By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
This is the final installment of this column.
INTERNATIONAL
The Rafah border crossing for pedestrians between Gaza and Egypt will reopen Sunday, the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reports. Israel and Egypt will coordinate. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said residents returning from Egypt to Gaza, who left during the war, will undergo security checks. Similarly, Gazans seeking to enter Egypt will require Egypt’s approval in advance.
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Reuters reports that Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is looking for a diplomatic solution to the choice her country is faced with: Either cut off oil supplies to Cuba or face new tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on all goods entering the United States. Sheinbaum at her Friday morning news conference stated: “We do not want tariffs on Mexico, but we will always look for diplomatic channels to seek solidarity with Cuba.” She predicted an oil cutoff to Cuba, which already has lost its Venezuelan supplies, could result in a “far-reaching humanitarian crisis” affecting not only transportation, but also hospitals and access to food. “Our interest is that the Cuban people don’t suffer,” she said.
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Fox News reports that Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said that U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and some European leaders were conspiring “to tear this country apart, to sow conflict and hatred among the people and create division… Everyone knows that the issue was not just social protest.”
NATIONAL
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports two Major League Baseball developments with Jewish athletes: Third baseman Alex Bregman has signed a five-year, $175 million pact with the Chicago Cubs, and Alon Leichman, who grew up on Kibbutz Gezer in Israel, will become the head pitching coach for the Colorado Rockies.
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New York Giants owner Steve Tisch asked Jeffrey Epstein what he knew about a “very sweet girl” he had met at Epstein’s home earlier that week, a new tranche of documents released Friday by the Justice Department has revealed. The Daily Beast reports that Epstein replied that he would “get all info” on her. CNN interviewed Tisch on Friday night. He said: “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments. I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
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The Hollywood Reporter has published a story from the same tranche of documents that Casey Wasserman, who is overseeing Los Angeles’ plans to host the 2028 Olympics, had a racy correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell, now serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking. Maxwell in one communication told Wasserman that she thought of him at “inappropriate moments” to which he responded: “… So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” Asked for his comment on that correspondence of a decade ago, Wasserman said: “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light. I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”
STATE & LOCAL
Terra Lawson-Remer, the chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, said San Diego County’s government will soon replace its legacy communication systems like desk phones, fax machines, and analog phones with modern virtual options, at a projected savings of between $1.5 million and $7 million. “Phones will still be answered. Services will still be delivered. But taxpayers will stop paying for things we no longer need,” she said.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World