SpaceX stock faces another important supply test Thursday, when approximately 319 million shares held by employees and early investors become eligible for trading.

The shares already exist, so the unlock does not dilute current shareholders or raise new money for SpaceX. What changes is the number of people legally permitted to sell—and the amount of stock the market may suddenly be asked to absorb.

That distinction is critical because SpaceX entered the public market with an unusually small portion of the company available for trading. The company sold approximately 556 million shares at $135 in its June initial public offering, raising roughly $75 billion. Including other publicly tradable shares, the initial float was approximately 639 million shares out of nearly 13.6 billion outstanding.

The 319 million shares released Thursday are therefore only about 2% of the entire company, but they are equivalent to approximately half of SpaceX’s original public float. Even if only a fraction is sold, it could materially change the supply-and-demand balance that helped establish the company’s enormous valuation.

SpaceX already passed a larger version of this test. On Aug. 6, approximately 912 million shares became eligible for sale in the first major post-IPO unlock. Instead of collapsing under the added supply, the stock rose as investors concluded that insider selling was manageable and institutional demand remained strong.

Shares gained approximately 23% during that week and continued climbing the following week. The stock closed Monday at $146.23, about 8% above its $135 IPO price, valuing SpaceX at close to $2 trillion.

That rally makes Thursday’s unlock more tempting for longtime holders. Many SpaceX employees received shares as compensation and may have accumulated much of their personal wealth in a single company. Selling part of that position after years of waiting would be normal financial diversification, not necessarily a statement that they have lost confidence in SpaceX.

Venture-capital and private-equity funds face a different pressure. Their investors eventually expect cash distributions. A fund that backed SpaceX when it was worth a small fraction of today’s valuation may decide to return billions of dollars while continuing to hold a substantial remaining stake.

This is why an unlock can pressure a stock even when the underlying business has not changed. Markets are priced by the shares actually available for purchase, not simply by the company’s total share count. A business can continue performing well while its stock falls because more sellers are competing for the same pool of buyers.

SpaceX’s operating results have given investors reasons to absorb the new supply. Second-quarter revenue surged 90% from a year earlier to $7.8 billion, powered by its launch business, the Starlink satellite network and the company’s expanding artificial-intelligence operations. SpaceX reported a $541 million quarterly loss, but that was smaller than investors had feared as the company spent heavily on rockets, satellites and computing infrastructure.

The larger challenge is that Thursday will not end the selling overhang. SpaceX deliberately replaced the traditional single six-month lockup expiration with a staggered schedule. Additional groups of shares are expected to become tradable in September, October, after third-quarter earnings and again in December.

By the end of 2026, as many as 4.9 billion shares could become eligible for trading—nearly 70% of the shares not controlled by Elon Musk. Musk owns approximately 48.4% of SpaceX, a stake recently valued at about $900 billion, but most of his shares remain restricted until June 2027.

For investors, Thursday’s question is not whether all 319 million shares will be sold; they almost certainly will not be. The real test is how much longtime holders want to cash out at the current price and whether new buyers are willing to keep valuing SpaceX near $2 trillion once scarcity no longer provides the stock with the same support.

The first unlock showed that demand could overcome a sudden increase in supply. Every additional release makes that test more difficult—and gives the market a clearer picture of what SpaceX is worth when more of the company can actually be bought and sold.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

Lakewood-area residents are invited to attend a special event on Sunday, August 23rd, where they can learn more about the ANCHOR property tax relief program; and apply for benefits.

The ANCHOR program offers eligible New Jersey homeowners and renters rebates worth several hundred dollars a year. The event will take place on Sunday – between 1:00 and 5:00 pm – at the Westwood office complex; located at 1001 Route 70, near the Lakewood-Toms River border.

This unique event offers participants a treasure trove of information in both English and Yiddish regarding ANCHOR program eligibility, and other pertinent details. In addition, NJ

Department of Treasury representatives will be onsite to answer questions and process applications. These ANCHOR events have been arranged by the C.A.R.E.S. organization since 2024; and co-sponsored by Lakewood Township, as well as several local businesses and organizations. The previous C.A.R.E.S. Lakewood ANCHOR event was the most attended ANCHOR event in the State, other than Newark’s.

“We greatly appreciate that Lakewood residents have the opportunity to learn about the ANCHOR program and apply at a convenient local venue,” says Township Committeeman Meir Lichtenstein. “Thanks to the Treasury Department; C.A.R.E.S; and other event partners, many additional local households will enjoy relief during these financially stressed times.”

“This is a great opportunity for anyone that needs assistance in filling out the ANCHOR application,” says Senator Robert Singer. “I would recommend that my constituents take advantage of this opportunity.”

“We are grateful that the State Legislature has once again provided the necessary funding for the ANCHOR program in this year’s budget,” says Assemblyman Avi Schnall. “This program provides crucial relief to countless families within our District, and throughout the State, who struggle to keep up with the fast-rising cost of living.”
“It is a privilege to assist so many local residents obtain property tax relief,” says Lipa Klein, Director of C.A.R.E.S. “On behalf of the Lakewood community, I would like to thank the Treasury Department for providing live representation at the event – on a weekend – in order to allow for maximum public participation. Special thanks as well to Lakewood Township and the other co-sponsors for making this event possible.”

A massive 10-day search for missing Chabad bochur Kasriel Nachman Keinan ended in tragedy Thursday when his body was discovered in the Swiss Forest near Tiveriah. Keinan, a 24-year-old resident of Beit Shemesh, had disappeared while traveling in northern Israel.

Keinan had set out with plans to travel to Tzfas but never reached his destination. He was last known to have been in the Kinneret region and was carrying a black backpack and a brown tefillin bag when he disappeared.

His disappearance triggered an intensive search operation involving members of his family, Israel Police, ZAKA volunteers and numerous search teams that traveled from across the country to assist in locating him.

Keinan’s brother Daniel said investigators had made significant progress during the final day of the search after examining security camera footage that captured Keinan entering and subsequently leaving the kever of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness in Tiveriah.

Police and relatives then worked to trace Keinan’s movements after he departed the site, even as search teams continued investigating additional possibilities regarding his whereabouts.

According to Daniel, Keinan spoke with him on Sunday evening and said that he was traveling to Tzfas. When he failed to arrive there, cellphone location information subsequently showed that he had reached Tiveriah.

On Monday, Keinan sent his mother a message informing her that his cellphone battery was nearly depleted and asking her not to worry. His family was unable to make contact with him afterward.

In the days that followed, police officers, relatives and volunteers carried out extensive searches throughout Tiveriah and Beit Shemesh. Teams examined surveillance footage while combing open spaces, abandoned structures and other locations where Keinan might have gone.

The search operation grew to include drones, specially trained search dogs, missing-person units and volunteers who arrived from communities throughout Israel to assist in the effort.

ZAKA said its emergency hotline received a report at approximately 1:40 p.m. Thursday that a body had been discovered in an open section of the Swiss Forest in Tiveriah.

Volunteers from ZAKA’s Northern District were immediately dispatched to the location.

“Following identification procedures, it was determined that this was the 24-year-old missing person who was last seen in the Tiberias area and for whom searches had been conducted for more than a week,” ZAKA said.

The identification brought the intensive nationwide search to a heartbreaking conclusion after more than a week of efforts by Keinan’s family, law enforcement authorities, emergency organizations and scores of volunteers who had joined together in hopes of bringing him home safely.

A 3-car accident with an overturned vehicle is causing heavy delays on the Belt Parkway NJ-bound near Exit 7A.

Expect significant delays in the area.

(Ty: I&S)

A female suspected of having ties to the Islamic State (ISIS) was arrested on Wednesday for plotting to blow up the New York State Capitol building in Albany, The New York Times reported on Thursday, citing three sources with knowledge of the matter.

US Attorney’s Office prosecutors in New York‘s Northern District are expected to formally announce the charges later Thursday, according to the report, and law enforcement officials are also set to hold a press conference on the case at that time.

NBC News identified the suspect as 35-year-old Jessica Bowie, with the report citing a criminal complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York as saying that she allegedly asked a source for help learning to make explosives.

The complaint cited by NBC claims that Bowie converted to Islam five years ago, with several social media accounts traced back to her having posted content that supported terrorism.

In addition, Bowie communicated with an FBI agent who was posing as an ISIS facilitator, according to the complaint, telling the agent about her plans to blow up the New York State Capitol building.

“I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the senators while they are meeting,” the complaint accuses her of saying, noting that she claimed to want to “harm the enemies of God.”

The complaint cited by NBC also noted that Bowie preferred to bomb the White House with US President Donald Trump inside, but decided against it because it was “an even harder job.”

Bowie hoped to get away with attack, strike again

According to NBC, Bowie sought to escape following the attack and return to strike additional targets in the future if she managed to evade authorities.

The report added that Bowie received $200 from the FBI agents, which she spent at a Home Depot on August 5 on materials involved in bomb-making. She allegedly later gave the items to agents at an in-person meeting.

She further allegedly inquired of an agent how to obtain a firearm so she could “shoot back” if the police came after her.

Bowie allegedly told the agents that she would feel remorse if Muslims, children, or pregnant women were killed in the attack, noting that she hoped “Allah” would forgive her, NBC added.

An American citizen, Albany resident with ISIS ties

According to the NYT, Bowie is a US citizen, lives in the Albany area, and has either shown ties to or pledged allegiance to ISIS.

It is still unclear how long the attack has been planned for, nor whether the suspect has a lawyer, the report noted.

Bowie faces a court date on Thursday and is charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, NBC reported.

This post was originally published on here.

European stocks slipped for a seventh consecutive session Thursday, their longest losing streak since September 2023, as rising oil prices revived inflation concerns and placed fresh pressure on travel, retail and other fuel-sensitive businesses.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed 0.12% lower at 650.35. The daily decline was small, but the uninterrupted run of losses points to a broader change in investor confidence after European shares approached record highs earlier this month.

Brent crude climbed more than 2% and moved above $90 a barrel as stalled U.S.-Iran negotiations and continued Middle East instability raised concerns about energy supplies. Higher oil prices benefit producers, but they also increase transportation, manufacturing and heating costs across a European economy that remains especially exposed to imported energy.

Energy stocks gained about 0.9%, while travel and leisure shares fell 0.7%. France’s CAC 40 declined 0.6%, hurt by weakness in luxury companies including LVMH and Kering. Germany’s DAX also finished lower, while Britain’s FTSE 100 was roughly flat.

Fresh German data added to the concern, showing producer prices rising at their fastest pace in more than three years as energy and goods costs increased. That creates a difficult calculation for the European Central Bank: slowing economic activity would normally support lower interest rates, but another inflation wave could prevent policymakers from providing relief.

JD Sports Fashion became one of the day’s largest corporate casualties, plunging more than 14% after cutting its profit outlook because of weaker North American sales. Danish biotechnology company Novonesis moved sharply in the opposite direction, gaining nearly 10% following strong results and a share-buyback announcement.

Europe’s decline remains modest in percentage terms, and the Stoxx 600 is still up for the year. The warning is in the consistency: investors have now sold the market for seven straight sessions as expensive energy, elevated borrowing costs and weaker corporate guidance begin pressing against the continent’s previously resilient earnings outlook.

JBizNews Desk | London

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

Lebanon on Wednesday extradited a former Syrian military officer under ousted President Bashar Assad and he will be put on trial in Syria, the Interior Ministry said.

Maj. Gen. Adel Issa is the first military officer to be turned over by Lebanon since Assad’s fall in late 2024.

Lebanon’s judicial authorities decided on Tuesday to deliver Issa to Syria, after questioning him over crimes he allegedly committed during the country’s conflict.

Syria’s Interior Ministry said it had asked authorities in Lebanon to hand over Issa to Syria over alleged crimes including intentional killing of more than two persons, the crime of torture resulting in death, and acts of aggression aimed at inciting civil war and sectarian strife.

The ministry added that Issa was the commander of the Syrian army’s 17th Division and the commander of ground forces in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour until 2016. The ministry posted a photo of Issa wearing a prison uniform.

Officials in Beirut said on Tuesday that Issa was turned over to Syria in accordance with a 1951 agreement between the countries that calls for delivering suspected criminals to face justice.

After Syrian fighters opposed to Assad marched into Damascus to end the Assad family’s five-decade rule in December 2024, a number of military and security officers fled to Lebanon, where some remain.

Last week, a Syrian court sentenced Assad and his younger brother Maher to death in absentia while their maternal cousin, Brig. Gen. Atef Najib, became the most senior security official to be sentenced to death while in custody. The Assad brothers fled to Russia during the ouster.

Issa was detained on Aug. 8 when he went to the Syrian Embassy in Beirut for some paperwork. Embassy officials contacted Lebanon’s prosecutor’s office to tell them that Issa was wanted in Syria.

Issa had fled to Lebanon by crossing illegally after Assad’s fall, the officials said.

Syria’s conflict, which began with anti-government protests in March 2011 before turning into a civil war, left 500,000 people dead and over 1 million wounded.

(AP)

Thai police launched a sweeping operation against foreign business networks suspected of using Thai citizens as nominee shareholders to conceal foreign ownership of companies, land and restricted businesses, with arrest warrants issued for 20 Israelis on Koh Samui, Walla reported on Wednesday.

The Koh Samui Provincial Court issued warrants for the Israelis as part of the investigation, more than for citizens of any other foreign country included in the operation, excluding Thai nationals themselves.

Among the Israelis arrested was prominent real estate developer Gal Bieber, 45, who was detained on Saturday by officers from the Bo Phut Police Station and immigration police from Surat Thani Province.

According to police, Bieber is suspected of providing false information to public officials that led to false details being entered into official documents, unlawfully managing businesses restricted to Thai citizens, and using Thai citizens and corporations to conceal foreign ownership and management of businesses. At this stage, these remain allegations.

Thai police issue warrants for 20 Israelis in Koh Samui business crackdown

According to the suspicions made public, Gal and his wife, Roni, established a multilayered corporate structure and placed Thai citizens as shareholders in name only.

Authorities allege that the network of companies was used to operate an international school without a license and to purchase, hold, develop, sell and rent luxury villas, mainly to Israeli clients.

Thai authorities said a review of company records showed that one of the companies linked to the couple was initially registered under the names of Thai shareholders, with most of its shares transferred about a month later to Roni Bieber. The shareholders, directors, company capital and areas of business activity were subsequently changed repeatedly.

In total, authorities examined 12,906 companies registered on Koh Samui. Authorities found foreign shareholders in 8,254 of them, while 875 were flagged as having characteristics that could indicate the use of nominee shareholders.

After screening the information, the operation focused on 61 companies that held 42 plots of land and buildings spanning more than 53 dunams, valued at an estimated 1.5 billion baht, or approximately NIS 140 million.

Authorities opened 60 cases against 88 suspects, including 26 Thai citizens and 62 foreigners. Arrest warrants were issued for all 62 foreign suspects, including 20 Israelis, 17 Russians, 12 French nationals and two citizens each from Ukraine and Germany. Authorities said 27 suspects, including two Israelis, were arrested on the day of the operation.

During searches, police seized incorporation documents, accounting books, computers, mobile phones and digital information. Police said they would use the material to expand the investigation and identify additional individuals involved both inside and outside Thailand.

On Monday, two days after the Koh Samui operation, Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Dr. Alona Fisher-Kamm and members of the embassy delegation met Surat Thani Provincial Police commander Sawat Suksri and Tourist Police Division 3 commander Satasak Yimcharoen.

The meeting took place amid a rise in the number of Israelis on Koh Samui and nearby islands, recent tensions and friction between local residents and Israelis, and increased enforcement against businesses suspected of illegal activity.

The meeting also aimed to strengthen coordination, ensure the safety of Israeli tourists, and encourage responsible tourism in the country. The ambassador thanked police for assisting Israelis and said the overwhelming majority obey the law, while acknowledging that “there are also exceptional cases of improper behavior.” She stressed that the embassy briefs Israelis traveling to Thailand on local laws, customs and culture.

She asked authorities to contact the embassy directly in any incident involving Israelis to enable a swift and coordinated response. Thai authorities, for their part, said they enforce the law transparently and equally against everyone, regardless of nationality.

The Koh Samui operation is the seventh stage of a Thai government campaign against concealed foreign control of land and businesses in tourist areas. During the previous six stages, authorities examined 238 companies and 272 plots of land across seven provinces, including Phuket, Krabi, Phang Nga and Chonburi. So far, authorities have issued 178 arrest warrants as part of the operations, and 91 suspects have been arrested.

Roni Bieber: “All our actions were accompanied by a Thai lawyer and accountant”
Roni Bieber told Walla, “We reject the claims raised against us. The businesses were established and operated with the guidance of local professionals and with the intention of complying with the requirements of Thai law. This was not a case of using nominee shareholders, and all the partners involved are real people who were part of the business activity.

“We are cooperating fully with the authorities through our lawyers and are providing all the required documents and information. Gal reported as required and has been released on bail while the legal proceedings are underway.

“Since the matter is currently under examination and in legal proceedings, we cannot address every detail, but we believe the facts will become clear and our names will be cleared. We respect Thai law and the authorities. All our actions were accompanied by a Thai lawyer and accountant who told him how to do everything and accompanied us when the companies were opened and the businesses were established. We placed our full trust in them and did as they instructed, but when the law changed, they disappeared and took no responsibility, and because they are Thai, they are free from law enforcement.

“We ask that partial information or premature conclusions not be published before the examination is completed.”

This post was originally published on here.

A second Gidon tanker touched down at Nevatim Airbase on Thursday, marking a significant milestone for the IDF’s aerial refueling and cargo capabilities.

The Gidon, converted from a Boeing KC-46 airframe through a joint program between the US Air Force and the IAF, is described by the officer who oversees its operation as the most advanced aerial refueling aircraft in the world.

It first entered IAF service earlier this year, becoming the flagship of a new refueling squadron that will only continue to grow. Israel has ordered six of the aircraft to date, with the possibility of expanding the fleet further down the line.

“First and foremost, it is a tanker aircraft, and its capabilities are extensive and very important for the State of Israel,” an IAF source told The Jerusalem Post, explaining that, beyond refueling, the aircraft can carry cargo and passengers simultaneously, evacuate wounded personnel, and may take on additional roles the Air Force and Defense Ministry develop for it over time.

“Our goal is to provide the State of Israel with the strongest capability we possibly can. And, of course, regional cooperation and cooperation with our American partners are strategic and critical for the country,” the source said.

