Victims of Palestinian Attacks Say Prisoner Releases Will Lead to More Violence

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/victims-of-palestinian-attacks-say-prisoner-releases-will-lead-to-more-violence-1086498f?mod=hp_lead_pos8

Some of those freed as part of Gaza cease-fire were serving long sentences for crimes like murder

Tal Hartuv was at home in northern Israel on the afternoon of Oct. 11 when she saw the list of Palestinian prisoners slated for release as part of the Gaza cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. She recognized a name: Iyad Fatafteh. He was one of two men convicted of stabbing her multiple times with a machete and murdering her American friend 15 years ago.

“There is no justice, and I feel helpless,” said Hartuv, 59 years old, who was born in the U.K. and has been living in Israel for over 40 years. She said Fatafteh’s release has undone the past 15 years of healing. “It brings it all back up again,” she said.

Senator Graham: Trump’s Gaza ceasefire lets Hamas grow stronger

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/416908

Senator Lindsey Graham criticizes President Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, citing King Abdullah’s doubts about a peace enforcement mission and Hamas’s growing power.

US Senator Lindsey Graham expressed deep concern over President Donald Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan, warning that it may unintentionally empower Hamas rather than neutralize the terror group.

In a social media post published Sunday, Graham said he fully agrees with King Abdullah of Jordan's analysis of the current security proposal for Gaza, calling the idea of an international force tasked with disarming Hamas "unrealistic."

"To expect an international force to go to war with Hamas to require their disarmament is unrealistic. To expect Hamas to disarm without the threat of confrontation is unrealistic," Graham wrote.

London’s sad decline is a warning to New Yorkers

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/27/london-decline-mamdani-sadiq-khan-new-york/

London’s economy has gone into a sad decline. And as New York prepares to elect a left-wing mayor, perhaps voters there should reflect on London’s lessons — because their city could easily be going the same way.

The depreciation of the British capital’s once powerhouse economy is becoming more obvious every day. The City of London used to be the key financial hub for all of Europe; this year it dropped out of the list of top 20 initial public offering markets in the world, overtaken by Mexico and Oman. Major British companies have shifted their listings to New York, while some newer ones don’t even bother considering London. Many of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs have decamped for Milan or Dubai, with Nikolay Storonsky, the founder of the wildly popular fintech app Revolut, the latest to join the exodus. House prices, which admittedly had reached eye-watering levels, have started to go into decline, with sales of properties of at least 5 million pounds ($6.67 million) down by about 15 percent over the last year and multimillion-pound price cuts in the ultra-luxury market.

But the main problem is surely this: London has shifted a long way to the left. The Labour Party’s Sadiq Khan is now in his third term as mayor, and has partnered with the Labour government in power nationally to crush the economic life and energy out of the city. Under Khan and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, new ideas get blocked and wealth creation is demonized. Wealthy “non-doms” (residents whose primary homes are outside Britain), who used to be taxed only on their British rather than their worldwide income, now find all of it subject to some of the highest levies in the world. Unsurprisingly, they are fleeing elsewhere. Tourists, who in most of Europe are spared the 20 percent VAT, or sales tax, now must pay it in Britain — deterring the big spenders from Asia and the Gulf who used to flock to London’s high-end stores.

Canada is poised to lose its measles elimination status — and the US could, too

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/27/health/measles-elimination-canada-us-who

Monday marks a full year of continuous measles transmission in Canada, a milestone that’s poised to set the country back decades on a global health commitment. Ongoing transmission in the United States puts it among a group of countries that also face scrutiny from international leaders and are at risk of a similar fate.

All of the World Health Organization’s regions have committed to eliminate measles by 2030, defined by the absence of local virus transmission for any period longer than 12 months. Canada achieved this goal in 1998, but falling vaccination rates set the stage for cases to grow into a massive — and ongoing — outbreak, putting the country and region at risk of losing elimination status.

