[IsraelTimes] A man was arrested for an alleged antisemitic attack on a Queens rabbi in Forest Hills on Tuesday, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The man, 32-year-old Eric Zafra Grosso, who is from Corona, is accused of attacking the rabbi in an unprovoked incident this week.
According to the Queens district attorney’s office, between 2:20 p.m. and 3 p.m., on Tuesday Zafra Grosso approached the victim, identified by the Daily News as Rabbi David Shushan, at the intersection of Queens Boulevard and Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills.
The Corona man allegedly said "f— Jews" and then punched the rabbi in the face and chest, causing him to fall to the ground.
"I was shocked," the Bukharian rabbi told the Daily News. "It was a regular day. I was walking along, looking at the street, when this guy in a black hoodie and black pants comes out of nowhere, starts cursing at me and struck me."
He said they fought for several minutes, rolling in the snow.
"I don’t know if he is unhealthy in his mind or not," Shushan told the tabloid. "But he chose me because I was Jewish. I wear Jewish apparel in the streets. He chose me. It was simple. I was his target."
Zafra Grosso fled, and was later located inside the Forest Hills-71st Continental Avenue subway station by a Queens Shomrim patrol, which responded to the incident. He was later arrested on a subway train by the NYPD.
He was charged Wednesday with assault in the third degree, assault in the third degree as a hate crime and aggravated harassment in the second degree.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar ordered Zafra Grosso return to court on March 16. If convicted of the top charge, he faces 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison.
A group of Queens elected officials condemned the attack.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was "horrified" by the incident.
"Antisemitism is not a thing of the past — it is a present danger that demands action from all of us," he said. "There is no place for antisemitism in our city. I stand in solidarity with Jewish New Yorkers and my administration is committed to rooting out this hatred."
[ZERO] For months the political left and a small cadre of centrists (and some libertarians) have been denying reality on immigration and border controls. They claim (as if they are mind readers) that when Donald Trump ran his 2024 election campaign on mass deportations of illegals, voters actually thought he would only deport "violent criminal" illegal aliens, or migrants who committed crimes after crossing the border without permission.
This was never Trump's policy or promise. It is a carefully crafted propaganda narrative designed to shift the Overton Window and change the nature of the debate. The original point being that all illegal migrants are, in fact, criminals by default and should be deported.
The "criminal" policy manipulation is an attempt to override the prevailing reason for majority support of strict immigration controls: It's not only about crime - Americans oppose cultural replacement.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The Satena airliner that went missing in Colombia has been found crashed, killing all 15 people on board. This was reported on January 28 by the television channel Noticias Caracol.
The plane was en route from Cúcuta to Ocaña. There were 13 passengers and two crew members on board. The plane crashed in the Kuracica district, in a rural area of the municipality of La Playa de Belén.
According to media reports, those killed include Colombian House of Representatives member Diogenes Quintero, candidate Carlos Salcedo, and former Ocaña municipal council member Juan David Pacheco and his wife.
On January 28, Colombian Transport Minister María Fernanda Rojas reported the loss of contact with a passenger plane flying from Cúcuta to Ocaña. The Beechcraft 1900 turboprop, which seats up to 19 passengers, belonged to the Colombian airline Satena. Production of these aircraft ceased in 2002, but they are still used on regional routes.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] A stream of fast solar wind from a coronal hole on the Sun has reached Earth and could lead to weak magnetic storms. This was reported on January 28 by the press service of the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
According to scientists, no sudden impacts have been recorded, and the solar wind speed is increasing gradually. Therefore, geomagnetic indices remain in the green zone for now. However, they are highly likely to move into the yellow zone in the near future, indicating the possibility of weak magnetic storms.
Experts note that the plasma parameters coming from orbit appear favorable for the formation of auroras. However, the likelihood that the auroral zone will shift to mid-latitudes and become visible, including in Moscow and further south, is virtually zero.