The Gidon refuels other aircraft primarily through an advanced boom system, which will serve as the backbone of the IAF’s refueling missions going forward. The aircraft is also equipped with a secondary drogue-based refueling system, which Israeli aircraft are not built to use, but it could eventually support aerial refueling for other air forces as part of regional cooperation efforts.

The source explained that what specifically sets the Gidon apart from the aircraft it is replacing is its raw capacity paired with precision.

Gidon carries ‘significantly more’ fuel, cargo, passengers than predecessor, IAF source says

“It can carry significantly more fuel, significantly more cargo, and significantly more passengers,” he said, “and it can do all of that with greater precision, in more complex environments, and on a larger scale.”

The aircraft can carry up to 18 pallets of cargo and can conduct refueling and cargo missions at the same time.

The Gidon also carries civilian and military systems that the officer described as among the most advanced of their kind anywhere in the world. The officer said they feature a mix of flight-safety and communications technology found on top-tier commercial aircraft, alongside classified military systems developed by the US Air Force.

Its core mission, the source explained, is extending the reach of Israeli combat aircraft on long-range operations.

“Our goal is to get the Air Force as far as it needs to go, to all the points it needs to reach, and to bring all of its capabilities across the Middle East, or even farther if necessary,” he said.

Source: New tanker aircraft can also serve international humanitarian aid delivery missions

But the aircraft’s reach isn’t limited to combat missions. As the source explained, the Gidon can also be used to deliver aid across the world.

“This aircraft can bring the State of Israel and all of its capabilities to help populations and countries – whether Jewish communities or other countries – anywhere in the world,” he said, noting that the Home Front Command and other state agencies could now reach nearly any destination on a direct flight to deliver or retrieve equipment.

The Gidon program has been closely watched since the first aircraft arrived in Israel earlier this year as part of a deal funded through US Foreign Military Financing, replacing the IAF’s fleet of Boeing 707 “Re’em” tankers, which have been in service for roughly six decades.

This post was originally published on here.

Some of America’s biggest companies are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in tariff refunds, or booking even larger financial benefits. However, many consumers are wondering if those refunds will find their way back into their wallets. 

After the Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give the president authority to impose tariffs, major Fortune 500 companies, including Amazon and Target, have received hundreds of millions of dollars in tariff refunds. Some have pledged to issue refunds to consumers who bore increased costs thanks to the tariffs, while others have stayed mum on the subject. 

The Trump administration said as of July 31, it certified $100 billion in tariff refunds, including interest, out of the $166 billion it collected. 

Companies that received cash

Amazon, ranking No.1 on the Fortune 500, stands out as one of the largest companies to have already collected refunds. The e-commerce giant said “we received approximately $640 million of tariff refunds under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”),” during the second quarter of 2026, according to its SEC filing. The amount represented the “significant majority of refunds” it expects to receive. Amazon has said it may offer refunds to only a limited number of customers impacted by the tariffs.

Target received almost a billion dollars in refunds during the second quarter, it said on Wednesday. The department store received $994 million in tariff refunds, adding $752 million to net earnings for a total of $1.88 billion and $1.65 to earnings per share. 

Target CFO Jim Lee confirmed the company will not issue refunds as a result of the company’s IEEPA refunds, but will use the money towards bringing lower prices. “We have, and we will continue to, invest in price to ensure our guests are getting tremendous value each and every time they visit us at Target,” Lee told Modern Retail.

Nike has also recovered most of what it was owed. The sportswear company said it expected to recover $986 million. According to its filing, Nike had received $302 million as of May 31, and recorded another $684 million as “outstanding IEEPA tariff receivable.” Nike has remained quiet on whether consumers will see any refunds, even as consumers sue the company for not refunding tariff-related costs.

FedEx is a different case—the company and its competitor UPS have begun returning refunds to consumers earlier this month. The delivery company said its reported cash balance included approximately $800 million in IEEPA tariff refunds, but that money was being held for refunds to customers, according to its filing. FedEx previously sued the federal government seeking a full refund of tariffs it had paid.

Received refunds, but unclear how much

The results are mixed for automakers. Ford reported a $1.3 billion one-time tariff benefit reflecting tariffs it paid between March 2025 and February 2026, per its filing, even as the company sued the Trump administration over refunds. Similarly, General Motors separately recorded a $500 million favorable adjustment tied to previously charged tariffs, which GM said it believed were refundable in its filing. Neither disclosure, however, confirms that the full amount had already been received in cash. Stellantis, the maker of Jeep and Ram, received a tariff refund of €400 million (about $467 million).

Other companies have reported large financial benefits without making clear how much has actually been received.

Apple reported a boost from tariff refunds, disclosing that the refunds added approximately two percentage points to its fiscal third-quarter gross margin and contributed 11 cents to diluted earnings per share. Apple said it will invest its tariff refund into domestic manufacturing. 

For other major companies, the tariff refund situation is unclear after they sued the Trump administration for refunds. 

Costco said it would issue tariff refunds to consumers after being hit with four class action lawsuits alleging the company passed on the tariffs costs and raised prices. Kohl’s, which paid about $190 million in tariffs, applied for roughly $140 million in refunds but said in its latest quarterly filing that it had not received any payments. Home Depot said in its May quarterly filing that it received an “immaterial amount” after the quarter ended, and its Aug. 18 earnings release said its guidance “includes IEEPA tariff refunds, which are expected to partially offset unplanned fuel, energy, and other product input costs.” Other companies that also sued the Trump administration include Revlon, J. Crew, and Bumble Bee Foods. 

Walmart said in a May disclosure that its financial guidance did not assume any impact from tariff refunds, saying it won’t offer refunds to consumers but that it will put that money toward lowering prices. Tesla was similarly cautious in its latest quarterly filing, stating that it may be eligible for refunds of previously paid tariffs, but that the recoverability and timing remained uncertain. The company previously sued the Trump administration over its China tariffs in 2020. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Israel’s High Court of Justice on Thursday unanimously struck down the government’s decision to close Galei Tzahal, or IDF Radio, finding that the move was improperly driven by officials’ objections to the station’s broadcasts rather than legitimate considerations regarding its continued operation.

In its ruling, the court concluded that “the decision was based on an extraneous and improper consideration.”

The justices said the government’s decision had to be nullified “because the decision was made on the basis of an extraneous and improper consideration: the dissatisfaction of the decision-makers with the fact that the broadcasts, in their view, ran counter to their positions. The Court was persuaded, as a matter of fact, that this was indeed the case, and further noted that after a conditional order was issued, the government did not act to prove otherwise. The Court held that the government had the authority to make a decision on the matter and rejected the argument that closing Galei Tzahal required primary legislation.”

At the same time, the court stressed that its ruling should not be interpreted as a determination that Galei Tzahal must remain open permanently. Rather, the justices said any future effort to close the military broadcaster would have to follow a lawful process and be based on legitimate considerations.

“All of the justices, each for his or her own reasons, made clear that they do not rule out the possibility of closing Galei Tzahal on its merits, had the decision on the matter been made lawfully and on the basis of relevant considerations, nor do they take a position regarding the content of the broadcasts.”

Justice Yechiel Kasher sharply criticized the reasoning behind the government’s action, arguing that public officials cannot use their governmental authority to silence broadcasters simply because they object to what is being aired.

“It cannot be accepted that a person vested with governmental authority may decide that because he does not like the statements made by a broadcaster, the broadcaster’s ‘microphone should be shut off.’

“A government that acts in this manner is acting in a clearly undemocratic fashion, since the cornerstone upon which every democratic government rests is the recognition that the government may not use its power to silence those whose views it finds objectionable.”

Justice Alex Stein, however, rejected a separate argument advanced by the petitioners that shutting down Galei Tzahal would inherently violate freedom of expression.

Stein reasoned that freedom of expression does not require the government to maintain and operate its own radio station as a vehicle for different opinions. He suggested that government-operated news and current-affairs programming could, under some circumstances, itself interfere with or distort public discourse.

Stein also addressed the unusual spectacle of uniformed Galei Tzahal soldiers interviewing political figures, describing the arrangement as a “distortion of the system of government.”

In his view, the IDF, “the army of everyone,” should have no part in the country’s political debate, “not even the role of interviewer and broadcaster.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded angrily to the decision, accusing the Supreme Court of overriding the authority of Israel’s elected government.

“The Supreme Court is carrying out a coup against democracy and stripping a democratically elected government of its lawful powers. If the judges at Givat Ram in Jerusalem want to make decisions in place of the government, they are welcome to establish a political party and run for election to the Knesset. The judges are acting with endless arrogance and, without authority, are overturning the decisions of the elected government.

“Otzma Yehudit’s condition for joining the next government is the passage of a full judicial reform: the establishment of a constitutional court and the immediate dismissal of the criminal Attorney General,” Ben-Gvir said.

{Matzav.com}

A sudden labor strike brought operations at Ben-Gurion Airport to a standstill Thursday afternoon, grounding flights, shutting down check-in counters and throwing the travel plans of tens of thousands of passengers into turmoil during one of the busiest periods of the summer.

The work stoppage ended at approximately 3 p.m., about an hour after employees closed all check-in counters and declared a “crisis” over severe operational problems, difficulties loading and unloading aircraft and a shortage of available parking stands.

The disruption was expected to have lingering consequences even after employees returned to work. According to N12 News, most flights scheduled to leave Ben-Gurion on Thursday were expected to depart without passengers’ luggage.

Flights had been grounded beginning at 2 p.m., with the Israel Airports Authority saying that union-ordered work disruptions had interfered with airport operations and services for travelers.

The timing of the shutdown was particularly disruptive, with approximately 100,000 passengers expected to travel through Ben-Gurion on Thursday. Compounding the airport’s logistical difficulties, more than 20 American refueling aircraft were occupying parking stands near Terminals 1 and 3.

The presence of the additional aircraft has increased the amount of time required to transport baggage between the terminals and planes. It has also complicated the movement of passengers who must be shuttled to and from aircraft parked away from jet bridges.

The Public Transport Authority said management had instructed workers to “immediately cease any action that harms regular work and to restore operations to full routine.

The Authority views with utmost severity any deliberate action liable to harm the traveling public and the proper functioning of Ben-Gurion Airport, especially during summer peak loads and high operational volumes.”

The labor action reportedly had been planned for a day earlier. According to N12, workers initially intended to stage the strike Wednesday in an effort to interfere with Transportation Minister Miri Regev’s scheduled flight to Morocco.

By later Thursday, the financial consequences of the disruption were already being calculated. The Finance Ministry estimated that the strike caused between NIS 25 million and NIS 30 million in damage, Ynet News reported.

That estimate included the economic value of passengers’ lost time, additional expenses incurred by airlines, revenue lost by the Israel Airports Authority, disruptions to cargo and supply chains and broader costs to the tourism industry.

Pinchas Idan, who led the labor action, blamed airport management for imposing intolerable conditions on employees.

“They give us such hard labor; management has no shame – they are torturing the employees of Ben-Gurion.”

Reports indicated that airport personnel may have employed what is commonly called an “Italian” strike — also known as a “work-to-rule” or “slowdown” action — in which employees remain technically on the job and adhere strictly to regulations while deliberately slowing operations to the point that normal activity becomes extremely difficult or impossible.

Such tactics are frequently associated with employees whose ability to conduct a conventional strike is legally restricted, including air traffic controllers, customs personnel, baggage handlers and workers in other essential transportation positions.

Senior Transportation Ministry officials warned that there would be serious consequences if an investigation determines that employees deliberately conducted an Italian-style strike at the height of the summer travel season, saying that “heads will roll and workers will go home.”

“We are investigating the incident; we are in a peak period with refuelers present, but if the investigation reveals an Italian strike, we will act with a very heavy hand against whoever is behind this,” they said.

The United States’ national debt has surpassed $40 trillion for the first time in history, according to Treasury Department data released Wednesday, reaching $40.047 trillion as of Tuesday.

The figure is more than double the $19.95 trillion debt recorded in January 2017. Roughly $11.6 trillion was added during President Donald Trump’s two terms, compared with $8.4 trillion during Joe Biden’s presidency, Reuters reported.

About one-third of the increase came during two years of extraordinary government borrowing to fund the response to the COVID-19 pandemic under Trump and Biden. The remainder has been attributed to fiscal policies under both presidents and the persistent gap between federal spending and revenue.

The debt continues to climb, with the federal government posting a $432 billion deficit in July — the fourth-largest monthly deficit in U.S. history. During the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026, the deficit already surpassed the total recorded for the previous fiscal year.

Interest payments have become one of the government’s largest expenses, costing approximately $1.1 trillion annually. In 2025, interest costs surpassed the Pentagon budget for the first time, and during the first 10 months of 2026, they became the federal government’s second-largest spending category behind Social Security.

Meanwhile, spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid continues to rise while tax revenues remain insufficient to cover federal expenditures.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, warned that the massive debt burden has consequences beyond Washington, contributing to inflationary pressures, limiting the government’s ability to fund other priorities and leaving the country more vulnerable during emergencies.

The growing debt is also affecting bond markets, with long-term U.S. Treasury yields reaching levels not seen in nearly two decades. Higher yields can translate into increased borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and businesses.

Despite concerns surrounding the milestone, Trump said Wednesday that Americans should not be worried.

“I don’t think so at all. I think we have a very strong country,” Trump said, adding that when the country is strong, “interest rates should come down.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Dr. Hussein al-Sharaa, the father of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, launched a blistering attack on Israel following its strike on the Abu al-Duhur airfield, declaring that despite Damascus’s current restraint, Syria will eventually retake the Golan Heights.

Al-Sharaa, who is in his 80s, made the remarks in a Facebook post that drew widespread attention, describing Israel as Syria’s primary adversary following the revolution.

“The truth that Syrians must never forget is that our main problem is with Israel,” he wrote, accusing Israel of seeking to undermine Syria’s stability and territorial integrity for the past 80 years.

Al-Sharaa claimed that Israel has carried out approximately 1,000 airstrikes on Syrian military sites, crossed the 1974 disengagement lines, seized territory in the Mount Hermon area and established an observation post.

“The goal is clear: Israel does not want a stable Syria,” he wrote.

Al-Sharaa said Damascus is currently refraining from a military response due to international considerations, but warned that its restraint should not be mistaken for an abandonment of its territorial claims.

“The Syrian people can establish fighting forces within days in numbers you cannot comprehend. The enemy must know that we have occupied land called the Golan Heights, and we will take it back — sooner or later.”

Hussein al-Sharaa, who was associated with the Nasserist movement in his youth and later went into exile following the rise of the Ba’ath Party, holds no official position in the Syrian government.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Lakewood families are facing a staggering increase in transportation costs for the upcoming school year, with the Lakewood Student Transportation Authority (LSTA) informing schools and parents that the cost of non-mandated busing will jump from $385 to $945 per child.

But questions are now emerging over exactly what funding was eliminated — and who had previously benefited from it.

Contrary to an earlier understanding of the announcement, Lakewood Township has not historically subsidized the cost of non-mandated LSTA transportation for nonpublic-school families.

Rather, Township funding had been used to provide so-called courtesy busing for Lakewood public-school students who lived within the distance limits that would otherwise make them ineligible for state-mandated transportation.

Those public-school students were reportedly receiving that courtesy transportation at no direct cost to their families.

With that Township funding no longer available, the new LSTA fee structure is raising serious questions over whether the financial impact of maintaining the broader transportation system is now being shifted onto nonpublic-school families.

LSTA informed families Thursday that non-mandated transportation for the 2026-27 school year will cost $945 per child, up sharply from the previously announced $385.

Non-mandated students are generally elementary-school children who live two miles or less from their school, or high-school students who live 2.5 miles or less away.

According to LSTA, the actual cost of providing a seat can reach as high as $1,177, though the authority said efficiencies within Lakewood’s transportation network allowed it to reduce the parent charge to $945.

Families who already paid $385 will have that payment credited toward the new cost, leaving an additional balance of $560 per child.

For families with several children requiring transportation, that can mean thousands of dollars in unexpected additional expenses just days before the school year begins.

The development is also fueling major questions over how Lakewood’s transportation system is funded.

If public-school students previously received courtesy busing at no direct cost to their families because Township money covered that service, residents deserve a clear explanation of what happens now that the funding is gone.

More importantly, families deserve to know whether the loss of funding for public-school courtesy transportation is playing a role in the dramatic increase now being imposed on nonpublic-school families.

That distinction is critical.

Lakewood Township has not simply been subsidizing transportation for all non-mandated students across the community. The funding structure appears to have treated public-school courtesy transportation differently, with those families receiving transportation without having to pay the type of per-child charge now being imposed on nonpublic-school families.

That is likely to intensify frustration among Lakewood parents already struggling with tuition and rapidly increasing school-related expenses.

Families are increasingly being asked to pay separately for transportation, lunches and other services, while tuition and the overall cost of raising a family continue to rise.

Another $560 per child is not a minor increase.

A family with four affected children, for example, would suddenly face an additional $2,240 transportation bill.

The increase is also raising broader questions about accountability at LSTA and within Lakewood’s overall transportation structure.

For years, families have dealt with transportation complaints involving routes, delays, capacity and other service issues while the amount of money required to operate the system continues to grow.

At some point, residents are entitled to ask whether the existing system is sustainable.

If LSTA cannot provide reliable transportation at a cost that families and taxpayers can reasonably afford, Township officials and transportation leaders should be looking at every possible alternative — including restructuring the system, changing leadership or finding another way to provide the service.

Residents also deserve complete transparency regarding how the transportation system is funded, how much money comes from each government source, how public-school courtesy transportation is financed, what nonpublic-school transportation actually costs and how the loss of one funding source affects families in another part of the system.

Simply telling families that they must pay dramatically more is not enough.

As of Thursday afternoon, Lakewood Alerts had seen no public statement from Lakewood Township officials fully explaining the situation or addressing the sudden increase.

That silence leaves major unanswered questions.

When did Township officials know the courtesy-busing funding would no longer be available?

How much had the Township been spending on public-school courtesy transportation?

Were public-school families previously paying anything toward those buses?

How does the elimination of that funding affect LSTA’s overall transportation contracts?

And most importantly, why are nonpublic-school families now being asked to pay $945 per child?

Parents who want their children to remain on the bus must log into the LSTA family portal and opt in by Monday, August 24, at 11:00 p.m.

Families who already paid $385 will receive credit for that payment, while those who opt out will receive a refund.

LSTA said the short deadline is necessary to allow routes to be reorganized, transportation contracts to be finalized and vendors to prepare for the start of service on September 1.

