Carvana, the company that built its name selling used cars through its signature glass-tower vending machines, is now making a major push into the new-car business — and the strategy could reshape how Americans buy vehicles.

The company showcased its vision this week at a Stellantis dealership in Dallas, where executives demonstrated a retail model that looks very different from the traditional dealership experience.

There are no salespeople roaming the showroom floor and no negotiation desks. Instead, the location functions as a customer experience center where shoppers can explore vehicles, take self-guided test drives, and complete the entire purchase process online.

“Every single car that we sell, whether it’s used or new, is online,” said Tom Taira, the Carvana president overseeing the company’s new-vehicle strategy.

The approach extends the formula that helped transform Carvana into one of America’s largest used-car retailers. The company is betting consumers increasingly prefer transparent pricing, minimal pressure, and digital convenience over the traditional dealership experience.

Carvana has quietly been laying the groundwork for this expansion. Since last year, the company has acquired seven Stellantis franchises representing brands including Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, and Dodge. Those dealerships are located in markets where Carvana already maintains a strong customer base, including Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Phoenix, Sacramento, and San Diego.

Early results have attracted attention throughout the auto industry.

One Arizona dealership acquired by Carvana reportedly became Stellantis’ highest-volume store in the country after the transition, selling more than 700 new vehicles in a single month compared with roughly 30 to 50 monthly sales before the acquisition.

The move gives Carvana access to opportunities that do not exist in the used-car market alone.

Franchised dealerships can participate in manufacturer-backed programs, exclusive dealer auctions, and new-car financing channels. The business also creates additional trade-in opportunities that can feed Carvana’s used-vehicle inventory operation.

The opportunity is massive. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, nearly 17,000 franchised dealerships operate across the United States, generating well over $1 trillion in annual sales.

For consumers, Carvana’s appeal remains straightforward.

Buying a vehicle has long ranked among the least popular major consumer experiences. Many buyers dislike lengthy negotiations, financing office pressure, and spending hours inside a dealership. Carvana’s model attempts to eliminate much of that friction by allowing customers to complete most of the process digitally.

The company is also taking a different path than electric-vehicle manufacturers such as Tesla and Rivian, which have spent years challenging state franchise laws.

Rather than fighting the system, Carvana is working within it by purchasing existing dealership franchises and maintaining compliance with state regulations governing new-car sales.

Questions remain about how the model will evolve.

Industry analysts note that vehicle servicing, warranty work, customer retention, and parts operations remain central to dealership profitability. How Carvana integrates those functions into its digital-first strategy could determine whether the model succeeds at scale.

Investors are watching closely as well.

While some analysts see the initiative as one of the most disruptive developments in auto retailing in decades, others are waiting to see whether the approach can be replicated across multiple markets and brands.

The Dallas location is effectively serving as a live test case.

Carvana is wagering that customers still want to see and drive a vehicle in person but increasingly want to complete the transaction online. If that bet proves correct, traditional dealerships across the country may find themselves under growing pressure to modernize their own sales experience.

For now, the company is taking a measured approach. But if the model continues producing strong results, the future of new-car retailing could look very different from the one Americans have known for generations.

JBizNews Desk
Detroit

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The whole world is buzzing, it seems, over the new deal signed this week between the United States and Iran. Months of listening to President Donald Trump seesawing back and forth between dire threats against Iran and promises of an amazing deal very soon has caused whiplash to those who follow the news closely and sowed confusion among both supporters and critics of the deal.

Enter our explainer that, well, explains everything you ever wanted to know about the deal. This guide clarifies the difference between a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and a treaty. You’ve been wondering, haven’t you?

Our tutorial also walks you through what each party stands to gain from the deal and breaks down a comparison between this MOU and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as well as the main points of criticism and support. Finally, our overview goes back and lists the war aims at the start of the campaign and the goals of the talks at the beginning of the ceasefire so you can see for yourself what has changed.

President Trump signs the memorandum of understanding in Versailles on May 17. (Credit: The White House)

But first, a quick summary of this week’s events:

Since the April 8 ceasefire between the United States and Iran, the two countries had engaged in on-again, off-again talks to reach a permanent agreement, concluding Wednesday when President Donald Trump signed a hard copy of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the Palace of Versailles in France. Meanwhile, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian signed his own digital copy in Iran. The MOU had already been signed electronically on June 15 by Vice President J.D. Vance and Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.

So … what is the difference between an MOU and a treaty?

An MOU is a formal document that is used as a springboard for a more lasting framework. While it states the intentions of all the parties, it’s non-binding and unenforceable. A treaty, on the other hand, is a binding contract that is enforceable under international law. Because an MOU does not need to be ratified by a government body like Congress, it allows an agreement between parties to take effect quickly. An MOU relies on good faith and trust, whereas a treaty requires formal authorization from a legislative body like Congress and results in a much longer process.

The language used in MOUs is softer than treaties, using words like “will,” “intend to” and “jointly determine.” Treaties use language that is more binding and mandatory, like “shall” and “agree.”

Finally, courts resolve disputes over treaties, while the parties to MOUs resolve their disagreements among themselves.

In practical terms, because an MOU carries no legal weight, its terms are easier to violate than a formal treaty because there are no legal repercussions.

Vice President J.D. Vancespeaks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ahead of their meeting on Iran amid the U.S.-Iran peace talks in Islamabad on April 11, 2026. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

The MOU between Washington and Tehran runs slightly longer than two pages and lists fourteen points.

What does Iran get out of the deal?

• The U.S. and its allies (i.e., Israel) cease all hostilities immediately in every region in the Middle East (i.e., Israel ceases operations in Lebanon).
• The U.S. and Iran agree not to meddle in each other’s internal affairs. This means, for example, that the U.S. cannot meddle in Iran’s human rights violations, such as the executions of protesters.
• The deal defers discussion of the nuclear framework until certain conditions are met. A final deal will be reached in 60 days, with mutually agreed-upon extensions. This means that a final deal can be postponed indefinitely.
• The U.S. lifts its naval blockade and removes its military forces from the region.
• Iran can start charging for passage through the Strait of Hormuz after 60 days.
• Iran gets $300 billion for reconstruction without that payout being contingent on its good behavior.
• All sanctions against Iran are lifted in a phased manner.
• Iran maintains the status quo on its nuclear program without incurring new sanctions.
• Iran can immediately start exporting crude oil, receiving waivers to do so from the U.S. while the process of lifting sanctions is ongoing.
• All of Iran’s frozen funds and restricted assets will be immediately unfrozen and available.

What does the United States get out of the deal?

• Iran will immediately open the Strait of Hormuz and will not charge “service fees” for 60 days.
• Iran agrees not to procure or develop nuclear weapons. It agrees to “down blend” its enriched uranium, instead of relinquishing it to the U.S. as the U.S. had originally demanded.

What else is in the deal?

• Both countries agree to establish a method to implement the terms of this deal, as well as the future terms of a final deal between the two parties.
• Once both parties sign the deal and implement the permanent ceasefire, lifting of the blockade, reopening of the strait and unfreezing of Iranian funds and assets, the U.S. and Iran will begin to negotiate the terms of a final deal regarding the remaining points.
• The United Nations will pass a binding resolution on the deal once it is finalized.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar greets his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi upon his arrival in Islamabad on April 24, 2026 for mediated peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. (Photo by Iranian Foreign Ministry/AFP via Getty Images)

Following is a comparison of the current MOU and the JCPOA that former President Barack Obama signed with Iran:

• Both deals ban Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. While the JCPOA laid out a specific plan to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons, it’s unclear how the MOU will enforce this, as that has not been negotiated yet.
• The JCPOA put in place specific restrictions on Iran’s nuclear production. For example, it allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67%, an amount used for electricity but well below the amount needed for nuclear weapons. It capped this restriction at 15 years. It required Iran to consolidate all its nuclear production into one facility in Natanz. And it also restricted the number and types of centrifuges Iran could produce. By contrast, the MOU doesn’t directly address nuclear production, which is expected to be addressed in future talks; but it does suggest some restrictions, such as down blending its enriched uranium.
• A major criticism leveled at the JCPOA is that it contained 10- and 15-year sunset clauses. The MOU does not have any such clauses, and it’s unknown if a final deal will include one. Trump has said both that he wants to implement a 15- to 20-year cap and to impose permanent restrictions, so this remains to be seen.
• Both agreements include phased sanctions relief, but the MOU grants immediate waivers to Iran so it can immediately start exporting oil and petroleum. A key difference lies in the number of parties to the agreement. The MOU has been signed only by the U.S. and Iran, while China, Russia, Britain and Germany were party to the JCPOA and therefore to sanctions relief. It’s unclear what sanctions relief will look like without these countries’ involvement.
• The JCPOA did not include economic funding for Iran, while the MOU grants a $300 billion infusion into Iran’s economy to help with postwar reconstruction efforts.
• Both agreements did not place restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
• Neither agreement mentioned Iran’s funding of terrorism.

