Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed on Monday that Israel was not ready for a full-scale war with the Lebanese terrorist group, walking back previously reported comments in which he said a conflict with the Jewish state was likely this summer.
According to Israeli news site Mako, Nasrallah made the statement at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the founding of Hezbollah’s youth movement.
Nasrallah said he “tends to rule out the possibility that Israel will start a war against Lebanon,” partly because, “the days have passed when Israel could decide the outcome of war from the air.”
As a result, he asserted, “they would need to undertake a ground operation, and according to many statements, the Israeli army is not ready for this.”

One of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bodyguards was seen on video Tuesday carrying an unusual weapon later identified as an anti-drone rifle.
The video, published by Hebrew news site Mako, shows Netanyahu and his entourage in the town of Caesarea, and the weapon in question is only visible for a few moments. It is a large, black, rifle-like weapon with an abnormally wide rectangular barrel.
There was initially confusion in the Israeli media as to the identity of the weapon, which has never been viewed being carried by one of Netanyahu’s guards before.
According to Mako, it was eventually determined that the weapon was a Chinese-made rifle specifically used to neutralize small drones.

The Israeli Ministry of Transportation is launching an incentive-based pilot program in an effort to fight worsening traffic congestion in the country. The pilot will attempt to answer the age-old question: in an effort to solve Israel’s traffic problem, will the carrot prevail, or will the government have to resort to the stick, levying congestion charges?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Monday that his company will have 1 million autonomous taxis on the road by 2020.
“I feel very confident predicting 1 million autonomous robo-taxis for Tesla next year. Not in all jurisdictions because we won’t have regulatory approval everywhere, but I’m confident we will have regulatory approval at least somewhere, literally next year,” Musk told investors and Wall Street analysts, according to Business Insider.
The taxis would run on the “Tesla network,” and any owner can add their car, Musk added. Tesla, which is one of several carmakers working on driverless vehicles, would keep a percentage of the revenue.

Former Vice President Joe Biden will enter the presidential race on Thursday and present himself as the man who can unify not only a splintered Democratic Party but a country that has been fractured by Donald Trump’s presidency.
Sources close to the former vice president say Biden’s campaign will be centered on the argument that he can defeat Trump and that he can best unify a nation divided along geographic, racial, gender and generational lines during the Trump era.
Biden is expected to announce his entry into the race with a Thursday video, according to a source. While details are still being ironed out, he is then expected to appear next week in Pittsburgh before moving on to other early voting states.

The driver of the bus who was involved in the accident yesterday in Beitar Illit, where  three-year-old Boruch Eisenberg A”H was killed, was interrogated by the police and released under restrictive conditions.
The driver’s license was revoked for thirty days. “The driver was questioned by police examiners on suspicion of causing the accident, his license was revoked for 30 days, and at the end of his interrogation he was released under restrictive conditions,” said the police.
The accident investigation continues.
 
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

An offshoot of Alphabet’s Google has become the first drone operator to receive government approval as an airline, an important step that gives it the legal authority to begin dropping products to actual customers.
The subsidiary, Wing, now has the same certifications that smaller airlines receive from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation. It plans to begin routine deliveries of small consumer items in two rural communities in Virginia within months, the company said.
“It’s an exciting moment for us to have earned the FAA’s approval to actually run a business with our technology,” Wing Chief Executive Officer James Ryan Burgess said in an interview. He called it “pivotal” both for his company and the drone industry in general.

Sri Lanka on Tuesday described the devastating string of Easter bombings that killed at least 321 people as a response to attacks on two mosques in New Zealand last month, even as the radical Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
Three hotels and three churches were attacked by suicide bombers on Sunday in an operation that was the subject of a warning days earlier in an intelligence report that circulated within the Sri Lankan government.
“Investigations have revealed that the attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists in retaliation for the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand,” State Minister of Defense Ruwan Wijewardene told Parliament. On March 15, a white supremacist killed 50 Muslims in two mosques in Christchurch.

Environmental activists have attempted to step up pressure on Israel over its use of plastics– which contrary to global efforts to curb such usage– rose by double-digits since May 2015.
Israel is the second largest consumer of disposable tableware per capita, just behind the United States at number one. Nearly half of Israel’s plastics are bought for the Yomim Tovim.
Israelis also ranked as the least likely out of all surveyed to say climate change is a major threat to their nation, with only 38% believing climate change was a major threat and over half of respondents in Israel (58%) saying climate change is a minor threat or not a threat at all.
Read more at i24NEWS.

White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said Tuesday that investigations into election interference by Russia have been “way more harmful” than the interference itself, which he characterized as “a couple Facebook ads.”
In a rare public appearance, Kushner spoke about the special counsel and congressional investigations at the Time 100 Summit in New York.
“Quite frankly, the whole thing’s just a big distraction for the country,” Kushner said. “You look at, you know, what Russia did, buying some Facebook ads, to try to sow dissent . . . and it’s a terrible thing, but I think the investigations and all the speculation that happened for the past two years has had a much harsher impact on democracy than a couple Facebook ads.”