Top city pols backed switching the Verrazzano Bridge to two-way tolling Sunday as a way to cut down on congestion on Staten Island and in southern Brooklyn.
The proposal — backed by top members of the city’s Albany and Washington delegations — would cut the current tolls in half, but charge drivers both ways.
Supporters say that will stop New Jersey commuters from avoiding tolls as they drive towards Manhattan and Brooklyn, reducing traffic on the island and generating badly needed cash for the MTA.

Amazon.com Inc. expects to improve the delivery times for customers who sign up for its Prime subscription program, cutting free deliveries to one day instead of two, an executive said Thursday afternoon.
Amazon offers one-day delivery on some products now, and even same-day delivery for some purchases. But Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky suggested that the company now expects that the standard free two-day shipping that is the biggest selling point for the Prime subscription plan will be improved to a one-day schedule globally.

French authorities say they have arrested three adults and a minor for planning an imminent attack on security forces. The four suspects were arrested as part of an investigation into a terrorist conspiracy that the Paris prosecutor’s office said was opened on 1 February.
“Four people are being held over a plan to carry out an extremely violent terror attack,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told reporters.
The prosecutor’s office did not provide details about where the arrests were made or about the nature of the planned attack but said the arrests concerned “individuals suspected of preparing imminent violent acts, susceptible to target security forces”.

Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard successfully managed a surveillance flight over a U.S. aircraft carrier, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Saturday.
The report included footage apparently from a Guard drone that flew over the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and another U.S. warship in the Persian Gulf. The images show fighter planes parked on the carrier deck.
The development comes after the U.S. government earlier this month designated the Guard as a terrorist group to increase pressure on Iran and further isolate the country. Iran responded by labeling all U.S. forces as terrorists.

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon demands that the New York Times hold accountable those responsible for publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon, despite an apology issued by the newspaper.
Danon tells journalists ahead of a Security Council meeting on the Middle East the cartoon published in the international edition last week “could have been taken from the pages of Der Sturmer, the Nazi propaganda paper, and yet these actions have gone unpunished.”
“Those who engage in anti-Semitism must be punished, whether it’s here at the UN, political leaders, editors, policy pundits or college professors,” Danon says. “I am not in a position of accepting or not accepting the apology, but if somebody make a mistake, I think somebody should be accountable.”

The New York City Health Department announced today that it would close two more yeshivas that had failed to comply with an order by the Health Commissioner of the city to exclude unvaccinated students within zip codes affected by a measles outbreak, The Daily Beast reports.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein submitted his resignation letter to President Trump on Monday, ending a tumultuous two years in which he tried to steady a rocky Justice Department and its relationship with the White House.
His resignation is effective May 11.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is planning to visit North Korea, Iran’s state television reported on Sunday, without giving the date of the visit.
“The date of this trip will be set and announced soon,” the television quoted Zarif as saying. It gave no further details.
North Korea‘s top diplomat, Ri Yong Ho, whose country faces international and US sanctions, visited Iran in August as the United States reintroduced sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
 
Reuters and Algemeiner Staff
{Matzav.com}

President Trump on Monday said that people are “fleeing” New York, slamming his home state’s leadership for its tax policies and legal battles with the National Rifle Association (NRA).
“People are fleeing New York State because of high taxes and yes, even oppression of sorts,” Trump tweeted shortly after claiming the NRA was “under siege” from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and state Attorney General Letitia James (D).
New York state has seen its population decline in recent years. U.S. Census Bureau data released in December found the Empire State lost 48,510 residents between July 1, 2017, and July 1, 2018, more than any other state in that time frame.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed on Monday that Europe created Zionism and Israel.
“You all know Europe is the one that invented — this slightly annoys our neighbors — Zionism and Israel,” Abbas said at a PA Cabinet meeting. “It is the one that invented it. Let’s not fool ourselves. This is what history says. Whoever has something that refutes this history, go ahead.”
Abbas did not explain how he believes Europe created Zionism and Israel. However, he has previously made similar comments.
In a speech in January 2018, the PA president said, “Israel is a colonial project with no relationship to Judaism,” quoting Abdul Wahab al-Messiri, an Egyptian writer who authored the “Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism.”