Pakistan’s Army Chief and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir (third from right) meets with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (third from left) upon his arrival in Islamabad for mediated peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. (Photo by Iranian Foreign Ministry/AFP via Getty Images)

Praise for the MOU

• Leaders of the G7 nations and Asian nations praised the MOU for the immediate end to strikes, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the relief from high oil prices.
• The deal has also been lauded, especially by some Democratic lawmakers, for ending what they say was a catastrophic war. They conclude that even a flawed deal is better than dragging out such a conflict.
• The deal was praised for not allowing Iran to procure or develop nuclear weapons.
• Some Jewish groups expressed cautious optimism, saying the deal will stabilize the region as negotiations proceed for a hoped-for stricter final outcome on Iran’s nuclear program.

Criticism of the MOU

• Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have criticized the deal as appeasement of Tehran. Republicans have compared it unfavorably to Obama’s JCPOA.
• Critics argue that the $300 billion in economic aid is not only surrender but also offers the hardline regime an economic lifeline, whereas before it was teetering on the verge of collapse.
• The MOU defers negotiations on nuclear enrichment, potentially indefinitely, kicking the can down the road, a phrase that has also been used to describe the JCPOA.
• The terms of the MOU are unenforceable. The terms are also weakened by the fact that deep-seated conflicts, such as between Israel and Hezbollah, remain unresolved.
• Some argue that Iran has emerged more emboldened, more dangerous, more radicalized and more powerful than before, directly resulting from what they say is U.S. capitulation to Iran, in contrast to the initial terms the U.S. had laid out at the beginning of the April 8 ceasefire.

How does the MOU differ from the original goals of the United States?

The goals of the U.S. changed significantly from its initial war aims to its initial goals for a ceasefire agreement and then, finally, to the deal that has just been signed.

Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio contradicted each other on what they promoted as the war goals, but a consensus had emerged at the beginning of the war that listed four aims.

• Destruction of Iran’s nuclear program.
• Dismantlement of its ballistic missile program.
• Choking off of its ability to fund its proxies.
• Creating the conditions for regime change.

Once a ceasefire agreement was reached, the White House insisted, and indeed promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that a final deal must include the following conditions:

• The immediate, unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
• The complete cessation of funding of Iran’s proxy terror network throughout the Middle East, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
• The relinquishment of its entire stockpile of enriched uranium.
• The dismantlement of its ballistic missile program.

The Republican Jewish Coalition told its followers Thursday to “trust in Trump.” Meanwhile, in Israel, trust in Trump has plummeted thanks to the deal. Previously, he had enjoyed higher approval ratings in Israel than any Israeli politician. But his support plummeted in just the past three weeks from plus 16 percent to minus 23 percent as Israelis express their disapproval of what they see as a deal that will harm them in the end.

Conflicting signals emerged from Iran on Friday regarding the status of the Strait of Hormuz, with one Iranian military message warning of a renewed closure even as Tehran simultaneously promoted a 60-day transit fee waiver under its memorandum of understanding with Washington.

According to a broadcast attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N) on maritime frequencies near the strait Friday morning, Iran warned all vessels not to attempt passage, citing Israel’s refusal to withdraw from southern Lebanon and ongoing Israeli strikes there. The Panamanian-flagged container ship Muara, which departed from Hamad, Qatar, using the Iranian traffic separation scheme, was reported as the last non-Iranian-linked vessel to transit the strait outbound before the warning.

The broadcast stated that “Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, the complete lifting of the naval blockade, and the withdrawal of American… forces from the Persian Gulf and the region” were among the core conditions of the agreement between Iran and the United States, and that the strait “will remain closed until these conditions are met.” It further warned that “all ships are requested, for the sake of their security and safety, not to approach the Strait of Hormuz,” with some reports indicating that vessels defying the directive would be targeted.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry, however, pushed back on reports of a closure. Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Friday that Iran has taken the necessary steps to ensure the safe passage of merchant ships through the strait in accordance with the memorandum of understanding ending the broader conflict, and that maritime traffic continues uninterrupted. Baqaei’s statement came in response to international media reports suggesting Iranian authorities were restricting passage.

Adding to the murky picture, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) announced separately on Friday that no transit fees will be charged on shipments through the strait for the next 60 days, with Tehran covering related safety and insurance costs that would otherwise fall on shipowners. Vessels are required to submit passage notices 48 hours in advance, and coordination of designated routes and scheduled passage times remains mandatory due to mine-affected areas in the strait.

The fee waiver follows the memorandum of understanding signed remotely Thursday by President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, aimed at ending hostilities between the two countries and reopening the strait, with a 60-day window set for further negotiations on a final settlement, including Iran’s nuclear program. Washington lifted its naval blockade on Iran following the signing.

The Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical maritime choke points, carries roughly one-fifth of global oil shipments along with significant volumes of liquefied natural gas, and any disruption to traffic through the narrow waterway carries the potential to affect global energy markets.

Baqaei said negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program will take place within the 60-day window established by the agreement and will depend on Iran’s compliance with the accord’s terms. He said the current status of Iran’s nuclear program remains unchanged, and that the International Atomic Energy Agency will not inspect newly established facilities during the negotiation period. Any future changes to inspections or nuclear activities, he said, will depend on the progress of the talks.

Iran will also continue separate discussions with Oman regarding the long-term administration and maritime services of the strait, in consultation with other Persian Gulf states.

The conflicting reports out of Tehran on Friday underscore the volatility surrounding implementation of the new US-Iran agreement, even as both sides publicly affirm their commitment to its terms.

Just over half of Americans say they are proud of their national identity as the country approaches its 250th anniversary, a sharp drop from a little more than a decade ago, according to a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute.

In the PRRI poll, 51 percent of respondents said they are either “extremely proud” or “very proud” of being American. Twenty-three percent said they are “moderately proud,” 14 percent said they are “only a little proud” and 11 percent said they are “not at all proud.”

The figures mark a steep decline from June 2013, when 81 percent of respondents called themselves “extremely proud” or “very proud” of their American identity. At that time, 12 percent said they were “moderately proud,” 3 percent said they were “only a little proud” and 1 percent said they were “not at all proud.”

The drop arrives at a symbolic moment. The United States will mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The poll also found that only 18 percent of Americans said they are extremely or very proud of the way democracy is functioning in the country today, and roughly 7 in 10 said they believe the nation’s democratic rights and freedoms are under threat.

Robert P. Jones, PRRI’s founder and president, told Axios the findings point to Americans increasingly inhabiting separate views of the country largely along partisan lines. “Yes, we’re polarized,” Jones said, “but increasingly what we’re seeing is Republicans as outliers, and further and further from the middle.” According to the survey, Republicans were at least 30 percentage points more likely than independents and Democrats to express pride in their American identity.

The decline was steepest among younger adults. Americans ages 18 to 29 were the least likely to say they are proud of being American, at 34 percent. Pride also varied widely by religious affiliation, with white evangelical Protestants the most likely to say they are proud, at 76 percent, followed by white Catholics. Fewer than half of Hispanic Catholics, Black Protestants and religiously unaffiliated Americans said the same.

PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman tied some of the unease to the current political climate, including disputes over free speech and the right to protest. The new poll follows a decade of rising political tensions in the U.S., marked by increasingly heated rhetoric and episodes of political violence on both the left and the right.

