WATCH:

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman) A burrito shop somewhere in heartland America has gone viral this week for posting a simple sign outside its establishment. The sign, photographed and shared on Reddit this week, read: “Please respect our staff. For many of them, this is their first job. They are teenagers. They are someone’s child. Do not be rude to them. If you have a problem, ask for the manager (who also deserves to be treated with respect and kindness) or send a message to the owner.” The shop concluded sadly that it is unfortunate they have to post this, but “some people need reminding.”

 According to a University of Missouri study, young workers today value respectful communication in the workplace above trendy perks. A separate study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that approximately 82% of hospitality industry employees face violent or rude customers. 

But what does the Torah say about all this?

THE PROHIBITION OF ONAAS DEVARIM

The verse in VaYikra (25:17) states, “velo sonu ish es amiso” – do not cause pain to your fellow. This Mitzvah is generally referred to as Onaas Devarim, or simply Onaah. The Sfas Emes explains that the underlying purpose of this Mitzvah is to ensure that we have a sense of complete oneness as a people. Causing another pain is prohibited because it creates division among people.

The Talmud in Bava Metziah 58b records the teachings of three sages who explain that the prohibition of Onaas Devarim – verbal abuse – is by far more serious than the prohibitions of Onaas Mamon, monetary abuse. A person can recover financial loss; emotional pain is something else entirely.

THE TEENAGE WORKER

Now consider the teenage cashier or counter worker at a restaurant. He or she may be 16, perhaps 17 years old. This is often the first job that he or she has ever held. The young employee is learning how to handle money, how to deal with the public, how to manage stress, and how to function in an adult environment for the very first time. The customer who barks at him for getting an order slightly wrong, or who berates her because the line is moving slowly, is not merely being unpleasant. According to the Torah, he is committing a serious aveirah.

The Rambam in Hilchos Mechirah (14:12) lists numerous examples of Onaas Devarim. Among them is causing embarrassment to another in any way. The Gemara in Bava Metziah explicitly mentions that one who causes another’s face to turn pale in public has, in a sense, shed blood. The worker who is publicly humiliated by an angry customer in front of a line of people experiences exactly this type of pain.

INACTION TOO

Rav Yechiel Michel Stern cites the Chikrei Laiv (YD Vol. III #80) that this prohibition can even be violated through inaction. If a customer ignores the cheerful “Hello, how can I help you?” of a teenage employee, refuses to make eye contact, and treats the worker as though he or she does not exist – this too may fall under the prohibition. The young worker, just trying to do his or her job, walks away feeling diminished and invisible.

A particularly sad aspect of this prohibition is that violators are often completely unaware that they are causing pain. They may even characterize the worker as “overly sensitive” if a complaint is raised. But the Torah does not measure the prohibition based upon whether the perpetrator believes himself to be hurtful. The Torah measures it by the actual pain caused.

RAV ELYASHIV ZATZAL’S PRINCIPLE

A question was once posed to Rav Elyashiv Zatzal: A man was refusing to give his wife a get. Was it permissible to pressure his parents by threatening to expose an illegal activity that one of them had been involved in, in order to force him to give the get? Rav Elyashiv responded with a clear, “No.” There is no permission to cause pain to another, no matter what the underlying purpose may be.

The kal vachomer is striking. If one cannot cause pain to a third party even to free an agunah, how much more so does one have no right to cause pain to a teenage worker because the burrito wrap is not tight enough.

WHAT GOES AROUND

There is a fascinating debate between Rav Henoch Leibowitz zatzal and Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zatzal regarding Pnina and Chana. Pnina taunted Chana with the intention of pushing her to daven harder. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz zatzal (Sichos Mussar) explains that the principle of “what goes around comes around” – middah keneged middah – applies even when the underlying intention is 100% leshaim shamayim. Rav Henoch Leibowitz zatzal held that there must have been some infinitesimally small trace of improper motivation involved.

Either way, the lesson is clear: causing pain to another is so serious that even with completely pure intentions, there are consequences. How much more so when the customer is causing pain merely because he is having a bad day, or because he is impatient, or because he simply does not view the teenage worker behind the counter as a fellow human being deserving of dignity.

The Midrash Rabbah (Bereishis 14:19) explains that Menashe, Yoseph’s son, was punished for “finding” the goblet in Binyamin’s sack – even though he was acting on his father’s instruction. He caused the Shevatim pain, and they ripped their clothing in agony. The Midrash teaches that Menashe’s portion of inheritance was therefore “ripped” as well. Causing pain has consequences, even when one is following orders.

EXAMPLES IN HALACHA

The Rambam in Hilchos Mechirah (14:12) lists examples that are remarkably relevant to the restaurant context. Asking someone a question in a subject area where the person being asked does not know the answer is a violation of Onaah. How often does a customer demand to know obscure ingredient details from a worker who has only been on the job for two weeks? The Gemara in Bava Metziah 58b states that inquiring about the price of an item without any intention of purchasing it is also a violation. The customer who keeps a teenage worker tied up at the counter for fifteen minutes asking endless questions, with no intention of ordering, is in violation of this prohibition.

Other manifestations of Onaas Devarim include displaying anger toward another, name-calling, threatening, and blaming one’s own behavior on someone else’s actions. The customer who shouts, “You’re an idiot! How hard is it to get an order right?” is potentially in violation of multiple aspects of this aveirah simultaneously.

THE BURRITO SHOP’S WISDOM

The sign at the burrito shop captured something profound, perhaps without realizing it. “They are someone’s child.” This is the very essence of how the Torah views every human being. Every person standing behind a counter is the son or daughter of parents who love them. Every teenage worker is a tzelem Elokim. Would the irate customer behave that way toward his own son? Would he scream at his own daughter for getting an order slightly wrong?

The shop’s management asked customers to consider, essentially, the principle that Hillel famously taught a potential convert: that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. Hillel was paraphrasing the very Mitzvah of “velo sonu ish es amiso.”

RECTIFYING THE VIOLATION

What if one has already violated this prohibition? What must be done? The Talmud (Yoma 87a) teaches that there is an obligation to attempt to placate the offended party. The Gemara cites verses in Mishlei: “Press your plea with your neighbor.” There are opinions that one must even apologize before three rows of three people.

In practical terms, this means that the customer who realizes after the fact that he was rude to a teenage worker has an obligation to return, apologize sincerely, and seek mechilah. Yes, this is uncomfortable. Yes, it requires swallowing pride. But it is the halachic obligation.

A FINAL THOUGHT

The fact that a burrito shop in America had to post a sign reminding adults to be respectful to teenagers is, indeed, sad. But perhaps the silver lining is this: the message resonated with millions of people online. Perhaps somewhere within all of us, we recognize that this is correct, that this is how it ought to be.

It is almost Shavuos.  The Torah told us this 3,338 years ago minus 11 days or so. Maybe the world is finally catching up.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

Likud MK Amit Halevi, a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Sunday in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet that “the army must change its attitude toward democracy,” saying that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was kept in the dark during the war regarding issues connected to the fighting in Gaza.

Halevi said: “We are after a war in which the prime minister was excluded, and conversations were held behind his back—these things should not happen in a democracy. The army is not a private militia, not of Herzi Halevi and not of Eyal Zamir.”

When asked what conversations had taken place behind Netanyahu’s back, Halevi replied that, according to him, these were “discussions with international actors. The exclusion of the prime minister occurred not only on the night of October 7, but throughout the war, on various issues related to operations in the Gaza Strip.”

Referring to the night of October 7, Halevi said: “On the night of October 7, I think we all saw the affidavits submitted by Ronen Bar, including the Southern Command chief who was with him at 3 a.m., as he described to the High Court. All these things — as he put it in the affidavit — they feared there would be some ‘spillover’ into a multi-front event, but somehow one person in Jerusalem, Binyamin Netanyahu, was deliberately not updated about the possibility of a multi-front escalation.”

Asked about establishing a state commission of inquiry, Halevi responded: “First of all, what matters is fixing things, and the main mission facing the Chief of Staff today is not only finding who is responsible for the past, but mainly correcting things for the future.”

He added that two or three months after October 7, he approached opposition lawmakers with a proposal — which he said has since evolved into legislation promoted by MKs Moshe Saada and Ariel Kellner — to establish a parity-based commission of inquiry.

“Yes, this was originally my proposal,” he said.

“Unfortunately, my colleagues in the opposition opposed it; they didn’t want it.  And even today, I say this with both sorrow and astonishment, because ultimately, as you said, we want a commission of inquiry in which everyone can ask all the questions.”

He continued: “A state commission of inquiry, once it is appointed by the High Court — effectively by whoever calls himself the president of the High Court — will lead exactly where everyone knows it will lead. And I think it’s important to hear all sides; after all, that is the purpose of an inquiry — to investigate the truth, to demand and examine all sides.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Bitachon4Life-Shiur-1768-Semichah-Part-68-Impact.mp3

​​For more info, email [email protected].

The British military said a bulk carrier caught fire Sunday after being hit by an unknown projectile off the coast of Qatar.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said the attack caused a small fire on the ship, which was extinguished.

The attack happened 23 nautical miles (43 kilometers) northeast of Qatar’s capital, Doha, the UKMTO said.

There were no reported casualties, it said.

It was the latest attack on vessels in the Persian Gulf since a shaky ceasefire stopped fighting between the United States and Iran.

There have been several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf over the past week. On Friday, the U.S. struck two Iranian oil tankers after it said the tankers were trying to breach its blockade of Iran’s ports.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy on Sunday reiterated its warning that any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on one of the U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.

U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran doesn’t accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has mostly blocked the critical waterway for global energy since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices and rattling world markets.

(AP)

The battle over the leadership of the Mossad escalated Sunday after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara submitted a sharply worded response to the High Court calling to revoke Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s appointment of Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as Mossad chief

In her submission to the Court regarding petitions challenging Gofman’s appointment, Baharav-Miara claimed that “the prime minister’s decision suffers from extreme and blatant unreasonableness.”

The petitions stem from an incident during Gofman’s tenure as the IDF commander of the Bashan Division in the Golan. According to allegations, Gofman carried out an ‘influence operation’ in which he instructed two subordinate officers to pass classified information to a 17-year-old, Ori Elmakayes from Ashkelon, who operated a Telegram news channel. Elmakayes was later arrested by the Shin Bet and police—who were unaware that Gofman had recruited him—and charged with serious security offenses.

Gofman denied direct responsibility, saying he was unaware that Elmakayes was a minor and had instructed that only non-classified material be passed to him. Senior defense officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, backed Gofman’s account. They appeared before the appointments committee and expressed full confidence in Gofman, describing the affair as “an operational mishap” rather than an ethical failure, disqualifying him from promotion. Some said that senior officials in the Military Intelligence Directorate attempted to “sacrifice” Gofman to deflect blame from themselves in the classified information scandal.

Three of the four members of the advisory committee for senior appointments — known as the Grunis Committee — concluded that no flaw had been found in Gofman’s integrity and approved his appointment as Mossad chief. They said that the material they reviewed showed that Gofman was not aware of the identity of the blogger involved in the affair, acted according to instructions from security officials, and might even have committed an offense had he acted differently.

They further stated that Gofman acknowledged a technical error in his conduct and received a command-level reprimand, but nevertheless demonstrated integrity and responsibility. The committee also argued that established legal precedent leaves no basis for High Court intervention in its decision and suggested the petitions should not have been filed in the first place.

In addition, the committee noted that senior appointments had previously been approved by majority vote alone, including the appointment of former Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai despite opposition from the committee chairman at the time, without legal petitions being filed.

Baharav-Miara sided with the minority opinion issued by former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis, who chaired the advisory committee and concluded that Gofman should not be appointed. As part of her submission, Baharav-Miara asked the court to review a classified document signed by outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea, which she said also served as a basis for her legal position. Barnea was reportedly strongly opposed to Gofman’s selection.

Baharav-Miara wrote to the Court that “in light of the integrity-related flaws regarding Gofman identified by the committee chairman in his opinion, there is no alternative but for the honorable court to intervene in the prime minister’s decision regarding Gofman’s appointment as head of the Mossad and to accept the petitions.”

Coalition officials sharply attacked the attorney general’s position.

Ofir Katz of Likud wrote: “Opposition leader Gali Baharav-Miara is engaged in a campaign of hunting outstanding, heroic, and worthy officers simply because this government appointed them. Her position should be ignored, and the appointment should proceed.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir responded: “Gali, they are applauding you in Tehran. They could not have dreamed of a better ally than you. While Israeli hero Roman Gofman fights the enemy, Gali is fighting the State of Israel and endangering its security.”

On Friday, Netanyahu submitted his response to the High Court regarding the petitions seeking to disqualify Gofman’s appointment.

Netanyahu used unusually sharp language, placing his own operational authority and security judgment above the court’s criticism and arguing that this was a fateful decision beyond the judiciary’s expertise to evaluate.

In his response, Netanyahu argued that the reasonableness of his decision as prime minister was “dozens of times superior” to that of the court or any other body.

The prime minister stressed that no blemish had been found in Gofman’s character, saying that “his integrity was examined with iron combs and found pure.”

Netanyahu slammed the petitioners, saying that they are effectively attempting to strip the public of the democratic authority entrusted to the government to determine who implements the country’s security policy.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

LISTEN:

https://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Stories4Life-Shiur-570-Clarity-R-Aharon-Kotler.mp3

A rare and emotional scene unfolded this past Friday in Ponovezh Yeshiva after the rosh yeshiva, Rav Chaim Peretz Berman, agreed at the last minute to join the South American fundraising mission on behalf of Keren Olam HaTorah in place of Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch.

Last Thursday, Rav Moshe Hillel reportedly asked Rav Chaim Peretz to travel in his stead for the weeklong mission to South America after Rebbetzin Avigail Hirsch was hospitalized at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center, making it impossible for Rav Moshe Hillel to leave Eretz Yisroel.

Before agreeing to the trip, Rav Chaim Peretz discussed the matter with his brother-in-law, Rav Eliezer Kahaneman, and afterward announced that he would participate in the journey for the sake of supporting the Torah world.

Because the trip was arranged on extremely short notice, the rosh yeshiva wanted to ensure that talmidim completed the main yesodos of the sugya currently being studied in Ponovezh — the sugya of yerushas eim. He therefore informed the bochurim that he would deliver a special concluding shiur on Friday, an unusual occurrence in the yeshiva.

In Ponovezh, as in most yeshivos, regular shiurim are generally not delivered on Fridays.

Nevertheless, on Friday morning the rosh yeshiva entered the shiur room in the “Diras HaRav,” located adjacent to the main yeshiva building. Hundreds of talmidim packed the room wall to wall, filling it as though it were an ordinary weekday shiur.

During the nearly two-hour shiur, which continued past 2 p.m., Rav Chaim Peretz briefly reviewed the foundations of the sugya and carefully completed its central concepts for the talmidim.

After finishing the shiur, the rosh yeshiva addressed the bochurim emotionally and told them that although he was being forced to travel abroad for the sake of the Torah world, he was asking them to strengthen themselves in Torah learning during the coming days as preparation for Shavuos.

He urged the talmidim to increase their hasmadah during these spiritually elevated days of Sefirah and reminded them of the longstanding Ponovezh tradition that bochurim remain continuously in yeshiva through Shavuos rather than returning home, immersing themselves in uninterrupted Torah preparation for Kabolas HaTorah.

The heartfelt words of the rosh yeshiva reportedly left a profound impression on the bochurim. Throughout Shabbos, remarkable scenes of shteiging were visible throughout the yeshiva, with batei medrash packed densely as talmidim learned for long hours in response to the rosh yeshiva’s call.

In addition, following Maariv on Friday night, Rav Chaim Peretz remained in the main bais medrash for an extended period answering questions from talmidim eager to maximize the final hours before his departure by discussing the sugya with him in learning.

This past Shabbos also saw the arrival of dozens of third-year bochurim from many of the country’s top yeshivos ketanos, who traditionally come to spend Shabbos in Ponovezh during registration season for the large yeshivos in order to experience the unique atmosphere of the yeshiva firsthand. Those visitors, too, were swept up in the extraordinary atmosphere of shteiging that filled the yeshiva over Shabbos.

According to the itinerary, Rav Chaim Peretz was expected to depart immediately after Shabbos for Argentina on behalf of Keren Olam HaTorah and later continue with the rest of the delegation to Brazil. Special fundraising dinners are scheduled throughout the trip to strengthen financial support for the Torah world during what organizers described as a particularly difficult time.

The mission comes as government authorities continue increasing pressure on lomdei Torah, while philanthropists abroad, recognizing the gravity of the moment, are opening both their hearts and their resources to support the continued flourishing of Torah learning.

{Matzav.com}

Two men were charged by the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service for religiously aggravated intentional harassment Saturday.

Adam Bedoui, 20, from West Drayton, Hillingdon, and Abdelkader Amir Bousloub, 21, also from the London borough of Hillingdon, traveled to the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Stamford Hill in London for the express purpose of harassing Jews and filming them for an antisemitic TikTok video.

Huw Rogers, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Direct, said, “The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to charge Adam Bedoui, 20, and Abdelkader Amir Bousloub, 21, with religiously aggravated intentional harassment and intentional harassment following an incident where Jewish people in Stamford Hill were being approached, harassed and filmed.”

“Our team of out-of-hours prosecutors from CPS Direct worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring charges and it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings,” he added. “We have worked closely with the Metropolitan Police as it has carried out its investigation.”

The defendants appeared in court later in the day.

A week ago, the chief of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, said that the rise in attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in London is “an appalling state of affairs.”

“If you overlay three things now — hate crime, terrorism and hostile state activity — you add all that together, that combined effect with that building of ideology online, that is really dangerous and troubling,” he said. “And Jewish communities feel that, and you can see that in how they talk, how it’s making them change their lives.”

Rowley called for the deployment of an additional 300 police officers to protect Jewish communities in the area, saying that the problem isn’t relegated to “a few racist idiots,” but is “something that is more embedded in society that isn’t being challenged.”

“There’s too much licensing of it in public debate,” he declared, giving voice to a sentiment shared by many Jewish advocates.

Harav David Yosef, shlita, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, issued an impassioned call Thursday evening during his weekly shiur, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Yitzchak Herzog to publicly join U.S. President Donald Trump’s landmark “Shabbat 250” initiative; the first time in American history that a sitting president has called on the nation to observe Shabbos.

President Trump, in a proclamation signed on May 4 designating May 2026 as Jewish American Heritage Month, called on all Americans to observe a national Shabbos – dubbed “Shabbat 250” – from sundown on Friday, May 15, through nightfall on Saturday, May 16, in honor of the 250th anniversary of American independence.

“From sundown on May 15 to nightfall on May 16, friends, families, and communities of all backgrounds may come together in gratitude for our great Nation,” the President wrote. “This day will recognize the sacred Jewish tradition of setting aside time for rest, reflection, and gratitude to the Almighty.” The Shabbos in question is Shabbos Bamidbar, the “Shabbos Kallah” preceding Shavuos.

Rav Yosef seized on the moment, drawing a connection between Trump’s call and the sacred character of the upcoming Shabbos. “I first and foremost expect and call upon the President of the State and the Prime Minister of the Jewish State to join the call of the President of the United States; at the very least here in Eretz Yisrael,” the Rav declared.

