Jackie Robinson’s Army story restored after Defense Department DEI purge

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/03/19/jackie-robinson-defense-department-dei-purge/

An article on the Department of Defense website telling the story of Jackie Robinson, which was apparently removed in a purge of articles related to diversity, equity and inclusion as of Wednesday morning, reappeared later that afternoon. The article, part of the department’s series on athletes who served, highlighted the Hall of Fame hero’s life and service before he broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

The disappearance appeared to be another part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government. Articles about a Pima Indian who was one of the six Marines photographed hoisting a U.S. flag on Iwo Jima in 1945 as well as multiple stories about the Navajo Code Talkers and Japanese American veterans had been deleted. A Defense Department webpage about Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers, a Medal of Honor recipient who was Black, was briefly removed, then restored after an outcry.

A U.S. Retreat in the War of Ideas

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/radio-free-asia-radio-liberty-donald-trump-elon-musk-ronald-reagan-902c8c37?mod=hp_opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s

On Saturday Mr. Trump ordered the termination of grants for Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Voice of America, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and Television Marti), the Open Technology Fund and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks are also being dismantled. This is a retreat in the global war of ideas.

The news agencies were created to counter communism and spread the truth in countries where media are controlled by governments that lie about the world. As Natan Sharansky and other former prisoners of communism attest, Radio Free Europe was a source of inspiration as it broadcast throughout countries like Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. It’s the same in China, Cuba and other dictatorships today.

Rabbi’s explosive letter exposes suicide crisis in U.S. Haredi community

 https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/std3g8

A prominent figure in New York’s Haredi community has unleashed a blistering critique of what he calls a hidden "epidemic of suicides," rocking the ultra-Orthodox world in the United States with a call for urgent action. Rabbi Yitzchak Mordechai Brach, a senior leader of the "Chesed Shel Emet" Chevra Kadisha and director of the Yereim Funeral Home in Brooklyn, issued a scathing open letter this week, accusing rabbinic authorities of covering up a growing wave of suicides and failing to address a mental health crisis that he claims is claiming lives weekly.

The letter, published by Kikar HaShabbat, comes on the heels of several recent tragedies within the Haredi sector. Rabbi Brach, whose role in the Chevra Kadisha gives him firsthand insight into the community’s deaths, pulls no punches. "They tell the public stories about accidents, but we – the members of the Chevra Kadisha – know the truth," he writes. "We witness unfortunate cases every week of people ending their lives in ways that defy comprehension."

"אנשים מסיימים את חייהם בדרכים שלא נתפסים בדעת" | המכתב שמטלטל את ארה"ב

 https://www.kikar.co.il/haredim-news/haredi-rabbi-suicide-crisis

הרב יצחק מרדכי בראך, מראשי החברא קדישא בניו יורק, יוצא במכתב חריף נגד התופעה המחרידה של אובדנות בקרב הציבור החרדי בארה"ב, וקורא להקמת מרכזי סיוע דחופים | לדבריו, הרבנים מתכחשים ומסתירים את הסיפורים | המכתב המלא (חרדים)

Bondi says judge has ‘no right’ to ask flight deportation questions - Trump's lawyer has new way to justify dictatorship

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5204161-bondi-judge-flight-deportation/?tbref=hp

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the district judge who ordered the Trump administration to return deportation flights over the weekend has “no right” to be asking questions about the specifics.

“Our lawyers are working on this, we will answer appropriately,” Bondi said Wednesday on Fox News. “But what I will tell you is, this judge has no right to ask those questions.”

On Wednesday, with the deadline nearing, Bondi said Boasberg had no “business, no power” to order the administration to return the flights. She argued that it has been a “pattern” from liberal judges to order things they have no jurisdiction to do.

Captured Gaza records show that Iran, Hezbollah plotted with Hamas to destroy Israel

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/captured-gaza-records-show-that-iran-hezbollah-plotted-with-hamas-to-destroy-israel/

New study, based on classified documents, reveals terror group’s shift from defense to a multifront assault plan, culminating in October 7 invasion; warns Hamas will try again if it recovers

In the years leading up to its invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, Hamas developed a concrete plan to destroy the Jewish state, in full coordination with Hezbollah and Iran, according to classified documents published by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

The Hamas documents reveal that in the lead-up to October 7, Iran was a critical player in funding Hamas’s plan to destroy Israel, that the Gaza-based terror group pushed for a coordinated attack from multiple fronts, and that its leader Yahya Sinwar believed that his military force could push Israel toward collapse.

Hamas’s devastating large-scale attack, which caught the nation off guard, involved coordinated land, sea, and air assaults, marking a significant escalation in its long-standing goal to destroy Israel. Despite years of military buildup in Gaza and strategic shifts, Israeli intelligence had not anticipated the scale or suddenness of the attack, leaving security forces badly unprepared.

Republicans quiet out of fear ‘they’re going to be taken down’ - Terrorized by Trump-Musk

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5203747-lisa-murkowski-senate-republicans-trump-musk/

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says that few Senate Republicans are willing to speak out against actions by the Trump administration and Elon Musk because most fear for their political lives.

Murkowski, one of the foremost centrists in the GOP conference, told reporters Tuesday that many of her colleagues are scared of the attacks she and others who have been willing to buck Trump and the party have faced. That is why they are unwilling to take steps that put them out of line and in the crosshairs of Trump supporters and conservatives. 

“I get criticized for what I say, and everybody else is like, ‘How come nobody else is saying anything?’ Well, figure it out, because they’re looking at how many things are being thrown at me, and it’s like, ‘Maybe I should just duck and cover,’” Murkowski said during an appearance at the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau. 

“That’s why you’ve got everybody just zip-lipped, not saying a word because they’re afraid they’re going to be taken down — they’re going to be primaried, they’re going to be given names in the media,” she continued. “We cannot be cowed into not speaking up.”

