aug. 25. (Jake Danna Stevens/The Times Tribune via AP)
WASHINGTON (The Washington Post) - The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has launched an investigation into drugmaker Mylan, which is facing increasing scrutiny for raising the price of the lifesaving allergy injection EpiPen.
Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) sent a letter to Mylan chief executive Heather Bresch, requesting detailed information and communications regarding the company’s pricing of EpiPen. The price of an EpiPen two-pack has risen from less than $100 in 2007, the year Mylan acquired the device, to $608 today.
Earlier this year, the committee held hearings to question so-called “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, former chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, over his decision to raise the price of Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750. The drug is used to treat severe infections in people with compromised immune systems.
The letter asks Mylan to provide a briefing by Sept. 6 — which would not be public, and would entail conversations between Mylan representatives and committee representatives. It also asks Mylan to provide documents by Sept. 12 about its profits from EpiPen sales, lobbying disclosure forms dating back to 2007 and copies of contracts regarding the manufacture and distribution of EpiPen.
“While families and schools are struggling to keep up with your company’s unreasonable price increases, Mylan has profited richly from its pricing strategy,” the letter says.
Since the outcry over the EpiPen exploded last week, Mylan has offered two responses — it initially announced it would offer coupons to some consumers, and Monday morning said it will come out with a generic version of the product at half the cost. Both steps seem to be falling short with lawmakers.
“Mylan may appear to be moving in the right direction, but its announcement raises as many questions as solutions — including why the price is still astronomically high, and whether its action is a preemptive strike against a competing generic,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Mylan.
The House Oversight Committee is the third congressional committee to press Mylan on its pricing practices. Last week, leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Special Committee on Aging sent similar letters to Mylan, requesting information about how the company determined the price of EpiPens.
Bresch is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/investigation-mylan-epipen-price-hike/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/90caf815ab209b565346ad5be3a3badbc4a22a9924b1997f8f95889e9c57d16e.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T10:49:46 | null | 2016-08-30T05:00:56 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fsix-senators-urge-obama-to-prioritize-cyber-crime-at-g20%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/03/BANGLADESH-BANK-300x200.jpg | en | null | Six Senators Urge Obama to Prioritize Cybercrime at G-20 | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 5:00 am |
Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka. (Reuters/Ashikur Rahman)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Six senators have urged President Barack Obama to prioritize cybercrime at this weekend’s Group of 20 summit in China, in the wake of the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh’s central bank, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.
In the letter sent to the White House ahead of the Sept. 4-5 summit, Sherrod Brown, a senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and five other Democratic senators say they want the president to press leaders from the world’s 20 biggest economies to commit in joint communiques to a “coordinated strategy to combat cybercrime at critical financial institutions.”
The letter, dated Monday, suggests that concern among lawmakers is growing over the February incident in which hackers breached Bangladesh Bank’s systems and used the SWIFT banking network to request nearly $1 billion from an account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Some of the dozens of orders were filled, with much of the lost $81 million disappearing into Philippines casinos – prompting months of international finger-pointing, an ongoing investigation, and several requests from members of Congress for answers from the Fed and from SWIFT, the secure messaging service that banks use to transfer money around the world.
“Our financial institutions are connected in order to facilitate global commerce, but cybercriminals – whether independent or state-sponsored – imperil this international system in a way few threats have,” the senators, headed by Gary Peters of Michigan, wrote in the letter to Obama.
“We strongly urge you to work with your counterparts and prioritize this discussion at the G-20 leaders’ level in September,” it said of the summit to be held in Hangzhou, China, adding that “executive leadership circles across the globe” needed to pay more attention to the risks.
A senator in the Philippines has said Chinese hackers were likely to have pulled off the Bangladesh Bank heist, citing a network of Chinese people involved in the routing of the stolen funds through Manila.
Beijing has dismissed the suggestion.
Copies of the letter from the senators were also sent to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
The other senators signing the letter were Mark Warner and Martin Heinrich, both members of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence; Kirsten Gillibrand and Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
The White House expects G-20 members at the summit “to affirm their commitment to cooperate to fight cybercrime and to enhance confidence and trust in the digital economy,” a senior administration official said.
Asked generally about cybersecurity on Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a press conference: “I would anticipate that this issue more generally will be on the agenda” when Obama meets Chinese President Xi Jinping, the G-20 summit host, later this week.
At a November summit, the G-20 pledged not to conduct economically motivated cyber espionage, an agreement intended to reduce the estimated hundreds of billions of dollars worth of commercial trade secrets that are stolen by foreign governments seeking to benefit industry in their own countries.
Since then, the Bangladesh Bank attack and others that have emerged are only some of the threats posed by cybercriminals, the senators wrote. World regulators should “erect more robust defenses and collaborative systems to prevent and mitigate the impact of successful attacks,” the letter said, noting that steps already taken by SWIFT are not enough.
Bangladesh said it supported raising the issue at G-20.
“In most cases, cyberattacks and crimes take place from outside the country,” said Ahmed Palak, a junior government minister for information and communications technology.
“So while addressing fast growing cyberattacks, there should be a coordinated approach involving global stakeholders.”
The Fed and other regulators said in a letter last week they were focused on cyber risks and controls at banks in the wake of the Bangladesh incident, though they offered few specifics.
Peters, a member of the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told Reuters he is considering requesting a committee hearing on the heist.
“I am concerned about the response and what steps have been taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said in an interview. “You just need more collaboration and sharing of information … because often times all these entities aren’t talking to each other.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/six-senators-urge-obama-to-prioritize-cyber-crime-at-g20/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/c70e4aee3a7b3b6af963d1c04c3cd2771079b3715ff611a5f2ce8a751022679e.json |
[
"Hamodia Staff"
] | 2016-08-30T20:50:07 | null | 2016-08-30T15:45:13 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fczech-textbooks-drop-yerushalayim-israeli-capital-palestinian-complaint%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Czech Textbooks to Drop Yerushalayim as Israeli Capital After Palestinian Complaint | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 3:45 pm |
YERUSHALAYIM - A complaint from the Palestinian Authority’s embassy in Prague about the depiction of Yerushalayim as the capital of Israel in Czech schoolbooks has prompted the Education Ministry to order that they be changed to show Tel Aviv as the Israeli capital.
The Czech Foreign Ministry backed the decision with a statement that “the Czech Republic does not consider east Jerusalem a part of the State of Israel.
“The EU member countries, including the Czech Republic, view Jerusalem as the future capital of both states, i.e., the State of Israel and the future State of Palestine.”
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon responded: “The Foreign Ministry is working energetically with the relevant parties in the Czech government in order to cancel the perverse teaching. There is no limit to Palestinian incitement, which doesn’t satisfy itself with poisoning the minds of young Palestinians, but also seeks to sow lies among the youth of the Czech Republic.”
The maps are printed in atlases distributed to primary and secondary schools of the Czech Republic. The atlas publisher, Shocart, will have to designate Tel Aviv the capital of Israel, or lose its certification as an official school book.
“The data in the atlas will be corrected as of the new year,” the Education Ministry’s spokeswoman Klara Bila said.
Shocart apologized for the “mistake.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/czech-textbooks-drop-yerushalayim-israeli-capital-palestinian-complaint/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/8f10e9723d3fc02d23ee071b43d73ccac69475f6549e00538e00f0df0276c632.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:49:16 | null | 2016-08-29T07:05:48 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fu-s-drone-enters-irans-airspace-leaves-after-warning%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2015/12/Drone-Oversight_Appe-300x206.jpg | en | null | U.S. Drone Enters Iran's Airspace, Leaves After Warning | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 7:05 am |
An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar airfield, southern Afghanistan, on a moonlit night, in this 2010 file photo. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran’s military detected a U.S. drone entering Iranian airspace on Monday and issued a warning for it to leave, which it subsequently did, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.
“Iran’s army air defense detected and warned an American drone in the eastern airspace of the country. It was coming from Afghanistan. The drone left the area,” Tasnim quoted the Iranian military as saying.
Tasnim gave no details on how the Iranian authorities had warned the unmanned drone to leave its airspace.
A U.S. defense official said last week that four of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vessels “harassed” a U.S. warship on Tuesday near the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran said the ships had only been carrying out their regular duties monitoring foreign ships near Iranian waters. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/u-s-drone-enters-irans-airspace-leaves-after-warning/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/3374ec600fce3abc2b9dc2ca87bd2c19c6c4fd1b431c5ec070bcfec00b6afa81.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T12:50:23 | null | 2016-08-31T07:39:47 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fturkey-denies-cease-fire-deal-kurdish-rebels-syria%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/CRISIS-SYRIA-TURKEY-1-300x191.jpg | en | null | Turkey Denies Cease-Fire Deal With Kurdish Rebels in Syria | null | null | hamodia.com | Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 7:39 am |
A Turkish army tank drives towards to the border in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, last Thursday. (Reuters/Umit Bektas)
ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey on Wednesday dismissed reports of a cease-fire deal with Kurdish rebels in northern Syria, and vowed to continue its week-old military incursion into the neighboring country until all “terror entities are eliminated.”
In comments made to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Turkey’s European Union affairs Minister Omer Celik said that “Turkey is a sovereign state … a legitimate state” and that “to suggest it is on a par with a terrorist organization and suggest there are talks between them, that a deal has been reached between them, this is unacceptable.”
Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish forces an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a domestic group that Ankara has declared a terrorist organization.
Last week, Turkey sent its troops and warplanes to back Syrian rebels in their advance on Jarablus, a town near the Turkish border and the next IS-stronghold after Manbij. Turkey’s incursion helped the rebels take Jarablus from the Islamic State terror group, but clashes subsequently broke out in the area between Turkish and Kurdish forces — both U.S. allies.
Turkish troops clashed with the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian forces around Jarablus to try to halt their advance and form a contiguous corridor on the border between Turkey and Syria.
On Tuesday, the Kurdish-backed Jarablus Military Council said in a statement that it had agreed to a cease-fire following consultations with the U.S.-led coalition leading a fight against Islamic State terrorists.
The Pentagon has denied reports it was monitoring a cease-fire but said Turkish forces had moved to the west, while Kurdish forces had moved east of the Euphrates River, as per the insistence of Turkish and U.S. authorities.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Wednesday that military “operations will continue until all terrorist elements have been neutralized, until all threats to our borders, our lands and our citizens are completely over. ”
He reiterated Turkish calls that Washington has to live up to its assurances that the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, fully withdraws to the east of the Euphrates River, and that the pullout immediately takes place.
“Our determination continues,” Yildirim said. “The United States gave reassurances on the issue. We don’t expect any change.”
Western officials have expressed alarm that the fighting between the U.S. allies has diverted their attention from the fight against the Islamic State terror group. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/31/turkey-denies-cease-fire-deal-kurdish-rebels-syria/ | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/976dc87698396a1beb33587e5b0b25fff753cda8a9b943da3f6928a2706f9a70.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T08:49:11 | null | 2016-08-29T04:25:15 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Firan-deploys-s-300-air-defense-around-nuclear-site%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/03/AP_846530016476-300x208.jpg | en | null | Iran Deploys S-300 Air Defense Around Nuclear Site | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 4:25 am |
In this file photo, a Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system is on display in an undisclosed location in Russia. (AP Photo, File)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian state media say the military has begun deploying a Russia-supplied S-300 air defense system around the underground Fordo nuclear facility.
Video footage posted late Sunday on state media showed trucks arriving at the nuclear site and missile launchers being aimed skyward. It did not say whether the system was fully operational.
The large, underground facility is located some 60 miles south of the capital, Tehran.
Russia began delivering the S-300 system to Iran earlier this year after sanctions were lifted under a landmark nuclear agreement with world powers. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/iran-deploys-s-300-air-defense-around-nuclear-site/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/befcd2e861923a9ddf9dfec2cff7a7ad0473ec660899c3fd3469939c3d5f344c.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:50:08 | null | 2016-08-30T18:40:33 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fsears-bringing-paint-back-home-improvement-shelves%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Sears Bringing Paint Back to Home Improvement Shelves | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 6:40 pm |
CHICAGO (Chicago Tribune/TNS) - Sears is getting back into the paint business, hoping an increase in home remodeling projects will mean more home-improvement sales.
Paint and accessories will be available at 23 stores before Sears brings them to stores nationwide, the struggling retailer said in a news release Tuesday.
“After stepping away from the paint business in 2012, we are seeing the demand from our customers to bring it back. With updated paint mixing technology, and by enlisting dedicated and trained associates, we are confident the time is right to re-enter the category and fill a need for our members,” Dean Schwartz, vice president of tools, lawn and garden at Sears Holdings, said in the news release.
Sears, headquartered in suburban Chicago, is bringing back two paint brands, Weatherbeater and Easy Living, along with a newly added line under the Craftsman label designed for use on metal, porches and garage floors.
In May, Sears said it was exploring unspecified alternatives for its well-known Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard brands, along with its Sears Home Services business, believing they could perform better if more widely available outside Sears stores. During an earnings call last week, Chief Financial Officer Rob Schriesheim said Sears is still considering options.
So far, leveraging those brands has taken the form of lending their names to new categories of products, including the newly announced Craftsman paints and DieHard tires launched in June.
“The addition of paint as a Craftsman category is a testament to the strength of these brands as they continue to play a role in the fabric of the American lifestyle,” Tom Park, president of Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard brands, said in the news release. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/sears-bringing-paint-back-home-improvement-shelves/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/164815747b5bfc30b54f6d8f2e4a56db9aa8559b1e10113da13726d26909d0e9.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:52:47 | null | 2016-08-26T03:11:16 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fitaly-earthquake-death-toll-rises-to-267-nearly-400-hospitalized%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/ITALY-QUAKE-2-300x208.jpg | en | null | Italy Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 267, Nearly 400 Hospitalized | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 3:11 am |
A drone photo shows the damage following an earthquake in Pescara del Tronto, central Italy, Thursday. (Reuters/Stefano De Nicolo)
AMATRICE, Italy (Reuters) - The number of people killed in an earthquake that flattened parts of central Italy rose to 267 on Friday as rescue workers pulled more bodies from mounds of debris and families prepared to hold the first funerals.
The civil protection department in Rome said nearly 400 people were being treated for injuries in hospitals and local media reports said about 40 of them were in critical condition.
The earth continued to tremble, with survivors sleeping for the second night in tents set up by emergency services.
“It was quite a tough night because you have a significant change in temperature here. During the day, it is very, very hot and at night it is very, very cold,” said Anna Maria Ciuccarelli of Arquata del Tronto.
The door of a damaged house is seen behind rubble following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy, Friday. (Reuters/Ciro De Luca)
“You can feel the humidity in your bones despite the blankets that the civil protection department has given us. There are still aftershocks preceded by booms and, for those of us who have just lived through an earthquake, it has a great effect, particularly psychologically,” she said.
Some 928 aftershocks have hit the area around Amatrice and the nearby towns of Pescara del Tronto, Arquata del Tronto and Accumoli in the wake of Wednesday’s 6.2 magnitude quake. Nearly 60 of them struck since midnight.
Families prepared to bury their dead, with the first funerals set for Friday morning, including that of two children and their grandparents who died in Pescara del Tronto.
The search for survivors continued during the night in Amatrice as emergency workers with sniffer dogs clambered over piles of debris trying to find anyone still trapped under the rubble. In other towns the rescue operation wound down.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi promised to rebuild the shattered houses and said he would renew efforts to bolster Italy’s flimsy defenses against earthquakes that regularly batter the country.
“We want those communities to have the chance of a future and not just memories,” he told reporters in Rome on Thursday.
Italy has a poor record of rebuilding after quakes. About 8,300 people who were forced to leave their houses after a deadly earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009 are still living in temporary accommodation.
Renzi declined to predict when the homeless might be rehoused, but said it was his government’s top priority. “This is not about setting challenges and making promises. We need the pace of a marathon runner,” he said.
Most of the buildings in the area were built hundreds of years ago, long before any antiseismic building norms were introduced, helping to explain the widespread destruction. Cultural Minister Dario Franceschini said all 293 culturally important sites, many of them churches, had either collapsed or been seriously damaged.
Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe. Almost 30 people died in earthquakes in northern Italy in 2012 while more than 300 died in a quake in the L’Aquila disaster. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/italy-earthquake-death-toll-rises-to-267-nearly-400-hospitalized/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/d7a0dabc0ddc4a3ff63f61b5318982bf14578b8d6a22c646db6034905674ff3f.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T22:49:49 | null | 2016-08-29T17:52:55 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fcuomo-reels-shark-catches-conservationists-wrath%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Cuomo Reels in Shark, Catches Conservationists' Wrath | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 5:52 pm |
ALBANY (AP) - New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is catching criticism from conservationists for reeling in a 154.5-pound thresher shark off Long Island.
The Democrat tweeted a picture of his catch Sunday.
Cuomo’s office notes he was legally permitted to keep the shark. But several social media users still criticized the decision.
Shark Research Institute director Marie Levine says Monday that threshers are considered vulnerable, a conservation status just below endangered. She says that sport fishing isn’t a leading shark killer but that releasing the fish would have been preferable.
Levine says New York under Cuomo has taken strides to conserve sharks.
Cuomo’s brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, is also pictured in the photo. Earlier this month, he posted an Instagram photo of a 9-foot hammerhead the brothers caught and released. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/cuomo-reels-shark-catches-conservationists-wrath/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/3f29a336372b06d0f3bdf76c2a7f3d15c041e9eed8341c83868814feb31a8f44.json |
[
"Dov Benovadia"
] | 2016-08-26T12:54:17 | null | 2016-08-26T02:56:14 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fpm-offers-partial-solution-to-shabbos-train-work-coalition-crisis%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/Haifa-Beit-Shean-Railway-to-Open-Soon-300x211.jpg | en | null | Netanyahu Offers Partial Solution to Shabbos Train Work Coalition Crisis | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 2:56 am |
An Israel Railways train seen in the northern Hefer Valley. (Moshe Shai/Flash90/FILE)
YERUSHALAYIM - MKs of all religious parties in the Knesset said that a coalition crisis would emerge if Israel Railways decided to proceed with maintenance work this Shabbos. In a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Thursday, leaders of the chareidi parties – United Torah Judaism’s Health Minister MK Rabbi Yaakov Litzman, Knesset Finance Committee Chairman MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni, and Interior Minister MK Rabbi Aryeh Deri of Shas – said that the prospect of such work taking place “is a very serious matter and a terrible violation of the status quo. It will de facto erase public observance of Shabbos in a very public manner, something that has not happened since the establishment of the state.”
Responding to the letter Friday morning, Netanyahu said that any work that could be delayed would be, but work that was deemed “emergency” and “life-saving” would be carried out. Work in Tel Aviv itself would take place, but work on several suburban lines that had been planned for Shabbos would be delayed. The chareidi parties have not yet responded to the statement and to Netanyahu’s offer.
