LIVE from New York City’s annual Israel Day Parade, one of the largest celebrations of Israel and Jewish pride anywhere in the world.

Join us as tens of thousands of participants, community leaders, elected officials, students, synagogues, organizations, and supporters march up Fifth Avenue in a powerful display of unity and support for Israel.

This year’s parade comes amid rising antisemitism and heightened security, with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch serving as Grand Marshal and authorities implementing the most extensive security operation in the parade’s history.

WATCH LIVE and share the broadcast with friends and family.

📍 In Person Viewing Information

Viewing areas are limited and available on a first come, first served basis.

Parade Spectator Access Points:

• 61st Street & Madison Avenue
• 63rd Street & Madison Avenue
• 66th Street & Madison Avenue
• 70th Street & Madison Avenue
• 73rd Street & Madison Avenue

President Donald Trump has privately raised doubts about whether Vice President JD Vance can succeed him as the leader of the Republican Party, according to a New York Times report published today as Republicans increasingly look toward 2028.

Trump has reportedly asked advisers and allies whether Vance has what it takes to “go all the way,” and has sometimes answered that question himself by saying he is not sure. The report said Trump has criticized Vance over his political experience, vacation time, personal style and initial opposition to military action against Iran.

According to the report, Trump repeatedly brought up Vance’s Iran position, including in front of the vice president himself. “I’m more of a man of peace than you, but I had to do it,” Trump reportedly told him. Trump also reportedly questioned Vance’s decision to lead talks in Pakistan, which did not produce the results the White House had hoped for.

Despite the criticism, the relationship between the two remains strong. Trump continues to include Vance in major decisions, gives him a public role in advancing the Republican agenda and recently praised him for his work on fighting corruption. White House officials, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, have reportedly urged Vance to reduce his online fights with critics.

The report also points to Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a major rival in the post-Trump succession fight. Trump has reportedly asked guests, “JD or Marco?” and recently floated the idea of a Vance-Rubio “dream team,” while stopping short of endorsing either man.

Vance remains one of the clearest heirs to Trump’s movement, but Rubio’s rise has made the 2028 question more complicated. Recent polling showed Rubio nearly tied with Vance among Republican voters, making Trump’s private doubts politically significant.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will not attend Sunday’s Israel Day Parade, becoming the first New York City mayor in history to skip the event, despite regularly participating in other cultural celebrations throughout the city.

The parade comes at a time of record antisemitism in New York and follows weeks of anti-Israel protests outside synagogues and Jewish communal institutions.

Mamdani, a vocal critic of Israel, has previously attended events including the St. Patrick’s Day celebration, where he compared the historic suffering of the Irish people to what he described as a “genocide” in Palestine. He has also participated in the Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Pakistan Independence Day Mela in Brooklyn, and the India Day Parade.

“I said on the campaign trail that I wouldn’t be attending the parade, and I’ve made my views on the Israeli government abundantly clear,” Mamdani said this week.

In sharp contrast, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch will serve as a grand marshal of the parade and says she will proudly participate.

“It’s the mayor’s decision not to march, and it is my decision to march proudly,” Tisch said.

Despite no known credible threats against the parade, the NYPD is implementing what Tisch described as the most extensive security operation in the event’s history.

“Included in that security plan will be the most heavy weapons teams ever, robust camera coverage of the area, and comprehensive screening of everyone entering the parade route,” Tisch said.

The numbers tell the story of one of the fastest consumer-product shifts in the American market.

The United States imported roughly $1.7 billion worth of South Korean cosmetics in 2024, a 54% increase from the year before, according to U.S. trade data. In the process, South Korea overtook France to become America’s largest foreign supplier of skincare and beauty products — an extraordinary development for an industry that, less than a decade ago, many U.S. retailers still viewed as niche.

Korean beauty, once associated primarily with K-pop fans and internet skincare forums, has moved firmly into the mainstream American consumer economy. Products once sold only through specialty Asian beauty retailers are now stocked at Sephora, Ulta, Costco, CVS, Target, and Amazon, while brands built around snail mucin, rice extracts, fermented ingredients, and Centella asiatica have become billion-dollar global businesses.

But the rise of K-beauty is not simply a social-media phenomenon.

The deeper story is manufacturing discipline, product consistency, and a fundamentally different philosophy about skincare itself.

The Real Competitive Advantage: Consistency

The core reason Korean beauty products have gained such traction with consumers is not celebrity marketing. It is trust.

South Korean cosmetic manufacturers operate under some of the world’s most stringent production and safety standards, built around tightly enforced Good Manufacturing Practices, or GMP protocols. These rules govern every stage of production — ingredient sourcing, contamination controls, equipment sanitation, packaging integrity, formulation consistency, employee training, and product testing.

For consumers, the practical result is simple: products behave predictably.

If a Korean serum says it contains a certain active ingredient concentration, consumers increasingly believe it actually does. Shelf-life labeling tends to be accurate. Formulas remain stable batch after batch. Products that worked six months ago generally work the same way today.

That consistency matters enormously in skincare because consumers are applying these products directly onto sensitive skin barriers every day.

South Korea also maintains an unusually expansive list of prohibited cosmetic ingredients — reportedly banning roughly 1,000 substances including steroids, antibiotics, radioactive compounds, and other potentially harmful additives. Regulators are now implementing additional nationwide cosmetic safety systems tied to digital labeling and traceability requirements through QR-code disclosure standards.

The structure resembles what made South Korea globally dominant in semiconductors, displays, batteries, and advanced manufacturing more broadly: high-volume industrial precision combined with rapid product iteration.

In skincare, that manufacturing culture became a competitive advantage.

Why Korean Beauty Feels Different

The philosophy behind Korean skincare also differs sharply from much of the traditional Western cosmetics industry.

American and European skincare has historically leaned toward what dermatologists sometimes describe as a “correction” model: identify a problem — acne, wrinkles, pigmentation, dryness — then attack it aggressively with concentrated active ingredients.

Korean skincare tends to follow a “maintenance and barrier support” model instead.

Rather than relying heavily on a single strong active ingredient, Korean routines often use multiple gentler products layered sequentially to hydrate, calm inflammation, support the skin barrier, and maintain long-term skin health.

That layering approach became one of the defining signatures of K-beauty.

Products are generally applied from thinnest consistency to thickest — toner, essence, serum, ampoule, moisturizer — allowing lower concentrations of active ingredients to work together while minimizing irritation.

The strategy appeals especially to younger consumers increasingly focused on prevention rather than correction, and to customers with sensitive skin who find stronger Western formulations difficult to tolerate.

The Ingredient Strategy: Science Plus Traditional Medicine

Korean beauty’s biggest commercial breakthrough may have been turning ingredients once viewed as unconventional into mainstream global skincare categories.

Snail mucin is the clearest example.

The ingredient, derived from snail secretion filtrate, became one of the defining viral skincare trends of the past several years. What made it commercially powerful was not novelty alone, but the scientific framing around hydration, barrier repair, peptides, hyaluronic acid content, and anti-inflammatory properties.

Clinical studies cited by major medical institutions including the Mayo Clinic have shown measurable improvements in skin hydration, luminosity, and fine lines following extended use.

Korea did not invent snail mucin itself. Chilean farmers reportedly first noticed skin-softening effects while handling snails commercially.

What Korean companies did was industrialize and standardize it.

They developed large-scale filtration systems, purification methods, cruelty-conscious collection processes, clinical testing structures, and global product branding around the ingredient — effectively transforming a niche biological byproduct into a mainstream skincare category.

The same process happened with Centella asiatica, also known as cica, a medicinal plant long used in traditional Asian medicine.

Korean brands refined it into scientifically marketed skincare centered around anti-inflammatory properties, redness reduction, barrier repair, and calming effects for sensitive skin. Today, cica-based creams, serums, masks, and moisturizers occupy entire retail sections across the U.S.

This pattern repeats throughout Korean beauty: identify a promising ingredient, clinically test it, improve formulation stability, standardize manufacturing, then scale globally.

Why the Industry Is Still Growing

The K-beauty boom is occurring at the same time many traditional Western beauty conglomerates are struggling with slower growth and increasingly fragmented consumer loyalty.

Part of Korean beauty’s success comes from speed.

Korean companies release products dramatically faster than many Western competitors, adapting quickly to new skincare concerns, viral consumer trends, environmental stressors, or ingredient innovations. Whether the issue is pollution-related aging, “maskne,” microbiome care, glass-skin aesthetics, or minimalist skincare, Korean brands tend to commercialize trends faster than much larger rivals.

Social media accelerated the process.

TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and Amazon reviews effectively replaced traditional beauty advertising for many younger consumers. Korean products built enormous momentum through user testimonials, before-and-after videos, ingredient explainers, and influencer routines emphasizing skin health rather than glamour marketing.

The products also often entered the market at lower price points than prestige Western skincare, creating unusually strong perceived value.

The Tariff Risk

The biggest near-term threat to the industry may now come from trade policy rather than consumer demand.

The United States recently ended South Korea’s tariff-free cosmetics treatment and imposed a 15% import tariff on many beauty products entering the country. Early export data already suggests the industry may be feeling pressure, with Korean beauty shipments to the U.S. slowing sharply in recent months.

The tariff creates a particular problem for smaller independent Korean brands that rely heavily on direct-to-consumer online sales and thin margins. Large multinational players may absorb some cost increases or eventually localize portions of production, but smaller companies face a much harder adjustment.

Still, industry forecasts remain bullish.

The U.S. K-beauty market is projected to roughly double from approximately $27.5 billion in 2024 to more than $55 billion by 2032.

That projection ultimately rests on one thing: consumer trust.

American consumers increasingly view Korean skincare not as a trend, but as a system — one built around standardized manufacturing, ingredient transparency, gentler formulations, and visible long-term results.

And in the beauty industry, trust is often the hardest thing to manufacture.

Asia — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

(AP) – Protesters and ICE agents clashed this week outside a New Jersey detention center as demonstrators gathered near the entrance gates to protest the transfer of detainees. ____ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Protesters and ICE agents clash outside the Delaney Hall detention center after demonstrators stood by the entrance gates to protest the transfer of detainees on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

An ICE agent holds his baton, with tattoos of skulls on his arm, outside the Delaney Hall detention during a protest against the transfer of detainees on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A protester holds a sign as ICE agents stand guard outside the Delaney Hall detention during a protest against the transfer of detainees on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A masked ICE agent stands guard outside the Delaney Hall detention during a protest against the transfer of detainees on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A protester talks to masked federal agents standing outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest against the transfer of detainees on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Protesters confront ICE agents outside the Delaney Hall detention center while demonstrating near the entrance gates, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A protester performs in front of ICE agents outside the Delaney Hall detention center while demonstrating near the entrance gates, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A detained migrant has a laser pointed at him as he stands by the window while ICE agents stand guard outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest near the entrance gates, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

An ICE agent removes a tire from the road as agents clash with protesters outside the Delaney Hall detention center, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Protesters and ICE agents clash on the middle of the road outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Protesters barricade the entrance gates outside the Delaney Hall detention on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. Inside the facility, detainees carried out a labor and hunger strike for days over alleged living conditions. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Protesters confront ICE agents outside the Delaney Hall detention center while demonstrating near the entrance gates, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

An ICE agent chases with protesters outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A protester throws a traffic cone to an ICE agent outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Protesters confront ICE agents outside the Delaney Hall detention center while demonstrating near the entrance gates, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A broken umbrella is seen after federal immigration officers ripped the fabric off as they confront protesters outside Delaney Hall detention center Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Federal immigration officers pepper spray protesters outside Delaney Hall detention center Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

State police officer stand behind shields as they clear the area of protesters outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest against the transfer of detainees and federal immigration policies,, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

An anti-ICE protester shows what appears to be a wound from a rubber bullet during a clashes with law enforcement outside the Delaney Hall detention center on Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

An anti-ICE protester crosses a smoke filled street during a clashes with law enforcement outside the Delaney Hall detention center on Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Police stand behind their shields as they prepare to clash with protesters outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest against the transfer of detainees and federal immigration policies on Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Protesters block ice cars outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest against the transfer of detainees and federal immigration policies, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A brick sits on the hood of a damaged Department of Homeland Security vehicle outside the Delaney Hall detention center following a protest Friday, May 29, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A protester wearing a mask moves a tear gas canister away from demonstrators outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest against the transfer of detainees and federal immigration policies, Friday, May 29, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Anti-ICE protesters take to the streets during clashes with law enforcement outside the Delaney Hall detention center on Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Police pass over a barricade as they clash with protesters near the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest against the transfer of detainees and federal immigration policies on Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Protesters remove fences as they clash with the police outside the Delaney Hall detention center during a protest against the transfer of detainees and federal immigration policies on Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A novel pill helped people with advanced pancreatic cancer live longer, researchers reported Sunday, raising hopes of long-needed better treatments for one of the deadliest types of cancer.

“While not curing the cancer, it is a very large step forward,” said Dr. Zev Wainberg, of the University of California, Los Angeles, who helped lead the study.

The drug is called daraxonrasib and it blocks a mutated protein that fuels tumor growth in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases — a target that had eluded treatment for decades.

The daily pills nearly doubled survival time, with fewer severe side effects, in a study that randomly assigned the experimental drug or more chemotherapy to 500 patients whose metastatic, or spreading, cancer had quit responding to prior treatment. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented Sunday at the American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.

Those taking daraxonrasib lived for a median of 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients. While that may seem like a small improvement, Wainberg said it marked the first drug to show a substantial advantage over chemotherapy.

“Having treated pancreatic cancer for 16 years, I actually started crying” when first seeing the study results, Dr. Rachna Shroff of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, who wasn’t involved with the research, said from the ASCO meeting. She was struck by how “patients stayed on this treatment because it was providing durable and meaningful benefit to them.”

The pills’ effects eventually wane but recipients used them for significantly longer than the comparison group stayed on chemotherapy, reporting less pain and a better quality of life as their tumors shrank. Many still were using the drug after the data was analyzed, which Wainberg said means the survival gap may widen as researchers continue tracking them.

Dr. Brian Wolpin, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, presented the findings Sunday. He said the drug should become “a new standard of care” for previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer, adding that researchers also will explore its use earlier in the disease, including to see if tumor shrinkage might let more patients qualify for surgery.

Side effects most likely to affect pill usage were a rash that can be severe and mouth sores, he said.

Maker Revolution Medicines funded the study and the Food and Drug Administration plans to expedite review of the drug. Meanwhile, the agency is allowing what’s called “expanded access” to the experimental drug for patients who meet certain criteria. The drug garnered public attention when former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse described on “60 Minutes” how he’s had less pain while taking it. Oncologists are being flooded with requests as the special access program gets started.

Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly forms in large part because it’s hard to detect before it starts spreading to other organs. The American Cancer Society estimates about 67,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year and more than 52,000 people will die from the disease. The five-year overall survival rate is 13%.

Unlike with other cancers that have benefitted from a variety of chemotherapy alternatives, pancreatic cancer has been harder to tackle.

Cancer specialists not involved in the new research expressed optimism that this may be a turning point in the quest for new options, with dozens of experimental drugs in development.

The new drug targets mutations in the RAS gene family that normally regulates cell growth. So-called KRAS mutations are especially critical in fueling pancreatic cancer. But a structure that made it hard for drugs to stick to the mutated proteins meant this cancer driver was long considered “undruggable.”

Revolution Medicines’ drug uses what’s essentially a molecular glue to bind with multiple KRAS subtypes. Wainberg said researchers next will probe whether the drug worked better in certain of those subtypes.

The drug will change pancreatic cancer treatment, said Dr. Andrew Coveler of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, who wasn’t involved in the research.

“This thing works drastically differently,” he said.

Wainberg said other drugs in development target specific KRAS subtypes. Other approaches in earlier stages of testing include vaccines designed to prevent recurrence after pancreatic cancer surgery by teaching the immune system to recognize the mutated protein.

The deployment of additional US military forces to Poland could lead to a “qualitative escalation” of tensions between Russia and the West and force Moscow to take retaliatory measures, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

Zakharova also said that the number of drone attacks on Russian territory from the direction of Europe and Northern European states was increasing.

Moscow has expressed concern that Ukrainian drones could be using Baltic or other countries’ airspace to launch attacks on targets inside Russia, an assertion rejected by Kyiv and the three Baltic countries.

Ukraine and Russia must be pushed to talk to each other, EU’s foreign chief says

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters on Thursday that Russia still shows “no genuine interest in peace” ahead of a meeting with EU Foreign Ministers.

Russia wants us to discuss who talks to them,
And they are already picking who is suitable for that.

Let’s not walk into that trap.

Negotiations are always a team effort, with a defined strategy.

That’s why the substance that we discuss today in Cyprus matters much more.

My… pic.twitter.com/8ZSkIKy7OY

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) May 28, 2026

“An unconditional ceasefire is a prerequisite for any kind of peace negotiations,” she said, adding that “Europe will never be a neutral mediator between Russia and Ukraine, because we are on Ukraine’s side.”

However, Kallas noted that she thinks it is “very important that we push Ukraine and Russia to talk to each other.”

This post was originally published on here.

Following extensive hearings and legal argument, the Jackson Township Zoning Board determined earlier in May that the residential component proposed as part of the Adventure Crossing development exceeds the residential density permitted under the Township’s HCMU zoning regulations.

The Board concluded that the applicant’s proposed apartment development cannot rely on acreage that was previously removed from the General Development Plan (“GDP”) to calculate permitted residential density. As a result, the Board ruled that the applicant must either substantially reduce the number of proposed residential units or seek a d(5) density variance pursuant to New Jersey’s Municipal Land Use Law.

The ruling centers on the applicant’s proposal for 641 residential apartments as part of the larger mixed-use Adventure Crossing project. Board professionals and objectors argued that the proposal exceeds the ordinance limitation of four residential units per gross acre when calculated based on the tract presently before the Board and the currently operative approvals.

Based on the Board’s determination, compliance with the zoning ordinance would require the residential component to be reduced from 641 units by approximately 300 units unless variance relief is granted.

During the proceedings, the Board reviewed the project’s lengthy approval history, including prior approvals granted between 2017 and 2022, subsequent litigation, and a settlement agreement that removed multiple parcels from the original GDP. The Board found that those removed parcels cannot now be counted toward residential density calculations.

As a result of the Board’s determination, the applicant must now either revise the project to comply with the permitted residential density or formally apply for a density variance requiring enhanced statutory proofs and additional Board review.

The Adventure Crossing project has been the subject of significant public attention due to its scale and its proposed mix of commercial, recreational, hotel, and residential uses within Jackson Township.

Additional hearings are expected as the application process continues.

The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to [email protected].

Question:

Thanks for the opportunity to bring our concerns.
One way to greatly reduced traffic at peak hours in ridge area would be to have those 2 parallel streets going one way instead of 2 ways. Those 2 streets are not wide enough for 2 cars to pass thru at the same time especially if there are cars parked on both sides of the street. Buses have a very hard time. It slows down everyone as each car as to take turns passing thru.

North oakland could go one way from the 88 to Somerset.
Linden going to Somerset to the 88.
It would save everyone lots of time.
Thanks for the crossing guard on rte 88 at peak hours that helps a lot but I believe making those streets one way would help even more.
Thanks for looking into it!

A resident of that neighborhood.

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good afternoon. I will ask engineering and traffic and safety to look into this.

Thanks

Ray

Question:

Dear Mr. Mayor,

Thank you for installing the new left-turn light at the intersection of Route 9, James, and Pine Street. This addition is a fantastic step toward improving traffic flow.

