New York City showed resilience when it rebuilt the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but the project was also supposed to generate profits that could go toward bridges, tunnels and airports.
Now, nearly five years after the office tower at One World Trade Center opened, the World Trade Center complex as a whole is still losing money. That is largely because costs related to security efforts to prevent any future attacks are making it hard to break even.

The draft of a new ethnics studies curriculum for California public school students is being slammed by critics. They accuse it of espousing bias against Israel and Jews, defining capitalism as a “form of power and oppression” and promoting a far-left-wing political agenda. The pushback has been so strong that California education officials say the curriculum “needs to be substantially redesigned.”
A law signed in 2016 by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown mandated that California create an ethnic studies course. An advisory committee constituted mostly of K-12th grade teachers and professors was appointed in 2018 by the State Board of Education to draft a curriculum that could be used by local school systems to create their own courses.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a living example of how an election campaign can be decided at the last minute, on the days the polls open. In 2015, he amazed everyone when he led the Likud to 30 seats, many more than the last polls had predicted.
Many attribute that victory to the blitz of interviews Netanyahu gave on Election Day, as well as his unforgettable warning that “the Arabs are flocking to the polls.” In April Netanyahu did it again, closing the lead polls had predicted Blue and White would maintain over the Likud, this time by broadcasting a live feed on his Facebook page.

A spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry warned on Tuesday that a change of the status quo on the Har Habayis would have serious consequences. The statement came in response to Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan saying during an interview Tuesday that he saw “an injustice in the status quo” that “we need to work to change.”
The official Petra news agency reported that Jordan rejects Erdan’s comments, and had sent a letter of protest to Israel through diplomatic channels.

The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, said on Tuesday that during the next round of fighting between Israel and Hamas the terrorist organization would rain “hundreds of rockets” on the Jewish state at a time. Hamas claimed in June to have overwhelmed Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system with concentrated rocket salvos.
Sinwar’s remarks came during a meeting with residents of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Tuesday evening, where he discussed Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz’s statement last week that Israel’s next round of fighting with Hamas “would be the last.”

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas apparently backed out of a meeting with a 31-member GOP delegation at the last minute on Tuesday, sending other senior officials to meet them in his stead.
The incident comes just a week after Abbas met a 41-member Democratic delegation led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), during which he said he would not accept American “dictates.”
Abbas’s P.A. has boycotted the U.S. administration ever since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017.
Though PLO General Secretary Saeb Erekat and P.A. Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh were sent to meet the Republicans, several legislators opted not to go to Ramallah after Abbas announced his cancellation.

The Regional Planning Committee of the City of Yerushalayim, headed by Attorney Amir Shaked, ratified the plans for the expansion of United Hatzalah’s national headquarters in the Romema neighborhood. According to the plans submitted by the organization, the building will be expanded by adding six additional floors to the existing four floors.
The building is situated on the corner of Yirmiyahu and Ohaliav streets, opposite the Health Ministry building. The plans call for the addition of 3,000 square meters to the building that will allow the organization to expand its activities and increase the quality of training for its volunteers. The plans were drafted by Architect Michal De Lafergola.

Police in Germany are investigating an incident at an airport in Berlin in which a passenger wearing a Star of David necklace was allegedly subjected to antisemitic abuse by a member of staff during check-in.
The incident took place at Berlin’s Tegel Airport last Saturday. The passenger, reported to be a 50-year-old Spanish man who lives in the German capital, was attempting to board a flight with discount airline Easyjet to the island of Menorca. At the check-in counter, he became embroiled in argument with a female attendant over additional baggage fees. The female employee is alleged to have directed antisemitic insults at the passenger in both English and Arabic, before preventing him from getting on the flight.

President Trump said Tuesday he spoke with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) about pressing forward on background checks in the wake of recent mass shootings.
“We had a very good conversation. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters while en route to a speech in Pennsylvania.
Murphy has been a leading advocate for more gun control laws since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in his state in 2012. He tweeted Tuesday that he’d spoken with Trump and Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) about support for background checks legislation.
“We continue to work to find common ground, but as I told the President, we can’t get a bill if he and the GOP give the gun lobby veto power,” Murphy tweeted.

More than 70,000 people have signed onto a petition that seeks to rename the portion of Fifth Avenue in front of the Trump Tower in Manhattan after former President Obama.
Elizabeth Rowin, the organizer behind the petition, told Newsweek in an interview released on Monday that the campaign first began as a joke last year.
However, after the petition began to pick up traction online, Rowin said she decided to reach out to the New York City Council and received responses from some members who were interested in taking action on the cause.
If Rowin’s petition proves successful, the Manhattan Trump Tower would have a new address: 725 President Barack H. Obama Avenue, New York, NY 10022.