The work entails maintenance and expansion of Israel Railway lines in the Tel Aviv area in order to accommodate the Tel Aviv light rail, currently under construction. Israel Railways claims that Shabbos – when trains do not operate – is the only available time to do the work without shutting the system down altogether, as most train lines pass through the Tel Aviv stations where the work is to take place. Police said that postponing the work to a weekday would cause a “danger to life” because it would entail shutting down main highways in Tel Aviv, and emergency vehicles and ambulances would not be able to get through.
Nonsense, the letter said; where there was a will, there was a way. “Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, z”l, who prevented El Al from flying on Shabbos, once said that ‘we are an ancient nation, our history goes back many years. There are other nations that were and are ancient with long histories. But only one small nation called Israel was chosen to hear the G-dly Voice declare ‘Remember and Observe the Shabbos Day, do not do any labor on Shabbos’ – and shall the State of the Jews turn this day into a weekday?’”
The situation was serious enough, they wrote, that “we cannot take responsibility for the survival of a government that erases public observance of Shabbos. We respectfully request that the Prime Minister order that the work not be done on Shabbos until the relevant parties can gather and discuss the consequences of this activity.”
In his own statement, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) said that his party would also see the work as a reason to break up the coalition. “There is no place for a public company in Israel to operate on Shabbos,” he said. “I have appealed to the Prime Minister and other officials to develop alternative plans to conduct the work on weekdays. Shabbos is a main value for the Jewish people, and violation of the status quo is a serious matter that could bring a political crisis that no one wants.”
According to Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, a High Court decision on the matter renders him unable to order that the work be suspended. Practically, the only way to prevent the work, said Katz, was for the Labor Ministry to cancel work permits for Israel Railways to operate on Shabbos, or by direct order of the Prime Minister. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/pm-offers-partial-solution-to-shabbos-train-work-coalition-crisis/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/ae42c22bc959ffc80fbe28ae9851e3762bdd6977f786a0350f439a3927c4c444.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:48:47 | null | 2016-08-28T10:22:03 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Firan-arrests-nuclear-negotiator-suspected-spying%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2015/03/FP-MAIN-Draft-Agreement-Cuts-Iran-inside-300x200.jpg | en | null | Iran Arrests Nuclear Negotiator Suspected of Spying | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 10:22 am |
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi (2nd from top) talks with his team before a negotiating session with the U.S. and the European Union over Iran’s nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland, last year. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has arrested a member of the negotiating team that reached a landmark nuclear deal with world powers on suspicion of spying, a judiciary spokesman said on Sunday.
The suspect was released on bail after a few days in jail but is still under investigation, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said at a weekly news conference, calling the unidentified individual a “spy who had infiltrated the nuclear team,” state media reported.
The deal that President Hassan Rouhani struck last year has given Iran relief from most international sanctions in return for curbing its nuclear program, but it is opposed by hardliners who see it as a capitulation to the United States.
Ejei was responding to a question about an Iranian lawmaker’s assertion last week that a member of the negotiation team who had dual nationality had been arrested on espionage charges.
Tehran’s prosecutor general on Aug. 16 announced the arrest of a dual national he said was linked to British intelligence, but made no mention of the person being in the nuclear negotiations team. On Sunday, Ejei did not explicitly confirm that the arrested person had a second nationality.
Britain said on Aug. 16 that it was trying to find out more about the arrest of a joint-national. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/iran-arrests-nuclear-negotiator-suspected-spying/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/a2e5624bf40e4250d7a8f664f6b54e453854d08dd82134f84cec1641a4c4c23b.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T20:49:57 | null | 2016-08-30T15:57:44 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fblaze-erupts-gap-inc-distribution-center-new-york%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP16243637544648-300x188.jpg | en | null | Blaze Erupts at Gap Inc. Distribution Center in New York | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 3:57 pm |
Firefighters from three counties battle a large fire that ravaged the Gap Distribution Center in Fishkill, N.Y., on Monday. (Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News via AP)
FISHKILL, N.Y. (AP) - A massive blaze that ripped through a Gap Inc. distribution center in New York has been largely extinguished.
The Poughkeepsie Journal reports that flames shot into the sky late Monday at the Fishkill facility about 50 miles north of New York City. Firefighters were still dousing isolated hot spots Tuesday morning.
Gap spokeswoman Debbie Felix says all employees are safe. One firefighter suffered a minor leg injury.
A firefighter battles the blaze. (Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News via AP)
The facility opened in 2000 and expanded a year later. The San Francisco-based company announced plans in 2014 to add 1,200 jobs over a five-year period and invest $96 million into the distribution center.
Assistant Dutchess County Executive Ron Hicks says Gap officials haven’t been able to enter the building yet to assess the damage.
It’s unclear what caused the blaze. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/blaze-erupts-gap-inc-distribution-center-new-york/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/5b1e44b0b4f867396c391d4b106eb4b75bea14c57d7dec94a9841a3ebe2231ad.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:50:07 | null | 2016-08-26T04:41:44 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Feuropean-kinnus-hashluchim-ends-on-high-note%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/מאות-שלוחים-מסביב-לאוהל-המקובל-רבי-לוי-יצחק-שניאורסהן-זיע-בקזחסטאן-300x200.jpg | en | null | European Kinus Hashluchim Ends on High Note | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 4:41 am |
Hundreds of shluchim at the kever of Rav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, zt”l. (Itzik Roitman)
Five hundred shluchim of the Lubavitch communities across Europe, who spent three days at the European Kinnus Hashluchim in Russia, are on a high. They are rejuvenated and invigorated by the joy and unity that they are experiencing and they will bring that energy back with them to the cities and countries where they are the emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zy”a.
Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, along with a dedicated team from the central office in N.Y., arrived last Friday.
The Moscow community experienced an unforgettable Shabbos with Rabbi Kotlarsky and other shluchim, all learning and davening together, as well as a big farbrengen with Rabbi Berel Lazar.
On Wednesday, they traveled to the cradle of Chabad Chassidus, the villages of Lubavitch, Liozna and Liadi. They were held up for about 3 hours at the tiny-but-oh-so-significant border between Russia and Belarus. They spent more than 24 hours on buses. Thursday they headed on a five-hour flight to the city of Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, where they would visit the Ohel of the great mekubal Harav Levi Yitzchak Shneerson, zt”l, father of the Rebbe, zy”a, on his yahrtzeit.
A kabbalas panim for the hundreds of shluchim at the Marina Roscha Jewish Community Center in Moscow. (Itzik Roitman)
Reb Levi Yitzchak was known to have helped many, and his final resting place, far away in the city that he was exiled to, has become a place where people come to daven.
Exactly twenty-five years to the day have passed since the last kinus in Russia, and once again, the Chassidim and shluchim arrived to daven there together. After Maariv, a siyum was made by one of the students of Yeshivah Tomchei Tmimim who came to Kazakhstan as part of the Mivtza Torah Project run by the global Va’ad Talmidei Hatmimim. This was followed by a farbrengen with Rabbi Berel Lazar and Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, which lasted through the night.
Tehillim was recited at the kever by philanthropist Lev Leviev, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the FSU, and philanthropist Avraham Yisroel Shaulson who sponsored this trip together with philanthropist Shmuel Stern.
It was late afternoon when the shluchim took a flight back to Moscow. On Thursday, the kinus continued in Moscow with a variety of workshops, shiurim and general session.
The kinus ended with a grand farbrengen after the banquet, at the lavish Europeiski Banquet Hall, which sits on the Moscow riverbank.
Rabbi Berel Lazar (R) speaks with Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky. (Itzik Roitman)
The kinus was organized by Merkos Leinyonei Chinuch, together with Fleishman-Peles Productions and a dedicated team of Moscow shluchim. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/european-kinnus-hashluchim-ends-on-high-note/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/d555899aa900b5184d9dec30515a58b8fe64f9faee286b88a260fe2e284ca053.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:50:07 | null | 2016-08-30T17:20:39 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Faccused-teen-doctor-arrested-new-theft-charges%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Accused Teen 'Doctor' Arrested On New Theft Charges | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 5:20 pm |
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A Florida teenager accused of pretending to be a doctor and stealing money from an 86-year-old patient is facing new charges of grand theft and fraud.
News outlets report that 19-year-old Malachi Love-Robinson, who had been out on bond, was back in the Palm Beach County Jail on Monday. Love-Robinson, who had been free on $18,000 bail, was released after another $8,000 in bail was posted.
Court records show Love-Robinson is now also accused of writing a bad check for $1,500 as a down payment for a car. Details on the new grand theft charge weren’t available.
Love-Robinson was arrested in February after deputies say he was practicing medicine without a license and stole more than $35,000 from a patient.
Love-Robinson says he never claimed to be a medical doctor. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/accused-teen-doctor-arrested-new-theft-charges/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/4370e845a12df173aef68f38aad6065926eacc87d85d519ea036178406dcad2d.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:49:24 | null | 2016-08-26T12:50:18 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fpolish-athlete-sells-rio-medal-help-child-eye-cancer%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP16226528513772-226x300.jpg | en | null | Polish Athlete Sells Rio Medal to Help Child With Eye Cancer | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 12:50 pm |
Poland’s Piotr Malachowski plays with the discus during the men’s discus throw final in Rio on Aug. 13. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish discus thrower Piotr Malachowski has sold the silver medal he won in Rio to help pay for the medication of a 3-year-old boy suffering from eye cancer.
Malachowski said on social media that siblings Dominika and Sebastian Kulczyk, among the richest Poles, “declared the intention to buy my silver medal,” which he put up for auction to help pay for treatment of the boy, Olek, who is suffering from retinoblastoma.
Malachowski did not reveal the amount raised, but said the target — which was almost 500,000 zlotys ($130,000) — has been met.
“My silver medal is worth much more today than it was a week ago,” Malachowski said. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/polish-athlete-sells-rio-medal-help-child-eye-cancer/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/48ee214511e0604d134f5df43dad0f9f12f76197ee7dcb20138d2176a567b763.json |
[
"Yosef Caldwell"
] | 2016-08-30T00:49:34 | null | 2016-08-29T20:10:04 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fceremony-held-first-anniversary-miracle-creskill%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/20160828_152845-1-300x169.jpg | en | null | Ceremony Held on First Anniversary of Miracle of Creskill | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 8:10 pm |
Rosenberg with some of the children who were playing in Reagan Field when the accident occurred. (Rosenberg Family)
NEW YORK - A ceremony was held Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of what has become known as the Miracle of Creskill, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary pilot Yaakov Yosef “Jack” Rosenberg’s heroic landing of a plane in a field in Creskill, New Jersey.
Rosenberg, along with an observer, Erik Pearson, were on a routine Coast Guard patrol along the Hudson River when their engine failed. The plane began going down near Reagan Field, a large ballfield in Creskill, that was full of children playing. In what has been hailed as heroic airmanship, Rosenberg was able to guide the plane away from the children, and crash-land at the far edge of the field. He and Pearson suffered serious injuries, but miraculously, no one on the ground was hurt.
Sunday’s kosher picnic event was held in Reagan Field. Hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the event was attended by Coast Guard officials, elected officials, Chaverim of Rockland, Rosenberg’s family and friends, as well as the children who were in the park on that fateful evening one year ago. The event was held to honor Rosenberg and Pearson, though Pearson was unable to attend, due to a last-minute family emergency.
Yaakov Yosef Rosenberg (R) presenting a plaque of appreciation to NYS Assemblyman Dov Hikind. (Rosenberg family)
At the event, Rosenberg, was called on to give an impromptu speech.
“I would like to thank Hashem for everything,” he said. “They are calling me a hero, but it’s not me; it’s all Hashem’s doing. It’s a miracle that the plane didn’t explode in midair. It’s a miracle that nobody else got hurt.
As Rosenberg explained in a subsequent interview with Hamodia, “The oil in the plane got up to 2000 degrees, and the crankshaft melted. The plane could have exploded in midair.”
New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind was among the officials in attendance at Sunday’s picnic.
“It was so inspiring to hear of Jack Rosenberg’s heroic story,” said Hikind, one of several speakers at the ceremony. “This pilot’s heroic landing will never be forgotten.”
“Jack’s swift thinking saved so many lives that day, including his own, and he will forever be revered for it,” Hikind said.
Hikind has been a long-time friend of the Rosenberg family.
In 2006, Rosenberg waged a public battle against the Coast Guard for the right to wear a yarmulke while on duty; he was ultimately successful, due largely to Hikind’s assistance. At Sunday’s event, the Rosenberg family presented Hikind with a plaque thanking him for all his help.
The special T-shirts made for Sunday’s anniversary picnic. (Rosenberg family)
Rosenberg’s recovery has been a long and difficult process, but today he is doing much better than he was a year ago.
“Each day is different,” he says. “This week was nice weather, so I feel a little better. When the weather is better, I feel better. I feel the most pain when barometric pressure drops, or if I am walking for too long.”
“At times, the pain gets so intense that I [have] to pass out.”
Rosenberg has tried to start flying again, but has been unable to do so. “I cannot press the rudder and brake; I do not have enough strength in my feet,” he says. “I cannot even rise on my toes for ‘Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh’ by kedushah.”
Nevertheless, ever cheerful and in good spirits, Rosenberg maintains a positive attitude, and notes that he is doing far better today than the doctors ever believed he would be, and is working toward a full recovery, im yirtzeh Hashem.
Indeed, bitachon in Hashem has been a guiding light for the entire Rosenberg family, one that has gotten them through the past year. During the interview with Hamodia, Rosenberg and his wife, Miriam, who live with their children in Spring Valley, N.Y., repeatedly thanked Hashem for the nissim He has performed.
Mrs. Rosenberg notes that immediately after the accident, “Everyone said to me, ‘You’re so lucky that your husband is alive.’” But one of the co-owners of the plane, a man named Warren, said to her, “Miriam we’re blessed! You know this is not luck. Someone is watching you.”
At Sunday’s picnic, Warren displayed a special T-shirt he had made for the event. The T-shirt is a spoof on the standard Coast Guard Accident report. A typical report would say, “2 occupants, Zero fatalities.” But the T-shirt says, “2 occupants, 2 Blessed Survivors.”
Warren’s words constantly inspire Mrs. Rosenberg.
“I said, ‘Warren, if there is nothing else I learned from this experience, I will never forget how blessed we really are.’ ” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/ceremony-held-first-anniversary-miracle-creskill/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/e77999f3995bf0504f7b92825e3bbe460e438e6e57ab2e798366e6c18ed2e1f1.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:48:54 | null | 2016-08-28T08:59:27 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fu-k-pm-may-cabinet-chart-eu-exit-chequers-retreat%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/06/Campaign-2016-Fallout_Gold-300x200.jpg | en | null | British PM May, Cabinet to Chart EU Exit at Chequers Retreat | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 8:59 am |
A European Union flag (R) and a U.K flag are displayed outside Europe House, the European Parliament’s British offices in London. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
LONDON (AP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May is to bring her Cabinet together at her rural retreat to plot Britain’s first steps on leaving the European Union.
Officials at May’s Downing Street office say May will oversee a daylong brainstorming session with Cabinet colleagues Wednesday at Chequers, the prime minister’s 16th-century mansion 40 miles northwest of London.
May, a Eurosceptic who remained neutral during June’s referendum on leaving the EU, was appointed prime minister last month following David Cameron’s resignation as Conservative Party leader. Cameron had campaigned to keep Britain in the 28-nation bloc. May says her government will abide by the results of the vote and intends to open exit negotiations with EU colleagues next year.
May has returned to London after a two-week walking holiday in the Swiss Alps. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/u-k-pm-may-cabinet-chart-eu-exit-chequers-retreat/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/7d6b3d60efe28d8a6390aedd334b0a3e342ca716283de561201d6b34baf55299.json |
[
"Yosef Caldwell"
] | 2016-08-29T20:49:29 | null | 2016-08-29T16:36:53 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Ffatal-shooting-new-utrecht-ave%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/IMG_3044-1-300x194.jpg | en | null | Fatal Shooting on New Utrecht Ave. | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 4:36 pm |
Police detectives gather residence from the victim’s vehicle. (Yosef Caldwell/Hamodia)
BORO PARK - A fatal shooting occurred on New Utrecht Avenue and 46th Street in Boro Park early Monday afternoon.
According to the New York Police Department, at 12:20 p.m., a 36-year-old black male “was shot numerous times while driving his vehicle. It appears a vehicle came up next to his and shot the victim multiple times.” The victim was taken to Maimonides Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
It appears that the victim was targeted in a criminal-related incident.
After the driver was struck, his vehicle slammed into the back of another vehicle, a Honda Odyssey. The driver of that vehicle, an older black female, was unharmed, but a friend with her in the vehicle was taken to the hospital.
Two people in the victim’s vehicle were unharmed.
Witnesses reported hearing three or four shots; his vehicle, a gold van, had at least three bullet holes on the driver’s-side door.
No arrests have been made.
The shooting occurred just across the street from Boro Park Lumber and Home Center.
“I was sitting and doing my work when I heard “Boom-boom-boom-boom,” said Sam Levi, the store’s long-time manager.
“A woman who had seen the shooting came running into the store, with her baby, screaming hysterically.”
Sam Levi was sitting at his desk in Boro Park Lumber and Home Center, when he heard the shooting. (Yosef Caldwell/Hamodia)
Another store employee related an amazing story of hashgachah pratis.
“A man with two little children came into the store immediately after the shooting with tears in his eyes,” he said. “The man said he had been standing at the spot of the shooting a moment earlier. His little daughter said she needed to use the bathroom, so we crossed the street, and then the shooting occurred.”
State assemblyman Dov Hikind, center, speaking with bystanders at the crime scene. (Yosef Caldwell/Hamodia)
New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has an office nearby, was at the scene of the shooting and spoke with Hamodia.
“When something like this happens in our neighborhood, it’s very disconcerting,” said Hikind. “Even though it wasn’t someone from the community; this is something you almost never hear of in our neighborhood.
“We are thankful that there were no stray bullets. People are back from the country, walking around, shopping, with their kids; thank G-d, no one else was hurt.
“These people obviously targeted the victim, but it uproots the tranquility of the neighborhood when something like this happens.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/fatal-shooting-new-utrecht-ave/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/65d08aa5ab8189536f21cf6ec84247b69c8a07c4247fb768ae7c373d81c9bbd7.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T00:48:39 | null | 2016-08-27T20:26:31 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Freport-ny-legislature-passed-fewer-bills-in-2016-than-2015%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Report: NY Legislature Passed Fewer Bills in 2016 Than 2015 | null | null | hamodia.com | Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 8:26 pm |
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York state lawmakers passed fewer bills during 2016 than in the past year, continuing a trend in recent years.
This year, 618 pieces of legislation passed the full Legislature before lawmakers adjourned in June.
In 2015 they passed 718 bills.
