Text of speech by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s address to Congress, as provided by the office of the Senate minority leader: Good evening. I’m Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina. We just heard President Biden’s first address to Congress. Our President seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words. But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted. That was the pitch. You just heard it again. But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together.

President Joe Biden is set to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, two days before he notches his 100th day in the White House. The address, which is similar to the official State of the Union speech, will present Biden’s policy priorities and accomplishments, and outline his vision for the country. The speech is set for 9 p.m. ET and will be held in the House chamber. Security will be elevated following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman testified before Congress in February that extremists have expressed a desire to attack the complex during Biden’s address. The audience inside the House chamber will be severely limited by social distancing guidelines because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was interviewed on Fox News regarding the furor that arose following the shocking claim of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif about John Kerry’s actions during his tenure as Obama’s secretary of state in a recently leaked recording, saying he was “astonished” when Kerry told him about secret Israeli operations. “It seems like this recording confirmed what we already believed, that while I was briefing President Trump, Kerry was briefing Zarif on intelligence that related to Israeli operations,” Pompeo said. “I hope that’s not true. John Kerry needs to come forward. He needs to speak to the American people and explain to them why he was meeting with Zarif and what he was talking about.

Jewish actor Mandy Patinkin always thought he had no relatives that died in the Holocaust but recently he found out differently on a PBS show called Finding Your Roots, according to a JTA report. Finding Your Roots is a PBS celebrity genealogy show in which celebrities are presented with a “book of life” that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories, learn about familial connections and discover secrets about their lineage. During the show, Patinkin became emotionally overwhelmed when he found out that his relatives were among thousands of Jews from Brańsk, a town in northeastern Poland, to be sent to their deaths in crematoriums at the Treblinka concentration camp. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

In his first face-to-face encounter with journalists in months, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday flatly denied he had done anything inappropriate with any of the women who have accused him of misconduct and harassment. Speaking to reporters at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, the Democrat abandoned his past approach of expressing contrition for some past behavior while declining to address whether specific allegations were true. “You were in those rooms. You know the truth. So can you tell the people of the state of New York yes or no? Did you do the things you were accused of?” asked New York Times reporter Jesse McKinley. “To put it very simply, no.” Cuomo said. “All the harassment, you deny all of that?” McKinley said. “That’s right. Yes,” Cuomo said.

An NYPD officer has died after being struck by a passing vehicle while investigating a crash in Queens, and one person is in police custody. The officer is identified as Anastasios Tsakos, assigned to Highway 3. He was a 14-year veteran of the NYPD, father of two children, a 6-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. Officer Tsakos was struck on the eastbound lanes of the Long Island Expressway near Francis Lewis Boulevard just before 2 a.m. this morning. He was directing traffic following a prior crash that happened on the eastbound Long Island Expressway ramp to the Clearview Expressway, just after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. As Tsakos was directing traffic near the scene, he was struck by a passing vehicle.

Two undercover police officers disguised as Chareidim were violently attacked by Arab youth near Sha’ar Yafo in east Jerusalem on Sunday night. In a frightening sign of how determined the Arabs were to harm the “Chareidim,” the assailants continued to threaten the officer and push him even after he pulled out his gun and pointed it in the air, continuing the attack without any apparent fear of being shot. A large number of security forces arrived at the scene in order to restore order. השוטר עם אקדח באוויר והערבי עדיין ממשיך לאיים על השוטר ולדחוף אותו, התיעוד הכי מטורף שתראו.

New information has been revealed about the shocking case of an English-speaking Chareidi family who integrated into the English-speaking Chareidi community in French Hill as well as the broader religious community in Jerusalem, and was revealed on Sunday to be Christian missionaries, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. The father, Michael, even learned in the past in the Kollel of the Mekubal HaRav Banyahu Shmueli, but following the intervention of anti-missionary figures, he was kicked out of the Kollel. Meanwhile, Michael was born to a Christian family from New Jersey. His father, William Thomas Elk, who died in 2006, was a member of the Friendship Mennonite Church in Carneys Point, New Jersey. In the past, he taught Christianity in Seattle and presided at Christian weddings.

A large police force conducted a sting operation against a money changer located on Hoshea Street near Meah Shearim in Jerusalem. Within minutes, a large group of protesters arrived and began rioting. At least one man was injured and transported to the hospital. It appears that the man may have been injured by an exploding stun grenade. The sting operation was conducted as part of a larger issue that is being investigated by the police central command as part of an ongoing investigation against a number of people who are suspected of destroying the infrastructure of the light rail. Some of the suspects arrested are also suspected of financial crimes.

A well-known American family living in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem have been revealed as Christian missionaries, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported on Sunday morning. The father of the family served as a Sofer Stam, writing tefillin, mezuzos, and Sifrei Torah, and identified as a Kohen, even serving as the Kohen for firstborn babies, and has even married couples. The children of the family were enrolled in neighborhood chadarim and Bais Yaakov schools. In fact, apparently, people first became suspicious of the family when one of the children began speaking about Christianity in school. Following a thorough investigation by askanim it’s been revealed that the family made aliyah to Israel from the US with forged documents.