Washington – Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election bore some of the textbook tricks of the trade of Kremlin spycraft, including the volume and breadth of contacts with Trump associates, former FBI officials told lawmakers Wednesday in the latest congressional hearing dedicated to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report . The [...]

Washington – With just over three weeks to go, exactly what’s going to happen in Washington on the Fourth of July remains a subject of intense confusion. Will the nation’s premier Independence Day celebration be centered around the Washington Monument or shift to the Lincoln Memorial, as the White House has reportedly requested? Will President [...]

Washington – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Wednesday that if she wins the White House, her Justice Department “would have no choice” but to pursue an obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump after he leaves office. The California senator and some other Democrats in the 2020 race are pushing their party to [...]

Ramallah – Palestinians urged Egypt and Jordan on Wednesday to reconsider their attendance at a U.S.-led conference on June 25-26 in Bahrain, voicing concern it would weaken any Arab opposition to Washington’s coming peace plan. The United States has billed the gathering as a workshop to boost the Palestinian economy as part of a broader [...]

Jerusalem – The Israeli military says it has overhauled its air-raid warning system in order to minimize disruptions to the general population. The army said on Wednesday that it is has divided the country into 1,700 alarm zones, up from the current 255 zones. Ariel Blitz, head of public preparedness at the military’s home front [...]

Jerusalem – Prosecutors say that Sara Netanyahu, wife of Israel’s prime minister, has agreed to a plea bargain settling allegations that she misused some $100,000 of state money on lavish meals. The State Attorney’s office said Mrs. Netanyahu will pay roughly $15,000 in fines to close the case, which accused her of running up large [...]

Jerusalem – Israel is rolling out the red carpet for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who arrives next week to collect the Genesis Prize, a prestigious award dubbed by its sponsors as the “Jewish Nobel Prize.” The ceremony on June 20 would mark Kraft’s highest-profile public appearance since he was charged in February. He [...]

New York – Musicologist and publisher Velvel Pasternak, who published more than 150 volumes of Jewish music, has died. Pasternak, who also conducted and arranged music, died on Tuesday in New York City at the age of 86. He founded Tara Publications in 1971. The goal of the company was the publication, preservation and dissemination [...]

Beirut – Syria’s state-run news agency says Israel has attacked a military position in southern Syria, causing material damage. SANA said that during the Wednesday morning attack on al-Harra hill, Syrian air defenses were able to shoot down some of the Israeli missiles before they reached their target. The agency said that “after the aggression,” [...]

Hong Kong – Hong Kong police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who had massed outside government headquarters Wednesday in opposition to a proposed extradition bill that has become a lightning rod for concerns over greater Chinese control and erosion of civil liberties in the territory. The afternoon violence marked a major escalation [...]