A Gazan woman is asked what she thinks about Hamas.
— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) January 13, 2025
"Hamas is no problem as a leadership or anything, as long as they wipe the Jews off the map.
Oops, I meant Israel.
Eh, what's the difference".
This is what Hamas and UNRWA created in Gaza while the world watched.
🎥 2006 pic.twitter.com/WiaD7UdjpR
BREAKING NOW 🚨 Elizabeth Warren was just caught by 𝕏 scamming her 5.6 million followers
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) January 12, 2025
LET’S MAKE THIS VIRAL ON 𝕏 pic.twitter.com/ytQFJMLWyS
BREAKING 🚨
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 13, 2025
Biden Administration Restricts AI Chip Exports to Israel While Exempting 20 “Trusted” Countries
The Biden administration has announced new export controls on advanced AI chips, imposing restrictions on key allies like Israel and Singapore. Meanwhile, Twenty trusted… pic.twitter.com/tB9vVVx8nA
Ugandan judge Julia Sebutinde is to be appointed as the President of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
I’m outraged that @CBSnews’ @60minutes would air such a biased and one-sided piece, villainizing Israel and berating US support for its ally. 60 Minutes is supposed to be the gold standard for broadcast journalism, but they completely dropped the ball last night.
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) January 13, 2025
Where are the… pic.twitter.com/IQM2e1f49C
never thought I'd see the day where @60Minutes came out in support of Hamas. Buh bye. https://t.co/4w73t57CQ8
— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) January 14, 2025
This horrible person was once quite influential within our State Department. But within 10 days of Hamas’ brutally murdering, raping, torturing and kidnapping almost 1500 Israeli civilians, he left his job in protest because American policy supported Israel’s self defense and… https://t.co/SThr3OJOdv
— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) January 13, 2025
According to the report, the suspension will take place at the end of January. During the five-day period, the trains will appear to operate as usual, but will not transport passengers, instead testing the new operating system installed by the operator, Kfir, along the entire length of the line, from Neve Yaakov to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center.
Following this test period, the light rail will operate for the first time along its entire length, and the "red" line will officially increase in length from 14 kilometers to 22 kilometers, and from 23 stations to 35 stations.
The extended route was scheduled to begin operating approximately two years ago, but was delayed for a number of reasons, including that some of the testing staff, who were from Europe, left Israel in the period following the October 7 massacre.
Light rail construction in the neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel, the first neighborhood after the Mount Herzl stop (currently the end of the light rail route), began in the summer of 2010.
Approximately 180,000 people travel on Jerusalem's light rail each day, and this number is expected to increase to 250,000 after the line is extended, Walla! added, noting that the interval between trains at rush hour is expected to decrease slightly after the line is reopened and additional trains are added.
The Transportation Ministry is expected to operate buses to replace the light rail route during the test period, as well as increase the number of buses on existing routes.
Walla! also reported that during the summer, part of the light rail line will not operate for a period of about a month, to allow for construction of the "green" line scheduled to begin operating in early 2026; the light rail in Givat Shaul, which ends at the entrance to Har Nof, is scheduled to begin operating in 2027.
A new toll on drivers entering the core of Manhattan brought modest but measurable traffic reductions to New York City’s heavily-gridlocked streets in its first week of operation, according to preliminary data released Monday by the state’s transit authority.
Known as “congestion pricing,” the first-in-the-nation program launched on Jan. 5, collecting $9 from most passenger cars entering the city below Central Park during peak hours and higher fees on trucks and other vehicles. In the days since, total traffic in the tolling zone has dropped by 7.5% — or roughly 43,000 cars per day — compared to the equivalent period last year, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said.
“Just look out the window: there is less traffic, quieter streets, and we think everyone has seen it,” said Juliette Michaelson, the MTA deputy chief of policy and external relations. “Traffic patterns are already changing and they will continue to change.”
First proposed decades ago, the program is intended to raise billions of dollars in revenue for the cash-strapped MTA while easing congestion on the city’s streets. It follows similar initiatives in London, Singapore and Stockholm, which also saw immediate reductions in traffic after their tolls went live.
The effect in New York has been most pronounced during the morning rush hour period, with travel times over certain crossings — including the typically traffic-choked Holland and Lincoln tunnels that run under the Hudson River from New Jersey — falling by 40% or more, Michaelson said.
Despite anecdotal reports of more crowded train cars, she said the agency had not clocked a noticeable increase in subway users, largely because the baseline number of riders — over 3 million daily — is so high. However, a handful of bus routes originating in Brooklyn and Staten Island had seen an increase in ridership the previous week.
Within the congestion zone, the immediate impact has been more mixed. While certain thoroughfares have seen traffic reductions, others routes have stayed largely the same. A Midtown crosstown bus widely derided as New York’s slowest saw its runtime shaved by only a minute, according to MTA data. And there has been little noticeable change during the overnight hours, when the toll for passenger cars goes down to $2.25, officials said.
Bob Pishue, an analyst with INRIX, a traffic-data analytics company, said the MTA’s initial data matched the findings of the firm, which has been comparing drivers’ GPS data before and after the program launched.
“Fewer people are coming into Manhattan, but we’re not seeing a significant impact on speeds within the zone yet,” he said. “Some trips are faster, some are slower.”
He cautioned against drawing broad conclusions after barely a week, noting that many drivers were likely taking a “wait and see” approach.
Congestion pricing has sharply divided residents of New York and neighboring areas, touching off protests from many drivers, along with threats of sabotage and viral videos on how to evade the fee.
Proponents of congestion pricing, meanwhile, have hailed its launch as a transformative moment for a city contending with worsening traffic and aging public transportation infrastructure desperately in need of upgrades.
Initially slated to begin in June, the program was halted at the last moment by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. A one-time supporter of the program, the Democrat said her position changed following conversations with “ordinary” New Yorkers, including a Manhattan diner owner concerned the toll would disincentivize customers driving in from New Jersey.
Hochul later revived the program but at the lower price of $9 for most drivers, down from the $15 fee initially approved by the state.
Tarek Soliman, the owner of Comfort Diner in midtown Manhattan, said he had spoken directly with the governor about his fears of losing New Jersey customers. While he said it was too early to tell if the program had hurt business, the new fee was already having at least one impact on him.
“Every weekend, I used to drive to the garage next to the diner,” Soliman, a resident of Astoria, Queens, said by phone Monday. “Now I don’t drive. I take the subway.”
