As wildfires destroyed most of the 50 or so homes in the town of Mevo Modi’in in central Israel on Thursday, Israelis from all around the country and Jewish organizations have sent emergency assistance to the families affected as Shabbos approached. The moshav had a population of 246 in 2017.
Some 3,500 residents were evacuated from their homes in the extended area affected by the fires with only a few minutes warning, with more than 200 returning on Friday morning to find their homes severely damaged, and some even burnt to the ground. According to Magen David Adom spokesman Zaki Heller, two-dozen people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, including two in moderate condition.

Deaths of victims killed by MS-13 could have easily been prevented.
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Many U.S. households find themselves in a fragile position financially, even in an economy with an unemployment rate near a 50-year low, according to a Federal Reserve survey.
The Fed’s 2018 report on the economic well-being of households, published Thursday, indicated “most measures” of well-being and financial resilience “were similar to, or slightly better than, those in 2017.” The slight improvement coincided with a decline in the average unemployment rate to 3.9% last year, from 4.3% in 2017.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) slumped in his chair and appeared to briefly collapse at a press conference in New York, according to several reports, but appears to be fine after receiving medical attention and a drink of water. When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked if he was OK, Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, apparently said “no” before putting his hand over his face.

The Trump administration, facing rising tensions with Iran, plans to reinforce its military presence in the Middle East by sending another few thousand forces to the region to step up missile defense and surveillance, according to U.S. officials.
The decision to send the additional forces to U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations across the Middle East, was made late Thursday during a meeting at the White House between President Donald Trump and top Pentagon leaders, the officials said.
Ahead of the meeting, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan said the purpose of any additional troops would be to ensure the protection of U.S. forces and avoid the risk of Iranian miscalculation that could lead to a broader conflict.

A women’s-only pond in North London will now be open to transgender swimmers, which will prevent Orthodox Jews from using the pond.
A group of ultra-Orthodox women are planning to fight the decision, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported.
The decision concerning the pond on Hampstead Heath was announced this week. Edward Lord, who headed the committee that approved the change, said it “will ensure our public services do not discriminate against trans people.”
The Hampstead ponds also include one for men only and one for mixed swimming.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}

A get refuser who was jailed for 18 years was sentenced to another 15 months by a Yerushalayim court for persisting in his refusal.
The decision to send him back behind bars was based on a 2016 decision of the attorney general that defying a bais din’s order to divorce one’s wife is a criminal offense.
The state bais din rejects a private bais din’s spurious decision that the marriage was void. Paradoxically, feminist organizations helping the wife do accept the private bais din’s opinion and are against the husband returning to jail.
 {Matzav.com Israel}

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Thursday hammered President Trump for saying he had bone spurs to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War, saying he faked the disability.
“Well, I have a pretty dim view of his decision to use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam,” Buttigieg, an Afghanistan War veteran, said during a livestreamed interview with The Washington Post.
“Yeah, at least not that one,” he doubled down when asked if he thought the condition was faked. “This is actually really important because I don’t mean to trivialize disability, but I think that’s exactly what he did.”