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Matisyahu Releases New Song ‘Ascent’ About Antisemitism With Music Video Filmed in Israel
Matisyahu performs at Pompano Beach Amphitheater Pompano Beach, Florida on August 26, 2023. Photo: Rick Munroe/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu debuted on Friday a new song about antisemitism and the track’s music video was filmed in Israel following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in the Jewish state.
The music video for Ascent features survivors of the Nova Music Festival massacre and was filmed at the site of the festival, which was invaded on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists who killed 370 people before taking 44 others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Matisyahu also filmed the music video in the neighborhoods in southern Israel where Hamas infiltrated and killed residents before kidnapping others and taking them to Gaza. In total, over 1,200 people were murdered and more than 250 abducted.
The music video additionally features archival footage showcasing various moments in Jewish history.
In the song, Matisyahu raps about the “nation that could never be erased” and fighting “waves of deniers … liars [who] start fires that blaze, but truth is the water that stands in its way.” Ascent is included on Matisyahu’s new EP, titled Hold the Fire.
The musician, who began his music career as a Hassidic Jew and has since left that ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, talked about the inspiration behind Ascent in an interview with Billboard News earlier in March. The One Day singer said the track’s title is a nod to the Hebrew prayer “Song of Ascents,” also known in Hebrew as Shir Hamaalot, and was written in response to a historic surge in antisemitic hate crimes around the world since Oct. 7.
In Ascent, Matisyahu is “calling people out on antisemitic thinking,” he said, adding that he believes the track is going to be “empowering.” He explained that his visit to Israel for the song’s music video gave him hope for the future of the Jewish people.
“For the Jewish people right now, there’s this feeling of isolation, separation, anger, and fear,” the Jerusalem singer told Billboard News. “I was feeling really hopeless about what the future was going to look like for all of us and went to Israel, and it renewed my faith in humanity and God. I left with this feeling of light, and I’ve been trying to take that and put that into the music.”
“I think about the people I met there, the survivors of that festival, the soldiers that I met, the families of the hostages and what they’re going through, and that’s what’s given me the strength to not be quiet about what’s going on right now,” he explained.
The post Matisyahu Releases New Song ‘Ascent’ About Antisemitism With Music Video Filmed in Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
The post Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday
Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
The post Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
The post Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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