The Trump administration appears to be placing increasing emphasis on two objectives in the war with Iran — preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and keeping oil and gas prices under control — a shift examined in a CNN analysis published Sunday.

Vice President JD Vance laid out those priorities during an interview Thursday, describing continued oil and gas flows through the Gulf and stable energy prices as “goal number one.” He then identified ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon as “goal number two.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that “both goals are equally as important to the president.”

The analysis noted that the administration has articulated a broader and sometimes changing set of objectives during the six-month war. Those have included complete Iranian surrender, regime change, ending Tehran’s support for proxy groups such as Hezbollah, and destroying portions of Iran’s missile and military infrastructure. Keeping oil and gas prices low, however, had not previously been included among the publicly stated goals.

President Trump has also increasingly emphasized the damage already inflicted on Iran’s nuclear program. While the administration previously focused on Iran surrendering its enriched uranium, President Trump has since argued that much of the country’s nuclear material is buried too deeply underground to be accessed and has said the U.S. could monitor the sites from space to prevent Iran from retrieving it. He has also declared that Iran has already been “denuclearized.”

The analysis argues that the increased emphasis on energy prices could indicate the administration is preparing for an eventual conclusion to the war without achieving every objective discussed earlier in the campaign. The White House, however, maintains that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains equally important, while President Trump has continued to defend the costs Americans have faced during the war, saying Friday that he would “never apologize” for Americans paying somewhat more for gasoline given what he views as the stakes in Iran.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Internal Israeli security documents reportedly reveal that a new Qatari funding mechanism benefiting Hamas was approved in late 2021, months after then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett publicly declared that the era of Qatari “suitcases of dollars” entering Gaza needed to end.

According to an investigative report aired Sunday evening by Israel’s Channel 13, confidential meeting summaries and security protocols show what the report described as a significant gap between the government’s public declarations and the policy being implemented behind the scenes regarding money reaching Hamas.

The investigation, conducted by journalist Michael Shemesh, reported that while Bennett publicly declared that “the suitcases of dollars are something we inherited and that needs to disappear from the world,” an alternative mechanism was approved as early as October 2021.

Under the arrangement, Qatar purchased approximately $10 million worth of fuel from Egypt each month. The fuel was then transferred into the Gaza Strip without Israeli supervision and delivered directly to Multi Trade, a company that the report said was owned by Hamas. According to the investigation, proceeds from the fuel sales were used by Hamas to pay the salaries of its employees.

At the center of the report are summaries of meetings between Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, then the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, and Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi, who was reportedly given the code name “The Jeweler” by Israeli security officials.

According to the documents, on October 17, 2021, “The Jeweler” informed Israeli officials that he had succeeded in developing an alternative mechanism for paying salaries to senior Hamas personnel.

Under the proposal, the funds would effectively be transferred through fuel purchases from Egypt: Qatar would spend $10 million to purchase Egyptian fuel, which would then be transferred without supervision directly to the Hamas-owned company. Hamas would subsequently be able to use either the proceeds generated from selling the fuel or the money it saved through the arrangement to cover salaries.

At the same time, the Qatari envoy asked Israel to increase the number of Gazans permitted to enter Israel for work to 30,000 per month.

“The Jeweler” subsequently met with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and later held discussions with Alian.

The investigation published an Israeli security assessment of the meeting between the Qatari envoy and Sinwar.

“The Jeweler describes a positive situation in the Gaza Strip, from both a security and civilian perspective, and the fuel-purchasing mechanism is agreed upon by all sides as a replacement for the grant for Hamas employees,” the document stated.

The newly disclosed documents reportedly contain several other significant revelations about Israel’s dealings with Hamas, Qatar and Egypt during that period.

One involved threats conveyed by Sinwar. According to the report, the Qatari envoy delivered a warning on Sinwar’s behalf that Israel should neither alter the status quo in Yerushalayim nor worsen conditions for security prisoners following the escape of Palestinian terrorists from Gilboa Prison.

COGAT responded in the protocol: “Israel governs its capital as a sovereign state.”

The documents also reveal that Israeli officials used the code name “the Greens” when referring to Hamas. According to the protocols, Qatari officials expressed a desire to reduce the dependence of “the Greens” on Qatari assistance for paying Hamas employees.

Another section of the documents addresses Israel’s policy of restraint along the Gaza border.

Despite ongoing efforts toward an arrangement with Hamas, the terror group reportedly continued provocations and established military positions just 100 meters from the border fence.

According to a summary of an October 2021 conversation, despite Israeli complaints over the activity, an Egyptian intelligence general instead chose to “thank the general for the restrained policy in the use of fire” by the IDF.

The report also highlighted the expansion of permits for Gazans to work inside Israel. At approximately the same time that the alternative funding mechanism was being approved and Qatar was pressing Israel on the issue, Israel significantly increased the number of Gazan workers allowed to enter the country, eventually reaching a quota of 30,000 per month.

Bennett’s office strongly rejected the report’s characterization of his government’s policies, arguing that he had fundamentally changed the previous system and adopted a significantly tougher approach toward Hamas.

“Former Prime Minister Bennett stopped the suitcases of dollars that entered the Gaza Strip indiscriminately; two-thirds of the money was transferred to food vouchers and reached civilians, and one-third was converted into fuel,” Bennett’s office said in response.

“Bennett led the change within a few short months, after years of complete abandonment. Bennett led a policy that was the opposite of Netanyahu’s — instead of surrendering to Hamas pressure and increasing the number of workers, Bennett permitted workers to enter only when the security situation allowed it.”

Bennett’s office also pointed to the 2022 Flag March as evidence of what it described as his tougher policy toward Hamas.

“Another example of this is that Bennett insisted that the 2022 Flag March take place along its original route, despite Hamas threats, as opposed to Netanyahu, who diverted the route of the Flag March in 2021 because he was afraid of Sinwar.”

The statement also flatly rejected the contention that Bennett’s government pursued a restrained policy in response to Hamas-instigated disturbances along the Gaza border.

“In addition, the claim that a restrained and accommodating policy was adopted surrounding the riots at the fence is a complete lie. Bennett led a policy of zero tolerance for incendiary balloons, rockets and approaches to the fence without a response, ended the bombing of sand dunes as was done during the Netanyahu era, acted to carry out strikes against high-quality targets, and led the quietest year the Gaza border communities had experienced in the previous 20 years.”

National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir sharply attacked the leaders of the chareidi parties in a wide-ranging interview with Kikar HaShabbat, accusing Aryeh Deri and Moshe Gafni of exploiting allegations of police violence against chareidi protesters for political gain.

Ben Gvir argued that the criticism is particularly hypocritical because Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara is seeking his removal in part over discussions he initiated concerning alleged discrimination and police mistreatment of chareidim.

The minister also laid out his position on the contentious issue of chareidi military service, saying that those who are genuinely learning Torah should remain in yeshiva, while those who are not learning should be encouraged to enlist — “with an embrace and not through coercion.”

Ben Gvir openly appealed to chareidi voters who are disappointed with their traditional parties to support Otzma Yehudit, while stressing that he is not seeking to undermine the established chareidi parties. He also said he has no plans to add several newly formed small chareidi factions to his electoral slate.

During the interview with Kikar HaShabbat’s Yishai Cohen, Ben Gvir also discussed the discovery of missing mother and daughter Mali and Liel Yahalomi in Argentina, the security situation in Lebanon, the Likud primaries, reports of efforts to oust Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his decision to run separately from Bezalel Smotrich, and the controversy surrounding Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi.

The Yahalomi Case

Ben Gvir began by addressing the discovery of Mali and Liel Yahalomi in Argentina after an extensive search.

“First of all, wonderful work by the police, truly wonderful work by the police,” Ben Gvir said. “I spoke with the police commissioner on Thursday. He told me: ‘The direction is that this is not terrorism, and the direction is that this is not criminal.’ And still, we both agreed: Heaven forbid that the police take their foot off the gas, because who knows what could later emerge. And therefore they worked hard.”

Cohen noted that considerable uncertainty remains surrounding the case and that police officials themselves have indicated that information may still be concealed.

“I don’t know whether they are hiding things or not hiding things,” Ben Gvir responded. “What I can tell you is: Baruch Hashem, praise to the Creator of the world — it was not criminal, it was not nationalistically motivated, and that is the most important thing. That is the most important thing.”

Cohen then raised calls that emerged after Shabbos for the mother and daughter to potentially be charged for the enormous cost of the search operation.

“Since Motzoei Shabbos, quite a few people have been writing: Perhaps they should be required to pay the expenses of the police, of the state? After all, this incident cost the state millions. They knew that the entire world was searching for them, and they still played with the police, played with the entire country, which was turning itself upside down to locate them. Perhaps they should pay the expenses?”

“I don’t know whether I accept your description,” Ben Gvir replied. “But you know what? I’m proud that we are a country where we are not like New York or all sorts of places where people are left to die. If it turns out that they did this deliberately and maliciously and did something… I’m completely with you. But I’m proud to be in a country where we take care of our people. We take care of our citizens even when they are very, very far from here. You know, in New York, a person can die in the street and nobody will look at him.”

“We Should Bomb Beirut”

Turning to security, Cohen asked Ben Gvir whether Israel had become too restrained along its northern and southern fronts.

“You look at the northern border, the southern border, Gaza, Lebanon. It’s true that there are still targeted killings and there are attacks here and there, but it isn’t what it was two or three months ago.”

“You’re exactly right, exactly right,” Ben Gvir responded. “We can… and I hear warnings from the prime minister and from the chief of staff that there is a real danger to the lives of the soldiers — they shoot, they kill. It’s not enough.”

“I think the prime minister is wrong about this — and it has been reported, I’ve told him this more than once or twice,” Ben Gvir continued. “My red line is harming soldiers. And of course, I daven for their recovery. I have a son who is now going in and out, in and out of Lebanon with a reconnaissance unit, and I’m telling you: he and his friends deserve for us to bomb Beirut, for us to crush them.”

Ben Gvir Intervenes in the Likud Primaries

Cohen then turned to the Likud primaries, noting the unusual spectacle of a minister who leads a separate political party publicly weighing in on another party’s internal election.

“It was always like this,” Ben Gvir responded. “Why? I want the Likud list to be a right-wing list. I want to have partners on the Likud list. I’m not embarrassed about it. I published a list. I published a list of names — I want them to be the ones who are elected.”

“I’m calling on the Likud public — and by the way, when I come to Likud weddings, to Likud events, you have to see what happens, what love! I tell them: These are people who I think you should vote for. It’s the most legitimate thing in the world.”

Cohen noted that Ben Gvir had revealed earlier on 103FM that eight Likud MKs and ministers had approached him in recent days and asked him to reserve spots for them on the Otzma Yehudit slate.

“Yes,” Ben Gvir confirmed. “Baruch Hashem, they see that Otzma Yehudit is growing. Yishai, Likud is not a branch of Ben Gvir. Everything is fine. Likud is the ruling party, and with Hashem’s help, it will continue to be the ruling party. I have no aspiration in the coming election to replace the ruling party. I do have an aspiration in the coming election: first, to be as strong as possible, and truly to bring in as many good people as possible.”

“And yes, it’s no secret that people in Likud see Otzma growing and growing,” he continued. “A lot of people in Likud are also jealous of what we’re doing. Many times they’ve said to me: ‘Wow, you do this, and you do this here, and you do that there and you do this,’ and they want to be part of the success.”

Asked what those eight lawmakers were telling him privately, and whether they feared failing to secure realistic positions on the next Likud slate, Ben Gvir said that was not necessarily their only concern.

“I don’t know whether it’s only the fear of not getting a spot on the list,” he said. “By the way, you know, they could also reach places 20, 25, 30, which is… But it’s also about going to a brand that, Baruch Hashem, is very successful, praise to the Creator of the world.”

“As of now, the polls look good for us. My internal polls look even better. I’m not getting confused. I work more and more and more and more and more. I want more. I think ultimately they should compete in Likud. This contest is important. I believe they will succeed, and I wish them success.”

Attempts to Oust Netanyahu

Cohen then asked about reports that Likud figures had explored replacing Netanyahu after the October 7 massacre, potentially with Yuli Edelstein or Nir Barkat.

Ben Gvir said he personally encountered such efforts during a later period when he left the government.

“I actually remember from the period when I resigned from the government, and then figures in Likud came to me — I won’t give names, I won’t give names — and they came and said to me, ‘There’s an opportunity now, there’s an opportunity now! Let’s send Netanyahu home and establish a right-wing government, establish a right-wing government.’”

“First of all, I didn’t accept it,” Ben Gvir said. “Not only did I not accept it, I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu during one of our conversations and told him: ‘I can tell you, I wish they loved you in Likud the way I love and appreciate you.’”

“He said to me: ‘You love and appreciate me, but there are all sorts of other people in Likud who love me and appreciate me.’ I told him: ‘Prime Minister, not enough, not enough.’”

Why Ben Gvir Wants to Run Separately From Smotrich

With approximately two and a half months remaining until the election, Cohen asked whether Otzma Yehudit would run independently or reunite with Bezalel Smotrich.

“I think it’s right that we run as two separate heads,” Ben Gvir said. “I conducted a survey of thousands, an in-depth survey. And it turned out that if Bezalel joins me, there are people in the chareidi community who won’t vote; if Bezalel joins me, there are people in the periphery who won’t vote. By the way, Bezalel also has a constituency that is debating between him and Bennett and prefers that he run alone.”

Cohen raised the concern that Smotrich could fail to cross the electoral threshold, costing the right-wing bloc four seats.

“I actually don’t see that concern as of today,” Ben Gvir responded. “I see that with his full strength, he is stable, he crosses the threshold. I would hope and expect Feiglin and Winter to join him. But I say explicitly: Otzma Yehudit needs to run as one separate list.”

An Appeal to Disappointed Chareidi Voters

Cohen asked whether Ben Gvir might instead join forces with smaller chareidi parties, including Rabbi Abergel’s Achi party and a party calling itself “The Chareidi Public,” led by Leitner of Beit Shemesh.

“Yishai, right now — and not only right now, I see it all the time — for four years Otzma Yehudit has run alone, and the results are good, the results are beautiful,” Ben Gvir said. “I think you don’t replace a winning horse.”

“I respect everyone, I truly respect everyone, but ultimately Otzma Yehudit is a brand. Otzma Yehudit is something that appeals to all of Klal Yisroel. People feel how much I care.”

He stressed, however, that he was not attempting to deliberately weaken the established chareidi parties.

“I certainly don’t want to stick a finger in the eye of the chareidi parties — let that be clear!” Ben Gvir said. “But I do say explicitly: Anyone who is not voting for the chareidi parties should vote for me.”

“There is a certain disappointment today in various parts of the chareidi community. If they aren’t going to vote for chareidi parties, let them come to me. They shouldn’t go somewhere where their votes will be wasted.”

“And on the other hand, someone who votes for the chareidi parties should vote for the chareidi parties. Sometimes there are disagreements, with Aryeh too, certainly with Gafni, and with various others. But ultimately, whoever votes for the chareidi parties should vote for them; whoever doesn’t should come to Otzma Yehudit.”

Ben Gvir Fires Back at Deri and Gafni

Cohen confronted Ben Gvir with the fierce criticism he has faced in recent months from the leaders of the chareidi parties over alleged police violence against chareidi demonstrators.

“They say that you don’t intervene regarding police violence against chareidi protesters,” Cohen said. “Deri, Gafni, Goldknopf, Porush — all of them have issued very harsh statements against your conduct as national security minister.”

“You can attribute many things to the names you mentioned, but they’re not stupid,” Ben Gvir responded. “And they read exactly what the attorney general wrote when she said she wants to remove me. For what? Because I initiated discussions in my ministry about why chareidim are being beaten, why they are being discriminated against, and why the chareidi community is being harmed.”

“So I don’t think Aryeh Deri doesn’t know this — he knows it very well!” Ben Gvir said. “He wants to make a political play out of it.”

“And you know what? It angers me that he is making a political play against someone whom he told me — he told me this more than once or twice — ‘You always, always, always helped, and you were always, always, always there when we needed you.’”

“So how do you go and make a political play out of this?” Ben Gvir continued. “What, for the sake of another few thousand votes? Both Aryeh and Gafni know that the attorney general wants to fire me, among other things, because of this very issue. How are you not ashamed to talk?”

Ben Gvir Defends Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi

The interview then turned to Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi, who has been summoned to a hearing ahead of a possible indictment.

“Of course, certainly! Certainly!” Ben Gvir exclaimed. “Because they’re persecuting him! What are they persecuting him for? Because he is implementing Ben Gvir’s policies!”

“I’m telling you, Yishai: If I’m not there, if Otzma Yehudit isn’t in this ministry, we’re going back to summer camps in the prisons.”

Asked whether he would call on Yaakobi to remain in his position, Ben Gvir answered emphatically.

“Of course! What kind of question is that? A person is presumed innocent until his guilt is proven. There is a presumption of innocence. When he is convicted by the Supreme Court by a panel of three judges, then we can consider what to do with him.”

“But in this situation, in a situation where they are persecuting him… I know why they’re persecuting him, I know why she is persecuting him. If he is convicted in the Supreme Court, that’s a different story. But if he isn’t convicted, and there’s only an indictment? What, are there not enough examples of indictments that were filed in order to persecute someone?”

“I told him my position several times, and I very much hope that he accepts it and that my position is heard: As long as there is no final conviction against you — final — again, I’m not arguing with a court. If there is a final conviction, that is a different event. If the Supreme Court determines, through a panel of judges, that this is the situation, that is something else. But as long as that does not happen, Kobi is innocent.”

“Whoever Learns Torah Should Learn Torah”

The interview concluded with the explosive issue of the draft law and the legal status of yeshiva bochurim.

“I’m exactly where I’ve been all these years,” Ben Gvir said. “I think serving in the army is a mitzvah. My son is now in a reconnaissance unit. Someone who isn’t learning should enlist.”

“But even them — not by force, not through populism, and not like those who tried to score political points at the expense of the chareidi community and to smear them and harm them and use violence. I’m absolutely not there.”

“With an embrace!” he continued. “Another embrace, and another embrace, and it works. I want to bring chareidim into the IDF, but I want chareidim who aren’t learning. Someone who isn’t learning…”

Cohen interrupted to clarify: “Meaning, you accept that someone who is learning — learns?”

“Yes!” Ben Gvir replied. “What the rabbanim say: Whoever learns Torah should learn Torah. Unfortunately, there are many who don’t learn Torah. Those are the people I want first. There are very many of them — let them come, I’ll embrace them.”

“And I succeeded this way!” Ben Gvir added. “You know, Lieberman talks about recruitment, Bennett talks about recruitment — they didn’t recruit a single chareidi! Not one chareidi did they recruit.”

“And I, through an embrace and by making sure that the chareidi Border Police unit would be mehadrin min hamehadrin in every respect… What did the fighters there tell me? ‘We never learned as much Torah before as we learn there.’”

{Matzav.com}

Wall Street enters the new week near record territory, but investors are about to get a much clearer answer to the question hanging over the economy: Are American consumers finally pulling back?

The week of Aug. 17 through Aug. 21 brings earnings from Home Depot, Target, Lowe’s and Walmart, fresh manufacturing and housing data, and minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting. Together, they will provide one of the broadest real-time checks yet on consumers, housing, business activity and interest rates.

That matters after July retail sales fell 0.6%, raising concerns that higher fuel costs, expensive borrowing and persistent inflation are beginning to change household behavior.

Monday: Manufacturing and Housing Open the Week

Monday starts with the Empire State Manufacturing Survey, an early monthly reading on factory conditions in New York State.

Investors will be watching new orders, employment and prices paid for signs that manufacturers are seeing demand weaken or costs rise.

At 10 a.m. ET, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index provides another look at the strained housing industry.

Housing matters far beyond homebuilders. Weak home sales can ripple through mortgage lending, furniture, appliances, building materials, contractors and home-improvement spending.

That connection becomes even more important Tuesday.

Tuesday: Home Depot Tests the Housing Consumer

Home Depot reports Tuesday, giving investors a direct look at whether homeowners are still willing to spend on renovations and repairs.

Wall Street expects roughly $47.2 billion in quarterly revenue and $4.73 per share in earnings.

The headline numbers will matter, but investors may focus even more closely on customer traffic, transactions and purchases of expensive items.

Homeowners can postpone a kitchen remodel or new deck much more easily than they can postpone buying groceries. Home Depot therefore provides a particularly useful gauge of discretionary household confidence.

Wednesday: Target, Lowe’s — and the Fed

Wednesday could be the week’s most important session.

Target and Lowe’s both report earnings, giving Wall Street two very different views of the consumer.

Target provides a window into discretionary spending on clothing, household goods, electronics and other products consumers can easily delay.

Lowe’s provides another measurement of housing-related spending and will allow investors to compare its results directly with Home Depot.

Then at 2 p.m. ET, the Federal Reserve releases minutes from its July 28-29 meeting.

The Fed held its benchmark interest rate at 3.50% to 3.75%, but the vote exposed an unusually significant disagreement among policymakers.

Markets will search the minutes for clues about how many officials believe inflation remains dangerous enough to require another rate increase — and what economic evidence could change their minds before September.

That could quickly move Treasury yields, mortgage rates, the dollar and rate-sensitive stocks.

Wednesday is also the scheduled start of a potentially important trade development: 50% U.S. tariffs on a broad group of Canadian goods are due to take effect Aug. 19 unless Washington and Ottawa reach an agreement.

For manufacturers and distributors operating across the highly integrated U.S.-Canadian supply chain, that deadline could matter as much as any earnings report.

Thursday: Walmart Gives the Broadest Consumer Read

Then comes Walmart on Thursday.

Few companies provide a better snapshot of the American household.

Walmart serves consumers across income levels and sells everything from groceries and medicine to televisions, clothing and furniture. The mix of what shoppers are buying can therefore tell investors almost as much as the company’s total sales.

Wall Street expects approximately $186.9 billion in quarterly revenue and earnings of 74 cents a share.

The most revealing question may be whether shoppers are continuing to prioritize necessities while reducing discretionary purchases.

If Walmart reports strong grocery sales but weakness in electronics, furniture and apparel, it could signal that consumers are still spending because they have to — not because they feel financially comfortable.

Investors will also listen closely for commentary about tariffs, supplier costs and whether Walmart is absorbing higher costs or passing them along through higher prices.

Weekly unemployment claims and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey are also due Thursday, providing additional evidence on employment and business activity.

Friday: Businesses Give Their Own Economic Forecast

Friday brings preliminary August purchasing-managers indexes, giving investors one of the earliest readings on business conditions during the current month.

PMIs track areas including new orders, hiring, production and prices across manufacturing and services.

That makes Friday’s numbers particularly useful because most government statistics describe conditions several weeks earlier.

If businesses report slowing orders while prices remain elevated, markets could face the uncomfortable combination of weaker growth and persistent inflation.

Retail Earnings May Matter More Than the Economic Reports

The week’s four major retailers cover remarkably different pieces of American spending.

Home Depot and Lowe’s measure homeowners and construction-related demand.

Target measures discretionary middle-income spending.

Walmart provides one of the broadest windows into household budgets and necessities.

Put them together and investors should have a considerably better picture of whether July’s 0.6% drop in retail sales was simply a weak month or the beginning of a more meaningful consumer slowdown.