But for thousands of Lakewood families, the bigger issue is no longer simply the size of the increase.

It is understanding who had been paying for what, why that funding disappeared, and whether the financial burden of one part of Lakewood’s transportation system is now being placed on families in another.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Turkey is denying Israel’s claim that Turkish forces had been deployed at a Syrian Air Force base before and during Israeli airstrikes on the facility this week.

Turkish Defense Ministry spokesman Rear Adm. Zeki Akturk said Thursday that “no Turkish military delegation was present at the Syrian Air Force base before or during Israel’s airstrikes.”

The denial comes after the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said the strike was carried out after Damascus allowed Turkish soldiers to deploy on Syrian territory despite warnings from Israel.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry also sharply criticized Israel, with Akturk saying Ankara’s efforts to protect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would continue “with determination.” He called on the international community to take action against Israel’s operations.

“The perception that Israel’s military interventions against neighboring countries are routine and acceptable must under no circumstances be allowed,” Akturk said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods are still expected to arrive in late 2027, despite an apparent company video leak that made the unusual artificial-intelligence product appear ready for an earlier release.

The 13-second video was discovered inside the release-candidate version of macOS Tahoe 26.7, software normally distributed shortly before a public update. It shows a man wearing AirPods while looking at a physical book and asking Siri to remember it. The assistant describes a feature called Visual Intelligence that makes the user’s surroundings “saveable.”

The demonstration matters because it provides the clearest evidence yet of how Apple intends to move artificial intelligence beyond the iPhone screen. The cameras would not primarily take photographs or record conventional video. They would give Siri low-resolution visual information about whatever is in front of the wearer, allowing the assistant to identify an object, understand its context and respond to a spoken request.

A shopper could look at a product and ask Siri to remember it, compare it or locate it later. Someone preparing dinner could ask for recipes based on ingredients on a counter. Travelers could receive directions based on landmarks, while users with limited vision could ask the assistant to identify objects or describe their surroundings.

The leak, however, does not necessarily reveal the exact product Apple plans to sell in 2027.

Apple is reportedly developing at least two camera-equipped AirPods projects under the internal designations B790 and B798. References found inside macOS indicate that the leaked demonstration may involve B790, while the more advanced B798 model has been associated with the late-2027 release schedule. The video could therefore represent an earlier hardware version, a software demonstration or a product Apple is using internally to prepare Visual Intelligence before the final consumer device is ready.

That distinction is important because the most difficult part of the project is not placing a small camera inside an earbud. Apple must build visual-AI models capable of interpreting a constantly changing environment without producing dangerous or embarrassing mistakes. A phone camera is deliberately pointed at an object. Earbuds move with the wearer’s head, can be covered by hair or clothing and may capture incomplete or blurred information.

The project was reportedly intended for an earlier release but slipped partly because of Apple’s prolonged difficulties delivering its more advanced Siri. Without a reliable assistant capable of understanding context, remembering previous requests and connecting visual information with applications, camera-equipped AirPods would offer little more than expensive sensors.

Apple is also trying to solve a hardware problem that competing AI companies have approached through glasses. Meta’s camera-equipped Ray-Ban glasses place cameras near the wearer’s eyes, giving them a direct view of the scene. AirPods are less visually intrusive and already familiar to hundreds of millions of consumers, but the camera angle from a moving earbud could be less stable and less precise.

Privacy may become the largest obstacle. AirPods are small enough that people nearby may not realize they contain cameras. Apple reportedly does not intend the earbuds to function as covert recording devices and may include an external indicator when visual information is being processed or transmitted. But the company has not explained whether images would be analyzed entirely on the device, temporarily sent to an iPhone or uploaded to cloud servers.

Those details will determine whether consumers view the product as a useful assistant or an invisible surveillance device.

For Apple, the commercial opportunity is larger than selling another premium pair of earbuds. If AirPods can continuously connect Siri with the physical world, they could become an AI interface that users wear for hours—reducing the need to remove an iPhone, open an application and type a question.

The leaked video shows that Apple’s concept is no longer merely experimental. But it does not mean the finished product is imminent. The company still needs to prove that Visual Intelligence can see accurately, respond quickly, protect bystanders’ privacy and deliver enough practical value to justify putting cameras into one of the world’s most common personal accessories.

JBizNews Desk | Cupertino, California

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

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States is unlikely to restart large-scale combat against Iran, signaling that Washington intends to rely on financial isolation and a continuing maritime blockade to pressure Tehran.

Bessent said the administration is preparing what he called “the toughest sanctions in history,” describing the combination of the blockade and expanded economic restrictions as a “one-two punch” designed to deprive Iran of oil revenue, foreign currency and access to international trade.

The strategy depends heavily on enforcement beyond Iran itself. Washington is expected to target foreign banks, refiners, shipping companies and trading networks that continue facilitating Iranian commerce, effectively forcing governments and businesses to choose between dealing with Tehran and retaining access to the American financial system.

China presents the largest test. It purchases more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil and remains Tehran’s most important economic lifeline. Bessent urged Beijing to cooperate, arguing that China also has a major interest in stabilizing the Persian Gulf because roughly half of its energy supplies originate in the region.

Bessent said stronger economic pressure should reduce the likelihood that the United States will resume an expensive, large-scale military campaign. The administration’s calculation is that Iran can survive isolated strikes more easily than the sustained loss of oil revenue, banking access and commercial relationships.

The approach is not without risk. Cutting Iranian barrels from the market while shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained could push energy prices higher. Brent crude climbed above $94 Thursday as traders assessed whether the new campaign would further restrict supplies moving out of the Persian Gulf.

Bessent is expected to disclose additional details Monday, including how aggressively Washington will pursue companies and countries that continue doing business with Iran.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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

photos: Shuki Lerer

The biological mother of Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed spent five years working for an international relief organization that was later designated by the U.S. government over allegations that it helped finance Hamas, supported Taliban-linked activities and had connections to Osama bin Laden’s network, according to records highlighted this week, the Jerusalem Post report.

The connection involving El-Sayed’s mother, Fatten Fathy Elkomy, was first reported Tuesday by the Midwesterner and was independently verified by The Jerusalem Post.

El-Sayed was raised primarily by his Egyptian father, Mohamed El-Sayed, and his father’s second wife, Jacqueline. His biological mother has rarely figured prominently in his political biography. She remarried and moved back to the Middle East while El-Sayed was still young.

The Midwesterner, however, raised questions about whether Elkomy’s absence from her son’s public political story may have been deliberate.

Records show that Elkomy was employed from 1999 until 2004 by the Islamic American/African Relief Agency, known as IARA. Based in Khartoum, Sudan, the organization operated approximately 40 offices around the globe and presented its mission as humanitarian work assisting orphans, providing health care and helping disadvantaged populations in conflict zones.

But the U.S. Treasury Department painted a dramatically different picture of some of IARA’s activities when it announced sanctions against the organization on October 13, 2004. According to Treasury, IARA participated in a joint program with an institute involved in assisting Taliban fighters and transferred money into the Palestinian territories that was intended for terrorist activity. Treasury also said IARA functioned as a financial conduit for Hamas in a Western European country.

The federal government formally designated IARA that same day, along with five individuals associated with the organization.

Additional information subsequently released by the Treasury Department alleged that IARA had connections to Maktab Al-Khidamat, or MK, an organization co-founded and financed by Osama bin Laden that served as a predecessor to al Qaeda.

Treasury also said IARA’s international branches had directly provided financial assistance to bin Laden and that one of bin Laden’s previous lieutenants had served as the head of IARA’s operations in Afghanistan.

The organization’s legal problems escalated in March 2007, when the Justice Department brought a 33-count indictment against IARA-US involving the illegal movement of money to Iraq.

Federal prosecutors assembled an extensive documentary record in USA v. IARA, including 945 exhibits consisting of telephone records, faxes, bank statements, wire transfers, tax documents, emails and other material. In an exhibit list filed in May 2010 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Elkomy’s name appeared 14 times. Those references involved eight wire transfers, five recorded telephone conversations and an IARA request to transfer $24,607.34 to the organization’s office in Iraq.

Elkomy’s brother, Mohamed Elkomy — El-Sayed’s uncle — also appeared dozens of times in the evidence cited in the case.

Neither Fatten Elkomy nor Mohamed Elkomy was charged or named as a co-conspirator. Individuals associated with IARA were not prosecuted on terrorism charges. The organization itself, however, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate financial sanctions by sending money to Iraq. IARA ultimately dissolved in 2016.

Elkomy publicly rejected allegations connecting the relief organization to terrorism when she was interviewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2004. She said she had “been working there serving orphans and children with at least one deceased parent, and it breaks my heart they’re not going to get any help.”

According to Elkomy’s LinkedIn profile, she has worked as a psychiatric nurse practitioner with Missouri Behavioral Health Services since July 2013.

El-Sayed, whose full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, was born in Michigan in 1984 to Egyptian immigrant parents. He attended the University of Michigan before studying at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and later attending Columbia University, where he earned his medical degree. He also holds a doctorate in public health.

A victory would make El-Sayed the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate.

WASHINGTON D.C (VINnews) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that the U.S. Treasury Department’s accelerated buyback of longer-dated government debt could exceed the $4 billion upper limit announced a day earlier.

Speaking in a live interview on CNBC, Bessent said the department plans to “make a market” in longer-dated securities, where yields have surged in recent weeks.

“We’re going to increase the size of the buyback,” Bessent said. “I would note that it could be more than the 4 billion per issue.”

Treasury announced Wednesday that it would at least double the size of its scheduled $2 billion buybacks of longer-dated debt in the 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year sectors, effective Sept. 9 through Nov. 4. The move initially sent yields sharply lower, though much of that decline had reversed by Thursday.

Bessent’s remarks prompted a brief easing in yields before they turned higher again. The 30-year bond yield was recently around 5.235%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose about 5 basis points to 4.704%.

Bessent said the level of yields did not factor into the decision and that the goal is to let market fundamentals drive prices rather than headlines in a thin trading environment.

“All we’re trying to do is get people to focus on the fundamentals and not trade the headlines during a quiet period in a thin market,” he said.

He described liquidity in the 30-year bond as “very poor” and said current yield levels do not reflect underlying economic conditions.

“We have a big toolkit, so we’ll see,” Bessent said. “Part of it is signaling here and to show that we believe that the yields don’t reflect the underlying fundamentals.”

Bessent declined to specify how large the buybacks could become, saying the size would depend on market conditions.

Yields have risen amid concerns over surging U.S. debt and deficits, competition from corporate borrowing linked to artificial intelligence, higher yields from other sovereign issuers such as Japan, and elevated term premiums.

National debt crossed the $40 trillion mark this week. Bessent said he planned to meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to discuss “fiscal consolidation.”

“There’s nothing magic about the 40 trillion number, and we can grow our way out of that,” he said. “Our message to our allies, our trading partners, is that global growth is the way to take care of this mountain of debt.”

Israel Police are asking for the public’s help in locating Amir Ambarbar, a 23-year-old from Ramla who left Israel on April 20, 2026, and entered Japan on August 2.

His whereabouts are unknown since then.

On Thursday, his family granted permission to the police to publicize his disappearance.

The police described Amir as approximately 1.70 meters (5’7″) tall, with a slim build, brown hair, and black eyes.

Amir Ambarbar

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the Israel Police emergency hotline at 100 or the Ramla Police Station at 08-9279444.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Rebel Creamery’s founders say they designed the company’s logo and ice cream pint packaging themselves in Adobe Illustrator. But that DIY branding design landed them in a nearly $24 million legal dispute.

The Utah-based, low-carb ice cream maker, whose products are sold at Target, Kroger, and Walmart nationwide, filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 14**,** days after appealing a federal judge’s order to pay rival Van Leeuwen Ice Cream millions over a trade-dress dispute.

According to a Chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah, the maker of Rebel ice cream listed $13.78 million in assets and $23.85 million in liabilities. The bankruptcy follows a July 16 ruling over allegations Rebel deliberately copied Van Leeuwen’s design. 

The dispute stems from Rebel’s packaging: solid-colored pint containers with a minimalist design and prominent black cursive lettering. Rebel’s founders told the court they designed the company’s logo and trade dress themselves in late 2017 using Adobe Illustrator, and claim not to have retained any drafts or initial records of the design.

In a July 16 memorandum and order, U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee found Rebel had intentionally infringed and diluted Van Leeuwen’s trade-dress, a legal term for the distinctive visual appearance of a product or its 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.

Komitee issued Rebel to redesign its pints, writing the brand used “a near-identical color scheme and script on their packaging, with slight design differences to convey dietary information.”

“Van Leeuwen and Rebel are distributed at the same grocery stores often on the same shelf and are frequently intermingled,” Komitee wrote.

On Aug. 12, Rebel appealed Komitee’s ruling, and in the company’s bankruptcy filing two days later, Rebel listed the $24 million claim from Van Leeuwen “disputed” and “under appeal.”

“We are appealing the decision, and our products will continue to be widely available,” a spokesperson for Rebel told Fortune. 

The similar trade-dresses led to customer confusion

Van Leeuwen’s founders first noticed Rebel after an employee sent them a social media post of the company’s similar pint cup design in late 2018 or early 2019, according to the memorandum. 

They were “shocked,” telling the court  “it looked almost exactly like our packaging.” 

Van Leeuwen eventually sued Rebel in 2021, alleging Rebel’s packaging copied the look of its ice cream pints, and sought $36.4 million from its competitor’s profits. Rebel appealed the ruling, and reduced the final award to just under $24 million, allowing Rebel to claim one-third of sales for customers specifically seeking keto-friendly ice cream.

Van Leeuwen’s trade dress was created by the design studio Pentagram, which kept record of every iteration of the ice cream pint and logo design, and became key evidence used in court. 

Rebel formally stated they were unaware of Van Leeuwen’s existence when designing their trade dress in 2017, and were only made aware of the company a year later in a meeting with grocery store chain Wegmans. 

The ruling cited evidence from customer mix-ups in stores, including a 2024 complaint from a shopper who said her husband returned from the grocery store with a pint of Rebel instead of Van Leeuwen. 

“Your product was placed right next to Van Leeuwen and looked the same,” the customer wrote in a message to Rebel, according to the memorandum. “I nearly did the same thing when I shopped! Later, my friend shared the same experience on the other side of the country!”

Grocery store employees also reportedly confused the two brands when stocking the pints on shelves, and often accidentally assigned the wrong price stickers. At Walmart, Van Leeuwen had its own designated shelfspace, but some sections unintentionally housed many wrongly placed Rebel pints, according to the lawsuit.

Rebel and Van Leeuwen’s origin stories

Rebel was founded in late 2017 by married couple Austin and Courtney Archibald and initially raised money through a Kickstarter campaign, hitting their goal in only three hours and ultimately raising $80,000. The founders marketed their brand as a keto-friendly ice cream and claimed it had the lowest glycemic index on the market.

Van Leeuwen, meanwhile, was founded in New York City in 2008 by brothers Ben and Pete Van Leeuwen and Laura O’Neill, a friend of the Van Leeuwens, and Ben Van Leeuwen’s future wife. The trio opened their first bright yellow ice cream truck using $60,000 raised through crowdsourcing from 15 friends and family members. The brand focused on formulating ice cream with simple ingredients by limiting dyes and preservatives to offer dairy ice cream and vegan alternatives.

“We wanted every single guest who came into the store to feel like they were getting just as good of an experience as any other guests, regardless of their dietary restrictions,” Ben Van Leeuwen told Fortune in 2024.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

WASHINGTON — A sprawling series of fraud schemes involving relatives working together to siphon millions of dollars from federal programs has prompted Sen. Joni Ernst to push legislation aimed at preventing the families of convicted fraudsters from continuing to collect government money.

The Iowa Republican’s effort was fueled in part by the extraordinary case of a California family that stole $18 million in COVID-19 relief funds and used the proceeds to bankroll an extravagant lifestyle that included luxury real estate, diamonds and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

At the center of that operation were Richard Ayvazyan and his wife, Marietta Terabelian. After the pair were convicted on fraud charges, they removed their electronic monitoring bracelets, left their three children behind with a farewell note and fled the United States. Their run from authorities eventually ended when they were apprehended in Montenegro.

Federal authorities identified Ayvazyan as the leader of the massive COVID relief operation, while Terabelian was among the relatives who participated in the scheme.

The stunning case later caught the attention of Ernst, who has headed the Senate DOGE Caucus and is now seeking to shut off federal assistance to what she calls “fraud families.”

Her proposed No Cash for Cohabitating Kins of Crooks Act would prevent people residing with convicted criminals or fraudsters who have been barred from receiving certain federal funds from obtaining those benefits themselves. The restrictions would apply to federal grants, loans, subawards and reimbursements.

The proposal contains exceptions intended to protect spouses who maintain separate residences from the convicted individual, as well as victims of domestic abuse.

“Committing fraud is literally all relative for these families of felons,” Ernst told The Post. “My latest investigation found schemes sprouting from family trees across the country, with kin teaming up to rip off taxpayers to the tune of $50 million.”

Ernst, who is retiring from the Senate, spotlighted 15 families accused or convicted of participating in such schemes as part of her August Squeal Award, a monthly initiative she uses to call attention to government fraud, waste and abuse. She labeled the collection of alleged family scammers a “shady bunch.”

Heading Ernst’s compilation was the California COVID relief case involving Ayvazyan and his relatives.

Following their capture in Montenegro, Ayvazyan and Terabelian were returned to face their sentences. Ayvazyan is serving 17 years in prison, while Terabelian received a six-year term.

The husband-and-wife team did not act alone. Authorities said they worked with Tamara Dadyan, Ayvazyan’s sister-in-law and a onetime Los Angeles-area real estate broker, along with her husband, Artur Ayvazyan.

Prosecutors said members of the group used identities stolen from foreign exchange students, elderly individuals and people who had died to fraudulently obtain $18 million in pandemic relief money. The operation unraveled, and convictions followed in 2021.

During sentencing, the judge overseeing the case excoriated Ayvazyan as a “cold-hearted fraudster” who “views fraud as an achievement.”

Ernst’s examples extend well beyond California. She also pointed to convictions involving members of a Minnesota family tied to the notorious $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal. Gandi Yusuf Mohamed and five relatives were accused of stealing more than $10 million through the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

The federal money was supposed to provide food for 5 million children in need. The case also generated a political controversy after one member of the Mohamed family was revealed to have met with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, an encounter that subsequently drew attention from Republican members of Congress.