The PRRI results echo a broader trend in recent polling. Gallup found in June 2025 that 58 percent of Americans were extremely or very proud to be American, the lowest reading in its 25-year trend and down from 87 percent when it first asked the question in 2001. Gallup also recorded a wide generational gap, with 41 percent of Gen Z adults expressing pride from 2021 to 2025 compared with 83 percent of the Silent Generation. A separate Reuters/Ipsos survey released this week found that about 38 percent of Americans do not believe the country will still exist as a single, unified nation 250 years from now.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The Faltishan Rav, who leads Vaad Mishmeres Kehunah, Harav Chaim Moshe Rokeach, the Yerislov Rav, together with Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein, announced that the halachic concern affecting kohanim traveling along McDonald Avenue near Washington Cemetery has been resolved.

The issue stemmed from ongoing work being performed by an MTA contractor along the elevated tracks on McDonald Avenue. As crews conducted work beneath the tracks, a temporary platform was constructed that extended over a grave within Washington Cemetery. According to rabbinic authorities, this created an issue of tumah that halachically extended along huge portions of the McDonald Avenue corridor.

The resolution was achieved through coordinated efforts involving all mentioned above, Washington Cemetery officials, the MTA, and the contractor performing the work. Following discussions and site visits, the necessary modifications were made to eliminate the concern.

The rabbanim expressed their appreciation to all parties involved for their cooperation and swift action in resolving the matter on behalf of the community.

More than 50,000 couples married in New Jersey in 2025, with Ocean County – powered by Lakewood – emerging as one of the state’s busiest destinations for weddings, according to new data obtained by TLS.

The state recorded a total of 50,055 marriages last year, with Bergen County, the state’s most populous county, leading all counties with 4,790 marriages, followed by Hudson County with 4,404, Essex County with 4,246 and Ocean County with 4,128.

Ocean County’s total placed it fourth statewide, narrowly ahead of Union County’s 3,830 marriages and Middlesex County’s 3,780.

The figures reflect Ocean County’s continuing population growth and its unique mix of year-round residents, rapidly expanding inland communities and popular Jersey Shore destinations that draw couples seeking beach weddings and seasonal celebrations.

A major contributor to the county’s marriage activity is Lakewood, home to one of the youngest communities in the Unites States and the fastest growing in the state.

The township has 10 wedding halls, with an average of eight weddings taking place on any given night, from Sunday through Thursday – amounting to roughly 160 weddings each month in Lakewood alone.

Marriage activity in Ocean County followed a pronounced seasonal pattern. December, which is usually around three months after the busy Bain Hazmanim engagement season was by far the busiest month, with 532 marriages, followed by September with 434 and August with 408. June, traditionally one of the most popular wedding months nationally, saw 382 marriages in the county.

Winter months were considerably quieter. January saw 193 marriages in Ocean County, rising gradually through the spring before peaking in the fall.

Statewide, October was the most popular month to marry, accounting for 5,464 marriages, or 10.9% of the annual total. September and May were close behind, each representing nearly one-tenth of all marriages performed in New Jersey.

The data also highlight regional differences across the state. Several South Jersey counties recorded fewer than 1,000 marriages during the year, including Salem County with 417, Warren County with 629 and Cumberland County with 704. By contrast, the state’s largest and most densely populated counties consistently recorded several thousand marriages annually.

Ocean County’s total means that roughly one out of every 12 marriages performed in New Jersey in 2025 took place there, underscoring the county’s growing importance not only as a residential hub but also as a center for family and community life.

In a significant Second Amendment ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with a Texas man who challenged a federal law prohibiting unlawful drug users from possessing firearms, concluding that the statute was unconstitutional as applied in his case.

The decision in United States v. Hemani was authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch and garnered agreement from all nine justices on the central outcome, although several members of the Court filed separate opinions debating the broader constitutional implications.

The case stemmed from the experience of Ali Danial Hemani, a dual U.S.-Pakistani citizen who grew up in Texas and lived with his parents in the Dallas area. In 2022, FBI agents searched the family’s residence while investigating possible terrorism-related concerns. According to the Court’s opinion, Hemani cooperated fully with investigators, voluntarily surrendering a firearm, directing agents to marijuana in the home, and acknowledging that he “used marijuana about every other day.”

During the search, agents recovered approximately 60 grams of marijuana, 4.7 grams of cocaine, and a Glock 19 handgun.

Despite the terrorism investigation that prompted the search, neither Hemani nor any member of his family was ever charged with terrorism-related offenses.

More than six months later, however, federal prosecutors charged Hemani under 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(3), a law that makes it a felony for anyone who is an “unlawful user of” or “addicted to” a controlled substance to purchase, own, or possess a firearm. A conviction under the statute carries a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years.

The same federal law attracted national attention during the prosecution of Hunter Biden, who initially signaled that he intended to challenge its constitutionality before ultimately pleading guilty and later receiving a pardon from his father, President Joe Biden.

Hemani sought dismissal of the charges, arguing that the statute violated his Second Amendment rights. A federal district court agreed and threw out the indictment. The government appealed, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals likewise ruled in Hemani’s favor. Federal officials then brought the case to the Supreme Court.

“The government’s prosecution of Mr. Hemani under §922(g)(3)’s unlawful user provision is inconsistent with the Second Amendment,” wrote Gorsuch.

In reaching that conclusion, Gorsuch relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which instructed courts to evaluate firearm restrictions by examining historical traditions from the nation’s founding era. Under Bruen, governments need not identify an identical historical law, but must demonstrate that “the challenged regulation is consistent with the principles that underpin our regulatory tradition.”

Federal attorneys argued that early American laws regulating so-called “habitual drunkards” provided a historical analogue. Those laws sometimes authorized imprisonment, commitment to institutions, or the posting of bonds to ensure future good behavior.

Gorsuch rejected that comparison, noting that the government’s reading of the statute would permit prosecution even in cases where there was no evidence that an individual was impaired or dangerous. He pointed out that the law could be applied to “and a college student who routinely uses a friend’s Adderall to cram for exams” or “a husband who regularly takes his wife’s prescription Ambien to sleep,” examples discussed during oral arguments.

The justice also observed that historical laws concerning habitual drunkards generally included procedural safeguards.

Those laws, he wrote, “usually provided some form of process,” including judicial proceedings or bond hearings “before an individual lost any of his liberties, even temporarily.”

By contrast, he said, §922(g)(3) purported to “automatically divest[] an individual of his constitutional right to bear arms the moment he becomes an unlawful user and until he ends his drug use.”

Gorsuch further noted that historical restrictions on habitual drunkards were justified on the grounds that such individuals posed unusual dangers to the public and were more likely to misuse firearms or commit acts of violence.

Yet under the modern statute, he wrote, “[i]t doesn’t matter what controlled substance an individual uses, in what amounts he does so, or whether his drug use has ever made him a danger to himself or others. It doesn’t even matter why he keeps a gun or how safely he does so. And for violating this automatic ban, the government insists, an individual like Mr. Hemani may be sent to prison for up to 15 years and disarmed for life.”

The Court emphasized that its ruling was limited in scope and should not be interpreted as holding that unlawful drug users can never be dangerous.

Instead, Gorsuch said, the Constitution does not permit the government “to conclude that anyone who regularly uses marijuana is categorically violent and dangerous without any further showing,” particularly given recent federal changes acknowledging marijuana’s “currently accepted medical use.”

The opinion also stressed that the ruling does not affect longstanding prohibitions on firearm possession by convicted felons, nor does it prevent prosecutors from pursuing gun charges against individuals whose drug use can be shown to create a genuine danger.

Although the Court agreed on the outcome, several justices offered differing views in separate concurring opinions.

Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the law is unconstitutional for an additional reason, writing that Congress lacks authority “to regulate the possession of firearms solely on the ground that they crossed state lines at some point in the past.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, used her concurrence to criticize the Bruen framework itself, arguing that it “is unworkable” and “vulnerable to inconsistent and arbitrary application, as judges draw different conclusions from the same historical evidence.”

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, agreed with the result but not all of the majority’s reasoning. He concluded that the government had “failed to show that a marijuana user like” Hemani “is incapacitated in a way analogous to the habitual drunkards that the Government’s analogues regulated.”

Gun-rights advocates celebrated the ruling.

“The Supreme Court made the right call,” the National Rifle Association wrote on social media after the decision was released.

The organization’s executive director described the ruling as “a major victory for the Second Amendment and peaceable gun owners across America,” adding that “no one should be deprived of their God-given right to keep and bear arms for engaging in nonviolent conduct, and there is no historical justification for doing so.”