The data comes from an analysis released Friday by the New York Public Interest Research Group, which examined the results of the legislative session following its adjournment.
While the number of bills passed each year has varied widely in past decades, the number has trended downward in the past several years. One explanation is that lawmakers now often insert various policy measures into the budget, avoiding the need for many pieces of separate legislation. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/27/report-ny-legislature-passed-fewer-bills-in-2016-than-2015/ | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/593c20831b0d69081f27861879da666cd3c9fd763caab1bc6fafa4b73108b9f5.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:50:00 | null | 2016-08-30T18:44:17 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Ftargets-top-marketer-leaving-become-president-uber%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP_279911175865-226x300.jpg | en | null | Target’s Top Marketer Leaving to Become President of Uber | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 6:44 pm |
Jeff Jones (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
MINNEAPOLIS (Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS) - Target Corp.’s chief marketing officer, Jeff Jones, is becoming the new president of Uber.
Jones will be responsible for Uber’s ridesharing operations, marketing and customer support, Travis Kalanick, chief executive of San Francisco-based Uber said in a statement.
Jones has been one of the most visible and best-known members of Target’s leadership team since joining the Minneapolis-based firm as its top marketer in 2012.
“He’s been an important partner during my time at Target, and I, along with the entire team, wish him well in his future endeavors,” chief executive Brian Cornell said in a statement.
“Target’s marketing team is world-class and we are well positioned headed into the important holiday season,” he added. “Looking ahead, we will be undergoing an extensive internal and external search for our next chief marketing officer.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/targets-top-marketer-leaving-become-president-uber/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/ec67e0741c399ec58166a4c882ddbba1fcddb9441f058321d7865c9fb39f8155.json |
[
"Hamodia Staff"
] | 2016-08-30T20:50:06 | null | 2016-08-30T15:27:42 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fben-gurion-security-guards-chase-palestinian-infiltrators%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/F160817TNFF03-300x200.jpg | en | null | Ben Gurion Security Guards Chase Down Palestinian Infiltrators | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 3:27 pm |
A view of Aviv Ben Gurion Airport (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - In a dramatic chase at Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday night, four Palestinians were apprehended after they sought to bypass security checkpoints at the outer gate.
As their car sped on toward Terminal 3, security forces activated roadblocks to prevent it from reaching the terminal. When the car came to a stop, two of the suspects exited the car and attempted to climb over the gate, but guards caught up with them and put them under arrest.
The four men, who were in Israel without legal permits, were then taken into custody for questioning. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/ben-gurion-security-guards-chase-palestinian-infiltrators/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/f5a712ba19ef698e85d1419258dcd750834a9eb8ed55e89e1215eaf6e809e902.json |
[
"Charles Krauthammer"
] | 2016-08-30T18:49:57 | null | 2016-08-30T14:47:27 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fthe-bribery-standard%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | The Bribery Standard | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 2:47 pm |
Bernie Sanders never understood the epic quality of the Clinton scandals. In his first debate, he famously dismissed the email issue, it being beneath the dignity of a great revolutionary to deal in things so tawdry and straightforward.
Sanders failed to understand that Clinton scandals are sprawling, multilayered, complex things. They defy time and space. They grow and burrow.
The central problem with Hillary Clinton’s emails was not the classified material. It wasn’t the headline-making charge by the FBI director of her extreme carelessness in handling it.
That’s a serious offense, to be sure, and could very well have been grounds for indictment. And it did damage her politically, exposing her sense of above-the-law entitlement and — in her dodges and prevarications, her parsing and evasions — demonstrating her arm’s-length relationship with the truth.
But it was always something of a sideshow. The real question wasn’t classification but: Why did she have a private server in the first place? She obviously lied about the purpose. It wasn’t convenience. It was concealment. What exactly was she hiding?
Was this merely the prudent paranoia of someone who habitually walks the line of legality? After all, if she controls the server, she controls the evidence, and can destroy it — as she did 30,000 emails — at will.
But destroy what? Remember: She set up the system before even taking office. It’s clear what she wanted to protect from scrutiny: Clinton Foundation business.
The foundation is a massive family enterprise disguised as a charity, an opaque and elaborate mechanism for sucking money from the rich and the tyrannous to be channeled to Clinton Inc. Its purpose is to maintain the Clintons’ lifestyle (offices, travel, accommodations, etc.), secure profitable connections, produce favorable publicity and reliably employ a vast entourage of retainers, ready to serve today and at the coming Clinton Restoration.
Now we learn how the whole machine operated. Two weeks ago, emails began dribbling out showing foundation officials contacting State Department counterparts to ask favors for foundation “friends.” Say, a meeting with the State Department’s “substance person” on Lebanon for one particularly generous Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire.
Big deal, said the Clinton defenders. Low-level stuff. No involvement of the secretary herself. Until — drip, drip — the next batch revealed foundation requests for face time with the secretary herself. Such as one from the crown prince of Bahrain.
To be sure, Bahrain, home of the Fifth Fleet, is an important Persian Gulf ally. Its crown prince shouldn’t have to go through a foundation — to which his government donated at least $50,000 — to get to the secretary. The fact that he did is telling.
Now, a further drip: The Associated Press found that over half the private interests who were granted phone or personal contact with Secretary Clinton — 85 of 154 — were donors to the foundation. Total contributions? As much as $156 million.
Current Clinton response? There was no quid pro quo.
What a long way we’ve come. This is the very last line of defense. Yes, it’s obvious that access and influence were sold. But no one has demonstrated definitively that the donors received something tangible of value — a pipeline, a permit, a waiver, a favorable regulatory ruling — in exchange.
It’s hard to believe the Clinton folks would be stupid enough to commit something so blatant to writing. Nonetheless, there might be an email allusion to some such conversation. With thousands more emails to come, who knows what lies beneath.
On the face of it, it’s rather odd that a visible quid pro quo is the bright line for malfeasance. Anything short of that — the country is awash with political money that buys access — is deemed acceptable. As Donald Trump says of his own donation-giving days, “when I need something from them … I call them, they are there for me.” This is considered routine and unremarkable.
It’s not until a Rolex shows up on your wrist that you get indicted. Or you are found to have dangled a Senate appointment for cash. Then, like Rod Blagojevich, you go to jail. (He got 14 years.)
Yet we are hardly bothered by the routine practice of presidents rewarding big donors with cushy ambassadorships, appointments to portentous boards or invitations to state dinners.
The bright line seems to be outright bribery. Anything short of that is considered — not just for the Clintons, for everyone — acceptable corruption.
It’s a sorry standard. And right now it is Hillary Clinton’s saving grace.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post Writers Group | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/the-bribery-standard/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/a7cfb766b6ba886a5e9651025697c3acbb219ef22ec4685671114dea95ba5660.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:49:43 | null | 2016-08-26T13:32:11 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2F97316%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/07/Shabbos-Category-2-300x169.jpg | en | null | - Hamodia | null | null | hamodia.com | null | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/97316/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/1aa5debdadd9b18bd524c7a0db7a30a86c72635329d610481baaff1071dc8ce8.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:49:01 | null | 2016-08-28T19:39:37 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fstocks-end-mostly-lower-yellen-speech%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/1-Stocks-12-112x300.jpg | en | null | Stocks End Mostly Lower After Yellen Speech | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 7:39 pm |
NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks ended mostly lower on Friday after Federal Reserve officials said the case has strengthened for raising interest rates above the super-low levels that have helped fuel a seven-year bull market.
Major U.S. indexes initially climbed after a speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen that was bullish on the economy but gave no timetable for future rate increases. Then investors began to have second thoughts, wondering if an increase was possible as early as next month, and buyers turned to sellers.
By the close of trading, seven of the 10 sectors of the Standard and Poor’s 500 index had fallen, led by a 2.1 percent drop in utilities. Investors frustrated with low-yielding bonds have flocked to utilities for their steady dividends, but higher rates would make those stocks less attractive.
The S&P 500 slipped 3.43 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,169.04. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 53.01 points, or 0.3 percent, to 18,395.40. The Nasdaq composite rose 6.71 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,218.92.
In her speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Yellen noted that the Fed is moving toward raising interest rates in light of a solid job market and an improved outlook for the economy.
Stocks climbed as investors perceived her comments as “dovish,” meaning a continuation of the easy money policies. Yields on government bonds fell.
But by the end of the day both stocks and bonds had reversed, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 1.62 percent from 1.58 percent late Thursday.
Perhaps helping the turn of sentiment were comments on CNBC from Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer suggesting the central bank could raise rates twice before year’s end, instead of once in December as many investors had been expecting.
Meanwhile, A report early in the day from the Commerce Department showed GDP, or gross domestic product, for the second quarter rose by a revised 1.1 percent, slightly lower than initially forecast.
Since exiting the recession in the summer of 2009, the U.S. economy has been growing sluggishly, making it the slowest recovery since World War II.
Among stocks making moves on Friday, Herbalife fell $1.43, or 2.3 percent, to $60.50 after news reports that that Carl Icahn, the company’s biggest shareholder and defender, has been trying to unload his stake in the embattled company. After trading closed, Icahn said the reports were wrong and, in fact, he has bought more shares.
In overseas markets, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent, Germany’s DAX gained 0.6 percent and France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.8 percent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.2 percent after consumer prices fell the most in three years in July. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.4 percent.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 31 cents to close at $47.64 a barrel. Brent crude, used to price oil internationally, rose 25 cents to close at $49.92 a barrel.
Wholesale gasoline was little changed at $1.52 a gallon, heating oil slipped 1 cent to $1.50 a gallon and natural gas rose 2.5 cents to $2.871 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The dollar rose to 101.86 yen from 100.57 yen the previous day. The euro fell to $1.1183 from $1.1281.
Gold rose $1.30 to $1,325.90 an ounce, silver rose 13 cents to $18.75 an ounce and copper was little changed at $2.08 a pound. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/stocks-end-mostly-lower-yellen-speech/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/daa3210f92264c4a03be2d0e0562f764e6c91bdf95ab0fff1d0502582e5e7a02.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T16:49:55 | null | 2016-08-30T12:29:52 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fagriculture-closes-offices-5-states-threats%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Agriculture Closes Offices in 5 States After Threats | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 12:29 pm |
WASHINGTON (AP) - (AP) – The Agriculture Department has closed offices in five states after receiving anonymous threats.
USDA spokesman Matthew Herrick said in a statement on Tuesday that the department had received “several anonymous messages” that raised concerns about the safety of USDA personnel and facilities. He said six offices are closed until further notice.
Herrick said the department is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal and local law enforcement to determine whether the threats are credible.
The closed offices are in Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/agriculture-closes-offices-5-states-threats/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/6ee4b79416767d346d261c994a0dca219b4df06134b1000b3d7d4ed9f8d121d0.json |
[
"Ilan Erenbach"
] | 2016-08-29T20:49:34 | null | 2016-08-29T14:48:59 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fliberman-chides-media-judging-soldiers-trial%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Liberman Chides Media for Judging Soldiers Before Trial | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 2:48 pm |
YERUSHALAYIM - Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman took aim at the Israeli media on Monday for undermining the IDF by judging soldiers before they have been given a fair hearing over allegations of wrongdoing.
“Israeli media should remember that in the state of Israel, like all democratic countries, only the court convicts, or in this case, [the military court]. Not the media; rather, the courts. Anyone who hasn’t been convicted, is innocent, and that includes Elor Azariya, and the soldier of Netzah Yehuda.”
Liberman was referring to the manslaughter trial of Azariya who shot and killed a terrorist in Chevron after he was apparently neutralized, as well as the investigation into the conduct of a soldier from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion who killed a Palestinian man whom he deemed a threat at an army outpost in Ofra last Friday. That soldier, who has not been identified in the media, may also face charges of manslaughter.
“I would expect the Israeli press to work hard to strengthen the Israeli deterrent capability against our enemies — not to deter Israeli soldiers from fighting terrorists and fighting terror,” Liberman said during a press conference on Monday, following a tour of Bedouin communities in southern Israel.
“I want a free press, not a press that deters IDF soldiers,” he added.
“I want to remind you that people are fighting terror on a daily basis, fighting terrorists. They can’t go out to a mission with a lawyer at their side, and therefore sometimes [their] thought process will be correct and sometimes it won’t,” Liberman said. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/liberman-chides-media-judging-soldiers-trial/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/59ada35c5908a1069d407720ebdb5df397b65b6309f8b5cdcf1b4d1cd18728e1.json |
[
"Dror Halavy"
] | 2016-08-28T08:48:49 | null | 2016-08-28T03:51:16 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fdriver-who-ran-down-six-year-old-indicted%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Driver Who Ran Down Six-Year-Old Indicted | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 3:51 am |
YERUSHALAYIM - Charges have been filed against the 21-year-old driver who a week ago Friday ran down a six-year-old boy in Yerushalayim. The child was badly injured when he was hit at the Bar Ilan Junction in Yerushalayim, shortly after the onset of Shabbos. The youth was treated at the scene by rescue workers and then taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, where he was placed on a respirator. The child was badly injured in his upper body, and doctors operated on him. His situation has improved significantly, doctors said.
The driver did not have a license. The vehicle was registered to a family member. According to the indictment, he exited the vehicle to inspect what had happened, got back in the car, and drove away. Two passengers were with him in the vehicle. Both have been arrested as well.
Police said that an initial investigation indicated that the driver hit the child as he crossed the street in a proper fashion. The driver had been arrested for a similar driving offense when he was 14. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/driver-who-ran-down-six-year-old-indicted/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/d9e1dbee961b0bd4390d8c7ec853c3f3ec9eca2ed34606d487d6901997935929.json |
[
"Yisrael Price"
] | 2016-08-28T18:48:53 | null | 2016-08-28T13:22:03 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fforeign-ministry-halva-blitz%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Foreign Ministry in Halva Blitz | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 1:22 pm |
YERUSHALAYIM - Israeli Foreign Ministry officials have been lobbying intensively to get halva back on the menu of Brussels Airlines, after an incident last week in which the airline appeared to bow to Palestinian pressure to remove the item.
Embassy officials in Brussels and Berlin embassies have been working “vigorously” to reverse the “scandalous decision to boycott the halva products served on their airplanes because of the place of manufacture,” in the Shomron, The Jerusalem Post quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.
The airline has strenuously denied the allegation, explaining that the decision to take the Achva halva off the menu was simply to due a supplier’s error, a spokesman saying it “wasn’t what we ordered.”
The Foreign Ministry did not seem to believe that, however. It reported a different version of the story, the airline blaming the removal to an “overzealous employee” who received a complaint about the halva and acted on his own.
The embassies in Berlin and Brussels were contacting major stockholders in both capitals regarding the boycott. Berlin entered the picture because the German national carrier, Lufthansa, is a stockholder.
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin threatened to have Air Brussels banned from Israel’s skies until it serves halva again. The airline, which operates multiple flights from European cities to Tel Aviv each week appeared anxious to settle the matter. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/foreign-ministry-halva-blitz/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/c4518c0fc8a9e0467425cf870fcb0bf20508adf27e7f7c25d5c4bc951c0a5d27.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T00:49:02 | null | 2016-08-28T18:58:23 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fscientists-exit-hawaii-dome-yearlong-mars-simulation%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Scientists Exit Hawaii Dome After Yearlong Mars Simulation | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 6:58 pm |
HILO, Hawaii (AP) - Six scientists have completed a yearlong Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in a dome in near isolation.
For the past year, the group in the dome on a Mauna Loa mountain could go outside only while wearing spacesuits.
On Sunday, the simulation ended, and the scientists emerged.
Cyprien Verseux, a crew member from France, said the simulation shows a mission to Mars can succeed.
“I can give you my personal impression, which is that a mission to Mars in the close future is realistic. I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome,” Verseux said.
Christiane Heinicke, a crew member from Germany, said the scientists were able to find their own water in a dry climate.
“Showing that it works, you can actually get water from the ground that is seemingly dry. It would work on Mars and the implication is that you would be able to get water on Mars from this little greenhouse construct,” she said.
Tristan Bassingthwaighte, a doctor of architecture candidate at University of Hawaii, served as the crew’s architect.
“The UH research going on up here is just super vital when it comes to picking crews, figuring out how people are going to actually work on different kinds of missions, and sort of the human factors element of space travel, colonization, whatever it is you are actually looking at,” Bassingthwaighte said.
Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS), said the researchers are looking forward to getting in the ocean and eating fresh produce and other foods that weren’t available in the dome.
“HI-SEAS is an example of international collaborative research hosted and run by the University of Hawaii. So it’s really exciting to be able to welcome the crew back to earth and back to Hawaii after a year on Mars,” Binsted said.
NASA funded the study run through the University of Hawaii. Binsted said the simulation was the second-longest of its kind after a mission that lasted 520 days in Russia.
Scientists in the Hawaii simulation managed limited resources while conducting research and working to avoid personal conflicts. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/scientists-exit-hawaii-dome-yearlong-mars-simulation/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/665539f6f3d46b1c71ca803e199d8583c187e7ecb3f3881f09f0add3717d1f07.json |
[
"John T. Bennett"
] | 2016-08-29T22:49:33 | null | 2016-08-29T18:39:12 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fanalysis-desire-avoid-bush-missteps-taint-obama-legacy%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | ANALYSIS: Desire to Avoid Bush Missteps Could Taint Obama Legacy | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 6:39 pm |
WASHINGTON (CQ-Roll Call/TNS) - Barack Obama’s relative inaction in the Middle East will shape — and, perhaps, taint — his legacy, an ironic twist to a presidency conceived in part by his own criticism of his predecessor’s military overreach in the region.
The outgoing commander in chief opted against enforcing his own “red line” against Syrian President Bashar Assad. His decisions against a more robust effort to equip, train and help rebel forces, against using American ground troops, and against removing Assad from power are all part of a complicated mosaic that includes the birth of the Islamic State terrorist group, an again-unstable Iraq, and an ongoing refugee crisis that stretches to northern Europe.
His legacy will be marked by each episode, but to what extent remains unclear, foreign policy experts tell Roll Call.
Still, as America’s allies in Europe deal with attacks from Islamic terrorists and as right-wing politicians there fan the flames of anti-migrant sentiment, Obama is finding out that when it comes to the Middle East, American presidents are damned if they take action and damned if they don’t — even if those decisions sound, to them, like logical reasons.
According to White House officials, Obama is ever-mindful of George W. Bush’s actions to oust then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. That war started out in a promising trajectory before veering wildly off course, causing his successor to become — and remain — skeptical of the effectiveness of U.S. military action in the Middle East.
The president is expected to stick by his Syria strategy of American and coalition airstrikes backing up local forces on the ground — and occasional U.S. special operations missions — until he leaves office.
He has said this approach is better than “getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East.” But he acknowledges it will “take time” to bear results.
Obama’s conclusion from Bush’s Iraq military adventure continues to drive his Syria policy: Regime change is not the answer.