The potential to lose elimination status “highlights the severity of the measles outbreak,” Bowdish said. “If you look at the other countries that also have circulating measles, you see that they are countries without strong public health like Canada and they are countries that have been torn apart by war or civil unrest. It is an eye-opener about how you need to have constant vigilance and consistent support for public health in order to fight infectious disease.”

And Canada isn’t the only country posing a risk to the region. Six others — including the US and Mexico — have active measles transmission situations that will be discussed at the PAHO commission meeting. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January to withdraw the US from WHO, but PAHO says that it expects US officials – both from the CDC and the National Sustainability Commission – to attend the commission meeting on measles elimination next month.

But measles counts continue to grow in the US, and ongoing outbreaks in multiple states — including one on the border of Arizona and Utah and one in South Carolina — are being investigated for possible connections to the Texas outbreak. If links are confirmed and cases continue to spread into January, the US will have also lost its claim to the measles elimination status that it earned in 2000.

America Can Give Refuge to British Jews

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/america-can-give-refuge-to-british-jews-d846104b?mod=hp_opin_pos_5

The U.K. has made clear they’re no longer welcome there.

The latest news out of the U.K. is beyond belief. No fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer club will be allowed to attend its Europa League game against Aston Villa in Birmingham—because of “safety concerns.” British authorities are admitting they can’t protect Jews from antisemites. Instead of confronting the haters, they’re punishing the victims. The local member of Parliament, Pakistan-born Ayoub Khan, gloated: “I welcome the news that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans will not be permitted to watch the match at Aston Villa! Well done to all those that signed our petition!”

I left Britain 14 years ago. Once a haven for Jews fleeing persecution, the country of my birth has become unrecognizable. Antisemitism isn’t creeping anymore. It’s marching down the high street, waving flags, shouting slogans, while authorities stand on the sidelines pretending it’s a “protest.”

Kelly: Senate evidence ‘does not back up’ Trump’s claims on Caribbean boat strikes

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5573828-kelly-trump-caribbean-boat-strikes-evidence

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) said he and his fellow senators were presented with evidence “that does not back up” the Trump administration’s claims that targeted boats in the Caribbean Sea are smuggling fentanyl into the U.S. 

Kelly said Sunday that while the evidence the administration presented showed there were drugs on the boats, it was not fentanyl.

Trump defies ‘America First’ agenda with Argentina beef plan

 https://thehill.com/business/5572249-argentina-beef-trump-controversy

President Trump is breaking from his “America First” trade agenda and feuding with some of his most loyal supporters in a fight over U.S. beef prices. 

Trump has centered his economic agenda around reducing the U.S.’s reliance on cheaper foreign products and boosting domestic production of goods and food. 

“I have no idea who is telling our great president — our ‘America First’ president —  that this is a good idea,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch Trump ally, in an appearance on The Tucker Carlson show this week. “Because, honestly, it’s a punch in the gut to all of our American cattle ranchers, and they are furious and rightfully so.” 

Terrorists need improvement in their material status - Western Belief

 Hi – I'm reading "SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance" by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner and wanted to share this quote with you.

"Conventional wisdom holds that the typical terrorist comes from a poor family and is himself poorly educated. This seems sensible. Children who are born into low-income, low-education families are far more likely than average to become criminals, so wouldn’t the same be true for terrorists? To find out, the economist Alan Krueger combed through a Hezbollah newsletter called Al-Ahd (The Oath)""and compiled biographical details on 129 dead shahids (martyrs). He then compared them with men from the same age bracket in the general populace of Lebanon. The terrorists, he found, were less likely to come from a poor family (28 percent versus 33 percent) and more likely to have at least a high-school education (47 percent versus 38 percent). A similar analysis of Palestinian suicide bombers by Claude Berrebi found that only 16 percent came from impoverished families, versus more than 30 percent of""rorist groups to the al Qaeda members who carried out the September 11 attacks in the United States."

