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97-year-old German woman convicted of complicity in 10,500 Nazi death camp murders
(JTA) — A 97-year-old German woman whose trial for aiding Nazi crimes was briefly derailed when she fled last year has been convicted of complicity in 10,500 concentration camp murders.
Irmgard Furchner was 95 when she was arrested and charged with crimes related to her work as a secretary at the Stutthof concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. Tried in juvenile court because she was under 21 at the time, she was sentenced Tuesday to two years of probation, in what is likely to be one of the final convictions related to crimes committed during the Nazi regime.
Furchner initially resisted prosecution, fleeing by a taxi from her old-age home on the first day of her trial; she was soon apprehended. Furchner also had not commented on the charges against her until recently, when she spoke briefly during her final court appearance earlier this month.
“I am sorry for everything that happened,” she said, in a statement that local news reports said had been a surprise. “I regret that I was in Stutthof at that time. That’s all I can say.”
Earlier this year, a 101-year-old former Nazi death camp guard was sentenced to five years in prison for his role at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. He had maintained his innocence and has not yet begun his prison term.
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Iran’s Severe Water Crisis Prompts Pezeshkian to Raise Possibility of Evacuating Tehran
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – As Iran is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades, President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that the capital of Tehran might have to be evacuated if there were no rains in the next two months.
“If it doesn’t rain, we will have to start restricting water supplies in Tehran next month. If the drought continues, we will run out of water and be forced to evacuate the city,” the leader was quoted as saying.
Pezeshkian described the situation as “extremely critical,” citing reports that Tehran’s dam reservoirs have fallen to their lowest level in 60 years.
According to the director of the Tehran Water Company, the largest water reservoir serving the capital currently holds 14 million cubic meters, compared to 86 million at the same time last year.
Latyan Dam, another key reservoir, is only about nine percent full. “Latyan’s water storage is just nine million cubic meters,” Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Javanbakht said recently, calling the situation “critical.”
On Saturday, Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said “we are forced to cut off the water supply for citizens on some evenings so that the reservoirs can refill.”
The ongoing crisis is giving rise to increasing speculation that further shortages could trigger nationwide protests and social unrest.
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US Forces Working with Israel on Gaza Aid, Israeli Official Says
A Palestinian carries aid supplies that entered Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
US forces are taking part in overseeing and coordinating aid transfers into the Gaza Strip together with Israel as part of US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, an Israeli security official said on Saturday.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) will replace Israel in overseeing aid into Gaza. It cited a US official and people familiar with the matter as saying Israel was part of the process but that CMCC would decide what aid enters Gaza and how.
The Israeli security official said that Israeli security services remain part of policy, supervision and monitoring with decisions made jointly, and that the integration of the CMCC was already underway.
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Jerusalem told Reuters that the US was “working hard, in tandem with Israel and regional partners, on the next phases of implementing” the president’s “historic peace plan.” That includes coordinating the immediate distribution of humanitarian assistance and working through details.
The US is pleased by the “growing contributions of other donors and participating countries” in the CMCC to support humanitarian aid to Gaza, the spokesperson said.
TOO LITTLE AID GETTING IN
Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas agreed a month ago to a first phase of a peace plan presented by Trump. It paused a devastating two-year war in Gaza triggered by a cross-border attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and secured a deal to release Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
The CMCC began operating from southern Israel in late October, tasked with helping aid flow and stabilizing security in Gaza, according to the U.S. Central Command.
While the truce was meant to unleash a torrent of aid across the tiny, crowded enclave where famine was confirmed in August and where almost all the 2.3 million inhabitants have lost their homes, humanitarian agencies said last week that far too little aid is reaching Gaza.
Israel says it is fulfilling its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, which calls for an average of 600 trucks of supplies into Gaza per day. Reuters reported on October 23 that Washington is considering new proposals for humanitarian aid delivery.
The Israeli official said that the United States will lead coordination with the international community, with restrictions still in place on the list of non-governmental organizations supplying aid and the entry of so-called dual-use items, which Israel considers to have both civilian and military use.
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Staunchly Pro-Israeli Republican Elise Stefanik Launches Bid for NY Governor
United Nations Ambassador-designate Elise Stefanik spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
i24 News – Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a vocal and steadfast ally of Israel, officially announced on Friday her bid for governor of New York in the 2026 election, on the heels of the election of anti-Israel radical Zohran Mamdani as the mayor of New York City earlier in the week.
Her campaign announcement targeted incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, branding the Democrat the “worst governor in America.”
Stefanik slammed Hochul for the endorsement of Mamdani, saying Hochul “cozied up to a defund-the-police, tax-hiking, antisemitic Communist.”
“Our campaign will unify Republicans, Democrats, and independents to fire Kathy Hochul once and for all to save New York,” Stefanik said in a statement.
Stefanik, who is not of Jewish heritage, rose to national prominence condemning antisemitism since the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and ensuing Gaza war. Her relentless grilling of university presidents about their complicity with or inaction against the climate of antisemitic intolerance on campuses was widely credited with precipitating the resignations of the top administrators at Harvard, U Penn and other Ivy League institutions.