As the final paving and lane striping process gets underway, I want to strongly urge the town to extend and restripe the left-turn lane on Pine Street (turning onto Route 9 South) all the way back, almost to Cedar Street.

Currently, the short turn lane creates a severe bottleneck. When traffic is backed up on both sides, turning cars are physically blocked by the straight-through queue and cannot even reach the lane. Extending it to Cedar Street is a necessity so turning vehicles can bypass the backlog, clear the main flow of traffic, and actually utilize the new light.
Thank you for your time and continued efforts to improve our local infrastructure.

Sincerely,

David

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good morning. I’ve asked engineering to look into how far the turning lane can be extended.

Ray

Question:

Hi Mr. Mayor,

Thank you for all that you do for the “City” of Lakewood.

Now that there is a traffic light at Route 9 & Broadway, is it possible to have no parking along the shopping plaza on Broadway?

There are 2 lanes, 1 for making a left turn from Broadway to Route 9 going South, & 1 lane going straight to Chateau Drive & right to Route 9 going North. However, the left lane gets backed up & no one can use the right due to all the cars parked along the plaza which are blocking.

Another issue is the cars that are coming out of the front of the plaza that try to cut across to the left lane, but are stuck blocking the right lane. Is it possible to block that exit and have them use the other exit, or go around to the Evergreen parking lot exit?

There is also a similar issue by Oak & Route 9, both with the exit of the plaza in the front & the parking in the beginning of Oak going East.

Thank you!

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good morning

Because Rt 9 is a state highway we will need to run everything by them. I’ll ask engineering to forward your proposal and see if they will consider it.
—————–

Have a question for the Mayor? Send it to [email protected]

Have a question for the Chief? Send it to [email protected]

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu on Sunday praised Israeli forces for capturing the strategic Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon, calling it a major milestone in Israel’s efforts to strengthen security along the northern border and push Hezbollah farther from Israeli communities.

Speaking about the operation, Netanyahu highlighted the significance of the historic stronghold and the symbolism of Israeli troops raising the national flag there.

“Last night, our heroic fighters captured the Beaufort castle,” Netanyahu said. “They proudly raised the flag of the State of Israel and the flag of the Golani Brigade there.”

The prime minister noted that the site carries deep historical meaning for Israel, recalling one of the country’s most memorable battles in Lebanon.

“I remind you that 44 years ago, this place was a symbol of a heroic battle by our fighters, but it was also a symbol of deep division among us.

“Today, we returned to Beaufort differently. We returned united, determined, and stronger than ever. I spoke with the fighters on the northern border on Friday. They told me: ‘Tell the people of Israel what we are doing here. Prime Minister, the public doesn’t know what achievements we have made.'”

Netanyahu went on to detail what he described as significant Israeli successes against Hezbollah since the outbreak of the war.

“Since the beginning of the War of Redemption we have eliminated 8,000 Hezbollah terrorists. Since Operation Roaring Lion – 3,000. In the past month alone – 700. This is more than all those we eliminated during the Second Lebanon War.”

He also revealed that he has instructed the military to broaden its operations inside Lebanon and increase Israel’s control over key areas previously dominated by Hezbollah.

“I have instructed the IDF to expand the incursion in Lebanon. Our forces have crossed the Litani River. They took dominant terrain. They captured the Beaufort ridge. And now my instruction is to deepen and expand our hold on places that were under Hezbollah’s control.

“The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic change in the policy we are leading. We have broken the barrier of fear. We are taking the initiative, we are operating on all fronts – in Syria, in Gaza, in Lebanon; we have established security zones beyond our borders to protect our communities.”

The prime minister said he recently met with senior field commanders operating in Lebanon and relayed their confidence in the mission.

He added, “On Friday, I spoke with the brigade commanders. They are daring brigade commanders, inside the territory, leading the heroic soldiers. And they told me: ‘Prime Minister, we are carrying out the mission. We are charging forward – and Hezbollah is fleeing for its life.’ And I told them: ‘I am with you. The entire nation of Israel is with you. It will take more time, but we will restore security to the residents of the North, just as we did for the residents of the South.'”

Netanyahu concluded by stressing that the campaign is not yet complete but pledged that Israel will continue until its objectives are achieved.

“It will take time, but we will complete the mission.”

{Matzav.com}

Boro Park Shmira volunteers had an exceptionally busy week, assisting in a wide range of incidents that led to multiple arrests, the recovery of stolen property, and the safe return of a missing child.

On Sunday night, Shmira volunteers recovered a vehicle that had been stolen over Shabbos from 59th Street and 17th Avenue. The car was located not far from Boro Park, and the investigation remains ongoing.

On Monday afternoon, Shmira volunteers apprehended two suspects who stole a moped from 15th Avenue and 41st Street. Following a brief foot pursuit, the suspects were caught near 38th Street and 13th Avenue and taken into custody by officers from the NYPD's 66th Precinct.

Early Tuesday morning at approximately 3:00 a.m., members of Shmira's Night Shift patrol spotted an individual wanted in connection with multiple mail theft incidents throughout Boro Park. The suspect was detained and later taken into custody by officers from the NYPD 66th Precinct on New Utrecht Avenue and 62nd Street.

Later that afternoon, Shmira volunteers responded alongside officers from the NYPD 72nd Precinct to a construction site on 44th Street and 8th Avenue after two suspects forcibly entered the property. Both suspects were successfully taken into custody.

On Wednesday morning, Shmira volunteers responded to several hotline calls reporting a male acting inappropriately near 12th Avenue and 51st Street. The individual was quickly located and taken into custody by officers from the NYPD 66th Precinct.

Thursday morning at approximately 5:30 a.m., volunteers completing their overnight patrol observed a suspicious individual walking through the neighborhood. After monitoring his actions, they allegedly witnessed him cutting a lock in an attempt to steal bicycles. Officers from the NYPD 66th Precinct were notified and took the suspect into custody.

Later Thursday night, Boro Park and Flatbush Shmira volunteers responded to a report of a vehicle being vandalized near Avenue C and Ocean Parkway in Kensington. The suspect was quickly apprehended and taken into custody by responding NYPD officers.

In addition to the arrests and crime prevention efforts, Shmira volunteers and the Shmira Shabbos Patrol responded this past Shabbos afternoon to a report of a missing young child near 12th Avenue and 54th Street. After an intensive 45-minute search, the child was located in good condition and safely reunited with family members.

With summer just around the corner and activity increasing throughout the neighborhood, volunteers hope these arrests send a clear message that Boro Park is not a place for criminal activity.

Governor Kathy Hochul on Sunday signed legislation establishing buffer zones around religious institutions and Jewish community spaces, prohibiting harassment of individuals entering or exiting such sites — making New York the latest state to enact such protections in the wake of a national surge in antisemitic incidents.

The signing took place at the Met Council’s annual legislative breakfast in New York City, where Hochul addressed a room packed with influential Jewish community figures and elected officials before affixing her signature to the measure. The crowd erupted in applause throughout her remarks, and the governor received a standing ovation.

Hochul was flanked by prominent officials as she signed the bill, including City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Attorney General Letitia James, whose presence underscored the broad support the measure has drawn across state and city government.

“You have no right to harass someone walking into a synagogue with their family to carry on a tradition that has been there for centuries and centuries, and have to put up with people screaming vile epithets,” Hochul said before the signing.

“That is wildly un-American, and it’s definitely not how we do it in New York — and that will be not just condemned but prohibited.”

The governor said the legislation would make it a criminal offense to harass individuals heading into a “religious organization, institution, place of worship, school, or community gathering place.”

Hochul drew on personal testimony in her remarks, citing what she described as repeated images from the aftermath of October 7 that she said she will “never get out of my head, ever, ever, ever,” and expressing frustration at what she characterized as an ongoing pattern of antisemitic incidents across the state.

“I’ve had enough of having to put out social media posts condemning the latest symbol of hate being etched on a wall at a synagogue or a yeshiva,” she said. “I’ve had enough with people being harassed on the streets and in our subways. I’ve had enough with people not being able to go to their place of worship freely as a place of gathering and comfort.”

Hochul also acknowledged community leaders and officials in attendance, including Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Attorney General Letitia James, and state legislators she credited with championing the bill.

Assemblyman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn) credited Assembly Speaker Carl Heasty with pushing the bill across the finish line — and said the measure made it into law precisely because of Heasty’s persistence — while noting that the draft version previously had fallen short of what sponsors had originally sought.

“It is only as strong as it is because Speaker Carl Heasty made it that way,” Yeger told Belaaz at the event. “The governor didn’t support our efforts to expand it to what it was, which was to include JCCs and other buildings of Jewish community interest, and the Senate opposed it at the beginning. But when we tried to squeeze those things in, the Senate didn’t actually let us get those pieces in. Carl Heasty wouldn’t leave the table until those things happened. That’s a push over the edge. 100 percent.”

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, who was present at the event, told Belaaz that his office will enforce the new statute alongside existing city law.

“There are two different statutes now — the City Council and the state,” Gonzalez said. “Typically the DAs enforce both administrative law, which is under the New York City administrative law which the City Council can pass, and then we have the state penal law. We’ll work with Commissioner Tisch to establish what the guidelines will be for enforcement.”

Asked directly whether his office would prosecute cases brought under the new law, Gonzalez was unequivocal.

“If you’re asking will I prosecute the cases? Of course,” he said.

The Met Council’s annual legislative breakfast, held each spring, brings together Jewish organizational leaders, elected officials, and community advocates to mark legislative priorities and achievements.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Russia’s intelligence agencies have grown more aggressive in their efforts to steal Western technology and defense secrets as sanctions squeeze the country’s wartime economy, three senior European intelligence officials told The Associated Press.

Moscow’s agents are building fake companies, recruiting middlemen and deploying cyber spies and hackers who are gathering information that could also be used to attack key infrastructure, they said.

Four years of international sanctions have hampered Moscow’s ability to procure machinery, technology and research from Europe, while the grinding war in Ukraine has taxed key industries and pushed the country toward a potential financial crisis.

“They really know what they need,” and are putting “serious effort” into acquiring advanced machine tools, factory equipment, research and dual-use technology, said Christoffer Wedelin, deputy head of operations at the Swedish Security Service.

Russia seeks high-end research, defense technology and software
In Sweden, Russia is targeting the defense industry and high-end research on the country’s most advanced weaponry, such as the Gripen fighter jet, Wedelin said. It is also trying to procure camera and laser technology developed for civilian purposes that could be integrated into Russian weapons systems, he said.

Moscow is also trying to steal technology to help it keep pace — or give it an edge — against the West in the decades ahead, said Juha Martelius, the director of Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service.

“We’re talking about space technology, quantum … arctic technology, marine technology,” he said, adding that space technology is something Russia needs “right now,” without elaborating. Countries use such technology for satellite imaging, communications and navigation.

Russia also needs sanctioned computer technology and software updates for machine tools, Martelius said.

On Wednesday, Anne Keast-Butler, the director of the U.K’s signals intelligence agency, accused Russia of “relentlessly targeting” the U.K. and its European allies, by stealing technology and plotting sabotage and assassination attempts.

In May, Swedish police arrested two people on suspicion of violating sanctions relating to a company in Turkey that has made dozens of shipments of metalworking and metal-turning machine tools to Russia.

As the schemes to acquire technology grow more complex, companies need to be more aware they could unwittingly become part of Russia’s war supply chain, Wedelin said.

“All of the security and intelligence services in Russia are helping out on the state’s efforts to get this,” he said.

Intelligence officials say Russia cares less about getting caught
Moscow is also deploying cyberattacks against European firms and critical infrastructure in an attempt to gather information, which it could exploit “when they get the chance and when it serves their purpose,” Wedelin said. He pointed to an attack on a Swedish power plant last year.

Russia-linked actors tried to “destroy” the plant but failed because the system detected the intrusion, Wedelin said. He said the attack was partly aimed at undermining Western support for Ukraine.

Before then, Sweden’s security services had mostly observed reconnaissance for potential attacks, intelligence gathering or activity linked to cybercriminals. The attack marked a “switch” in Russia’s modus operandi, Wedelin said.

“They’re no longer caring as much about potential attribution after their activities, so they are taking greater risks to achieve their goals,” he said.

Problems are mounting for Russia’s economy
Russia’s increasingly aggressive tactics may reflect mounting internal concerns about its economy, which “is not doing well at all,” said Kaupo Rosin, the head of Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.

About a third of Russia’s gross domestic product currently goes to the war effort, Martelius said. The war and ensuing sanctions have slowed growth and fueled stubborn inflation.

Russian officials planned to have a budget deficit of 3.7 trillion rubles ($52.1 billion) for the whole of 2026 and had already reached about 3.4 trillion rubles ($47.9 billion) by the end of February, Rosin said.

The Iran war that erupted on Feb. 28 has provided a boost by causing oil prices to soar. The U.S. has granted sanctions waivers for the sale of Russian oil and the U.K. watered down its sanctions in an attempt to lower global fuel costs.

Increased revenue since then has likely improved Russia’s budget, but “it doesn’t save them,” Rosin said, adding that if Western pressure persists, Moscow could face a financial crisis toward the end of the year.

Rosin said intelligence seen by his agency shows a gloomier outlook among Russian officials over the past six months, with the narrative of “total victory” in Ukraine having vanished. Keast-Butler, of British intelligence, said almost 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Russia and Ukraine have mostly kept their combat casualty figures under wraps.

Stalled progress on the battlefield and economic woes have many Russian officials privately asking “what is this all for,” Rosin said, citing the intelligence reports.

Martelius, of Finland’s intelligence service, said that while some reports on the war in Ukraine may have been “sanitized” before reaching President Vladimir Putin’s desk, he believes the Russian leader has a fairly clear picture of the economic challenges.

But that does not mean there will be political change.

It is “very dangerous … to start analyzing Russia as if it is some country like ours,” Martelius said. “It is not.”

By: Simcha Eichenstein

In challenging times, a leader’s character is revealed not by speeches but by actions. 

After October 7, when the Jewish world reeled from horror, Congressman Dan Goldman didn’t hesitate. He reached out directly to our community providing federal assistance. His staff worked long hours helping stranded travelers return from Israel. He ensured our shuls receive vital federal aid by leading the charge on expanding security grants. He spoke boldly in the halls of Congress, defending Israel even as colleagues wavered.

Congressman Dan Goldman never pretended to be something he’s not. He might be a Democrat, but he is also a proud Jew. He is proud of his faith and refuses to bend under political pressure. When activists and progressive leaders scolded him for supporting Israel’s right to self-defense, he stood tall. When others fell silent, he spoke the truth. 

That kind of courage is rare and deserves recognition. Now, as he faces an aggressive challenge from the far left. Our community must rally.

In supporting Dan Goldman, we are not endorsing a party. We are defending our values as a community.

Candace Owens and Ana Kasparian agree on one thing: Jews are the evil entity that stands in the way of the redemption of the world.

Of course, they don’t put it quite like that. Three major points they covered in a discussion on Owens’ podcast included the idea that the Holocaust is used as a brainwashing tool, that Jewish chosenness means Jews can mass murder children without consequences and that Jews are pedophiles.

Astute observers of rising Jew hatred on the right and left have long pointed to the horseshoe effect in politics: As the movements travels further to the extremes on each side, the two sides begin to converge. The comparison to a horseshoe lies in the idea that rather than viewing politics as moving along a horizontal line, the two extremes curve toward each other, like the ends of a horseshoe.

This doesn’t mean that both sides share the same ideology, but that the methods, tactics and attitude toward governance are the same: a tendency toward authoritarianism, intolerance of dissent, an “us versus them” mentality and hatred of the establishment.

But while the right and left differ in their worldview, as the ends of the horseshoe curve toward each other, they find common ground on one thing: the age-old hatred of the Jewish people.

That’s how you get Owens on the extreme right and Kasparian on the extreme left chumming it up on a podcast. Because if there is one thing they can agree on, it’s that Holocaust education has brainwashed them into sympathy for the Jewish people.

The podcast opened with Owens admitting that she used to hate Kasparian.

“I’m like thrilled to have you. It’s just so funny because we hated each other,” she said.

Kasparian agreed and said that changed for her when Owens was fired from the Daily Wire for being “willing to call out a genocide” and for her changing attitude toward Muslims.

The conversation took a darker turn when the subject of the Holocaust came up.

“They’re brainwashing them [Jewish Americans] so young, right?” Owens said. “We are all subject to brainwashing.”

“Of course, of course,” Kasparian responded in agreement.

“That is the most important thing that I think I have come out of learning as like, how did I get brainwashed? I thought the same thing,” Owens went on. “I was watching the Holocaust movies. All of that is a part of your growing up, your brainwashing experience, what you’re learning in the classroom, your, who is the victim, you know, and who do you have to defend, who is being oppressed.”

Owens went on to explain that because of Holocaust brainwashing, Jewish Americans were primed to respond to Oct. 7 with the fear that this would trigger another Holocaust.

“It’s like priming you to be accepting of something that just goes against your core principles,” Kasparian agreed.

Throughout the exchange, Owens and Kasparian found that they were very much in agreement on this particular notion, as well as on the idea that accusing them of antisemitism, along with Tucker Carlson, is preposterous and silly.

They also agreed that the Jewish notion of chosenness means that Jews believe they can massacre children with impunity. And the clincher came at the end of the discussion: Jews are pedophiles.

“If you’re anti-pedophiles, if you are against what’s going on in Gaza, then we really are actually on the right side,” Owens said, saying that she and Kasparian are on the same side, the right side.

The hyperpolarization of Americans might prove to be deleterious to the health of the republic, but, as history proves, uniting over Jew hatred is the wrong solution.

Anyone entering the office of Rabbi Menachem Ingber is immediately struck by the wall lined with diplomas, certifications, and professional credentials. Yet behind those framed accomplishments stands a fascinating life story that bridges seemingly opposite worlds: American openness and chassidic discipline, the therapist’s office and the Rebbi’s room.

One of the most respected figures in the field of mental health in the chareidi community, Rabbi Ingber recently sat down for an extensive Hebrew interview with Kikar HaShabbat in which he discussed his unusual journey, parenting, therapy, shidduchim, trauma, and the emotional challenges facing Klal Yisroel today.

Matzav.com presents portions of the interview in English for our readership.

The American Boy Who Wanted a Gartel

Before discussing his work, Rabbi Ingber felt compelled to clarify a common misconception.

“I completed my master’s degree in psychology more than thirty years ago,” he explained. “When we came to Eretz Yisroel, there were certain requirements I still needed to complete in order to receive the Ministry of Health’s official psychologist’s license. By then I was already the father of eight children, and the practical realities of life made it difficult. Instead, I entered professional clinical practice. I am a recognized psychotherapist and have worked for years in welfare services, the National Insurance Institute, and the military.”

His path toward psychology began much earlier.

Rabbi Ingber grew up in what he describes as a modern Yekke home in America. His father began as the principal of a kiruv school before later becoming a professor of psychology.

“I grew up in a modern Yekke environment,” he recalled. “The natural path for me would have been Yeshiva University. Then one summer, shortly after my bar mitzvah, I attended a camp where there were chassidim, and something clicked.”

What attracted him was not merely the clothing or customs.

“I was drawn to the warmth, the varemkeit, and the understanding that serving Hashem involved more than learning. There was tefillah, chesed, and a complete way of life.”

Among all the chassidic groups he encountered, Ger made the strongest impression.

