The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they happen.
Australia hit with more antisemitic graffiti after revelation about discovery of explosives
MELBOURNE, Australia — Three more incidents of antisemitic graffiti have been found across Sydney on Thursday morning, leading Australian political leaders to warn of an escalation in hatred and decry as terrorism explosives found earlier in a trailer on the city’s outskirts.
Law enforcement earlier this month found a list of Jewish targets together with a cache of Powergel — an explosive used in the mining industry — in Sydney’s outer suburb of Dural, state police said Wednesday. The amount uncovered could create a bomb with a blast zone of around 40 meters (130 feet), officers said.
“This represents, undeniably, an escalation in race hatred, race-filled hatred and potential violence in New South Wales,” the state’s Premier Chris Minns tells reporters on Thursday.
News of the discovery — which police chiefs said was leaked to a newspaper, compromising a clandestine investigation — followed months of antisemitic arson, window-smashing and graffiti in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s most populous cities, concentrated in the areas where many Jewish people live. Thursday’s target included a Jewish school.
“It is utterly appalling and shameful,” Minns says. A police investigation into months of such crimes has prompted 10 arrests and Minns expects more.
Meta agrees to pay $25 million to settle lawsuit with Trump over Jan. 6 suspension
WASHINGTON — Meta has agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by US President Donald Trump against the company after it suspended his accounts following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to three people familiar with the matter.
It’s the latest instance of a large corporation settling litigation with the president, who has threatened retribution on his critics and rivals, and comes as Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, have joined other large technology companies in trying to ingratiate themselves with the new Trump administration.
The people familiar with the matter speak on the condition of anonymity Wednesday to discuss the agreement. Two people say that terms of the agreement include $22 million going to the nonprofit that will become Trump’s future presidential library and the balance going to legal fees and other litigants.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the settlement.
Man killed, another seriously injured in car crash in Haifa
A man has been killed and another has been seriously injured in a car crash in Haifa.
The crash occurred when the pair’s car hit a pole and overturned.
Police are investigating.
Shas walks back threat to topple government if draft exemption bill not passed soon
The ultra-Orthodox Shas party backs down from a threat to topple the government unless it passes a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service.
Speaking with Channel 12, Shas spokesman Asher Medina states that his party “will not topple the right-wing government. There is no threat and no ultimatum.”
Speaking with ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Berama yesterday, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two months to resolve the status of yeshiva students, warning that if the matter is “not resolved, we’ll go to elections.”
Following Deri’s statement, Shas MK Erez Malul said in an interview with Kan radio on Tuesday evening that without his party, Netanyahu does not have the votes to pass a budget.
“United Torah Judaism will not vote in favor of the budget, Ben Gvir is in the opposition. How will this pass? This is not a threat, this is an ultimatum,” he said.
The 2025 state budget must be passed by the end of March or the government will automatically fall, triggering early elections.
While the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party has previously also linked threats to the budget to the draft issue, the party’s non-Hasidic Degel HaTorah faction appeared to reject such a move today.
Addressing a conference in the southern city of Eilat this afternoon, Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev stated that the government is “stable” and will not fall because “there is no other alternative.”
According to the pro-government Channel 14, Netanyahu warned the leaders of the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox parties that “this is not the time for threats or inflammatory rhetoric.”