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Prosecutors Furious Over Lack of White Female Jurors in Harvey Weinstein Case

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Page Six reported : On Jan. 8, the female juror, whose name is being withheld by the Post, said in open court, “I have a close friend who had an encounter with [the] defendant in his hotel room, and I do not think I can be a fair juror in this case.” Photo Credit: Getty Images

By: Rusty Brooks

Over half of the jurors in the Harvey Weinstein case are men, according to the N.Y Times.

 The N.Y Times reported: “They are systematically eliminating every young white woman on this jury,” the lead prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi, said in court on Thursday afternoon. She renewed the same protest vigorously on Friday, noting the defense had objected to “every single white woman.”

The Times also reported: “Defense lawyers said their resistance to seating certain people had to do with their responses on a questionnaire, which, in their minds, raised doubts about whether the prospective jurors could be fair. Mr. Weinstein’s lead lawyer, Donna Rotunno, said the challenges “had nothing to do with race or sex, frankly.”

The defense was also careful to eliminate any woman who had been a victim of sexual assault or had a close friend or family member as a victim. 

7 men have been picked as jurors and 5 women., 3 of them white woman. All of Weinstein’s accusers are white women. 

There was a level of difficulty picking the jurors from the start.

Page Six reported in an exclusive that: Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers asked a judge Friday to dismiss all prospective jurors present when a panelist said she couldn’t be impartial since her good friend had a run-in with the disgraced movie mogul.

This incident happened on the 4th day of jury selection for the huge trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Page Six reported : On Jan. 8, the female juror, whose name is being withheld by the Post, said in open court, “I have a close friend who had an encounter with [the] defendant in his hotel room, and I do not think I can be a fair juror in this case.”

The potential juror did not reveal any further details about her friend and the Weinstein incident.

Finally, last Friday the full jury was seated, ending a long 2-week process which included the incident that Page Six reported. 

The New York Times stated: “ Ms. Illuzzi did not say in court why having few young white women on the jury would be problematic for the prosecution, but the district attorney’s office appeared to be operating on the theory that such jurors were likely to be sympathetic to Mr. Weinstein’s accusers” 

 

Threatening Presence? Hamas Puts Checkpoint Near New Int’l Hospital

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Photo Credit: Majdi Fathi/TPS on 20 January, 2020

By: Baruch Yedid

Hamas’ security forces have established a new military checkpoint in the proximity of the new soon to be opened international-sponsored hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.

The new checkpoint established Sunday is situated near an already active checkpoint that monitors all residents and delegations entering into the Strip.

A source in Gaza told TPS that the new checkpoint was established due to the sensitivity surrounding the opening of the new hospital.

The 10-acre hospital will consist of infrastructure dismantled from the IDF’s military hospital established by Israel a few years ago on the border with Syria, and equipment donated by a US organization, Friendship NGO. This project will also include support from Qatar, which has already invested $1 million.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is opposed the project because it claims that it is part of the understandings which are currently forming between Israel and Hamas, and which are expected to deepen the split between the PA’s government in Ramallah and Hamas’ rule in Gaza.

Fatah and PA sources said in talks with TPS that “while Israel and the US are preventing financial aid and support from hospitals in the PA and eastern Jerusalem, the US is actually promoting the Gaza Strip’s suspicious plan to establish a hospital that will block the union between the two Palestinian government areas.”

Ramallah claims that the hospital is “a crime committed by Hamas against the residents of the PA,” part of a plan to kill the idea of a Palestinian state.

The PA also fears that the hospital paves the way to direct US-Hamas relations and “the beginning of a campaign that will allow the establishment of a Gazan emirate sponsored by the US.”

Hamas supports the hospital’s establishment because of the collapse of the health services in the Gaza Strip but is facing opposition from Gazan factions who oppose it because of its location, just 200 meters from the Erez Crossing, could facilitate a rapid Israeli takeover of the hospital.

Gazan factions also claim that the site was chosen by Israel and the US so that they can promote security interests through civilian organizations.

Photos of Americans from the hospital’s establishment team, dressed in uniforms that look like those worn by marines, have recently stirred criticism on social networks against Hamas’ consent for a foreign military presence in the Gaza Strip.

Radical Islam opposes the presence of foreign countries in the territory of Islamic countries. (TPS)

Bloomberg Proposes Economic Justice Plan for Black Americans   

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New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg said: “For hundreds of years America systematically stole black lives, black freedom & black labor. A theft of labor and a transfer of wealth- enshrined in law and enforced by violence…”Photo Credit: Getty Images 

By: Jared Evan 

Presidential hopeful and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg  continues to slide into the far left spectrum of the Democrat party as he rolled out his plan to force  all new cars to be electric by 2035 and new buildings to produce zero carbon emissions by 2025 as part of clean energy plans and began a race based political agenda as he rolled out the Greenwood initiative, a plan named after the Tulsa race massacre of 1921, aimed to help African American business owners and communities. 

Bloomberg, a multi-billionaire, is a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Climate, so it’s no shock a large part of his platform is based around “Global warming” climate theory. 

A.P reported: “Bloomberg’s latest climate plans build off his December plan to cut the United States’ carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. That’s less ambitious than the Green New Deal that many of his competitors have embraced that calls for achieving net-zero carbon emissions within 10 years. Bloomberg’s plans do not include total costs or specifics on how they would be paid for details his campaign advisers say they will share later.”

His rhetoric is beginning to sound more like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez every day as his campaign blurts out popular ideas among “woke” progressives about the environment, racial inequality and constant anti Trump blather on social media. 