The Rav extended his call to Jews across the Diaspora, invoking the well-known ma’amar Chazal that if Klal Yisrael were to observe two Shabbosos, the Geulah would come immediately. “How important it is that we all unite around Shabbat Kodesh,” he said. “If a non-Jew honors our religion to such a degree and calls even non-Jews to rest on Shabbos — how much more so we, the Jews, who have the Torah, who have our mesorah, who have the precious gift called Shabbat Kodesh. How vital it is that everyone unite around shemirat Shabbat, and through this we will merit the complete Geulah speedily.”

Trump’s proclamation, which also invoked President George Washington’s celebrated 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport – in which Washington affirmed that the United States “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance” – paid tribute to the contributions of Jewish Americans since the country’s founding, citing among others Haym Salomon, the Revolutionary War-era financier who helped bankroll American independence. The initiative has drawn broad support across the frum community, with Agudas Yisroel of America calling “Shabbat 250” an opportunity to celebrate the religious liberty that America affords its Jewish citizens, and Chabad hailing it as a chance for Yidden to “unplug and connect with G-d, family, and community.”

A sharply worded post published by Tuvia Smotrich, brother of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, succeeded in putting into words a fear that has been quietly circulating within Israel’s right-wing camp for quite some time: the possibility that the chareidi parties, after the current crisis surrounding the draft law, may seriously begin considering cooperation with the left.

Smotrich warned of a scenario in which the chareidim would receive exemptions from military service, financial benefits, and continued autonomy regarding core curriculum studies, while in exchange allowing the left to advance diplomatic, judicial, and cultural policies far removed from traditional right-wing positions.

That concern deserves serious attention. But precisely for that reason, the full truth also needs to be acknowledged: the chareidim would not align with the left because of ideological affection for the left. They have not suddenly adopted left-wing values, joined the leftist camp, or forgotten the long political and cultural battles they fought against it for decades. If such a shift ever occurs, it would emerge not from ideological enthusiasm but from political frustration — after years in which the right grew accustomed to receiving chareidi support while repeatedly struggling to deliver on promises when it mattered most.

For years, leaders in Bibi Netanyahu’s Likud party, the Religious Zionist camp, and much of the broader right viewed the chareidi public as an automatic political partner. The chareidim would vote. The chareidim would help secure a governing majority. The chareidim would absorb public backlash. But when decisive moments arrived regarding the issues most important to them, they were often told to wait patiently, to show restraint, to understand the pressures of the courts, the military establishment, the media, and public opinion polls. Political loyalty, however, cannot remain one-sided forever.

The draft issue is not merely another coalition dispute or budgetary disagreement. For the chareidi public, the status of yeshiva students is a foundational question tied directly to the identity and survival of the Torah world. One may disagree with the chareidi position or criticize it, but it is unrealistic to expect chareidim to continue guaranteeing right-wing governments while parts of that same right increasingly speak about them as though they are a political burden to be embarrassed by.

That is precisely where the right’s greatest weakness lies. On one hand, the right demands unwavering loyalty from the chareidim and constantly reminds them that no right-wing government can survive without them. On the other hand, when the political cost arrives, many on the right recoil from media criticism, legal pressure, polling concerns, and opposition within parts of the Religious Zionist and Likud camps. The result is an impossible situation: the chareidim are expected to put the right in power, but they are not always given the feeling that the right is prepared to fight for them when necessary.

For that reason, Tuvia Smotrich’s warning should not be viewed solely as a threat about possible “betrayal” by the chareidim. It should also be understood as an internal indictment of a right-wing camp that does not always understand its own partners. If the chareidim eventually conclude that the left can provide clearer results on the draft issue while the right continues offering slogans without solutions, responsibility for that shift would not rest only with the chareidim. It would also fall on those who demanded their loyalty for years without always returning that loyalty with meaningful commitment.

The chareidi public is not searching for a home on the left. It does not naturally belong there, does not feel culturally comfortable there, and does not share many of the values promoted by that camp. But politics is not built solely on ideological identity; it is also built on practical results. If the right wants to preserve its alliance with the chareidim, it must stop treating them as guaranteed votes and begin treating them as partners whose concerns deserve respect, understanding, and protection.

The chareidim are not permanently owned by the right. They remained loyal for many years because the alliance was rooted in shared traditional, political, and cultural interests. But even natural alliances can weaken when one side feels it provides the majority, absorbs the criticism, and ultimately finds itself standing alone against the system. Political camps that fail to defend their partners should not be surprised when those partners begin searching for another address.

{Matzav.com}

Multiple vehicles in Lakewood’s Raintree neighborhood were burglarized over Shabbos, TLS has learned.

The suspect, who arrived in a stolen work vehicle, proceeded to open every unlocked vehicle on the street, before fleeing on foot.

Many items were stolen, including cash and credit cards, some of which were already used to make purchases.

Lakewood Police are now investigating.

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  Few things in Jewish religious life have provoked such enduring fascination — and such enduring controversy — as the dybbuk.

The notion that the floating neshama of a deceased Jew, denied even the cleansing process of Gehenam and a rest in the grave on account of aveirah, might attach itself to the body of a living person and speak through that person’s mouth, is grounded in serious sources: in the writings of the Arizal as transmitted by Rav Chaim Vital, in the Sha’ar HaGilgulim, and in numerous responsa and case-records from the sixteenth century onward.

Yet it has also been a recurring object of skepticism — sometimes from within the rabbinic establishment itself, more often from the maskilim, who found in such accounts a convenient instrument for ridiculing what they regarded as the credulity of traditional Jewish society.

Four interpretive possibilities present themselves at the outset:

1. The mekubal, the father, and the child were jointly engaged in an elaborate scheme to extract money from the credulous.
2. The proceedings were a carefully constructed pious fraud — subterfuge in the service of strengthening religious observance.
3. The account is a substantially accurate record of a genuine gerush ruchos.
4. The document is the creation of a maskil who fashioned the episode, in whole or in part, to discredit traditional Jewish piety.

That such possibilities must even be entertained is itself instructive. There is a story told of two men who once succeeded in defrauding none other than the Chofetz Chaim. As the Chofetz Chaim walked through the street, one of them, carrying a heavy sack of flour, contrived to spill its contents over him. A second man, feigning outrage that anyone could so mistreat the saintly figure, rushed forward to brush him clean — and, in the course of his ostentatious solicitude, picked the Chofetz Chaim’s pocket. That such an episode was even possible reminds us that financial chicanery and religious charlatanism were no less prevalent in earlier generations than in our own.

In 1818, Warsaw was only a few years removed from the collapse of the Napoleonic-era Duchy of Warsaw and was now under the Russian-controlled Congress Kingdom of Poland. The Russian-backed bureaucracy was increasingly interested in monitoring Jewish communal life, especially anything deemed irrational, separatist, or socially destabilizing.  This may explain why this story was preserved in the account of the police.

The account that follows is preserved in the Wyznaniowe Królestwa Polskiego (Central Religious Authorities of the Kingdom of Poland) collection, File 1424, pages 2 through 5, which contains materials bearing on Jewish communal affairs in nineteenth-century Congress Poland. It is a Polish police report describing a mekubalic exorcism performed in Warsaw during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah of 5579 (early September 1818). The original report was composed by some unnamed observer, almost certainly affiliated either with the Haskalah or with the Russian-Polish administrative apparatus, which took a documentary interest in what it regarded as Jewish superstition. The reporter’s tone is hostile: he describes the proceedings as “fanatical works,” characterizes the mekubal as a “joker” and “fanatic,” and dismisses the assembled spectators as “blinded.”  I originally saw it in Glen Dynner’s “Men of Silk.”

Regardless, the document preserves a remarkable wealth of accurate mekubalic detail, each element of which corresponds with striking precision to the Lurianic and the dybbuk tradition: the imposition of cherem and the sounding of the shofar; the binding of parchment inscribed with shemos; the gartel invoked as a spiritual seal; the prescribed egress of the spirit through the small toe of the left foot; the chicken designated as the vehicle of tikkun through ritual shechitah; the pidyon nefesh collection from those present; and the deliberate selection of the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah as the propitious moment for the proceedings.

A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE FANATICAL WORKS OF A JEWISH MEKUBAL HERE IN WARSAW, RECENTLY ARRIVED FROM BIAŁYSTOK, DURING THE PAST MONTH

Two months ago, a Jew from Wyszogród arrived in this city together with his twelve-year-old son, who suffered from an affliction resembling convulsions, with the intention of admitting him to the Jewish Hospital for treatment. When, after some time, the boy’s condition failed to improve, the father agreed to go to a mekubal who had recently arrived from Białystok, and inquired whether he might be of assistance. The mekubal, having examined the boy, pronounced that the affliction was in fact possession by an evil spirit — the soul, as he explained, of a Jew who had apostatized to Christianity, and who, condemned in consequence to eternal wandering, could find no repose in the grave. This jester thereupon undertook to expel the spirit by means of cherem, the invocation of angelic names, the sounding of the shofar, and the like. He appointed a day for the operation, on which a great multitude of the Jewish populace assembled, that they might bear witness to the wonders of this holy man. The mekubal conducted the following exchange with the spirit:

[Reporter’s footnote in the original: The afflicted boy answered throughout on behalf of the spirit, but the mekubal insisted that it was the spirit itself that spoke; and the bystanders were so blinded that they maintained the boy’s lips and tongue did not so much as stir during the conversation.]

MEKUBAL: Declare yourself. Who are you, from where were you summoned, and by what right have you entered into this child, who has not yet attained the age of accountability?

“RUACH”: (makes no reply)

MEKUBAL: Will you not answer? Then I shall place you under the ban — in the names of Tac, Tacyock, Tartarach, and the rest.

“RUACH”: What would you have of me?

MEKUBAL: That you depart from this child. Where shall I send you?

“RUACH”: Send me to the forest, that I may enter into some tree.

MEKUBAL: That I will not do, for there I should know no rest from torment.

“RUACH”: Yet I command you to depart; and should you persist in your refusal, I shall employ harsher measures against you. (Turning to the crowded assembly:) Bring me the shofar!

(The shofar is brought. Blasts are sounded.)

At this harsh tone the boy fell into convulsions and began to heave his chest and snort. The mekubal, observing this, instructed the bystanders to recite a psalm; the convulsions immediately ceased; and he declared that “the spirit had sought to depart by way of the throat and so to strangle the boy.” Since this operation had been begun on Friday, and the Sabbath — upon which even spirits rest — was drawing near, the consummation of the wonder was deferred until Sunday. The mekubal’s first act on Sunday was to remove the afflicted boy to another house, where he might do battle with the spirit more conveniently. There he bound the head and hand of the possessed boy with parchments inscribed with Divine Names; upon his stomach he laid the cherem, written upon half a sheet of paper. The interrogation then resumed:

MEKUBAL: And now — will you at last consent to depart?

“RUACH”: I shall depart. But know that I shall enter into one of the great magnates of the realm, and shall declare to him that the Jews compelled me to possess him, and I shall move him to do you grave injury.

MEKUBAL: You shall not dare. See — I am even now gathering money on your behalf, that your soul may be redeemed. (Each spectator was required to contribute something.) And I shall gather more besides — only depart!

“RUACH”: Then I shall enter into an unsealed vessel — that is to say, into a Jew who wears no gartel.

MEKUBAL: (to the assembly) For the love of Heaven — fasten your belts at once!

(All comply. The boy now falls once more into convulsions and begins to snort. The mekubal orders a psalm to be sung, whereupon the convulsions cease. The fanatic declares once again “that the spirit had sought to depart by way of the throat and to strangle the boy.”)

MEKUBAL: I charge you: do this child no manner of harm. You shall depart through the small toe of his left foot.

(He resumes his incantations.)

“RUACH”: I will go — but suffer me to depart at the same hour at which I entered.

MEKUBAL: And at what hour was that?

“RUACH”: On Tuesday, between nine and ten of the night.

To this the rabbi consented, and the operation was postponed accordingly until Tuesday. When the hour arrived, the spirit requested a further extension, until that watch of the night when the angels offer their praises to God. The mekubal granted this also, and instructed the spirit to enter into a hen — for, as he explained, when Jews should recite their prayers over the bird and slaughter it according to the laws of shechitah, the spirit would thereby be released from its torment, while he himself would intercede on its behalf through prayer before the Almighty. At half past twelve in the night, the spectators are said to have heard a sudden report and a cry; and at that very moment, as the mekubal averred, the spirit took its leave.

On the following day, when the mekubal approached the boy, he asked him: “Who is this before you?” The boy replied that it was a rabbi. He extended his hand to him and remarked that this was the first occasion on which he had ever beheld him. The mekubal then bade him to daven, and he did so — though previously he could not even bear to hear words of holiness, and had recoiled even from pronouncing the Name of Hashem.

(This section marked “omit” in the original)

I myself was present with the boy on the eve of the spirit’s departure, on the seventh of September, 1818. Casting his eyes upon me, he inquired: “Is this man also a Jew? I do not recognize his garments.” I answered that he was. The boy then said: “If you are indeed a Jew, show me your cyces” — these being the threads that a Jew binds to his garment, worn in the form of a shawl.

He was bidden to be silent. Yet he pressed further: “And why does he shave his beard, if he is a Jew?” The reply was given that this is the custom of the German Jews. “But it is against the commandment that the beard may not be shaved!” the boy cried. At this every man fell silent, and I was no little discomposed, for every eye in the room turned upon me. The boy was asked what ailed him. “My head, my bones, my whole body — all of me is in pain,” he answered. I observed, however, that his sight was clear, that he was cheerful, smiled often, and spoke with full sense and coherence. After the spirit’s departure, it is reported, he suffered neither convulsions nor any other affliction — save only that the small toe of his left foot remained crooked, a thing which the mekubal forbade him to display for a long while afterward.

Closing Reflection

This document — datable  to early September 1818, with the exorcism itself concluded on the sixth of Tishrei, 5579 — constitutes a remarkable piece of historical evidence, valuable in spite of, or perhaps because of, its hostile Haskalah framing. The reporter’s contempt does not prevent him from preserving authentic ethnographic detail, and every element so preserved corresponds to the Lurianic and chassidic dybbuk removal tradition that descends from Rav Chaim Vital, through the Baal Shem Tov, to his disciples and theirs.

The account captures a moment of profound cultural collision: a Białystok-trained mekubal, almost certainly operating within the chassidic stream — the gartel detail is decisive on this point — performing an exorcism upon a possessed boy from Wyszogród, before the assembled Jewish community of Warsaw, during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah of 5579, while a Haskalah reporter records the proceedings with the avowed intention of exposing what he termed “fanatical works.” That the apparent voice of the dybbuk should itself rebuke German Jewry for the shaving of beards is suggestive: even the maskilic reporter could not wholly remove from his account the proceedings’ character as an authentic Polish-Jewish religious and cultural protest against the reforms emanating from Berlin and Hamburg.

The narrative deserves a place alongside the better-known cases preserved in Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Shivchei HaBesht, Niflaos HaRebbe, and the various nineteenth-century kuntreisim documenting gerush ruchos in Poland and Lithuania. It deserves to be read not as its maskilic reporter intended it to be read, but as a window onto the living world of Polish-Jewish activity on the eve of Yom Kippur, 5579.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

A secret late-night meeting intended to explore a possible arrangement surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s trial reportedly devolved into a tense and emotional confrontation between Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Netanyahu ally Yaakov Berdugo.

According to a report by Channel 12 News, the meeting took place in an apartment in Shoham and lasted approximately two and a half hours. The discussion reportedly included shouting matches, banging on the table, and sharp exchanges over the possibility of a presidential pardon for Netanyahu and the political fallout surrounding the ongoing legal proceedings.

The report said Berdugo urged Herzog to move forward with a pardon for Netanyahu and told him: “Give a pardon, stop being a coward.” Herzog reportedly responded: “How can I give Netanyahu a pardon when he hasn’t even submitted a request?”

During the meeting, Herzog reportedly expressed frustration over criticism directed at him from across Israel’s political spectrum.

“You don’t understand that everyone hates me now, and partly because of you?” Herzog allegedly told Berdugo. “The left thinks I’m going to grant a pardon no matter what, I’m already considered suspect there, and you keep inciting the right against me nonstop on your program. What you brought us was not a request, and it has no chance of passing.”

Berdugo reportedly continued pressing Herzog, arguing that such a move was necessary to help heal divisions within Israeli society. At one point, he also raised concerns about the international and diplomatic consequences of continued political turmoil.

“Stop being afraid. Think about what will happen when you come to greet President Trump after he lands in Israel, and he doesn’t even shake your hand or say hello to you? Will that feel pleasant for you?” Berdugo reportedly told the president.

According to the report, the meeting was arranged after Berdugo launched a series of harsh media attacks against Herzog. The purpose of the discussion was reportedly to examine whether a plea agreement in Netanyahu’s trial could be advanced, but the atmosphere quickly turned into a fierce political and personal dispute.

Despite the tense exchange, Herzog later publicly called for efforts to advance a plea arrangement in Netanyahu’s legal cases. According to the report, the president told Berdugo at the end of the meeting that he intended to take active steps to move the process forward and even suggested bringing the relevant parties to the President’s Residence in an effort to quickly reach agreements.

As previously reported Thursday, Herzog and Berdugo held a secret nighttime meeting in an apartment in Shoham. Following the discussion, Herzog reportedly informed Berdugo that he planned to actively promote a plea agreement in Netanyahu’s trial and proposed inviting all relevant parties to the President’s Residence to attempt to finalize understandings.

The President’s Residence issued a statement afterward saying: “The president will meet with any party and do everything in his power to lower the flames within Israeli society. The president is determined to bring about a dialogue of agreements regarding Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cases.”

{Matzav.com}

A New York City Department of Education social worker who serves as the official anti-bullying ambassador at her Manhattan high school, responsible for protecting students from discrimination and bias, has been identified as the author of blatantly antisemitic social media posts, including images of insects posted in response to a video of Jewish men and children celebrating Lag Ba’Omer.

Lauren Camiolo, 40, a social worker at Landmark High School in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, uploaded images of beetles on four separate occasions in response to a Facebook video of Jewish men dancing in celebration of Lag Ba’Omer, the yahrtzeit of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai.

The comparison of Jews to insects — a staple of Nazi propaganda — has triggered sharp condemnation from Jewish advocacy groups, educators, and communal leaders.

What lends the episode an added dimension of bitter irony is Camiolo’s official role at the school: she serves as the Landmark High School’s Respect for All liaison, a DOE-designated position whose explicit mandate is to “foster and maintain safe learning environments that are supportive, inclusive, and free from discrimination, harassment, and intimidation of any kind.”

“That’s a very dangerous and antisemitic trope coming from Nazi Germany, where Hitler would categorize Jews as subhuman and insects,”  Karen Feldman, president of the New York City Public Schools Alliance told the NY Post. “When a Jewish student faces discrimination or bias, they have no one to go to if their Respect for All liaison traffics in antisemitism.”

Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, was equally direct. “Hitler often called Jewish people insects and pests. This is a direct act of antisemitism. Too many educators use their political beliefs to hurt Jewish students and fellow educators.”

