The Trump administration secretly authorized Qatar to funnel billions of dollars to Iran in exchange for safe passage of Qatari vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, Yisrael Hayom reported Monday, citing three unnamed diplomatic officials.

According to the report, by journalist Danny Zaken, Washington quietly signed off on the financial and maritime arrangement about a month ago, allowing the US Navy to look the other way even as it publicly maintained a hard line and claimed to be enforcing a blockade on Iranian shipping. The aim, the officials told the paper, was to relieve pressure on global energy markets and rein in rising oil prices.

If accurate, the account would indicate that the United States laid the financial groundwork for the memorandum of understanding now being negotiated with Iran, at a moment when the Iranian economy was under severe strain from the war.
Yisrael Hayom said the arrangement dovetailed with Qatar’s own interest in opening a direct line to Tehran after the ceasefire. Doha, which the report said saw one of its gas installations struck during the fighting, feared a renewed Iranian assault and sought to buy quiet. The paper noted that while the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were hit by missile and drone attacks after the truce, Qatar provided financial help to Iran and was left untouched.

As part of the understanding, the report said, Iran was granted access to a portion of its deposits held in Qatar. Some of the payments were said to have been disguised as fees for tankers transiting Hormuz, and a credit line of up to $1 billion was reportedly opened for the purchase of goods routed through Qatar.

The report tied the arrangement to recent public boasting by President Donald Trump that the United States had managed to move ships through Hormuz despite the Iranian blockade. A significant share of those vessels, the paper said, passed under the secret deal.

Yisrael Hayom further reported that during a visit to Doha by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, direct calls were held with Washington, with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on the line overseeing the talks. The arrangement drew interest from other Gulf states. It named the UAE as having sought a similar deal that worked only in part, noting that Iran has refrained from striking the Emirates while firing barrages at Bahrain and Kuwait. One official suggested the setup also served Saudi interests, with Riyadh involved in mediation after a sharp drop in oil revenue.

The same report said negotiations in Washington have stalled in recent days over three sticking points. Iran is demanding the immediate release of $12 billion frozen in Qatar upon signing, which the United States has refused to grant before Hormuz is fully reopened and Tehran commits on the nuclear file. Iran has also declined to put a commitment on enriched uranium in writing or to discuss halting enrichment. A US demand that any unfrozen funds be earmarked for civilian use under tight supervision has reportedly been softened, with oversight of the money now expected to fall to Qatar alone.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The agreement also waives banking and transport sanctions to facilitate transactions, an early financial benefit.

NEW YORK (VINnews)-Canadian political strategist, attorney and best-selling author Warren Kinsella described a highly organized, well-funded international effort to spread antisemitic propaganda and delegitimize Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, during a recent interview with Alan Skorski.

Kinsella, whose new book “The Hidden Hand: The Information War And The Rise Of Antisemitic Propaganda” is a national best-seller, pointed to the rapid emergence of 2,500 protests worldwide — even as Israel was still identifying its dead, injured and kidnapped — as evidence that the demonstrations were not organic expressions of outrage but part of a premeditated campaign.

“The sameness in the protests with the same slogans and messages, even if in different languages, the professional signs, and their acting in a way that was almost with military precision,” Kinsella said. He cited toolkits distributed by groups like Students for Justice in Palestine that instructed participants on whom to call if arrested and assured them that legal expenses would be covered.

“It was the organization, money, and coherence that you just don’t see in an organic spontaneous response to an event. It was clear that this was a ‘campaign,’” he added.

Kinsella traced elements of the strategy back decades, referencing a 1993 meeting between American Jewish activist Gary Wexler and Israeli-Arab NGO leader Ameer Makhoul around the time of the Oslo Accords. According to Kinsella, Makhoul told Wexler that Palestinians would mirror and surpass Zionist campus activism, summer programs in refugee camps, global organizations and PR efforts — ultimately securing more media coverage.

“They watched Jewish activism for decades, including programs like Birthright, and created their own infrastructure to dominate an information war against Israel,” Kinsella said.

The author emphasized that young people have been prime targets of Hamas and its allies in Iran, Russia and Qatar. He cited a Harris poll showing that 70% of young Americans were more sympathetic to Hamas than to Israel following the Oct. 7 atrocities.

Kinsella highlighted Hamas’s “binary communication strategy,” noting the terror group’s ability to livestream its horrors for recruitment among Arab and Muslim audiences while simultaneously denying responsibility for the massacre and blaming Israel to Western audiences.

On the political front, Kinsella wrote that activists understand city councils do not set foreign policy but serve as “pillars and building blocks” that can influence higher offices and ultimately shape federal policy.

He rejected claims that criticism of Israel is merely about policy, stating the campaign is rooted in antisemitism. Kinsella also debunked the blood libel accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza, describing Hamas as experts at provoking Israeli responses that produce civilian casualties for propaganda purposes.

A prime example of media bias cited in the book occurred during President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel in solidarity after Oct. 7. A rocket struck a Gaza hospital that day, prompting immediate headlines from The New York Times and other outlets accusing Israel of bombing the facility and killing hundreds. The story was later corrected — the hospital was barely damaged, casualties were minimal, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible — but the damage had already been done globally.

Kinsella recently visited Israel for the premiere of his upcoming documentary “The Campaign,” based on the book, which examines the effort to delegitimize Israel, threaten Jewish communities worldwide and undermine Western democracy.

“First they come for the Saturday people, then they come for the Sunday people,” Kinsella warned.

Meta Platforms said Monday it is rolling out a wave of new artificial intelligence features on Facebook, led by a tool called “AI Mode” that lets people ask a question in plain language and get a single answer drawn from public posts across the app rather than scrolling through a list of search results. The company said the changes are designed to reshape how its billions of users find information, create content and interact with the platform, part of a broader effort to make Facebook a more useful destination for search and discovery.

The headline feature functions much like a chatbot built directly into Facebook’s search bar. Users can ask a question and receive an answer generated from public conversations across the platform, including posts, Groups and Reels. Instead of sorting through links and individual posts, users receive a summary of what people are already discussing.

The rollout is the latest sign of Meta’s aggressive push into artificial intelligence. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has committed billions of dollars to AI infrastructure and development, and the company is increasingly embedding AI tools into products used daily by billions of people. The strategy is straightforward: increase engagement while reducing the need for users to leave Facebook to search elsewhere.

The move also places Meta in more direct competition with Google and AI-powered search platforms such as ChatGPT, which have increasingly changed how consumers look for information online. Rather than directing users away from Facebook, Meta wants answers to be found inside its own ecosystem.

Monday’s announcement follows a series of related launches. Last month, Meta introduced Forum, a discussion platform modeled after community-driven services such as Reddit. The app includes an AI-powered “Ask” feature that pulls responses from Facebook Groups and other community discussions. Together, the products point toward a broader strategy of transforming Facebook from a platform centered on content consumption into one focused on information retrieval and conversation.

The business rationale is significant. Meta generates the vast majority of its revenue from advertising, and user engagement remains one of the most important drivers of that business. The longer people stay within Meta’s apps and the more they interact, the more opportunities the company has to serve advertisements and improve ad targeting.

The company is also seeking new revenue streams beyond advertising. Meta recently expanded paid subscription offerings across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with plans starting at $3.99 per month. The subscriptions provide additional features and could eventually include premium AI capabilities. The move marks a notable shift for a company that has historically relied almost entirely on ad-supported products.

At the same time, Meta’s growing use of AI continues to raise privacy concerns. Critics have questioned how aggressively the company is using user data to train and improve AI systems. Recent features have included requests for access to users’ camera rolls and expanded AI integrations across Meta’s platforms. While AI Mode relies on public content rather than private messages, the broader direction of the company is clear: AI is becoming increasingly embedded throughout the Meta ecosystem.

For users, the immediate change may be simple. Searching Facebook could become less about scrolling through posts and more about receiving direct answers generated from conversations already taking place across the platform. The usefulness of those answers will depend largely on accuracy, an area where AI-powered systems continue to face scrutiny.

The stakes extend far beyond Facebook search. Search, shopping, customer service and everyday information requests are increasingly moving toward AI assistants. Companies that successfully become consumers’ first destination for those interactions stand to capture significant economic value.

Meta believes its existing scale gives it a major advantage. With Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp collectively reaching billions of users worldwide, the company can introduce AI tools to a larger audience than most competitors. Facebook, now more than two decades old, is increasingly being reshaped around AI-powered discovery rather than traditional social networking alone.

The investment remains expensive, and some investors continue to question how quickly Meta’s AI spending will generate returns. Monday’s rollout offers a glimpse into the company’s answer: deploy AI broadly across its platforms today and build user habits that could support future growth for years to come.

JBizNews Desk
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Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter pushed back forcefully on accusations against Israel of “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing” and starvation.

The official X account of the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. posted a video in which he said that if Israel had really done what it’s accused of doing, his son would be alive today.

“My son would be alive today if what we’re accused of, we actually did,” he said.

Leiter had explained this more fully in August 2025 in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter pushes back against accusations of genocide. (Credit: Embassy of Israel to the U.S.A.)

“My own son was killed because we do not kill innocent civilians,” Leiter said. “He went in on foot into Gaza and led the troops at the beginning of the war and was killed when he went into a Hamas booby trap.”

This explanation refers to the idea that it would be safer for the IDF to deploy more airstrikes against Hamas rather than fight them in close-quarters combat on the ground. While airstrikes kill more civilians but prevent the deaths of IDF troops, ground combat prevents harm to civilians while imperiling soldiers’ lives.

Leiter explains to CNN’s Jake Tapper how Israel puts its own soldiers into harm’s way to preserve civilian life in Gaza. (Credit: Embassy of Israel to the U.S.A.)

“A country that’s capable of taking out the control of all of Iranian airspace in 72 hours, allowing for the B2s of the United States to come in and obliterate the nuclear weapons operations in Iran, is not capable of ending this war sooner? Of course we are, but it’s because we’re taking precautions that no other country has ever taken,” Leiter told Tapper.

No other country “has had to face a situation of 450 miles of terror tunnels under an area that’s 24 miles long,” he added. “We’re dealing with a ghoulish, fiendish organization that’s not only hiding behind civilians, but is using civilians as cannon fodder. They enjoy this. This is a death cult. They say this.”

Leiter’s son, Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidyah Leiter, was killed at the age of 39 just one month after the Oct. 7 invasion of Hamas into Israel. Serving as a paramedic, he was due to complete his hospital training to become a doctor. He left behind a wife and six children, the youngest of whom was three months old.

Following the tremendous success of the recent Minyan Shelanu Boys Job Fair, organizers are now preparing for the next step: The Chill Job Fair – Girls Division, taking place on Monday, June 22nd.

The boys event brought together approximately 30 businesses and more than 125 young men ages 17–30, resulting in roughly 20 job placements along with countless networking opportunities, mentorship connections, and introductions that continue to bear fruit.

Now, The Chill is looking to replicate that success for local girls seeking employment opportunities.

Organizers are inviting employers, business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals to participate by offering:

* Full-time positions
* Summer jobs
* Apprenticeships
* Internships

Whether your business is looking to hire immediately or simply meet talented and motivated young women for future opportunities, your participation can make a meaningful difference.

“There are many capable girls looking for work, experience, and professional connections. Sometimes all it takes is one conversation to open a door.” – Jesse Ben-Harosh

There is no cost to participate as an employer.

Event Details

* The Chill Job Fair – Girls Division
* Monday, June 22
* 362 Brewers Bridge Road, Lakewood

Employers interested in participating can contact:

Jesse Ben-Harosh
732-691-3201

The Chill is a project of Minyan Shelanu, dedicated to helping young adults connect with meaningful opportunities, build professional relationships, and develop skills for future success.

Businesses looking to hire are encouraged to register and help create opportunities for the next generation.

[Video below.] Vice President JD Vance said Monday that President Donald Trump is fully prepared to take military action against Iran again if the regime fails to comply with the terms of its agreement with the United States, signaling that Washington is keeping all options on the table.

Speaking during an interview with Sean Hannity, Vance said America’s allies in the Gulf remain cautious about Iran’s intentions despite hopes that the agreement could pave the way for greater regional stability. He noted that many countries in the region remain skeptical of Tehran’s long-term commitments.

“They don’t believe anything either,” Vance said of U.S. allies in the Gulf. “They’re not certain. They’re not going to predict what the Iranians are going to do five years from now, but they see real opportunity.”

Vance added that the administration intends to test whether Iran is serious about following through on its promises. “So, we’re going to walk down this pathway. We’re going to see how serious the Iranians are.”

Asked about the consequences if Iran violates the agreement, Vance stressed that Tehran would forfeit any economic or diplomatic benefits offered under the deal.

“If they don’t do what they promise they’re going to do, they don’t get any benefits of the bargain, and as the president would say, we have all the cards,” Vance said.

He argued that Iran’s struggling economy remains heavily dependent on relief measures tied to the agreement and warned that those advantages could quickly disappear.

“Their economy will still be in very tough shape if they don’t get the relief that they need to get in order to make progress.”

Emphasizing Washington’s leverage, Vance continued, “We have the cards, and if they don’t honor the commitment, we’ll figure out what to do when we get there.”

The vice president indicated that one possible response could be a return to military operations against Iranian targets.

“I’ve known President Trump for a long time. I would say that means go back and resume bombing. It could. It could be, and he would. I don’t think he would hesitate,” Vance said. “It could mean the blockade goes back on, Sean.”

Vance also sought to clarify the administration’s broader objective, saying the White House is not pursuing regime change but rather a fundamental shift in Iran’s conduct.

“He wants Iran to be a normal country,” Vance said. “They’ve got to act like it.”

{Matzav.com}

Johnson & Johnson is betting big on America, crediting Trump tax policies, top talent and a strong investment environment for inspiring a $55 billion U.S. investment push that spotlights growing confidence in U.S. manufacturing.

“We have the best talent, we have the best investment environment and, very importantly, we have now the tax policy enacted with this administration that has enabled us to be competitive,” CEO Joaquin Duato said on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria” on Tuesday.

“We’re playing with a hand tied to our back compared to companies that were domiciled outside of the U.S.”

“Now we can create high-skilled jobs, we can invest in America, and we can be competitive,” he added.

MEDICAL DEVICE GIANT HIT BY GLOBAL NETWORK DISRUPTION AFTER CYBERATTACK POSSIBLY LINKED TO PRO-IRANIAN GROUP

Duato told “Mornings With Maria” that the company’s goal is to manufacture all its medicines, medical technologies and more in the U.S., touting the move as a “show of confidence in American manufacturing.”

Johnson & Johnson’s recent endeavors also include a more-than-$1 billion investment in a U.S. Vision manufacturing facility in Jacksonville, Florida.

While discussing such investments, Duato reiterated Johnson & Johnson’s role in medical technology and pharmaceuticals, distinguishing those businesses from the company’s former consumer health segment.

REPUBLICANS SUBPOENA PFIZER EXEC OVER TIMING OF COVID VACCINE CLINICAL TESTS

“We are now focused on science and innovation. So what is our goal now? Our goal is to continue to deliver sustained growth through patient breakthroughs,” he said.

Duato pointed to a recently-approved medicine called Icotyde, a once-daily oral treatment for psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis with efficacy and safety designed to rival injectable biologics.

He said the development will “transform… autoimmune diseases.”

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On the medical technology side, the company is seeking approval for its first robotic surgical system, which aims to improve surgical outcomes by assisting surgeons.

“We are not a one-trick pony company. We’re a company with a stable of blockbusters,” he said.

“We have 28 platforms at Johnson & Johnson of more than $1 billion, so that gives us the confidence to be so bold to say we have line of sight to double-digit growth for Johnson & Johnson by the end of the decade, and that is remarkable for a company which is more than $100 billion.”

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (VINnews) — Rivka Rubashkin, the matriarch of the Rubashkin family whose home became synonymous with hospitality and charitable giving in Brooklyn’s Boro Park neighborhood, died this week. She was in her late 90s.

Rubashkin was the widow of Avraham Aharon Rubashkin, a pioneer in the kosher meat industry and a founder of the now-defunct Agriprocessors kosher food empire. Together, they built a family whose name became closely associated with philanthropy, community service and support for those in need.

For decades, the Rubashkin home in Boro Park maintained an open-door policy that became legendary in Orthodox Jewish circles. Visitors, yeshiva students, travelers, immigrants and struggling families knew they could find a warm meal, a place to stay or a helping hand. Community members often described the family’s home as a center of chessed, where virtually anyone seeking assistance was welcomed.

Friends and neighbors recalled Rubashkin’s quiet generosity and countless acts of kindness, many of which were carried out privately and without recognition. She was also associated with the family’s longtime kosher restaurant in Boro Park, which became known as a gathering place where no one in need was turned away.

Born in Eastern Europe, Rubashkin survived the turmoil of World War II before eventually settling in New York, where she and her husband helped build one of the most prominent Lubavitch families in the United States.

She is survived by a large family spanning multiple generations, with descendants living throughout the United States and Israel.

Her passing was widely mourned across the Jewish community, where she was remembered not only as the matriarch of a prominent family but as a symbol of generosity, hospitality and devotion to helping others.

The Mermaid Parade returns to the Coney Island boardwalk this Saturday for its 44th year, bringing its annual sea-themed celebration back to Brooklyn’s shoreline. Hosted by Coney Island USA, the event is the nation’s biggest art parade, drawing around 5,000 participants in handmade sea-themed costumes and floats. This year’s parade takes place on Saturday, June 20, at 1 p.m., rain or shine.

Founded by Coney Island USA in 1983, the Mermaid Parade is often described as the unofficial start to summer in New York City. It pays homage to the neighborhood’s early 20th-century Mardi Gras parades and draws on themes from ancient mythology and seaside rituals, highlighting the city’s creativity and community pride, as 6sqft previously reported.

Known to draw hundreds of thousands of spectators, the parade features colorful costumes and floats, along with marching bands, drill teams, dancers, antique cars and more.

The parade begins at 1 p.m. at West 21st Street and Surf Avenue, proceeds east to West 10th Street, then turns south to the boardwalk before continuing west to Steeplechase Plaza.