The Second Amendment Foundation, which also supported Hemani before the Court, hailed the decision as another major victory for gun owners.

The organization said the ruling had “secured a victory for Second Amendment advocates and firearms owners nationwide.”

“The Court’s decision today affirms what SAF has argued for some time – there is no historical tradition of permanently disarming law-abiding citizens who use marijuana,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Founding-era laws addressed the dangers of intoxication through temporary restrictions, but not the complete ban on firearms possession for the remainder of the person’s life. We’re thrilled the Supreme Court agrees with us and struck down Mr. Hemani’s unconstitutional conviction.”

SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb similarly praised the ruling.

“The Court rightly held today that the proper understanding of the Second Amendment only provides for disarming those who are actually dangerous,” said Gottlieb. “Simply being an unlawful user of any drug fails to meet that standard, and today the court concluded that marijuana use, absent any other evidence, was insufficient to show Mr. Hemani was dangerous such that his rights could be constitutionally extinguished.”

The organization subsequently published a series of detailed analyses of the opinion on social media, examining its implications for future gun-rights litigation and other ongoing constitutional challenges.

Supporters of the ruling extended beyond traditional gun-rights groups. Rob Romano of the Firearms Policy Coalition highlighted comments from the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Hemani in the case.

According to the ACLU, the decision “makes it clear that the government cannot make it a crime for people to own a gun – which the Supreme Court has held is a fundamental constitutional right – simply because they use marijuana.”

The organization also argued that the statute “let the government arbitrarily discriminate against marijuana users and deprive them of their rights,” but now, “[t]he court has sent a strong message that the government cannot criminalize the conduct of large numbers of people by making categorical and unfounded assumptions about whether they are dangerous.”

Summing up the significance of the decision, firearms journalist Stephen Gutowski offered a headline that quickly gained attention online: “The High Court Says Yes to Buds and Bullets.”

{Matzav.com}

Oil prices tumbled this week after the U.S. military and the White House signaled a break in the Iran war, the clearest sign yet that a single geopolitical headline now moves markets more than any economic report. Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped below $78 a barrel on Thursday, its lowest level since early March, as markets reacted to the United States and Iran reaching an agreement to end the conflict. U.S. Central Command announced it had lifted restrictions on traffic to and from Iranian ports, and President Donald Trump said an interim agreement had been signed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

By Friday, Brent traded around $79 per barrel and was on track to fall roughly 10% for the week. Oil has now dropped about 38% from the four-month high it reached in April, erasing nearly all the gains recorded since the conflict began in late February.

The reason is geography. The Strait of Hormuz is narrow, heavily watched, and difficult to replace, normally carrying roughly one-fifth of global petroleum consumption. When the war choked off traffic, prices spiked on fears of a lasting shortage. Now that tankers are beginning to move again — with the Joint Maritime Information Center advising vessels to follow routes closer to Oman’s coastline to reduce mine-related risks — those fears are draining out of the market. Kuwait has said it will begin increasing production, while major producers including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq are positioned to restore millions of barrels of previously constrained output if the route remains open.

That whipsaw is the real story. For most of the past two years, traders focused primarily on inflation reports and Federal Reserve policy. In 2026, however, the dominant market driver has been the Middle East. When the conflict escalates, oil prices jump, gasoline costs rise, and stocks often retreat. When peace appears closer, oil falls and equities rally. The same event that lowers the cost of filling a gas tank can boost the stock market in a single trading session.

Gold has been moving to a different rhythm. The precious metal remains the traditional safe-haven asset, attracting investors during periods of uncertainty. Yet gold retreated sharply in mid-June, falling to around $4,100 per ounce, pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar and elevated Treasury yields that made the non-yielding asset less attractive. Even so, longer-term demand remains robust. The World Gold Council reported first-quarter gold demand reached a record $193 billion in dollar terms, while central banks purchased approximately 244 metric tons of the metal. That level of institutional buying does not disappear simply because one shipping lane reopens.

The divergence between oil and gold offers a useful window into investor thinking. Oil responds primarily to the physical question: are energy supplies moving freely? Gold responds to the broader question: is the world becoming more dangerous and uncertain? At the moment, crude oil has been the cleaner gauge of developments involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, reacting sharply to each diplomatic breakthrough or setback. Gold, meanwhile, reflects a deeper and more structural concern about geopolitical instability that extends beyond any single conflict.

None of this is settled. Even as optimism surrounding Hormuz pushed oil lower, a flare-up between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon killed at least 18 people and forced the postponement of the next round of U.S.-Iran negotiations scheduled for Switzerland before a renewed ceasefire was reached. That sequence — progress, escalation, then renewed calm — illustrates why a geopolitical risk premium remains embedded in markets. Traders have learned that apparent stability can disappear in a matter of hours.

The implications reach far beyond Wall Street. Lower oil prices eventually flow through to gasoline stations, shipping costs, airline fuel expenses, and the price of countless consumer goods. Energy has been one of the largest contributors to inflation this year, meaning sustained declines in crude prices could ease pressure on households and businesses alike. A calmer energy market could also provide the Federal Reserve, under Chair Kevin Warsh, with greater flexibility as it weighs future interest-rate decisions.

But the opposite remains true as well. If the conflict reignites and tanker traffic through Hormuz is disrupted again, energy prices could rise rapidly, pushing inflation higher and complicating the Fed’s efforts to stabilize prices. Businesses that depend on predictable transportation costs and consumers already facing elevated living expenses would feel the impact almost immediately.

For now, the lesson from this week is straightforward. The biggest force moving oil, gold, and stocks is no longer a jobs report, an inflation reading, or even a central-bank meeting. It is the next headline out of the Middle East. Until the conflict is conclusively resolved and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is secure, markets are likely to remain highly sensitive to every diplomatic breakthrough, military escalation, and ceasefire announcement that emerges from the region.

JBizNews Desk | Global Markets

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

JERUSALEM (VINnews) – Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon have “full freedom of action” to neutralize any threat, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Friday, as troops continue targeted operations against major Hezbollah tunnel systems despite a ceasefire agreement.

Defrin said soldiers are actively working in the Beaufort Castle area and along the Ali Taher ridge to demolish what he described as the terror group’s “central command centers.”

“Hezbollah is fighting a defensive battle to prevent our forces from completing the destruction of these infrastructures,” Defrin said. “Hezbollah is the one that violated the ceasefire. It is trying to defend its capabilities it built over the years.”

The spokesman emphasized that Israeli troops face “no limit” in removing threats across the area.

“There is no limit [concerning] removing threats,” Defrin added. “Troops have full operational freedom of action, to remove threats in any area.”

The statements come amid ongoing Israeli operations in southern Lebanon aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s military infrastructure following months of intense cross-border conflict. Israeli officials have repeatedly accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire by attempting to preserve its tunnel network and other capabilities.

The Military Rabbinate is sharing the story of Elyashiv, a soldier serving in the Rabbinate, whose eruv installation at a northern military outpost may have prevented a serious injury or death when an explosive drone launched from Lebanon became entangled in the wire and detonated harmlessly.

According to the Rabbinate, Elyashiv installed the eruv at the outpost near the Lebanese border about a month and a half ago as part of his military duties.

A few days after the eruv was put up, an explosive drone was launched from Lebanon toward the area. The drone became caught in the eruv wire and was unable to continue on its trajectory. As a result, the drone detonated on the wire itself rather than falling to the ground. No one was injured in the incident.

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Rabbi Menachem Genack, 78, had been speaking to JNS for about 45 minutes when, with a smile, he recalled a story about the Ponevezher Rav, who often received backlash for his dream of rebuilding the famed Ponevezh yeshiva after the Holocaust.

“People would tell him, ‘You’re dreaming,’” Genack told JNS. “‘Yes,’ he would reply. ‘But I’m not sleeping.’”

The longtime chief executive officer at OU Kosher, the Orthodox Union’s kashrus division, spoke to JNS two weeks before his planned retirement on July 1 after 45 years at the kosher certifier.

As his time at the OU winds down, Rabbi Genack has been thinking about Rav Kahaneman’s remark about being awake, he told JNS at OU headquarters in lower Manhattan.

“His vision, his determination, what he built,” Rabbi Genack said. “It’s very inspiring.”