That distinction is important because consumer spending represents roughly two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

If shoppers remain resilient, corporate earnings and the broader economy may have more room to run.

If retailers begin reporting weaker traffic, smaller transactions and customers aggressively trading down, Wall Street may have to reconsider how much economic strength is already priced into stocks near record highs.

The Other Wild Card: Oil

Oil remains capable of overwhelming almost everything else on the calendar.

Brent crude ended last week near $88.50 a barrel after another sharp weekly increase as disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz kept global energy markets tense.

Another move higher would affect gasoline, freight, airlines, manufacturing and consumer spending — while potentially making the Federal Reserve even more reluctant to lower interest rates.

A meaningful decline in crude could have the opposite effect.

What Investors Should Watch Most

The week’s central question is not whether Walmart or Home Depot beats Wall Street’s earnings estimate by a few cents.

It is what their customers are doing.

Watch traffic.

Watch how much shoppers spend per visit.

Watch whether consumers are buying necessities instead of discretionary products.

Watch whether companies are discounting more aggressively.

And watch what executives say about the next three months.

Economic reports tell investors what consumers did.

This week, some of America’s largest retailers will tell Wall Street what consumers are doing right now.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

The first U.S.-Japan joint intervention in three decades aimed at boosting the yen has come and gone without doing much to ease anxiety in currency markets.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s notepad suggested the U.S. bought $5 billion-$10 billion worth of yen, while Japan’s move topped $50 billion. The exchange rate initially strengthened to about 157 yen per dollar from nearly 164, but has since given back some gains and hovered around 159 on Friday.

To be sure, efforts to prop up the yen were seen as short-term measures to address the symptoms rather than the root causes of the currency’s weakness. Those include Japan’s massive debt that exceeds 200% of GDP, fiscal stimulus that’s expected to worsen the deficit, and a central bank that’s been slow to raise rates in the face of high inflation.

But given that the yen’s recent instability was enough to trigger the U.S.-Japan intervention, a key underpinning of global financial markets appears riskier.

“Now traders are watching the ‘yen carry trade,’ where cheap yen borrowing funds bets on higher-yielding assets worldwide, and wondering if it’s about to blow up,” Wall Street veteran Ed Yardeni wrote in a note on Tuesday. “The financial system right now looks like a giant Jenga tower with the yen as a load-bearing piece.”

The way the U.S. and Japan intervened had already raised other concerns, especially the fact that the U.S. sold euros, not dollars, to buy yen and that Japan borrowed against its Treasury holdings rather than selling them.

The tactics called into question the dollar’s dominance and revealed the Trump administration’s underlying fears of how a spiraling yen could worsen the U.S. debt outlook.

With a stockpile of more than $1 trillion in Treasuries, Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt. So any drawdown of that reserve would send Treasury yields higher and add further to U.S. debt costs.

Other countries in Asia could sell Treasuries too. But Yardeni pointed out they are in better shape than they were during the 1998 Asian financial crisis, when currencies across the region crashed. Still, risks remain.

“Team Bessent isn’t exactly hat in hand,” he added. “But decades of assuming that Asia’s central banks dutifully would keep buying U.S. debt are catching up with Washington. Each Jenga piece gets harder to pull without something toppling.”

Shandre Bay, 13, of Everett, looses a game of super-sized Jenga as her uncle Kelvin Walker tries in vain to save the game during a holiday party hosted by Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas for Cambridge fire victims at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge on Thursday, December 15, 2016.

MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

The yen’s post-intervention pullback was also notable since it happened despite cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation data that lowered the odds of an imminent rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

Previously, the Bank of Japan’s reluctance to raise its own rates coupled with fears the Fed would hike as soon as next month had been driving the yen’s recent slump.

But relatively tame readings on U.S. consumer and producer prices this past week offered no reprieve for the yen.

“This should be a setting where the Yen rallies versus the Dollar, because US rates are falling relative to Japanese ones, but that didn’t happen. The Yen continued to fall, which is a really worrying sign,” wrote Robin Brooks, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, in a Substack post titled “The Yen is in Deep Trouble.”

He has been sounding the alarm on the yen for a while, warning its extended slide is actually a sign of a simmering debt crisis. Eventually, markets will ignore intervention, which is doomed to fail and merely creates the illusion of stability, Brooks has said.

On Friday, he called for a “profound shift” in the Bank of Japan’s policy, going well beyond incremental increases to its benchmark rate.

Instead, long-term yields on Japanese government bonds must rise to narrow the gap versus U.S. yields that’s been sending the yen lower.

“BoJ buying of government bonds needs to be scaled back so that this can happen,” Brooks added. “That’s the only thing that will strengthen the Yen.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States will reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, pointing both to his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul’s refusal to assist Washington in its war against Iran.

Trump announced the move ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military drills that had been scheduled to begin Monday, arguing that the exercises are expensive for Washington and send an unnecessarily hostile message to Pyongyang.

“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump then connected the issue to South Korea’s decision not to participate in U.S. efforts against Iran, though he acknowledged that the two matters were not necessarily directly related.

“While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’” Trump wrote.

The president has repeatedly expressed frustration with American allies that have declined to provide assistance during the war with Iran, criticizing countries he believes have benefited from U.S. support while failing to reciprocate.

At the same time, Trump has continued to emphasize his unusually cordial relationship with Kim, despite decades of hostility between Washington and Pyongyang.

Earlier over the weekend, Trump posted a photograph of himself with the North Korean dictator and wrote: “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”

The U.S.-South Korean exercises, known as the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, had been scheduled to begin Monday and continue for 10 days.

Pyongyang has repeatedly denounced military exercises conducted by the United States and its regional allies, portraying them as preparations for an attack on North Korea. Last year, North Korea’s Central Military Commission described trilateral exercises involving the United States, Japan and South Korea as “the most comprehensive and offensive war drill for aggression in terms of scale, content and nature” conducted on the southern Korean Peninsula.

Trump’s latest decision follows a pattern established during his first term, when Washington and Seoul reduced the scale of some joint military activities as Trump pursued diplomacy with Kim and attempted to lower tensions on the peninsula.

In 2018, amid nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea, Trump argued that it was “inappropriate to have war games” on the Korean Peninsula.

The following year, after Trump and Kim failed to reach an agreement during their summit in Hanoi, Washington and Seoul announced that the large annual military exercises that had long been central to their defense partnership would be reorganized into smaller drills.

Trump also focused at the time on what he said was the disproportionate financial burden being carried by Washington.

“The reason I do not want military drills with South Korea is to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the U.S. for which we are not reimbursed,” he posted in 2019.

South Korea has been one of Washington’s closest Asian allies for more than seven decades, and its armed forces routinely train alongside American troops. The country is also home to Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. military installation overseas, where thousands of American servicemembers, their families and South Korean nationals are based.

Trump, who met Kim several times during his first term, has continued to speak positively about their personal relationship since returning to the White House.

While traveling home from China in May, Trump said he had been communicating with Kim but declined to disclose how many conversations had taken place between the two leaders.

Kim, meanwhile, has cited the U.S. war against Iran as further justification for North Korea’s refusal to abandon its nuclear arsenal.

In remarks to North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly that were published in March, Kim accused Washington of “acts of state sponsored terrorism and aggression,” though he did not specifically name Iran.

{Matzav.com}

A rear-cam captured the moment a reckless driver on the Garden State Parkway spun out and crashed today.

Israel is identifying the first signs of a renewed thaw between the United Arab Emirates and Iran, including the return of Flydubai and Emirates flights through Iranian airspace for the first time in months and reported movement involving Emirati presidential aircraft.

Diplomatic officials familiar with the matter said the shift is being driven by the UAE’s economic and pragmatic interests and does not signal a move away from Israel. At the same time, security cooperation between Israel and Abu Dhabi has deepened significantly and reached an unprecedented level during the war.

As part of that cooperation, Israel transferred an Iron Dome system to the UAE and also sent Israeli soldiers to assist in operating it against the Iranian threat. The closer ties have continued despite ongoing friction with Tehran, after three vessels belonging to Abu Dhabi’s national oil company were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz in less than a week, with the UAE blaming Iran.

Abu Dhabi continues to view freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz as a top strategic interest, while pursuing a dual-track policy: preserving its security partnership with Israel and the United States while simultaneously reducing friction and reopening channels with Tehran.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is enjoying strong overall support among city voters, but a new Siena poll reveals a dramatically different picture among Jewish New Yorkers, who overwhelmingly hold a negative view of the socialist mayor.

According to the poll, 69% of New York City voters have a favorable opinion of Mamdani, while 24% view him unfavorably.

Mamdani’s support is particularly strong among younger voters. Among those between the ages of 18 and 34, 72% hold a favorable view of the mayor compared to 21% who view him negatively — a net positive rating of 51 points.

That represents a significant increase from January, when Mamdani’s net favorability among the same age group stood at 35 points.

Mamdani has also registered a dramatic turnaround among black voters. The poll found 78% now view him favorably and just 15% unfavorably, giving him a net positive rating of 63 points. In September 2025, his rating among the same demographic had been eight points underwater.

But among Jewish voters across New York State, the numbers are almost completely reversed.

A striking 66% of Jewish voters hold an unfavorable opinion of Mamdani, while just 26% view him favorably.

The divide comes amid continued criticism of Mamdani over his positions and rhetoric concerning Israel, which have fueled deep tensions with portions of New York’s Jewish community.

Statewide, Mamdani remains far more polarizing than he is inside New York City. Among likely voters across New York, 47% view him favorably while 44% have an unfavorable opinion.

The Siena poll surveyed 811 likely New York voters between Aug. 3 and Aug. 6 and carries a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Iran’s military has announced a $30,000 reward for the capture or killing of American military personnel, according to a report by the Iranian WANA news agency citing Iranian Army commander Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami.

According to the report, the reward would be doubled if the attack is carried out by a woman.

Hatami said the money would be financed through a public funding initiative involving the Iranian people, with the reward to be given to an Iranian force that succeeds in attacking an American servicemember.

The announcement comes amid continued tensions between Tehran and Washington over the U.S. military presence in the region, Iran’s nuclear program and economic sanctions.

Iranian officials have previously promoted similar initiatives targeting senior officials of other countries.

Iranian Vice President Ebrahim Azizi previously announced a parliamentary proposal offering a €50 million reward for the killing of President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper.

New York City tenant advocates aren’t sitting out the legal battle over a rent freeze. They came off the sidelines and entered the courtroom fray to ensure the freeze stays in place.

In a Thursday court filing, Tenants and Neighbors and the Metropolitan Council on Housing pushed back against landlords who sued in a Staten Island court over a rent freeze for stabilized apartments.

The city’s Rent Guidelines Board decided in June to set a 0% increase on one- and two-year lease renewals starting October 1. The decision gave Mayor Zohran Mamdani a victory, as he won office on a promise to improve housing affordability.

Landlords argue the board’s decision was unlawful and ignored data showing a rent increase was warranted. They also say Mamdani stacked the board with people who “agreed with his vision of a freeze.”

The tenant groups agreed that the board must consider hardships facing both landlords and tenants. But they argue that landlords “wrongly assume that as long as any landlords face hardship, the RGB must increase rents, even if the increase worsens tenant hardships.”

Tenant groups interpret numbers their way

Line by line, the tenant group’s response parses the landlords’ 356-paragraph petition. It concedes narrow factual points while rejecting the broader legal spin the landlords put on the evidence.

The tenant advocates lean heavily on the numbers to make their case. More than 45% of rent-stabilized households are “rent-burdened,” spending more than 30% of income on rent, and more than 27% are severely burdened, paying over half, the filing notes.

Landlords aren’t hurting nearly as much as their lawsuit claims, the filing says, noting that fewer than 10% of stabilized buildings report negative operating income. The filing cites Fiscal Policy Institute testimony before the RGB showing operating income across the sector has climbed 56.6% after inflation over the past 25 years.

The board’s decision wasn’t made in a vacuum, the filing adds. It followed seven public meetings, four hearings and testimony from experts at the Fiscal Policy Institute, NYU’s Furman Center and Columbia’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, among others.

RGB Chair Chantella Mitchell’s own statements on the rent freeze are quoted at length. She described two concurrent realities. Most tenants are struggling to keep up. A smaller group of landlords faces real financial strain, often in the same neighborhoods, such as the Bronx.

Raising rents that tenants can’t afford wouldn’t help those landlords, she argues. Instead, it would just speed up evictions. What’s needed, she says, is direct financial intervention from the city and state.

Mamdani appointees disputed

Mitchell is one of the six Mamdani appointees the landlord lawsuit mentions.

“I’m confident that, under the leadership of Chantella Mitchell as chair, the board will take a clear-eyed look at the complex housing landscape and the realities facing our city’s two million rent-stabilized tenants, and help us move closer to a fairer, more affordable New York,” Mamdani said in a statement at the time.

All his appointees voted for the rent freeze.

Landlords seized on former board member Christina Smyth’s resignation before the vote, citing her letter as evidence that Mamdani’s appointees had rigged the process.

In their filing, the tenant group confirms the lawsuit accurately quoted Smyth’s letter. But they dispute that it proves what the landlords claim. Smyth’s letter “merely alleged certain things,” the filing states, and did not confirm that Mamdani’s appointees had predetermined the outcome.

They want the case dismissed outright, arguing the board acted within its authority and wasn’t arbitrary or capricious, as the landlords claim.

This post was originally published on here.

When architect Liran Shukrun, Partner and CEO of Primovitz-Bas, first encountered Givat Hashalvah nearly four years ago, the plan on paper did not yet reveal what the place could become. It looked familiar: another residential plan near Yerushalayim, another hillside with buildings arranged across it. But the land itself was saying something larger. The site sat on a high ridge, facing south, with rare topography, open views toward Yerushalayim, and on clear days, even the sea. The opportunity was not in the drawing. It was in the place.

For Liran, that is where architecture begins. A skilled architect can design a building. The harder work is understanding the story of a place: what belongs here, specifically here, and nowhere else. In Givat Hashalvah, that story began to emerge when the team understood the families this project was being created for: frum families, many from the Anglo world, looking to build a meaningful life in Eretz Yisroel with community, quality, and shared values around them.

That insight changed the master plan. The goal became to make community visible in the architecture itself. Cars, access roads, and technical systems were placed underground so the surface could belong to people. In their place came courtyards, paths, schools, shuls, parks, and shared spaces connected along an east-to-west axis that stitches the neighborhood together. Instead of life being pushed around the buildings, the buildings began to revolve around the life between them.

That is the story inside the plan. Givat Hashalvah is not arranged as a collection of homes with amenities attached. It is shaped as a neighborhood where walking, meeting, davening, hosting, learning, and raising children can happen naturally. The question was never only what could be built on the hill. It was what kind of life the hill was asking to hold.

Explore Givat Hashalvah → https://go.lyo.group/43crjh9

With less than a month remaining until the annual Rosh Hashanah gathering in Uman, a prominent Breslover rov has publicly highlighted several Likud politicians whom he says have assisted Breslover chassidim over the years, just hours before the party’s primary elections.

Rav Yaakov Jan, the rabbi of Uman, issued a letter ahead of the Likud primaries stressing the importance of traveling to the gravesite of Rav Nachman of Breslov in Uman and expressing gratitude toward Israeli public officials who, he said, have worked on behalf of the Breslover community.

In the letter, Rav Jan addressed Likud members for whom continued access to Uman and the ability to visit Rav Nachman’s gravesite are important issues. He pointed to the efforts of several government ministers and Knesset members who have assisted Breslover chassidim and the annual pilgrimage.

Among the politicians specifically named were Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Minister Dudi Amsalem, Minister May Golan, and MK Ze’ev Elkin.

According to Rav Jan, Breslover chassidim do not forget those who have helped them over the years, and he said the appeal ahead of the primaries was rooted in the Jewish principle of hakaras hatov — showing gratitude to those who have provided assistance.

“We are returning the favor,” the letter stated, emphasizing what Rav Jan described as the special relationship between the Breslover community and public officials who have worked to assist with matters involving Uman and those traveling to Rav Nachman’s gravesite.

The letter was released against the backdrop of the Likud primaries and is expected to attract attention among party members, particularly given the importance Breslover chassidim attach to maintaining access to Uman and preserving relationships with Israeli decision-makers who can assist the annual pilgrimage.

{Matzav.com}

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Construction workers renovating a historic brewery in Belgium made the discovery of a lifetime when they uncovered 49 gold bars and approximately 4,000 coins hidden inside the building’s basement walls, with the treasure estimated to be worth roughly $10 million.

The remarkable discovery was made in Dendermonde, in Belgium’s East Flanders region, as workers were drilling through a wall to install new sewer pipes ahead of planned work at the 19th-century brewery.

Among the workers was an 18-year-old summer employee named Kobe, who told Belgian media that the crew briefly considered what it would be like to keep the treasure but quickly realized that concealing such an enormous discovery would amount to theft.

The workers alerted the site manager, and police subsequently took possession of the gold and urged members of the public not to descend on the property in search of additional valuables.

The cache, consisting of 49 gold bars and thousands of coins, is estimated to be worth approximately €9 million, or roughly $10 million.

Under Belgian law, the original owner or legal heirs have five years to establish a valid claim to the treasure. Three people have reportedly already contacted authorities claiming possible family connections to the fortune, and their claims are being investigated.

If no legitimate heir is identified and authorities determine the treasure is not connected to criminal activity, the fortune could ultimately be divided equally between the workers who discovered it and the current owner of the property.

The building is currently owned by a nonprofit organization that plans to use the property to provide temporary housing for homeless people. The structure originally housed a brewery dating back to the 1890s before closing in 1970.

The head of the nonprofit said he hopes any eventual proceeds from the discovery can help fund projects assisting the homeless, while the young worker who helped uncover the treasure said he hopes the crew will ultimately receive a share for turning it over to authorities.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Likud party has issued a warning letter threatening legal action against AID Coalition over its “Fly & Vote” initiative, alleging that the program improperly offers financial and logistical benefits to Israelis living abroad to encourage them to return to Israel and cast ballots in the upcoming election.

AID Coalition rejected the accusations, saying the initiative is entirely nonpartisan and stressing that organizers “do not check political leanings.”

Attorney Ilan Bombach, representing Likud, described AID Coalition as a “foreign corporation” and accused it of operating “capital-intensive initiatives” designed to “encourage Israelis who live at the ends of the earth to come to Israel on Election Day or close to it in order to vote, by providing ‘logistical support’ that includes, among other things, chartering airplanes for that purpose, coordinating efforts to reduce the cost of airline tickets, and providing additional services or benefits — before and after their arrival in Israel.”

Likud contends that the initiative’s activities could constitute the criminal offense of election bribery and also violate Israel’s Party Financing Law by amounting to a prohibited contribution. The warning letter demanded that AID Coalition take down the initiative’s website and immediately stop providing any benefits to voters.

AID Coalition, however, says Fly & Vote primarily assists Israelis overseas with bureaucratic information, helps locate available flight options and guides participants through the process until they reach Israel.

The organization described the effort as a “nonpartisan initiative” whose sole purpose is to increase voter participation in the democratic process, regardless of which party an individual intends to support. AID Coalition argues that because it does not inquire into participants’ political preferences, its activities cannot be considered bribery or an attempt to purchase votes.

The dispute comes amid growing attention surrounding Israelis living overseas ahead of the Oct. 27 election. Since the election date was announced, social media has seen a surge of posts from Israelis abroad saying they intend to travel to Israel to vote.

The issue has fueled a broader political debate over the role of Israelis who reside outside the country but retain the right to vote. Earlier this month, Likud also petitioned the Central Elections Committee over a separate initiative offering free accommodations to voters arriving from abroad, arguing that the lodging constituted an improper benefit.

Critics of overseas voters have repeatedly voiced the argument: “You don’t live here. You don’t live here. You won’t decide for us.”

{Matzav.com}

The IDF is preparing for the possibility of several days of fighting in Lebanon as forces continue operations against Hezbollah infrastructure in the Ali al-Taher and Beaufort ridges, where dozens of Hezbollah terrorists are believed to remain trapped underground.

The political echelon has exercised restraint in recent days and declined to approve some of the military responses proposed by the IDF, in an effort to avoid damaging ongoing negotiations with the Lebanese government that are being mediated by the United States, according to a Channel 12 report cited in the article.

The preparations follow the Hezbollah attack on IDF forces at the Ali al-Taher Ridge that seriously wounded three soldiers. Israel responded overnight with extensive strikes, including a “belt of fire,” and eliminated Abu Hassan Alaa, a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Badr Unit in the Deir al-Zahrani area.

Earlier, the IDF also eliminated Ali Samir al-Hajj Hassan, a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, in Ansar along with additional terrorists.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera that Hezbollah bears responsibility for the Israeli presence inside Lebanon and described the terror group as the main obstacle to Lebanon’s economic recovery. The spokesperson added that the pilot zones are the only practical path toward reaching peace.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A 24-pack of Coca-Cola that cost $14.97 at Walmart now costs $9.97. A pound of fresh tomatoes costs about a fifth more than it did a year ago. Both are true at the same store on the same trip, and the reason is that one price is set by a retailer competing for your business and the other is set by a tax in Washington.

Start with the good news, because it is the part shoppers can act on. Walmart cut prices across thousands of items at its stores, Sam’s Club locations and its apps. The 24-packs of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero Sugar dropped to $9.97 from $14.97 — a third off. Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Dr Pepper and Diet Mountain Dew 24-packs went to the same $9.97 from $13.97. A pound of 73% ground beef fell to $5.94 from $6.74. A 2.25-pound bag of red cherries dropped to $5.63 from $11.18. Sweet corn went to 25 cents an ear from 68 cents. Great Value ice cream and an 8-ounce bag of Lay’s Classic both went to $2.50 from $2.97.

“Customers count on Walmart to deliver the value they need every day,” said Julie Barber, the chain’s U.S. chief merchant, describing the move as investments in price across beef, produce and beverages. The company frames these as seasonal reductions under its longstanding everyday-low-price approach rather than short-term promotions, and President Trump praised the retailer and sought credit for the cuts. Target lowered prices on some foods in March.

Now the other direction. In July of last year the administration put a duty of about 17% on fresh tomatoes from Mexico. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the import taxes were needed to protect American farmers from “unfair trade practices that undercut pricing on produce like tomatoes.” The move ended the 2019 suspension agreement that had governed the trade, replacing it with an antidumping duty of 17.09% on most fresh Mexican tomato imports.

The problem is arithmetic. The United States imports roughly 70% of its tomatoes, and about 90% of those imports come from Mexico. When you tax nearly two-thirds of the national supply, there is no domestic crop large enough to absorb the shift, so the tax lands on the shelf price.

Tomato prices rose roughly one-fifth from June 2025 to June 2026, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. An agribusiness economist at Arizona State University had estimated a 17% duty would push retail tomato prices up about 8.5%. The actual increase came in more than double that, because the duty was not the only pressure. Fertilizer prices paid to manufacturers jumped more than 20% year over year in June, with nitrogen fertilizer up 46%, driven by disruptions to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Freezes in Florida early this year damaged tomatoes, strawberries, citrus and sweet corn. Mexican tomato imports fell 13% year over year. Lettuce is up 32%. Diesel, which moves produce from farm to store, has topped $7.50 a gallon in some states.