Map courtesy of Coney Island USA

This year, New York-based musician Jesse Malin and two-time Grammy Award winner Rickie Lee Jones will serve as King Neptune and Queen Mermaid. As part of the tradition, the pair will be wheeled through the parade in an antique wicker boardwalk chair dating to 1923.

Previous King Neptunes and Queen Mermaids have included Lou Reed, David Byrne, Queen Latifah, Annabella Sciorra, Harvey and Daphne Keitel, and other famous figures.

“Our King and Queen this year are two exceptionally talented musicians,” Adam Rinn, Coney Island USA’s Artistic Director, said. “Our King, Jesse Malin is not only an amazing songwriter and musician who’s toured the world, he’s the king of New York nightlife and a true inspiration! And Rickie Lee Jones, what can I say, iconic, legendary, and influential are just a few words to describe our Queen.”

Immediately after the parade at 4 p.m., Rinn will lead the King and Queen in a procession to the beach at 19th Street, where they will officially open the beach for the summer swimming season.

Parade registration takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot between West 21st and West 22nd Streets along Surf Avenue. Learn more about the Mermaid Parade here.

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• Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade returns to the boardwalk on Saturday
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The post Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade returns on Saturday first appeared on 6sqft.

JERUSALEM (VINNews) – Daniel Jusidman, a Mexican-Israeli industrialist and philanthropist, has pledged NIS 200 million (approximately $68.5 million) toward the construction of a new rehabilitation hospital in Tel Aviv that is expected to become the largest facility of its kind in Israel.

The hospital, which will be operated by Reuth Association, is planned for the former Sde Dov district in northern Tel Aviv and is expected to include about 540 beds, advanced rehabilitation services, outpatient treatment facilities and research programs.

Supporters of the project say the new facility will help address Israel’s growing need for rehabilitative care, particularly in the wake of recent wars and an aging population. The hospital is expected to serve wounded soldiers, trauma victims and other patients requiring long-term recovery and rehabilitation.

Jusidman, founder of one of Latin America’s largest tool manufacturing companies, has long been involved in philanthropic efforts in Israel, supporting hospitals, universities and other public institutions. The contribution is reported to be the largest single donation made by his family foundation.

The overall project is expected to cost roughly $390 million (NIS 1.1 billion) and will be financed through a combination of private philanthropy, municipal support and government funding. Construction is expected to take several years.

The donation and project details were first reported by eJewishPhilanthropy.

Two California men have been named as suspects in a thwarted terror plot targeting the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House, including one alleged organizer of the scheme, according to an arrest affidavit first reported by Fox News.

Michael Alan Thomas allegedly told investigators that he believed the US government was run by elites who “sacrifice and eat children,” had connections to Jeffrey Epstein, and were being shielded by President Trump, according to the affidavit.

Authorities say Thomas was among the suspected leaders of the operation, with investigators recovering screenshots from Signal group chats that allegedly showed discussions about the planned attack, including event maps and proposed sniper locations.

Another California man, Bryan Omar Roa, was also taken into custody, Fox News reported.

Officials said the alleged multi-stage attack involved drones packed with explosives that were intended to strike areas near the event, causing chaos and sending crowds fleeing toward sniper teams positioned to target victims.

A third suspect, Tycen Proper, was arrested in Ohio, authorities said.

The three men were among five suspects arrested by the FBI on Tuesday in connection with the alleged plan.

The identity of the fifth suspect has not been released. All five individuals were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Investigators also recovered rifles and ammunition as part of the operation.

The FBI announced Tuesday that it had detained five people accused of plotting an attack on Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 event held on the White House South Lawn.

According to officials, the alleged plan involved explosive-equipped drones designed to trigger panic among attendees, followed by sniper attacks and an attempted breach of the White House grounds by another group.

Officials told The NY Post that the suspects allegedly intended to use the confusion created by the drone attacks as part of a broader assault involving multiple coordinated elements.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A 44-year-old Russian artist who has been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin was shot and killed at close range near his home in the eastern Polish city of Biala Podlaska, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Two Belarusian citizens, aged 37 and 33, were arrested near the Belarusian Consulate after the killing on Monday, they said.

Polish media identified the victim as Robert Kuzovkov, while prosecutors named him only as Robert K., in accordance with Polish privacy laws. They said he was an artist who used the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky.

Through his art, he “expressed criticism of the current policies of the Russian authorities,” the prosecutors said in a statement.

He painted unflattering portraits of Putin, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and other high-ranking Russian officials. One depicts Putin being cradled in the arms of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

On Sunday, he had posted a video on his YouTube channel showing him in Berlin putting a Russian flag in a trash can on June 12, the holiday marking Russia’s sovereignty.

Prosecutors said the artist was approached near his home around 9:45 a.m. by an unidentified man who fired two shots at him, then shot him three more times at close range before fleeing. Prosecutors said the victim died at the scene of gunshot wounds to the head, chest and back.

Polish prosecutors have not attributed the slaying to Moscow and Poland’s Internal Security Agency did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been accused of trying to assassinate its opponents abroad, including targeting exiled activists in France and Lithuania.

Officials in Germany have also broken up plots targeting the head of a German weapons supplier to Ukraine and a Ukrainian military official.

Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That same year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain, with Russian operatives as the prime suspects.

New York’s newly approved pied-à-terre tax could force entire co-op buildings to shoulder major financial burdens if wealthy second-home owners refuse to pay, according to real estate professionals and co-op advocates who say the law does not properly account for how cooperative ownership works.

“It’s not the shareholder that suffers the consequences, it’s the entire building that suffers the consequences,” Jason Haber, co-founder of the American Real Estate Association and a Compass broker, told The NY Post.

The tax, pushed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and supported by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, was included in the state budget and signed into law last month.

The measure targets luxury residences that are not owners’ primary homes and is projected to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year from affluent second-home owners.

However, real estate experts warn that collecting the surcharge could create significant complications for co-op boards, especially in smaller buildings.

Unlike condominiums, where each apartment has its own separate tax lot, co-ops are treated as a single property for tax purposes.

The building pays the property taxes as one entity, with costs then passed on to shareholders through monthly maintenance fees.

“As regards to the pied-à-terre tax, the legislation requires the co-op to pay the surcharge in the same way that they pay their real estate taxes, and the co-op must then charge the impacted shareholder back and hope to collect the surcharge from them,” Rebecca Poole, director of membership and communication for the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, told The Post.

That system could force co-op boards to cover large payments upfront while trying to recover the money from owners who may not live in the building.

“It’s possible that co-ops could be out the funds while waiting for the shareholder who is subject to the surcharge to pay the charge back,” Poole said.

The issue could be especially difficult for smaller buildings where one expensive apartment could generate a major tax obligation.

“For example, if you have a five-unit co-op and the pied-à-terre tax applies to the largest unit — which may be comprised of a couple of combined units — the other four shareholders might be forced to quickly come up with a large sum of money that they don’t have to pay, the surcharge, while they try to collect the funds from an out-of-town pied-à-terre owner,” Poole said.

Haber said enforcement could create additional complications because co-ops do not have separate tax parcels for individual apartments.

“You cannot put a tax lien on an individual unit in a cooperative because there is no tax lot for that unit,” Haber said.

“Instead, what do you do? You put a lien on the entire building.”

Haber said a conflict involving one shareholder could potentially impact everyone living in the building.

“If someone’s trying to sell their apartment and the buyer is getting financing, that buyer may not be able to get financing because of the tax lien,” he said.

“It creates a cloud on the building.”

He argued that lawmakers did not fully consider the structure of co-op ownership when creating the policy.

“There’s only one tax lot for the entire building, so how do you assess a tax on an individual shareholder? This is the problem,” he said.

Poole said many co-op boards are still trying to figure out whether the new surcharge applies to their properties and which shareholders could be affected.

“The two problems we potentially see happening are lack of clarity among co-ops in general as to whether or not this will apply to them, because in the press it’s been about the $5 million figure and the market value doesn’t line up with that exactly,” she said.

She said boards should begin reviewing their buildings now to prepare for possible impacts.

“The first step we’re encouraging is for co-op and condo boards to look and see if this will apply to any of their apartments and then start to prepare,” Poole said.

Haber said some boards are already considering limiting future pied-à-terre ownership to avoid possible financial exposure.

“The whole building is impacted if one shareholder doesn’t pay the tax,” he said.

A spokesperson for Gov. Hochul told The Post that “the city will identify who is covered by the law, communicate that to the boards, who are then required to pass that information on to the owner.”

“The boards don’t have to tally their own bill and aren’t penalized for anything to do with reporting info,” Hochul’s office told The Post.

“Co-ops are already responsible for collecting property taxes, so it makes sense that they would also collect a surcharge.”

The governor’s office also said the law “includes tools for the city to directly enforce against the unit owner, in addition to the co-op’s own right to collect from the shareholder.”

“In a co-op setting the building’s property taxes already are determined at the building level and then apportioned based on stockholders’ ownership shares,” the governor’s office told The Post.

“That is sensible in the context of a coop, where a unit owner actually has a percentage of shares in the corporation that owns the underlying property.”

When asked about whether co-ops might ban pied-à-terre arrangements to avoid liability, the governor’s office said: “This tax applies to a narrow class of high value, secondary residence that by definition are not primary residences for New Yorkers.”

“Nothing in this policy would diminish housing options made available to New Yorkers.”

Vice President JD Vance is facing criticism from some of President Donald Trump’s strongest supporters after agreeing to appear on Megyn Kelly’s program, sparking a backlash among segments of the MAGA movement.

News of Vance’s scheduled appearance on “The Megyn Kelly Show” prompted a wave of reactions on social media Monday, with several Trump allies questioning why the vice president would sit down with Kelly following her recent disputes with the president over the Iran conflict.

The controversy intensified after Kelly announced that Vance would join her Tuesday to discuss his new book, “Communion.” Conservative activist Laura Loomer quickly responded on X, expressing disbelief over the decision and criticizing the choice to appear on the show.

“Why would our Vice President go on Megyn Kelly’s show? Megyn Kelly is constantly bashing President Trump and she recently said MAGA is dead and that Trump is ‘losing his mind,’” Loomer wrote on Monday. “I find this to be insane. Megyn Kelly has been condemned by Trump and she accused him of being ‘owned’ by Israel… in addition to defending Candace Owens’s vicious attacks on [Erika Kirk].”

Loomer continued her criticism by pointing to several controversies she associates with Kelly’s commentary.

“Megyn Kelly has entertained the lie that the Trump administration killed Charlie Kirk and she has insinuated Trump is covering up for Jeffrey Epstein. Not a good look.”

Despite her frustration, Loomer suggested there was still a possibility Vance could use the appearance to confront Kelly directly. She argued that the host is “truly out to destroy President Trump” and described the interview as “terrible optics,” adding that she could not “believe this [was] real.”

She concluded with a warning directed at the vice president’s advisers. “Wow. Whoever told our VP this was a good idea is leading him astray,” she concluded. “I say this in the most respectful and sincere way. Who thought this was a good idea?”

Loomer was not alone in voicing concern. Conservative commentator and activist Chris Loesch also criticized the planned appearance, suggesting it sent the wrong message at a time when Trump is facing attacks from political opponents and critics.

“He goes on the show of someone who has lambasted this administration,” he wrote, “who has befriended and defended the people dogging on Trump and this administration worse than progressives? This is signaling. The President needs people watching his back.”

Other critics went further, speculating that Vance may be positioning himself for a future presidential campaign. One commenter argued that the vice president was making a strategic mistake by engaging with a host who has repeatedly criticized the administration.

“Megyn Kelly has been ripping the Trump administration for months, and JD Vance has been silent. And now he rewards her by going on her show. If Vance is betting on the Woke Reich’s vote in 2028, he’s not going to get it, and real Republicans are not going to allow it.”

Another detractor offered an even harsher assessment, branding Vance “Brutus” and urging President Trump to publicly address the matter.

Not everyone in Trump’s orbit viewed the interview negatively, however. Some supporters defended Vance and argued that the vice president’s actions likely have the president’s approval.

“There’s always a plan though you may not know what it is, Laura. You think Trump doesn’t know what JD is doing or where and why he’s going? How many more things does Trump need to do until you realize there’s always a plan and he knows exactly what he’s doing?”

The White House did not immediately provide a response when contacted for comment regarding the controversy, according to TheWrap.

Vance’s interview is scheduled to air today at noon Eastern Time on SiriusXM Channel 111 as part of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” with the full conversation expected to be posted to Kelly’s YouTube channel later that day.

{Matzav.com}

HaMashgiach HaGaon HaRav Dan Segal attributes President Donald Trump’s sharp reversal in policy toward Iran to the persecution of bnei yeshivos in Eretz Yisrael.

Speaking at a dinner for Keren Olam HaTorah, HaRav Segal said: “We clearly see that when Torah is supported, there is Siyata Dishmaya, and when it is not, there is none.”

“It changes the rules of the game. The same Trump who until now was so helpful to Israelis is now singing a different tune.”

It should be noted that in February 2025, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Shternbuch warned that “our yeshuah won’t come from Donald Trump.”

Your browser does not support the video tag.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Iran carried out the executions of two men Tuesday for “waging war against God” and “corruption on earth” over their alleged participation in the January protests, at the same time that Iranian athletes are competing in the World Cup.

“The death sentences of Javad Zamani and Abolfazl Saedi, armed leaders of the January 2026 coup attempt, were carried out,” Mizan Online, the official media outlet of the judiciary, reported.

The two men were convicted on charges relating to “the deliberate destruction of public and private property with the intention of confronting the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the outlet said.

Anti-regime protesters demand the expulsion of Iran from the World Cup. (From a post on X)

Executions of protesters and others charged with similar conduct have sharply increased since January, with yesterday’s executions bringing the total to 40 this year, including 18 protesters, according to human rights groups. Iran numbers second only to China in the number of people it executes per year.

Many of the people who were executed had ties to the protests, labeled by Iran as “foreign-instigated riots” and prompting the most brutal protest crackdown in Iran’s history. Human rights groups have alleged that the authoritarian regime has murdered more than 36,000 civilians.

Before the joint U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran that began on Feb. 28, the U.S. had demanded that Iran stop executing protesters to prevent an escalation by the U.S. Now with a deal being finalized between Iran and the United States, it appears that Iran’s executions are not on the table, allowing the regime to act against innocent civilians with impunity.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An endorsement from President Donald Trump is worth a lot in Republican primaries. But is it worth more than $100 million in Georgia? Can it propel a congressman past an insurgent outsider in Alabama? Can it transform a candidate into a front-runner in Oklahoma?

Trump has been at the center of this year’s midterm campaigns, and his influence will be tested in different ways Tuesday as four states and the District of Columbia hold primaries.

Among Democrats, the primaries will hinge on longstanding divides between progressives and moderates as the party tries to chart the best path forward to November.

Here are a few things to watch as voters go to the polls in Alabama, California, the District of Columbia, Georgia and Oklahoma.

How much is a Trump endorsement worth?
Nothing is certain in politics, but a “complete and total endorsement” from Trump is about the surest path possible to winning a Republican primary.

Rick Jackson is testing that truism in his bid for Georgia governor. The healthcare tycoon, who faces Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in a runoff, has provided most of the $100 million-plus that his campaign has spent to convince Republican primary voters to overlook Trump’s advice.

Trump endorsed Jones more than a year ago and reiterated his support last week, praising Jones’ “Courage and Wisdom” in a social media post. Rarely has the power of Trump’s endorsement been tested against such a lopsided spending disparity.

Jones finished first with 38% and Jackson second with 33% in the May 19 primary. Now the election to lead one of the nation’s preeminent battleground states will be decided by the voters who didn’t back either of them.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma’s Republican primary for governor will test Trump’s endorsement in a different way. There, the president weighed in late, throwing his support two weeks ago to former state Sen. Mike Mazzei among a crowded field without a clear front-runner. The race will go to a runoff if no candidate gets a majority.

Trump is used to getting his way, but earlier this month his choice for governor of Iowa, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, lost to Zach Lahn in the state’s primary.

MAGA becomes the insider movement and faces an outsider
Trump rose to power as an outsider, the head of a “Make America Great Again” movement keen to bulldoze the old political order.

But now the onetime insurgent sits atop a sprawling establishment. What happens when he endorses an insider candidate?

That question is at the heart of the Republican primary runoff for Alabama’s open Senate seat.

Trump is backing U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, a three-term congressman who has promised to be “a warrior for President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda” if elected.

He faces former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson, who is presenting himself as a Washington outsider, trying to harness the anti-establishment fervor that propelled Trump to power to defeat Trump’s preferred candidate.

Alabama is a Republican stronghold, so whoever wins the primary will be heavily favored to prevail in November over either candidate in Tuesday’s Democratic runoff, business owner Dakarai Larriett and lawyer Everett Wess.

The seat is being vacated by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Republican nominee in the race for Alabama governor.

DC mayor’s race features a democratic socialist and a new voting system
One of the leading Democratic contenders in the District of Columbia mayor’s race, Janeese Lewis George, describes herself as a democratic socialist, a political denomination that became more prominent with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns.

George’s bid for the party’s nomination is not so far removed from democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory for New York City mayor last year. And, as in New York, the race has drawn national attention, including the president’s.

Trump indicated days before the mayoral primary election that he might take over the city if George wins, saying “we won’t put up with it.” George called Trump’s threat “an attack on democracy itself.”

The overwhelmingly Democratic city’s relationship to the president is a focal point of the campaigns as Trump has exercised broad power over Washington, D.C. That’s included an open-ended deployment of National Guard troops in the streets and his culling of the federal workforce, a chunk of the city’s jobs.

Some residents were frustrated that the mayor, Muriel Bowser, didn’t push back enough on the administration. Part of George’s platform on her website, which heavily focuses on affordability, is to “protect Home Rule” with “leaders that stand up and fight back, not shrink in the face of injustice.”

George and another Democrat, Kenyan McDuffie, who’s focused on public safety, are two of the seven candidates whose race will be the first decided with D.C.’s new ranked choice voting system.

