New York Post, Saturday, November 14, 2020nypost.comThis year just keeps on
proving that when it rains,
it pours.
Forecasters have their eye
on yet another hurricane
forming in the Caribbean.
The National Hurricane
Center expects Tropical
Depression 31 to strengthen
before making landfall as a
hurricane in Central Amer-
ica early next week.
Once the depression’s
winds reach speeds of 39
mph it will be named Tropi-
cal Storm Iota — the 30th
named storm of the 2020
Atlantic hurricane season.
The system is forecast to
unleash dangerous winds
and storm surge.
Jesse O’Neill, Wires
Still another
Carib ’cane
Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo plans to visit the
Golan Heights and an Isra-
eli settlement in the West
Bank during a visit to the
Jewish state next week —
both firsts by a top US dip-
lomat, according to a report.
The international com-
munity considers both ter-ritories to be “illegally oc-
cupied” by Israel, though
President Trump has recog-
nized Israel’s sovereignty in
the Golan Heights.
In its report about Pom-
peo’s planned visit to the two
sites, Axios noted that his
trip appears to be intended to
highlight Trump’s policyshifts on Israel, as well as il-
lustrate the secretary of
state’s close ties to the nation.
Late last year, Pompeo an-
nulled a 1978 State Depart-
ment legal opinion that
deemed Israeli settlements
in the West Bank “inconsist-
ent with international law.”
During his visit to the set-tlement of Psagot, Pompeo
plans to stop by a winery
whose owner named a wine
after him, according to Ax-
ios, which said it was unclear
whether it will be designated
an official or private visit.
The West Bank was earlier
targeted in European Union
efforts to label Israeli prod-ucts from contested areas as
coming from occupied terri-
tory, according to The Hill.
Pompeo’s weeklong tour
abroad, which begins Fri-
day, also will take him to
France, Turkey, Georgia, the
United Arab Emirates,
Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Yaron Steinbuch, WiresPompeo to Golan, W. Bank settlement
Five people were shot,
one fatally, in three separate
incidents Thursday — with
no additional gun violence
reported early Friday, ac-
cording to preliminary
numbers released by police.
In the most recent inci-
dent, a 38-year-old man was
shot in the hand on West
137th Street near Riverside
Drive in Harlem around
11:50 p.m., cops said.
He was taken to Mount Si-
nai Morningside in stable
condition.
In the New Lots section of
Brooklyn, a 20-year-old
man was shot in the arm in-
side a basement apartment
on Miller Avenue near Riv-
erdale Avenue around 11
p.m., authorities said.
He went to Brookdale
University Hospital Medi-
cal Center, also with non-
life-threatening injuries.
Thursday’s first shooting
came around 1:30 a.m. on
235th Street near 121st Ave-
nue in the Laurelton section
of Queens, when a nut with
a submachine gun opened
fire on his victims’ car —
killing one man and wound-
ing two others.
On Thursday’s date in
2019, which was a Tuesday,
just one person was shot.
As of Thursday, 1,
shootings were reported
with 1,653 victims — more
than double the count from
last year. Amanda Woods
1 dead
among
5 shot
By joshua rhett millerSupreme Court Justice Samuel
Alito is warning against threats
to religious liberty and freedom
of speech amid the coronavirus
pandemic, saying the deadly
outbreak has resulted in “previ-
ously unimaginable” restric-
tions on Americans.
In a virtual keynote speech to
the conservative Federalist So-
ciety on Thursday, Alito, 70,
said he didn’t intend to down-
play the “severity of the virus’
threat” to public health, but
called out what he saw as gov-
ernment overreach in the ongo-
ing fight against COVID-19.
“The pandemic has resulted
in previously unimaginable re-
strictions on personal liberty,”
the George W. Bush appointee
told the conference. “We havenever before seen restrictions
as severe, extensive and pro-
longed as those experienced for
most of 2020.”
“Whatever
one may think
about COVID
restrictions, we
surely don’t
want them to
become a recur-
ring feature
after the pan-
demic has
passed,” he said.
The conserva-
tive justice also
claimed that
“tolerance for
opposing views
is now in short
supply,” saying many recent
law-school graduates are chas-
tised, harassed or face retalia-tion for views not aligned with
“law-school orthodoxy.”
“In certain quarters, religious
liberty has fast
become a disfav-
ored right,” Alito
said.
“For many to-
day, religious lib-
erty is not a
cherished free-
dom. It’s often
just an excuse
for bigotry, and it
can’t be tolerated
even when
there’s no evi-
dence that any-
body has been
harmed.”
The justice
also likened the criticism that
Christians face regarding their
religious beliefs to the restric-tions the US placed on Ger-
many and Japan following
World War II.
“Is our country going to fol-
low that course?... The ques-
tion we face is whether our so-
ciety will be inclusive enough
to tolerate people with unpopu-
lar religious beliefs,” he said.
Alito also cited two cases ear-
lier this year in which the Su-
preme Court sided with states
while citing the pandemic for
restrictions on the size of reli-
gious gatherings. The court
ruled 5-4 in both cases, allowing
the limitations to continue.
The resulting restrictions
“blatantly discriminated against
house of worship,” Alito said,
adding that he believed reli-
gious liberty was in danger of
becoming a “second-class”
right. With Wire ServicesAlito’s warning on virus restrictions
fearinG
Covid’S
toll on
liBerty
Getty ImagesWe have
never
before seen
restrictions
as severe,
extensive and
prolonged.
— Supreme Court
Justice Samuel Alitoextensive and
prolonged.
Supreme Court