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.

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}

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)

President Donald Trump’s advisor Jared Kushner held direct talks with senior Hamas officials in Egypt on Sunday, pushing the terrorist group to begin taking concrete and verifiable steps toward disarmament and surrendering its control over the Gaza Strip, according to Axios, which cited two people familiar with the discussions.

The talks marked Kushner’s first meeting with Hamas officials since the agreement ending the Gaza war was signed last October. The meeting came as the White House and Trump’s Board of Peace work to move both Israel and Hamas into the next phase of the administration’s 20-point peace framework.

Following the talks in Egypt, Kushner is scheduled to travel to Israel on Monday for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One source told Axios that those discussions are expected to center on “corresponding steps” that Israel would be expected to take as the process moves forward.

Kushner was accompanied at the meeting by Board of Peace high representative Nickolay Mladenov and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who also serves as a member of the board.

Representing Hamas at the talks was the terrorist organization’s political leader Khalil al-Hayya. Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, Qatari diplomat Ali al-Thawadi and a senior Turkish official also took part in the meeting.

According to a source briefed on the discussions, a central objective of the meeting was to translate Hamas’ broader commitments to the demilitarization of Gaza into tangible actions that could be monitored and verified.

Among the measures discussed was the transfer of governing control in Gaza to the Palestinian technocratic government. The plan would also require Hamas to have no role in governing the territory going forward.

The Board of Peace is additionally pressing for Hamas’ weapons and military infrastructure to be decommissioned, while an International Stabilization Force would be deployed in Gaza. The framework also calls for reconstruction and recovery efforts to proceed without Hamas stealing resources or intimidating Palestinians participating in the rebuilding process.

The report said the board is simultaneously seeking Israeli withdrawals from additional areas of Gaza as Hamas begins implementing disarmament, along with an accelerated flow of humanitarian assistance into the territory.

“There can be no ambiguity: Hamas must relinquish governing authority and all weapons and military infrastructure. And Gaza can never again be a source of terror for Israel,” a source told Axios.

{Matzav.com}

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

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

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.

Israeli police on Sunday disclosed new details about the weeklong international search for Mali and Liel Yahalomi, saying investigators initially feared the mother and daughter had been kidnapped before evidence increasingly pointed to a deliberately planned disappearance. The two were ultimately located in Argentina.

Tali Bankin, who heads an Interpol unit within the Israel Police, discussed the behind-the-scenes investigation in an interview with Kol Berama, describing how authorities gradually changed their assessment of the case as new information emerged.

Bankin said that when the pair first disappeared and could not be contacted, investigators treated the situation as a potential abduction.

“The initial working assumption was that this was an abduction incident. Later, we understood that it was a planned event,” she said.

As police worked to reconstruct Mali and Liel’s movements, Bankin said investigators also had to contend with a flood of unverified claims and speculation surrounding their disappearance, making it more difficult to establish a clear picture of what had occurred.

“There was a lot of fake news that created confusion. We tried to calm the situation,” she said, adding that once police determined that the disappearance had been intentional, “things were clearer in our work with the media.”

The investigation took a decisive turn several days ago when authorities received information indicating that Mali and Liel had traveled to Argentina. That development caused investigators to redirect the international search toward South America.

“The center of gravity then moved to South America,” Bankin said.

According to Bankin, Mali and Liel may not have realized just how extensive the search for them had become while they remained out of contact.

“I don’t think they knew about all the search efforts; they were cut off from contact,” she said.

The operation involved substantial resources and extensive international coordination as Israeli authorities attempted to determine what had happened to the pair and whether they were in danger.

“A lot of money from Israel was spent on the search,” Bankin said.

Once Mali and Liel were found and authorities established that they were safe, Bankin said the police’s role in the matter concluded.

{Matzav.com}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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(AP) – Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia on Sunday, killing at least six people in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks of the war.

Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russia this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones targeting military industries and energy facilities. It has also increasingly pummeled giant Wildberries depots, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise belonging to the Russian online retail giant. Those attacks have brought the war home to the Russian public nearly 4½ years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine also came under Russian attack, with drone strikes destroying homes and torching Kyiv’s landmark book market.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it had destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight. Some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with a third of those destroyed over the Moscow region itself.

An 83-year-old man was killed after a Ukrainian drone hit a private home in the Moscow region, local Gov. Andrey Vorobyov said. He also confirmed that a Ukrainian attack had sparked a blaze at a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Podolsk.

A drone attack targeted three towns in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, killing five people, local Gov. Yury Slyusar said. The attack, with more than 150 drones, damaged several homes and a railway station and sparked a forest fire.

Russian strikes kill 5 in Ukraine
A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media Sunday. He also said that one more person had been killed in the city of Sumy.

ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, confirmed that one of its sites had been hit in a missile attack and that operations had been partially suspended.

Elsewhere, a man and a woman died when their home was hit by a Russian strike in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, said Ivan Fedorov, the head of the local military administration.

Russian attacks also sparked fires throughout the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, wounding six people. A blaze took hold at one of the city’s largest book markets, tearing through kiosks huddled close to the Pochaina metro station. Firefighters fought back the flames, which sent plumes of black smoke across the capital, and picked their way through rubble where the market’s crowded pavilions once stood.

“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had targeted a metallurgical plant in Kryvyi Rih and several military-industrial sites in Kyiv, including a manufacturing facility for Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles.

The domestically produced missiles are increasingly key to Ukraine’s long-range attacks on Russia, with Zelenskyy announcing Saturday that Kyiv had used the weapons to attack a rocket research and production center in Samara approximately 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

NATO jet downs drone in Romanian airspace
Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that a Spanish Air and Space Force F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered Romanian airspace.

The drone’s entry into the NATO member’s airspace was detected by surveillance systems at 4:44 a.m., the ministry said, about 24 kilometers (14.9 miles) north of the eastern city of Galati near the border with neighboring Moldova. Moldova is a landlocked country between Ukraine and Romania.

A Spanish F-18 aircraft that was performing air policing duties “made radar contact with the target and received engagement approval,” the ministry said. “The drone was safely shot down by the F-18 aircraft at 05:01.”

The ministry later said that drone debris was also reported in the Black Sea around 10 a.m. on Sunday, about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) from the coastal city of Constanta.

Officials did not specify the drone’s origin.

The incident comes weeks after Romanian pilots shot down three drones over three days as Russia intensified attacks against Ukraine near the border. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Romania has reported dozens of drone incidents, including some that have crashed and exploded on its territory.

Acting Foreign Minister Oana Toiu said in a post on X that the Spanish deployment in Romania was scaled up “at the request of Romania and NATO to bolster the Eastern Flank following prior drone incidents,” and that it was Spain’s fourth such deployment.

The House’s progressive “Squad” could emerge from November’s midterm elections twice as large as it is today, potentially giving the far-left bloc significantly greater leverage over Democratic priorities and legislation in the next Congress, the NY Post reports.

A string of victories by left-wing candidates in Democratic primaries around the country has positioned several new figures to enter the House next year, with many running in heavily Democratic districts where victory in November is considered highly likely.

The group, which currently numbers roughly seven members, could grow to as many as 14.

Two of the candidates considered almost certain to join Congress hail from New York City, the political home of “Squad” founder Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Claire Valdez, who has called for nationwide rent control if elected, cruised to victory in the June Democratic primary for New York’s 7th Congressional District. Because of the district’s overwhelming Democratic advantage, Valdez is heavily favored in November. The district includes Bushwick and other sections of Brooklyn that have increasingly become a center of far-left political activism.

Another likely newcomer is Darializa Chevalier, 32, who participated in an anti-Israel demonstration one day after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Chevalier has previously argued that the United States has committed atrocities worse than those committed by Hamas and has made comments blaming American policies for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chevalier prevailed in her June Democratic primary and is widely expected to capture New York’s 10th Congressional District, which includes Harlem.

A number of other left-wing candidates around the country could also swell the Squad’s ranks.

Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old socialist in Colorado who would become the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress, defeated a 15-term Democratic incumbent. Her upset drew comparisons to Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning 2018 primary victory over longtime Queens Rep. Joe Crowley.

In New Jersey, Adam Hamawy, a 56-year-old Princeton plastic surgeon endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez, captured the Democratic nomination in a district that strongly favors his party. Hamawy also has the backing of Justice Democrats, the progressive organization that played a major role in Ocasio-Cortez’s rise. While a medical student, Hamawy traveled with Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh” who was later convicted in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot.

Texas pastor Frederick Haynes, 65, handily captured his Democratic primary in March. Haynes, who also received the support of Justice Democrats, has sought to stake out positions to the left of Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

In Philadelphia, Chris Rabb, 56, defeated establishment-supported opponents in one of the most Democratic congressional districts in America. Rabb, who calls himself a Democratic Socialist and has described himself as a “radical” and “rabble-rouser,” received endorsements from Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats. Among the policies he has supported are government-operated grocery stores. With no Republican candidate challenging him, Rabb is effectively assured of winning the seat.

Michigan activist William Lawrence, 36, also secured his party’s nomination. Lawrence co-founded the progressive Sunrise Movement and previously praised controversial streamer Hasan Piker, telling him, “You’re the man!” Unlike many of the other prospective Squad additions, however, Lawrence is competing in a swing district where the November outcome remains uncertain.

Meanwhile, traders on the prediction market Polymarket have placed Democrats’ chances of winning control of the House at 88%.

If Democrats do capture the chamber, a substantially enlarged Squad could become an important voting bloc capable of influencing whether major legislation advances or collapses. Its members could also push initiatives such as abolishing ICE or pursuing impeachment proceedings against President Trump, causes embraced by members of the original Squad.

One former House leadership aide predicted that the enlarged group would remain unwilling to bend on its priorities.

“They will not compromise,” the former aide said.

Its growth could also pull the broader Democratic caucus further to the left, according to longtime Republican strategist Doug Heye.

“It’s becoming a bigger part of the party,” Heye told The Post. “They will be the loudest voices pushing for impeachment,” he said of the radical group.

The term “Squad” dates back to the aftermath of the 2018 midterm elections. Ocasio-Cortez posted an Instagram photograph of herself with fellow incoming Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts during freshman orientation, captioning the picture simply “Squad.”

The nickname quickly became permanently associated with the four progressive lawmakers.

The group subsequently became embroiled in a high-profile dispute with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi following controversy over Omar comparing the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban. President Trump also repeatedly invoked the Squad label while attacking the lawmakers and arguing that they were driving Democrats sharply to the left.

“The ‘Squad’ is a very racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart. They are pulling the once great Democrat Party far left,” he wrote in one series of tweets that June.

{Matzav.com}

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A former staffer for Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign apologized after initially claiming that an attack at a Manhattan synagogue was not antisemitic because the alleged assailant was reportedly Jewish.

Debbie Saslaw, a former senior producer for Mamdani’s campaign, made the claim in a now-deleted post on X following Friday night’s attack at Central Synagogue. She later said she had been mistaken about the suspect’s identity and acknowledged that the incident was a hate crime.

The suspect, Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, faces hate-crime charges stemming from the attack during a Shabbat service.

that’s what i could gather from ES. sadly it’s a hate crime and i was obviously panicked when i heard early reports but saw nothing on twitter for 4 hours or so

— deb saslaw (@butlikesrsly) August 15, 2026

Prosecutors said Montes allegedly admitted that his actions were motivated by hostility toward Jews and referred to worshippers as “swine” and “fake Jews.” He also allegedly shouted an antisemitic slur during the incident.

Authorities said Montes assaulted a 63-year-old congregant and confronted a security guard who intervened.

Saslaw later deleted her original post and said she had been “mixed up” about whether Montes was Jewish. She told the New York Post that she was mistaken and said she was “extremely disturbed” by the attack.

Saslaw’s production company, Melted Solids, has worked on political campaigns, including Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign. She said she is no longer associated with the campaign.

A California public high school is facing a lawsuit after students were allegedly handed Qurans and female students were encouraged to wear hijabs during a school-sponsored field trip to a mosque.

The lawsuit was brought by Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools on behalf of two Jewish parents of Palo Alto High School students, three former Jewish students, a Hindu parent and a Zoroastrian parent.

According to the complaint, students participating in the school’s Social Justice Pathway program visited a mosque last fall, where they were allegedly exposed to messaging connecting Islam with social justice activism.

The lawsuit alleges students were given copies of the Quran and female students were encouraged to wear hijabs during the visit. It further claims photographs of students were taken and posted online without parental consent.

The parents argue the school crossed the line between academic education about religion and participation in religious practices, while failing to adequately protect the rights of students and parents.

Palo Alto Unified School District and Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Superintendent Jason Glass said the district learned of the lawsuit through media reports and had not yet been formally served. He said the district could not verify the allegations contained in the complaint and stressed that religious instruction in district schools must be academic rather than devotional.

The district is now reviewing its practices, while the plaintiffs are seeking an acknowledgment that officials were negligent in supervising students and violated student privacy and parents’ due-process rights.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

NEW YORK (VINnews)- ESPN host and lifelong Democrat Stephen A. Smith said Thursday that U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., is the one politician who could persuade him to become a Republican, calling the Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate “the real deal.”

“And I ain’t no d— Republican. But that mean if anybody could make me one, it would be him. I’m just going to keep it a buck. I’m just letting you know,” Smith said on his SiriusXM podcast “Straight Shooter with Stephen A. Smith.”

Rep. Byron Donalds says Democrats have “lost the plot.”

From the economy and affordability to the WNBA and cultural issues, Donalds lays out where he believes Democrats have gone wrong. pic.twitter.com/p1uT96v87P

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) August 14, 2026

“He’s the real deal. Make no mistake about it. I’ve seen him battling with Democrats. I’ve seen him battling with people on different shows, whatever. He ain’t backing up. He knows his stuff. OK? I talk to him all the time. And I ain’t got nothing bad to say about him.”

Donalds, the frontrunner in Florida’s Republican primary for governor, responded to the comments on the “Just The News, No Noise” program. He said the praise “really means a lot” and reflects broader voter priorities that cross party lines.

“I do believe that resonates with people,” Donalds said. “So to hear Stephen A. Smith say that, really means a lot to me. He’s a good guy. We’ve gotten a chance to know each other over the last year or so, and that really means a lot. I think for the future, it demonstrates what people are looking for. Republicans, independent voters, even Democrats—they just want this country to work. They want common sense to reign. They want safe streets. They want a border that’s secure. They want an economic system where people can earn a great living and provide for their futures and just enjoy life.”

Donalds, who represents Florida’s 19th Congressional District and has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, is seeking the Republican nomination to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis. The primary is set for Tuesday. A James Madison Institute poll released Aug. 6 showed Donalds leading with 49% support among likely Republican primary voters, 31 points ahead of Lt. Gov. Jay Collins. Other candidates include former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and investor James Fishback.

A Donalds campaign official confirmed to Fox News Digital that Smith and Donalds are friends. Campaign communications director Gates McGavick said Donalds is building support across demographic groups by focusing on affordability, public safety and keeping “the radical left” out of Florida.

Smith has voiced growing skepticism toward Democrats in recent months, including calling on the party to earn Black votes rather than take them for granted and saying he would prefer Secretary of State Marco Rubio over several prominent Democratic figures.

Ahead of the Likud primaries, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, chairman of Otzma Yehudit, revealed on 103FM on Sunday that no fewer than eight senior Likud figures, including four serving ministers, asked to join his party.

“Four serving ministers and four serving MKs approached me and asked me to reserve spots for them. They see Otzma’s polls, they saw how strong we are, and they wanted to join,” Ben Gvir said.

So why didn’t they join? “I also have a lot of friends from high school. Maybe I should put them on the list too?” Ben Gvir responded. “It’s not the same thing. Likud is Likud, Otzma is Otzma. I wish them success in Likud.”

Ben Gvir also mentioned Deputy Minister Almog Cohen, a former Otzma Yehudit member who announced last week that he is running in the Likud primary after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu approved a waiver shortening his required membership period. Ben Gvir spoke highly of Almog’s work but criticized his defection to the Likud.

“Almog Cohen is in Likud. I did him a favor by not declaring him a breakaway MK,” he said. “He would have been someone taking a Knesset seat from one party to another. Almog is a good MK, and I wish him success.”

Ben Gvir said that during negotiations to unite his slate with Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, he insisted that Cohen be given a realistic spot on the list.

“Smotrich didn’t want someone without a kippah, and I said, ‘Absolutely not. My parents don’t wear kippas.’ The negotiations almost blew up over it. After I fought so hard for Almog—to take my Knesset seat and transfer it to Likud? That’s not how you behave.”

Cohen’s entry into the race received significant backing from Netanyahu. In a joint video released by the two, the prime minister welcomed Cohen’s official entry into Likud.

“Almog, I’m happy today to officially welcome you into the ranks of Likud. A shortened qualifying period — he’s a fighter, a man of the Negev,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also mentioned Cohen’s campaign to advance the construction of an airport in the Negev: “He drove me crazy to get the airport in the Negev — well done.”

Cohen’s last-minute entry into the primaries, just four days before voting begins, puts him at a significant disadvantage. Likud primaries traditionally depend heavily on months of groundwork, including building ties with party members, securing spots on recommendation lists and forging agreements with other candidates. Cohen has little time to establish those networks.

At the same time, he enters the race with considerable public recognition, a strong base of support in the south, and Netanyahu’s public backing.

