The Times of Israel is liveblogging Sunday’s events as they happen.
Quentin Tarantino said to drop ‘The Movie Critic’ as his 10th and final film
Quentin Tarantino has dropped ‘The Movie Critic’ as his 10th and final film, apparently as he was unhappy with the script, as first reported by Deadline.
The acclaimed director, who has spent extended periods of time in Tel Aviv in recent years with his Israeli wife Daniella Pick, has said that he will only solo direct 10 films.
There are no immediate reports on a replacement for Tarantino’s much-anticipated final movie.
EXCLUSIVE: Quentin Tarantino’s movies are always full of surprises, and here is one about ‘The Movie Critic’ we did not expect.
Deadline can reveal that Tarantino has dropped the film as his 10th and final project. He simply changed his mind, Deadline has been told… pic.twitter.com/G4lkDArsCD
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) April 17, 2024
Report: Finance Ministry considering tax hikes to fund ongoing Gaza war
The Finance Ministry is considering wide-ranging tax hikes in the coming months in order to fund the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, according to a television news report.
The increase under consideration, according to the Kan broadcaster, would apply to both VAT and income tax, in addition to tax hikes already included in the most recent amendment to the 2024 budget.
“If the war expenses continue at this rate, we’ll have no choice but to raise taxes,” senior officials are quoted as saying in the report.
The report comes days after ratings agency S&P Global cut Israel’s long-term ratings to A-plus from AA-minus amid heightened confrontations with Iran over the past week and the already elevated geopolitical risks for Israel.
Trump postpones first campaign rally since trial began, due to bad weather
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called off a campaign rally on Saturday evening — the first since his New York criminal trial began — due to bad weather.
“We want to make sure that everybody is safe above all and so they’ve asked us to ask people to leave the site and seek shelter,” Trump says in a phone call broadcast at the outdoor venue where many of his supporters had gathered under heavy dark clouds.
“There seems to be some thunder and lightning and it’s a pretty big storm. So if you don’t mind, I think we’re gonna have to just do a rain check. I’m so sad.”
Kremlin: US military aid to Israel is ‘road straight to escalation’; Medvedev slams package as ‘Russophobia’
The Russian Foreign Ministry says US House of Representatives’ approval of security aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan will “deepen crises throughout the world.”
“Military assistance to the Kyiv regime is direct sponsorship of terrorist activity,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova writes on Telegram.
“To Taiwan, it is interference in China’s internal affairs. To Israel, it is a road straight to escalation and an unprecedented rise in tension in the region.”
The House passed a $95 billion legislative package with broad bipartisan support providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry says that approval of security aid to Ukraine “will make the United States of America richer, further ruin Ukraine and result in the deaths of even more Ukrainians, the fault of the Kyiv regime.
Peskov is quoted as saying by Russian news agencies as saying that provisions in the legislation allowing the US administration to confiscate seized Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine to fund reconstruction will tarnish the image of the United States.
Russia, he says, will enact retaliatory measures.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, writing on the Telegram messaging app, says the approval of US aid for Ukraine was expected and grounded in “Russophobia.”
“We will, of course, be victorious regardless of the bloodsoaked $61 billion, which will mostly be swallowed up by their insatiable military industrial complex,” writes Medvedev, one of Russia’s most vociferous hawks as deputy chairman of the Security Council.
Palestinian reports: At least 14 people killed in IDF raid in West Bank
The Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 14 people have been killed in an Israel Defense Forces raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The IDF said earlier today that troops had killed 10 operatives during the counter-terrorism operation, which it said started on Thursday.
“So far, our crews have evacuated 14 martyrs from Nur Shams camp to the hospital,” the Palestinian Red Crescent says.
There is no immediate statement from the IDF on the PRC report.
Residents contacted by AFP say there is no electricity in the area and food is running short, but nobody is being allowed to enter or leave.
Tensions in Israel and the West Bank have soared since October 7, when terrorists burst through the Gaza border into Israel in a Hamas-led attack, killing at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seizing 253 hostages.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 3,850 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,650 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 450 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.