Camiolo’s social media activity, which has been widely circulated, extends beyond the Lag Ba’Omer incident. Her Facebook page contains numerous posts expressing hostility toward Israel and Jewish identity. Among them: “Chosen people do not steal & harvest they create” (July 2025); “Zionism is a cult, a group of people incapable of thinking for themselves” (October 2025); and a post superimposed over an image of the Ten Commandments reading, “Genocide bloodshed of women & children on holy land by colonizers in the name of God that they will never know.”

Belaaz uncovered a Facebook post in which Camiolo responded to a video reporting on the terror attack on a Michigan synagogue carried out by Islamic terrorist Ayman Ghazali, by deflecting attention away from the attack entirely. “Israel and and [sic] America bombed a school,” she wrote beneath the post. “No one cares.

The posts do not stop at anti-Israel sentiment. Camiolo’s Facebook page also contains explicitly anti-white content, including “Never trust a white woman,” captioned beneath a photo of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and “Never forget white women owned slaves & had them raise their children” (June 2025). The Respect for All program, by contrast, explicitly lists “color” and “religion” among the protected categories its liaisons are obligated to uphold.

Camiolo, who public records show has been employed by the DOE since at least 2020 and earned $115,665 in 2025, threatened to contact police when reached for comment by the New York Post, which first reported the story. “I’m Jewish… I’m also biracial,” she claimed, adding that she feared for her and her son’s safety.

A source at the school described Camiolo as “unhinged,” saying that students avoid seeking her out and that colleagues have raised concerns about her conduct as a social worker.

Landmark High School, which serves approximately 294 students and uses project-based assessments in lieu of Regents examinations, was founded in 1994.

A DOE spokesperson said the department “unequivocally condemn[s] any behaviors that represent antisemitism, and any forms of intolerance and prejudice,” and added that staff members who exhibit such behavior “will be investigated and will be subject to discipline as appropriate.”

White House border czar Tom Homan said federal immigration agents may occasionally detain American citizens for short periods during enforcement operations if officers suspect they are connected to immigration violations, while emphasizing that citizens are not deported once their identities are verified.

Speaking outside the White House about ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, Homan defended ICE procedures and said temporary detentions can happen during fast-moving investigations.

“We deport people that are going to be deportable,” Homan said, according to The Hill. “We arrest people that will be deportable based on suspicion.”

Homan acknowledged that some American citizens may briefly end up in custody while officers attempt to determine who they are during field operations.

“Have U.S. citizens ever been shortly detained based on suspicion? I’m sure. I’m sure,” he said.

The remarks come as immigrant advocacy organizations and civil liberties groups continue raising concerns about ICE tactics, especially during major raids and enforcement sweeps targeting undocumented immigrants and individuals facing deportation orders.

Earlier this year, Rep. Pramila Jayapal accused the Department of Homeland Security of infringing on the rights of American citizens through detention practices.

“DHS is supposed to be protecting our residents and upholding constitutional protections, but you’ve turned that on the head,” Jayapal told then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a March 4 hearing. “You have actually turned the United States government against its own residents.”

Homan insisted that ICE officers release people once authorities determine they are not subject to immigration enforcement.

“If ICE officers determine that someone is not the guy we’re looking for, you are released,” Homan said. “But we don’t deport U.S. citizens.”

Homan has emerged as one of the most visible defenders of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and has repeatedly advocated for tougher border enforcement and expanded interior immigration operations.

The Trump administration has pledged to sharply increase deportation efforts and boost arrests of undocumented immigrants across the country, arguing that stricter enforcement is necessary for public safety and border security.

Immigrant-rights organizations, however, have warned that broader enforcement actions increase the risk of mistaken detentions and racial profiling.

Federal immigration law generally requires officers to establish probable cause before making immigration-related arrests, although agents are permitted to briefly detain individuals for questioning while confirming identity and immigration status during enforcement operations.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have largely repaired their once-strained relationship following the bruising 2024 Republican presidential primary, even as tensions remain between DeSantis and some of Trump’s closest advisers, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

With DeSantis approaching the end of his second gubernatorial term next January, speculation is growing about his next political step. The Florida governor has not ruled out another White House bid in 2028, while rumors have also circulated about a possible role in the Trump administration, including a potential appointment as attorney general.

According to the Journal, some allies of DeSantis have even floated the possibility of him eventually being nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court if another vacancy opens on the bench.

“Who knows? Like, you never know,” he said during a roundtable interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles on May 4 when asked about a future presidential run.

“Who took a state that had more Democrats than Republicans by 300,000 when he got elected, and now has 1.5 million more Republicans? Who had a state that had a trillion-dollar economy and now has $1.8 trillion? Who has a state that had some school choice, now universal? A 50-year low in the crime rate?

“So, we’ve got a good story to tell,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis launched a campaign for president during the 2024 election cycle but withdrew after finishing well behind Trump in the Iowa caucuses.

Following the heated primary battle, however, relations between the two Republicans improved significantly. Trump has publicly referred to DeSantis as a friend and said the two men have “blood that seems to match pretty well.”

Despite the reconciliation between Trump and DeSantis, the governor’s relationship with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles reportedly remains badly damaged following a political split dating back to 2019.

Wiles, a veteran Republican strategist in Florida, had overseen DeSantis’ successful 2018 gubernatorial campaign. Their relationship later collapsed after DeSantis removed her from his political operation amid disputes tied to media leaks and negative stories concerning his administration.

Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone has also continued criticizing DeSantis, reportedly describing him as someone who cannot be trusted politically.

According to the Journal, Trump recently told an associate that he personally likes DeSantis and believes the governor has delivered politically for him in Florida.

Florida state Rep. Juan Carlos Porras characterized DeSantis’ recent activity as “political theater for a possible 2028 presidential run.”

DeSantis acknowledged to the newspaper that political fortunes can quickly shift, saying politics “is fickle” and that “things change.”

The Trump administration on Friday released a new batch of declassified government files related to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAPs, marking what officials described as the beginning of a broader transparency initiative aimed at making previously classified material available to the public.

The release, announced by the Department of War, is part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, (commonly referred to as UFO’s) known as PURSUE, an interagency effort involving the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, NASA, the FBI, the Department of Energy and the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO.

Officials said the files, which includes videos, photographs and source documents, are now available through a centralized online portal and that additional materials will be released on a rolling basis.

The administration said President Donald Trump directed agencies to begin identifying and declassifying records related to UAPs “in the interest of total transparency.” Officials described the initiative as an unprecedented effort to provide public access to information that has historically remained classified or difficult to obtain.

“While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files,” the Department of War said in a statement.

The department cautioned that although all released materials underwent security reviews before publication, many of the records have not yet been fully analyzed to determine explanations for reported anomalies.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the administration is committed to making more information public.

“These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves,” Hegseth said in a statement. “This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency.”

Government interest in UAPs has intensified in recent years following several high-profile military encounters and congressional hearings examining unexplained aerial sightings reported by service members and intelligence officials.

Officials did not indicate how many files were included in Friday’s initial release, but said more documents are expected to be published in the coming months.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met today with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani amid ongoing diplomatic efforts aimed at reaching an agreement to end the war involving Iran, according to the State Department.

In a statement released after the meeting, the State Department said Rubio thanked Qatar for its cooperation and partnership on multiple regional matters.

“The Secretary and the Foreign Minister also discussed US support for Qatar’s defense, and the importance of continued close coordination to deter threats and promote stability and security across the Middle East.”

The State Department’s announcement came shortly after an Axios report revealed that Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff met with the Qatari premier in Miami as negotiations continue over a possible framework to end the conflict with Iran.

Axios, citing two sources familiar with the talks, reported that Qatar has emerged as a major intermediary between Washington and Tehran as both sides negotiate over a one-page memorandum intended to halt the fighting and open the door to more comprehensive negotiations.

As of Saturday afternoon, according to Axios, American officials were still waiting for Iran’s latest reply to the proposal.

The report added that although Pakistan has officially served as the mediator between the United States and Iran since the war began, Qatari officials have been heavily involved behind the scenes. U.S. officials reportedly view Doha as particularly effective in communicating with Iranian leaders.

Sources familiar with the discussions said Saturday’s meeting centered largely on efforts to finalize a memorandum of understanding that could formally end the war.

One source told Axios that Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia are all coordinating diplomatic pressure in support of an agreement, saying, “The mediators are urging both parties to de-escalate and focus on getting a deal.”

Rubio said Friday that Washington was expecting a response from Tehran regarding the proposed negotiations and warned that any Iranian effort to interfere with shipping through a major international waterway would be considered “unacceptable.”

Later Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters that the administration was still awaiting Iran’s answer to the American proposal aimed at ending the war.

When asked whether he believed Iran was deliberately dragging out the process, Trump responded, “We’ll find out soon enough.”

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was still reviewing the American proposal and would announce its official position once internal deliberations were complete. He added that Iran would not allow outside deadlines or ultimatums to influence its decision-making process.

{Matzav.com}

Authorities investigating the deadly hantavirus outbreak linked to a South American cruise have identified the first known victim as Dutch ornithologist Leo Schilperoord, whose lifelong passion for birdwatching may have exposed him to the fatal virus.

Schilperoord, 70, and his wife, Mirjam Schilperoord, 69, had been traveling throughout South America for roughly five months before both became ill and died. The couple began their trip in Argentina on Nov. 27 before continuing through Chile and Uruguay and eventually returning to Argentina in late March for what became their final birdwatching excursion.

The Schilperoords, residents of the Dutch village of Haulerwijk, were identified through memorial notices published in their local community magazine.

The pair shared a longstanding interest in ornithology and had written together about pink-footed geese for the Dutch birding publication Het Vogeljaar in 1984. Over the years, they traveled extensively in pursuit of rare species, including what was described as an “unforgettable” private wildlife and birdwatching trip to Sri Lanka in 2013, during which they enthusiastically documented spotting the elusive Serendib Scops Owl.

After returning to Argentina on March 27, the couple visited a massive landfill located several miles outside the southern city of Ushuaia.

Though local residents largely avoid the garbage-strewn site, it has become a destination for international birdwatchers seeking sightings of the white-throated caracara, also known as Darwin’s caracara after Charles Darwin, who first collected the species.

Investigators in Argentina believe the couple may have contracted the virus there after inhaling contaminated particles from the droppings of long-tailed pygmy rice rats, known carriers of the Andes strain of hantavirus. That strain is considered especially dangerous because it is the only known form capable of spreading from person to person.

“It is common for birdwatchers to visit landfills because there are many birds there,” Gastón Bretti, a photographer and local guide told Ansa Latina.

“It’s a mountain of waste that today far exceeds the limit initially established by the authorities,” he said of the unsightly place.

On April 1, just days after the landfill visit, the couple boarded the expedition cruise ship MV Hondius in Ushuaia along with 112 other passengers, many of whom were scientists or birdwatchers.

Leo Schilperoord reportedly developed symptoms including fever, headaches, stomach pain, and diarrhea on April 6. He died aboard the vessel five days later.

Mirjam later disembarked from the ship together with her husband’s body during a scheduled stop at the Atlantic island of Saint Helena on April 24. She then traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she attempted to board a KLM flight back to the Netherlands.

According to reports, airline personnel determined she was too ill to continue traveling and removed her from the flight. She collapsed at the airport and died the following day.

“Like birds in flight,” read one of the obituaries published in Dutch in the April issue of the Haulerwijk magazine. “We will miss you and the stories.”

Health officials are continuing to monitor potential exposure cases connected to the cruise. At least seven Americans who had traveled aboard the MV Hondius were reportedly on Mirjam Schilperoord’s April 25 Airlink flight to Johannesburg before returning to the United States, including two residents of New Jersey.

{Matzav.com}

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s Péter Magyar took his oath of office on Saturday to become the country’s new prime minister, kicking off a fresh political era after 16 years of Viktor Orbán’s autocratic rule.

Magyar’s center-right Tisza party defeated Orbán’s nationalist-populist Fidesz in a stunning blow last month, gaining more votes and seats in parliament than any other party in Hungary’s post-Communist history.

The win, which gave Tisza a two-thirds parliamentary majority, will allow it to roll back many of the policies that gave Orbán a reputation among his critics as a far-right authoritarian.

In a speech to tens of thousands of supporters in a square outside the parliament building after being sworn in, the new prime minister told the crowd: “Today, every freedom-loving person in the world would like to be Hungarian a little.”

“You have taught the country and the world that it is the most ordinary, flesh-and-blood people that can defeat the most vicious tyranny,” Magyar said to roaring applause.

As Hungary’s new leader, Magyar has vowed to restore democratic institutions and governmental checks and balances that were heavily eroded during Orbán’s rule, and to clamp down on alleged corruption.

His administration is expected to transform political dynamics within the European Union, where the former prime minister had upended the bloc by frequently vetoing key decisions, most recently concerning support for neighboring Ukraine.

A parliament without Orbán
On Saturday, Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who founded Tisza in 2024, entered the sprawling neo-Gothic parliament building alongside 140 of his party representatives.

Tisza now controls 141 seats in Hungary’s 199-seat parliament. Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition controls 52 seats, down from 135, while the far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) party holds six seats.

The 199 representatives took their oaths of office at around 11 a.m. Orbán was not among them for the first time since Hungary’s first post-Communist parliament was formed in 1990.

Magyar earlier called on Hungarians to attend an all-day “regime-change” celebration on Kossuth Square outside parliament to mark his inauguration and the end of the Orbán era. Many of those gathered waved Hungarian and EU flags and wore Tisza T-shirts.

In his speech, Magyar delivered a message of unity, and promised to help heal the deep social divisions he said Orbán’s government had sown.

“Today is the fulfillment of the long journey that we have made together in recent years, the fulfillment of the common belief that Hungary is able to get back on its feet, is able to believe in itself and to once again be a common homeland for all Hungarians,” he said.

Hungary’s new National Assembly has 54 women lawmakers, most from the Tisza party — more than a quarter of the total and the most in Hungary’s history.

One of them, Andrea Szepesi, an economist from Budapest, said it was “about time” that more women held seats in parliament. Under Orbán’s rule, there were fewer women in government than in nearly all of the EU’s other 26 nations.

“Finally, women are able to participate in this new, beautiful democratic system and the flourishing of the country,” Szepesi told The Associated Press.

Repairing relations with the EU
Magyar has promised to repair his country’s ties with the EU, which Orbán had pushed to a breaking point, and to restore Hungary’s place among Western democracies, whose standing had been called into question as Orbán drifted ever closer to Russia.

The EU flag was raised on the parliament building’s facade Saturday afternoon for the first time since Orbán’s government removed it in 2014.

Unlocking about 17 billion euros ($20 billion) of EU funds for Hungary frozen during Orbán’s time in office over rule-of-law and corruption concerns is also among the new prime minister’s top priorities. The money is sorely needed to help jump-start Hungary’s struggling economy, which has stagnated for the past four years.

Another attendee of the celebration, 27-year-old web designer Áron Farsang, said he expects the new Tisza government to restore Hungary’s democratic institutions and to “lead us back toward the European Union.”

“I would also really like it if we could get rid of the Russian influence as soon as possible,” he said. “I’m thinking about energy dependency and their general political style.”

Accounting for the past
Many of the nearly 3.4 million Hungarians that voted for Tisza expect Magyar to hold Fidesz officials and their business allies accountable for the perceived misconduct of the outgoing administration.

In his speech to the National Assembly, he called on Fidesz-appointed heads of government institutions, including President Tamás Sulyok, to resign no later than May 31.

Magyar plans to form a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, an authority tasked with investigating and seeking to recover public funds misused during Orbán’s tenure. He’s also vowed to suspend the news services of Hungary’s public broadcaster — widely seen as a mouthpiece of Orbán’s party — until objectivity can be restored.

In his speech to lawmakers, Magyar referenced his intentions to hold former officials accountable for past abuses, saying voters had “given us a mandate to open a new chapter in Hungary’s history.

NEW YORK (AP) — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No televised news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government’s top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.

To President Donald Trump, “We seem to have things under very good control,” as he told reporters Friday evening.

To experts, the situation aboard a cruise ship has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been health experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

“The CDC is not even a player,” said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I’ve never seen that before.”

Not until late Friday did CDC actions accelerate.

Health officials confirmed the deployment of a team to Spain’s Canary Islands, where the ship was expected to arrive early Sunday local time, to meet the Americans onboard. They said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a University of Nebraska quarantine center for evaluation and monitoring. Also, the CDC issued its first health alert to U.S. doctors, advising them of the possibility of imported cases.

At their first briefing, held Saturday by telephone only for invited reporters, officials pledged to be transparent in updating the public but said the media could not cite the speakers by name under rules set by aides to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They did not directly answer a question about whether the American passengers could leave the university medical facility when they wanted.

The CDC’s diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is “a sentinel event” that speaks to “how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

How the outbreak unfolded
Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man’s wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

It’s WHO taking center stage
For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world’s premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

“I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said.

Tumult under Trump
The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency’s ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Kennedy said he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

Waiting to hear from the CDC
The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is “extremely low,” and described the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

Said Nuzzo: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

The CDC’s acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests. The first on-camera appearance by a CDC official came Saturday morning, when Bhattacharya appeared on a Fox News program and said, “My message to the American people is please don’t worry.” But he got some details wrong and overstated what was known about the outbreak.

He incorrectly said two passengers in their 80s had died after they had contracted the virus while bird-watching in Argentina. The travelers were a 70-year-old Dutch man and his 69-year-old wife and while Argentine health officials think it is possible they were infected during a bird-watching outing, it has not been established.

COVID-19 comparison
In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports “that became the world’s reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19’s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC’s lack of trying.

“The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, while the agency’s work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world’s nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That’s not sufficient, Gostin said. “You can’t possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,” he said.

A man was arrested after allegedly directing antisemitic abuse at Jewish passengers, including children, aboard a London bus and claiming he was carrying a knife, the UK’s Jewish Chronicle newspaper wrote Motzoei Shabbos.

The incident reportedly took place Thursday on a bus route passing through Stamford Hill, a London neighborhood with a large Charedi Jewish population of more than 15,000 residents.

Witnesses quoted by the Jewish Chronicle said the suspect shouted at Jewish passengers that it was a “shame Hitler didn’t kill you,” and said they should have been sent to the gas chambers.

London Shomrim said in a statement that “the bus driver stopped the bus and activated the emergency alarm” as bystanders intervened to help the Jewish passengers.

The organization said its volunteers arrived quickly and “swiftly detained the suspect” until police officers reached the scene and took him into custody.

In a statement cited by the Jewish Chronicle, London’s Metropolitan Police said a 50-year-old man was arrested “on suspicion of making threats to kill.”

Police added that although the suspect claimed he had a knife during the confrontation, officers searched him and did not find any weapon.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy on Saturday warned that any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on one of the U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships, even as a tenuous ceasefire appeared to be holding.

Iranian state TV reported the warning a day after the United States struck two Iranian oil tankers, casting doubt on the month-old ceasefire that the U.S. has insisted is still in effect. The U.S. military said the tankers were trying to breach its blockade of Iran’s ports.

Meanwhile Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s regional headquarters, said it arrested dozens of people it alleged had links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Washington awaits Iran’s response to its latest proposal for a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping and roll back Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. And Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.

Bahrain says arrests were linked to Guard funding attempt
Bahrain said it had arrested 41 people it said are part of a group affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard. The interior ministry said investigations confirmed they were in contact with the Guard and collected funds “with the aim of sending them to Iran” to support its “terrorist operations.”

