Federal law enforcement officials warned on Wednesday that Israel’s ongoing war with Palestinian militants could encourage more hate crimes in the U.S.

In a public service announcement released Wednesday night, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it “has seen an increase in reports of threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab communities and institutions” and said that “recent events have increased the possibility of potential attacks against individuals and institutions in response to developments in the Middle East.”

The FBI, joined by the Department of Homeland Security, also warned that foreign actors, including Iranian media outlets and Islamic jihadist groups Al-Qaida and ISIS, were using the conflict to stoke divisions and call for violent attacks in the U.S. and other Western countries.

ISIS figures, the release notes, in particular have called on attacks against “the Jewish presence all over the world … especially Jewish neighborhoods in America and Europe” and specifically have singled out Jewish temples, nightclubs, “economic interests” and “Jewish and Crusader” embassies.

The warning from the country’s top law enforcement agencies comes on the heels of several high-profile incidents of antisemitic and Islamophobic violence against Jews and Muslims in the United States, which many attribute to the ongoing conflict in Israel.

In a surprise attack on Oct. 7, Hamas militants stormed out of the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and abducting dozens more, while firing rockets at cities including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel has since hit back by commencing a siege of Gaza and firing its own barrage of retaliatory missiles, killing thousands. The U.S. has publicly pledged to support Israel as it seeks to militarily defeat Hamas and end its rule over the Gaza Strip.

On Oct. 14, a man repeatedly stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, in Plainfield, Ill. The murder, which authorities have labeled an anti-Muslim hate crime, sparked outrage and grief among Muslim Americans.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League said Wednesday that “reported incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault increased by 388 percent” since the outbreak of the war in Israel.

Biden has addressed antisemitic and Islamophobic violence since the war began, denouncing both antisemitism and Islamophobia during an Oval Office speech last week. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said in an Oct. 12 briefing that the “entire Biden–Harris administration” is “committed to doing all we can to protect against antisemitism and other forms of hate.”

Still, the Biden administration has been criticized by both Jewish and Muslim community leaders for its response to the incidents. In particular, Biden has been criticized for not emphasizing enough that Palestinians are not all aligned with Hamas.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Jean-Pierre was criticized for saying the White House had not seen “any credible threats,” when asked about the administration’s level of concern about increasing antisemitism. She then went on to condemn “hate-fueled attacks” against Muslim and Arab Americans.

After facing pushback from Jewish Democrats, Jean-Pierre clarified her remarks on Tuesday, saying “there is no place for antisemitism. Full stop. Period. This is important to the president. This is important for me personally and to everyone in the administration.”

“We must all do our part and forcefully — forcefully speak out against antisemitism, and we must ensure there is no place for hate in America — not against Jews, not against Muslims, not against Arab Americans, not against Palestinian Americans, not against anyone,” Jean-Pierre continued.

Odds are heavily against the Johnson football season extending into next week, but the Governors at least have a chance to keep playing after ending the season of an intracity rival.

By about 9 feet.

J’Sean Jackson ran for 117 yards and a touchdown, Ali Farfan threw for a score, and Johnson held off Como Park 13-6 in a Class 4A, Section 3 playoff game Wednesday night.

Postponed Tuesday afternoon because of storms with lightning that could have resulted in a daylight issue, the game was moved back a day and played at Harding High School. Johnson does not have lights at its stadium.

The fourth-seeded Governors (6-3) will next play at top-seeded Hill-Murray (6-2), who had a first-round bye. Game time is 11 a.m. Saturday. Como Park, the section’s fifth seed, was beaten 56-6 by the Pioneers in last week’s regular season finale.

“We pulled it out and it’s on to the next one. Just excited for the opportunity to advance,” said coach Richard Magembe. “… The next two days have to be absolute perfect practices, no room for mistakes, no room for lackadaisical attitudes. Come ready to work.

“Two years ago, we were 1-7; last year we were 2-6 and then we had an incident where we didn’t get to participate in the playoffs, so for a lot of guys this is their first time. We’re really heavy with sophomores and freshmen that start on this team. We’re gonna go in there, we’re gonna give them hell and everything we got.”

Down 13-0, Como Park quarterback Ebisa Worika connected with Vontae Williams for a 15-yard touchdown with 3:46 left. The Cougars got the ball back with 1:06 remaining.

Boosted by a couple Johnson penalties, Como Park got to the 12 with 34 seconds left.