Anyone hoping the tariff lifts should plan otherwise. The International Trade Commission reviewed the order on June 30 and upheld the 17% duty, finding no sufficiently changed circumstances to revoke it, after Mexican producers requested revocation. Mexican tomato production is forecast to fall 9% this year to 2.6 million metric tons, with planted acreage down 11% — meaning less supply heading north, not more.

Two practical notes for the grocery list. First, the tomato duty largely hits the fresh produce section. Canned tomatoes, sauce and paste are substantially less affected, according to economists — so a recipe that can use canned instead of fresh saves real money right now. Second, the retailer price cuts are on shelf-stable and freezer items: soda, chips, paper plates, ice cream. Those are worth buying deep while the rollback holds. Cherries and corn are seasonal and the discount goes with the season.

The wider pattern is worth understanding, because it explains why the inflation reports keep saying prices are cooling while the register says otherwise. Bain and NielsenIQ found American shoppers bought fewer grocery items in the second half of last year, with the decline sharper by February. Retailers are fighting for those shrinking baskets by cutting prices where competition is fierce. Where the cost comes from a policy decision rather than a competitor, nobody is cutting anything.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

Non-profit organizations in New Jersey can receive funding of up to $100,000 for security upgrades. Eligible improvements include cybersecurity, cameras, perimeter lighting, alarm systems, fencing, barriers, bollards, shatter-resistant materials, security personnel and more.

Begin now to ensure you meet the deadline.

📞 Call/text/WA 929-814-3041 | [email protected]

A year and a half after his release from Hamas captivity, former hostage Omer Shem Tov is releasing a new book recounting the 505 days he spent in Gaza, including 50 days completely alone in a dark cell and the faith that helped him survive.

The Hebrew-language book, titled “A Meeting with Myself in Hell,” documents Shem Tov’s experiences after being abducted on October 7, as well as the thoughts and beliefs that sustained him. “I didn’t choose to be abducted. I didn’t choose to spend 505 days in the Hamas tunnels. I didn’t choose to be far away from my family, from my friends, and from my life,” he wrote.

Shem Tov described the particularly harrowing period in which he was held in complete isolation. “I certainly did not choose to spend 50 days alone, in a dark cell, just me, my thoughts, and G-d,” he wrote. Yet he said it was precisely when nearly everything had been taken from him that he realized there was one thing Hamas could not take away: his ability to choose. “The freedom to choose what to think. What to believe. What to give up on. And how to hold on even when the reality around me is impossible.”

Shem Tov said he began writing the book so he would remember not only what happened during his captivity, but what carried him through it — “the difficult moments, the faith, and the things I understood about myself.”

“I didn’t choose what happened to me,” Shem Tov wrote. “But I do choose what to take out of it with me for life.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Two young children were hospitalized Sunday after they apparently consumed chocolate containing hallucinogenic mushrooms while on a family vacation, leaving them confused, suffering hallucinations and displaying severely dilated pupils.

The children, ages five and six, were brought to the Galilee Medical Center, where doctors conducted an initial evaluation. Medical staff determined that their breathing and cardiovascular functions were stable, though both children were experiencing significant neurological symptoms.

Doctors consulted with the National Poison Information Center and came to suspect poisoning caused by Psilocybe/Panaeolus mushrooms. The mushrooms contain psychoactive compounds capable of triggering hallucinations and increased blood pressure and, in more serious cases, seizures and heart-related complications.

Because doctors were concerned that additional symptoms could emerge, both children were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit, where they were placed under close observation and monitoring.

Dr. Sally Mahoum, a physician at the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Center, said: “The children arrived in a state of confusion, with dilated pupils and active hallucinations. We immediately took steps to stabilize them and, in coordination with the National Poison Information Center, began treatment and monitoring. Due to the unpredictable nature of this type of poisoning, they were transferred for continued observation in the pediatric intensive care unit.”

Dr. Tzvi Sheleg, deputy director of the Galilee Medical Center, said: “This was a serious, life-threatening incident that, thus far, has ended without critical harm thanks to the parents’ alertness and the rapid treatment provided by our medical teams. We call on the public to exercise the utmost responsibility, keep dangerous substances out of the reach of toddlers and children, and seek immediate medical attention whenever poisoning is suspected.”

There are moments in life that pierce through the ordinary, reminding us with absolute clarity that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the Ba’al HaNissim. We can never take a single breath for granted.

On a recent, ordinary day in Los Angeles, our family lived through a miracle.

Young AY was swimming happily in a pool. His mother sat just feet away, keeping a watchful eye on the children. It was a normal summer scene—until the world stopped.

Suddenly, AY sank to the bottom.

His 12-year-old brother felt a chill of panic. Something was wrong. He turned to his mother, his voice tight: “AY went down and didn’t come back up.”

Without a second thought, the 12-year-old dove into the deep end. He had no way of knowing that the water had just transformed into a deadly trap. He didn’t know that a faulty underwater light had sent a quiet, invisible wave of electricity surging through the entire pool.

He only knew his brother was in trouble.

Pushing through the heavy water, he reached the bottom and found AY completely motionless. Fighting against time, he grabbed his little brother and hauled him to the surface.

As they broke the water, gasping for air, the older brother turned to his mother. He was shivering.

“I feel a tingling sensation,” he whispered.

Only later did we learn the terrifying truth: the pool was fully electrified.

The sheer weight of what happened is dizzying. When electricity hits a pool, it creates a silent hazard known as Electric Shock Drowning. It paralyzes muscles instantly. Normally, no one could have entered that water safely. But the 12-year-old didn’t hesitate. Driven by pure love and an incredible mesirus nefesh, he risked his own life to pull his brother from the depths.

B”H, both brothers survived this frightening ordeal.

Our hearts overflow with hakaras hatov to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The fact that his brother looked over at the exact perfect second, realized the danger, and acted instantly was nothing short of absolute hashgacha pratis.

We are sharing this story because a miracle for our family should be a shield for yours.

If you own or use a swimming pool—especially one with underwater lighting—please do not wait. Have the entire electrical system inspected by a certified professional immediately.

Do not rely on the fact that your pool has worked fine for years. Electrical grounding, underwater fixtures, and safety switches can fail without warning. A pool can look clear, blue, and beautiful while hiding a fatal current.

This story could have ended in unspeakable tragedy. Instead, through a massive nes, two brothers are alive today.

We thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu with all our souls for His endless chesed, and for giving a 12-year-old boy the split-second courage to become a hero.

We share this not, chas v’shalom, to cause fear, but to inspire action.

Check your pool lights. Check your wiring. Protect your children.

Ultimately, we do our hishtadlus, but our lives rest safely in the hands of the Almighty. B”H, our story has a beautiful ending.

May we all be zocheh to hear only nissim, yeshuos, and besoros tovos.

A Los Angeles resident.

The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

An Israeli man approximately 66 years old was found lifeless along a roadside in Finland after contact with him had been lost for about a week while he was traveling alone on a bicycle trip.

The man had set out to tour Finland by bicycle before suddenly losing contact with his family. A search was launched, and local authorities later informed the family that he had been located along the side of a road.

Initial indications are that the cyclist was apparently struck by a passing vehicle, though the circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation.

ZAKA’s International Division is working together with Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the victim’s family and Finnish authorities to complete the necessary procedures, ensure kavod hames and arrange for the aron to be brought to Israel for kevurah.

ZAKA Operations Division Director Chaim Weingarten said that immediately after receiving the report, the organization began accompanying the family and working with Finnish authorities to complete the required arrangements and bring the niftar to burial in Israel as quickly and respectfully as possible.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger stunned the sports world this week with a deal to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for a record $12.5 billion.

If approved, the acquisition would provide the new owners with an iconic NBA franchise that boasts 17 championships as well as ties to legends like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and LeBron James.

But ownership of the Lakers would also provide tax benefits. In fact, sports teams have long been considered great tax shelters for wealthy individuals.

That was not lost on Ram Ahluwalia, founder of Lumida Wealth Management, who said Kushner’s Lakers deal has nothing to do with sports teams as an asset class.

“It’s a powerful tax shield,” he posted on X on Saturday. “My guess is he is preparing to offset a boatload of carried interest income. If you own a sports team, done correctly, you can get a deduction against income. The goal in acquiring a sports team is to setup a ‘non-passive’ deduction.”

Ahluwalia pointed out that Kushner is likely facing big gains from his holdings in SpaceX, OpenAI and Stripe. Meanwhile, tax deduction benefits from owning a team are more favorable than owning real estate.

He added that Warren Buffett mastered the art of depreciating goodwill expenses from high-quality brands like See’s Candies and Dairy Queen that are owned by Berkshire Hathaway.

Similarly, when Mark Cuban was the majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise, he handled it very well, according to Ahluwalia.

“He also grew the equity value at the same time. Net net he transformed high income tax into lower taxed capital gains. That’s a trifecta,” he explained.

Thrive Capital didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The blockbuster Lakers acquisition comes as pro teams have become hot commodities. Just last month, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla agreed to buy the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 billion.

And in 2025, the Boston Celtics were sold for $6.1 billion, a record at the time—until Mark Walter bought the Lakers for $10 billion later that year.

By amortizing key assets like media rights and treating other assets as depreciable like contracts and the stadium, team owners can lower their tax bills.

For example, a team’s roster of players can be counted as an intangible asset that depreciates over time, generating hefty paper losses that offset an owner’s taxable income elsewhere. Similarly, depreciation on stadium infrastructure can further shield an owner’s income.

That’s possible even as a team appreciates in value while its actual business operations are also profitable.

Broadcast rights have also emerged as a major factor in team valuations, especially as sporting events have retained their ability to draw viewers and advertisers. Regional broadcast deals can be structured to allow team owners to shift income to units with better tax rates.

Thanks to long-term media deals, team revenue has become far steadier. Because of this, a team can stay profitable “regardless of the number of people that shows up” on a given night, David Silverman, a partner in Cooley’s M&A group who worked on the Celtics sale, told Fortune’s  Catherina Gioino last month.

In addition, consumers are spending more on in-person experiences generally, and sports captures that spending better than most entertainment options, he noted. As a result, franchise values have compounded at a pace few other asset classes can match over the long run.

“It is being part of a very elite and exclusive club of owners that control those franchises,” Silverman said_._ “There are unique business opportunities that come from both being part of that club and being notable in that way.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

[Video below.] Hundreds of talmidim from Yeshivas Mir Yerushalayim witnessed an unusual musical moment this past week when renowned composer Yossi Green was unexpectedly challenged by the rosh yeshiva, Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, to compose an entirely new song on the spot.

The remarkable scene unfolded during the Mir Yeshiva’s bein hazemanim camp in Shaalavim, where hundreds of talmidim gathered for a special musical program featuring Yossi Green.

Yossi led the bochurim in an uplifting kumzitz lasting approximately two hours, filled with singing and niggunim in the spirited atmosphere of bein hazemanim.

The highlight of the evening came with the arrival of Rav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel. The rosh yeshiva surprised Yossi with an unusual request: He handed him a note containing words and asked him to create a new melody for them then and there, in front of the hundreds of assembled bochurim.

Yossi accepted the challenge and sat down at the keyboard, beginning the creative process in real time as the crowd watched.

Within just a few minutes, the new tune had taken shape. The bochurim quickly joined Yossi in singing the freshly composed melody, filling the hall with the song that had been created moments earlier.

Rav Finkel’s reaction, and the visible emotion on his face as the new composition came to life, helped turn the spontaneous performance into one of the memorable highlights of the evening.

The program continued with spirited singing and an uplifting atmosphere, with the newly created song becoming an immediate part of the kumzitz. For those present, it was a rare opportunity not merely to hear a new composition, but to watch the actual creative process unfold before their eyes and then join in singing the result almost immediately.

Amazon has quietly changed the legal rules governing millions of U.S. customers, bringing back mandatory arbitration and barring most consumers from joining class-action lawsuits against the company.

The new terms took effect immediately for customers who continue using Amazon’s services. Instead of taking most disputes to court, customers will generally be required to pursue claims individually through binding arbitration. Small-claims court remains available for eligible disputes.

The change matters because class actions allow large numbers of customers with similar complaints to combine their claims into one case. Without that option, a consumer alleging a relatively small financial loss may have to decide whether pursuing an individual claim is worth the time and effort.

Amazon says arbitration provides a faster and less expensive way to resolve disputes.

But the company has seen firsthand how expensive arbitration can become when customers organize at scale.

Amazon previously abandoned mandatory arbitration in 2021 after roughly 75,000 individual arbitration claims were filed over allegations involving Alexa recordings. Because companies can be responsible for substantial filing and administrative fees in arbitration, the wave of cases created a costly problem for Amazon.

The new rules appear designed to address that vulnerability as well.

Amazon now defines 25 or more similar claims filed within a six-month period as “mass arbitration.” Those cases can be processed in batches rather than all moving forward simultaneously.

That gives Amazon greater control over one of the strategies plaintiffs’ lawyers have increasingly used against companies with arbitration clauses: filing thousands of individual cases at once.

The implications extend beyond Amazon.

Many consumer businesses have spent years adding arbitration clauses and class-action waivers to contracts covering everything from credit cards and cellphone plans to ride-sharing apps and subscription services.

Amazon’s reversal could encourage other large companies to reconsider whether arbitration provides stronger protection from large consumer lawsuits.

For customers, however, the practical change is straightforward.

A dispute involving a damaged purchase, subscription, privacy allegation or another Amazon service may now be significantly harder to turn into a large collective lawsuit.

Customers can still bring legitimate claims.

They will simply be far more likely to have to do it one person at a time.

JBizNews Desk | Seattle

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

Jane Street Absorbs $15 Billion AI-Related Hit — and Is Still Having a Record Year

Jane Street, one of the most powerful trading firms on Wall Street, suffered an extraordinary $15 billion hit in July after an AI-stock selloff battered positions connected to one of the market’s most aggressive artificial-intelligence investment funds.

Yet the loss reveals something equally remarkable: Jane Street has still generated more than $40 billion in trading revenue this year, already surpassing the $39.6 billion it produced during all of 2025.

The July setback was tied partly to Jane Street’s investment in Situational Awareness, an AI-focused hedge fund run by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner.

The fund had grown rapidly as AI-related stocks surged during the first half of the year. But when semiconductor, memory and other AI-linked shares suddenly reversed in July, leveraged positions came under severe pressure.

Situational Awareness ultimately unloaded much of its stock portfolio in a distressed sale to Citadel after losses triggered margin calls.

Jane Street was caught in that reversal both through its investment in the fund and through other technology positions of its own.

Several major memory and semiconductor stocks fell roughly 50% during the July rout, according to a Jane Street communication to employees.

The result was Jane Street’s first negative month of trading revenue since 2016.

For perspective, a $15 billion loss would be catastrophic for almost any investment firm in the world.

For Jane Street, it interrupted an otherwise extraordinary year.

The privately held trading company has approximately 3,500 employees and operates across more than 200 trading venues worldwide, buying and selling stocks, bonds, ETFs, options, currencies and commodities.

Its scale allows the firm to hold enormous positions while providing liquidity to global markets.

That model can be extraordinarily profitable when markets move as expected.

July demonstrated what happens when they do not.

Jane Street said it has since reduced risk in some strategies and closed significant portions of positions associated with the losses.

The episode also offers investors a rare glimpse into how concentrated the AI trade has become.

Artificial intelligence is no longer simply a collection of popular technology stocks held by retail investors. Hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, banks and institutional investors have committed enormous amounts of capital to many of the same semiconductor, data-center, cloud-computing and memory companies.

That concentration can amplify gains when AI stocks rise.

It can also accelerate losses when investors attempt to exit similar positions simultaneously.

The most unusual part of Jane Street’s July loss may therefore be what happened afterward.

Despite absorbing approximately $15 billion in a single month, the firm remains on pace for what could still be the most profitable year in its history.

That says as much about the extraordinary amount of money being made around today’s markets as the loss itself.

But July delivered a warning that applies far beyond Jane Street:

A trade can become enormously profitable without becoming less dangerous.

And when billions of dollars are crowded into the same AI bets, a relatively short market reversal can produce losses measured not in millions — but in tens of billions.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

Pressure on Israel to advance President Donald Trump’s framework for ending the Gaza war is mounting, with Jared Kushner expected to meet Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu on Monday and press for concrete steps to put the plan into effect.

Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, is set to travel to Israel as part of a broader regional trip with senior figures from the Board of Peace, including senior envoy Nikolay Mladenov and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The trip will mark Kushner’s first visit to Israel since January 2026 and follows discussions he and other Board of Peace officials held with a Hamas delegation in Egypt.

Officials briefed on the discussions say Washington is approaching the current round differently from earlier negotiations. The Trump administration is no longer looking to renegotiate or revise the framework, they said, but instead wants the parties to begin carrying out commitments that have already been agreed upon.

One official familiar with the talks said the goal is to “translate the roadmap commitments into concrete and verifiable steps.” Among the measures Washington wants to see are an end to attacks in Gaza, an Israeli pullback toward the Yellow Line, a substantial expansion of humanitarian assistance entering the territory, and movement toward creating mechanisms for civilian administration and reconstruction.

The growing US pressure comes as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia and Turkey released a joint statement criticizing Israel for rejecting Trump’s plan. The countries asserted that “Israel bears responsibility for delaying peace efforts in Gaza and the Palestinian territories,” while cautioning that Israel’s position could jeopardize Trump’s effort to end the conflict.

US officials familiar with the negotiations say Trump views Netanyahu as having already accepted the framework in principle. According to those officials, the administration accommodated several requests made by the Israeli prime minister and now believes it is Israel’s turn to carry out the commitments expected of it.

One official, describing the thinking within Trump’s circle to Ynet, put the message this way: “Bibi has to agree to the deal. I did what he asked. Now he has to do what I’m asking.” Another official said the administration suspects Israel is trying to delay implementation by raising additional objections and seeking changes in the order of the plan’s provisions. “They feel Israel is playing games.”

Officials said Kushner is not traveling to Israel simply to conduct another round of shuttle diplomacy between Israel and the Hamas terrorists. “He is coming to get things done,” one official familiar with the talks said.

Washington’s stance is also based on Israel’s involvement in drawing up the proposal from its earlier stages. Officials familiar with the process say Israel’s National Security Council participated in developing the framework, with Israeli and US officials discussing both its provisions and mechanisms for putting them into practice. As a result, the Trump administration sees the outstanding issue not as whether a framework has been agreed upon, but whether that agreement will now be implemented.

A central disagreement between Israel and the US concerns the order in which the plan’s provisions would be carried out. The 15-point framework calls for military activity to stop, Hamas to surrender its weapons, civilian control of Gaza to be handed to a Palestinian technocratic body, Israeli forces to withdraw gradually, and an international stabilization force to enter the territory.

The framework envisions Hamas disarmament and Israeli withdrawals taking place through coordinated, verifiable stages. Israel has insisted, however, that its forces will not leave their positions in Gaza until Hamas has been fully disarmed and has publicly rejected the proposal in its present form.

Hamas, meanwhile, has said it accepts the framework. During Kushner’s discussions in Egypt, the terrorist group came under pressure to surrender its weapons and relinquish its governing authority in Gaza.

An official familiar with those discussions said Hamas is being pressed to take measures guaranteeing that the ceasefire remains intact, transfer governing powers to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, and accept that it will have no place in Gaza’s future government. Hamas would also be required to dismantle its weapons and military infrastructure, while an international stabilization force would deploy, Israel would undertake corresponding withdrawals, and humanitarian assistance and reconstruction would be expanded.

Despite the public dispute with Israel, Board of Peace officials reportedly believe Israel is already carrying out portions of the understandings in practice. They view some of the tougher rhetoric from Israeli officials as being driven by domestic political pressures and are therefore paying greater attention to Israel’s actions on the ground than to its public statements.

Kushner’s talks in Egypt marked his first meeting with senior Hamas figures since the October 2025 ceasefire agreement. Participants included Hamas political bureau chief Khalil al-Hayya, Egyptian intelligence chief Gen. Hassan Rashad, Qatari minister Ali al-Thawadi and a senior Turkish official.

{Matzav.com}

https://tinyurl.com/AirTransportReport

Israel’s Consul General in New York, Ofir Akunis, sharply attacked Mayor Zohran Mamdani over the rise in antisemitic hate crimes across New York City, accusing him of failing to protect the city’s Jewish community and of fueling hostility toward Israel.

Speaking at an event for young Jewish community leaders in New York, Akunis said: “The mayor is busy inciting against and promoting a boycott of the Jewish state. His method is the ‘well-known’ antisemitic one: ‘No matter what – blame the Jews.’ This is exactly the same method that was used a century ago by the Third Reich.”

Akunis pointed to recently released NYPD figures showing a sharp increase in antisemitic hate crimes since Mamdani took office. “This is further proof of his failure to protect the city’s Jewish community,” he said. “Mamdani continues to incite and fuel his supporters to attack the State of Israel and its Prime Minister. This must stop before it is too late!”

NYPD data for July showed that 23 of the city’s 33 confirmed hate crimes during the month targeted Jews, nearly 70% of the total. That marked a 53.3% increase from the 15 anti-Jewish incidents recorded in July 2025. Five confirmed hate crimes targeted Muslims, compared with two during the same month last year.

So far in 2026, the NYPD has recorded 360 confirmed hate crimes, up 9.4% from 329 during the same period in 2025. Of those, 205 targeted Jews, representing 56.9% of the total, while 26 targeted Muslims. Anti-Jewish hate crimes are up 8.5% year over year, while anti-Muslim incidents have increased 62.5%.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Though Hamas’s popularity has declined among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya still commands more support than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to a new poll published by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research on Wednesday.

The survey was conducted among 1,270 Palestinians between August 5 and 8, with 830 respondents in the West Bank and 440 in the Gaza Strip. Researchers conducted face-to-face interviews using tablets or mobile phones, with the data automatically transmitted to the research center’s server to prevent interception or manipulation. The poll had a margin of error of 3.5%.

The most popular candidate for Palestinian leadership was Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti, who is currently imprisoned in Israel and played a key role in the Second Intifada, with 54% of likely voters saying they would vote for him in a hypothetical presidential election. Al-Hayya would receive just over a quarter of the votes, 26%, and the current Palestinian Authority president would receive only 14%, according to the poll. Notably, only 10 months ago, 36% of respondents said they would support Hamas figure Khaled Meshaal, showing a drop in support by 10%.

Satisfaction with Abbas’s performance as president stands at just 20%, down slightly from 23% ten months ago, while 76% of Palestinians expressed dissatisfaction, according to the poll. Satisfaction was higher in the Gaza Strip, at 26%, than in the West Bank, where just 16% approved of his performance. The large majority, 82% in the West Bank and 74% in the Gaza Strip, want to see Abbas’s resignation.

Likely connected to Abbas’s lack of popularity, 83% of respondents said that they believed that there is corruption in PA institutions and 65% said they view the PA as a burden for Palestinians.

Despite more than half expressing support for Barghouti, 40% said they would not participate in the presidential elections.

Election turnout could be high if factions from the 2006 vote participate in today’s elections

However, if legislative elections were held in which all electoral lists or factions that participated in the 2006 elections competed, turnout would be 66%.

Fatah would receive 32% of the votes in the legislative elections, according to the poll, followed by Hamas at a close 29%.

However, among Gazan respondents alone, Hamas would receive 34%, Fatah 30%, and the combined third parties 27%.