The story has stayed with him as he transformed the OU kashrus division from a one-man operation into a global enterprise that today supervises and certifies more than 1.3 million products developed in 105 countries worldwide.

The division also now funds much of the organization’s broader work, including its youth outreach programs and publishing arm, OU Press.

But when Rabbi Genack arrived at the OU in 1980, the organization employed just a handful of people in kashrut. At the time, he was the department’s sole full-time rabbi.

“I wouldn’t say something had to be fixed” at the OU, he told JNS. “It needed to be built.”

Rabbi Genack determined that what the OU needed more than anything was “a clearer articulation of standards.” He assembled a small team to develop an ingredient-review department, establish consistent standards and expand the OU’s reach among major food manufacturers.

“We met regularly to discuss issues, write things down, formulate positions and define what the OU’s standards were,” he said. “At that point, I was the only one. Today, we have more than 50 rabbinic coordinators.”

Growing up, Rabbi Genack didn’t have a dream job, but in high school, and later as a student of Rav Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik, he discovered a love of Torah learning that would help shape the course of his life.

“There was no one like the Rav,” Rabbi Genack said. “He was an extraordinary pedagogue. He was so generous.”

He recalled spending summers learning with Rav Soloveitchik in Onset, Mass., on Cape Cod after the death of the rabbi’s wife.

“There were just a handful of us there—maybe six or seven,” he said. “I used to stay with one of his daughters, and the Rav would come for the weekend. He’d usually give a shiur and then go back to Boston or Brooklyn.”

Rav Soloveitchik “was just in a class by himself,” Rabbi Genack said, and was someone who could “hold a crowd of well over 1,000 people in the palm of his hand for three or four hours.”

He was not involved personally at the OU but mentored Rabbi Genack as the latter built the organization into what it is today.

“The Rav gave me direction and guided me toward this path,” he said. “One of the things he told me was that he didn’t want to see the OU become an absolute monopoly. He wanted to see the ‘little brothers’ succeed as well.”

“There was a communal responsibility, and we did that,” he told JNS. “If other agencies met high halachic standards, we accepted them.”

Politics, too, was part of Rabbi Genack’s inheritance.

Raised in Forest Hills, Queens, by Holocaust survivors and fervent Zionists, Rabbi Genack grew up in a home where Israel and public affairs were constant subjects of conversation.

When he was 4, his family moved to Israel, but his parents decided that the hardships of the state’s early years made life too difficult.

“There simply wasn’t enough food to go around,” Rabbi Genack said. “It was a difficult time.”

Though his family returned to the United States, his father’s “dominant interests” remained “Israel, Zionism and politics,” Rabbi Genack said.

“Politics was something that was discussed in our house a lot,” he told JNS.

“Especially for Jews,” he came to realize, “we have to have a voice.”

In 1994, he founded NORPAC, a bipartisan political action committee that strengthens support for Israel on Capitol Hill. He also developed a close relationship with former President Bill Clinton, the subject of his 2000 book, “Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons on Faith and Leadership.”

About halfway through the conversation, Rabbi Genack recalled seeing President John F. Kennedy as a child. In September 1963, just two months before Kennedy was assassinated, he said that he saw the president drive near Flushing Meadows Park, where Rabbi Genack was playing.

“They stopped all the traffic on Main Street,” he told JNS. “I was standing on the side of the highway when the president’s car passed by. We waved to him.”

As the OU expanded over the decades, Rabbi Genack said that the organization faced countless challenges, from losing access to its offices after 9/11 to adapting to remote work during the Covid pandemic.

One of the ways he kept the organization together, he said, was through a careful and deliberate hiring process.

“The OU was viewed as Orthodox, but limited to a particular constituency,” he said. “I wanted it to speak to the entire Orthodox community, so when I hired people, I looked across different communities—many different yeshivot and backgrounds.”

“I wanted the OU to look like the Orthodox world, so that it could speak to and communicate with the broader American Jewish community and beyond,” he told JNS.

He also focused heavily on establishing trust and credibility.

“Through the quality of the people we worked with, through integrity, through implementing standards consistently,” Jews around the world began to trust the organization’s certifications and decisions, he said.

“Mistakes were undoubtedly made, but you build trust on that basis,” he told JNS.

Although he had a consistent vision for the OU from his first day on the job, Rabbi Genack said that he had no idea it would grow so much.

“I couldn’t imagine from where it was when I arrived,” he said. “What I thought about initially was creating a staff that would have credibility beyond a single community. That was the goal.”

Since then, Orthodox Jewry has grown, in his view, “both in strength and in numbers.” But alongside that growth have come challenges for American Jewry that he never expected to confront.

“Especially when you look at places like Lakewood and the yeshiva world, the Orthodox community has become much stronger,” he said. “But the challenges facing American Jewry are also very profound. The risk of rapid assimilation. The level of antisemitism that we’re seeing. The security challenges facing the State of Israel.”

“These are things I never imagined seeing in my lifetime,” he said.

Rabbi Genack told JNS that it wasn’t hard to reach a decision to retire.

“Why not?” he told JNS, when asked for a reason. “It’s been a pretty long run. It’s time.”

Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer and executive rabbinic coordinator of OU Kosher, is slated to succeed Rabbi Genack. He told JNS that the transition has been in the works for five years.

“The OU administration has done it in a most sensitive manner,” Rabbi Elefant said. “This whole year, as we lead up to July 1, has really been a year of transition.”

The two first met 39 years ago, when Rabbi Genack interviewed Rabbi Elefant for a position at the organization.

“I thought Rabbi Genack would ask a lot of questions about kashrus, about my knowledge of kashrus, which wasn’t very extensive other than that I ate kosher my whole life,” Rabbi Elefant told JNS.

“But he really wasn’t focused on testing me in kashrus. He was trying to figure out who I am, what kind of personality I had, whether I’d fit in with the organization,” he said. “I guess he decided I did.”

Rabbi Genack said identifying a successor was one of the most important responsibilities of his career.

“From the beginning, I always used to say, ‘There’s no success without succession,’” he told JNS. “Early on, I identified someone I thought had real talent—someone accomplished, someone with vision.”

Rabbi Elefant is “absolutely the right person” to lead the organization forward, Rabbi Genack said.

Though the two have drastically different personalities—Rabbi Elefant noted that Rabbi Genack is much more reserved and “scholarly” than he, while he is more “out there”—their relationship has been strong from the beginning.

“I would say, in most of those years, certainly the last 20-plus years, there isn’t a day that we don’t speak multiple times,” Rabbi Elefant told JNS. “Sometimes we may speak to each other more than we speak to our wives.”

Rabbi Elefant said that Genack’s vision from the start was that if “anybody, for whatever reason, wants to keep kosher, wherever they are in the world, because of the OU they’ll be able to do so.”

“That was his vision,” Rabbi Elefant said. “He built it, literally, brick by brick.”

For Rabbi Genack, the work was never only about food certification. It was about making Jewish life easier to sustain in an era of assimilation.

“The OU should be an eloquent spokesman for the principles we represent,” he told JNS. “I hope it continues to grow.”

“Part of the OU’s mission is contained in the word itself—union, unity,” he said. “To promote unity within Orthodox Jewry. That’s something that unfortunately is often lacking.”

“The money we make from kashrut should be used to help people, promote Torah and strengthen Jewish life,” he told JNS. “If kosher products are available in every store with an OU, at the same price, that makes it possible to live as a Jew in the United States.” JNS

{Matzav.com}

When Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering approximately 1,200 people, one of the first calls Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received did not come from Washington, Paris, or London. According to a Financial Times analysis, it came from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who quickly expressed unequivocal support for Israel and stood by the country during one of its darkest moments.

The relationship between Netanyahu and Modi has grown dramatically over the past 12 years, built on a shared commitment to national security, the fight against Islamic terrorism, and strengthening their respective countries. The result has been an unprecedented strategic partnership between Israel and India that continues to expand across multiple fronts.

Today, the relationship spans intelligence cooperation, surveillance technologies, multibillion-dollar defense deals, joint military development, advanced agriculture initiatives, and expanding trade ties. India has also become one of the largest purchasers of Israeli defense systems and military technology.

An official from the Observer Research Foundation compared Israel’s role for the Indian military to a “well-stocked Walmart of weaponry,” providing advanced systems without many of the political conditions imposed by other Western arms suppliers.