The small Persian Gulf island is led by a Sunni Muslim monarchy but, like Iran, has a majority Shiite population. Rights groups have said the kingdom has used the war between Iran and the U.S., which bases its Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, as an excuse to crack down on dissent.

Iran issued a warning to Bahrain: “Siding with the U.S.-backed resolution will bring severe consequences. The Strait of Hormuz is a vital lifeline; do not risk closing it on yourselves FOREVER,” Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission of Iran’s parliament, said on social media.

Iran has mostly blocked the critical waterway for global energy since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, causing a global spike in fuel prices and rattling world markets.

The U.S. has imposed its own blockade of Iran’s ports. U.S. Central Command said on Saturday its forces had turned back 58 commercial ships and “disabled” four since the blockade began April 13.

Britain deploys warship to the Middle East
Britain’s defense ministry said it was deploying a warship to the Middle East to join a potential mission to protect commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz once hostilities end.

The ministry said the HMS Dragon will “preposition” in the region, ready to join a U.K.- and French-led security plan. France announced this week it was moving its aircraft carrier strike group into the Red Sea in preparation.

Britain and France have led meetings involving several dozen countries on a coalition to reestablish freedom of navigation in the strait. But they stress it won’t start until there is a sustainable ceasefire and the maritime industry is reassured ships can go through the strait safely.

Diplomacy continues ‘day and night’
U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran doesn’t accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. On Friday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the country was not paying attention to “deadlines,” according to state-run IRNA.

Diplomacy continues. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country has been in contact with the U.S. and Iran “day and night” in an effort to extend the ceasefire and reach a peace deal.

Russia’s foreign ministry said that it, as well as Saudi Arabia, was calling for diplomatic efforts to reach a “sustainable, long-term agreement” to end the war.

Separately, Putin told reporters in Moscow that taking enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement would allow everyone to see “how much of it there is, and where it is located,” and “all of this would be placed under the control of the IAEA,” the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Egyptian and Qatari top diplomats reiterated that diplomacy is the sole path to a solution, according to a readout of a phone call between the two foreign ministers.

Still publicly unseen and unheard since the war began is Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, fueling speculation about his status.

On Friday, a top Iranian official said Khamenei was in “complete health” and eventually would appear in public. Mazaher Hosseini, affiliated with the office of Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the war, made the comment at a pro-government gathering. Hosseini said Mojtaba, Khamenei’s son, had knee and back injuries in the war’s opening attacks but they’ve largely healed.

A new Channel 12 poll is raising alarm bells inside the Likud, showing growing dissatisfaction among the party’s own voters less than a year before elections.

According to the survey, only 58% of Likud voters say they are certain they will vote for the party again. The remaining 42% are either undecided, considering other parties, or say they may not vote at all.

Among those considering leaving:
• 10% are looking at Naftali Bennett’s new “Together” party
• 6% are considering Gadi Eisenkot’s “Yashar!” party
• 4% may move to Yisrael Beiteinu
• 3% to Otzma Yehudit
• 6% say they may not vote at all

When asked why they are reconsidering support for Likud:
• 37% cited the October 7 disaster
• 23% pointed to the draft law controversy
• 14% blamed Netanyahu’s personal conduct
• 13% cited growing division within Israel

The poll also found that 30% of Likud voters believe Netanyahu should “step down with dignity,” though 64% still say he should continue leading the party into the next election.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

(AP) – A person who jumped a fence and was on a runway at Denver International Airport was struck and killed by a Frontier Airlines plane during takeoff, airport authorities said. The collision sparked an engine fire and forced passengers to evacuate.

The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,” according to a post on the airport’s official X account.A spokesperson for the airport said the person, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.

“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”

The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”

The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”

Frontier Airlines said in a statement that flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the collision.

The airline said the plane was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members.

“We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities,” the airline said.

Passengers were evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. The airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals.

One passenger, Jacob Athens, posted video showing people sliding down with their backpacks. He also posted photos of what looked like a damaged engine.

“As we were lifting off the engine of the plane exploded. There was so much smoke we couldn’t even see 1 ft in front of us,” Athens said on his Facebook page, adding that passengers had to wait for over a hour on the runway and “still no transport or help with the cold.”

Other video shows passengers calmly walking down the aisle of the plane and using the slide to evacuate. They were told to step away from the plane.

Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, was closed amid an investigation. It reopened Saturday around 11 a.m.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the person “breached airport security at Denver Int’l Airport, deliberately scaled a perimeter fence, and ran out onto a runway.”

He added: “No one should EVER trespass on an airport.”

The incident came a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, the airline said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident or the name of the employee.

“We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,” the airline said. “We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”

We regret to inform you of the Petirah of Rebbetzin Necha Weiss A”H of Lakewood, who was Niftar just before Shabbos.

Rebbetzin Weiss was the Ezer K’negdo to her husband, Harav Gershon Weiss ZT”L while he served as Menahel at Ner Yisroel Baltimore, Menahel Ruchni in Staten Island and as Rav in Lakewood’s Ateres Binyomin Shul.

The Levaya is scheduled to take place at 11:30 AM Sunday morning at Tiferes Bais Yaakov in Lakewood, 613 Oak Street, with Kevurah at the Lakewood Bais HaChaim on Seventh Street.

Shiva will be at 125 Glen Avenue South in Lakewood.

Baruch Dayan Ha’emes.

MIAMI (AP) — About a dozen people were taken to hospitals with injuries Saturday after emergency officials responded to a boat explosion near Miami, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue agency said.

A charter boat was in Biscayne Bay, near Haulover Sandbar, when an explosion occurred on board, injuring the passengers, according to preliminary information provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

More than two dozen rescue units responded to the incident around 12:48 p.m. and “encountered multiple patients requiring medical attention,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said in a statement. The agency said it transported 11 people to local hospitals.

Neither agency provided any information about the condition of those who were injured.

The state Conservation Commission said an investigation is underway.

The U.S. Coast Guard was among the emergency crews that responded.

Less than five months into 2026, Canada’s Jewish community has already experienced more violent antisemitic attacks than during all of 2025, according to B’nai Brith Canada.

The group’s League for Human Rights reports that 11 violent antisemitic incidents have been recorded nationwide since January 1, surpassing the 10 incidents documented throughout last year.

The alarming trend has put 2026 on pace to become one of the most violent years for Canada’s Jewish community in recent memory.

In the latest incident, three Jewish individuals were reportedly shot at with a replica firearm from a passing vehicle Thursday night as they exited the Chasidei Bobov synagogue on Bathurst Street in Toronto.

The attack comes amid a series of other synagogue-related incidents reported across the country in recent months.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that the conflict in Ukraine is nearing its end after he oversaw a military parade on Red Square commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II — a show that didn’t include heavy weapons for the first time in nearly two decades.

Security was tight in Moscow as Putin and several foreign leaders attended the parade, which was scaled down even as a U.S.-brokered three-day ceasefire eased concerns about possible Ukrainian attempts to disrupt the festivities.

Putin, in power for more than a quarter-century, has used Victory Day, Russia’s most important secular holiday, to showcase the country’s military might and rally support for his military action in Ukraine, now in its fifth year.

Speaking at the parade, Putin hailed Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, declaring that they “face an aggressive force that is armed and supported by the entire bloc of NATO,” and are fighting for a “just cause.”

“Victory has always been and will be ours,” Putin said, as columns of troops lined up on Red Square.

Talking to reporters later, he accused Western “globalist elites” of arming Ukraine to defeat and break up Russia and declared that “I think the matter is coming to an end.”

But in a notable shift this year, the parade took place without tanks, missiles and other equipment put on display every year since 2008, aside from a traditional flyover of combat jets.

Officials explained the change of format by the “current operational situation” and the threat of Ukrainian attacks. The authorities also ordered restrictions on all mobile internet access and text messaging services in the Russian capital on Saturday. Putin told reporters after the parade that it didn’t feature heavy weaponry because the military needs it on the battlefield in Ukraine.

For the first time, Saturday’s parade featured troops from North Korea, a tribute to Pyongyang that sent its soldiers to fight alongside Moscow forces to repel a Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

Earlier ceasefires failed to hold until Trump stepped in
Russia declared a unilateral ceasefire for Friday and Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a truce that was supposed to begin on May 6, but neither held as the parties traded blame for continuing attacks.

Fears about the festivities’ security eased Friday, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Russia and Ukraine have bowed to his request for a ceasefire running Saturday through Monday and an exchange of prisoners, declaring that the break in fighting could be the “beginning of the end” of the war.

Zelenskyy, who said earlier this week that the Russian authorities “fear drones may buzz over Red Square” on May 9, followed up on Trump’s statement by declaring Red Square temporarily off-limits for Ukrainian strikes and mockingly permitting Russia to hold its Victory Day celebrations on Saturday, a move that the Kremlin shrugged off as a “silly joke.”

Putin told reporters after the parade that Trump offered to broker a ceasefire after Russia informed the U.S. and others that it would launch a massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv fraught with collateral damage if Ukraine attempts to disrupt Saturday’s festivities.

“We just described the situation to our friends, colleagues and partners: We don’t have any intention to exacerbate or worsen relations with anyone, but it could happen because all control and decision-making centers in Kyiv are located close to diplomatic missions,” Putin said. “When we started such a dialogue with the U.S. administration, we warned them about this, pointed out the possible consequences and asked them to do everything necessary to ensure the security of their diplomatic mission.”

He noted that Russia immediately welcomed Trump’s offer that was driven by humanitarian motives and “respect to our common victory over Nazism.”

Putin has used Victory Day celebrations to encourage national pride and underline Russia’s position as a global power. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in 1941-45 in what it calls the Great Patriotic War, an enormous sacrifice that left a deep scar in the national psyche and remains a rare point of consensus in the nation’s divisive history under Communist rule.

Putin says he could meet Zelenskyy when a peace deal is ready for signing
Russia’s bigger and better-equipped military has been making slow but steady gains along the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) front line. Ukraine has hit back with increasingly efficient long-range attacks, striking Russian energy facilities, manufacturing plants and military depots. It has developed drones capable of reaching targets over 1,000 kilometers (more than 600 miles) deep into Russia, far beyond its capabilities before 2022.

Zelenskyy has proposed to meet with Putin to negotiate a peace deal, but dismissed the Russian leader’s suggestion that he come to Moscow. On Saturday, Putin said he could meet with Zelenskyy in another country, but only to endorse a comprehensive accord.

“A meeting in a third country is also possible, but only after a peace treaty aimed at a long-term historic perspective is finalized,” Putin told reporters. “This should be a final deal, not the negotiations.”

Putin praises foreign guests, Merz criticizes Fico
Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith, Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko attended the festivities in the Russian capital.

Putin hailed the foreign guests who attended the parade for “personal courage,” noting that they had decided to come to Moscow before the ceasefire brokered by Trump defused security concerns.

Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia, a European Union member, laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial just outside the Kremlin walls but stayed away from the Red Square parade. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Fico’s trip, saying, “I deeply regret this, and we will discuss his visit to Moscow with him.”

Speaking at a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Fico bemoaned what he called a new “Iron Curtain” in Europe that hampered trade, and emphasized the importance of Russia’s energy supplies to Slovakia. Putin hailed the Slovak leader for conducting a “sovereign” foreign policy and honoring the memory of fallen Red Army soldiers.

Firefighters responded to a structure fire involving two reportedly abandoned homes on Fifth Street near Clifton Ave. shortly before 5:00 AM early Shabbos morning.

Due to the heavy fire conditions, the incident was quickly upgraded to a second alarm, bringing additional firefighters and equipment to the scene to assist in battling the blaze.

Multiple Fire, EMS, and Police departments from the area responded as crews worked to bring the fire under control. Smoke could be seen throughout the area during the early morning hours as firefighters operated at the scene.

The Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire. While officials have not yet determined what sparked the blaze, investigators believe the abandoned structures may have recently been occupied by homeless individuals.

The incident comes just several months after a neighboring abandoned home was destroyed in a separate fire as reported by TLS raising concerns among nearby residents about the vacant structures in the area.

TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization sought Saturday to reassure residents of the Spanish island where passengers of a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship are expected to be evacuated, issuing them a direct message that the virus was “not another COVID.”

The Dutch-flagged MV Hondius, with more than 140 passengers and crew on board, is headed to Spain’s Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, and is expected to arrive at the island of Tenerife early Sunday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, arrived on the island Saturday to coordinate the disembarkation of passengers and some crew.

“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment,” Tedros said in a statement to the people of Tenerife.

“But I need you to hear me clearly: This is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” Tedros added.

The WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said nobody on the Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus.

Hantavirus can cause life-threatening illness. It usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus.

Some Tenerife residents say they don’t want the ship there
Some on Tenerife say they are worried. On board the cruise ship, some Spanish passengers have voiced concern about being stigmatized.

“I tell you, I don’t like this very much,” said 69-year-old resident Simon Vidal. “Anyone can say what they want. Why did they have to bring a boat from another country here? Why not anywhere else, why bring it to the Canary Islands?”

Others said they empathized with the boat’s passengers, but were still concerned.

“The truth is that it is very worrying,” said 27-year-old Venezuelan immigrant Samantha Aguero. She added: “We feel a bit unsafe, we don’t feel as there are 100% security measures in place to welcome it. This is a virus after all and we have lived this during the pandemic. But we also need to have empathy.”

Passengers can take only limited belongings and will be isolated
Garcia said passengers and some crew would disembark in Tenerife “under maximum safety conditions.”

The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor, with people ferried off in small boats. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms and won’t be taken off the ship until a flight is already in Tenerife waiting for them, Garcia said during a news conference in Madrid. There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.

Authorities are aiming to complete the evacuation flights on Sunday and Monday, the director of the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, Maria Van Kerkhove, said in a briefing Saturday.

Both the U.S. and the U.K. have agreed to send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans are to be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.

All Spanish passengers will be transferred to a medical facility and quarantined, Garcia said. Oceanwide has listed 13 Spanish passengers and one Spanish crew member on board.

Those disembarking will leave behind their luggage, Garcia said, and will be allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, charger and documentation.

Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to the Netherlands where it will undergo disinfection, the minister added.

A medical evacuation plane will be on standby
According to a letter sent by the Dutch foreign and health ministers to parliament late Friday, Spain has activated the EU civil protection mechanism for a medical evacuation plane equipped for infectious diseases to be on standby in case anyone on the ship becomes ill. That person would then be transported by air to the European mainland.

The Dutch government will work with Spanish authorities and the ship company to arrange repatriation of Dutch passengers and crew as soon as possible after arrival in Tenerife, subject to medical conditions and advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the letter said. Those without symptoms will go into home quarantine for six weeks and be monitored by local health services.

As the ship is Dutch-flagged, the Netherlands may also temporarily accommodate people of other nationalities and monitor them in quarantine, it said.

Countries scramble to track passengers who disembarked
Health authorities across four continents were tracking down and monitoring more than two dozen passengers who disembarked before the deadly outbreak was detected. They were also scrambling to trace others who may have come into contact with them.

On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first passenger had died on board, more than two dozen people from at least 12 different countries left the ship without contact tracing, Dutch officials and the ship’s operator have said.

It wasn’t until May 2 that health authorities first confirmed hantavirus in a passenger.

Dutch public health authorities have been monitoring people who were on a flight that was briefly boarded by a Dutch ship passenger who later died and was confirmed to have hantavirus. Three people who were on the flight and had symptoms have all tested negative for hantavirus, Dutch National Institute for Public Health spokesperson Harald Wychgel told The Associated Press on Saturday.

Concerns are mounting among New York business leaders that Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s aggressive rhetoric toward wealthy residents and major corporations could drive companies and jobs out of the city, potentially putting billions of dollars in economic activity at risk.

New figures obtained by The Post from the Partnership for New York City show that the organization’s 300 member firms in the corporate and financial sectors support nearly one million jobs across the city, contribute $13.5 billion annually in taxes, and generate roughly $370 billion in yearly economic output.

The analysis warns that even modest slowdowns in business growth could have severe financial consequences for the city, especially if wealthy residents and major employers begin relocating operations elsewhere amid fears of higher taxes and an increasingly hostile political climate.

“The numbers don’t lie,” said Steve Fulop, the business group’s president and CEO.

“New York’s private sector has invested billions and created hundreds of thousands of jobs. You can only treat job creators like the enemy for so long before they stop creating jobs here. The far left can run on socialism all day, but cities run on tax revenue — and tax revenue requires businesses that actually want to be here.”

Anxieties within the financial world intensified this week after billionaire hedge fund executive Ken Griffin announced that his firm, Citadel, would expand staffing in Miami instead of New York.

Griffin reportedly blamed the decision on Mamdani’s recent social media campaign promoting a tax on luxury second homes, during which the mayor highlighted Griffin’s $238 million penthouse apartment as an example of extreme wealth.

The backlash from Wall Street extended beyond Griffin. Financial executive Marc Rowan is also reportedly moving ahead with plans to establish a new major office hub for Apollo Global Management in either Florida or Texas, two states that have increasingly attracted businesses leaving New York.

Citadel and Apollo are both major players in New York’s financial industry, which according to the Partnership’s figures supports nearly 10% of all private-sector jobs in the city.

The report found that financial services led all industries in employment growth during 2025, posting a 3% increase.

If that pace continues, the Partnership estimates that its member firms alone could account for approximately 10,000 additional jobs, $8.4 billion in tax revenue, and $247 billion in GDP annually by 2030.

The study also warned that a relatively small reduction in growth — just 10% — could still result in the loss of about 3,000 jobs, a decline of $168 million in tax revenue, and a $4.8 billion reduction in GDP.

A more substantial business departure similar to Citadel’s widely publicized move out of Chicago could prove far more damaging, according to the analysis. Under a 30% contraction scenario, the city would lose more than 6,300 jobs, nearly $397 million in tax revenue, and roughly $11.7 billion in GDP.

The concerns come as New York faces growing pressure from a rapidly expanding municipal budget.

Mamdani has proposed a $127 billion city budget for the coming fiscal year and has advocated raising taxes on millionaires to help address a projected $5.4 billion deficit.

A former budget official who served during the administration of Michael Bloomberg said the city’s spending growth has significantly outpaced inflation, making New York especially vulnerable during economic downturns.

“If you are just raising taxes to fill a gap and doing nothing to close the gap, you are just going to raise taxes,” the official said.

The former official warned that higher taxes could encourage additional wealthy residents and companies to relocate operations outside New York.

“It’s a real death spiral,” the official said.

“Business leaders are just going to reallocate their workforce to Florida. That’s not a loss of a billionaire and their tax bill — it’s the workers and tens of millions of dollars.”

Tax Foundation senior fellow Jared Walczak said companies today are far less tied to one geographic location than they once were.

“It used to be that if you were finance, you had to be New York City, and that is not the case anymore,” he said.

“If they feel unwelcome or they are going to be an ongoing topic, that can easily push them elsewhere. They do not want to fight new proposals every year and be the solution to every revenue problem that can drive them elsewhere.”

Some political observers noted that fears surrounding progressive mayors have not always materialized. During his 2013 campaign, Bill de Blasio alarmed many business leaders with his “tale of two cities” messaging focused on income inequality.

