Washington – Preschoolers on government food aid have grown a little less pudgy, a U.S. study found, offering fresh evidence that previous signs of declining obesity rates weren’t a fluke. Obesity rates dropped steadily to about 14% in 2016 — the latest data available — from 16% in 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and [...]

New York – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday stood by claims he made about five men who were wrongly convicted for the brutal rape of a female jogger in New York City’s Central Park 30 years ago. Dubbed the “Central Park Five,” the men have faced renewed attention after becoming the subjects of a [...]

Orlando, FL – President Donald Trump formally launched his 2020 re-election campaign on Tuesday by presenting himself as the same political insurgent who shook up the Washington establishment four years ago and who is now a victim of an attempted ouster by Democrats. At a packed rally at an arena in Orlando, Florida, Trump made [...]

Evanston, IL – Actor John Cusack is apologizing for tweeting an anti-Semitic cartoon and quotation after defending the post, then deleting it. The image showed a blue Star of David above a hand pushing down on a group of people accompanied by a quote frequently misattributed to the philosopher Voltaire: “To learn who rules over [...]

Tel Aviv – A group of 45 academic Talmud scholars has signed a letter in support of Peter Schafer, the former director of the Berlin Jewish Museum who resigned last week amid criticism of a tweet linking to a pro-Israel boycott story. Such a letter is unprecedented among the Talmudist community, which is (unsurprisingly) disputatious [...]

Bucharest, Romania – Few European officials would be pleased to hear that during their tenure, “anti-Semitism has exploded.” Least of all Katharina von Schnurbein, the German-born EU official who in 2015 was appointed as the European Union’s first coordinator on combating anti-Semitism. But when the chief rabbi of Rome said the phrase, he meant it [...]

Orlando, FL – President Donald Trump officially opened his 2020 campaign Tuesday with a speech exaggerating what he’s done for the economy. From his rally in Orlando, Florida: TRUMP: “It’s soaring to incredible new heights. Perhaps the greatest economy we’ve had in the history of our country.” THE FACTS: The economy is not one of [...]

San Francisco – Alphabet Inc’s Google announced on Tuesday it would set aside $750 million in land and $250 million in financing to spur developers in the San Francisco Bay Area to build at least 20,000 homes and rehabilitate other housing over the next decade. Google, which told Reuters it has 45,000 employees in the [...]

Washington – Don’t call it a peace plan, call it an “economic vision.” And don’t call the event that will unveil it next week a summit, it’s a workshop. To benefit Israelis and Palestinians. Whose officials won’t be there. Bahrain, a tiny Persian Gulf state with close ties to the United States and one of [...]

Washington – Joe Biden touted fundraising figures on Monday that suggest he has taken in at least $19 million this quarter, a sum that — if true — would top what all of his leading rivals raised during the last period. With nearly two weeks to go before the end of the second quarter, the [...]