Financier and philanthropist Jacob Rothschild, of the renowned Rothschild banking dynasty, has died at 87, his family said Monday. Rothschild began his career in the family bank, NM Rothschild & Sons, in 1963, before breaking away to start businesses and charitable organizations. His family paid tribute to him in a statement. “Our father Jacob was a towering presence in many people’s lives, a superbly accomplished financier, a champion of the arts and culture, a devoted public servant, a passionate supporter of charitable causes in Israel and Jewish culture, a keen environmentalist and much-loved friend, father and grandfather,” his family said. “He will be buried in accordance with Jewish custom in a small family ceremony and there will be a memorial at a later date to celebrate his life,” they added, without providing any more details. The Rothschild family has an estimated fortune of about 825 million pounds ($1 billion), according to last year’s Sunday Times Rich List. It reportedly gives away millions of pounds to Jewish causes, education and art. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was among the political and cultural leaders who paid tribute to Rothschild. Blair described him as a “towering figure in Britain’s Jewish community” and praised his work advancing peace in the Middle East. Born in Berkshire, west of London, Rothschild was educated at Eton College and studied history at Christ Church College, Oxford University. After leaving the Rothschild bank, he took control of Rothschild Investment Trust, now RIT Capital Partners. He was chairman of the firm, one of the largest investment trusts on the London Stock Exchange, until 2019. He also co-founded the then J Rothschild Assurance Group, now St James’s Place, with Mark Weinberg in 1980, and served as deputy chairman at what was then BSkyB Television, among other roles. In the cultural sector he was chairman of the board of trustees at London’s National Gallery and chair of the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The Rothschild Foundation, the charity which manages the family’s former home, the country house Waddesdon Manor, said Jacob Rothschild’s daughter Hannah would succeed him as its chair. Jacob Rothschild was married for more than 50 years to Serena, who died in 2019. They have four children, Hannah, Beth, Emily and Nat, and many grandchildren. (AP)

Benjamin de Rothschild, the Jewish scion of the famous Rothschild banking dynasty who oversaw the banking empire started by his father in 1953, died of a heart attack on Friday at his home in Pregny, Switzerland at the age of 57. De Rothschild was born in 1963, to Baron Edmond and Baroness Nadine de Rothschild. In 1997, when he was 34, he took over the Switzerland-based Edmond de Rothschild Group named for his father. The Edmond de Rothschild Group owns an investment firm in Israel and has donated significant sums to various causes, including a NIS 50 million donation in April to purchase medical equipment for Israel’s hospitals to assist in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. De Rothschild, whose assets are estimated today at about $190 billion, is survived by his wife Ariane, who has managed the Rothchild group with him for many years, and four daughters, Alice, Eve, Olivia, and Naomi. Ariane, who is not Jewish, has generously donated money to philanthropic causes in Israel over the years. The Rothschild’s fame dates back to the 19th century, to Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who was born in the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt am Main. He later became the “founding father of international finance” through the banking dynasty he spread through his five sons, who opened branches in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna and Milan. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Officials in California ordered evacuations in a high-risk coastal area where mudslides killed 23 people in 2018 as a huge storm barreled into the state Wednesday, bringing high winds and rain that threatened widespread flooding and knocked out power to more than 100,000 people. The storm was expected to dump up to 6 inches (152.4 millimeters) of rain in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area where most of the region would remain under flood warnings into late Thursday night. In Southern California, the storm was expected to peak in intensity overnight into early Thursday morning with Santa Barbara and Ventura counties likely to see the most rain, forecasters said. “We anticipate that this may be one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” said Nancy Ward, the new director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said at a news conference that the city was “preparing for a war.” Crews cleared clogged storm drains, tried to move homeless people into shelters and passed out emergency supplies and ponchos to those who refused to go. The city distributed so many sandbags to residents that supplies temporarily ran out. Powerful winds gusting to 85 mph (136 kmh) or more forced the cancellation of more than 70 flights at San Francisco International Airport and downed trees and power lines. Firefighters rescued a family after a tree fell onto their car. The fire department reported “large pieces of glass” fell off the Fox Plaza tower near the Civic Center, although no injuries were reported. It was “highly possible” the damage to the skyscraper was wind-related, the department tweeted. The new storm left more than 100,000 customers in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast without power. The storm is one of three so-called atmospheric river storms in the last week to reach the drought-stricken state. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency to allow for a quick response and to aid in cleanup from another powerful storm that hit just days earlier. In Southern California, evacuations were ordered for those living in areas burned by three recent wildfires in Santa Barbara County, where heavy rain forecast for overnight could cause widespread flooding and unleash debris flows. County officials did not have a firm number for how many people were under evacuation orders, but Susan Klein-Rothschild, a spokesperson in the county’s emergency operations center, said sheriff’s deputies went door-to-door and contacted at least 480 people. Among the towns ordered to evacuate was Montecito, where five years ago huge boulders, mud and debris swept down mountains through the town to the shoreline, killing 23 people and destroying more than 100 homes. The town is home to many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan. “What we’re talking about here is a lot of water coming off the top of the hills, coming down into the creeks and streams and as it comes down, it gains momentum and that’s what the initial danger is,” Montecito Fire Department Chief Kevin Taylor said. Elsewhere, a 45-mile (72-kilometer) stretch of the coastal Highway 1 running through Big Sur was closed Wednesday evening in anticipation of flooding and rock falls. Further north, a 25-mile

In just five years as France’s president, Emmanuel Macron has gone from a young newbie in politics to a key world player and weighty decision-maker in the European Union who has been deeply involved in efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. And now he has won a second term, the first French president to do so in a generation. The outspoken 44-year-old centrist, with his non-stop diplomatic activism, doesn’t always get his way but has earned his place on the international scene. He is expected to pivot back to his work on Ukraine. At home, Macron managed to regain some popularity after the “yellow vest” protests against social injustice sent his approval to record lows in 2018. Opinion polls say many French praise his presidential stature and consider him up to the job to face major global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict. They also show he is often perceived as arrogant and out of touch with ordinary people. Macron has notably been dubbed “president of the rich,” especially during the yellow vest crisis. Some critics also denounce a perceived authoritarian attitude, holding him responsible for violent incidents involving police during street protests. The job of president is his first elected office, though he came with a strong pedigree. Macron studied at France’s elite school Ecole Nationale d’Administration, and he was a senior civil servant, then a banker at Rothschild for a few years, then economic adviser to Socialist President Francois Hollande. He emerged from that backstage role onto the political scene when he served as economy minister in Hollande’s government from 2014 to 2016. A series of political surprises — including a corruption scandal involving a key rival — thrust Macron toward presidential victory in 2017. He easily beat far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in their runoff that year on promises to free up France’s economy to boost job creation and attract foreign investment. He beat her again Sunday, but the race was closer and Macron acknowledged that some voters had backed him only to keep Le Pen out of the presidency. Macron, who describes himself as “a president who believes in Europe,” argues the EU is the way for France to be stronger in a global world. A strong advocate of entrepreneurial spirit, he has eased rules to hire and fire workers and to made it harder to get unemployment benefits. Critics accuse him of destroying worker protections. Then the pandemic hit, and he acknowledged the crucial role of the state in supporting the economy, spending massively and vowing to support employees and business via public aid “whatever it costs.” In his biggest campaign rally near Paris earlier this month, Macron paid an emotional tribute to his wife, Brigitte, the person “I care the most about.” They could be seen on the stadium’s giant screens sending kisses to each other. On Sunday evening, they arrived hand in hand on the plaza near the Eiffel Tower where Macron made his victory speech. As first lady, Brigitte Macron, 24 years his senior, has been involved in charities and other programs promoting culture, education and health. Their romance started when he was a student at the high school where she was teaching in northern France. At the time a married mother of three, she was supervising the