Like a handful of other places, D.C. voters will rank the candidates on a ballot, and if no one crosses 50% of the popular vote, then residents’ second choices come into play. That happened in Maine, where election officials started counting ranked choice votes for governor and a key House race three days after election night.

In D.C., election officials have warned the new system could delay results by days.

Election denial looms over race for Georgia secretary of state
Six years ago, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger resisted Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud and his request to “find 11,780 votes” to overtake Democrat Joe Biden.

Now, in the first open election for the seat since Raffensperger’s defiance, the two Republicans in the runoff echo Trump’s falsehoods to varying degrees.

Candidate Vernon Jones, who was previously elected to the statehouse as a Democrat but switched parties and aligned himself with Trump, has said he believes there were “irregularities” and “violations” and he stands “with those who believe there was election fraud.”

Of four key points on Jones’ campaign platform, three have to do with election management, including stronger voter identification rules and requiring voting in person with limited exceptions.

Jones’ runoff opponent, state Rep. Tim Fleming, has tiptoed around the topic, saying there were “irregularities” in 2020 but adding he’s “not running on conspiracy theories.”

Still, of the seven platform points on his campaign website, four are focused on election management and one says the state should “make it impossible for the Left to cheat in our elections.”

Skepticism of elections flared up recently in California after Trump made a baseless claim that Democrats were cheating to defeat a Republican candidate for governor and another for Los Angeles mayor.

Soon after, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, led by Trump appointee Bill Essayli, said it was opening fraud investigations related to the elections.

A special election to fill Eric Swalwell’s seat after sexual assault allegations
Eric Swalwell resigned from the U.S. House in April after a woman alleged he had sexually assaulted her twice, saying she was too intoxicated to consent to sex in both cases.

The Democrat has denied the accusations, but he dropped out of the race for California governor and resigned from Congress.

That’s what prompted a special primary election Tuesday, when both Republican and Democratic candidates will compete to serve out Swalwell’s term until January. If a candidate gets more than 50% of the vote Tuesday, that candidate wins outright, otherwise the top two contenders will go to a runoff election Aug. 18.

The Democratic candidates, favored to win in the blue district covering several East Bay cities, include Aisha Wahab, a state senator, and Melissa Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit director.

It’s a competition between the more progressive Wahab, who’s established in California politics, and Hernandez, a local politician who sits closer to the political center. To lower costs, Wahab takes aim at “corporate profiteering” and argues for an expansion to social safety nets. Hernandez focuses on local job growth and supporting small businesses.

Both candidates also ran in the regular primary election for Swalwell’s seat and will face off in the general election in November. Whoever wins that race will take over next year.

Moments ago in Howell at the ribbon-cutting for the first Hatzolah CJ ambulance for Howell Township, which was obtained through a state grant secured by Assemblyman Avi Schnall and Senator Bob Singer.

President Donald Trump said he plans to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence with what could become the largest Independence Day celebration in U.S. history, featuring a massive gathering on the National Mall, military flyovers, patriotic performances, and an attempt to set a world record for the largest fireworks display ever staged.

The centerpiece of the celebration will take place in Washington, D.C., where Trump is expected to headline a major event near the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument as part of a broader national effort to commemorate America’s semiquincentennial. Organizers say the celebration will include hundreds of military musicians, ceremonial units, aerial demonstrations, and a fireworks finale designed to eclipse any previous Fourth of July display.

The event is one of the most visible components of what has quietly become one of the largest tourism and economic initiatives the United States has undertaken in decades.

Behind the patriotic imagery sits a massive network of federal funding, corporate sponsorships, tourism promotion campaigns, vendor contracts, and public-private partnerships all centered on the nation’s 250th birthday. Cities, businesses, hotels, restaurants, transportation companies, and event organizers across the country are preparing for what many expect to be a once-in-a-generation surge in travel and consumer spending.

The celebration is being organized through two separate entities.

The first is America250, the nonprofit partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission created by Congress in 2016 to coordinate nationwide commemorations. The second is Freedom 250, a public-private initiative established by the Trump administration to support and stage several of the highest-profile events surrounding the anniversary.

Together, the organizations are overseeing what could become the largest coordinated patriotic celebration since the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976.

Congress previously appropriated approximately $150 million to support America’s 250th anniversary activities, with funding directed through federal agencies and related initiatives. America250 is required to provide annual reporting to Congress regarding its activities and spending, while Freedom 250 operates under a different structure that has drawn scrutiny from some lawmakers and watchdog groups.

Much of the remaining funding comes from private-sector sponsors.

Major corporate supporters of America250 include Amazon, Boeing, FedEx, General Mills, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, Comcast NBCUniversal, and JPMorganChase, among others. For participating companies, the anniversary offers a rare opportunity to align their brands with one of the most visible patriotic celebrations in modern American history.

The economic implications extend far beyond Washington.

Tourism officials frequently point to the nation’s 1976 Bicentennial as a benchmark. That celebration attracted millions of visitors nationwide and generated billions of dollars in economic activity. Adjusted for inflation, planners believe America’s 250th could rival or surpass those figures as travelers flock to events throughout the country.

Hotels, airlines, vacation-rental operators, restaurants, transportation providers, and retailers have spent months preparing for the expected influx of visitors.

Washington remains the focal point, but celebrations are planned nationwide.

One of the largest attractions is expected to be the Great American State Fair, scheduled to take place on the National Mall from late June through early July. The event will feature exhibits from all 50 states, showcasing regional industries, innovations, products, culture, and tourism opportunities.

Organizers describe it as a combination of a state fair, trade show, cultural festival, and patriotic exhibition.

Meanwhile, Sail 250, a major maritime celebration, will bring historic tall ships and military vessels to several U.S. ports, including Boston, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, and New Orleans. The event is designed to echo the iconic tall-ship gatherings that became one of the defining images of the 1976 Bicentennial.

Additional celebrations are planned across the country, including major sporting events, festivals, concerts, historical exhibitions, and regional fireworks displays.

The fireworks finale in Washington is expected to serve as the signature attraction.

Pyrotechnics company Pyrotecnico has reportedly been working on a display large enough to challenge the current Guinness World Record for the largest fireworks show ever conducted. If successful, the event would add another historic milestone to an already ambitious celebration.

The road to the event has not been without controversy.

Several musical acts initially associated with related Freedom 250 programming reportedly withdrew after raising concerns about the political nature of certain events. Critics have argued that portions of the celebration place too much emphasis on Trump personally rather than on the broader national anniversary.

Supporters counter that the scale of the planned festivities reflects the importance of marking a historic national milestone and argue that the celebration is intended to promote national pride and unity.

Regardless of the political debate, the economic impact is expected to be substantial.

Large-scale public events generate significant spending through hotel bookings, restaurant visits, transportation services, retail purchases, tourism activities, and event-related employment. They also create extensive demand for security personnel, logistics providers, sanitation crews, construction workers, and temporary event staff.

For businesses, municipalities, sponsors, and vendors participating in America’s 250th, the opportunity is straightforward.

The United States turns 250 years old only once. From multinational corporations and tourism agencies to fireworks manufacturers and local restaurants, organizations across the country are betting that the largest Independence Day celebration in American history will generate both national pride and significant economic activity.

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

Fox News’ major MAGA ally Mark Levin slammed US President Donald Trump over the Iran war peace deal, calling on the White House to release details of the accord’s Memorandum of Understanding.

Levin on X wrote: “I have asked for days, why can’t we, the people, see the damn MOU? Not through people briefed by an anonymous person. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this. If it is a great outcome for peace, then release it.”

I have asked for days, why can’t we, the people, see the damn MOU? Not through people briefed by an anonymous person. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this. If it is a great outcome for peace, then release it.

— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) June 15, 2026

“Here’s an idea: if you want people to stop speculating about the MOU, release the MOU. Don’t brief a few anointed ones to control the narrative and expect everyone else to sit silently. That’s not how our country works. It’s going to be signed soon. It takes time for people to digest it all once it is released. Controlling the narrative can only last so long,” he added.

Vice President JD Vance said the peace accord was signed electronically over the weekend.

Levin speaks out against Trump’s attitude towards Netanyahu

Levin, a pro-Israel hawk, also slammed the president for lashing out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Israel attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Trump had told a reporter that he questioned Netanyahu’s “f***ing judgment.”

“In a period of two-months, Israel has gone from a great ally and partner in war, fighting by our side against a horrible enemy that has killed thousands of our people, killed tens of thousands of their own people, and was a dire nuclear threat intent on attacking us, to Israeli PM Netanyahu being a difficult person who should be thanking us for saving his country from Iran and should get our permission if he wants to defend his people from Hezbollah and Iran, and stand down when his country is attacked,” Levin wrote.

This post was originally published on here.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism and a former New York state assemblyman, warned that growing antisemitism in the United States poses a serious threat to Jewish communities and said many Jews are failing to recognize the dangers they face.

Speaking in an interview with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, Hikind said he was troubled by what he views as increasing hostility toward Israel and Jews, particularly in New York City.

Hikind singled out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, saying that while he strongly disagrees with the mayor’s views on Israel, he respects what he described as Mamdani’s honesty.

Referring to Mamdani’s decision not to attend New York’s annual Israel Day Parade, Hikind said he was perplexed that some Jewish leaders criticized the mayor for staying away.

“At least he’s honest,” Hikind said, arguing that Mamdani has consistently expressed opposition to Israel and should not be expected to attend an event celebrating the Jewish state. Hikind said Mamdani “means it” when he criticizes Israel and does not attempt to hide those views for political gain.

Hikind contrasted Mamdani with what he described as some Jewish leaders and public officials who publicly present themselves as supporters of Israel while taking positions that, in his view, undermine the Jewish state.

The longtime activist also argued that Mamdani plays a significant role in fostering a climate in which hostility toward Israel and Jews has become increasingly accepted. Hikind said anti-Israel activism frequently serves as a vehicle for antisemitism and warned that Jewish communities should not dismiss the trend.

Drawing a historical comparison, Hikind said some American Jews today remind him of German Jews in the years before the rise of Nazi Germany. According to Hikind, many Jews at that time felt fully integrated into society, considered themselves loyal patriots and believed that antisemitism could never seriously threaten them.

“We’re fooling ourselves,” Hikind said, warning that history shows how quickly conditions can change when hatred is ignored or minimized. He said many Jews today assume that America will always remain safe for Jewish life, despite growing signs of hostility.

Hikind stressed that most Americans are decent people, but argued that it does not take a majority to create a dangerous environment for Jews. He said the level of antisemitism seen since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel has raised concerns among many American Jews about their future in the United States.

He noted that while aliyah numbers have not dramatically increased, many American Jews are purchasing homes in Israel as a safeguard against an uncertain future.

The former lawmaker also addressed Israel’s internal debate over military service for members of the haredi community. While emphasizing the central importance of Torah study, Hikind called for greater national unity and said more sectors of Israeli society should share responsibility for defending the country during wartime.

Despite his concerns, Hikind expressed confidence in Israel’s future, calling the Jewish state’s survival and success a modern-day miracle. He urged Jews around the world to strengthen their connection to Israel and Jewish identity and to remain vigilant against antisemitism.

A Republican candidate sharing the same name as Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan has been removed from the state’s Senate primary ballot after election officials concluded that his campaign appeared intended to mislead voters and undermine the integrity of the election.

In a decision issued Monday, Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher ruled that Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy could not proceed, determining that it appeared to have been filed for the purpose of creating confusion among voters. In a formal letter, Beecher wrote that the campaign seemed to be “filed with a purpose to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot’s fairness or neutrality.”

Dan J. Sullivan, a retired educator who entered the race as a Republican despite having no previous ties to the party, retains the right to challenge the decision through the appeals process, according to Beecher’s ruling.

The move follows weeks of criticism from Republican officials, who alleged that the late-entry candidacy was orchestrated to deceive voters by placing another “Dan Sullivan” on the ballot shortly before the filing deadline. GOP leaders argued that the effort amounted to a political maneuver designed to siphon votes away from the incumbent senator.

Under Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, both Dan S. Sullivan and Dan J. Sullivan could have advanced from the primary to the general election if they finished among the top four candidates in August.

The race has attracted national attention as Democrats seek to capture a seat they view as one of their few possible pickup opportunities in the upcoming midterm elections. Sen. Sullivan is seeking a third term and is expected to face former congresswoman Mary Peltola, a Democrat who entered the race with support from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Beecher’s decision cited multiple factors that she said raised doubts about whether Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign was a legitimate effort conducted in “good-faith.”

According to the ruling, the candidate sought to appear on the ballot simply as “Dan Sullivan,” despite being registered to vote under the name “Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.” Beecher also noted that at one point he attempted to use the same middle initial as the incumbent senator.

“‘S’ is Senator Sullivan’s middle initial, not yours,” Beecher wrote.

The elections director further pointed to the fact that Dan J. Sullivan was not registered as a Republican before launching his Senate campaign. She also said that the design and branding of his campaign website closely resembled that of the incumbent’s campaign.

Beecher additionally referenced the candidate’s ties to Amber Lee, a Democratic political consultant in Alaska who has previously worked in support of Peltola. Earlier reports noted that metadata associated with the campaign’s launch identified Lee as its author.

“This consultant’s work on your behalf is, in isolation, innocuous,” Beecher wrote. “Alongside the other facts I have catalogued in this letter, however, it suggests a determined effort and a deliberate attempt to use the similarity of your name to confuse Alaska voters in the upcoming primary election.”

Representatives for Dan J. Sullivan’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment following the ruling.

The incumbent senator has repeatedly accused his challenger of participating in a coordinated Democratic effort to manipulate the race, previously describing him as a “far-left liberal” involved in an attempt to “rig” the election.

“Is Schumer or Gillibrand and their staffs or the DSCC or the staff at the DSCC — were they aware? Were they coordinating, orchestrating?
I mean, if that’s the case, that would be a huge scandal,” Sullivan told Fox News Digital last week.

Democratic officials have denied having any role in Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee celebrated the ruling after previously urging state election officials to examine the circumstances surrounding the campaign.

“Alaskans saw right through Chuck Schumer and Mary Peltola’s tricks to confuse and deceive them with a sham candidate,” NRSC Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia said in a statement. “Nobody delivers for Alaskans like Senator Dan Sullivan, which is why Alaska Last Democrats like Mary Peltola are stooping so low.”

The controversy has also drawn strong reactions from Senate Republicans, who view Sullivan’s seat as a key battleground and have vowed to defend it aggressively.

“Even by Chuck Schumer’s low standards, this was an outrageous attempt to trick Alaska voters and rig the election,” Senate Republican Conference Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Monday.

{Matzav.com}

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WASHINGTON — America’s stores are on a hiring spree even as shoppers complain about high prices — and the latest government data backs it up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, June 5, that the economy added 172,000 jobs in May, more than double the roughly 80,000 economists had expected, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%. Within that, the retail trade has been a standout, recently pushing its payrolls to about 15.5 million workers — the most since July 2024.

“This is a labor market that is stronger than it was last year and is looking pretty darn solid, despite high energy prices and higher inflation generally,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Bank. “There’s no indication that the labor market needs support.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised its earlier figures higher, adding a combined 93,000 jobs to its March and April counts. Retail added nearly 22,000 jobs in a recent month, accounting for almost one-fifth of all the hiring in the country — a striking share for an industry that spent much of last year bracing for layoffs. The biggest May gains came in leisure and hospitality, local government and health care, while financial activities lost jobs.

The hiring reflects a simple truth: Americans keep spending. The National Retail Federation expects retail sales to grow 4.4% this year, with its president and chief executive, Matthew Shay, saying he expects “consumer resilience to continue into 2026, with household spending once again serving as a pillar of economic support.” In 2025, many chains feared that President Donald Trump’s tariffs would raise costs and scare off shoppers. Instead, customers kept buying — through the war in Iran, higher gas prices and faster inflation — and retailers staffed up to keep shelves stocked.

Not everyone is convinced the good times will last. Mark Mathews, chief economist at the National Retail Federation, warned that “renewed tensions in the Middle East and the ripple effects across global markets are adding more uncertainty to the economic landscape.” Gasoline prices at multiyear highs could eventually force families to cut back on the extras that keep stores busy. There are softer spots beneath the strong headline, too: hiring has cooled in parts of the economy, and total job postings have edged down even as the unemployment rate stays low.

There is a hopeful wrinkle this week. The weekend deal to end the war in Iran sent oil prices tumbling on Monday, which could bring gasoline prices down in the coming weeks and hand shoppers more room in their budgets — exactly the kind of relief that would keep cash registers ringing and the hiring going.

The job numbers carry extra weight this year because of a fight over their credibility. In August 2025, President Trump removed the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after a run of weak reports, accusing her of manipulating the data — which she denied — and replaced her with William J. Wiatrowski. That history has put every report under a brighter spotlight.

For ordinary workers, the retail hiring spree is good news. Store jobs rarely require a degree, offer flexible hours, and remain one of the main on-ramps into the workforce. More openings mean more bargaining power and a better shot at a raise. The question is how long it lasts. Retailers are hiring because shoppers are spending, and shoppers are spending despite real strain. If inflation bites harder or gas prices climb again, the same stores racing to staff up could find themselves overstaffed. For now, though, the help-wanted signs are out — and Americans are answering them.

JBizNews Desk
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The Rachmistrivka Rebbe of Yerushalayim departed Eretz Yisroel on Monday night for a brief visit to New York, where he joined a major fundraising campaign on behalf of Keren Olam HaTorah.

The Rebbe has joined similar trips over the past two years, traveling together with prominent rabbanim to support efforts and raise much needed funds. The current campaign seeks to raise support for yeshivos and kollelim facing growing financial pressures.

The Rebbe arrived this morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport before traveling to Lawrence in the Five Towns, where he davened Shacharis and met with local yidden.

Today, the Rebbe will travel to Kiryas Yoel, where a Rosh Chodesh gathering is scheduled.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Rebbe will be in Boro Park, participating alongside other gedolei Yisroel in a series of events and fundraising gatherings for Keren Olam HaTorah. A larger gathering is expected to take place Wednesday evening.