Another family featured in Ernst’s investigation was the Edwards family, which was living in Florida when members allegedly created a fraudulent family ministry and sought approximately $6 million through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID pandemic.

The application was allegedly approved by an elderly accountant who was said to be suffering from dementia. Instead of $6 million, the operation received roughly $8.4 million after the Edwards family claimed its organization employed more than 500 people. Most family members were never charged, including patriarch Evan Edwards, a pastor who was ultimately found incompetent to stand trial.

His son, Josh Edwards, did face punishment and was sentenced earlier this year to four years and three months in federal prison.

Ernst also drew attention to four sisters she branded “grifting grandmothers,” who obtained approximately $11.5 million from the Department of Agriculture by submitting roughly 200 fraudulent applications for agricultural assistance.

Authorities said the sisters spent their ill-gotten money on expensive vehicles, homes worth six figures and other purchases. Federal investigators later concluded that the women “in most cases, had not even attempted to farm.” Prosecutors subsequently brought approximately 115 fraud charges against them.

The senator’s investigation further included a Washington state case in which members of one family allegedly posed as caregivers and collected $1.1 million from a Department of Veterans Affairs program. At the heart of the fraud was Kelly Lee-Carroll, who represented herself as partially paralyzed and unable to walk while arranging for her sister and son to act as her caregivers.

The scheme eventually resulted in prison time. Lee-Carroll was sentenced to 17 months behind bars, while her son received a 14-month sentence.

Altogether, Ernst’s office says the 15 “fraudster families” highlighted in its investigation were responsible for approximately $50 million in stolen funds. The No Cash for Cohabitating Kins of Crooks Act is the latest measure the senator has introduced as part of her broader campaign against fraud, waste and abuse involving taxpayer money.

“Their next scam-ily reunion will be in the slammer,” Ernst further chided.

NEW YORK (VINnews) – New York officials are warning Holocaust survivors and their relatives about a group seeking to help people file claims for Holocaust-era compensation.

The warning follows complaints involving an organization calling itself the “Jewish Holocaust Claims Center.” State officials said they were unable to confirm the group’s identity or determine whether it was legitimate.

The state Department of Financial Services referred the matter to law enforcement and reported the organization’s website to its hosting provider. The site was subsequently taken down.

Officials also referred the case to inspectors general in New York, New Jersey and the U.S. Postal Service.

Gov. Kathy Hochul urged survivors and their families to be especially cautious when approached about Holocaust restitution.

“Scamming and stealing from Holocaust survivors and their families is the lowest of the lows,” Hochul said.

State officials advised survivors to independently verify any organization offering assistance and to avoid providing personal or financial information until its legitimacy has been established.

New York’s Holocaust Claims Processing Office, created in 1997, provides free assistance to Holocaust victims and their heirs seeking to recover assets, including bank accounts, insurance payments and cultural property.

The office says it has helped return more than $184 million in assets to victims’ families and recover 356 cultural objects.

The U.S. Army is ending the specialized mission of an experimental drone warfare battalion in Europe, dismantling an initiative created to bring lessons from Ukraine’s drone-dominated battlefield directly into American combat operations as the service undergoes a broader strategic shift under acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve.

The approximately 600-member force was assembled in January using soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade. According to The Wall Street Journal, its mission was to experiment with drones and ground-based robotic systems, develop new combat tactics and prepare Army units for warfare in which unmanned technology increasingly plays a central role.

The battalion will participate in the Saber Junction military exercise in Germany during August and September and then present its conclusions to senior Army officials. Afterward, an Army official said, the unit will relinquish its dedicated drone experimentation role.

“Following the exercise, the battalion will refocus on its core warfighting tasks as an airborne infantry battalion,” the official told the Journal.

The decision comes amid a change in direction under LaNeve, who assumed the Army’s top uniformed position after War Secretary Pete Hegseth removed Gen. Randy George in April. LaNeve has pushed what has been described as a “back-to-basics” philosophy for the service.

George had been one of the strongest advocates for the experimental drone formation. It was part of his “transformation in contact” strategy, an effort to get developing technologies into the hands of troops quickly so soldiers could test new equipment and formulate battlefield tactics under realistic conditions.

Some military analysts have raised alarms over the decision, warning that the Army could surrender valuable progress at a moment when drones, robotics and other unmanned technologies are rapidly transforming modern combat, particularly in Ukraine.

“Ukraine has essentially revolutionized the close fight,” Michael O’Hanlon, a defense expert at the Brookings Institution, told the Journal. “Gen. George was starting to get that, and any setback in what he was doing would be deeply regretful and dangerous.”

Army officials have not publicly identified a successor to the battalion’s experimental mission or explained precisely how the service plans to speed up its work on drone-based warfare after the unit returns to conventional infantry duties.

An Army spokesman maintained that the shift does not represent a retreat from unmanned warfare, saying the service “is committed to accelerating U.S. military drone dominance to meet the demands of large-scale combat operations.”

“We rigorously test a wide variety of unmanned and counter-unmanned technologies in the field. Ultimately, these aerial systems are enablers that support our soldiers,” the spokesman said.

In a memo issued Wednesday, LaNeve laid out his larger vision for the Army, arguing that American forces must be equipped and trained for a battlefield that is changing at extraordinary speed.

“U.S. Army forces must be prepared to overcome the most complex challenges our adversaries can impose and master an operational environment that looks fundamentally different from the battlefields of yesterday,” LaNeve wrote.

A separate document accompanying the memo, called the “Army Azimuth,” indicates that the Army still intends to create and develop formations built around sophisticated cyber operations, electronic warfare and artificial intelligence capabilities, according to the Journal.

The experimental formation was officially designated the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment and emerged from the Army’s examination of Russia’s war against Ukraine. George, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Chris Donahue traveled to Kyiv in November, where they met directly with Ukrainian commanders experienced in drone warfare.

Members of the battalion subsequently spent time in Kyiv working alongside Ukrainian personnel. The American unit also trained with Ukrainian drone specialists at NATO training facilities.

When Army officials initially conceived the formation, they described it as a “tactical unmanned systems battalion” intended to devise new methods for deploying drones and robotic technology alongside larger military formations. At the time the battalion was established, officials did not announce any expiration date for its specialized drone mission.

Ending that mission is only one of several major organizational changes LaNeve has implemented since assuming command. The Army is also transferring a Multi-Domain Task Force from Europe to South Korea, while the Fort Hood, Texas-based III Armored Corps — which previously had responsibilities that included helping reinforce Europe — has been reassigned to the newly established Western Hemisphere Command.

The restructuring is taking place as the United States reduces its military footprint in Europe under President Donald Trump.

At the same time, Hegseth has vowed to erase China’s lead in drone development. His plan includes a $1.1 billion investment involving the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command.

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served during both Trump administrations and recommended LaNeve to Hegseth, backed the acting Army chief’s emphasis on traditional military readiness and standards.

“LaNeve is hard over pushing standards. That is his strength. He is uncompromising for the good of the force,” Kellogg said.

“Israeli companies are betting big on Texas, investing $3.2 billion and creating more than 4,200 jobs across our state,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz posted on X/Twitter.

The figures in Cruz’s post on Wednesday are based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the 2024 financial year, which revealed that trade between Texas and Israel reached roughly $4b. in 2024. Texas exports to Israel totaled $757.9 million, and imports from Israel reached $3.2b.

This is the culmination of years of partnership.

Israeli companies are betting big on Texas, investing $3.2 billion and creating more than 4,200 jobs across our state.

Now that investment is expanding into AI, cyber, defense, water, and agriculture. Texas gets the jobs, the capital, and the technology. That’s a partnership… pic.twitter.com/O3KbtJfEfb

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) August 20, 2026

In the last decade, Israeli companies reported 34 investment projects into Texas and, as mentioned, more than 4,200 new jobs.

During that same time period, Texas companies reported seven investment projects into Israel, $178.6m. in capital investment, and more than 545 new jobs.

Israel ranks among top sources of foreign investment, jobs in Texas

Israel is the 19th-largest source country for foreign direct investment (FDI) projects into Texas and the 17th-largest source for new jobs created by FDI. Texas itself is the number 1 exporting state in the USA and the leading state for FDI over the last two decades.

According to the Texas Governor’s Office and the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office, the Israeli companies with the highest capital investment in Texas over the last 10 years are: Nofar; Doral; Wiz; Elbit Systems; Ellomay; Tower Semiconductor; Starplast; Incredo Sugar; Percepto; and BOS.

“Now that investment is expanding into AI, cyber, defense, water, and agriculture,” said Cruz. “Texas gets the jobs, the capital, and the technology. That’s a partnership worth growing.”

Additionally, the State of Texas Israel Office was approved during the 89th Legislative Session in 2025. As of August 2026, Texas is still in the process of establishing the office, having issued a request for proposals in June seeking a contractor to operate a physical office in Jerusalem. This marks a slight delay from the early-2026 planned launch date.

The deepening economic relationship is also reflected in capital markets.

Texas doubles investment in Israel Bonds to $280 million

In February, Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock announced that Texas was doubling its investment in Israel bonds from approximately $140m. to $280m., marking the largest one-time investment in Israel bonds in Texas history.

“Texas proudly stands with Israel,” Hancock said at the time. “This expanded investment reinforces our long-standing relationship and shared commitment to faith, freedom and economic opportunity. Texas and Israel have built a partnership that stretches beyond finance, and this step reflects both our solidarity and our belief in what we can accomplish together.”

In the private sphere, Commissioner Grant Moody has suggested potential collaboration between the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the planned Texas Stock Exchange in Dallas.

Moody, who represents Bexar County, spoke of opportunities around dual listings, cross-border investment, and institutional cooperation.

Texas currently operates two state-run trade offices in Mexico and Taiwan, but the Jerusalem-based office would mark Texas’ first permanent economic outpost in the Middle East.

The Jerusalem Post reached out to Ted Cruz’s office for comment.

This post was originally published on here.

Five Americans were among seven people killed Wednesday when a helicopter carrying guests on a luxury safari crashed in the remote mountains of northern Kenya, turning a short flight between wildlife destinations into an international aviation investigation.

The Eurocopter EC130 B4 went down at approximately 9:13 a.m. near Mount Ololokwe in Samburu County, according to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority. All six passengers and the pilot died.

The aircraft was flying from the Loisaba Conservancy toward the Ewaso Nyiro area, a route across one of Kenya’s most celebrated—and geographically isolated—safari regions. The excursion had been arranged for guests of luxury travel company &Beyond, while the flight itself was operated by Lady Lori Kenya.

That distinction will become important to the investigation. Safari companies often assemble a trip using independent aviation operators, lodges, guides and ground-transportation providers. Investigators will need to determine not only what happened in the air, but who controlled the aircraft, maintained it, approved the flight and assessed the conditions along the route.

Among those killed was José Alberto Suárez, a longtime Telemundo executive who served as president and general manager of the network’s stations in Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers-Naples. NBCUniversal said Suárez had spent nearly two decades within its television operations and remembered him as a deeply respected leader.

Miami businessman Roger Edward Duarte was also killed. Duarte built George Stone Crab and later co-founded My Ceviche, developing a food business that earned him recognition on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.

The other American victims were identified as Adam Martin Hlavaty, Henry Parra and Stephany Maria Hollihan Vásconez.

Hollihan Vásconez was traveling with her husband, Michele Sensi-Contugi Ycaza, the director general of Ecuador’s Strategic Intelligence Center. Ecuador’s government confirmed his death, adding a national-security dimension to an accident that had initially been reported as a tourist aviation disaster.

The pilot, Josh Outram, also died.

The crash occurred in rocky, difficult-to-reach terrain, and a fire at the site complicated the initial recovery operation. Images from the region show why helicopters are used there: wildlife conservancies and river destinations can be separated by mountains, unpaved roads and hours of ground travel. Aircraft can turn that journey into a short transfer, but they also place passengers over areas where emergency crews cannot arrive quickly.

The EC130 B4 is a single-engine light helicopter commonly used for sightseeing and passenger transport because of its wide cabin and panoramic visibility. The aircraft type alone does not indicate what caused the crash, and Kenyan authorities have not reported evidence of a mechanical failure, pilot error or weather-related problem.

The Kenya Air Accident Investigation Department is leading the inquiry. Investigators are expected to examine the helicopter’s maintenance history, pilot records, weather conditions, flight planning and any recoverable aircraft data. The wreckage pattern and evidence of fire will also be analyzed to determine whether the aircraft experienced trouble before impact or whether the fire began afterward.

Lady Lori said it was cooperating with authorities. &Beyond said the cause remained unknown and that it was supporting those affected by the disaster. The U.S. State Department confirmed the deaths of five American citizens and said the U.S. Embassy was working with Kenyan authorities and assisting their families.

The crash strikes directly at Kenya’s high-end safari industry, where private aviation is not simply an attraction but part of the transportation system. Luxury itineraries frequently connect remote conservancies by helicopter or small aircraft, allowing travelers to reach wilderness areas that would otherwise require long and difficult drives.

That system depends heavily on confidence: confidence in operators, maintenance standards, pilots and the local regulators overseeing them. Until investigators determine why this helicopter went down, the most consequential question for Kenya’s safari business will remain unanswered—whether this was an isolated tragedy or a warning about a broader weakness in the aviation network carrying tourists into its most remote destinations.

JBizNews Desk | Samburu County, Kenya

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

BEIJING (AP) — When U.S. Sen. Darline Graham struggled to answer in a debate whether the U.S. has a national security interest in Taiwan and the South China Sea, she drew criticism for saying national security was “not my thing.”

Taiwan and the South China Sea have long been major issues in U.S. foreign policy, and tensions involving China have kept both in the news in recent months. Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and asserts sovereignty over virtually the entire South China Sea, bringing it into confrontation with U.S. allies and partners in the region.

What happens in Taiwan and the South China Sea could have an impact not only on the region but around the world, given their importance to global trade.

The South China Sea, a large body of water bordered by several nations, including China, the Philippines and Vietnam, is one of the world’s key maritime trade routes. Taiwan produces the majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors.

“The two are very much connected,” said Hunter S. Marston, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Lowy Institute in Australia. “If China were to blockade or seek to forcibly retake Taiwan from the mainland, the South China Sea could quickly see spillover effects.”

Here’s a look at why Taiwan and the South China Sea are important and how the two are connected strategically:

Taiwan, a key issue in US-China relations
The South Carolina senator Darline Graham is seeking a full Senate term after being appointed to the seat of her late brother, Lindsey Graham, who was known for his foreign policy involvement and made several foreign trips, including to Taiwan.

Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, and Beijing has not renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. After China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, it became a thorny international issue.

China sends military aircraft, coast guard ships and other vessels around Taiwan on a near-daily basis and periodically conducts large-scale military exercises. Taiwan also regularly holds military drills, including its annual Han Kuang exercises.

The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but maintains extensive unofficial relations and is required under U.S. law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.

Under that framework, the U.S. has long been Taiwan’s main informal backer and arms supplier, a relationship that has been a persistent source of tensions with Beijing.

During U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest visit to Beijing in May, Chinese President Xi Jinping made clear that Taiwan remains the most important issue in the bilateral relationship. Xi warned that mishandling U.S. ties with the island could lead to confrontation between the two countries.

Trump did not publicly address Taiwan during the trip. But on his way back to the United States, he said arms sales to Taiwan were a “very good negotiating chip” with China, comments that stirred anxieties on the island.

“If China were able to take control of Taiwan, or if the United States clarified that it would not come to Taiwan’s defense in the event of a conflict, China would be able to project its military power (particularly submarine capabilities) far into the South China Sea and beyond the first island chain into the Pacific,” said Marston, from the Lowy Institute.

A conflict over Taiwan would have direct consequences for Southeast Asia. Marston said that nearly 1 million citizens of the countries in Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, would need to be evacuated. A conflict could also bring U.S. and Chinese military forces through the South China Sea and put pressure on regional governments to navigate between the two powers.

Tensions persist in the South China Sea
But China asserts sovereignty over much of the South China Sea, despite a 2016 international arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s expansive maritime claims.

In July, on the 10th anniversary of the ruling, the U.S., the United Kingdom and 12 other countries reiterated that China’s expansive claims have no legal basis. Beijing responded by insisting it would neither accept nor recognize the arbitration decision.

Confrontations in the disputed waters have become more frequent in recent years, particularly involving Chinese, Philippine and Vietnamese forces and fishing fleets.

Chinese coast guard ships and other vessels have used powerful water cannons, military-grade lasers and dangerous blocking maneuvers against Philippine forces and fishermen from other claimant countries. Such confrontations have led to collisions at sea and high-risk encounters in the air.

China has also carried out military drills this month near Scarborough Shoal, a disputed area claimed by both China and the Philippines.

In April, the United States and the Philippines kicked off the annual Balikatan military exercises. The drills included mock battle scenarios and live-fire exercises in Philippine provinces facing the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has said that because the South China Sea is one of the world’s most important maritime commercial corridors, “ a conflict could cause major disruptions to the flow of trade.” The sea is connected to surrounding waters through several strategic chokepoints, including the Malacca Strait, which links it to the Indian Ocean, and the Taiwan Strait, which connects it to the East China Sea.

What would be the main U.S. interests in the region? For Marston, from the Lowy Institute, said “the primary objective is preventing China from gaining regional hegemony and dominating the Pacific.”

“The security of Taiwan and its allies such as the Philippines, as well as defense of the first island chain, are integral to this overarching goal,” he said.

But the U.S. military’s ability to maintain its presence in the western Pacific has been tested by demands elsewhere.

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier is leaving the Pacific to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, where the Lincoln’s deployment was extended to support U.S. operations against Iran. The move will temporarily leave the western Pacific without a U.S. aircraft carrier at a time of rising tensions with China, and as the Trump administration retreats from the Asia-Pacific region to focus on the Western Hemisphere.

Federal agencies are warning that hackers are actively targeting industrial control systems used across U.S. water plants, factories, energy facilities and other critical infrastructure.

The NSA, FBI, Department of Energy, EPA and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Wednesday there is an “active threat” targeting Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers.

Siemens said Thursday that it had not detected an increased level of attacks or any previously unknown vulnerabilities affecting its industrial control systems products.

The devices are used to monitor and control industrial equipment across sectors including manufacturing, energy, water and wastewater, chemicals, food and agriculture.

A successful attack could disrupt critical operations, force facilities offline, damage equipment and create safety hazards, according to the advisory. Officials also warned that breaches could trigger cascading disruptions across interconnected systems.

The government said hackers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to make such attacks easier, dramatically reducing the expertise and time needed to develop tools capable of exploiting industrial systems.