This is a drastic turn from the pragmatic centrist Bloomberg was known for when he served 3 terms as NYC mayor.

On Sunday afternoon his campaign tweeted and posted on Facebook rhetoric you would hear from a “woke” politician like Ilhan Omar or Minister Farrakhan: “For hundreds of years America systematically stole black lives, black freedom & black labor. A theft of labor and a transfer of wealth- enshrined in law and enforced by violence…” his campaign social media handlers posted. 

 On his environmental goals, A.P reported: “The newest plan, released Friday, outlines how Bloomberg would cut down on pollution from cars and trucks, the nation’s biggest source of carbon emissions. While the plan calls for new federal standards requiring all new cars to be electric by 2035, it would require 15% of the nation’s trucks and buses to be pollution-free by 2030.

The irony of  electric cars that escapes environmentalists like Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie sanders is that according  International Council on Clean Transportation, a nonprofit that conducts research for environmental regulators: “electric vehicle manufacturing requires more energy and produces more emissions than manufacturing a conventional car because of the electric vehicles’ batteries. Lithium-ion battery production requires extracting and refining rare earth metals and is energy intensive because of the high heat and sterile conditions involved. Most lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles in Europe in 2016 were produced in Japan and South Korea, where approximately 25 percent to 40 percent of electricity generation is from coal” according to their 2018 study.

These kinds of statements and lofty ideas are crafted very carefully by campaign analysts and are designed to appeal to a specific voting population.

The “new” Mike Bloomberg, went to Tulsa, Oklahoma last Sunday on MLK weekend to discuss his “white privilege” and discussed his latest, a plan called the Greenwood initiative, a plan named after the Tulsa race massacre of 1921.

The three major goals in the racial wealth plan, called the “Greenwood Initiative,” are increasing home ownership to 1 million more African Americans, getting more capital to 100,000 more entrepreneurs — specifically black women, who make up the fastest-growing group of new entrepreneurs — and flooding 100 impoverished neighborhoods in the country with $70 billion for pilot programs and community investments, ABC news reported. 

 

Coca Cola Bldg in NYC Sold for $946M; Biggest Property Sale of 2nd Half of 2019

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According to Real Capital Analytics, the Coca-Cola building represented the biggest property sale during the second half of 2019, at $946 million. Photo Credit: wikimapia.org Coca Cola Bldg in NYC Sold for $946M; Biggest Property Sale of 2nd Half of 2019

By Tom Roberts

The second half of 2019 saw some major-league property sales go through, a good portent for 2020.

According to Real Capital Analytics, the Coca-Cola building represented the biggest property sale during the second half of 2019, at $946 million. That was followed by 341 9th Avenue, the Morgan North Post Office, at $798 million; 685 3rd Avenue, at $451 million; and 24 – 02 49th Avenue at $438 million.

The Coca-Cola Building, at 711 Fifth Avenue, went up in 1927 “and was inherited by Coca-Cola after the beverage conglomerate’s 1983 purchase of Columbia Pictures,” Crain’s New York Business reported. “SHVO and Bilgili Holding now own the 18-floor office and retail tower, which counts Allen & Co. and The Polo Bar as tenants. The developers intend to enhance the building’s public spaces and amenities.”

The 340,000-square-foot 711 Fifth has “enjoyed almost a century of institutional ownership as one of only 20 boutique office buildings along Fifth Avenue,” according to Shvo’s website. It acquired its current nickname with Coca-Cola’s 1983 acquisition of Columbia Pictures, then its largest tenant.

In October, it was announced that Tishman Speyer and the United States Post Office had finished their deal to redevelop the upper floors of a historic postal facility into a dynamic office complex above West Chelsea.
“Known as the Morgan North Postal Facility, the building was originally completed in 1933 and encompasses an entire city block from Ninth to Tenth Avenue and 29th to 30th Streets,” noted newyorkyimby.com.

“Scope of work includes a renovation of the structure’s fifth through tenth floors in addition to the creation of more than 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail along Ninth Avenue. Office tenants will access the building via three dedicated lobbies and elevator banks, located on Ninth Avenue, 30th Street, and Tenth Avenue.”

Capital improvements at 685 Third Avenue have been completed, with a new entrance, lobby, elevators and new one-of-a-kind pocket park.

Late in 2019 it was announced that Innovo Property Group had finished the recapitalization of 24-02 49th Avenue, an 830,000-square-foot mixed-use property in Queens, through a new equity joint venture with Hong Kong-based Nan Fung Group. The recapitalization transaction included debt from Axonic Capital and affiliates of Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Co.

“We took advantage of the low interest rates,” Andrew Chung, CEO of Innovo Property Group, told Commercial Property Executive. The recapitalization comes three years after IPG joined forces with Westbrook Partners to acquire the asset in a $195 million transaction.”

Israel to Host 75th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation with 50 World Leaders Arriving

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A ceremony held at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Over 50 world leaders and foreign dignitaries arrive at midweek to mark the day and vow to fight against anti-Semitism.

By: Batya Jerenberg

Security and traffic preparations have been finalized for the arrival in Israel at midweek of over four dozen heads of state and government who are expected in the Jewish State to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland from the Nazis.

Thousands of Israel Police, Border Police, and volunteers are slated to be mobilized to ensure that the delegations landing in Israel mostly on Wednesday will move smoothly and securely from Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem.

Some delegations will be arriving earlier in the week and some on the day of the main event, Thursday. Notable arrivals on that day will include U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, together with a bipartisan Congressional representation.

