Israel plans to decriminalize personal marijuana use, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan said on Thursday, adopting an approach similar to some U.S. states and European countries. Erdan said that if the government approves his new policy, those caught smoking marijuana would be fined rather than arrested and prosecuted. Criminal procedures would be launched only against…
A massive cut in American funding for the United Nations could be in the works if President Trump signs an executive order prepared by his aides. The order, first reported by the New York Times on Wednesday, will cut at least 40% of funding for the international body and its agencies, if they grant full…
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he is reconsidering efforts to force the sale of land tracts belonging to native Hawaiians that fall within a large estate he bought on the island of Kauai, after facing harsh criticism. Zuckerberg filed to secure parcels of land within his $100 million seafront property on the island of…
(JTA) — An Ashdod rabbi was sentenced to three years in jail for molesting three boys he taught at a religious elementary school. On Tuesday, the Beersheba District Court also gave Avraham Shemesh, 51, a one-year suspended sentence and ordered him to pay approximately $4,000 to each of the victims he molested on school grounds in 2015, Ashdod News…
(JTA) — Several liberal Jewish groups have decried a leaked draft of an executive order from President Donald Trump that would temporarily bar refugees and immigrants from some Muslim countries from entering the United States. The draft, which was leaked to the media Wednesday, bars the entrance of noncitizens from certain Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq,…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel and the United States successfully completed tests of the David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to stop long-range rockets, drones and cruise missiles. Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced the completion of the tests, the fifth in a series, on Wednesday. The tests, held over the Mediterranean Sea out of…
(JTA) — Stephen Philip Cohen, a Canadian-born academic and Jewish organizational leader who served as a confidential intermediary between Israeli and Arab leaders for three decades, died Wednesday. He was 71 and had been in poor health. A social psychologist by training, Cohen arranged and participated in historic breakthroughs between Israel and its neighbors, including meetings…
(JTA) — Pope Francis told the former wife of the late Argentine special prosecutor Alberto Nisman that he prays for Nisman’s memory and their two daughters. Sandra Arroyo Salgado, a federal judge in Argentina, asked the pope during their brief audience Wednesday to “keep praying to find the truth” of Nisman’s still-mysterious death. Salgado told Argentine…
(JTA) — The deputy speaker of the Russian parliament intimated that Jews are using their positions in the media and government to continue the work of ancestors who “pulled down our churches.” Peter Tolstoy at a news conference Tuesday on plans to move a cathedral in St. Petersburg appeared to blame Jews for anti-religious persecution under…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian driver who drove his vehicle into a West Bank bus stop in an alleged car-ramming attack was shot and killed by Israeli troops stationed there. The incident occurred Wednesday evening near the Kochav Yaakov settlement, located southeast of Ramallah. No Israelis were reported injured in the incident. The driver reportedly swerved…
Following the controversy surrounding “alt-right” fascist Milo Yiannopoulos’s $250,000 book deal with Simon & Schuster with TED Books, another Simon & Schuster imprint. Gay’s book, “How To Be Heard” was scheduled for release in March 2018, but is now indefinitely shelved until Gay can find another publisher. In a statement to Buzzfeed, Gay said that…
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