“Attacking the regime doesn’t necessarily address (the) concern,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday. “We’ve got a test case just over the border in Iraq about what the consequences are for the United States implementing a regime-change policy and trying to impose a military solution on the situation.”
Perry Cammack, a former Middle East policy adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, said: “If you take a step back, President Obama was elected with two core mandates — get (the) economy back on track (and) second, get the U.S. out of Middle East wars.”
On the latter, the president has a “mixed record,” added Cammack, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“But he can say that he was able to avoid getting stuck in a quagmire in Syria,” Cammack said. “I suspect how people look back at his Syria policy will come down to how effective they view the U.S. military in dealing with internal conflicts.”
To that end, in trying so hard to avoid a legacy mirroring the 43rd president, Obama’s could resemble that of another Bush.
Obama, as a candidate, and in the early years of his presidency, often spoke admiringly of George H.W. Bush’s foreign policy approach of only pursuing U.S. interests and building coalitions. That’s notable now because the 41st commander in chief is largely remembered in security and foreign policy circles for what he did not do when he halted the Persian Gulf War before driving Saddam Hussein from power.
But the senior Bush’s decision was not linked to millions of refugees. Experts say the humanitarian crisis will be a part of Obama’s legacy no matter how the Syrian conflict ends.
“I think the administration’s Syria policy has been a geopolitical, national security and humanitarian disaster,” said James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation. “The White House paid lip service to the just cause of Syrians rebelling against the brutal Assad regime, but never followed through on backing up its rhetoric with effective action.
“U.S. leadership from behind led to a slow-motion, incremental and ad hoc response that demoralized many Syrian rebels, encouraged them to join ISIS and other Islamist extremist groups due to the lack of Western support, emboldened Russia to intervene and allowed the Assad regime to continue using chemical weapons against its own people,” Phillips said.
But White House officials reject such assertions.
“I would vigorously disagree with the suggestion that there is somehow a case that should be made … that the president didn’t do anything in Syria,” Earnest said. “The fact is, the president has built an international coalition with more than 65 members … and we’ve been very focused on that threat.”
Phillips, however, pointed to “raising expectations without taking any effective action to meet those expectations” as the problem with Obama’s Syria approach. It’s a point made by Republican lawmakers for years — and largely ignored by the president.
Even some Democrats have expressed a desire for tougher words and actions from Obama, especially after he rebuffed calls to send troops to Syria and Iraq to counter IS, following the terrorist attacks in Paris last year.
“I think the president should have been more forceful in his original statements,” Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin told Roll Call at the time.
Senate Intelligence ranking member Dianne Feinstein said she saw Syria and the Islamic State “a little differently (than Obama). I do not see them being contained.”
Obama also has resisted calls from some of his allies to take in more Syrian refugees.
Jon Alterman, a former State Department official, said Obama’s Syria approach seems to stem from an aversion to using negotiations to “nudge” global crises toward a resolution.
“Other presidents have seen negotiations as opportunities to move things forward. You keep moving ahead even though you don’t get everything you want,” said Alterman, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But the process puts things in play so that you advance your interests.
“This president and this administration seems to operate under the premise of, ‘We’ll tell you what the outcome is, then you sign up for that outcome,” he said. “This president seems to express frustration when he’s not in control and people don’t get on board with his conclusion.”
Other presidents, he said, “have realized they’re not in control, but they nudged things forward toward clearer outcomes.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/analysis-desire-avoid-bush-missteps-taint-obama-legacy/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/5fd628e7d89ced0cc6a5588bbef35f193a6ee4455b340df155a98087604aeb78.json |
[
"Dov Benovadia"
] | 2016-08-29T08:49:21 | null | 2016-08-29T03:24:10 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fsoldier-may-be-charged-after-shooting-arab-who-rushed-him%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/IDF-Admits-to-Massive-Palestinian-Infiltration-300x196.jpg | en | null | Soldier May Be Charged After Shooting Arab Who Rushed Him | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 3:24 am |
Israeli soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - An IDF soldier who last Friday shot and killed a Palestinian Authority Arab who ran toward soldiers and refused orders to stop may be charged with manslaughter, army sources said. The soldier was questioned by the Border Guard’s internal affairs department for the death of I’ad Zakaria Hamid, a 38-year-old resident of the village of Sil’ad, near Ramallah. After the shooting took place near the Ofra checkpoint, officials who inspected the body did not discover any weapons on his person.
According to residents of the village, Hamid was a “special needs case,” and may not have understood orders to stop rushing at the officers. The incident occurred just two days after an Arab rushed soldiers just north of Ofra near Itamar, after soldiers chased a vehicle from which rocks had been thrown at them. The soldiers hit the vehicle, and one of the Arabs emerged and stabbed a soldier.
The soldier was released after questioning and sent back to his unit. In a statement, his attorney said that the soldier had opened fire “in accordance with instructions of the army, and in light of the off [unusual] behavior and the danger constituted by the Arab. The soldier is experienced and decorated and he takes the matter very seriously.”
Meanwhile, Haaretz reported Monday that a Border Guard officer who allegedly mistreated an Arab at the Hizme checkpoint will be charged, military prosecutors said. The incident occurred several weeks ago, with the Yerushalayim Arab saying that he was “harassed and beaten” by the officer at the checkpoint, after the latter discovered that his wife was Jewish. The complaint against the officer was filed on behalf of the Arab by the leftist Yesh Din group. In a statement, police said that it was investigating the matter, but “the behavior as described is the exact opposite of what is expected of Israeli police officers.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/soldier-may-be-charged-after-shooting-arab-who-rushed-him/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/3f20d9ba87f625eafd0b0fe1ce30a39610f996cf33cfdb7cef21030fddb9fce5.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T18:50:02 | null | 2016-08-30T14:49:14 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Ftroubling-bulletin-tehran%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | The Troubling Bulletin From Tehran | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 2:49 pm |
More than 13 months after the United States and its partners announced they had reached a landmark agreement with Iran over its nuclear program, a series of disturbing revelations, coupled with Iran’s continued belligerence, continues to raise red flags.
Though the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, was technically limited only to matters pertaining to the Iranian nuclear program and the easing of international sanctions against Tehran, it was broadly assumed that it would herald a new beginning in U.S.-Iran relations, a goal that has eluded consecutive American administrations.
Yet with their words and actions, the Iranians are making it clear that they have no intention of engaging in any sort of détente with the nation they perceive as the “Great Satan.”
On Sunday, in a meeting with commanders at an air defense base in Tehran, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei made it crystal clear how he views the United States.
“We should increase the armed forces’ preparedness to the extent that the enemy doesn’t even allow itself to think about aggression,” Khamenei declared. “We are facing such an enemy which doesn’t respect our nation’s right of defense and actually wants us to remain defenseless so that they can launch aggression against our country whenever they want,” he added.
Hours earlier, underscoring Iran’s outlook, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Navy Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, asserted that Tehran has confined Washington’s power in the sea.
“The U.S. doesn’t enjoy the power to confront Iran militarily,” the FARS news agency quoted Fadavi as saying.
He was presumably referring to the fact that last Wednesday, U.S. ships had three encounters with IRGC boats in the North Arabian Gulf. One Iranian boat came within 200 yards of the USS Tempest. The American vessel repeatedly tried bridge-to-bridge radio calls and sent out warning flares, but to no avail. It was only after the USS Squall, which was with the USS Tempest, fired three warning shots from its .50-caliber gun that the Iranian ship turned away.
“This situation presented a drastically increased risk of collision, and the Iranian vessel refused to safely maneuver in accordance with internationally recognized maritime rules of the road,” U.S. Navy Cmdr. Bill Urban, spokesman for the Navy’s 5th Fleet, told the Associated Press.
The same Iranian boat that harassed the USS Tempest also crossed in front of the USS Stout three times at a high rate of speed in the same region. Urban called it an “unsafe intercept” and said the USS Stout, a guided missile destroyer, had to maneuver to avoid a collision.
In the third incident, three Iranian boats crossed in front of the USS Tempest at high speed, coming within 600 yards of the ship.
A day earlier, four small Iranian boats approached the USS Nitze at high speed in the Strait of Hormuz. The boats veered off after the American forces fired flares.
These were only the most recent in a string of incidents in which the Iranians have sought to harass and provoke American forces and inflame regional tensions.
In January, Iranian forces briefly detained 10 U.S. Navy sailors who mistakenly steered into Iranian waters. The Iranians boarded the boats, pointed their guns at the U.S. sailors and took them to an island where they were humiliated and held overnight.
Last December, Iranian ships fired rockets near a U.S. warship and other vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, and a month later flew an unarmed drone over the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.
In the meantime, historians and legal experts say that the $400 million cash delivery to Iran to repay a decades-old claim may be unprecedented in recent U.S. history. One historian contacted by the AP went all the way back to the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War to find a similar episode.
Two days after sending $400 million in cash to Tehran, the U.S. sent another $1.3 billion in 13 separate payments of $99,999,999.99 and a final payment of about $10 million.
Citing “diplomatic sensitivities,” the administration declined to say whether these monies were also given in cash, and why the Treasury Department insisted on keeping the individual transactions under $100 million.
In the 1970s, Iran gave the American government $400 million for a shipment of U.S. military equipment. After Iran’s 1979 overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah and the U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran, the weapons were never delivered. Iran has long demanded the money back — plus interest. The Obama administration agreed to hand over $1.7 billion.
Only time will tell whether the Iran nuclear deal will prove to be (1) a wise and safe alternative to war, as claimed by the Obama administration, (2) the global nightmare predicted by the Netanyahu government, that will pave the way for an Iranian nuclear bomb, or (3) something in between.
However, with each passing day, the messages from an ever-more-belligerent Iran and the actions of a White House which exhibits repeated signs of weakness and appeasement, lend credence to those who question the judgment of the Obama administration and the wisdom of this most controversial deal. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/troubling-bulletin-tehran/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/6c6aba47255836fab5fb676dd5f4d2ff00f47ad211356ed0db6bf97bba6066d4.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T12:49:18 | null | 2016-08-29T07:20:30 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Ftrump-to-give-speech-on-illegal-immigration-on-wednesday%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP16238589177929-300x183.jpg | en | null | Trump to Give Speech on Illegal Immigration on Wednesday | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 7:20 am |
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump boards his plane at LaGuardia Airport in New York, last Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump posted Sunday night on social media that he would make a major speech on illegal immigration in Arizona on Wednesday.
The announcement came a day after Trump said he would crack down on illegal immigrants who overstay their visas, as he sought to clarify his views on how to overhaul the U.S. immigration system. Last week, Trump had said he was “softening” on his plan to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants.
That stance had aroused criticism from conservatives who wanted him to hold firm after he won the Republican presidential nomination in large part due to a hard-line position that called for building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
“I will be making a major speech on ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION on Wednesday in the GREAT state of Arizona. Big crowds, looking for a larger venue,” Trump, who had postponed an immigration speech originally planned for last Thursday in Denver, said in his post on Sunday.
In another post on Sunday night, Trump said both he and Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, should release detailed medical records. “I have no problem in doing so! Hillary?”
In his speech on Saturday in Iowa, Trump said he would seek to institute a tracking system to ensure illegal immigrants who overstay their visas are quickly removed, and would propose an e-verify system to prevent undocumented residents from gaining access to welfare and other benefits.
“If we don’t enforce visa expiration dates, then we have an open border – it’s as simple as that,” he said.
Trump said his first priority upon taking office next January would be the immediate deportation of thousands of undocumented immigrants who remain in the United States despite having committed crimes.
“These international gangs and cartels will be a thing of the past,” he said. “Their reign of terror will be over. In this task, we will always err on the side of protecting the American people – we will use immigration law to prevent crimes, and will not wait until some innocent American has been harmed or killed before taking action.”
Trump did not explain how his plan would affect undocumented residents who have been in the United States for decades and obeyed U.S. laws. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/trump-to-give-speech-on-illegal-immigration-on-wednesday/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/af01588930ed64e81ba4b6c18090c7415453ec508e6ef7f7bd2240b7bc1e5301.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T00:48:34 | null | 2016-08-27T20:34:59 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fclinton-receives-first-intelligence-briefing-as-nominee%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/1279f-300x200.jpg | en | null | Clinton Receives First Intelligence Briefing as Nominee | null | null | hamodia.com | Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 8:34 pm |
The motorcade carrying Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton arrives at an FBI office in White Plains, N.Y., Aug. 27, 2016, for a national security briefing. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - Hillary Clinton received her first national security briefing Saturday as the Democratic presidential nominee, meeting with intelligence officials for an overview of the major threats facing the nation around the globe.
Clinton attended the briefing for more than two hours at the FBI office in White Plains, New York, near her suburban New York City home. Republican Donald Trump received his briefing earlier this month, a customary move for major party nominees but one that has been the subject of a political tussle during the campaign.
Trump was campaigning on Saturday in Iowa.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Iowa’s Republican Gov. Terry Branstad said he’d like Trump to focus his message more on a renewable fuel standard that is important to his state’s corn farmers. Trump and Clinton are polling “about even” in Iowa, he added, and he’d like Trump to launch campaign ads in the state since Clinton has already done so.
“I don’t like that but hopefully that’s going to change,” he said.
The activities capped a week that saw some of the harshest exchanges between the two presidential rivals, with Clinton asserting in a fiery Reno, Nevada, speech on Thursday that Trump was stoking a “radical fringe” within the Republican Party, including anti-Semites and white supremacists. Trump, who is trying to win over moderate voters and minorities who have been unsettled by some of his provocative remarks and policy proposals, has tried to paint Clinton as a racist.
Trump released an online video that includes footage of the former first lady referring to some young criminals as “super predators” in the 1990s. The video also shows Clinton’s former Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, denouncing the phrase as “a racist term.” Clinton has since apologized.
Clinton has said that Trump and his supporters have taken on extremist views, casting the race in a Friday MSNBC interview as “not a normal choice between a Republican and a Democrat.”
The back-and-forth also has been waged in the national security space.
As President Barack Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton held a high security clearance and received a copy of the President’s Daily Brief — the highest-level U.S. intelligence document that includes sensitive intelligence and analysis from around the world.
Saturday’s briefing was Clinton’s first since becoming her party’s nominee and she did not receive it with any aides present, her campaign said. Trump was accompanied by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie when he received his briefing.
The briefings, which are delivered by career staffers from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, have been traditional for presidential nominees for more than 60 years to ensure a smooth transition for the next commander in chief. Some Trump critics have questioned whether he could responsibly handle sensitive information, while some of Clinton’s critics say her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state raises concern over her ability to protect classified information.
Trump is trying to shore up his standing with Latino voters. In Las Vegas, Trump met Friday with two dozen Latino supporters to discuss strategies for boosting Hispanic turnout in the swing state. He has sought to make the case that his economic policies would be better for small minority-owned businesses than those of Clinton.
“People don’t know how well we’re doing with the Hispanics, the Latinos,” Trump said at his hotel just off the Vegas Strip. “We’re doing really well.”
Trump has suggested that minorities have been left behind by Democratic economic policies and hammered the nation’s sluggish GDP growth as “a catastrophe.”
But he has continued to send mixed signals about a key issue for many Latinos: immigration. While he has not wavered on his desire to build an impenetrable wall along the border with Mexico, he exhibited indecisiveness in recent days about his plan to deport 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
Aides have said he would announce his immigration policy in a speech in the coming days, but his campaign has yet to set a date. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/27/clinton-receives-first-intelligence-briefing-as-nominee/ | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/ad8a9068d998c82333b96bcd01111263d76eeb91604addae0351c680656dc2f0.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:47:42 | null | 2016-08-25T20:43:41 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F25%2Fthe-company-we-keep%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | The Company We Keep | null | null | hamodia.com | Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 8:43 pm |
There was once a Chassid who lived in a small village far from other Yidden. He frequently traveled to his Rebbe and each time complained terribly about the hardship of living alone, away from a shul and minyan. His Rebbe continuously encouraged him, and based on the specific needs of this Chassid, instructed him to stay in the small village.
One day, the Chassid was visiting the city and, as always, came to see his Rebbe. The Rebbe asked him how he was doing.
“Baruch Hashem, I have finally gotten used to living in the village,” he replied.
“In that case,” rejoined the Rebbe, “you must move to the big city at once! As long as you felt uncomfortable, you were permitted to live there. If you have gotten used to it, then you are in clear danger of being influenced adversely by your surroundings.”
***
We often fail to recognize the enormous degree to which we are influenced by the company we keep. It is often tempting to assume that our firm conviction and ironclad commitment to our ideals makes us impervious to our surroundings. However, while it may not be discernible immediately, unless we take proactive and considerable measures, over time we are greatly affected by our interactions with those who do not share our moral values.
This week the Torah instructs Bnei Yisrael not to say in their hearts “Because of my righteousness did Hashem bring me to take possession of this land and because of the wickedness of these nations did Hashem drive them away from you” (Devarim 9:4).
In the very next passuk, the Torah continues, “Not because of your righteousness and the uprightness of your heart are you coming to take possession of their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations does Hashem, your G-d, drive them away from before you…”
At first glance the two pesukim appear contradictory. In the first passuk it appears that neither the righteousness of Bnei Yisrael nor the wickedness of the other nations was the reason Bnei Yisrael merited to conquer the land and vanquish the other nations. Yet the second passuk indicates that the wickedness of the nations was at least a partial reason.
Numerous meforshim explain (based on the words of Rashi) the pesukim to mean that it is not a combination of both reasons — the positive attributes of Bnei Yisrael and the evilness of the nations — but, rather, only the wickedness of the nations.
The Chasam Sofer gives another, extremely relevant explanation.
There are some very great tzaddikim who are on such lofty levels of holiness that they simply cannot tolerate being in the presence of an evildoer. After the petirah of Elisha Hanavi, troops from Moav raided Eretz Yisrael. Some people were burying a niftar, and when they saw a Moabite troop approaching, they threw the body into the kever of Elisha. The body rolled over and touched the bones of Elisha, and the man, who apparently was a wicked person, temporarily came back to life and rose to his feet. Chazal (Chullin 7a) explain that the reason for this resuscitation was so that a spiritual giant like Elisha should not rest near a wrongdoer.
Then there are some individuals who, while they are, relatively speaking, considered tzaddikim, are not strong enough to resist the influences of the wrongdoers and will inevitably learn from their ways. Therefore, they must also stay clear of them.
It is only a tzaddik who is on a high enough level of tzidkus to be able to withstand the influences of a wicked man, while at the same time being able to “tolerate” the presence of such individuals, who are permitted to live near them so that the evildoers will learn from the tzaddikim.
In the first passuk, the Torah seeks to tell Bnei Yisrael that the reason Hashem drove the other nations away is not because they are on such a high level of righteousness that they cannot tolerate the wickedness of the nations. Rather, as the second passuk indicates, it is because Hashem knew that Bnei Yisrael did not have the righteousness and uprightness to withstand their influence; therefore, in order to ensure that Bnei Yisrael will not learn from the others, Hashem drove them away.