Local flights which normally use Terminal 1 at the airport are being moved to the international Terminal 3, to make way for the special flights with dignitaries on board. Highway One, leading to Jerusalem, as well as many streets within the capital, will periodically be closed to allow the entourages to travel to their destinations with minimum delays.

The main event of the Fifth World Holocaust Forum will take place at Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, under the title “Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Anti-Semitism.”

The event will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day a little early, as the official date is January 27, the day the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest and most infamous Nazi concentration and death camp. The objective is also to send a clear message that Jew hatred is an unacceptable phenomenon in today’s world, as well, say the organizers.

“Everyone is uniting around the message of fighting anti-Semitism,” Presidential Residence director-general Harel Tubi said.

“It shows that this is not just a problem for Jews and Israel, but one of the society in which it is developing; and therefore, when countries come here and show concern about this phenomenon,” they are telling their own people that action must be taken, Tubi added.

The number of world leaders who answered “yes” to Yad Vashem’s invitation, which was accompanied by a personal letter from President Reuven Rivlin, is unprecedented, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which says that this will be “the biggest political event ever” in the State of Israel’s history.

Many of the delegations are headed by the country’s leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Most European countries are sending either their presidents or prime ministers, while the EU as a whole will be represented by the presidents of the European Parliament and European Council. The kings of the Netherlands and Spain and Crown Prince Charles of Great Britain will add a touch of royalty to the ensemble, and the Pope is sending an envoy as well. (World Israel News)

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

 

NYC Students to Visit Battery Park Holocaust Museum for Free

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The New York City Board of Education’s answer to a rash of antisemitic attacks is education. Free admission to the Museum of Jewish Heritage will be handed out to all public school students, and teenagers who live in a trio of Brooklyn districts that boast sizeable Jewish populations will visit the museum on field trips. Photo Credit: nycgo.com

By: Allison McGuire

The New York City Board of Education’s answer to a rash of antisemitic attacks is education.

Free admission to the Museum of Jewish Heritage will be handed out to all public school students, and teenagers who live in a trio of Brooklyn districts that boast sizeable Jewish populations will visit the museum on field trips.

As part of the partnership, which was announced last Wednesday, public school students throughout New York City will be permitted to simply show up at the Battery Park museum with a student ID or report card and claim four free passes.

At the same time, eighth and 10th graders from several communities — Williamsburg, Crown Heights, and Borough Park — will visit the museum along with their schools.

The decision is a reaction by city officials to fight the smoldering atmosphere of hate that has resulted in far too many well-publicized attacks in recent months.

“We know what the result is when we don’t have this exposure,” New York City Public Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said last Wednesday. “We’re standing in a museum that’s a testament to it.”

According to the chancellor, a revised curriculum in being introduced that emphasizes lessons about bias and anti-Semitism. It will arrive in classrooms next year.

To ensure a safer and more welcoming future, we must teach our children about the destructive force of hate,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in announcing the program. “This partnership with the Museum of Jewish Heritage will give all our students and their families the chance to learn about our past to create a better future.”

“As a former social studies teacher, I know how important it is for students to learn about the past in order to understand the world around them,” said Carranza. “The lessons of The Holocaust must never be forgotten, and we’re grateful to the Museum of Jewish Heritage for expanding our partnership. In the wake of recent anti-Semitic attacks in our City, we’re committed to helping students and school communities engage in thoughtful and respectful dialogue, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage is instrumental in achieving that goal.”

“Ignorance is as dangerous as hate. The mission of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust is to educate people of all ages and backgrounds, with students being our most important audience. Deepening the Museum’s partnership with the New York City Department of Education at this critical time will give more students the knowledge to recognize antisemitism and the ability to empathize with others who may be different,” said Jack Kliger, President & CEO, Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

Deaths of Homeless in NYC Up By 39% In One Year; DeBlasio Blamed

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has another record he will need to try and live down: a spike in the number of deaths among homeless New Yorkers. Photo Credit: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

By: Jess McCord

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has another record he will need to try and live down: a spike in the number of deaths among homeless New Yorkers.

Statistics just release show that more homeless residents died in 2019 than in any other single year over the last decades.

The deaths underscore the fecklessness of the de Blasio administration, since the mayor had boasted relentlessly that he was working on improving their lot.

Numbers show that between July 2018 and June 2019, the number of homeless new Yorkers reached 404 — a disgraceful number, and a whopping 39% above the previous year. Indeed, it was the largest number of homeless deaths in the Big Apple since 2006, which is when stats began to be gathered.

Six in 10 of those who died did so in a city hospital. Others passed away outdoors or in other, unspecified locations.

The legally required annual report indicated that the most common causes of death among the homeless, in order, were drugs, heart disease, alcoholism, unspecified accidents and cancer. Ten of those who died were murdered, and 15 committed suicide. Among all those who died, 313 were men.

The overall homeless population hit an all-time record high in fiscal 2019: 63,839 were in shelters as of January 2019, according to the Coalition for the Homeless.

According to that group, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In November 2019, there were 63,092 homeless people, including 14,973 homeless families with 22,258 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families make up more than two-thirds of the homeless shelter population.

“In 2015, families entering shelters predominantly came from a few clustered zip codes in the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. However, homeless families and single adults come from every zip code in NYC prior to entering shelter,” the organization said on its web site. “The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 62 percent higher than it was ten years ago. The number of homeless single adults is 142 percent higher than it was ten years ago.”

Research shows that the primary cause of homelessness, particularly among families, is lack of affordable housing. Surveys of homeless families have identified the following major immediate, triggering causes of homelessness: eviction; doubled-up or severely overcrowded housing; domestic violence; job loss; and hazardous housing conditions.