"Furthermore, as Krueger points out, crime is primarily driven by personal gain, whereas terrorism is fun""fundamentally a political act. In his analysis, the kind of person most likely to become a terrorist is similar to the kind of person most likely to…vote. Think of terrorism as civic passion on steroids."

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/iniy7ig

Trump Pardons His Family’s Crypto Pal

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-pardons-changpeng-zhao-binance-9981ead2?mod=hp_opin_pos_2

America’s Founders made the presidential pardon power absolute, and they did so as a protection against injustice. But Hamilton and Madison might be having second thoughts as they watch President Trump dole out pardons as a form of political legal tender.

In the latest example, Mr. Trump on Wednesday pardoned crypto kingpin Changpeng Zhao, who happens to be a Trump family business partner. “I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything.”

Toddler dies of measles in Jerusalem

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/416818

A two-year-old girl has died at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem from complications caused by measles, raising the death toll of the ongoing outbreak of the disease to eight, all under the age of two and a half years.

"We know that the illness is being underdiagnosed, and there are a few thousand additional patients with the disease," Sharon Alroy-Preis, Israel's chief epidemiologist, said. So far, 562 patients have been hospitalized, of whom 90% are children, the majority of whom are unvaccinated. "It is clear to us that the morbidity continues and will continue. We hope that we won't see an additional increase in scope, but we need to remember that there are still thousands of unvaccinated children in Jerusalem and other localities."

‘America First’ is becoming ‘Trump First’ as the president eyes global power

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/15/politics/trump-argentina-milei-israel-gaza-ukraine-putin-analysis

Donald Trump has his finger in an awful lot of global pies for a president who was supposed to put America first.

Trump on Tuesday threatened to disarm Hamas if it didn’t give up its weapons in Gaza, raising speculation about a US military role, and crowed about obliterating another speedboat off Venezuela in his legally dubious war against drug cartels.

iddle of a US government shutdown that he claims forced him to fire hundreds of federal workers for lack of funds, he dangled a $20 billion economic bailout for Argentina — but only if voters there shore up his scandal-hit populist pal President Javier Milei.

Trump also publicly tossed around Ukraine’s desire for him to send Tomahawk cruise missiles that could strike deep inside Russia. This might risk the direct US clash with Moscow that he spent months warning against on the 2024 campaign trail. But the threat might repair his crumbled prestige after President Vladimir Putin has mocked his peace efforts.

Trump’s new zeal for global entanglements might surprise MAGA voters who thought the president meant to exclusively take care of business at home.

In his second term, as he smashes constitutional and legal restraints at home, he’s added a new dimension to his foreign policy — seeking to secure personal prestige, his legacy, a Nobel Peace Prize and a place among the world’s most powerful strongmen.

Sometimes, it feels like “America First” has become Trump first.

Ben Shapiro says Trump’s $230M DOJ payout push is ‘rife with conflicts of interest’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5573489-shapiro-slams-trump-doj-payment-effort/?tbref=hp

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro on Saturday slammed President Trump’s effort to receive a $230 million payment from the Department of Justice (DOJ) as compensation for the various federal probes into his conduct.

“I think that it’s rife with conflicts of interest,” Shapiro told NewsNation’s Batya Ungar-Sargon. 

Who Is Winning New Jersey Election? What Polls Show 10 Days Out

 https://www.newsweek.com/who-is-winning-new-jersey-election-what-polls-show-10-days-out-10926460

Mark Shanahan, who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K., previously told Newsweek Sherrill would still likely win. "It's hardly a surprise to see the Ciattarelli PAC publish a poll result in the run-up to early in-person voting showing their candidate gaining in the race," he said.

"But the reality is that New Jersey is a longtime Democrat state and it would be a major shock if Mikie Sherrill didn't prevail.

"Disquiet with the president, the ongoing legislative shutdown and the continuing economic struggle for average New Jerseyites mean they're likely to stick with the Dems at the head of state government."

Destroying White House and Corruption