The partnership extends deep into the business world as well. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, whose conglomerate purchased the Port of Haifa for $1.2 billion, works closely with Israeli defense industries, including the production of Hermes reconnaissance drones and Harop loitering munitions. Israeli military officers reportedly visit Indian military headquarters regularly, while intelligence cooperation between the Mossad and Indian agencies remains extensive.

The growing relationship has become increasingly significant as Israel faces mounting international pressure. While Netanyahu confronts arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court and growing criticism from parts of Europe and the United States, Modi has remained largely supportive. He was the last foreign leader to visit Israel before Israel’s strike on Iran in February and afterward limited his public response to calls for restraint without condemning Israel.

Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, said that while much of the world embraced a universalist approach that downplayed nationalism, Netanyahu and Modi chose to embrace national identity. Many Indians view Israel as standing courageously against what they see as the threat of radical Islam, creating a natural ideological connection between the two nations.

The relationship traces back decades but accelerated following the 1999 Kargil War, when Israel supplied India with weapons and ammunition at a time when many Western countries distanced themselves from New Delhi following its nuclear tests. Since then, and particularly under Modi’s leadership, the alliance has become increasingly public.

The partnership has at times involved significant diplomatic risks. In 2022, eight former Indian Navy officers were arrested in Qatar and accused of spying on Qatar’s submarine program on Israel’s behalf. They were initially sentenced to death before eventually being released following intensive diplomatic efforts by India.

While the growing relationship enjoys broad support under Modi’s government, critics within India’s traditional foreign policy establishment argue that New Delhi has moved away from its historic support for the Palestinian cause and strained relations with Iran. Sonia Gandhi, a senior opposition Congress Party leader, accused Modi of displaying “moral cowardice” and abandoning humanitarian values through what she described as blind support for Israel.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Defense contractors are heading into the second half of 2026 with the strongest order books in years, propped up by a Middle East war and a Washington spending plan that keeps getting bigger. The fiscal 2027 Department of War budget request earmarks roughly $60 billion for munitions development and procurement, including about $52.9 billion for critical munitions — a sign of how the government is rewiring the way it buys and replenishes weapons.

The political backdrop is even larger. President Donald Trump has proposed a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027, a substantial jump from the $901 billion approved for fiscal 2026. Spending bills of that size set the demand picture for the entire industry years in advance because most defense work is locked in through multi-year government contracts.

The urgency comes from the wider world. The war between the United States and Iran, ongoing since late February, along with tensions in Eastern Europe, has made military spending — in the words of Stifel analyst Jonathan Siegmann — “more urgent and less controversial.” When lawmakers from both parties agree that weapons stockpiles need refilling, the companies that build them gain unusually clear visibility into future sales.

Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, sits at the center of it. The company is anchored by the F-35 fighter jet, missile defense systems, and a large classified space business, and it has reported a record backlog of $194 billion. Lockheed has guided 2026 sales to a range of $92 billion to $93 billion. The stock trades around $525, up about 10% so far this year. The picture is not flawless: first-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.44 a share missed the $6.70 consensus estimate, dragged down by a $125 million unfavorable F-16 charge — a reminder that locked-in contract prices can cut both ways.

Northrop Grumman carries two of the military’s biggest long-term programs, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program, with a backlog around $90 billion. Its shares trade near $542. General Dynamics builds the Navy’s submarines, one of the cleanest growth stories in the sector, while RTX, the parent company of Raytheon, manufactures many of the missiles and air-defense systems currently in highest demand and was the only major contractor to recently raise its 2026 outlook.

RTX has also drawn attention from the White House in a less favorable way. President Trump complained that Raytheon had been among the least responsive contractors to the needs of the Department of War and threatened to block contractors from paying dividends or repurchasing shares until they accelerate weapons production. The remarks briefly rattled defense stocks before they recovered, underscoring that the same government driving the spending boom can also pressure the companies benefiting from it.

The spending surge extends well beyond the household-name defense giants. Drone manufacturer AeroVironment has climbed more than 40% this year as militaries around the world invest heavily in unmanned aircraft and counter-drone systems. In Europe, where governments are boosting defense budgets under both domestic security concerns and U.S. pressure, shares of Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo, Sweden’s Saab, and Germany’s Rheinmetall have all posted strong gains.

The broader story for taxpayers is where all that money ultimately goes. A $1.5 trillion defense budget means billions of dollars flowing into factories and facilities across states including Texas, Connecticut, California, Alabama, and Maryland, where major contractors and their suppliers employ tens of thousands of workers. Larger budgets typically translate into more hiring, more overtime, and more orders flowing through the vast network of subcontractors that provide everything from electronics and engines to software and specialized materials.

The industry’s optimism is reflected in its order books. Companies with large backlogs effectively have years of future revenue already committed under signed contracts. That visibility is rare in most industries and gives defense firms a level of predictability many technology, retail, and manufacturing companies would envy.

There are reasons for caution. Major defense contractors currently trade at roughly 22 to 25 times forward earnings, above their historical averages, meaning investors have already priced in much of the expected growth. Budget priorities can change with politics, and fixed-price government contracts have repeatedly created losses when development costs rise unexpectedly, as Lockheed’s recent F-16 charge demonstrated.

Still, the larger trend is difficult to ignore. Military conflicts, geopolitical competition, and the rebuilding of weapons inventories have created a powerful tailwind for defense spending across much of the world. As long as those conditions persist and Washington continues expanding military budgets, the companies sitting on record backlogs may enjoy one of the clearest growth runways available in the market.

JBizNews Desk | Washington

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

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A suspect is dead and an NYPD officer was wounded following a shooting and standoff in Brooklyn early Friday, police said.

Officers responding to reports of gunfire at a Bedford-Stuyvesant residence encountered an armed man who barricaded himself inside the home, leading to a confrontation.

During the incident, one officer was shot in the leg and transported to a hospital, where he was reported in stable condition.

The suspect was later found dead. Authorities have not released his identity or disclosed additional details about the circumstances of his death.

Police said the scene has been secured and the investigation remains ongoing.

Israel’s Interior Ministry has formally instructed the city of Ramat HaSharon to enforce its municipal bylaw prohibiting businesses from operating on Shabbos, escalating an ongoing dispute over the continued weekend activity at the Big Glilot commercial complex.

The ministry’s intervention comes amid growing controversy surrounding the shopping and entertainment center, which has remained open on Shabbos despite local regulations that prohibit such activity.

The current dispute stems from a petition filed approximately a year ago against the municipality. Petitioners argued that the city had failed to enforce its own bylaws and pointed to statements by Mayor Yitzchak Rochberger suggesting that he intended to allow businesses at the complex to continue operating on Shabbos without imposing penalties or taking enforcement action.

At the same time, the Interior Ministry is reviewing a request submitted by the municipality to amend the existing bylaw. As part of that process, ministry officials have demanded extensive clarification regarding the scope of the proposed changes, including which businesses would be exempted, what services would be permitted, the data used to formulate the proposal, and the preparatory work conducted before advancing the amendment.

In a strongly worded letter, Interior Ministry Director-General Yisrael Ozen sharply criticized the argument that the law should simply be adjusted to reflect the reality that has developed on the ground.

“If the purpose of the amendment is to align the legal situation with the reality currently being practiced, it follows that the actual situation—created through violations of the law—has dictated and shaped the content of the proposed arrangement,” Ozen wrote.

He added that, “There is no place to agree to or accept an improper situation in which a sinner profits from his wrongdoing.”

According to Ozen, the materials submitted thus far by the municipality fail to adequately address a number of key concerns raised by the ministry. He instructed city officials to provide updated data, broader professional analysis, and detailed responses to each of the issues under review.

The letter concludes with a clear warning that any proposed amendment remains legally ineffective unless and until it receives formal approval from the Interior Minister.

“Furthermore, as long as the bylaw has not been approved by the Minister of the Interior, it is not in force and action may not be taken pursuant to it,” Ozen wrote.

The directive means that the battle over Shabbos operations at Big Glilot remains far from resolved. While municipal officials are seeking to create a new legal framework that would permit the current reality to continue, the Interior Ministry is insisting that the existing law remains binding and must be fully enforced. For now, the dispute appears headed for further legal and political confrontation.

