A New York State Supreme Court judge in Albany has invalidated the State Education Department (SED)’s recently enacted guidelines for evaluating the education provided at private schools. Agudath Israel of America, one of the plaintiff groups that challenged the SED guidelines in court, welcomed the ruling as “a major victory in the battle to preserve the educational autonomy of yeshivos and other nonpublic schools.”

The rate of people filing for divorce within two weeks of Pesach is three times as high as during the rest of the year, according to Ronit Sharon, manager of the Talia Center for Children and Parents and a lecturer at the Hebrew University.
She said that this statistic is true for the Bais Din rabbinical court and the secular divorce system, and is only equivalent around the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
“Beware that the holiday period invites many hours that couples are together, which can lead to conflicts arising,” Sharon said. “Don’t make impulsive decisions on ending a connection during the holidays. Persevere until afterwards and then look at the situation with a new perspective.”

A detailed report from special counsel Robert Mueller said investigators struggled with both the legal implications of investigating President Donald Trump for possible obstruction of justice, and the motives behind a range of his most alarming actions, from seeking the ouster of officials to ordering a memo that would clear his name.

Attorney General William Barr’s office made nearly 1,000 redactions to the publicly released version of special counsel Robert Mueller report, according to an analysis by Reuters.
Reuters found 953 total redactions, broken down by the four categories Barr had previously stated would be redacted.
The news service determined that the most common redaction concerned “harm to ongoing matter,” which occurred in 427 cases, according to the analysis.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un plans to meet President Vladimir Putin in Russia later this month, the Kremlin said Thursday, as Moscow looks to gain a greater role in the international outreach with Pyongyang.
For Kim, the planned summit is an opportunity to expand his options and potential leverage with both the United States and the North’s longtime ally, China.
Kim wants international sanctions eased as part of negotiations with the Trump administration over possibly rolling back North Korea’s nuclear program.

The Palestinian Authority on Thursday scoffed at US presidential adviser Jared Kushner’s announcement that the administration’s plan for peace in the Middle East – also known as the “Deal of the Century” – would be published after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends in June.
The PA noted that the timing of the announcement of the plan will coincide with Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan.
“We don’t want Kushner’s Eid al-Fitr gift because it does not offer the Palestinians an independent and sovereign state,” said a PA official in Ramallah.
Read more at JPOST.
{Matzav.com}

MK Moshe Gafni threatened on Thursday morning that his party would rather go back to the hustings and fight another election than back down on its demands for mass military service exemptions for yeshiva bochurim.
UTJ rejected a draft charedi enlistment law drawn up by a Defense Ministry committee convened by Yisrael Beytenu leader and former defense minister Avigdor Liberman during the last government, which led in part to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolving the Knesset and calling early elections.
Liberman for his part has stated following the election that he will not accept “even one comma to be changed” in the draft law, setting up a head-on collision between him and the charedi parties during the negotiations to form a new government.

President Trump took a victory lap after Attorney General William Barr’s press conference on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation, with a dramatic photo featuring the President along the words “Game Over.”
“No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats—Game Over,” the text on the image reads.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

The Justice Department posts online a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election online; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports.
WATCH:

President Donald Trump pushed for obtaining Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s private emails and his campaign was in touch with allies who were pursuing them, according to the redacted special counsel’s report released Thursday.
On July 27, 2016, Trump famously said at a campaign rally, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” referring to emails that Clinton said she had deleted from her private server. She had used a private account during her tenure as secretary of state.