Key Players Squabble Over Trump’s Impeachment Trial

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Criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, one of the team of lawyers defending Trump, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show that he will tell the 100 members of the Senate, who are acting as jurors deciding Trump’s fate, that “even if the facts as presented are true, it would not rise to the level of impeachment” to convict Trump and oust him from office. Photo Credit: Getty Images

By: Ken Bredemeier

Key players in the impeachment trial of President Trump and his defense argued sharply Sunday whether his efforts to get Ukraine to launch investigations to benefit him politically were impeachable offenses that warranted his removal from office.

Trump’s Senate trial formally opened last week and is set to hear opening arguments on Tuesday. But combatants in the political and legal fight over Trump’s fate waged verbal battles across the airwaves on Sunday morning news talk shows in the U.S. that offered a glimpse of the Senate drama the American public will witness in the days ahead.

Criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, one of the team of lawyers defending Trump, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show that he will tell the 100 members of the Senate, who are acting as jurors deciding Trump’s fate, that “even if the facts as presented are true, it would not rise to the level of impeachment” to convict Trump and oust him from office.

The lawmakers will be deciding whether Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the standard the U.S. Constitution set for removing a president from office. As the trial nears, the Republican-majority Senate remains highly unlikely to convict Trump, a Republican, since a two-thirds vote against Trump would be necessary to oust him from the White House.

Trump last July asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch an investigation of one of his top 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company, and a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine sought to undermine Trump’s 2016 campaign.  The phone call between the two leaders happened at the same time Trump was temporarily blocking release of $391 million in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Dershowitz argued that Trump’s actions did not amount to criminal conduct. He said that “if my argument prevails” and the Senate decides no impeachable offenses occurred, “There’s no need for witnesses” at Trump’s Senate trial and “the Senate should vote to acquit [Trump] or dismiss” the case against him.

Congressman Adam Schiff, the leader of seven House of Representative managers prosecuting the case against Trump, told ABC News’ “This Week” show, “The facts aren’t seriously contested, that the president withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to an ally at war with Russia, withheld a White House meeting that the president of Ukraine desperately sought to establish with his country and with his adversary the support of the United States in order to coerce Ukraine to helping him cheat in the next election.”

Schiff added, “They really can’t contest those facts. So the only thing really new about the president’s defense is that they’re now arguing that because they can’t contest the facts that the president cannot be impeached for abusing the power of his office.”

On Saturday, both the House lawmakers pushing for Trump’s conviction, and Trump’s defenders, filed legal arguments in the case.

The House managers said it was clear that the “evidence overwhelmingly establishes” that Trump is guilty of both charges in the two articles of impeachment he is facing.

Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team called the impeachment effort against him “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president.”

His lawyers called the impeachment effort “a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months  away.”

But Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that heard weeks of testimony about Trump and his aides’ attempts to pressure Ukraine for the Biden investigations, said the White House legal stance is “surprising in that It doesn’t really offer much new beyond the failed arguments we heard in the House.”

“So the only thing really new about the president’s defense is that they’re now arguing that because they can’t contest the facts that the president cannot be impeached for abusing the power of his office,” Schiff said. “That’s the argument I suppose you have to make if the facts are so dead set against you. You have to rely on an argument that even if he abused his office in this horrendous way that it’s not impeachable. You had to go so far out of the mainstream to find someone to make that argument you had to leave the realm of constitutional law scholars and go to criminal defense lawyers.”

The Senate has yet to decide whether it will hear witnesses in the impeachment trial, with new testimony opposed by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Democrats want to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others to testify about their knowledge of Trump’s Ukraine actions. Trump eventually released the Ukraine military aid in September after a 55-day delay without Zelenskiy launching the Biden investigations, which Republicans say is proof that Trump did not engage in a reciprocal quid pro quo deal — the military aid in exchange for the investigations to help him politically.

“We’ll be fighting for a fair trial,” Schiff said. “That is really the foundation on which this all rests. If the Senate decides, if Senator McConnell prevails and there are no witnesses, it will be the first impeachment trial in history that goes to conclusion without witnesses.”

He said, “We don’t know what witnesses will be allowed or even if we’ll be allowed witnesses. The threshold issue here is, will there be a fair trial? Will the senators allow the House to call witnesses, to introduce documents. That is the foundational issue on which everything else rests. There is one thing the public is overwhelmingly in support of and that is a fair trial.”

One of Trump’s staunchest Senate defenders, Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the “Fox News Sunday” show, called the impeachment effort “a partisan railroad job. It’s the first impeachment in history where there’s no allegation of a crime by the president.”

He said if Democrats demand to hear testimony from Bolton, Mulvaney and others, Trump will seek to invoke executive privilege against their testimony to protect the sanctity of private White House conversations.

“Clearly to me any president would ask for executive privilege regarding these witnesses,” Graham said, adding that if they were that important to the House case against Trump, Democrats should have sought their testimony during the House investigation.

Democrats did seek more testimony from White House aides, but Trump ordered them to not cooperate with the impeachment investigation; several aides complied with Trump’s edict while others did not. Democrats dropped their efforts to compel some testimony out of a fear that it would result in a lengthy legal battle that could have been tied up in U.S. for months.

Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago retreat along the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. Late Saturday, he resumed his almost daily attacks on the Democrats’ impeachment campaign against him, saying on Twitter, “What a disgrace this Impeachment Scam is for our great Country!”  (VOA News)

 

Real Estate Developer Offers New Look at Hudson Yards Tower Project

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New Yorkers were given a sneak peek at the 3 Hudson Boulevard tower this week. The new tower will be going up close to Hudson Yards. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.com

By: Jim McClintock

New Yorkers were given a sneak peek at the 3 Hudson Boulevard tower this week.

The new tower will be going up close to Hudson Yards.

The look of the 56-story tower was shown in artist’s renderings. It will take up a full block surrounded by 11th Avenue, 34th Street, Hudson Boulevard and 35th Street. Co-developers on the project are Boston Properties and The Moinian Group, while leasing is being handled by JLL.

The project – designed by FXFOWLE Architects — is expected to have more than 2,000,000 square feet of real estate.

Construction was originally supposed to begin in mid-2014 or 2015, with the building’s completion planned for 2017. Completion was later rescheduled for 2021.

The building, directly across Eleventh Avenue from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, would abut the secondary entrance to the new 34th Street – Hudson Yards subway station, built as part of the New York City Subway’s 7 Subway Extension project.

The foundation was handled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, because the subway station is directly underneath; the rest of the building is being built by Moinian Group. The foundation works started May 2016. A groundbreaking ceremony was held November 3, 2017.

Set atop rail yards, Hudson Yards is altering the Hudson River skyline with its rising skyscrapers. Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards, a mega-mall, features restaurants from star chefs, such as David Chang and José Andrés, and is home to the city’s first Neiman Marcus. The towering sculpture, New York’s Staircase (aka Vessel) and The Shed, an innovative visual and performing arts center, also command attention.

The project has hit some high profile bumps along the way. According to The New York Post, there have been a trio of design iterations, though a representative for the developer told the paper they were sure the latest design would stick.

“The plan comes from architecture firm FXCollaborative and includes a multi-story open lobby and office floors with 50,000 square foot floorplates,” noted Crain’s New York Business. “A spokeswoman for the developers said they are aiming to have tenants start moving in late 2023. The investors are still looking for an anchor tenant, however. The Moinian Group purchased the property from Verizon in 2005 for $55 million.”

Expectations remain understandably high. “In the coming years, the intersection of 34th Street and Hudson Boulevard will house one of the most imposing skyscraper clusters in the city,” is how cityrealty.com described the project. “Across from the recently-completed 55 Hudson Yards and under-construction supertalls Spire and 50 Hudson Yards, Boston Properties and Moinian Group have filed permits for 3 Hudson Boulevard, a mammoth 888-foot-tall, 56-story skyscraper that would hold 1.5 million square feet of commercial space. Like its peers at the intersection, the FXCOllaborative-designed tower would leave a hefty imprint on the skyline, rising without setbacks from the base to the flat-topped crown.”

Poland Urged to Search for Nazi Looted Art Still in Museums

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5/22/45-Fussen, Germany: While a lieutenant checks his list in the background, 7th army soldiers carry three valuable paintings down the steps of Neuschwanstein Castle at Fussen, Germany, where they were a part of the collection looted by the Nazis from conquered countries. Photo Credit: Getty Images

By: Clarence Tamler

The myriad forms of damage done by the Germans during World War II continue, specifically the widespread looting of Poland by the Nazis during World War II.

In Poland, the government continues to try and recover in excess of 63,000 works of art and cultural properties, many stolen from Jews there.

“But experts say Poland has done a poor job of providing the same justice to Dutch Jews and others whose art works were stolen during the war and ended up in German-occupied Poland and now are part of official museum collections,” the New York Times recently reported. “Seven Dutch works that researchers have identified as missing are held by one museum in Gdansk. Scholars say they suspect dozens more are in art institutions in other Polish cities where the Nazis stored cultural artifacts they had looted, or bought under dubious circumstances, from the Netherlands.”

“The Polish government wants to have as much as possible back,” Kamil Zeidler, a law professor at the University of Gdansk who has studied the issue told the Times, “but they don’t want to give anything back to others.”

According to a report by the Origins Unknown Agency, a Dutch organization that investigates cases of looted art, more than 80 art works stolen in the Netherlands by the Germans and their confederates probably wound up in Polish hands. Record keeping has been sloppy and intermittent, at best.

“There is no commitment at a museum level, or at a national level, or at a political level to return these works that are in the country,” Anne Webber, the founder and co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, a London-based nonprofit that helps to foster restitutions, told the Times.

Between 1998 and 2005, said Origins Unknown on its web site, a systematic investigation into the provenance of the individual objects in the collection was carried out by the agency, which was established by the Dutch government for that purpose.

“At the start of the research in 1998, the collection amounted to approximately 4700 cultural objects, varying from paintings (around 1600), drawings, engravings, ceramics, silver, furniture, tapestries and other special objects,” it noted. “The Origins Unknown Agency compiled a reconstruction of the provenance for every item in the collection on the basis of the information that was available at that time. That information can be consulted on this website.”

Since 2001, the group added, hundreds of objects from the NK-collection have been restituted. There may also have been new information available on individual works of art. Those searching for information on a specific work of art are urged to contact the Expert Centre Restitution by phone or e-mail in order to verify if additional information is available.

Defense Minister Takes Action Against Pro-Palestinian Anarchists

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Photo Credit: Admin on 8 January, 2020

By: Aryeh Savir

Israel’s Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday instructed the IDF to issue restraining orders against pro-Palestinian anarchists who have engaged in violence against IDF soldiers and ban them from acting in Judea and Samaria.