Though more than a quarter of respondents maintained their position in favor of Hamas, the poll showed a significant decline in support for the terrorist group. Just 10 months ago, 44% of respondents overall said they would vote for Hamas, and support in Gaza specifically stood at 49%.

When asked which political party or political orientation they supported, 24% said they preferred Fatah, and 24% answered that they preferred Hamas; 14% chose third parties, and 38% said they supported none of them or did not know.

Continuing to demonstrate a trend in declining support for Hamas, ten months ago, 35% said they supported Hamas, including 41% in Gaza, but the figure now stands at only 18% in the West Bank and 33% in Gaza.

Though the survey did not seek to determine if, when, or why respondents’ views of Hamas had changed, it found that only 20% believed Hamas emerged victorious from the war against Israel. A majority, 60%, said neither side won, while 15% said Israel emerged victorious. In the Gaza Strip, 20% said Hamas won, while an identical 20% said Israel emerged victorious.

The proportion of respondents who believed Hamas had won the war nearly halved from 39% in October 2025. The decline was particularly pronounced in the West Bank, where just 21% now believe Hamas emerged victorious, down from 48% ten months ago.

Not as popular as it once was, 72% of respondents were still against Hamas disarming before a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Only 20% of respondents felt Hamas should disarm first. Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip were slightly more in favor of Hamas disarming first, with 62% opposed, compared to the West Bank where 79% insisted Israeli presence must first be removed.

Respondents believe war would resume if Hamas disarmed, Israel would not withdraw from Gaza

An overwhelming majority, 72%, said they believed that if Hamas were to disarm, the war in Gaza would resume and Israel would not fully withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Only 22% believed that Hamas’s disarmement would not be the cause of a continued war.  

One in five respondents said they believed a full-scale war would resume, while only 30% believed Gaza would move toward a period of peace and stability. Another 41% said they expected the current situation, marked by occasional Israeli strikes, to continue.

Support for a two-state solution has remained largely unchanged over the past 10 months, with 44% of respondents in favor, down 1 percentage point from October, while 50% opposed the proposal, according to the poll. Some 58% said that the two-state solution is no longer practical because of settlement expansion, while 36% answered that they believe that it remains practical. Similarly, 64% say that the chances of establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel within the next five years are low or nonexistent, while 32% say that the chances are medium or high.  With the two-state solution being a divisive issue among Palestinians, 36% said they supported the alternative of returning to confrontations and armed intifada, and 33% said they supported a single Palestinian state.

More than half (53%) also said they believed that even if Hamas gave up its weapons, it would remain an “armed resistance movement” and a political movement, while only 36% believed it would focus solely on politics.

Trust in the US-backed alternative to Hamas, the Board of Peace, was low but was considered a viable political option, the survey found. If the Palestinian elections scheduled for November are held as planned and a new government is formed, 32% (43% in Gaza and 24% in the West Bank) would prefer that NCAG maintain responsibility for the Gaza Strip over the elected government. Only 28% (34% in Gaza and 24% in the West Bank) would prefer a newly elected government to assume responsibility for the administration of Gaza, while 34% do not prefer either option.

Asked their opinion of external actors, the Iran-aligned Houthi terror group was highly popular among respondents in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The majority, 61% (63% in the West Bank and 58% in Gaza), said they were satisfied with the Houthis.

Qatar (51%), Hezbollah (50%) and Iran (50%) were also popular among Palestinian respondents, though satisfaction with Iran has grown over the past 10 months and Doha’s popularity has slightly declined since the last survey.

When asked whether they were with or against Iran during the recent war between the United States and Iran, which resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and retaliatory attacks against US bases in the region, 45% of respondents said that they were with Iran, 12% answered that they were against Iran, and 40% said that they were neither with Iran nor with the United States.

This post was originally published on here.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews)-The Trump administration is considering imposing new sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

The potential move would revive penalties first levied against Moraes in July 2025 under the Global Magnitsky Act. Those earlier sanctions cited his role in the trial of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as well as broader concerns over censorship and arbitrary detentions. The measures were lifted in December 2025 amid improving bilateral relations.

Recent internal talks about restoring the sanctions have been driven by U.S. criticism of Moraes’s handling of a press freedom case. American officials have pointed to court-ordered police actions directed at a journalist and the journalist’s sources in connection with reporting on another Brazilian Supreme Court justice. Officials describe the episode as part of a pattern of actions that restrict free expression.

No final decision has been announced.

One hundred years after his petirah, the fire still burns. An unforgettable journey into the life, Torah, and towering legacy of Rav Meir Simcha HaKohen of Dvinsk zt”l, one of the greatest geonei Torah and baalei machshavah of the modern era. Discover his phenomenal hasmadah, breathtaking gadlus baTorah, profound understanding of Klal Yisrael, and extraordinary personality ;enriched with rare stories, fascinating giluyim, little-known episodes, and remarkable insights into the man behind the Ohr Sameach and Meshech Chochmah.

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

New details are emerging about the intensive international operation that led Israeli authorities to locate missing Israelis Mali and Liel Yahalomi aboard a bus in Buenos Aires, Argentina, within roughly a week of their disappearance.

The two had traveled through several countries and reportedly avoided using their primary cellphones, significantly complicating efforts to track their movements.

Despite the limited digital trail, investigators from Israel Police’s Lahav 433 unit and Intelligence Division operated around the clock in Israel and overseas, carrying out hundreds of investigative actions in cooperation with Europol and foreign law enforcement agencies.

Their route reportedly took them through several countries, including the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany, before they ultimately reached South America.

Investigators determined that Mali and Liel had obtained replacement phones and had planned their disappearance due to personal circumstances involving financial matters.

Israeli authorities ultimately narrowed the search to Buenos Aires and identified the specific public bus on which the two were traveling.

An Israel Police representative boarded the bus and approached them, identifying himself as Walter, the police representative in South America from Israel Police’s Intelligence Division.

“We were very worried about you,” he told them.

The two were questioned following their discovery and subsequently released after authorities determined there was no suspicion that they had committed a criminal offense.

The operation brought an end to an intensive international search that involved Israeli authorities, Europol and law enforcement agencies across multiple countries.

The speed with which investigators reconstructed the pair’s movements across several countries and ultimately located them on a specific bus in one of South America’s largest cities was described in the report as an extraordinary investigative achievement.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A psychiatric drug unlike anything currently approved in the United States just cleared a major hurdle.

Definium Therapeutics said Wednesday that a single dose of its LSD-based tablet significantly reduced symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder within days, delivering a major Phase 3 victory that could put the company on a path toward the first FDA-approved LSD-based treatment for anxiety.

The drug, DT120, is a pharmaceutical-grade form of lysergide — better known as LSD — delivered as a tablet that dissolves in the mouth. Unlike conventional anxiety medicines that patients may take every day for months or years, participants in Definium’s trial received one 100-microgram dose under medical supervision.

The effect appeared rapidly.

Patients receiving DT120 showed statistically significant improvement shortly after treatment, with the benefit becoming evident within days following the single administration. The study continued tracking patients for 12 weeks and found that the treatment advantage remained at the study’s final measurement.

That distinction matters: patients did not take the pill for 12 weeks. They took it once.

One Dose Produces Major Phase 3 Result

The Voyage trial enrolled 214 adults ages 18 to 74 with generalized anxiety disorder at roughly 35 U.S. clinical sites.

Patients began the study with moderate-to-severe anxiety and were randomly assigned to receive either DT120 or placebo.

At the study’s primary endpoint, patients receiving DT120 experienced an average 11.6-point reduction on the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, compared with a 6.2-point reduction for placebo.

That produced a 5.4-point advantage over placebo, comfortably clearing the trial’s statistical threshold and giving Definium the positive Phase 3 result investors and regulators were waiting for.

The individual patient results were equally striking.

About 43% of patients receiving DT120 cut their anxiety symptoms by at least half, compared with 16% in the placebo group.

And 14% of patients receiving DT120 reached remission, versus 4% receiving placebo.

Definium said the drug was generally well tolerated and the trial met its primary endpoint and all key secondary efficacy endpoints.

A Different Way to Treat Anxiety

What makes DT120 potentially groundbreaking is not simply that LSD reduced anxiety.

It is the possibility that a chronic psychiatric condition normally managed with daily medication could instead be treated with a single supervised dose producing rapid and lasting improvement.

Many conventional antidepressant and anti-anxiety medicines must be taken every day and can take weeks before patients know whether they are working. Patients may cycle through several medications before finding one that helps.

Definium is proposing a fundamentally different model.

The patient comes to a qualified medical facility, receives a single tablet, remains under supervision while the psychedelic effects wear off and then goes home. No daily prescription follows from that treatment session.

And unlike some psychedelic programs being developed elsewhere, Definium is not requiring psychotherapy to accompany the drug, potentially making the treatment easier for clinics to administer and insurers to reimburse if it eventually reaches the market.

There is currently no FDA-approved LSD medicine for generalized anxiety disorder.

That means DT120, if it successfully completes development and wins regulatory approval, could create an entirely new category of psychiatric treatment.

The FDA has already granted the drug Breakthrough Therapy designation for generalized anxiety disorder, a designation intended to accelerate development and regulatory review of medicines showing substantial potential improvement over existing treatments.

Investors Send Shares Higher

Wall Street immediately recognized the significance.

Definium shares surged in premarket trading Wednesday after the results were released, reversing much of Tuesday’s decline as investors reassessed the likelihood that DT120 could eventually reach the market.

The company also has considerable financial resources behind the program, reporting approximately $1.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments at the end of June.

And anxiety is only one part of the opportunity.

In June, DT120 also produced positive Phase 3 results in major depressive disorder, meaning the same one-dose LSD tablet has now generated successful late-stage results in two of the largest psychiatric treatment markets.

One More Anxiety Trial Matters

Definium still has another major hurdle before it can declare the anxiety program complete.

Its second Phase 3 anxiety study, Panorama, is expected to report results in September.

If that trial also succeeds, Definium could have the pivotal evidence needed to move substantially closer to an FDA submission for generalized anxiety disorder.

That is why Wednesday’s announcement goes well beyond another biotechnology trial result.

For decades, LSD has been known primarily as an illegal psychedelic associated with recreational drug use and the counterculture of the 1960s.

Definium is now attempting to turn a precisely manufactured pharmaceutical version of that compound into something entirely different: a regulated medicine that a patient could potentially take once and experience meaningful relief from severe anxiety within days.

If the remaining trials confirm what Voyage has shown, psychiatry may be looking at the beginning of an entirely new treatment model.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

NEW YORK (VINnews) — As Mayor Zohran Mamdani left New York City Sunday for a weeklong family vacation upstate, former state Assemblyman Dov Hikind took a swipe at the mayor, saying New Yorkers would be better off while he is away.

“With the mayor out of town, Jews will be as safe as they were right before he left. Same goes for the rest of New York City,” Hikind wrote Sunday on X.

With the mayor out of town, Jews will be as safe as they were right before he left. Same goes for the rest of New York City. https://t.co/FqW2o19057

— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) August 16, 2026

City Hall said Mamdani and his family will spend the week in upstate New York. The mayor is not expected to hold public events during his vacation but will continue receiving regular updates from senior staff.

First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan will oversee day-to-day city operations during Mamdani’s absence. City Hall did not disclose the family’s exact destination and said the mayor is expected to return in a week.

Dear Matzav Inbox,

The Navi Michah gives us one of the most quoted, and least understood, summaries of what Hashem wants from us: “הִגִּיד לְךָ אָדָם מַה טּוֹב וּמָה ה’ דּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ כִּי אִם עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת עִם אֱלֹקֶיךָ” : He has told you what is good: to do justice, love kindness, and walk modestly with your G-d (Michah 6:8).

We tend to read v’hatznea lecheches as a dress code. But tznius was never primarily about a hemline. It’s the instinct to keep something private because it’s precious, not shameful, but because some things lose their kedusha the moment they become public property. A chuppah. A private conversation between spouses. A family’s pain. Tznius is the recognition that not everything sacred needs an audience.

That is the tznius we, as a klal, are forgetting how to practice.

A generation with no delete button

We live inside a machine engineered to extract the private and reward its exposure. Every platform runs on the same transaction: give us something raw that used to belong only to you, and we’ll give you attention in return. An entire generation has been trained to believe that an unshared experience is an unprocessed one, that pain doesn’t count until it’s posted, that a simcha isn’t complete without a caption.

We used to understand that some rooms have doors for a reason. Now we build content out of what used to happen behind them.

The podcast challenge

Nowhere is this clearer than in the explosion of frum podcasts and inspirational content. And the honest place to start is with the good. These platforms have brought real Kvod Shamayim into places it never used to reach, a person driving alone, a teenager scrolling at midnight, someone sitting in a hospital waiting room. They’ve given people who felt alone a sense that they’re not the only ones. They’ve turned commutes into chizuk, made Torah hashkafa accessible to people who would never have opened a sefer, and given ordinary people the courage to share nisyonos that used to be carried in total silence. That is not a small thing. It’s a genuine kiddush Hashem, and it deserves to be said plainly before anything else.

The challenge isn’t the impulse. It’s what happens when a business model built on engagement meets material that was never meant to be engagement in the first place.

A podcast needs episodes. Episodes need hooks. Hooks need drama. Even content that begins with good intentions, as chizuk, can get pulled toward its most “shareable” version: a dramatic thumbnail, a scandalous title, because a modest telling doesn’t perform the way a scandalous one does. The very platforms built to spread Torah values can end up structurally pulled against one of the most basic of those values, that not everything needs to be said to everyone.

This isn’t a claim about any one podcast or story; it’s a claim about the pull of the machine itself, a pull that even the most well-meaning creator has to actively resist. An audience fed a thousand hours of content this week needs something sharper next week. That’s what oversaturation does: it raises the threshold of what people are willing to expose, of themselves and of each other, just to be heard, even on platforms that set out only to inspire.

The cost we don’t see

Tznius protects the individual, but it also protects the tzibbur. A community that consumes an endless stream of other people’s private pain slowly loses its own capacity for privacy. We start to feel entitled to know, to feel that a family’s struggle is ours to have an opinion on, because it arrived in a well-produced 45-minute episode.

Chazal tell us Bilaam, looking down at the tents of Klal Yisroel, could find nothing to curse, because the entrances didn’t face each other. מַה טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ יַעֲקֹב, “How goodly are your tents, Yaakov,” came from the fact that we historically built our lives so we weren’t looking into each other’s windows. That was never coldness. It was the thing worth blessing.

What it asks of us

To walk modestly with G-d doesn’t mean walking invisibly. It means knowing some things are between you and Him, or between you and the people closest to you, and that this isn’t a deficiency to be fixed with more disclosure. It’s the whole point.

Klal Yisroel’s beauty was never that we had nothing to say. It’s that we understood some of what we carry is holy specifically because it’s unseen. That instinct isn’t old-fashioned. It’s part of our DNA, baishanim, rachmanim, gomlei chasadim. As Chazal teach us, “אֵין הַבְּרָכָה מְצוּיָה אֶלָּא בְּדָבָר הַסָּמוּי מִן הָעָיִן”, “Blessing is found only in that which is hidden from the eye” (Taanis 8b). May we be zoche to internalize that truth, to guard what deserves to be guarded, and through that zechus, be zoche to the ultimate brachah, bimheirah b’yameinu.

Larry Brigson

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LES DEUX ALPES, France (VINnews) — A business owner at a French Alps resort was questioned by authorities after a video showed her telling Jewish tourists that there were “too many of you,” prompting a national outcry and an investigation into possible antisemitic discrimination.

🚨BUVETTE INTERDIT AUX JUIFS ‼️
Voici comment on accueille les Juifs à l’une des buvettes d’activité de luge d’été aux 2 Alpes.@NunezLaurent @GDarmanin @AmisDuCrif @ObservatoireOjf @_LICRA_ @OudyB @Association_OJE @CNEWS @i24NEWS_FR @ftapiro @BFMTV @LCI @celine_pina pic.twitter.com/k34GC9DCwm

— Jugé Coupable (@JCoupable) August 14, 2026

The woman, who operates a food stand at the Les Deux Alpes resort, was questioned by France’s National Gendarmerie and later released while investigators gather additional evidence, according to a report by ynet News.

French prosecutors said the woman acknowledged making the remarks but provided investigators with what she described as the context surrounding the exchange. No decision has been made on whether she will face charges.

Dès que la vidéo a été portée à ma connaissance, la gendarmerie nationale a ouvert une enquête en lien avec le parquet.
La personne concernée devra répondre des propos tenus, que je condamne fermement, et qui n’ont pas de place dans notre République. pic.twitter.com/6cn8lijdzi

— Laurent Nuñez (@NunezLaurent) August 15, 2026

The controversy began after a video circulated widely on social media. In the recording, a customer asks the woman whom she meant when she said there were “too many” people. She responds that she was referring to the Jewish community.

The video quickly drew condemnation in France. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said an investigation had been opened after authorities were alerted to the footage, while government officials responsible for combating discrimination said antisemitic or racist conduct would not be tolerated.

The Grenoble prosecutor’s office said investigators are continuing to collect testimony and other evidence before determining the next steps in the case.

An Israeli Air Force officer with the rank of major is expected to be charged, pending a hearing, with breach of trust after allegedly using Polymarket to place wagers connected to Israeli strikes in Iran and Yemen, N12 reported Sunday.

The case is the latest development in an expanding betting scandal inside the Israeli Air Force. According to the report, the officer in the new case is currently facing only a breach-of-trust allegation, distinguishing it from a separate and significantly more serious case that surfaced earlier this year.

In February, another Israeli Air Force officer was charged with grave security offenses after allegedly exploiting sensitive information for financial gain. That officer was held for several months before later being released under restrictive conditions.

According to the indictment in that case, the officer violated basic secrecy obligations and was prepared to “sell” highly classified security information in exchange for money. Prosecutors alleged that his actions created a real danger to Israeli Air Force pilots and to IDF operational activity, while representing a serious breach of the trust placed in him as part of his military role.

During court proceedings, the officer claimed that “the entire Air Force is involved in betting,” arguing that a desire for excitement and financial profit had driven his conduct. The court responded by calling on senior Air Force officials to examine the broader allegations regarding gambling inside the service.

The court also issued a sharp warning over the alleged phenomenon, stating that personnel serving in one of the IDF’s most sensitive branches are expected to maintain far higher standards of conduct

The latest case now places renewed scrutiny on the use of prediction and betting platforms by personnel who may have access to sensitive operational information, with the major expected to receive a hearing before any final indictment is filed.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Arab Israeli activist Yoseph Haddad registered a new political party ahead of the upcoming elections and has been holding talks with various figures about joining his slate, Haddad’s office confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Haddad is a vocal supporter of Israel, advocating consistently for the country on news outlets and social media. He has also gone on numerous international speaking tours.

Haddad’s spokesperson said that he has been in contact with several political figures about joining the party, including Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ofer Winter, a controversial figure on the Right who has reportedly been weighing which political framework to join ahead of the elections.

“Yoseph Haddad hasn’t hidden that he’s considering entering politics and has recently been weighing his options,” his spokesperson told the Post.

“Among other moves, he’s registered a new party with partners who believe in his path.”

“At the same time, he’s been holding discussions and meetings with various figures to examine his possible next steps,” he added.

Haddad has recently returned from an advocacy trip to the US, and “will soon decide how he can best affect positive change for the State of Israel,” his office noted.

Especially after the start of Israel’s war, Haddad’s online platform grew rapidly, and he became a prominent and well-known voice on social networks, often appearing as a guest on TV programs throughout the country.

Haddad was seriously wounded in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, while serving in the IDF.

Together Vouch for Each Other aims to connect Arab and Israeli society

He has also established a nonprofit foundation, Together Vouch for Each Other. It calls to connect Arab society with Israeli society at large and to find solutions to the issues of Arab society.

In February, a Midgam Institute survey was released that showed a party led by Haddad could win four Knesset seats.

The survey found that a party led by Haddad would cross the electoral threshold, outperforming some parties currently represented in the Knesset, including MK Benny Gantz’s Blue and White.

The survey also showed that he would receive support from voters both from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc and the rivaling opposition bloc, creating the possibility for his potential party to shift the dynamic in the political sphere.

In May, sources close to Haddad told the Post that he was considering partnering with former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum in a political alliance.

Haddad aims to translate his social media following into real influence

Haddad is aiming to translate his social media support to the general public and into real influence from within the political apparatus in Jerusalem, a source close to Haddad said at the time.

Hassan-Nahoum currently serves as special envoy for trade innovation at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. In 2024, she became secretary-general of Kol Israel, a faction of the World Zionist Congress.

She led the Yerushalmim party in 2013. From 2018 until 2023, she served as deputy mayor of Jerusalem and was previously a member of the Jerusalem city council.

In 2022, Hassan-Nahoum ran in the Likud primaries ahead of the elections, where she scored 73 on the party’s list and therefore did not make it into the Knesset.

General elections are set to take place on October 27.

This post was originally published on here.

Fifty people standing on one San Francisco dead-end street, each tapping the ride button at the same moment, were enough to take a slice of Waymo’s fleet out of service for the night. The total cost to them was about $250.

That is the incident now driving a much larger conversation about who really controls a driverless fleet. The stunt itself was pulled in July of last year by a San Francisco tech prankster named Riley Walz, who publicized it that October and jokingly called it the world’s first Waymo denial-of-service attack. What is new is the scrutiny it is drawing this week from cybersecurity specialists and the questions it raises about California’s rules for autonomous vehicle operators.

Here is what happened, in plain terms. Fifty participants gathered on the city’s longest dead-end street and ordered rides simultaneously. Fifty driverless cars did exactly what they were built to do and came. None of the riders got in. The vehicles clustered at the dead end, blocked traffic, idled for roughly ten minutes and then left. Each no-show triggered a $5 fee, which is where the $250 figure comes from. Waymo responded by shutting off pickups and drop-offs in that area until the following morning.

No one hacked anything. That is the point. The system was not broken into — it was simply used as designed, all at once, and it buckled. Fifty ordinary phone taps, at five dollars apiece, redirected a working commercial fleet and forced the operator to take a neighborhood offline. For an American reader trying to size up the risk, the ratio is the story: roughly one dollar of cost for every ten dollars a single Waymo ride might generate, and a service area dark until morning.

That is what has security professionals uneasy. Louay Abdelkader, director of product management at QNX, told Fortune that lawmakers should treat vehicle cybersecurity as a primary design requirement in the way airbags are, rather than as something bolted on afterward. His concern is not pranksters. It is that generative AI has collapsed the time and expertise a real attacker needs. Finding vulnerabilities, automating attacks and writing exploits used to take significant resources; tools now available compress that work dramatically, and a bad actor would not stop at a $5 no-show fee.

The reason robotaxis are more exposed than an ordinary car comes down to how many parts are talking to each other. A driverless vehicle runs on dozens of interconnected electronic control units plus high-speed networking, cloud connectivity, GPS, cameras, lidar, radar and AI models continuously reading the road. Every one of those is a door. Security people call the total number of doors the attack surface, and a robotaxi has far more of them than a car with a steering wheel.

Hollywood imagines someone seizing the wheel remotely. Specialists say the realistic threat is the ecosystem around the car — the booking system, the mapping and positioning feeds, the communications links. An attacker who never touches the driving software can still degrade what the vehicle knows about the world around it, or, as fifty people with phones demonstrated, decide where the fleet goes.