“I saw people who could live in both worlds. They were successful businessmen and genuine chassidim. Later, when I came to Eretz Yisroel, I saw avreichim arriving to daven Minchah with the Rebbe. They wore jackets and gartlach, but beneath them you could still see the green pants from army reserve duty. I loved that balance.”

Choosing a Different Path at Fourteen

The decision to become a chassid at fourteen was not something his parents embraced immediately.

“Of course it worried them,” he said. “They didn’t simply let me do whatever I wanted.”

When he began growing long peyos, his parents called him in for a serious conversation.

“They told me, ‘This isn’t how things are done.’ I answered with a sentence that still guides me today: ‘You taught me that the most important thing in life is yiras Shamayim. I believe this is my path.’”

Eventually a compromise was reached. The full chassidic dress would wait until he came to Eretz Yisroel.

Looking back, Rabbi Ingber sees the experience as a powerful lesson in parenting.

Parents, he says, need to distinguish between technical limitations and essential limitations.

He offers the example of a child who excitedly discovers rumors of an ancient mikvah beneath a neighborhood building and wants to start digging.

“The tired parent says, ‘Don’t make a mess.’ But the wiser response is, ‘Interesting idea. Let’s see what would actually be involved.’ Let him dream.”

Too many children stop dreaming because they hear too many versions of “No.”

“A child says he wants to become a singer. The parent immediately responds, ‘Be a talmid chacham instead.’ But the child isn’t thinking about fame. He sees someone inspiring people and bringing them together. He wants to make a difference.”

The dream should be encouraged, even if practical limitations eventually shape the path.

A Life-Changing Directive from the Pnei Menachem

Ironically, despite growing up around psychology, Rabbi Ingber initially pursued a rabbinic career.

He learned in kollel, received semichah, taught shiurim, and served in rabbinic capacities in Yerushalayim.

The turning point came through the future Ger Rebbe, the Pnei Menachem.

A struggling bochur in the yeshiva had become withdrawn and isolated. Rabbi Ingber was asked to learn with him and provide encouragement.

Gradually, the young man emerged from his shell and reconnected with his peers.

When the Pnei Menachem heard what had happened, he summoned Rabbi Ingber.

“He told me, ‘I hear your father is a psychologist. Apparently there are psychological genes in your family.’”

Then came the directive that would shape the rest of his life.

“‘You’re already married, you have children, you’re American—you won’t be corrupted. Go study psychology.’”

Rabbi Ingber followed the advice. More than thirty years later, he remains deeply involved in helping people navigate emotional struggles.

Feeling at Home Everywhere

One of Rabbi Ingber’s most distinctive qualities is his ability to move comfortably between very different worlds.

He speaks Hebrew, Yiddish, and English fluently and interacts naturally with people from across the Jewish spectrum.

“I once came home and told my wife, ‘Something must be wrong with me.’”

That day had begun with a lecture at Hebrew University. From there he davened Minchah with a religious Zionist minyan at the Kosel. Later he listened to a secular street musician near Machane Yehudah. That evening he learned with his chavrusa in Ger’s main beis medrash.

“I felt at home everywhere.”

The lesson, he says, is simple.

“We are all Jews. We don’t have to become identical. But we do need connection.”

The Three Foundations of Emotional Resilience

Through years of clinical work and his involvement in trauma and resilience organizations, Rabbi Ingber developed a framework he frequently teaches to parents.

According to his model, emotional resilience rests upon three pillars: identity, community, and skills.

Identity means understanding who you are, including your strengths and weaknesses.

Community means having meaningful connections—family, friends, shul, yeshiva, and community.

Skills are the practical tools needed to navigate stress, conflict, and life’s challenges.

Too many parents, he argues, spend their lives reacting.

“A child acts out, and we punish. A problem appears, and we respond. Instead, parents need to lead.”

The goal is not to force every child into the same mold.

The goal is to understand each child’s unique personality while maintaining clear and consistent boundaries.

Breaking the Stigma

Perhaps the most sensitive part of the conversation centered on the lingering stigma surrounding therapy and shidduchim.

Years ago, Rabbi Ingber delivered a lecture to teachers in Bnei Brak about ADHD and behavioral challenges. To avoid discussing others, he used examples involving his own son.

That evening he received an unexpected phone call from Rebbetzin Shoshana Alter.

“She told me, ‘Menachem, you said your son has behavioral and attention difficulties? You don’t have married children yet. Be careful what you say publicly about your children.’”

Years later, when that son entered shidduchim, a prospective family actually remembered the lecture.

The Rebbetzin had been right.

Yet Rabbi Ingber believes the community has changed dramatically.

“Today people understand much more.”

Seeking help, he insists, is not a sign of weakness.

“Psychologists are not for crazy people. Most of the people we see are normal, intelligent, successful individuals—roshei yeshiva, avreichim, top bochurim—who are stuck at a particular point in life.”

His message is simple:

“Getting help is not a deficiency. It’s a form of wisdom.”

A Nation Living Through Trauma

As someone who works extensively with emergency services and trauma-response organizations, Rabbi Ingber believes the Jewish people are still living inside an ongoing traumatic event.

“In the past, PTSD was measured in weeks or months after an event. Today, we’re not ‘after’ the event. We’re still inside it.”

The constant uncertainty affects everyone.

A passing motorcycle can trigger panic. A loud noise causes people to jump. The stress seeps into parenting, marriages, and even spiritual life.

Sometimes, he says, it causes people to become more rigid in their Judaism.

The challenge is remembering that Torah was given to bring connection and joy, not fear.

The Secret of Venasnu

When asked what one lesson people should focus on today, Rabbi Ingber pointed to the word venasnu.

The word reads the same forward and backward.

“When you give, you receive.”

Helping others, listening to others, and accepting people who are different from us are among the greatest sources of emotional resilience.

He recently spoke with an educator who visited the sites of the October 7 massacre and emerged with a painful realization.

“I spend my life learning Torah and working on my middos, but I realized I need more ahavas Yisroel.”

Rabbi Ingber believes strengthening those bonds—between communities, between parents and children, and between Jews of all backgrounds—is one of the most important challenges facing the Jewish world today.

He concluded with a powerful illustration.

Imagine a room filled with the greatest rabbanim, roshei yeshiva, admorim, and philanthropists in the world. Together they number only nine men. They cannot recite Kaddish, Kedushah, or Barchu.

Then a simple thirteen-year-old boy walks in.

Suddenly there is a minyan.

Suddenly all those giants can sanctify Hashem’s Name.

“That,” Rabbi Ingber says, “is the power of every Jew and every child. Every single person matters.”

Waymo is trying to turn autonomous driving from an expensive technology experiment into a scalable transportation business.

On May 28, 2026, the Alphabet-owned company announced it has begun offering rides to select customers in a new all-electric robotaxi developed with Chinese automaker Zeekr, a vehicle designed specifically to lower operating costs, increase durability, and accelerate the expansion of driverless ride-hailing across major cities.

The new vehicle, called the Ojai, is initially rolling out in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco, where invited users are receiving free rides while Waymo gathers data and customer feedback ahead of broader commercial deployment.

The launch marks an important shift in Waymo’s strategy.

For years, Waymo focused primarily on proving that fully autonomous driving could work safely at scale. The company now faces a different challenge: proving the economics can work too.

The Ojai is built around that goal.

A Robotaxi Designed for Scale, Not Luxury

The vehicle itself is based on the Zeekr RT, a purpose-built autonomous platform developed through a partnership between Waymo and Zeekr parent company Geely, first announced in 2021.

But Waymo has intentionally removed nearly all visible Zeekr branding from the final consumer experience.

The vehicle now carries Waymo-specific badging throughout, including customized wheel center caps, while the car itself has been renamed “Ojai” — pronounced “oh-hi” — after the California mountain town known for wellness retreats and arts culture.

The naming strategy is not accidental.

When passengers enter the vehicle, the car greets them with an “Oh hi,” turning the town’s name into both a branding mechanism and user interaction cue.

The deeper branding decision, however, reflects larger geopolitical and consumer realities.

Waymo appears to have concluded that many American passengers may feel more comfortable riding in a vehicle associated directly with Waymo rather than a lesser-known Chinese automaker — particularly as political tensions surrounding Chinese technology and manufacturing continue influencing consumer perceptions in the United States.

The partnership remains central technologically.

But consumer-facing identity now belongs almost entirely to Waymo.

Why This Vehicle Matters Financially

The Ojai is less important as a product than as a cost structure.

Waymo’s biggest challenge has never been demonstrating autonomous capability. The company is widely viewed as the clear leader in fully driverless commercial deployment in the United States.

The real challenge is economics.

Waymo’s vehicles rely on expensive hardware stacks that include lidar systems, radar arrays, high-definition mapping infrastructure, redundant computing systems, and advanced sensor cleaning technology. Each Ojai includes 13 cameras, six radars, and four lidar units, alongside heaters, sprayers, and wipers specifically designed to maintain sensor performance in varying weather conditions.

That approach has produced some of the industry’s strongest autonomous-driving performance.

It has also made Waymo’s vehicles extremely expensive.

The Ojai is designed to reduce that burden.

Unlike retrofitting consumer cars for autonomous use, the Zeekr platform was engineered specifically around robotaxi operations from the beginning. The vehicle is larger, more durable, optimized for high-mileage ride-hailing use, and intended to lower maintenance and operational costs over time.

In other words, Waymo is finally moving from research-grade hardware toward fleet-grade infrastructure.

That transition is essential if the company hopes to achieve profitability.

The Race to Scale

Waymo’s ambitions are rapidly expanding.

Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana recently said the company expects to reach approximately 1 million rides per week by the end of 2026.

That would represent an enormous increase from current operations.

As of April, Waymo was completing more than 250,000 paid rides weekly, while total paid rides last year exceeded 14 million. The company is now preparing aggressive geographic expansion into cities including Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and London.

Scaling to that level requires far more than software.

It requires manufacturing.

Waymo and production partner Magna are expanding vehicle production capacity at an Arizona facility expected to more than double output, with plans to produce more than 2,000 autonomous vehicles there by the end of 2026 and eventually tens of thousands annually.

That is the point where autonomous driving begins transitioning from a technology showcase into an actual transportation network business.

The Tesla Problem

The rollout also intensifies the industry’s most important competitive debate: expensive sensor-heavy autonomy versus lower-cost camera-based systems.

Waymo’s approach prioritizes redundancy and precision through lidar and radar.

Tesla, by contrast, continues pursuing a largely camera-only strategy built around neural-network vision systems. Tesla executives argue that eliminating expensive lidar dramatically lowers costs and makes scaling faster and economically simpler.

Waymo still maintains a major lead in actual fully driverless deployment.

Tesla’s current ride-hailing operations still include human safety oversight in many situations, while Waymo already operates commercial fully autonomous rides without human drivers in multiple cities.

But the economics question remains unresolved.

If Tesla eventually achieves comparable autonomy performance at materially lower hardware costs, it could pressure Waymo’s long-term margins heavily.

If Tesla’s lower-cost approach proves less reliable, Waymo’s more expensive infrastructure may ultimately look justified.

Right now, the market still does not know which model wins economically at global scale.

Why Cities Matter More Than Technology Now

The next major challenge may no longer be technical.

It may be political and urban.

Waymo’s expansion has already triggered pushback in several cities, particularly San Francisco, where residents and regulators have raised concerns about traffic disruptions, emergency-response interference, operational glitches, and the broader social impact of replacing human drivers.

As autonomous fleets grow, cities will increasingly confront questions surrounding labor displacement, curb access, congestion management, data privacy, insurance liability, and municipal regulation.

The technology race is gradually becoming a governance race.

What Waymo Is Really Betting On

At its core, the Ojai represents a simple but critical thesis:

Autonomous driving will only become transformative if it becomes affordable enough to operate at massive scale.

Waymo has already proven many consumers are willing to ride in driverless vehicles.

Now it needs to prove the business itself can sustain itself financially without indefinitely relying on Alphabet’s balance sheet.

The Ojai is designed to close that gap — a cheaper, roomier, purpose-built autonomous vehicle intended not merely to demonstrate technology, but to make robotaxis economically viable as a mainstream transportation network.

If it works, the economics of urban transportation may begin changing much faster.

If it fails, autonomous driving risks remaining a technologically impressive business that never fully scales commercially.

Silicon Valley — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

By Y.M. Lowy

Monday will bring a mix of sun and clouds with a high of 69 and a low of 56. A couple of rain showers are possible later in the afternoon as clouds gradually roll in.

Tuesday will be partly sunny and breezy with a high of 71 and a low of 59. A few passing showers are still possible at times.

Wednesday looks like the nicest day of the week with sunshine and comfortable weather. The high will reach 74 with a low of 59.

Thursday turns hot with a high of 79 and a low of 63. Aside from a few clouds offering some brief relief, expect a very hot and summerlike day.

A recent BoroPark24 community poll on New York City's ongoing green infrastructure projects in Boro Park drew an overwhelming response, with residents expressing strong dissatisfaction with both the projects themselves and the impact construction has had on daily life.

The poll asked a simple question:

"Do You Think Green Infrastructure Projects Are Working?"

The results were decisive:

94.9% - Not at all

5.1% - Yes, sure

The vote comes as green infrastructure work continues across numerous Boro Park blocks, where the city has installed porous pavement, drainage systems, and other measures designed to reduce flooding and improve stormwater management.

The poll generated hundreds of comments from residents across the neighborhood, with concerns ranging from continued flooding and lengthy construction projects to parking shortages and the overall cost of the initiative.

One of the most common complaints was that residents are still seeing significant flooding despite the completed work.

"As I was driving down the streets in the pouring rain, I made an effort to observe the streets that had work done and the ones that didn't. "Both flooded equally from what I could see," wrote one resident.

Another commenter reported, "The corners in my neighborhood were completely flooded. I do not see what they accomplished."

Several residents questioned whether the porous pavement can remain effective once exposed to real-world conditions.

"The porous tiles that are supposed to allow water to drain through them become ineffective after the first construction site runs cement waste into the street," one commenter wrote. Another added, "The water doesn't seem to seep in as promised."

Others pointed to what they described as a maintenance problem rather than an infrastructure problem.

"Nothing was wrong with the middle of the blocks. Just fix the corner drains," one resident argued, while another wrote, "As long as the corner sewer system is clogged up, the water comes down strong and doesn't have where to go."

Construction-related disruptions were another major theme throughout the responses.

One resident described the impact as follows: "No parking, no delivery, no school bus, no driveway access. If it would take two weeks it would be difficult but tolerable. Instead it takes months."

Another wrote, "My block was closed for four months," while another commenter called the ongoing work "frustrating to no end."

Parking challenges were repeatedly mentioned as well.

"In Boro Park there is already a disaster finding parking spaces," one resident wrote, adding that the projects only made the situation worse.

Many commenters also questioned the cost of the initiative and whether taxpayers are seeing meaningful results.

"Every tax dollar spent on this project is a total waste," wrote one respondent, while another described the work as "a waste of money, time, and everything, disturbing the neighborhood."

Some residents said the city should have tested the concept elsewhere before implementing it on such a large scale in Boro Park.

"Why are they experimenting on us?" one commenter asked.

The overwhelming sentiment expressed throughout the poll was frustration over both the effectiveness of the projects and the months of disruption associated with them.

As construction continues on additional blocks throughout the neighborhood, many residents say they remain unconvinced that the promised benefits justify the inconvenience, cost, and impact on daily life.

When Javier Milei entered the race to be Argentina’s president, 108 notable economists said his policies could be a disaster. Three years later, the maverick president continues to prove them wrong.

As Argentina’s new president in December 2023, Milei faced an ailing economy due to corruption, inflation, excessive money printing and a bloated government. At that time, inflation was running at 211%, and exports were just $5 billion for the month. And GDP shrank by 2.3% in the last quarter of the year, according to government data.

A letter signed by 108 economists from around the world, that included Thomas Piketty and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo, released before the 2023 election, warned that Milei’s economic platform was “fraught with risks that make them potentially very harmful for the Argentine economy and the Argentine people.” They also added in their letter that, “However, while apparently simple solutions may be appealing, they are likely to cause more devastation in the real world in the short run, while severely reducing policy space in the long run.”

Fast-forward to 2026, and things look a lot better. Inflation fell to 34% in April, and exports increased to almost $9 billion that same month. And GDP growth surged to 4.4% last year. “The fact is that Milei really knows his stuff,” Evan Ellis, research professor of Latin American studies at the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute told FOX Business.

ARGENTINA’S MILEI ELIMINATES DEFICIT, HAILED AS MODEL FOR MUSK’S ‘DOGE’

To make that economic bounce-back happen, Milei used policy levers similar to those President Ronald Reagan used when he took office in 1981. First, there was the so-called fiscal shock therapy. “Milei cut state subsidies, eliminated government ministries, which resulted in a primary surplus,” Pete Earle, senior director of research at the American Institute for Economic Research, told FOX Business.

“The country curtailed the financing of fiscal deficits,” Earle said. “The government reset its exchange rate with an informal dollarization, eliminating organized labor unions, and began external engagement by reopening its capital markets, which would result in more competition, which would be better for everyone.” 

“He was that quirky combo that he knew both the theory of minimizing government and the need to maximize individual freedom. He didn’t do things because he wanted votes,” Ellis said.

“While Milei ‘s economic policies have some similarities to Regan’s, he is quite different,” Javier Negre, owner of the La Derecha Diario newspaper, told FOX Business. Negre, who is close to Milei said “Reagan was more establishment; Milei is an outsider.”

Who is Milei as a person? He has a blunt approach when talking to people. “He is not polite,” Negre told FOX Business. “He’ll tell you what he thinks.” He is also a very hardworking President. “He’s a low-cost president and works 20 hours a day,” Negre said. “He’s always on the phone.”

ARGENTINA’S JAVIER MILEI FLIPS INFLATION ON ITS HEAD EVEN AS POVERTY GROWS

Argentina’s economic rebirth was also aided by the U.S. Treasury’s $20 billion currency swap. The swaps helped stabilize Argentina’s currency because of its credibility. And in turn, that credibility attracted foreign investors and more competition. In the last quarter of 2025, capital inflows hit an all-time high of $18.8 billion.

Under Milei, capital markets were opened to international markets, and exports surged. Notably, Argentina’s oil production has grown to 882,200 barrels per day this year, up 32% from 667,000 barrels per day when Milei took office in December 2023. Likewise, natural gas production increased to 48,748 million cubic meters in 2025, up 11% from 43,985 million cubic meters in 2023, according to the Argentina Energy Information website.

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The bottom line of Milei’s economic policies is that they work and can benefit from a similar playbook and so make the world richer and better. Inflation collapsed, and that single change has fed into other things in a positive way,” Earle told FOX Business. “That’s one of the greatest gifts to the rest of the world, and they can see that it works; It’s all grossly positive.”

Residents of Bnei Brak’s Shikun Hey neighborhood are expressing growing concern after a string of incidents involving a group of troubled youths culminated in a break-in and theft at a Gerer shtiebel on Friday night.

According to local residents, the group has been causing disturbances for several weeks in the area surrounding the neighborhood’s public garden, allegedly breaking into shuls during the nighttime hours and creating an atmosphere of fear among area residents.

The situation escalated significantly on Friday night when vandals reportedly broke into the Gerer shtiebel in the neighborhood. The intruders smashed windows, damaged the rear entrance door, and stole various items from inside the building.

Witnesses reported that the group returned to the area on Shabbos afternoon and allegedly made threats of violence, including threats to stab local residents.

In the wake of the incidents, the gabbaim of the shuls located near the public garden are urging members of the community to come forward with any information that may assist law enforcement.