In his decision, Bennett noted the reoccurring riots at the Arab towns of Bil’in Na’alin, Nabi Salah and Kadum, headed by the Israeli Jonathan Polak, who is currently in police custody after being charged for assault on IDF soldiers.

“These rioters have already injured over 100 soldiers over the years, including a soldier who lost his eye,” Bennett stated.

“These violent incidents are aimed at agitating the area and causing damage to property and damage to IDF soldiers, along with serious diplomatic damage to the State of Israel in the world,” he added.

He further noted that “for some reason,” such orders have so far been issued only against right-wing activists.

“Now they will also be directed against violent pro-Palestinian rioters. I put an end to this bizarre discrimination,” he stated.

“We will work hard against anyone who acts violently against our soldiers,” he concluded.

Anti-Israel anarchists from Israel and around the world routinely arrive at potential flashpoints in the Judea and Samaria region and provoke riots against Israeli security forces stationed in the area.

These incidents are often documented by the anarchists, who then disseminate doctored footage of the confrontations, depicting IDF soldiers as cruel oppressors carrying out wanton assaults on the local population.

The Zionist organization Im Tirtzu, which runs a project aimed at exposing far-left activists who harass IDF soldiers, welcomed the decision.

“Radical left-wing activists from Israel and abroad film and harass IDF soldiers on a daily basis in order to create a campaign of delegitimization against the IDF and Israel. Im Tirtzu will continue to stand up for IDF soldiers and combat the pernicious activities of all those who seek to harm them,” it stated.

 

In a related development, TPS reported on January 8th that Israel has launched a campaign to reclaim land in Judea and Samaria that is under full Israeli control and which the Arabs are trying to take control of through illegal construction, Defense Minister Naftali Bennet declared.

Speaking at the Kohelet Forum in Jerusalem, Bennet announced that “we are embarking on a real campaign for the future of the Israeli territory.”

He was relating to Area C, which is under full Israeli control as stipulated by the Oslo Accords.

He explained that Israeli policy until he entered office a few months ago “has been to help those Arabs build in those areas that are not theirs.”

However, a month ago, he convened a meeting at the Ministry of Defense and issued a directive by which the state “will do everything to make these territories the territory of Israel,” he said.

As part of the campaign, Bennet intends to appoint an administrator to oversee its successful execution.

“We are not in the United Nations, we are the State of Israel and our political interest is to seize and settle Israeli territory,” he stated. (TPS)

Prince Harry & Meghan Markle to Relinquish Royal Titles & Return Money for Frogmore Cottage

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, also known as the Duke & Duchess of Sussex have agreed to no longer use their "HRH" titles as part of a new deal allowing them to "step back" as senior members of the Royal Family, Buckingham Palace announced Saturday. Photo Credit: Getty Images

British royal family hammers out new deal for ‘Megxit,’ allowing young couple to forge a new path off the taxpayer’s pound.

Edited by: TJVNews.com 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, also known as the Duke & Duchess of Sussex have agreed to no longer use their “HRH” titles as part of a new deal allowing them to “step back” as senior members of the Royal Family, Buckingham Palace announced Saturday.

INN reported that under the deal the Sussexes will not use titles as they pursue business and charitable ventures in the private sector and will no longer be able to formally represent the Queen in any capacity.

It is not yet clear if they will be allowed to keep their SussexRoyal brand or attend formal family events, the UK Telegraph noted..

In a statement, Queen Elizabeth said: “Following many months of conversations and more recent discussions, I am pleased that together we have found a constructive and supportive way forward for my grandson and his family.”

“Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved members of my family.

“I recognize the challenges they have experienced as a result of intense scrutiny over the last two years and support their wish for a more independent life.

“I want to thank them for all their dedicated work across this country, the Commonwealth and beyond, and am particularly proud of how Meghan has so quickly become one of the family.

“It is my whole family’s hope that today’s agreement allows them to start building a happy and peaceful new life.”

Buckingham Palace said in a statement: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are grateful to Her Majesty and the Royal Family for their ongoing support as they embark on the next chapter of their lives.”

“As agreed in this new arrangement, they understand that they are required to step back from Royal duties, including official military appointments. They will no longer receive public funds for Royal duties.

“With The Queen’s blessing, the Sussexes will continue to maintain their private patronages and associations. While they can no longer formally represent The Queen, the Sussexes have made clear that everything they do will continue to uphold the values of Her Majesty.

“The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the Royal Family.

“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have shared their wish to repay Sovereign Grant expenditure for the refurbishment of Frogmore Cottage, which will remain their UK family home.

“Buckingham Palace does not comment on the details of security arrangements. There are well established independent processes to determine the need for publicly-funded security.

“This new model will take effect in the Spring of 2020.”

On Monday, Queen Elizabeth II agreed to grant Prince Harry and Meghan their wish for a more independent life, allowing them to move part-time to Canada while remaining firmly in the House of Windsor, according to an INN report. 

The Queen said in a statement quoted by The Associated Press that the summit of senior royals on Monday was “constructive,” and that it had been “agreed that there will be a period of transition” in which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will spend time in Canada and the UK.

The summit at the queen’s Sandringham estate in eastern England marked the first face-to-face talks with Harry since he and Meghan unveiled the controversial plan to step back from their royal roles.

“My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family,” the Queen said. “Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”

Currently, Meghan is in Canada with 8-month old son Archie and is residing in a $14 million mansion on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The house is owned by a Canadian billionaire.

Prior to her marriage to Prince Harry, Markle, an actress, had lived in Canada while filming the TV series “Suits.” 