Once in office, however, de Blasio often pursued policies aimed at encouraging economic development and maintaining relationships with the business community.

Political strategist Evan Roth Smith argued that Mamdani’s political rise was fueled more directly by criticism of wealthy individuals and corporations.

The mayor has mostly avoided public confrontations with wealthy New Yorkers during the current budget negotiations, Smith said, though he noted Mamdani’s clash with Griffin stood out.

“He should have picked someone who has a penthouse that doesn’t employ thousands of people,” the strategist said.

“I think the target was ill-advised. I think when it’s Zohran versus a rich guy who employs tens of thousands of people during a budget fight it’s a problem, but I think it goes to a draw.”

Smith predicted Mamdani would likely resume stronger anti-wealth rhetoric once budget negotiations conclude.

“Stuff like this is a winner for him and he’ll go back to it,” he said.

“I think the voters exist and they hate rich people.”

Representatives for the mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Responding to the Partnership’s findings, a spokeswoman for Kathy Hochul emphasized the governor’s support for businesses of all sizes throughout New York.

“From local businesses to global corporations, every employer plays a crucial role in making New York City the best place for business, and Governor Hochul is proud to support them all,” spokeswoman Jen Goodman said in a statement.

“The Governor has held the line on income and corporate taxes while delivering unprecedented job growth, including doubling the national rate of private sector job creation in New York City, and remains committed to ensuring New York’s businesses continue to succeed.”

{Matzav.com}

Finding a mental health professional who understands your values, your background, and your community should not take months, and it should not feel like guessing.

But for many people in the Jewish community, that is exactly what the search has felt like for years.

Calling referral agencies. Waiting weeks for a call back. Finally getting a name. Finding out that person is booked. Eventually getting in touch, only to realize they are not the right fit. And then having to start the search all over again.

And if you are looking for a coach, nutritionist, or support group, the search has often been even harder. Until now, most people had to rely almost entirely on word of mouth, with no clear platform that brought these professionals together in one searchable place.

That is the problem OKclarity.com was built to solve.

OKclarity.com is the only online platform built specifically to help the Jewish community find mental health and wellness professionals who understand their values. The platform features hundreds of excellent therapists, psychiatrists, nutritionists, coaches, and support groups, across a wide range of specialties, locations, insurances, price points, and approaches.

Over 10,000 people have already found a professional through OKclarity.com.  And they did not have to do it by guessing.

On OKclarity.com, visitors can browse for free and search by specialty, location, insurance, approach, and more. Professional profiles include video introductions, verified client reviews, session rates, and details about how each professional thinks, speaks, and works.

So instead of choosing from a name on a list, people can get a real sense of the person behind the profile before reaching out.

Rachel Brezel, LMHC, Rebecca Kivelevitz, M.S. Ed, and Perel Goldstein, LMHC, are just a few examples of the professionals currently featured on the platform, offering support across areas like anxiety, depression, OCD, relationships, emotional regulation, family work, and more.

But they represent only a fraction of the broader OKclarity.com network.

For anyone looking for support that feels aligned with their values, OKclarity.com makes the search clearer, faster, more personal, and less overwhelming.

To find the perfect fit therapist, psychiatrist, nutritionist, coach, or support group for you – visit OKclarity.com.

To get listed on OKclarity.com as a professional click HERE.

Instagram: @okclarity
WhatsApp Status: 917- 426 -1495 

Suddenly clear.

NEW YORK (VINnews) — S&P Global Ratings affirmed its ‘A/A-1’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Israel, stating that its economic outlook is “stable.”

The company, the largest assessment company worldwide, explained that “The stable outlook reflects our view that military de-escalation, underpinned by the ceasefire agreements, will lower immediate security risk for Israel. The outlook reflects our assumption that possible military hostilities will remain episodic and contained, even if tensions between Israel and Iran and its proxies persist and the broader regional security environment remains fragile.”

S and P warned that “We could take a negative rating action if Israel’s economic, balance-of-payments, or fiscal performance weakened markedly beyond our forecast, possibly as a result of military escalation.

It also reiterated that “We could raise the ratings if Israel’s growth and fiscal outcomes proved much stronger than we currently project. Rating upside could also stem from a significant and lasting reduction in regional geopolitical and security risks.”

• In explaining the rationale for its decision, S and P stressed that:
  Israel’s credit strengths include its wealthy, innovative, diversified economy, its sizable net external asset position, and the benefits that accrue from flexible monetary settings and a relatively deep pool of domestic savings.
• The ratings are constrained by very high geopolitical risks, as well as elevated security-related pressures on the country’s public finances.
• We expect the U.S.-Iran and Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreements to broadly hold. Occasional skirmishes and temporary breaches of the truce are still possible.The path to a lasting peace agreement in these conflicts will remain long, however.
• Military de-escalation will ease supply side constraints and push Israel’s real GDP growth to close to 6% in 2027.
• The U.S.-Iran ceasefire has held until now. The initial two-week truce was unilaterally extended by the U.S. administration, following the request of Pakistani mediators to provide the Iranian leadership more time to submit a peace proposal. Direct missile and drone exchanges between Israel and Iran have ceased since the truce took effect. We understand damage to Israel’s critical infrastructure from Iran’s missile strikes in February-March 2026 has been limited.

Regarding the possibility of continued warfare, the company wrote that “Despite military de-escalation, we believe the geopolitical risks Israel faces will remain high, not least because of the fragile regional security environment including in neighboring Lebanon. Notwithstanding Israel’s largely successful effort to degrade the military capabilities of its key adversaries–namely Iran and Iran-backed proxies including Hezbollah–tensions remain elevated. Israeli military involvement in Lebanon has widened and the existing ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel appears fragile. Moreover, the extent to which the U.S. and Iran might be willing to extend a ceasefire remains uncertain. There is a risk the U.S., Israel, and Iran could engage in another round of direct military confrontation.

The diverging views of Israel, the U.S., the EU, Türkiye, and the Gulf states on the post-war settings in Gaza will complicate progress toward a lasting peace agreement. The second phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, focused on security arrangements around Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas and the formation of a temporary international stabilization force, has largely stalled. Progress has been slow since it depends on the outcome of additional negotiations between Israel, Hamas, and international mediators, including on the composition of an international stabilization force and details of transitional governance in Gaza. Previous efforts to reach a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have had limited success.

The suspension of military activity will boost the Israeli economy from the second half of 2026. Absent military re-escalation, we project the recovery will likely start in the second quarter after our estimate of an almost 10% output contraction in annual terms in the first quarter of 2026 caused by the conflict with Iran. We project Israel’s GDP growth will rebound strongly in the second half of 2026 and reach 5.9% in 2027 as consumer and business confidence strengthens and the mobilization of reserve soldiers declines, easing labor supply constraints.

The fallout from the global energy price shock emanating from the Middle Eastern conflict is limited, given Israel’s sizable domestic gas production. Domestic natural gas accounts for 70% of electricity production (renewables and coal add another 15% each). Even though Israel imports both crude oil (from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan) and refined petroleum products, the inflationary impact of higher global energy prices has been to some extent mitigated by the exchange rate appreciation on the back of Israel’s persistent current account surplus.

Although we project the security risks to ease somewhat, Israel’s GDP will likely remain below the pre-war trend. This is due to the lasting effects of the military conflicts. Labor supply constraints will likely persist as more mobilized workers will likely remain in the military compared with before 2023, and Palestinian workers formerly employed in the construction industry (which constitutes 5% of GDP) are only partly replaced by foreign labor.

If broader regional tensions re-escalate, the implications for Israel’s economy could be sizable. While it is difficult to quantify, the effects of escalating conflict could include international sanctions, shocks to foreign and domestic investor confidence, capital flight, and financial market and exchange-rate volatility. These would likely come on top of direct physical damage to infrastructure and associated fiscal pressures.

That said, the resilience of Israel’s economy to security-related shocks has been remarkable. The structure of the Israeli economy, which centers on high-tech services exports, with a high percentage of employees able to work from home, has cushioned the impact of security disruptions. Heightened security risks have so far had limited impact on residents’ behavior, with no evidence of bank deposit instability or conversion to foreign currencies.

Israel established a secret military base in the Iraqi desert shortly before the outbreak of the war with Iran to support the Israeli Air Force’s extensive aerial campaign against Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Motzei Shabbos, citing sources familiar with the matter, including senior US officials.

According to the report, the base was established with the full knowledge of the United States. The outpost served as a key logistical hub for the Israeli Air Force and housed special forces units.

The report sheds light on another layer of Israel’s campaign against Iran, conducted roughly 1,800 kilometers from Israeli territory.

Israel also deployed search-and-rescue teams at the base to respond quickly in the event Israeli pilots were shot down over enemy territory, a scenario that Baruch Hashem did not occur.

The base was nearly exposed in early March after a local shepherd alerted Iraqi authorities to unusual military activity in the area, including helicopter flights and gunfire.

Following the report, the Iraqi Army dispatched forces to investigate the activity in the desert. IDF forces carried out airstrikes to deter the forces. One Iraqi soldier was killed, and two others were wounded in the incident.

Later, Iraqi authorities reportedly deployed two additional units from the country’s counterterrorism force — one of the main formations involved in the fight against Islamic State — to assist in searches in the area.

Evidence of military activity was discovered in the field, although the Israeli base itself was never officially uncovered.

Iraq later filed a complaint with the United Nations claiming the incident involved foreign forces and aerial attacks.

Officials in Baghdad attributed the strike to the United States, but according to a source quoted by WSJ, the US was not involved in the operation.

An Iraqi government spokesman declined to comment on whether Baghdad had prior knowledge of the Israeli base.

The Iraqi outpost gave Israel a significant operational advantage by bringing it closer to the battlefield, allowing faster preparation for rescue scenarios, and serving as a support point for Israeli Air Force special forces trained to operate deep inside enemy territory.

During the five-week campaign, the Israeli Air Force reportedly carried out thousands of strikes against targets inside Iran.

The report added that after an American F-15 Eagle was shot down near Isfahan, Israel offered assistance in rescue efforts, though US forces ultimately rescued the two crew members themselves.

According to one source, Israel also conducted airstrikes intended to help provide cover to US forces during the rescue operation.

Security experts told WSJ that establishing temporary operational sites ahead of military campaigns is not unusual.

Michael Knights, the head of the Horizon Engage intelligence firm, explained that western Iraq’s vast and sparsely populated desert makes it especially suitable for temporary bases of this kind.

He added that American special forces also used the region during operations against Saddam Hussein in 1991 and 2003.

Israel did not officially comment on the report, though according to the article, Israeli officials hinted during the war at the existence of covert operations.

In early March, outgoing Air Force chief Tomer Bar stated that “these days, forces from the Air Force’s special units are carrying out extraordinary missions that can spark the imagination.”

The newly revealed details paint a broader picture of the campaign against Iran: not only long-range airstrikes, but also covert forward deployment, significant diplomatic risk, and direct friction with local forces inside a third country.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)

The IDF spokesperson announced on Motzei Shabbos that an IDF reserve soldier was seriously wounded, and a reserve officer and another reserve soldier were moderately wounded after an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah exploded in the Shlomi area of northern Israel.

In additional incidents over Shabbos, Hezbollah launched several explosive drones toward Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon.

In one case, an explosive drone struck an unmanned military engineering vehicle, causing damage to the vehicle but no casualties among the troops.

In addition, the Israeli Air Force intercepted several projectiles fired toward soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.

Throughout Shabbos, warning sirens sounded in yishuvim across the Upper and Western Galil following hostile aircraft infiltrations and rocket fire from Lebanon. Residents were instructed to remain near protected areas.

Hezbollah also launched rockets and mortar shells toward Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon, with at least one launch intercepted by the Israeli Air Force.

A potentially serious incident was narrowly avoided Shabbos morning in Nahariya when an unmanned aerial vehicle was discovered on the roof of a school.

A large number of police forces and bomb disposal teams from the coastal district arrived at the scene, evacuated students and staff, and neutralized the device using a special crane.

Security officials urged the public to exercise heightened caution and immediately report suspicious objects.

(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)

More than a dozen Jews, including one believed to have fled to Israel, are among 30 people charged in an alleged decade-long insider trading scheme run out of major law firms, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Two unsealed complaints accuse the group of reaping tens of millions of dollars by using confidential information on mergers and acquisition deals obtained through law firms, where scheme leaders were employed. Conspirators allegedly passed information on to business associates, friends and relatives for trading purposes.

The network used burner phones, coded language and falsified research documents, prosecutors allege. The group also allegedly used “going to Israel tomorrow” and phrases about flight departures as code to share timelines related to illegal activities.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged some of the 30, 19 of whom were arrested, the Justice Department said.

“With today’s arrests, the FBI has dismantled a large-scale, decade-long, international organized criminal network of corporate attorneys and financial professionals, who are accused of stealing and trading on material, nonpublic information from several of our nation’s leading law firms,” stated Ted Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division.

“Everyone charged today is accused of scoring significant profits from expected market moves and making out like bandits,” Docks stated. “That’s not merely gaming the system. It’s a federal crime.”

The Justice Department said that one of those charged fled to Israel.

A tech entrepreneur who, more than a decade ago, served as executive director of the U.S.-Israel Business Council and as associate for policy and planning at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is alleged to have traded on inside information and then provided kickbacks to the head of the operation and college friend.

A corporate attorney who had worked at several large law firms and a New York lawyer are accused of being at the center of the scheme.

The two allegedly recruited lawyers and others as inside information sources in return for large sums of cash, with tips from the two passed on to traders, the department alleges.

“The trading on unannounced financial news alleged here not only violated the securities laws, but it also took advantage of the special access and ethical duties that come with a law license,” stated Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

“If the American people believe that trading is only for the connected, they will keep their investment and retirement savings out of the markets, which will hurt our economy,” she stated. JNS

{Matzav.com}

A federal judge has scheduled a July 15 trial for former FBI Director James Comey on newly filed charges accusing him of threatening President Donald Trump.

Louise Flanagan, who will preside over the case, also ruled that Comey does not need to appear in her North Carolina courtroom on Monday to enter a formal not guilty plea. That step will instead take place closer to the start of the trial.

Prosecutors have brought two criminal counts tied to a social media post Comey shared last May showing seashells arranged to read “86 47.” Authorities argue the message constituted a threat against Trump’s life. The number “86” is often used as slang meaning to get rid of someone or something, while Trump is the 47th president.

Comey has rejected the allegations, describing the case as politically motivated. Earlier charges against him were dismissed, and his legal team has indicated it plans to challenge the new indictment, arguing it amounts to selective and vindictive prosecution.

Judge Flanagan directed Comey’s attorneys to submit their motions, along with any other pretrial filings, by June 5, and indicated that additional hearings could be scheduled to address those arguments.

Comey is currently expected to appear in court on June 30 for arraignment, at which time he will formally enter his not guilty plea roughly two weeks before the trial begins.

Flanagan, who was appointed by George W. Bush, serves on the federal bench in New Bern, North Carolina.

The judge agreed to delay Monday’s arraignment at the request of both the defense and prosecutors. Comey had sought the postponement because he had already made an initial court appearance in Virginia, where he resides, shortly after being charged.

{Matzav.com}

Tyler Oliveira is a wannabee documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist who dives into what he calls “controversial” communities. He recently published a “documentary” titled “I Exposed New Jersey’s Jewish Invasion.” Now, he appeared on the program of Tucker Carlson, the formerly conservative commentator who is now anti-Israel and has gone off the rails. Perfect shidduch. Haters unite.

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

Apple Inc is reportedly moving closer to launching a new version of AirPods equipped with built-in cameras, as the company reaches an advanced testing phase for the product.

The device, which has circulated in reports for some time, is part of Apple’s broader effort to develop hardware centered around artificial intelligence. That initiative also includes plans for smart glasses designed to compete with Meta’s Ray-Ban collaboration. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the new AirPods could become Apple’s first wearable focused primarily on AI capabilities.

Sources say each earbud will include a camera, though the feature is not intended for taking photos or recording video like Meta’s glasses. Instead, the cameras will function as visual input for Siri, allowing the assistant to analyze surroundings and respond to user questions about what it “sees.”

For instance, a user could point the AirPods toward ingredients on a table, and Siri would suggest possible meals. Gurman likened the concept to the way users upload images to tools like Gemini or ChatGPT for analysis.

The concept first surfaced in 2024, and the product is now reportedly undergoing design validation testing internally. The next step would be production validation testing, which typically signals the start of early manufacturing. Early prototypes resemble the AirPods Pro 3, though they are said to have slightly extended stems to accommodate the camera components.

At the same time, Apple faces a major hurdle in refining Siri, which is central to the product’s functionality. The company has struggled to roll out a more advanced version of the assistant, and delays recently led to a $250 million settlement tied to related claims.

To bridge the gap, Apple entered into an agreement with Google to incorporate Gemini AI models into its ecosystem. After integrating those models, the company reportedly rebuilt Siri’s underlying framework and is now preparing for a possible release of the upgraded assistant in September.

More details could emerge during Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference keynote scheduled for June 8. The delayed Siri upgrade has also reportedly held back updates to other products, including the Apple TV 4K and HomePod. If the revamped assistant performs as expected, additional product announcements may follow later in the year.

As for the camera-enabled AirPods themselves, no official release window has been announced. However, Gurman reports that development is further along than other experimental AI devices Apple has been exploring, such as smart glasses and wearable pendants, which are believed to be targeting a 2027 timeframe.

{Matzav.com}

A massive philanthropic contribution from Jan Koum is poised to dramatically expand Shaare Zedek Medical Center, with a $200 million donation expected to significantly increase its capacity and mark the largest single gift ever made to Israel’s healthcare system.

The funding, provided through the Koum Family Foundation, will be used to construct a new inpatient tower that will also include residential accommodations for hospital staff. The expansion is projected to effectively triple the hospital’s size, which currently operates with roughly 1,000 beds. According to a source within the healthcare system, the necessary zoning approvals are moving swiftly through Jerusalem’s planning authorities.

This contribution edges past a major donation made last year by Anat and Shmuel Harlap to Beilinson Hospital, part of the Clalit network, which totaled $180 million. The Harlaps directed their funding toward the construction of the “Tower of Hope,” scheduled to open in early 2027. Once operational, the new facility is expected to enable the hospital to significantly expand the capacity of departments currently housed in the Gur Shasha hospitalization tower.

Another significant gift to Israel’s healthcare sector came last year from Sylvan Adams, who contributed $100 million toward building the Tkuma Building at Soroka Medical Center. The Israeli government matched that amount. The donation followed an additional $100 million contribution Adams made to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev after the October 7 attack, part of his broader effort to bolster development in southern Israel.

Taken together, these contributions reflect a broader trend in which private funding—largely from American Jewish donors—is playing an increasingly central role in expanding hospital infrastructure, often stepping in where government investment has lagged.

For Shaare Zedek, which operates independently and is not affiliated with one of Israel’s health funds, philanthropic support has long been a key driver of growth. A donation of this scale underscores the growing divide between institutions capable of attracting major private contributions and those that rely primarily on state funding.

{Matzav.com}

Three people were struck by vehicles in three separate accidents in Boro Park within a span of approximately 25 minutes on erev Shabbos, leaving all three critically injured, Belaaz has learned.

