By Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss
 
 

The world’s first successful “artificial meniscus” transplant was just performed in Israel, i24News reported on Monday.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Gabriel Agar from the Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Ya’akov and Dr. Ron Arbel from Ramat Aviv Medical Center in Tel Aviv, who were both involved in the development of the “NUsurface Implant,” which passed clinical trials in Israel and is made from medical-grade plastic in Israel by Active Implants LLC.
It was given a Breakthrough Device Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The small Jewish community in Denmark experienced a 50-percent increase in antisemitic attacks in 2018 over the previous year, a new report from the Scandinavian country’s Jewish representative organization has revealed.
Compiled by Det Jødiske Samfund (“The Jewish Community”) — the official body of Danish Jews — the report noted 45 incidents targeting Jews in 2018, compared with 30 incidents the year before. It concluded that after several years of relative peace and stability, an increase in antisemitic attacks had occurred in each of the years since 2015 — when one person was killed in a Feb. 14 terrorist attack against the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen, as a bat mitzvah ceremony was underway.

The United States broke off talks Tuesday with South Korea over how to share the cost of the two nations’ military alliance, injecting fresh tension into the relationship over Washington’s demands that Seoul pay sharply more.
President Donald Trump has demanded South Korea raise fivefold its contribution to cover the cost of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops in the country, asking for nearly $5 billion, officials on both sides said. But that demand has triggered anger from Korean lawmakers and sparked concerns that Trump may decide to reduce the U.S. troop presence in the Korean Peninsula if talks break down.

A New York man pleaded guilty to charges he threatened to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of New York announced Monday.
Patrick Carlineo Jr., 55, could face up to 10 years in prison and have to pay $250,000 after pleading guilty to threatening to assault and murder a U.S. official and being a felon in possession of firearms. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 14, according to the office release.
U..S. Attorney James Kennedy Jr. said in the release this case demonstrates that free speech does not protect people to “make threats to harm lawmakers simply because they may disagree with them.”

A day before Gantz’s mandate to form a governing coalition will end, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet with Avigdor Leiberman to discuss the possibility of bringing Leiberman into a right-wing coalition.
Leiberman has said previously that the demands of the charedi parties are ‘excessive’ and he will need greater concessions except for the issue of haredi draft.
Liberman said yesterday at his party’s meeting that if Gantz doesn’t form a government, then all options are on the table and its “each man for himself.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

The White House on Monday released a note from President Trump’s physician seeking to dispel speculation about his physical state after he made an unannounced trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for exams over the weekend.
“Despite some of the speculation, the President has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues,” Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley, physician to the president, said in a letter released by the White House.
The visit was part of “a routine, planned interim checkup,” Conley said. Trump did not undergo any specialized heart or neurological evaluations during his roughly three hour stop at the medical center.

A siren was sounded on Tuesday morning, just before 5:00 a.m., in the Golan Heights area. Residents reported hearing explosions.
The IDF confirmed that four launches were identified from Syria towards Israeli territory which were intercepted by the Israeli air defense systems.
No hits on Israeli communities were identified. There were no reports of injuries.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

Bloomberg apologizes for stop-and-frisk policy.
WATCH:

Accused bike path terrorist Sayfullo Saipov who used a truck to ow down 8 pedestrians in NYC on Halloween 2017 told a Manhattan federal court judge Monday he doesn’t respect his authority — while prosecutors said they want to empanel an anonymous jury to oversee the death penalty case.
“The orders issued here have nothing to do with me,” Saipov told Judge Vernon Broderick through an Uzbek interpreter. “I am following orders of Allah, who gave me life.”
Saipov stood as he spoke, wildly gesticulating as he asked Broderick why he was sitting in judgement of him “for the eight people killed” and “not those who are killing thousands and millions of Muslims over the world.”
Saipov’s trial is scheduled to kick off April 13, 2020.