{Matzav.com}

Rom Breslavski, who survived Hamas captivity and whose ordeal gripped the nation, announced Thursday that he has taken upon himself a new spiritual commitment: wearing a large yarmulke that covers most of his head.

In a video posted to his Instagram account, Breslavski said people can call him whatever they want “a settler, Chareidi, religious, extremist, or a crazy Jew” but stressed that he is proud of the decision and completely at peace with it.

Breslavski explained that he has decided to stop wearing the smaller yarmulke he previously wore and instead permanently wear a much larger one. He said the move is not about politics or belonging to any particular group, but about his identity as a Jew.

He also emphasized that while he has grown closer to Judaism and tradition, he opposes violent demonstrations and the use of terms such as “Nazis” against police and security forces.

Explaining the reason behind the decision, Breslavski said he is simply proud to be a Jew living in Eretz Yisroel. He said the larger yarmulke is being worn out of respect for Yiddishkeit, love of Torah, and a desire to express his connection to Hashem following the great miracles he experienced.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

LONDON (AP) — Andy Burnham is a political insider turned outsider who aims to be Britain’s next prime minister.

The 56-year-old politician presents himself as an amiable northern everyman who prefers T-shirts to a suit and tie and spends spare time playing soccer or spinning 1990s tunes during DJ battles.

He’s also an experienced politician whose career has taken him from high-level government jobs to the mayoralty of Greater Manchester, and now to the cusp of the prime minister’s office.

Burnham is expected to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer after winning a seat in Parliament in a special election he hailed as a “turning point” for U.K. politics.

His nickname is inspired by ‘Game of Thrones’
Burnham was born and raised in a pocket of northwest England between Liverpool and Manchester, the son of a British Telecom engineer and a receptionist. He joined the Labour Party as a teenager, attended Cambridge University and was first elected to Parliament in 2001.

He was a lawmaker for a decade and a half, rising through the ranks under Prime Minister Tony Blair and serving in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Cabinet between 2007 and 2010.

He ran twice for the leadership of the Labour Party, in 2010 and 2015, and lost badly each time, before quitting Westminster to run for Manchester mayor.

His tenure has seen him nicknamed the King of the North, a “Game of Thrones”-inspired nod both to his championing of his home region and his barely disguised political ambition.

He gained the moniker during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he harangued Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson over what he called a “London-centric” approach to the crisis.

Burnham has led the Greater Manchester region since 2017, overseeing rapid regeneration for the city where the Industrial Revolution was forged. The city center has boomed, with skyscrapers blooming on vacant post-industrial sites. Many residents praise him for championing the city. He took a piecemeal public transport system under public control, branded it the Bee Network and improved its services.

He has also won praise for supporting the campaign for justice for victims of the Hillsborough disaster, when 97 Liverpool soccer fans were killed in a crush at a game in Sheffield in 1989. Years of advocacy led by victims’ families exposed mistakes and wrongdoing by police – who initially spread a false narrative blaming drunken fans – and extracted an apology from the government.

He pledges to end trickle-down economics
Burnham is perceived to be to the political left of Starmer – an asset with Labour members – and is acknowledged as one of the party’s best communicators. The rather stiff public speaker of his earlier leadership bids has been replaced by a relaxed figure in jeans and open-necked shirts.

His three mayoral election victories and decisive win in Thursday’s election in Makerfield, where he trounced the candidate of the anti-immigration party Reform UK, have cemented his status as a winner. Many in the party hope he can reverse Labour’s precipitous decline in popularity since Starmer won an election landslide two years ago.

Makerfield voter Ellen Picton, 66, said she was “absolutely thrilled” by Burnham’s victory.

“I believe that he’s a man for the common people,” she said. “Andy is like one of us, and he understands what we are going through.”

Burnham is pledging to repeat on a national scale his signature brand of “Manchesterism” – a politics that, he likes to say, puts people and place before party and centers on regions ignored by governments in London.

“What we’ve built in Greater Manchester needs to go national,” Burnham said during the campaign. “I know what it is to turn places around.”

But it remains to be seen whether he can have national appeal, said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London.

“Calling him King of the North in some ways, I think, raises the question of whether he can also be King of the South, King of the East and King of the West,″ Bale said. “However, he does seem to have the kind of X factor that encourages people to think of him as not an ordinary politician, somebody who can communicate with normal people, someone who can speak human.”

In a postelection speech to supporters, Burnham sketched out his priorities: better vocational education and jobs for young people, lower energy bills and rail fares and “an end to trickle down economics, which didn’t trickle down very much at all to places like this.”

Critics say Burnham’s politics are vague and fail to grapple with tough issues, such as where the money will come from to pay for his pledges. And they note that running a country of 70 million is a lot different from overseeing a city region of 3 million.

Nonetheless Burnham now has momentum that could propel him into 10 Downing Street.

“Andy Burnham is probably one of the most popular politicians in the country,” Bale said. “Although, to be honest, that is not saying much.”

Johnson & Johnson has made a surprising decision at a time when much of the pharmaceutical industry is racing toward obesity treatments: it is staying out of the market entirely.

Speaking Tuesday at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato said the healthcare giant has no plans to develop or acquire drugs in the booming GLP-1 category, the class of medicines behind blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes treatments that have transformed the industry over the past several years.

“We are not going to be in the GLP-1 area,” Duato said during a discussion with Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein.

The statement places J&J among a small group of major pharmaceutical companies choosing not to chase one of the fastest-growing markets in healthcare history. While rivals have spent billions of dollars acquiring obesity-drug developers and launching their own programs, Johnson & Johnson is betting that its future lies elsewhere.

Instead, Duato said the company will focus its resources on two areas where it believes it can achieve greater medical and commercial success: cancer treatment and neuroscience.

“Our goal is to be No. 1 by 2030,” Duato said of the company’s oncology business.

The company already holds a strong position in multiple cancer categories. Johnson & Johnson markets leading treatments for multiple myeloma, one of the most common blood cancers, and maintains a growing portfolio of lung cancer therapies. Last year, the company expanded its oncology pipeline through a $3.05 billion acquisition of Halda Therapeutics, gaining access to a promising oral prostate cancer treatment.

The decision reflects the reality of a market already dominated by a handful of powerful competitors.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk currently control the obesity-drug landscape through blockbuster products that have generated tens of billions of dollars in annual sales. Demand for GLP-1 medications has surged as studies continue to show benefits extending beyond weight loss, including improvements in diabetes management and potential cardiovascular benefits.

Lilly has emerged as the dominant player. The company became the first pharmaceutical manufacturer to surpass a $1 trillion market valuation last year, driven largely by demand for its obesity and diabetes drug tirzepatide. Lilly executives have estimated that the company captures roughly 70% to 75% of new patients entering the GLP-1 market.

For Johnson & Johnson, competing against such entrenched leaders may not represent the best use of research and development dollars.

The company’s position also aligns with a broader strategic transformation that has been underway for several years.

Johnson & Johnson has streamlined its operations to concentrate on higher-growth healthcare businesses. The company spun off its consumer-health division into Kenvue, separating well-known brands such as Tylenol, Band-Aid, and Listerine from the parent company. It has also restructured portions of its medical-device operations while increasing investments in pharmaceuticals and advanced medical technologies.

Duato highlighted the company’s recent performance, noting that Johnson & Johnson delivered a 47% total shareholder return in 2025, reflecting investor confidence in its current strategy.

Technology is also expected to play a major role in the company’s future growth.

Duato said artificial intelligence has the potential to accelerate drug discovery, improve clinical development, and enhance the effectiveness of medical devices, particularly in the field of robotic surgery.

“We are just at the beginning,” he said, describing healthcare as entering a period of significant technological change.

For investors and patients alike, the announcement underscores a growing divide within the pharmaceutical industry. Some companies are betting heavily on obesity treatments, viewing them as the defining medicines of the next decade. Others are choosing to focus on diseases where competition is less intense and unmet medical needs remain substantial.

Johnson & Johnson’s decision means one fewer major competitor pursuing obesity drugs, a market where additional competition could eventually help lower prices and improve access for patients. At the same time, the company’s vast research budget will remain focused on cancer and neurological disorders, areas where millions of patients continue to face limited treatment options.