Anyone who witnessed acts of vandalism, theft, threats, or other violent behavior is being asked to contact the police and provide any relevant evidence or testimony as soon as possible.

{Matzav.com}

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said it carried out another strike Saturday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the fourth attack this week and putting the total death toll at 205.

On May 30, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking… pic.twitter.com/IMgQiUTPnP

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) May 31, 2026

U.S. Southern Command announced the strike with its usual language that the vessel was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence for the allegation.

It’s the latest in a monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific.

Video released by the military on social media shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it’s hit and engulfed in a fireball.

The attack brings the death toll to 205 in a series of U.S. strikes that began in early September, with other attacks announced on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The Trump administration has declared that the U.S. is at armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, saying they are behind the flow of drugs into American communities.

U.S. Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the top U.S. commander in Latin America.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Amos Harel, the military correspondent of the newspaper Haaretz, reveals in his book 06:29 new information about warning signs that began to be detected in observation systems and radar approximately 40 minutes before the attack of October 7, indicating offensive military preparations by Hamas along the border.

This early warning information was transmitted to battalion command centers, as detailed below:

05:49 – A motorcycle approaches the fence in the Kissufim area
05:54 – Another jeep arrives at the location
06:00 – Motorcycles arrive in two different sectors
06:02 – Motorcycles and a jeep are seen driving along the fence in the Kissufim area
06:13 – A Hamas drone is detected near an observation post in Kerem Shalom
06:16 – Two terrorists and a motorcycle approach the fence
06:17 – A terrorist with a parachute lands in Israeli territory
06:18 – 400 suspicious targets near the fence
06:20 – An armed terrorist with a breaching kit near the fence
06:26 – 600 suspicious targets near the fence
06:29 – Start of the attack “Flood of Al-Aqsa”

On Thursday, Harel appeared on the program “BeShva” on Channel 12 to discuss his book 06:29, which deals with the October 7 attacks, referred to by Hamas as “Flood – Al-Aqsa Storm.”

In his book, Harel presents new, previously unpublished information suggesting that about 40 minutes before the attack began, early warning indicators started being picked up by surveillance and radar systems, showing signs of offensive military deployment by Hamas along the border.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday unveiled a new Commission on Government Efficiency — or “COGE” — in a move that immediately drew comparisons to President Donald Trump’s federally backed DOGE initiative championed alongside Elon Musk, highlighting how the politics of government “efficiency” are rapidly crossing ideological lines.

The commission, announced May 28 by City Hall, will formally operate as a Charter Revision Commission empowered to review New York City’s governing structure, propose reforms to city operations, and potentially place changes directly before voters on the November ballot.

Mamdani framed the initiative as an effort to rebuild confidence in local government by improving delivery of public services and reducing bureaucratic inefficiency.

“Restoring faith in government starts with proving government can actually deliver,” the mayor said in Thursday’s announcement, describing the effort as a push to make city government operate “faster, smarter and more effectively for working people.”

The branding is politically striking.

The acronym “COGE” is an unmistakable nod to the federal Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which Trump and Musk popularized nationally as part of a broader anti-bureaucracy and cost-cutting campaign aimed at shrinking federal administrative structures.

That a progressive mayor closely associated with democratic socialist politics is now embracing similar “government efficiency” language underscores how fiscal pressure and public frustration with bureaucracy are reshaping political messaging well beyond conservative circles.

But despite the branding overlap, the structure and goals differ significantly from the federal model.

A Charter Fight Disguised as an Efficiency Push

Unlike DOGE at the federal level, COGE is not primarily a cost-cutting office.

It is a formal charter review mechanism with the authority to recommend structural changes to how New York City government operates. The commission will conduct hearings across all five boroughs, gather public testimony, and draft ballot proposals that could reshape procurement systems, permitting processes, agency authority, budgeting procedures, and administrative operations.

The commission will be chaired by Patrick Gaspard, a longtime Democratic strategist and former executive director of the Democratic National Committee who also served as U.S. ambassador to South Africa under President Obama.

Mamdani additionally proposed veteran city official Ann Cheng as executive director.

The first public hearing is scheduled for June 9.

According to City Hall, the commission’s review will focus heavily on reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks that delay housing, infrastructure, and service delivery projects while modernizing city operations and improving budget efficiency.

That language matters particularly to New York’s business and real-estate sectors, where developers, contractors, landlords, and small-business owners have long complained about permitting delays, fragmented agency oversight, procurement complexity, and slow approval timelines that raise costs across nearly every part of the local economy.

If COGE meaningfully streamlines approvals or procurement, it could materially affect the cost and speed of doing business in the city.

The Fiscal Pressure Behind The Politics

The deeper reason behind the commission may be financial rather than ideological.

Mamdani’s announcement arrives only weeks after City Hall finalized a contentious $124.7 billion budget that relied heavily on agency savings and internal cost reductions to avoid broader tax increases or major reserve withdrawals.

The administration had already directed agencies to identify spending cuts through “chief savings officer” initiatives aimed at trimming operational costs over multiple fiscal years. Those savings reportedly came through reduced overtime, renegotiated outside contracts, software modernization, office consolidation, and reductions in underutilized city property holdings.

But New York’s long-term fiscal pressure remains severe.

The city comptroller’s office recently warned that projected spending growth is continuing to outpace expected revenue growth over the coming years. Current forecasts show billions of dollars in additional spending pressure annually through the end of the decade, driven by labor costs, social services, housing demands, infrastructure obligations, migrant-related expenditures, and broader inflationary pressures affecting municipal operations.

That backdrop is what makes the “efficiency” framing politically important.

For Mamdani, COGE allows the administration to present reform and modernization as proactive governance rather than austerity. For critics, however, the concern is whether “efficiency” eventually becomes a softer political label for service reductions, staffing constraints, or budget tightening.

Why The DOGE Comparison Matters

The symbolism surrounding the name may ultimately carry almost as much political significance as the commission itself.

For years, efficiency rhetoric was largely associated with center-right politics emphasizing deregulation, privatization, and shrinking government structures. Progressive administrations generally focused more heavily on expanding services, increasing investment, and enlarging public-sector capacity.

That dynamic is beginning to shift nationally.

Persistent inflation, rising deficits, high borrowing costs, and voter frustration over government responsiveness are forcing even progressive administrations to adopt more business-oriented operational language focused on speed, accountability, and measurable outcomes.

Mamdani’s use of a DOGE-style branding framework reflects that shift directly.

Rather than rejecting efficiency rhetoric as inherently conservative, the mayor is attempting to redefine it around service delivery, permitting reform, affordability, and operational modernization.

In effect, both sides of the political spectrum are now competing to claim ownership over the idea that government should function more effectively.

The disagreement increasingly centers not on whether efficiency matters — but on what efficiency should actually mean.

What Businesses Are Watching

For New York’s private sector, the outcome matters less politically than operationally.

Developers are watching whether permitting timelines shorten.

Small businesses are watching procurement and licensing reforms.

Contractors are watching agency modernization.

Technology firms are watching software and systems upgrades.

Labor groups are watching whether workforce restructuring becomes part of the conversation.

And taxpayers are watching whether the city can slow spending growth without visibly reducing services.

Those questions will shape how COGE is ultimately judged far more than its branding.

For now, Mamdani has positioned himself around one of the most politically potent words in modern governance — efficiency — while simultaneously attempting to redefine what that word means inside a progressive administration.

Whether voters view the effort as modernization, political theater, or quiet austerity may ultimately determine how much power the commission gains after November.

New York — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

A Hezbollah rocket barrage struck a shopping center in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel Saturday evening, scattering shoppers and leaving devastation in its wake.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted a statement alongside a video of the damage inflicted by the strikes.

“A shopping center. Evening. Shoppers. Then, rockets,” the statement said.

Video footage captures the aftermath of a Hezbollah strike on a Kiryat Shmona shopping center. (Credit: Israel Foreign Ministry)

“Hezbollah launched a barrage toward Kiryat Shmona, hitting a commercial area in the heart of the city. In seconds, an ordinary evening turned into sirens, panic, and a race for shelter,” the statement continued. “All while a ceasefire is supposedly in place. Hezbollah continues to violate it, while Israeli civilians continue to pay the price.”

Since the April 17 ceasefire imposed on both sides by the Trump administration, Hezbollah has continued to strike Israel on a near-daily basis.

In recent weeks, the IDF has penetrated deeper into southern Lebanon in an attempt to push Hezbollah further back. In the face of a looming ceasefire deal between the United States and Israel that might force Israel to cease operations against Hezbollah, the IDF has ramped up its operations in the hope of diminishing as much as possible the threat from Hezbollah before it’s too late.

The IDF has also captured the strategic Beaufort Castle beyond the Litani River in Arnoun, Lebanon. The crumbling Crusader ruins have provided Hezbollah with the ideal launching pad for attacks from its towering heights since the IDF surrendered the fortress during the failed Lebanon war in the 1980s. Retaking the stronghold gives the IDF not only a military advantage, but it also provides a symbolic and psychological defeat of Hezbollah.

A fire damaged a home in the Flair development off Brewers Bridge Road in Jackson Township on Friday, prompting a response from multiple fire departments.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze, and no injuries were reported.

Jackson Township EMS, Jackson Police Department, and Ocean County Sheriff’s 911 also assisted at the scene.

The fire remains under investigation.

A dramatic confrontation unfolded shortly after midnight on Highway 1 leading to Yerushalayim when police attempted to detain a yeshiva bochur and transfer him to military authorities. The arrest was ultimately prevented after dozens of protesters rushed to the scene and blocked the roadway.

The incident took place near the Kiryat Ye’arim interchange. According to reports, demonstrators who were alerted to the attempted arrest quickly arrived and staged a protest, bringing traffic to a standstill in opposition to the effort to take the student into custody.

After a lengthy standoff and a heated demonstration, police reportedly withdrew from the area and released the yeshiva student.

The incident comes amid growing tensions following the arrest of two students from Yeshivas Maalos HaTorah on Erev Shabbos. In response, the central faction of the Peleg Yerushalmi is scheduled to hold large-scale demonstrations across the country on Sunday protesting the arrests of yeshiva students and their transfer to military prison.

The leader of the Peleg Yerushalmi, Rav Ezriel Auerbach, issued a strongly worded call urging supporters to participate in the protests.

In his statement, Rav Euerbach declared that this is not a time for silence and that every ben Torah has a doubled and redoubled obligation to protest what he described as the humiliation of Torah and its students, the criminal arrests, and the actions of military authorities and those cooperating with them from within and without.

As previously reported, two 21-year-old students from Yeshivas Maalos HaTorah were arrested on Erev Shabbos after failing to report to military induction offices in accordance with the directives of leading gedolim.

According to reports, the two students—including the son of the rosh yeshiva—were stopped by traffic police on Highway 6 while attempting to obtain a ride home.

After police identified the pair in the system as draft evaders, they were immediately handed over to military authorities and transferred to military prison.

The timing of the arrests, occurring just hours before the onset of Shabbos as families were preparing to welcome the holy day, sparked widespread outrage in segments of the chareidi community and intensified calls for the nationwide demonstrations scheduled for Sunday.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi Meir Hilowitz, rabbi of the community of Bruchin and a senior lecturer at Yeshivat Ma’ale Eliyahu in Tel Aviv, published a letter over the weekend expressing support for the charedi public, which he says is being persecuted by the judicial system. Those close to the rabbi noted that the remarks were originally delivered as a Sabbath sermon and were not intended as a journalistic or political essay.

The rabbi opens the letter with an emotional outcry: “I cannot help but cry out from the depths of my heart: How did we allow a corrupt and rotten system to take an entire community,holy and pure, and officially turn it into a population of criminals and draft evaders, people who must flee from every police officer as though they were the worst criminals and degenerates in our society?”

The rabbi clarified that he has significant disagreements with the charedi community: “It is true that I have a major disagreement with my brothers who are called charedim regarding our understanding of the processes of redemption in which we are living. We disagree about our relationship to the national revival, the state, and its institutions. Included within this disagreement is our dispute regarding the obligation and privilege of serving in our holy army.

The avoidance of military service by most of my charedi brothers is rooted in a worldview that, in my opinion, is fundamentally mistaken. Not only do I disagree with it, I also have serious criticism of it. In my view, this outlook distorts basic concepts of mutual responsibility and sharing the burden. It also creates complications in the development of young people who are not suited to sit on the study benches of the yeshiva and therefore end up needing to ‘work illegally’ and sometimes even ‘live illegally.’ Nevertheless, this disagreement is gradually becoming clarified as part of the broader process of our national redemption.”

The rabbi continued: “The process of rapprochement between the charedi public and the State of Israel is a divine, wondrous, slow, deep, and fundamental process. Yet it is also a steady process that inspires joy and admiration in all who see it. Truly, only the blind, or those who deliberately avert their eyes, fail to see it.

Were it not for the political campaign of vilification being waged against this process, we would already be much further along. One must understand that the charedim are one of the important forces ‘struggling within our camp’ (a reference to the writings of Rabbi Kook), and a great role has been assigned to this public force in the divine and wondrous journey of redemption. My greatest pain is that we have allowed such a pure and holy public,one that raises its children upon the foundations of Torah and fear of    G-d to be treated this way.”

He then asks: “How did we allow them, through crude, sophisticated, malicious, and immensely powerful means, to turn the members of this community into a band of criminal deserters stripped of basic rights in our ‘democratic’ state, where the judicial system claims to protect oppressed minorities? Is there any minority in Israeli society whose rights are trampled more than this one? They are now deemed unworthy of daycare assistance, discounted housing, tax benefits under Section 46, and there have even been those who suggested stripping them of the right to vote.”

The rabbi further criticized what he views as persecution by the legal system: “Now these hypocrites in the judicial system have gone even further and brought the members of this community to a terrible situation in which they must walk the streets in fear and hide from every police officer as though they were fleeing criminals.Even the basic social protection that the police are supposed to provide citizens has been denied to them. Roshei Yeshiva must warn their students not to expose themselves to security forces on their way home and not to attract attention. Can such a thing be imagined?”

He compares the current situation to the period before Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza: “I have the same feeling I had before the disengagement, when we in the Religious Zionist community were promised that we would be persecuted relentlessly.

When we asked, ‘Do you really think Israeli society will allow you to commit such an injustice against us and expel an entire holy, pure, and principled public from its homes without cause?’ the architects of the expulsion answered with a terrible response: ‘We have two years to turn you into the scum of Israeli society and the worst of its citizens. We will make you into a community that deserves every disaster that befalls it.’

We experienced two years of slander, humiliation, insult, and persecution. Then came the terrible blow of the expulsion.”

“And now, once again, a well-oiled, malicious system filled with power, authority, and influence over public opinion is taking an entire public and blackening its reputation. But this time it is all anchored in discriminatory laws unlike anything found in any decent human society.

We too, as a community, are persecuted today in the public sphere by many of these same forces and through the same twisted methods. Therefore our destinies are linked, beyond the mutual responsibility and brotherly love between us.”

He then references anti-government protesters: “Perhaps those from Kaplan also represent another of the ‘forces struggling within our camp.’ There is much that could be said about that. But the crushing behavior of their representatives within the judicial system has broken all the rules of the game. Through their blind and malicious persecution of our charedi brothers, they prove that they no longer have a place in building our complete and diverse national stature. These persecutors have no part in our heterogeneous national journey.”

“Perhaps they are fighting like a wounded animal that has lost the ability to show mercy because they feel their totalitarian rule is slipping away from them.Perhaps they cannot bear losing the secular, Zionist state of a more anti-religious character that they established. Perhaps they cannot endure the waves of religious return and spiritual awakening sweeping through our national revival. Yet even after granting them this benefit of the doubt, they must still be condemned, and the oppressed must be rescued from their hands.”

“We, the Religious Zionist community, suffered media persecution before the disengagement and still suffer it today. But the persecution endured by our charedi brothers is far deeper, more painful, more threatening. Against this persecution we should demonstrate, cry out, and warn the public. This monstrous, terrifying, and wicked system must be denounced, fundamentally changed, and uprooted.”

“I call upon you, my brothers in Religious Zionism: do not be deceived. Do not fall into this trap, this political persecution, this profound hatred. Even if some of our charedi brothers themselves fall into the pit dug for them by these enemies, and even if words emerge from their mouths that I cannot bring myself to repeat, we are nevertheless obligated not to be dragged into this unrestrained persecution of them. We must remember and remind others: this persecution has nothing to do with our ideological, religious, and moral disagreements with them.

“Let us return to the sacred covenant shared by all who love Torah and faith. Let us return to the brotherhood of sharing the burden and hoping for complete redemption, even if we disagree about the path by which it will appear. Let us return to pure disagreement, in the spirit of Torah. But the time has come to say: enough of this hatred and terrible persecution.”

“I pray that the Shepherd of Israel will return and gather us together in faithful love, complete the process of our redemption speedily, rescue us from these terrible birth pangs of the Messiah, and cause sorrow and sighing to flee away.”

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) – President Trump on Sunday touted the results of a recent physical examination at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, highlighting what he described as a perfect score on a high-difficulty cognitive test.

In a statement, Trump said the examination showed “extremely good” results. He added that he achieved a perfect 30 out of 30 on the cognitive test, which he called an indicator of “extreme intelligence.” Trump claimed this marked his fourth such test, with a cumulative perfect record of 120 correct answers out of 120 questions.

“It is very rare that anyone gets a Perfect Score, especially when achieved four times in a row,” Trump said in the statement.

Trump asserted that he is unlike other U.S. presidents, none of whom he said had taken an approved, high-difficulty cognitive test. He called for all candidates for president and vice president to be required to take such tests, urging Congress and Democrats to demand it.

The statement comes as Trump continues his political activities in his second term. No immediate response was available from Democratic officials or medical experts regarding the claims.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was supposed to deliver a historic tourism boom across North America — a monthlong economic surge projected by FIFA and host committees to generate roughly $40.9 billion in economic activity while flooding U.S. host cities with international visitors, packed hotels, sold-out flights, and overflowing restaurants.

Instead, less than three weeks before kickoff, parts of the economic story are beginning to fracture.

What is emerging is not one problem but two separate demand shocks hitting simultaneously: weakening international tourism demand tied to inflation, visa restrictions, and political uncertainty, alongside a growing wave of airline disruptions and travel anxiety connected to the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa.

Individually, each issue might have been manageable. Together, they are beginning to threaten one of the core assumptions behind the tournament’s financial projections: that foreign visitors would arrive at massive scale and spend aggressively enough to offset softening U.S. consumer demand.

The first warning signs are already visible in hospitality data.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association reported May 28 that roughly 80% of hoteliers across the 11 U.S. host markets say bookings are tracking materially below initial expectations. That is a remarkable figure given that the World Cup has long been marketed as one of the largest tourism events on earth.

The weakness is not uniform. Premium inventory around major matches — especially the July 19 final near MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — is still commanding extremely elevated pricing, in some cases roughly triple normal summer rates. But pricing power alone does not equal demand strength.

The deeper issue is occupancy.

Group-stage cities that expected weeklong tourism surges are instead seeing meaningful hotel availability remain open deep into late May at rates far closer to a normal summer travel season than the massive compression expected for a global mega-event. Industry analysts say many hotels built pricing models around a demand spike that has not fully materialized.

The causes are broader than sports.

International tourism into the United States has been weakening for months amid higher airfare costs, global economic uncertainty, stronger border restrictions, currency pressures, and growing political friction surrounding travel policies under the Trump administration. Some hospitality analysts have begun referring to the slowdown as a “Trump slump” in inbound travel — particularly from parts of Europe, Latin America, and Africa where visa approvals and travel uncertainty have become increasingly politicized.