In addition, Cohen is known for his heroic actions on October 7, 2023. When the massacre began, Cohen, an Ofakim resident and former Yasam special patrol officer, armed himself and joined police officers, security personnel, and civilians in fighting the terrorists who had infiltrated the city.

“On that cursed morning, my friends and I fought them,” Cohen said in the video message announcing his run in the Likud. “We saw evil with our own eyes. And I tell you — there are many more like them out there.”

“My mission is very simple: to reach them in their homes before they reach us, before they reach the children. Your children are like my children.”

“You know me very well. I am here for you to my last drop of blood. I would not hesitate to sacrifice my life for you and for this wonderful nation. I would do it another hundred times, because it is the greatest right and privilege.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Sen. Tommy Tuberville says ChatGPT has become a regular companion during lengthy drives across Alabama, with the Republican senator using the AI chatbot to discuss topics including Medicare and Medicaid while listening to its spoken responses from behind the wheel.

Tuberville, who is seeking the Alabama governorship, told The Washington Post that he turns to ChatGPT during long car trips to ask questions and learn more about complicated policy matters.

“It’s kind of like you can sit there and talk to an expert,” Tuberville said. “You don’t know whether or not they’re 100 percent correct. But they put you on the right path.”

Tuberville is far from the only member of Congress making use of artificial intelligence. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who has advocated imposing a tax related to AI, said she has used ChatGPT to research demographic information.

Both chambers of Congress have moved over the past year to permit lawmakers and congressional staff to use certain approved AI chatbots for official work. Among the platforms authorized are Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini, while the House has also permitted use of Claude.

An analysis by CNBC of House spending records found that ChatGPT remains the most widely purchased paid AI tool in the chamber. The analysis also found that spending on the technology by Democratic offices was three times higher than spending by Republicans.

Some lawmakers have taken a relatively permissive approach toward how their staffs employ generative AI. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), for example, downplayed controversy after a member of her staff inserted an answer generated by Claude into the public record associated with the National Defense Authorization Act.

“A lot of staff will use ChatGPT, Claude, Grok. I personally like Grok better, but my staffer prefers Claude. I’m not gonna knock him for that. There’s nothing illegal about him doing a summary,” she stated.

The Congressional Research Service has also examined how artificial intelligence could be used by Congress and federal agencies, identifying possible applications “including for office tasks such as creating and summarizing content, writing speeches, and drafting bills.”

At the same time, the Congressional Research Service has cautioned that generative AI carries significant potential drawbacks, including “confabulation or hallucination,” which “might lead to the tools generating and amplifying misinformation or being used to create and spread disinformation.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) has taken a more structured approach, working with her staff to establish rules and training governing the use of artificial intelligence. Her office has been instructed to employ the technology only to “enhance and streamline” its work.

“We didn’t want to prohibit the use of the newest tools,” Slotkin said. “But we also didn’t want absolute schlock showing up in my memos.”

{Matzav.com}

of Kroger.

Following the collapse of its proposed$ 24 billion acquisition with Kroger, Safeway will shut down more locations as its parent company Albertsons Businesses reviews its financial footprint.

While the Kroger exchange was pending, Albertsons claimed to have slowed its “portfolio marketing” efforts before starting to evaluate its store network after the deal collapsed. In order to make what Albertsons described as the hard decision to close some locations, the company has begun the process of opening stores where it anticipates long-term desire.

According to Albertsons&rsquo’s most recent monthly filing, the company closed 35 shops in fiscal 2025, more than triple the number it did the previous year. It had 2, 244 sites spread across 35 states and Washington, D.C. at the end of the fiscal year that it had opened nine retailers during governmental 2025.

The results of those closures were tangible. Sales from governmental 2025 decreased by$ 63.4 million, after closing the doors, and costs associated with surplus qualities increased by$ 45.9 million from$ 15.9 million in the first year.

After a two-year presence, COSTCO BRINGS BACK THE FAN-FAVORITE KIRKLAND TREAT.

Woolworths continued to make investments in other divisions of its chain. In fiscal 2025, the business completed 94 renovations and opened nine new locations as part of an estimated$ 1.83 billion in cash expenses, which also included investments in digital and technological systems.

As of February 28, 2026, Albertsons had nearly 280, 000 employees under its 280, 000 flags, including Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Shaw&rsquo, s and Tom Thumb.

Forbidding CONTROVERSIAL PHRASES AND GROUPS ARE ACCORDINATED TO INCONSISTENT ENFORCEMENT IN COCA-COLA’S Personal CANS.

A complete list of prepared Safeway closures was not provided by the company to USA Today. The outlet reported that Safeway areas in Hayward, California, 2220 N. Coast Highway in Newport, Oregon, and 1601 Maryland Ave. in Washington, D.C., have all since shut down in 2026.

According to USA Today, Albertsons said it is attempting to employ as many of the damaged people as possible.

The business review comes after Albertsons ‘ planned merger with Kroger, which was announced in 2022 and would have resulted in one of the nation’s largest food companies.

The$ 24 billion transaction was brought in by the Federal Trade Commission, contending that it would result in higher food prices and less competition for the workers who work there.

The FTC&rsquo’s ask for a tentative injunction blocking the merger was granted on December 10, 2024 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. Nine state attorneys general were present when the FTC brought the issue.

Kroger and Albertsons filed a lawsuit after the proposed bargain was rejected.

Kroger after filed assertions in Delaware alleging that Albertsons owed the payment and that it had violated the regulations. Kroger’s bill has been challenged by Woolworths.

FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO: Press HERE.

Woolworths refused to respond to FOX Business’s request for comment on the cutbacks right away.

American electric-vehicle sales are moving sharply in the opposite direction from much of the world, offering one of the clearest real-world tests yet of what happens when a major government subsidy disappears.

North American sales of battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids fell 27% in July from a year earlier to about 140,000 vehicles, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. Through the first seven months of 2026, sales totaled roughly 900,000, down 18%.

The decline comes after the federal tax credit of as much as $7,500 on qualifying new electric vehicles expired Sept. 30, 2025.

For consumers, that effectively increased the purchase price of many EVs by thousands of dollars overnight.

And the market reacted.

The contrast with the rest of the world is striking.

Global EV sales still increased 9% in July to approximately 1.85 million vehicles. Europe jumped 33% to about 450,000 vehicles, including gains of 81% in France, 46% in Germany and 43% in Britain.

In other words, Americans are not necessarily witnessing a global collapse in electric vehicles. They are witnessing a distinctly North American slowdown.

That distinction matters enormously for automakers.

Companies including General Motors, Ford, Hyundai, Volkswagen and others invested billions of dollars in U.S. battery plants, electric-vehicle factories, charging infrastructure and new models based partly on expectations that American EV adoption would continue climbing.

Without the tax credit, they are learning how much of that demand was dependent on the government helping consumers pay the bill.

Consider what the old subsidy meant to an ordinary buyer.

A qualifying $50,000 EV could effectively become a $42,500 purchase after the maximum $7,500 federal credit. Without it, the buyer once again has to finance or pay the entire $50,000.

At a hypothetical 6% auto-loan rate over five years, financing that additional $7,500 adds roughly $145 a month to the payment.

For a consumer deciding between an electric vehicle and a similarly equipped gasoline or hybrid model, that difference can completely change the decision.

The numbers also help explain why traditional hybrids are becoming increasingly important in the U.S.

Hybrids generally cost less than full EVs, do not require buyers to install home chargers and eliminate concerns about finding charging stations on longer trips. They also deliver substantially better fuel economy than traditional gasoline vehicles.

Automakers therefore face an uncomfortable question: Did consumers actually want electric vehicles at their previous prices, or did they want electric vehicles after Washington paid $7,500 of the bill?

The answer matters far beyond dealerships.

Battery manufacturers, lithium suppliers, charging-station operators, utilities, construction companies and thousands of component suppliers have invested around projections for rapid U.S. EV growth.

If American demand settles permanently below those projections, some factories could operate below capacity and planned investments may need to be delayed, reduced or canceled.

Automakers have already begun adjusting.

The U.S. EV market share fell sharply after the credit disappeared, and manufacturers have responded with cheaper trims, incentives and changes to their EV product plans. Some have increasingly emphasized hybrids as a bridge between gasoline vehicles and fully electric models.

There is also a global competitive issue.

While U.S. demand has weakened, Chinese manufacturers continue expanding aggressively overseas, particularly across Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and other markets. Europe’s strong July growth demonstrates that electric vehicles themselves have not suddenly become unwanted.

The bigger question may be price.

Chinese manufacturers have spent years driving battery and manufacturing costs lower, while many U.S.-market EVs remain relatively expensive. Heavy tariffs also largely keep inexpensive Chinese electric vehicles out of the American market.

That leaves U.S. automakers trying to reduce costs while simultaneously recovering billions already invested in domestic EV production.

For consumers, however, July provided a remarkably simple lesson.

Government incentives can change purchasing behavior dramatically.

Remove a $7,500 discount, and a meaningful number of buyers decide they would rather purchase something else.

For Detroit and the broader auto industry, the 27% decline now forces the more important question: Can electric vehicles become inexpensive enough that Americans will buy them without Washington paying part of the price?

The next several years may determine whether the billions invested in America’s EV transition were building ahead of inevitable demand — or building ahead of demand that depended heavily on a subsidy.

JBizNews Desk | Detroit

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

A driver was extricated from an overturned vehicle in Lakewood this morning.

The accident happened shortly before noon at the intersection of Rt 70 and Vermont Avenue.

No serious injuries are being reported.

Avoid the area for the cleanup.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro says Secretary of State Marco Rubio is unlikely to challenge Vice President JD Vance for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, arguing that entering such a contest would carry significant political risks for Rubio regardless of the outcome.

During a podcast interview with Patrick Bet-David released Wednesday, Shapiro described Rubio as a “very risk-averse politician” and laid out several scenarios that he believes could convince the secretary of state to stay out of the race.

“If you’re Marco and you’re … gaming out what the next few years look like for you, here are your choices: Run against JD, you lose, you’re done,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro argued that even defeating Vance in a Republican primary could leave Rubio facing a difficult general-election environment, while staying on the sidelines could preserve his prospects for the future.

“You run against JD, you win, it’s a rough election cycle anyway because the president’s riding in the 30s and the country’s in the mood for ‘something new’ and you lose, you’re done,” Shapiro continued. “You don’t run, JD may pick you as his VP candidate, JD loses, you’re next. JD does not pick you and JD loses, you’re also next.”

Based on that calculation, Shapiro said he believes “Rubio will not run out of risk aversion” and added that he would put his “money on Vance” if the two were faced with a potential 2028 showdown.

Neither Vance nor Rubio has announced plans to seek the presidency in 2028, and both are currently serving in senior positions in the Trump administration. Speculation about their political futures, however, has continued to build well ahead of the next presidential campaign.

President Trump has himself fueled talk of a possible Vance-Rubio ticket, previously describing the pair as a “dream team” for a future presidential campaign.

“I think it sounds like presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate,” Trump told reporters in May, while declining to say which of the two he envisioned at the top of the ticket.

Vance subsequently dismissed suggestions that there was political friction between himself and Rubio, saying their relationship had become exceptionally close while emphasizing that neither should be focused on the 2028 campaign at this stage of the administration.

“I love Marco. I think he’s a great Secretary of State,” Vance said. “He’s become a very, very dear friend, but I think both of us are very much focused on accomplishing the American people’s business right now.

“If I was the American people, there are few things that I would hate more than a person who’s barely been in office a year-and-a-half who’s angling for a job two-and-a-half years down the road,” he continued. “Let’s do a good job now. We are, we’ve just got to keep at it.”

{Matzav.com}

ATLANTA (VINnews) — Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley said the company is tightening controls on its nationwide license-plate camera network following a Washington Post investigation that found dozens of cases in which law enforcement officers were accused of improperly accessing the system, including to track former romantic partners.

In an interview with CBS News, Langley apologized to people allegedly affected by the misuse and acknowledged that the company could have acted sooner.

Flock Safety is an Atlanta-based technology company that operates a network of automated license-plate reader cameras. Unlike ordinary security cameras, the systems use software to identify and record license plates along with vehicle details such as make, model, color, location and time.

The technology is used primarily by police departments and other law enforcement agencies to investigate crimes, locate stolen or wanted vehicles, find missing people and develop investigative leads. Flock says its technology is used by thousands of law enforcement agencies and communities across the country.

The company says its network includes more than 120,000 cameras across the United States. Police agencies participating in the system can search vehicle records and, depending on their access and agreements, use information from cameras operated by other participating organizations.

Flock also sells its technology to private neighborhoods, businesses and schools, where cameras can be used to monitor entrances, parking areas and surrounding roads.

The system has drawn increasing privacy concerns because searches can potentially reveal where a particular vehicle was recorded at different times and locations, even when the vehicle is not itself suspected of a crime.

The Washington Post reported that at least 50 law enforcement officers had been charged with or accused of misusing Flock and similar technology. In 46 cases involving Flock specifically, officers allegedly conducted improper searches, with some accused of using the system to monitor romantic partners or other people for personal reasons.

Langley said Flock is responding with new safeguards. Officers will generally be required to enter a criminal case number before conducting a search, with limited exceptions for emergencies. The company will also automatically review searches for unusual activity, a feature that previously was optional.

Flock is also reducing its default data-retention period from 30 days to seven days, although information connected to active investigations can be preserved longer.

Langley defended the technology’s role in legitimate law enforcement investigations while acknowledging the responsibility that comes with providing access to sensitive information.

“When you are given power … you should have higher standards of accountability,” Langley said.

He also warned officers against abusing the system: “You will get caught, plain and simple.”

Privacy advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have criticized the scale of the network and the potential for vehicle-location data to be misused. The ACLU said the shorter retention period could be a step forward but cautioned that the effectiveness of the change will depend on how exceptions are handled.

Flock says its cameras do not use facial recognition and are designed to focus on vehicles rather than individuals. The company maintains that the technology has helped police solve crimes, recover stolen vehicles and locate missing people.

The controversy has nevertheless placed renewed scrutiny on how law enforcement agencies access and use the rapidly expanding network of automated license-plate cameras.

A prominent cardiologist is raising questions about President Donald Trump’s health, pointing to bruising on his hands, swelling in his legs and instances in which the president appeared tired during official events — even as Trump’s physician has declared the 80-year-old president to be in “excellent health.”

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University who served as former Vice President Dick Cheney’s cardiologist for approximately 27 years, raised the concerns in an opinion piece published by The New York Times.

Reiner pointed to visible bruising on both of Trump’s hands. The White House has previously attributed the bruising to frequent handshaking combined with the president’s use of aspirin, though Reiner questioned whether that fully explains the markings.

The cardiologist also highlighted swelling seen in Trump’s legs. The White House has said Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition involving blood flow in the legs. Reiner argued that other potential causes, including heart or kidney problems, should also be considered.

Reiner additionally cited occasions in which Trump appeared to have difficulty staying awake during official events in the Oval Office, describing the episodes as possible excessive daytime sleepiness.

He also raised questions about advanced cardiac and abdominal imaging Trump underwent at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, arguing that the public has not received a detailed clinical explanation for why the tests were performed.

Reiner questioned why Trump’s routine physical examination reportedly involved a team of 22 specialists and also discussed the president’s repeated references to his performance on a cognitive screening test.

The White House and Trump’s physicians have repeatedly maintained that the president remains physically and cognitively fit to carry out his duties.

Reiner argued that presidents should face greater independent medical scrutiny, noting that commercial pilots, members of law enforcement and other professionals are required to meet medical fitness standards.

He called on Congress to consider establishing an independent medical body under provisions of the 25th Amendment that could evaluate a president’s health and provide greater transparency to the American public.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Hadassah Medical Center has completed a major expansion of its mehadrin kashrus system, introducing enhanced standards across its maternity wards and strengthening supervision throughout the hospital’s food operations.

Under the new system, buffet menus served in the maternity departments are under the supervision of the Badatz Eidah HaChareidis and Badatz Kehillos, allowing patients who maintain strict kashrus standards to rely on the food served throughout their hospital stay.

The upgrade includes stricter standards for selecting ingredients as well as expanded supervision inside Hadassah’s kitchens. A larger team of mashgichim now oversees the cooking process from beginning to end.

Mashgichim personally carry out halachically sensitive tasks, including checking legumes and washing leafy vegetables, while ensuring adherence to Bishul Yisroel standards.

As part of the expanded program, rabbanim from Hadassah’s kashrus committee recently toured the production facilities of Chasalat, which operates under the supervision of the Badatz Eidah HaChareidis.

The rabbanim reviewed the growing, sorting and packaging processes to ensure a reliable supply of leafy vegetables meeting the hospital’s enhanced kashrus requirements.

Hadassah is also preparing comprehensive halachic guides for patients addressing issues that can arise during hospitalization, including matters involving medicine and halacha and taharas hamishpacha.

The guides are being developed in consultation with leading rabbanim and senior Hadassah physicians in an effort to provide patients with authoritative guidance on complex medical-halachic questions.

The medical center additionally operates a dedicated information hotline providing updated details on minyanim, locations of batei medrash and shuls, guidance for Shabbos and Yom Tov stays, and instructions for Kohanim regarding permitted access routes throughout the medical center.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Congressional Democrats are lashing out at the Trump administration over plans by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to purchase thousands of gloves capable of delivering painful electrical shocks, arguing that the agency should not be equipped with another use-of-force device amid scrutiny of recent encounters involving ICE personnel.

ICE disclosed Monday that it intends to spend as much as $20 million acquiring a device known as G.L.O.V.E., short for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter.