***
We cannot begin to understand the greatness of the generation of Bnei Yisrael that merited to enter and conquer Eretz Yisrael. If there was concern about how they would be influenced by their surroundings, how much more must we worry!
At the same time, let us contemplate the fact that the same way the wrong type of company can have a calamitous effect on us, having the right type of company, and basking in the presence of avdei Hashem and tzaddikim, certainly have an enormous influence. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/25/the-company-we-keep/ | en | 2016-08-25T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/371dc5e4223d45c6fdfdeaa5a07c8afea6803974427749f803df5c6ec196d797.json |
[
"Dov Benovadia"
] | 2016-08-28T00:48:42 | null | 2016-08-27T20:36:12 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fchareidi-mks-katz-lied-to-us-demand-pm-fire-him%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2015/10/East-Yerushalayim-Barrier-Backfires1-300x200.jpg | en | null | Chareidi MKs: 'Katz Lied to Us,' Demand PM Fire Him | null | null | hamodia.com | Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 8:36 pm |
Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - Chareidi MKs are demanding that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fire Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, whom they said misled them on the “lifesaving need” for work on Israel Railways lines over Shabbos. It turned out, the MKs said, that the work wasn’t as vital as claimed, and went far beyond the scope of what had been described to them Friday morning by Netanyahu.
To make matters worse, Katz on Motzoei Shabbos declared his satisfaction with the work done over Shabbos, and with the fact that he had not “folded in the face of pressure to cancel the work, despite the pressure on me. I respect the chareidi parties and their voters but it was impossible to postpone this work until the middle of the week. I am happy that they accepted this position and realized that there was no choice but to carry out the work.”
Not quite, countered MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni. Speaking Motzoei Shabbos, he said that contrary to what Katz claimed, “this work could have been done on a weekday. We never agreed that it should take place on Shabbos. Apparently, lying is one of Katz’s areas of expertise. We have seen this in recent months in other areas as well, as he lies to advance his political goals.”
According to Deputy Education Minister Rabbi Meir Porush, “they presented this as a ‘lifesaving matter’ and necessary under the circumstances. If the prime minister wants us to remain in the coalition he must learn what the concept of ‘lifesaving’ (pikuach nefesh) means halachically. This was very much not the case with the work that took place in Tel Aviv.”
A report on Channel Two said that chareidi MKs gathered after Shabbos and planned to demand that Netanyahu fire Katz for misleading them. In a statement, they said that the parties “were protesting with true pain over the unnecessary work done on Shabbos in Tel Aviv. What took place was a violation of the agreements made previously with the transport minister, and a violation of the status quo.” The press conference held by Katz right after Shabbos, and the media hoopla over the “victory” over the chareidim, did not help matters either, the statement said.
In his comments, Katz said that he had acted in accordance with the law and the status quo.
On Friday, MKs of all the religious parties in the Knesset said that a coalition crisis would emerge if Israel Railways proceeded with maintenance work this Shabbos. In a letter to Netanyahu, leaders of the chareidi parties said that the prospect of such work taking place “is a very serious matter and a terrible violation of the status quo. It will de facto erase public observance of Shabbos in a very public manner, something that has not happened since the establishment of the state.”
Responding to the letter Friday morning, Netanyahu said that any work that could be delayed would be, but work that was deemed an “emergency” and “lifesaving” would be carried out. Work in Tel Aviv itself would take place, but work on several suburban lines that had been planned for Shabbos would be delayed.
The work entailed maintenance and expansion of Israel Railway lines in the Tel Aviv area in order to accommodate the Tel Aviv light rail, currently under construction. Israel Railways claimed that Shabbos – when trains do not operate – was the only available time to do the work without shutting the system down altogether, as most train lines pass through the Tel Aviv stations where the work is to take place. Police said that postponing the work to a weekday would cause a “danger to life” because it would entail shutting down main highways in Tel Aviv, and emergency vehicles and ambulances would not be able to get through. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/27/chareidi-mks-katz-lied-to-us-demand-pm-fire-him/ | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/2075cae7b69f2b983eeab88b5569966518711fc915f52a9ddd62260135cb6e3a.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:48:00 | null | 2016-08-26T12:58:00 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fu-s-russia-renew-push-elusive-agreement-syria%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP956515195850-300x200.jpg | en | null | U.S., Russia Renew Push for Elusive Agreement on Syria | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 12:58 pm |
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, shake hands during a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday. (Martial Trezzini/Pool Photo via AP)
GENEVA (AP) - The United States and Russia on Friday renewed efforts to secure a military and humanitarian cooperation agreement for war-torn Syria after months of hesitation, missed deadlines and failed attempts to forge a truce.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the talks on Syria with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were “excellent,” as they took a lunchtime break from meetings in Geneva as part of a new U.S. effort to enlist Russia as a partner in Syria as fighting becomes more volatile and complicated with the introduction of Turkish ground forces.
Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. envoy for Syria, joined the conversations in the early afternoon, and told The Associated Press after the break: “We are still working.”
Neither Washington nor Moscow has signaled that an agreement is imminent, although progress appears to have been made in one critical battleground: the besieged city of Aleppo, where the United Nations has been clamoring for a 48-hour ceasefire so that humanitarian aid can be shipped into the city.
Asked to describe the main impediment to a nationwide ceasefire in Syria as he sat down with Kerry, Lavrov said: “I don’t want to spoil the atmosphere for the negotiations.” Kerry did not speak, and it was not immediately clear if either man would address reporters after their talks, which include discussions about the crisis in Ukraine.
On Thursday, U.N. officials said Russia was on board for the temporary pause in fighting in and around Aleppo. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry simply reiterated its general support for a ceasefire to open an aid corridor, and was waiting for the U.N. to announce it is ready.
The three-point plan for Aleppo, which U.N. officials say now needs the approval of two rebel groups and the Syrian government, would involve road convoys both from Damascus and across the Turkish border through the critical Castello Road artery. Another mission would go to southern Aleppo to help revive a damaged electric plant that powers crucial pumping stations that supply water for 1.8 million people.
Kerry was to meet with de Mistura separately later Friday in Geneva.
Expectations are low for the talks, particularly given how efforts to forge a new U.S.-Russia understanding have fallen short virtually every month for the past five years. At the same time, the administration is not of one mind regarding the Russians. The Pentagon has publicly complained about getting drawn into greater cooperation with Russia even though it has been forced recently to expand communication with Moscow. Last week, the U.S. had to call for Russian help when Syrian warplanes struck an area not far from where U.S. troops were operating.
Despite the apparent incremental progress on Aleppo, U.S. officials are keen to broaden the focus and hammer out a diplomatic initiative that would see greater military cooperation with Russia that could lead to a resumption of talks on a political transition. However, previous efforts to set target dates for the start of the transition process have failed, most recently when an early August timeline had to be abandoned.
U.S. officials say it is imperative that Russia use its influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad to halt all attacks on moderate opposition forces, open humanitarian aid corridors, and concentrate any offensive action on Islamic State and other terrorists not covered by what has become a largely ignored truce. For their part, U.S. officials say they are willing to press rebels groups they support harder on separating themselves from the Islamic State and al-Nusra, which despite a recent name change is still viewed as al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria.
Those goals are not new, but recent developments have made achieving them even more urgent and important, according to U.S. officials. Recent developments include military operations around the city of Aleppo, the entry of Turkey into the ground war, Turkish hostility toward U.S.-backed Kurdish rebel groups and the presence of American military advisers in widening conflict zones.
Meanwhile, in a blow to the opposition, rebel forces and civilians in the besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya were to be evacuated on Friday after agreeing to surrender the town late Thursday after four years of grueling bombardment and a crippling siege that left the sprawling area in ruins. The surrender of Daraya, which became an early symbol of the nascent uprising against President Bashar Assad, marks a success for his government, removing a persistent threat only a few miles from his seat of power. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/u-s-russia-renew-push-elusive-agreement-syria/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/10e523d82036d697a1c6e3edf689825f4b3494805cb3e17f426c3888562e288f.json |
[
"Hamodia Staff"
] | 2016-08-30T14:49:53 | null | 2016-08-30T09:34:57 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fchareidi-mks-meet-netanyahu-chillul-shabbos-israel-railways%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2013/08/6-Wrong-Way-Railways-1-300x167.jpg | en | null | Chareidi MKs Meet With Netanyahu Over Chillul Shabbos on Israel Railways | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 9:34 am |
Construction of the Yerushalayim–Tel Aviv high-speed railway. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - The leaders of the chareidi parties, Interior Minister Rabbi Aryeh Deri (Shas), Health Minister MK Rabbi Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) and Knesset Finance Chairman Rabbi Moshe Gafni (UTJ), met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, after Israel Railways proceeded with maintenance work in the Tel Aviv region last Shabbos.
The MKs said that the work taking place, in a blatant and unnecessary chillul Shabbos “is a very serious matter and a terrible violation of the status quo. It will de facto erase public observance of Shabbos in a very public manner, something that has not happened since the establishment of the state.”
They also noted their disappointment with Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) whom they said misled them on the “lifesaving need” for the work over Shabbos.
To make matters worse, on Motzoei Shabbos Katz declared his satisfaction with the work done over Shabbos – an action that does not add any honor to Shabbos or it’s observation in Israel.
The MKs clarified to the Prime Minister that shemiras Shabbos is one of fundamental values in a Jewish State, and it was kept all the years as part of the status quo, and as part of the agreements with the chareidi parties.
Netanyahu noted that he, too, respects Shabbos and sees himself and his government responsible to keep the status quo on shemiras Shabbos. He said that he has no intention to go on the record as the Prime Minister who harmed shemiras Shabbos.
The meeting ended with an agreement to form a governmental committee that will oversee all issues of shemiras Shabbos, and an agreement that no breaches will be made in the status quo. The committee will be composed of a representative from: the PM’s Office, the Transportation Ministry, the Economy Ministry, the Education Minister, the Chief Rabbinate plus representatives of the chareidi parties. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/chareidi-mks-meet-netanyahu-chillul-shabbos-israel-railways/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/ab5144f8430f85c3250ffa57ea3b243c9ac77b027787e3fd20f605f5c8cdfceb.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T08:48:48 | null | 2016-08-28T04:44:25 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fsyrian-observatory-turkish-attacks-kill-20-in-syrian-village%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Syrian Observatory: Turkish Attacks Kill 20 in Syrian Village | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 4:44 am |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A group monitoring the Syrian war said Turkish air strikes and artillery attacks killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more on Sunday in a village in northern Syria, where Turkey and allied Syrian rebels are fighting Kurdish-allied militias.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 50 people had been wounded in the attack on the village of Jub al-Kousa, in an area controlled by militias allied to the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
The Syrian Observatory said earlier that Turkish warplanes had struck areas north of Manbij, a city south of Jarablus captured by Kurdish-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces this month in a U.S.-backed operation. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/syrian-observatory-turkish-attacks-kill-20-in-syrian-village/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/02898665798e00630b4b9c9813e95d5908c8a5aab2be0e3958965a71657a9504.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T02:49:37 | null | 2016-08-29T21:06:23 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fgood-news-ocean-township%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Good News From Ocean Township | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 9:06 pm |
The federal court decision in the Yeshiva Naos Yaakov case is a significant victory for religous liberties in general and the Jewish community specifically. We are gratified that U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson upheld the yeshivah’s contention that the application of zoning regulations by Ocean Township, N.J., was, in fact, a matter of religious discrimination.
The township’s claim that its denial of a variance was based on impartial, “neutral ordinances” was rejected by the court. It found, instead, that it was a violation of RLUIPA, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which prohibits local boards from exploiting zoning laws in such a way as to interfere with freedom of religion.
As Roman P. Storzer, attorney for the yeshivah, characterized it ahead of a recent hearing: “This is bigotry masked as a zoning hearing, pure and simple. The situation that the yeshivah has faced here is exactly why Congress decided that RLUIPA’s protections are necessary.”
Despite the township’s careful avoidance of any anti-Semitic comment in its official statements, the local clamor against the yeshivah and the Lakewood Orthodox community in general belied its sanctimonious claims of pure zoning considerations. The blatant anti-Semitic remarks cited by the yeshivah’s attorney in court, as well as such tactics as packing hearings and imposing unconscionable delays, spoke for themselves.
The ugly remarks need not be repeated here, but there was little doubt, including in Judge Wolfson’s mind, that the zoning board voted in accordance with such sentiments. That vote, in December 2015, to deny the application for a variance, citing a lack of information about the project, was nothing short of bizarre as the questions posed during the hearings were so clearly irrelevant that their most obvious purpose was to cast aspersions.
We hope that now the yeshivah will be allowed to expand its dormitory facilities to accommodate the growth of the institution, and the talmidim will be able to pursue their studies undisturbed. Ken yirbu.
But victory though it was, cause for celebration it is not. Once again, what should have been a routine matter of granting a legitimate zoning variance became an instance of hate-based obstructionism. When the opaque refusals of the local officialdom failed to discourage the yeshivah, vile opposition to religious Jewry surfaced.
The court decision affirms that the law of the land is religious tolerance, and that intolerance by stealth is an affront to American traditions of freedom.
But as a court victory, while it removes the legal obstacle to the Orthodox community’s natural growth, it does not remove the hatred which created that obstacle in the first place. This a court ruling cannot do.
That the battle is not over is clear. In a statement welcoming the court’s decision, Rabbi Avi Schnall, Agudath Israel’s New Jersey director, said, “This decision … sends a clear message that our religious rights will not be trampled upon and we hope this will serve as an example to other municipalities.”
Among those other municipalities is that of Toms River, New Jersey. The same battle is being fought there. Rabbi Moshe Gourarie, who operates the local Chabad house, is also caught up in a legal struggle to maintain the Shabbos minyan in his home against charges of land-use violations.
Officially, the issue has been presented by the municipality as one of noise pollution and traffic created by Rabbi Gourarie’s little group of 10 to 20 participants. But the swastika painted on his driveway a few weeks ago told a different story.
Passage of RLUIPA in 2000 was a milestone that should provide other victories, in Toms River and elsewhere. We are thankful that there is such legal recourse.
But the origin of RLUIPA reflected a troubling situation. In the late 1990s, multiple Congressional hearings revealed overwhelming evidence that local boards tailored zoning and land-use regulations to fit their prejudices. The new law put the burden of proof on officials to show “compelling reason” for the “substantial burdens” they seek to impose on religious groups.
It took years to secure passage of RLUIPA. It will take more years before it becomes sufficiently established by court rulings that municipalities will give up on the land-use strategy altogether. But with continued patience and perseverance, that day may also come.
As for the anti-Semitism that lurks behind such behavior and all-too-often shows itself in all its ugliness, we will have to wait for a different era entirely. May it come speedily, in our days. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/good-news-ocean-township/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/c1c719e80aa2ce972189fab64dbeced552c0e006d074cf6f38c29c1423bceb9d.json |
[
"Alex Roarty"
] | 2016-08-30T20:50:04 | null | 2016-08-30T15:13:25 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fmurphy-rubio-mccain-enter-tuesdays-primaries-heavy-favorites%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/Composite-300x188.jpg | en | null | Murphy, Rubio, McCain Enter Tuesday’s Primaries as Heavy Favorites | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 3:13 pm |
(L-R) Rep. Patrick Murphy Sen. Marco Rubio, and Sen. John McCain. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon/Lynne Sladky/Ralph Freso)
(CQ-Roll Call/TNS) - Leaders in the Republican and Democratic parties are expected to get their way Tuesday in a trio of marquee Senate primaries, each of which features an establishment-backed candidate who — by nearly all indications — will defeat a longshot challenger.
In Arizona, Republican Sen. John McCain faces former State Sen. Kelli Ward in a race that pitted the longtime incumbent against a conservative firebrand. The veteran lawmaker appears to have a sizable advantage: A CNN/ORC poll released last week found McCain leading Ward 55 percent to 29 percent.
In Florida, meanwhile, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is expected to defeat wealthy builder Carlos Beruff in a landslide, despite only entering the race in June.
And in the state’s Democratic Senate primary, Rep. Patrick Murphy — with the assistance of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and millions in super PAC spending — is a heavy favorite against the underfunded Rep. Alan Grayson.
Despite the remarkable success of insurgent candidates during the presidential primaries, the triumph of the establishment is a familiar story this election cycle in down-ballot Senate races.
With rare exception, the choice of party leaders has won his or her primary: GOP incumbents like Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, for example, have posted big victories despite being targeted by unhappy conservatives.
On the Democratic side, a plethora of competitive primaries in states like Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania have eventually given way to a coronation of the establishment-backed candidate.
It wasn’t always certain the GOP primary in Arizona would run smoothly for McCain, the party’s 2008 presidential nominee. His longtime willingness to buck the party on key issues, especially immigration reform, has long made him a target of conservatives. Former Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth challenged him in 2010, losing by more than 20 points.
The five-term senator also received a scare earlier this month, when GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump publicly withheld his endorsement of McCain. But Trump backtracked days later, and Ward has struggled to raise money. She also made headlines recently by arguing that McCain was too old to serve in the Senate. He turned 80 on Monday.
In Florida, Rubio nearly cleared a five-man field when he dramatically entered the primary this summer, three months after ending his unsuccessful presidential bid. The exception was Beruff, who promised to draw from his personal fortune to fund a campaign aimed at attacking Rubio for his unwillingness to give Trump his full-throated support.
Beruff has spent big, but the money and message have made little impact on the race.
On the Democratic side, Murphy earned endorsements from the president and vice president, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, all of whom saw him as a stronger general election candidate than the volatile Grayson.
The Orlando-area congressman has struggled to raise money during a campaign beset by an investigation from the House Committee on Ethics, public shouting matches with Reid, and mass departures from his campaign staff. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/murphy-rubio-mccain-enter-tuesdays-primaries-heavy-favorites/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/8e926d8346e179ce1e0db44143f7c79c2b03c70fa73f0b29546d690ec9f81d62.json |
[
"Zalman Ahnsaf"
] | 2016-08-28T18:48:55 | null | 2016-08-28T13:11:57 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Freport-netanyahu-abbas-consider-october-moscow-summit%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/Sidebyside-300x234.jpg | en | null | Report: Netanyahu, Abbas Consider October Moscow Summit | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 1:11 pm |
This composite image shows PA President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. (AP Photo/Issam Rimawi, Pool; AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
YERUSHALAYIM - A meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is being arranged for October in Moscow, Ynet reported on Sunday.
The disclosure of the as-yet tentative summit comes a week after Egyptian President al-Sisi told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin had expressed a willingness to host direct talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Both Israeli and Palestinian officials confirmed the statement.
