Your Daily Spiel is The CJN‘s daily roundup of trending stories in the Jewish world

CANADA

A Catholic priest in London, Ont. is being investigated after church officials reported that he gambled away over $500,000 in funds meant for refugee sponsorship.

UNITED STATES

The FBI has managed to hack into the phone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook, even without Apple’s assistance. According to reports, an Israeli company helped with the operation.

Israelis online have pointed out that a map CNN displayed during its reporting of the EgyptAir crisis (which has officially been resolved) does not include Israel. In the map (see above), Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are all properly labelled.

A viral video depicting a University of Michigan student yelling obscenities at his Uber driver was allegedly a reaction to the driver’s anti-Semitism, the student claims. He “refused to pick me up on the basis of my religion,” Jake Croman said. Warning: tons of swears.

In an interview, ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt called on Donald Trump to stop using “xenophobic rhetoric against Muslims” and to distance himself from supporters like David Duke. “We as  Jews know what it means when they say that people coming from another country are all a problem,” he said.

ISRAEL

The Israeli soldier under investigation after shooting dead a wounded Palestinian attacker appeared in court today, as the IDF’s military prosecutor blamed him for “executing” the attacker. According to reports, the soldier may not be charged with murder after all, but the case remains a contentious and volatile issue, with hundreds of Israelis showing up outside the courtroom to support the soldier. A decision is expected sometime today.

Sharon Abraham-Weiss, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), sat down with The CJN to discuss Israel’s most pressing social issues. “To me, a better Israel is democratic with equality for all its citizens,” she said.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has issued an order not to return the bodies of Palestinian terrorists to their families, in a bid to prevent opportunities for Palestinians to use the funerals of the slain terrorists for incitement.

Regardless of your politics, this exploratory piece titled “Reflections of a Lebanese woman in Israel” is definitely worth a read.

Following his highly controversial remarks claiming that non-Jews shouldn’t live in Israel, Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef walked back on his statement, writing that his lecture referred to a future messianic era, not the present day.

WORLD

The Egyptair hijacking saga is over after a passenger identified as Seif Eldin Mustafa surrendered at Larnaca airport, after revealing that he was wearing a suicide belt that turned out to be fake. Reports claim that Mustafa wanted to talk to his estranged wife, and that his motive was not terrorism-related. For more, click here.

Since a makeshift memorial was created to honour the victims of last week’s attacks in Brussels, several have attempted to remove the Israeli flag from the collection of flags on display. This weekend, as yet another attempt to remove the flag was made, one Belgian protected it, which resulted in applause and cheers. The man was taken away by police, after shouting “Palestine” and anti-Israel slogans.

Despite slow growth following the disastrous earthquake that shook Nepal last year, Chabad’s Rabbi Chezki Lifshitz and his wife Chani are still planning on throwing what is known as the world’s largest annual seder this year, which is normally attended by over a thousand Israelis and Jews.

Former Israeli official Eran Lerman spoke at a conference recently about Israel’s greatest dangers, and Iran tops the list, he said. “The world ignores the role of Iran in the Syrian slaughter, the rape of Lebanon,” not to mention its unabated goal of eliminating Israel, he said.

A doctor in Saudi Arabia was arrested after raising a LGBT flag outside his home. The doctor claims he didn’t know that’s what the flag represented, and that he bought it because his child thought the colours were pretty.

BUSINESS

Snapchat has bought Toronto-based startup Bitstrips (despite not being popular for at least a year now) for some $100 million. Bitstrips, founded by Jewish entrepreneur Jacob Blackstock, is apparently valuable to Snapchat because of its personalized emojis.

Brazil is attempting to build an interactive “smart city” from scratch, and will receive help from three Israeli startups.  “Israel was selected as the destination for the challenge because it is a centre of innovative technologies and many companies with innovative solutions for smart cities,” a spokesperson said.

According to Globes, Tesla founder Elon Musk secretly arrived in Israel recently to visit Mobileye headquarters. Mobileye is currently developing a few key elements for Tesla’s automatic driving system.

Israel and China have committed to completing a free trade agreement that will mutually benefit each other’s economies.

CULTURE

We all knew that Sarah Silverman was feeling the Bern, but in a new clip, she explains why she’s supporting the Vermont senator over Hillary Clinton.

Israel has rebuffed the claim that Elton John was asked to declare his loyalty for the country, with a concert organizer referring to the rumour as “delusional.” John is scheduled to perform in Israel on May 26.

We’ve already shared the awesome video of Nate Robinson being requested to play one-on-one against a topless Israeli, and now the video’s made its way to Jimmy Kimmel.

Jean Claude Van Damme is reportedly in Israel. The actor visited the Western Wall the other day during his visit to Jerusalem.

Even all this time later, the cast from The Nanny are still BFFs. That’s nice.