The agency described the technology in its acquisition notice as a “distraction and de-escalation device,” but Democratic lawmakers pointed to recent violent and fatal encounters involving ICE officers as they questioned why agents should receive an additional tool capable of inflicting pain.

“Senate Republicans had the opportunity to rein in ICE and CBP, they refused. Instead they handed DHS BILLIONS more of your tax dollars without any constraint after the shooting and killing individuals in the streets. Now, ICE is looking to purchase electrical shock gloves to continue terrorizing our communities,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote on the social platform X.

“How soon will they be used to inflict further cruelty?”

The controversy follows two recent fatal shootings involving ICE officers in Texas and Maine, as well as the emergence of video showing an ICE officer pointing a firearm at a woman in Virginia.

The Virginia woman, who is a U.S. citizen, said she possessed video contradicting the officer’s allegation that she had attempted to strike ICE personnel with her vehicle.

“ICE agents shoot innocent people. They pepper spray innocent people. And now the Trump administration wants to spend $20 MILLION to give them gloves to tase people. This is insanity,” Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee wrote on X.

“ICE does not need another weapon.”

Compliant Technologies, the company behind the gloves, includes a series of restrictions and warnings in its instructional material, cautioning that improper use could result in “injury or death.”

Although the manufacturer says the gloves are not considered dangerous when used on healthy individuals, its guidance advises against their use on pregnant women and elderly people. It also warns that individuals may have “underlying medical conditions that may or may not be easily discernable with casual observation.”

The company additionally instructs officers to “always give the subject(s) a reasonable opportunity to comply before force is used.”

ICE defended its decision to pursue the technology but did not directly answer questions about what specific rules would govern use of the gloves or whether agents would be required to follow all of the manufacturer’s recommendations. Instead, the agency pointed to its existing use-of-force policy and said officers “regularly receive ongoing use of force training.”

“ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country. Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards,” the agency said in a statement.

The electrical charge requires direct contact with a person’s skin and cannot penetrate clothing. The manufacturer’s instructions also explicitly prohibit using the gloves merely in response to “verbal defiance” or employing them as punishment or torture.

White House border czar Tom Homan portrayed the technology as an option that could fall between lesser and more serious uses of force.

“Look, it’s another device to help someone be compliant, whether or not — you know, you just can’t go from zero to 100, right?” he said during an appearance on Fox News on Thursday.

Homan said there was no immediate timetable for deploying the gloves. He also suggested the technology might be better suited for detention centers, where officers generally have more information about the individuals they are dealing with, rather than encounters involving members of the public.

“There’s a lot of training involved. There’s still some background issues that need to be dealt with. So the implementation of these gloves out in the field are going to be a while. I think they serve a better purpose in detention facility, where detainees get out of control and there’s fights in the facility,” Homan said.

“So we’ll see. Still, the training protocol is being written and being reviewed. Then we’ll see when they get rolled out.”

Democratic lawmakers nevertheless portrayed the planned purchase as another example of what they say is excessive and abusive immigration enforcement.

“As if assaulting people and shooting people in the streets wasn’t enough. Now, they’re spending $20 million of YOUR taxpayer dollars on painful electric shock gloves for their masked, lawless goons,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) wrote on X.

“This is just not the government people want. A government so sadistic and cruel that it delights in using your hard earned tax dollars to buy gloves that shock people upon contact,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote on X.

The recent encounter involving Virginia resident Carolina Molina has also become part of the debate over whether ICE personnel can be trusted to use the devices appropriately.

Video Molina posted to social media begins with an ICE officer aiming a gun through her open vehicle window and accusing her of attempting to run over agents. Molina responds that they are “full of s—” and says she has dashcam footage that would disprove the allegation.

When Molina tells the officer that she is an American citizen, the agent threatens to arrest her and responds, “I don’t care.”

“Electroshock gloves to be worn by ICE agents. Masked agents pulling a gun on a U.S. citizen. We can’t keep funding agencies that encourage this kind of behavior in their ranks,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) wrote on X, also pointing to recent deaths at the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said during a Wednesday press conference that her office is examining the planned purchase to determine whether there could be grounds for legal action.

James also warned that if anyone in New York is injured through use of the gloves, she would be prepared to pursue the matter in court.

“Of course, we are outraged, and in the event that a New Yorker is injured as a result of these gloves, obviously there will be a private right of action as well as action from the state of New York,” she told reporters.

“You can best be assured of that.”

{Matzav.com}

Dear Admin,

There is a reason there is so much animosity toward our children’s mosdos, and it is time we started talking honestly about it.

Frum education is not a “normal” expense that the average family can simply absorb. It is NOT like paying the gas bill or calling a plumber. And stating so shows how out of touch you are unfortunately. Those are expenses that, while sometimes painful, most families understand as part of the ordinary cost of maintaining a household. Tuition is something else entirely.

Yes, it should be a priority. Of course it should. Our children’s education matters deeply to us. But prioritizing an expense does not magically make it affordable.

Families cannot physically print more dollars.

When my HVAC system broke a few years ago, we went two years using window units because that was what we could afford. We knew we needed a new system. We knew it was important. But knowing something is necessary does not mean you can immediately pay for it.

So when a school tells a struggling family, “This is the true cost of educating your child,” it can feel incredibly out of touch.

Perhaps that really is the cost of running the school. But where is the transparency? What exactly are families being asked to fund? What are the expenses? What are the salaries? What is the administrative overhead? What are the financial priorities?

And when families see school leadership enjoying a very comfortable lifestyle—Pesach in Orlando , high end cars, and other visible signs of affluence—the disconnect becomes even harder to swallow. It may be unfair to judge an individual based on appearances, but the perception matters. When parents are being told they simply need to “find the money” while they themselves are struggling to pay their bills, those optics inevitably create resentment.

There is another fundamental problem that we rarely acknowledge: our schools are not operating in a normal marketplace.

Parents cannot simply shop around.

In many communities, a family has one realistic school option that will accept their child. Maybe there are technically several schools, but because of geography, admissions policies, hashkafic considerations, sibling placement, or social realities, the practical choices can be extremely limited.

And once a school accepts your child, parents are often presented with a tuition number and some form of financial agreement. What meaningful bargaining power does the family actually have?

A normal consumer can say, “That price is too high. I’ll go somewhere else.”

Parents cannot necessarily do that with their children’s education.

They are not choosing whether to buy a particular brand of furniture or which plumber to hire. They are trying to secure a place for their child in the educational system their family depends upon.

That is why the constant guilt can be so damaging.

Of course parents should contribute what they reasonably can. Of course schools have enormous expenses. Of course teachers and staff deserve to be paid properly. And of course providing a quality education costs real money.

But there has to be room for an honest conversation about what happens when the “true cost” is simply beyond what a family can pay.

Telling people to prioritize tuition does not solve a mathematical problem.

If a family’s income is $150,000 and their basic living expenses already consume most of that income, telling them that tuition is the priority does not create another $40,000. It just forces them to decide which other bills will go unpaid.

That is not a moral failure.

It is a financial reality.

And there is another aspect of this conversation that deserves attention: the way our community publicly raises and allocates charitable dollars.

We regularly see enormous sums raised for important causes—and many of those causes are unquestionably worthy. But for parents who are drowning in tuition, it can be disheartening to watch millions of dollars flow toward other priorities while our schools continue to struggle financially and families continue to be crushed by tuition bills.

This is not an argument against those other causes. It is an argument for asking whether we have built our priorities and our institutions in a sustainable way.

Perhaps part of the problem is structural.

We have created a private educational system in which families are essentially required to participate, schools have enormous operating costs, parents have limited ability to choose or negotiate, and the system relies heavily on tuition and fundraising to survive.

That is a difficult model to sustain indefinitely.

And if we want to reduce the animosity toward our mosdos, we need to stop treating parents’ financial struggles as a character flaw.

Parents are not saying they don’t value education.

They are saying they cannot afford what they are being asked to pay.

Those are two very different statements.

The answer cannot simply be more guilt, more pressure, and another reminder that “this is the true cost.”

Maybe the real conversation we need to have is: Is the way we have structured frum education sustainable for the families we expect to support it?

If the answer is no, then we need to be willing to talk about transparency, accountability, alternative funding models, community priorities, administrative costs, financial assistance, and perhaps even fundamental changes to the way our schools are structured.

Because families are being crushed.

And telling them that education is important does not change that fact.

S.E.

TLS welcomes your letters by submitting them to us via  Whatsapp  or via email  [email protected]

Yeshiva bochur Yosef Levi, a talmid at Yeshivas Pe’er Yosef, was released from Military Prison 10 on Sunday morning after spending nearly three months in custody following his arrest at his home in Yerushalayim’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.

Levi’s arrest sparked protests and demonstrations, while his father, Rav Meir Levi, undertook an extraordinary show of support for his son outside the gates of the military prison.

For 42 consecutive days, Rav Meir remained outside Prison 10 with a shtender and Gemara, learning Torah day and night despite the intense summer heat.

He slept in his vehicle and refused to leave the area, remaining near his son throughout the detention while demonstrating his unwavering commitment to limud haTorah.

When Yosef finally walked out of the prison gates Sunday morning, he was greeted by family members and friends with singing and dancing.

The celebration outside the military prison was organized by the Nosnim Gav organization.

After nearly three months behind bars and 42 days of his father learning Torah outside the prison gates, Yosef returned home to his family and yeshiva.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

More than 2.5 million properties across the 10 most exposed western states face a moderate or greater risk of wildfire damage, representing nearly $1.4 trillion in reconstruction cost value (RCV), according to Cotality’s 2026 Wildfire Risk Report.

The analysis, released Wednesday, highlights a growing concern for insurers, reinsurers, investors and homeowners. It explains that losses are increasingly driven not only by wildfires but by conflagration, when fires spread structure to structure within neighborhoods.

Risk concentrated in California, Colorado, Texas

California remains the most exposed state, with 1.28 million at-risk properties and $850 billion in reconstruction cost value, the report found. But nearly half of all at-risk properties across the top 10 states (49.9%) are located outside California.

Colorado and Texas together account for nearly 560,000 at-risk properties and $252 billion in RCV, almost matching the $277 billion of exposure across the remaining seven states combined. Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Washington and Utah round out the 10 most exposed states.

At the metro level, Los Angeles has the highest exposure with nearly 250,000 at-risk properties and $209 billion in RCV. Four of the 10 most exposed metros are outside California, led by Austin with more than 100,000 at-risk properties and $49.2 billion in RCV, followed by San Antonio, Denver and Spokane, Washington.

Conflagration risk reshapes exposure maps

Cotality’s modeling focuses on conflagration risk, in which the “fuel” for fire transitions from wildland into developed areas and then moves home to home. The company said traditional wildfire models, which emphasize terrain and vegetation, can understate this neighborhood-level hazard.

Layering conflagration potential onto a traditional wildfire risk score can add as many as 40 points to an individual property’s score, pushing meaningful hazard risk into areas legacy maps have classified as low risk, according to the report. That shift could materially change mortgage underwriting, pricing and capital decisions in markets previously viewed as relatively safe.

“Hearing that a property has a higher risk score than previously thought should not be thought of as a bad thing. It shows that new data and analytic capabilities create an opportunity to protect properties more effectively in the evolving wildfire environment we’re facing,” said Jamie Knippen, Cotality’s director of hazard insights.

“This represents a significant opportunity for the entire market: it empowers carriers to move away from broad-brush risk assessments and safely expand their underwriting footprint, and actively rewards homeowners who invest in resilience.”

Mitigation drives sharp differences in expected losses

The report also introduces a property-level mitigation score that evaluates three dimensions: community protections, conditions on and around the parcel, and how fire-resistant the structure itself is.

Homes in the top 10% of mitigation scores carry expected losses roughly 78% below the statewide average, Cotality found. Properties in the bottom 10% have more than 10 times the average expected loss — about $47 in expected loss for every $1 on the best-prepared homes.

Cotality said that spread illustrates how targeted risk-reduction measures — such as defensible space, hardening of roofs and vents, and neighborhood-scale fire breaks or fuel management — can materially change loss outcomes even in high-hazard regions.

For housing professionals, the findings underscore a growing divide between highly mitigated and underprepared homes in wildfire-exposed markets. That gap is increasingly relevant for insurance carrier appetite, premium levels and, ultimately, property valuations and mortgage performance.

Implications for insurers and housing markets

Insurers in wildfire-prone states have already been pulling back capacity, raising rates or exiting specific ZIP codes as catastrophic losses and reinsurance costs have climbed. Regulators in California and other states are simultaneously pressing carriers to stay in or reenter high-risk areas, often with new requirements around catastrophe modeling and mitigation credits.

Within that backdrop, more granular property-level data could help carriers distinguish between homes with similar geographic wildfire exposures but drastically different conflagration and mitigation profiles. In turn, this can support more surgical underwriting and pricing rather than broad moratoriums or nonrenewals.

“Property-level data empowers insurers to identify what steps homeowners can take to mitigate the risk on their properties and leverage that additional resilience in their decision making. Expanding the assessment means going beyond terrain and vegetation to look at factors like structure density, building materials, wind patterns and ember exposure,” Knippen said. “Carriers that account for these factors upfront can make sure homes are properly insured for the catastrophe they actually face — not just the forest fire, but the fire next door.”

For lenders, servicers and investors, the report’s findings point to the importance of understanding both insurance availability and mitigation status at the property level, particularly in fast-growing metros such as Austin, San Antonio and Denver where exposure is rising.

As more states consider building code updates, defensible space requirements and community-focused wildfire resilience programs, tools that quantify conflagration and mitigation could influence zoning decisions, disclosure rules, and eligibility for public or private resilience funding.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication.

This post was originally published on here.

98% Employed. Ranked Best. A Degree That Delivers.

PCS/FDU Master’s in Accounting: Where top credentials turn into top careers

Open House Wednesday, August 19

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Open House:  Wednesday, August 19, 7:30 

In-person: 1771 Madison Ave. Executive Center

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For more info:
👤 Men: 732-905-9700 x665 / [email protected]
👤 Women: 732-367-1500 / [email protected]

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

Question:

Firstly, Thank you for the opportunity to bring issues, both big and small to your attention.

When traveling south on new hampshire ave, over the 70, New hampshire narrows to 1 lane as it approached locust street. This often causes traffic to back up by the bottleneck. Perhaps the right lane can turn into a right turn lane for locust street and then narrow to 1 lane after that intersection. As someone that lives in the area (In lakewood at the tr border) I see many cars do turn right onto locust, so perhaps this can ease the congestion?

On a different note, by the July 3/4 heat wave/ power outage approximately 10 houses on my block (including mine) had a power outage on July 2. When JCP and L came on site, we were told that the fuse blew and it needs a new transformer. They will put in the request and for now just turn the fuse back on. The next day, July 3 the power went out again. When the crew showed up, they had no idea that this happened the night before. They replaced the fuse with a bigger fuse, but told us its a “band-aid “and they are putting in the request for a new transformer. They said hopefully sometime that night it would be replaced. Well that evening was the big storm and they clearly were busy with outages everywhere. So far our power is holding, I’m just wondering if we can get it fixed before it blows again? Who do I address this concern to?

Thank you again for your time and attention.

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good morning,

That stretch of road belongs to the county. I know they have some plans to address parking & turning lanes. I’ve forwarded your request to the county engineer so they can weigh in on exactly what is going on there.

I also reached out to the head of JCPL to see what’s up with the repair

Thanks,

Ray

Question:

Dear Mr. Coles, just wondering is the parking lot on 2nd street on schedule for resurfacing? It literally feels like a wave pool!!

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good news. The contract to repave this lot have already been awarded. Hopefully it will be complete sometime this fall

Take care

Ray

—————–

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

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

An Israeli reporter and videographer came under attack in Belfast in Northern Ireland last week while filming a report on rising antisemitism in Europe.

i24NEWS reporter Yonatan Raveh and videographer Nadav Abas were interviewing passersby in Belfast. One local became enraged when he realized that the crew was from Israel and attempted to seize their camera equipment.

When he failed, he continued disrupting the shoot, made obscene gestures at the camera, and forced them to stop filming.

They tried to defuse the situation and move away, but the assailant approached the videographer in a threatening manner. Raveh and Abas then called on security personnel at nearby restaurants for assistance.

At that point, the thug picked up a large beer glass and threw it forcefully at Abas, striking him and leaving him with a bleeding gash on the back of his head.

The crew then left the scene. Abas did not require further medical treatment, and both men are in good condition.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Family getting up:

Mrs. Judy Feig
Sister

Rebel Creamery has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Utah, reporting approximately $13.78 million in assets and $23.85 million in liabilities as it appeals a $23.785 million judgment awarded to rival Van Leeuwen Ice Cream in a trade-dress dispute.

Rebel ice cream is sold at Walmart, Kroger, Safeway and other grocery stores nationwide.

Rebel Creamery LLC filed for Chapter 11 protection on Aug. 14 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah, according to court records.

Van Leeuwen is listed among Rebel’s unsecured creditors with a $23.785 million claim stemming from the federal judgment. Rebel listed the claim as disputed and noted that the judgment is under appeal.

The Van Leeuwen judgment accounts for nearly all the unsecured liabilities that Rebel listed at fixed amounts in its bankruptcy schedules. The company also reported approximately $5.22 million in cash and cash equivalents, $2.59 million in accounts receivable and $5.65 million in inventory.