That weakening demand was already creating vulnerability.

Then came the airline problem.

The World Health Organization’s emergency declarations tied to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda triggered a chain reaction across global aviation networks. Uganda Airlines suspended flights to and from Kinshasa effective May 23, while Ethiopian Airlines and other regional carriers began adjusting schedules and implementing additional health-related restrictions.

At the same time, the United States imposed strict travel bans barring entry to foreign nationals who had recently been present in Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan.

From a public-health standpoint, the measures are understandable. Ebola remains a highly dangerous disease.

But from an airline economics standpoint, the consequences extend far beyond the directly affected countries.

The global airline industry operates on network psychology as much as epidemiology. Once travel restrictions begin spreading across headlines, demand often weakens far outside the outbreak zone itself. Airlines then respond by trimming routes, consolidating schedules, reducing frequencies, or shifting aircraft to stronger-performing markets.

That secondary reaction matters enormously for the World Cup because the tournament’s economic model depends heavily on long-haul international arrivals.

FIFA projections estimate roughly 1.2 million foreign visitors will attend matches across North America, with average stays approaching 12 days and spending exceeding $400 daily. Much of that money was expected to flow into hotels, restaurants, local transportation, nightlife, retail, and short-term rental platforms.

But those assumptions rely on stable international flight capacity and consumer confidence.

The airline industry is already operating under pressure from elevated fuel prices tied to Middle East instability and rising insurance costs connected to global geopolitical risk. Additional route disruptions tied to outbreak fears or regulatory restrictions increase operational complexity at precisely the wrong moment.

The vulnerability is especially acute in gateway markets like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, and Atlanta, where foreign tourism was expected to provide the bulk of incremental economic activity during the tournament.

Around $4.3 billion in direct tourism expenditure is forecast for the World Cup, with more than 80% concentrated in hospitality-related sectors — exactly the industries now facing both weaker-than-expected bookings and growing uncertainty around international air traffic.

The timing could hardly be worse.

Host cities and governments have collectively invested billions into stadium modernization, transportation upgrades, security infrastructure, and tourism preparation. Airbnb hosts across the 16 North American host cities are projected to generate more than $2.6 billion in rental revenue during the tournament.

Much of that projected income now depends on whether international travel confidence stabilizes quickly.

Public-health experts continue emphasizing that Ebola risk to World Cup attendees remains extremely low. The virus spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids and is not airborne. There is no evidence of widespread transmission risk tied to ordinary tourism activity.

But economic damage rarely waits for scientific nuance.

In travel markets, perception often moves faster than facts. Once flight cancellations begin, travelers reconsider plans. Reduced bookings then pressure airlines further, which can produce additional schedule cuts and weaker demand in a self-reinforcing cycle.

That feedback loop is now becoming visible just as the world’s largest sporting event approaches.

The World Cup’s economic promise always depended on converting a global audience into real-world tourism spending. What host cities are discovering now is that mega-events remain deeply exposed to forces far beyond sports itself: geopolitics, public-health fears, visa policy, airline economics, and consumer psychology.

And in a fragile global economy already showing signs of softer discretionary spending, even modest disruptions can quickly reshape the financial outcome of an event expected to redefine North American tourism.

New York — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Cara Trager a”h, 71, of Fresh Meadows, has been niftar from injuries sustained when a driver ran a red light and set off a chain-reaction crash that struck her and her husband as they walked to a nearby park on Memorial Day.

The niftar and her husband, Mike, were crossing Francis Lewis Boulevard at Union Turnpike in a marked crosswalk just after 7:45 p.m. on Monday, May 25, when a southbound 2013 Toyota Prius blew through a red light, struck a westbound Mercedes-Benz, and continued south before colliding with a Nissan Rogue. The impact pushed the Nissan into the couple.

Mrs. Trager suffered severe head trauma and was rushed by Queens Hatzolah to New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital in critical condition. She remained hospitalized for four days before being niftar Friday night. Mike Trager, 70, was treated for minor injuries at the same hospital and released.

The driver of the Prius, Dawood Faisal, 22, of 67th Avenue in Fresh Meadows, was arrested at the scene by officers from the 107th Precinct. He was initially charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Police said additional charges were pending as the investigation continued. With Traeger’s death, those charges are expected to be upgraded.

Faisal is awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

This could have been baaaad.

Seen in Lakewood this morning.

(Ty: Shraga Heyman)

Police in Manchester, England recovered two large knives from two men believed to be from Yemen during a security operation that has drawn significant attention online.

Videos circulating on social media appear to show officers detaining the two men while confiscating the blades during the incident. According to reports accompanying the footage, the men told police that the knives were traditional items connected to their cultural heritage and were not being carried for criminal purposes.

The knives were reportedly jambiyas, curved daggers commonly associated with Yemeni culture and traditionally worn as part of ceremonial or cultural dress. Social media reports claimed the men were wearing traditional Yemeni clothing at the time of the encounter.

Authorities have not publicly released detailed information regarding the incident, and it remains unclear whether any arrests resulted in formal charges.

Police have also not publicly disclosed the precise circumstances that led officers to stop the men or whether the matter remains under investigation.

WATCH:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/VIDEO-2026-05-31-09-06-42.mp4

Interest continues to surround last week’s historic lottery that divided the sacred heirlooms of the Siget-Satmar dynasty left behind by the Satmar Rebbe, the Berach Moshe of Satmar, zt”l.

While the division of the estate itself marked the conclusion of a process that lasted nearly two decades, attention has now shifted to two particularly significant items: a historic letter from the Divrei Chaim of Sanz and a pair of tefillin belonging to the Kedushas Yom Tov. Both are regarded within Satmar circles as treasures of extraordinary historical and spiritual importance.

In recent days, Satmar chassidim and students of chassidic history have been closely examining the details of the sacred items that once belonged to the Rebbes of the Siget-Satmar dynasty and were left behind by the Berach Moshe. The items were distributed among the heirs during a historic lottery held last Thursday, attended by the Rebbe’s grandchildren, current gabbaim, and senior figures within the chassidus who had been involved in the lengthy process, which finally reached its conclusion after twenty years.

Although the collection—estimated to be worth millions of dollars—was carefully cataloged and divided under strict supervision to ensure complete equality between the parties, two artifacts stand out as what many in Satmar refer to as the “tie-breakers,” owing to their unique significance and historical value.

The first item, which was awarded to the Satmar Rebbe Rav Zalman Leib, is considered one of the most important handwritten documents preserved in the dynasty’s archives. Within the chassidus, it is viewed as a document whose importance extends far beyond its historical value and is closely tied to the very continuity of the Siget-Satmar dynasty.

The document is the famed letter sent by the Divrei Chaim of Sanz to the Kedushas Yom Tov, the second Rebbe of the Siget dynasty. At the time, the Kedushas Yom Tov had been married for many years without children, and the Divrei Chaim wrote to bless him with offspring.

In the letter, the Divrei Chaim writes, among other things: “Let neither he nor his wife lose hope, for we are confident that you will not be denied children. May the good Hashem have mercy upon you, and may you soon be blessed with offspring through the blessing of Hashem.”

Within Satmar, the letter is regarded as far more than a rare historical document. It is viewed as the blessing from which the entire Siget-Satmar dynasty ultimately emerged. The Vayoel Moshe was known to say that the blessing was given with genuine ruach hakodesh, and that the expression “tzipinu” used by the Divrei Chaim reflected his prophetic foresight regarding the future continuation of the dynasty.

For the past two decades, the treasured letter was in the possession of the Satmar-Monsey Gaavad, Chaim Yehoshua Halberstam, son-in-law of the Berach Moshe. As a result of last week’s lottery, it has now become the property of Rav Zalman Leib of Satmar.

The second highly coveted item, which went to the Satmar Rebbe Rav Aharon, is a pair of Rabbeinu Tam tefillin that belonged to the Kedushas Yom Tov. The Kedushas Yom Tov presented the tefillin to his son, the Vayoel Moshe, upon his marriage, and they have long been regarded as one of the most important heirlooms in the dynasty.

Satmar sources note that over the years the Vayoel Moshe made various improvements and enhancements to the tefillin, including replacing some of the parshiyos and batim. Nevertheless, they continue to occupy a unique place within the family’s collection of sacred artifacts and are viewed as among the most historically and spiritually significant items in the possession of the dynasty.

photos: Shulem Schwartz

A 23-year-old Chareidi resident of Mexico who was arrested last week upon arriving in Israel after being classified as a draft evader was released from Prison 10 ahead of Shabbos.

The young man, who got married only about a month ago and is a permanent resident of Mexico, landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday morning. He had come to Israel to visit his mother, who is suffering from a serious illness.

However, after passing through passport control, authorities discovered that he was designated by the military as a “draft evader.” He was immediately arrested by military authorities and transferred to Prison 10, sparking deep concern among his family members and members of the Chareidi community in Mexico.

After learning of the arrest, relatives contacted businessman and social activist Avitar Elbaz and asked him to intervene. Elbaz immediately became involved, contacting the relevant authorities and presenting the young man’s humanitarian circumstances.

Following intensive efforts and negotiations with officials, a decision was made after two days to release him from prison, allowing him to reunite with his family in Israel before Shabbos.

However, the situation is far from resolved. Israeli military authorities are currently preventing him from leaving the country and are seeking to forcibly draft him into military service, while his wife remains in Mexico.

As a result, the matter has now moved into the diplomatic arena, with pressure reportedly being applied through the Mexican Embassy in an effort to secure a resolution that would allow him to return home.

According to relatives, the young man was unaware that he was classified as a draft evader since he does not live in Israel.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

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NEW YORK (VINnews) — While recent days have seen growing assessments that the United States and Iran are nearing a framework agreement that would end the military tensions between the two sides, it appears that President Donald Trump is still not ready to sign the proposed draft.

According to a report by journalist Barak Ravid, Trump held a special meeting in the White House Situation Room over the weekend, during which he requested a series of changes to the draft agreement that had been formulated through mediators between the parties.

According to American officials familiar with the details, the president mainly wants to strengthen the clauses dealing with Iran’s nuclear program and its stockpile of enriched uranium.

Under the current framework, Iran would commit not to develop nuclear weapons, but most of the practical issues, including the future of its enriched uranium stockpile and restrictions on continued uranium enrichment, would be negotiated during a 60-day period following the signing of the agreement.

Trump, according to the report, wants clearer and more detailed mechanisms regarding the transfer of enriched uranium, timelines for carrying out the process, and how it would be monitored.

In addition, another issue concerning the president involves provisions related to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has reportedly requested revisions to some of the wording, particularly concerning freedom of navigation through the strait, which is considered one of the world’s most important energy shipping routes.

The White House emphasizes that the president supports reaching an agreement but will not sign a document that, in his view, fails to provide sufficient guarantees that Iran will be unable to move toward a military nuclear capability in the future.

One American official estimated that Tehran would need several days to formally respond to the new demands that have been presented. According to the official, negotiations are continuing, but it is still impossible to set a final date for signing.

Iranian officials have also signaled in recent days that an agreement is within reach, but they have clarified that no final decision has yet been made. Meanwhile, Iranian media reported that under the emerging understandings, Tehran may gain access to some of the funds frozen abroad, a claim that American officials have denied.

Despite the delay, officials in Washington reportedly believe that the chances of reaching an agreement remain high and that the remaining disputes concern mainly wording and safeguards designed to protect the core interests of both sides.

If no last-minute surprises occur, a final decision could be reached within the coming days.

JBizNews Desk

Walmart has begun removing self-checkout lanes from select stores and restoring traditional cashier-operated registers, a shift the company says is aimed at improving customer experience while also reducing theft losses that have increasingly pressured retailers across the industry.

The rollback reflects a growing reassessment of a technology once promoted as the future of shopping.

At a Walmart Supercenter on South Christopher Columbus Boulevard in Philadelphia, the company removed self-checkout lanes earlier this year and replaced them with staffed checkout stations, according to company officials cited by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Limited kiosks remain available for Spark delivery drivers handling online orders, but the broader return to cashier-led checkout marks one of the clearest reversals yet by a major national retailer.

Walmart said the decision was influenced heavily by customer feedback and store-level performance reviews.

The financial motivation is straightforward.

Retailers across the industry have struggled with higher shrink rates — the industry term for inventory losses caused by theft, fraud, and scanning mistakes — tied to self-checkout systems. Multiple retail studies have found stores using self-checkout experience loss rates significantly above traditional cashier-operated lanes.

Some industry surveys have also found that a meaningful percentage of shoppers admit to intentionally failing to scan items during self-checkout transactions.

For retailers, the labor savings generated by automation can quickly disappear if merchandise consistently leaves stores unpaid.

But the backlash was never purely financial.

Customers have increasingly complained that self-checkout systems transferred work traditionally handled by paid employees onto shoppers themselves, often while still forcing customers to navigate confusing interfaces, scanning errors, machine malfunctions, and employee monitoring systems.

The frustration became especially visible during inflationary periods, when consumers already feeling financially stretched questioned why they were effectively performing part of the retailer’s labor process without any price reduction in return.

Retail analysts say many shoppers now associate self-checkout with inconvenience rather than speed.

Academic research appears to support the trend.

A study published in the Journal of Business Research by researchers at Drexel University found that shoppers interacting with human cashiers reported stronger loyalty and a greater likelihood of returning to stores compared with customers using self-checkout systems.

Researchers concluded that customers often perceive cashier-assisted checkout as involving less effort and delivering a more valued shopping experience.

Walmart is not alone in reconsidering the technology.

Dollar General removed self-checkout systems from approximately 12,000 stores in 2024, while British grocery chain Booths rolled back self-checkout across nearly all locations after executives described the machines as slow, impersonal, and unpopular with customers.

Even within Walmart’s own ecosystem, the company’s Sam’s Club division has been shifting toward AI-powered “scan-and-go” systems rather than relying heavily on traditional self-checkout kiosks.

Lawmakers have also started paying attention.

Several states including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Washington are now considering regulations governing self-checkout usage, including potential minimum staffing requirements tied to automated checkout lanes.

The rollback comes as consumers continue navigating elevated food and household prices.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said grocery prices in March remained roughly 2.7% higher than a year earlier, with further increases projected through the remainder of 2026. Analysts say financial strain may have increased both customer frustration and theft pressure surrounding unattended checkout systems.

What makes the shift notable is that, at least temporarily, retailer and customer incentives appear aligned.

Stores reduce inventory losses and operational headaches while many shoppers regain the human service experience they increasingly say they prefer.

For a technology once marketed as pure efficiency, the industry’s reassessment now suggests that the cheapest-looking checkout option may not have been the most effective — or the most popular — after all.

New York — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

This post was originally published on this site.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Zohar Regev, 56, who was born and raised in the secular Kibbutz Kfar HaHoresh in the Lower Galilee, recounted in an interview with Al Jazeera her experiences aboard the flotilla and the reasons that led her to embrace Islam.

Although born Jewish, Regev said she never considered herself religious and did not observe Jewish commandments. According to her, she always had a strong inclination to fight for justice, and she found an expression of that outlook in Islam.

She told Al Jazeera that during the COVID-19 pandemic, residents of the Daheisheh refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, encouraged her to follow her convictions. She said she came to believe that the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict do not stem from the Six-Day War, but rather from the Zionist movement itself, which she described as racist and aimed at granting preferential rights to one group at the expense of another.

“I support an eternal struggle,” Regev said, adding that during the flotilla she met activists, including Muslims, whom she found particularly inspiring because of their commitment to their faith, unlike others whom she viewed as motivated solely by humanitarian concerns.

She claimed that international criticism has focused on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whom she accused of humiliating several international protest activists. At the same time, she argued that the international community continues to allow him to, in her words, harm the lives of Palestinians on a daily basis.

Regarding the flotilla itself, Regev alleged that during the Israeli military’s interception operation, troops fired rubber bullets, injured one of the women on board, and physically assaulted and humiliated activists. She further claimed that she was forcibly taken to what she described as a “prison ship,” where shipping containers were used to detain activists.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country is preparing for what he believes could be a major Russian strike within the next 48 hours, citing intelligence shared by the United States and European allies that points to extensive military preparations by Moscow.

“Today at night, or tomorrow at night, we will have, we think that we will have big attacks from Russian side using drones, using cruise missiles and ballistic,” Zelensky said in a clip from an interview with Face the Nation scheduled to air Sunday. He added that intelligence officials “see the preparation” for it by Russia.

According to Zelensky, information provided by Western partners has helped Ukrainian authorities identify Russian military activity and preparations ahead of the anticipated attack.

The warning comes just days after Zelensky urged President Trump and members of Congress to provide Ukraine with additional Patriot missile interceptors, saying the country remains heavily dependent on its allies for protection against incoming missile strikes.

“Frankly, while we have achieved significant success in defending against all types of drones, Ukraine has not yet built its own capability to produce anti-missile defense systems. When it comes to air defense against missiles we rely on our friends and partners around the world,” Zelensky wrote in a five-page letter to Trump.

Zelensky said Russian forces continue to target Ukrainian civilians daily while also launching larger, coordinated bombardments on a regular basis.

“Two times a week, or two times per 10 days, they have big, massive attacks,” he said in the interview.

As an example, he cited a recent Russian assault involving more than 600 Iranian-made drones and approximately 90 missiles, including 30 ballistic missiles.

“It was very difficult to destroy it,” he said. “We used all our weapons, what we have, what we produce, and of course we used anti-ballistic missile. This is the biggest deficit for us.”

The interview also addressed recent incidents involving Russian drones crossing into or striking NATO territory. Earlier this week, a Russian drone hit a residential building in Romania, drawing a swift response from NATO officials.

“Russia’s reckless behaviour is a danger to us all,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte wrote on the social platform X after speaking with Romanian President Nicușor Dan about the incident. “They continue to target civilians and civilian infrastructure across Ukraine. And last night showed yet again that the implications of their illegal war of aggression don’t stop at the border.”

Zelensky argued that the incidents are part of a broader effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to pressure countries supporting Ukraine and discourage them from continuing their assistance.

“I think it’s political pressure,” he said. “It’s messages from Russia: Don’t help Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and the country’s former president, warned European nations to be cautious about becoming more involved in the conflict following the Romanian drone incident.

“Citizens of EU countries, You should realize your authorities have unilaterally entered into a war with Russia,” the Putin adviser wrote on X. “So be vigilant and don’t be surprised by anything. The peaceful sleep is over. But you know who to ask why.”

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited soldiers of the Haredi Chashmonaim combat brigade and stated: “I respect the world of Torah study.” He also clarified his position that “anyone who is not studying must enlist,” a significant statement ahead of the approaching elections.

The Prime Minister visited the brigades’s base in the Jordan Valley together with Boaz Bismuth, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He was received with singing and applause from the soldiers, who appreciated the gesture by Netanyahu.

ברקע משבר הגיוס נתניהו וביסמוט מבקרים בחטיבת החשמונאים. נכנסו לאולם לשירת “כי אורך ימים” השמורה לרבנים וראשי ישיבות בדרך כלל. pic.twitter.com/yaLprpLKsY

— שילה פריד🇮🇱 (@shilofreid) May 28, 2026

The Prime Minister expressed his appreciation for Torah scholarship and declared: “I respect the world of Torah study because generations of my ancestors and your ancestors preserved the heritage of Israel through Torah learning.”