For years, legions of QAnon conspiracy theory adherents encouraged one another to “trust the plan” as they waited for the day when President Donald Trump would orchestrate mass arrests, military tribunals and executions of his Satan-worshipping, child-sacrificing enemies. Keeping the faith wasn’t easy when Inauguration Day didn’t usher in “The Storm,” the apocalyptic reckoning that they have believed was coming for prominent Democrats and Trump’s “deep state” foes. QAnon followers grappled with anger, confusion and disappointment Wednesday as President Joe Biden was sworn into office. Some believers found a way to twist the conspiracy theory’s convoluted narrative to fit their belief that Biden’s victory was an illusion and that Trump would secure a second term in office. Others clung to the notion that Trump will remain a “shadow president” during Biden’s term. Some even floated the idea that the inauguration ceremony was computer-generated or that Biden himself could be the mysterious “Q,” who is purportedly a government insider posting cryptic clues about the conspiracy. For many others, however, Trump’s departure sowed doubt. “I am so scared right now, I really feel nothing is going to happen now,” one poster wrote on a Telegram channel popular with QAnon believers. “I’m just devastated.” Mike Rothschild, author of a forthcoming book on QAnon called “The Storm is Upon Us,” said it’s too early to gauge whether the wave of disillusionment that swept through the QAnon ranks Wednesday is a turning point or a fleeting setback for the movement. “I think these people have given up too much and sacrificed too much in their families and in their personal lives,” he said. “They have believed this so completely that to simply walk away from it is just not in the realm of reality for most of these people.” On Wednesday, as it became obvious that Biden’s inauguration would proceed, many QAnon message boards and online groups were bombarded by hecklers and trolls making fun of the conspiracy. Some longtime QAnon posters said they planned to step away from social media, if only temporarily. “Trump has said, ‘THE BEST IS YET TO COME.’ I’m not giving up,” Telegram user Qtah wrote in an announcement to his 30,000 subscribers that he was taking a social media break. Some groups seized the moment to try to recruit disillusioned QAnon supporters to white supremacy and other far-right neofascist movements like the Proud Boys. On Wednesday, for example, an anonymous poster on 4chan posited in a thread that “this would be the perfect time to start posting Nat Soc propaganda in Q anon groups. Clearly, this is a very low point for Q believers, and once people have been broken, they will look for ways to cling back to hope again.” Nat Soc stands for national socialism, commonly referred to as Nazism. QAnon emerged in 2017 through anonymous, fringe online message boards before migrating to Twitter, Facebook and other mainstream platforms that were slow to purge the conspiracy theory from their sites. Although Facebook and Twitter platforms vowed last year to rid their sites of QAnon, accounts with thousands of loyal followers remained until this month, when the tech companies finally disabled thousands of users who used violent rhetoric to encourage protests of the election results at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Twitter announced it had suspended more

Hackers have stolen $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party’s account that was being used to help reelect President Donald Trump in the key battleground state, the party’s chairman told The Associated Press on Thursday. The party noticed the suspicious activity on Oct. 22 and contacted the FBI on Friday, said Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt. Hitt said the FBI is investigating. FBI spokesman Brett Banner said that, per policy, “the FBI is not permitted to confirm or deny an investigation.” The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which has a center focused on cyber crime able to assist if requested, has not been asked to investigate, said spokeswoman Rebecca Ballweg. The alleged hack was discovered less than two weeks before Election Day, as Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden made their final push to win Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes. Trump won the state by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016 and was planning his third visit in seven days on Friday. Biden also planned to campaign in Wisconsin on Friday. Polls have consistently shown a tight race in the state, usually with Biden ahead by single digits and within the margin of error. Hitt said he was not aware of any other state GOP being targeted for a similar hack, but state parties were warned at the Republican National Convention this summer to be on the lookout for cyber attacks. “We have been in contact with the state party and are assisting them through this process,” said Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens. “The RNC never left Wisconsin after 2016, and we are confident that our ground game and the millions