California already has rules on the books. The state requires autonomous vehicle manufacturers to show they can safely monitor, update and maintain their fleets while complying with federal vehicle cybersecurity guidance. Waymo runs commercial service in both San Francisco and Los Angeles under that framework. The prank happened anyway. Waymo and the California Department of Motor Vehicles did not respond to requests for comment.

Other states have moved in the same direction. Arizona has folded cybersecurity planning into its broader autonomous vehicle deployment policy, and Michigan has stood up cybersecurity initiatives through partnerships with industry and research institutions. International regulators have gone further still, with United Nations vehicle cybersecurity rules that require manufacturers to manage cyber risk across a vehicle’s life.

The scale involved is why this is now a commercial question rather than a curiosity. Alphabet-owned Waymo has grown from its Arizona start to 11 major American cities, partnering with Uber in several of them, and the company says it delivers hundreds of thousands of fully autonomous trips a week across a fleet of more than 2,000 vehicles.

The fix is not complicated, and parts of it are standard practice in every other online business. Booking systems need the same abuse controls that airlines, ticketing sites and payment processors already run: rate limits on simultaneous requests to a single location, verification that flags a coordinated surge, and dispatch logic that refuses to send an entire neighborhood’s worth of cars to one address. Beyond the app, the harder work is what Abdelkader is arguing for — writing cybersecurity into the vehicle and fleet design at the start, and having regulators check it the way they check crash protection, rather than discovering the gap after somebody films it.

JBizNews Desk | San Francisco

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

Thousands of Vizhnitz Chassidim spent Shabbos in the presence of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe in Bnei Brak for the aufruf of his grandson, chosson Mordechai Hager, son of the Rebbe’s son-in-law, HaRav Menachem Mendel Hager.

Ahead of the simcha, the Rebbe returned to the Vizhnitz neighborhood in Bnei Brak from his vacation residence in Moshav Ora.

Throughout the Shabbos tefillos, the Rebbe recited Kaddish for his uncle, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe and author of the Damesek Eliezer, zy”a.

Following Shalosh Seudos on Motzei Shabbos, the Rebbe conducted the traditional “furshpiel” accompanied by music and spirited singing. During the celebration, the Rebbe enthusiastically encouraged the singing as the assembled Chassidim joined in the simcha.

The chasunah is scheduled to take place this coming Wednesday in the Vizhnitz Beis Medrash Hagadol in Bnei Brak, with thousands of Chassidim expected to participate.

PHOTOS BY SHUKI LERER FOR YWN

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Granola marketed to breastfeeding mothers and sold nationwide is being recalled over concerns that it may be contaminated with salmonella.

The Hampton Grocer, Inc., a New York-based company, is recalling certain 8-ounce packages of its Lacnola Lactation Granola after an ingredient used in the product was linked to a positive salmonella test, according to a company announcement posted Aug. 14 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The granola was sold nationwide through The Hampton Grocer’s website, Amazon and other online retailers between Oct. 21, 2025, and Aug. 12, 2026.

“The Hampton Grocers, Inc. of Montauk, NY is recalling Lacnola Lactation Granola, 8oz, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems,” the announcement noted.

The recalled product comes in a pink stand-up pouch with UPC 850035324554. 

Consumers should check their packages for either of the following lot codes and expiration dates:

The lot code and expiration date are printed in black ink on the upper-left side of the back of the package.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the recall, according to the notice.

The potential contamination was discovered after a supplier said one of its products tested positive for salmonella. The granola contains the same organic moringa powder used in that product.

Production has been halted while the company and FDA investigate.

Consumers who purchased the recalled 8-ounce packages are being urged to throw them away and contact the place of purchase for a full refund.

The Hampton Grocer could not immediately be reached by FOX Business for comment.

Central Elections Committee Chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg on Sunday rejected a request from Likud to reconsider a ruling barring polling station representatives from providing political parties with real-time information identifying which voters have already cast their ballots.

Sohlberg ruled that parties will not be permitted to receive information revealing the identities of individual voters during Election Day, citing privacy protections under Israeli law.

The justice said the decision does not constitute a last-minute change to election rules, but rather clarifies existing law and enforces an explicit provision of Israel’s Privacy Protection Law. He noted that previous Central Elections Committee chairmen had already raised questions regarding the legality of transmitting voter-identification information to political parties.

At the same time, Sohlberg sought to preserve the ability of parties to encourage voter turnout without compromising individual privacy.

Following consultations with political factions and other parties involved in the proceedings, Sohlberg ruled that the Central Elections Committee will publish turnout figures for every regular polling station across Israel at least four times during Election Day.

The information will be made equally available to all political parties, allowing campaigns to identify areas with lower turnout and encourage voters to head to the polls without revealing whether any specific individual has already voted.

The Central Elections Committee said the arrangement is intended to balance the ability of political parties to boost voter participation with the need to protect voter privacy and the integrity of the election process.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for Israel to kill dozens of people in Gaza every night, saying during a conversation with released hostage Rom Braslavski that he believes Israel should dramatically expand targeted killings in the Strip. His remarks, which surfaced Sunday, were quickly picked up by Palestinian media.

Ben-Gvir made the comments during an appearance on Braslavski’s podcast as the two discussed the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and Israel’s response. The minister criticized the recent reduction in Israeli strikes in Gaza and openly acknowledged that his position differs from that of Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu.

“It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister,” he said. “I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

During the same podcast interview, Ben-Gvir also renewed his support for encouraging large-scale Palestinian emigration from Gaza and for rebuilding Jewish communities throughout the Strip.

“I see all of Gaza as ours,” said Ben-Gvir in the interview. “Settlements not just in Gush Katif but throughout Gaza, encouraging as much emigration as possible, sending them to their countries, and for the terrorists, no emigration, nothing, just to kill them one by one.”

{Matzav.com}

Dear Mayor Mamdani, 

Local politics is complicated, believe me I know more than most. 

People run for local office without knowing the job. Without ever stepping foot in a public meeting. Without knowing how to read an agenda packet, let alone how to make a motion. Most run without understanding that campaigning and governing are two entirely different things. It baffles me. 

The first act of a mayor matters.

It tells everyone who you are going to be once the lawn signs come down. It tells your colleagues how you intend to lead and your constituents what matters to you. One oft he most powerful things I have ever watched a mayor do on day one was apologize. 

Imagine that. The first act as mayor for Michael Pagan was to publicly acknowledge that a vote he had cast on a Planning Board appointment had hurt a colleague and the community he served. That is leadership. 

Yours? You inherited a city in the middle of an antisemitism crisis you had already helped fuel. You also inherited the largest Jewish population outside Israel. That should have imposed a special seriousness on the way you approached this issue from your first hour in office. So your first act was to walk into City Hall and rip the protections in place for your Jewish constituents out from under their feet! You played politics with your constituents lives and safety by revoking the IHRA definition of antisemitism. You revoked mayor Eric Adams’s order directing the NYPD and Law Department to figure out how to better protect people going to pray. 

Why? 

Seriously.

Why? 

Antisemitic protestors were already screaming “we are Hamas.”

Jews were already being harassed walking into shul, school, showing their Magen David or wearing a kippah. 

Your predecessor looked at that and said “this is dangerous, we need to do more.” 

No, Eric Adams did not eradicate antisemitism. Antisemitism surged after October 7 while he was mayor too, but he looked at what was happening and said this is dangerous, we need to do more, and he did! He understood his job and he protected his constituents, every one of them! 

So let’s stop pretending the IHRA decision was some meaningless administrative cleanup. You knew exactly why it mattered.

Antisemites figured out a long time ago that they can say “Zionist” instead of “Jew” and suddenly everyone gets very confused about whether they are allowed to call it antisemitism. Your first act as mayor made that easier. Your first act as mayor gave progressive Nazis exactly what they wanted, permission to target Jews while escaping the one label society only knows how to condemn when the Nazi happens to be on the right. You told every Jew in New York and worldwide watching what was happening outside our shuls that your ideological purity mattered more than the warning signs sitting right in front of you and now look where we are! 

I do not care what you intended when you signed your first executive orders. Intent is for campaign speeches. 

Consequences are what you govern. 

We’ve see what happens when people put ideological purity over safety of the people they serve, whether they voted for them or not. We have seen where that train ends, Mr. Mamdani! 

We watched you defend “globalize the intifada.” 

Do you understand what Jews hear when someone says “globalize the intifada”? We remember the intifada. 

We remember buses exploding. 

Restaurants. 

Cafes. 

Families. 

Blood.

Bodies.

Fear. 

It is very easy to find a different definition for a word when your children are not the intended target. 

Friday night, Larry Montes walked into Central Synagogue, one of New York City’s most prominent shuls during Shabbat services, disrupted services, struck a 63-year-old Jewish woman in the face, spat on a 65-year-old security guard and head-butted him, and damaged shul property. 

Jews worldwide already need police officers standing guard while we pray, and a woman was still attacked inside the shul while praying on your watch! 

You say you are horrified.

What are you going to do with that horror?

Your job is not commentator-in-chief.

Mayor Mamdani, I am tired of horror after the fact.

I am tired of your thoughts and prayers!

You were not blindsided by what is happening to Jewish New Yorkers, you were warned! The outgoing mayor literally left you an executive order telling you that Jews and houses of worship needed more protection. 

This very week, Jewish leaders sat across from you at City Hall and told you directly that the way you continued to talk about Israel endangered the Jewish community at large. They were not asking you to become a Zionist. They were asking the mayor of New York City to be a leader. 

You are the mayor, act it! 

You made Israel, Zionism and the Jewish state a recurring target of your politics in a city where Jews were already being attacked at grotesquely disproportionate rates, and every time Jews told you there was a connection we got another lecture about the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. 

 !די 

We know the definition. There is no difference! When you say Zionist, you mean Jew! 

The person screaming “Zionist” at a Jew does not stop and ask whether the Jew has ever voted in an Israeli election. 

The person showing up at a synagogue is not checking everyone’s position on Netanyahu. The man wearing a kippah on the Upper West Side is not suddenly protected because someone insists their hatred is technically about Israel. 

A shul full of Jews does not become a legitimate political target because you call the people inside “Zionists.” 

This distinction you keep defending so carefully on paper is collapsing on Jewish bodies. We am tired of watching Jews have to become victims before everyone suddenly discovers it’s too late.

Words matter, Mayor Mamdani! 

Why does a Jew have to bleed before the vocabulary gets easy? 

You do not get to spend years pouring gasoline into an already combustible argument about Jews, Zionism and Israel and then stand over the flames expressing shock that the room is hot. Jews have been standing in front of you telling you exactly what the atmosphere feels like, but you keep arguing with the weather report while we are standing in the rain. 

You said your administration would do everything in its power to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe. It’s too late. The intifada is globalized!

Listen to the Jews, and not only the Jews who make your politics comfortable. Listen to the Jews who are angry with you. 

Listen to the Jews who hear “intifada” and remember what intifada actually looked like. Listen to the Jews who hear crowds screaming about Zionists and know exactly who is being addressed. 

Listen to Jewish parents wondering how much security their children need to go to school. Listen to the Jew who sees a police officer outside synagogue and feels both grateful and sick that he has to be there. 

Listen before someone else is hurt. 

We were afraid

We told you. 

So no, Mayor Mamdani, “horrified” is not enough. 

Your words carry the authority of City Hall. 

What you normalize matters. 

What you condemn matters. 

What you refuse to condemn matters. 

What you repeal matters. 

What you excuse as political debate matters. 

At some point, you have to govern the city that actually exists instead of the semantic distinction you wish existed. 

There is a reason hatred aimed at a country thousands of miles away keeps landing on Jews in New York. 

I say this to you not as someone unfamiliar with public office. 

I know what it means when residents come before government and tell us they are afraid. Our responsibility is not to tell them their fear and experiences are wrong! Our responsibility is to hear the warning while there is still something we can do about it. 

Restore the protections your predecessor left for Jewish New Yorkers today, or resign! 

Stop treating “globalize the intifada” like a linguistic misunderstanding. 

Stop using the mayoralty of New York as a platform for an obsessive prosecution of the Jewish people and their homeland. 

Tell your political allies that a protest does not become progressive because Jews are the ones being intimidated. 

Tell them that t replacing the word “Jew” with “Zionist” does not give them moral immunity. Most importantly, Listen! 

Friday night should have been Shabbat. A woman should have been able to enter Central Synagogue without becoming another hate-crime statistic. A security guard should not have been spat on and head-butted while protecting Jews at prayer. A police officer should not have to stand between a Jewish congregation and violence for Jews to worship in Manhattan. That is where New York is and you are its mayor. 

I will put this on the table. 

I publicly offer a public open meeting with Mayor Mamdani and his team to offer any help that will keep Jewish New Yorkers safe, and by extension mine. Name the time and place and let’s get to work. The ball is in your court Mr. Mayor. Motion to adjourn.

The writer is a councilwoman in Teaneck, New Jersey.

This post was originally published on here.

Family getting up: Shacharis: 7:30 am Mincha: 7:35 pm And Mariv

Harav Yisroel Weinberg
Father

Mrs. Chava Weinberg
Mother

Harav Shmaryahu Weinberg
Brother

Will also be sitting in Bayswater. Check for time and location.

Harav Meir Weinberg
Brother

Mrs. Chaya Hayum
Sister

Will also be sitting in Minkatch camp. Check for time and location.

Mrs. Shayna Leshem
Sister

Mrs. Blima Lazenga
Sister

Will be sitting at 7615 Quail Meadow Drive Houston Texas from Thursday morning.

Mrs. Leah Netaneli
Sister

Will also be sitting in Bayswater. Check for time and location.

Fourteen months ago Elon Musk accused the president of being named in the Epstein files, threatened to primary every Republican who voted for the White House’s signature tax bill, and announced he was starting his own political party. That party is now dormant, and Musk has authorized his super PAC to spend up to $120 million getting Republicans to the polls on Nov. 3.

The reconciliation happened in stages, and money moved even when the words were hostile. Musk cut $15 million in checks to three Republican committees roughly two weeks after apologizing for the Epstein post, saying he had gone too far — and then, days later, resumed threatening Republicans who backed the bill. Federal Election Commission filings showed the money split among Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund.

The thaw ran through Vice President JD Vance, who is close to Musk and organized a dinner at the Naval Observatory attended by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, former deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, and Jared Birchall, the low-profile lieutenant who manages Musk’s political giving. In early January, Musk posted a photograph from Mar-a-Lago describing a dinner with the president and first lady and predicting a strong year ahead.

The result, reported in late July, is a commitment of $100 million to $120 million for a field program in at least eight states. The initial targets are Senate races in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Ohio, with possible involvement in North Carolina, Georgia and Texas, alongside several House contests. The group has described the plan as a large-scale get-out-the-vote operation working both offensively and defensively. Axios reported the focus is on mobilizing Republican voters who typically skip non-presidential elections.

The commercial logic is not hidden. Musk’s companies depend heavily on the federal government: SpaceX holds substantial NASA and Defense Department contracts, its Starlink business runs on federal spectrum and licensing decisions, and Tesla operates under vehicle-safety and autonomous-driving regulators. SpaceX is also moving toward the public markets, a process in which regulatory posture and political stability carry real value. A third party competing for conservative votes would have split the coalition Musk’s businesses do business with, which is the practical case against the America Party that observers cited when it went quiet.

The scale is smaller than last cycle. Musk gave roughly $291.5 million in 2024, most of it to elect Trump, making him the largest donor of that campaign. America PAC has spent about $52.3 million since January 2025 against roughly $50.3 million raised, nearly all of it from Musk, who has personally contributed more than $85 million to political organizations this cycle. The new authorization would roughly triple that.

It lands on top of an already lopsided money picture: Republican super PACs and committees hold an advantage of more than $300 million over Democratic counterparts, before counting the $400 million in Trump’s MAGA Inc. Axios reported the cash edge is meant to offset a political environment favoring Democrats, with the president’s approval ratings weak on the economy and the Iran war putting House control, and possibly the Senate, in play. A senior White House political adviser, James Blair, called the PAC’s return a significant boost for Republicans nationally.

There is reason for caution on the number. Announced super PAC spending is an authorization, not a wire transfer, and Musk’s political commitments have moved quickly in both directions before. Commentators noting his record have cautioned that the pledge should not be treated as fixed, nor assumed to grow toward 2024 levels. The 2024 operation itself drew scrutiny when Reuters reported that canvassers had fallen short of door-knocking targets and that some were alleged to have overstated their work.

For business readers, the takeaway is less about the personalities than about what the episode demonstrates. The wealthiest individual in the country severed ties with an administration his companies depend on, discovered the cost of that position, and rebuilt the relationship inside a year — with a nine-figure check as the closing argument. Whether the money delivers turnout in November is a separate question, and one the filings will answer only after the votes are counted.

JBizNews Desk | Washington, D.C.

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

Relief from high beef prices may depend on something that can’t be fixed overnight: rebuilding America’s shrinking cattle herd.

America’s ranchers are facing their smallest cattle herd in 75 years, a shortage now rippling from pastures to some of the nation’s largest meatpackers.

Tyson Foods announced last week that it will close beef facilities in Illinois and Utah and pursue the sale of another in Washington as it reshapes its beef business amid what the company called one of the most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced. Tyson said recent USDA data suggest supply constraints are likely to persist.

USDA data shows the U.S. entered 2026 with about 86.2 million cattle and calves, the smallest herd since the early 1950s. That’s down from roughly 94.7 million cattle and calves in 2019, a decline of more than 8 million animals.

Rebuilding that lost supply will take time, particularly after years of conditions that pushed ranchers to shrink their herds.

Chief among them is persistent drought.

“The biggest thing has been drought,” Eric Belasco, head of the agricultural economics department at Montana State University, previously told Fox News Digital.

He said years of dry weather have depleted grasslands across the West and Plains, leaving ranchers without enough feed or water to sustain their herds. Many have been forced to sell cattle early, including cows needed to produce the next generation of calves, making the road to recovery even longer.

The effects are reaching beyond ranches and into grocery stores, where consumers are paying more for beef.

According to USDA data, the retail value of Choice beef rose from about $8.51 per pound in August 2024 to $10.49 per pound in July 2026, an increase of roughly 23%.

Behind that price pressure is a cattle supply crunch that experts say has been years in the making.

“The biggest thing has been drought,” Eric Belasco, head of the agricultural economics department at Montana State University, previously told Fox News Digital.

He said years of dry weather have depleted grasslands across the West and Plains, leaving ranchers without enough feed or water to sustain their herds.

Many have been forced to sell cattle early, including cows needed to produce the next generation of calves, making the road to recovery even longer.

For consumers waiting for cheaper beef, the path to relief starts with rebuilding America’s cattle herds, a process that could take years.

U.S. officials are investigating suspicions that money originating from a network linked to China reached organizations involved in pro-Palestinian protests in the United Kingdom, as part of a broader inquiry into possible foreign interference, The Telegraph reported.

American lawmakers examining alleged covert Chinese support for the left-wing organization Code Pink are also scrutinizing the group’s activities in Britain. Code Pink has encouraged activists to join large pro-Palestinian marches and has organized demonstrations outside the British Ministry of Defence and the London offices of a weapons manufacturer.

The investigation is focused in part on businessman Neville Roy Singham, a U.S. millionaire living in Shanghai who is married to Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans. A congressional committee has alleged that Code Pink appeared to be “funded and influenced” by Singham and the Chinese Communist government. The allegations remain under investigation, however, and do not establish that Beijing directly financed the protests.

A British company tied to Code Pink received more than $250,000 in 2020 and 2021 from entities suspected of being part of Singham’s network, according to The Telegraph. In 2024, the same company received another $94,950 from a fund also suspected of belonging to the network, with the payment reportedly listed as being for “consulting services.”

The scrutiny of Singham predates the latest developments. CBS News reported in July that a federal grand jury in New York was conducting a criminal investigation into him. That investigation initially centered on possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act before expanding to tax-related issues and the movement of funds through nonprofits under his control.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton has also called for the Justice Department to investigate Code Pink. In a November 2025 letter, Cotton alleged that the organization received more than $1.4 million since 2017 from sources linked to Singham, representing roughly one-quarter of its total funding during the period examined.

Singham has denied acting for China, saying he is not a member of any political party and does not act on behalf of any government. Code Pink has also rejected claims that it receives funding from the Chinese government, with co-founder Medea Benjamin saying the organization does not receive money from the Chinese Communist Party.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Mark Walter bought the Los Angeles Lakers about 14 months ago. This week he agreed to sell them for $2.5 billion more than he paid, to a pair of buyers who were not looking to buy the Lakers at all, in a negotiation that took three days.

Walter acquired the Buss family’s controlling stake at roughly a $10 billion valuation in 2025. Bob Iger, the former Disney chief executive, and the venture capitalist Joshua Kushner approached him on Sunday, Aug. 9, and had terms agreed by Wednesday, Aug. 12, at $12.5 billion — the highest price ever paid for a North American sports franchise. There is no indication Walter solicited competing bids.

What turns a sports transaction into a business story is the balance sheet sitting behind it. Federal prosecutors and securities regulators have been examining roughly $16 billion in private-credit transactions tied to Walter’s businesses, and specifically whether the connections between those holdings and Walter-affiliated companies were properly disclosed. Bloomberg reported in July that prosecutors in Manhattan were looking at whether Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co., insurers Walter controls, failed to disclose that their private credit holdings backed other ventures he also controlled, and that the inquiry extends to Guggenheim Partners, the financial firm he leads. Bloomberg Law reported that F.B.I. agents seized a phone and a computer belonging to Walter last fall, in a search executed aboard his private plane in Chicago.

Walter has not been charged with a crime. The Lakers are not accused of any wrongdoing and the franchise is not a subject of the investigation.

The structure of the problem is worth stating plainly, because it explains the speed. An insurance company takes in premiums and invests the money, and it is supposed to invest that money at arm’s length. When an insurer lends heavily into businesses its own owner controls, the arm’s length disappears — the insurer’s ability to pay claims becomes tied to the fortunes of the man who runs it. That is the disclosure question regulators are asking, and unwinding it requires cash to replace those loans.

Walter’s holding company, TWG Global, has approached multiple investment firms, including Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, about deals to raise money that would go toward paying down the loans involving his insurance companies and other ventures. A controlling stake in a $12.5 billion asset, sold for cash, does a substantial amount of that work in one transaction.

For the buyers, the pivot was opportunistic. Iger and Kushner had been exploring an NBA expansion franchise in Las Vegas before turning to an outright offer for the Lakers. Expansion teams take years of league process and produce a franchise with no history and no built-in audience. The Lakers are the sport’s most valuable property and were, briefly, available.

The deal is not done. The NBA Board of Governors has to approve any transfer of control, and the league’s next scheduled board meeting is in September. Until that vote, Walter remains majority owner. Under the agreed terms, the Buss family keeps a 15% stake and Jeanie Buss stays on as team governor for at least five years, carrying over provisions from her 2025 agreement with Walter.

Walter also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, which are not part of this transaction.

The pricing here matters beyond Los Angeles. Franchise valuations across American sports have climbed steeply through a run of sales that included the Celtics, Trail Blazers and Timberwolves, and each record resets the benchmark other owners borrow against and sell into. Walter’s purchase of the Lakers was itself the largest of that wave. Fourteen months later the same asset changed hands for a quarter more. That kind of appreciation, on an asset class with no earnings multiple that would justify it in a conventional business, is the reason sports teams have become a favored place for very large amounts of private capital.

