Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday he was pushing ahead with the construction of 5,000 new Jewish homes in key areas of east Jerusalem. On a visit to the Har Homa neighborhood, Netanyahu pledged to build the homes there and in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood. Netanyahu pledged to turn Har Homa into a “mid-sized city,” and expanding a presence that many believe has already dealt a devastating blow to the Palestinian dream of independence. Building in the areas has previously sparked international outcry, which has at times reined in Netanyahu’s settlement building sprees. But emboldened by President Donald Trump’s support and his favorable Mideast plan, he appears to be charging ahead with construction there. “We are connecting Jerusalem.

In this exclusive interview, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Executive VP of Agudas Israel of America, discusses the devastating proposal to impose new secular studies guidelines which would force Yeshivos to cut out many hours of limud Torah. Rabbi Zwiebel explains the latest developments in this saga, and what we can expect moving forward. He responds to why NYS officials are so concerned about the yeshiva system–when the public school system is so much worse. And much more. Listen and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app, including iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and Podbean. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

President Donald Trump would like to freeze the moment. He had relished watching a fractious Democratic debate. He had soaked in affirmation at a rally. And he was spending the night at one of his hotels, on the Las Vegas Strip. Trump, making a rare four-day swing through the West, was exuding reelection confidence Thursday after the prior night’s prize fight of a debate in Las Vegas. He reveled in the intra-party squabbling and the weak debut debate performance turned in by former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, according to aides and allies. When Trump woke up Thursday morning in his gilded Las Vegas hotel, his base during the four-state western trip, he tuned in to the post-debate coverage and displayed his glee.

New York’s attorney general announced plans Thursday to sue New York City for $810 million for inflating the price of taxi medallions, which were marketed as a sure-fire investment before ride-hailing apps upended the taxi industry. Attorney General Letitia James filed a notice of claim against the city, which she said auctioned off medallions at artificially high prices between 2004 and 2017 and continued to market the medallions at overvalued rates even after internal reports raised warnings about inflated values. “Government should be a source of justice, not a vehicle for fraudulent practices,” said James, a Democrat.

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Wednesday denounced the House’s impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump as ”grossly partisan” and said his testimony would not have changed Trump’s acquittal in the Senate, as he continued to stay quiet on the details of a yet-to-be-released book. In his second public discussion this week, Bolton was on stage at Vanderbilt University with former national security adviser under President Barack Obama, Susan Rice, who questioned Bolton’s refusal to discuss more details while his book undergoes screening for possible classified national security details by the Trump administration. Bolton was likewise quiet on specifics from the book during a Monday speaking engagement at Duke University.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hailed the FBI for sharing information that helped thwart a terror attack by adherents of the Islamic State group in St. Petersburg during the New Year holidays. Speaking at a meeting with senior officials of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the top KGB successor agency, Putin said that “we are thankful to our partners for their support and professional solidarity in countering the common threat.” He added that “we will naturally respond in kind.” The FSB in December announced the detention of two Russian men who confessed to plotting the terror attacks in St. Petersburg. Putin then called U.S. President Donald Trump to thank him for the tip.

One man was killed and another injured on Thursday after a collapse at a Queens demolition site, authorities said. The Fire Department of New York said it happened around 11:45 a.m at the site on 94th Avenue in the Jamaica section of Queens. One man was killed and another man was hospitalized in serious condition, the FDNY said. The New York Police Department said the two men were on the second floor when a wall collapsed. Their identities have not been released. The city Department of Buildings was investigating, and said a stop work order on the site had been issued on the site. The department said it had first been permitted for demolition at the end of November. (AP)

Dear friends, It is not our intent to bother you with random fundraisers, and never before have we asked you for donations of any kind. It has come to a point when a close friend of ours is in desperate need and has turned to us to help him in his very painful and life-threatening situation. Our friend, Toivya ben Rus Guttman, 35yr old from Switzerland, hasn’t been well for some time. Lately things were looking better and we were all hoping for the best. But unfortunately it was about a month ago when the doctors found his situation to be very grave. There is רח”ל a tumor on his brain causing him great pain. The situation was so bad, that the doctors in Switzerland have given up hope on treating him, Hashem Yishmor!

Videos were released today by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of the hours-long Jersey City shootout that left one police officer and three civilians dead late last year. Four innocent people, including a veteran Jersey City police detective and father of five, died in the hail of gunfire that place on Dec. 10. Most of the victims were found inside the JC Kosher Supermarket on Martin Luther King Boulevard during what officials have described as a hate-fueled terror spree. The U.S. attorney in New Jersey and the head of the local FBI have said that the bomb found in the van of alleged domestic terrorists Francine Graham and David Anderson could have killed or maimed people up to five football fields away.

A 43-year-old German who posted a rant calling for the “complete extermination” of many “races or cultures in our midst” shot and killed nine people of foreign background, most of them Turkish, in an attack on a hookah bar and other sites in a Frankfurt suburb, authorities said Thursday. He was later found dead at his home along with his mother, and authorities said they were treating the rampage as an act of domestic terrorism. The gunman attacked the hookah bar and a neighboring cafe in Hanau around 10 p.m. Wednesday, killing several people, then traveled about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) and opened fire again, first on a car and then a sports bar, claiming more victims.