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Firefighters extricated numerous trapped people as a result of the difficult weather over the weekend. One man was extricated from his car in the Vradia neighborhood of Haifa. One Bar Yehuda street in the town of Nesher and the entire family was extricated from their vehicle. Three other people were rescued from their car on Lechi Street. Four others were rescued from their vehicle on HaNefach Street near the Check Post interchange. Police closed off numerous roads in the Haifa region that were flooded. The region was hit particularly hard by rain over the weekend. Only 2,200 Arabs rioted along the Gaza border fence with Israel on Friday, far fewer than the usual weekly turnout. Terrorists among the mob threw improvised explosive devices and rocks at Israeli security forces.

In Las Vegas, an El Al Boeing 787 Dreamliner sustained serious damage to its wing while it was being towed to a parking space on Friday. During the towing it’s wing reportedly hit an electric pole. The wing of the aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, sustained significant damage. Images of the plane showed a large hole in the wing. INCIDENT El Al Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner 4X-EDH came into contact with a pole while being towed to a parking spot in Las Vegas. Tonight’s outbound flight #LY22 has been canceled. Significant damage to the wing. pic.twitter.com/IqOE9vFVaJ — Tom Podolec Aviation (@TomPodolec) December 14, 2019 (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Utah liquor authorities have thrown away thousands of gallons of drinkable beer after state law changed to allow higher-alcohol brews. The Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control disposed of beer worth almost $18,000 on Friday, the The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Authorities say they were legally required to dump the beer from state-owned liquor stores because a new law allowed those beers to be sold in private stores instead. Utah had long prohibited grocery and convenience stores from selling beer stronger than 4% alcohol by volume. Everything else was sold at state liquor stores. The law effective Oct. 31 increased that limit to 5%.

North Korea said Saturday that it successfully performed another “crucial test” at its long-range rocket launch site that will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent. The test — the second at the facility in a week, according to North Korea’s Academy of Defense Science — possibly involved technologies to improve intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially reach the continental United States. In a separate statement, Pak Jong Chon, chief of the Korean People’s Army’s general staff, asserted that North Korea has built up “tremendous power” and that the findings from the recent tests would be used to develop new weapons to allow the country to “definitely and reliably” counter U.S. nuclear threats.

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has apologized for saying politicians should be put “against the wall” after critics took it to mean that she was advocating violence. The 16-year-old Swede made the comment in a speech to young activists in the Italian city of Turin on Friday. Thunberg later said she was making a literal translation from Swedish, in which the expression means to put someone on the spot with tough questions. “That’s what happens when you improvise speeches in a second language. But of course I apologise if anyone misunderstood this,” Thunberg wrote on Twitter on Saturday. Thunberg told the crowd in Turin that world leaders were running away from their responsibilities to fight climate change. “We have to make sure that they cannot do that,” she said.

Leaving the European Union is not the only split British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has to worry about. Johnson’s commanding election victory this week may let him fulfill his campaign promise to “get Brexit done,” but it could also imperil the future of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland and Northern Ireland didn’t vote for Brexit, didn’t embrace this week’s Conservative electoral landslide — and now may be drifting permanently away from London. In a victory speech Friday, Johnson said the election result proved that leaving the EU is “the irrefutable, irresistible, unarguable decision of the British people.” Arguably, though, it isn’t. It’s the will of the English, who make up 56 million of the U.K.’s 66 million people.

The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear President Donald Trump’s pleas to keep his tax, bank and financial records private, a major confrontation between the president and Congress that also could affect the 2020 presidential campaign. Arguments will take place in late March, and the justices are poised to issue decisions in June as Trump is campaigning for a second term. Rulings against the president could result in the quick release of personal financial information that Trump has sought strenuously to keep private. The court also will decide whether the Manhattan district attorney can obtain eight years of Trump’s tax returns as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

China expressed cautious optimism Saturday about a first-step trade agreement that dials down a trade war it blames the U.S. for starting. Chinese experts and news media joined government officials in saying the deal would reduce uncertainty for companies, at least in the short term. They remained cautious, saying both sides will have to show a willingness to compromise to resolve the more fundamental differences between them. “It at least stabilizes the situation and lays a foundation for the next round of trade talks or canceling additional tariffs in the future,” said Tu Xinquan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

Just days after a landmark agreement on a trade pact to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico objected Saturday to legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress as part of an eventual ratification of the deal. Jesús Seade, the Mexican Foreign Relations Department’s undersecretary and chief trade negotiator for North America, said most of the bill is in line with the typical process of ratification, but it also “adds the designation of up to five U.S. labor attaches in Mexico tasked with monitoring the implementation of the labor reform that is under way in our country.” Seade said that was not part of the agreement signed Dec.