Rebel’s voluntary petition estimated both its assets and liabilities at between $10 million and $50 million and said funds would be available for distribution to unsecured creditors. The filing lists Austin Archibald as the company’s manager and member and Michael Johnson of Ray Quinney & Nebeker as bankruptcy counsel.

The bankruptcy filing came less than a month after U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee ruled that Rebel had intentionally infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen’s trade dress through its ice cream packaging.

“The evidence at that trial left no doubt that Rebel infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen’s trade dress and did so intentionally,” Komitee wrote in a July 16 memorandum and order.

Van Leeuwen sued Rebel in 2021, alleging that the company’s packaging copied the distinctive appearance of its ice cream pints.

The court described Van Leeuwen’s trade dress as including monochromatic cardboard pints with matching lids, a primarily pastel color palette, black script lettering and an overall minimalist design.

Komitee found that Rebel’s packaging was similar and that the evidence supported findings of consumer confusion and bad faith. The judge ordered Rebel to stop selling products bearing trade dress likely to be confused with Van Leeuwen’s and required the company to redesign its packaging.

Van Leeuwen sought $36.4 million in Rebel’s profits, but the court reduced the award by 33%, finding that some sales were driven by demand for keto and better-for-you ice cream rather than the packaging at issue.

The reduction left Van Leeuwen entitled to $23.785 million in Rebel’s profits from sales of ice cream pints bearing the infringing trade dress.

Court filings do not establish that the Van Leeuwen judgment was the sole cause of Rebel’s bankruptcy filing.

Rebel’s bankruptcy paperwork lists the Van Leeuwen litigation as being on appeal.

The only Americans showing a clear positive balance of happiness after the pandemic are married ones, according to Sam Peltzman, an economist at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business who has tracked the General Social Survey’s happiness question for years. Unmarried adults — about 45% of the adult population — are now net unhappy. Peltzman calls it a happiness-segregated society by marriage.

The overall picture is not a rebound so much as a hole that has barely filled in. The balance between “very happy” and “not too happy” held steady from 1972 through 2018, then dropped 25 points when the pandemic hit. It has recovered five. For comparison, Peltzman put the Great Recession’s hit at 10 points at most, and said it came back right away.

Split by marital status, the two lines diverge sharply. Married respondents moved from roughly +30 to +50. Unmarried respondents went from near breakeven to about -15. Both groups took a hit in the crash, and Peltzman said if anything the unmarried were hit slightly harder. The married cohort held its ground and then improved; the unmarried cohort did not.

The obvious explanation — fewer people are married, so the average fell — does not hold. Peltzman said the marriage rate has not moved in 15 years, sitting at roughly 55/45. Rates did decline from the 1970s through the early 2000s, and his earlier work found that decline explained most of the pre-pandemic happiness slide, but that slide had leveled off well before 2020. What changed was not how many people are married, but how much worse it now feels to be unmarried.

The affordability explanation does not hold either, at least not in the direction most people would assume. Peltzman’s data show the steepest declines among the groups that started with the most — white, high-income, college-educated, right-leaning Americans — and he noted that affordability pressure is a lower-income concern while upper-income people were hit hardest in the crash. Explanations resting on inequality, he said, are not consistent with the facts.

He is emphatic about the limits of the finding. Happy people get married and married people become happy, he said, and warned against making personal decisions on the basis of the data. A separate 2025 paper of his found the marital premium holds across nearly every group tested — age, race, income, education, sexual orientation — with cohabiting couples getting a smaller version, about 10 points. Correlation, not a prescription.

Other researchers point at the social side rather than the balance sheet. Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies said economic pessimism contributes, as young people worry about inflation and housing costs, but that the negativity bias of social media and declines in socializing, dating and marriage loom larger, because young adults’ social ties have deteriorated far more than their economic position has. The age data support the emphasis: from 2000 to 2019, roughly 10% to 15% of every age group reported being not too happy, but from 2021 to 2024 the 18-to-35 group jumped to 26%, against 20% for the middle-aged and 21% for those 56 and up. Peltzman also found that Americans’ belief that other people treat them fairly crashed in the same year and by the same scale, which he described as social glue coming apart.

For businesses, the practical content is that the American consumer is not one consumer. Gallup’s wellbeing data from 2009 to 2023 found 61% of married adults aged 25 to 50 classified as thriving against 45% of those who never married, a 16-point gap. That gap is not new; what is new is a large unmarried bloc that has moved into net-negative territory on the broadest happiness measure available.

The economic sorting behind it is well established. Researchers describe a marriage divide in which people with more education and stable earnings are both more likely to marry and less likely to divorce — 69% of college-graduate women were married by 2010 against 56% of women with only a high school diploma, and the gap has widened since — concentrating the advantages of marriage in higher-income households. The marriage rate has fallen 26% since 2000 while the divorce rate has fallen by nearly half, which produces fewer married households that are, on average, more financially stable than the ones they replaced.

Where that shows up in transactions is at the wedding itself and after. Bank of America’s card and payment data show wedding spending per customer up 8.5% year over year through May, against an average national wedding cost of $36,000 in 2025, up $3,000 from the prior year. Marriage volume recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, with 34 of every 1,000 unmarried adults marrying that year. Fewer weddings, more expensive ones, sold to a narrower and better-off customer.

The takeaway for anyone selling to households is that aggregate consumer sentiment is now averaging two populations moving in opposite directions, and the smaller, wealthier one is the one feeling better about the future. Marketing built on a single American mood is measuring something that no longer exists.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

Hundreds of police officers are set to flood Washington Heights and Inwood on Sunday as city officials take steps to prevent another massive gathering from developing along Dyckman Street following last weekend’s deadly violence and widespread property damage.

Authorities said approximately 700 officers will be positioned throughout the neighborhoods after a social media post circulated promoting a “Dominican Dyckman Takeover Part 3” scheduled to begin at noon Sunday.

The increased police presence comes exactly one week after thousands of young people converged on the Dyckman area following the Dominican Day Parade. Officials said the massive crowd overwhelmed police resources and resulted in damage to vehicles and nearby businesses.

Council Member Carmen De La Rosa said people came from multiple states to participate in last Sunday’s gathering. According to officials, damage to property and vehicles totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The unrest also turned deadly when a 23-year-old man was fatally stabbed.

“When these gatherings happen, the toll on the safety of our community is real,” De La Rosa said. “We unfortunately have lost a young life based on the violence that ensued after these activities occurred in our community, and we send our deepest condolences to his family.”

Officials stressed that their intention is not to target or demonize those attending, but rather to stop a repeat of the violence, disorder and destruction seen the previous weekend.

Local business owners, meanwhile, said another early shutdown would come at a significant cost, particularly for those who already lost business after closing their establishments early because of safety concerns.

In an extraordinary appeal ahead of the Yemei Harachamim, Maran Rav Dov Landau shlita is calling upon Klal Yisrael to help families facing devastating illnesses and life-threatening medical crises.

These families are carrying crushing medical expenses while struggling simply to keep their homes afloat.

And now, Rav Dov Landau has given donors an extraordinary bracha:

May those who become partners in this special fund merit Divine protection and be spared from all troubles and illnesses — spiritually and physically — and be protected from harsh decrees and distress, at home and abroad.

May they be judged favorably and blessed with a good and sweet year, with abundant nachas from their children and descendants, parnassah b’revach, and success in all the work of their hands.

THE YESHUA — 391

ישועה = 391

Donate $391 and become a partner in bringing refuah and yeshuah to families desperately in need.

Every donor of $391 will receive a special shtar signed by Maran Rav Dov Landau shlita, promising this rare and powerful bracha.

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Bring a YESHUA to a family in need — and may you and your family be blessed with protection, health, nachas, parnassah and a good and sweet year. DONATE HERE.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A pro-Palestinian activist vessel that was preparing to sail roughly 3,000 kilometers to the Gaza Strip has been forced to remain in the German port of Kiel after colliding with a dock, causing significant damage and disrupting its planned voyage.

According to local reports, the vessel struck the harbor pier with considerable force, causing an estimated €30,000 in damage. The incident prompted local emergency authorities to place a containment barrier around the ship due to technical concerns and unresolved damage assessments.

The ship, originally a Danish vessel named Fru Sand and temporarily renamed Handala II, departed from Marstal with the intention of joining a maritime mission to Gaza. However, the voyage has been plagued by difficulties, including reported engine problems and a police investigation into the damage caused to the port’s infrastructure.

Kiel Port Director Milenhardt said the vessel “is completely unsuitable for the harbor and needs to leave as soon as possible,” warning that it could pose a safety risk during strong winds.

According to the Danish outlet Kieler Nachrichten, the project has also encountered financial setbacks. Its crowdfunding campaign reportedly raised only about 10 percent of its fundraising target before donations largely ceased.

Despite the technical, legal, and financial obstacles, the vessel’s new captain, Jan Wolnik, said the organizers still hope to reach Gaza in September or October, saying the mission is being carried out “for the children of Gaza.”

While the ship remains stranded in Kiel, the activists have joined local supporters from the group Students for Palestine in holding demonstrations near the damaged dock.

France banned telemarketing calls made without prior consent as of Tuesday, Aug. 11, with penalties of up to €75,000 — about $87,000 — for each illegal call placed by an individual, and up to €375,000, roughly $435,000, for each one placed by a company. The fines are assessed per call rather than per campaign, which is the provision that actually matters. A single afternoon of dialing a purchased list is now an existential number rather than a cost of doing business.

The rule is simple: businesses may not contact consumers without prior consent, according to Alice Vilcot, chief of staff at the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control. Consent can be withdrawn at any moment. If a consumer objects during a call, the call must stop and the caller may not make contact for that purpose again.

The change is structural, not incremental. France has moved from an opt-out system to mandatory opt-in — from a world where the burden sat on the person being called to one where it sits on the company doing the calling. Under the old arrangement, anyone who wanted to avoid sales calls had to register with a government service, and consumer groups said some call centers simply ignored the list. Bloctel, that registry, launched in 2016; a survey by the consumer group UFC-Que Choisir later found nearly half of registered users still receiving calls. An Ireland-based company was fined €6 million last year for calling numbers on it.

Two exceptions keep normal commerce intact. A company may call if it already has the customer’s agreement — obtained at a purchase, in a shop or through a form — and it may call about a contract the customer has already signed. That preserves service calls, renewals and follow-ups on existing accounts. What it eliminates is the cold list.

The scale of the problem explains the severity of the response. Government estimates put about three-quarters of people in France receiving at least one unsolicited sales call every week, many receiving several. In 2024, eleven consumer organizations jointly demanded a ban, describing relentless harassment across landlines and mobiles. Fifteen years of narrower measures had preceded it — bans on calling from certain mobile prefixes, restrictions on times of day and weekends, and sector-specific rules covering training accounts, home adaptations for disability or old age, and energy-efficiency renovation. Those covered a handful of industries. The new rule covers nearly all of them.

The law was framed officially as an anti-fraud measure tied to public assistance programs, aimed at the high-pressure sales scripts common in energy renovation and financial services rather than at annoyance alone.

Businesses had time to prepare. The legislation was promulgated on June 30, 2025 and published the following day, taking effect more than thirteen months later. The practical work is unglamorous: auditing call lists, deleting every number without documented consent, and building consent capture and withdrawal into whatever system the sales team runs on. That applies to any contact center, CRM platform or sales operation dialing French numbers, wherever it sits.

The employment consequence lands outside France. Morocco has warned that between 40,000 and 50,000 call center jobs are at risk — an offshore industry built substantially on serving French consumers by telephone, now facing the removal of its largest use case. Those centers will either convert to inbound service work or shrink.

France is not the first mover, but it is the strictest. Germany has required consent for telemarketing since 2009, while the United Kingdom and United States still run opt-out systems. British companies that call people who have opted out face fines up to £500,000, about $670,000, per call. The British number is larger, but it applies only to calls placed to numbers on the preference list. France’s smaller per-call figure applies to every call without documented consent, which is a far wider base. The exposure is the fine multiplied by the number of calls that qualify, and France has enlarged the multiplier enormously.

For American companies, the reach is the thing to check. The obligation attaches to calling a French consumer, not to being a French company. Any firm with a French customer base, an outsourced dialing operation or a lead list that includes French numbers is inside the rule as of this week. Consumers can report violations through a government website, which means enforcement does not depend on regulators discovering the calls themselves.

The broader signal for anyone building a sales operation is that the telephone is losing its status as an open channel in Europe. Consent is becoming the asset, and a list of numbers without it is becoming a liability priced at €375,000 apiece.

JBizNews Desk | Paris

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

Documents captured by IDF forces in the Gaza Strip reveal how Hamas spent years building military infrastructure in Lebanon as part of a strategic plan to open another front against Israel.

According to a Kan News report citing research by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, senior Hamas officials were already discussing the establishment of a military force in Lebanon with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a representative of Iran’s Quds Force as early as 2012.

A plan was developed as part of preparations for a multi-front war against Israel that included intentions to establish combat cells, launch rockets, prepare for infiltrations into Israel, and the procurement and production of weapons.

The documents indicate that by May 2021, during Operation Guardian of the Walls, Hamas had already established an initial operational infrastructure in southern Lebanon and launched rockets into Israel with Hezbollah’s approval.

Following the operation, Yahya Sinwar pushed to significantly expand the project. Documents from 2022 set a goal of building a force of approximately 2,000 terrorists, who were intended, among other roles, to serve as an advance force alongside Hezbollah’s Radwan Force and carry out infiltrations into Israel.

Although Hamas never succeeded in building the force on the scale it envisioned, its military wing in Lebanon became actively involved in the fighting following October 7. Beginning on October 8, 2023, Hamas terrorists in Lebanon fought alongside Hezbollah and claimed responsibility for 13 attacks against northern Israel through November 2024.

Despite commitments made to Lebanese authorities following shooting incidents in March 2025 that it would not violate Lebanon’s sovereignty, Hamas has continued to reject the Lebanese government’s decision establishing a state monopoly on weapons.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said the captured documents demonstrate that Hamas’s military presence in Lebanon was not an isolated initiative, but a long-term strategic project developed as part of its vision for a multi-front confrontation with Israel.

Despite internal difficulties and disagreements with Iran and Hezbollah, Hamas ultimately succeeded in making the infrastructure operational. However, the project never reached the scale or level of influence that Hamas leaders had originally envisioned.

If Lebanese authorities decide to enforce the disarmament of Hamas, the ramifications could extend well beyond eliminating another military front against Israel. Such a move could also significantly weaken Hamas’s influence in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps and undermine its position vis-à-vis Fatah and the PLO.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci of deliberately misleading Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying newly revealed private communications show a stark divide between what the longtime infectious disease official was saying behind closed doors and what he was telling the public.

“He knew that he was lying, and there was something about his character that made him feel that that was okay,” Kennedy said Friday during an appearance on “The Alex Marlow Show.”

Kennedy, who authored a highly critical book about Fauci before becoming a member of the Trump administration, said the newly disclosed material largely reinforced conclusions he had already reached. Still, he said seeing Fauci’s private remarks placed alongside his public pronouncements was “really bracing.”

“There was just this massive delta between what he was telling himself every day and then what he was telling the country,” Kennedy said.

The HHS secretary further charged that Fauci became enamored with the public attention he received during the pandemic, pointing to what Kennedy characterized as Fauci’s “vanity” and “giddiness” about his newfound celebrity status.

“It was all, ‘Make people do what we want them to do,’ and then, you know, enjoy the fame,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy’s broadside comes as congressional Republicans renew their scrutiny of Fauci and his actions during the pandemic.

Fauci on Friday rejected a request to voluntarily appear before Sen. Ron Johnson’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. His attorney contended that subjecting Fauci to another appearance would “impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci for political purposes.”

The refusal followed a combative July 29 Senate hearing during which Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination approximately 100 times.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee later voted along party lines to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress, potentially clearing the way for the matter to be referred to the Justice Department.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), one of Fauci’s most persistent congressional critics, has argued that Fauci should not be allowed to rely on the Fifth Amendment when questioned about actions covered by President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon.

Fauci’s legal team has countered that even with the pardon in place, answers he provides in new testimony could potentially expose him to additional legal jeopardy.

Kennedy conceded that Biden’s pardon presents a significant hurdle to any effort by the Trump administration to pursue criminal charges against Fauci over his actions during the pandemic.

“The problem with prosecuting Dr. Fauci is that the Biden administration gave him a full pardon,” Kennedy said. “So it makes it difficult.”

Kennedy’s acknowledgment highlights the practical obstacle facing Republicans who have spent years demanding that Fauci be held legally accountable for alleged wrongdoing.

Although Paul and other Republicans have repeatedly called for Fauci to face prosecution, Biden’s preemptive pardon has made the prospect of building a criminal case based on Fauci’s pandemic-era conduct considerably more complicated.

Kennedy maintained, however, that the importance of the newly disclosed Fauci communications goes well beyond the question of whether the longtime National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director can ever face criminal prosecution.

The HHS secretary said restoring Americans’ confidence in federal public health institutions will require officials to be candid about uncertainty rather than presenting unsettled questions as established facts. Government officials, he argued, must be willing to clearly distinguish between what they know and what remains unknown.

“It’s absolutely critical that people believe the government agencies when they say something,” Kennedy said.

“And that means that the government agencies have to trust the people and trust that they can tell them the truth.”

