By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
INTERNATIONAL
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his countrymen that Russia plans a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy facilities, which risks damaging nuclear reactors and creating a Chernobyl-like disaster.
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Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, in her role as reassurer-in-chief, said that a U.S military transport plane that landed at Toluca’s airport was ferrying Mexican officials for training in the U.S. Despite her country being jittery over U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to land American military in Mexico to fight the drug cartels, the plane was not the advance guard for such a mission.
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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on X: “Congratulations to President @realDonaldTrump and the United States of America for an incredible first year of a second term – A year like no other.”
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ZAKA is expanding its awareness and training programs for U.S. law enforcement leaders. It continues to offer its Kavod Hameis [honoring the dead] Awareness Seminar nationwide and, in early 2026, will host a more intensive program in Israel for senior law enforcement officials, homicide investigators, and medical examiners. These courses help U.S. agencies understand the religious and cultural needs of the Jewish community in fatal incidents while integrating these considerations into investigative practices. “By sharing our expertise with U.S. agencies, we help investigators across the United States to better understand the unique customs surrounding Jewish fatalities,” said ZAKA U.S. Executive Director Moshe Rozenberg. “We showcase how Israel has integrated these customs into its emergency and investigative practices and discuss what can be adapted in their own jurisdictions.”
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Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz presented the 2025 Shield Award to Technion in recognition of its “outstanding support for military reservists.” Uri Sivan and Oded Rabinovitch, respectively Technion’s president and vice president for academic affairs, received the shield in a Dec. 29 ceremony. More than 1,000 students served over 150 days of reserve duty in the past year, and over 500 served more than 250 days. Since the start of the Gaza war, the Technion has provided reserve-duty personnel with an extensive support system that includes academic accommodations, tutoring, personal mentoring, emotional support, and financial assistance. Sivan commented: “Thousands of students and academic and administrative staff reported for duty on October 7, and many have since served hundreds of days in reserve duty. We owe them an enormous debt and are doing everything in our power to ease their daily lives – at work and in their studies – and to support them and their families. It is a great privilege.”
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The opening night gala of the 37th Israel Film Festival in Beverly Hills, California, on February 4 will honor film and television producer Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, Good Will Hunting, Red Alert) with the 2026 Israel Film Festival (IFF) Visionary Award, presented to him by actress and humanitarian Sharon Stone. Award-winning filmmaker Eran Riklis (The Syrian Bride, Lemon Tree, Reading Lolita in Tehran) will receive the 2026 Israel Film Festival (IFF) Cinematic Achievement Award, which will be followed by the Los Angeles Premiere of A Letter to David, directed by Tom Shoval, winner of this year’s Israeli Academy Ophir Award for Best Documentary Award.
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NATIONAL
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was asked by the vetting team of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 candidate for President, if he ever had been “a double agent for Israel.” He answered in the negative. Harris ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate. Details of the questions that the Harris team asked Shapiro were included in the Pennsylvania governor’s forthcoming memoir, Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service.
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, responding to reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth placed 1,500 active-duty soldiers on prepare-to-deploy status, commented to CNN: “We’re not going to give them an excuse to do the thing that clearly they’re trying to set up to right now, which is these 1,500 troops. I never thought in a million years that we would be invaded by our own federal government.” Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz meanwhile are the subjects of a Department of Justice probe into whether they have impeded ICE agents in their mission to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.
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Bari Weiss, the new editor-in-chief of CBS News, okayed the airing on 60 Minutes of a report by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi that had been pulled at the last minute on Dec. 21. In the interim, comments from the White House and Department of Homeland Security were inserted into Alfonsi’s story, satisfying Weiss’s objection that the original piece did not adequately represent the Trump Administration’s viewpoint.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World
Glad to see you back Don.