Harel Wiesel, owner of Fox Group, is in talks to establish a food partnership with brothers Ari and Yoram Yerzin, veteran restaurateurs who own several successful restaurants.
Yediot Aharonot reported that the three began to look into the possibility of obtaining a franchise for Starbucks, the coffee chain that failed in Israel 20 years ago.
This time Starbucks may succeed in Israel after changing its image in recent years, upgrading its types of coffee and expanding its range of baked goods and food, and the increase in the number of tourists coming to Israel who are used to the chain adds to its attractiveness.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

American Dream in East Rutherford is finally opening.
The mega retail and entertainment center will open its doors on Friday as part of a multi-phased launch that is expected to continue through March. Even if you weren’t able to snag a ticket to Nickelodeon Universe for opening weekend before tickets sold out, you can still rent a pair of skates and enjoy the mall’s indoor ice rink this weekend.
On Friday, only a fraction of the three-million-square-foot property will open — Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park and American Dream’s ice rink. The rest of the property will be opening in phases, later this year and in 2020.

Many acts of animal cruelty are closer to becoming federal felonies after the House’s unanimous passage Tuesday of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act.
If passed by the Senate and enacted, the bill would outlaw purposeful crushing, burning, drowning, suffocation, impalement or other violence causing “serious bodily injury” to animals. Violations could result in a fine as well as up to seven years’ imprisonment.
Advocates say the PACT Act fills crucial gaps in existing national law, which previously banned only animal fighting and the making and sharing of videos showing the kind of abuse the PACT Act seeks to criminalize.

The Army is thinking big — really big — in its quest to maintain military dominance over global adversaries.
Army officials say they are putting more emphasis on research into a “game changing” cannon with an unprecedented range, one that could prove crucial in a conflict with a potential adversary such as China. The Strategic Long-Range Cannon (SLRC), which could reach well over 1,000 miles, represents a key piece of the Pentagon’s push for more advanced artillery capable of targeting enemy positions from distances that were once unimaginable.

Seven months after clinical trials for a promising Alzheimer’s drug were halted and the treatment was declared a failure, a new analysis suggests it was actually effective, and the company that makes it plans to move forward in securing federal approval.
The astonishing reversal on aducanumab, an antibody therapy which targets a protein called amyloid beta that builds up in the brain, comes after new data from the discontinued studies showed that at high doses the drug reduced cognitive decline in patients with early Alzheimer’s.
“It could be a game-changer for the field,” said Rebecca Edelmayer, director of scientific engagement at the Alzheimer’s Association. “It could be one of the first disease-modifying therapies approved for Alzheimer’s disease.”

Former Clinton adviser Philippe Reines on Hillary Clinton considering a 2020 run.
WATCH:

Iran executed seven child offenders last year and two so far this year even though human rights law prohibits the death penalty for anyone under age 18, a UN independent human rights expert said Wednesday.
Javaid Rehman also told the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee that he has “credible information” there are at least 90 child offenders currently on death row in Iran.
Rehman, the UN special investigator on human rights in Iran, expressed deep concern at the overall use of the death penalty in the Islamic Republic, saying its execution rate “remains one of the highest in the world” even after a drop from 507 in 2017 to 253 in 2018. So far in 2019, he said, “conservative estimates indicate that at least 173 executions have been carried out.”

The House Ways and Means Committee approved a nicotine vaping tax measure Wednesday. It would be the first tax imposed on nicotine liquids.
Democrat Tom Suozzi, one of the bill’s authors, said the point of the legislation was to increase vaping product prices to the point at which teens could not afford them and rates of teen vaping would decrease.
The bill, which passed out of committee with a vote of 25 to 14 with a majority of Republicans voting “no,” would impose a tax on nicotine vaping liquids amounting to $50.33 per 1,810 mg. For reference, the average Juul pod, with 5% nicotine content and 0.7 mL of liquid, would be taxed at $1.15.

A painting seized by the Nazis from a Jewish family in 1933 has been recovered from a museum in upstate New York by the FBI.
The work, “Winter” by American artist Gari Melchers, was part of the collection at the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie until Sept. 10, according to federal court documents. The recovery is part of an international effort to find artwork that was stolen after the Nazis’ ascension to power.
German publisher and philanthropist Rudolf Mosse first acquired the painting from the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1900. The Nazi government seized control of the family’s art collection after Mosse’s family members fled Germany in 1933.
The painting will remain at the FBI’s Albany office until it is reunited with the Mosse family.

A federal judge said Wednesday that he will order the State Department to begin releasing Ukraine-related documents in 30 days, potentially making public sensitive records and communications at the heart of an ongoing House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
The decision, by U.S. District Judge Christopher “Casey” Cooper of Washington, D.C., came in a public records lawsuit filed Oct. 1 by a government watchdog group, American Oversight.
The group in May asked the State Department for records related to alleged efforts by Trump and his administration to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.