News Sparks: 30 Tornadoes Tear Through Five States; Adams to Name First Female NYPD Commissioner; Netanyahu Explains Diplomacy to Rage-Filled Trump

By Yehudit Garmaise

Devastating Series of 30 Tornadoes Tear Through Four States

Seventy people have died after a series of 30 devasting tornadoes tore through 250 miles across Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri, on Friday and early today.

The death toll "could end up exceeding 100 before the day is done,” said Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, which was the state that was hardest hit by the twisters.

In addition, hundreds of homes and buildings are damaged and destroyed, and tens of thousands of Americans are left without power.

The National Weather Service is expected to report on whether last night’s storms resulted from one continuous tornado or were the result of several tornadoes. If the storms are confirmed as one single and continuous tornado, the so-called “Quad-State Tornado” will set the record for the longest “long-track” tornado in U.S. history.

Among the wreckage was a candle factory in Mayfield, Ken., which collapsed with 110 people inside, but as of today, only 40 people had been rescued from the rubble, said Gov. Beshear.

In Tennessee, at least four people were killed, two were killed in Arkansas, and six people are dead in Edwardsville, Ill., where, in an Amazon warehouse, the roof collapsed and a huge wall caved in: trapping hundreds of workers, 45 of which have been rescued so far.

At least two people in Missouri have died.

"We will make it through this," Gov. Beshar said about what he called “the most deadly and devastating tornado in Kentucky’s history. "We will rebuild. We are strong, resilient people."

Mayor-elect Eric Adams Expected to Name First Female NYPD Commissioner

Mayor-elect Eric Adams is expected to announce on Monday, his choice for the city’s first female police commissioner.

Carmen Best, who served as Seattle chief of police from 2018 to 2020 and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw are thought to be Adams’ two top choices to lead the nation’s largest police department, which employs 35,000 uniformed police officers.

Best, who is African-American, resigned in August 2020 after the Seattle City Council cut police funding and downsized the department by 100 officers. Best then joined KING-TC as a law enforcement analyst and wrote the book, “Black in Blue: Lessons in Leadership, Breaking Barriers, and Racial Reconciliation.”

Outlaw, who has served as Philadelphia’s top cop since February 2020, and previously served as the Chief of Police for the Portland Police Bureau, where she was the first African-American to head the bureau, and previously worked as deputy chief for the Oakland Police Department from 2013 to 2017.

Adams is also considering internal candidate NYPD Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes to serve as the NYPD’s commissioner.

Netanyahu Explains his Congratulatory Call to Biden, after Trump Expresses Ridiculous Rage

After former President Donald Trump, on Friday, bitterly complained that Israeli Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu called US President Joe Biden to congratulate him on his victory in the 2020 election, Israel’s former prime minister logically explained that he had to wish Biden well for the sake of a strong and warm relationship between the US and Israel.

“Former prime minister Netanyahu really appreciates the great contribution that President Trump made to the State of Israel and its security,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said. “He also really appreciates the importance of the strong alliance between Israel and the US, and it was therefore important for him to congratulate the incoming president.”

In Iraq, US-led Forces End Combat Mission, Change Role to one of Training and Advising

U.S.-led forces have ended their combat mission in Iraq, in a move that transfers all remaining troops into a training and advising roles, Iraqi military commanders and officials from the coalition led by the United States said on Thursday.

Western security officials and diplomats, however, privately said that the roles of the 2,000 troops still stationed in Iraq will not change much, as they have had limited involvement in any combat operations for the last couple of years.

In 2014, the U.S.-led coalition began its mission to defeat Islamic State, after the militants took over vast areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Since the Islamic State fighters’ military defeat in 2017, they have been unable to hold territory, however the fighters continue to wage a low-level insurgency that regularly kills Iraqi soldiers and civilians in remote mountain and desert areas.