The Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh announced on Facebook plans to reopen its building following the deadly shooting almost one year ago on Oct. 27, 2018, when 11 Jewish worshippers were shot and killed during Shabbat-morning services by a lone gunman.
The congregation will continue to use the building as a place of worship, but will also utilize the space for classrooms, exhibits, a memorial to commemorate the lives lost in the mass shooting, education and social events.

Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday attacked US plans to maintain and boost the American military presence in eastern Syria as “international state banditry” motivated by a desire to protect oil smugglers and not by real security concerns.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday that Washington would send armored vehicles and troops to the Syrian oil fields in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of Islamic State militants.
His comments came after President Donald Trump earlier this month pulled some 1,000 US military personnel out of northeast Syria, a move that prompted Turkey to launch a cross-border incursion targeting the Kurdish YPG militia, a former US ally against Islamic State.

Sen. Bernie Sanders has begun framing his advanced age as an asset in the presidential race, an effort to counter concerns about his health with a pitch for voters to consider his decades of activism as they compare him with younger candidates.
On his first extended campaign swing since his Oct. 1 heart attack, the 78-year-old Vermont independent is being unusually candid about his age. At a town hall meeting Thursday, Sanders, unprompted, told voters, “I’ve been criticized for being old. I plead guilty. I am old. But there are advantages to being old.”

President Donald Trump announced big news tonight, Motzoei Shabbos — but did not give any details.
“Something very big has just happened!” Trump announced at 9:23 east coast time.
Something very big has just happened!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2019
The internet quickly wondered if we were in a new war, or if aliens had been discovered, or if the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was captured. None of the theories have been confirmed just yet.
{Matzav.com}

From the tropical shores of Honolulu and Puerto Rico, to the badlands of Utah and backwaters of Louisiana, New York City has sent local homeless families to 373 cities across the country with a full year of rent in their pockets as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Special One-Time Assistance Program.”
Usually, the receiving city knows nothing about it.
City taxpayers have spent $89 million on rent alone since the program’s August 2017 inception to export 5,074 homeless families — 12,482 individuals — to places as close as Newark and as far as the South Pacific, according to Department of Homeless Services data obtained by The Post. Families, who once lived in city shelters, decamped to 32 states and Puerto Rico.

A 23-year-old young man was lightly wounded from stones thrown at the vehicle he was driving at the Yakir Junction in Shomron.
Magen David Adom (MDA) staff evacuated him to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

Congregation B’NAI Israel in Bridgeport was evacuated on Friday after two bomb threats were reported.
Two bomb sniffing K9 units out of Yale New Haven who are with the bomb team out of Stamford cleared the building.
As a precaution, officers remained on site for tefiilos, and throughout the city.
Read more.
{Matzav.com}

Passengers on an El Al flight from Geneva that was scheduled to land at Ben Gurion airport on Friday afternoon were forced to remain in Switzerland until Motzei Shabbos due to the foggy conditions in Geneva, according to a Israel Hayom report.
The pilot on the El Al plane which was supposed to land in Geneva to pick up the passengers wasn’t authorized to land in the thick fog present in Geneva at the time and instead was forced to land in Lyon, France until the fog cleared.
However, by the time the plane arrived in Geneva, it was too late to fly to Israel and land in Ben Gurion before Shabbos. El Al arranged for the passengers to stay at a nearby hotel over Shabbos and fly them out after Shabbos.

John Kelly, former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, said Saturday he warned the president before he left the White House not to replace him with a “yes man” because it would lead to Trump’s impeachment.
Kelly also said he believed he could have prevented the current impeachment inquiry against Trump if he had stayed in the job. Kelly said the inquiry could have been avoided if president had surrounded himself with people who could rein in his worst instincts.
His candid remarks, made during an interview at a political conference hosted by the Washington Examiner, suggests he blames acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others in the West Wing for not doing more to stop Trump’s behavior.

Turkey will clear northeast Syria of Kurdish YPG militia if Russia does not fulfill its obligations under an accord that helped end a Turkish offensive in the region, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.
Under the deal hammered out by Erdogan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Russian military police and Syrian border guards are meant to clear the YPG fighters from within 30 km (19 miles) of the border over a period of six days ending on Tuesday.
From Tuesday, Russian and Turkish forces will start to patrol a narrower, 10-km strip of land in northeast Syria.