Two of the victims are 13-year-old boys from the Boro Park Jewish community. The third victim was also critically injured. All three were transported to the hospital and are on respirators. Physicians have identified brain bleeds in all three cases.

The accidents involved three different drivers on three different streets. Hatzolah responded to the scenes. There is no known connection between the incidents.

The tzibur is asked to daven for:
Yaakov Tzvi Hirsch ben Chana Yettel
Chaim ben Feiga Rivka for a refuah shleimah b’soch sha’ar cholei Yisrael.

President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to pause fighting for three days, marking a notable diplomatic breakthrough in the ongoing war.

The temporary ceasefire is set to run from May 9 through May 11, aligning with Victory Day observances. During that period, both sides are expected to halt military activity and carry out a large-scale humanitarian exchange involving 1,000 prisoners from each country.

The announcement came in a post on Truth Social, where Trump said the agreement was reached following his direct involvement and thanked both sides for their cooperation.

“I am pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE (May 9th, 10th, and 11th) in the War between Russia and Ukraine. The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day but, likewise, in Ukraine, because they were also a big part and factor of World War II,” Trump wrote.

He went on to outline the details of the arrangement, emphasizing that the ceasefire was initiated at his request.

“This Ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prison swap of 1,000 prisoners from each Country. This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” he added.

Officials at the White House view the short-term truce as a possible first step toward a more lasting resolution to the conflict, which has gripped Eastern Europe since 2022. Trump characterized the current talks as part of a broader effort to bring an end to the most significant war in Europe in decades.

“Hopefully, it is the beginning of the end of a very long, deadly, and hard fought War. Talks are continuing on ending this Major Conflict, the biggest since World War II, and we are getting closer and closer every day,” the statement concluded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed the ceasefire and the planned exchange of prisoners, while Russia has not yet issued an official public response.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market rose to records Friday following the latest sign that the nation’s job market is doing better than economists expected.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to an all-time high after a report said U.S. employers added 115,000 more jobs than they cut last month, even though the war with Iran is raising fuel costs and uncertainty for everyone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up by 12 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.7% to its own record.

While hiring slowed from March’s level, it was still nearly double what economists expected. And it helped the S&P 500 close out a sixth straight winning week, its longest such streak since 2024. The U.S. stock market has been blasting higher since late March, in part on hopes that the war will not mean a worst-case scenario for the global economy and that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to allow oil tankers to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf again.

It’s still to be determined if those hopes are warranted or just wishful. U.S. forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers on Friday after exchanging fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. It’s the latest flare-up in fighting to raise doubts about the tenuous month-old ceasefire that the United States has insisted is still in effect.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 1.2% to settle at $101.29 following the latest volleys of fire. That’s below its heights above $119 during the war, but it’s still much more expensive than its roughly $70 level from late February before the fighting began.

One big factor helping to support the U.S. stock market despite the war’s uncertainties is the strong profits that companies have been reporting for the start of 2026.

Monster Beverage jumped 13.6% after the energy drink maker joined the parade of companies topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue for the latest quarter. It benefited from strong growth outside the United States, and total net sales from there made up about 45% of its total, the highest percentage ever for the company.

Akamai Technologies leaped even more, 26.6%, after its results squeaked past expectations. It announced a $1.8 billion deal to provide cloud infrastructure services to an unnamed client over seven years. The cybersecurity and cloud computing company is benefiting from the surge in investment in artificial-intelligence technology.

Voracious demand for AI helped CoreWeave report revenue for the latest quarter that was more than double what it was a year earlier, but its net loss was worse than analysts expected. It also gave a forecasted range for revenue in the current quarter whose midpoint fell below analysts’ expectations. The stock of the company, which offers AI computing power to customers over the cloud, fell 11.4%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 61.82 points to 7,398.93. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 12.19 to 49,609.16, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 440.88 to 26,247.08.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.3%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.9% for two of the bigger losses.

South Korea’s Kospi was an exception, and it inched up 0.1% to another all-time high.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased and remained lower after a preliminary report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is stuck near its lowest level since 2022. Consumers told the survey from the University of Michigan they’re concerned about both high gasoline prices and tariffs, though their expectations for inflation in the coming year softened by a bit.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.36% from 4.41% late Thursday and from 4.45% early this week.

Lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can give the economy a boost. Lower yields also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other kinds of investments.

The 10-year Treasury yield, though, remains well above its 3.97% level from just before the war.

Toronto police announced Friday that an 18-year-old suspect has been taken into custody and charged following two separate incidents in which members of the Jewish community were targeted with replica firearms.

Authorities identified the suspect as Ruslan Novruzov, who is facing four counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Officials said the case was handled by specialized units within the department, including counter-terrorism and firearms investigators.

In one of the incidents, three individuals standing outside the Chasidei Bobov synagogue in North York were fired upon Thursday night with what police described as a replica weapon.

One of the victims was hit and suffered minor injuries, which police said were likely caused by a pellet fired from a passing vehicle.

Investigators also allege that Novruzov was involved in a separate drive-by attack the previous week, during which a gel pellet gun was used to target visibly Jewish residents in a northern section of the city known for its concentration of synagogues and Jewish schools.

Those victims also reported minor injuries, and police later circulated video footage of the suspected vehicle as part of the investigation.

A senior police official said Friday that the incidents appear to have been intended to instill fear within the Jewish community and emphasized that the use of imitation weapons does not diminish the seriousness of the crimes.

“We recognize that Jewish residents have been living with a heightened sense of fear due to repeated incidents targeting their community, and this only adds to that, which is unacceptable,” said acting Deputy Chief Joe Matthews. “While the weapons used were imitation firearms, the impacts are very real. These are criminal acts that we allege were meant to intimidate and cause fear.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed the arrest, expressing support for law enforcement as the case moves forward.

“Law enforcement agencies have my full support as they investigate, and as they work to bring justice for the victims and the wider Jewish community,” Carney said.

{Matzav.com}

Iran sharply criticized the United States on Friday following American strikes on key sites near the Strait of Hormuz, with senior officials accusing Washington of undermining diplomacy and escalating tensions.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi charged that the United States repeatedly turns to force instead of pursuing negotiations after military action targeted Iranian positions.

“Every time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the US opts for a reckless military adventure. Is it a crude pressure tactic? Or the result of a spoiler once again duping POTUS into another quagmire?” Araghchi wrote.

“Whatever the causes, the outcome is the same: Iranians never bow to pressure and diplomacy is always the victim,” he added.

Araghchi also dismissed a reported CIA analysis regarding Iran’s missile strength, asserting that the assessment significantly underestimated Tehran’s capabilities.

“Also, the CIA is wrong. Our missile inventory and launcher capacity are not at 75% compared to Feb 28. The correct figure is 120%,” he stated.

“As for our readiness to defend our people: 1,000%,” Araghchi added.

The comments followed U.S. military strikes carried out Thursday against Iranian targets at Qeshm Port and Bandar Abbas.

A senior American official later told Fox News that an additional strike hit Iran’s Bandar Kargan naval checkpoint in Minab.

Iranian media reported that Iranian naval forces responded by launching missiles and drones at three U.S. destroyers operating near the Strait of Hormuz.

United States Central Command later said American forces successfully intercepted those attacks and responded with defensive strikes after U.S. Navy vessels passed through the strait en route to the Gulf of Oman.

According to CENTCOM, Iranian forces deployed missiles, drones, and small boats targeting the USS Truxtun, USS Rafael Peralta, and USS Mason, though none of the American ships sustained damage.

The U.S. military said it retaliated by striking Iranian military infrastructure tied to the attacks, including missile and drone launch systems, as well as command centers and surveillance networks.

President Donald Trump characterized the U.S. strikes as a “love tap” and said the ceasefire between the sides remained in place.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said the three U.S. destroyers moved through the Strait of Hormuz “very successfully” despite being fired upon, adding that Iranian attackers and small vessels were destroyed.

Separately, a confidential CIA analysis cited by the Washington Post found that Iran still retains significant ballistic missile capabilities even after sustained U.S. and Israeli strikes.

The report indicated that Iran continues to possess about 75 percent of its mobile missile launchers and roughly 70 percent of its overall missile stockpile.

It further concluded that Iran has regained access to most of its underground storage facilities, repaired certain damaged systems, and completed assembly of additional missiles that were close to readiness before the conflict began.

Trump said Wednesday that Iran’s missile arsenal had been “mostly decimated.”

{Matzav.com}

American forces stepped up enforcement of a sweeping maritime blockade on Friday, stopping multiple Iranian-flagged oil tankers from reaching port and intensifying pressure on Tehran’s oil network, according to United States Central Command.

Officials said two empty tankers—the M/T Sea Star III and M/T Sevda—were prevented from docking at an Iranian port along the Gulf of Oman after being struck and disabled by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet launched from the USS George H.W. Bush.

Earlier in the week, on May 6, U.S. forces similarly halted the Iranian-flagged M/T Hasna as it attempted to reach port in the same region. That vessel’s rudder was rendered inoperable when an F/A-18 Super Hornet from the USS Abraham Lincoln fired multiple rounds from a 20mm cannon, leaving it unable to proceed. All three ships are no longer en route to Iran.

“U.S. forces in the Middle East remain committed to full enforcement of the blockade of vessels entering or leaving Iran,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander said Friday.

“Our highly trained men and women in uniform are doing incredible work,” he added.

According to CENTCOM, the operation has already forced dozens of ships to change course, with more than 50 vessels redirected and several others disabled as part of the ongoing effort. U.S. forces are currently preventing more than 70 oil tankers from accessing Iranian ports.

In a Friday morning update on X, CENTCOM stated that the blocked vessels collectively could carry over 166 million barrels of Iranian oil, estimated to be worth more than $13 billion.

The large-scale mission is part of a broader effort to impose a full blockade on Iran’s oil exports, targeting a key source of revenue for the regime.

“Blockade remains fully in effect,” a CENTCOM graphic stated, adding that “no ships [are] allowed in or out of Iranian ports” as enforcement operations continue “across the Middle East and beyond.”

Military officials indicated that the campaign involves a substantial U.S. presence, including more than 15,000 service members, upwards of 200 aircraft, and at least 20 naval vessels.

CENTCOM reported that over 50 ships have already been diverted to ensure compliance with the restrictions, while 73 tankers remain unable to transport Iranian oil.

The operation draws on a wide range of military capabilities, including aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, guided-missile destroyers, combat aircraft, surveillance platforms, drones, and aerial refueling assets.

The intensified crackdown comes as tensions between Washington and Tehran continue to rise, driven by disputes over Iran’s nuclear program, proxy activity throughout the Middle East, and threats directed at U.S. allies.

The Trump administration has repeatedly pledged to restore “maximum pressure” on Iran and choke off the regime’s primary source of revenue: oil exports.

Iran depends heavily on oil sales to sustain its government operations and fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which U.S. officials have tied to backing terrorist groups and regional proxy forces.

Historically, U.S. sanctions have focused on preventing Iranian crude from reaching international buyers, particularly in Asian markets.

The blockade also highlights the growing American military presence in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters, a region critical to global commerce.

About one-fifth of the world’s oil supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the strategic importance of maintaining stability in the area.

Critics caution that such aggressive tactics could heighten the risk of direct confrontation with Iran, while supporters argue the move signals renewed U.S. strength and deterrence after years of regional instability.

CENTCOM’s latest update makes clear that Washington intends to sustain economic pressure on Iran while reinforcing its military posture across the Middle East.

“$13+ billion not benefitting Iran’s leadership,” the CENTCOM graphic emphasized, highlighting the financial impact of the blockade on the Iranian regime.

{Matzav.com}

A major ruling from the Supreme Court of Virginia on Friday handed Republicans a significant win, invalidating a Democratic-backed congressional map and reshaping expectations ahead of the midterm elections.

In a narrow 4-3 decision, the court ruled that the voter-approved map was improperly enacted, declaring it “null and void.” The outcome shifts momentum in the broader national battle over redistricting, giving Republicans an opening in a closely contested fight for control of the House.

Virginia’s current congressional delegation stands at six Democrats and five Republicans. The now-rejected map had been expected to heavily favor Democrats, potentially expanding their advantage to 10 of the state’s 11 seats.

“On the first day Democrats tried to enact this scheme, we said it was illegal and unconstitutional,” said Mike Young, president of Virginians for Fair Maps. “Here we are months later, and it’s illegal and unconstitutional.”

Political analysts had projected that the map—crafted by Democratic lawmakers and narrowly approved in an April 21 referendum—would deliver four additional seats to the party, strengthening its chances of reclaiming the House in November.

Dave Wasserman, a senior editor and redistricting specialist at the Cook Political Report, described the ruling as “a massive setback for Democrats” who will now need to pick up a net of “more like 10 seats to win control of the House, rather than just three.”

With Republican-led redistricting efforts advancing or already completed in states including Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama, Wasserman now estimates the GOP “will pick up somewhere the six to seven-seat range from redistricting.”

Even so, he noted that Democrats remain favored to win back the House, though the ruling improves Republican prospects. “Republicans have a more realistic chance of holding their majority than they did prior to this ruling and the [Louisiana] Supreme Court decision,“ he said.

The legal battle in Virginia is part of a wider, back-and-forth struggle between the parties over congressional maps nationwide. The dispute has been tied to political planning efforts associated with James Blair, a former White House deputy chief of staff, aimed at strengthening President Trump’s agenda heading into the final stretch of his term.

At earlier stages, Republicans appeared to misjudge the evolving landscape, as California responded to redistricting moves in Texas by revising its own map, and Virginia seemed poised to tilt the balance toward Democrats.

“A lot of overpaid operatives in DC owe James Blair an apology right now,” a GOP consultant close to the White House told The Post regarding the Trump ally, who recently stepped back from his role to focus on election strategy.

President Donald Trump welcomed the court’s decision, posting on Truth Social: “Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters also praised the outcome. “Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose,” he said.

“Today, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with the rule of law and struck down Democrats’ unconstitutional maps. The RNC led the charge in court against this blatant power grab, where Virginia Democrats poured more than $66 million into an effort to lock in control and silence voters. We took them to court, and we won”

Democratic leaders responded by emphasizing respect for the judicial process while signaling continued opposition. Don Scott, speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates, said in a statement: “We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters — not politicians — have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people.”

Writing for the majority, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey explained that lawmakers advanced the constitutional amendment process “in an unprecedented manner.”

Because the state’s redistricting system was established through a prior constitutional amendment approved by voters, any changes required a new amendment. That process mandated passage in two separate legislative sessions, with an election in between, before appearing on the ballot.

The legislature first approved the amendment in October, during the early voting period but ahead of Election Day on Nov. 4.

A second approval came after the new legislative session convened in January. Lawmakers later passed an additional measure in February detailing the proposed districts, contingent on voter approval of the amendment.

At the center of the dispute was whether the October vote came too late, given that early voting had already begun.

Attorney Matthew Seligman, representing the legislature, argued that the “election” should be defined narrowly as Election Day, Nov. 4, meaning the initial approval occurred in time and complied with constitutional requirements.

Opposing counsel Thomas McCarthy contended that the term “election” encompasses the entire early voting period, which spans 45 days in Virginia. Under that interpretation, the legislature acted too late to meet constitutional standards.

The court sided with McCarthy’s argument. Kelsey wrote: “While the Commonwealth is free by its lights to do the right thing for the right reason, the Rule of Law requires that it be done the right way.”

“[V]oting in the general election for the House of Delegates began on September 19, 2025, and ended on Election Day, November 4, 2025. The General Assembly voted for the first time to propose the constitutional amendment to the electorate on October 31, 2025. By that date, over 1.3 million votes had been cast in the general election, which was approximately 40% of the total vote for that election cycle,” he added.

Kelsey concluded that by treating “election” as referring only to Election Day, lawmakers effectively “ended up denying over 1.3 million Virginians their constitutional right to have a voice in the debate over whether their Constitution should be amended.”

Israel’s Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich strongly pushed back against MK Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism following Gafni’s sharp criticism of Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer over the ongoing debate surrounding the gezeiras giyus.

Smotrich did not hold back, making it clear that the religious Zionist camp does not require validation from Gafni or his circle.

“Knesset Member Gafni, religious Zionism and its Torah world really don’t need your approval. Certainly not Minister Ofir Sofer, who has proven his dedication to the people of Israel with his body when he was severely wounded on the battlefield and received a medal.”

He went on to turn the focus back on Gafni, calling on him to take a more direct and consistent position. “Instead of attacking religious Zionist heroes, it’s best you put out a clear statement: whoever doesn’t study Torah should immediately enlist. It’s that simple,” Smotrich stated.

The argument erupted Thursday, when Minister Sofer addressed the chareidi Knesset members ahead of their meeting with gedolim to discuss the proposed draft law. Sofer urged them to reconsider their current approach and adopt a more practical path forward.

“Instead of talking to rabbis who will advance a bill that doesn’t have a majority, since I will oppose it together with other coalition Knesset members, ask them to call on those who don’t study to enlist and assist in the war,” Sofer said.

Gafni reacted sharply to those comments, expressing strong objection to Sofer’s remarks and his involvement in the issue. “Ofir Sofer has no idea about the importance of Torah study and its place in protecting the existence of the Jewish people for generations. He should focus on the matters of aliyah and integration he is charged with, and not intervene in matters which he does not understand.”

{Matzav.com}

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man charged with attacking the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is seeking to disqualify top Justice Department officials from direct involvement in prosecuting him because they could be considered victims or witnesses in the case, creating a potential conflict of interest.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro were attending the April 25 event at the Washington Hilton when Cole Tomas Allen allegedly ran through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer.

In a court filing late Thursday, Allen’s attorneys argued that it creates at least the appearance of a conflict of interest for Blanche and Pirro to be making any prosecutorial decisions in the case.

“As this case proceeds closer to trial, the country and the world will continue to wonder — how can the American justice system permit a victim to prosecute a criminal defendant in a case involving them?” defense attorneys Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe wrote.

Ohm and Abe, who are assistant federal public defenders, suggested that the appointment of a special prosecutor might be warranted. They urged U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump nominee assigned to Allen’s case, to disqualify Pirro, Blanche and possibly other Justice Department officials from direct involvement in the investigation and prosecution.

“Both heard gunshots, which presumably forced them to duck below the tables with the rest of the occupants. They were quickly evacuated. Shortly thereafter, they learned that law enforcement believed the target was certain administration officials,” Ohm and Abe wrote.

Pirro said her office will respond to the defense lawyers’ arguments in its own court filing.

“We will not tolerate people who come to the District of Columbia to engage in antidemocratic acts of political violence; and we will prosecute all such acts to the fullest extent of the law,” Pirro said in a statement.

Allen is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges in an indictment handed up Tuesday by a grand jury in Washington.

The charges include attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, who is a longtime friend of Pirro. Blanche served as a personal attorney for Trump before joining the Justice Department last year.

Blanche, through a spokesperson, referred a request for comment to Pirro’s office.

Allen also is charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the attempted assassination charge alone.

The Secret Service officer who was shot once in a bullet-resistant vest fired his own weapon five times without hitting anybody. Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was injured but was not shot.

Tucker Carlson made waves on the Megyn Kelly Show Thursday by saying that Israel could not exist without support from the $1.5 trillion U.S. military.