Netanyahu clarified his position: “My grandfather did not think there was any contradiction between studying Torah and bearing arms. On the contrary, he believed that Torah study gives you the strength to bear arms. And today, we need to renew that idea. Anyone who is not studying Torah must enlist. And when he enlists, he must be given the right to enter as a charedi and leave as a charedi.”

He promised: “We are going to connect these two worlds. That is what you are doing. You continue the legacy of the Hasmoneans. It only adds strength, the fact that you can study Torah and serve, maintain a charedi religious lifestyle and serve, wield the sword of David and serve, and also study. This is what strengthens us more than anything else.”

Netanyahu also praised the soldiers for combining military service with Torah study: “I want to congratulate you for what you are doing. I am very moved by it. I was here before you went to officers’ training, and today I meet graduates. It is remarkable. You are the pioneers, and others are following behind you. I see it. I see the significant increase in enlistment and in the desire to defend the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu connected the issue of charedi enlistment to the ongoing war with Iran-backed forces: “We are still in the midst of a war on seven fronts. Of course, we have achieved tremendous successes. We have not finished yet, but those achievements come first and foremost from faith and spirit, from strength, tools, technology, and weapons as well, but ultimately, or at the beginning of it all, comes the spirit of the Hasmoneans. You are Hasmoneans!”

Boaz Bismuth added: “I am very moved to be here. We are in a place where a real revolution is taking place. We are witnessing something amazing and inspiring. Our two greatest values are the Torah that brought us here and the IDF that protects us. At this base, these two things come together, Torah and uniforms. I want to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu; this is happening on your watch. This revolution cannot be stopped.”

Russia is returning to the yuan bond market days after President Vladimir Putin concluded high-level talks in Beijing, deepening Moscow’s financial pivot toward China as Western sanctions continue cutting the Kremlin off from dollar and euro funding markets.

Russia’s Finance Ministry said on May 28 it will issue 10-year yuan-denominated sovereign bonds worth 10 billion yuan, or roughly $1.5 billion, carrying a coupon of 7.65%. The deal marks Moscow’s second major sovereign yuan issuance and comes immediately after Putin’s May 19–20 state visit to China, where the Russian president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping signed more than 40 bilateral agreements tied to trade, energy, finance, logistics, and industrial cooperation.

The sequencing is not accidental.

The bond sale is part of a broader geopolitical and financial restructuring underway between Moscow and Beijing — one designed to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar system while binding Russia’s economy more tightly to China’s financial infrastructure.

For Moscow, the attraction is increasingly practical rather than ideological.

Russia’s domestic borrowing costs have surged as war spending, sanctions pressure, and inflation strain the country’s fiscal position. Comparable ruble-denominated government debt currently yields between 13.5% and 15%, while the yuan bonds issued in December 2025 priced closer to 6%–7%.

That gap matters enormously.

By borrowing in yuan instead of rubles, the Russian government effectively cuts its financing costs nearly in half at a moment when budget pressure is intensifying. Russia’s fiscal deficit widened sharply during the first quarter of 2026, reaching roughly 2.5% of GDP versus a full-year target near 1.6%, according to government data.

The deeper story, however, is about what Russia is doing with the yuan already accumulating inside its financial system.

Russian exporters — especially energy giants like Rosneft, Gazprom, and Lukoil — increasingly sell oil, gas, coal, and raw materials to China in yuan rather than dollars. Those payments then accumulate across Russian banks and corporate accounts because sanctions and capital restrictions make redeploying the currency internationally far more difficult.

That has created a structural pool of idle yuan liquidity inside Russia.

The government’s yuan bond market effectively absorbs those balances and redirects them into domestic state financing. Instead of exporters holding yuan deposits earning minimal returns, Moscow converts that money into sovereign debt issuance and channels it back into government spending.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov acknowledged after the first yuan bond issuance in December that demand exceeded official expectations, underscoring how much Chinese currency is now circulating inside the Russian economy.

The arrangement reveals how sanctions are reshaping global finance in practice.

Russia has largely lost access to Western institutional capital markets, global dollar-clearing systems, and much of the international investor base that previously financed its sovereign debt. The yuan market offers one of the few remaining large-scale alternatives available to the Kremlin.

But the shift also exposes a growing asymmetry inside the Russia-China relationship.

China controls the currency, the clearing system, and much of the underlying financial infrastructure. Russia supplies discounted energy, commodities, and geopolitical alignment in return for financing access and trade continuity.

That imbalance became increasingly visible during Putin’s Beijing visit.

Although the two governments publicly emphasized strategic friendship and economic cooperation, Moscow reportedly failed to secure final agreement on several major long-term energy priorities, including the long-delayed Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline project that Russia views as critical for replacing lost European gas demand.

The result is a relationship that increasingly benefits Beijing more than Moscow financially.

For China, Russia’s dependence serves multiple strategic objectives simultaneously.

It expands international yuan usage, increases Beijing’s leverage over Russian trade flows, strengthens China’s role as an alternative financial center outside Western control, and advances long-term efforts to internationalize the Chinese currency in sanctioned or politically isolated markets.

Russia’s growing use of precious metals in bilateral trade further highlights the evolving structure of this parallel financial system. Russian exports of gold and silver to China reportedly quadrupled year-over-year during the first quarter of 2026 as sanctions complicated conventional yuan-ruble settlement channels.

The trend is part barter system, part reserve diversification, and part workaround to sanctions friction.

Yet despite the political symbolism surrounding de-dollarization, the scale still remains relatively limited in global terms.

The yuan accounts for only a small fraction of global reserve holdings and international payments compared with the U.S. dollar. Western capital markets remain vastly larger, deeper, and more liquid than China’s tightly controlled financial system.

Still, what matters is not whether the yuan replaces the dollar globally tomorrow. It is whether parallel systems continue emerging in parts of the world where sanctions make dollar access politically or financially risky.

That process is already happening.

Russia’s yuan bond issuance is another sign that geopolitical fragmentation is increasingly reshaping capital markets themselves. Countries cut off from Western finance are beginning to build alternative settlement, borrowing, and reserve structures centered around China instead of New York or London.

For global markets, the immediate financial impact is modest.

But strategically, the message is significant: when access to dollars becomes restricted, countries do not stop trading or borrowing. They look for another system.

And increasingly, that system is being built around Beijing.

Asia — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

The United States has confiscated or frozen approximately $1 billion in cryptocurrency tied to Iran, marking a major escalation in Washington’s effort to disrupt Tehran’s access to international financial channels, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday.

Speaking at the Reagan National Economic Forum, Bessent revealed that the amount of Iranian digital assets seized by U.S. authorities has doubled since April, when officials reported nearly $500 million in frozen cryptocurrency holdings, according to BeInCrypto.com.

“Just outright grabbed the wallets,” Bessent said. “Some of them may be typing in right now and might not realize their wallet had been grabbed.”

The latest seizures are part of “Operation Economic Fury,” a campaign launched by the Treasury Department in March 2025 to dismantle networks used by Iran to evade international sanctions.

According to U.S. officials, Tehran has increasingly turned to digital currencies to move funds connected to oil exports and activities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Much of that activity reportedly involved the stablecoin Tether (USDT) on the Tron blockchain.

Bessent said Iranian entities had been transferring between $400 million and $500 million each month through cryptocurrency networks before federal authorities intensified their enforcement efforts.

To carry out the operation, the Treasury Department has coordinated with major cryptocurrency companies, including Tether, as well as blockchain-tracking firms that help identify wallets linked to sanctioned organizations.

One of the most significant actions took place in April, when U.S. authorities froze roughly $344 million worth of USDT connected to Iranian financial networks.

Officials say the effort highlights the growing role of cryptocurrency in modern economic conflict. While digital assets were once viewed as a tool that could help sanctioned nations circumvent traditional banking systems, U.S. authorities argue that blockchain technology creates a permanent record that investigators can follow.

The crackdown comes as Iran grapples with mounting economic challenges, including a weakening currency, pressure on its banking sector, and declining revenue from oil exports.

Bessent said some of the confiscated funds are being safeguarded for the benefit of the Iranian people, while other assets could eventually be used to compensate victims of terrorism.

Treasury officials indicated that additional enforcement actions are likely in the coming months as the administration continues expanding its campaign against Iran’s financial infrastructure.

{Matzav.com}

A frozen cheese bread product sold at Costco is being recalled over concerns it could be contaminated with salmonella, prompting the retailer to notify customers who purchased the affected items.

Champion Foods LLC announced a voluntary recall of certain batches of Motor City Pizza Co. 5 Cheese Bread after learning that an ingredient supplier had recalled milk powder because of a potential salmonella contamination concern.

According to the company, the recalled milk powder was supplied to a third-party manufacturer that produces a seasoning blend used in the product’s five-cheese sauce mixture.

Costco also sent notices to members who purchased the product, saying its records indicate they, or one of their add-on members, bought Motor City Pizza Co. 5 Cheese Bread between Feb. 6 and May 29. The wholesale club advised customers not to consume the recalled product and to return it to a local Costco warehouse for a full refund.

DELI MEAT, CUCUMBERS TOP LIST OF ‘REALLY RISKY FOODS’ YOU MIGHT HAVE IN THE FRIDGE

The recall affects both single-pack and two-pack versions of the frozen bread product.

The affected single-pack product carries UPC code 8 70375 00511 1 and includes sell-by dates ranging from Feb. 4, 2027, through April 21, 2027.

The affected two-pack product carries UPC code 8 70375 00509 8 and includes sell-by dates of Feb. 3, 2027; Feb. 4, 2027; Feb. 24, 2027; Feb. 25, 2027; March 10, 2027; March 11, 2027; March 18, 2027; and March 25, 2027.

5 OF THE TOP SOURCES OF FOODBORNE ILLNESS AND HOW TO PREVENT IT

Champion Foods said routine testing conducted by the seasoning blend manufacturer before the ingredient was used in production showed the batches tested negative for salmonella. The company said it nevertheless decided to issue the recall “out of an abundance of caution” for customer safety.

Costco’s notice stated that no illnesses or injuries related to the recalled products have been reported.

Salmonella is an organism which can cause “serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems,” according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Symptoms among healthy individuals may include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

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In rare and more serious cases, salmonella can spread to the bloodstream, potentially causing arterial infections, endocarditis or arthritis.  

FOX Business’ Bonny Chu contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Against the backdrop of increasing visits to the Temple Mount, including by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and members of his party, Chief Rabbi Kalman Meir Ber has issued a sharp denunciation of the phenomenon. In a detailed 19-page responsum, the rabbi wrote that there is a “grave prohibition against ascending and bowing on the Temple Mount.”

In recent years, the practice of bowing on the Temple Mount has spread among various groups visiting the site, accompanied by the publication of practical guidance and public encouragement of the act.

In his paper, the chief rabbi wrote that beyond the severity of ascending the Temple Mount itself, which, in the view of leading rabbis from all communities and streams, including generations of chief rabbis, is forbidden, “there is an additional grave prohibition against bowing on the Temple Mount’s stone pavement at this time.”

In his article, Rabbi Ber stressed that the prohibition applies to the entire area of the Temple Mount. He also addressed the gravity of the actions of those who bow there, saying they place themselves in possible violation of a severe Torah prohibition.

Rabbi Ber wrote: “It is strictly forbidden to ascend and bow on the Temple Mount at this time. Entry into the Temple Mount compound is strictly prohibited at this time, as ruled by the leading sages of Israel throughout the generations. This has also been the position of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate throughout its history. The Torah prohibition against bowing on a stone surface forbids full prostration with outstretched hands and feet on stone flooring, and one who does so violates the prohibition: ‘You shall not place a figured stone in your land to bow down upon it.’”

Italian authorities have blocked a planned Kanye West concert in the city of Reggio Emilia, citing concerns about public safety and the potential for unrest.

The decision was announced Friday by Prefect Salvatore Angieri, who said that permits would not be granted for the two major concerts that had been scheduled on consecutive days in July at the northern Italian venue.

The move followed a formal request from members of the local Jewish community, who urged officials to cancel West’s appearance.

Nicoletta Uzzielli, who heads the region’s Jewish community, had pressed local leaders to replace the performance with an event that would bring “music back to the forefront as a universally unifying force.”

West, who now performs under the name Ye, has faced widespread criticism in recent years over a series of antisemitic remarks and expressions of support for Nazi ideology.

In 2022, the rapper threatened to go “death con 3 on the Jews” in an apparent antisemitic rant on X, which was then called Twitter. West followed this up by claiming that he can’t be antisemitic “because black people are actually Jew.”

His controversies continued last year when he purchased a Super Bowl advertisement promoting T-shirts bearing swastikas and later released a song titled “Heil Hitler.”

West later apologized for his conduct, saying his actions stemmed from manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder.

Most recently, authorities in both the United Kingdom and Poland barred him from entering those countries because of his past antisemitic statements.

In its explanation for denying approval, the regional prefecture cited multiple concerns. Officials pointed to the “cancellation of previous concerts by the American rapper in other countries and the real risk of counter-demonstrations.”

{Matzav.com}

A deputy director-general at the Israel Tax Authority was questioned by Lahav 433 investigators on Sunday over suspicions of multiple offenses, including invasion of privacy, unlawful detention, obstruction of justice, fraud, and breach of trust.

According to investigators, the allegations stem from an incident that occurred several months ago, in which the senior official allegedly locked the door of his office while an employee was inside, confiscated the employee’s mobile phone, and attempted to review recordings stored on the device.

Lahav 433 officer questioned for allegedly spying

On Wednesday, the Department of Internal Police Investigations questioned a Lahav 433 officer on suspicion of engaging in contact with a foreign agent, who may have been from, or linked with, Iran.

The details were uncovered by Lahav 433’s cyber unit, which identified a link associated with the officer. A deeper investigation traced the link to a foreign agent.

The cyber unit forwarded the information to the Department of Internal Police Investigations, which opened an inquiry to clarify the circumstances.

“If there was something significant here, he would be in custody, in my opinion. It’s possible this is coincidental, which is why the matter is under investigation,” a source familiar with the details told Maariv.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A 21-year-old man from East Jerusalem, who until recently worked at a hotel in central Jerusalem, has been charged with maintaining contact with a Hamas operative in Cyprus and allegedly working on his behalf for several months by providing sensitive information about Israelis and security personnel, according to a report by i24NEWS.

According to the indictment, the suspect collected and passed on information about checkpoints, security forces, and various targets in Israel. As part of his work at the hotel, he allegedly documented and gathered information about soldiers and members of the security establishment who were staying there.

In one of the main incidents described in the indictment, the suspect allegedly provided detailed information about a large group of Israeli Air Force school students who were expected to arrive at the hotel. The information reportedly included arrival dates, names, the number of participants, and even the room numbers where they were expected to stay.

According to the charges, the Hamas handler later asked him whether he would be willing to assist if a terrorist were sent to carry out an attack at the hotel. The suspect allegedly replied: “I am willing to carry out a suicide attack myself.”

The indictment states that the planned attack was never carried out because the group’s stay at the hotel was canceled due to the war. The hotel manager reportedly confirmed during the investigation that the group had indeed been scheduled to stay there.

The indictment further alleges that the young man continued providing information to his handler afterward, including sending a photograph of a female soldier’s military identification card and pictures of two prison guards who had come to the hotel.

An IDF soldier was killed by an explosive drone fired by Hezbollah at IDF troops in southern Lebanon on Motzei Shabbos, the army announced on Sunday morning.

He was identified as Staff Sgt. Michael Tyukin, H’yd, 21, from Ashkelon. He fought in the Givati Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit, an elite unit that has been operating in southern Lebanon since the start of Operation Roaring Lion.

He was an only child to his mother, who moved to Israel from Ukraine in 2020.

The drone attack took place in the village of Zutar al-Sharqiya, located north of the Litani River in southern Lebanon.

Four other soldiers were lightly injured in the attack.

Tyukin is the 13th soldier killed since the “ceasefire” in Lebanon was announced and the 26th soldier to have been killed since the beginning of the war in Lebanon.

The Givati Reconnaissance Unit carries out complex missions in enemy territory, including destroying terror infrastructure and defending Israel’s borders.

The Givati Brigade is currently at the center of the expanded military activity in southern Lebanon, with a large number of forces currently carrying out an operation to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure in the Beaufort Ridge and Saluki River region.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

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Wall Street’s expectations for lower interest rates may be colliding with a new reality.

Deutsche Bank AG has raised its year-end forecast for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, arguing that the Federal Reserve, now led by Chairman Kevin Warsh, has likely finished cutting interest rates for the current cycle and that borrowing costs across the economy could remain higher than many investors had anticipated.

In a research note released Friday, Deutsche Bank strategists Matthew Raskin and Steven Zeng increased their forecast for the 10-year Treasury yield to 4.70% by year-end, up from their previous projection of approximately 4.45%.

While a quarter-point forecast revision may sound insignificant, the implications extend far beyond bond traders and investment managers.

The 10-year Treasury yield is one of the most influential interest rates in the global financial system. It serves as a benchmark for mortgage rates, business loans, corporate borrowing, commercial real estate financing, and countless other forms of credit throughout the economy.

When Treasury yields rise, borrowing becomes more expensive.

When they fall, financing generally becomes cheaper.

That is why Wall Street pays such close attention to every shift in expectations surrounding Federal Reserve policy.

The central argument behind Deutsche Bank’s revised forecast is straightforward: the era of rate cuts may be over.

For much of the past year, investors had positioned themselves for continued monetary easing, expecting the Fed to gradually lower rates as inflation cooled and economic growth moderated. Those expectations helped keep longer-term yields from moving significantly higher.

Deutsche Bank now believes that assumption is increasingly outdated.

The firm’s analysts argue that a Federal Reserve led by Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor appointed by President Donald Trump, is likely to maintain a more cautious stance toward inflation and may be less willing to aggressively lower rates than markets previously expected.

Warsh has long been viewed by investors as a policy hawk—someone more focused on preventing inflation from reigniting than on providing additional monetary stimulus.

If the Fed remains on hold rather than delivering additional cuts, bond investors could begin demanding higher yields to compensate for the prospect of sustained higher interest rates.

That would push Treasury yields upward even without any formal action from the central bank.

For households, the most visible impact would likely be in housing.

Mortgage rates tend to track movements in the 10-year Treasury yield. If Deutsche Bank’s forecast proves accurate, borrowing costs for homebuyers could remain elevated through the remainder of the year, adding further pressure to affordability at a time when many Americans are already struggling with high home prices.

The effect would not stop there.

Small businesses seeking financing for expansion projects could face higher borrowing costs. Companies issuing bonds to fund investments may encounter steeper interest expenses. Consumers purchasing vehicles or financing major purchases could also find themselves paying more.

In short, a higher Treasury yield affects nearly every corner of the economy.

The picture is not entirely negative.

Higher yields benefit savers.

Money market funds, certificates of deposit, savings accounts, and newly issued Treasury securities generally become more attractive when rates remain elevated. Retirees and income-focused investors often welcome a higher-rate environment because it allows them to earn stronger returns on conservative investments.

As with many financial developments, the benefits and burdens are distributed unevenly.

Borrowers typically prefer lower rates.

Savers generally prefer higher ones.

Investors should also remember that forecasts are not guarantees.

Treasury yield predictions are notoriously difficult, and even the largest financial institutions frequently revise their outlooks as economic conditions evolve. Unexpected changes in inflation, employment data, economic growth, geopolitical events, or future Federal Reserve communications could dramatically alter the trajectory of yields over the coming months.

The official daily Treasury yield data published through the Federal Reserve’s H.15 statistical release will ultimately determine whether Deutsche Bank’s forecast proves correct.