The Rebbe is expected to return to Eretz Yisroel on Thursday night and arrive home before Shabbos.

California Governor Gavin Newsom alleged Monday that President Donald Trump is weaponizing federal law enforcement against him, after federal agents reportedly questioned individuals connected to both the governor and his wife.

While the precise nature and scope of the federal inquiries remain uncertain, Newsom’s office said investigators have recently contacted a number of people within the couple’s personal and professional circles. According to aides, part of the scrutiny appears to involve Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the governor’s wife, with former staff members and individuals linked to her nonprofit organizations among those interviewed by federal agents.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed that several federal investigations involving the governor are currently active, including one examining financial matters related to Mrs. Newsom. However, the source rejected the governor’s accusation that the inquiries are politically driven, saying the investigations originated with federal law enforcement personnel in California rather than officials in Washington. The source spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Newsom, a Democrat frequently mentioned as a possible 2028 presidential contender, portrayed the investigations as an effort to uncover wrongdoing where none exists. He claimed agents have been combing through extensive records and contacting people close to the family in search of evidence tied to an unspecified offense.

“Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets,” Mr. Newsom said in the video. “He’s coming after me because I am considering running for president.” He added, “To get me, he’s coming after my wife.”

According to the governor’s office, multiple individuals associated with the Newsoms have been approached by federal authorities over the past week. Newsom’s aides also suspect that investigators may have obtained banking records through subpoenas, although they acknowledged they have not seen any formal documentation confirming that action.

Federal officials have declined to discuss the matter publicly. Representatives for both the FBI and the Justice Department refused comment, while the White House directed all inquiries to the Justice Department.

The developments come as Newsom continues to emerge as one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent national figures, setting the stage for what could become a significant political and legal confrontation in the months ahead.

{Matzav.com}

Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who are running against each other for the congressional seat in New York’s 10th Congressional district, sparred on the debate stage Monday, touching on issues of great importance to the United States of America: who received funding from AIPAC and whether to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.

Both candidates are self-styled progressive Democrats and liberal Zionists, but both also starkly diverge in their views on Israel. Lander accused Goldman of receiving funding from AIPAC, which he has. Lander calls Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide; Goldman rejects that label. Lander denounced Goldman for voting to sell arms to Israel; Goldman doesn’t see a problem with that.

Earlier this week, Lander appeared alongside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, saying to cheers and applause that, “As a proud Jewish New Yorker, I will join you in that fight to end occupation and apartheid and genocide.”

As he went on to denounce Israel’s supposed genocide, Mamdani nodded along.

Critics of Lander have called him a “tokenized Jew,” lending cover to anti-Israel Jew haters by virtue of his Jewishness.

At the debate, Goldman refused to characterize Israel’s conduct as genocide in response to a challenge from Lander.

“We should focus less on terminology which has very specific legal meanings,” he said.

“Legal terminology is very complicated and somewhat beside the point,” he added. “We need to surge aid to Palestinians to give them the ability to rebuild. I am focused now on a ceasefire agreement, which would give the Palestinians the state they deserve and self-determination. That’s what we should all be focused on.”

“That is pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian, which I am both,” he said.

An Emerson College poll from May shows Lander leading Goldman by 34 percentage points, but it’s unclear if that advantage still holds.

SpaceX stock continued to surge on Tuesday following its record-setting IPO last week, with the company’s market capitalization surpassing Amazon’s $2.66 trillion valuation.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday following its IPO and has risen about 35% since it began trading last week, as traders look to capitalize on its momentum.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

This post was originally published on this site.

Tashbar, illuminated.

One unmissable night. One united mission. 

It was just one evening, but the echoes are reverberating throughout the community, across Lakewood and beyond.

On Tuesday, June 9th, the extended Tashbar family gathered for an extraordinary dinner celebrating the enduring legacy of its founder, Rabbi Meir Hertz zt”l, and the future of the yeshivah he built for generations of talmidim. The Dinner theme aptly captured the essence of that legacy: מאירים את העולם – illuminating generations. The overwhelming turnout, which filled every available seat and left parking at a premium, was a clear testament to a powerful sentiment: We want to be here. We feel part of something bigger than ourselves. 

The evening began with Divrei Beracha by HaGaon Rav Yankel Drillman Shlita, a lifelong yedid of Rabbi Hertz zt”l, who shared personal memories of the inimitable character and profound intellect of Tashbar’s founder. The Rosh HaMosad, Rabbi Dovid Hertz, noted that Rabbi Hertz’s unique Gadlus was his ability to cultivate greatness in others, something which remains alive in Tashbar to this day and beyond. Keynote speaker, Harav Chaim Rubin shlit”a, Rav of Khal Lev Yehuda, delivered a powerful message on continuity and growth, illustrating that reverence and fealty to the previous generations – our parents and Rabbeim – is the only true road to continuity. At the same time the Rav noted, one must delve into and understand the essence of the mesorah we were given, safeguarding and cultivating it as necessary for each generation. He noted that Rabbi Hertz ZT”L was a master at combining these two elements in his quest for excellence in chinuch, and that is the legacy he imbued in Tashbar.

A moving performance by the Tashbar Boys Choir included a beautiful composition written by Rabbi Hertz zt”l during his years as a bachur, as well as an original thematic song, מאירים את העולם, specially written for the occasion, which captured the essence of Tashbar.

The evening left Tashbar parents and guests alike invigorated, with renewed appreciation for the shining legacy Rabbi Meir Hertz zt”l bequeathed to Tashbar, and the determination to continue the mission of raising talmidim whose radiance of Torah will continue illuminating generations.

[Press Release]

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its May jobs report on Friday, June 5, it named only a handful of industries that added workers. Health care was one of them. The economy added 172,000 jobs for the month and the unemployment rate held at 4.3% — but strip away hospitals, clinics, and care providers, and the picture turns much weaker.

Health care added roughly 35,200 jobs in May. That alone is a story. For more than a year, while most of the economy has cooled, one sector has kept hiring every single month.

Just how lopsided is it? According to Revelio Labs, health care has added 410,700 jobs since January 2025 — nearly double the 208,800 added by every other part of the economy combined. The pattern held all last year too: in 2025 the sector added about 693,000 jobs, while gains elsewhere were largely offset by losses in other industries, leaving total U.S. employment growth at just 116,000. Take health care out, and the country would have lost jobs outright.

So why is one industry hiring when almost everyone else has slowed down?

The answer is sitting in plain sight, and it is not complicated: America is getting old.

Baby boomers make up about one-fifth of the country, and within the next few years all of them will be old enough for Medicare. The oldest are already in their late 70s and 80s — the age when people start needing far more medical care. McKinsey notes that Americans aged 70 and older will grow faster than any other group through the rest of the decade.

More older people means more doctor visits, more procedures, and more management of conditions like diabetes and heart disease. That demand does not rise and fall with the stock market. It just keeps climbing.

There is also a squeeze on the people who provide that care. The number of potential caregivers for every American over 80 is projected to fall from more than seven in 2010 to about four by 2030. Fewer hands, more patients.

The jobs are also moving. Care is shifting out of big hospitals and into doctors’ offices, outpatient centers, and patients’ own homes. That is where most of May’s hiring landed — ambulatory services added 25,700 jobs, far more than hospitals. Many of these employers are small, local practices, so the openings are spread across the country rather than bunched in a few big cities.

Here is the part that matters for anyone looking for work: the jobs are real, and there are not enough people to fill them.

A June 11 report from Staffing Industry Analysts found open health care and social assistance positions have stayed near 1.3 million nationwide since late 2024. Employers posted 180,800 non-clinical health care jobs in 2025 alone — an 8% increase from the year before, according to Robert Half — and those are just the desk and support roles.

Looking ahead, the field is expected to generate about 1.9 million openings every year for the next decade. Indeed warns the country could be short 4.6 million support workers by the end of this year.

And many of these jobs do not require medical school or years of debt.

Home health and personal care aides — the fastest-growing health job in the country — need only a high school diploma and a set number of training hours, often paid and on the job. The work pays a median of about $34,900 per year, and the BLS expects the field to grow 17% over the next decade.

A step up, medical assistants earn around $42,000 per year, or roughly $20 per hour, and can train in a matter of months. The role mixes front-desk and clinical work and often becomes a launch pad into nursing or a specialty.

For those willing to study longer, the ladder keeps going. Occupational therapy assistants earn a median near $70,800 with a two-year associate degree. Physician assistants — a popular path for career switchers — earn about $133,000 annually with a master’s degree that takes roughly two years. The BLS projects most of these roles to grow at least 10% this decade, more than triple the rate for jobs overall.

The catch is on the employer’s side. Sixty percent of hiring managers at non-clinical health care organizations told Robert Half that finding skilled people is much harder than a year ago. That gap — open jobs that no one is filling — is exactly what turns a tight labor market into an opportunity for job seekers.

It is not all good news inside the field. Indeed’s survey found 2 in 5 health care workers call their jobs unsustainable, and 1 in 4 are thinking about leaving this year. Burnout and paperwork keep pushing experienced staff out the door — which only deepens the shortage and keeps the help-wanted signs up.

The next jobs report, covering June, comes out on Thursday, July 2. If the past year is any guide, health care will be near the top of the list again — the one corner of the economy still reliably adding work.

JBizNews Desk

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries faced pushback during a Monday morning television interview after criticizing President Donald Trump over rising fuel costs while discussing the administration’s recent agreement with Iran.

Appearing on “Good Day New York,” Jeffries argued that the conflict with Iran had imposed a financial burden on Americans and pointed specifically to fuel prices. “It was a reckless war of choice that has obviously cost the American people significantly, particularly as it relates to skyrocketing gas prices in an environment where the cost of living was already too high,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries then shifted the conversation toward domestic concerns, stressing the need for policymakers to focus on issues at home. However, co-host Rosanna Scotto responded by noting that gas prices had also climbed sharply during the administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

“Gas prices were up under Obama too. And Biden, right?” Scotto said.

As Jeffries began to respond, Scotto pressed further, asking, “Didn’t we have gas prices over $5?”

Attempting to explain the spike, Jeffries replied, “Well, there were gas prices in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic situation…”

Scotto then pointed to broader inflation concerns that affected consumers during that period. “And I remember eggs were like $12 a dozen,” Scotto said.

The discussion soon moved away from economic issues and turned to the New York Knicks’ NBA championship victory, with Scotto and Jeffries discussing the team’s title run.

Fox News Digital later sought comment from Jeffries’ office regarding the exchange but reported that it had not received an immediate response.

National gasoline prices reached a record average of $5.02 per gallon in June 2022 during the Biden administration.

At the time, many Democratic officials attributed the increase to economic disruptions following the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, frequently referring to the surge as “Putin’s price hike.”

Gas prices under President Trump climbed above $4.50 per gallon last month but have declined in recent weeks as the administration continues negotiations with Iran.

{Matzav.com}

A heated confrontation erupted during a meeting of the Knesset Constitution Committee on Tuesday as Shas MK Erez Malul berated Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon for targeting Lomdei Torah and harming large Chareidi families.

“You are driven by hatred,” Malul cried out. “You seek hatred between brothers. You want to tear Israeli society apart. You and the dismissed Attorney General have placed obstacles in the way of the draft law. You opened a command center whose entire purpose is to figure out how to impose more sanctions on Chareidim. You’re harming women and young children.”

Malul then accused Limon of political motives, saying, “You want a civil war! They promised you that if you bring down the government, you’ll be the next Attorney General. It won’t happen! There will be elections, and the public will have its say. The public is fed up with your dictatorship.”

The remarks were made during a committee discussion focused on the draft issue and measures affecting Chareidi families.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Since 2008, TLS has been proud to be the media organization synonymous with Lakewood, reaching millions of readers and social media viewers across the globe each month.

Stocks opened higher Tuesday after the United States and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to lock in their ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices lower and pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average further into record territory. Investors are also looking ahead to the Federal Reserve, which wraps up its policy meeting this week.

In the opening minutes of trading, the Dow rose about 0.8%, building on Monday’s record close of 51,671. The S&P 500 added 0.1% to hover near 7,560, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was little changed around 26,690 after Monday’s strong run. The small-cap Russell 2000 climbed 0.7%, moving closer to the 3,000 mark it has been flirting with for days.

The morning’s main event was the signed agreement between Washington and Tehran. Brokered by Pakistan, the deal locks in a halt to the fighting that began in late February, reopens the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers, and establishes 60 days of talks over Iran’s nuclear program. A formal signing ceremony is planned for Friday in Switzerland. The prospect of Persian Gulf oil flowing freely again has been the single biggest force moving markets this week.

Not every number pointed higher. A government report showed that new home construction unexpectedly tumbled in May. Housing starts fell 15.4% to an annual pace of 1.18 million, the slowest level since May 2020 and well below economists’ expectations. A separate gauge of homebuilder confidence also slipped Monday. High mortgage rates and the prolonged period of elevated energy prices have weighed on builders, a reminder that parts of the economy remain under pressure even as stocks sit at record highs.

Market Movers

Shares of SpaceX jumped about 13% Tuesday morning to roughly $218, adding to their gains from the first full day of trading and pushing the company’s market value above $2 trillion. The company said Tuesday it will acquire Anysphere, the artificial intelligence startup behind the popular Cursor coding tool, for $60 billion in an all-stock deal expected to close in the third quarter.

The stock is now up more than 56% from its $135 offering price last week. Brian Mulberry, chief market strategist at Zacks Investment Management, described the company’s debut as more orderly than he expected, suggesting demand has been steady rather than frenzied.

The day’s laggards were scattered across industries. Chemical maker Huntsman fell about 6%, hotel operator Hilton Worldwide dropped roughly 5%, and chipmaker Qorvo slid nearly 4%. Payments company Fiserv also remained under pressure following recent leadership changes.

Commodities

Oil did the heavy lifting on the downside, which for consumers is welcome news. Brent crude traded around $81 a barrel Tuesday morning, down about $3 from the previous day, while West Texas Intermediate hovered near $80.

Crude has now fallen more than 20% over the past month and sits at a two-month low as traders bet that the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will bring previously stranded supplies back to the market.

The decline comes with a caveat. Neither side has released the full text of the agreement, and shipping companies are still holding vessels back from the strait until firmer guarantees emerge. That uncertainty has helped keep a floor under prices for now.

Even so, relief is already beginning to reach consumers. GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan noted that the national average price of gasoline has started to decline after months of elevated prices at the pump.

The Forward Look

The next two days could set the tone for markets. The Federal Reserve concludes its meeting this week, and investors are looking for clues on how policymakers view an economy facing cooling inflation, a soft housing market, and a sudden drop in energy costs.

Friday’s formal signing ceremony in Switzerland is the other key event. If it proceeds smoothly and oil tankers begin moving freely through the Strait of Hormuz, crude prices could fall further, bringing additional relief to drivers and businesses alike.

For now, Wall Street remains optimistic. The combination of a winding-down war, lower energy costs, and a blockbuster technology deal has stocks hovering near record highs. Whether that momentum continues may depend on the Fed’s message—and whether the fragile peace with Iran develops into a lasting one.

JBizNews Desk

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

WASHINGTON (VINnews) — President Donald Trump delivered some of his strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah, arguing that Israeli operations in Lebanon have gone too far and resulted in excessive civilian casualties.
IMG_6958
Speaking during the G7 summit, Trump questioned Israel’s tactics against the Iran-backed terror group, saying strikes targeting Hezbollah should not result in widespread destruction of residential buildings and civilian areas. He suggested that Syria’s government under Ahmed al-Sharaa may be better positioned to confront Hezbollah inside the region.

Trump also voiced frustration over a recent Israeli strike in Beirut, describing the operation as disproportionate and saying Israel needed to act more responsibly in Lebanon.

Despite the criticism, Trump reaffirmed his support for Israel’s security and stressed that Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. He said any future agreement with Tehran would require strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activities and warned of severe consequences if those commitments were violated.

The remarks marked a notable escalation in Trump’s criticism of Israel’s handling of the conflict in Lebanon, even as he emphasized that relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remain strong.

China is allegedly orchestrating a highly coordinated, “travel agency”-style operation designed to funnel Chinese nationals across U.S. borders, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday.

Speaking exclusively on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria,” the current special envoy for the Shield of the Americas detailed intelligence she said showed how alleged Beijing-backed networks provide undocumented migrants with specialized documents and transit directly to the northern and southern borders.

“We saw very coordinated attacks of people coming into this country from China,” Noem said. “Countries that I have worked with in Latin and South America have told us how they had Chinese operations set up for people to fly into their countries, almost like a travel agency would be.”

EX-WHITE HOUSE ‘AI CZAR’ WARNS U.S. COULD LOSE AI RACE TO CHINA IF WASHINGTON OVERREGULATES

“They would show up, be handed certain documents, a backpack, get on a bus and then bus straight up over our southern border… And overwhelmingly, the testimonies have been that they were the same-aged individuals, young, mainly men, some females, but very much a coordinated attempt to get individuals into our country, to change our country,” she added.

Republicans have warned for years about a record number of Chinese immigrants crossing the border, with reports of more than 22,000 encounters involving Chinese nationals at the southern border since late 2023.

U.S. intelligence and the DEA have also repeatedly said that the vast majority of illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals originate in chemical factories inside China before being shipped to Mexican cartels for processing and trafficking.

“They have facilitated that,” Noem said. “I wouldn’t say, necessarily, we found ties to it officially, right to the government, but absolutely, Chinese businesses, those tied to the CCP, those individuals working with the cartels to make sure that the product gets into the United States.”

“And remember, China has a thousand-year plan to destroy the United States. They don’t just build up their military. They don’t just manipulate their currency, harm us with trade practices,” she said. “They have a plan to kill our country from the inside by killing off our next generation of Americans. They will use every tool that they have.”

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Noem, the former South Dakota congresswoman and governor, was ousted from her top DHS position on March 5. Noem’s tenure marked a distinct reversal of the open-border policies permitted by predecessor Alejandro Mayorkas during the Biden administration, and DHS reported record drug interdictions totaling more than half a million pounds of illegal drugs in her first year.