On Thursday, Prince Harry, the second son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, was present at Buckingham Palace to host a event related to the British rugby team.

Never entirely comfortable in his role as a royal, Harry expressed his concern for his wife who has been under intense press scrutiny by the British tabloids in a televised interview while engaged in a royal tour of Africa.

When asked how she felt by the press coverage that she has received since marrying Harry in May of 2018, Markle, said, “I never it would not be easy, but I thought it would be fair.” She told interviewer that she was struggling with her role due to the constant negative coverage. (INN)

 

 

Republican Muslim Candidate Dalia al-Aqidi Looks to Unseat Ilhan Omar

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Dalia al-Aqidi, a Republican Muslim candidate is looking to unseat Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar in the upcoming elections (Twitter/Dalia al-Aqidi)

“Ilhan Omar and I may seem alike, both women, Muslims, and refugees, but we couldn’t be more different,” says Dalia al-Aqidi.

By: WIN Staff

A Republican Muslim candidate is looking to unseat Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar in the upcoming U.S. elections.

Dalia al-Aqidi, an award-winning international journalist and Muslim refugee, announced her candidacy on Thursday in order to fix the discord that Omar has sown in the country.

“Ilhan Omar and I may seem alike, both women, Muslims, and refugees, but we couldn’t be more different,” said al-Aqidi in a video on her election website.

“Omar has spent her entire time in Washington sowing seeds of division and actively supporting our enemies. When President Trump ended the reign of Qasem Soleimani, a vicious terrorist and thug, Omar rushed to his defense and attacked President Trump. She claims to speak for all Muslims, but she certainly does not speak for me,” she said.

Al-Aqidi fled Iraq with her family in 1988 to escape the tyranny of  Saddam Hussein. Over the past 30 years, the former White House correspondent has been very active in the political scene by writing, producing, and hosting an array of political shows on TV and radio.

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, al-Aqidi said that she is sick and tired of Omar’s continuous anti-Semitic rhetoric.

“Muslims, Christians, Jews are all Americans,” she said. “Every time she opens her mouth she says something either anti-U.S. or anti-Semitic,” al-Aqidi said. Omar has apologized for past tweets about Israel that played on anti-Semitic tropes.”

“She’s spreading hatred, and she is spreading racism throughout not only her district, not only her state, but throughout the whole country – and this is very important,” the 51-year-old journalist told the New York Post on Thursday after announcing her bid. “She’s hurting the moderate Muslims: Muslims like myself. She doesn’t represent me as a Muslim.”

The JPost recently reported that Aqidi plans to neutralize Omar’s background as a Muslim refugee as a campaigning point by bringing her own story to the table. Omar fled Somalia with her family aged 9, while Aqidi escaped Saddam Hussein’s reign in Iraq with her family in the early 1990s when still in her 20s. “[We’re] basically the same,” she told Fox.

However, unlike Omar, Aqidi rejects identity politics and the division it brings to America, according to the JPost report.  “Muslims, Christians, Jews are all Americans,” she said, adding: “Every time she [Omar] opens her mouth, she says something either anti-US or anti-Semitic.”

Omar recently beat out neo-Nazi and white supremacist Richard Spencer and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to win the title of 2019’s “Anti-Semite of the Year.” (World Israel News)

Italian PM Conte Appoints National Coordinator for the Fight Against Anti-Semitism

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Milena Santerini, the new Italian national coordinator of the fight against anti-Semitism.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has announced on January 16th, the appointment of Milena Santerini as National Coordinator for the fight against anti-Semitism in the country.

Milena Santerini is full professor of Pedagogy and Director of the Centre for Research on Intercultural Relations at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan. She has promoted research and training activities on plurilingualism, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, and social projects on racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsyism. In 2013 she was elected member of the Italian Parliament and joined the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Born in Rome in 1953, Santerini is an Italian politician and university professor. She is a member of the culture, education and sports commission of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Italian parliament, and delegate to the Council of Europe in the equality and non-discrimination commission.

She teaches pedagogy at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, vice-president of the Shoah Memorial Foundation in Milan and member of the National Didactic Council of the Museum of the Shoah Foundation in Rome.

As Milena Santerini writes on her website “she has at heart the problems of school, family, social cohesion. She works for children’s rights and for the inclusion of migrants.’’

She has always been fighting against discrimination “towards the weakest and minorities, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia” has always been the case.

‘’On January 27, we will remember how far the hatred we all have to fight can go,’’ she wrote on Twitter.

January 27th marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and this year marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

In a related development, JTA reported on January 17th that  police in the northeast Italian city of Trieste analyzed security videos to identify and arrest a man suspected of vandalizing the city’s synagogue twice in the past few months.

The suspect was accused of breaking two windows “for the purposes of ethnic-religious hatred,” police said.

JTA reported that a statement issued this week said careful analysis of the video enabled police to identify the suspect, an unemployed Italian man around 30 years old who was already “known to the police.”

They said he punched out exterior windows at the synagogue on October 24, 2019, and January 3, 2020, according to the JTA report.  Trieste Police posted security videos on its Facebook page showing the man walking back and forth in front of the synagogue and jumping up on its wall. He also turns to the camera, makes the sign of the cross and mimics shooting a pistol, as was reported by JTA. 

The police announcement said the man, whose name was not released, confessed to the vandalism, saying it had a “mystical-religious meaning.” Local media reported that when police detained the man, he shouted anti-Semitic invective at them, including “I would kill all Jews — If you were Jews and we were at war, I would kill you both.”

