National

28 land to abstain from a 2019 United Nations Human Rights Council vote to condemn Israel over the Golan Heights. He The Jewish Home | JULY 14, 2022 was later forced to punish the ambassador, after receiving both internal and external threats, the diplomat added. On Saturday, a spokesperson for Somalia’s president said that the government is expected to consult its Parliament on the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

Florida Battles Giant Snails

Efforts have begun in Florida to eradicate invasive giant African snails capable of eating building plaster and stucco.

The snails also consume 500 varieties of plants and carry diseases that affect humans. According to officials, work began last week to eradicate the snails, which can grow to a length of eight inches.

State agriculture officials in New Port Richey, Florida, confirmed late in June that the snails bearing whirled, brown mottled shells were seen in the area just north of the Tampa Bay area..

Florida has eradicated these snails twice before in other parts of the state, most recently in a decade-long effort which ended in 2021 and collected about 170,000 of the snails. The snails have likely returned due to illegal international exotic pet trade or arriving hidden in cargo from overseas.

In a statement, Nikki Fried, commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, promised, “We will eradicate these snails. We’ve done it before, and we will do it again.

“They are one of the most damaging snails in the world,” Fried added. He emphasized, “This is not something you want to touch. It is not something you want to eat.”

A quarantine area has been set up in Pasco County, where the snails were

Luxurious Mansion Perfect For Getaways & Simchos!

 Sleeps 30+ Comfortably  Kosher Catering Available  Sefer Torah, Siddurim, & Chumashim

(available upon request)  Shabbos Lamps in Every Room  Eiruv On Property  Seasonal Pool & Hot Tub  5 Acres Call Kia today to book your getaway! Marlborough, CT 860.455.6057/engagedct@gmail.com Vrbo #2248396

American Airlines to Triple Pilots’ Pay

American Airlines has agreed to pay its pilots triple their usual rate after a computer glitch left thousands of flights with understaffed cockpits last week.

The malfunction, which occurred early Saturday morning, allowed pilots to drop flights the airline was counting on them to fly throughout the rest of July, in order to take time off.

The number of affected flights has already surged past 12,000, the Allied Pilots Association (APA) reported.

American Airlines employs approximately 13,000 APA members.

In addition to the triple pay, American has also agreed to permanent double-time pay for pilots who fly on peak days, which often fall during holiday periods.

In a statement, American Airlines said, “We’re pleased to have reached an agreement with the APA and appreciate their partnership in coming to a resolution quickly to take care of our pilots, our team and our customers.”

Ed Sicher, president of the APA, added in a message that he hopes the new agreement can act as a springboard to reach a new labor deal for American Airlines pilots.

The staff shortage is not unique to American: This summer, the entire aviation industry has had to cancel thousands of U.S. flights due to a shortage of crew members, with cancellations often spiking over holiday weekends.

Elon Musk Backs Out of Twitter Deal

Following the announcement, Musk spent the weekend at the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho. At the conference, he spoke on stage but off record, though a source in the room told CNN that Musk had “tripled down on his decision to try to back out of the deal and claimed it was all about the bots.”

“Musk originally said he was going to fix the bot problem,” CNN’s Brian Stelter said on Reliable Sources on Sunday. “The same problem that he now says is stopping him from doing the deal.”

He added that although the bots are “no doubt” a problem for Twitter, Musk may be more affected by them than the average user.

“I suspect what’s going on here is, Musk has a very different experience on Twitter than the average user,” Stelter said. “He is overwhelmed by … replies and spam.”

According to The New York Times’ reporter Lauren Hirsch, the stock market “basically dropped off the cliff,” including shares of Tesla, after Musk’s announcement.

Meanwhile Musk’s lawyer sent Twitter a letter saying that he is pulling out since the social media platform is “in material breach of multiple provisions” of the original agreement.

Twitter has promised to take Musk to court.

Musk had announced his intention to buy Twitter in April for $44 billion.

