Iran sent mixed signals Thursday as tensions with the U.S. appeared to ease, with President Hassan Rouhani warning of a “very dangerous response” if the U.S. makes “another mistake” and a senior commander vowing “harsher revenge” for the killing of a top Iranian general. Both sides appeared to step back on Wednesday after Iran launched a series of ballistic missiles at two military bases housing American troops in Iraq without causing any casualties. Iran said the attack was retaliation for the U.S. strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the architect of its regional security strategy, in Iraq earlier this week. Rouhani said the missile attack was a legitimate act of self-defense under the U.N. Charter, but he warned that “if the U.S.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo used his annual State of the State address Wednesday to advocate for a mix of “practical” progressive goals and urgent responsibilities, including waging war on hate crimes, spending $3 billion on environmental protection and legalizing recreational marijuana. The third-term Democrat touted past achievements and trumpeted a long list of policy initiatives, many of which he previewed in a series of announcements over the past month. Cuomo also stressed the need for fiscal restraint, with the state staring at a $6 billion budget gap, caused largely by soaring Medicaid spending.

Following the U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, President Donald Trump will ask allies to scrap the Iran nuclear deal, Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday. The agreement has been unraveling since Trump pulled the United States from it. “The president is going to call on our allies, in the days ahead, to join the United States to withdraw from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal and demand that Iran abandon its long history of sowing terrorist violence, abandon its nuclear ambitions and join the family of nations,” Pence said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.″ The Trump administration has been at odds with some leading NATO members, including Britain, Germany and France, over Trump’s 2018 decision to pull the U.S.

Unprecedented prices combined with new titles, stunningly beautiful editions and magnificent sets have led to an all-time high in demand among Torah aficionados and scholars.  For those that haven’t had a chance to take advantage of the sale prices, Machon Yerushalayim has decided to extend the sale.

The crew of a Ukrainian jetliner that crashed in Iran, killing all 176 people on board, never made a radio call for help and was trying to turn back for the airport when the burning plane went down, an initial Iranian investigative report said Thursday. Ukraine, meanwhile, said it considered a missile strike as one of several possible theories for the crash, despite Iran’s denials. The Iranian report suggests that a sudden emergency struck the Boeing 737 operated by Ukrainian International Airlines early on Wednesday morning, when it crashed, just minutes after taking off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. Investigators from Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization offered no immediate explanation for the disaster, however.

YWN regrets to inform you of the tragic Petira of one-year-old Rivka Koncepolski A”H, the child of Chabad-Lubavitch Shluchim in São Paulo, Brazil. She was Niftar on Tuesday morning after a drowning incident. Her parents are Rabbi Menachem Mendel and Dvora Lea Koncepolski, where the rabbi is the administrator of Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch Ohel Menachem, whose Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Shamai Ende, is Dvora Lea Koncepolski’s father. Rabbi Koncepolski is also a certified EMT and founding member of Hatzala of Brazil, a volunteer life-saving organization. Boruch Dayan HaEmmes… (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A gunman killed a man then was fatally shot by police during a confrontation outside a lounge in Manhattan’s East Village early Thursday, authorities said. Two uniformed officers were on patrol in Tompkins Square Park at around 3:30 a.m. when they heard gunshots and saw one man shooting at another, police officials said at a news conference. The officers gave numerous commands for the shooter to get onto the ground, Chief of Department Terence Monahan said. “He refused. He kept on walking,” Monahan said. Officers then fired three times, fatally wounding the gunman. Investigators said the two men had been involved in a dispute that started inside the lounge. Police found two .22-caliber handguns at the scene of the shooting, one of them beneath the man shot by officers. (AP)

Two NYPD Officers were injured following a serious car crash in Queens, Thursday morning. It happened just before 12:00PM at the intersection of 150th Street and 72nd Avenue. Queens Hatzolah received multiple calls reporting the crash, with reports of two officers from the 107 Precinct pinned inside the vehicle. FDNY EMS transported two victims to the hospital, and Hatzolah transported one. At least one of the victim was reportedly in serious condition – unknown if that person is a police officer. The victims were transported to Jamaica Hospital.\ Sources told YWN that this may have been in a vehicle pursuit by the NYPD. This past Monday, Williamsburg Hatzolah treated two NYPD Officers involved in a crash at Lee Avenue and Lynch Street.

“Facts don’t care about feelings,” according to Ben Shapiro, host of one of the most popular podcasts in the U.S., but Ben certainly cares and has feelings for Daf Yomi. On his January 7th show, Shapiro related to his millions of listeners about the Daf Yomi program and the recent Siyum Hashas. After providing a brief overview about the significance of the 7.5-year study program and the ensuing Siyum, Shapiro mentioned that he recently began learning Daf Yomi as well, with the aid of a particular resource: the brand-new All Daf app, developed by the Orthodox Union.

A federal judge on Wednesday pressed a government lawyer to explain why President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing state and local governments to reject refugees, questioning whether the change was politically motivated. U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland didn’t immediately rule on a request by three national refugee resettlement agencies for a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from enforcing the order. During a hearing on the request, the judge said the president’s order essentially changed a federal law governing the resettlement of refugees. “On what authority is the president acting?” Messitte asked Justice Department attorney Bradley Humphreys.