It also demonstrates the other thing a trophy asset can do: convert into cash quickly when its owner needs cash quickly. The sale gives Walter a fast return at a moment when his broader operation is working to reduce the loans under scrutiny. The public record does not establish a single reason he sold, and it would go beyond current reporting to say the investigation caused it. What it does establish is that an offer he was not seeking arrived at a useful time, and he took it in 72 hours.

JBizNews Desk | Los Angeles

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

Charlotte Touzalin was still a young teenager when she began struggling with weight gain, abnormal periods and unwanted facial hair — the same puzzling symptoms that plagued her mom for decades and that no doctor could piece together.

“I’d go home and I’d cry,” said Touzalin, an 18-year-old college student from Colorado. “I didn’t understand why all this weight was coming back or why my friends didn’t have to shave their faces and I had to.”

Touzalin and her mom, Anne Schultz, were finally diagnosed with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, a hormonal condition affecting 1 in 8 women worldwide. But unlike her mom, Touzalin is beginning young adulthood with new hope after taking part in a study testing blockbuster GLP-1 drugs as a treatment.

A small but growing body of research shows that these obesity medications may also work for the disorder known as PMOS — not only by promoting weight loss but also by improving insulin resistance, hormone balance and ovulation. These things are key to the disease, which used to be called polycystic ovary syndrome but was renamed earlier this year to shift the focus away from ovaries and cysts.

“We need to do a better job taking care of it,” said Dr. Melanie Cree, who has led three studies testing GLP-1 drugs for PMOS including the one Touzalin joined. “We are finding them incredibly effective and really exciting for improving symptoms in women with this condition.”

PMOS is a mysterious and maddening disease
Touzalin and her mom’s long, frustrating journey with PMOS is common.

Diagnosis often takes years because symptoms overlap with other conditions, vary widely and may be dismissed by doctors. The disorder tends to run in families, and many but not all women affected carry excess weight. But there’s no known cause or specific treatment, just symptom management such as taking birth control pills to regulate periods and keeping weight in check with diet and exercise.

Two hormones are key drivers of PMOS: insulin, which acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells, and testosterone, which among other things helps maintain sexual desire, bone density and muscle mass.

Most women with PMOS, regardless of their body size, have insulin resistance, which means this hormone doesn’t work as well as it should, said Cree, PMOS clinic director at Children’s Hospital Colorado. In many women, the high insulin can go directly to the ovaries, spurring them to make more testosterone and leading to problems like skipped periods, severe acne and even beard growth.

Schultz, 43, didn’t even know the condition existed when she first began having irregular periods and bloating around age 18. In addition to struggling with the same symptoms as her daughter, she had problems with her ovaries and numerous miscarriages, which are more common with PMOS.

Schultz received various diagnoses before learning she had PMOS around the same time as her daughter, who faced a similar medical runaround.

Schultz recalled talking about Touzalin’s symptoms with a pediatrician who was seeing her for what they thought was primarily an issue with binge eating and ADHD.

Schultz told the doctor: “There’s gotta be something else going on here.”

Touzalin said she felt “heard for the first time” when a nurse practitioner began piecing things together a few years ago. Cree definitively diagnosed her last year.

“It was like a godsend,” said Schultz, tearing up. “We finally had an answer and some kind of a path for her.”

In Cree’s study, Touzalin gave herself shots of semaglutide weekly for 10 months. The abnormal hair growth slowed and her periods normalized. For the first time, she felt full after eating and stopped gaining weight constantly.

“I became a happier version of myself,” she said. “I felt like a normal person.”

While research on GLP-1s for PMOS continues, insurers put up barriers
Touzalin’s results weren’t unique. Early data from the study, published in June in the journal Fertility and Sterility, said eight of 11 participants completing the trial lost at least 10% of their body weight. The median weight loss among them was about 42 pounds; the median drop in testosterone was 52%. Six women had more periods and four of them went to monthly periods.

In all three of Cree’s studies, women on GLP-1s lost more weight than those in control groups, and levels of testosterone, blood sugar and insulin dropped. While the study involving Touzalin looks at semaglutide shots, the other studies examined semaglutide pills in one and exenatide shots in the other.

Other studies globally have shown similarly positive results. Although the studies are small, some researchers say GLP-1s are already showing promising potential for targeting metabolic issues in PMOS. Others say the evidence remains uncertain, and more studies are underway.

As research continues, more and more doctors are prescribing the drugs “off label” for PMOS and seeing improvements in their patients. But insurance coverage is often a problem because the drugs are not approved to treat the condition.

“I use these medicines a great deal,” said Dr. Rana Malek, an endocrinologist with the University of Maryland Medical System.

Among patients with insulin resistance, she said she usually uses them to help with weight loss.

Doctors stress that results vary. GLP-1s don’t work for everyone and can have side effects, like nausea and constipation. If people stop taking them, weight can return.

Still, they can help a lot of PMOS patients, Malek said, and it’s frustrating that many can’t get them because of insurance issues. Not only are they unapproved for PMOS, some insurers don’t cover them for weight loss.

Touzalin recently ran into this barrier herself. After finishing her study participation, she no longer gets free GLP-1s and had to go off them in June.

Schultz is determined to get her back on them. She’s fighting with her insurer and has a backup plan to get medications through a drug company program. She’d also like to try GLP-1s for her own PMOS, but said her daughter comes first.

Touzalin hopes for a day when any PMOS patient can get the treatment if she needs it.

“It’s something that could help a lot of other people,” she said.

Americans received $43 billion more in federal tax refunds during the 2026 filing season than they did a year earlier, with the Government Accountability Office saying new deductions enacted under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act contributed to the sharp increase.

A recent GAO report detailed the substantial jump in refunds and pointed to provisions of Trump’s tax law as one of the factors behind the larger payments received by taxpayers this year.

“The increase this year represented $43 billion more in refunds than the IRS had issued during the 2025 filing season for tax year 2024,” according to the report.

The GAO provided additional figures showing that both the total amount refunded and the average payment to individual taxpayers increased significantly from the previous filing season:

“By the end of the 2026 filing season, IRS issued $296 billion in taxpayer refunds — an increase of $43 billion, or 17 percent, from 2025 (see fig. 2). The average tax refund that taxpayers received in 2026 increased by $333, or 11 percent, compared to the same period in 2025. IRS attributed these increases to millions of taxpayers claiming new deductions in 2026, such as the ‘no tax on tips’ and ‘no tax on overtime’ provisions.”

Trump had predicted months earlier that Americans would see the impact of his signature tax legislation when they filed their returns.

Asked in January about the refunds taxpayers could expect this year, Trump said, “You know, the Great, Big, Beautiful Bill just kicked in, and you’re going to see some tremendous numbers,” according to Breitbart News.

Michael Faulkender, co-chair for American Prosperity at the America First Policy Institute, argued in an April Breitbart article that Washington has too often approached taxpayers primarily as a means of generating government revenue rather than recognizing their importance to economic growth.

“too many in Washington treat taxpayers as a source of revenue rather than as the lifeblood of a thriving economy. The result has been slower investment, fewer opportunities for families, and a sense that getting ahead is harder than it should be.”

Faulkender also credited the recent changes to the tax code with creating conditions that he said would encourage investment, higher earnings and greater financial stability for American families.

“Our enactment of a pro-growth, pro-family tax code is unleashing an era of American abundance where businesses expand, paychecks rise, and hard-working Americans build real financial security.”

The White House, meanwhile, has used the larger refunds to sharpen its political criticism of congressional Democrats, accusing them of being “affordability frauds” and arguing that their tax policies would have resulted in a historic tax increase on Americans.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the latest filing-season figures demonstrate that Trump’s tax policies are allowing Americans to retain more of their income.

“As we have seen this tax season, President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts have put a historic amount of money back into the pockets of the American people this year.”

Leavitt contrasted the administration’s approach with that of Democrats in Congress, portraying the difference as a fundamental disagreement over how much of Americans’ earnings should remain in their hands.

“Democrats in Congress have proven over and over again that they are the affordability frauds who believe the government should keep more of the American people’s hard-earned money. This President and Republicans in Congress fundamentally believe that Americans deserve to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks. It’s a clear contrast for American families to keep in mind,” she added.

{Matzav.com}

Travelers using Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport later this month face a planned three-hour shutdown of flight operations as Washington prepares for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it expects to temporarily pause flights at DCA from 10:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 23 to support the IndyCar race taking place on the streets of Washington.

The FAA cautioned that the times could still change.

The closure is tied to the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, a two-day racing event Aug. 22 and 23 that will run through parts of downtown Washington and around the National Mall as part of celebrations marking the United States’ 250th anniversary.

For travelers, this is more than a routine delay warning. For roughly three hours, arrivals and departures are expected to stop.

That means airlines may cancel flights, shift departure times earlier or later, hold aircraft at other airports or rebook passengers through Washington Dulles, Baltimore/Washington International or other hubs.

Reagan National is particularly vulnerable to disruption because of its constrained airspace and tightly packed schedule. When operations stop, aircraft scheduled during the closure do not simply disappear from the system; airlines have to reposition planes, crews and passengers across the rest of the day.

The FAA has used similar temporary pauses at Reagan National during major Washington events involving restricted airspace and large-scale aerial activity.

The practical advice for consumers is straightforward: anyone booked through DCA on Aug. 23 should check their reservation well before traveling to the airport.

Passengers with connections may face an added risk because even flights scheduled outside the official 10:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. window can be affected by aircraft and crews displaced by the shutdown.

Airlines have not yet finalized every schedule adjustment, and the FAA says the operating window remains subject to change.

For travelers with flexibility, avoiding Reagan National around midday Aug. 23 may be the simplest option. For everyone else, the important thing is to watch for airline notifications as carriers begin rebuilding their schedules around a three-hour period when one of the nation’s busiest urban airports is effectively taken out of service.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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

Tommy John, the longtime major league pitcher whose remarkable comeback from a revolutionary elbow operation forever linked his name to one of baseball’s most important surgical procedures, has died at the age of 83.

John had been receiving hospice care at his home in Bradenton, Florida, before his death.

The left-hander fashioned an extraordinary 26-season major league career, compiling 288 victories. Even more remarkably, 164 of those wins came after the elbow reconstruction that at the time was considered an unprecedented attempt to save his career.

Among pitchers from baseball’s Modern Era who are not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, only Roger Clemens, whose candidacy has been overshadowed by controversy, finished with more victories.

John was already an accomplished pitcher and had earned an All-Star selection with the Chicago White Sox before suffering the injury that would ultimately define his legacy. Pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1974, he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, an injury that ordinarily spelled the end of a pitcher’s career at the time.

Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe attempted something that had never before been done on a major league pitcher, reconstructing the damaged ligament in John’s throwing elbow.

John sat out the entire 1975 season while rehabilitating, then returned to the Dodgers in 1976 and proved that he could once again pitch successfully at the major league level.

His comeback became even more impressive the following season, when John emerged as one of the National League’s premier pitchers and finished second in voting for the 1977 Cy Young Award.

In a farewell letter published online on Aug. 8 in conjunction with Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, John expressed his enduring gratitude to the doctor who had made his second baseball life possible. Jobe, John wrote, “saved my arm and made it possible for me to continue pitching. That surgery has since gone on to save the careers of countless pitchers, including many of the very best in the game today.”

John was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on May 22, 1943, and attended Gerstmeyer High School. Although he received scholarship offers to play college basketball, he chose professional baseball instead, signing with Cleveland as an amateur free agent directly out of high school.

He reached the majors with the then-Cleveland Indians in 1963 at just 20 years old.

Ahead of the 1965 season, Cleveland dealt John to the White Sox. He developed into an established major league starter in Chicago and was selected as an American League All-Star in 1968.

After seven seasons with the White Sox, John was traded to the Dodgers in December 1971 in a deal that sent future Hall of Famer Dick Allen to Chicago.

“We are saddened to hear the news of Tommy John’s passing today,” Los Angeles Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten said. “Tommy was an exceptional pitcher throughout his career in Major League Baseball, and his courageous role in becoming the first to have surgery that would go on to bear his name can’t be overstated. His impact both on and off the field has been felt by ballplayers of all ages and will be for generations to come.”

John faced the Yankees three times as a starting pitcher in the World Series, once with the Dodgers in 1977 and twice more in 1978. He then crossed over to the other side of the rivalry, signing with the Yankees as a free agent before the 1979 season.

His arrival in The Bronx immediately paid dividends. John won more than 20 games in each of his first two seasons with the Yankees, finishing second in the American League Cy Young voting in 1979 and fourth in 1980.

Former Yankees teammate Ron Guidry remembered John as both a gifted pitcher and an invaluable resource for those around him.

“It was great having him on the team,’’ Guidry said at Old-Timers’ Day. “He was so knowledgeable. When we were together, we were pretty much 1-2 on the staff and having him around gave me great comfort. He could talk and it was nice to have him around because he would answer any question you had and he did so much in the game.”

The Yankees traded John to the California Angels in August 1982. He remained with the Angels until being released during the 1985 season, after which he joined the Oakland Athletics.

John’s remarkable career eventually brought him back to New York. He rejoined the Yankees in 1986 and remained in The Bronx through the end of his playing days. His final major league start came in May 1989, shortly after he turned 46.

By that point, John was the oldest active player in Major League Baseball. His 26 seasons also tied Deacon McGuire’s record for the most seasons played, a mark Nolan Ryan later surpassed by playing 27 seasons.

John’s longevity produced staggering career totals. He made 700 starts, eighth-most in major league history, and threw 4,710 1/3 innings, ranking 19th on the all-time list.

Yet for all those accomplishments, his most enduring impact on baseball can be traced to one pitch on July 17, 1974.

John, then 31, was starting for the Dodgers against the Montreal Expos when he threw a pitch to Hal Breeden and immediately knew something had gone terribly wrong.

He later described feeling the “strangest sensation I had ever known…Right at the point where I put force on the pitch, the point where my arm is back and bent, something happened. It felt as if I had left my arm someplace else. It was as if my body continued to go forward and my left arm had just flown out to right field, independent of the rest of me.”

John attempted one additional pitch before Dodgers manager Walt Alston removed him from the game.

When rest and conventional treatment failed to heal the damaged elbow, Jobe approached John with the radical idea of reconstructing the ligament surgically.

Similar operations had previously been performed on hands and wrists, but never on the elbow of a pitcher whose livelihood depended upon the extraordinary stress placed on his throwing arm. In September 1974, Jobe replaced the torn ligament with a tendon taken from John’s right forearm.

John later explained that, from his perspective, there was little reason not to take the chance.

“I couldn’t pitch anymore,’’ John told The Post in 2019. “And I wanted to pitch and make a living playing baseball. If I didn’t have the surgery, I wouldn’t have been able to continue playing the game.”

The operation succeeded beyond virtually anyone’s expectations. It not only allowed John to resume pitching but eventually became a standard procedure that has prolonged or rescued the careers of generations of professional and amateur pitchers.

John nevertheless expressed concern over the years about how commonplace the surgery had become, particularly among increasingly young pitchers.

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who underwent the procedure in 2025, credited John’s willingness to undergo the experimental operation with blazing a trail for the countless pitchers who followed.

“It’s weird to think about the surgery saving us, but the player had to step up to the table and do it. He had tremendous success afterwards. He was really writing the book for all of us. There’s a lot of gratitude towards him.”

When John finally returned to a major league mound at the beginning of the 1976 season, his extraordinary recovery earned him the nickname “The Bionic Man.”

His postseason career continued after he joined the Yankees. John appeared in one playoff game in 1980 and played a significant role in helping New York return to the World Series the following year. During the 1981 World Series against his old Dodgers club, he surrendered just one run across 13 innings in three appearances, although Los Angeles ultimately won the championship.

John also enjoyed notable success in shutouts during different stages of his lengthy career. He led his league in that category with the White Sox in both 1966 and 1967 and did so again with the Yankees in 1980.

Despite his 288 victories, four All-Star selections, remarkable longevity and historic impact on the sport, John never came particularly close to receiving enough votes for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

His years with the Yankees also included a terrifying ordeal away from the field. John’s 2-year-old son, Travis, was critically injured after falling from a third-story window, but survived.

The family endured another devastating tragedy decades later. John’s son Taylor died by suicide in 2010. John subsequently became involved with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

John remained connected to baseball after his pitching career ended. Among his post-playing roles, he worked as a broadcaster for the Yankees and Minnesota Twins and managed in the minor leagues, including a stint managing the Staten Island Yankees in 2004.

In his later years, John was diagnosed with bladder cancer. As his health declined, the baseball lifer prepared a goodbye message from hospice, reflecting on the extraordinary career and life that had followed a decision in 1974 to take a chance on an operation no major league pitcher had ever undergone before.

The surgery would carry his name for generations, but John’s own comeback remained its original success story: a pitcher who appeared to have reached the end of his career at 31 and instead returned to the mound, pitched until he was 46 and won another 164 major league games.

{Matzav.com}

UPDATE: As of 4:20 PM, the parkway is still shut in the area of 135 northbound for the investigation.

CPR was performed on at least one patient. The car was split in half.

There are also southbound rubbernecking delays – with multiple fender bender accidents.

Avoid the Parkway if possible.

https://thelakewoodscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/wa-1786912174066-cj2adj.mp4

Original story: 

Serious injuries are being reported in a multi-vehicle accident this afternoon on the Garden State Parkway.

The accident occurred around 1:00 PM on the GSP northbound at approximately mile marker 135.

Initial reports indicate approximately five vehicles were involved.

Expect delays for the investigation and cleanup.

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (VINnews)-A Toms River businessman pleaded guilty Thursday to operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that defrauded nearly 100 investors, many from the Orthodox Jewish community, out of more than $47 million.

Leor Moshe, 43, admitted to one count of wire fraud in federal court in Trenton, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a potential fine of up to twice the amount of the illicit gains, or as much as $94 million. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.

Prosecutors said Moshe used his Lakewood-based company, Capital Funding ASAP, to solicit investments between 2019 and 2023. He promised returns as high as 53% on short-term business loans to victims who largely had little prior investing experience.

Instead of investing the money, Moshe used funds from new investors to repay earlier ones and diverted about $11 million for personal expenses, including gambling debts, home renovations, mortgage payments and car loans, court records show.

“The defendant turned the trust of his own religious community into a tool for fraud, exploiting personal relationships to fuel a massive Ponzi scheme,” U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said.

Court documents detailed several transactions. In one case, an investor sent $380,000 to the company on Feb. 5, 2021; three days later, Moshe transferred $88,000 to his personal cryptocurrency account. In January 2023, he received $350,000 from two investors and the same day paid $262,000 to earlier investors. The following month, after receiving $2 million tied to a promised 53% return on a Jackson property investment, he paid $820,000 to five previous investors over the next three days.

An attorney for Moshe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Likud party has rolled out a provocative election billboard portraying New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani alongside Iranian leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, casting all four as figures who want Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu defeated in Israel’s upcoming October election, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The campaign ad urges Israeli voters to “not let them win.”

Netanyahu amplified the message himself, sharing an image of the billboard on social media with the caption: “Don’t let them win.”

The billboard combines images of Mamdani, Khamenei, Erdogan and Qassem beneath the message: “They want Netanyahu to lose, don’t let them win.”

Although some social media posts initially claimed that the advertisement had been erected in Yerushalayim, the billboard is actually located in Tel Aviv, overlooking the Ayalon Highway.

The campaign quickly prompted Netanyahu’s political rivals to produce their own altered versions of the ad, using Likud’s design and slogan to attack the prime minister.

Yashar, the party headed by former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, released a version declaring: “They want the IDF to collapse, don’t let Netanyahu win.”

“Netanyahu, we fixed for you,” the accompanying post on X stated. “Only Eisenkot will establish a fully Zionist government.”

{Matzav.com}

The U.S. can’t fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran can’t stop every ship from transporting oil through narrow waterway.

At the same time, the U.S. is preventing Iran from exporting its crude supplies or importing critical goods, while American forces grapple with munitions and readiness issues.

The result has been a stalemate where oil prices stay choppy but relatively in check and missiles are still launched without all-out war returning. This uneasy equilibrium, however, isn’t likely to last.

For now, significant volumes of oil are still sneaking through the Strait of Hormuz, contradicting Tehran’s claims that it’s completely closed off, as rivals Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE use a “dark” fleet to shuttle supplies in and out clandestinely via ship-to-ship transfers.

The Trump administration has claimed 8 million-9 million barrels a day are getting out this way, though analysts have put it closer to 7 million. While that’s far less than the prewar level of 20 million, the oil flows through the strait plus exports via pipelines add up to about half that amount, buying global energy markets more time before going off a cliff.

And the amount of oil coming out of the Persian Gulf is poised to jump soon despite occasional Iranian attacks on tankers. Export powerhouse Saudi Arabia looks like it’s about to join its neighbors in a big way, as satellite images show the kingdom’s ships on both sides of the strait positioning themselves for shuttle service.

Meanwhile, the U.S. naval blockade that President Donald Trump reimposed is cutting off Iran’s oil exports as well as the revenue the regime generates from it. Officials and business leaders in Tehran are increasingly warning that the blockade will crush the Iranian economy, which was already in shambles before the war.

Experts have cautioned that Iran’s repressive regime is unlikely to be swayed by the suffering of ordinary citizens and is prepared to wait out economic hardship longer than the U.S. public can endure high gas prices.

But Iran is also unlikely to do nothing while its economy keeps crumbling, forcing Trump to pivot back to a kinetic war from an economic war.

Majidreza Hariri, the head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce, recently admitted the U.S. blockade will eventually inflict more economic damage than actual war.

To avoid this, he urged the regime to do whatever it takes to end the blockade, “whether through negotiation, supplication, threats, or even war.”

“We must also eliminate the perception in the U.S. that it can resort to such an action whenever it wants, and make it understand that the consequences of such a move could be severe,” Hariri added.

In fact, Iran has reorganized its military to be more aggressive and has seen its tactical situation improve despite conventional forces being decimated by U.S.-Israeli bombardment earlier in the war.

Iran has developed new missiles that are better at evading air defenses, making U.S. military assets and allied oil infrastructure around the region more vulnerable.

The U.S. military has also expended much of its interceptor stockpile, which is now so low that it reportedly factored into Trump’s decision to call off a major re-escalation of war.

In addition, even maintaining the naval blockade has strained U.S. forces as the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier struggles with mental health and supply issues amid a record-long time at sea. Another carrier is on the way to take its place, but other ships performing blockade operations are likely facing similar logistical concerns.

“Could the U.S. naval blockade worsen Iran’s already dire economic situation? Absolutely, which is why nobody should expect Iran to just sit idly by as that happens. It will hit back,” Eric Brewer, a former U.S. intelligence official, told the Wall Street Journal. “Iran has proven to have a higher pain tolerance than the United States. I’ve seen nothing to suggest that’s changed.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

LAKELAND, FLORIDA (VINnews) — Publix Super Markets has eliminated the long-standing 10-item limit on its express checkout lanes, the Florida-based grocery chain confirmed this week.

The change is intended to reduce wait times and allow employees to manage customer flow more effectively, according to a report from the Miami Herald cited by Supermarket News. Store officials noted that many shoppers routinely ignored the previous restriction, making enforcement inconsistent and slowing service.

