JNS.org – Scott Hayes, of Framingham, Mass., was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in Newton District Court on Friday and released on $5,000 bond, after the 47-year-old was arrested the night before at a pro-Israel rally in Newton, Mass.

Video footage, which the Daily Wire obtained, appeared to show a young man, who accused pro-Israel ralliers of committing “genocide,” run across a busy street in Newton, Mass., on Thursday and tackle one of the ralliers. At some point, the latter seemed to shoot the assailant.

At a press conference on Thursday night, Marian Ryan, the district attorney of Middlesex County, which includes the City of Newton, said that Hayes was charged with “assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury.” The latter charge was apparently dropped on Friday.

“He looked terrible but he stood tall. They treated him like a criminal and kept referring to the ‘alleged victim,”” a source at the court room told Kassy Akiva, of Daily Wire, who first obtained and released the footage of the incident. (Akiva is a former JNS editor.)

“Regrettably, the answer to most of the questions you’re going to have is, ‘We are working on that,’” the county district attorney said at the Thursday evening press conference.

“What we do know at this point is that at approximately 6:40 tonight, the Newton Police responded to calls at Washington and Harvard Street, just a short distance from the station,” Ryan said. “There was a small group of individuals—pro-Israeli demonstrators, who were demonstrating on one side of the street. There was an individual, apparently completely randomly walking down the other side of the street. Words were exchanged back and forth across the street.”

The man across the street “at some point began crossing the street. Appears to have gone back to his side of the street. Ultimately came across and jumped upon one of the demonstrators,” the district attorney said. “A scuffle ensued. During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group.”

The man who crossed the street “has sustained life-threatening injuries and is being treated at a local hospital,” she added.

In response to a question, she said that the attacker came “very rapidly” across the street and “tackled” the other man. “It’s our understanding that that was his gun and that he legally possessed that gun,” she said, of Hayes.

Asked to characterize the man—who had reportedly called the pro-Israel ralliers “sick” and accused them of “genocide”—as either “anti-Israel” or “pro-Palestinian,” the district attorney said, “I think it’s too soon to to get into that.”

George McMains, acting chief of the Newton Police, said that the department “will be providing extra patrols at the houses of worship over the next several days as well as beyond if we feel that’s appropriate or necessary.”

Ruthanne Fuller, the Newton mayor, called the incident “frightening.”

“The Newton Police Department acted quickly and immediately took a person into custody,” she said. “I have two asks. First, let the Newton Police do their work and get the facts straight. Second, I ask everyone to remain calm.”

The New England branch of the Anti-Defamation League stated that police appeared to act too “immediately.”

“ADL is aware that an anti-Israel protester was shot after charging across traffic and violently tackling a pro-Israel demonstrator to the ground,” the ADL wrote. “Reports that charges were immediately filed prior to completion of the investigation are concerning.”

“We encourage Newton Police and the Middlesex district attorney to conduct a thorough investigation of the entire incident,” the ADL added. “We are concerned about escalating tensions and remain in contact with law enforcement and community officials.”

Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, told JNS that there is no question that the man who crossed the street and tackled the pro-Israel rallier committed a crime.

“I think the first thing that’s clear is that the person who assaulted the veteran should be arrested as well,” Dershowitz said. “The fact that he hasn’t been arrested raises some serious questions.”

The legal scholar told JNS that the question whether the shooter acted in self-defense “will be determined based on all the evidence.”

“The shooting raises questions that require a deep investigation as to precisely when the shot was fired, what the circumstances were, what the feelings and beliefs of the person who shot were,” he said. “That requires an extensive investigation.”

Dershowitz told JNS that he is concerned that the alleged shooter was charged before the investigation was complete.

“It seemed to me that the first person to be arrested should have been the person who did the initial assault, because there’s no doubt about that. That’s on videotape. You can see it,” he said. “So the fact that the person was not arrested, charges were not filed against the person making the original charges, raises serious questions about the fairness of the entire process.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston stated on Friday that “last night, at a small demonstration in support of the Oct. 7 hostages in Newton, Mass., there was a violent altercation and an individual was hospitalized.”