They’re Coming from Cuba

30 fled the island and come to the U.S. – a tenfold increase from the fiscal year 2020, according to the U.S. Customs and The Jewish Home | JULY 14, 2022 Border Protection. The recent wave is greater than the Mariel exodus of 1980, when 125,000 Cubans fled the island. It comes down to dollars and cents. Cuba is facing its worse fiscal crisis in 30 years. The pandemic decimated its tourist industry, and many businesses relied on those dollars and euros flowing in. “The scale of the numbers is really historic,” Michael Bustamante, the Emilio Bacardí Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami and an associate professor of history, said. American border agents have increased their patrols to address the rise in Cubans arriving by boat or through the border. The U.S. Coast Guard said it has increased the number of patrols between the U.S. and Cuba to look for suspicious activity and to respond to distress calls. The Coast Guard reported last year that 114 Cuban migrants were interdicted between October 2019 and September 2020 by the agency and other U.S. law enforcement forces. Ten Cuban migrants in a sinking vessel were rescued off the Florida coast in February, according to the Coast Guard.

A political spat between the Trump administration and Cuba led to the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba and the stoppage of visa approvals. The Biden administration has allowed Cubans to apply for visas and has granted 2,000 annually over the past two years, according to federal data.

Fires Rage in National Park

National parks have nabbed headlines recently, with flooding threatening homes and roads in Yellowstone two weeks ago. Now, California’s Yosemite National Park is being threatened by fire. The wildfire is taking aim at the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia trees. So far, none of the trees have suffered damage. To prevent the fires from licking the trees, park workers have removed logs and dead trees and branches from near the iconic trees.

“And then firefighters did a prescribed burn to clear that out, so what we have is what’s like a ‘donut hole’ and it’s safe around it,” Robbie Johnson, a fire incident public information officer, said. “In fact, one ecologist said he was pleased with the way the sequoias are being protected.”

Mariposa Grove is home to more than 500 giant sequoia trees, which can grow to more than 250 feet. The grove was founded in 1857 but the trees existed long before that, with some believed to be hundreds of years old.

The Washburn Fire began July 7 and doubled in size from Saturday to Sunday, burning near the lower portion of the grove, park officials said . A total of 360 fire personnel are working to contain the 1591-acre fire from the ground and air.

“Fire is naturally part of the ecosystem, but it’s these high-intensity fires that are causing the damage that happened, for example, in the Creek Fire and the TCF complex last year in Sequoia National Park,” spokesman Scott Gediman said.

Yosemite is one of the most visited national parks in the U.S., drawing more than 3.3 million people in 2021. It encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles in the Sierra Nevada range in eastern California.

Meanwhile, California crews are also battling the Electra Fire, which has scorched more than 4,400 acres across Amador and Calaveras counties, also in the Sierra Nevada.

The western United States has been ravaged by wildfires in recent years, exacerbated by drought conditions. In California alone, more than 2.5 million acres were destroyed in nearly 9,000 fires last year.

The threat is not limited to California. Robert Garcia, the U.S. Forest Service’s fire chief for the Angeles National Forest, said the summer months are off to a “concerning start.” Firefighting resources have been mobilizing since March to Arizona and New Mexico, where the Black Fire just became the state’s second-largest blaze in history.

NY will Scan Social Media Accounts

and conduct.”

Despite the announcement, some of the officials likely to be tasked with reviewing the content are not sure whether they will have the resources or legal backing to do so.

Peter Kehoe, executive director of the New York Sheriffs’ Assn., believes that the law infringes on rights protected by the Second Amendment.

“I think it would be a constitutional invasion of privacy,” he said.

The new law, which passed last week, is set to take effect in September and would require applicants to submit a list of current and former social media accounts from the past three years. It does not specify whether applicants will be required to provide access to posts and accounts not visible to the public.

Examination of the accounts will be left to the local sheriff’s staff, judges, or county clerks. The law will also require applicants to undergo safety training, prove shooting proficiency, provide four character references, and come in for an in-person interview.

Former Theranos COO Guilty of Fraud

Theranos’ former COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, has been found guilty of defrauding investors and patients.

Theranos was a blood testing startup which failed. Founded in 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes, who was 19 at the time, the company claimed that it had devised blood tests that required very small amounts of blood and could be performed rapidly, thanks to the small automated devices the company had developed. However, these claims were later