Still, the significance of the call lies less in the precise number and more in the broader message.

For years, businesses, consumers, and investors became accustomed to declining interest rates and relatively cheap access to capital. That environment shaped everything from housing markets to corporate investment decisions.

Deutsche Bank is signaling that the next phase may look different.

The firm’s revised outlook suggests that the market may be entering a period where the cost of money remains elevated for longer than many had expected—a development that would reshape borrowing decisions throughout the economy and challenge assumptions that financing costs will steadily decline from here.

Whether the 10-year yield ultimately reaches 4.70% or not, the larger debate now unfolding on Wall Street centers on a simple question:

Has the era of falling interest rates come to an end?

The answer could influence everything from mortgage payments to stock valuations in the months ahead.

New York — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday gave his endorsement to a January study by the Department of Health and Human Services that calls for cutting the number of vaccines recommended for every American child.

An executive order from Trump directs federal agencies to align their policies behind the study, which recommended an overhaul long called for by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The study found that the United States recommends more childhood vaccines than many peer nations.

The Trump administration previously moved to narrow the number of recommended childhood vaccines in response to the report, but the move was blocked by a federal judge in Massachusetts. The administration is appealing the decision.

The study recommends vaccinating all children against 11 diseases. Several others would be recommended only for high-risk groups or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making.” That includes vaccines for flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV.

Trump’s order adds weight behind the study at a time when the administration had appeared to be trying to shift focus away from Kennedy’s more contentious vaccine policies and toward more mainstream topics like healthy eating.

The order directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review the study and “take any appropriate steps” to update its vaccine recommendations. It says the CDC should “provide maximum flexibility to parents and doctors” and directs agencies to make sure all actions, regulations and funding are aligned with the study.

The order adds that any changes should ensure that Americans retain their current access to vaccines.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.

Trump directed HHS to carry out the study in December.

Kennedy is a longtime activist against vaccines and has sought ways to inject his skepticism about the shots into national guidance. Last year, he announced the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, a move questions by public health experts who saw no new data to justify the change.

Last June, he fired a 17-member CDC vaccine advisory committee and later installed several of his own replacements, including multiple vaccine skeptics.

The January report found that vaccine recommendations for American children had increased in recent decades. It also highlighted countries where no vaccines are required to attend school.

Kathleen Thomas was born without a right hand, but that didn’t stop a cop from issuing a ticket for driving while talking on her cell phone with her right hand.

The cop who wrote the ticket, even after she showed him her non-existent hand, moved to dismiss the charge before she was due to appear in court Wednesday. The incident occurred in Lake Worth, Fla., in February.

In body cam footage obtained by Thomas and which she posted online, the cop explains to the driver that he has pulled her over for distracted driving because she was holding her cell phone with her right hand. Perhaps very unexpectedly for the officer, Thomas holds up her right arm, which ends in a stump.

“So obviously not,” she says, bursting into laughter. “So you want to just call this a day, or … ?”

“I don’t want to call it a day,” the police officer responds. “You had a hand up.”

He continues to argue with her, although Thomas tries to explain that what he thinks he saw is logically impossible.

“Hand to God, you did not have your phone in your hand?” he asks.

“Hand to God,” she says, holding up her right hand again.

In the end, the cop issued the citation anyway.

The video went viral online, and the cop eventually dismissed the ticket.

“As with any enforcement action, motorists have the right to contest citations through the judicial process, where all facts and evidence can be fully evaluated,” Teri Barbera, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department, said in a statement.

In an interview with CBS, Thomas said the interaction made her uncomfortable, but she hopes that the incident will become a teaching moment leading to better training for officers.

In the interview, Thomas offered a message to the cop who pulled her over.

“Explain to me your side. Explain to me what you were thinking,” she said. “How did we get to this point? And then from there, kind of just see where our two sides can kind of come together and say, Hey, look, here’s how we discuss limb difference. Here’s how you address somebody. Here’s things that you probably shouldn’t do, like make them raise their hand to God.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announces new federal actions to combat Lyme disease in Concord, New Hampshire, on Friday, May 29, 2026, as part of his “Take Back Your Health” tour. CSPAN

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced one of the most ambitious federal efforts ever to combat Lyme disease on Friday, May 29, 2026, at a 2:00 p.m. press conference in Room 100 of the New Hampshire State House in Concord. The measures follow the department’s first national Lyme roundtable, held in Washington, D.C., in December 2025, at which HHS formally recognized Lyme — in both its acute and chronic forms — as a serious public-health condition for the first time.

The recognition marks a shift after years in which the federal government had no unified strategy for a disease the CDC says is diagnosed in 476,000 Americans annually, with 5 to 7 million infections over the past decade. Kennedy has acknowledged that the agency once held what he called a deliberate policy of refusing to engage with the Lyme community. Researchers estimate that 10 to 20 percent of patients treated early remain symptomatic, and emergency room visits for tick bites recently reached their highest springtime level in nearly a decade.

“Americans deserve an answer,” Kennedy said from the podium. “They deserve gold-standard science, and a healthcare system that treats suffering seriously.” He recalled that one of his sons suffered facial paralysis for a year after a Lyme diagnosis and noted that President Donald Trump first made Lyme a national priority by signing the Kay Hagan Tick Act in 2019.

In the HHS release issued the same day, Kennedy said millions of Americans with Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses “have spent years searching for answers, treatment, and support,” and described the package as “one of the most ambitious federal efforts ever to combat Lyme disease.” The department reaffirmed a goal of cutting Lyme cases 25 percent by 2035 compared with 2022 levels.

The most consequential change for patients concerns coverage. At the December roundtable, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz confirmed that Medicare is being updated to explicitly require coverage for extended Lyme treatment, including treatment for associated co-infections — addressing a longstanding gap that has strained patients financially. CMS also issued guidance clarifying support for beneficiaries with Lyme and related conditions through its Chronic Care Management Program.

Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, Director of National Health Communications for the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, told the audience that roughly 31 million people are bitten by ticks each year in the United States.

“We’re going to make the invisible diseases visible now,” she said. “We know prevention is key. We can prevent not only Lyme disease, but all the co-infections that go with it.”

Dr. Kristen Honey, the HHS Chief Data Officer now managing public-private partnerships, said the effort originated outside government.

“Let me be clear that this movement did not start in government,” Honey said. “It started with all of you. It started with the patients, it started with the caregivers, it started with the frontline providers and those affected families saying there’s a problem here, and rose up, came together, formed unusual allies.”

She credited participants in the December roundtable — among them Senator Susan Collins, Representative Chris Smith, and Duvi Honig of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, along with Olivia Goodreau of LivLyme, Dr. Steve Phillips, and Sam Sofia — saying that without them “none of this would be happening.”

At that session, Collins, author of the Kay Hagan TICK Act, pressed for better diagnostics and cited a Maine clinical trial for a Lyme vaccine; Smith, a 30-year advocate, said Lyme patients “deserve answers”; and Honig called for CDC Updates, Nationwide awareness campaigns, expanded insurance coverage, and increased provider education.

Honey also framed the challenges in market terms.

“For the first time in four years, open innovation at HHS and LymeX is available to all the public,” she said. “All Americans and U.S. businesses can participate, not just those already in the LymeX pipeline.”

The department detailed three new LymeX challenges totaling up to $2.5 million.

The largest is the TOPx HHS Tech Sprint for AI and Invisible Illness, offering up to $2 million, including a $1 million grand prize, for tools that use artificial intelligence and open data to help patients with Lyme and other “invisible illnesses,” including Long COVID and ME/CFS, get answers and care faster.

“If it’s invisible, you are welcome here,” Honey said.

The LymeX Visible Voices Prize offers up to $250,000 for educational tools and awareness campaigns, while the LymeX Healthathon Innovation Sprint offers another $250,000 for frontline solutions, including new uses of existing medicines.

The broader Friday package, according to the HHS release, also includes a multi-million-dollar tick-control pilot program, new NIH funding to combat Alpha-gal syndrome, and a public-private collaboration to connect patients with experienced providers, all under Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

Separately, through the LymeX partnership, HHS is updating its Living Evidence Guidelines for clinicians treating infection-associated chronic conditions, with Version 2.0 launched in May 2026 and scheduled to refresh every six months as new science emerges.

The challenges build on the LymeX Innovation Accelerator, a public-private partnership between HHS and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation launched during President Trump’s first term. Through LymeX, HHS recently launched a $10 million Diagnostics Prize, and two improved FDA-cleared Lyme tests have reached the market over the past two years.

The National Institutes of Health invests nearly $50 million annually in Lyme research and approximately $122 million annually in broader tick-borne disease research.

The new tick-control pilot, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and HHS, will begin with researchers at the New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases and build on community work with the Indian Health Service and the Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts.

HHS also announced action on Alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-linked condition that can trigger serious allergic reactions to red meat. The CDC estimates nearly 500,000 Americans live with the condition.

NIH has identified candidate products that may protect people after a tick bite; private companies would supply the products while NIH funds research to evaluate them.

The department is also partnering with the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society to offer a clinician locator tool through hhs.gov/lyme.

Kennedy reiterated support for reauthorizing the bipartisan Kay Hagan TICK Act, signed by President Trump in 2019, which recently advanced unanimously through the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Officials expect another heavy tick season in 2026. The new programs mark the federal government’s most comprehensive response to Lyme disease to date and represent the first time HHS has formally aligned federal policy, reimbursement, research, innovation incentives, and public-private partnerships around both acute and chronic Lyme disease.

Washington — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Authorities are investigating multiple unusual incidents in Brooklyn after more than a dozen people were spotted climbing into and out of sewer manholes, police said Friday.

According to investigators, at least seven individuals were seen entering a manhole near McDonald Avenue and Colin Place in Gravesend at approximately 11 p.m. Thursday. The group remained underground for several hours before resurfacing around 2 a.m. Friday.

“Authorities conducted a thorough investigation following reports of unauthorized individuals inside the sewer system on McDonald Avenue,” read a social media post from the 62nd Precinct. “The NYPD and other agencies have completed their sweep, confirming the area is safe and free of hazards.”

In a separate incident roughly eight miles away, officials said another group of eight people descended into the sewer system near Heyward Street and Bedford Avenue at about 1 a.m. Friday.

Police said those individuals emerged from the manholes shortly before 4 a.m. and then left the area in a vehicle.

The NYPD’s K-9 unit, the FDNY, and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection responded to the scenes and conducted inspections.

A spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Protection said both sewer locations were examined and determined to be structurally safe, while stressing that members of the public should never enter the sewer system.

“Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces. For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

City Council Member Susan Zhuang praised emergency responders for their handling of the situation and warned about the dangers associated with entering underground infrastructure.

“What happened in Gravesend and Bedford Avenue this week was dangerous, illegal, and cannot be dismissed. Our sewers contain deadly gases, unstable surfaces, and serious flooding risks, they are not a place anyone should ever enter,” Zhuang said in a statement.

“To anyone tempted to explore these spaces: it is not worth your life. If you see someone entering a manhole, call 911 immediately.”

Investigators are continuing to examine both incidents and are working to determine whether the two groups were connected.

NEW YORK (AP) — Businesses big and small have started receiving tariff refunds after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the constitutional authority to impose higher import taxes on goods from nearly every other country.

The process could grind to a halt, however, after the Trump administration said Friday that it intended to appeal a federal judge’s order to allow all companies that paid the invalidated duties to seek refunds, not just the ones that filed lawsuits.

Until the Department of Justice informed the judge of its planned appeal, the refund system overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection had worked fairly smoothly. Refunds reached the bank accounts of the first successful applicants on May 12, about three weeks after importers and their customs brokers could start submitting claims, according to CBP.

Applications for refunds totaling $85 billion — more than half of the $166 billion the agency estimated the government owes to companies that paid the tariffs on imported goods — were accepted for processing as of May 22, CBP reported in a legal filing earlier in the week. It said it had so far directed the Treasury Department to issue $20.6 billion in refunds.

The administration revealed its appeal preparations while objecting to a demand by Judge Richard K. Eaton for CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott to appear in the U.S. Court of International Trade on June 9. The judge said he wants to know how long it would take to repay all 330,000 importers that might be eligible for refunds and whether he should require the government to speed up the process.

Justice Department lawyers asked Eaton to allow Scott’s deputies to appear in his place, arguing that as a high-ranking presidential appointee, the CBP chief could not be compelled to testify. They also argued that Eaton exceeded his authority when he determined that the Supreme Court’s ruling entitled “all importers of record’’ to refunds.

“For that reason, defendants intend to appeal the court’s universal injunction,” the lawyers wrote, adding that CBP would continue to move “as quicky as it can to process refunds in a phased approach” for businesses that filed legal complaints asserting their rights to refunds.

Eaton responded that he needed to hear directly from Scott whether the government would return all of the money it collected between April 2025, when Trump put what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries, the Supreme Court’s decision in late February.

“It is undisputed that the remedy for this unlawful collection is for the United States government to refund the unlawfully collected duties,” the judge wrote.

Refunds coming in phases
Customs and Border Protection is handling refund claims in phases, focusing first on payments that weren’t finalized before the Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 decision. CBP officials said those later, estimated payments were simpler to process because they remained open in its system.

In Friday’s filing, the Justice Department said the agency required technological upgrades to its refund portal and “importer-specific orders” in each lawsuit that businesses filed before it could recalculate the final tax bills for older “liquidated” accounts.

More than 1,000 companies filed lawsuits in the trade court to recoup their tariff costs. It was not immediately clear how many importers that paid the tariffs did not sue and might not receive refunds if an appeal of Eaton’s blanket order succeeds.

Ryan Majerus, a partner on the international trade team at law firm King & Spaulding, said he thinks “it’s definitely a fraction of the total in terms of folks who paid” the defunct duties. An appeal would likely affect only imported merchandise that was in the U.S. for 314 days, a time when CPB issues its official determination of the duties owed, he said.

“This doesn’t cover everybody, only those really old entries,” Majerus said about a potential appeal.

But filing an appeal could slow the refund process even if the government “already lost the war” before the Supreme Court, according to Barry Appleton, a professor at New York Law School and managing partner of Appleton & Associates International Lawyers.

“If the government can freeze the refund machinery while it litigates, it buys months, and every month of delay is a month the Treasury keeps the money,” Appleton said.

Price cuts promised
Some national retail chains said they planned to use their tariff refunds refunds to lower customer prices on some items. Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told analysts last week that the company would implement price cuts even though the maximum refund it might be eligible for represented less than half of 1% of Walmart’s annual U.S. sales.

Costco intends to return the tariff costs that it passed on to members, CEO Ron Vachris said. How much of its refund the big-box retail chain redistributes, when and in what form, depends on factors such as the size of the refund, when it arrives, and developments in a lawsuit seeking tariff compensation for Costco customers, Vachris told investors Thursday.

Consumers may see refunds first from shipping companies such as FedEx, UPS and DHL, which acted as customs brokers when they delivered products ordered from overseas.

The companies charged either the sellers that shipped the packages or the buyers who received them and submitted the collected tariffs to CBP. All three promised to transmit any refunds they get to the customers that paid the import taxes.

Putting refunds back into the business
The Supreme Court invalidated only the country-by-country tariff rates Trump set by citing the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The president also has moved to introduce new tariffs since the court’s Feb. 20 ruling.

Some smaller companies told The Associated Press that the tariff refunds they’ve received so far would go toward paying remaining or future tariffs or getting back on solid financial footing after more than a year of uncertainty and additional costs.

Jay Foreman, CEO of toy company Basic Fun, said he received about $450,000, or 7% of his total claim, over two consecutive days. He took the repayment as a positive sign but that the pace since then seemed like a “total slow roll.”

“It’s time to release the funds back into the economy, especially given how much we and others need these funds to support our businesses,” Foreman said.

Men’s grooming brand Manscaped has received about 30% of the $12 million in refunds it applied for, President Kevin Datoo said. The San Diego company deferred investments and took on debt to pay tariffs on imports from Indonesia, China and elsewhere in Asia, he said.

“We need to shore up the balance sheet because there’s still a whole second chapter here,” Datoo said.

Melkon Khosrovian, who owns Greenbar Distillery in Los Angeles, said he applied for a tariff refund of about $90,000 for 17 different shipments of herbs, spices and packaging that are hard to find domestically. To date, he said he received $18,000.

Khosrovian invested in automating his bottling system last year to reduce personnel costs while his import expenses grew. He recalled how the White House had argued the tariffs would create more U.S. manufacturing jobs.

The tariffs were “painful,” he said. “Our choices were bad and worse: raise prices and lose customers, or keep prices the same and not make any money.”

Residents across parts of the northeastern United States were startled Saturday afternoon when a meteor exploded high above the region, producing a powerful shockwave that rattled homes and triggered widespread reports of loud booms.

NASA said the meteor broke apart in the atmosphere, generating an acoustic blast that was heard across several states. According to the agency, the energy released by the explosion was roughly equivalent to 300 tons of TNT.

The event occurred shortly after 2 p.m. local time in the skies above an area spanning northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire.

Jennifer Dooren, NASA’s deputy news chief, confirmed the nature of the phenomenon in comments to AFP and stressed that it was not connected to any man-made object.

“This fireball was not associated with any currently active meteor shower, but it was a natural object and not a re-entry of space debris or a satellite,” Dooren explained. “The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms.”

Before breaking apart, the meteor was traveling through Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 75,000 miles per hour. NASA said the explosion took place at an altitude of about 40 miles above the ground.

The sudden blast left many residents confused and concerned as the sound echoed across communities throughout the region. Social media quickly filled with reports from people describing thunderous noises and vibrations strong enough to shake houses and windows.

Many initially believed the sounds were caused by an earthquake, explosion, or military activity before officials confirmed that the source was a meteor disintegrating high above the Northeast.

{Matzav.com}

NEW YORK — Building a home in America is getting more expensive again as prices for copper, lumber, diesel fuel, and aluminum all climb at the same time, squeezing builders, contractors, developers, and eventually homebuyers already struggling with high mortgage rates.

The pressure is now spreading across nearly every stage of construction.

The Associated General Contractors of America said in an April 2026 report that construction material costs have climbed to their highest levels in almost four years, with contractors increasingly unable to absorb the increases.

Ken Simonson, chief economist for the organization, said the combination of the Iran war, supply-chain disruptions, energy volatility, and new tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump’s administration are pushing prices higher throughout the construction sector.

“Contractors who locked in prices months ago can seldom pass along cost increases after committing to a project,” said Jeffrey D. Shoaf, CEO of the AGC. “That is creating real financial pressure across the industry.”

The impact begins with lumber.

Lumber futures are now trading near $593 per thousand board feet, climbing again after the extreme volatility seen during the pandemic-era housing boom.

Canada remains one of the largest lumber suppliers to the United States, but tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber remain near an effective 35% rate, contributing to mill closures and tighter supply.

Industry analysts say additional increases are likely later this year as supply constraints continue.

Copper prices have also surged sharply.

Construction-grade copper products used in electrical systems, plumbing, and infrastructure projects have risen more than 15% year-over-year.

The increases accelerated after the administration imposed tariffs on imported copper-related products while demand simultaneously surged from:

• AI data center construction
• Electric vehicle manufacturing
• Grid expansion projects
• Industrial infrastructure upgrades

Builders are increasingly attempting substitutions such as copper-clad aluminum wiring, though building-code restrictions often limit alternatives.

Aluminum costs have climbed even faster.