GOP lawmakers conflicted over Trump’s clash with judiciary

 https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5201879-trump-federal-judiciary-battle/?tbref=hp

Republican lawmakers are conflicted over how to respond to President Trump’s confrontational standoff with the federal judiciary, which drew a rare public rebuke Tuesday from Chief Justice John Roberts.

Trump and his allies are directing their attacks more frequently against judges who threaten to slow or block the president’s ambitious agenda, putting GOP lawmakers in an uncomfortable spot.

Republican officeholders are leery of criticizing Trump for fear of becoming the target of his wrath or a primary challenge, yet privately they worry about the president’s efforts to expand his executive power, which could reverberate far into the future.

Judge gives Trump administration 1 more day to turn over deportation flight info

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5203321-trump-administration-deportation-flights-judge-extension/

.S. District Judge James Boasberg gave the Trump administration a one-day extension to turn over information about deportation flights that left the country Saturday, as the government suggests it may invoke a state secrets privilege. 

Boasberg issued the extension minutes before the Wednesday noon EDT deadline the Justice Department faced to provide the information.

“Although their grounds for such request at first blush are not persuasive, the Court will extend the deadline for one more day,” Boasberg, an appointee of former President Obama, wrote in a brief order. 

Schlesinger Twins: An aspect of the debate between Rabbi Kennard and Rabbi Schochet

Guest Post:

There is currently a debate taking place from opposite sides of the globe between Rabbi Kennard ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kennard ), the Principal of Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne, Australia, and Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzchak_Schochet ), Rabbi of the Mill Hill Synagogue in London.

The discussion started when Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence announced his returning to London thereby leaving his post at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, the largest of its kind and one of the biggest shuls in Australia. Rabbi Kennard wrote a piece in the Australian Jewish News encouraging the decision-makers the Great Synagogue to consider non-Chabad Modern Orthodox Rabbis for this position.

Rabbi Schochet took it upon himself to respond to this article and wrote how Chabad Rabbis take on their community "akin to marriage": http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=28949

This prompted Rabbi Kennard to respond with his article titled "Chabad is not the only way" and noted the silence from every Chabad Rabbi around the world with regard to the "custody case in a European city where the Chabad director insists on remaining neutral in a conflict that pits good against evil" (The Schlesinger twins in Vienna).

Rabbi Schochet in turn responded with an accusation of misinterpreting the facts, which Rabbi Kennard denies and provides the sources. It is interesting to note that Rabbi Schochet omitted to refer to the aforementioned custody case.< The debate has reached a standstill in that Rabbi Schochet has refused to contribute to the AJN because he accuses them of bias ( http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=29128 ), yet I have tried to comment on the colive debate but have been moderated. Looking at the one-sided nature of the comments on both of those articles, it looks like many other people have been moderated on colive too.< I encourage Daas Torah to bring this discussion to the fore and for everyone to read both sides of this discussion at:

https://www.facebook.com/RabbiJamesKennard

http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=28949

http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=29128

I believe the Daas Torah blog to be totally unbiased in its moderation of comments and look forward to reading people's thoughts.

White House escalates attacks on judge in deportation case: ‘Egregious abuse of the bench’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5203530-white-house-trump-deportation-judge-attack/

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday stepped up attacks on a federal judge that ordered flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to be turned around, decrying him as a “Democrat activist” despite originally being nominated by a Republican president.

The judge is demanding information about several deportation flights that left U.S. soil Saturday and whether they violated his order. The Justice Department insists it complied because the flights had left U.S. territory by the time the judge’s written order was issued. It has since cited national security concerns as a reason to not be more forthcoming with details of what happened over the weekend.

Trump has called for Boasberg to be impeached over the ruling. While that is unlikely —impeaching a judge would require a majority in the House and 67 votes in the Senate — Trump’s attack still drew a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Trump administration ends "segregated facilities" ban in federal contracts - Bringing back the Good old days?!

 https://www.axios.com/2025/03/18/trump-end-segregated-facilities-ban-contracts

The Trump administration has announced the federal government will no longer unequivocally prohibit contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.

Trump-Putin call seen as victory in Russia

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjevg23enggo

Why are some in Russia claiming "victory" after this two-hour phone call?

Probably because, by the end of it, Vladimir Putin hadn't been pressured into making any major concessions to Ukraine or to the United States. On the contrary, he had - in effect - rejected President Trump's idea of an immediate unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

Instead of pressuring Moscow with the threat of even tougher sanctions and penalties, to get Russia to sign up to its plan, the US administration reacted by praising the Kremlin leader.

Not only did Moscow not agree to an unconditional ceasefire, President Putin set his own pre-conditions for peace.

They include an end to Western military aid to Kyiv and intelligence sharing with the Ukrainians, as well as a halt to mobilisation in Ukraine. Such conditions are widely viewed as a way of securing Ukraine's capitulation.

It's hard to see Kyiv agreeing to any of that.

Stranded NASA Astronauts Return: Celebrities Speak Out

 https://www.newsweek.com/celebrities-speak-out-stranded-nasa-astronauts-2046978

Wilmore and Williams' journey to the International Space Station (ISS) began on June 5 when they boarded Boeing's Starliner crew capsule. They were expected to spend about a week in space, however, after their vessel encountered technical issues, the Starliner was sent back to Earth without them and their return home was delayed. They were then reassigned to SpaceX—the astronautics company founded by Elon Musk.

Since then, their return has continually been pushed back, and it's become a topic of political discussion, with President Donald Trump blaming former President Joe Biden for their nine-month stay. That claim, however, wasn't true since Wilmore and Williams were already scheduled to return on a SpaceX flight before Trump pushed for Musk to get them.