Officials believe that Abbas prefers Moscow rather than Cairo as a venue so that Egypt will not so conspicuously upstage France, whose peace initiative has been backed by Abbas.
Meanwhile, two Zionist Camp MKs found a partner for peace in Ramallah.
Ksenia Svetlova and Yossi Yona met with Abbas there after receiving an official invitation from him last Thursday.
MK Svetlova said that “there are a lot of peace proposals on the table to solve this conflict, and it’s important that we don’t miss this opportunity. We were happy to hear that Abbas is continuing to renounce violence and is beholden to a solution.”
Svetlova also said they discussed the possibility of a Moscow summit, which she urged Netanyahu to accept.
Netanyahu must “do everything possible and beyond to change the reality in which we pay such high prices,” Svetlova added. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/report-netanyahu-abbas-consider-october-moscow-summit/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/37ec164f31c052b14e3c1d86d91c127a303eda1fdb94493d921ed9e590c3679f.json |
[
"Vera Bergengruen"
] | 2016-08-28T18:48:58 | null | 2016-08-28T13:24:23 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fclinton-backs-net-neutrality-trumps-stand-unclear%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Clinton Backs Net Neutrality; Trump’s Stand Is Unclear | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 1:24 pm |
WASHINGTON (McClatchy Washington Bureau/TNS) - When the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve net neutrality rules last year, many people saw it as a done deal. Supporters cheered the decision as a victory for the free and open internet, where the deep pockets of big companies couldn’t buy faster web speeds over struggling startups.
Since then, the issue has largely faded from the spotlight and has rarely come up on the presidential campaign trail. But internet policy experts say the FCC decision was far from the end of the story — and with just over 10 weeks until the election, time is running out for voters to ask the candidates to clarify their positions.
“There are a number of unresolved issues surrounding net neutrality that are still going to be hot topics to be resolved by the next administration,” said Doug Brake, a telecom policy analyst at the nonprofit Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
Net neutrality rules, also known as “open internet,” prohibit internet service providers from favoring certain high-traffic websites, like Netflix and Amazon, by giving them greater bandwidth, at the expense of smaller start-up companies. Advocates argue that it ensures an even playing field. An open internet also means banning fast lanes, which would allow ISPs like Verizon and AT&T to pay extra to ensure smoother, speedier streaming for their users.
Internet companies have vowed to continue the fight against the regulation, pursuing it all the way to the Supreme Court if need be. This June, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected challenges to the net neutrality rules. The next president’s administration, and the FCC, will face the colossal task of catching up to technology that evolves beyond its ability to regulate it.
Clinton would follow in Obama’s footsteps on internet policy.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign website says she “strongly supports the FCC decision under the Obama administration to adopt strong network neutrality rules.”
While she would be following in the Obama administration’s footsteps, Clinton has her own decadelong record of supporting net neutrality. While serving as a New York senator, she co-sponsored the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which sought to amend the 1934 Communications Act to ensure net neutrality.
“The internet as we know it does not discriminate among its users,” she said in 2006. “It does not decide who can enter its marketplace and it does not pick which views can be heard and which ones silenced.”
Ten years later, adopting tech sector-friendly policies is proving to be a smart fundraising strategy for the Democratic nominee. This week she wrapped up a fundraising tour that included several Silicon Valley hotspots. One of the events was hosted by Apple CEO Tim Cook, with tickets selling for $2,700 to $50,000.
Clinton has also worked broadband issues into her infrastructure platform.
“By 2020, I want 100 percent of American households to have access to quality, affordable high-speed internet, no matter where they live,” Clinton told supporters at a dinner in New Hampshire last November.
Trump — no policy yet, except for a tweet.
The Republican nominee’s position is unclear, but it’s a reasonable assumption that he will line up with his party’s opposition to net neutrality, which is seen as needless government regulation.
In fact, the only public acknowledgment of the issue from Donald Trump is a 2014 tweet weighing in on net neutrality when it dominated the headlines.
“Obama’s attack on the internet is another top down power grab. Net neutrality is the Fairness Doctrine. Will target the conservative media,” he tweeted. He was referring to the 1940s law requiring newscasters to report the news in a balanced manner, which was repealed in 1987. It’s unclear what it has to do with net neutrality; open internet rules don’t give the FCC the power to interfere with any political content, conservative or otherwise.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
His running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, co-sponsored the Internet Freedom Act in 2011, which sought to kill net neutrality by prohibiting the FCC “from further regulating the internet.”
The positions of Trump’s opponents for the Republican nomination shed a bit more light on the party’s opposition to open internet regulation.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz famously called net neutrality “Obamacare for the internet.” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said regulation of the internet was illogical.
“While the FCC plan supposedly seeks to prevent ISPs from playing favorites, it does so by giving that power to another entity: government,” Rubio wrote in an opinion piece for Politico in March. “The answer to correcting injustice in an economy is to increase consumer power, not government power.”
The details of internet policy aside, there are other reasons the sector might not support Trump.
“The tech community is full of immigrants who started their companies here, so many of them were founded by immigrants,” said Marvin Ammori, a First Amendment lawyer well-known for his work on net neutrality issues, who’s general counsel for Hyperloop One, a tech company backed by Elon Musk, that’s working on an ultra-fast transit system. “So if you’re anti-immigrant you’re not going to be popular in (Silicon) Valley … So it does put Republicans at a disadvantage even if they’re progressive on some tech issues.”
How much does it matter to the internet’s future who becomes president?
“The president does matter,” Ammori said, pointing out that the president’s party gets to pick three of the five FCC commissioners, as well as appoint the solicitor general, who would defend the regulations in front of the Supreme Court — or not.
“This (net neutrality) was a 3-2 vote. If you get another Republican in there they could undermine everything the Obama administration has done,” he said. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/clinton-backs-net-neutrality-trumps-stand-unclear/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/2ad38f172f303f99f47168214a13759d11c0f21fce43489a308fee8082cc7223.json |
[
"Megan Mcardle"
] | 2016-08-26T12:51:13 | null | 2016-08-25T20:39:38 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F25%2Frobbing-uber-subsidize-taxi-industry%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Robbing Uber to Subsidize the Taxi Industry | null | null | hamodia.com | Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 8:39 pm |
(Bloomberg View) - Ronald Reagan famously summed up the logic of government thusly: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
Uber and Lyft move, so naturally, the state of Massachusetts wants to tax them. And since taxis aren’t moving nearly as much as they used to, the state wants to hand about a quarter of the tax — five cents out of a 20-cent per-ride levy — to the taxi industry.
This is a shamelessly unjustifiable giveaway to a special interest, paid for by taxing a competitor that’s eating their lunch. If our 19th-century forbears had tried to run the economy this way, I would be writing out this column longhand, by the light of a whale-oil lamp.
Now, to be sure, a fee of 20 cents is probably not going to put Uber and Lyft out of business. On the other hand, such fees have a way of metastasizing over time. They start out as a tiny fee that no one could possibly object to, and then, when no one’s looking, they’re raised a little bit. And then a little bit more. And then you eventually find they’re hefty enough to make the new service expensive and inefficient — as expensive and inefficient as the old service that it replaced.
This, to me, is one of the underdiscussed risks to Uber and Lyft, or at least the more outlandish claims made by people who think that the sharing economy is going to revolutionize the way we live. At the moment they’re operating in a sort of regulatory dead zone. “Neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring,” they don’t quite fit neatly into any of the existing regulatory categories, which means that they can often elude the onerous regulatory requirements and taxes that make existing services so expensive.
The problem is that there’s a reason for all those regulations. I’m not saying those reasons are good, mind you; I think a lot of them are quite irrational. But there are political reasons if not economic reasons, and I see little evidence that this political logic has changed simply because we all now have smartphones.
After all, many heavily regulated services were once young, and enjoyed all the boundless freedom and possibility that characterizes youth everywhere. Over decades, however, regulators brought them to heel — not all at once, but with a slow and steady accretion of taxes and rules that limited how much they could charge, who they could serve, how they could pay the people who worked for them, and so forth. Every one of these was imposed by elected politicians in response to some perceived problem. The solutions might not have been good ones, but the most important thing for a politician is not that proposals actually solve problems, but that they be perceived as doing so by the voting public.
Consumers, of course, complain about the end result: Heavily regulations make it hard for new entrants to get into a market, allowing protected incumbents to charge high prices, give you stuff you don’t want, and maybe not be so attentive to quality. And yet, we should not simply cast regulators as the bad guys, colluding with special interests to rip off the consumer. Often consumers, in their role as voters, demand the very conditions that allow companies to keep ripping them off.
I mean, sure, they hate the local cable monopoly, but they will bitterly complain if the city council allows any Tom, Dick or Harry who wants to sell them cable service to spend two years ripping up all the streets in their neighborhood. They hate expensive, dirty cabs, but they get mad about excess traffic, and the first time someone is killed by a taxi driver, they will demand tougher licensing and background checks, whether or not there’s evidence that this would have prevented the death in question, and whether or not they would really prefer to pay more for every ride in order to be 0.00001 percent safer from extremely rare events. They loathe the cost of hotel rooms, but they don’t want their neighbors to be allowed to run a rooming house or a bed and breakfast next door, for fear that this will “ruin the character of the neighborhood.”
Over time, consumer/voters are the ultimate engine of the regulatory cycle that begins with a fledgling startup and ends with a behemoth utility that treats you like dirt if you manage to get someone to take your phone call. And of course, over time, companies learn to like it. At some point, they’re already so heavily regulated that the regulations themselves become a form of competitive advantage: The existing dominant players know how to negotiate that sea of red tape, and new incumbents don’t have good charts. Sometimes these upstarts encourage consumer calls for more regulation, and consumers oblige.
As I’ve suggested, this cycle does not necessarily end in the death of the new sharing services; on the contrary, I think Uber and Lyft probably are more likely to survive and prosper if they can get themselves into position as heavily regulated incumbents. But it does mean the death of the idea of the sharing economy as some revolutionary force that is going to provide us an endless supply of formerly luxury goods (hotel rooms, chauffeured rides) at bargain-basement prices. The sharing economy, at the moment, is being subsidized by two things: the lack of regulation, and a flood of venture capital. Neither of those is a permanent condition.
Thus, I suspect that the future of sharing is more likely to look like the past than the Future oft predicted by enthusiasts. History doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, of course. But it tends to return to the same few thoughts over and over and over again, just like the humans who act it out. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/25/robbing-uber-subsidize-taxi-industry/ | en | 2016-08-25T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/0fff3a93b3ca190848d4c16c7ac37797d979668846c0f1796ca798ef8200ccf5.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T08:49:52 | null | 2016-08-30T03:33:08 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fspain-starts-countdown-to-possible-third-national-election-in-year%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/06/SPAIN-ELECTION-RAJOY-300x196.jpg | en | null | Spain Starts Countdown to Possible Third National Election in Year | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 3:33 am |
Spain’s acting Prime Minister and People’s Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy. (Reuters/Marcelo del Pozo)
MADRID (Reuters) - The clock starts ticking on Wednesday toward what could be Spain’s third national election in a year, when acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy faces a confidence vote in parliament for a second term in office.
Spain has been without a functioning government since inconclusive elections in December and June failed to hand a convincing mandate to any political party. So far, party leaders have been unable to agree on forming a coalition.
The eight-month political deadlock has delayed investments in infrastructure such as roads and rail and put high-ranking government appointments on hold, leaving some Spanish embassies without an ambassador.
Rajoy’s center-right People’s Party (PP) won the most votes in June’s election but lacks the majority it needs to win the vote even with support from centrists Ciudadanos (Citizens), Spain’s fourth-biggest party.
The opposition Socialists have refused to back Rajoy or smooth the way to a PP-led minority government by abstaining in a second confidence vote, which will be held on Friday if Wednesday’s ballot fails. In the second vote a simple majority will suffice to put Rajoy back in power.
The Socialists are unlikely to back down from that position given local elections in September in the northern regions of Galicia and the Basque Country where support for Rajoy’s PP could cost votes for the left-wing party.
Spain’s economy, on the rebound from a recession which ended three years ago, has powered ahead despite the lack of a functioning government, with the latest data showing strong growth fueled by consumer spending and demand for exports.
The acting government expects the economy to expand 2.9 percent this year – one of the fastest rates in the euro zone. However, economists say growth could be even higher if political uncertainty was removed.
“The lack of government is having a negative impact,” said Miguel Cardoso, an economist at BBVA, whose estimate of 3.1 percent for economic growth this year would be about 3.5 percent if there was a government in place.
His forecast for growth next year would be about 0.7 percentage points higher if there was a central administration in office to firm up public spending plans and provide certainty over policy for potential investors, he said.
The political uncertainty is already sending a chill through sectors like construction.
Construction activity dropped 0.7 percent in the second quarter from the previous period, government data showed on Thursday, as decisions on public works projects stalled, down from growth rates of over 1 percent at the end of last year.
Seopan, an association that represents builders like ACS and OHL, said spending on public contracts slumped by more than half to record lows in the first quarter, battered by the lack of a central administration to sign off on projects and six years of spending cuts.
Beyond industry, the political vacuum means all appointments of high-ranking public servants have been put on hold.
This has left Spanish embassies in Jamaica, India and Belgium without an ambassador as former diplomats died or left their posts, a Foreign Ministry source said, while ambassadors to Italy and Russia are staying on past their retirement age.
The political deadlock also delays drawing up next year’s expenditure plans and risks missing the European Union’s deadline of mid-October to submit a budget. This could damage investor confidence and raise the possibility of sanctions.
If Rajoy’s bid to become prime minister fails in the second vote, it will open a two-month window to try and form a government, after which a new election would automatically be called, possibly on Christmas Day.
Opposition parties, however, want to change Spain’s electoral law to shift the election to an earlier date.
By the time of Wednesday’s vote, Spain will have been 254 days without a government, the longest time in the country’s democracy, although falling short of Belgium’s 589-day world record for a democracy to form a coalition government.
Spaniards are growing increasingly impatient with politicians who have struggled in recent days even to agree on who sits where in parliament, leading to increased disengagement with politics.
“I’ve never abstained before, but if there’s another vote maybe I will,” said Isabel Moreno, a 34-year-old doctor speaking in a busy central Madrid square.
“I don’t care anymore what happens, I just want there to be some kind of an agreement.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/spain-starts-countdown-to-possible-third-national-election-in-year/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/e1a4da477651793e386d578d50925e5fbe54a8a8a2ffb46b2cf20349cd60ec5b.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:56:15 | null | 2016-08-26T03:51:03 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fpoll-voters-dont-trust-clinton-but-she-holds-10-point-lead%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP108658171498-1-300x200.jpg | en | null | Poll: Voters Don’t Trust Clinton, But She Holds 10-Point Lead | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 3:51 am |
Hats showing support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton are displayed by a sidewalk vendor in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
WASHINGTON (CQ-Roll Call/TNS) - A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows the depth of how much of a lesser-of-two-evils election this year’s presidential race is.
Nearly two-thirds of those who said they were voting for Republican candidate Donald Trump say they’re motivated more by ensuring that Democrat Hillary Clinton doesn’t get into the White House than by making sure that Trump does. Only 25 percent said their vote was pro-Trump rather than anti-Clinton.
Among those who said they were voting for Clinton, 47 percent were pro-Clinton and 32 percent said they were voting against Trump.
The poll also was consistent with most others that show both candidates have the lowest favorability ratings in any presidential election. Despite those high unfavorables, though, Clinton holds a 10-point lead over Trump.
“Trump’s missteps, stumbles and gaffes seem to outweigh Clinton’s shaky trust status and perceived shady dealings,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “Wow, is there any light at the end of this dark and depressing chapter in American politics?”
While Clinton leads Trump overall, only 44 percent of likely American voters polled like the Democratic nominee “a lot” or “a little,” 47 percent dislike her “a little” or “a lot;” 8 percent said they hate her.
There’s less love for Trump: While 35 percent of voters said they like Trump a little or a lot, 53 percent say the dislike him and 10 percent said they hate him.
Those polled, however, saw Trump as more honest than Clinton. Or less dishonest: While 53 percent said Trump was dishonest, 66 percent said they felt Clinton was. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/poll-voters-dont-trust-clinton-but-she-holds-10-point-lead/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/f2d47f057be2fefa67c5e292e254024da963e8b5af80d65ef4895452fbd7bf91.json |
[] | 2016-08-30T22:50:05 | null | 2016-08-30T17:46:18 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fnlrb-ruling-yale-graduate-students-look-unionize%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | After NLRB Ruling, Yale Graduate Students Look to Unionize | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 5:46 pm |
(The Washington Post) - Teaching fellows at Yale University have filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to join UNITE HERE, days after a board decision granting graduate students the legal protection to unionize.
“We’re really looking forward to the NLRB process,” said Aaron Greenberg, a graduate student in political science who chairs the Graduate Employees and Students Organization at Yale University. “We look forward to winning our election and beginning to negotiate our contract and resolving some issues that are important to our members.”
Graduate teachers in 10 departments at Yale, including English, Political Science and Physics, are asking the labor board to certify Local 33-UNITE HERE as their union. Rather than file for elections as a large group, Yale organizers are adopting a department-by-department approach to build robust support for unionizing and speed up recognition by the university, Greenberg explained.
UNITE-HERE granted Yale graduate students a charter in March, but the teaching and research assistants had to wait on the labor board’s decision to win bargaining rights. The students say they are fighting for funding security, mental health care, affordable child care, equitable pay and parity for marginalized communities in academia.
Lindsay Zafir, a graduate student in history at Yale, wants the school to reconsider a recent change in the graduate pay structure that she says disadvantages people with the most experience in the classroom. Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences recently reduced the amount of money provided to student teachers who are paid per course, such as doctoral students at the tail end of their degree. Whereas Zafir earns $29,000 as a third-year graduate teacher, she said her colleague doing the exact same work will make $16,000 because she is in her seventh year.
“I’m going to be in her same shoes in a few years, and I want to make sure I can count on stable, equal pay,” Zafir said.
Greenberg said the graduate students have tried to get the administration to come to the table to no avail. School administrators have argued that there is no need for unionization because graduate students have other forms of representation, such as the Graduate Student Assembly. What’s more, they say students are offered comprehensive benefits and generous financial aid, noting a recent decision to fund a sixth year of study in the humanities and social sciences.
Yale, like many other private universities, has come out against the labor board decision, arguing that recognizing students as employees would undermine the foundation of their education.
“The mentorship and training that Yale professors provide to graduate students is essential to educating the next generation of leading scholars. I have long been concerned that this relationship would become less productive and rewarding under a formal collective bargaining regime,” Yale president Peter Salovey, wrote in a letter to students, faculty and staff last week.
Salovey said that while he objects to the board’s decision, “it presents an opportunity for our campus to engage in a robust discussion about the pros and cons of graduate student unionization. We should embrace the chance to debate this important issue . . . All members of the Yale community should feel free to express their views on these matters.”