Under former Secretary Kristi Noem’s leadership, the Department of Homeland Security said in December 2025 that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown helped spur more than 1.9 million self-deportations and more than 600,000 removals. Supporters hailed the numbers as proof of a record-setting enforcement effort, though independent demographers and fact-checkers disputed the methodology behind the self-deportation estimates.

READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS

Fox News’ Adam Shaw, Charles Creitz and Alex Miller contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — After religious Zionist hesder yeshivas and higher rabbinic yeshivas called on their students not to serve in combat units together with female soldiers, it is now the turn of the pre-military preparatory academies in the religious Zionist sector.

As reported last week on Channel 14,  more than thirty heads of hesder yeshivas signed a letter calling on their students not to serve in the Armored Corps due to the IDF’s decision to station female combat soldiers in maneuvering units.

Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, one of the rabbis of the Bnei David preparatory academy, also signed, arguing that the IDF prefers progressive values over victory-oriented values. He therefore called on his students to enlist in the Shayetet and Sayeret units, but not in Sayeret Matkal, which recently integrated female combat soldiers into the unit.

Now, leaders of the pre-military academies in the religious Zionist sector are also joining, publishing a letter calling on students to serve in units where there is no mixing between male and female soldiers. Signatories include rabbis such as Rabbi Moshe Hagar of the Yatir Mechina, Rabbi Roi Peretz of the Atzmona Mechina, (the son of the former Chief Military Rabbi), Rabbi Ze’ev Sharon, and other rabbis.

Colonel (res.) Rabbi Moshe Hagar, spoke with Yinon Magal and Ben Caspit on 103FM about the announcement by 19 heads of pre-military academies that they will not send students to mixed-gender service roles:

According to him: “I think we need to win the war. Bringing in women disrupts our ability to win. We need to win. The integration of women into combat units disrupts the fighters and their concentration. I’m saying this from experience: a female platoon commander disrupted me and harmed my performance.”

The IDF has been pushed by the High Court of Justice to integrate female combat soldiers into maneuvering units and to dismantle the “joint service order,” which in the view of religious Zionist rabbis previously provided a partial framework allowing religious soldiers to maintain halachic observance. However, with repeated petitions to integrate female soldiers into all maneuvering units, from armored corps to Sayeret Matkal, the High Court and the IDF have, according to this view, managed to unite all streams within religious Zionism, from “hardal” yeshivas to religious kibbutz rabbis, in protest over what they see as ideological coercion and a disruption of values affecting religious soldiers.

The IDF spokesperson responded: “The religious Zionist public is important and dear to the IDF. As has already been clarified, the IDF operates and will continue to operate according to the joint service order regarding the integration of women in combat units. At present, the army needs every combat soldier and soldier, and their placement will be made according to operational needs without one population coming at the expense of another.”

Border Czar Tom Homan said Monday that a substantial majority of individuals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have either been convicted of crimes or are facing criminal charges, arguing that the agency’s current enforcement figures reflect a successful approach.

Appearing on Newsmax TV’s “Carl Higbie Frontline,” Homan said the percentage of ICE detainees with criminal records or pending charges has declined slightly from earlier levels but remains strong.

According to Homan, ICE classifies criminals as individuals who have already been convicted or who are currently facing charges and were located while being held in custody.

“The bottom line is, we say a criminal is those who have a criminal conviction or pending criminal charges, which means we found them in the jail cell, locked in a jail cell, which means they’re probably not a choir boy, right?”

Homan noted that roughly 70 percent of ICE arrests previously involved individuals with criminal convictions or pending charges, while the current figure is somewhat lower.

“So, it was about 70%. Right now, I think we’re about 64%. But you know what? That’s a good number. For the people who say, well, you need to arrest everybody. I tell them, look, let’s say 60, 40, I think 60% criminal, 40% non-criminal is a good mix. I think it’s better than 40% criminal and 60% non-criminal. But everybody’s on the table.”

He emphasized that while individuals with criminal backgrounds remain the primary focus of enforcement efforts, ICE is not limiting its operations exclusively to that category and retains the authority to take action against anyone in the country illegally.

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal against the detention of Hussam Abu Safiya, a Gaza hospital director who is being held without charge under Israel’s administrative detention law.

Safiya was arrested in December 2024 and has since been moved to solitary confinement. The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, he has also served in the dual role of colonel in the Hamas Medical Military Services, a common tactic for terrorists: terrorist by night, ordinary civilian job by day; then when Israel nabs them, the international community denounces Israel for arresting and/or striking medical workers, journalists and others.

As one would expect, human rights groups have demanded his release, claiming he is merely a physician and not a terrorist. In addition, his lawyer alleged that his client endured severe abuse at the Sdei Teiman military base.

Haaretz, which can reliably be expected to defend terrorists, posted on X a teaser from an editorial: “A doctor belongs in a hospital, not a prison cell: Free Abu Safiyah now.”

Hussam Abu Safiya in his guise as doctor, left; Safiya in Hamas uniform, right. (Credit: YouTube screenshot; Hamas Military Medical Services)

Safiya has also published opinion articles in The New York Times in his guise as a Gazan doctor, lending credibility to Hamas propaganda against Israel.

“The rejection of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s appeal and his continued detention without charge represent a profound moral and legal failure,” said Naji Abbas, director of the Prisoners and Detainees Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, upon the rejection of the appeal.

“Rather than upholding the fundamental principles of the rule of law and due process, the court has endorsed the indefinite detention of a hospital director who remains in solitary confinement while suffering from medical conditions that are not receiving appropriate treatment,” he added.

Under Israel’s administrative detention law, the authorities can arrest and detain anyone suspected of terrorist activity without charge for six months at a time, and they can renew the detention indefinitely. This allows them to hold potentially dangerous individuals without jeopardizing their intelligence, thwart or prevent future attacks, and hold someone believed to pose a threat without having to meet a heavy burden of proof, among other practical benefits.

Safiya and his lawyer have not been informed of the reason for the rejection of the appeal because the closed-door deliberation was based on classified intelligence.

In a 10-year-old photo, Safiya appears in a Hamas uniform.

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering dismissing several senior members of his administration who opposed the recently announced agreement with Iran, according to a report by Israel Hayom.

Among those said to be under consideration are Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, both of whom reportedly voiced opposition to the agreement during internal White House deliberations.

“The debate has been settled. Anyone who opposed it could pay a personal price,” a senior U.S. source told Israel Hayom two days ago, describing the atmosphere surrounding discussions on Iran inside the White House.

According to the report, Trump is weighing personnel changes as he seeks to solidify support for the agreement within his administration.

One senior official who appears to be safe, at least for now, is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Israel Hayom reported that Rubio was careful not to publicly criticize the agreement and continues to enjoy significant support within the administration.

The White House has not commented on the report, and no dismissals have been announced.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday he would take an uncompromising stance against Iran if he returns to office, warning Tehran that it must be prevented from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Speaking on Piers Morgan’s program, Bennett said that Iran poses a global threat and added that its leadership must be stopped from obtaining nuclear capabilities.

פירס מורגן הבריטי שאל לתגובתי על ההסכם מול איראן. זו תשובתי>> pic.twitter.com/3Qj8CkXYkK

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) June 16, 2026

“There will soon be a new government in Israel. Hopefully I will lead that government, and I want to tell the Iranian regime: I am going to be your worst nightmare ever. I won’t relent until we free the people and ensure you have no nuclear weapon. You have no hope,” he said.

“There will soon be a new government in Israel. Hopefully I will lead that government, and I want to tell the Iranian regime: I am going to be your worst nightmare ever. I won’t relent until we free the people and ensure you have no nuclear weapon. You have no hope,” he said.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s top diplomat said Tuesday that the tentative deal to end the war with the United States would require Israel to withdraw from Lebanon — a condition Israel has already rejected and that could sink the agreement, leading to the resumption of all-out war.

The deal, which is between the U.S. and Iran, has not been made public, and officials have sometimes offered contradictory interpretations of what is in it. While Israel is not party to the agreement, it is part of the war: It joined the U.S. in launching strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, and has since fought the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and seized large swaths of that country.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon would violate the deal.

“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” Araghchi said.

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss outlines of the agreement, has said the deal did not call for an Israeli withdrawal. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would remain in Lebanon “as long as necessary.”

The negotiations to end the war have been plagued by such disagreements before — leading to a prolonged but uneasy ceasefire that has failed to develop into a permanent end to hostilities and that has left the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for the world’s energy supplies, effectively shut.

Lebanon tests the durability of the deal
Pakistan, a key mediator, has said the deal called for an end to military operations, including in Lebanon, as Iran long insisted. But Araghchi’s call for an Israeli withdrawal adds a new wrinkle.

It puts Israel into a dilemma as it juggles trying to degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities and restore deterrence without undermining an agreement championed by its most important ally, the United States. Israel invaded southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles across the border during the first week of the war. Since then, it has expanded its military footprint to levels unseen in decades and struck targets deep inside Beirut.

Though Hezbollah has been weakened, it retains the ability to strike Israel, leaving open questions about the effectiveness of Israel’s campaign.

The extent of Israel’s strikes have at times opened a public fracture between its leaders and U.S. President Donald Trump, who told reporters Tuesday that he was “not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah.”

“It just goes on forever,” he said of Israel’s strategy. Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed nearly 4,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, and displaced more than 1 million. “And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal. And that’s the deal with Iran.”

Trump said he’s open to sending the emerging agreement to the U.S. Congress for review.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in the French Alps, Trump said, “I like the idea, send it to Congress please.” He added, “I mean who wouldn’t approve it.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill say they want Trump to provide more information about the agreement, with some expressing skepticism that the deal can deter Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Israel and the Lebanese government have entered into their own U.S.-mediated direct negotiations, of which Hezbollah was not a part. Those talks have yielded several announced ceasefires that were never implemented on the ground. Lebanese officials initially tried to keep Lebanon separate from the U.S.-Iran negotiations, not wanting to be seen as beholden to Iran, but they have since welcomed the announcement that the deal to end the U.S.-Iran war would include a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Araghchi’s comments Tuesday appear to match the understanding of two regional officials with direct knowledge of the interim deal. The officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations, said it would require Israel to leave nearly all the territory it occupies in Lebanon, minus a few hilltop points along the border seized earlier.

The officials say Iran insisted the accord include Lebanon in the last days of the negotiations.

Despite unanswered questions, US allies push to make deal work at G7 summit
Lebanon is only one of several major questions hanging over the ceasefire ahead of a planned ceremonial signing Friday in Geneva.

The agreement is meant to provide a meaningful truce in a monthslong war that has killed thousands across the Middle East, including the top leaders of Iran’s theocracy, and raised the prices of fuel, food and other basic goods far beyond the region.

The unpublished agreement provides for the “immediate” opening of the Strait of Hormuz and lifting of the blockade, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss outlines of the agreement on Monday.

It starts with the simultaneous lifting of Iran’s closure of the strait and the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports, according to Pakistani officials who helped broker the agreement. The United States and Iran will then begin 60 days of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the potential lifting of sanctions, Pakistani officials who helped broker the interim deal said, speaking on condition of anonymity about the unpublished text.

It also includes the possibility of releasing Iran’s frozen funds and a $300 billion fund to help rebuild Iran if Tehran meets certain benchmarks, senior U.S. officials told reporters Monday. Trump later said the United States would not “invest” funds in Iran.

Regarding the timeline, regional officials who spoke to AP about the deal said the release of frozen Iranian assets would be tied to Tehran implementing the deal. Gulf Arab states also have pledged to inject billions of dollars in Iran’s economy, they added, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

Iran’s nuclear program, specifically the fate of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, would be subject to the 60-day clock. Iran has agreed to discuss ways to possibly “dilute or remove” it, the officials said. However, it remains unclear whether Tehran would agree to that, particularly with hard-liners opposing to giving it up.

U.S. officials have not yet explained how they see the agreement addressing Iran’s nuclear program, including who will be in charge of verifying that Iran is in compliance and who will destroy or remove highly enriched uranium believed to be buried under nuclear sites that were badly damaged by U.S. strikes last summer.

Still, world leaders gathering in France for the first full day of the G7 summit insisted the agreement needed to succeed, even as key questions remained unanswered.

Some had clashed with Trump over not consulting them before going to war. But the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement congratulating the United States, the Iranian government and the mediators on what they called a “diplomatic breakthrough” before the summit kicked off, saying it was vital for the deal to be quickly implemented.

French President Emmanuel Macron said France and other Western nations were “ready to take action very quickly” to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz peacefully.

Last night, a group of hard-working Lakewood residents in the workforce had the opportunity to meet with Gedolim for an evening of Chizuk & Connection – arranged by the Help Our Friends organization.

Gedolim that attended the event, were HaRav Yisrael Bunim Schreiber, HaRav Chaim Mordechai Ausband, and the Skulener Rebbe of Lakewood.

Rav Schreiber and Rav Ausband are here for the Keren Olam Hatorah mission. The Help Our Friends group set up a page for the mission here.

photos: Avrumi Berger

A devastating tragedy struck the community of Karmei Tzur when six-year-old Daniel Klapholtz was killed in a horrific traffic accident near the entrance to the community. The heartbreaking incident occurred just two days after his family moved into their new home.

Daniel was identified as the young child who lost his life in the accident on Route 3515 near the entrance to Karmei Tzur. Despite extensive efforts by emergency responders, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The tragedy became even more painful after it emerged that the Klapholtz family, formerly residents of Beitar Illit, had relocated to Karmei Tzur only days earlier and had moved into their new residence just two days before the fatal accident.

The first emergency call was received by Magen David Adom at 6:21 p.m. Medics and paramedics rushed to the scene and immediately began intensive resuscitation efforts on the child, who had suffered catastrophic injuries. Despite their efforts, they were unable to save him and were forced to declare his death at the scene.

Volunteers from ZAKA’s Judea and Samaria District, along with teams from Beitar Illit and Gush Etzion, responded quickly to the scene and spent many hours handling the aftermath of the accident and ensuring the dignity of the deceased.

According to ZAKA volunteers who were present, preliminary findings indicate that Daniel was riding a small ride-on toy down the street when he apparently collided with the rear section of a bus near an intersection and was pulled beneath its rear wheels. Emergency personnel determined that his injuries were unsurvivable.

Hundreds of family members, friends, neighbors, and local residents gathered shortly after midnight Monday to accompany the young boy on his final journey. The funeral procession departed from the Gush Etzion Regional Cemetery at midnight, where Daniel was laid to rest amid scenes of profound grief and mourning.

The Klapholtz family is sitting shivah at their new residence on Einav Street in Karmei Tzur.

Umacha Hashem simah me’al kol ponim.

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Chairman of the Religious Zionism Party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said at a ceremony marking the establishment of the community of Doran in the southern Hevron region:

“Yesterday, we canceled the Hebron Agreements. For many years, one of the most absurd clauses of the Oslo Accords remained in force, under which authority over matters concerning the Jewish community in Hebron and the holy sites depended on the terrorist municipality of Hebron. Yesterday, we put an end to that.”

Minister Smotrich: I have canceled the Hebron Agreements.

Last night, the Higher Planning Council approved the revocation of all planning and construction authorities that had been granted to the Hebron Municipality, and they are now returning to the full responsibility of the… pic.twitter.com/8aXGlX0YLv

— The mad voice of Coherence (@realityisaterf) June 16, 2026

He continued: “This is much more than a planning measure. It is a historic correction. We are continuing the revolution of regulating and normalizing the settlement enterprise, strengthening governance, and deepening Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

WASHINGTON — The biggest event on Wall Street this week begins Today, when the Federal Reserve opens the first policy meeting led by new chairman Kevin Warsh. Almost no one expects the central bank to move interest rates when it announces its decision Wednesday. What traders are really waiting for is the new chair’s first signal about where he intends to steer the economy. The CME FedWatch Tool, which tracks market bets, put the odds of no change at about 97% as of Monday, and a Reuters poll found 72 of 102 economists expect rates to stay put through year-end.

The Federal Reserve has held its benchmark rate in a range of 3.50% to 3.75% since December, and two forces are keeping it there. Inflation has climbed to a three-year high, with consumer prices up 4.2% in May from a year earlier, driven largely by energy costs tied to the war in Iran. At the same time, the job market stayed strong, adding 172,000 jobs in May. High inflation argues against cutting; a sturdy labor market means the Fed does not have to. Goldman Sachs recently scrapped its forecast for a rate cut this year and pushed expected cuts into 2027.

“The Kevin Warsh era has begun,” said Phil Camporeale, chief investment strategist at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management. “The Federal Reserve is not expected to move rates in the June meeting, and we believe they will be on hold for the rest of 2026. There will, however, likely be an explicit move away from a bias toward easing to a neutral stance on rates.”

Shari Hensrud, chief investment officer at MissionSquare, framed the dilemma simply: “Strong job growth and high inflation are pulling in opposite directions.”

Warsh takes over at a delicate moment. He was confirmed by the Senate in a 54–45 vote and sworn in on May 22 as the central bank’s 17th chair, with former chair Jerome Powell staying on the board to ease the transition. Because June is a quarterly projection meeting, it will produce a fresh “dot plot” along with updated forecasts and a press conference Wednesday afternoon, the first real read on Warsh’s approach. He has pledged a “reform-oriented” Fed and said he welcomes “messier meetings” with more open debate.

Hanging over it all is a public tug-of-war. President Donald Trump, who nominated Warsh in January, has long wanted lower rates and said again before the meeting that there is “no reason” to raise them. But the bond market has been signaling the opposite, and high inflation makes cuts hard to justify. That leaves Warsh in a bind: sound too tough on inflation and he risks angering the president who appointed him; sound too eager to cut and he risks his credibility with markets.

This week brought a new variable. The weekend deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz sent oil prices falling on Monday, and if that drop holds, it could cool the very inflation that has frozen the Fed in place. Investors will listen Wednesday for any hint that Warsh sees the same thing.

For ordinary Americans, the Fed’s decisions are not abstract: its benchmark rate ripples through mortgages, car loans and credit cards. Holding steady means borrowing stays expensive — a 30-year mortgage is still hovering around 6.5% — and those waiting for cheaper loans will keep waiting. The rate itself may not move this week, but the words around it from a brand-new chair could shape what borrowers and savers can expect for the rest of the year.

