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Lawmakers hold moment of silence for slain Omer Neutra as thousands mourn in hometown synagogue

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Lawmakers hold moment of silence for slain Omer Neutra as thousands mourn in hometown synagogue

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A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night held a moment of silence for American-Israeli Omer Neutra who was determined this week to have been killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, after it was believed that he had been alive for more than a year.

Neutra, 21 years old, was a tank platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and was among the first to respond to the Hamas attack that ultimately killed some 1,200 people and initially saw the abduction of more than 250 men, women and children. 

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His parents, Orna and Ronen, who spoke with Fox News Digital just days prior to the tragic development, believed their son was still alive after the IDF had long assessed that he, along with Nimrod Cohen, another soldier from his tank, were taken hostage into Gaza and remained alive.

An image of Omer Neutra is displayed at his memorial service Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024 at the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, N.Y. (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo) (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo)

7 US HOSTAGES STILL HELD BY HAMAS TERRORISTS AS FAMILIES PLEAD FOR THEIR RELEASE: ‘THIS IS URGENT’

“For 420 days Omer’s parents and his brother Daniel have done everything they can with the love and support of hundreds of thousands of others to free their son from captivity,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who represents the Neutra family’s district, said from the House floor. “Every day they soldiered on through alternating deep sorrow and brief bursts of hopefulness. They went from crushing anxiety to steely determination. 

“Just a few days ago we learned that this courageous young man, this bright light, this courageous idealist, made the ultimate sacrifice,” Suozzi continued. “Omer had not been alive for the last 422 days, he was murdered on Oct. 7.”

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Footage from the attack on Omer’s tank showed the commander, as well as three others, Shaked Dahan, Oz Daniel and Nimrod Cohen being pulled from the military vehicle by Hamas terrorists and being taken captive. 

Daniel and Dahan had previously been assessed to have been killed following the attack, and according to the IDF, intelligence now suggests Omer, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, was also killed on Oct. 7. 2023.

Omer Neutra family

Syosset, N.Y.: Daniel Neutral, brother of Omar Neutra, surrounded by father Ronen Neutra and mother Orna Neutra at the Midway Jewish Center on Dec. 3, 2024 in Syosset, New York speak during a memorial service for Omer Neutra, an Isaeli-American who was killed by Hamas militants.  (Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

AMERICAN FATHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE ITAY CHEN PUSHES US, ISRAEL ON ‘PLAN B’ AS NEGOTIATIONS FALTER

The Israeli military has not said how they came by this new information and the fate of Cohen remains unknown.

In a memorial service held for Omer on Tuesday in the Long Island synagogue where he reportedly celebrated his bar mitzvah years earlier, Omer’s father Ronen, said the news had left them “breathless and empty.”

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“For over a year now, we’ve been breathing life into your being, my beautiful boy,” Orna said through tears, according to reports. “With the hope and love of so many, we kept going and going and going, keeping you alive, speaking your name from every outlet, pushing any hint of despair, not stopping to breathe or to take in the deep pain of your absence.” 

“Now things are clear,” she said to the reported 1,500 attendees at the service. “But not as we’d hoped.”

Onra and Ronen have described their son as loving, a good friend and an athlete, but they also highlighted his ability to lead and how his actions on Oct. 7, 2023 saved lives. 

Omer’s body is believed to still be held by Hamas along with the six other American hostages, only three of whom are still assessed by the IDF to be alive at this time, including Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Keith Siegel.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s body was recovered after he, along with five others, were discovered to have been murdered by Hamas in the tunnels in Gaza in August.

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American Hostages

These are the American hostages who were taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023 and held in Gaza, only Hersh Goldberg-Polin (Left) has been returned to Israel after the IDF found him and other hostages killed by terrorists. Pictured next to Hersh is Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai and Keith Siegel. (Fox News Photo)

There are still 100 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza following the recovery of Itai Svirski’s body on Wednesday, an Israeli hostage taken during the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, 2023.

The IDF confirmed he “was murdered in captivity by his captors, and his body was held hostage in the Gaza Strip.”

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'It was a joke,' Guardiola says after 'six titles' comment draws Mourinho response

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'It was a joke,' Guardiola says after 'six titles' comment draws Mourinho response
Dec 7 (Reuters) – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he was only joking when he referred to winning twice as many Premier League titles as Jose Mourinho, after the former Chelsea boss said that he, unlike Guardiola, had won his titles fairly.
The Spaniard also said City were innocent until proven guilty, responding to Mourinho’s allusions to their alleged violations of Premier League financial rules from 2009 to 2018, which the club has always denied.