Yale is among several universities, including Columbia and Princeton, that have in recent days posted information on their websites warning students that unionizing may alter their relationship with the faculty and limit their power as the union becomes their collective voice. The same prestigious universities submitted a joint brief to the labor board earlier this year expressing concern that teaching and research assistants might want to negotiate the length of a class, amount of grading or what’s included in curriculum. All of those possibilities, they argued, could lead to lengthy and expensive bargaining.
Across the country, there are more than 30 collective bargaining units representing more than 65,000 graduate students across the country, according to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College. The vast majority of those groups are at public universities, which are governed by state laws and not the labor board.
New York University is the only private university to recognize its graduate student union without being prompted by the labor board. Other private universities have struck deals with graduate students that clear a path for them to unionize ahead of the board decision.
After a hard-fought campaign, Cornell University graduate students reached an agreement with school administrators in June establishing election procedures, voter eligibility and a means for dispute resolution ahead of the labor board decision. The agreement assured that an election could be conducted without getting certification from the labor board.
So far, Yale graduate students are the only ones to file certification requests with the NLRB, though students at Columbia University say they plan to sit down with the board soon. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/nlrb-ruling-yale-graduate-students-look-unionize/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/7fd515b8ad9bb88182eb52dc3c576fa5b34b27a38b8da5886eec0df5441c4715.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T12:56:44 | null | 2016-08-26T06:05:26 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Ftisch-in-belz-marks-yahrtzeit-tenaim-of-rebbes-granddaughter%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/resized_DSC_6227-300x200.jpg | en | null | Tisch in Belz Marks Yahrtzeit, Tenaim of Rebbe's Granddaughter | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 6:05 am |
The Belzer Rebbe (C) speaks at the yahrtzeit tisch. (Moshe Goldstein)
The Belzer Rebbe, shlita, led a tisch Thursday afternoon, 21 Av, marking the yahrtzeit of the previous Belzer Rebbe, Harav Aharon, zy”a.
The Belzer Rebbe (C) lead the dancing at the tenaim of the daughter of his son Harav Aharon Mordechai (R). The chassan is to the Rebbe’s right. (Moshe Goldstein)
Later, after Maariv, the Rebbe presided over the tenaim for the engagement of his granddaughter. The kallah is the daughter of the Rebbe’s son, Harav Aharon Mordechai Rokeach, son-in-law of the Makava Rebbe, shlita. The chassan is the son of Harav Aharon Zweibel of Yerushalayim. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/tisch-in-belz-marks-yahrtzeit-tenaim-of-rebbes-granddaughter/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/00c69815daa0ed4d365c8a0af823f96823d57e53718644fe680b2c1564b0b507.json |
[
"Dov Benovadia"
] | 2016-08-28T00:48:39 | null | 2016-08-27T20:31:28 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Ftwo-stabbing-attacks-foiled-over-shabbos%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2015/12/Hevron1-300x200.jpg | en | null | Two Stabbing Attacks Foiled Over Shabbos | null | null | hamodia.com | Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 8:31 pm |
General view of Me’aras Hamachpelah and the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Chevron. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - IDF soldiers foiled two stabbing attacks over Shabbos. In both cases, Arab terrorists were arrested. There were no injuries to Israelis.
On Shabbos afternoon, an 18-year-old Arab approached an IDF checkpoint near Me’aras Hamachpelah in Chevron. The Arab raised the suspicions of soldiers, who asked to check his belongings. In the course of the search the soldiers found a large knife on his person.
An initial inquiry indicated that he had planned to carry out a stabbing attack against IDF soldiers in order to avenge the death of his cousin, who had been shot when he attempted to carry out a stabbing attack of his own earlier this year.
Earlier, a female Arab terrorist was arrested at the Kalandiya checkpoint, north of Yerushalayim. The 20-year-old terrorist was found to be carrying a knife as she passed through the checkpoint. She was arrested without incident. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/27/two-stabbing-attacks-foiled-over-shabbos/ | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/d04661e2cdb306ecaca78e5f5e12f7dc9e7e51f20e1251261529a9142c2647fd.json |
[
"Shimon B. Lifkin"
] | 2016-08-29T20:49:32 | null | 2016-08-29T15:14:50 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fcofix-to-open-strictly-kosher-branches%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/Cofix-to-Open-Strictly-Kosher-Branches-300x200.jpg | en | null | Cofix to Open Strictly Kosher Branches | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 3:14 pm |
A Cofix opening in Yerushalayim, where the 5-shekel coffee chain plans new Mehadrin outlets. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - The discount coffee chain Cofix announced plans on Monday for a whole new division under a mehadrin hechsher in Yerushalayim, Bnei Brak, and chareidi areas around the country.
The stores, going by the name Cofix Be’Ir (Cofix in the City) will serve coffee and sandwiches, following the same menu as its other branches, but with a Badatz hechsher.
Initially, six existing Cofix branches in Bnei Brak will be converted into Cofix Be’Ir outlets. The plan then calls for converting another 20 cafes in Yerushalayim and other cities, plus new branches in other chareidi markets.
Cofix owner Avi Katz promised “the highest levels of kashrus.”
The rise of Cofix has been spectacular, from a standing start to 148 branches in 3 years and 13 more on the way. Its formula of selling all products — including coffee, soft drinks, sandwiches and pastries — for a fixed price of 5 shekels caught on immediately. The company also has a low-price supermarket chain called Super Cofi.
In June, Cofix became the first coffee chain to be listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, as Agri Invest Ltd. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/cofix-to-open-strictly-kosher-branches/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/1c3e57b3c669cf64f071bc47cb71a3120fded9b6024da7a02fc0e55cddb8909f.json |
[
"Dror Halavy"
] | 2016-08-30T10:49:51 | null | 2016-08-30T04:51:18 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Froad-tests-canceled-for-september%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/03/f100706ns24-1-300x199.jpg | en | null | Road Tests Canceled for September | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 4:51 am |
Heavy traffic on the highway entering Tel Aviv. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
YERUSHALAYIM - The road test system in Israel has still not fully recovered from the recent lengthy inspectors’ strike, with students currently waiting four to five months for an appointment at the end of their driving instruction and road experience period. Now test candidates will have to wait an additional month because of an error made in the Transport Ministry offices. Because of a computer error, all tests that had been scheduled for September have been canceled.
Apparently there is no way at this point to restore the schedule of tests that had been allocated for the month. Added to that are the many days off in October due to the Yamim Nora’im and Sukkos, and the average student is likely to wait for six months or more for a test.
Last March, road test examiners went on strike for ten weeks, demanding that the government halt its plan to outsource the tests to private driving school teachers. According to government figures, at least 16 private entities have been or will bid on the contract to manage the drivers’ tests in the tender which was to have closed June 15th. Two of those will be chosen to operate the testing service. The court decision will now postpone the opening of the tender. The tender process was suspended by the Tel Aviv Labor Court pending discussions between examiners and the Transport Ministry on the privatization process.
Those talks are still ongoing. The Transport Ministry is due to present to the court within two weeks its reasons for privatizing the tests. A second lawsuit against the privatization is due to be discussed in court in December, which means that the privatization process is effectively frozen until at least the beginning of the next calendar year.
As a result of the strike, a huge backlog in road test appointments was created, and the Ministry said it would hire 40 more examiners on a temporary basis to help clear the calendar. However, union officials said that only 27 have been hired, and they are not all working full time, they said. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/road-tests-canceled-for-september/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/27e6dff19493a440009b1061e94de4ba67773daff7ab155e4f05ef9ed2fdac94.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T02:48:36 | null | 2016-08-27T22:41:23 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fsos-sand-leads-rescue-two-people-stranded-island%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP16240189841740-300x240.jpg | en | null | 'SOS' in Sand Leads to Rescue of Two People Stranded on Island | null | null | hamodia.com | Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 10:41 pm |
In this Aug. 25, 2016, photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a pair of stranded mariners signal for help as a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft crew from Patrol Squadron (VP) 8 flies over in support of a Coast Guard search and rescue mission on an uninhabited island in Micronesia, Hawaii. (U.S. Navy via AP)
CHUUK STATE, Micronesia (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard says two stranded mariners were rescued Friday after crews saw their “SOS” in the sand on an uninhabited island in Micronesia, Hawaii News Now reports.
A U.S. Navy aircraft crew spotted the pair on the beach and gave their location to the Coast Guard in Guam. Hawaii News Now says the two, who had no emergency equipment, were picked up and taken to a patrol boat.
The Coast Guard received a report about the couple’s 18-foot vessel going missing on Aug. 19. Hawaii News Now says the two departed Weno Island on Aug. 17, and they were expected to arrive at their destination at Tamatam Island the next day.
Hawaii News Now says that on Wednesday, a ship noticed flashing lights from the uninhabited Chuuk State island where the two were later found. The U.S. Navy was alerted and spotted the survivors on the beach. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/27/sos-sand-leads-rescue-two-people-stranded-island/ | en | 2016-08-27T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/5cc2330efc38da40af9b128dcf8162a791eb6670007aa6178663f1f0f4ad06a3.json |
[
"Yisrael Price"
] | 2016-08-29T22:49:46 | null | 2016-08-29T16:53:19 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fbrussels-air-puts-halva-back%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Brussels Air Puts Halva Back | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 4:53 pm |
YERUSHALAYIM - The flap between Brussels Airlines and the Israeli Foreign Ministry over a halva snack came to an end on Monday as the airline announced that it would put the item back on its menu.
The halva had been removed following a complaint that it was manufactured in the Shomron, prompting allegations that the carrier had bowed to the boycott of Israel. However, Brussels Airlines denied the charge, insisting that the halva had never been ordered from the supplier in the first place, and was removed when the error was discovered.
On Monday, Brussels Airlines wrote to Simona Frankel, Israel’s ambassador in Belgium:
“It is clear that Achva [the Israeli producer] remains one of the suppliers with which we willingly work — without any distinction where they come from. Therefore we will continue to receive the company’s products and put them in our flight schedule, especially in light of the fact that [Achva] does important work in the community.”
The airline decision came after reportedly enormous pressure from the Israeli foreign office through its embassies in Brussels and Berlin. (Brussels Airlines belongs to the Lufthansa group.) | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/brussels-air-puts-halva-back/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/a0f8e8713c6b1002b6959f723f39cd515c93b74b771620eafc34721f22790fdb.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T14:50:21 | null | 2016-08-31T07:05:18 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fu-s-cuba-flight-take-off%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/P_3_CUBA-USA-FLIGHTS-300x163.jpg | en | null | First U.S.-Cuba Scheduled Passenger Flight in Decades Takes Off | null | null | hamodia.com | Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 7:05 am |
Water cannons are deployed as Jet Blue Flight 387 departs from Fort Lauderdale International Airport, for Santa Clara, Cuba, inaugurating the first regularly scheduled commercial flight between the U.S. and Cuba in more than half a century, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Wednesday. (Reuters/Joe Skipper)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Reuters) - The first regularly scheduled commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than half a century departed on Wednesday, opening another chapter in the Obama administration’s efforts to open trade and travel with the former Cold War foe.
The first of several U.S. carriers to begin serving Cuba in the coming months, JetBlue Airways Corp took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, en route to Santa Clara, a central city known for its monument to revolutionary leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Water runs down the window of a JetBlue Airways A320 aircraft during a water cannon salute to mark the departure of the first regularly scheduled commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than half a century, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Wednesday. (Reuters/Jeffrey Dastin)
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, JetBlue Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes, other officials and journalists were aboard the 150-seat Airbus A320. Regular travelers, including some of Cuban descent, occupied nearly half the seats on a route that may be a commercial challenge, at least initially.
Lázaro Chavez, a 49-year-old pharmacist who lives in Miami and returns frequently to his homeland, said before boarding the plane he was taking the flight for two reasons. “One, I am going to see my family. Two, I want to be on this historic flight.”
Cuba and the United States began normalizing relations in December 2014 after 18 months of secret talks and have since restored full diplomatic ties. The countries had been hostile for more than five decades, since Fidel Castro ousted U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a 1959 revolution that steered the island on a communist course and made it a close ally of the Soviet Union.
Despite the opening, which has included a landmark visit to the Caribbean island by Obama in March, the president has been unable to persuade Congress to lift a longstanding trade embargo on Cuba.
U.S. citizens are still prohibited from visiting as tourists, although there have long been exceptions to the ban, ranging from visiting family to business, cultural, religious and educational travel. The Obama administration has further eased the restrictions.
Despite the travel limitations, U.S. airlines have rushed to start flights – adding a lot of capacity and setting themselves up to lose money on the trips in the short run, said industry consultant Robert Mann.
“Most carriers look at international markets that have been restricted and are just opening up as an investment,” Mann said. “You need to get your foot in the door.”
Services on regional carrier Silver Airways and American Airlines Group Inc from the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area that is home to a large Cuban-American population, to Cuba’s outlying provinces will be the next to start, in September. Three other carriers will follow.
Mann said the companies probably offered to fly to Cuban cities that are unfamiliar to many American travelers, so that U.S. officials would look favorably on their applications to fly to Havana.
A memorandum of understanding between Cuba and the United States will limit Havana flights to 20 round trips per day. U.S. officials have yet to announce a final decision on which companies will get those coveted routes.
“The Havana competition was one of the most over-subscribed competitions that I’ve been a part of,” Foxx said in an interview before the plane took off. “I think that speaks to the interest on the part of the American people, and it also speaks to the level of commercial interest in the U.S. that exists.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/31/u-s-cuba-flight-take-off/ | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/b286ca415008f0774f588176ab504180b9743954fa5de845c63241008524c781.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T20:47:53 | null | 2016-08-26T15:14:29 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fagudath-israel-hails-federal-court-ruling-denial-variances-yeshiva-violates-rluipa%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Agudath Israel Hails Federal Court Ruling That Denial of Variances for Yeshiva Violates RLUIPA | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 3:14 pm |
(Agudath Israel of America) - Agudath Israel hailed the decision issued Friday by the federal court in favor of Yeshiva Naos Yaakov.
United States District Judge Freda Wolfson ruled that the denial of the variances by Ocean Township, N.J., violates RLUIPA. Agudath Israel of America helped to draft RLUIPA (The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act), which became law in 2000. RLUIPA prohibits local zoning boards from imposing or implementing zoning and other land-use regulations in a manner that significantly affects the free religious exercise of a person, assembly, or institution. This decision will allow the yeshiva to build a dormitory-based facility.
Rabbi Avi Schnall, Agudath Israel’s New Jersey director, said, “This decision makes a statement that the religious liberties of institutions and individuals will be defended even in the face of opposition. It also sends a clear message that our religious rights will not be trampled upon and we hope this will serve as an example to other municipalities.
“Agudath Israel is proud to have worked together with the Yeshiva and its attorney and is delighted with this positive outcome.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/agudath-israel-hails-federal-court-ruling-denial-variances-yeshiva-violates-rluipa/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/a653681d360fdbdbea810ab79f0680fefc1d9ee4a6b8d75c21771c4b5e92d348.json |
[
"Yochonon Donn"
] | 2016-08-31T00:50:03 | null | 2016-08-30T19:33:11 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fnyc-council-vote-condemning-israel-boycotters%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | NYC Council to Vote on Condemning Israel Boycotters | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7:33 pm |
NEW YORK - A New York City Council committee will consider a resolution next week whether to condemn boycotters of Israel.
The Contracts panel resolution scheduled for next Thursday would condemn “all efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel and the global movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction the people of Israel.”
The original language, introduced in May by Councilman Andrew Cohen, a Manhattan Democrat, had originally been to support bills in the state legislature to cut off state ties from companies that boycott Israel. The bills failed, though, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo ended up issuing an executive decree declaring that persons and entities engaged in boycotting Israel would be ineligible for state contracts.
Cohen’s bill accuses BDS as a movement which “does not recognize the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination,” and that “some of the BDS Movement’s supporters and leaders have trafficked in unacceptable anti-Semitic rhetoric, including comparison of Israeli policy to that of Nazi Germany.”
It also notes that the city “has the largest population of Jewish residents in the nation and is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/nyc-council-vote-condemning-israel-boycotters/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/db65a0e6df8149a9a4eabc6c50aa569577955e0a5c7edbd06f73a5452caf9a85.json |
[
"Dror Halavy"
] | 2016-08-28T06:48:36 | null | 2016-08-28T02:47:19 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fisrael-likely-to-check-blood-supply-for-zika%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/02/Zika-Heat_Werd-300x200.jpg | en | null | Israel Likely to Check Blood Supply for Zika | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 2:47 am |
An Aedes aegypti mosquito, the mosquito behind the Zika virus, is photographed through a microscope at the Fiocruz Institute in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)
YERUSHALAYIM - As the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. has begun recommending that all blood donations be screened for infection of the Zika virus, Israeli officials are considering doing so as well. According to health officials, Israel is “studying” the FDA decision and is likely to decide as soon as Sunday on instituting the rule.
Speaking to Yediot Acharonot, Professor Ayelet Shinar, director of blood services in Magen David Adom, said that her organization was considering checking its blood supply for Zika infection as well, given the rapid spread of the virus in the Western Hemisphere.
As many people travel back and forth between Israel and the infection points, including Brazil, Florida and other locations, examining the blood supply in Israel might be a good idea, she said.
Already instituted by Israeli authorities is a rule that individuals who have traveled within the last three months to areas where infections have been discovered must wait four weeks before donating blood. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/israel-likely-to-check-blood-supply-for-zika/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/dd1dd7b144b4a73eb73d18f7c6aa67c60dead94144541c4ffb0b762fd683b791.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T20:49:04 | null | 2016-08-28T16:23:43 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Frivals-hamas-fatah-gear-first-election-since-2006%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Rivals Hamas, Fatah Gear Up for First Election Since 2006 | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 4:23 pm |
SHECHEM (AP) - Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah are gearing up for their first contest at the polls since 2006 — a vote for mayors and local councils in 425 communities in Yehudah and Shomron and the Gaza Strip.
Each side hopes the election will give it a foothold in what has been the other’s exclusive territory since mutual purges in 2007. At the time, Hamas seized Gaza, driving out Fatah, while Fatah’s leader, Mahmoud Abbas, cracked down on Hamas in the autonomous areas of Yehudah and Shomron.
The Oct. 8 ballot might not allow either side to proclaim victory. Popular independents are part of the candidate mix, tribal loyalties often trump factional allegiances at the local level and Hamas activists can’t run openly in Yehudah and Shomron for fear of arrest by Israel.
But the election provides at least an indication of the popularity of Hamas and Fatah, after the foes shunned competitive elections over the past decade.
“Despite the fact that it (the election) is about services and municipal work, it’s purely political,” said senior Fatah figure Nabil Shaath.
