The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire Monday and, as firefighters worked to contain the intensifying blaze, the structure’s iconic spire collapsed.
The fire started at 6:50 p.m. local time, according to the Paris fire department. A spokesperson for the cathedral described the damage to French media as “colossal.” First responders were trying to salvage the priceless art that was stored inside the cathedral, ABC News reported.
{Matzav.com}

A mother and her young children were among 16 people injured, one seriously, in a massive fire that broke out in a Haifa apartment block on Monday.
After igniting in a second-floor apartment, the blaze ripped through the building on Ibn Gvirol Street, leaving one man in serious condition, one person in moderate condition and another 11 people with light injuries.
Five firefighter units battled the blaze, entered the burning building and saved the life of the seriously injured man. They evacuated the approximately 30-year-old woman, in addition to her 3-year-old and 6-year-old children.
The majority of the victims were evacuated to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
(JNS)
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Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Monday that a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report is expected to be released on Thursday morning.
The report is expected to be around 400 pages, not including underlying evidence. Attorney General Bill Barr said he would color code redacted information that falls into 4 categories, and that each redaction will include explanatory notes.
Barr told a House Appropriations subcommittee that once the redacted version of the report is sent to Congress, he would be “glad to talk to [House Judiciary] Chairman Nadler and [Senate Judiciary] Chairman Graham as to whether they feel they need more information and see if there’s a way we could accommodate that.”

Palestinian security prisoners are calling off a planned mass hunger strike after reaching an agreement with Israeli prison authorities, according a Palestinian advocacy group.
“An agreement in principle has been reached between the prisoners and the management of the occupation’s prisons regarding their demands,” the Palestinian Prisoners Club announces in a Facebook post. The group said details of the preliminary agreement would be announced at a later date.
The prisoners launched a mass hunger strike last week to protest an Israeli crackdown on illicit cellphone usage among inmates.
Read more at Times of Israel.
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Israeli scientists on Monday unveiled what they said was the first-ever 3D printed heart made of real human tissues and vessels, calling it a first and a “major medical breakthrough” that advances possibilities for transplants.
The heart, about the size of a rabbit’s, marked “the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” said Tal Dvir, who led the project.
“People have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, but not with cells or with blood vessels,” he said.

The heads of Israel’s charedi parties on Monday morning met Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at his home, Kikar Shabbos reported.
Netanyahu’s meeting with Shas leader Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and UTJ’s Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman came just before the two met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to recommend Netanyahu continue in his position as PM.
“We recommend Netanyahu as candidate for the premiership,” said Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman.
“We worked with him during the previous term. We did everything we could for the Jewish people, and so we think that he is the right candidate for prime minister.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

A man in northern France said he stabbed his neighbor because he “wanted to kill a Jew.”
The attack, first reported on April 8, occurred in Bourdon, a commune in the Somme department in northern France, on April 5, the French-language 20 Minutes news website reported.
The victim, a 58-year-old man, was stabbed 15 times in his stomach and face. He was injured in the liver and gallbladder and underwent surgery, according to the report.
The attacker, 18, told witnesses that he “wanted to kill a Jew.” According to the report, the victim is not Jewish.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

The provisional results for last Tuesday’s Knesset election now show the Likud with 35 seats, down one from the initial results released last week by the Central Elections Committee, while the Yahudut Torah party gained a seat, rising from seven to eight mandates.
The actual shift in votes was minor, however, and leaves the UTJ’s eight seat with only an 80-vote margin for the time being. The seat could thus be ‘lost’ by another minor shift in the vote total.

President Donald Trump lashed out Sunday night at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Twitter following a CBS “60 Minutes” interview during which she recounted standing up to him and reiterated her opinion that he is unfit for office and knows it.
“There’s nobody in the country who knows better that he should not be president of the United States than Donald Trump,” Pelosi told CBS’s Lesley Stahl in a roughly 14-minute segment that aired Sunday. In the wide-ranging interview, Pelosi touted Democrats’ achievements in their first 100 days in control of the House while also discussing last December’s heated Oval Office showdown over funding for Trump’s border wall, her now-famous State of the Union clap and the power she holds in her current position.