This generated massive backlash, with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee slamming Carlson for what appeared to be his fabulist fib.

“Neither of these people are dumb,” he wrote on X. “I worked with them at Fox. They know how to Google basic facts. The U.S. provides $3.8 billion (NOT $1.5 trillion), but Israel spends many times over that on [the] U.S.”

“We get a huge ROI — are they too lazy to research or intentionally lying?” he wondered.

It appears, for once, that Carlson was in fact misunderstood. He did not actually say that the U.S. provides $1.5 trillion in aid to Israel. Instead, he characterized the U.S. military as a $1.5 trillion military that backs Israel.

“Israel could not sustain a blockade or defend itself for 24 hours without the $1.5 trillion U.S. military backstopping it and enforcing the long-standing defense guarantee,” were his exact words. “… If that were to go away, Israel would have two choices: Suffer elimination or use nuclear weapons.”

Of course, it’s a fantasy of Carlson’s that Israel would cease to exist without U.S. aid.

Still, Carlson doesn’t deserve too much benefit of the doubt. The master of manipulation surely knows that his clever phrasing will lead his Israel-hating fans to believe that the U.S. spends that outrageous amount on Israel — and that his detractors will melt down over the perceived lie.

For the record, the actual amount Israel receives in military aid is $3.8 billion, which Israel is required to use to buy weapons manufactured in the U.S. An added benefit for the U.S. is that Israel test drives its weapons and provides crucial feedback on their effectiveness, leading to greater improvements.

From where did Carlson get the gargantuan $1.5 trillion figure he cited? He did not pull it out of thin air. The Trump administration has proposed a 2027 defense budget to build what President Trump calls a “Dream Military” to support conflicts the government deems are in the best interest of the United States.

The current defense budget of the United States is below $1 trillion. The U.S. does not, in fact, have a $1.5 trillion army.

So don’t believe Tucker Carlson — he lies even when he’s not lying.

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted Friday that he will not resign after bruising elections that saw his governing Labour Party suffer big losses and the anti-immigration party Reform UK make major gains.

The local and regional elections are widely seen as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since he led Labour to power less than two years ago.

Voters have grown impatient for economic growth and dramatic change after 14 years of Conservative government, and many Labour lawmakers have become despairing at the government’s failure to deliver.

Starmer said he took responsibility for the “very tough” results but would not quit.

“The voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved,” he said. “I was elected to meet those challenges, and I’m not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos.”

Reform UK, led by the veteran nationalist politician Nigel Farage, won hundreds of local council seats in working-class areas in England’s north such as Hartlepool that once were solid Labour turf, and also made gains from the Conservatives in areas like Havering on the eastern edge of London.

Farage said the results marked a “historic change in British politics.”

Reform took seats from both Labour and the Conservatives as results were tallied across England. Votes were also being counted in contests for semiautonomous parliaments in Scotland and Wales.

A Labour rout in the elections could trigger restive party lawmakers to call for the leader, who won a landslide victory in July 2024, to announce a timetable for his departure. Even if Starmer survives for now, many analysts doubt he will lead the party into the next national election, which must be held by 2029.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy cautioned the party not to topple the prime minister, saying “you don’t change the pilot during the flight.”

Results reflect fragmentation of UK politics
Labour lost votes to Reform UK, running on an anti-establishment, anti-immigration message, and also to the Green Party, whose popularity has risen under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski. The Greens beat Labour to win the mayoral race in London’s Hackney borough and gained hundreds of council seats in urban centers, as in Manchester, and university towns, such as Cambridge.

The Conservative Party also lost ground, with the centrist Liberal Democrats making some gains.

Tony Travers, professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the elections show established parties struggling “to respond to populists on the left and right who appear to provide painless and simple solutions to intractable political and economic problems.”

The results reflect a fragmentation of British politics after decades of domination by Labour and the Conservatives, and make the outcome of the country’s next national election hard to predict.

John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said Britain is entering a new political era where “none of the parties are very big.

“Even Reform are probably not quite at 30% of the vote, so the fracturing of British politics is underlined by these results,” he told the BBC.

Scotland and Wales go their own way
In Scotland and Wales, there were elections to their respective parliaments and for the first time, nationalist parties appear poised to come top in both.

In Scotland, the Scottish National Party, which has governed since 2007 and campaigned on a promise to hold another referendum on Scotland leaving the U.K., is on course to win the most seats in the Edinburgh legislature.

And in Wales, Plaid Cymru looks set for a historic breakthrough, bringing an end to Labour’s unbroken 27-year run in power in the Cardiff-based government.

The huge reverse for Labour in Wales, which saw its leader lose her seat and the party drop to third at best, is perhaps the party’s most striking reverse and the one that may hurt the most.

“Welsh Labour has today suffered a catastrophic result,” said outgoing Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan. “It ends a century of Labour winning in Wales and the party will have to take a really hard look at itself.”

As in England, Reform UK made eye-catching breakthroughs in both Scotland and Wales.

Starmer’s future is under threat
Starmer’s popularity has plunged after repeated missteps and U-turns on policies such as welfare reform. His government has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living — tasks made harder by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has choked off oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

The prime minister has been further hurt by his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

Poor election results could trigger a challenge from a high-profile rival such as Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Alternatively, Starmer could face pressure from the party to set a timetable for his departure after an orderly leadership contest.

“I don’t think Keir Starmer should survive these results,” said Labour lawmaker Jonathan Brash, who represents Hartlepool in Parliament. “We have to be bolder, and we have to go further. And quite frankly, we need new leadership in order to achieve that.”

New Jersey health officials are monitoring two state residents for possible exposure to hantavirus after contact with an infected traveler linked to the cruise ship MV Hondius, though authorities emphasized Thursday that the risk to the public remains low.

The New Jersey Department of Health said it was notified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the two residents may have been exposed during international air travel to a person later identified as infected with hantavirus.

The New Jersey residents were not passengers aboard the MV Hondius, according to the department, and neither individual has shown symptoms consistent with hantavirus infection.

State health officials said they are working with local agencies to monitor the travelers “out of an abundance of caution.” The department declined to release additional identifying information, citing patient privacy concerns.

Officials said no hantavirus cases have been identified in New Jersey, and the state has never recorded a confirmed case of the disease.

Hantaviruses found in the United States are typically spread by rodents and are not known to transmit from person to person. However, the strain connected to the MV Hondius outbreak — known as Andes virus — is found in South America and is the only hantavirus known to spread between humans, though such transmission is considered rare.

According to health officials, person-to-person spread generally requires prolonged close contact with an infected person or exposure to bodily fluids. The incubation period for the virus ranges from four to 42 days, and people without symptoms are not considered contagious.

Public health agencies in several other states are also monitoring returning travelers connected to the incident, officials said.

The New Jersey Department of Health said it will continue coordinating with federal, local and international health partners as more information becomes available.

A deeply moving story of chesed surfaced during a recent Israeli radio program hosted by Menachem Toker, when a listener shared a personal encounter that revealed a lesser-known side of singer Meidad Tasa.

The caller, identified as Dovid, recounted that several years ago, as a young yungerman shopping for Shabbos on a tight budget, he found himself short on funds at the checkout. “I got to the register and realized the total was more than what I had,” he said. Standing nearby at the time was Meidad Tasa.

According to Dovid, Tasa did not know him and did not wait to be asked for help. “He called me over to the side while the cashier was scanning the items and said to me, ‘I get tips at events,’” Dovid recalled. Moments later, Tasa quietly handed him money—almost exactly the amount he was missing. “He gave me 200 shekels; I was short 190-something,” he said, still emotional. The entire act was carried out with complete tznius, without drawing any attention. “He really did it humbly, quietly, from his jacket.”

Toker was visibly moved by the account and immediately tried to reach Tasa live on air. At first, the singer’s wife answered the phone and expressed surprise upon hearing the story. “About Meidad, who is a tzaddik, I can testify to that in every sense of the word,” she said. Shortly afterward, Tasa himself joined the broadcast, explaining that he had just woken up from a nap and was on his way to pick up his children from gan.

When Toker mentioned the supermarket incident, Tasa sounded both embarrassed and taken aback. “Wow, wow, wow, I can’t believe it,” he said. He then shared a personal story that sheds light on his approach to giving.

He described how, on the day of his wedding, as he was heading to the mikveh, he realized he had only two shekels in his pocket. “I said to Hashem, I’m a chosson and I only have two shekels in my pocket?” At that moment, he encountered a poor person and chose to give him the last coins he had. “I said: Ribono Shel Olam, I’m giving him these two shekels and You will take care of me.” Since then, he said, he has felt that he is constantly being taken care of from Shamayim.

During the conversation, Tasa also repeated a phrase he often attributes to his mother, which has become a guiding principle in his life: “Minus in the bank, plus in the home.” When asked what he meant, he explained, “A person shouldn’t worry too much about the bank… The main thing is that there should be a plus in the home.”

The story left a strong impression on listeners, as Tasa emphasized that for him, the ability to help another Yid is itself a privilege. “I feel it’s a great merit that I was even able to give to him. He did a chesed with me,” he said.

{Matzav.com}

A widow of the Meron tragedy has come forward with a painful account of her experience traveling to the tziyun of Rav Shimon bar Yochai, describing what she calls a ten-hour ordeal marked by mistreatment and insensitivity at the hands of police, as she attempted to mark her husband’s yahrtzeit.

Racheli Goldberg, whose husband was among those killed in the Meron disaster five years ago, set out with her yesomim to visit the kever despite ongoing restrictions and the security situation. Armed with all the necessary legal permits, she expected a journey of hisorerus and tefillah. Instead, she says, it became a distressing experience of “mistreatment under the auspices of the Israeli police.”

According to Goldberg, the difficulties began early in the trip, at the Gush Halav junction, where they were left waiting for hours in the rain and cold. She recounted that a police officer at the scene refused to recognize their official permits. “I stood in the rain, I pleaded respectfully, and in response I received brutal treatment and a police officer who shined a flashlight into my eyes as if I were a criminal… The insensitivity reached its peak at the Safsufa junction. The officer saw the permits and still chose to violate the procedures and block us. When I told him it was illegal and that we had the right to enter, he simply shouted: ‘There is no entry, the hilula is over.’”

She said the most painful aspect of the experience was its impact on her children, who continue to carry deep trauma from the tragedy in which they lost their father. Goldberg described how the conduct of police on the scene triggered those emotions once again. “My children carry deep trauma from the first year after the Meron disaster, where the police also behaved with brutality and a lack of sensitivity. When they were forced to again see uniforms acting with aggression and shouting, the result was a severe anxiety attack in the middle of the road.”

Goldberg also expressed anguish over what she described as a glaring contradiction throughout the ordeal. While her family was being held back for hours in harsh conditions, she said they saw police vehicles freely entering and exiting the area, along with empty buses passing by without allowing them to board. “The absurdity cried out to the heavens the entire time,” she wrote. “While they blocked us and forced my children to stand in the rain and cold, we saw police vehicles going in and out constantly with no apparent purpose.”

She concluded her account with a demand for accountability from authorities, calling on the state and senior officials to answer for what took place. “The State of Israel sent me with a legal permit in hand, but officers on the ground decided they were above the law. We reached the tziyun after 10 exhausting and unnecessary hours, after the emotional damage to my children had already been done. I will not remain silent about this bizayon.”

{Matzav.com}

(AP) – Republicans have opened up an advantage in a national redistricting battle among states after a pair of court rulings that weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities and invalidated a key Democratic redistricting effort.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority congressional district in Louisiana has provided grounds for Republicans in several Southern states to try to eliminate House districts with large minority populations that had been protected under the Voting Rights Act.

Meanwhile, a Virginia Supreme Court ruling invalidated a voter-approved congressional map that Democrats had been counting on to deliver as many as four additional U.S. House seats. The court said Democratic lawmakers had violated the state constitution when placing the proposal on the ballot.

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn based on census data after the start of each decade. But an unusual spate of mid-decade redistricting broke out after President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to reshape U.S. House districts to give the party an edge in the midterm elections. Democrats in California countered with their own political gerrymandering. More states followed.

So far, Republicans believe they could win up to 14 additional seats from new districts in Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain up to six seats from new districts in California and Utah. But those tallies presume past voting patterns hold in November. Historically, the president’s party tends to lose seats in the midterms.

Democrats need to gain just a few seats in November to wrest control of the House from Republicans, which would give them greater power to oppose Trump.

Where new House districts are proposed
Lawmakers in several states are considering plans for new U.S. House maps.

Louisiana
Current map: two Democrats, four Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has postponed the May 16 congressional primary to allow lawmakers to revise U.S. House districts in response to an April 29 Supreme Court ruling striking down a majority Black congressional district.

Challenges: Several lawsuits have been filed in federal and state court asserting that Landry lacked authority to suspend the primary elections.

Alabama
Current map: two Democrats, five Republicans

New map: Republican state officials hope to revert to a U.S. House map passed in 2023 — but not previously used — that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: The current map was imposed under a court order and is supposed to be used until after the 2030 census. State officials have asked federal courts to set aside that order in light of its ruling in the Louisiana redistricting case.

South Carolina
Current map: one Democrat, six Republicans

New map: Republican state House members have proposed a new U.S. House map that could give the GOP a better chance at winning an additional seat.

Challenges: State lawmakers are to wrap up their regular work May 14. The House voted to allow redistricting to be considered after then, but the extension also would need a two-thirds vote from the Senate.

Where new House districts are in place
New U.S. House districts are in place in eight states. Six took up redistricting voluntarily, one was required to by its state constitution and another did so under court order.

Texas
Current map: 13 Democrats, 25 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a revised House map into law last August that could help Republicans win five additional seats.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in December cleared the way for the new districts to be used in this year’s elections. It has since overturned a lower-court ruling that blocked the new map because it was “racially gerrymandered.”

California
Current map: 43 Democrats, nine Republicans

New map: Voters in November approved revised House districts drawn by the Democratic-led Legislature that could help Democrats win five additional seats.

Challenges: The U.S. Supreme Court in February allowed the new districts to be used in this year’s elections. It denied an appeal from Republicans and the Department of Justice, which claimed the districts impermissibly favor Hispanic voters.

Missouri
Current map: two Democrats, six Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a revised House map into law last September that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: A Cole County judge ruled the new map is in effect as election officials work to determine whether a referendum petition seeking a statewide vote complies with constitutional criteria and contains enough valid petition signatures. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit claiming mid-decade redistricting is illegal. It’s scheduled to hear arguments in May on claims the new districts violate compactness requirements and should be placed on hold pending the potential referendum.

North Carolina
Current map: four Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: The Republican-led General Assembly gave final approval in October to revised districts that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Challenges: A federal court panel in November denied a request to block the revised districts from being used in the midterm elections.

Ohio
Current map: five Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: A bipartisan panel composed primarily of Republicans voted in October to approve revised House districts that improve Republicans’ chances of winning two additional seats.

Challenges: None. The state constitution required new districts before the 2026 election, because Republicans had approved the prior map without sufficient Democratic support after the last census.

Utah
Current map: no Democrats, four Republicans

New map: A judge in November imposed revised House districts that could help Democrats win a seat. The court ruled that lawmakers had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters when adopting the prior map.

Challenges: A federal court panel and the state Supreme Court, in February, each rejected Republican challenges to the judicial map selection.

Florida
Current map: eight Democrats, 20 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on May 4 that he had signed revised U.S. House districts that improve the GOP’s chances of winning four additional seats.

Challenges: Court challenges contend the new map violates a state constitution provision prohibiting districts from being drawn with intent to favor or disfavor a political party.

Tennessee
Current map: one Democrat, eight Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed new U.S. House districts May 7 that improve the GOP’s chances of winning an additional seat by carving up the lone Democratic-held seat, a Black-majority district that includes Memphis.

Challenges: Court challenges are expected ahead of the primaries, which are scheduled for Aug. 6.

LONDON (VINnews) – A 48-year-old man became the ninth person arrested in connection with the early-morning arson attack that destroyed four Hatzolah ambulances in Golders Green, counter-terrorism police said Friday.

The suspect was taken into custody Thursday on Leytonstone High Road, Counter Terrorism Policing London announced. The ambulances were set ablaze in the early hours of March 23.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of CTP London, said the attack caused significant concern in the community and that investigators remain focused on holding all responsible parties accountable.

“The attack on the Hatzolah ambulances caused considerable community concern and we have been working continuously to investigate this incident,” Flanagan said in a statement. “Our aim is to arrest and charge all those responsible for the arson attacks and other incidents targeted at Jewish, Israeli and Iranian sites in recent weeks.”

Counter-terrorism officers are also coordinating with Metropolitan Police colleagues to provide protective security to affected organizations, venues and businesses, she added.

The announcement comes as Scotland Yard unveiled a new specialist Community Protection Team of about 100 officers dedicated to safeguarding London’s Jewish communities amid elevated hate crime and terror threats.

The unit combines neighborhood policing with counter-terrorism expertise for a more sustained, intelligence-led response rather than relying on short-term officer surges. It will focus initially on Jewish areas but is designed as a model that could expand to other communities facing heightened risks.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley welcomed the initiative.

“The creation of a new Community Protection Team of around 100 officers is an important step in strengthening our response to the sustained threats Jewish communities are facing,” Rowley said. “It brings together experienced local officers who know their communities, supported by specialist capabilities, to provide more visible, consistent and intelligence-led protection.”

Rowley noted that government funding of £18 million has supported additional patrols but called for longer-term investment to maintain the enhanced security.

Since the Hatzolah attack and related incidents, authorities have arrested 31 people as part of connected counter-terrorism investigations. Eight have been charged, including a 17-year-old boy who pleaded guilty to arson in a separate attack on a Kenton synagogue. A 19-year-old man arrested May 7 in Portsmouth on suspicion of attempted arson was bailed until July.

Police urged the public to report suspicious behavior, especially with the U.K. terror threat level now at “severe.”

“If you have concerns about someone behaving suspiciously, please report it to us,” Flanagan said. “Your information could help us save lives.”

The graduation took place this morning at GCU.

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Rebbetzin Meira Edelstein a”h, widow of the revered rov of Ramat HaSharon, Rav Yaakov Edelstein zt”l. She was 89.

The Rebbetzin was the devoted eizer kenegdo to Rav Yaakov Edelstein zt”l during the later years of his life, standing faithfully at his side as he led the community and received the many who came seeking brachah and eitzah.

Her life story was widely regarded as one of the most remarkable and moving teshuvah stories of recent generations.

In her earlier years, she was a well-known and respected figure in Israel’s cultural world, enjoying success and recognition at the highest levels.

In the year Tav Shin Mem Beis, at the height of her career, she began a profound journey of teshuvah. With unusual courage and unwavering determination, she chose to leave behind the world of acting entirely and dedicate herself fully to avodas Hashem. She changed her name first to Mira and later to Meira, and undertook a life marked by exceptional prishus and tznius.

In her second zivug, she married Rav Avraham Lewis zt”l, a talmid of the Chazon Ish and among the early talmidim of Yeshivas Kaminetz, known as a tzaddik and a parush. She stood by his side with complete devotion until his petirah in Tav Shin Ayin Beis.

Following his passing, she was introduced—through the efforts of the rov of the Ramat Elchanan neighborhood, Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein—to her third zivug, Rav Yaakov Edelstein zt”l, rov of Ramat HaSharon.