Guardiola, who held up six fingers to Liverpool fans on Sunday, a gesture similar to Mourinho holding up three fingers in 2018 before getting sacked by Manchester United, had made the comment when asked if he could suffer a fate similar to the Portuguese.

“I hope not in my case… He won three, I won six… but we are the same like that,” Guardiola answered.

Mourinho responded to Guardiola’s comment on Friday, ahead of his team Fenerbahce’s clash with Besiktas.

“I won fairly and cleanly… I don’t want to win by dealing with 150 court cases,” Turkish outlet Hurriyet quoted Mourinho as saying.

City did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Mourinho’s statement.

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Guardiola, speaking to reporters later on Friday, said he had no bad intentions when making the comment about Mourinho.

“If I have offended him, I am so sorry. But it was a joke. The fact is he has three and I have six, it is a fact. But the intention was completely fine,” he said.

“I think both with our teams – he with Chelsea, myself with Man City – we can sit in the table with Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, right? For the many, many titles we’ve won. And I’m pretty sure sooner or later they will congratulate us.”

Guardiola said there were many people around the world who wanted to see City at the bottom.

“We are innocent until proven as guilty. After that we’ll see what happens, but it is what it is,” he added.

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Mourinho has taken shots at City before, saying in October that he was hoping he could add a fourth Premier League medal to his cabinet if City are stripped of their titles and United, who finished second in 2017-18, are awarded the Premier League trophy.
Chelsea, where Mourinho won his three English top-flight titles in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2014-15, are being investigated by the Premier League for potential financial rule breaches between 2012 and 2019.

Fourth-placed City visit Crystal Palace later on Saturday.

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Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard

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South Korean president apologizes for declaring martial law ahead of impeachment vote

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South Korean president apologizes for declaring martial law ahead of impeachment vote

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday apologized for his short-lived declaration of martial law earlier in the week, as he now prepares for a parliamentary vote on whether to impeach him.

Yoon said in a televised address Saturday morning that he will evade legal or political responsibility for the declaration and vowed not to make another attempt to impose it, according to The Associated Press. The president, a conservative, said he would leave it to his party to offer a path forward amid the country’s political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office.”

“The declaration of his martial law was made out of my desperation,” Yoon said. “But in the course of its implementation, it caused anxiety and inconveniences to the public. I feel very sorry over that and truly apologize to the people who must have been shocked a lot.”

In his martial law declaration on Tuesday, Yoon called parliament a “den of criminals” blocking state affairs and pledged to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces.”

SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT TO FACE IMPEACHMENT VOTE THIS WEEKEND OVER MARTIAL LAW ORDER, LAWMAKERS SAY

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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP)

A National Assembly vote on an opposition-led motion to impeach Yoon is slated for Saturday afternoon. The opposition parties that jointly brought the impeachment motion hold 192 of the legislature’s 300 seats, meaning they need at least eight additional votes from Yoon’s conservative People Power Party to secure the needed two-thirds to pass the motion.

Yoon’s party called for his removal on Friday, although the party remained formally opposed to impeachment.

Opposition lawmakers say that Yoon’s declaration of martial law was a self-coup, so they drafted the impeachment motion on rebellion charges.

If Yoon is impeached, his powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the second in command in the South Korean government, would take over his presidential responsibilities.

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Should the president be removed, an election to replace him must be held within 60 days.

South Korea Yoon

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during an interview at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

On Tuesday, special forces troops were observed encircling the parliament building and army helicopters were hovering over it. The military withdrew after the National Assembly unanimously voted to overturn Yoon’s declaration of martial law, forcing him to lift it just hours after it was issued.

The declaration of martial law was the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea.

Thousands of demonstrators have since protested in the streets of Seoul, waving banners, shouting slogans and singing along to K-pop songs with lyrics changed to demand Yoon’s removal.

Han said he had received intelligence that, during the period of martial law, Yoon ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities.”

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SOUTH KOREAN LEADER FACING MOUNTING CALLS TO RESIGN OR BE IMPEACHED OVER MARTIAL LAW

candlelight vigil

People hold candles during a candlelight vigil against South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP)

After Yoon’s televised address, Han again called for the president to resign. Han said the president wasn’t in a state where he could normally carry out official duties.

“President Yoon Suk Yeol’s early resignation is inevitable,” Han told reporters.

Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Yoon called after imposing martial law and ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence unit to detain key politicians including Han, the main liberal opposition Democratic Party’s leader Lee Jae-myung and National Assembly speaker Woo Won Shik, according to Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens five years after devastating blaze

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Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens five years after devastating blaze

Notre-Dame Cathedral, situated on an island in the River Seine in Paris, France, is reopening this weekend after more than five years of intense reconstruction work to restore the medieval building to its former glory.