They’re running loose on Rt. 9 in Howell this morning.

https://thelakewoodscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/wa-1786885924984-lw39tp.mp4

Google is making artificial intelligence substantially cheaper for businesses to use, launching a new Gemini model Thursday at half the price of the model it is replacing as the competition to automate everyday business work intensifies.

The new Gemini 3.7 Flash is aimed at software coding, AI agents and automated business workflows. Google is offering introductory pricing through the end of 2026 of 75 cents per 1 million input tokens and $3.75 per 1 million output tokens, compared with $1.50 and $7.50 for Gemini 3.6 Flash.

But what does that actually mean in dollars?

A token is a small piece of text processed by an AI model. Roughly speaking, 1 million tokens can represent around 750,000 English words, depending on the material.

That means a business could feed Gemini roughly 750,000 words of documents for about 75 cents.

A 10,000-word batch of invoices, contracts, reports or other documents would cost roughly one penny for the AI to read and process on the input side.

The output costs more. If Gemini generated the equivalent of 100,000 words in responses, summaries, reports or other work, the output portion would cost roughly 50 cents at the introductory price.

That is the real business story.

Companies pay AI providers based largely on how much information their applications send into a model and how much the model generates back. Cutting those prices in half can transform the economics of using AI hundreds, thousands or even millions of times.

A company might use the model to review invoices, summarize contracts, categorize customer emails, prepare reports, analyze documents, write software or operate customer-service systems.

One AI-assisted email may save only a few minutes. But a system processing 100,000 documents or customer requests can potentially eliminate hundreds or thousands of hours of repetitive work.

That is why the AI competition is increasingly becoming about something business owners understand very well: cost per job.

The industry spent the past several years competing over which company could build the smartest AI model. Increasingly, Google and its rivals are competing over how inexpensively those models can perform useful work.

For businesses, that distinction matters enormously.

An AI system that saves an employee five minutes but costs several dollars every time it runs may not make economic sense. If that same job costs pennies, the calculation changes.

Google is specifically positioning Gemini 3.7 Flash for agentic workflows, where AI does more than answer a single question. An AI agent can potentially receive an assignment, examine documents, interact with software, make decisions and complete multiple steps before returning the finished result.

Imagine an accounts-payable department receiving hundreds of invoices.

Instead of an employee opening each invoice, identifying the vendor, reading the amount, entering the information into another system and flagging discrepancies, an AI agent could potentially perform much of that workflow automatically — with employees reviewing exceptions rather than every transaction.

The same economics can apply to insurance documents, purchase orders, customer-service tickets, legal paperwork, inventory records and software development.

For small and midsize businesses, falling AI prices may be especially important.

Large corporations can afford multimillion-dollar experiments even when the return is uncertain. Smaller companies generally need a much clearer payoff before changing their operations.

At 75 cents per million input tokens, however, the cost of having AI read enormous quantities of text is becoming almost negligible compared with the cost of the employee time traditionally required to process it.

Google also has a strategic reason to push prices lower. It is battling OpenAI and Anthropic for enterprise customers, and price is becoming an increasingly important part of that competition.

Gemini 3.7 Flash therefore represents something larger than another AI product release.

The price of intelligence itself is falling.

And as that happens, the question facing business owners changes from “Can we afford AI?” to “Which jobs are we still paying people to do manually that technology can now perform for pennies?”

That may ultimately prove far more disruptive than whichever company wins the next AI benchmark.

JBizNews Desk | Mountain View, Calif.

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

Some follow the market. Others lead it.

If you know anything about real estate, you know the finest opportunities rarely announce themselves. They emerge quietly, often when headlines create hesitation and others choose to wait.

That’s because exceptional real estate isn’t defined solely by the residence itself. It’s equally defined by the circumstances under which it’s acquired.

Chateau at Schneller is one such opportunity.

Rising on the final available address within Jerusalem’s prestigious Schneller compound, The Chateau is a rare collection of grand residences. Timeless architecture. Generously proportioned living spaces. Expansive sukkah terraces for every apartment. Sweeping Jerusalem views. Extraordinary finishes at each turn. Every detail has been thoughtfully considered, creating a residence of enduring distinction. 

Yet what makes this opportunity exceptional isn’t only the residence.

It’s the chance to acquire a home of this caliber under conditions that are seldom available. Today’s market allows buyers to secure a residence with substantially less capital upfront while securing today’s favorable terms.  They can also customize their residence during construction, ensuring it reflects their vision from the very beginning. 

The most accomplished buyers understand that exceptional opportunities are rarely the most obvious ones.

Chateau at Schneller. For those who inspire decisions.

Reach out to The Puzzles Team to book a private US presentation from August 24-27

SRI LANKA (VINnews) – Buddhist monks and local residents have protested outside a Chabad House in southern Sri Lanka, amid growing tensions over the Jewish center’s presence in the popular tourist town of Hiriketiya, according to a report by Ynet.

The Chabad House opened about a month ago to serve Israeli and Jewish travelers, offering kosher food, Shabbat meals and a gathering place for visitors.

Buddhist monks lead protest against Chabad House in southern Sri Lanka resort town

Chabad house that opened about a month ago in Hiriketiya, southern Sri Lanka, has become a center of conflict: Locals are demonstrating against it, while the Chabad house is reporting threats,… pic.twitter.com/UmMKayufbC

— Ynet Global (@ynetnews) August 16, 2026

The dispute escalated Friday, when protesters led by Buddhist monks gathered outside the building and called on local authorities to investigate whether the Chabad House has obtained all necessary permits. Protesters said the authorities should take action if violations are found.

Chabad representatives, however, said the confrontation has included threats and harassment directed at the center and Israeli visitors.

According to Ynet Global, Chabad officials said protesters disrupted Friday night’s Shabbat meal with loud music, firecrackers and stones. They also alleged that Israelis attempting to reach the Chabad House were stopped and told to turn back.

Chabad officials said several Israelis were later confronted by people carrying sticks after leaving the center. Police returned to the area and increased security, according to the report.

The Chabad House has appealed to Sri Lankan authorities, the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Israel’s embassy for increased protection and a thorough investigation.

At the same time, Sri Lankan media have reported complaints about the conduct of some Israeli tourists and businesses in the area, including allegations involving permits, visas, coastal regulations and access to local businesses.

The local protesters have called for authorities to determine whether the Chabad House is operating in compliance with Sri Lankan laws and regulations.

The dispute has placed the small Jewish center at the center of a broader clash involving tourism, local business concerns, religious activity and tensions surrounding the growing Israeli presence in the region.

There were no reports of arrests or criminal charges related to the reported incidents.

Democrats have approved a dramatically reshaped presidential primary calendar for 2028, placing South Carolina first and requiring White House hopefuls to begin their campaigns in states where Black and Latino voters, organized labor and other key Democratic constituencies will play a major role.

Under the schedule approved by the Democratic National Committee at its meeting in Texas, South Carolina will hold the opening contest on Jan. 22, 2028, with Nevada following on Feb. 1. New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia will then hold their contests during February, while Iowa loses the prominent position it traditionally held at the front of the nominating process.

DNC Chairman Ken Martin said the new sequence is intended to ensure that whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee has demonstrated an ability to appeal to different groups of voters across the country.

To prevail in November, Martin said, “You have to be battle-tested in a way that you already have campaigned in front of and for the support of various communities throughout the country.”

Martin said in an interview that the need to expose presidential contenders to a broad range of constituencies early in the race was a central reason for the party’s decision to adopt the new calendar.

Several Democrats viewed as possible contenders in what could become a crowded 2028 field have already traveled to early-primary states, including South Carolina. Democratic officials contend that the new lineup will better position the eventual nominee for the general election following President Donald Trump’s second term.

Democratic strategist Karen Finney, a veteran of several presidential campaigns, said candidates will now have to demonstrate their appeal across very different regions and demographic groups.

“They have to show that they can go to the South and talk to Black voters and rural voters, as well as out west, talking ranching and mining issues, to a border state, to union members,” Finney said. “Whoever survives will be battle-tested.”

Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate who later chaired the DNC, recalled the period when Democrats established Nevada and South Carolina as important early contests following Iowa and New Hampshire. He argued that the newly approved arrangement represents an improvement over that system.

“These states look more like the country,” Dean said of the new lineup, “whereas Iowa and New Hampshire don’t.”

Not everyone welcomed the shakeup. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart argued that removing Iowa from the opening group would diminish the influence of voters in her state while potentially handing Republicans an advantage. The GOP is expected to continue giving Iowa a prominent position in its own nominating calendar.

South Carolina has already demonstrated its ability to dramatically influence Democratic presidential contests. The state’s first-in-the-South primary proved more consequential than Iowa or New Hampshire for Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. Each benefited from strong support among South Carolina’s sizable Black electorate, which can account for more than half of Democratic primary voters in the state.

Following South Carolina with Nevada and New Mexico will also force candidates to compete for Latino support much earlier than under previous primary schedules.

Party strategists say eliminating Iowa and New Hampshire from their traditional dominant positions does not necessarily prevent lesser-known contenders from generating early momentum. Pete Buttigieg, then a 37-year-old former mayor, used strong performances in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2020 to propel himself into the national spotlight. Under the new arrangement, however, candidates seeking a similar breakthrough will have to do so before a substantially more diverse electorate.

“If you can’t go to every part of this country and make your case, you should not be running for president,” Finney said.

The revamped calendar could also affect the ideological battle between the Democratic Party’s progressive wing and its more mainstream liberal faction, although party figures disagree over precisely how that dynamic will play out.

Boyd Brown, a former DNC member from South Carolina, suggested that Democratic primary voters in his state may approach the contest differently from voters in some northern states.

“I think our primary voters up north are probably a little different than primary voters in South Carolina,” Brown said. “It’s not the woke ideologies that we just can’t get away from” in other places.

Nina Smith, who advised Buttigieg and now works closely with progressive organizations, offered a different assessment. She noted that Black voters in South Carolina have often rallied around candidates perceived as more moderate, including when they backed Clinton and Biden over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in two presidential cycles.

At the same time, Smith argued, “Southern Black voters are more progressive than they’re given credit for” when it comes to policy, while also being “realists” about the political limits candidates face.

“Living through Jim Crow and other oppressive structures will force you to be take that approach,” she said.

With South Carolina launching the process and numerous other Southern states preparing to vote on Super Tuesday shortly after the early-state contests conclude, Smith said progressive candidates will have to spend time hearing directly from Black voters and adjusting how they communicate their agendas.

“A lot of Black voters don’t necessarily see themselves in the ideas and arguments that progressives put forward,” she said.

Organized labor will also have considerable influence under the new schedule. Nevada is home to powerful unions representing workers in Las Vegas’ service economy, while Michigan’s labor movement is closely tied to the automobile industry and related manufacturing sectors. Virginia, meanwhile, has more federal employees than any other state.

“Labor is still so important,” Dean said.

Presidential campaigns are expected not only to compete for union endorsements, but also to rely on organized labor to help communicate the Democratic message and mobilize voters during both the primaries and general election.

The broader early-state calendar could also change how campaigns allocate their most limited resource: a candidate’s time. Presidential hopefuls must juggle in-person campaigning, fundraising, media appearances and extensive travel, and western states such as Nevada have sometimes received less attention because candidates based in the eastern United States concluded that the travel commitment was too great.

With two western states now included in the early lineup, campaigns will have more opportunities to combine stops and make those trips worthwhile.

Candidates traveling west could campaign in Nevada and New Mexico while adding fundraising events in donor-rich California. A South Carolina trip could be paired with fundraisers or campaign appearances in Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh. Virginia provides easy access to Washington’s national television studios and donors, while candidates headed for New Hampshire could incorporate a stop in New York City.

Bre Maxwell, a South Carolina member of the DNC, said her state’s relatively compact geography and comparatively inexpensive media market could also help candidates without enormous campaign war chests compete with better-funded rivals.

“They can campaign from the top to the bottom in a day,” Maxwell said.

The calendar also has potential implications beyond the Democratic primaries. Five of the six states selected for the early window — every state except South Carolina — have been competitive in recent general elections.

As a result, before the campaign even reaches Super Tuesday, Democratic presidential contenders will already have invested significant money, staff and candidate time in states representing a combined 43 Electoral College votes. A presidential candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the White House.

Early-state campaigning can also have an impact beyond state borders because television advertising and media coverage frequently spill into neighboring states. South Carolina media markets, for example, can reach voters in portions of North Carolina and Georgia.

Brown said that whatever internal disputes arise over the calendar, the ultimate purpose of the primary process is electoral victory in November.

“This is not a social or a debate club. It is a political party,” he said.

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — During a rare tour granted by the Israel Defense Forces to Fox News at a military base in Tzrifin, the IDF unveiled a vast collection of weapons seized from the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations. The arsenal includes missiles, drones, mortars, and a wide range of military equipment originating from Iran, Russia, China, as well as locally manufactured weapons from Lebanon and Gaza.

Among the most unusual items on display were an MG 34 machine gun and an MP 44 assault rifle, also known as the StG 44, both manufactured in Nazi Germany and bearing the Nazi eagle and swastika insignia. According to the IDF, the weapons were seized from a Hezbollah terrorist compound in southern Lebanon.

Hamas and Hezbollah have weapons originating not only from Iran, Russia, and China, but going back to Nazi Germany.

How strangely fitting.
pic.twitter.com/Dz0A3xAwA2

— Iconoclast (@AlispeaksX) August 16, 2026

Lt. Col. (Res.) Idan Sharon Katler, deputy commander of the IDF’s Captured Enemy Equipment Evacuation Unit within the Technology and Logistics Directorate, said the Nazi-era firearms were likely used by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization for “propaganda or morale-boosting purposes.” He added that Israeli forces have continued to uncover significant quantities of weapons in southern Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024.

Nazi-era weapon captured from Hezbollah

The weapons cache also includes Egyptian motorcycles allegedly used during the October 7, 2023, attacks to abduct Israelis, Hezbollah off-road vehicles modified to carry anti-tank missiles, hundreds of mortar shells, and dozens of Iranian and Russian-made artillery pieces that had been positioned within Lebanese villages.

In addition, the IDF displayed Austrian sniper rifles alongside Iranian-produced copies, assault rifles, drones, and a variety of professional military equipment, including military uniforms manufactured in Syria, China, and Lebanon. According to the military, the collection illustrates the breadth of foreign support and weapons procurement available to Hamas and Hezbollah.

China is now building and selling so many cars abroad that the world has run out of boats to move them. The ships that carry vehicles across oceans are a specialized type — floating parking garages with ramps, known in the trade as car carriers — and there are only so many of them afloat. Chinese factories are turning out export vehicles faster than that fleet can haul them, so the ships are booked years ahead, the cost of hiring one has jumped 65% this year, and carmakers are resorting to stuffing cars into ordinary steel shipping containers to get them overseas.

The numbers explain the squeeze. In 2019, China shipped just under 600,000 cars and vans to foreign buyers. This year, research group Mobility Global expects the figure to reach as high as 10 million — roughly 16 times as many vehicles in seven years. The global car-carrier fleet, meanwhile, has grown by about 40%. Cars up sixteenfold, ships up four-tenths: that gap is the entire bottleneck.

Prices moved the way prices always move when demand overwhelms supply. Hiring a large car carrier on an annual contract averaged $42,500 a day at the end of last year, according to shipbroker Clarksons. By June it averaged $70,000 a day — about two-thirds more in half a year. Lasse Kristoffersen, chief executive of Norwegian carrier operator Wallenius Wilhelmsen, said the enlarged fleet still cannot keep up with what Chinese exporters want to move. Andreas Enger, chief executive of Höegh Autoliners, said ocean freight rates for automobiles now run at double their pre-pandemic level, and pointed out that China went from a minor exporter to the world’s biggest in about five years.

The workaround is already at sea. Rather than wait for a berth on a dedicated car carrier, exporters are loading vehicles into the same 40-foot containers used for furniture and televisions, and sending them on regular container ships. Kristoffersen estimates up to four million vehicles a year now leave China this way or by similar improvised means — close to four out of every ten cars China exports. The practice has grown large enough that container giants including A.P. Moller-Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co. are selling shipping services straight to automakers, a customer they once left to the specialists.

Chinese manufacturers are also solving the problem by buying their way into the shipping business. BYD launched its first dedicated car carrier in 2024 and now runs a fleet of eight. Shipyards, most of them Chinese, are working through order books that stretch out for years, which is why relief on charter rates is unlikely to arrive quickly. A ship ordered today does not carry a car until the end of the decade.

Behind the export push sits a problem at home. Chinese car sales inside China fell more than 20% in the first half of 2026 against the same stretch last year, according to International Energy Agency figures. More than 100 domestic brands are fighting over a shrinking home market, and the factories keep running. Tu Le, managing director of Sino Auto Insights, described exports as a pressure release valve for a market with far more brands than it can support. Cars that cannot be sold in Shanghai get sold in São Paulo instead.

Europe is where the displacement shows up most clearly. In the first half of this year, SAIC Motor’s registrations across the European Union rose 19% and BYD’s more than doubled, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Over the same period, Stellantis gained 6%, Volkswagen 2.6%, and Renault slipped 4.2%. Chinese brands are also taking share in the United Kingdom, Germany and Brazil.

American driveways are largely untouched, for now. Tariffs and federal restrictions on Chinese vehicle software, imposed on national security grounds, keep those cars off U.S. lots almost entirely. But American buyers still feel the shipping squeeze indirectly, because the same fleet that moves Chinese cars to Europe also moves German, Japanese and Korean cars to Baltimore, Brunswick and Long Beach. When the cost of an ocean crossing doubles, that expense reaches the sticker on an imported sedan in Newark the same way it reaches one in Rotterdam.

