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As Hanukkah dawns, a deal that could bring my grandfather and 99 other hostages home from Hamas captivity after more than a year of suffering may finally be within reach. Every Hanukkah, my grandfather Shlomo Mantzur, a true handyman, was in his element as he crafted his own menorahs. He always won the yearly menorah-making competition at his home of Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel. We used to call him the Light of the Family, with that big smile that would spread warmth wherever he went.

Physical abuse, torture, psychological terror, starvation, in Israel's report to the UN; teens beaten in their genitals, suffering burns; hostages witness others being murdered; Caution: hard to read content. "Teenagers were forced to commit sexual acts on each other, most women were sexually assaulted": This was described in the harrowing report spread over eight pages, that includes horrific testimony of hostages who were freed from Hamas captivity. The report that was prepared by the Health Ministry was submitted to the UN last week. It describes neglect, abuse, torture and humiliation that the hostages endured. The report begins with a description...

My friend @JoshuaSteinman is dropping bombshells about H-1B visas, and I’ve got a story to add. tl;dr – It’s a cultural problem. I spent years in India, working directly for one of the country’s wealthiest individuals. He recruited me for my computer skills to lead some of the most ambitious, technically challenging projects ever attempted. We broke world records and unlocked trillions in wealth. My boss? He now lives in a skyscraper in Mumbai. Toward the end of the project, he told me his best engineers were leaving for Silicon Valley, lured by unbelievable salaries. So, on his recommendation, I...

GOP leaders are staring down two bad options to solve President-elect Donald Trump's debt-limit problem, after failing to execute his demand to lift the federal borrowing cap in the last government funding bill. One path requires full buy-in from Republican lawmakers to address the issue via budget reconciliation — a huge challenge thanks to the party’s fierce fiscal hawks. The other entails winning over Democrats, who for the most part rejected Trump’s initial debt-limit gambit this month. “Whoever advised the president that it was even possible needs to better understand how this place works,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said about...

Jimmy Carter’s run-in with a swamp rabbit on a Georgia pond became a metaphor for a sinking White House term.On a spring day in 1979, a waterborne rabbit approached the leader of the free world as he fished near his home in Georgia. President Jimmy Carter splashed it with an oar, seeing the creature was “clearly in distress, or perhaps berserk … making strange hissing noises and gnashing its teeth,” his press secretary Jody Powell later wrote. The rabbit swam away, its pair of bunny ears visible above the water line.Four months later, news of the peculiar incident transformed it...

A poll recently conducted by the Angus Reid Institute has shown that the Liberals have fallen to third place nationally. The Conservatives, meanwhile, have risen even closer to 50%. According to the poll, 45% of Canadians expressed an intention to vote for Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives, up 2% since the survey was last sent out. The NDP under Jagmeet Singh gained 1% support, bringing their total to 21%. With Justin Trudeau at the helm, the Liberals lost five points, coming in at just 16%. The Conservatives saw their support grow or remain stable in every region of the country, save for...

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles sent a message Sunday ordering nominees to refrain from any posting on social media as Senate confirmation hearings are scheduled to start next week. “While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,” Wiles wrote in a memo obtained by The Post. “Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel,” she said in the Dec. 29 missive. The first-ever female...

When it comes to going “woke,” U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman is at the forefront of trying to block the federal government from pursuing these controversial social policies. On Monday, Hageman was named chair of the Anti-Woke Caucus, a group of U.S. House Republicans dedicated to fighting the growing influence of "woke" ideologies in government, business and society. She will be taking over from U.S. Senator-elect Jim Banks, R-Ohio. “Harriet Hageman has played a critical role in our caucus since Day 1, and I can think of no one better to lead our members as they work alongside the Trump administration,”...

A Ukrainian drone attack igniting a fire at a fuel and energy facility in Russia's... Ukraine's capital of Kiev under attack late tonight... A drone attack by air and sea on the Russian port city of... An arrest warrant issued for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol... This evening a missile fired by Houthi forces in Yemen intercepted by Israeli...US and British air strikes in Yemen... In Israel the Attorney General criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's appointment... The US Treasury reporting hacking of if its systems..."Chinese state-sponsored hacker'... In the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago a state of emergency......

Jack Smith withdrew from his appeal of the lawfare classified documents case against Trump and handed it over to the US Attorney’s Office in Florida on Monday. “The Special Counsel has now referred this case to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, which has separately entered an appearance,” Jack Smith wrote. JUST IN: The special counsel’s office has handed off the remnants of its Trump case in Florida to the US attorney’s office. pic.twitter.com/fM8JaT0VwD — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 30, 2024 Last month Jack Smith asked a federal appeals court to pause the classified documents...

