ראש ישיבת סלבודקה בשריפת חמץצילום: שוקי לרר
 
ראש ישיבת סלבודקה בשריפת חמץצילום: שוקי לרר
 

The Sri Lankan government blocked access to social media platforms on Sunday in the wake of explosions that killed more than 200 people on the holiest day of the Christian calendar. The blasts, which targeted churches during Easter Sunday services and luxury hotels, also prompted the government to impose an immediate nationwide curfew.

http://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/6qT_Uukjf-_aWgUF.mp4
 

An arson fire was set at the largest yeshiva in Russia just hours before the onset of Pesach. Swastikas were also sprayed on the Toras Chaim.
Olga Esaulova, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s chief rabbi, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the fire was set in a storage area for kosher meat and that swastikas were drawn at the yeshiva’s entrance.
There were about 60 students, rabbis and guests in the building at the time, the state news agency RIA-Novosti reported. No one was injured.

Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky swept to victory in Ukraine’s presidential election Sunday, an exit poll showed, as millions of voters weary of war and economic hardship rebuked the ruling elites and ushered in fresh uncertainty for their geopolitically pivotal nation.
Zelensky, a 41-year-old TV star with no political experience, won 73% of the vote in the runoff election, according to national exit poll results broadcast by Ukrainian television. President Petro Poroshenko, who was running for his second five-year term, accepted defeat in a speech soon after the polls closed.
Zelensky walked onstage at his election-night celebration to the theme song from “Servant of the People” – the popular sitcom in which he plays the president of Ukraine..

Suicide bombers struck churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday, killing more than 200 people in a highly coordinated attack that targeted Christians and foreigners in this island nation.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, the worst violence here since the end of the civil war a decade ago. Thirteen people have been arrested, police said, and three police officers were killed in a raid on a house as they attempted to interrogate an individual.
The dead included “several” Americans, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. He blamed “radical terrorists.”
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe said the suspects were “local.” He told reporters that elements of the government had prior intelligence about the attacks.

Shmuley Boteach is at it again. Now he is telling me what I can and can’t say to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a friend of nearly half a century who values my advice. When Bibi won the election last week, I tweeted the following:
Mazal tov to @IsraeliPM @netanyahu, who I’ve known since he was a student at MIT. Waiting for the new peace plan to be implemented. Time for a fair two-state solution that assures Israel’s security.
That was too much for Boteach. How dare I express my views to my friend. I should be expressing Boteach’s views. After all, he is a know-it-all when it comes to Israel’s security. Here is what Boteach wrote:

President Reuven Rivlin will on Friday evening sit down at the Seder table with IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi and 400 lone soldiers from around 35 countries around the world at the Yachad Lemaan Hachayal organization’s Yom Tov resort in Givat Olga.
Also attending the Seder will be the head of Yachad Le’ma’an Hachayal, Yoram Yair, Chief Education Officer Brigadier General Zvika Faireisen and the Director-General of Yachad Lemaan Hachayal, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Ilan Tal.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

The US Department of Justice released on Thursday the highly anticipated report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that shows the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election despite Moscow’s attempt to influence it.
Two Israel-related matters were mentioned in the report, which have previously been reported in the press:
Led by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the Trump transition team attempted to persuade foreign governments, with then-incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn talking to Russia, to oppose the December 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334, condemning Israeli neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria. The resolution passed as the United States did not exercise its automatic veto power and instead abstained.