The policy shift marks the third notable operational adjustment by Publix this year. In March, the company discontinued Publix Pay as an option in its mobile app, saying the move would free resources for other customer-facing features. Publix also revised its store firearm policy earlier this year to align with a Florida appeals court ruling that struck down a ban on open carry.

Publix, headquartered in Lakeland, operates more than 1,300 stores across the Southeast. The chain reported second-quarter sales of $15.7 billion for the 13 weeks ended June 27, a 1% increase from the same period a year earlier.

No timeline was given for how quickly the new express-lane rules would be implemented across all locations.

Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a sprawling 1,300-year-old commercial and industrial complex in Ramat Gan, revealing an unexpectedly well-planned network of streets, shops, storage rooms, kilns and production facilities.

The discovery was made during Israel Antiquities Authority excavations in the parking area near Winter Stadium ahead of construction of a major bus terminal by Netivei Ayalon.

Dr. Yoav Arbel and Lior Rauchberger, excavation directors for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said ancient structures had previously been discovered in the area, but the scale and organization of the latest findings exceeded expectations.

Archaeologists uncovered straight, intersecting streets lined with rooms believed to have served as shops or warehouses, along with plastered industrial installations and pottery kilns.

Researchers believe the primary complex was carefully planned in advance by engineers and constructed with the knowledge — and possibly the initiative and funding — of regional authorities.

Its location was likely strategic. The site stood near the major ancient road connecting Yaffo, Ramla and Yerushalayim, with Ramla serving as the regional capital at the time. Archaeologists believe the complex may have been located along a secondary route branching off the main road, with fertile agricultural land and accessible water sources nearby.

Researchers say the site may have functioned as a major commercial and industrial station or could have been part of a larger nearby settlement that has yet to be discovered.

The complex was originally constructed during the seventh or eighth century and remained active for approximately 150 years before being abandoned for reasons that remain unknown.

The area was resettled during the 10th century, when homes and additional production facilities were built and numerous clay tabun ovens were installed. The settlement was abandoned again toward the end of the 11th century, shortly before the Crusader conquest, and was never resettled.

Beyond the impressive structures, archaeologists uncovered dozens of intact pottery vessels and oil lamps, bronze tableware and cosmetic utensils, iron pickaxe heads, a sickle, nails, dozens of coins and large quantities of locally produced and imported pottery and glass fragments.

The discoveries provide researchers with a rare glimpse into commerce, industry and everyday life in Eretz Yisroel more than a millennium ago.

The original complex dates to the Umayyad and Abbasid periods, while the later residential settlement dates to the Fatimid period. Researchers noted that Eretz Yisroel’s population during those centuries included Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Samaritan communities, although no findings at the site have yet conclusively identified the religious or ethnic background of its residents.

Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu said the discovery near a modern Ramat Gan neighborhood and well-known stadium once again demonstrates Israel’s extraordinary archaeological richness, where construction projects can unexpectedly open “fascinating windows” into distant periods of history.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Can the Palestinian Authority (PA) be held civilly responsible for the October 7 massacre even if the plaintiffs cannot produce records showing that it directly paid the Hamas terrorists who planned and carried it out?

That question sits at the center of litigation brought by more than 8,000 plaintiffs now moving through the Jerusalem District Court, where they are seeking to hold the PA responsible for deaths, injuries, and other harm caused by the massacre and the war that followed.

Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, a former director of the IDF Military Prosecution in the West Bank whose recent study examines the PA and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) prisoner-payment system and its possible connection to October 7, does not expect the litigation to uncover a neat paper trail linking individual Hamas leaders to PA payments.

“I don’t think we’re going to see individual links to the PA,” Hirsch told The Jerusalem Post in a Monday interview. “I think it’s going to be very, very difficult to find that type of evidence.”

That evidentiary gap is central to the cases. Hirsch argued that the question is broader than whether a particular October 7 terrorist received a particular payment. The question is whether the PA’s long-standing system of paying, supporting, and employing prisoners and released prisoners can itself provide a sufficient connection to people who later returned to terrorism.

“What will most likely happen is that most of the discussion will be about the prima facie [initial] responsibility of the PA, if that can even be shown,” Hirsch said. “It will very much depend on whether the judge accepts this argument that the PA is responsible because of the payment of the salaries.”

The court has not decided that question.

In a July 1 decision, Jerusalem District Court Judge Eran Shilo set a common procedure for the thousands of lawsuits, separating the shared question of the PA’s potential responsibility from the individual circumstances and damages claimed by each plaintiff. The plaintiffs’ law firms were initially ordered to submit short written arguments, while the PA is due to file a single response by October 18.

Case remains in early stages of written arguments and information gathering

The case is still in that written-argument and information-gathering stage. Under Shilo’s timetable, plaintiffs’ attorneys were required to send written questions to the PA by August 11, with the PA due to provide answers and relevant documents by October 29. Expert reports are also expected to address whether the PA’s conduct can be connected to the massacre.

In a later August 3 decision, Shilo said a deadline for supplemental written arguments would be extended to August 16 if no objection was filed by August 6.

Shilo has left open the possibility of eventually deciding the common question of the PA’s responsibility before dealing with damages in thousands of individual cases, but said it was too early to know whether the evidence would allow that.

In 2024, the Knesset passed a law allowing victims of terrorism to seek exemplary damages from perpetrators and entities that reward terrorism.

The law provides for NIS 10 million for each person killed in a terrorist attack and NIS 5 million for a victim left permanently disabled, and was designed to make it easier for victims to establish a legal link to entities with an institutional policy of rewarding terrorism.

October 7, however, presents a more difficult question. Hamas led the massacre, meaning the plaintiffs suing the PA must first establish why the PA’s own conduct or policies make it legally responsible for the harm caused by the attack.

Hirsch’s study argues that the relevant PA/PLO system went considerably beyond monthly payments made while prisoners were in Israeli custody.

Drawing on Palestinian legislation, regulations, and financial records, Hirsch’s study describes a broader framework that included payments to prisoners, grants upon release, employment rights in PA institutions, and continued financial support in some cases where employment was unavailable.

A 2013 amendment and implementing regulations provided that released prisoners who had served more than 10 years would be employed and paid by PA institutions, with their rank and salary determined in part by time served. The regulations also required those employed under the arrangement to report for work only if called upon to do so.

For Hirsch, that employment component is crucial. He argued that the framework could provide released prisoners with an income while leaving them free to return to activity in terrorist organizations.

Much of his study focuses on Palestinians freed in the 2011 exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, in which Israel released 1,027 prisoners. They included Yahya Sinwar and several others who later rose to senior positions in Hamas’s political, military, security, and financial structures.

Hirsch’s study points to Sinwar, Rawhi Mushtaha, Tawfik Abu Naim, and Zaher Jabarin, among others, and argues that their prison terms entitled them to benefits under the PA framework.

It also cites Ali Qadi, a Hamas Nukhba commander who led one of the groups that invaded Israel on October 7, and argues that based on his known prison term, he would at least have qualified for the fixed payment available to released prisoners who had served between five and 10 years.

There is an important distinction between eligibility and proof of payment

But there is an important distinction between eligibility and proof of payment; Hirsch’s study does not point to individual records showing precisely what those Hamas figures received, whether each was formally placed on a PA payroll, or whether any payments continued until October 7.

Hirsch acknowledged that gap, but said his theory of responsibility does not depend entirely on proving a particular salary was transferred to a particular individual.

“I don’t have to show that they’re specifically receiving a salary, because there is this policy,” he said.

Whether the court accepts that argument remains to be seen.

Hirsch also pointed to the history of prisoners who returned to terrorism following their release. His study documents numerous Schalit-deal prisoners who resumed terrorist activity, some of whom later reached senior positions within Hamas.

For Hirsch, those cases matter because they raise a separate question of what the PA knew about the people benefiting from its policies.

“They were on notice, as it were,” he said. “These released terrorists that you’re employing, they’re going back to terrorism.”

His study does not argue that the payment system alone caused October 7. Rather, Hirsch contends that the financial and employment framework reduced the economic consequences of involvement in terrorism and materially assisted some experienced terrorists who later returned to Hamas activity.

The PA and PLO shifted responsibility for the prisoner-payment system between different bodies over the years, according to Hirsch’s study. He argued that those administrative changes did not, however, alter the underlying policy and attributes the framework jointly to the two organizations.

The latest major change came in February 2025, when PA President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree revoking provisions underpinning the previous prisoner-payment system, and transferring assistance to the Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (PNEEI).

The restructured system was presented as one in which assistance would be distributed according to financial need rather than according to imprisonment or sentence length.

PA says reforms ended sentence-based payments, with aid now determined solely by social need

The PA has said the reform ended sentence-based payments and that assistance under the new system is determined solely by social need.

Hirsch, however, argued that the overhaul changed the mechanism rather than ending the underlying policy. His study points to subsequent 2025 financial data as evidence that payments to prisoners and released prisoners continued after the reform.

The study notes that an independent audit concluded that the restructured mechanism complied with its stated mandate, while Hirsch argued that financial figures cited in the audit and other available data nevertheless show the continuation of substantial prisoner-related payments.

For the October 7 lawsuits, however, the central question remains what happened before the massacre and whether the plaintiffs can establish a sufficiently close legal connection between the PA’s conduct and the harm they suffered.

Hirsch does not argue that the PA was solely responsible for October 7 but, “the PA certainly does have at least joint responsibility with Hamas for the massacre,” in his opinion.

For now, the litigation is still several steps away from answering it. The plaintiffs must first put forward the evidence and legal theory connecting the PA to October 7, and the PA has yet to file its substantive response to the common liability claims.

Whether that broader system can establish a sufficient legal link to October 7 without individual payment records is now one of the questions the litigation will have to test.

This post was originally published on here.

A socialist New York state lawmaker is facing backlash after arguing that people who steal basic necessities such as toothpaste and soap are committing “crimes of poverty” driven by a “biological need.”

Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, a Brooklyn Democrat and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, made the remarks Thursday during a news conference outside Manhattan Criminal Court alongside other lawmakers and criminal justice advocates with Court Watch NYC.

Gallagher said the group had monitored hundreds of arraignments and found many involved misdemeanor offenses, including people accused of stealing everyday necessities.

“Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty — people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who were stealing things like, you know, soap,” Gallagher said, arguing that those accused of stealing such products likely needed them.

Gallagher went on to criticize the criminal justice system for protecting major corporations such as CVS and Walgreens while prosecuting struggling New Yorkers, saying people can face jail “simply for having a biological need.”

Gallagher and other activists at the event pushed for “treatment-not-jail” policies and called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to follow through on his campaign pledge to end “broken windows policing,” which targets quality-of-life offenses including fare evasion and graffiti.

The remarks drew criticism from New Yorkers interviewed by the New York Post, who argued that allowing shoplifting to go unpunished would encourage additional theft and ultimately hurt law-abiding customers and neighborhood businesses.

NYPD statistics cited by the Post showed retail theft was down 14.7% as of Aug. 9 compared with the same period last year, while petit larceny was down 5.4%.

Gallagher represents parts of northern Brooklyn, including Greenpoint, in the New York State Assembly.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israel’s Shin Bet and National Cyber Directorate issued a warning Sunday over a renewed Iranian intelligence campaign targeting Israeli journalists and media professionals with sophisticated phishing attacks aimed at gaining access to sensitive information.

Israeli security officials said they have recently identified another wave of targeted attempts by Iranian intelligence operatives amid ongoing political and security developments. Authorities say they are actively working to identify and thwart the attacks.

According to the warning, Iranian operatives primarily approach journalists through WhatsApp or Telegram while impersonating trusted individuals — sometimes even other well-known journalists.

The messages are carefully tailored to the target’s work and interests and can include seemingly legitimate offers for collaboration, interview requests or invitations to private conversations.

Once contact is established, the target may be sent a link supposedly connecting to an online meeting. Instead, the link can direct the victim to a fraudulent website designed to steal Google account credentials.

Other messages may contain malicious links or files capable of compromising the victim’s cellphone.

Israeli authorities believe Iranian intelligence is attempting to use the attacks to gain access to journalists’ confidential sources, private correspondence, work materials and sensitive information concerning Israel’s political and security establishment.

The stolen information could potentially be exploited by Tehran for espionage, intelligence gathering, terrorism or influence operations, officials warned.

The Shin Bet and National Cyber Directorate stressed that journalists are not the only targets. Similar Iranian efforts have been directed at people involved in political, public, government and security work.

Authorities urged journalists and others working in sensitive fields to exercise heightened caution when receiving unexpected messages, interview requests, meeting invitations or links — even when they appear to come from familiar contacts.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Americans are putting away less money than at almost any point on record, and the cushion that has kept household spending going is nearly flat.

The plain version is this. For every dollar of take-home pay in June, the average American household set aside about three cents and spent the other ninety-seven. That works out to roughly one dollar saved out of every thirty-seven earned. The Bureau of Economic Analysis put the personal saving rate at 2.7 percent in June, its most recent reading, with total personal saving at $646.1 billion.

To see how thin that is, compare it to the long run. Since 1959, Americans have saved an average of 8.4 percent of their disposable income — closer to eight cents on the dollar. The all-time low in the series is 1.4 percent, hit in July 2005. The current rate sits barely more than a percentage point above it. At the other extreme, during the shutdown month of April 2020, the rate spiked to 31.8 percent, when checks were arriving and there was nowhere to spend them.

The direction over this year tells the story. The rate was 2.6 percent in April, ticked up to 3.0 percent in May, then slid back to 2.7 percent in June. It has been stuck in that narrow, historically low band all spring and summer.

What is driving it is simple arithmetic. In June, personal income rose 0.2 percent and disposable income rose the same 0.2 percent, while consumer spending rose 0.3 percent. When the spending line grows faster than the income line, month after month, the difference has to come out of savings. That is exactly what has been happening.

The squeeze is not coming from Americans buying more. It is coming from the same basket costing more. The war that began in late February and the resulting disruption at the Strait of Hormuz pushed energy prices sharply higher, and gasoline was among the single largest drivers of increased household spending this spring. Groceries, utilities and insurance have all followed. Households are writing bigger checks for the same amount of goods.

That leaves the credit card as the shock absorber. Total card balances reached $1.252 trillion in the first quarter of this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — up 63 percent from the pandemic-era low of $770 billion in early 2021. Average interest rates on new card offers stand near 23.79 percent, meaning a household carrying a balance is paying roughly a fifth of what it owes every year just in interest. Savings down and card balances up is the same squeeze measured two different ways.

Why this matters beyond the household budget: consumer spending is about two-thirds of the American economy. Retailers, restaurants, airlines, homebuilders and auto dealers are all downstream of it. A saving rate this low means there is very little reserve left to draw on. If a household loses hours, faces a car repair or gets hit with an insurance renewal, the money to absorb it is not sitting in an account — it goes on credit or the spending gets cut. That is why economists watch this number as a warning light for the quarter ahead rather than a report card on the one just finished.

There is a counterargument worth stating. A low saving rate is not automatically a sign of distress. During the 2008 crisis the rate climbed above 8 percent as frightened households hoarded cash, and that was a bad sign, not a good one. A low rate can reflect confidence that income will keep coming. The problem this time is that it is pairing with falling real incomes and rising card debt, which is the unhealthy version of the same reading.

So what actually fixes it. Three things, in order of how quickly they could work. Energy prices coming down would do the most and the fastest, because fuel costs feed directly into groceries, freight and utilities — which is why any easing of the Hormuz disruption shows up in household budgets within weeks. Second, wage growth needs to run ahead of prices again rather than behind them, which restores the gap between income and spending that savings come from. Third, at the household level, the highest-return move available right now is retiring card balances carrying rates near 24 percent, because no savings account pays anything close to what that debt costs.

The next reading arrives Aug. 26, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis releases July personal income and outlays. That figure will show whether the summer squeeze eased or whether the saving rate is still grinding toward a level Americans have not seen since 2005.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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WASHINGTON (AP) — It is among the most famous phrases in presidential history: “ The buck stops here.” Except with President Donald Trump, it almost never does.

Concerns about a weak economy and still-high inflation? His predecessor, Joe Biden, saddled him with that, he says, even though the Democrat has been out of office for 18-plus months and despite Trump once promising an immediate turnaround.

The problem-plagued revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool? That was marred by vandalism, the Republican president insists, even though the office of a prosecutor he put in the job has said the damage was due to shoddy workmanship.

The increasingly unpopular war in Iran that has kept oil prices high, Trump’s approval rating low and sent shock waves through the global economy? Actually, this was Trump making up for timid earlier presidents who, he argues, squandered nearly 50 years of opportunities to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Pithy slogans aside, all modern presidents shift responsibility onto others to some degree, frequently blaming the commander-in-chief who preceded them, Congress — or both. But Trump has taken it to a new level, effectively embracing a de facto political strategy of being in charge of everything but responsible for nothing when things go badly.

“Taking responsibility being a characteristic of presidential leadership — or any kind of leadership — is absolutely true,” said Nicole Anslover, a history professor at Florida Atlantic University and author of “Harry S. Truman: The Coming of the Cold War.”

Trump’s tendency to point fingers at others is increasingly in the spotlight before November’s midterm elections, when Republicans are trying to retain control of Congress. His unwillingness to accept blame sometimes leads him to deny that there are problems at all, and could leave GOP leaders in tight races with little reassurance for voters that their concerns are being addressed.

The White House counters that Trump is working to correct long-festering challenges, not simply throwing up his hands and ignoring them.

The president is “rightfully addressing the failures of his predecessors while taking action to deliver big wins for the American people,” spokesperson Taylor Rogers said, pointing to a series of policies that she said Republicans can run on, including tax cuts, efforts to lower prescription drug prices, cracking down on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, increasing domestic energy production and a strong stock market.

Ducking responsibility dates to Trump’s first term
Truman famously kept a “The Buck Stops Here” sign on his desk as president. That came from “pass the buck,” which, according to Truman’s presidential library, dates to frontier times, when poker players would pass a buckhorn handle knife to the person whose turn it was to deal the cards.

“The president, whoever he is, has to decide,” Truman said during his farewell address in 1953. “He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.”

The understanding of the phrase has broadened over the years to include taking responsibility for the outcome of tough decisions. Trump used to espouse similar beliefs, saying back in 2013 that in running a business, “Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.”

Accepting the 2016 presidential nomination, Trump said, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” But as president, he has often suggested that the solution and blame rest elsewhere.

“The buck stops with everybody,” Trump said in 2019, during a lengthy government shutdown. In 2020, on the same day he declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, he said, “I don’t take responsibility at all” for a lack of COVID-19 testing.

Anslover said Truman took full responsibility for dropping atomic bombs on Japan even though he was not informed that the U.S. was developing such weapons until his predecessor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died.

John F. Kennedy saw his approval ratings rise after he acknowledged he was to blame for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. Ronald Reagan said he was sorry for any involvement he may have had in the Iran-Contra scandal even while saying he wasn’t sure he was to blame. “The buck stops here with me,” he said then.

At his final news conference in early 2009, George W. Bush listed a series of mistakes he had made, including failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. His successor, Barack Obama, said, “I screwed up,” after his nominee for health chief, Tom Daschle, withdrew because of unpaid back taxes.

Presidents before Trump “really usually take accountability,” Anslover said.

‘We inherited a total catastrophe,’ Trump says
The president acknowledged in a recent Punchbowl interview that voters are angry, but he said they are not mad at him but at congressional Republicans.

Trump believes his party can hold its congressional majorities after November, but he was clear that if Republicans lose, it won’t be his fault — echoing his comments before the 2018 midterms that he would not accept blame if his party lost control of the House, which it did.

Trump’s approval rating on the economy, once seen as among his strongest issues, has fallen throughout his time in office, from 40% in March 2025 to 32% in July, according to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump’s economic policies have made economic conditions worse, according to Pew Research Center polling.

“The public certainly expects the president to be concerned about, and focused on, making life more affordable,” Republican pollster Frank Luntz said.

Trump instead points to Biden, under whom inflation hit a four-decade peak of 9.1% in 2022 as the pandemic was still roiling the world economy, before declining to 2.7% by November 2024. Last month, pressured by the Iran war, it was 3.4%.

“When we took office, we inherited a total catastrophe,” Trump said at a recent rally, later adding, “I inherited those high prices, just so you understand.”

Andrew Bates, a Democratic strategist and former Biden White House spokesperson, noted that Trump no longer mentions his campaign promise to “immediately end inflation” on Day One.

“He may not remember having made those promises, but swing voters sure as hell do,” Bates said.

Trump has shown the same pattern with Iran and the Reflecting Pool
The president has characterized the Iran war as “a little excursion” or “detour.” To play down how long it has lasted, he frequently notes that U.S. wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan dragged on for years, though the Iran conflict — which he initially said would be over in four weeks to five weeks — is now in its sixth month with no clear end in sight.

Trump has sought to shift blame to the past on the Reflecting Pool, falsely suggesting that Biden and Obama spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” trying unsuccessfully to fix it.

But Trump’s main defense has been vandalism. And, so far, at least four cases alleging that, including the most prominent case against an Olympic canoeist, have been dropped because of a lack of evidence.

Anslover said that, after 11-plus years in politics, Trump has proved he is not afraid to violate norms of presidential comportment. Lots of his core supporters do not seem bothered.

“For many Americans, it has either been a shift in how they view the presidency, or, like with so many things, they just feel empowered to say, ‘These are my priorities. My priority is not the facts,'” she said.

The public is being asked to daven for a one-year-old child who was seriously injured after being struck by a vehicle in Kiryat Sanz, Tiveria, on Sunday evening.

The child has been identified for Tehillim as Yeshaya Asher ben Sarah Perel.

Magen David Adom said its emergency dispatch center received the call at 6:49 p.m. reporting that an infant had been struck by a vehicle on Shefa Chaim Street.

MDA paramedics treated the child at the scene before rushing him to the North Medical Center – Poriya. He was listed in serious condition with an altered level of consciousness and injuries to his head and limbs.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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According to local reports, a man who allegedly reportedly smashed into a South Carolina Costco apparel display before being helped detained by customers and employees reportedly had to use a machete and pickaxe.

According to WSPA 7News, Greenville officers responded to the Costco on Woodruff Road on Thursday after receiving information that an armed robbery was taking place, citing the Greenville Police Department.

Jose Alejandro Giraldo, 24, allegedly entered the store and entered the jewellery counter-top through the display cases.

Giraldo reportedly indicated that he had a weapon when confronted, and reportedly had a knife and spade.

Common RESTAURANT AT DISNEY SHOPPING Region BROUGHT IN SCUBA GEAR

Callers first described the weapon used to split the display cases as appearing to be a nail, according to FOX Carolina, according to a citation from the police. Eventually, according to the store, police confirmed that Giraldo had a pickaxe and a knife.

Until officers arrived, users detained Giraldo inside the warehouse, according to FOX Carolina.

Employees of the retailer apparently assisted in restraining the suspect.

WSPA reported that one client suffered an injury while helping to defeat Giraldo, which necessitated the intervention of disaster medical personnel. The company’s injuries were not promptly disclosed by the store.

According to both media reports, Giraldo was accused of third-degree assault and battery and armed assault.

The Greenville County Detention Center later made available a mugshot of Giraldo.

FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO: Press HERE.

The Greenville Police Department has requested post and more information from FOX Business.