According to the advisory, attackers are scanning the internet for exposed or poorly protected Siemens controllers and using AI-generated tools to help gain access to them.

Federal agencies said the activity appears aimed in part at studying targeted systems and developing the ability to disrupt operations in the future.

Such attacks could affect production, public services and supply chains, while also causing equipment damage or prolonged downtime.

Officials also warned that some operators may not realize their systems are exposed, particularly when outside vendors have remote access to industrial equipment.

The warning comes amid a recent wave of cyberattacks against local water systems that cybersecurity experts suspect may have links to Iran, though federal officials have not formally attributed those incidents to Tehran.

CISA warned July 30 of a significant increase in attacks targeting programmable logic controllers. Days earlier, the agency said Iranian-affiliated hackers had been exploiting industrial equipment made by Siemens, Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric.

Concerns intensified after Minnesota became the first state to report a wave of at least 30 cyber incidents involving local water systems on July 26 and July 27.

Federal officials have stopped short of blaming Iran for those attacks. President Donald Trump said July 31 that he did not believe Tehran was responsible and instead criticized Minnesota over the incidents.

The latest warning underscores the vulnerability of operational technology — systems that control physical equipment rather than simply store corporate data.

Unlike conventional cyberattacks focused on stealing information, attacks on industrial control systems can have direct physical and economic consequences, potentially interrupting utilities, shutting down production or damaging costly equipment.

Siemens told FOX Business that it is aware of the alert and is coordinating with CISA.

“Siemens will provide updates around this issue to potentially affected customers through our ProductCERT team,” a company spokesperson said. “At this point in time, we have not identified increased attack levels or unknown vulnerabilities in Siemens ICS products.”

The potential fallout can extend beyond an individual facility, affecting businesses and services that rely on interconnected industrial systems.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The U.S. economy is currently “worse” than when former President Joe Biden departed office last year, economic and political commentator Peter Schiff asserted, warning that the nation faces the “threat” of a Democratic socialist winning the White House during the 2028 presidential election.

President Donald Trump is “unpopular because the economy is worse now than it was when Biden left office,” Schiff, chief economist and global strategist of Euro Pacific Asset Management and host of “The Peter Schiff Show” podcast, told Fox News Digital during an interview on Wednesday. 

“So Trump ran promising to fix what Biden broke,” but then “broke it more,” Schiff asserted. 

“He said that prices will come down on day one as soon as I become president,” Schiff said, adding “inflation is a bigger problem now than it was when Trump was elected.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House on Thursday.

While Republicans currently hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, Schiff said that he thinks the GOP will lose many House seats in the midterm elections this year and that they “have a real chance of losing the Senate too.”

Schiff said he expects the party to lose control of the Senate in 2028 if they haven’t lost their majority in the chamber before then and that he thinks the GOP will lose the presidency in 2028 as well. He warned that “the real threat” looming over the 2028 White House contest is the possibility of “a real Democratic socialist” getting elected as president.

Schiff, who is involved in selling precious metals through SchiffGold, made a case for people buying gold and silver. “Buy real money. That will preserve its purchasing power,” he said.

He argued that investors should be diversifying into “stocks in international markets” to protect against “a weak U.S. dollar.”

Schiff said “stagflation” will “be a big problem for the U.S. economy for years to come,” warning of a “crisis” pertaining to “sovereign debt” as well as “currency.”

“But I want people to understand that this is not about a failure of capitalism. It’s about a failure to have capitalism. It’s a failure of central planning, central government, central banking. It’s big government that interfered with the free market that created the problem. And the solutions that are gonna be proposed by government to increase the size of government, to have even more regulation, to have even more taxes, they will just make all the problems worse,” Schiff said.

The U.S. national debt has surpassed $40 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury.

“We need to rein in government. We need massive cuts to government spending, deregulation, we need free market forces,” he said.

Schiff said that “Republicans are in a predicament because doing the right thing economically is probably political suicide, which is why they won’t do it.”

Mortgage rates fell for the second week in a row, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday.

Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.65% from last week’s reading of 6.67%. 

The average rate on a 30-year loan was 6.58% a year ago.

The average rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage fell to 5.95% from last week’s reading of 5.96%.

Mortgage rates are affected by several factors, including the Federal Reserve and geopolitics. Though mortgage rates are not directly affected by the Fed’s interest rate decisions, they closely track the 10-year Treasury yield. The 10-year yield hovered around 4.7% as of Thursday afternoon.

The budget crisis threatening the operation of Israel’s mekomos kedoshim is worsening following instructions by the Religious Services Ministry to prepare for the closure of Me’aras HaMachpelah and warnings that services at additional mekomos kedoshim could be halted.

Officials in the Finance Ministry and at the mekomos kedoshim slammed the High Court order freezing the budget transfers and warned of its consequences ahead of Selichos and the upcoming Yamim Tovim, Arutz Sheva reported.

According to officials familiar with the matter, the frozen transfers included allocations that were not coalition funds but were earmarked for the ongoing operation of Israel’s mekomos kedoshim. The High Court froze the transfers without distinguishing between the different purposes for which the funds were intended.

Earlier this month, Justice Alex Stein issued a temporary order delaying the budget transfers. As a result of the decision, Me’aras HaMachpeilah and the National Center for the Development of Holy Sites, among others, have been left without the funding needed to continue their operations.

A senior official warned Arutz Sheva of the potential consequences of the crisis at a time when large numbers of mispallelim are expected to visit the sites.

“Israeli citizens need to understand: Tens and hundreds of thousands of people come to the kever of Rashbi in Meron and to Me’aras HaMachpeilah during the month of Selichos and during the Chagim. If there is a disaster, it will be on the hands of the High Court justices.”

The official added sharply: “Their hands will be full of blood, and they will not be able to hide behind one judicial decision or another.”

Referring to Me’aras HaMachpeilah, the official said that renovations are currently underway in the Yaakov Hall and warned that the funding freeze could interfere with preparations for Selichos.

“We are in the middle of renovating the Yaakov Hall. Why stop it? Selichos will begin soon with tens of thousands of mispalleim. Why prevent them? Because [Arab-Israeli] Justice Kabub doesn’t like Jews davening? Because Kabub and Ruth Ronen don’t like the look of us?”

“There is no coalition money here. Do Rashbi and Me’aras HaMachpeilah belong to Shas? They belong to everyone. Most of the people who come are soldiers, visitors from abroad, and many traditional and secular Israelis, some of whom are visiting Chevron for the first time,” he said.

“The High Court has become an anarchist organization that sows destruction and panic. Anywhere the High Court sees an opportunity to harm religious Jews, Chareidim, traditional Jews and the right, it is the first to volunteer for the job.”

Finance Ministry officials also criticized the decision, telling Arutz Sheva: “This is judicial activism that seeks to take over one of the most basic functions of government — allocating budgets in accordance with commitments made by the Knesset and the government under the law.”

According to the officials, the funding freeze is affecting not only the mekomos kedoshim but also routine government operations and suppliers who have already provided services and are awaiting payment from the state.

“The High Court justices are far removed from understanding the implications of freezing millions of shekels and the impact such a step has on the regular and critical operations of government ministries, as well as on organizations and private individuals, including suppliers who have already provided services and are waiting for payments the state committed to make,” they said.

The officials noted that the budget transfers were approved by the Knesset legal adviser and that similar transfers were made during previous Knessets and election periods.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The U.S. Navy has been quietly escorting commercial tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, helping maintain a critical flow of oil from the Persian Gulf despite Iranian attacks that have dramatically reduced traffic through one of the world’s most important energy corridors.

The covertly coordinated effort has centered on a southern passage near Oman, allowing tankers to travel farther from Iran’s coastline while receiving protection from American military forces. According to a New York Times report, commercial traffic through the strait dwindled to a fraction of normal levels during much of the war after Iran began targeting civilian shipping.

Since May, however, U.S. forces have assisted more than 1,000 vessels in making their way through the strategic waterway, according to U.S. Central Command.

Prior to the outbreak of the conflict, approximately 15 million barrels of crude oil traveled through the Strait of Hormuz every day.

That volume plunged once fighting intensified and commercial vessels came under attack.

With more ships now traveling under U.S. protection, analysts cited by The Times estimate that oil traffic through the strait has recovered to approximately 5 million barrels per day.

American protection efforts have concentrated primarily on the southern section of the waterway, keeping participating ships nearer to Oman and putting additional distance between them and Iranian territory.

Tanker companies provide the U.S. military with information about planned transits and alert American forces when attacks or possible threats emerge. U.S. warships, helicopters and aircraft are positioned to respond when Iranian missiles or drones threaten vessels using the corridor.

Despite those defenses, ships traveling the protected route have continued to come under fire.

At least 15 vessels using the southern corridors have been struck since early June, according to a New York Times review of International Maritime Organization records.

Those incidents have left 16 sailors wounded and two dead, according to the newspaper.

Another ship was attacked near Oman this week, killing one crew member, according to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, the maritime security organization overseen by Britain’s Royal Navy.

On July 19, two tankers operated by Greek shipping company Dynacom were struck, according to the International Maritime Organization. One of the damaged vessels was ultimately abandoned.

The United Arab Emirates’ government-owned oil company ADNOC has suffered particularly heavy losses, reporting attacks against 18 of its vessels. The incidents killed one crew member and wounded another 20.

Even with those casualties and continued attacks, the American escort operation has helped avert what could have become a substantially larger interruption in worldwide oil supplies.

Shipping analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann characterized the southern shipping corridor as an unexpected success, noting that vessels have continued using the passage despite the persistent threat of attack.

Maintaining that protection, however, requires a substantial American military commitment.

U.S. forces must sustain defensive operations around the clock while remaining within striking distance of Iran’s missile arsenal.

The Navy currently has approximately 20 warships positioned in the Gulf of Oman.

The mission has also placed considerable logistical pressure on American forces. After Iranian strikes damaged the Navy’s Bahrain base, resupply vessels were forced to make trips to Diego Garcia, the British territory in the Indian Ocean. The change adds more than five days of sailing time in each direction.

Even with the American escorts, commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains far below the levels recorded before the war.

Numerous major shipping companies are still refusing to send their vessels through the waterway and are expected to remain on the sidelines unless a durable cease-fire is established.

For now, however, the Navy’s largely behind-the-scenes protection effort is enabling millions of barrels of oil to leave the Persian Gulf each day, reducing the risk that the conflict will trigger another severe surge in global oil prices.

Iran lashed out at President Donald Trump’s newly announced “D-Day” economic campaign against Tehran, dismissing the sweeping measures as a distraction from America’s debt and rising interest rates and warning that the strategy will end in another U.S. defeat.

Trump announced the unprecedented economic operation on Truth Social, calling for Iran’s complete economic isolation and a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. “Nobody gave the Islamic Republic a greater opportunity for a deal than me, but they did not take advantage of it,” Trump said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded by describing the move as a “distraction from America’s debt and rising interest rate crises.” He warned that escalating what he called an “economic invasion” and doubling down on U.S. policy would result in another defeat against Iran while damaging the global economy and Iranian sovereignty.

The American plan includes efforts to block oil smuggling, cash transfers and the use of front companies, while imposing economic consequences on countries that maintain economic ties with Iran through financial institutions, businesses or airports.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measures will combine economic isolation with efforts to prevent vessels from entering or leaving Iranian ports through the Strait of Hormuz, with the goal of denying Iran the ability to possess nuclear weapons or support terrorism.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Investors have poured approximately $366 billion into California companies since the beginning of 2026—more than three times the venture capital raised by companies in the other 49 states combined.

The arithmetic is difficult to overstate. The rest of the country together attracted less than approximately $122 billion. New York, the runner-up, received about $27 billion, meaning California raised more than 13 times as much as its nearest competitor. The state has already collected nearly twice as much venture funding as it did during its previous record year in 2025.

One industry explains most of it. OpenAI raised $122 billion in March, the largest financing round in Silicon Valley history. Anthropic secured another $95 billion across two rounds. Those two artificial-intelligence companies alone account for $217 billion—nearly 60 cents of every venture dollar invested in California this year.

That is enough money to distort an entire national map. Remove OpenAI and Anthropic, and California would still lead the country. Include them, and two companies headquartered within the same technology cluster raised substantially more than all startups in the other 49 states combined.

It is important to understand how the count works. Venture funding is generally credited to the state where the company is headquartered, not necessarily where the money will ultimately be spent. If a San Francisco AI company raises billions and uses part of it to purchase chips or build data centers in Texas, Georgia or another state, the entire financing round still appears in California’s column.

California therefore receives the investment headline, while other states can receive the construction jobs, electricity demand, land purchases and equipment orders created by that money.

The boom is broader than two enormous financings, although the largest rounds dominate the total. More than 4,000 California startups have raised capital this year. Torrance-based defense manufacturer Hadrian Automation announced a $1.37 billion round in August, while live-commerce company Whatnot raised $545 million.

Southern California is developing its own version of the boom around defense, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, while the Bay Area remains the center of AI models, software and venture financing. The result is not one California investment story but two: concentrated AI wealth in the north and a growing defense-and-space cluster in the south.

The jobs tell a more complicated story. California’s technology sector has lost roughly 110,000 positions since 2022, even as investment reached unprecedented levels. Technology companies are directing more capital toward chips, computing capacity, electricity and highly compensated AI specialists while reducing payrolls elsewhere.

Record venture funding, in other words, does not mean record hiring. A $10 billion AI financing can lift California’s investment total without creating anything close to the number of jobs once associated with a similarly large factory or corporate expansion.

The money is nevertheless reaching California’s broader economy. The state collected approximately $147 billion in personal-income taxes during the fiscal year that ended June 30, compared with the $126 billion previously projected. Rising technology compensation, stock-market gains and AI-related wealth helped produce the difference, giving Sacramento additional room for education, reserves and infrastructure.

California is also trying to protect its advantage. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation in July extending the California Competes Tax Credit, which offers businesses tax incentives to remain, expand or create jobs in the state. That extension comes as California confronts high housing costs, extensive regulation and a proposed one-time 5% billionaire tax that critics warn could drive wealthy founders and investors elsewhere.

Tax incentives alone, however, do not explain the $366 billion. Capital is following a cluster that took decades to assemble: Stanford and Berkeley researchers, experienced founders, semiconductor specialists, AI engineers and investors capable of writing multibillion-dollar checks.

Other states may not be able to reproduce that network quickly. Their more immediate opportunity lies beneath it—providing the power plants, transmission lines, data centers, construction crews and land required to operate the AI systems California companies are financing.

That is the divide hidden inside the record. California is collecting the capital and creating much of the intellectual property. A growing share of the physical economy needed to support it may be built somewhere else.

JBizNews Desk | San Francisco

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

JERUSALEM (JNS) – When Sandy Goldstein turns 105 on Aug. 28, he and his wife of 78 years, 100-year-old Rosalie Goldstein, may be among the oldest living olim in Israel.

The centenarian couple, who have three children, six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, made aliyah from Englewood, N.J., to Ir Yamim in Netanya in March 2023.

Sandy, born in Fall River, Mass., and raised in Borough Park, Brooklyn, worked as a certified public accountant and served the U.S. government in Washington during World War II.

His decades-long involvement in Jewish causes included work with the Jewish Defense League on behalf of Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate, whose eventual aliyah provided Goldstein with great inspiration.

“When Soviet Jews were finally able to come, their aliyah transformed the State of Israel. They brought incredible strength, talent, determination, and commitment. They helped build the Israel we know today,” he said.

Sandy and Rosalie’s only regret about making aliyah at ages 102 and 97—when both felt they needed the support of family—was that they had not moved to Israel earlier.

Their daughter, Risa Shapiro, has lived in Israel for more than 20 years.

“Do not wait. Make Israel your home,” Goldstein advises, noting that he had begun the aliyah process many times and was repeatedly told that he was “too old.”

“My own heart was always connected to Israel. I wanted to live here and be part of the Jewish homeland. But life does not always unfold the way we imagine,” he said.

Goldstein says he has lived his life according to two principles: The best helping hand is at the end of your own arm, and never give up.

“These are lessons I passed on to my children. It is okay to make mistakes. It is okay to face difficulties. But never give up. Have faith. Trust that with courage and determination, you can overcome challenges and find blessings you never expected,” he said.

Goldstein believes those blessings have surpassed anything he could have anticipated.

“The blessings we have received have been greater than I ever imagined. To watch my grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow, to hear my great-grandchildren happily speaking Hebrew as true Israeli sabras, to experience family life together, share celebrations and visits, and be part of the everyday moments that create memories—these are gifts beyond measure,” he said.

“No success in any aspect of life could ever replace what I have been blessed to experience in Israel by being together with my family here. Have faith. Be courageous. Do not wait too long.”

COLOMBIA (VINnews) – Israeli Defense Forces humanitarian delegation teams, working with local rescue forces, have located and rescued all missing people at the impact sites where they operated and continue assisting at other sites, the IDF said.

The teams are also assessing buildings and conducting professional surveys of damaged structures to help city decision-makers develop an updated situational assessment. The work aims to enable educational and healthcare institutions to resume operations and allow the city to return to normal functioning as soon as possible.

To date, dozens of buildings have been surveyed. Most have been approved for use, while some have been deemed unsafe. On Wednesday, the delegation’s experts approved the safe return of more than 250 families to their homes.

The Elul zman opened with tremendous energy at Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo’s expansive campus in Rishon Letzion, with approximately 1,350 talmidim filling the yeshiva as it begins its 13th year.

The yeshiva is led by its roshei yeshiva, Rav Chaim Feinstein, Rav Chaim Mordechai Ausband and Rav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, with the new zman marking another significant stage in the continued growth of the yeshiva.

This year’s incoming first-year class includes 250 talmidim. In response to the large enrollment, the yeshiva appointed an additional rosh mesivta, Rav Yaakov Zaltz, himself an alumnus of Ateres Shlomo. The first-year talmidim have been divided into four separate shiurim.

Ahead of the Elul zman, the yeshiva also completed construction of a new, spacious dormitory building to accommodate its rapidly expanding student body. The facility includes more than 200 beds and was built in response to the increasingly crowded conditions resulting from the substantial growth in the number of talmidim.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

פתיחת הזמן בישיבת ‘עטרת שלמה’ בראשון לציון | צילום: דניאל נפוסי.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump’s administration has told Congress it is sending more than $206 million for a proposed Gaza peacekeeping force, the first significant funding for the stalled US plan to rebuild the devastated enclave.

