Sherrie Mathieson

Japan is in need of some critical house-cleaning... Jewish News Syndicate Emmanuel Navon, Israel’s designated ambassador to Japan, on Tuesday accused the organizers of a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo of hypocrisy, saying they claim to oppose discrimination yet have called for the Jewish state’s destruction. Navon told JNS on Wednesday that the organizers are a very small group of Palestinians in Japan who “team up with the Communist Party.” He called them “vocal but marginal.” In a post on X written in Japanese, Navon wrote: “The organizer of tonight’s demonstration says, ‘We prohibit discrimination based on ethnicity or nationality.’ Last time, they shouted, ‘Abolish Israel,’ ‘Destroy the embassy.’” “This denies the Jewish people’s right to self-determination. That is discrimination based on ethnicity,” he wrote. In an accompanying video, Navon accused the protesters of harassing him and his wife with megaphones under their window. He said they also harass embassy staff on their way to work.

RICHARD OFFENBACHER, Jerusalem Post,NOV 5, 2026 US Secretary of State and White House National Security Advisor Marco Rubio rejected reports that he would leave US President Donald Trump's administration to run for president, telling the New York Times in a Thursday interview that working until the end of Trump's term has "always been my plan." “I literally will not talk about 2028 anymore,” Rubio was quoted as saying by the NYT. “I just won’t do it.” Rubio was expected to be among several senior Trump administration officials who may resign to prepare for the 2028 presidential election, The Independent reported on Thursday. According to the report, Rubio is among four or five senior administration figures considering leaving their posts to pursue presidential bids following the Republicans' losses in the midterm elections. Senior Republican Party sources and officials in the UK government told The Independent that Rubio had been expected to resign even before the midterms.

The Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he’ll change all 548 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though the state Supreme Court will have the final say in hundreds of those cases. Newsom’s decision comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years and considers a run for president. The Democrat, who’s long been opposed to the death penalty, placed a moratorium on executions in California in 2019. His latest move came after he realized “the limits of what government can justly accomplish,” he said. “I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in a letter. Newsom moved to grant clemency to 548 people currently sentenced to death in California, of whom 529 are men and 19 are women, according to numbers provided by his office. The state constitution requires the California Supreme Court’s approval to grant clemency to anyone convicted of a felony more than once, which means the court would have to approve 382 of those commutations, or roughly 70%, according to Newsom’s office. Californians voted via ballot measures to uphold the death penalty in 2012 and 2016. No one has been executed in the state since 2006 and California has the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere. Newsom said the decision was among the most difficult choices of his career because it will surface painful memories for crime victims’ families.