we are spending on TV and digital will deliver us another win there in 2020.” The reported hack exposed new tensions in the final days of the race between the Trump campaign and the state party, which overspent and failed to properly account for its expenditures in 2018, leading to a shakeup in top party leadership. Campaign officials in Wisconsin learned about the alleged hack from media reports and were furious that state officials had not briefed them on how it might impact operations, according to a Trump campaign official who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss internal conversations. But Trump’s director of battleground strategy, Nick Trainer, said the national campaign was notified immediately. “I personally received a call notifying me as a senior official for the campaign,” he said. “We have complete trust in the Republican Party of Wisconsin and know they will deliver the state for the President in four days.” There have been more than 800 attempted phishing attacks for financial gain targeting the Wisconsin Democratic Party this campaign cycle, but none has been successful, said party spokeswoman Courtney Beyer. The alleged hack is “certainly embarrassing” for Republicans, said Matt Rothschild, leader of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, an independent group that tracks campaign donations and spending. “It’s got to hurt them and their ability to function at this crucial moment,” he said. “I can’t see any upside for them in this matter.” Hitt stressed that the money stolen was for services already rendered. “While a large sum of money was stolen, our operation is running at full capacity,” he said. Hitt said the hackers manipulated invoices from four vendors who were

They say he hires protesters and rents buses to transport them. Some say he has people stash piles of bricks to be hurled into glass storefronts or at police. George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist who has long been a target of conspiracy theories, is now being falsely accused of orchestrating and funding the protests over police killings of Black people that have roiled the United States. Amplified by a growing number of people on the far right, including some Republican leaders, online posts about Soros have skyrocketed in recent weeks. They have been accompanied by online ads bought by conservative groups that call on authorities to “investigate George Soros for funding domestic terrorism and his decades-long corruption.” Soros, 89, has donated billions of dollars of his personal wealth to liberal and anti-authoritarian causes around the world, making him a favored target among many on the right. The Hungarian-American, who is Jewish, has also been the subject of anti-Semitic attacks and conspiracy theories for decades. Such hoaxes can now travel farther and faster with social media. Over just four days in late May, negative Twitter posts about Soros spiked from about 20,000 a day to more than 500,000 a day, according to an analysis by the Anti-Defamation League. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London think tank focused on extremism and polarization, found an even more pronounced jump on Facebook, where there were 68,746 mentions of Soros in May. The previous record of 38,326 Soros mentions was in October 2018, when angry posts alleged he was helping migrant caravans headed to the U.S. The new wave began as nationwide demonstrations emerged over George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Some insist Soros financed the protests, while others say he colluded with police to fake Floyd’s death last month. But all available evidence suggests the protests are what they seem: gatherings of thousands of Americans upset about police brutality and racial injustice. “I think partly it’s an attempt to distract from the real matters at hand — the pandemic, the protests or the Black Lives Matter movement,” Laura Silber, chief communications officer for Soros’ philanthropic Open Society Foundations, said of the theories. “It’s pretty demeaning to the people out there protesting when someone says they’re all paid. It’s insulting.” A look at some of the claims: — Soros pays protesters. No evidence has been presented to suggest demonstrators were paid by Soros or his organizations. It’s a new take on an old hoax: past versions claimed Soros paid for a long list of other events, including the 2017 Women’s March held just after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. — Soros pays to transport protesters. Last week, a photo claiming to show two buses emblazoned with the words “Soros Riot Dance Squad” got widespread attention. The photo was cited as proof of Soros’ involvement in the protests, but it was bogus. The original photo showed two unmarked buses; someone later doctored it to add the language supposedly implicating Soros. — Soros organizes stashing piles of bricks near protests. Several false claims involving stockpiles of bricks have been debunked, and no evidence has turned up showing they were purposefully placed. Experts who study conspiracy theories say the new claims about Soros are a way to delegitimize the protests and the actual