At the same time, in the north and northwest of Russia, the possibility of observing the northern lights remains in the evening, provided that it is possible to find breaks in the clouds.
[FoxNews] The United States is experiencing negative net migration, according to figures released by the Census Bureau on Wednesday, to the approval of the Trump administration.
The Department of Homeland Security jumped on the news, saying in a statement that its mass deportation efforts had helped achieve that apparent administration goal.
"In just one year, nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. under the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration," the agency said in a statement.
Based on numbers seen previously, somewhere between 2/3rds and 3/4ths of of them were voluntary self deportations, rather than following arrest by the authorities. But apparently an awful lot of actual deportations are quietly happening in places that are not Minneapolis, mostly with the assistance of the local police. Somebody has been making lists and checking them twice, because they seem to know exactly where to go to find these people.
The Census Bureau reported that population growth slowed significantly over the past fiscal year, increasing by 0.5% or 1.8 million people between July 2024 and July 2025.
That figure accounted for the slowest population growth since the coronavirus pandemic, when the U.S. saw a 0.2% increase in population.
By contrast, in the final year of the Biden administration, the population grew by 1% — the fastest since the middle of the second Bush administration in 2006.
Christine Hartley, assistant chief of the Census Bureau’s estimates and projections division, officially said the slowdown was "largely due to a historic decline in net international migration."
Domestic birth and death rates, by comparison, remained stable compared with 2024, leading experts to cite net migration figures.
Good. But will birth rates rise as Americans come to trust that the bad times are over?
Every state except West Virginia and Montana saw slowing population growth or an acceleration in population decline, if present.
South Carolina was marked as the fastest-growing state, with a net domestic migration increase of more than 66,000.
The White House celebrated the goal of "negative net migration" in an official statement in August.
Like DHS, Trump credited his ultimately correct projection to the end of the "migrant invasion" and to mass deportation operations commenced under Secretary Kristi Noem.
Around that time, Noem boasted of 1.6 million illegal immigrants who "left" the U.S. within the first 200 days of Trump’s term. Supporters have said the mass deportation agenda has led to self-deportation, which could account for that particular prose.
"This is massive. This means safer streets, taxpayer savings, pressure off of schools and hospital services and better job opportunities for Americans. Thank you, President Trump," Noem said.
During a visit to Arizona last year, border czar Tom Homan said 90% of asylum seekers will end up with an order of removal because of a fraudulent claim.
90%? Golly. I wonder what the numbers re in Europe and Britain.
"You can’t demand due process and ignore the decision at the end of that due process, which is an order of removal," he said at the time, according to the Arizona Capitol Times.
[FoxNews] Chinese-backed runway on strategically vital Yap island set to open Feb 9 as experts warn Beijing is gaining foothold in US defense zone
China’s expanding push into the Pacific Islands is raising alarms among experts, who warn that Beijing is quietly working to establish a foothold in territory long viewed as vital to American defense.
Rather than deploying troops or building overt military bases, experts say China is using infrastructure projects, political influence and economic leverage to gain access to strategically sensitive areas across Micronesia, a region tied to the United States through decades-old security agreements.
Fox News Digital has learned that a Chinese-backed runway on the island of Yap is due to be officially opened during a handover ceremony on Feb 9. The president of the Federated States of Micronesia is expected to attend, along with representatives from the Chinese company involved in the project.
One of the experts tracking the developments, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) senior fellow Cleo Paskal, traveled to the Federated States of Micronesia to see them firsthand. She told Fox News Digital she spent four days sleeping on the open deck of a Chinese-donated cargo ship in order to witness a Chinese company breaking ground on a project to rehabilitate a World War II Imperial Japanese runway.
"It’s not a huge runway, but what it does is it gets China in the door and on the ground in a very strategic location," Paskal said.
The project is located in the state of Yap, a remote east-to-west island chain that sits along key maritime and air routes connecting Hawaii, Guam and East Asia. U.S. military planners have long considered Yap one of the most strategically important locations in the Pacific.