A completion to Matthew Corniea got half the needed distance. With the clock ticking down, Worika scrambled around the right side but was stopped in his tracks by Justice Moody at the 3. The clock hit 0:00 as the Cougars scrambled to the line.

“We needed to make plays earlier in the game and we just couldn’t do that. Unfortunately, we didn’t make plays until the end of the game,” said Como Park coach Kirby Scull, whose squad had 80 yards of offense (not including penalties) through three quarters.

He would have gone for the two-point conversion had the Cougars scored.

Como Park finishes 4-5 after a winless 2022 season, and a streak of 13 straight losses.

Two-way lineman Ben Sheldon wasn’t too concerned as Como Park nearly pulled this one out.

“We were topping them all game on the line of scrimmage, so I wasn’t worried about it,” said the Johnson senior.

What about that last drive?

“I still had faith in my team,” he said, smiling.

Up 7-0, a fourth-down interception by Jacoby Wiggins gave Johnson the ball at its own 45 early in the fourth quarter. Back-to-back 10-yard runs by Jackson and Moody moved the ball to the Como Park 35. Three plays later, Jackson made at least three sharp cuts en route to a 24-yard score.

On offense, a trio of sophomores — quarterback Ali Farfan along with receivers Moody and Anthony Stevenson — are the most dynamic players. Junior Isaiah Henderson and the senior Jackson get some tough yards on the ground.

Farfan hooked up for 17 yards to Justice Moody on a 3rd and 15 and connected with Stevenson for 14 more on the next play to end the opening quarter. Three plays later, Farfan rolled left and found Stevenson just inside the pylon for an 8-yard score.

Moody had a 75-yard opening half punt return to the end zone negated by a penalty.

“Since I’ve been a part of the program, he’s the best receiver we’re had,” said Magembe, who graduated from Johnson in 2004 and has been part of the coaching staff since 2011.

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Jaylon Johnson jumped in front of Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams to grab the interception, raced 39 yards for a touchdown and then made a beeline for the FOX broadcast camera.

As Johnson’s teammates gathered around to celebrate his second career interception — and his first of two picks Sunday — Johnson smirked at the camera and swiped one hand up over the other, raining imaginary money over the Soldier Field end zone.

Was he sending a message with that celebration in the Bears’ joy-filled 30-12 victory over the Raiders, you ask?

“You damn right,” Johnson said. “100%.”

Johnson’s two interceptions — one off veteran quarterback Brian Hoyer and one off rookie Aidan O’Connell — were part of a banner day for the Bears defense against a Raiders team missing starter Jimmy Garoppolo. Tremaine Edmunds also intercepted Hoyer. The Bears let the Raiders in the end zone just once, held them to 39 yards rushing and allowed only 2 of 9 third-down conversions as they halted a 10-game home losing streak.

Johnson’s picks came in the fourth quarter, the first with the Bears already holding a 24-6 lead, but they were notable for a number of reasons.

Johnson, a 2020 Bears second-round draft pick, is in the final year of his rookie contract and will be looking to sign a new deal in the months ahead — either with the Bears or another NFL team. Johnson said Sunday he has “been wanting to get to the table” to work out such a contract, thus the money celebration.

“I know who I am, and I know I can play this game at a high level,” Johnson said. “And I feel like I deserve to be paid like that. I’m taking that attitude for any team, for any and everybody in the NFL. So I mean if it’s with the Bears, then I’ll do that.”

Entering Sunday, Johnson had started 43 games in his Bears career and had 32 passes defended. He prides himself on being game to lock down the best receivers in the league. But prior to Sunday he had just one interception — on Sept. 19, 2021, against Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. Twenty-eight games followed without a pick.

Johnson has spoken this season about wanting to add to that total. But he stopped short of saying the streak without one weighed on him because he also prides himself on being reliable.

“It’s only so much you can do when you don’t get too many opportunities,” he said. “And you don’t want to force it and get too happy and start jumping routes and you get beat over the top. I’m definitely a sound player and want to do what I need to do to be in position to make plays on the ball. And if they give me an opportunity to catch the ball, I’m going to do it every time.”

That his first interception Sunday came while defending Adams was fitting given that Johnson has been asked multiple times about wanting to defend the former Green Bay Packers All-Pro receiver.

Johnson said he could see Hoyer eyeing Adams and knew the football was coming his way, so he broke before Adams did. After Johnson grabbed the ball, Kyler Gordon stepped in front of Adams to block, and Johnson knew he was getting to the end zone. The pick-six came one drive after Johnson was called for a 46-yard pass interference penalty against Tre Tucker that he said was a good call and “not acceptable” on his part.