In two July 30-dated notifications seen by Reuters, the State Department informed Congress it will provide $200 million for the International Stabilization Force’s (ISF) equipment, infrastructure, vehicles and operational costs. An additional $6 million would repurpose US armored vehicles to support the force.

The notifications, which were addressed to key appropriations and foreign affairs committees in Congress, have not been previously reported.

The funding is the first concrete US spending on the peacekeeping force and signals the administration’s determination to press ahead with Trump’s Gaza roadmap even as both Israel and Hamas have balked at conditions needed to advance the plan.

“The ISF will lead security operations, support comprehensive demilitarization, and enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and reconstruction material to Gaza,” one of the notifications said, while noting the final composition of the force was still being negotiated.

The administration has not said how much money will ultimately be needed to fund the force.

Trump set up a Board of Peace to oversee his ambitious plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza and rebuild the shattered territory. His plan envisioned that the peacekeeping force would deploy to Gaza to secure areas after Israeli forces withdraw and would train new Palestinian police forces and support aid deliveries.

Much of Gaza remains ​in ruins from two years of war triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

But since the announcement of an agreement in late July, the effort has stalled, with both Israel and Hamas refusing to fulfill conditions that would allow the deal to move ahead.

Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner held meetings with Hamas officials on Sunday and Israeli leaders on Monday in Jerusalem but left without a breakthrough, with both sides standing firm on key demands.

An official from the Board of Peace described the last two weeks as a period of “significant advances” and said the board had sought additional funding pledges as a result.

The official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely with media, said the funding was needed for the construction of a base for forces inside Gaza among other reconstruction projects.

Member countries had initially pledged $17 billion for reconstruction efforts inside Gaza but Reuters reported in April that only a fraction of the funds had been received. The Board of Peace has not made public the amount that it has received so far.

The State Department did not immediately provide comment for this story.

Stalled plan

On July 30, Trump announced what he described as a breakthrough: that Hamas had agreed to lay down its arms in phases, ⁠as Israel’s military withdraws from Gaza. Hamas said it agreed to the roadmap but implementation depends on ​Israel first meeting its own commitments, including halting attacks and withdrawing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition trails in opinion polls ahead of an October national election, rejected the deal this month, insisting that ​Israel would not pull back until Hamas is completely disarmed.

Five countries have committed troops to the ISF so far: Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania, while Egypt and Jordan have committed to train police. It remains unclear when any troops would be able to deploy.

The first of the two congressional notifications addressed the $200 million in funding. The second, with the same date and worth around $6.3 million, said the US was repurposing nine armored personnel carriers previously destined for Nepal to support the ISF and that Albania and Kosovo would be the initial recipients of this equipment as part of their role in the ISF.

The ceasefire plan reduced violence in Gaza but has not ended Israeli attacks or secured the militants’ disarmament. More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached in October, ​according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military.

Netanyahu ⁠and Kushner also agreed that Gaza’s reconstruction would not start until Hamas is disarmed, an Israeli official told Reuters earlier this week.

This post was originally published on here.

Israel Police questioned an 83-year-old Bedouin man from Rahat, a father of 45, on suspicion of polygamy and offenses related to illegal residence in Israel.

The man is suspected of being married to nine women, five of whom are not Israeli residents, including residents of the Palestinian Authority who are suspected of having stayed in Israel without legal permits.

The investigation was opened by the Polygamy Unit of the Southern District Central Unit following information received in May. Last week, one of his wives, a resident of the Dahariya area, was located and detained for questioning before being removed from Israel.

The suspect was also questioned on suspicion of harboring and transporting people who were illegally present in Israel. He was released under restrictive conditions, including house arrest.

In a separate case, a 40-year-old resident of Bir Hadaj was questioned on suspicion that he was already married to two women when he married a third woman on July 30.

Shortly after the wedding, he traveled with her to Barcelona for their honeymoon. On August 15, he was arrested immediately after the couple returned to Israel in a joint operation by detectives from the Central Unit and Ben Gurion Airport Police.

The third wife was detained for questioning, while police also took statements from his two other wives.

The suspect was questioned on suspicion of polygamy and released under restrictive conditions. Police said additional evidence was collected that allegedly links him to the offense.

The investigations into both cases are ongoing, and once completed, the files will be transferred to the Southern District Prosecutor’s Office for review.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

With just three weeks remaining before the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to Uman, Breslover rabbonim and askanim are reportedly working on a plan aimed at enabling thousands of young men classified as military draft defaulters to leave Israel despite exit orders imposed as a result of the ongoing giyus crisis.

According to a report by Mordechai Halperin on Army Radio, Breslover rabbonim and activists recently held what participants described as an “emergency discussion” focused on finding a way for those barred from leaving the country to nevertheless travel to Ukraine for Rosh Hashanah.

Under one proposal reportedly developed during the discussions, draft defaulters would appear at IDF recruitment offices for their initial processing and formally begin the procedures associated with enlistment. The objective would be to regularize their status sufficiently to secure the cancellation of the orders preventing them from leaving Israel, clearing the way for them to travel to Uman.

However, according to the report, the proposed appearances at recruitment offices would not reflect an intention to ultimately enlist. The plan discussed would reportedly involve the young men initially presenting themselves and appearing prepared to proceed with the process, but after their travel restrictions are lifted and they leave for Uman, they would not continue with the enlistment procedures or join the IDF.

The proposal would therefore seek to use the initial appearance at the recruitment office as a means of addressing the exit orders without changing the young men’s underlying position regarding military service.

The discussions come amid growing concern within the Breslover community that the giyus crisis could significantly reduce the number of people able to travel this year to the tziyun of Rav Nachman of Breslov for Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbonim affiliated with the Ezra V’Yeutz organization met Tuesday with Rav Shimon Shisha, widely known as the “father of the prisoners” because of his work assisting detainees, to discuss the obstacles facing prospective travelers and possible ways of addressing them.

During the gathering, Rav Shmuel Moshe Kramer, the senior Breslover rov and influential mashpia, said efforts would continue to ensure that chassidim could reach Uman despite the significant difficulties confronting them this year.

“Every year they try to prevent the chassidim from traveling to Uman, and every year they succeed, in one way or another, in reaching Uman. This year, too, there is a major obstacle, but this year, too, we will succeed,” he said.

{Matzav.com}

A Bachur riding an electric scooter was luckily not severely injured when he collided with a vehicle this morning in Lakewood.

He was treated on scene for minor injuries. 

Viewer discretion advised.

Yisroel R.

Keep the umbrella close Thursday afternoon. Showers and thunderstorms are expected to move through the region later in the day, bringing the potential for heavy downpours and flash flooding in some areas.

The National Weather Service says the greatest threat for flash flooding will come during the late afternoon and early evening, mainly between 3:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.

Rainfall totals are generally expected to reach between half an inch and one inch, although isolated locations could see close to three inches. Rain could fall particularly hard at times, with rates of one to locally two inches per hour possible.

The heavy rainfall could lead to isolated or scattered flash flooding, particularly in urban areas, locations with poor drainage, low-lying areas, and along streams that respond quickly to heavy rain. The highest risk is expected across New York City, parts of New Jersey, and the lower Hudson Valley. The National Weather Service says damaging wind gusts cannot be ruled out.

A Flood Watch could be needed for portions of the area as conditions develop. Residents should keep an eye on the weather through the afternoon and evening as the storms move through.

The damage from artificial intelligence in the job market is not spread evenly across the economy. It is concentrated in a handful of industries and falls hardest on the people trying to get their first job.

Goldman Sachs published the findings Wednesday in a report titled “Global Economics Comment: Is AI Impacting Global Labor Markets?” The bank found that industries more exposed to AI automation have seen slower growth in job openings since the second half of 2022, with the effect most pronounced in the United States, Germany and Australia.

The onset of generative AI tools, the report said, “may have led companies in highly exposed industries to reevaluate their hiring plans.”

The clearest casualty is the call center. Call center employment in the U.S. now runs 39% below where the long-run trend says it should be. Canada is 33% below, Germany 27%. That is not subtle. Roughly two out of every five call center jobs that would ordinarily exist in America are not there.

Software publishing, management consulting and advertising show the same pattern, and employment across information and communication services has slowed in nearly every major developed economy since 2022. Outside the U.S., however, employment in those industries still sits near or above its long-run trend — meaning American workers in these fields are absorbing more of the hit than their counterparts abroad.

The age split is the sharpest finding. Across more than 800 occupations, a 10% level of AI exposure costs about 0.1 percentage points of annual headcount growth overall in the U.S., France and Canada. For entry-level roles in the U.S., that drag runs above 0.2 points — double the effect. The work that used to train a new hire, summarizing documents, drafting first passes, answering routine calls, is precisely the work software now does for a fraction of the cost.

The scale is real but not catastrophic. Goldman’s earlier research estimated AI was trimming about 16,000 jobs a month from U.S. payroll growth, later revised to roughly 11,000 by June as hiring in construction and other less-exposed sectors offset the losses. That reflects roughly 25,000 positions displaced monthly against about 9,000 created around AI tools. Set against an economy that typically adds 150,000 to 250,000 jobs a month in an expansion, AI is shaving off something on the order of 1 in 20 of those gains.

Goldman economists also note a counterweight: when technology cuts the cost of producing something, buyers often want more of it, which pulls workers back in. Hiring tied to data center construction and broader productivity gains is not captured in the bank’s current estimate.

The practical read for anyone entering the workforce is to look at exposure, not headlines. Call centers, entry-level marketing and junior consulting are contracting. Construction, skilled trades, healthcare and the physical buildout supporting AI itself are not. The pressure, Goldman concludes, is measurable and visible in the data — but still confined to a relatively narrow set of industries and workers.

For now.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said Thursday that Hamas has been using Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis for the torture and interrogation of Palestinians.

In a joint statement, the military and Shin Bet said Hamas has been “increasing the activity of its security apparatuses and attempting to impose its rule through intimidation, interrogations, and torture of residents” amid an “erosion in support” for the group among Gazans.

The agencies said intelligence shows Hamas exploits the hospital and carries out torture and interrogations there. “According to the information in our possession, in the Yassin building, on the second floor of the hospital’s outpatient clinics, interrogations by Hamas’s internal security and military intelligence are taking place,” the statement said. “Beyond this, Hamas exploits the hospital as a center of governance unrelated to its medical function, for the purposes of interrogations, torture, and collecting money.”

Additional interrogations are taking place in a building that previously served as offices, then a cafeteria, later a house of worship, and now functions as a Hamas interrogation center, according to the statement.

Nasser Hospital continues to serve as a “major military infrastructure” for Hamas, the IDF and Shin Bet said. Patients and staff have witnessed the permanent presence of Hamas operatives, some masked, in various areas of the compound. The use of the hospital creates fear and harms patients, service providers and medical staff, the military said.

Israel has previously presented evidence that Palestinian terror groups regularly use medical facilities as bases of operations because of their protected status under international law. Israeli hostages have also said they were held at Nasser Hospital.

Earlier this year, Doctors Without Borders said it suspended noncritical medical activities at the hospital due to the presence of armed men. Last year, a doctor who serves as a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital indicated he had been threatened by Palestinian Islamic Jihad after refusing to allow the group’s operatives to enter and use the facility.

“The exploitation of civilian infrastructure for interrogations and torture is a widespread phenomenon within the Hamas terror organization. These actions by the Hamas terror organization constitute a violation of international law, which prohibits the military use of hospitals,” the IDF and Shin Bet statement said.

The military warned Gazans that Hamas “is afraid of losing control of the Strip, and therefore uses hospitals, schools, and other civilian facilities for its needs.”

Despite renewed talk of Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel potentially running separately in the upcoming Knesset election, a new move by Degel HaTorah suggests that the two factions may ultimately remain together under the United Torah Judaism banner.

According to a report by Emess, Degel HaTorah officials recently contacted Israeli polling organizations and asked them to change the name and photograph used for the chairman of United Torah Judaism, replacing MK Yitzchok Goldknopf with MK Moshe Gafni.

The request reflects the rotation agreement reached between Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel several election cycles ago. Under that arrangement, leadership of the joint slate alternates between the factions, with the candidates also changing positions according to the longstanding alternating “zipper” system.

Based on the agreement, Gafni is scheduled to occupy the No. 1 position in the upcoming election, with Goldknopf moving into the second slot. Degel HaTorah’s decision to ask pollsters to begin presenting Gafni as the head of UTJ could indicate that, at least operationally, the party is preparing for another joint run despite public discussion of a possible split.

If the existing agreement remains intact, the anticipated UTJ slate would place Moshe Gafni first, followed by Yitzchok Goldknopf in second place, Uri Maklev in third, Meir Porush in fourth, Yaakov Asher in fifth, Yaakov Tessler in sixth, Yitzchok Pindrus in seventh, and Yisroel Eichler in eighth. The lineup reflects the previous agreements between Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel and the rotation mechanism governing their joint list.

Meanwhile, Gafni himself appears to be shifting into campaign mode. During a tour of northern Israel on Wednesday, he said, “Everywhere we go, we see the same moving picture: Despite all the incitement and persecution against the Chareidi public and the Torah world, the Torah and educational institutions are flourishing, and the communities are growing and developing beyond recognition.”

His remarks came amid a growing series of public appearances and tours that are increasingly taking on the character of an election campaign.

Still, with only about two weeks remaining before the deadline for submitting candidate lists, formal negotiations between Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel have yet to begin. Both factions are reportedly waiting for the other side to make the first move, with neither eager to be seen as conceding first on the issues dividing them.

The contrast between continued briefings about a possible split and Degel HaTorah’s practical preparations for polling under a unified UTJ slate leaves the final outcome unresolved. At the same time, the request to replace Goldknopf with Gafni in election surveys provides a significant indication that a joint run remains a leading possibility.

Elsewhere in the Chareidi political arena, Shas is already further along in its election preparations. The party is scheduled to formally launch its campaign Thursday at an event in Holon under the slogan “בדרך אמונה בחרתי” (“I Have Chosen the Path of Faith”).

United Torah Judaism, by contrast, has yet to unveil an election slogan, launch its formal media campaign, or begin displaying campaign billboards, as uncertainty continues over whether Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel will head into the election together.

{Matzav.com}

Retired Indian Maj.-Gen. Gagan Deep Bakshi warned that the growing alignment among Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan could pose a strategic threat to India, while stressing that New Delhi would not sacrifice its ties with Iran to accommodate Israel’s security concerns.

Speaking to the New Delhi-based network, Republic World, Bakshi argued that the emergence of what he calls a “Sunni NATO” in the Middle East is a source of strategic concern for India.

At the same time, he sent a clear message to Israel: The alliance between the two countries is important, but New Delhi will not give up its interests with Iran simply because of the war between Jerusalem and Tehran.

According to Bakshi, the agreement that took shape in Mecca among Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan has created a new regional reality from India’s perspective. “A Sunni NATO comprising Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan has been established in the Middle East, in Mecca, and that is a serious cause for concern,” he said.

Bakshi stressed that, from India’s perspective, Shi’ite Iran serves as an important counterweight to Pakistan.

Hindistanlı emekli Tümgeneral Gagan Deep Bakshi:

▪️Türkiye, Suudi Arabistan ve Pakistan’dan oluşan Sünni bir NATO kuruldu.

▪️Mekke’de hayata geçen bu oluşum bizim için ciddi bir endişe kaynağı.

▪️Şii İran’ın bizim yanımızda olmasına ihtiyacımız var. Hem de fazlasıyla.… pic.twitter.com/rptv5SuV7e

— TRHaber Savunma (@savunma_trhaber) August 19, 2026

Iran as a counterweight to Pakistan

“We very much need Shi’ite Iran to be on our side because Pakistan is our primary security headache. China may be the main threat, but together with it, Pakistan is our biggest security headache,” he said.

Bakshi compared the threat Iran represents in Israel’s eyes with that posed by Pakistan from India’s perspective.

“Iran does not have even a single nuclear bomb, and yet it is perceived as an existential threat to Israel. And what about Pakistan? A fundamentalist, jihadist Islamic state that possesses 180 nuclear warheads,” he claimed.

He added that India had not seen Israel display similar concern over Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

“We have not seen Israel losing sleep over the bombs in Pakistan’s hands because they are considered a threat only to India,” he said.

According to Bakshi, the rapprochement between Ankara and Islamabad is not merely theoretical. He cited Turkish assistance to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, claiming that Turkey supplied it with nearly 1,000 unmanned aerial vehicles and helped operate them.

“This was already a ‘Sunni NATO,’ with or without an agreement. Turkey and Pakistan are already in an undeclared practical alliance,” he said.

Bakshi also noted that during the confrontation, Turkey sent a warship to the port of Karachi, arguing that this was another expression of the close security ties between the two countries.

“Turkey has the largest army in NATO,” he said, while questioning its ability to intervene directly in a war between India and Pakistan because of the geographical distance.

According to Bakshi, any Turkish force attempting to come to Pakistan’s aid would have to travel through the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Sea.

“The Indian Navy can tear apart any Turkish armada that tries to come to Pakistan’s aid,” he said.

India will not sacrifice its interests with Iran

A central part of Bakshi’s remarks was directed squarely at Israel. He stressed that India views Israel as a friend, but would not agree to subordinate its own interests to Israeli needs, particularly when it comes to Iran.

“I am afraid that at some point Israel will also have to be sensitive to Indian concerns,” he said. “We are not the 51st state of the United States, and for that matter we are also not an appendage or client state of Israel. We are friends, certainly. But vassals? No, sir.”

“You cannot simply whistle and make our senior leaders go here and there, and ask us to sacrifice our interests,” he said.

Bakshi specifically addressed possible pressure on India to distance itself from Iran because of the war.

“You cannot tell us: Throw Iran away because you are at war with it. When it comes to Iran, you cannot ask us to sacrifice our interests.”

According to Bakshi, relations with Iran are vital to India economically and geostrategically as well. He pointed to the possibility of purchasing Iranian oil at low prices, refining it at Indian refineries, and subsequently exporting the products to other markets.

Beyond that, he stressed Iran’s importance as an overland route for India.

“Iran provides India with the land bridge to Central Asia and the land bridge to Afghanistan, and these are of vital importance to us.”

India cannot afford to give up those routes because of the war between Israel and Iran, he said.

“We cannot close these land routes because Israel is at war with Iran.”

Bakshi concluded that the friendship between India and Israel remains important, but that from New Delhi’s perspective, it has clear limits when major security and economic interests are at stake. Against the backdrop of growing ties between Turkey and Pakistan, and Indian concerns over a broader Sunni alliance, he believes that India’s relationship with Iran is becoming more important, not less.