Paskal said the same Chinese company involved in the runway is now working on another major infrastructure project on Yap: the reconstruction of a bridge on the main island.
"At the same time, because of how strategic it is, Secretary Hegseth announced not that long ago about $2 billion worth of defense infrastructure investment for Yap," she said. "Now, when he says Yap, what he means is the main island of Yap."
According to Paskal, that distinction matters.
"The story here is that the Department of War is focused on the main island, but, from what I’ve seen, there are no plans for the rest of the island chain," she said. "Meanwhile, the Chinese are using other entry points into the political and economic system in order to start to break open access to Yap."
She described China’s approach as fundamentally different from Washington’s.
"So it’s not just a physical kinetic infrastructure operation," Paskal said. "It’s also a political warfare operation, whereas the U.S. is focusing more just on a very narrow band of the kinetic map."
#4
It seems the Aussies signed a lease agreement back in 2015 when the port was losing money. The Chinese complain that, under Chinese management, it is now making money and so the Aussies want it back. Although I have no sympathy for the Chicoms, I think the fault here might lie with the Aussies.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/29/2026 12:48 Comments ||
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Canada has found a new way to hit back at President Donald Trump’s tariffs - by rolling out the red carpet for Chinese carmakers.
As US automakers scale back operations north of the border, Ottawa is opening its market to low-cost Chinese electric vehicles that remain effectively banned in the United States.
How well do they work under cold winter conditions? How about during a power outage or for escaping a forest fire?
Under a new trade arrangement, Canada has replaced its 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made cars with an import cap of 49,000 vehicles and a a modest 6.1 percent duty.
How well are EVs selling in Canada as a percent of total car sales? Because even as spite that doesn’t seem like a lot to my American eyes.
The previous tariff made it made no sense for brands such as BYD - which recently overtook Tesla as the biggest maker of EVs globally - Chery and Great Wall to sell cars in Canada. Under the new system, Chinese vehicles would account for roughly 3 percent of annual car sales.
Oh. The Daily Mail got overexcited again. But given that what China is really dealing in is carbon credits backed by EV sales…
The move leaves the US as the only major auto market that doesn't allow Chinese cars to easily be sold. In fact, it puts those low-cost electric vehicles just across the border, which Ford CEO Jim Farley has warned could be an 'existential threat.'
The deal follows moves by US automakers to pull back from Canada after Trump's rolled out tariffs on aluminium, cars and their parts last year.
General Motors canceled plans to build its BrightDrop electric vans there, and Stellantis shifted Jeep Compass production from Ontario to Illinois after the tariffs took effect.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has framed the China deal as a way to push back against US influence.
Just speeding the destruction of Canada, and the timing for Alberta to secede, whether or not it goes for 51st State status afterward.
Because we will be dealing with secession in spades soon enough.
Posted by: Angel of Death ||
01/29/2026 12:50 Comments ||
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#2
OH MY God!!!!! The temperature tonight in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is expected to reach -34 C ( -29.2 F) which is not that surprising for Manitoba in the wintertime. You can just foresee the problems of utilizing an electric car in these kinds of temps, can't you?
Low outside air temp = battery inefficiency, also high interior heater usage, also high interior windshield defrosting usage, also traffic jams, stuck in snow banks, whatever else might happen on a bitter cold night. Add to that the chances of electricity interruptions, higher usage of battery chargers, increased demand on the electricity system and you have a mess on your hands.
This ain't-a-gonna end well. Any body have a 1964 International TravelAll they want to sell me?
[JustTheNews] The creation of the division and the new post come in the wake of federal fraud investigations into California and Minnesota. The Minnesota fraud scandal has received national attention due to the extent of fraud in the state social services programs.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he was nominating federal prosecutor Colin McDonald to serve as the nation's first assistant attorney general for the new National Fraud Enforcement division of the Justice Department.
Trump has not released a lot of information on the fraud allegations in California, but he said that overall people have stolen "hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