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

Dear Lakewood Scoop,

I am writing to you as a frustrated Baal Simcha. While making a wedding is something that everyone strives for, to walk their child to the chuppa knowing that child found their zivug and will iy”h be zoche to build a bayis neeman b’yisroel, there are a lot of stress and frustrations the come with that simcha.

We are not chas v’shalom complaining about the simcha itself or anything. However, when you spend time, and energy and finally come across the perfect piece, you expect it to be delivered in time with peace of mind, knowing that one thing was taken care of and everything is under control.

If I tell you that after demanding full payment upfront before the item was even in the store weeks in advance, being told not to worry, and promising that the gown would be there with enough time, the store didn’t contact her for three weeks. The store did not follow up even once with where the item was holding.

At that point, I was in touch and find out what the story was.

After several phone calls of being told to wait without an update, we decided to go in to the store to find out where the gown was holding. After all the wedding was in less than three weeks. We were in luck. The owner of the company was there that day.

However, the response was unacceptable.

Imagine going to a gown store that is supposed to SERVICE you, yes service being the key word. The customer is always right and should be treated with respect.

Not in this store.

The owner proceeded to yell on top of her lungs, “Who do you think you are? Do I need your money? Why did I take this order? I don’t need your business…”

That’s how they were treated in front of other customers. It was embarrassing to say the least when she continued on to say, “THAT’S the size you ordered? You look like you would need at least two sizes bigger than that.”

Besides being is a service business, should ANYONE Jewish or not ever be spoken to like that?? This is a Lakewood based gown store. Not Brooklyn, Five Towns or out of town. A Jewish owned store by a frum woman.

You have full payment of mine, the wedding is now approaching and now you want me to take my money back? After we spent hours looking at all local options, I wanted everyone to feel amazing for this special simcha and look their best and this is the response?

I couldn’t believe that this was the service, treatment, and the way a Jewish company owner talks.

I was begged not to say anything and that it should be in the week before the wedding and we had no choice this close to the wedding.

So wait we did. Days before the wedding we were told the gown was held up at customs, probably arriving a few days before the wedding. We ‘should’ have time to then still do alterations.

They then informed us that alterations, especially rush are NOT included in the gown price.

Image the audacity! You embarrassed my wife, ignored her, lied to her and now you want her to pay more? Maybe for the despicable behavior an apology would be in order. Maybe fix it on the house.

I can’t express my frustrations and how upset everyone is in my house was at what’s supposed to be the happiest time of their lives.

I am writing to you to see if anyone else has had issues similar to this or if anyone knows how to help in this situation.

I did NOT include the name of the company as not to damage them, but am very tempted in releasing it if it will make them change their ways and save other people from this experience.

An interview recently published in Hamodia.

In the latest development in the effort by kehillos and organizations to block the planned New York City Health and Hospitals (H+H) takeover of Maimonides Medical Center — a move that they say will put the lives of community members in danger — the New York State Department of Health has rejected Maimonides’ latest application for the H+H takeover.

Senior officials had anticipated the application appearing on the June 10th agenda of the Public Health Council’s Establishment and Project Review Committee, but it was absent. The Department rejected it for a basic reason: Maimonides never filed the required Health Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA).

Hamodia spoke to Martin Bienstock of Bienstock PLLC and Akiva Shapiro of Holtzman Vogel, the attorneys leading the legal battle on behalf of the community, to learn where the case is holding and what is likely to happen next.

A city public hospital system moves to take over a key, non-profit Brooklyn hospital, and a coalition of chassidishe kehillos and community askanim ends up stopping it — at least for now. Please tell us about the various components of the process that brought this attempted takeover to a screeching halt.

Martin Bienstock: I view this through two important perspectives, two important prisms.

One is essentially that the government is stealing a private hospital. This is a hospital with a 100-year history as a not-for-profit, built up over generations of hard work, and now it is a deeply established hospital with significant real estate assets and a significant business.

It is not proper for the board simply to hand it over to the government — taking it out of its historical roots, out of its not-for-profit status — and make it into a government entity. Government is not the same as not-for-profit; government is government, and not-for-profit is private.

So that’s the first perspective. It’s simply an improper transfer of a private institution over to the government.

The second prism is that of public health. Maimonides is not perfect, but New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation has an extremely uneven history in terms of the quality of care that it provides.

We’ve heard even recently of terrible incidents out of Bellevue — with people leaving without permission and causing harm on the streets — and the quality at H+H goes up and down, but the lows are very, very bad, and this transaction is forever.

So, even if H+H is currently being operated by Mitch Katz, who we think is a good operator, that’s going to change. There will be a new leader, and over time, the history shows that H+H does not provide the highest quality of care — it provides poor quality of care — and that’s dangerous.

So, those two prisms — that they’re stealing a private hospital, taking it away and giving it to the government, and that they’re endangering the health of local residents — are basically what has guided us, because there actually are laws that protect against both of those things.

Before a not-for-profit hospital can be turned over to anyone — before you can sell out a private not-for-profit hospital — you need the approval of either the attorney general or the courts.

What we’ve done, in part, is ensure that this is going to get an appropriate review — not just a rubber stamp by the attorney general, which is what they were trying to get, but a real review by the courts.

The attorney general, as a result of our efforts, we believe, rejected the idea of simply rubber-stamping this. They were hoping to have gotten it approved long ago if the attorney general was trying to rubber-stamp it, but she wouldn’t.

So the idea being reflected there is that they can’t just steal our private institution and hand it over to the government. They can only do that with a proper review to make sure it really is necessary. If you’re transferring a private institution to the government, it really needs to be the only viable option.

The second part of it is the public health angle. They were trying to ram it through without approval of the Public Health and Health Planning Commission — what we call the Public Health Council — which is required to review healthcare transactions to make sure the public’s health is being protected.

That’s why kehillos in the affected neighborhood filed suit in Albany, and they won. The judge ordered them to bring this through the Public Health Council.

What happened this past week is that the Department of Health rejected their application because they didn’t do what’s called a Health Equity Impact Assessment, which is designed to measure the impact of the transaction on affected communities.

The first point you made was regarding transferring from a nonprofit to the government. What is the actual downside you’re concerned about?

Martin Bienstock: One is the fact that it’s long been a Jewish institution. It has catered to all the different ethnic communities, but it has been a long-standing Jewish hospital.

A private institution can reflect that type of history and that type of local interest and control. It’s a Boro Park institution. It’s an institution that was founded by particular groups, and a private institution has the right to respond to the needs and desires of the groups that established it, whereas the government does not.

And not only doesn’t it have that responsibility, but in many cases it’s prohibited from preferring one group over another.

The minute this becomes a government institution, it’s owned by the City of New York, with a duty to all of the voters and all of the citizens in the City of New York — an equal duty, no different from any of the other 15 H+H facilities that are totally neutral, available, and responsive to everyone.

For instance, without getting into a radical example, more generally, the mayor will control the board, and he can do what he thinks is in the best interests of whatever constituencies he wishes to serve — whatever his judgment holds as best for the people of New York.

It doesn’t require us to say he would have any bad faith. It’s just that he has a different orientation and a different perspective than what’s best for the local community and the people who’ve been supporting this hospital for 100 years.

He may have a thousand other interests he wants to serve — whether good or bad, legitimate or not — they’re just not the interests of the people who use this hospital and who built this hospital.

Let’s break down a little bit what’s been going on. First of all, there is the decision by the state attorney general to send the deal for court review. Has that court review begun?

Akiva Shapiro: The processes have to be sequenced in a certain way, so the short answer is no — that process has not begun. It cannot begin until all other regulatory approvals have been obtained.

Akiva Shapiro: The way it will have to go — and that’s why all of these are intertwined — is that Maimonides has to first complete this Health Equity Impact Assessment, which is a comprehensive review done by a third-party consultant that will review the impact of the proposed change on healthcare quality and care for affected communities, in light of the fact that this is a significant Medicaid and Medicare population, as well as all the proposed potential changes.

That itself is a lengthy, costly, and significant process.

Who gets to choose that outside consultant?

Akiva Shapiro: Maimonides.

There are recognized processes and guidelines for conducting that kind of assessment and analysis, and the statute sets out various factors that have to be considered.

Presumably, this is not an overnight procedure.

Akiva Shapiro: Certainly not an overnight procedure. It’s a multi-month process.

The next meeting of the Establishment Committee of the Public Health Council — so they first have to go to this Establishment Committee, get a recommendation of approval from that committee, and then go to the full Public Health Council.

The next meeting of that committee is in late August. Their hope is that they can finish this Health Equity Impact Assessment with enough time before that August 27 meeting to resubmit their application.

That’s a best-case scenario for the hospital.

At that meeting, would there be a possibility for people to testify?

Martin Bienstock: It’s actually a two-part process. There’s an Establishment Review Committee — a committee that meets two weeks before the Public Health Council. They’re the ones who gather the evidence and hear the testimony.

That committee meeting is in August, and they then make a recommendation to the full council. The full council may deliberate, but they typically don’t allow testimony. There may be some chance to say something there, but that’s not where the evidence is gathered.

The evidence is gathered at the committee level, and then the council holds a hearing and votes.

Was the decision by Maimonides — and actually the city, and to a degree the state as well — to skip the commission review and skip the health impact statement something deliberate, do you think? Or was it just…

Akiva Shapiro: Well, we know it was deliberate, without imputing motive as to why they tried to do it, because the court challenge itself was a challenge to the decision to waive the Public Health Council review.

Maimonides made a request to the Department of Health to bypass the Public Health Council. The Commissioner of Health agreed and gave them a green light, and that is why we brought the lawsuit to begin with.

NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal hospital system in the country. It is not, by any measure, a politically marginal institution. What does it take — legally and strategically — to successfully challenge an entity of that scale?

Martin Bienstock: Well, I think we have two of the most important things going for us.

One is that we have the law on our side. They really were trying to avoid the legal requirements necessary to transfer a hospital like Maimonides over to the government, so we definitely have something to work with.

The other is the tremendous support we have from our clients and from the community. The sacrifices that people have made in terms of time and effort in order to support this, for no other reason than to protect the community’s health and access to care, is just astounding.

We have the most amazing group of community people who are so supportive in terms of their time and efforts, and that’s really been key to evening the playing field, because the city does have unlimited resources with which to push this through.

Akiva Shapiro: I’d just add one thing. I think there was an expectation from Maimonides leadership and from Health and Hospitals that this would be rammed through with little opposition, because it’s a nonprofit hospital.

The impacted communities, in order to challenge it in a meaningful way, did have to come together, fundraise, pool resources, and make this a priority.

And it all started — and this is another important element we didn’t touch on — with the trustees. Seven of the trustees of Maimonides initially hired Marty when it looked like there was going to be a vote to sell the hospital on a couple of days’ notice, with no information — or little information — provided to them.

He got a temporary restraining order that initially blocked the vote. Then I came in, and we joined forces and started fighting at the board level on behalf of those trustees.

So, it started with the trustees, and I think that initial success, and the initial show of force — saying there’s someone here watching and someone here speaking up — was enough to galvanize the broader community to see that this is something worth fighting for, that there’s a chance to fight for it.

That lawsuit is still before the court?

Akiva Shapiro: That lawsuit is pending, and we are pressing forward with it.

And I’ll say — just to go back and finish the steps — assuming they get past the Public Health and Health Planning Commission and receive approval, at that point they will then be required to make an application to the court.

There’s a separate lengthy process to get a public hearing in front of a justice of the Brooklyn Supreme Court, and the community will have an opportunity to have input at that point as well and to appear at the hearing.

And even if they were to get through that, we still have our lawsuit challenging the board process — the fact that they ran this through and still haven’t provided full information to the board.

They’re still trying to keep the board in the dark. That’s another element to this whole thing, separate even from the public health issues and the selling of our hospital.

There’s a fundamental transparency and informational requirement that, unfortunately, Maimonides and H+H seem to be defying at every turn.

They’re trying to push it through at the board level, push it through at the Department of Health level, trying to avoid the court review — instead of going through the proper steps for a transaction of this magnitude.

Whenever we’ve had conversations with Maimonides and with the city, it has always come down to one argument: “There is no other option. No one else has come forward with a viable alternative.” In your opinion, are there viable alternatives?

Martin Bienstock: So, that’s part of the transparency discussion we were having before.

Once the city was identified as the party that was going to take over the facility, it became incredibly difficult to have other entities step up and say they’re willing to come in, because the city is the 900-pound gorilla, and the state had already committed the financing to be provided to the city.

So, it was very difficult for other entities that do business with the state and the city to come in and say, “Sure, we’re willing to challenge the city and put together a different deal.”

But we do think we should identify the most appropriate structure for how this would go forward, with the governor’s help — and we’re working with people in the community who are taking the lead on this.

There’s a substantial pot of money available from the governor, and we think that money will be available for other transactions.

It’s something we’re paying close attention to regularly, and we believe that a deal will come together that will avoid the two tragic outcomes we’re concerned about — and that will keep the hospital in the community as a private hospital, not a government hospital, and that will improve the quality of care through an association with other entities or better operating conditions.

I think there’s a widespread perception that the current situation, where the hospital faces challenges, is a product of poor management, and that getting good management in there can improve things very significantly.

I think a combination of that, a new operator, and new relationships can really provide the opportunity for a very much improved Maimonides Hospital in community hands, taking care of community people into the future.

Akiva Shapiro: I’d just add one thing to that, which is that we’ve seen this time and again in the last eight or nine months or so that we’ve been fighting this.

Maimonides and H+H claim that the sky is falling, there’s a fire in the building, and the only way out is their transaction — it has to happen right now. If they don’t do it right now, they’re going to lose the state money, they’re going to lose the reimbursement rate, and they’re going to lose various other things.

And it’s a heavy-handed sales technique, right? “The deal is closing, and if you don’t decide in the next 60 seconds, it’s gone.”

We’ve just said no, we’re not playing that game.

This is the same approach as when they didn’t have a board committee, didn’t put together a board committee to consider different options, or reach out to buyers.

Instead, they sprung it on the board on a Friday and said, “On Monday, we’re voting on this transaction, and if we don’t vote yes, the whole hospital is going to fall.”

And it’s just not true. We don’t have another buyer or transaction in hand now, in large part — as Marty said — because of the way they’ve handled this. But we don’t think anyone should fall for these heavy-handed sales techniques.

They’ve shown time and again that they claimed they had to close by April 1. The attorney general said it had to go to the court. They said, “Oh, never mind, we don’t have to close by April 1. Now we have to close immediately — we can’t go through the Public Health Council process.”

The court said they had to go through the Public Health Council process. Now they say, “Okay, we’ll take the time to go through that process.”

It’s just not credible anymore.

Do you feel confident that a certain part of this process could stop it, and if so, which part? As you said, there are three different steps: the committee hearings and the deliberations of the full commission; the court review of the deal; and you still have the lawsuit by the trustees. Where do you have your best case?

Martin Bienstock: Well, all three are really good, because they’re all correct.

There really should not be a forced transfer of private not-for-profits to the government without any real compensation to the community. They really shouldn’t steal our hospital — and this really is not a good plan — which means that the court should, and we think it will, deny the application to liquidate Maimonides.

That’s what it is: a total takeover by the city. It requires Maimonides to liquidate its assets and hand them over to New York City, and I don’t think a judge is going to approve that.

At the same time, I also don’t think the Public Health Council is going to approve the sale, given the impact it’s going to have on local residents and the quality of their health care.

TOKYO (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 shook eastern Japan, including Tokyo, on Tuesday, but there was no danger of a tsunami, the meteorological agency said.

The quake struck at 7:46 p.m. (1046 GMT) in the southern Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, at a depth of about 50 kilometers (30 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

There have been no reports of damage or injuries from the temblor so far, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

Shinkansen bullet trains serving northeastern regions were temporarily suspended for safety checks, according to the East Japan Railway Co. Parts of the Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen lines have lost power because of the earthquake, according to Japanese media reports.

Japan is on the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most earthquake-prone areas.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a challenge brought by the firearms industry against a New York law that permits lawsuits against gun makers and sellers when their products are connected to injuries caused by criminal or unlawful use.

The legal challenge was pursued by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) together with major firearms manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Beretta, Glock, Sig Sauer, and Sturm. The group sought to overturn a lower court ruling, arguing that New York’s 2021 statute effectively undermines federal protections established under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005.

That federal law provides broad legal safeguards for firearm manufacturers, distributors, and dealers, shielding them from most civil lawsuits stemming from crimes committed by third parties using legally sold firearms or ammunition.

“NSSF sincerely believes that those criminals who illegally misuse lawful products should be held responsible for the harms they cause when they commit their crimes,” Mark Oliva, a spokesperson for the industry group wrote in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Oliva argued that holding gun companies accountable for crimes committed with their products is no different than blaming automakers for offenses committed by intoxicated drivers.

“Holding the firearm industry responsible for the criminal misuse of a firearm is akin to holding and Ford Motor Company responsible for damages from drunk-driving crimes,” Olivia added.

Support for the industry’s position also came from Republican Representatives Claudia Tenney and Nick Langworthy of New York, who filed a legal brief backing the manufacturers’ challenge.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, however, maintained that the federal law does not provide absolute immunity and that firearm companies may still face liability in certain situations involving the actions of third parties.

According to James, even the 2005 statute allows circumstances in which members of the gun industry can be held accountable for the consequences of their conduct.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Democrat who authored the 2021 measure signed into law by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision and defended the law as an important public safety tool.

“New York has an obligation to protect the health and safety of every resident, and any industry—including members of the gun industry—impacting New Yorkers has to take reasonable steps to do the same,” Myrie said on Monday, according to a local outlet in New York.

{Matzav.com}

Yum Brands announced on Tuesday that it is selling Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital for $2.7 billion.

The transaction would mark a significant shift for one of America’s most recognizable pizza chains and underscores growing consolidation across the restaurant industry as operators navigate slowing consumer demand and higher costs.