Despite her advancing years, the Rebbetzin merited to serve Rav Yaakov with extraordinary dedication during his final years. She played a central role as his eizer k’negdo in guiding the kehillah and in welcoming the many thousands who came to their home seeking brachos and hadrachah.

Those who knew her spoke of a woman of rare refinement and greatness, whose entire life reflected unwavering emunah and bitachon. Members of the community said, “She was a living example that one can leave behind the hevel ha’olam hazeh and rise to true kedushah.”

She is survived by a son and descendants who continue to walk in the path of Torah and yiras Shamayim.

Tehei nishmasah tzerurah b’tzror hachaim.

{Matzav.com}

In a major development in an ongoing defamation case, a court has instructed Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to submit his complete and updated medical records for the judge’s confidential review, as part of a legal battle over claims regarding his health.

The directive was issued Thursday by Judge Menachem Mizrachi, president of the Magistrate’s Court in Ramla, in connection with Netanyahu’s lawsuit against protest activist attorney Gonen Ben Yitzchak and journalist Uri Misgav, whom he accuses of publishing false reports about his medical condition.

Under the ruling, the medical file must be delivered in a sealed and secured envelope directly to the judge’s chambers for private examination. Judge Mizrachi specified that the submission must include a signed statement from Netanyahu’s personal physician, Dr. Tzvi Herman Berkowitz, confirming that the file represents the most up-to-date and comprehensive account of the prime minister’s health.

The central issue in dispute is the timing of the discovery of a cancerous finding in the prostate. Judge Mizrachi noted that although an official annual health report released by the Prime Minister’s Office stated that Netanyahu underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, it did not clearly indicate when the condition was first detected.

“This point is critical to the dispute at the center of the trial,” the judge wrote. About two weeks ago, the Prime Minister’s Office published a medical update stating that on December 29, 2024, Netanyahu underwent a procedure due to benign prostate enlargement, and that a later MRI scan revealed a small area with suspicious characteristics. The key legal question is whether the defendants’ claims were false or based on information that had not been made public.

The lawsuit was filed after attorney Gonen Ben Yitzchak posted allegations on social media claiming that Netanyahu was suffering from pancreatic cancer. “Following your visit last night to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, I received information that you were treated for pancreatic cancer,” he wrote in a post that sparked widespread attention. “I wish you good health, but it is appropriate that the person leading the system stand courageously before the public and reveal his true condition.”

Journalist Uri Misgav later echoed more general claims about Netanyahu’s health, asserting that his condition was impaired in a way that affected his functioning. These claims were strongly rejected by the Prime Minister’s Office, which described them as “absolute lies.”

In addition to requesting the medical file, the defendants asked the court to summon for testimony Prof. Aharon Popovtzer, head of the oncology department at Hadassah, and Dr. Berkowitz. At this stage, Judge Mizrahi declined to call them immediately in order to avoid unnecessary harm to medical privacy, though he left open the possibility for later.

“At the stage of presenting evidence, after the plaintiff’s testimony, the court will issue a further decision regarding the request to summon the two doctors,” the judge ruled. The decision reflects the careful balance between preserving medical confidentiality and establishing the truth in the legal process.

According to the court’s timetable, the medical documents are expected to be submitted by May 13. The judge’s review is expected to clarify the timeline of diagnoses and treatments and help determine whether the contested publications were false or based on undisclosed facts.

Sources close to the prime minister have consistently argued that the claims, including the allegation of pancreatic cancer, are entirely unfounded and were intended to damage Netanyahu’s reputation and public trust. With the medical file now set to be reviewed by the court, further clarity is expected.

{Matzav.com}

Israel’s most expensive home is back in the spotlight, and even after a massive reported discount, the asking price still sits in another universe, $210 million, or about NIS 630 million. The property is Valery Kogan’s giant Caesarea estate, a palace-like Mediterranean compound built on roughly 11 dunams with about 6,850 square meters of built space. Kogan originally sought about $260 million, while the latest marketing is being handled by Davidson Real Estate and aimed mainly at buyers abroad. Past offers reportedly reached roughly half a billion shekels, but were rejected as too low.

This is not just another luxury villa. Kogan bought the land in 2008 and spent years building one of the most extravagant private homes Israel has ever seen. The mansion was largely designed by Italian architects, with Italian professionals brought in for the project, and includes Italian marble, 14-karat gold details, and a level of ornamentation that feels closer to a private palace than a normal coastal home. Construction was completed in 2015.

The current marketing materials describe a 73,700-square-foot estate called Bat Sheba’s Palace, with neo-Baroque and Rococo styling, marble, onyx, lapis lazuli, tiger’s eye, malachite, gold leaf, painted ceilings, Corinthian columns, two professional kosher kitchens, multiple lounges, a billiards room, a game room, staff apartments, backup generator, security systems, smart-home infrastructure, indoor and outdoor pools, and a separate spa complex of nearly 10,000 square feet.

Israel has expensive homes, but almost nothing lives in this bracket. Even the homes tied to Roman Abramovich and the Adelson family in Herzliya Pituach reportedly reached around a third of the Caesarea asking price. In Israel’s officially recorded top luxury deals last year, a historic Talbiyeh villa sold for about NIS 78.9 million, a sea-front Caesarea villa sold for NIS 78 million, and even a reported full-floor deal in Tel Aviv’s Rothschild 10 tower came in around NIS 106 million before being officially recorded. Kogan’s ask is not merely higher. It is a different category entirely.

There is also a messy listing history behind the clean “$50 million discount” headline. The estate first drew attention around 2020 at roughly $259 million, making it by far the most expensive home on the Israeli market at the time. Later, it was publicly reported at $149.5 million after failing to find a buyer. Now, the latest Israeli reports put the ask back at $210 million. That means the current campaign is not just a discount. It is a renewed attempt to reprice the home as a global trophy asset, not a normal Israeli real estate comp.

Israel’s wider housing market has cooled under high interest rates, war pressure, a strong shekel, and a large supply of unsold new apartments. CBS-linked data shows average home prices have fallen 10 of the last 12 months, with a 1.7% yearly decline, while Tel Aviv prices fell 5.1% over the year and the central district dropped 3.1%. The Bank of Israel also kept its benchmark rate at 4%, citing higher inflation pressure and geopolitical uncertainty.

Yet the top end has not disappeared. It has become more selective. Foreign buyers are still active in Israel’s luxury market, and last year’s high-end activity showed Jerusalem, Herzliya Pituach, and Caesarea gaining ground while Tel Aviv lost some of its old dominance. That is the real context for Kogan’s villa: a country still attracting serious capital, but a buyer pool that is smaller, more careful, and less willing to pay unlimited premiums for size and spectacle alone.

The villa’s strongest asset may not be the gold, the marble, or the palace architecture. It is the land. Caesarea offers privacy, sea proximity, history, distance from Tel Aviv’s congestion, and one of Israel’s rare luxury environments where a buyer can still own a vast horizontal estate rather than another tower penthouse. For the right billionaire, that scarcity is the pitch. For everyone else, the price exposes the limit of even Israel’s strongest luxury market.

Kogan, a Russian-Israeli billionaire tied in past reporting to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, built something almost impossible to replicate in today’s Israel, huge land, huge house, huge symbolism. The question is whether the next buyer sees it as a home, a collectible, a statement, or simply too much house at the wrong moment. At $210 million, the estate is not asking the Israeli market to prove what a villa is worth. It is asking the world’s richest buyers how badly they want a palace on Israel’s coast.

This coming Tuesday, the 25th of Iyar, marks the first Yahrtzeit of three Lakewood Bachurim tragically Niftar in a car accident.

Chaim Zelig Berl Z”L, Dovid Yitzchok Handler Z”L and Rafael Faham Z”L were involved in a fiery accident at the intersection of North Hope Chapel Road and New Central Avenue in Jackson.

A Sefer Torah is being written L’Ilui Nishmas Rafael Faham Z”L, as well as for Chaim Zelig Berl Z”L.

President Donald Trump is moving ahead with plans for a grand meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week, but uncertainty over the White House strategy for ending the Iran conflict along with tensions over Beijing’s support for Tehran suggest the two-month postponement of the summit did little to strengthen Washington’s hand.

Trump said that he and Xi would discuss the war in Beijing next week, praising the Chinese president as “very respectful.” The remarks came despite anger in the Chinese capital over sweeping U.S. sanctions targeting trade with Iran, culminating last week in the unusual step of Beijing ordering companies and ships to openly defy the measures.

Diplomatic dust-ups over the Iran war have injected uncertainty into preparations and overshadowed potential deliverables from the high-level summit, at which the two leaders are set to discuss a packed agenda on trade, Taiwan, fentanyl and artificial intelligence.

“It’s a huge distraction,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington. “The original date had to be postponed because Trump couldn’t handle two things at the same time, so the war obviously has already had an impact. But now, the question is, is the war going to critically affect the substance of the trip?”

Behind the scenes, U.S. and Chinese officials have been working to broker a deal that experts say is likely to include Chinese agricultural purchases, investment agreements, a consensus statement on AI guardrails and orders of U.S. commercial aircraft – a package of deliverables Trump could bring back to Washington as a foreign policy win. Analysts say Beijing, meanwhile, is hoping to extend a trade truce, ease sanctions and technology restrictions, and potentially secure assurances the United States will pull back on arms sales to Taiwan.

Those discussions will unfold amid rapid developments in the Iran conflict. On Tuesday, Trump abruptly paused an operation to escort trapped ships through the Strait of Hormuz less than two days after it began, citing ongoing peace negotiations – precisely the kind of high-intensity diplomatic management Trump had hoped to avoid when he postponed his original meeting with Xi in March.

Underscoring how deeply the Iran conflict is entwined with the summit, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Beijing on Wednesday, where the Iranian envoy briefed Wang on the Pakistan-mediated negotiations with Washington, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency.

“I think it’s a deliberate design that the Iranians are coming to tell the Chinese what is their bottom line position, what they think that China can help deliver and what China can do to massage Trump,” Sun said.

Beijing has avoided taking a strong public position on the war and has quietly urged Tehran to consider a U.S. peace deal. At the same time, it has maintained support for the regime, holding a number of official calls with Iranian officials in recent months while lashing out at what its Foreign Ministry has described as “dangerous” U.S. tactics in the strait.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has sharply escalated pressure on Beijing, imposing sweeping sanctions on dozens of entities and a major Chinese oil refinery tied to the shadow trade that funnels hundreds of millions of barrels of Iranian oil to the country each year, roughly 13 percent of its total imports.

Washington also took the unusual step of physically seizing two Chinese-linked vessels transporting Iranian goods – one of which Trump said was carrying “a gift from China” which “wasn’t very nice.” Beijing condemned the sanctions, calling them “illegal.”

With a week to go before the summit, senior U.S. officials expected to form part of the sizable delegation to Beijing have zeroed in on China’s role in the war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urged Beijing to use its meeting with Araghchi to help loosen Tehran’s chokehold on the strait.

“I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told, and that is that what you are doing in the straits is causing you to be globally isolated,” Rubio said ahead of Wang’s meeting with Araghchi.

That request could soon be tested. Rubio on Tuesday urged China not to veto a U.S.-backed U.N. resolution calling on Iran to halt attacks and mine-laying operations in the Strait of Hormuz. The measure could go to a vote just days before Trump’s visit. Last month, Beijing vetoed a separate U.S.-backed resolution supporting a coordinated international effort to secure the strait.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a key figure in preparations for the U.S.-China summit, accused Beijing of helping fund a “state sponsor of terrorism” through its support for the Iranian regime.

Analysts have downplayed expectations for major breakthroughs from the summit, saying both sides are likely to focus instead on stabilizing relations and extending a fragile trade truce.

“After all these years of ups and downs, China has significantly lowered its expectations,” said Ren Xiao, a former Chinese diplomat and director of the Center for Chinese Foreign Policy Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Since Trump first previewed the summit in February – saying he hoped it would be the “biggest display you’ve ever had in the history of China,” the agenda has been scaled back from three days to two. It is also unclear whether he will receive the lavish welcome he has anticipated. Beijing does not publicly confirm high-level meetings in advance, wary of last-minute hiccups, and preparations have been kept under wraps.

On the U.S. side, preparations have forged ahead amid continuing distractions in the Middle East and periodic clashes with Beijing over the war. This week, images appearing to show U.S. military C-17 transport planes landing at Beijing airport circulated widely on Chinese social media, fueling speculation about what advance equipment Washington may be sending ahead of the summit.

Such flights are a routine part of advance preparations for presidential travel, which typically involve transporting security personnel, communications systems and armored vehicles including the presidential limousine known as “The Beast.”

Trump in February spoke enthusiastically about wanting a grand display of parading Chinese uniformed guards, and said last month that Xi will give him a “big, fat hug” in Beijing following his efforts to reopen the strait.

China maintains a tiered system of welcome ceremonies for foreign leaders, including 21-gun salutes and elaborate receptions at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square or more muted meetings depending on expected outcomes and the standing of the guests in Beijing. Privately, Chinese officials are concerned that an overly extravagant welcome could send awkward signals that it Beijing is being too accommodating toward the U.S. amid the fracturing conflict, according to the official.

“We know that Trump loves grand ceremonies, but China also hates to be seen as fawning over him at this sensitive point, worried that a grander-than-2017 welcome would contradict China’s role as a peacemaker and friend of the Middle East,” said Wang Yiwei, a former Chinese diplomat who is now a council member in the state-affiliated Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs.

(c) 2026, The Washington Post · Cate Cadell

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (VINnews) — The collapse of Spirit Airlines has triggered a massive effort to repossess aircraft, liquidate assets and redistribute valuable airport space as the discount carrier formally winds down operations.

According to a report by NPR, dozens of Spirit’s signature yellow jets are already being ferried from airports across the country to long-term storage facilities in Arizona following the airline’s shutdown last weekend.

Industry officials told NPR that the airline ceased operations with more than 90 aircraft spread across airports nationwide, creating a logistical scramble for lessors, airport operators and aviation recovery firms. Most of Spirit’s fleet was leased rather than owned outright, leading aircraft owners to move quickly to reclaim planes before arranging new leases or parting them out for engines and components.

Aviation specialists said some aircraft may soon return to service under different carriers, while others could remain parked in desert storage facilities for months amid uncertainty in the airline industry.

Beyond aircraft, Spirit is also attempting to monetize a wide range of assets through bankruptcy proceedings and liquidation efforts. Those holdings reportedly include maintenance facilities, office properties in South Florida, spare engines, airport gates and valuable takeoff and landing slots at some of the nation’s most congested airports.

Analysts interviewed by NPR said Spirit’s airport access rights alone could prove highly attractive to competitors seeking to expand service in major markets. Gates tied to airports in cities including Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles are expected to generate strong interest from rival airlines.

Particular attention is also being focused on Spirit’s coveted operating slots at LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport, where limited runway capacity makes landing rights especially valuable. Aviation experts told NPR that multiple airlines are likely to compete aggressively for those slots during the liquidation process.

The process of recovering aircraft has reportedly been far from smooth. Recovery crews and contract pilots have encountered confusion and resistance at airports while attempting to retrieve grounded jets. Some ferry pilots involved in the operations previously worked for Spirit and are now helping transport aircraft wearing casual clothing rather than airline uniforms, adding to the unusual scenes unfolding at airport gates around the country.

Industry analysts told NPR that broader economic pressures could complicate Spirit’s liquidation timeline. Rising jet fuel prices and financial strain across the airline sector have reduced demand for older or less fuel-efficient aircraft, potentially slowing asset sales and depressing values.

While experts expect buyers eventually to emerge for many of Spirit’s assets, they cautioned that the process could take months, leaving rows of grounded yellow aircraft sitting idle in Arizona’s desert storage yards as one of America’s most recognizable low-cost airlines disappears from the skies.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (VINnews) — A Brooklyn property dispute that attracted the backing of New York City elected officials and helped fuel calls by Mayor Zohran Mamdani for a stronger anti-deed-theft initiative is now increasingly appearing to center on allegations of misconduct by the very people claiming to be victims.

During a chaotic court hearing Thursday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Rachel Freier repeatedly cut through courtroom theatrics and demanded answers about the whereabouts of 84-year-old Allman Charrington, an Alzheimer’s patient under a Georgia conservatorship who was not produced in court despite prior promises.

the NY Post reported that Instead of bringing the elderly man, his daughter arrived with a loud group of supporters wearing anti-deed-theft slogans and disrupting proceedings. Several individuals were removed by court officers as tensions escalated inside the courtroom.

What had been publicly portrayed by activists and political allies as a straightforward case of alleged deed theft has taken a far murkier turn in court. Attorneys representing the Georgia conservatorship accused family members of defying court orders, concealing the elderly man’s whereabouts and improperly collecting his Social Security benefits.

Judge Freier repeatedly interrupted evasive answers from attorneys, signaling skepticism toward the narrative being pushed by supporters.

The case had previously gained political traction in New York, with demonstrations outside the contested Brooklyn property drawing attention from elected officials and activists. The controversy even helped intensify public pressure surrounding the city’s response to deed-theft complaints, an issue Mayor Mamdani later highlighted while announcing efforts to expand enforcement resources.

But according to statements referenced in court, investigators concluded the dispute was technically a family property conflict rather than a traditional deed-theft scheme.

As more details emerge, what was once framed publicly as a cause célèbre against alleged housing corruption is now increasingly being viewed by critics as a case where the loudest accusations may have been coming from individuals facing troubling allegations themselves.

A U.S. government watchdog has revealed four more staffers from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) who participated in the Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 Israelis, including dozens of Americans, as well as the abduction and holding of hostages, 251 of whom were taken to Gaza, according to a New York Post report.

The USAID Office of Inspector General identified three of them as teachers and one as a social worker, teaching children and performing social services by day, killing children and abducting civilians by night.

The IG is conducting a criminal probe into about 100 UNRWA staffers suspected of working with Hamas, with these four now added to the total. Twenty-one so far have been confirmed to have ties to the terror group or to have participated in the Oct. 7 attack.

This video shows an UNRWA employee dragging a murdered Israeli’s body into the trunk of his car with an accomplice.

“The recent investigation by the USAID IG confirms that the U.N. is deficient in vetting its own staff for ties to terrorist organizations,” an unnamed source from the State Department told the outlet.

“As the U.N itself doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist organization, both U.N. agencies and local NGOs may still hire Hamas-affiliated staff that place programs at high risk for diversion. This will not be tolerated.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2025 cutting aid to UNRWA, which received $1.5 billion in aid during the Biden administration, while $1 billion was diverted to Hamas, leading to a lawsuit that ended with a Manhattan federal judge ruling that the group has immunity from such claims as a U.N. organization.

The Department of Justice has moved to strip UNRWA of immunity and has also filed an appeal of the ruling.

StandWithUs reacted with a snide comment on X to the new revelations.

“ACT SURPRISED,” the Jewish advocacy group snarked. “Four former or current UNRWA employees have been found by USAID to have taken part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and/or to have ties to terror group Hamas.”

“UNRWA isn’t just complicit, it’s directly involved in Hamas’ terrorism,” the group added.

Responding to this post, Leo Terrell, senior counsel at the DOJ and head of the task force to combat antisemitism, posted a pithy rejoinder: “Jail them!”