Later in the fourth quarter, Johnson jumped in front of O’Connell’s pass to Jakobi Meyers for the other pick. Afterward, Johnson kneeled on the sideline because “God has done so much for me, and I was just taking the time to give him the glory.”

“It meant the world to him,” cornerback Tyrique Stevenson said. “After the second pick, I walked up to him and gave him a hug. You could feel the emotion. It’s something he’s been wanting, something we’ve been praying about, something we’ve talking about. Just for him to go out there and be a leader of the defense and take away two, it just added to the confidence of this defense.”

The Bears defensive effort obviously was much more than just Johnson. Stevenson, often defending Adams, had three passes defended. Defensive lineman Justin Jones had a sack. Edmunds grabbed an interception of Hoyer in the second quarter when it bounced off the hand of running back Josh Jacobs, and the takeaway led to the Bears’ second touchdown six plays later.

Edmunds and fellow linebacker T.J. Edwards, both new to the Bears this year, talked about the confidence building in the defense as they grow more comfortable with one another. And they talked about the good vibe that develops as they make more game-changing plays.

“We have a lot of playmakers out there that can make those big-time plays,” said Edmunds, who has two takeaways in two weeks. “Defense in general strives off that, just energy. What one person do, we all feel.”

In back-to-back home games, the Bears have held the Minnesota Vikings and Raiders offenses to just 12 points. The Vikings were without star wide receiver Justin Jefferson and the Raiders were without Garoppolo.

But that doesn’t diminish the confidence growing in the unit. Or the satisfaction Johnson was sure he would feel when he went home Sunday night.

“I get to go home and watch TV with a smile on my face and not want to turn the TV on,” Johnson said. “Honestly, just going out here and getting the dub for the home crowd, for all of the city, I know it’s been a long time coming. It’s really just about giving them what they want. They come out and show up each and every game and give us energy, and it’s only right to give them a W.”

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Minnesota looked slow, didn’t have any flow on offense and made far too many dumbfounding mistakes in its season-opening, 97-94 loss Wednesday in Toronto.

Sound familiar?

That was the recipe that got Minnesota run off the floor in a number of early-season contests a year ago. And the formula was equally as futile in Game 1 this fall in Canada.

Toronto made all the hustle plays, while consistently sprinting past Minnesota’s big-ball lineups, turning the Timberwolves’ mistakes into 38 fast-break points.

The good thing for Minnesota was there were positives to the fact it towered over the Raptors on the interior. The Wolves outrebounded Toronto 62-47, at least for one night correcting a major bugaboo from a year ago. The Timberwolves shot 22 free throws to Toronto’s 16.

But 20 of those attempts from the charity stripe came in the first half. Over the final two quarters, Minnesota’s offensive got especially stagnant.

The rhythm, flow and ball movement that were trademarks in the preseason and reasons for optimism that the Wolves were only going to build upon the successes realized in the spring all disappeared when the lights turned on for real.

“It’s always your fear. When the season starts for real, the ball gets sticky,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters. “We didn’t trust the movement that we showed all preseason. … We were never really able to establish any sort of rhythm with our inability to move for the sake of movement.”

After a hot start to the night that helped keep the offense afloat early, Anthony Edwards reverted to old habits of isolation. He, like everyone else, took a number of difficult shots throughout the contest.

Edwards finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds, but it took 27 shots to reach that scoring output. Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns also notched double-doubles, but no one had a particularly good night.

Shot selection was the primary factor in Minnesota’s woeful shooting performance. The Wolves shot 34% from the field and 26% from deep.

“A lot of tough shots,” Finch said. “It looked like everyone was trying to get themselves going and hoping that some tough shot goes in.”

Toronto shot just 40% from the field, and that included going 14 for 22 on the fast break.

“It was a winnable one, for sure. It was an ugly game,” Finch said. “Defensively, I thought we fought for the most part and did a lot of the things we set out to do, but decision-making on offense was the story of the game.”

Those fast-break opportunities were created through Minnesota’s bad shots, its 14 turnovers and also the Raptors’ major advantage in foot speed.

Nights like Wednesday do little to quell concerns about whether a two-center lineup in the NBA can be effective on an night-to-night basis. Minnesota still hasn’t won in Toronto since 2004 — a 19-game losing streak north of the border.

“First game,” Finch said. “We’ll have to settle into the rhythm that we know we played with all of preseason.”