Yum said last year it was evaluating strategic alternatives for Pizza Hut, including a potential sale, as the chain worked to reverse a prolonged sales slump.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

This post was originally published on this site.

A unique and educational Torah event will take place this evening, June 16, when the Agudath Israel of America Torah Projects Commission presents a special shiur in Waterbury, Connecticut, featuring Rav Amitai Ben David, acclaimed author of Sichas Chulin and a renowned expert in the practical and halachic aspects of shechitah.

The program will begin at 8:45 p.m. at Kehilas Ahavas Yisroel, located at 67 Columbia Boulevard in Waterbury, and is expected to attract Daf Yomi participants, bnei Torah, rabbanim, and members of the broader community seeking a deeper understanding of one of the most fascinating and practical areas of halachah.

What makes this event especially noteworthy is that the shiur will feature a live shechitah and treifos demonstration, offering attendees a rare opportunity to witness firsthand many of the concepts discussed in Maseches Chulin and related areas of Torah study. Through practical examples and real-life illustrations, participants will gain a clearer appreciation of the intricate halachos governing kosher slaughter and the examination of animals.

Organizers explain that the program is designed not only for Daf Yomi learners studying or reviewing the sugyos of Chulin, but also for anyone interested in understanding the halachic foundations behind the kosher food that appears on Jewish tables every day.

Rav Amitai Ben David has earned widespread recognition for his ability to present complex halachic subjects in a clear, engaging, and accessible manner. His sefer, Sichas Chulin, has become a highly regarded resource for those seeking a deeper understanding of shechitah and treifos.

The shiur, as mentioned, will take place at Kehilas Ahavas Yisroel, located at 67 Columbia Boulevard in Waterbury, Connecticut, beginning at 8:45 p.m.

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Thousands of worshippers entered the compound of Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem overnight Tuesday in honor of the Yarzheit of Yosef, marking the beginning of the Hebrew month of Tammuz. The visit was coordinated with the assistance of volunteers from the Joseph’s Tomb and Holy Sites Administration of the Samaria Regional Council and under the protection of IDF forces.

Among the worshippers were Esti and Shalom Yaniv, whose sons, brothers Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, were murdered in a terrorist attack in nearby Huwara in 2022. The family held an upsherin (first haircut ceremony) for their nephew, Yagel Menachem, at the site. The ceremony was accompanied by Rabbi Shalom Arush. Family members said they chose to hold the event specifically at Joseph’s Tomb as a symbol of continuity, faith, and choosing life, in a holy place that, in their view, more than any other expresses the deep connection of the Jewish people to their land and heritage.

Also participating in the visit were Brig. Gen. Kobi Heller, Col. Ariel Gonen, Lt. Col. Elitzur Trabelsi, Rabbi Yossi Elitzur, Rabbi Yehuda Leibman, and Eliyahu Gafni.

קבר יוסף הצדיק pic.twitter.com/L5GrMt8BPG

— תורת לחימה III (@toratlechim) June 15, 2026

הלילה: קבר יוסף הצדיק בשכם pic.twitter.com/CFuR4nSW9a

— תורת לחימה III (@toratlechim) June 15, 2026

Particularly noticeable was the presence of groups of mothers whose sons had been wounded in combat. Led by Rebbetzin Rachel Bazak, they came to pray and cry out at the tomb of Joseph the Righteous. Together with the large crowd, the mothers prayed for the complete recovery of their sons and of all wounded IDF soldiers.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said:”We are here today on the holy day marking the commemoration of Yosef Hatzadik. We come here not as private individuals, but as representatives of the entire people of Israel and in the name of the entire nation. We come to this holy place, to the resting place of Yosef, and pray to the Holy One, Blessed be He, that through the merit and power of Yosef Hatzadik, He will bless the Israel Defense Forces and the security services and grant great success to the army and its commanders.

“From here we send wishes for a full recovery to all the wounded and all the sick.

“From here we also strengthen the Government of Israel, that it should draw courage and spirit from Yosef Hatzadik and know how to stand firm even against the most powerful and important leaders of the nations of the world. It must speak the truth, follow the path of God, and act in the spirit of Calev Ben Yefune and Yehoshua Bin Nun, the successors to Yosef’s path, who are also buried here in Samaria. They stood against the entire world and against the entire nation and declared: ‘We shall surely go up and possess it, for we are certainly able to do so.’

“May the Holy One, Blessed be He, grant us the merit to inherit the entire Land of Israel, defeat our enemies, and strengthen all our soldiers wherever they may be.”

In recent days, the Joseph’s Tomb Administration of the Samaria Regional Council carried out extensive renovations to the study hall adjacent to the tomb, in cooperation with Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, which was based there until the abandonment of the site in October 2000.

Representatives of the yeshiva welcomed the move and said: “Thank G-d, we are taking another step toward the full return of the yeshiva to its natural place at Joseph’s Tomb. We call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the permanent return of the yeshiva to the tomb compound even before the elections.”

NEW YORK — Here is a number that sounds like a typo. A little over a year ago, SanDisk was a newly independent company that almost nobody wanted to own, with its stock trading near $36 per share. By Monday, June 15, 2026, those same shares were changing hands above $2,000, near record highs.

The company underscored the scale of its turnaround on April 30, when Chief Executive David Goeckeler reported quarterly revenue of $5.95 billion, up 251% from a year earlier and nearly double the prior quarter.

That translates into a gain of roughly 5,000% — about 55 times an investor’s money — in less than a year and a half.

To put that into perspective, consider one of the most famous investment success stories of the modern era: Bitcoin.

The cryptocurrency traded near $1,000 at the beginning of 2017 and sits around $65,000 today. That represents a gain of roughly 65-fold, enough to turn many early investors into millionaires. But Bitcoin took nearly nine years to achieve that return.

SanDisk has delivered a comparable gain in roughly 16 months.

The obvious question is: How?

The answer begins with artificial intelligence.

SanDisk was spun off from Western Digital in February 2025, and at the time the outlook appeared challenging. The company specializes in NAND flash memory, the storage technology used in smartphones, laptops, cloud servers and data centers.

The memory industry had just emerged from one of its deepest downturns in more than a decade. Prices were depressed, inventories were elevated and profitability was weak.

Then came the AI infrastructure boom.

Every major artificial intelligence platform requires massive amounts of storage capacity to process, store and retrieve data. As technology companies raced to build AI data centers, demand for enterprise-grade storage surged.

SanDisk found itself in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

Its enterprise solid-state drives became critical components in next-generation data centers. Demand accelerated faster than manufacturing capacity could expand, creating shortages across the industry.

The result was a dramatic increase in pricing power.

SanDisk generated approximately $3.62 billion in quarterly profit, while gross margins approached 56%, transforming what had recently been a struggling business into one of the most profitable companies in the semiconductor sector.

The company also changed its business model.

Historically, memory manufacturers sold products largely at prevailing market prices, exposing earnings to extreme swings in supply and demand.

SanDisk shifted toward multi-year customer agreements that lock in purchasing commitments and improve visibility into future revenue.

According to the company, it has secured more than $42 billion in contracted commitments, providing a degree of earnings predictability rarely seen in the memory industry.

Wall Street has raced to adjust.

Bank of America recently raised its price target to $2,100.

Mizuho lifted its target to $2,200.

Cantor Fitzgerald established one of the highest targets on Wall Street at $2,900.

Morgan Stanley identified SanDisk and rival Micron Technology as major beneficiaries of what analysts described as a prolonged memory upcycle driven by AI infrastructure spending.

Adding to investor enthusiasm, Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang has repeatedly warned of what he calls a potential “multi-year silicon drought,” suggesting demand for advanced semiconductors and memory could remain elevated for years.

Institutional investors have taken notice.

Earlier this year, billionaire investor David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management disclosed a new position in SanDisk, further boosting confidence among investors.

Still, the extraordinary rise has prompted concerns.

The memory business has historically been one of the most cyclical sectors in technology. Periods of shortage and soaring prices are often followed by oversupply, falling prices and collapsing profits once new manufacturing capacity comes online.

SanDisk itself has experienced multiple boom-and-bust cycles throughout its history.

At current levels, the stock trades at more than 60 times trailing earnings, a valuation that assumes strong growth continues well into the future.

The share price has also moved beyond the average analyst target, suggesting investors are already pricing in outcomes more optimistic than many professional forecasts.

Several research firms have recently identified the stock among the most aggressively valued names in the semiconductor sector.

There is another important distinction between SanDisk and Bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s value is largely determined by what investors are willing to pay for it at any given moment.

SanDisk’s valuation, by contrast, is supported by measurable fundamentals — revenue, profits, customer contracts and cash flow.

But those fundamentals depend heavily on memory pricing, and memory prices have historically been among the most volatile in technology.

That leaves investors with a critical question.

If AI spending continues accelerating and memory shortages persist, SanDisk’s contract-driven business model could produce stronger and more stable profits than previous cycles.

If demand slows or manufacturing capacity expands faster than expected, the industry could once again face oversupply and falling prices.

The stock’s remarkable ascent is already one of the most dramatic stories on Wall Street.

Whether it proves to be a historic transformation or simply another chapter in the memory industry’s long cycle of booms and busts may determine what happens next.

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

Vice President JD Vance said Monday that international nuclear inspectors will “absolutely” be permitted to return to Iran as part of the developing U.S.-Iran agreement intended to bring an end to the conflict that has persisted for months.

Speaking in an interview cited by NBC News, Vance explained that both the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency would play a direct role in supervising the elimination of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium under the proposed arrangement.

“In fact, one of the core parts of the agreement is that the [International Atomic Energy Agency] and the United States are going to help Iran destroy the highly enriched stockpile, and that’s something that’s spelled out very clearly,” he said.

His remarks come as the issue of nuclear inspections remains one of the most contentious aspects of the broader understanding between Washington and Tehran. Reuters reported that verification procedures and inspection rights are among the key issues that have yet to be fully resolved.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been pressing for broader access to Iranian nuclear facilities after years of interruptions to its monitoring efforts and restrictions placed on inspectors during periods of escalating regional instability.

The IAEA, which serves as the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, operates under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is tasked with ensuring that civilian nuclear programs are not used to advance weapons development. The agency carries out that mission through inspections, surveillance systems, and oversight of nuclear materials.

Under standard safeguards agreements, inspectors routinely conduct both scheduled and surprise visits to declared nuclear sites. Those inspections are supported by cameras, monitoring equipment, and inventory-tracking mechanisms designed to confirm enrichment levels and account for uranium stockpiles.

However, Reuters has reported that the agency’s ability to carry out those responsibilities in Iran has been increasingly challenged in recent years, as repeated restrictions on access have limited its capacity to independently verify enrichment activities and nuclear material inventories.

International scrutiny intensified further after the IAEA Board of Governors approved a U.S.-backed resolution demanding that Iran fully cooperate with inspectors, disclose details regarding its uranium reserves, and restore access to nuclear facilities affected by previous disputes.

The resolution reflected growing concern among Western nations over Iran’s expanding stockpile of uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels, as well as lingering questions surrounding nuclear material that has not been fully accounted for following disruptions at several key sites.

While the measure stopped short of referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council, it significantly increased diplomatic pressure on Tehran to comply fully with its obligations under international nuclear safeguards.

Taken together, the latest developments highlight the central role that inspections and verification will play in any final agreement. Both American officials and international nuclear authorities have stressed that meaningful on-the-ground monitoring will be critical to ensuring that any future deal is enforced.

{Matzav.com}

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Frustration within Israel’s security establishment is currently at a peak, according to a report by Maariv military correspondent Avi Ashkenazi.

On the one hand, the IDF, Shin Bet, and Mossad have delivered everything that was asked of them. Since October 7, they have fulfilled, and in some cases exceeded, their missions across every front: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Judea and Samaria. The military achievements, however, were supposed to be translated into concrete political gains by Israel’s leadership. According to many figures within the security establishment, that has not happened. They describe the political echelon as dysfunctional and paralyzed.

Correspondent Yossi Yehoshua quoted a senior Israeli official who said last night:

“If Israel had known in advance that this would be the final outcome, there is serious doubt that we would have launched Operation Roaring Lion.”

They point to Lebanon as a prime example. Hezbollah has suffered severe blows. Its senior command structure has been damaged, it has lost thousands of fighters, reportedly approaching ten thousand fatalities, and nearly twice that number have been wounded. The terrorist organization is under intense financial pressure, has lost vast territory in southern Lebanon, and has seen entire military infrastructures dismantled. It is also facing pressure from the new Syrian regime, while public opinion in Lebanon has increasingly turned against it.

On top of all this, the Lebanese government has entered direct negotiations with Israel. According to these sources, there are relatively few disagreements between Israel and Lebanon, and a deal could be reached as early as next week.

Yet, they argue, the Israeli government has failed to capitalize on these developments. Instead of having Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, or other senior ministers lead the negotiations, Israel reportedly sent its ambassador to the United States and a brigadier general to conduct the talks.

Security officials criticize this decision, saying it projects a lack of seriousness and fails to send a strong message to the region. In their view, rather than embarrassing Hezbollah and Iran, Israel has achieved the opposite. They argue that the political leadership’s lack of urgency and determination enabled Iran to take ownership of the Lebanese issue in discussions with the Americans.

Officials within the security establishment also say they warned against placing all of Israel’s hopes on a single factor: President Donald Trump. According to one security source, they presented analyses of Trump’s personality and cautioned that he could lose patience and reverse course quickly. Those warnings, they say, went unheeded.

“There is no doubt that there are people inside the White House influencing these moves,” one security official said. “If you ask me, I seriously doubt that President Trump even knows what is really in the agreement. Yesterday was his 80th birthday. He celebrated, drank, and who knows whether he read the agreement’s clauses. He was somewhere else.”

Within the security establishment, officials say that Beirut is currently largely off-limits for Israeli military operations, as are areas beyond the so-called Yellow Line. Referring to a recent strike in Beirut’s Dahieh district, one security source said that Israel had suffered three attacks that day which struck Israeli territory. According to the source, the target was legitimate: a Hezbollah communications officer responsible for coordinating command-and-control networks. The source further claimed that the officer’s son, who was present, was also a senior Hezbollah operative, and that the officer’s wife was likewise considered a legitimate target. “Israel must send the message that it will not compromise on its right to preserve its sovereignty and defend itself,” the source said.

The IDF and security establishment are now waiting to see the final text of the agreement expected to be signed on Friday. The current understanding is that the IDF will be permitted to remain along the Yellow Line in Lebanon and maintain a forward-defense posture similar to the model currently employed in Gaza. Israeli forces would continue exposing Hezbollah infrastructure in the area between the border and the Yellow Line, including apartments used to store weapons, tunnels, launch pits, and other facilities.

The IDF also assesses that Hezbollah may shift toward guerrilla tactics. Rather than immediately relying on anti-tank missiles or explosive drones, the organization may focus on planting roadside bombs and improvised explosive devices in areas where Israeli forces operate. Security officials believe Hezbollah’s goal would be to inflict significant casualties while avoiding actions that would provide Israel with a clear justification for major retaliation. The organization could argue that any explosives discovered or detonated had been planted before the war began.

The IDF and security establishment hope that Israel can persuade the United States not to insist on a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon within the 60-day timetable reportedly demanded by Iran as part of the agreement. Whether the political leadership can achieve that objective remains unclear.

According to one security official, Prime Minister Netanyahu now finds himself increasingly isolated, with few close advisers remaining around him. The most significant figure he relied upon, they say, was Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, his military secretary, who was recently appointed head of the Mossad.

“Roman was almost a second chief of staff,” one official said. “He was much more than a military secretary. He entered the office and ran things with a firm hand. The prime minister consulted with him regularly. Roman has many accomplishments to his credit, and he was treated unfairly. He is ‘Soviet’ in the best sense of the word—thorough, professional, and highly educated. Whether he is the right fit for the Mossad, I don’t know. But he unquestionably helped the prime minister over the past two years. Now the prime minister is almost alone. He doesn’t really have anyone helping him make decisions.”

Asked how the current situation can be resolved, officials within the security establishment say the political leadership must fundamentally change its approach. They argue that Israel should pursue a peace agreement with Lebanon and elevate negotiations to the level of the prime minister and senior cabinet ministers rather than leaving them primarily to officials and diplomats. They also contend that Israel must fight to secure the passage of Gulf natural-gas pipelines to the Mediterranean through Israeli territory and work toward reaching understandings with all Gulf states under the framework of the Abraham Accords.

Amazon is getting out of the business of running its own grocery stores. In a company announcement on January 27, the retailer said it would close all of its Amazon Fresh supermarkets and Amazon Go convenience stores — about 72 locations across the country — and pour its energy instead into grocery delivery and its Whole Foods Market chain. “While we’ve seen encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores, we haven’t yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion,” the company said.

The closures cover 58 Amazon Fresh stores and 14 Amazon Go shops in states including Washington, California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Virginia. Most shut their doors on Sunday, February 1. Stores in California stayed open an extra 45 days to satisfy state labor-notice rules.

It is a quiet end to a noisy experiment. Amazon opened its first Fresh supermarket outside Los Angeles in 2020 and launched the cashier-free Go format in Seattle back in 2018. The Go stores were the showcase for the company’s “Just Walk Out” technology, which uses cameras and sensors to track what shoppers grab so they can leave without stopping at a register. The stores never reached the scale Amazon wanted, and the company will now sell that checkout technology to outside customers instead, such as stadium concession stands.

For the workers, Amazon said it would try to move staff into nearby jobs in its warehouses and delivery network. Employees who do not take a new role are being offered a severance package that includes 90 days of full pay and benefits. The company did not say how many people are affected.

The decision is less a retreat from groceries than a bet on a different way of selling them. Amazon is already the second-largest grocer in the United States, with more than $150 billion in gross grocery sales and over 150 million customers buying food from it each year. Most of that runs through delivery, not store aisles. The company says its same-day delivery of fresh food now reaches more than 2,300 U.S. cities and towns, and that sales of perishable items through the service have grown fortyfold since the start of 2025.