This post was originally published on here.

The Lakewood Township today added nearly 30 parking spaces in the downtown area, by striping Red Square.

The lot connects to the parking lot to the east of it. 

“LPD: TAKE NOTICE: Additional public parking is now available in the downtown municipal parking lot. Parking is permitted daily with the exception of Saturdays and Sundays, when parking is prohibited.”

Do you like the idea?

Click here to join the official TLS Community:

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The Treasury Department on Thursday moved forward with new rules for investments in Trump Accounts that aim to exclude investment funds rooted in environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, FOX Business has learned.

The rules restricting ESG funds from being included in Trump Accounts come alongside other rules ensuring that investment options in the accounts have low fees to ensure investors keep more of their money.

“Corporate America has rejected ESG ideology, and we will not allow it to be a part of Trump Accounts,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told FOX Business in a statement.

“These accounts exist to build financial security for America’s children, not to advance political activism or ideological agendas,” Bessent added.

A Treasury Department official told FOX Business that under the proposed eligibility framework, an index would have to be designed primarily to measure the performance of a broad segment of the U.S. or global equity market using objective financial criteria.

The rule is intended to give families clear, transparent investment choices that are focused on cost, diversification and long-term financial performance.

ESG funds have faced criticism for their focus on other criteria, like the environmental and social policies of companies or their governance structures, ahead of investor returns.

Trump Accounts officially launched on July 4, and a Treasury spokeswoman said that in the month and a half since the launch, the number of families who have signed up for Trump Accounts has risen above 7 million.

Over 2 million of those who have enrolled to date are eligible for the $1,000 seed fund from the federal government, which is available for children born between the start of 2025 and end of 2028 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Trump Accounts may also be created for children under the age of 18, although those who were born outside the 2025 to 2028 window aren’t eligible for the government’s seed money.

The Treasury spokeswoman also noted that since the launch there has been over $1.5 billion in investment contributions from individuals as well as contributions from pilot programs.

That figure doesn’t include philanthropic contributions, such as the $6.25 billion contributed by billionaires Michael and Susan Dell, who helped fund $250 initial seed deposits into accounts for children under age 10.

Ari Ladino, the owner of Luana Rose Modestly, a Teaneck fashion shop specializing in custom and semi-custom gowns for simchas and special occasions, has been detained by ICE along with his mother, according to a report by the Jewish Link.

The Jewish Link reported that Ladino and his mother, who worked alongside him at the West Englewood Avenue store, suddenly disappeared from the shop, leaving customers unable to retrieve dresses ahead of upcoming simchas.

Store landlord Elie Y. Katz said he first became aware something was wrong when he received frantic calls from a woman whose daughter’s wedding dress was locked inside the shop and whose wedding was approaching. Katz met the woman at the store along with police and was able to retrieve the completed gown. He later helped another customer obtain her dress.

With packages piling up outside and neither Ladino nor his mother appearing at the store, Katz attempted to determine their whereabouts. Police also went to the address listed on Ladino’s driver’s license but found nobody there. Ladino and his mother are originally from Colombia, though Katz said he did not know their immigration status.

The following day, Katz received a call from a detention center and spoke briefly with Ladino, who confirmed that he was being held and said his mother had been transferred to a separate detention facility.

Ladino gave Katz permission to allow his cousin into the store and to provide access to customers who had dresses waiting for pickup. One customer who traveled from Westchester to collect a dress reportedly learned what had happened and immediately left a check to help Ladino.

According to the Jewish Link, Ladino also contacted a business partner and instructed her to retrieve his phone and prepare the store for a sale of its gowns in an effort to raise money for his legal defense.

Immigration attorney Michael Wildes, managing partner of Wildes & Weinberg and a former federal prosecutor, criticized the circumstances surrounding the detention, arguing that immigration enforcement policies were increasingly affecting local businesses and families.

“The president promised to rid us of hardened criminals, which no one would object to,” Wildes told the Jewish Link. “We find now that the administration’s policies are intruding on some of the finest families and businesses throughout our nation.”

The report did not provide details about the immigration status of Ladino or his mother, the circumstances that led ICE to detain them, or whether either faces any allegations beyond immigration-related issues.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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Washington Dulles International Airport is moving ahead with one of the largest airport reconstruction projects in U.S. history—a $19.9 billion overhaul that will rebuild its terminal, add new concourses and finally replace the slow passenger vehicles that carry travelers across the tarmac.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority approved the plan Wednesday. It includes $6.2 billion to reconstruct the main terminal and $3.75 billion for underground tunnels and an automated passenger-transit system.

The tunnels would eliminate Dulles’ distinctive “people movers,” the aging mobile lounges that raise and lower passengers between the terminal and aircraft areas. Once considered innovative, the vehicles have become one of the airport’s most common passenger complaints.

The project will add or renovate approximately 5 million square feet. Work on the main terminal is expected to begin in late 2027, while major portions of the new transit system, terminal renovations and concourse construction are targeted for completion beginning in 2034. Other concourse work could continue into 2039.

Dulles needs the additional capacity. Passenger traffic increased 6.4% last year to a record 29 million, making it the fastest-growing large U.S. airport. United Airlines, which handles approximately 70% of Dulles traffic, will also begin using a new 14-gate concourse this fall.

Most of the overhaul will be financed through approximately $14.2 billion in municipal bonds rather than direct federal funding. But travelers may ultimately feel the cost. The amount airlines pay the airport for each boarding passenger is projected to rise from about $13 today to between $60 and $65 by 2038—an increase carriers could eventually reflect in ticket prices.

The approved $19.9 billion package also does not include the enormous parking garage and transportation center contained in President Donald Trump’s broader $22 billion vision for Dulles. Those additions would require separate approval and financing.

JBizNews Desk | Dulles, Virginia

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

TORONTO (AP) — Quebec’s premier said Canada-U.S. trade negotiations are “far from over” and demanded more information from Prime Minister Mark Carney before deciding whether an emerging agreement adequately protects Quebec’s dairy and forestry sectors.

Premier Christine Fréchette also pushed back against quickly restoring U.S. alcohol to provincial stores, saying Quebec alone would decide whether American products return to shelves at the SAQ, the Quebec government corporation that controls most retail sales of wine and spirits in the province.

“Information is missing before I can make the right decisions to ensure Quebecers are protected. I am awaiting clarifications from Mr. Carney,” she said in a social media post late Wednesday.

Canada and the United States moved closer Wednesday to finalizing a trade agreement that would avert threatened 50% U.S. tariffs. Trump has said the agreement was “very fair” to both sides and predicted U.S. farmers and manufacturers would benefit. Tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports have been postponed until 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Quebec does not have a veto over a Canada-U.S. trade agreement, but it controls provincial measures such as whether U.S. alcohol is sold through the SAQ.

Carney asked provincial premiers during a briefing Wednesday to return U.S. alcohol to store shelves, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said, a step aimed at addressing one of the Trump administration’s key trade complaints.

The White House says the emerging deal includes a Canadian commitment to address restrictions on U.S. alcohol. But Carney cannot order provinces to restore sales.

Fréchette’s Coalition Avenir Québec faces voters in an October provincial election, adding political pressure as she weighs concessions affecting dairy, forestry and U.S. alcohol sales.

Houston and two other premiers voiced support for the direction of the talks, though Houston said whether Canadians would actually buy U.S. alcohol again “is a whole other discussion.”

Eight of Canada’s 10 provinces restrict or ban U.S. alcohol — measures imposed in retaliation for Trump’s previous tariffs on Canadian goods and amid anger over his repeated talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, is especially important. Its government-run LCBO, one of the world’s largest alcohol purchasers, sold nearly C$1 billion ($723 million) in U.S. products annually before pulling them from shelves last year.

While details of the emerging agreement remain vague, Trump has claimed Canada agreed to end tariffs on U.S. agricultural products.

Canada currently allows a set amount of dairy imports at low tariffs. Once imports exceed that limit, much higher tariffs apply. The U.S. says Canada’s supply-management system makes it harder for American dairy producers to gain full access to the Canadian market.

Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister responsible for trade with the U.S., said Canada’s “agriculture sector will be well protected and we have maintained our tough line.”

An emotional meeting took place Wednesday between Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Rav Kalman Bar, and former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar party, during the dedication of a Torah study and memorial room honoring fallen IDF soldiers and others killed in Israel’s wars.

Footage from the ceremony showed Eisenkot wearing a yarmulke as he was warmly greeted by Rav Bar. The two shook hands and spoke cordially at an event that brought together the pain of bereavement with Torah learning and remembrance.

During their conversation, Rav Bar spoke to Eisenkot about the strength he has demonstrated in the face of profound personal loss and expressed his admiration for him.

“You are a source of inspiration,” Rav Bar told Eisenkot.

The ceremony carried particular personal significance for Eisenkot, who lost his son during the Swords of Iron War. Master Sgt. (res.) Gal Eisenkot z”l, 25, who served in the IDF’s Maglan commando unit, was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip.

The Eisenkot family suffered another devastating loss during the war when Eisenkot’s nephew, Maor Eisenkot z”l, was also killed.

The newly inaugurated memorial room is dedicated to Torah learning in memory of IDF soldiers and others who fell in Israel’s wars. The initiative seeks to connect national remembrance with Torah and learning, and Rav Bar offered his blessing and support for the project during the ceremony.

{Matzav.com}

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri visited the home of Rishon LeTzion HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef on Thursday, amid intensive efforts to resolve tensions surrounding the party’s rabbinic leadership ahead of the elections.

A proposed framework would have Deri sign a document, or add a provision to Shas’ bylaws, establishing that the party’s Torah decisions will follow the path of Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef ZT”L, as currently represented by his son, HaRav Yitzchak Yosef.

Under the proposal, HaRav Yitzchak Yosef would effectively serve as the movement’s central Torah authority without formally holding the title of president of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah. Deri’s brother, Momo Deri, has been serving as a mediator in the talks.

HaGaon HaRav Moshe Maya, the senior member of Shas’ Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, reportedly told Deri during a two-hour meeting this week that the leadership of Shas is entrusted to HaRav Yitzchak Yosef as the son and successor of the movement’s founder, HaRav Ovadia Yosef.

“I am already weak, and I rely on Maran Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef for everything. Everything will be decided according to him,” HaRav Maya said.

HaRav Maya will not attend Thursday evening’s launch of Shas’ campaign in Holon, with his remarks instead scheduled to be shown by video.

According to a statement from HaRav Yosef’s home, Deri arrived carrying a “personal and dramatic letter” from HaRav Maya. The letter stressed that Shas has preserved and continues to preserve the legacy of HaRav Ovadia Yosef, and said HaRav Yitzchak Yosef should guide the movement and its institutions in maintaining his father’s legacy.

HaRav Maya also praised Deri’s leadership of Shas and his efforts on behalf of Torah and yeshiva bochurim.

During the meeting, HaRav Yitzchak Yosef emphasized the urgency of protecting Torah and yeshiva bochurim, saying that defending Bnei Torah is part of the legacy of his father and that there is an obligation to mobilize on their behalf.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Wall Street opened lower Thursday as Walmart delivered a rare sales disappointment, Treasury yields moved back toward uncomfortable levels and another jump in oil prices reminded investors that the Iran confrontation is still capable of changing the inflation outlook almost overnight.

At the opening bell on Thursday, August 20, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 81.8 points to 53,381.22, the S&P 500 dropped 17.5 points to 7,690.49, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 119.6 points to 26,211.52.

The numbers themselves are not dramatic. The pressure underneath them is.

Long-term Treasury yields are climbing again after Wednesday’s extraordinary intervention by the Treasury Department, which announced it would at least double purchases of certain longer-dated government bonds. The move temporarily relieved a bond market that had been demanding increasingly high interest rates to finance Washington’s growing debt load, but Thursday morning the 10-year yield was again hovering near 4.7%.

Oil is adding to that pressure. Brent crude climbed to roughly $94 a barrel, while U.S. crude approached $87, after President Trump threatened a much tougher economic campaign against Iran. Higher oil prices matter far beyond energy stocks: they raise transportation and production costs and can make it harder for inflation to continue cooling.

Thursday’s economic data gave investors an unusual combination of low layoffs and very strong manufacturing activity.

New applications for unemployment benefits fell by 6,000 to 206,000 for the week ended August 15, below economists’ expectations of about 210,000. Continuing claims rose by 18,000 to 1.799 million. The message is that companies still are not laying workers off aggressively, even as hiring has softened.

At the same time, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s manufacturing index unexpectedly climbed to 47.4 in August from 41.4 in July, crushing expectations near 25 and reaching its strongest level in years. Employment inside the survey jumped sharply as well, while the prices-paid index dropped to 40.9 from 53.9.

The arithmetic for the Federal Reserve is complicated. A resilient labor market and stronger factory activity argue against rushing to lower rates, while easing price pressures argue that inflation may still be moving in the right direction. Investors already knew from Wednesday’s Fed minutes that a September rate increase has not completely disappeared from the discussion.

The biggest corporate story is Walmart.

Shares fell about 6% around the opening after Walmart’s U.S. comparable sales increased only 2.6%, versus expectations for roughly 3.8%. That was Walmart’s first comparable-sales miss in at least five years and a notable warning because the retailer has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of consumers trading down in search of lower prices.

Walmart itself is hardly collapsing. Quarterly revenue rose nearly 6% to $187.9 billion, U.S. e-commerce sales jumped 24%, its advertising business grew 43%, and the company actually raised its full-year sales forecast.

The concern is underneath those numbers: store traffic growth slowed and the average amount spent per transaction increased only 1.1%. Walmart also expects third-quarter adjusted earnings of 62 to 64 cents a share, below Wall Street expectations around 68 cents.

For investors trying to understand the consumer, that distinction matters. Americans are still shopping. They are simply becoming more selective about where the money goes.

Elsewhere, Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares fell after adjusted profit missed expectations as the Chinese technology giant increased spending on artificial-intelligence infrastructure by 75%. Its cloud business is growing quickly — AI cloud and computing revenue jumped 45% — but investors are being reminded again that the global AI race requires enormous amounts of capital before those investments translate into profits.

Crypto is moving in the opposite direction. Bitcoin pushed above $70,000 after Trump urged Congress to pass the stalled Clarity Act following his White House meeting with cryptocurrency executives. Coinbase, Strategy, Circle, Robinhood and several crypto miners moved sharply higher.

Moderna, meanwhile, pulled back after Wednesday’s extraordinary 177% surge following successful late-stage results for its personalized mRNA melanoma treatment with Merck. The retreat is less a reversal of the medical news than investors recalibrating after one of the largest single-day moves ever for a major pharmaceutical company.

For the rest of Thursday, three markets deserve as much attention as the Dow itself: Treasury yields, crude oil and Walmart.

If the 10-year yield pushes materially above 4.7%, expensive technology and AI shares could again come under pressure. If oil continues climbing toward $90 in the U.S., the market will begin recalculating inflation expectations. And if Walmart’s decline spreads into other retailers, investors may start treating its sales miss as evidence of a broader consumer slowdown rather than a Walmart-specific quarter.

The Conference Board’s July Leading Economic Index is also scheduled for release at 10 a.m. ET and could provide another read on where the economy is headed.

JBizNews Desk | Wall Street

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

The confrontation over the strike at Ben Gurion Airport has spilled into the political arena. Channel 12 commentator Amit Segal launched a sharp attack Thursday against Israel Airports Authority workers’ committee chairman Pinchas Idan, calling on Likud to expel him and his supporters from the party.

Segal published a series of sharply worded posts throughout the day in response to the chaos at the airport. He initially wrote that the workers’ committee had “chosen to launch a surprise strike on one of the busiest days of the year,” and later called Idan a “bully and a criminal,” calling for his “corrupt union” to be dismantled.

After Ben Gurion Airport employees returned to full operations, Segal highlighted what he said was a contradiction in Idan’s account.

“Pinchas Idan, the liar, initially claimed there was no strike, and now he has ordered everyone back to work,” Segal wrote. “Why return to work if there was no strike?”

Segal also addressed claims surrounding the involvement of Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David.

“The Histadrut is not denying that Pinchas Idan had previously received the blessing of Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David,” Segal wrote.

Bar-David himself later claimed that he had been surprised by the events and had contacted Idan only after the disruptions had already begun.

Segal noted that Idan had previously been a Likud candidate for the Knesset and, according to Segal, commands an organized group of party members. He then directly called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take action against him within the party.

According to Segal, Section 21(a)(9) of the Likud constitution allows Idan and his supporters to be expelled from the party for harming the movement’s values.

“If Netanyahu wants to fight him, the simplest step is to expel him and his people from Likud,” Segal wrote.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

“No one actually drives the speed limit.” Three in ten drivers agreed with that statement in a new study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS), highlighting how speeding has become normalized on today’s roads.

While most drivers agreed that posted speed limits are appropriate, many also considered driving 10 mph over the limit acceptable, and nearly half believed keeping up with traffic is safer than obeying the posted limit.

Those attitudes matter because speeding continues to have deadly consequences. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speeding was a factor in nearly 30% of traffic fatalities in 2024. 

“Findings from this research show that some drivers in the United States view speeding as a normal part of driving,” said Dr. David Yang, President and Executive Director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “When people take cues from surrounding traffic instead of following posted speed limits, it creates a culture that makes crashes more difficult to prevent and roads less safe for everyone.” 

The findings suggest many drivers aren’t speeding simply to save time—they’re often convincing themselves that speeding is the right choice for the situation.

Drivers’ top reasons for speeding:

• To get around slower drivers (31%)

• To reach their destination faster (25%)

• To avoid holding up traffic (21%)  

Drivers’ top reasons to slow down:

• To avoid getting a ticket (79%)  

• To avoid being involved in a crash (72%)

• Bad weather (60%)  

The report also found that drivers generally prefer countermeasures that encourage safer speeds over those that physically force them to slow down. Drivers expressed strong support for increased police presence in areas with a history (87%) or potential (88%) for speed-related crashes, and roughly seven in ten supported automated speed cameras in those locations. Drivers also viewed advisory Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) – in-vehicle warnings or alerts when a driver exceeds the speed limit – more favorably than technology that automatically limits vehicle speed.

Support declined for countermeasures that remove driver choice. Although more than nine in ten drivers believed speed humps are effective, fewer than half supported installing them in their own neighborhoods. Support for ISA decreased as the technology became more restrictive, i.e. if the driver could not override the system.