The fix, such as it is, comes in three parts and all three are already underway: more ships being built, more cars traveling in containers, and carmakers buying their own vessels rather than renting. None of it is fast. Until the new hulls arrive, the constraint on how many cars China sells to the world is not how many it can build. It is how many it can float.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

A senior Iranian lawmaker lashed out at President Donald Trump over his threat to claim the Strait of Hormuz for the United States, appearing to warn the president about his personal security while mocking recent precautions taken amid assassination concerns.

Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission, invoked reports that Trump had recently been transported between aircraft in a catering vehicle as part of heightened security measures.

“The US President ought to worry about his own security rather than his endless bluffing regarding the Strait of Hormuz; before he ends up hiding in a food truck,” Azizi wrote in a social media post.

The remarks came after Trump told supporters at a campaign rally on Long Island on Friday that the United States would assert control over the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz once Iran is defeated.

“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump told the crowd.

Trump also portrayed Iran’s leadership structure as having been severely depleted, saying that the loss of senior officials has complicated efforts to negotiate with Tehran.

The president said Iran has “no leadership. Their leadership is gone. Their second tier is gone. The third tier is half gone. That’s one of my problems, that there is nobody to negotiate with. It’s a problem. It’s the only country in the world where nobody wants to be president.”

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi responded to Trump’s comments by insisting that Iran alone retains authority over passage through the Strait of Hormuz. He said Tehran would continue its naval blockade until the United States recognizes what he described as its “strategic defeat.”

“Once and for all, accept the reality: up to this point, you have suffered strategic and heavy defeats; the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” Gharibabadi stated on social media.

Gharibabadi went on to declare that Tehran would determine when the crucial shipping route is opened or closed and vowed that the blockade would remain in effect unless Washington changes course.

“This strait will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and cease your fanciful delusions, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade.”

{Matzav.com}

The core recommendation in a report released Thursday is simple enough to state in one line: New Jersey should not shut down a working power plant until the thing meant to replace it is built, connected, and proven to deliver on the hottest and coldest days of the year.

The Garden State Initiative, a nonpartisan research group based in Morristown, is calling on Trenton to replace the state’s current Energy Master Plan with what it describes as a more practical roadmap — one built on realistic timelines, proven technologies and measurable benchmarks rather than fixed mandates. The report, titled “Reliability Before Retirement,” was written by policy analyst Anurag Bhat.

The argument rests on a supply problem that has already shown up on bills. New Jersey imports close to a fifth of the electricity it uses, which leaves it leaning on neighboring states whenever demand spikes. More than two-thirds of the state’s summer generating capacity in 2024 came from natural gas. Battery storage, which the previous administration counted on to fill gaps when solar and wind are not producing, stands at roughly 5% of its target. Retiring firm generation before that gap closes, the report argues, means buying more power from the regional market at whatever it costs that day.

“New Jersey can pursue cleaner electricity while protecting affordability and reliability,” said Audrey Lane, the group’s president, who framed the fix as building new supply before dependable resources are retired.

The framework the report proposes has three parts. Preserve means keeping existing nuclear plants, gas plants and access to the regional PJM market. Build means adding resources that are cost-effective and actually deliverable, including the transmission lines needed to move the power. Prepare means evaluating the next generation of clean, firm technologies on a technology-neutral basis — judged on cost and performance rather than on which category they fall into. The report also reviews energy planning in California, New York, New England, Pennsylvania and Texas, concluding that none is a model to copy but each offers usable lessons.

The policy landscape it lands in has already shifted. Governor Phil Murphy released the 2024 Energy Master Plan last November, a roadmap developed over roughly 22 months. It calls for 100% clean electricity by 2035 and steep emissions cuts by midcentury. It arrived as PJM Interconnection, the grid operator serving New Jersey and a dozen other states, struggled with surging demand from artificial-intelligence data centers, and after capacity auctions added billions in costs across the region — showing up as a roughly 20% jump in summer electricity bills that became a central issue in the governor’s race.

Governor Mikie Sherrill signed two executive orders on her first day in office in January, directing the Board of Public Utilities to expand ratepayer bill credits and pause proceedings that could approve new rate increases. A second set of orders aimed at supply expanded solar generation and battery storage, sought new natural gas capacity, and directed a study of new nuclear power. She has since signed legislation lifting a 40-year nuclear moratorium and launched a state nuclear task force. Nuclear currently produces about 42% of the state’s electricity and natural gas about 49%.

That overlap matters: on preserving nuclear and adding gas, the report and the governor are largely pointed the same direction. Where they differ is on pace and on whether the 2035 target should remain a mandate.

Not everyone accepts the premise. Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, welcomed the push to build renewables faster and cut permitting delays, arguing it lowers bills long-term, but rejected the case for new gas plants outright, saying there is no economic or other justification for building them in New Jersey. The disagreement is fundamentally about risk: whether the bigger danger is paying for gas capacity that later sits idle, or retiring capacity the state still needs.

For New Jersey employers, the number that matters is the one on the invoice. Electricity prices in the state remain well above the national average, with demand rising and supply tightening. Residents spend an average of $178 a month on energy and gas. The bill credits ordered in January are one-time relief — the previous round cost roughly $430 million and Sherrill’s is expected to run higher — which is precisely the distinction the report draws. Rebates lower this month’s bill. Supply lowers next decade’s.

JBizNews Desk | Trenton, N.J.

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

The question of whether AI is a bubble is the wrong one, Dhaval Joshi argues. The right question is: which AI bubble is popping today?

Joshi, until recently the chief strategist for Counterpoint at London’s BCA Research, has been building a reputation for contrarian, structurally minded calls on the AI trade. A week ago, he reframed the entire “is AI a bubble debate” itself, writing on LinkedIn.

Rather than your classic idea of one giant bubble building until it implodes, this is rather a rapid-fire sequence of bubbles popping and inflating in a rolling pattern. Investors are misjudging, and then correcting, who or what will actually capture AI’s value. One commenter, Artificial Genius President Paul Burchard, asked Joshi whether AI is like the infamous tulip bubble of the Netherlands in the 17th century. After all, that bubble rolled through rare bulbs into tulip futures.

Joshi responded that the AI bubble is rolling through sectors beyond the proverbial tulip. It would explain the “SaaSpocalypse” in the software-as-a-service sector, as well as volatility in silver and semiconductor stocks. But is this just the market doing what it’s supposed to do, namely price discovery?

The rolling hills of bubbles

Joshi produced a chart showing that software stocks rallied on the idea that AI would be a productivity tool, then crashed as investors realized AI agents were threatening the SaaS subscription model itself. “So, the software boom turned to bust.”

Silver also had a boom and bust. Prices spiked as the metal is seen as the best electrical conductor for power-hungry data centers: “On reassessment however, this could not justify a near trebling of the silver price when there are other good conductors.”

Semiconductors then rose on the idea of seemingly limitless pricing power for chipmakers, but Joshi argued that investors are realizing that chipmakers don’t have “moats” around their profits. He offered a prediction: “Astronomical margins will crash back to earth when demand and supply equilibrate, as they ultimately must. So, the semis boom is unwinding – though has further to go.”

In an interview with Fortune, Joshi said he slightly disagreed with his former colleague, BCA’s Peter Berezin, that the market is in an earnings bubble, calling it more of a “profit margin bubble” instead. It’s not that earnings are unjustified by price or the P/E, price-to-earnings ratio, but now “the market is finally saying, ‘How is the E high?’ Because you’ve got very high margins, but can you maintain those margins?”

The obvious counter is that this is simply price discovery: markets testing a thesis, finding it wrong, and correcting. The amplitude is the difference here — a near tripling of silver overshoots any plausible fundamental by an order of magnitude. “If you can make a fortune in a matter of weeks or months, and, crucially, then lose it all just as quickly or even quicker,” Joshi said, “then that constitutes a ‘bubble.’” In his view, the market’s normal reassessment of winners and losers should not be so extreme in “magnitude and rapidity.”

Rather than fundamental reassessment, some kind of narrative contagion is setting in briefly, like a mania, before rolling off to somewhere else. And the silver example also shows that this misallocation isn’t just in equity markets.

“In real time, we are making educated guesses about which rapid inflations are at risk of rapid deflation,” Joshi told Fortune.

The good news, for now, is the cyclical nature of the reinflation, which has prevented a correlated selloff so far. But what investment, he asked — if any — will come next in the rolling sequence?

Everyone agrees overspending is happening

Joshi is far from a lonely voice on bubble risk, as the mayor of Wall Street himself — Jamie Dimon — has repeatedly voiced concerns over elevated valuations, while Bank of America Research’s Global Fund Manager survey has named “AI equity bubble” as the top tail risk. Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as well as Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have conceded that something bubbly is going on. But the bubble was supposed to pop in 2025 and yet has kept going.

The latest earnings season changed the conversation with regard to hyperscaler free cash flow, which is being eaten by capital expenditure, with Google even going free cash flow negative for the first time in its history. Reuters calculated in late July that Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Oracle were on pace for capex to overtake free cash flow by 2027. The debate is not so much about whether overspending is occurring, but whether the overspending is rational.

Joshi’s former firm, BCA Research, has sent mixed signals, upgrading equities in May on the logic that AI capital expenditure is the dominant force driving markets forward, though BCA strategist Juan Correa warned “We suspect that we could be in the early innings of a violent blow-off rally in AI-related stocks.”

Joshi is disaggregating the AI asset class into a sequence, explaining why no single AI-linked selloff has triggered a market crash. He also offers a testable, repeatably pattern that can be checked against new candidates as they emerge. When Fortune asked Joshi what the peak of AI capex would be, he responded it would most likely be late 2026 or the first half of 2027. Regarding outsized returns in earnings, he said those profits are premised on “stratospheric and unsustainable profit margins,” but he was open to changing his mind if those profit margins normalized without hurting profits.

Highly accommodative monetary policy is a major condition for any bubble, the strategist told Fortune, so a major risk would be a tightening in that area — “rather than capital just sequencing into the next bubble, it would exit risky assets entirely.” When asked what could unravel the entire sequence at once, he said three things could break the pattern: if real interest rates and/or real bond yields rose sharply, if the capex cycle unwinds very sharply, or if “a non-mild recession” hits.

He also tracks a fourth risk: a lack of what he calls market “complexity,” a metric he built by adapting the famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot‘s research into complex adaptive systems. Where Mandelbrot applied these principles to cauliflowers and river basins, Joshi applied them to financial time series, explaining that high complexity creates of equilibrium.

The deeper question underneath the rolling sequence is who, ultimately, captures the value of a general purpose technology like AI. Joshi laid out three scenarios.

The first is the web 2.0 model: corporations with genuine moats, like Amazon in ecommerce or Google in search, which capture everything because winner-takes-all network effects let them sustain margins.

The second is the superstar individual: a top lawyer or consultant who uses AI to collapse their own staff costs while maintaining premium-quality output, pocketing the revenue.

The third is “massive competition” so intense that nobody can hold margins, and “the winner is just the general consumer, because prices collapse.” That is one way the rolling sequence of bubbles could conclude, he said, explaining that what looks like rolling hills are really a giant wall of capital looking for somewhere to go after exhausting moats, one by one.

In a separate post, Joshi found one possible candidate: a 20-year-old, near-obsolete memory chp called DDR3 RAM. It has surged 600% in less than a year. “To put that into perspective, it would be like paying $50,000 for a beaten-up 2007 Toyota Corolla!”

Joshi told Fortune he wasn’t sure what the next rolling bubble sequence would be: “That’s the million-dollar question!” He noted it was very unusual how crypto has not participated so far, “but if AI and blockchains can produce some synergies, then crypto could be a candidate.” In the meantime, this rolling sequence has created what he calls “playable segments” for investors nimble enough to catch each move. “Anything that’s moved up very, very sharply in a short space of time is a candidate,” he said. The discipline is keeping your ears to the ground for what narrative is inflating next — and which moat turns out to be all dried up.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The Trump administration is intensifying its economic campaign against Iran, betting that unprecedented financial pressure and tighter enforcement of sanctions will weaken Tehran enough to force it to accept U.S. terms for ending the conflict or potentially destabilize the country’s leadership.

The administration’s stated strategy is to deprive Iran of financial resources, deepen its economic crisis and fuel domestic unrest through what U.S. officials have described as an unprecedented campaign of economic isolation.

The next phase of the campaign is expected to expand beyond sanctions on Iran’s oil sector to include broader restrictions on trade, finance and companies doing business with Tehran.

The timing is also significant. With U.S. congressional midterm elections less than three months away, analysts say President Donald Trump could have greater political flexibility afterward to escalate pressure further, including the possibility of renewed military strikes if diplomacy fails.

Economic and intelligence assessments cited in the report suggest the effects of the naval blockade and sanctions campaign are expected to intensify toward the end of the year.

Iran is already facing severe economic strain. According to the report, official inflation has reached about 80%, with prices of essential goods rising even faster. Public-sector wages and pensions have reportedly been reduced, while unemployment is estimated at around 30%.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pledged to impose economic measures against Iran “never seen before,” signaling a dramatic expansion of sanctions beyond oil exports and military-related industries.

Trump has echoed that message, describing the effort as an “unprecedented economic isolation” campaign against Iran.

According to the report, the United States is planning additional measures to tighten maritime enforcement around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route for Iranian trade, while expanding sanctions against companies and countries that continue commercial ties with Iran.

The new restrictions are expected to target a broad range of industries, exempting only humanitarian goods such as food and medicine.

Companies in countries including China, Pakistan, Turkey and Russia could face U.S. sanctions if they continue conducting prohibited business with Iran, according to the report.

The Treasury Department is also increasing efforts to identify, freeze and seize Iranian financial assets held in banks and cryptocurrency networks.

According to intelligence assessments cited in the report, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has shifted a significant portion of its assets into cryptocurrencies to facilitate international transactions while avoiding sanctions enforcement.

U.S. officials reportedly have already identified and frozen some of those assets and continue pursuing others.

Particular attention has focused on Khatam al-Anbiya, the IRGC’s vast engineering and business conglomerate, which is believed to control nearly half of Iran’s economy. Officials believe disrupting its finances would significantly undermine the regime’s economic resilience.

Signs of growing economic distress are also emerging from within Iran.

According to the report, Davoud Rangi, deputy chairman of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, warned that the country could struggle to withstand a severe maritime blockade for more than three months.

Speaking to an Iranian journalist, Rangi reportedly said Iran lacks sufficient reserves of essential goods to endure a prolonged disruption of maritime imports, particularly food staples such as wheat and corn.

Iran has sought to compensate by expanding overland trade routes through Pakistan and Turkey, but Rangi acknowledged that land transportation cannot replace maritime shipping.

He estimated that replacing the cargo of a single commercial vessel would require roughly 2,500 trucks, while Iran normally relies on at least 400 cargo ships for imports of essential goods. Rangi reportedly urged Iranian leaders to return to negotiations.

In the meantime, Iran has stopped publishing official trade statistics since the conflict began. While Iranian officials acknowledge a decline of at least 30% in trade since the beginning of the year, trade data released by partner countries suggests a significantly steeper downturn.

China, Iran’s largest trading partner, accounted for roughly one-third of Iran’s non-oil foreign trade before the conflict and purchased about 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports.

Chinese customs data cited in the report indicates that non-oil trade between the two countries totaled less than $823 million during the first four months of the conflict, from March through June, approximately 75% lower than during the same period a year earlier.

Trade with several of Iran’s other major commercial partners has also fallen sharply.

The United Arab Emirates, Iran’s second-largest trading partner, has reportedly suspended most trade with Tehran following repeated Iranian attacks during the conflict.

Official Turkish data shows exports to Iran fell by nearly half between March and June, to approximately $716 million, while Turkish imports from Iran declined 37% to about $907 million, underscoring the growing impact of the expanding U.S.-led economic pressure campaign.

The clock has been ticking for two months since the June “ceasefire” between the US and Iran, and still the Islamic Republic is rearming.

That should dominate Israel’s thinking about every day that passes without an agreement capable of restraining the Iranian regime.

The Jerusalem Post’s Yonah Jeremy Bob reported last week that Israeli defense officials have been shocked by the speed with which Iran is recovering from the damage inflicted during the war.

The concern stretches across several parts of its military infrastructure, including the ballistic missile program, that remains an immediate strategic threat to Israel.

The figures are sobering to look at, given the ease with which the US and Israel bombarded the Iranians’ military sites for two months from February through April.

Israel and the United States struck more than 2,600 missile and military-industrial targets during the roughly 40-day war, carrying out some 30,000 attacks, and it left Israeli officials believing the scale of the destruction had crippled Iran’s ability to restore its military industries at anything like their previous pace.

Iran rebuilds its missile capabilities faster than Israel expected

Iran has already confounded such assessments before. After Israeli strikes in October 2024, officials believed missile production had been set back by a year or more.

By early 2025, production had recovered. Following far greater attacks in June 2025, Israel again believed the production network had been crippled for years. And yet, as it always seems to, Iran rebuilt again.

Now the Post has confirmed that Iran is producing new weapons at a much faster pace than Israeli planners anticipated. If it can return to manufacturing 100 to 300 ballistic missiles a month, it could restore its arsenal to June 2025 levels by early or mid-2027.

That is the clock Israel must watch.