The other half of the plan is Whole Foods, the upscale chain Amazon bought for $13.7 billion in 2017. Amazon says Whole Foods sales are up more than 40% since that deal, with more than 550 stores now open. The company plans to add over 100 more locations in the coming years and to convert some of the shuttered Fresh and Go sites into Whole Foods stores.

Amazon is also leaning on a smaller store idea called Whole Foods Market Daily Shop — a compact, grab-and-go format between 7,000 and 14,000 square feet, roughly a quarter to half the size of a regular Whole Foods. Five are already open in New York, New Jersey and Virginia, and Amazon plans to double that to ten by the end of the year. At the other extreme, the company won approval to build a 230,000-square-foot “supercenter” in Orland Park, Illinois, near Chicago, combining groceries with general merchandise. Slated to open in 2027, it would be Amazon’s biggest physical store yet.

The shift says a lot about where grocery shopping is heading. After years of trying to crack the supermarket business with its own brand, Amazon decided the math did not work — running physical stores is expensive, margins are thin, and shoppers already had plenty of choices. Delivery and a trusted store name turned out to be the stronger hand.

For rival grocers, an Amazon that competes through Whole Foods and delivery rather than hundreds of Amazon-branded stores is a different kind of threat — one built on speed and a premium brand rather than price. For the towns losing a Fresh or Go store, it means an empty storefront and a hunt for new jobs. And for shoppers, it is one more sign that the future of buying groceries is shifting from the checkout line to the front door.

JBizNews Desk
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A serious incident occurred on Motzaei Shabbos at a checkpoint on Route 443, involving a bus carrying Chareidi passengers, Yisrael Hayom reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, a soldier boarded the bus to conduct a routine inspection and became involved in a confrontation with several passengers, and pointed his weapon at them.

The passengers reported that the soldier boarded the bus and asked several to disembark, claiming that there were too many people on board. Some of the passengers objected, arguing that he had no authority to remove them from the bus. During the ensuing confrontation, the soldier pointed his weapon at them, causing the passengers to panic.

The IDF responded to the incident, stating: “Due to repeated attempts [by Palestinians] to infiltrate Israel via public transportation, routine security checks are conducted on buses passing through checkpoints.”

“During the incident, several passengers were asked to disembark to allow the security checks to be carried out. A preliminary inquiry indicates that the soldier acted contrary to regulations. The procedures have been clarified, and the soldier has been removed from operational duty for the current deployment.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for Senate who recently covered up a Nazi Totenkopf tattoo, accused Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu of war crimes on Monday.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is an international fugitive,” Platner stated. “He is charged with the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.”

Platner has said that he didn’t know his tattoo was a Nazi symbol, but those who were close to him, including an ex-girlfriend, said that he bragged about it being a Nazi symbol.

“The man with a Nazi tattoo is lecturing on war crimes,” stated Yaakov Kaplan, a member of Brooklyn Community Board 12. JNS

{Matzav.com}

Channel 13 military analyst Alon Ben David on Tuesday warned that the Iran-US deal will ultimately endanger Israel.

“This is a dramatic day for Israel and for future generations,” he said. “This agreement marks a reversal in the Middle East. Israel was the strongest and leading power in the Middle East with US backing, and this agreement paves the way for Iran to become the most significant power in the region.”

“Once Iran begins exporting oil again and starts earning hundreds of billions of dollars from oil that it couldn’t sell until now, receives $24 billion in frozen funds, and another $300 billion as part of the deal, it will return to being a major power. It will be able to support its proxies—Hezbollah and the Houthis—and rearm them.”

“Above all of that, we will be facing a more vengeful regime, with a greater motivation for revenge and with nuclear capability.”

“This agreement may give us not only a stronger Iran, but a nuclear Iran— the moment it decides to turn that capability into a bomb,” he ominously concluded.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

WASHINGTON — The deal to end the war between the United States and Iran could do more than calm oil markets — it could finally unclog one of the most important arteries in global trade. On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries about 20% of the world’s oil supply and a massive volume of global cargo traffic. “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” Trump wrote. By Monday, attention had shifted from oil prices to another critical question: how quickly shipping costs might fall.

The strait has been largely disrupted since the conflict began on February 28, and the consequences stretched far beyond the Persian Gulf. With vessels avoiding the area, freight rates surged worldwide. According to Peter Sand, chief analyst at freight intelligence platform Xeneta, spot container rates in June were running about 75% higher from China to the U.S. East Coast, 51% higher to Northern Europe, and 45% higher to the Mediterranean compared with pre-conflict levels.

The reason is simple geography. At its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is only 21 miles wide. When the route becomes dangerous, shipping companies have few alternatives. Many vessels were forced to reroute around the southern tip of Africa, adding 10 to 14 days to voyages and significantly increasing fuel consumption.

Insurance costs also soared. Dylan Mortimer, a marine war-risk specialist at broker Marsh, said war-risk premiums climbed dramatically, in some cases adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of a single voyage. Tanker rates surged as well, especially on routes carrying crude oil from the Gulf region to Asia.

Even with the agreement announced, the disruption remains significant. Roughly 100 container ships remain trapped in the Arabian Gulf, while shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd reported that several vessels are still delayed, including one ship that has spent nearly four weeks in transit.

Industry experts caution that reopening the strait will not immediately restore normal conditions. Tobias Maier, who leads the Middle East and Africa business for DHL Global Forwarding, said customers should expect four to six months before shipping patterns fully normalize. Analysts at Kamco Invest similarly project that elevated freight rates could persist until a backlog equivalent to two to three months of cargo works through the system.

That lag matters because shipping costs eventually influence the price consumers pay for nearly everything. Clothing, electronics, furniture, appliances and automobile parts all become more expensive when transportation costs rise. The Strait of Hormuz disruption did not merely push oil prices higher; it increased the cost of moving goods globally, contributing to inflation pressures already weighing on households.

If shipping rates gradually decline, those savings could eventually reach store shelves. However, economists caution that the process takes time and depends heavily on continued stability in the region.

That remains the biggest risk. Mine-clearing operations are scheduled to begin later this week, and the U.S. naval blockade is being lifted. But shipping companies and insurers remain cautious. Any new incident could quickly reverse recent progress and send costs higher again.

For now, however, the direction appears positive. For nearly four months, a narrow stretch of water exerted outsized influence over global trade, energy prices and consumer costs. If cargo begins moving freely again, the benefits will eventually extend far beyond the Middle East — reaching warehouses, retailers and household budgets around the world.

JBizNews Desk
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National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir declared Monday that Israel must continue its military campaign in southern Lebanon regardless of pressure from Washington, arguing that the country’s overriding obligation is to protect its own citizens and borders.

Speaking during a faction meeting and responding to a question from Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, Ben Gvir stressed that Israel must make decisions based on its security needs rather than foreign expectations.

“We are an independent country, and we cannot stop demolishing houses in southern Lebanon,” Ben Gvir stated.

He called on the government “to continue acting even against the position of the United States,” adding, “We cannot stop preventing the population in southern Lebanon from returning. It endangers our soldiers; it endangers our residents. We must not allow them to return to the borders, to return to the status quo before October 7.”

The minister argued that Israel should maintain control of strategic areas in southern Lebanon even if doing so creates friction with the Trump administration.

“We must retain control of the territory, even against the wishes of President Trump,” he said.

Ben Gvir emphasized that existential security threats require Israel to act independently and decisively.

“Faced with existential threats, we must not act out of external pressure, but rather out of our national conscience. Just as an individual is obligated to do whatever it takes to defend their home, the State of Israel is obligated to do what Israel must do.”

Warning against what he described as failed policies of restraint, Ben Gvir said Israel cannot afford to repeat past mistakes.

“History teaches us a painful lesson: every time we chose the path of containment, deferred a decisive outcome, or relied on a false quiet, we paid the heaviest price. Let me be unequivocally clear: the era of endless rounds of fighting is over. Not in Gaza, not in Lebanon, and not against Iran. I demand that the Prime Minister allow IDF soldiers to continue the critical work of demolishing homes, eliminating Hezbollah terrorists, and keeping residents away from their houses – we must not operate according to understandings reached between Trump and Khamenei,” Ben Gvir added.

He further warned that any future attacks from Lebanon must be met with overwhelming force.

“any fragment of a drone or missile launched at us will demand a crushing response, to the point of setting the Dahieh ablaze. Firing at the State of Israel is tantamount to a declaration of war, and in war, as in war, you strive for a decisive victory. We have proven through concrete action that when a security window opens, our moral duty is to see the mission through to the very end. Stopping halfway is neither a strategy nor an option. We deeply cherish and appreciate our profound friendship with the United States and President Trump’s standing with Israel. However, the direct and exclusive responsibility for Israel’s security rests solely on the Israeli government. Israel must maintain total freedom of military action at all times and in all places; we will not accept a reality where terrorist organizations retain capabilities that threaten our sovereignty and the lives of our citizens.”

Concluding his remarks, Ben Gvir addressed Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu directly, urging him to stand firm and prioritize long-term security over temporary diplomatic arrangements.

“Our dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: it is in moments like these that leadership is tested. History will never remember those who sought a temporary, fake quiet, but only those who dared to secure the safety of the people and the state. The People of Israel returned to their land to live in security, freedom, and pride, and that is exactly how I expect you to continue to act.”

{Matzav.com}

Canadian cybersecurity giant 1Password has acquired Israeli-founded cyber startup Apono in a deal estimated by Calcalist at $250 million to $300 million, marking 1Password’s first acquisition in Israel and one of the sharper Israeli cyber exits of the AI era.

The companies did not disclose the exact purchase price, but the strategy here is clear, 1Password is no longer trying to be known only as the company that stores passwords. It wants to become the system that decides who, or what, gets access inside a company, for what purpose, and for how long.

Apono, founded in 2022 by CEO Rom Carmel and CTO Ofir Stein, built its name around a fast-growing problem in enterprise security, permanent permissions. In many companies, employees, developers, contractors, automated systems and now AI agents often hold access long after they actually need it. That creates a huge opening for attackers. Apono’s platform flips that model, giving users and systems temporary access only when needed and automatically removing it when the task is finished.

As companies race to deploy AI agents inside sensitive business systems, those agents increasingly need access to cloud infrastructure, databases, internal tools, customer records and code. The old security model was built around humans logging in. The new one has to account for machines and AI tools acting on behalf of humans, often across several systems at once.

Apono’s technology is designed for exactly that world. Its platform manages access across cloud and enterprise environments including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, Snowflake and Databricks, and integrates with more than 200 business tools such as Slack, Jira, PagerDuty and GitHub. The company says its system can evaluate what an AI agent claims it is trying to do, compare that to what it actually does, and narrow or revoke access if the behavior drifts outside the approved task.

In 1Password’s own words, the goal is to move beyond simply protecting credentials and into governing runtime access, who gets in, what they can touch, why they need it, and when that access expires. Apono CEO Rom Carmel described the core problem bluntly: “Standing access is the quiet liability inside almost every company.”

All 80 Apono employees are expected to join 1Password, including roughly 50 based in Israel, and 1Password plans to expand its Israeli operation by hiring more staff. For Israeli tech, that matters. The acquisition lands at a time when global cyber buyers are looking hard at Israeli security startups not just for classic network defense, but for the next wave of AI-era identity protection.

Apono had raised more than $54 million before the sale, including a $34 million Series B round led by USVP with participation from investors including 33N Ventures, Swisscom Ventures, Vertex Ventures and others. Its customers and references have included major enterprise names such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Monday.com, Bloomreach and Jasper.

One of the biggest names on the Las Vegas Strip is changing hands. On Thursday, May 28, Fertitta Entertainment announced it had reached a deal to buy Caesars Entertainment in an all-cash transaction valued at about $17.6 billion, in what would be the largest casino takeover in U.S. history. The buyer is billionaire Tilman Fertitta, the Houston restaurant-and-casino mogul who already owns the Golden Nugget casinos, the Landry’s restaurant empire and the NBA’s Houston Rockets.

Under the agreement, Caesars shareholders will receive $31.00 in cash for each share they own. That is a 49% premium over where the stock traded on February 25, the last day before rumors of a deal began to swirl. The price tag includes roughly $5.7 billion in equity and the assumption of about $11.9 billion of Caesars’ existing debt. The Caesars board approved the deal unanimously and is urging shareholders to vote yes, calling the offer “compelling.”

Tilman Fertitta is one of the more colorful figures in American business. He built Landry’s from a single seafood restaurant into one of the country’s largest hospitality and dining companies, owns the Golden Nugget casino brand, and currently serves as the U.S. ambassador to Italy and San Marino. Buying Caesars dramatically expands his empire: the combined company would run about 60 resorts worldwide, including the eight Caesars properties along the Strip such as Caesars Palace, the Flamingo and The Linq.

Day-to-day, much would stay the same. Caesars chief executive Tom Reeg, chief financial officer Bret Yunker and president and operating chief Anthony Carano are all expected to keep their jobs. The Carano family, which holds roughly 5% of Caesars, agreed to roll part of its stake into the new, combined business rather than cash out.

The purchase is not contingent on financing, which signals confidence the money is in place. Fertitta Entertainment is paying with a mix of its own equity, the assumed Caesars debt, and new debt arranged by a group of 10 banks. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are advising Fertitta, while PJT Partners is advising Caesars. Once the deal closes, Caesars stock will stop trading on the Nasdaq and the company will go private — meaning ordinary investors will no longer be able to buy a piece of it.

The agreement includes what is known as a “go-shop” period running through about July 11, during which Caesars and its advisers are free to look for a better offer. If another bidder emerges with a higher price, the board can consider it. Such windows rarely produce a competing deal, but they let the board show shareholders it sought the best possible terms.

The timing reflects where the casino business sits right now. The biggest operators carry heavy debt loads from years of building and buying, and taking a company private gives new owners room to reshape it away from the quarter-to-quarter pressure of the stock market. For Fertitta, owning both Golden Nugget and Caesars creates a hospitality giant spanning Las Vegas, Atlantic City, regional casinos and a large online betting operation, since Caesars also runs a sports-betting, online-casino and poker platform.

For the tens of thousands of people who work at Caesars properties, a buyout like this usually brings a close look at costs, even as the buyer promises a smooth transition. For customers, the company says the merger will mean a wider range of destinations and rewards across more resorts. And for the gambling industry, the deal is a marker of how much money is still flowing into Las Vegas and regional gaming — a single owner is willing to spend $17.6 billion betting that Americans will keep coming to the tables.

The deal still needs approval from Caesars shareholders and from gaming and antitrust regulators, a process that can take many months. If it clears, the house that grew into one of the Strip’s defining brands will belong to one of the most aggressive dealmakers in American hospitality.

JBizNews Desk
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A mass Chareidi protest against the draft decree scheduled for Wednesday was called off at the instructions of HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau on Monday night.

The protest involved a plan for hundreds of vehicles, including buses, to travel from Jerusalem and Bnei Brak toward Prison 10, accompanied by messages broadcast on loudspeaker systems and large signs. According to reports, senior figures from Chareidi parties were involved in the plan, and it had received the approval of leading Rabbanim and Roshei Yeshivos.

The goal of the protest was to demonstrate support for Bnei Torah in prison, as an outcry for Kavod Torah, and in protest of the persecution of the Olam HaTorah.

The organizers planned a vehicle convoy with the goal of preventing protesters from engaging in direct confrontations with police officers, violence, or other provocations, since the protesters would remain in the vehicles.

HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch reportedly approved the protest if it was carried out with police approval. However, the Rosh Yeshivah expressed doubt about one of the stated goals of the protest—to call public attention to the issue and receive “positive media coverage.”

HaRav Hirsch said, “There is nothing we can do that the media will view positively.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Popular digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, portrayed Elon Musk as a massive cyborg figure late Monday following his historic achievement as the world’s first trillionaire.

Musk Shows As Undisputed Tech Tzar

Beeple posted an artwork on X, titled “1.3 TRILLION,” celebrating Musk hitting a record net worth of $1.3 trillion after Space Exploration Technologies Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:SPCX) IPO drove a sharp valuation surge.

The artwork showed Musk towering over a futuristic city with cheering crowds below. Inside the cyborg’s glowing chest chamber are portraits of rival tech figures, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder and Executive Chair Jeff Bezos and Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, implying Musk’s complete dominance over rival tech figures.

Musk topped the Forbes list, followed by Bezos in fourth place and Zuckerberg in …

Full story available on Benzinga.com

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Senior Arab affairs i24NEWS commentator Tzvi Yechezkeli addressed the U.S.-Iran agreement on Tuesday morning, warning that its consequences for Israel are already becoming apparent.

“For years, Israel provided the US with intelligence showing that Iran lies, conceals, and misleads the world,” Yechzekeli stated, adding that this deceit is precisely the central concern surrounding the agreement’s nuclear provisions, particularly the decision to allow Iran to continue enriching uranium.

He noted that the rhetoric in Tehran already reflects a sense of confidence and triumph, with Iranian officials openly mocking the international community after preserving key elements of their nuclear program.

He also pointed to the growing erosion of Israeli deterrence across multiple fronts, including increased stone-throwing attacks in Yehuda and Shomron, Hezbollah’s conduct in the north, and the growing assertiveness displayed by Iran and Qatar toward Israel.

“We are beginning to see the first signs of the damage,” he said. “Reports that Iran continues to deceive the world likely won’t trouble Trump too much. Even in the past, US intelligence was aware of this, but Washington continued negotiating with Tehran.”

Yechzekeli ended on a more cautiously optimistic note, emphasizing that realities in the Middle East can change quickly. “One shift in the balance of power or interests is enough to turn the entire picture upside down.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Last Friday, SpaceX rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq and became a public company valued at approximately $1.75 trillion, the largest stock-market debut in history. Within days, the stock climbed past $2 trillion. Twenty years ago, the same company was a struggling startup that had never put anything into orbit and was running out of money.

The bridge between those two facts is a story Washington should study closely because it may be one of the best investments American taxpayers have ever made.

That bridge was a relatively small government bet.

In 2006, NASA launched a program called Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and awarded SpaceX approximately $396 million to help develop a rocket and spacecraft capable of carrying cargo to the International Space Station. SpaceX contributed more than $450 million of its own capital alongside the government funding.