What better way to extend the achdus and inspiration of the recent 13th Siyum HaShas, then by unifying Klal Yisroel, once again, in limud HaTorah?  The 3rd annual Shas for Shidduchim campaign, hosted by Chicago Chesed Fund, will do just that.  On Tu B’Shvat – Monday, February 10, 2020 – a day of tremendous power, hundreds of lomdim will come together to complete all 2,711 dafim in Chicago. The goal? To harness the immense power of limud HaTorah in the zchus of Klal Yisroel’s singles.  According to the Ben Ish Chai, Tu B’Shvat is similar to Tu B’Av in that both days hold tremendous power for those looking for shidduchim.    We all know singles who are caught up in this “parsha.” Now there is a way to help them.

A Vermont state senator looking to make a point about cellphone use is calling for people under the age of 21 to face $1,000 fines and jail time if they are caught using the devices. Sen. John Rodgers, a Democrat, has introduced a bill to the state legislature that would ban cellphones for anybody under the legal drinking age. “In light of the dangerous and life-threatening consequences of cellphone use by young people, it is clear that persons under 21 years of age are not developmentally mature enough to safely possess them,” the bill says. “The Internet and social media, accessed primarily through cell phones, are used to radicalize and recruit terrorists, fascists, and other extremists,” it continues, according to the Times Argus newspaper.

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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu thanked President Trump for applying new financial sanctions against Iran. “I applaud President Trump for his leadership and his decision to apply additional sanctions against the terrorist regime of Iran, who is suppressing the Iranian people and threatening peace across the globe.” Police announced that one man was pronounced dead and another seriously injured in an act of violence that took place near the town of Hura in the Negev. The two men were brought for treatment to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva where one of the men died as a result of the injuries he suffered during the attack that involved gunshots and stone-throwing. A 24-year-old motorcyclist from Umm al-Fahm was killed in an accident that took place on Highway 22 near Kiryat Bialik.

After a fast-moving blaze which destroyed the headquarters of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department on New Year’s Day, Chaverim of Rockland County came to the rescue. With the intervention of Rabbi Abe Friedman, Chaplain of the PIP Police Department, Chaverim of Rockland County generously agreed to provide their state-of-the-art Mobile Command center, to serve as the temporary location of the PIP Police Headquarters until a more permanent location will be arranged. The Chaverim Mobile command post is equipped with state of the art communications and IT equipment, and is perfectly suited to serve as a temporary Police Headquarters.

On a recent swing through Iowa, Andrew Yang was moving through his stump speech, a string of stories and statistics that can sound like an economics seminar. There was talk of flawed indicators and his signature plan to give a monthly check to every American. He warned about a dark and near future where America’s highways are filled with trucks driven by robots. One crossed the U.S. last month with a trailer full of butter. “Google it,” he said. But with the first votes of the Democratic primary due to be cast within weeks, a woman inside a crammed coffee shop had a more immediate concern for the 44-year-old entrepreneur who has become one of the surprise survivors of the long contest: What if we go to caucus for you on Feb.

A fire engulfed part of a nursing home in northern Croatia early Saturday, killing at least six people, authorities said. The blaze erupted around 5 a.m. in a privately-run nursing home in the village of Andrasevac, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Zagreb, the capital. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire. “Unfortunately, according to initial information we have received, six people died,” Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told reporters after arriving on the scene. “At this moment, we don’t have enough information to be able to say anything else.” “We need to wait until the authorities finish their job,” Plenkovic added. Croatian media said the fire erupted in a wooden building close to the home’s main building.

British police say it was an “error of judgment” to include environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion in an official document that listed extremist organizations. The counterterrorism police unit for southeast England included the climate change protesters alongside Islamic extremists and banned neo-Nazi group National Action in a guide to “safeguarding young people and adults from ideological extremism,” The Guardian newspaper reported. The guide said that “while concern about climate change is not in itself extreme, activists may encourage vulnerable people to perform acts of violence.” The Guardian said in its Saturday edition that the document, dated November 2019, was distributed to teachers, police officers and schools but later withdrawn.

Libya’s U.N.-backed prime minister on Saturday conditioned his government’s participation in a proposed ceasefire to rival forces withdrawing from the outskirts of Tripoli, suggesting no immediate end to the country’s civil war. Prime Minister Fayez Serraj defended his “bellicose activities” to protect the Libyan capital, the seat of his government, on the eve of the start date for the truce proposed by Turkey and Russia. Serraj spoke while in Rome for a meeting with Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte. The meeting was the latest diplomatic effort to end the offensive launched by Serraj’s rival in eastern Libya, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, and return the two sides to a U.N.-supported political process.

Authorities say at least seven people have died as severe storms sweep across parts of the U.S. South, bringing high winds and unrelenting rain. The National Weather Service in Birmingham, Alabama, said Saturday via Twitter that three people have been confirmed killed near Carrollton in Pickens County. The Alabama Emergency Management Agency said that an “embedded tornado within a long line of intense thunderstorms” caused the deaths. Earlier Saturday, firefighters found the bodies of an elderly couple Saturday near their demolished trailer, the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office said via Facebook. The winds were so strong that the home was moved 200 feet from its foundation.