An attorney representing Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann said Wednesday that he filed a $275 million defamation lawsuit against NBC Universal on Sandmann’s behalf.
“NBCUniversal’s attacks on Nicholas included at least fifteen defamatory television broadcasts, six defamatory online articles, and many tweets falsely accusing Nicholas and his Covington Catholic High School (‘CovCath’) classmates of racists acts,” the complaint states.
According to the lawsuit, Sandmann is seeking $75 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

Sirens were sounded early Thursday morning in the Shaar Hanegev and Sdot Negev regional councils in southern Israel.
The IDF confirmed that two launches had been identified from Gaza toward Israel. The rockets appear to have exploded in open areas, without causing injuries or damages.
IDF Spokesman Ronen Manelis said that the Islamic Jihad was behind the rocket fire and that the attack was aimed at disrupting the agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

Rav Asher Margulies, a Yerushalmi mekubal, author of Kumi V’Roni
Rav Yehuda Kahana, the Kuntres Hasefeikos (1819)
Rav Levi Yitzchak (ben Moshe) Greenwald, the Tzelemer Rav (1980). He arrived in America in 1939, just before the onset of WW2, after his Beis Medrash was destroyed on Kristellnacht, and he re-established his Beis Medrash in Williamsburg. He also established one of the first Chasidishe yeshivos in America, Arugas Habosem, named after his father, the Chuster Rav, who was known as the Arugas Habosem.

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a May 15 hearing on the grounded Boeing 737 MAX and the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) aircraft certification program, three people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.
The committee said the hearing to be held by its aviation subcommittee will be on the “status of the Boeing 737 MAX.” The committee did not disclose the witnesses.
The hearing is expected to include Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell, National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt and Earl Lawrence, who was named executive director of the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service in 2018, sources told Reuters.

Attorney General Bill Barr agrees with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz that weaponizing the Department of Justice against a political opponent is an abuse of power no matter who does it.
WATCH:

U.S. Attorney General William Barr will be subpoenaed if does not appear for a hearing of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries said on Wednesday.
“We plan on subpoenaing him if he decides not to show up. He can run but he can’t hide,” Jeffries told reporters.
Barr might skip the hearing on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report because he objects to plans for an extra hour of questioning that would include committee lawyers, a Democratic congressional aide said on Sunday.
Read more at REUTERS.
{Matzav.com}

As Israel’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations got underway on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the danger still posed by antisemitism across the globe.
“The radical right, the radical left and radical Islam agree only on one thing — hatred of Jews,” Netanyahu said in his speech at an official state ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
The prime minister made an apparent reference to the recent controversy surrounding a cartoon published in the international edition of The New York Times that was widely condemned as antisemitic.
“The publication of caricatures of hate toward Israel undermines the legitimacy of the Jewish state,” he said.
Netanyahu also called for more international pressure on the regime in Tehran,

Amazon.com Inc dismissed the idea of running a fully automated warehouse in the near future, citing the superior cognitive ability of humans and limitations of current technology.
The technology for a robot to pick a single product from a bin without damaging other products or picking multiple products at the same time in a way that could benefit the e-commerce retailer is years away.
Scott Anderson, director of Amazon Robotics Fulfillment, said technology is at least 10 years away from fully automating the processing of a single order picked by a worker inside a warehouse. There is a misperception that Amazon will run fully automated warehouses soon, Anderson said during a tour of Amazon’s Baltimore warehouse for reporters on Tuesday.

Attorney General William Barr will not show up to a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, according to a committee aide.
The hearing, which was set to examine Barr’s handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, would have included an extra hour to allow committee lawyers to question the attorney general. The Justice Department has argued it would be inappropriate for staffers to participate in the questioning.
The move heightens the clash between the Trump administration and House Democrats, who threatened this week to subpoena Barr.
Read more at POLITICO.
{Matzav.com}