A quick-thinking Boro Park Shomrim member foiled a robbery this afternoon at a cellphone store. A black male had entered the store on 13th Avenue and 46th Street and told the owner, a chasidish yid, that he wanted to buy AirPods. The man asked to see the AirPods before finalizing his purchase, and owner agreed, handing the expensive earbuds to the man. However, instead of buying them, the suspect took off, running towards the door as the store owner gave chase. As he reached the door, a Shomrim member who happened to be in the area saw the chase unfolding, quickly grabbed the suspect, and pinned him against the wall. Police arrested the suspect at the scene and charged him over the incident. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A fire broke out at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Midtown Manhattan this afternoon. The famed hotel is currently undergoing demolition. The fire in the 23-floor building on 7th Avenue began around 2:30 pm. 78 firefighters fought the blaze, which took approximately half an hour to get under control. No injuries have been reported. The structure has been vacant since closing to the public last year. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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Hours after former vice president Mike Pence publicly rejected Donald Trump’s claim that he could have unilaterally overturned the 2020 presidential election, Trump fired back. “Just saw Mike Pence’s statement on the fact that he had no right to do anything with respect to the Electoral Vote Count, other than being an automatic conveyor belt for the Old Crow Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected President as quickly as possible,” Trump wrote in a statement. Trump said that if “obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities exist” then Pence would have the authority to refuse to certify the election – a claim that holds no legal water. On Friday, Pence said in a speech that Trump was “wrong” that he could have rejected the election results and sent them back to state legislatures.

Jonathan Pollard, who is sitting shiva for his wife Esther, z’l, told Natan Sharansky and former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer about Esther’s chilling last words. “She was dying, and all of a sudden she opened her eyes,” Pollard said. “I don’t know where she was, she was looking up. And she said in a very small voice: ‘My neshama volunteered to come back for two missions. One of the missions was to get you home. The other mission was to bring you home as a Jew and not a goy.'” “She said: ‘My first mission to bring you home was the easiest one of all.” “I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that point,” Pollard wryly said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams apologized Friday after a 2019 video surfaced showing him using a racial slur for white people when talking about the New York Police Department. The video, first reported by the New York Daily News, shows Adams, who is Black, speaking at a private event in December 2019, during the early stages of his mayoral run. Adams is a former New York City police officer who rose to the rank of captain before leaving to serve in elected office. While in the New York Police Department, he became an outspoken critic of the department and co-founded an advocacy group called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, which pushed for criminal justice reform and spoke out against police brutality.

HaGaon HaRav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesses Yisroel is currently on a trip to the United States to deliver chizuk and raise money for his yeshiva. The rosh yeshiva recently wrapped up his visit to the Chicago community, and is now in Lakewood, where he is expected to stay for the next week. On Thursday morning, HaRav Boruch Mordechai visited the Yeshiva K’tana elementary school, where he delivered a shmuess to the school’s hundreds of talmidim. The rosh yeshiva then met with the bochurim of Yeshiva Heichal HaTalmud. Under the leadership and guidance of HaRav Moshe Weiss, Yeshiva Heichal HaTalmud provides sedorim for bochurim who work for part of the day, as well as guidance as they grow in both Torah and business.

A fire suspected to have been set by an arsonist tore through Oorah’s TheZone girls’ campus late last night, destroying a structure where staff families sleep. Video footage shows one building fully engulfed in flames at the camp located on Gilboa Road in Gilboah, NY (Schoharie County). The fire destroyed the buildings knows as the “Suites, Villas, and Mountain View) family housing)”. Police and fire officials are investigating the incident. This is the second time that Oorah has been struck by fire in recent years. YWN reported in August 2020, that a blaze burned down the camp’s dining room and kitchen. Separately, several bochurim working as counselors in TheZone’s boys campus were hospitalized this past summer after a carbon monoxide leak in one of the bunkhouses.

“Our country is going to hell and we’re going to make American great again, again, I sort of say,” Trump continued. “And I smile, but there’s nothing to smile about, because our country is going bad. We’re not going to have a country much longer, if it keeps going. I don’t think any president has done this damage.

Rabbi Nechemya Malinowitz of Eretz Hakodesh announced on Wednesday, Rosh Chodesh Adar, that anyone with valid student visas can now enter Israel even if they’re not vaccinated or recovered. Students holding valid student visas can just show up at the airport and will be allowed to fly to Israel. This means that yeshivah bochurim and seminary students will be able to return home for Pesach without being vaccinated or recovered. Another new development is that children of student visa holders will no longer need special permits to enter Israel. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

A Miami Beach Parking Enforcement Officer ticketed a parked Hatzolah ambulance and tried to have the emergency vehicle towed, Monday night. Sources tell YWN that the Inspector issued citations to the ambulance claiming it was a “commercial vehicle” and was not allowed to be parked on a street. This ambulance is one of the fleet of Hatzolah ambulances parked strategically around the city to enable a fast response time to treat patients calling for medical assistance. It has been parked on Pine Tree Drive and 40th Street for more than a month now. It is unknown what prompted this enforcement officer to take this ridicules action. Hatzolah members attempted to reason with the man, explaining that this is a Florida State Certified ambulance, but the officer refused to listen.