In a move that signals a shift in priorities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced the termination of two programs aimed at providing social services to illegal immigrants, citing unsustainable costs and misalignment with the agency's core mission. One of the discontinued programs, the Wraparound Stabilization Service (WSS), was designed to offer psychosocial and behavioral health support for migrants. However, ICE noted that the program showed minimal effectiveness, with only a 2% improvement in compliance rates compared to those not receiving services. Describing the program as "immensely cost with little improvement," ICE ended referrals in July. The second program,...

A now-banned FReeper used to do this every year, these were always fun.

The election is over, Trump has been reelected, but the lawfare continues nonetheless. On Monday, a federal appeals court that must have been under the influence of some psychotropic drug upheld Trump’s liability for supposedly sexually abusing the partisan fantasist E. Jean Carroll in a Bloomingdale’s dressing room sometime in the 1990s. Carroll’s story has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese that has been used for target practice, but despite lacking any evidence, she keeps winning in court — believe all women, doncha know, even the crazy mendacious ones. Trump’s team is going to keep on appealing, and...

It’s amazing how many leftists are ashamed of their bodies but have absolutely zero shame about their minds, their belief systems, or their sexual choices. It’s also amazing how Orwellian Newspeak has conquered the English language. “Gay” used to mean “happy.” Now it means “homosexual.”***Geneticists have yet to find a “gay gene.” Homosexuality (and other peculiarities it spawns) evidently arises not from nature, but from nurture: environmental factors.Drill deeply enough into homosexuals’ memories, and far too often, there’s a history as a child sexual abuse victim. And there’s an entire community — online, at school, in the big city —...

The ongoing spread of bird flu in the United States has alarmed experts – not just because of human cases causing severe illness, but also due to troubling new instances of infections in cats.

The Russian-occupied port of Sevastopol, Crimea has come under renewed attack by Ukraine's drone forces after a monthslong lull. Three loud and heavy explosions were reported in Kozacha Bay late Monday night, and citizen journalists said that a large fire was burning in the area. Both aerial and maritime drone attacks were reported. Sevastopol's Russian-backed governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, told state media that two Ukrainian aerial drones had been shot down over the Black Sea. He did not confirm local reports of large blasts. Kozacha Bay is located five miles southwest of the main harbor, which is more heavily protected by...

As what’s left of the Biden administration winds down, I’d like to offer an end-of-days reminder: Joe Biden wasn’t just a terrible president. His Attorney General Merrick Garland was an equally terrible leader of the Department of Justice. Garland, you may recall, was nominated for the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died suddenly a few months before the 2016 election. Republicans sat on Garland’s nomination, maintaining that the seat should be filled by a new president. We were told that this was hideously unfair and partisan, especially because, as the Obama administration and...

Slovak Prime Minister Fico said Ukraine would pay for the "Western adventure" with its territory and foreign troops.BRATISLAVA, December 28 (Sputnik) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Ukraine will pay for the "Western adventure" with its territory and the presence of foreign troops. "I do not understand that the Ukrainian political leadership is dragging the entire country into disaster, because Ukraine's negotiating position is getting worse every day. Ukraine will pay a huge price for this Western adventure in the form of loss of territory and the presence of foreign troops," Fico said in a video message published on...

Having officially claimed 7 million lives worldwide, Covid-19 has become a less serious disease, even if it remains more deadly than the flu. It was a lighting, global spread rarely seen in recent human history, comparable in scale to the Spanish flu of 1918. Since December 31, 2019, the date of the first reports of the first cases of viral pneumonia in Wuhan, China, a large part of the human population has been contaminated with Covid-19, a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), of the 776.8 million cases officially recorded over five years...

Engine Cadillac has fitted the 2025 XLR Convertible with a strong and productive V8 motor to fulfill. The superior presentation needs of the present extravagance purchasers. In the engine, this roadster includes a 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged V8, conveying an expected 600 drive and 590 lb-ft of force. This motor plan, roused by Cadillac’s hustling legacy. Empowers the XLR to accomplish a 0-60 mph time in just shy of four seconds. The motor’s low focus of gravity and lightweight development add to the XLR’s nimble taking care. Price The 2025 Cadillac XLR Convertible positions itself inside the extravagance sports vehicle market with...