Aluminum products used in:

• Window systems
• Gutters
• Structural framing
• Doors
• Exterior materials

have experienced some of the sharpest increases inside the broader construction supply chain.

Tariffs on imported aluminum products now sit at roughly 50%, while rising energy costs continue pushing manufacturing expenses higher globally.

Because aluminum production requires enormous electricity consumption, higher natural gas prices tied to Middle East energy disruptions are feeding directly into material pricing.

Then comes diesel fuel.

Diesel prices have surged above $5.40 per gallon, reaching their highest levels since 2022.

That matters enormously because diesel powers nearly every major component of the construction industry:

• Bulldozers
• Excavators
• Cranes
• Delivery trucks
• Concrete transport
• Generators
• Heavy equipment fleets

As fuel costs rise, transportation expenses and subcontractor pricing rise alongside them.

The cumulative effect is now flowing directly into housing affordability.

Construction groups estimate tariffs and rising material costs could add thousands — and in some cases tens of thousands — of dollars to the cost of building a new home.

Large national homebuilders including D.R. Horton, Lennar, and PulteGroup have greater flexibility because they negotiate bulk supply contracts and hedge certain material purchases in advance.

Smaller regional builders are facing much tighter pressure.

Some are delaying projects altogether until costs stabilize.

Others are simply passing increases directly to buyers.

The timing is especially difficult for the housing market because mortgage rates remain elevated near 6.5%, while inventory shortages continue limiting affordability nationwide.

New home prices have continued climbing despite slower overall transaction volume.

Economists increasingly warn that the combination of:

• High rates
• High material costs
• Tight inventory
• Elevated labor expenses

is keeping much of the housing market effectively frozen.

The situation also complicates policy decisions at the Federal Reserve.

Higher construction costs feed directly into inflation data the Fed continues monitoring closely.

At the same time, elevated interest rates make housing affordability worse.

That leaves policymakers balancing inflation pressure against weakening affordability and slowing construction activity.

Where prices move next may depend heavily on geopolitics.

If tensions involving Iran ease and energy markets stabilize, diesel and industrial-metal prices could cool relatively quickly.

If the conflict drags on or worsens, construction costs may continue climbing through the second half of the year.

For buyers, the reality is increasingly simple:
homes being built today cost significantly more to construct than they did only months ago.

Builders can absorb some of those increases.

Eventually, the rest appears on the final price tag.

JBizNews Desk — New York

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Health officials have expanded Ebola screening measures to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after federal authorities confirmed that an American physician contracted the virus during the ongoing outbreak in Africa.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that JFK began conducting enhanced health screenings on Friday, becoming the fourth major U.S. airport to implement the program. The airport joins Washington Dulles International Airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport in screening travelers arriving from affected regions.

The World Health Organization designated the current outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 15.

The outbreak originated in Congo’s northeastern Ituri Province before spreading into neighboring Uganda. According to the latest WHO figures released May 30, there have been 906 suspected infections and 223 suspected deaths linked to the outbreak.

Federal officials said Peter Stafford, a 39-year-old American physician working with the missionary organization Serge, unknowingly performed surgery on a patient infected with Ebola before the outbreak was identified.

Stafford tested positive for the virus on May 24. Authorities subsequently transferred him to a hospital in Germany, where he is receiving treatment.

Over the past week, the United States has redirected travelers arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan to designated airports where they undergo enhanced screening procedures aimed at identifying potential exposures.

Under newly revised federal rules, lawful permanent residents who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the previous 21 days may also be barred from entering the United States.

“Public health entry screening serves as one component of CDC’s layered public health approach,” the CDC said in the May 29 announcement.

“These actions are based on current epidemiological evidence, ongoing risk assessments, and the highly serious nature of BVD (Bundibugyo). This order will be in effect for 30 days, effective immediately.”

Travelers selected for screening will be escorted to a designated area, where they will answer questions about their recent travel and any symptoms they may be experiencing. Their temperatures will be checked using non-contact devices, and CDC personnel will observe them for signs of illness.

The CDC continues to classify the immediate risk to the general American public as low. However, officials said they are closely monitoring developments and will adjust policies as conditions change.

In the meantime, the agency is advising anyone traveling to the United States from affected countries to monitor themselves for possible Ebola symptoms for 21 days after departure.

Symptoms associated with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, which carries an estimated mortality rate of between 30 and 50 percent, include fever, headaches, muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and, in advanced cases, unexplained bleeding or bruising.

The CDC also said it is working to evacuate additional Americans from the region, including Stafford’s wife, Rebekah Stafford, 38, a physician who also treated the infected patient.

{Matzav.com}

This afternoon, a thief – whose face was wrapped in a towel – stole a bike in Westgate, and was also seen throwing an item in a trash bin, area residents tell TLS.

Residents walked over to the trash bin and discovered that the item thrown into the trash was this Mezuzah – which appears to have been ripped off a home.

If it’s yours, call 845-798-2745 to claim.

Police are investigating.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An upcoming celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, “The Great American State Fair,” recently had several musical guests back out partly over the event’s ties to President Donald Trump. Now, Trump himself is slated to headline the festivities, the organizers said Saturday.

“I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance,” Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social Saturday, adding that he was thinking of bringing “the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists.’”

The group organizing the June fair on Washington’s National Mall, Freedom 250, confirmed the billing in a statement, writing, “we are excited to announce that President Trump will personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24.”

Trump’s social media post twice referenced him holding a rally “Wednesday,” without a specific date. The White House did not immediately clarify the discrepancy.

Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for Freedom 250, emphasized the broader fair that is scheduled from June 25 through July 10 includes an array of exhibits, family friendly attractions, musical performances, flyovers and more.

Trump was dismissive of the acts that backed out, suggesting in a follow-up post that the solution is to “Cancel it.”

“We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain,” Trump said on social media.

Freedom 250 is billed as nonpartisan, but was launched last year by Trump and is led by a former State Department appointee from Trump’s first term. Several artists, including Bret Michaels, the Commodores and Martina McBride dropped out last week.

Michaels and other artists have said that they were misled about the theme of the shows or were otherwise wary of being caught up in a political fight. McBride, in a statement on Instagram, said she had been “presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.”

Other artists plan to attend, including Flo Rida, Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice. The latter’s representative previously said that the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper was “proud to help celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary!”

American drivers are seeing some relief at gas stations after prices dropped sharply over the past week, driven by falling oil prices amid renewed diplomatic efforts to extend the ceasefire with Iran and restore commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the decline, fuel costs remain significantly higher than they were before the conflict erupted.

According to AAA, the nationwide average price for regular gasoline stood at $4.356 per gallon on Friday, down nearly 17 cents from $4.529 one week earlier. California continued to have the highest average price in the nation at $6.040 per gallon, while Indiana recorded the lowest average at $3.722.

The decrease in gasoline prices has mirrored a pullback in crude oil markets as investors assess the possibility that oil shipments could soon resume through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy corridors. Approximately 20 percent of global seaborne oil passes through the narrow waterway.

Iran has largely restricted passage through the strait since fighting with the United States and Israel intensified on February 28. The disruption sent oil prices soaring and pushed the national average price of gasoline from $2.98 per gallon before the conflict to more than $4.50 by mid-May.

On Friday, President Donald Trump met with senior national security officials at the White House to review a tentative proposal that would prolong the current ceasefire and reopen the strait to international shipping. Iranian officials, however, said no final agreement has yet been reached.

Recent declines in Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures have been fueled largely by optimism surrounding the diplomatic talks. Market analysts warn that any breakdown in negotiations could quickly reverse those gains.

Experts say that even if an agreement is finalized, consumers should not expect an immediate return to the lower gasoline prices seen before the conflict began.

“Reopening the Strait fully to oil shipments and nothing less” is what would meaningfully move pump prices, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told Newsweek, adding that getting back to prewar levels could take more than a year even after tankers begin moving again.

Denton Cinquegrana, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, told the same outlet a return to the prewar $2.98 average could stretch into the second half of 2027.

While oil prices have retreated from recent highs, futures markets continue to reflect concerns about supply. Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, noted that December 2026 Brent crude contracts are trading near $80 per barrel. That is down from approximately $88 a barrel a week ago but remains well above prewar levels.

Trump predicted on May 11 that gasoline prices would “drop like a rock” once the conflict ended. Energy analysts, however, have repeatedly cautioned that lower oil prices do not immediately translate into lower prices at the pump because of delays throughout the refining and distribution process.

Meanwhile, rising consumer demand is creating additional upward pressure on fuel prices as Americans prepare for summer travel. AAA, citing figures from the Energy Information Administration, reported that gasoline demand climbed from 8.76 million barrels per day to 9.25 million barrels per day over the past week.

Even after the recent decline, gasoline remains considerably more expensive than it was a year ago. As of May 30, 2026, the national average is roughly $1.20 higher than on the same date in 2025, when AAA reported an average price of $3.16 per gallon.

{Matzav.com}

By JBizNews Desk

NEW YORK — Americans are carrying more debt than ever before, and a growing share of that borrowing is coming from households already under financial strain, according to a new Equifax Market Pulse Report released Thursday.

Total U.S. consumer debt reached a record $18.9 trillion through March 2026, up from a year earlier and marking another milestone in the steady expansion of household borrowing. While rising debt balances have become a familiar feature of the post-pandemic economy, Equifax’s latest data points to a deeper trend: lower-income consumers are increasingly relying on credit cards to pay for necessities rather than discretionary spending.

Credit-card balances, which Equifax classifies as bankcard debt, climbed to $1.085 trillion, up 3.9% from a year earlier and outpacing inflation. More striking was where the growth occurred. New credit-card accounts increased 8.1% overall, but applications approved for subprime borrowers — consumers with the lowest credit scores — surged 18.6%. At the same time, lenders expanded available credit to those borrowers, increasing credit limits by 37.6% year over year.

Maria Urtubey, an advisor at Equifax, said the numbers suggest a growing divide within the U.S. economy.

For many households, borrowing is no longer funding vacations, electronics, or discretionary purchases. Instead, credit cards are increasingly being used to cover recurring expenses such as groceries, rent, utilities, and transportation costs. Economists often refer to this phenomenon as “survival debt” — borrowing used to bridge the gap between wages and everyday living expenses.

The report reinforces what many economists describe as a K-shaped economy, where higher-income households continue to benefit from asset appreciation, strong employment, and investment gains, while lower-income consumers struggle to keep pace with rising costs.

The same dynamic appears in higher education financing. Although the number of new student loans declined by more than 10% over the year through January, the total dollar amount borrowed increased 4.7%, indicating that the cost of obtaining a degree continues to rise even as fewer students take on educational debt.

Student loans are also showing some of the most visible signs of financial stress. Equifax reported that 17.01% of student loans were at least 90 days delinquent in March, marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase. While still below the peak reached in 2025, the trend has raised concerns as federal student-loan collection efforts resume.

Historically, borrowers have prioritized mortgage and auto-loan payments ahead of student debt. However, as collection activity intensifies and household budgets remain stretched, financial analysts warn that pressure from student-loan repayments could spill into other areas of consumer credit performance.

Despite those concerns, the report also contained signs of resilience.

Delinquency rates across several major lending categories remained stable or improved compared with a year ago. The percentage of credit-card accounts more than 60 days past due fell to 2.97%, down from 3.09% a year earlier. Unsecured personal-loan delinquencies improved to 3.18% from 3.49%, while auto-loan delinquencies edged down to 1.49%.

However, lenders continue to absorb losses from loans that became troubled months earlier. Equifax noted that write-offs increased for both credit cards and auto loans as banks moved aging delinquent accounts off their balance sheets. The trend suggests that while newer borrowers are largely keeping up with payments, lenders are still dealing with the fallout from earlier financial stress.

For consumers carrying revolving credit-card balances, the cost remains significant. Average credit-card interest rates continue to hover above 21%, making credit-card debt among the most expensive forms of consumer borrowing. Financial advisers warn that carrying balances month after month can rapidly increase the total amount owed, particularly for households already operating on tight budgets.

The report also highlighted growing reliance on home equity as a financing tool. Outstanding balances on home-equity lines of credit (HELOCs) jumped 13% year over year to $431 billion, as homeowners tapped rising property values to access lower-cost borrowing compared with credit cards.

Meanwhile, mortgage balances increased to $12.86 trillion, while auto-loan balances rose to approximately $1.6 trillion.

Taken together, the figures paint a picture of an economy increasingly supported by borrowing, even as many consumers remain current on their obligations. The headline delinquency numbers suggest stability, but the rapid growth in subprime credit-card borrowing indicates that financial pressure remains concentrated among households with the least margin for error.

For millions of Americans, the credit card is no longer just a payment method. It has become a financial lifeline used to bridge the gap between paychecks and the rising cost of everyday life.

New York — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

Several American military personnel and contractors were injured after debris from an intercepted Iranian ballistic missile struck a U.S. air base in Kuwait, adding new uncertainty to already fragile negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

The incident occurred at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, where Kuwaiti air defense systems reportedly intercepted an Iranian Fateh-110 missile before it reached its intended target. While the missile itself was destroyed, falling debris reportedly injured approximately five Americans and caused significant damage to two MQ-9 Reaper drones. One of the drones was reportedly destroyed, while the second sustained heavy damage.

The strike comes at a pivotal moment as President Donald Trump considers whether to approve a proposed agreement with Iran that would extend the current ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and begin negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program. Administration officials have described the two sides as close to an agreement, although significant disagreements remain over issues such as sanctions relief and access to frozen Iranian funds.

Trump spent Friday consulting with his national security team in the White House Situation Room but emerged without announcing a final decision. A senior administration official indicated that additional discussions would be necessary before the president determines whether to move forward with the proposal.

The missile attack is likely to complicate those deliberations. U.S. Central Command previously described Iran’s launch toward Kuwait as an “egregious ceasefire violation,” while Kuwaiti officials condemned the strike as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. Regional allies including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates also criticized the attack.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly warned that the United States remains prepared to resume military operations if negotiations collapse. Speaking this weekend, Hegseth said U.S. forces are “more than capable” of restarting strikes should a diplomatic agreement fail to materialize.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

By JBizNews Desk

May 30, 2026

The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday that any arrangement with Iran to purchase safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is illegal for Americans, a warning that came as commercial shipping traffic showed tentative signs of returning to the world’s most important energy chokepoint.

For three months the strait has been effectively shut. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s pre-war oil supply normally passes through the narrow waterway, and thousands of vessels remain delayed or trapped inside the Persian Gulf. The disruption has become one of the biggest drivers behind elevated fuel prices and rising transportation costs across the global economy.

Now some ships have stopped waiting.

Traffic through the strait has picked up over the past week, helped along by quiet guidance from the U.S. military. U.S. Central Command continues to insist it is not escorting commercial vessels. Instead, military officials have reportedly provided navigational advice, threat assessments, and guidance on the safest transit windows.

The route many vessels are using hugs the coast of Oman, placing maximum distance between ships and Iranian-controlled waters. To reduce the risk of detection, some vessels have switched off their Automatic Identification Systems, or AIS beacons, which normally broadcast a ship’s location to nearby traffic.

Going dark carries risks. It increases the possibility of collisions and complicates maritime monitoring. But for captains attempting to transit one of the world’s most dangerous waterways, invisibility may offer a measure of protection.

The fragile nature of the situation was demonstrated this week when Iranian fast-attack boats reportedly approached a group of commercial vessels crossing the strait. Shortly afterward, U.S. military helicopters appeared overhead. The Iranian boats reversed course and withdrew.

That encounter illustrates the balance of power currently shaping the region.

Iran cannot directly challenge the overwhelming naval and air superiority of the United States. What the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) still possesses, however, are asymmetric tools capable of creating disruption. Fast boats, naval mines, drones, and coastal missile batteries remain inexpensive yet effective methods of threatening commercial traffic and raising costs for global shipping operators.

The U.S. response has centered on surveillance and air power. Helicopters, drones, and patrol aircraft provide persistent visibility across the shipping lanes, allowing military commanders to identify and respond to potential threats before they escalate.

The ships now making it through include vessels that have been stranded since the conflict began in late February as well as newly arriving tankers. Among them are cargoes belonging to the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company and liquefied natural gas carriers departing Qatar, precisely the energy supplies global markets have been waiting for.

Still, progress remains limited.

Industry observers estimate that only a fraction of the non-Iranian vessels trapped inside the Gulf have successfully exited. Energy traders warn that unless traffic normalizes quickly, global oil and natural gas markets could face renewed supply pressures in the weeks ahead.

A Greek-owned supertanker carrying approximately two million barrels of crude recently completed the transit using the Oman route. A Chinese-owned fertilizer vessel reportedly made a similar journey. While encouraging, those examples represent only a small percentage of the backlog still waiting to move.

The Treasury Department’s announcement adds a new layer to the confrontation.

Washington sanctioned what Tehran calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, an organization Iran has promoted as a mechanism for regulating transit through the waterway. U.S. officials view it differently, describing it as an attempt to charge commercial vessels for passage through an international shipping route.

“Regardless of whether a payment is made, U.S. persons are prohibited from receiving services from the Government of Iran, including services related to a guarantee of safe passage,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The message was clear: the United States will not permit Iran to transform one of the world’s most important trade routes into a toll road.

For American companies, the warning effectively prohibits any arrangement that involves paying Iranian authorities in exchange for transit guarantees. Even indirect participation could expose firms to sanctions risk and regulatory penalties.

The economic stakes extend far beyond oil producers and shipping companies.

The Strait of Hormuz handles roughly one-fifth of global oil shipments and a substantial share of global liquefied natural gas exports. Every week the route remains disrupted adds pressure to energy markets, transportation networks, manufacturing supply chains, and consumer prices.

The recent increase in vessel traffic represents the first meaningful sign of progress in months. Yet it falls far short of a full reopening.

The broader standoff between Washington and Tehran remains unresolved, and until a more durable ceasefire emerges, the world’s most important energy corridor will remain vulnerable to disruption.

For now, commercial captains continue making the same calculation each day: whether the risk of moving is greater than the cost of standing still.

Middle East — JBizNews Desk

© JBizNews.com All Rights Reserved. Reproduction or distribution without written permission is prohibited.

President Donald Trump sharply criticized a federal judge on Friday after a court blocked his administration’s effort to rename the Kennedy Center and halted plans to shut down the landmark venue for a major renovation project.

The dispute centers on a ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who sided with a legal challenge brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board. The decision stopped a proposal that would have closed the performing arts complex beginning July 5 for an extensive two-year overhaul.

Reacting to the ruling, Trump argued that experts had warned of serious structural and safety concerns within the building and accused the judge of disregarding those findings.

“Judge Cooper was given a presentation by leading Building and Construction Experts as to how structurally dangerous the Building is, with rotting beams, parking areas that are subject to collapse, and various other Life and Safety problems, in addition to the fact that it also needs a MAJOR renovation, from an aesthetic standpoint, but he was not ‘swayed,’ and said he wants the Building to, incredibly, remain open and, therefore, dangerous,” the president wrote in a Friday post on Truth Social.

Trump followed up with a direct rebuke of the judge and suggested the ruling could place the public at risk.

“Judge Cooper should be ashamed of himself!” Trump added. “I cannot be involved with a situation where danger to the Public is allowed to flourish in plain and open sight.”

The president also announced that he had instructed the Department of Commerce to take steps that would place responsibility for the institution’s maintenance and future oversight under congressional authority.

In his written opinion, Cooper pointed to federal law governing the Kennedy Center and concluded that any change to the institution’s name would require action by Congress rather than a vote of the board.