RSS
Toronto family remembers their son, Tyler Wallace-Cohen, with a twinkling tribute
Two months after their 13-year-old son Tyler Wallace-Cohen died, his parents Jennifer Wallace and Eric Cohen did what their son would have wanted them to do and banished the mid-January darkness by filling their yard with glowing lights, inflatables and joy.
In the midst of the colourful display was the logo for Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, the genetic disorder that led to Tyler’s death in November 2024.
The family invited friends, classmates and neighbours to drive by the Toronto house and give a honk, or get out of their car and enjoy the lights display, take photos and share stories about Tyler. The special event was called Twinkling Tribute Hour for Tyler.
“We wanted to bring joy to others during the holiday season and shine a light on Tyler and the kind of kid he was,” said Wallace.
He was known for his infectious smile and cheering up those around him.
“Tyler would always champion for others. If someone was having a bad day or being bullied, he would always step in and advocate for that person,” said Wallace.
Tyler had no shortage of challenges himself. When Wallace was pregnant, the couple went to an ultrasound early on and found out there was a ‘laundry list of problems’ with their unborn child.
They decided to continue the pregnancy and hope for the best. After a difficult labour, Tyler was born and immediately whisked away by a medical team.
“In the middle of the night, Jen called me and said that he may not make it through the night, and I had to go to SickKids (Hospital),” said Cohen.
Tyler survived but this was the first of many dire medical situations that he would face throughout his life including 17 surgeries, four being major heart procedures.
He lived with Loeys-Dietz, a rare genetic disorder that affects connective tissue. It can cause aneurysms in the aorta and other arteries, as well as other abnormalities.
When he was born, there were fewer than 500 people worldwide with this diagnosis and he had one of the most severe cases the doctors had seen.
“We made it our mission that he was going to not just defy the odds but beat them,” said Wallace.
They tried to ensure Tyler did everything that other kids did including going to school, participating in extracurricular activities, and more.
“A cardiologist said to me, ‘we’re going to give him the best medical care that he can possibly have. Your job is to let him just be a kid,’ and so we did.” said Cohen.
They took family trips and tried to enjoy life as much as possible. One year they went to Niagara Falls and upgraded to the Presidential Suite.
“When Tyler found out, he was so happy and excited. He looked at me and goes, ‘Mom, we’re big ballers’,” recalled Wallace.
At one time, Tyler was followed by 18 different healthcare professionals. Tema Stein was Tyler’s osteopath. They first met when he was less than two years old.
“When he first came to me, he couldn’t bear weight on his feet. He couldn’t stand or walk,” said Stein.
She helped expand Tyler’s capabilities in different ways including introducing him to Kyoshi Dominic Moscone at the Northern Karate School.
“When I first heard about the medical issues he was going through, I was a bit skeptical. I was told to just meet him and right away he stole my heart,” said Moscone.
They started working together for just 10 minutes at a time because of his condition. They made their big goal to get up to an hour.
“His knees would buckle and he would fall over due to muscular imbalance. I would test his balance, push him over a bit. I would ask him if he fell and he would say no or that he almost fell. The almost fall was a huge accomplishment because it meant he could control that stuff,” said Moscone.
Before long, they were training together consistently every Saturday. They worked together for about seven years.
“He accomplished everything according to the same curriculum as everyone else,” said Moscone.
Just last year, Tyler got his black belt. According to Moscone, he never gave up no matter how difficult things were and his parents also played a big role in this major accomplishment.
“He’s a one in a million kid,” said Moscone, “He’s going to be deeply missed. He lived a short but meaningful life. He brightened the lives of everyone he came in contact with.”
Moscone attended the twinkle tribute hour with his sons last week.
“It was amazing. You look at his parents and his whole family and you can see why Tyler was as good as he was. They’re making this terrible thing into something fantastic. It’s just what they do,” he said.
On Nov. 5, 2024, Tyler had his 16th surgery, this time for his aorta. Just two days later, he had chest reconstruction surgery. He came home from the hospital and was recovering at home.
Shortly after, he wasn’t doing well and his parents took him back to SickKids.
“I was hoping it was just a panic attack and the pain was related to the surgeries. But when they hooked him up to the heart monitors, all hell broke loose,” said Cohen.
The doctors did everything they could to try and save Tyler one last time.
“The doctor came over and said there’s nothing we can do, your son is dying. Everyone just left the room and we were alone with him.” said Cohen. “It was the worst feeling because I knew he was gone.”
The couple said the holidays were an incredibly difficult time for them and their family but soon Wallace had an idea.
“Jen convinced me to put up the inflatables and then we started to expand it,” said Eric.
They started to get more inflatables donated to them and it just kept expanding. Eventually, the yard was filled with light and colour.
“We did everything we could to turn that darkness into something bright and fun because that’s what Tyler would have wanted us to do,” said Cohen.
At the tribute evening, they were joined by friends, family, community members, and even the police who flashed their lights and honked their horns in honour of Tyler.
“Tyler would have loved this and the world needs more kind, caring, and compassionate people like him,” said Wallace.
Proceeds from the event went to SickKids Hospital.
The post Toronto family remembers their son, Tyler Wallace-Cohen, with a twinkling tribute appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.