“There is no silver bullet for addressing traffic safety risks caused by speeding,” Dr. Yang said. “Understanding which strategies drivers are most willing to adopt can help policymakers and safety professionals develop interventions that are both effective and publicly acceptable.” 

Changing attitudes around speeding will take time, but drivers can make a difference now by making safe speed choices each time they get behind the wheel.

“Choosing the right speed isn’t about how quickly you’ll get there—or how fast everyone else is driving,” said Dr. Bill Van Tassel, Manager of AAA’s national driver training program. “It’s about choosing a pace that gives you the time and space to react when something unexpected happens. That’s what helps prevent crashes.” 

Choose your speed based on:

• The posted speed limit – think of it as a benchmark for a safe and appropriate speed.  The posted speed limit is the maximum, not the minimum speed you should be driving.

• Visibility —What you can see determines how much time you have to react.

• Road conditions — Weather and traction affect your ability to stop safely.

• Space around your vehicle — Don’t let surrounding traffic dictate your speed; leave yourself enough room to respond to the unexpected.

If you find yourself driving the speed limit while everyone around you is speeding, 

• Stay in the rightmost lane and avoid driving in the passing lane.

• Maintain a steady, predictable speed.

• Increase your following distance and watch for faster vehicles approaching from behind.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — An Israeli artificial intelligence startup founded by three childhood friends has been acquired by a British technology holding company less than two years after its launch, in a deal estimated at several million dollars.

Dondy, which develops AI agents that handle customer interactions for businesses, was purchased by Circeus, the U.K.-based company said. The acquisition is Circeus’ first in Israel.

The Tel Aviv-based company creates AI tools that manage sales, marketing and customer service conversations, primarily through WhatsApp and other chat channels. Dondy says its agents resolve about 70% of customer interactions without human involvement.

The startup serves more than 70,000 businesses in 140 countries and handles more than 1 million customer conversations a year. It also facilitates more than $100 million in annual merchant orders, according to company figures. Dondy built its business without raising venture capital and with a team of about seven employees.

Dondy was founded by Or Schreiber, Tamir Or and Inbal Katz, who will remain in leadership roles after the sale. The company will continue operating from Israel.

Circeus, an AI-focused holding company, has completed 18 acquisitions over the past four years and serves more than 200,000 businesses worldwide. Dondy will join its Shop Circle commerce software division.

The founders said they were excited to join Circeus and believed the partnership would allow Dondy to grow significantly in the coming years

American refineries are processing more crude oil than at any point since before the pandemic, and it still is not enough to bring prices down.

Refineries ran 17.4 million barrels of crude a day last week, according to Energy Information Administration figures reported Wednesday — above the previous wartime peak set in late July and the highest weekly pace since September 2019. Jet fuel output topped 2 million barrels a day for an 18th consecutive week, with gasoline and other fuels rising as well.

Here is why that matters. A refinery is the middle step between the oil well and the gas pump: it takes raw crude and turns it into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Early in the war, the problem was getting crude out of the Persian Gulf. The problem now sits one step further down the chain. Refineries are squeezed between the war and export restrictions, which limits how much crude they can convert into the fuels that actually move the economy. The world has crude. It is short of the finished product.

Drivers are paying for it. The national average for regular gasoline reached $4.07 a gallon Tuesday, up 30% from a year ago. Diesel is 48% more expensive than it was last summer.

Diesel is the one that reaches households indirectly. It powers the trucks, trains and farm tractors that move food and goods, so its price gets folded into the cost of nearly everything on a store shelf. Researchers at Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab estimate higher diesel prices have cost American consumers close to $40 billion since the war began — roughly $300 per household.

The profit refiners are earning on that diesel explains why every plant in the country is running hard. The gap between the cost of a barrel of crude and what a barrel of diesel sells for hit $102 on Monday, an all-time record and nearly triple the level before the war. A barrel holds 42 gallons, so refiners are clearing roughly $2.40 on every gallon of diesel above what the crude cost them. Damage to Russian refineries has widened those margins further.

The uncomfortable part is what comes next. Refineries typically use the softer demand of autumn to shut down units for repairs. Plants running at maximum for months on end need that maintenance, and skipping it invites breakdowns that take capacity offline without warning. Deferring repairs to chase today’s margins is a bet that nothing breaks.

There is no quick fix available to Washington. Releasing crude from the strategic reserve does not help when the bottleneck is refining rather than oil supply. Building new refining capacity takes years. The realistic paths are a durable reopening of Gulf shipping, restored refining capacity in the Middle East and Russia, or demand cooling as consumers cut back.

For now, the fuel gauge is the honest indicator: American refineries have not run this hard in nearly seven years, and gas is still above $4.

JBizNews Desk | New York

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

More than 100 people were killed when an artisanal gold mine collapsed in the Central African Republic on Tuesday, a senior official at a local mining association said. 

A prosecutor confirmed there had been a mine collapse in the village of Zamboye near the border with Cameroon but said the number of deaths and other details were still being established.

The prosecutor said in a statement that rescue efforts were continuing and an investigation would be opened to establish the cause and who was running the site.

Cameroonian authorities ready to receive, treat any injured people crossing border

Cameroonian authorities said they were ready to receive and provide medical care to any injured people who crossed the border.

Artisanal mining supports livelihoods across Africa, but weak regulation and poor safety standards often lead to deadly accidents.

This post was originally published on here.

A striking new monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is honoring generations of American military personnel by displaying the names of more than 41 million veterans, active-duty service members and others who have served the country.

The National Military Monument, which is a temporary installation, is scheduled to remain on display through Nov. 12, giving visitors several months to view the tribute and search for the names of relatives and other service members.

Designed as a sweeping recognition of military service across American history, the monument includes more than 41 million names representing different generations and every branch of the U.S. armed forces.

The names continuously scroll across lines incorporated into large American flag displays, two of which have been erected on the National Mall. With tens of millions of individuals included, cycling through the complete list takes several days.

The United States Automobile Association (USAA), which sponsored the monument, said public interest has far exceeded expectations, with large numbers of visitors coming to locate their own names or those of relatives and loved ones who served.

“This was the first time for USAA to do something like this. We wanted to do something big for America 250, and just the feedback has been tremendous and overwhelming. You know, the lines of people hours long just to come pull up a loved one’s name or their own name on the monument and people told us they wanted it here longer,” said Christian Bove, USAA communications director. “So we listened and with the support of the National Park Service, we’re able to have this out here through November 12.”

A key element of the installation is its interactive design. Staff members are available to assist visitors in searching the enormous database and bringing a particular service member’s name onto the display.

Visitors can then pose for photographs alongside the displayed name, turning the massive national tribute into a personal memorial for families seeking to recognize an individual veteran or service member.

{Matzav.com}

US President Donald Trump warned of economic consequences against any country that provided “any type of lifeline to Iran” as the United States looks to resolve a war it began alongside Israel nearly six months ago.

“This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY,” Trump announced, adding that the US needed all its allies to aid in isolating Iran.

Thousands have been killed in the war, which quickly drew in Gulf nations and shocked global markets as Iran flexed its ability to curb shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of the world’s traded oil before February.

The US and Iran have twice announced ceasefire deals, in April and June, aiming to restore the free flow of shipping through Hormuz on a path towards ending the conflict, but both quickly crumbled even as Israel has largely withdrawn from the fighting.

Trump promises ‘economic warfare, isolation on an unprecedented scale’

In a social media message on Wednesday, Trump promised “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” although details were scant.

“ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” Trump wrote.

Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Trump’s comments an attempt to divert American public opinion from domestic financial problems, including record debt and rising interest rates.

He said Washington’s insistence on policies he described as failed would bring further failures and alienate Iranians.

“America’s economic terrorism threatens the global economy and the national sovereignty of countries around the world,” he said on X.

Trump’s social media threats and announcements do not always get implemented as written, and he did not say what specific steps the US would take against such a country, which would appear to include US allies that have helped mediate peace talks, but he did not identify any.

UAE suspends all trade activities with Iran

On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a major US military base, said it was suspending all trade activities, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran until further notice.

The step came after the UAE defense ministry said it had detected two missiles launched from Iran that fell into the sea, a report Iran dismissed as baseless.

China buys more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler shows, but the US risks retaliation should it engage in further economic warfare with China, a major exporter of items such as vital rare earth minerals to the US

Iran remains open to dialog with the US but does not confuse negotiations with surrender, Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Tuesday, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Military pressure and sanctions would not break Iran’s resolve, Mokhber added.

On Tuesday, Trump said no talks were taking place with Iran. A day earlier, Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and special envoy, struck an upbeat tone, saying talks were still underway and “probably more robust” than ever.

Trump wants to seize Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium and is seeking a new, more restrictive agreement curbing its nuclear energy and research programs, to replace one from which he unilaterally withdrew the US in 2018.

This post was originally published on here.

Dr. Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, has been picked to lead the Food and Drug Administration, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

Overton is a medical doctor and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who has worked on several of Trump’s second-term health initiatives. She has become a trusted administration figure and a champion of the Republican president’s goals.

If confirmed by the Senate, she would have to balance a raft of competing priorities, including Trump’s fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary. He resigned in May, leaving behind unfinished projects such as work on ultraprocessed foods, antidepressants and COVID-19 shots.

Referring to her as “Dr. Heidi” in a Truth Social post, Trump said Overton was a smart and respected “rockstar” who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices and more wins for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

Kennedy posted on X that Overton has “exceptional judgment, professionalism, discipline and an unwavering commitment to the American people.”

Overton has promoted Trump’s health priorities

Overton attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and has a doctoral degree in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins University, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before joining Trump’s second administration, she was the chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.

In recent months, she has appeared with the president to announce major projects, including some of his “most favored nation” deals with drug companies to lower prices to those of other developed countries and his recent vaccine order that sought to split the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate immunizations — against the advice of medical groups.

At an Oval Office event to promote that order, she stood by Trump as he falsely suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder. Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link.

Overton has been critical of abortion pills and, if confirmed, would be positioned to roll back FDA rules that made them more accessible. U.S. abortion opponents have expressed frustration that the administration has not acted to stem the flow of such pills prescribed online, a situation they view as undermining state abortion bans.

Mifepristone is typically used with misoprostol in medication abortions that make up close to two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. Medical professionals call it “among the safest medications” ever approved by the FDA.

To be confirmed, Overton must seek approval from a narrowly Republican-led Senate and face questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Its chair, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, has been a vocal critic of some of Trump’s actions to sow doubt in vaccinations, including the MMR order.

Cassidy posted Wednesday that while he respects Overton’s medical background, he has “strong concerns” about the nomination, mentioning her lack of managerial experience and her participation in the recent vaccine order, which he called “almost disqualifying.”

Democratic senators slammed the nomination.

“Heidi Overton is a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA,” posted Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a committee member.

Makary’s replacement will face challenges he left behind

Before he left the FDA, Makary had drawn complaints from health industry executives and anti-abortion activists. The frustration with him came to a head over the agency’s lack of movement on flavored e-cigarettes. Companies such as R.J. Reynolds are seeking to market to adult smokers, but sweet-flavored vapes have long been blamed for the trend of teenage vaping. FDA scientists have hesitated to endorse those products to curb adult smoking.

Days before Makary’s departure, the agency opened the door to allowing more unauthorized electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches onto the U.S. market, in a policy change that essentially bypassed FDA experts.

Pharmaceutical companies will be looking for changes at the agency, too, after rejections or reversals of biotech drugs intended for rare diseases. Complaints from biotech companies, investors and patient groups have grown and been taken up by conservative lawmakers.

Makary tried to assuage industry grievances, in part by announcing new programs designed to streamline or accelerate drug approvals. Some of those initiatives, however, have meant new headaches for the agency.

Several of Makary’s deputies also exited the agency.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the vaccine and biotech chief, stepped down in April following intense criticism from drugmakers, patients and investors. Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, who was involved in scrutinizing the safety of antidepressants, COVID-19 vaccines and other widely used therapies, was replaced as FDA’s acting drug center director.

MAHA has high expectations of FDA’s next head

Overton would also need to tend to the priorities of Kennedy’s health movement, some members of which are already skeptical of her.

Kelly Ryerson, an activist critical of pesticides who is known to her supporters as “Glyphosate Girl,” told The Associated Press that Overton parroted pesticide manufacturer Bayer’s talking points in a MAHA roundtable at the White House in April.

“I was stunned by the blatant, undisguised corruption,” Ryerson said.

One major decision for the next commissioner is what to do about peptide regulation. A panel of federal health advisers selected by Kennedy recently recommended easing access to several peptides that are popular with wellness influencers and celebrities, despite warnings from FDA scientists that the chemicals have not been shown to be safe or effective.

The agency recently proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new ingredients or additives into processed or packaged foods. But it is still working with the White House to finalize a first-of-its-kind definition of ultraprocessed foods, which Kennedy blames for elevated rates of diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions.

Under Kennedy, the FDA has set up extra hurdles for vaccine testing and blocked the publication of research into the effectiveness of COVID-19 shots. Kennedy stood by Trump recently as the president signed the executive order aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S. despite unprecedented financial and logistical challenges.

The FDA also has an ongoing review of widely used antidepressants, including whether they may increase the risk of autism and other disorders when used during pregnancy. The medicines have long been a target of Kennedy, who was a leader in the anti-vaccine movement before joining the government.

In recent weeks, the agency has been investigating two summertime foodborne illness outbreaks: a cyclospora outbreak linked to tainted iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands of people and a multistate salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño peppers.

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Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press journalist Laura Ungar contributed from Louisville, Kentucky.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court has ordered stand-up comedian Vova Tamarkin to pay NIS 10,000 ($3,000) to a woman in the audience whom he allegedly mocked over her weight during a comedy performance, according to a Channel 12 report.

Judge Tzipora Ohana-Kafash ruled that the comedian’s comments went beyond what could reasonably be considered part of a stand-up performance and constituted defamation.

The woman attended a Russian-language stand-up show in Bat Yam last year. According to her lawsuit, Tamarkin told her during the performance: “Soon a man will come on stage who weighs as much as you. He has been involved in boxing fights for eight years.”

She also claimed that he told her: “You remind me of my cat. You’re as fat as she is.”

Tamarkin, 22, denied making the statements in his defense. He argued that audiences attending stand-up comedy understand that the genre involves provocation, humor and jokes at the expense of audience members, and that such interactions are part of the experience. He also disputed the woman’s account, claiming that she had attributed statements made by other comedians at the same event to him.

The judge, however, found the woman’s testimony credible, while determining that Tamarkin’s testimony was not equally reliable. “Language used in stand-up performances is, to put it mildly, not clean, and participants who attend such performances should be aware of that,” the judge wrote. “However, humiliation that goes beyond the boundaries of that unclean language should be avoided.”

She specifically ruled that the comments concerning the woman’s weight, including the references to a “fat cat” and a boxer, crossed the line of what could reasonably be expected in a comedy performance.

The court nevertheless rejected the woman’s full compensation demand of NIS 50,000. In determining the amount, the judge took into account the fact that the woman had deliberately chosen to sit in the front row, making it more likely that the comedian would interact with her during the show. Tamarkin was ordered to pay NIS 10,000 in total, including NIS 4,000 toward the woman’s legal expenses.

Following the ruling, Tamarkin told N12 that his intention as a comedian was solely to entertain his audience. “When I do stand-up, my only goal is to make the audience happy with quality comedy,” he said. “I never go on stage with the intention of hurting anyone.”

Tamarkin also said he was saddened by the public reaction to the case and maintained that the ruling was unjust. “The plaintiff attributed things to me that I did not say,” he said. “Not to mention that even if I had been the one who said those words, under the law this should not have resulted in legal liability.”

Despite his criticism of the ruling, Tamarkin said the controversy had unexpectedly benefited his career. “Although the court’s decision left a bad taste from this whole story, for my career as a stand-up comedian it gave me a serious boost, and that is obviously something I can’t help but be happy about,” he said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched a barrage of ballistic missiles toward the sea on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North shrugged off a U.S. decision to scale back military drills with South Korea in an apparent bid to resume diplomacy.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches of about 10 short-range ballistic missiles happened from North Korea’s capital region around 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Thursday. The military said the missiles flew about 300 kilometers (185 miles) each toward North Korea’s eastern waters.

The military said South Korea has bolstered its surveillance posture and was closely coordinating information on the launches with the U.S. and Japan. South Korea’s presidential national security council issued a statement urging North Korea to halt ballistic missile launches.

The Japanese prime minister’s office had earlier said that it detected a suspected missile launch.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, just before they began Monday. Trump cited what he said was a good relationship with Kim and South Korea’s refusal to support him over the war in Iran.

On Wednesday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries confirmed they shortened the 11-day drills by shortening their duration by about half and canceling some field training exercises. The reduction of the exercises raised worries about the allies’ joint defense posture.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, dismissed Trump’s overture later Wednesday, saying “the provocative, aggressive nature of the drills won’t change even though their duration and size were reduced.”

“If the U.S. calculates that it can propagate its recent measure as the one of so-called good faith, they will not get the desired answer,” she said in a statement.

She denied Trump’s claim that Kim Jong Un had responded to his request for a conversation.

Kim Yo Jong still refrained from the typical North Korean reaction of fiery rhetoric and said personal relations between her brother and Trump are “still excellent.” That signals North Korea would want to wait for Trump to make bigger concessions before returning to talks.

When asked by reporters Wednesday if he would be meeting with Kim Jong Un this year, Trump said that “Yeah, I will be.” He wouldn’t answer a question about whether he is exchanging letters with Kim but said he gets along with him.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield is one of the main military exercises conducted by the U.S. and South Korea annually to enhance their ability to cope with potential North Korean aggression. Washington and Seoul say their drills are defensive in nature, but North Korea calls them an invasion rehearsal and often reacts with weapons tests.

Before this month’s drills started, North Korea accused the U.S. and South Korea of plotting more provocative exercises this summer and vowed to respond with “a new level of a deterrent.” Days before the drills’ start, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea in its first such launches since late June.

Trump’s earlier diplomacy with Kim Jong Un collapsed in 2019 due to disputes over how much sanctions relief North Korea should be given in return for dismantling its main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step. Kim has since shunned any talks with the U.S., pushed to modernize weapons arsenals and expanded cooperation with Russia.

Kim has said he won’t place his nuclear program back on the negotiating table. Experts say Kim has more leverage than when he first held talks with Trump in 2018 and 2019. They say Kim likely hopes to eventually win international recognition as a nuclear state and extensive sanctions relief in exchange for only limited steps toward denuclearization.