 

British Gov’t Moves to Freeze all Hezbollah Assets After Declaring them a Terrorist Group Last Year

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The UK has announced that they will expand the freeze on all assets connected Hezbollah after declaring the entire group as a terrorist organization last year. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Edited by: TJVNews.com

According to a Reuters report, the UK has announced that they will expand the freeze on all assets connected Hezbollah after declaring the entire group as a terrorist organization last year.

The development was announced by Britain’s Treasury in a statement on Friday in which it said it was given the authority to do so under its Terrorism and Terrorist Financing rules. 

i24 News reported that for a number of years, only the military wing of Hezbollah was designated as a terror organization by members of the European Union. 

The UK’s Home Secretary Sajid Javid decided to place the entire Hezbollah organization on a terrorist blacklist in February of 2019. He said that the move was in response to the devastating destabilization throughout the Middle East.

In February of 2019, the British government brought a proposal before Parliament to ban Hezbollah and two other radical Islamic organizations as terrorist groups.

“A draft order, laid in Parliament today, will proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety alongside Ansaroul Islam and JNIM who operate in the Sahel region in Africa.”

“The government has taken the decision to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety on the basis that it is no longer tenable to distinguish between the military and political wings of Hizballah.”

The ban criminalizes membership in Hezbollah. Members or supporters of the terror group will be liable to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Britain had hitherto distinguished between the military and political wings of Hezbollah, banning the military wing while permitting the political wing to remain a legal organization in the UK.

“Hezbollah is continuing in its attempts to destabilize the fragile situation in the Middle East – and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party. Because of this, I have taken the decision to proscribe the group in its entirety,” Javid said.

Javid’s move followed warnings by MPs that the UK had drawn a false distinction by proscribing Hezbollah’s military wing but not its political side.

This loophole in British law has allowed participants in the annual Al-Quds Day march through central London to wave the Hezbollah flag, featuring an assault rifle.

At the end of last year, Javid acknowledged that Hezbollah chiefs had themselves questioned the distinction between its military and political activities.

Members of Congress in the United States have urged the EU to designate all branches of Hezbollah as a terror group, after several Hezbollah parliamentarians in Lebanon were caught on camera calling for terror against Israelis.

The entire group is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, Canada, the Arab League, Australia along with various countries in South America, according to the i24 News report. 

Hezbollah was first established in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and is an important part of a regional Tehran-led alliance known as “the axis of resistance,” according to Reuters. 

DeBlasio Rolls Out a $95.3B Preliminary Budget for New York City

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Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing the preliminary budget Thursday. Photo Credit: Mayor's Office

Edited by: TJVNews.com

In deference to cost cutting measures and the humungous Albany $6 billion deficit, New York City Mayor rolled out his  tentative fiscal year 2021 budget on Thursday. The budget package which includes $95.3 billion in spending is up less than 1 percent from the $94.6 billion the City Hall projected it will spend through fiscal 2020 at the end of June, according to a NY Post report.

Mindful of money problems, this budget contains no big expenditures and has the smallest spending increases DeBlasio has ever requested.

During a City Hall press conference as he laid out his initial spending plan, DeBlasio said, “We do know that we’ve never seen this kind of state deficit, we’ve never seen this kind of threat to our Medicaid recipients, we’ve never seen this kind of threat to the Health and Hospitals Corporation. He later added, “Right now, it’s not the time,” when reporters inquired as to why the new ideas of his budget were so limited. “I want to protect all the big initiatives that are underway already,” he said.

The mayor did not identify or detail any of the sidelined initiatives. He said that that information cannot be discussed until the state provides answers for the budget. 

The Citizens Budget Commission has said that the city’s budget has increased 15,6 percent in the last two years due to the enormous costs involved in operating  Medicaid, the health insurance program for indigent New York City residents.

The mayor warned of possible Medicaid cuts up to $2 billion in New York City alone.

The city’s Health + Hospitals would carry the brunt of the costs under any cuts to the Medicaid program, de Blasio said, according to a report on the Gothamist.com web site.

“I mean you’re talking about a lot of families who need health care who just wouldn’t get it,” de Blasio told reporters at the press conference. “Clearly this would endanger the strength of Health + Hospitals. It would mean less personnel, it would mean longer wait times.”

CBC head Andrew Rein said, “The budget problem in Albany is real. We need a sustainable Medicaid program and this is not it in any way, shape or form.”

Next week, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo will be addressing the budget crisis as he rolls out his initial proposal, according to the Post report.

Many mayors and county leaders in New York were somewhat taken aback when Cuomo touched upon the budget issue in his recent State of the State address in Albany. During his speech, he argued that local municipalities should shoulder more of the financial burden.  

Cuomo said during his speech that New York City’s share would be approximately $2 billion and DeBlasio repeated that figure when he laid out his spending plan on Thursday.  

A chief spokeswoman for Cuomo, Dani Lever  said, ““We have heard of smoke and mirrors and political straw but how the mayor can claim he is reacting to cuts from the State before the State has even proposed a budget is spreading the political cream cheese too thick even for a toasted bagel.”

On Thursday, DeBlasio said that he has not spoken with Cuomo since the governor’s address in which he spoke about the possible shifts in shouldering the costs.

According to the latest projections, officials initially indicated that the 2020 budget would call for $92.8 billion, but it has increased to $94.6 billion.   

The Post report said that DeBlasio attributed much of the new spending in his $95 billion plan to new labor contracts with city unions, new spending on special education in city schools and costs associated with the state-ordered overhaul of the criminal justice system, which expanded discovery requirements and nixed bail for most non-violent offenses.