“While the details of what happened are still being investigated, there should be no question that violence of any kind in our democratic society is abhorrent,” the JCRC said. “People’s right to gather in civil, non-violent public demonstrations must be sacrosanct.”

“We take this moment to note that over the last 11 months, across our region there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of standouts for the hostages taken on Oct. 7. These rallies, demonstrations, runs and walks for the victims, a ‘hostage tunnel’ exhibit at Boston City Hall Plaza, and other ways in which our community and allies have come together to demand the return of the hostages to their families have all been peaceful and without incident,” the JCRC said.

“Regardless of motive or his role in the initiation of the violence, we pray for the full recovery of the individual who was injured last night,” it said.

The Combined Jewish Philanthropies stated on Friday that there was an “altercation” that “turned violent.”

“We denounce and condemn all forms of violence and support the right to assemble in ways that are peaceful and uphold our values as a people and as a community,” the CJP said.

At press time, a fundraising page for Hayes—which called him “an American Iraq war veteran” and said that he is not Jewish—had raised more than $120,000 from some 1,600 donations.

The post Dershowitz: ‘Serious Questions’ About Fairness of Newton’s Response to Shooting at Pro-Israel Rally first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

23andMe will pay $30 million and provide three years of security monitoring to settle a lawsuit accusing the genetics testing company of failing to protect the privacy of 6.9 million customers whose personal information was exposed in a data breach last year.

The accord also resolves accusations that 23andMe did not tell customers with Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry that the hacker appeared to have specifically targeted them, and posted their information for sale on the dark web.

A preliminary settlement of the proposed class action was filed late Thursday night in federal court in San Francisco, and requires a judge’s approval.

It includes cash payments for customers whose data was compromised, and lets customers enroll for three years in a program known as Privacy & Medical Shield + Genetic Monitoring.

In a Friday court filing, 23andMe called the settlement fair, adequate and reasonable.

Citing its “extremely uncertain financial condition,” 23andMe also asked the judge to halt arbitrations by tens of thousands of class members, until the settlement is approved or they decide not to participate.

In a statement, 23andMe said it believes the settlement is in its customers’ best interest. It also expects about $25 million of the cost to be covered by cyber insurance coverage.

The breach began around April 2023 and lasted about five months, affecting nearly half of the 14.1 million customers in 23andMe’s database at the time. It was disclosed by 23andMe in an October 2023 blog post.

According to the company, the hacker accessed 5.5 million DNA Relatives profiles, which let customers share information with each other, and accessed information for another 1.4 million customers who used a feature called Family Tree.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the settlement addressed their clients’ main claims, and reflected significant risks of further litigation given 23andMe’s “dire” finances.

The South San Francisco-based company lost $69.4 million on revenue of $40.4 million in the quarter ending June 30.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Anne Wojcicki has been trying to take 23andMe private, three years after it went public at $10 per share. Its shares have traded below $1 since mid-December.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers may seek legal fees of up to 25% of the settlement amount.

The case is In re 23andMe Inc Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 24-md-03098.

The post 23andMe Settles Data Breach Lawsuit for $30 Million first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

i24 News – Iraqi forces and US troops eliminated Abu Ali Al-Tunisi, a senior commander with the Islamic State group who was wanted by the United States, as well as several other prominent militants, Iraq’s military said on Friday.

The operation in Iraq’s western Anbar province began in late August, the Iraqi military said, and also involved members of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and Iraq’s air force.

Al-Tunisi was a key leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS). He was in charge of manufacturing for ISIS in Iraq, conducting training for ISIS members, including instruction on how to make explosives, suicide vests, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Al-Tunisi also provided advanced training on weapons development and the manufacturing of chemical weapons.

The post Top ISIS Commander Eliminated in Iraq first appeared on Algemeiner.com.