German Investment in U.S. Plunges Nearly Two-Thirds as Companies Hold Back New Capital

German companies sharply reduced new investment in the United States during the first half of 2026, offering one of the clearest indications yet that trade-policy uncertainty is beginning to influence where multinational companies put their money.

German direct investment into the U.S. fell nearly two-thirds from a year earlier to €4.3 billion, or about $5 billion, according to calculations by the German Economic Institute using Bundesbank data. That was the lowest first-half level since 2023 and almost 80% below the comparable 2024 figure. Before the pandemic, German companies averaged €15.8 billion of first-half U.S. investment. 

There is an important distinction: German companies already operating in America are still reinvesting profits. What has weakened is the willingness to commit fresh equity capital to new projects. That makes the data less a verdict on the U.S. market itself and more a warning about what policy uncertainty can do to future factories, expansions and jobs.

India Orders Major Cooking-Gas Production Push as Hormuz Disruption Hits Supplies

India has ordered its refiners and energy companies to build the country’s domestic production of liquefied petroleum gas to as much as 63,810 metric tons per day, an extraordinary intervention aimed at protecting household fuel supplies after Middle East disruptions exposed India’s dependence on imports.

Before the war, India sourced roughly 90% of its imported cooking gas from the Middle East. The government’s August 13 order requires companies to maintain enough storage and transportation infrastructure to handle the new targets, with production requirements updated every January and July. Reliance Industries alone was assigned a target of 18,000 tons per day from its domestic-market refinery. 

The significance goes beyond India. One of the world’s largest energy consumers is effectively redesigning part of its fuel supply chain because of the Strait of Hormuz crisis — another example of geopolitical risk turning into permanent infrastructure spending.

Nvidia Discusses Another $3 Billion Bet on OpenAI Infrastructure

Nvidia is in talks to invest as much as $3 billion in SB Energy, the SoftBank-backed company developing a massive Ohio data-center project for OpenAI, according to a report by The Information cited by Reuters.

The proposed investment would sit alongside discussions involving roughly $100 billion of credit support for the Ohio campus. Nvidia has reportedly considered investing half when the project is signed and the remainder around a possible SB Energy IPO. Reuters said it could not independently verify the report, and Nvidia and SB Energy had not commented. 

The bigger story is how deeply chipmakers are becoming intertwined with the financing of their own customers. Nvidia is no longer benefiting only from companies buying GPUs; increasingly, the AI ecosystem is exploring structures in which capital, chips, power infrastructure and data-center financing all support one another.

Europe Discovers a $50 Billion Heat Problem That Insurance Barely Covers

Europe’s extreme heat is emerging as a major business-interruption risk — but one that traditional insurance policies often do not cover.

Moody’s estimated that last summer’s European heatwaves caused about €43 billion, or $50 billion, in lost economic output, while insured payouts totaled only about €500 million. In and around Padua, Italy, more than 80% of roughly 600 hospitality businesses surveyed reported sales declines of around 20% during the latest heatwave. 

Unlike a hurricane that destroys a building, heat can empty restaurants, reduce worker productivity, disrupt rail networks and raise factory cooling costs without producing obvious physical damage. Insurers are increasingly exploring temperature-triggered “parametric” policies that automatically pay when heat crosses specified thresholds.

For businesses, the lesson is changing quickly: extreme heat is becoming a balance-sheet risk even when nothing visibly breaks.

Kalshi and Nevada Escalate Fight Over $120,000-a-Day Penalties

The legal fight over prediction markets intensified over the weekend as Kalshi accused Nevada regulators of violating federal law while the state seeks penalties of $120,000 per day over alleged failures to block Nevada users.

Nevada’s Gaming Control Board previously required Kalshi to implement a multi-source geofencing system by August 12 after investigators were able to enter sports, election and entertainment contracts from inside the state. The state’s agreement specified the $120,000 daily penalty if Kalshi missed that deadline. 

Nevada investigators later said they were still able to place nine trades using cellular networks. Kalshi says it hired GeoComply at Nevada’s request and argues investigators misrepresented their residences and, in at least one instance, circumvented blocking measures. 

The case is becoming an important test of whether federally regulated prediction markets can operate nationwide over the objections of individual state gambling regulators.

Peter Thiel Makes $76 Million Bet on Argentina’s Oil Boom

Peter Thiel’s Thiel Macro fund has purchased approximately 1.2 million American Depositary Shares of Vista Energy worth about $76 million, giving the investor roughly 1% of one of the leading producers in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale region.

The position was disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Vista currently produces around 160,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and has invested more than $6.5 billion in Argentina. 

Thiel Macro’s disclosed portfolio totals about $418.7 million and also contains significant exposure to U.S. electricity and power companies, making the Vista purchase consistent with a broader bet on energy demand and infrastructure.

Vaca Muerta contains the world’s second-largest shale-gas resources and fourth-largest shale-oil resources, turning Argentina into an increasingly important destination for global energy capital.

India Opens One-Time Offshore Asset Amnesty

India opened a new tax-amnesty program Sunday allowing smaller taxpayers to voluntarily disclose previously unreported foreign income and assets.

Taxpayers with up to 10 million rupees, roughly $105,000, of undisclosed foreign income can participate by paying a 30% tax plus an equal penalty. Separately, taxpayers who already paid tax on overseas assets but failed to report assets worth as much as 50 million rupees, about $524,000, can regularize them through a 100,000-rupee payment. 

The program runs through December 31, 2026 and particularly targets smaller cases involving students, non-resident Indians and taxpayers who accumulated overseas assets without properly reporting them.

No U.S. Markets Today — Consumer Weakness Is What Wall Street Carries Into Monday

U.S. markets are closed Sunday, leaving Friday’s close as the starting point for the coming week.

The S&P 500 finished Friday at 7,785.76, down 0.17%, while the Nasdaq fell 0.28% and the Dow slipped 0.20%. The S&P still gained 0.4% for the week, its third consecutive weekly advance. 

The bigger economic signal came from consumers. July retail sales unexpectedly fell 0.6%, the first monthly decline in nine months, while the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer-sentiment index dropped to 51.0 from 55.2 in July. 

Those numbers have weakened the case for an immediate Federal Reserve rate increase. The Fed’s current target remains 3.50% to 3.75%, with three policymakers having voted for a quarter-point hike at the July meeting. 

The question heading into Monday is therefore no longer simply whether inflation is cooling. It is whether the consumer is cooling faster.

JBizNews Desk | New York / Washington

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A plan to construct apartments and offices above the remains of a major Nazi-era bunker in Berlin is triggering a heated debate in Germany over the preservation of one of the most historically significant sites connected to Adolf Hitler’s regime.

The property, located near Potsdamer Platz and the Mall of Berlin, once housed Hitler’s New Reich Chancellery, a central seat of the Nazi government during World War II.

While the above-ground structures were destroyed following the war, portions of the underground bunker complex remain intact.

According to The Washington Post, developer SMV Berlin has received approval to transform the property into a residential and commercial complex, with city officials pointing to Berlin’s severe housing shortage as justification for moving forward.

Berlin’s population has grown by approximately 500,000 people since 2010, placing significant pressure on the city’s housing supply.

Preservationists and historians, however, are warning that development could permanently damage an important physical reminder of Nazi Germany.

Dietmar Arnold, chairman of Berliner Unterwelten, an organization dedicated to documenting Berlin’s underground structures, said the bunker is structurally strong enough for construction to take place above it. However, he is calling for a documentation center to be established at the site explaining the history and downfall of the Nazi regime.

Art historian Nikolaus Bernau similarly warned against destroying or significantly altering the surviving remains.

The controversy highlights a longstanding dilemma in Germany over how to handle physical remnants of the Nazi era. Officials have sought to prevent such locations from becoming gathering places for neo-Nazis while historians argue that preserving them can play an important role in educating future generations about the horrors of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Alphabet’s early investment in SpaceX has become one of the most valuable corporate bets of the past decade, turning roughly $900 million invested in 2015 into a stake worth more than $90 billion at its recent peak.

That is roughly a 100-fold increase in value on an investment that was originally small relative to Alphabet’s overall balance sheet.

The Google parent backed SpaceX when the company was still a private rocket manufacturer focused primarily on launch services. Since then, SpaceX has expanded into satellite internet through Starlink, defense and government contracting, commercial launches, communications infrastructure and other space-based businesses.

As SpaceX’s overall value climbed, Alphabet’s stake became an increasingly significant asset of its own.

At more than $90 billion, the position was worth more than the entire market value of many large publicly traded companies and represented one of the largest outside investments held by a major technology company.

The return also highlights a different side of Alphabet’s business model.

Investors usually value Alphabet based on Google Search, YouTube, advertising, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. But the company has also spent years making strategic investments in outside technology businesses that could benefit from long-term shifts in computing, communications and infrastructure.

SpaceX became the standout.

Alphabet did not need to build a rocket company itself. It invested early, maintained its position and benefited as SpaceX grew from a private aerospace startup into one of the most valuable technology companies in the world.

That matters because the gain is not simply theoretical venture-capital upside.

A stake worth more than $90 billion is large enough to materially affect how investors think about Alphabet’s broader asset base and the value sitting outside its core operating businesses.

The investment also shows how powerful early ownership can become when a private company grows across multiple industries at once.

SpaceX’s value is no longer tied only to rocket launches. Starlink created a global communications business. Government contracts added another revenue stream. Defense, satellite infrastructure and future space services expanded the company’s potential market even further.

Each step increased the value of Alphabet’s original investment.

The numbers are what make the story remarkable.

Alphabet put in about $900 million.

At its recent peak, that stake was worth more than $90 billion.

That is the kind of return that can turn what once looked like a strategic side investment into a major corporate asset.

For Alphabet shareholders, SpaceX has effectively become a second layer of value sitting alongside Google’s dominant operating businesses.

And it is a reminder that sometimes the most profitable move a giant company makes is not building the next breakthrough itself.

It is recognizing one early enough to own a piece of it.

JBizNews Desk | Silicon Valley

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The Trump administration established a secret backchannel to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the war, using the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region as an intermediary to bypass traditional diplomatic channels and reach Tehran’s military leadership directly, according to Axios.

The unusual effort reportedly began as U.S. officials struggled to determine who inside Iran actually possessed the authority to make decisions during the conflict.

According to Axios, the administration turned to Nechirvan Barzani, president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, who has extensive ties to both Washington and Tehran. Barzani speaks fluent Persian, previously lived in Iran and studied at Tehran University, while maintaining relationships with senior Iranian and IRGC officials.

Then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reportedly approached Barzani and asked him to help establish direct contact with IRGC commander Gen. Ahmad Vahidi. Gabbard told Barzani that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were aware of the effort.

Barzani subsequently passed the request through his contacts in Iran.

Four days later, an IRGC representative reportedly arrived at Barzani’s office in Erbil carrying a secure communications device that connected the Kurdish leader directly with Vahidi.

During the call, Barzani sought to determine whether positions being communicated by Iranian representatives through other channels actually had the support of the IRGC leadership.

Vahidi reportedly confirmed that they did and conveyed that Iran was interested in reaching a negotiated solution. Barzani immediately relayed the message to Gabbard, who passed it on to the White House.

Following the breakthrough, U.S. officials attempted to arrange a secret face-to-face meeting between American and Iranian officials in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.

Iranian officials did not immediately reject the proposal but reportedly expressed serious concerns about Israel’s intelligence capabilities in the region and feared that senior Iranian officials traveling to the meeting could be identified and targeted.

The planned meeting ultimately never took place.

According to Axios, Barzani’s channel has nevertheless remained available, and he recently contacted the White House again to offer assistance in restarting communications between Washington and Tehran.

U.S. officials reportedly now believe the primary obstacle is not finding a mediator, but bridging the significant differences between Washington and Tehran, particularly over the Strait of Hormuz.

The revelation highlights the extraordinary lengths the Trump administration went to during the war to establish direct communications with the real centers of power inside Iran — and the extent to which Tehran’s fear of Israeli intelligence operations complicated even secret diplomatic contacts.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A new Chareidi political party centered on the battle against the drafting of yeshiva bochurim is reportedly being formed ahead of the upcoming elections, in a development that could pose a challenge to both Shas and United Torah Judaism.

According to a report by Israel’s Channel 13, Chareidi political figure Moti Babchik met last week with a group of rabbonim who have taken a firm position against the draft, as discussions continue over the establishment of the new party.

The fledgling movement is currently operating under the name “Black Ink,” according to the report, and would make opposition to the conscription of bnei yeshivos into the IDF a central element of its platform.

Another primary objective would be the restoration of an arrangement allowing yeshiva bochurim and avreichim to continue learning Torah full-time while receiving deferments from military service, without financial or other sanctions being imposed upon those who do not enlist.

The effort is said to include rabbonim and roshei yeshiva representing various segments of the Chareidi community.

The organizers have reportedly commissioned extensive polling that they believe shows substantial potential support for the new party. According to the findings, tens of thousands of voters could back the movement, including younger Chareidim as well as people who previously cast their ballots for existing Chareidi parties.

Should the effort ultimately result in a new party running in the elections, it could reshape the Chareidi political landscape and present both Shas and United Torah Judaism with a new competitor for voters who believe the existing parties have not gone far enough in protecting the status of bnei yeshivos and preserving their ability to learn Torah without the threat of conscription.

Other sources, however, have downplayed the significance of the initiative, saying that support for the proposed party appears to be minimal and that it is unlikely to make substantial inroads among Chareidi voters. According to those assessments, even if the party ultimately runs, it may draw only limited support from the established Chareidi parties and have little, if any, meaningful effect on the overall political landscape.

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited Beit HaRav Kook in Jerusalem on the yahrzeit of Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, where he attended the opening of an exhibit highlighting historic visits by Israel’s chief rabbis to the White House.

Huckabee said the exhibit highlights the longstanding relationship between the United States and the Jewish people. The event also commemorated 250 years of American democracy and 105 years of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

Located in Jerusalem’s historic Beit David courtyard, Beit HaRav Kook was the home and study hall of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935), the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel and a leading figure in religious Zionism.

On the yahrzeit of Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, I was honored to visit Beit HaRav Kook for the opening of an exhibit on visits to the @WhiteHouse by @Israel’s Chief Rabbis. These historic encounters reflect the enduring bond between the United States and the Jewish people,… pic.twitter.com/TPmGt37hTo

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@USAmbIsrael) August 16, 2026

Today, the site serves as a museum, memorial and Torah study center, preserving Rav Kook’s legacy and his influence on Jewish religious thought and the development of religious Zionism.

The exhibit focuses on historic meetings between Israel’s chief rabbis and U.S. presidents at the White House, highlighting the religious and diplomatic connections that have developed between the United States and Israel over the past century.

Huckabee described the encounters as reflecting an “enduring bond” between the United States and the Jewish people, while noting the significance of marking America’s 250th anniversary alongside 105 years of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate.

The ambassador’s visit also came on the yahrzeit of Rav Kook, whose teachings continue to influence religious Zionist thought and Torah scholarship in Israel and around the world.

It didn’t take long for Mexican avocado picker Francisco Isidro to get back to work after authorities announced the lifting of a U.S. security alert that temporarily halted avocado exports.

Back on the job the morning after the alert was lifted, Isidro threw a rope over an avocado tree about 20 feet (6 meters) high and climbed up. Fifteen minutes later, he had filled a box with avocados bound for the United States.

“Thank God … and now we’re getting paid!” he shouted happily after several days without work.

Eight days after the alert affecting Michoacán state and the deployment of more Mexican troops in the region, U.S. authorities fully lifted the restrictions that spurred producers to shut down operations, and exports resumed. Michoacán is Mexico’s main avocado-producing state and a region where four cartels designated by the Trump administration as terrorist organizations operate.

By the weekend, orchards were operating again, packing plants were running at full speed and U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors had returned to certify the fruit and ensure it was free of pests before entering the United States.

The workers were happy to get their daily wages back. Some producers hoped the increased security would reduce violence and extortion. Others feared the calm would not last long.

“We’ll be safe for a while, we’ll see what happens next,” said Valentín Rodríguez, a longtime avocado industry businessperson.

Many threats are possible in a violent state

The U.S. alert caught Isidro high in a tree in an orchard in Santa Ana Zirosto, an area of green, low hills in western Michoacán where criminal groups are very active. There were no explanations, just the foreman’s shout to stop cutting.

Isidro, 39 years old and with two decades of experience as a harvester, knew that this meant either starting to look for another job until the situation returned to normal — since they’re paid by the day — or supporting his family solely on what his wife earned from a small store.

More than 90 miles (145 kilometers) away, in the town of Tacámbaro, an engineer at an avocado packing plant received the alert in the early hours of the morning: The facility should be kept sealed and under quarantine.

Some 200,000 people employed by Michoacán’s avocado industry were left in limbo.

Authorities did not say what threat triggered the alert. But in a state where numerous local cartels make money not only from drugs but also from extortion, there are plenty of possibilities.

Some growers have come to consider extortion an unavoidable production cost. A producer from Michoacán told The Associated Press recently that he pays 1 peso per kilo exported in extortion fees and exports about 90 metric tons a day, which amounts to more than $5,000 in daily payments.

In March alone, Mexico shipped nearly 4,800 tons of avocados a day to the United States.

Trucks loaded with avocados are also sometimes robbed on roads in western Michoacán. And some farmworkers have been stopped and beaten by armed men near the border with Jalisco without being told why, according to one worker who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Mexican avocado production is US-controlled

U.S. inspectors have been assaulted and temporarily detained in the past, triggering similar export suspensions. On some occasions, threats arose after inspectors detected pests and were pressured not to report them, said an official familiar with their work who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The U.S. Embassy does not usually provide details about the incidents.

Inspectors now have less of a presence in the orchards, which are located in isolated hills where armed groups operate with little interference, and concentrate on packing plants.

“If the United States says that it is suspending technical services for security reasons, it’s impossible to export. If it’s for a plant health, it’s the same,” said Rodríguez, who grows, packs and sells avocados. “We are at the mercy of whatever the U.S. market and government decide to do with the industry.”

There is also a political dimension, he said, adding that Mexico didn’t export avocados to the United States for eight decades after a worm was found in an avocado pit in 1914. The U.S. ban was lifted in 1997 as domestic production could no longer meet growing demand.

Exports rely on inspection and certification

More than 80% of Mexican avocados are sold to the U.S. Thousands of tons of avocados travel daily to the United States, especially at the beginning of the year, when demand for guacamole surges ahead of the Super Bowl. To keep that volume moving, certification is key.

Isidro is a “certified” picker. He knows how to disinfect cutting tools before using them, handle the fruit quickly and carefully, and report any spots or damage. The orchards where he works are also certified, providing dining and bathroom facilities for workers.

Jesús Méndez, his supervisor, inspected the boxes before they were loaded onto a truck with the tracking details. The trucks wait until all those in the area are ready before traveling in convoys to packing plants, accompanied by police patrols to prevent robberies.

At the packing plants, inspections continue, checking quality, the fruit’s flesh and possible pests. The avocados then move along mechanical lines that sort them by size before workers place them into boxes.

Once labeled and sealed, the trailers head for the U.S. border. At the slightest security alert, every point along the route can be brought to a standstill.

Fears remain despite the return to work

The deployment of more than 1,500 soldiers to protect Michoacán’s avocado-growing region and recent arrests of people allegedly involved in extortion have eased concerns, but only partially.

Luis Manuel Soto, a 36-year-old grower and packer from western Michoacán, hopes the increased security will bring improvements. So far, he says, he has not felt them.

In 2024, he said, armed men pulled him from his vehicle and threatened to kill him unless he paid them and withdrew a complaint over extortion and an attempt to seize his orchards. The threats returned last July, even though one person involved in the earlier case has been convicted.

“They left me a funeral cross and … a written message saying I had only days left,” Soto said from a town near Morelia, Michoacán’s capital.

The threats have continued by phone. Now he divides his time between occasional visits to his orchards, managing his businesses and social projects remotely, and going to prosecutors’ offices to request protection.

In Santa Ana Zirosto and surrounding communities, residents welcome the military presence.

“It gives us some peace, but it also scares us a little because it could lead to confrontations with some of the groups,” said Méndez.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

A house in Maine used to be the cheap alternative. Now a stretch of its coastline is trading at prices that would not look out of place on Long Island’s East End, and the reason is simple: the buyers are the same people. They are coming from Boston and Manhattan, they are paying cash, and there is very little on the market for them to fight over.

The arithmetic that started it is the plainest part of the story. The median price of an existing single-family home in Greater Boston was $1,032,500 in April, against $590,000 in Cumberland County, Maine, where Portland sits. A Redfin analysis found Portland is the top destination for homebuyers leaving Greater Boston. Among out-of-state buyers driving Cumberland County prices, the two largest sources are Manhattan and Boston. Roughly speaking, one Boston-area house buys nearly two in the Portland area — and remote work made that trade practical for people who once needed to be at a desk five days a week.

At the top end, the shift shows up in a count of transactions rather than a percentage. Five Maine homes sold above $5 million in 2019. By 2024 that number had reached 21. Last year four properties in the state changed hands for more than $10 million. Before that, only seven homes in Maine had ever been publicly listed and sold above $10 million, and every one of them was in the Mount Desert Island area. That is the entire history of eight-figure Maine real estate, and a single recent year accounted for a meaningful share of it.

The deals themselves have the speed that marks a market with more money than supply. A five-bedroom oceanfront property on Ocean Avenue in Kennebunkport, less than half a mile from the Bush family compound, sold for its full $12 million asking price after 90 minutes on the market. The buyer came from Chicago. It was the highest sale ever recorded by Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty, the Portland firm that handled it, and the second-highest statewide in five years. A Cape Elizabeth home once owned by the actress Bette Davis went for $13.4 million. The state record remains a $19 million sale of the late David Rockefeller’s summer estate on Mount Desert Island.

The current asking-price leader is on Cunner Lane in Cape Elizabeth, about seven miles from Portland, which came to market on May 1 at $16.5 million. It is owned by a Sinclair Broadcast executive. If it sells anywhere near that figure, it lands directly behind the Rockefeller sale.

Put alongside the markets Maine is being compared to, the gap is still wide, and worth stating so the trend is not oversold. Nantucket set an all-time record median around $2.34 million, up 34% from a year earlier, with 82 sales above $5 million. In the Hamptons, the median luxury sale price jumped 30% to $13 million in the first quarter, and deals of $10 million or more accounted for $560 million of volume in three months. Maine does that kind of eight-figure volume in a year, not a quarter. What has changed is that it now does it at all.

The ceiling is not unlimited, and Maine sellers who assume otherwise are learning it the hard way. A cliffside estate on Cooksey Drive in Mount Desert, ten bedrooms and 10,200 square feet on six wooded acres, has sat unsold for four years through price cuts that removed nearly half the original ask, and is now listed at $14.5 million. The listing agent attributes it partly to a market that has shifted: inventory is rising, homes are sitting longer, and price cuts are more common than they were during the frenzy.

That is the broader condition underneath the luxury headlines. Maine had 6,664 homes for sale as of December, up 27.3% from a year earlier, with new listings up 21.2% — though the state still carries only about three months of supply. And the volume market remains far below the record sales: of 532 Maine homes sold above $1 million in the first half of last year, nearly 80% were between $1 million and $2 million, and roughly 93% went for under $3 million.

Maine’s coast is not the Hamptons. But for the first time, the same buyers are shopping in both.

JBizNews Desk | Portland, Maine

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