Mutual suspicions were addressed as Hamas recognized Abbas’ general election commission as final arbiter, while Abbas agreed that Hamas institutions would supervise the vote in Gaza.
The split has been unpopular with Palestinians. Recent polls have indicated that two-thirds of Palestinians want Abbas to resign, and nearly one half of Gaza residents want to emigrate.
In this climate, the local elections are seen as a relatively low-risk move by both camps to restore some legitimacy. It was unclear whether the October ballot will lead to general elections. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/rivals-hamas-fatah-gear-first-election-since-2006/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/4f46f25c63dfe331fb6f72562f77ceb20cb28aaea0c103cf03edfb8607640873.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T00:49:59 | null | 2016-08-30T19:17:47 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fnyc-blood-bank-will-screen-blood-zika-virus%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | NYC Blood Bank Will Screen All Blood for Zika Virus | null | null | hamodia.com | Tuesday, August 30, 2016 at 7:17 pm |
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Blood Center will begin screening its blood supply for the Zika virus, the group announced Tuesday.
It comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued guidelines Friday recommending Zika testing for all donated blood.
The New York Blood Center supplies approximately 2,000 units of blood to about 200 hospitals in the northeastern United States every day.
Dr. Christopher Hillyer, president of the blood center, said the nonprofit is dedicated to delivering safe blood to all the communities it serves.
Zika usually causes a mild illness but can lead to severe birth defects if women are infected while expecting. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/30/nyc-blood-bank-will-screen-blood-zika-virus/ | en | 2016-08-30T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/afcc9b6dc008fcb239f52e53131c7b3e4aea774efada865e353d0efb846f0ee3.json |
[] | 2016-08-28T14:48:49 | null | 2016-08-28T10:28:48 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Ffeds-turn-nasa-small-drone-traffic-plan%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP16239622027830-300x200.jpg | en | null | Feds Turn to NASA for Small-Drone Traffic Plan | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 10:28 am |
A hexacopter drone is flown during a drone demonstration at a farm and winery on potential use for board members of the National Corn Growers in Cordova, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) - As the unmanned aircraft industry continues to evolve, the United States is depending on its space agency to help manage small drone traffic close to the Earth.
NASA is currently entering the second phase of a four-step plan to draw up rules of the skies for drones that weigh 55 pounds or less and fly no higher than 500 feet. The project is meant to develop performance standards for drones that would be used for commercial purposes by companies such as Amazon and Google.
The agency is hoping to present its research to the Federal Aviation Administration before 2020, John Cavolowsky, director of NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program, told attendees at a drone summit in North Dakota last week.
By that time, he said, it is estimated there will be seven million small drones in operation, including 2.6 million aircraft for commercial use.
“Those are big numbers,” Covolowsky said. “Frankly I think they are underestimating the size of the opportunity that we are going to be facing.”
The air traffic management plan, known as UTM, is a virtual system designed to help drone operators deal with weather conditions, restricted air space, airport congestion and other obstacles. The study is looking to develop a standard way of sending and receiving flight data among drone operators and regulators.
“The biggest challenge is safety, but along with that is bringing the rest of the world with us,” said Terri Zimmerman, CEO of North Dakota-based Botlink, a cloud-based drone operations platform. “We are going to have to overcome some perceptions and assure the rest of the world there are protocols and procedures in place.”
Private companies are pushing the UTM plan more than even NASA expected, according to Nicholas Flom, director of safety for the Northern Plains UAS Test Site in Grand Forks.
The first phase of the UTM project included a simultaneous effort in April among drone operators in North Dakota, Alaska, Nevada, New York, Virginia, Maryland and Texas. A total of 24 drones flew several times throughout the three-hour test, and the live flights were interspersed with more than 100 simulated flights.
“It was highly successful,” Covolowsky said. “I think it provided us with a very substantial view for the future and opportunities going forward.”
The second phase of the project will include testing flights beyond visual line-of-sight of the operator.
Stuart Rudolph is president and CEO of SmartC2, which makes software to help drone operators schedule and manage their fleet. He said it makes sense that an agency that can land a small instrument on Mars should be the group managing the integration of manned and unmanned aircraft.
“This going to be quite different from the traffic management system we look at today, when we get on a commercial plane. It is totally controlled,” Rudolph said, noting that NASA understands “the space from top to bottom and all the different pieces.” | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/feds-turn-nasa-small-drone-traffic-plan/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/d70122190a172a80b47646868adbb3c303c3849f11e0e3db11de3a2b841e12df.json |
[
"Hamodia Staff"
] | 2016-08-28T18:48:52 | null | 2016-08-28T13:51:37 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fisraeli-aid-group-italy-quake-site%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Israeli Aid Group at Italy Quake Site | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 1:51 pm |
YERUSHALAYIM - Israeli volunteers have arrived in the earthquake-devastasted area of Italy, distributing temporary shelters, food and other vital supplies to the victims,
The Times of Israel reported on Sunday.
The non-governmental group, IsraeAID, said that its 20-person team of volunteers began arriving in the country within 24 hours of the disaster.
Israeli officials also offered to send search and rescue teams from the IDF, but Italy has so far declined.
At least 80 people are using the community shelter, IsraAID said.
Team member Mickey Noam Alon described how they helped Gabriele Gabiza, an 82-year-old man from the town of Scai whose house was destroyed.
“Like hundreds of others, Gabiza was left stranded in the middle of the night, without shelter or a safe roof over his head. After hours of wandering through what remained of the streets, Gabiza headed to one of the community shelters that was erected within 24 hours of the quake. When I met him, he was clearly exhausted, shocked and confused…. Immediately an IsraAID team member helped him to find a place to sit, offered him a warm blanket and some water,” Alon said. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/israeli-aid-group-italy-quake-site/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/4da3f0b0066113579edd6545b057f52bdcacb24613ae034aa0bf1cd2e5cf8fd5.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:48:19 | null | 2016-08-26T13:21:39 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fshouts-charges-stupidity-brazilian-presidents-trial%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/AP16238558935170-200x300.jpg | en | null | Shouts, Charges of 'Stupidity,' at Brazilian President's Trial | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 1:21 pm |
Brazilian Senate leader Renan Calheiros arrives in chambers for the start of the impeachment trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia, Brazil, on Thursday. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - A trial against Brazil’s president turned into a yelling match and was temporarily suspended on Friday after the head of Senate declared “stupidity is endless” and sharply criticized a colleague who had questioned the body’s moral authority.
The second day of the trial against President Dilma Rousseff got off to an edgy start when Senate President Renan Calheiros decided to bring up a comment made on Thursday by Sen. Gleisi Hoffmann, a member of Rousseff’s Workers’ Party.
Hoffmann, who like many in the Senate and lower Chamber of Deputies is being investigated for corruption, had declared that “no one here” had the moral standing to judge Rousseff.
“It can’t be that a senator is saying things like this,” said Calheiros, who later added: “I am very sad because this session is, above all, a statement that stupidity is endless.”
In a bizarre and heated exchange with Hoffmann and other senators, Calheiros said he had asked the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country’s highest court, not to raid Hoffmann’s home, apparently trying to make the point that federal lawmakers should not be persecuted arbitrarily.
Only the high court can decide to investigate, arrest or prosecute federal lawmakers. Police are investigating whether Hoffmann and her husband received kickbacks from state oil company Petrobras in the form of campaign contributions. They deny wrongdoing.
Calheiros’s comments provoked gasps of surprise in the Senate, and are likely to raise questions about his relationship with justices on the high court, who are supposed to be independent.
With several senators shouting at once, Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski called for a five minute recess, then changed his mind and said the body would instead return after lunch.
Brazil’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski arrives for the impeachment trial of suspended President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia, Brazil, on Thursday. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Witnesses for Rousseff’s defense were expected to testify Friday after the prosecution dominated Thursday’s session.
Rousseff, in the middle of her second term, is accused of breaking fiscal rules in her management of the federal budget. She denies wrongdoing and argues that her enemies are carrying out a “coup d’état.”
Several days of debate, including an address by Rousseff on Monday, will culminate in a vote on whether to permanently remove her from office.
The Senate voted in May to impeach and suspend her for up to 180 days while the trial could be prepared.
Vice President Michel Temer took over in May. If Rousseff is removed, Temer will serve the rest of her term through 2018. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/shouts-charges-stupidity-brazilian-presidents-trial/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/d72f09ce2ddb8e81f1fa56c1b5373a6e912394c82157a1a46224760ac618f0c7.json |
[] | 2016-08-31T10:50:15 | null | 2016-08-31T05:14:10 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fhachnasas-sefer-torah-to-beis-medrash-of-harav-don-segal-in-yerushalayim%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/resized_DSC_7968-300x200.jpg | en | null | Hachnasas Sefer Torah to Beis Medrash of Harav Don Segal in Yerushalayim | null | null | hamodia.com | Wednesday, August 31, 2016 at 5:14 am |
Harav Don Segal dancing with the new sefer Torah. (JDN)
The procession of the new sefer Torah down the streets of Yerushalayim. (JDN)
Harav Don Segal writes the final letters of the new sefer Torah. (JDN)
The noted Mashgiach, Harav Don Segal, shlita, who moved to New York three years ago, returned last week to Eretz Yisrael for a brief visit.
The Mashgiach came to take part in a hachnasas sefer Torah to his shul, Ohel Moshe, in the Ezras Torah neighborhood in Yerushalayim, which was held on Tuesday night. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/31/hachnasas-sefer-torah-to-beis-medrash-of-harav-don-segal-in-yerushalayim/ | en | 2016-08-31T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/43e05659adf5c7e13f6ae07e99d7f591310d43a15ac1c441b362f54fa259cae2.json |
[] | 2016-08-29T02:49:03 | null | 2016-08-28T21:18:10 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fregional-briefs-august-28-2016%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | Regional Briefs - August 28, 2016 | null | null | hamodia.com | Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 9:18 pm |
A Flight With No Mazel: 3 Planes Needed for Short Trip
ROCHESTER – A United flight to Toronto made an emergency landing in Rochester Friday, hours after it was diverted to Newark because of a smoky odor, The Associated Press reported. The 41 passengers were put on a third plane and they landed safely in Toronto.
NYC-Area Airports on Pace To Set Passenger Records
NEWARK – Traffic at NYC’s three major airports set records in the first six months of 2016, The Associated Press reported. There were 62.4 million travelers in Newark, LaGuardia and JFK, an increase of 6 percent from 2015. JFK served 28 million fliers, with Newark at 19 million and LaGuardia at 14 million.
Albany Passed Fewer Bills in 2016 Than Year Before
ALBANY – New York lawmakers passed fewer bills in 2016 than the year before, continuing a recent trend, The Associated Press reported. This year, 618 bills passed the full Legislature, compared to 718 in 2015. One explanation is that lawmakers now often insert measures directly into the budget.
U.S. Flags to be Reinstalled On Firetrucks After Outcry
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – U.S. flags will be reinstalled on Arlington’s three firetrucks after an outcry that followed commissioners’ orders to take them down over safety concerns, The Associated Press reported. The new flags will be smaller.
Woman Declared Dead as A Child in 1930 Dies at 94
DELANCO, N.J. – A woman who was hit by a car and declared dead 85 years ago died Saturday at age 94, Philly.com reported. Margaret Gatti was brought into the hospital in 1930 and pronounced dead. She was taken to a morgue, where someone noticed the sheet moving. She lived on for another 85 years, having three children.
Christie’s Wife Retires From Wall St. After 3 Decades
TOMS RIVER, N.J. – Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that his wife is now retired after three decades at Wall Street, The Associated Press reported. Mary Pat Christie had stepped down when her husband announced his presidential bid last year and never returned. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/28/regional-briefs-august-28-2016/ | en | 2016-08-28T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/9bc4dbfe86383463e3bf7ad96cb8b77b6efe366adba9e5d912f9f353bc2acd4d.json |
[] | 2016-08-26T18:50:08 | null | 2016-08-26T13:26:24 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fus-economy-grew-tepid-1-1-percent-pace-spring%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/wp-content/themes/hamodia/favicon.png | en | null | US Economy Grew at Tepid 1.1 Percent Pace in Spring | null | null | hamodia.com | Friday, August 26, 2016 at 1:26 pm |
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. economy expanded at a sluggish 1.1 percent pace this spring, as businesses sharply reduced their stockpiles of goods and spent less on new buildings and equipment. Yet most analysts forecast much faster growth in the summer and fall, fueled by healthy consumer spending.
Friday’s estimate is slightly below the Commerce Department’s previous figure of 1.2 percent growth as measured by gross domestic product, the broadest gauge of the economy.
Consumers offset the corporate cutbacks in the April-June quarter by spending at the fastest pace in six quarters, Commerce said Friday. That suggests steady job growth and modest pay gains are making Americans more confident and willing to spend.
“The very slight downward revision … isn’t too concerning, especially given that the more recent data point to a strong rebound in the third quarter,” Steve Murphy, an economist at forecasting firm Capital Economics, said in a research note.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta currently forecasts that growth will jump to a 3.4 percent annual pace in the July-September quarter.
Still, the economy expanded at a lackluster 1 percent annual pace in the first half of 2016, following growth of 2.6 percent last year. The sluggish first half is a stark reminder of the economy’s inability to achieve strong, sustainable growth since the recession ended seven years ago. It has been the slowest recovery since World War II, and followed the worst downturn since the 1930s. Growth hasn’t topped 3 percent for a full year since 2005.
The economy stumbled in the first three months of the year as consumers spent cautiously. Slow overseas growth and a stronger dollar held back exports. Stock markets gyrated amid signs that China’s economy, the second-largest in the world, was slowing.
Those headwinds likely caused U.S. businesses to cut back on their stockpiles and slow their spending on new equipment in the second quarter. The decline in stockpiling was the fastest since the autumn of 2011.
When companies clear out their inventories, they order fewer new goods, weighing on growth.
State and local governments scaled back their spending on new buildings more than previously estimated in the April-June quarter. Friday’s figures are the second of three estimates the government issues for each quarter’s growth.
Consumers ramped up their spending by 4.4 percent, slightly faster than last month’s report. That robust demand should encourage businesses to restock their warehouses and store shelves with more goods.
New home construction should also quicken growth. Home building and renovations weighed on the economy in the second quarter, but sales and construction of new homes has been healthy in recent months. New-home sales jumped to their strongest pace in nine years in July.
Despite the weak expansion so far this year, businesses stepped up their hiring in June and July. The unemployment rate is at a low 4.9 percent. There are also signs incomes are rising, particularly for lower-paid workers. Those trends should help growth accelerate in the coming months.
Yet the strong hiring amid weak growth highlights a broader shortcoming of the economy: It has become less efficient and productive since the recession. American businesses may be hiring in part because it takes more workers to raise output even a modest amount. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/26/us-economy-grew-tepid-1-1-percent-pace-spring/ | en | 2016-08-26T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/3316af350758acc5350bb6ec160b044a33df5e2e1002f48939f0c1107da4df7d.json |
[
"Jeremy Gorner",
"Peter Nickeas"
] | 2016-08-30T00:49:41 | null | 2016-08-29T19:45:20 | null | http%3A%2F%2Fhamodia.com%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Faugust-violent-month-chicago-20-years%2F.json | http://hamodia.com/hamod-uploads/2016/08/US_NEWS_CHICAGO-VIOLENCE_1_TB-300x200.jpg | en | null | August Most Violent Month in Chicago in 20 Years | null | null | hamodia.com | Monday, August 29, 2016 at 7:45 pm |
Members of the Chicago Police department investigate a shooting scene in the 5600 block of South Campbell Ave. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
CHICAGO (Chicago Tribune/TNS) - August is going down as the most violent month in Chicago in 20 years, as weekend shootings raised the number of homicides this year to just a few shy of all of last year’s.
A total of 67 people were shot over the weekend and 11 of them died. It was one of the deadliest weekends this year and pushed the number of homicides for the month to 84 with three more days to go, according to data collected by the Tribune.
The city hasn’t seen a month with 80 or more homicides since October of 1996, which logged 85. August of that year also saw 85 homicides and June of that year saw 90.
Chicago has a lower homicide rate than many other U.S. cities that are smaller in population. But this year, the city has recorded more homicides and shooting victims than New York City and Los Angeles combined.
Chicago has recorded 487 homicides and more than 2,800 people shot so far this year, compared to 491 homicides all of last year and 2,988 people shot, according to Tribune and CPD data.
New York, with more than three times the population of Chicago, has recorded 222 homicides and 760 shooting victims, according to NYPD crime statistics through Aug. 21. In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million, 176 people have been slain and 729 people shot, according to LAPD crime data through Aug. 20.
The gun violence in Chicago has been concentrated on the South and West sides that have lost population over the years as other areas have grown.
The Harrison District on the West Side, for example, has had almost 400 people shot this year after logging 350 all of last year. Englewood saw 330 people shot all of last year and has tallied close to 300 this year.
The deadliest night of this past weekend was Friday into early Saturday, when four people were killed, including Nykea Aldridge, 32, the cousin of basketball player Dwyane Wade. She was pushing her baby in a stroller in the 6300 block of South Calumet Avenue when two men approached and began shooting at a man walking near her.
Chicago police officials have cited the constant flow of illegal firearms through dangerous neighborhoods and an intractable gang problem – with some disputes beginning on social media platforms– as strong contributors to the city’s violence.
In recent months, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has been pushing lawmakers in Springfield to pass legislation requiring harsher sentences for criminals arrested repeatedly for carrying illegal guns.
Earlier this month, Johnson met with several police chiefs from across the country to discuss the nation’s gun violence problem, noting that Chicago is among about 40 U.S. cities that have experienced spikes in violence.
Cities like Milwaukee and Washington, D.C – both much smaller than Chicago in population – have seen homicide spikes that they haven’t experienced in more than two decades. Milwaukee police Chief Edward Flynn told reporters earlier this month how the city enjoyed six straight years of record low homicide totals, only to see 2015 end with its highest total in 25 years.
In Washington, D.C., homicides rose in 2015 for the first time in a decade, according to that city’s police chief, Cathy Lanier.
The surge in violence comes at a tumultuous time for the Chicago Police Department. It is still dealing with the aftermath of the court-ordered release of video showing Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times, killing the teen as he walked away from police with a knife in his hand.
The public furor from the video’s release last November led Mayor Rahm Emanuel to fire Garry McCarthy as the superintendent. Murder charges were filed against Van Dyke, and the head of the police oversight agency resigned, as the U.S. Department of Justice began a wide-ranging civil rights investigation into the department.
Earlier this year, the Tribune reported a precipitous drop in morale among Chicago police officers, based on interviews with officers. | http://hamodia.com/2016/08/29/august-violent-month-chicago-20-years/ | en | 2016-08-29T00:00:00 | hamodia.com/48bfbbe9ab2577f8cfd7b26541f862c8d06f0c5168913a2e94ca5b124669c787.json |
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