Diplomatic clock runs down as Iran maintains pressure in Hormuz

Friday brought another reminder of how badly the diplomatic clock is running. Transit through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to slow almost to a standstill after two more ships were attacked.

The United Arab Emirates blames Iran for attacks on two vessels belonging to the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, while shipping through the strait remains a fraction of its prewar level.

Tehran continues to use Hormuz as leverage, demanding sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets before the waterway fully reopens.

The United States says it can maintain its naval blockade indefinitely and promises still more economic pressure.
Yet almost two months after the June ceasefire agreement created an opening for diplomacy, a wider deal is nowhere in sight. There has yet to be any breakthrough over Hormuz, nor is there a durable settlement on Iran’s nuclear program.

The ballistic missile threat remains unresolved, and the pressure campaign has yet to return Tehran to the negotiating table on terms that can give Israel confidence the danger is actually receding. The longer this goes on, the more it looks like the

Americans are operating without a real, strategic plan.

Meanwhile, the work inside Iran continues.

Every month without an agreement gives Iran more time to rebuild

Every month gives Iranian engineers, commanders, and procurement networks more time to reopen facilities, replace machinery, uncover underground missile sites, disperse production, and replenish stocks.

The longer negotiations drag on without enforceable restrictions, the more the military achievement bought at enormous cost begins to erode.

Israel cannot afford to wake up next year and discover that a threat believed to have been pushed back by years was delayed by only a matter of months.

Diplomacy remains the preferable route if it produces an agreement that genuinely constrains Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. Israel has every reason to support such an outcome.

Endless negotiations, however, carry their own strategic price when the country on the other side of the table is rebuilding while it talks.

But as the Post has stated before, Israel is directly in the firing line. The United States is not. If we need to take matters into our own hands, then that should be our prerogative, whatever our working relationship with the US.

Two months have already been spent trying to turn a ceasefire into something more permanent. Iran has spent those same two months recovering.

Washington and its allies must now put a limit on how long this process can continue without results. Israel cannot afford to give Iran any more time to rearm. 

This post was originally published on here.

A surge in serious injuries and deaths involving children riding e-bikes and other electric vehicles is prompting officials across the country to impose tougher restrictions — and, in one California county, prosecutors are taking the extraordinary step of pursuing criminal charges against parents accused of allowing their children to illegally ride the vehicles, the AP reports.

The prosecutions represent one of several approaches being taken as communities grapple with the rapidly growing popularity of electric bikes, scooters and motorcycles. Parents, meanwhile, are being forced to navigate a confusing collection of state and local regulations governing which vehicles children may legally ride and under what circumstances.

New York City recently issued cease-and-desist notices to dozens of online retailers accused of marketing vehicles as e-bikes even though they are not legal for use on city streets. The action followed the death of a 17-year-old riding an illegal electric vehicle. Across the Hudson River, New Jersey has adopted new requirements mandating that e-bike riders be at least 15 years old and obtain both a license and vehicle registration.

But critics question whether the growing assortment of regulations is targeting the problem effectively. Bicycle advocates warn that overly broad rules could unfairly lump traditional, lower-powered e-bikes together with much faster electric motorcycles, while some parents argue that a scattered collection of local and state laws is inadequate.

Monica Stafford, a mother in the San Francisco area whose teenage daughter fractured her skull after falling from an e-bike, said authorities are “missing the mark” if their response focuses exclusively on blaming parents. Stafford, who lives in San Rafael, said the country needs one consistent national framework.

“We’re in a total Wild West of laws,” Stafford said. “Being for common sense laws doesn’t mean that you’re against e-bikes, just like you can be for cars but not think that it’s safe to put keys in the hands of a 10-year-old.”

Electric bikes and similar vehicles have become commonplace across the country in recent years. Groups of teenagers can routinely be seen riding them in California coastal communities, while thousands of delivery workers rely on them to navigate New York City’s crowded streets.

As the vehicles have become more popular, emergency-room visits involving injuries from e-bikes, e-scooters and other motorized devices have climbed sharply, according to multiple studies. Researchers say the particularly troubling findings involve both the severity of those injuries and the disproportionate number involving younger riders.

“The big takeaway is that people are generally more severely injured than they would be if they were on a traditional, pedal bicycle,” said Dr. John Austin, a physician at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine who led a recently published statewide study. “Overall, these patients tend to be younger, they tend to be unhelmeted and, in turn, be more severely injured.”

Under federal law, most e-bikes are treated as nonmotorized vehicles in much the same way as conventional bicycles. That generally means riders do not need a driver’s license or insurance and, under federal rules, are not necessarily required to wear helmets. Many states, however, have adopted additional regulations for more powerful models, including age restrictions and helmet mandates.

New York City has been confronting the issue with renewed urgency following the death of 17-year-old Gabriel Nacato in a crash only steps from City Hall. Nacato had been riding a vehicle advertised as an “e-bike,” although it was not legal for use on city streets.

Earlier this month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani notified more than 40 online sellers, including Amazon, Walmart and Target, that they could be fined as much as $2,000 for each sale of an e-bike that violates city regulations.

New York state law requires riders of every category of e-bike to be at least 16 years old. New York City has imposed further limitations, including a maximum speed of 15 mph. California has no statewide minimum age for less powerful e-bikes, although riders must be at least 16 to operate models capable of reaching 28 mph.

New Jersey and Illinois are among the states that have recently enacted statewide regulations, while Massachusetts lawmakers are considering additional measures. Florida took a different approach in June, when Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed proposed regulations that included a 10 mph speed limit, arguing that the restrictions could result in “enhanced surveillance” of citizens.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has gone considerably further. His Southern California office has more than two dozen active investigations involving parents after establishing a specialized unit focused on cases in which children operate e-bikes and electric motorcycles.

Prosecutors have already charged four parents, including the mother of a 14-year-old boy accused of fatally striking an elderly pedestrian while operating an electric motorcycle.

An attorney representing that mother declined to comment. But Mitchell Krems, who represents another parent facing prosecution, called the charges against his client “absurd” and argued that the parent was being turned into a “scapegoat.”

Richard Eyssallenne has pleaded not guilty to child endangerment charges. Prosecutors allege that he purchased an electric motorcycle for his 12-year-old son and helped the child illegally modify the vehicle so it could travel faster. The boy subsequently ran a red light and was struck and injured by a car.

Other communities are also exploring ways to make parents legally responsible for their children’s conduct. In an Ohio suburb of Columbus, recently enacted e-bike regulations explicitly provide that parents who knowingly permit their children to violate the rules can face the same penalties imposed on the young riders themselves.

Bicycle advocacy organization PeopleForBikes argues that much of the controversy stems from vehicles that are not truly e-bikes at all. The organization says many dangerous machines being sold under the e-bike label are effectively electric motorcycles, featuring large motors, substantial frames and heavy-duty tires.

Advocates maintain that conventional pedal-assisted and lower-powered e-bikes have been safely used on American roads for decades and can play an important role in reducing dependence on automobiles.

“Many of the dangerous behaviors people cite — running red lights, riding on sidewalks, not wearing helmets — are already illegal,” said Chloé Lauer, executive director of the San Diego County Bike Coalition. “We’d rather see those laws enforced than add new restrictions that limit mobility for kids who are riding responsibly.”

Anya Dalal, a 17-year-old high school senior from the San Francisco area who has advocated for stronger safety protections, said there is unlikely to be a single solution. She supports age restrictions but believes responsibility should extend beyond parents alone.

“It should be a mix of parental accountability, accountability from the manufacturers and retailers and also education for kids to understand e-bike laws and road rules,” said Dalal, who lives in Hillsborough.

San Diego-area mother Sharon Franke similarly believes parents have an important role to play. She said adults should research the vehicles their children use, ride alongside them when they are learning and continue emphasizing safe practices once youngsters begin riding independently.

“We want them to have fun, but we also want them to come back safe and we don’t want them to hurt anybody,” Franke said as her 15- and 12-year-old sons prepared to participate in a safety course last weekend. “How do you balance all of it? It’s just overwhelming right now.”

{Matzav.com}

NEW YORK (VINnews)- President Trump on Friday gave his “complete and total endorsement” to Republican Saritha Komatireddy in the race for New York attorney general, calling on voters to oust Democratic incumbent Letitia James, a longtime political adversary.

In a Truth Social post, Trump described Komatireddy as an “America First Patriot” and said it was his “Great Honor” to back her bid to become the next attorney general of “the once wonderful State of New York.”

I was honored to be nominated to be a federal judge by the President in 2020 and I’m honored to receive his endorsement today.

I’m working hard to win the support of all New Yorkers and defeat Letitia James this November.

Please invest in our campaign, and let’s win this race… pic.twitter.com/NOzb18YkX9

— Saritha Komatireddy (@sarithaforny) August 14, 2026

“Between Kathy Hochul and the Most Corrupt Attorney General in the Country, Letitia James, it has gone to HELL!” Trump wrote. He labeled James the “WORST Attorney General in our Country,” a “Complete and Total Disaster,” and accused her of prioritizing a “WITCH HUNT” against him while violent crime surged and residents and businesses fled the state.

Trump blasts NY Attorney General Letitia James yet again, in Nassau County remarks: “She’s the worst….a real slob”

Leads a cheer for GOP AG candidate Saritha Komatireddy, who’s in the crowd pic.twitter.com/0euDnudqLO

— Raga Justin (@ragajus) August 14, 2026

Trump praised Komatireddy’s record as a former federal prosecutor and Drug Enforcement Administration chief of staff. He said that as attorney general she would “fight tirelessly to Ensure LAW AND ORDER, Grow our Economy, Champion our Law Enforcement and First Responders, Support our Military/Veterans, Advance Election Integrity, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Uphold our Constitution, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment.”

Komatireddy, who was nominated by Trump in 2020 to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (the nomination was not confirmed), thanked the president. “I was honored to be nominated to be a federal judge by the President in 2020 and I’m honored to receive his endorsement today,” she posted on X. “I’m working hard to win the support of all New Yorkers and defeat Letitia James this November.”

Komatireddy, a Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate who clerked for then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, served more than a decade as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York. She held leadership roles involving international narcotics, money laundering, cybercrime and national security cases, and later served as DEA chief of staff. She is currently a partner at the law firm Holtzman Vogel and teaches at Columbia Law School. Born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents from India, she advanced unopposed as the Republican and Conservative Party nominee after the June primary was canceled.

James, the Democratic incumbent first elected in 2018, also advanced unopposed. She drew national attention for her 2022 civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and the Trump Organization, which alleged inflated asset values on financial statements. An appeals court later vacated a nearly $465 million penalty. Trump has continued to press for investigations into alleged mortgage fraud involving James.

The general election is scheduled for Nov. 3. James’ campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the endorsement.

President Donald Trump has ordered one of the biggest restructurings of U.S. naval shipbuilding in decades, directing the Pentagon to create a fifth public Navy shipyard while opening the door to building some American warships overseas.

The national security memorandum signed Thursday is aimed at expanding shipbuilding and repair capacity after years of delays, cost overruns and shortages across the Navy’s industrial base.

The new shipyard would be the first additional public Navy yard in more than 80 years and would focus heavily on submarine and aircraft-carrier maintenance.

That matters because the Navy currently relies on just four public shipyards for much of its nuclear-powered fleet maintenance, creating major bottlenecks whenever projects run behind schedule.

The memorandum also allows foreign shipbuilders that invest in U.S. facilities to build as many as two ships overseas while domestic production capacity is being established.

That marks a significant policy shift.

For decades, major U.S. Navy vessels have overwhelmingly been built domestically. The administration is now signaling that allied shipyards could be used temporarily to speed production while American yards are expanded.

The move could create major opportunities across the U.S. industrial base.

Shipbuilding requires far more than shipyards themselves. Steel producers, engine manufacturers, electronics suppliers, welding companies, machine-tool makers, defense contractors, ports and skilled trades all stand to benefit if the Navy materially increases construction and repair spending.

The administration is also targeting one of the Navy’s most expensive technology debates.

Trump directed the Navy to replace the electromagnetic aircraft-launch system planned for the future USS Doris Miller with traditional steam catapults, arguing that the older system is simpler and more reliable.

Changing the design of an aircraft carrier already in development could itself cost billions of dollars and create additional engineering work, making the decision likely to become one of the most closely watched parts of the overhaul.

The broader issue is capacity.

The United States has spent years struggling to build submarines and surface ships quickly enough to meet Navy targets while also maintaining the fleet already in service.

Now Washington is attempting to solve the problem by expanding domestic yards, bringing in allied shipbuilders and increasing the number of facilities capable of handling the Navy’s most complex vessels.

For American manufacturers, the policy could translate into a long-term wave of defense and infrastructure spending.

The Navy is not simply ordering more ships.

It is trying to rebuild the industrial system needed to build and maintain them.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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

CALI, COLOMBIA (VINnews)— An Israeli humanitarian delegation known as the Alliance of Brothers, led by the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command in cooperation with the Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry, arrived in Colombia on Friday and has begun operating at impact sites following a major earthquake that struck the country.

The Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Colombia, under Ambassador Alon Lavi, made advance preparations to provide the team with diplomatic and administrative support.

Upon arrival, delegation members began working with local professional authorities and officials at several sites. They are operating at two major impact locations, assisting efforts to locate and rescue people trapped under rubble alongside numerous local volunteers.

At the city’s university hospital, which was damaged in the quake, Home Front Command engineers are collaborating with local professionals on complex efforts to advise and guide the removal of rubble. The goal is to free any remaining trapped individuals and restore the damaged wing for use.

At the same time, team members have started mapping and assessing buildings damaged in the earthquake in cooperation with local authorities. The work aims to help develop a situational assessment and set priorities for ongoing response efforts.

The delegation is also assisting local officials in establishing a data management system to support situational assessment and decision-making.

The Israeli team will continue operating on the ground, making its knowledge, experience and capabilities available to Colombian authorities to help save lives and address the consequences of the earthquake.

A Georgia mother is facing a second-degree murder charge after authorities say she unknowingly left her 17-month-old son inside a hot car, where he died, a prosecution that has drawn fierce criticism from child safety advocates who contend that such tragedies are typically the result of devastating memory failures rather than intentional wrongdoing, USA Today reports.

Daniel Coleman was laid to rest on Aug. 15 after becoming the 17th child in the United States to die in a hot vehicle in 2026.

Misaskim was not needed for this particular tragedy.

At least three additional children have died in similar circumstances since then, according to Kids and Car Safety, an advocacy organization that tracks such cases. The group says approximately 40 children die in hot vehicles nationwide during an average year.

Prosecutors in Georgia have charged Daniel’s mother, Deja Coleman, with second-degree murder. The decision has angered advocates who argue that parents who unknowingly leave children in vehicles generally have no intention of harming them and that, under the right combination of circumstances, the same catastrophic mistake can happen to virtually anyone.

Amber Rollins, executive director of Kids and Car Safety, described Coleman as a “wonderful, loving mother” who was dealing with severe stress that compounded a known memory phenomenon and caused her to “lost awareness” that Daniel remained in her vehicle. Coleman believed she had dropped him off at daycare, Rollins said.

“Locking people up and charging them criminally for a tragic accident that they couldn’t see coming is just inhumane,” Rollins said.

The Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office declined to discuss the case.

On the morning of July 29, Coleman left the shelter where she had been living and drove her three sons, ages 6, 4 and 1, to their daycare facility. She then continued to the hospital where she worked as a certified nursing assistant.

Several hours later, a passerby spotted an unresponsive baby inside a locked vehicle and contacted police.

Temperatures in Lawrenceville, in the Atlanta metropolitan area, approached 90 degrees that day. Officers smashed a window to reach Daniel, but the 1-year-old could not be saved. An hour after police removed him, the temperature inside the vehicle was measured at 117 degrees, according to Lawrenceville Police Captain Dena Pauly.

Coleman, 29, was arrested on charges of second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children. Police said she had forgotten that Daniel was inside the vehicle and was “devastated” upon discovering what had happened.

Defense attorney Tom Ford said Coleman had been suffering from “medical grade” sleep deprivation at the time of the tragedy. According to Ford and Rollins, Coleman and her children were staying at a protective shelter after she was allegedly abused by her husband. Her oldest son is autistic and nonspeaking and requires substantial care, while Daniel had been teething and struggling to sleep.

Investigators said Coleman’s usual daycare routine involved first bringing her two older sons into the building and then returning to the vehicle for Daniel. Ford said that on some occasions she brought all three children inside together, carrying Daniel on her hip, while at other times she brought the baby inside separately.

“The older child has some medical needs that require special attention so that’s why she always chose to take him in first,” Pauly said.

Rollins said Coleman even carried Daniel’s diaper bag into the daycare that morning. She had intended to return to the vehicle for him but apparently lost awareness that he was still there and came to believe she had already brought him inside, according to Rollins and Ford. Complicating matters, the children’s regular daycare provider was absent that day, and the employees working there were less familiar with the family, Rollins said.

Rollins said criminal prosecution is far from universal in cases involving children who are unknowingly left in vehicles. Approximately 41% of such cases result in no criminal charges against the caregiver, while roughly 31% ultimately produce convictions. Many of those convictions, she said, come through plea agreements that allow grieving parents to avoid incarceration or prolonged court proceedings.

Of the 12 children who have died in 2026 after being unintentionally left inside vehicles, felony charges have been filed in seven cases, according to Rollins. When prosecutors do bring charges in accidental hot-car deaths, she said, involuntary homicide or neglect charges are more common than murder.