After a fire gutted the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, the 12th-century Gothic masterpiece has now been masterfully restored and will reopen to the public on Sunday following a ceremony on Saturday, which will be attended by a lineup of heads of state and top-level delegates from around the world.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who promised to restore the cathedral within five years after the catastrophe, made a preopening visit to the site on November 29 with his wife, first lady Brigitte Macron. The president thanked the thousands of workers who had reconstructed the building.

“The inferno of Notre-Dame was a wound for the nation, … and you were its remedy,” the president said.

Here is what we know about this weekend’s reopening and what happened to the nearly 900-year-old cultural icon five years ago:

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The top image shows a hole in the dome of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 16, 2019, a day after the fire, and the bottom image is of the restored interiors of the cathedral on November 29, 2024 [Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool via AP]

What caused the fire at Notre-Dame?

The blaze broke out on the evening of April 15, 2019, on the roof of the cathedral. The fire sent tongues of orange flames into the sky as smoke billowed from the building. The fire burned for 15 hours while more than 400 firefighters battled to extinguish it.

It is still unclear what caused the blaze, but authorities suspect an electrical fault or a burning cigarette was the likely culprit. No members of the public were hurt because security officials had sounded the alarm and evacuated the cathedral. However, three security officials were injured.

By the time the fire was extinguished the following day, the inside and roof of the cathedral had been largely destroyed. Its wooden and metal spire, which had been undergoing reconstruction work, collapsed.

Its lead roof melted, and the intricate wooden beams that supported it burned away, leaving a gaping hole over the building.

Some religious relics inside the building as well as exposed artwork on the exterior of the building were badly damaged. However, the vaulted stone ceiling acted as a barrier to the fire and prevented serious damage to the cathedral’s interior stone walls.

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The cathedral’s wooden frame was centuries-old, and authorities had long marked it as a possible fire hazard. Still, it was a painful period for the French nation. Toxic lead dust spread and cast a gloom over a solemn Paris. Macron, in an emotional speech on April 17, 2019, promised to restore the monument within five years and make it more beautiful than ever. Notre-Dame did not hold a Christmas Mass that year – for the first time since 1803.

How was the cathedral rebuilt?

Hundreds of donors, including some of France’s richest businesspeople, contributed more than 840 million euros ($889m) to the medieval building’s restoration campaign, which was launched by Macron. About 150 countries, among them the United States and Saudi Arabia, also contributed.

The restoration involved the work of about 2,000 people, including craftspeople, architects and other professionals.

Construction workers used powerful vacuum cleaners and cleaning gels to remove the thickened soot, dust and years of accumulated grime from the lower stone walls of the cathedral. Carpenters then hewed giant oak beams by hand to rebuild the intricate roof frame and the spire. About 2,000 oak trees were felled to provide the wood to rebuild the roof.

Work has not entirely finished, and scaffolding will cover parts of the exterior for a few more years so decorative features on the facade can be fully restored.

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Notre dame
Notre-Dame cathedral pictured while under reconstruction on the second anniversary of the fire on April 15, 2021 [Francois Mori/AP]

When is the reopening ceremony?

Notre-Dame is set to host a high-profile ceremony on Saturday with more than 50 heads of state and government, dignitaries and VIPs attending under tight security.

Notable among them will be US President-elect Donald Trump, who has travelled to Paris on his first foreign trip since winning the November presidential election. Also attending are Prince William of the UK and Ukraine’s President Zelensky.

“President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so,” the president-elect said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday. “It will be a very special day for all!”

About 170 bishops from France are expected to attend the ceremony although Pope Francis will be notably absent.

Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will strike the cathedral’s closed doors with a staff, formally opening them to commence the ceremony.

First, the great organ, which is France’s largest, will be “awakened”. The organ is made of 8,000 pipes and 115 stops.

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Some events which had been planned to take place outdoors will now take place inside the cathedral because of the cold weather: A movie will be screened recalling the fire and the reconstruction and paying tribute to those who have participated in restoring the cathedral.

The Pope’s message to the French people will be read out, followed by poetry readings and Ulrich will give a final blessing. The choir will sing Te Deum, a Latin hymn, to round off the service.

Macron will make a short speech outside the cathedral to guests and heads of state at 6.30pm. At 8pm, a concert will begin.

When does the cathedral open to the public?

An inaugural Mass for dignitaries will begin at 10:30am (09:30 GMT) on Sunday. Macron is expected to be in the congregation.

The public can then attend a second evening Mass on the same day with tickets which were available on a first-come first-served basis. Guests were able to book tickets, which are free of charge, online.

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Special Masses, twice daily, will be held for the next eight days, and many will be open to the public.

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