There have been previous murder prosecutions involving hot-car deaths, although the circumstances have varied significantly. A Georgia father was convicted of murder about a decade ago before that conviction was later overturned. An Arizona father pleaded guilty to murder after intentionally leaving his child inside a vehicle but died by suicide before sentencing. A Texas mother was also convicted after intentionally leaving her child in a car.

Pauly explained that Georgia’s second-degree murder statute does not require prosecutors to prove malicious intent. In Coleman’s case, she said, the basis for the charge was “simply neglect.” A conviction could result in a prison sentence ranging from 10 to 30 years.

Rollins called bringing such a serious charge under the circumstances “cruel and unusual.”

“Prosecuting these tragedies criminally, it doesn’t just work against prevention, it takes a traumatized parent and just absolutely destroys them. And on top of that, the living children in these families lose a parent after they’ve already lost a sibling, and that’s just cruel,” Rollins said of cases involving children unintentionally left behind.

Data collected by Kids and Car Safety shows that the most common circumstance in hot-car fatalities is a parent or caregiver unintentionally leaving a child inside. Other cases involve children getting into vehicles themselves and becoming trapped, while a smaller number involve adults deliberately leaving children behind.

Experts say many accidental cases follow a similar pattern. A parent who does not ordinarily handle a child’s morning drop-off may be responsible for it on a particular day. While traveling along the familiar route from home to work, the person’s habit-based memory can take over, leading them to drive directly to their workplace without making the planned daycare stop. In some cases, the parent does not discover what happened until hours later.

According to Kids and Car Safety, approximately 45% of children unknowingly left in vehicles were supposed to have been dropped off at daycare.

University of South Florida neuroscientist David Diamond has studied the brain processes involved in these tragedies. He says the problem can involve a conflict between prospective memory — remembering an action that must be performed in the future, such as stopping at daycare — and the brain’s stronger habit-based memory, such as automatically following the familiar route to work. Diamond compared the underlying mental mechanism to inadvertently driving away with a cup of soda sitting on the roof of a car.

The stakes are obviously incomparable, Diamond said, but the neurological process responsible for forgetting the cup and unknowingly leaving a child can be the same.

“As they exit the car, they have no awareness that the child is in the car,” Diamond said. In some instances, he added, the brain can even construct a “false memory” in which the parent believes the child was successfully dropped off.

Stress, changes in a person’s normal routine and sleep deprivation can significantly increase the likelihood of prospective-memory failures, Diamond said, while the brain’s habit-based memory remains comparatively unaffected.

Diamond said his research has brought him into contact with parents from widely varying backgrounds whose memory failures resulted in the deaths of their children.

“In an overwhelming majority of child hot car deaths, it was a loving, responsible parent that unknowingly left the child,” Kids and Car Safety says on its website.

Diamond said one obstacle to preventing such deaths is the widespread conviction among parents that it could never happen to them. That belief, he argued, can actually make people more “complacent” about adopting safeguards.

“People just don’t believe you can forget a child in a car, and that also leads to them being very judgmental against those who have,” Diamond said.

Kids and Car Safety recommends several precautions for parents and caregivers. Among them are placing a child’s diaper bag or stuffed animal on the front passenger seat as a reminder; developing a routine of opening the rear door whenever the vehicle is parked; placing an essential item such as a cellphone, purse or employee badge in the back seat; arranging for childcare providers to immediately call when a child unexpectedly fails to arrive; and clearly communicating among caregivers about who is responsible for taking each child into and out of the vehicle.

Safety advocates are also seeking legislation requiring automakers to install technology capable of alerting drivers when an occupant has been left behind. Kids and Car Safety additionally supports laws requiring childcare facilities to contact parents when children fail to arrive as expected. According to Rollins, New Jersey is currently the only state with such a requirement.

{Matzav.com}

Can plants go moo? Well, not exactly, but a new Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) study has brought a step closer to the possibility that plant seeds could manufacture and store one of milk’s most important proteins – the same ones that give milk its nutrition, creamy texture, and cheese-making properties.

The discovery would thus help overcome a major hurdle in producing real dairy proteins without cows, paving the way for more sustainable dairy ingredients, less climate change, and alternative food production.

Just published in Frontiers in Plant Science under the title “Microscope reveals surprising milk protein clusters in engineered seeds,” the research was led by Prof. Oded Shoseyov of the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at HUJI, together with lead author Almog Ozeri and Mai Shamir, Miron Abramson, Barak Cohen, and Amir Rudich.

The team showed that plants can successfully manufacture ß-casein, one of the major proteins found in cow’s milk. Even more surprising, the protein accumulated in an entirely unexpected location inside plant cells, revealing a previously unknown pathway that could help improve the production of animal proteins in crops.

According to their press release, “As global demand for dairy continues to grow while concerns mount over greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water consumption associated with livestock farming, scientists have been searching for sustainable ways to produce authentic dairy proteins without relying on animals.

“Plant molecular farming, using crops as miniature protein factories, has emerged as one of the most promising approaches, but producing complex milk proteins in plants has remained a major technical challenge.”

To tackle this problem, the researchers engineered seeds from Arabidopsis (thale cress), a weed in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) native to Eurasia and Africa. It is commonly found along the shoulders of roads where plant cover is lost, or soil is churned up by construction, grading, fire, or heavy traffic.

Plants used to produce bovine ß-casein

They used it to produce bovine ß-casein fused to an oil-body protein called oleosin, which is bound to plant oil bodies. Testing several different “cellular addresses,” they directed the protein to various compartments within the plant cell to determine where it would accumulate most efficiently.

Shoseyov told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that the team’s findings were totally unexpected. “The protein absolutely behaves like real dairy ß-casein – even better.”

Asked why the plants ignored their instructions, he suggested that it was “probably due to the gap between what we think we know and what we actually know.”

“Biological systems are far more sophisticated,” Shoseyov continued. “While we can’t claim it’s an entirely new biological pathway – we need further investigation to come up with such a statement – it opens some very interesting opportunities. It’s likely that we’ve simply overlooked something that plants have always done.”

They created a “novel food ingredient that combines protein and oil that may be either integrated into existing dairy products or will be used to produce entirely new tasty and nutritious food products more cost-effectively and sustainably compared to the existing dairy industry,” he said.

“We estimate that in 18 to 24 months, we’ll reach the commercial stage. The biggest remaining obstacle ahead is adoption of the technique by industry. We have already begun discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration.”

Shoseyov already holds over 100 patents relating to his work in protein engineering, nanobiotechnology, and bio-inspired materials.

Although precision fermentation already produces dairy proteins, plants have an advantage because protein production and extraction in plants is up to 100 times cheaper compared with fermentation, he said.

Shoseyov suggested that safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is the intended commercial and agricultural crop platform for this technology. Arabidopsis was the research model that was used in the lab because of its fast life cycle, small genome, and ease of genetic transformation, but safflower is the targeted crop.

Once the artificially designed segment of DNA is assembled in a lab and everything is validated in Arabidopsis, it is transferred to safflower for scaled agricultural production.

Milk is only four percent protein, 3% fat, with some sugars, but it’s mainly water, said the HUJI expert. “Safflower seeds contain about 10 times more concentrated protein and fat.”

“Thus, for every 10 trucks that carry cold milk, we would need to use only one at room temperature, and upon arrival at the factory, the seeds could be stored in a silo at room temperature for up to one year.”

Safflower seeds are white; the oil is colorless and has no flavor, therefore avoiding coconutty, beany, or oaty cereal-like odors of “milks” made from coconut, soy, or oats. In addition, safflower plants prefer hot weather and require very little water for irrigation, if any, thus making them an ideal crop for global warming.”

As demand grows for environmentally sustainable sources of protein, discoveries like this bring scientists closer to producing authentic dairy ingredients in plants that require only sunlight, water, and soil to grow, he continued.

More opportunities for dairy farmers

Asked what dairy farmers will do, Shoseyov said they’ll have more opportunities. “Regular dairy is not going to vanish. In the next 20 years, most of the plant-based dairy proteins will be used in hybrid products to reduce price and meet sustainability goals. The farmers may expand their growing seasons to grow our crops and supply them to their dairy factory customers.”

The largest growth in demand will come from the Asia-Pacific region, and countries that are likely to become the major growers are Australia, the US, Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine, China, and eventually India and Africa.

“We already started discussions with the FDA. There is a very clear path. It should not be too difficult. In five years, I hope to see our plants grown all over the world and the shelves in the supermarkets loaded with our plant dairy products,” Shoseyov said.

“But mostly, I hope that our dairy safflower seeds will contribute to the food security of Israel. I look forward to tasting mozzarella cheese made of our novel ingredient.”

Asked if his discovery could end up being more important for medicines than for dairy since plant molecular farming also produces pharmaceuticals – so farms would become protein factories rather than food factories, Shoseyov responded, “I am positive that the pharmaceutical industry will enjoy this discovery to manufacture biological drugs, such as humanized antibodies.”

“Nevertheless, the food industry is four times larger than the pharmaceutical industry. Consumers will know they’re eating proteins that came from a flower instead of a cow because transparency is mandatory in the food industry.”

“One of the most exciting aspects of science is when nature surprises you,” Shoseyov went on to say. “We set out to send the protein to one location inside the cell, but instead, we found that the plant had effectively created its own storage solution.”

“Understanding this unexpected behavior gives us valuable insight into how plants handle complex proteins and may help us engineer more efficient systems for producing sustainable dairy proteins in the future.”

This post was originally published on here.

The IDF killed senior Hezbollah commander Abu Hassan Alaa during weekend strikes in the Deir ez-Zahrani area in southern Lebanon, the military announced on Sunday morning.

Alaa served as a commander in Hezbollah’s Bader Unit and had carried out attacks on IDF soldiers operating in the region. 

The military noted that its strikes came alongside those from over the weekend at Hezbollah’s headquarters in the Ansar area, in which Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force unit, was killed.

Both attacks came in response to the incident in which three IDF soldiers were seriously wounded over the weekend.

However, the IDF noted on Saturday that, at the time of the strike, Hassan’s family was with him inside the headquarters.

IDF, PMO says military was unaware of civilians in Hezbollah HQ during strike

“It should be emphasized that the family members were not the target of the strike,” the IDF wrote in a statement. “The strike was specifically directed at Hassan, who was a lawful target under international law.”

“The terrorist used his family as human shields, hiding alongside them inside the military headquarters.”

The Prime Minister’s Office said that it had been unaware that Hezbollah put civilians in the Hezbollah military compound.

“Only later did the IDF learn that Hezbollah deliberately put civilians in that military compound. Hezbollah is willing to do anything, including using its own civilians as human shields, to falsely accuse Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, which the IDF clearly did not.”

Shoshana Baker and Corinne Baum contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here.

Anyone planning to paint a room this fall should buy the paint in August. Sherwin-Williams is raising prices 8% across its Paint Stores Group effective Sept. 1, 2026, a decision the company announced on July 28 alongside its second-quarter results.

The Paint Stores Group is the company’s own retail network — the stores where both professional contractors and homeowners buy. On a $60 gallon, 8% is about $4.80. A job that takes 15 gallons costs roughly $70 more after Labor Day than before it. For a contractor buying hundreds of gallons a month, the increase runs into real money.

The company attributed the increase to inflation in raw materials, energy, logistics and packaging, with supply-chain pressures intensifying during the continuing U.S. and Israeli conflict with Iran. Paint is a petroleum product at its core — resins, solvents and many pigments trace back to oil and gas feedstocks — so a disruption in energy markets shows up in a paint can with a lag of several months. Sherwin-Williams told analysts it expects raw material inflation to accelerate to a high-single-digit rate in the second half of the year, working out to a mid-single-digit impact across the full year.

The timing is not accidental. The company said the September date was chosen specifically to avoid disrupting the peak paint selling season — the spring and summer months when exterior work gets done. Waiting until after Labor Day means the increase lands when volumes are lower and customers are less likely to shop elsewhere over it.

What makes the move notable is that it comes without any recovery in demand to support it. Chief Executive Heidi Petz said the company outperformed the market despite ongoing global uncertainty and “no meaningful improvement in demand.” She added that demand indicators point to continued softness in the second half. Raising prices into a flat market is a calculated risk: if competitors hold their prices, customers can walk. PPG, the largest rival, reported results just below Wall Street expectations and reaffirmed its full-year guidance — which tells you the pressure on input costs is industry-wide, but not whether PPG will match the increase.

The underlying business is performing. Second-quarter net sales rose 7.5% to $6.79 billion, net income climbed 11.8% to $843.6 million, and adjusted earnings per share reached $3.70. Paint Stores Group sales rose 5.1%, with same-store sales up 4.2%. Consumer Brands sales jumped 21.5% to $983.5 million, helped by the Suvinil acquisition. The company raised its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to $11.80 to $12.20 a share from $11.50 to $11.90, and returned $1.46 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks in the quarter. The stock rose as much as 7.8% on the news.

The company also closed 57 stores this year , and told investors it expects to return to the high end of its target of 80 to 100 net new store openings starting in 2027 after this year’s portfolio pruning.

Three practical takeaways for anyone with a project.

Buy before the deadline if the work is already planned. Paint stores well for a year or more in a sealed can kept from freezing, so buying August paint for an October job is a straightforward 8% saving.

Contractors should look hard at any bid already written but not yet purchased. A quote issued in July on a job that buys material in September carries the increase entirely on the contractor’s margin unless the contract has an escalation clause.

And expect this to be one increase in a series rather than a one-time event. The company’s own guidance assumes no broad demand recovery for the rest of 2026 and accelerating input costs — a combination that historically produces another pricing action rather than a rollback.

JBizNews Desk | Cleveland

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

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A passenger bus traveling on a highway in Hungary early Sunday went off the road and into a ditch where it overturned, killing 12 and injuring others, police said.

The bus, which was carrying a group of Polish tourists, was traveling on eastbound lanes near the town of Mezokeresztes when it overturned on the M3 motorway around 140 kilometers (87 miles) east of Hungary’s capital, Budapest, at around 1 a.m. on Sunday.

In a statement, police said it was likely that the driver fell asleep, causing the accident, and that the driver had been taken into custody.

Hungary’s National Directorate for Disaster Management said in a statement that 57 passengers and two drivers were traveling on the bus at the time of the accident, and that several of the passengers had been trapped under the vehicle when it overturned.

Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maciej Wewiór told Polish news agency PAP on Sunday that all of the people on the bus were Polish citizens.

The bus was carrying people from Poland’s southeastern Podkarpackie region who were returning from a pilgrimage in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the regional government in Rzeszow, Poland, said in a Facebook post.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar wrote in a statement on Facebook that at least 10 people were seriously injured in the crash. He offered his condolences to the families of the victims and thanked rescue workers who were dispatched to the scene.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki expressed his “deep sorrow” over the accident, writing in a post on X: “I join the families and loved ones of the victims in prayer and deep sympathy.”

Emergency services attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Emergency services attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Emergency services attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

An aerial photo taken by drone shows the emergency services as they attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)

Knesset Legal Adviser attorney Sagit Afik on Sunday submitted her response to the High Court regarding petitions filed against budget transfers approved by the Knesset Finance Committee on August 4, during the election period.

The budget transfers, designated for Chareidi institutions and yishuvim in Yehuda and Shomron, were frozen by High Court Justice Alex Stein in response to left-wing petitions against them—despite the fact that similar transfers were made by the Bennett-Lapid government during the election period.

The Knesset legal adviser determined that the petitions and the interim injunction, which effectively froze the transfer of the funds, should be dismissed because “no flaw occurred in the proceedings of the Finance Committee that would justify judicial intervention.”

According to her position, the transfers “were approved lawfully and in accordance with the customary practice over the years, and they are presumed to have complied with the restrictions applicable during an election period.”

The position explains that, as has been customary over the years during election recesses, when the Agreements Committee rejects a request to convene a committee, the Knesset Speaker has the authority to approve the meeting in special circumstances pursuant to Section 112(b) of the Knesset Rules of Procedure. This authority has been exercised on several occasions in the past.

For example, during the election recess of the 24th Knesset headed by Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, the Knesset speaker at the time approved three hearings on budget transfers, including coalition-related transfers, after the Agreements Committee had not approved them. This precedent serves as the legal basis for the similar approval granted this year.

The Knesset noted in its response that, in accordance with this practice, the Knesset Speaker approved a Finance Committee hearing on August 4, 2026, concerning six budget transfers, pursuant to Section 112(b). The approval was granted after the Speaker received the position of government officials regarding the importance and urgency of the budget transfers — for the opening of the school year, payment of salaries and suppliers, and other needs.

It should be noted that of the 13 budget transfers originally requested, only six were approved, after the Knesset Speaker received the position of the Knesset’s legal advisers on the matter. The decision to approve only some of the transfers indicates that each request was carefully considered on its merits.

The Legal Department stressed that the transfers considered at the committee hearing underwent the full government approval process, including approval by the government’s legal advisers, as well as the procedures established by the Knesset Finance Committee for budget transfers. Accordingly, the transfers complied with the rules governing the restraint required of the government during an election recess.

Approvals by Knesset speakers to hold meetings under similar circumstances were also granted during previous election recesses. Therefore, the response argues, these are internal matters concerning the Knesset’s work in which there is no basis for court intervention.

The legal position seeks to uphold the principle of separation of powers and the Knesset’s parliamentary autonomy in managing its internal affairs.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)