As the obesity-drug market continues its rapid expansion, Johnson & Johnson is making a different wager: that breakthroughs in cancer and neuroscience will ultimately prove more valuable than joining the industry’s biggest gold rush.

Whether that strategy pays off will become clearer as the company works toward Duato’s goal of becoming the world’s leading oncology company by 2030.

JBizNews Desk
New Brunswick, N.J.

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

By Y.M. Lowy

Friday will be very warm with a high of 84 and a low of 65. Expect a mix of sunshine and clouds through the day, with lower humidity than yesterday and a refreshing breeze developing during the afternoon.

Shabbos will feature a steady breeze and mostly sunny skies, with a high of 84 and a low of 67. It should be another pleasant summer day from start to finish.

Sunday will be warm with a high of 83 and a low of 68. A mix of clouds and abundant sunshine will make for a comfortable and enjoyable day outdoors.

This is the sun’s time to shine: Sunday is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Sunday is the solstice, marking the start of astronomical summer north of the equator. It’s the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the shortest day of the year and winter will start.

The word “solstice” comes from the Latin words “sol,” for sun, and “stitium,” which can mean “pause” or “stop.” The summer solstice is the end of the sun’s annual march higher in the sky, when it makes its longest, highest arc. The bad news for sun lovers: It then starts retreating and days will get a little shorter every day until late December.

People have marked solstices for eons with festivals and monuments, including Sweden’s midsummer eve celebrations and Stonehenge, which was designed to align with the sun’s paths at the solstices.

Here’s what to know about the Earth’s orbit.

What is the solstice?
As the Earth travels around the sun, it does so at an angle, making the sun’s warmth and light fall unequally on the northern and southern halves of the planet for most of the year.

The solstices mark the times when the Earth is tipped most extremely either toward or away from the sun. This means the hemispheres are getting very different amounts of sunlight, and days and nights are at their most unequal.

At the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice, the Earth’s upper half is leaning toward the sun, creating the longest day and shortest night of the year. The summer solstice falls between June 20 and 22. This year it’s June 21.

The opposite happens at the Northern Hemisphere winter solstice: the Earth’s upper half leans the furthest away from the sun, leading to the shortest day and longest night of the year. The winter solstice falls between Dec. 20 and 23.

What is the equinox?
During the equinox, the Earth’s tilt is neither toward the sun nor away from the sun, so both the northern and southern hemispheres get an equal amount of sunlight. The sun rises almost exactly due east and it sets almost exactly due west.

The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning equal and night. That’s because on the equinox, day and night last almost the same amount of time — though one may get a few extra minutes, depending on where you are on the planet.

The Northern Hemisphere’s fall — or autumnal — equinox can land between Sept. 21 and 24, depending on the year. Its spring — or vernal — equinox can land between March 19 and 21. The exact time of the equinox is the moment the sun is directly overhead at the equator.

What’s the difference between meteorological and astronomical seasons?
These are just two different ways to carve up the year.

While astronomical seasons depend on how the Earth moves around the sun, meteorological seasons are defined by the weather. Meteorologists break down the year into three-month seasons based on annual temperature cycles. By that calendar, spring starts on March 1, summer on June 1, fall on Sept. 1 and winter on Dec. 1.

Nearly nine months after the ceasefire agreement signed in October 2025, living conditions in Gaza continue to deteriorate, with frustration, despair, and anger toward Hamas reportedly growing among residents.

A Gaza resident told Israel Hayom that the approaching summer heat is worsening conditions for hundreds of thousands of people living in tents. “The situation is not good. Summer is coming, temperatures are rising, and people are really suffering in the tents,” he said. “The situation is very difficult, and skin diseases are spreading among the population.”

According to the resident, sanitation conditions have become catastrophic, with garbage piling up, sewage flowing through streets, and infestations of rats, flies, and mosquitoes affecting daily life. He said diseases and viruses are spreading rapidly and that the health of infants and children is a growing concern.

He also described a worsening shortage of clean drinking water. “It is very difficult to find fresh water. My children and I also lack it,” he said. “Sometimes we have to buy drinking water so we won’t suffer from kidney diseases, but not everyone can afford it.”

The resident said the water shortage is also contributing to poor hygiene and increasing rates of infection and disease. At the same time, prices remain high while free aid available to residents has declined significantly.

Frequent power outages and a lack of refrigeration are causing food to spoil quickly. “Many people are suffering severe food poisoning after eating spoiled food in the heat,” he said. “There is not enough electricity to operate refrigerators in homes. It has been two months since I drank cold water. We routinely drink warm water.”

He said many Gaza residents have been living in tents for nearly three years, without basic living conditions and with little hope for improvement. According to the resident, the ongoing hardship has created growing bitterness and resentment toward Hamas.

“We are convinced Hamas only cares about its own interests and never cared about its own people,” he said.

The resident also expressed concern over expanding Israeli military activity beyond the Yellow Line while much of Gaza’s population is concentrated in a limited area of the Strip.

“People are tense and honestly express resentment and bitterness toward Hamas,” he said. “We see the Israeli military expanding its activity beyond the Yellow Line, and today everyone is living in roughly 30% of Gaza’s territory, so we fear what may come next.”

He added that the despair has reached the point where many residents no longer care who governs Gaza in the future.

“Most Gaza residents no longer care who governs them,” he said. “Whether it is Egypt, Mohammed Dahlan from Fatah, or even if Israel returns to administer Gaza as it did in the past.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu was visibly moved after being shown rare archival footage documenting a visit he made decades ago to the home of the Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a moment he said he had never previously seen captured on video.

The footage was presented to Netanyahu by Rabbi Or Ziv, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary serving in the Katamon neighborhood of Yerushalayim, ahead of Gimmel Tammuz, the yahrtzeit of the Rebbe.

The video captures Netanyahu participating in Maariv at the Rebbe’s residence, offering a glimpse into a little-known moment from his earlier years.

Recorded 38 years ago on President Street in the Crown Heights neighborhood of New York City, the footage dates to the year of mourning following the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the Rebbe’s wife.

When Rabbi Ziv showed him the video, Netanyahu appeared surprised and emotional. Looking at the footage, he exclaimed, “Wow, where did you get this from? This can’t be.”

He then turned to Rabbi Ziv and requested a copy, saying, “Send it to me, I’ve never seen this before.”

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

A new Channel 14 poll shows former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s political momentum continuing to erode, while former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot has emerged as the clear leader of Israel’s opposition camp.

The survey, conducted by Shlomo Filber and Next Data, found that Bennett’s Beyachad alliance with Yair Lapid dropped three seats in just one week, falling from 13 mandates to 10. The decline leaves Bennett tied with Shas and only six seats above the electoral threshold.

Meanwhile, Eizenkot’s Yashar party surged by four seats to 20 mandates, making it the second-largest party in Israel and opening a 10-seat lead over Bennett’s alliance.

Likud remains the largest party with 33 seats.

The full results:

* Likud – 33
* Yashar (Gadi Eizenkot) – 20
* Beyachad (Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid) – 10
* Shas – 10
* The Democrats – 9
* Yisrael Beiteinu – 8
* United Torah Judaism – 8
* Otzma Yehudit – 7
* Hadash-Ta’al – 6
* Ra’am – 5
* Religious Zionism – 4

Blue and White once again failed to cross the electoral threshold, receiving just 1.8% support.

By political blocs, the right-wing coalition would retain a governing majority with 62 seats, while the opposition would hold 47 seats. The Arab parties would account for the remaining 11 seats.

The poll also asked respondents who is best suited to serve as prime minister.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led comfortably with 45%, followed by Eizenkot at 34%. Bennett received just 12%, while Avigdor Lieberman garnered 8% and Benny Gantz only 1%.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Nearly three years after Hamas’ devastating attack on Israel on October 7, which plunged the country into a multifront war, Israel finds itself at a strategic crossroads as a new US-Iran memorandum of understanding reshapes the regional battlefield.

Israel remains largely isolated on the international stage, maintains a military presence in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, and is still far from achieving long-sought normalization with Saudi Arabia. None of its conflicts has been conclusively resolved, and its relationship with its major ally in Washington has grown more complicated.

The preliminary US-Iran framework reached earlier this week is a significant turning point.

Israel has projected its military might throughout the region, causing massive destruction in Gaza and southern Lebanon while conducting airstrikes in Syria, Iran, Yemen, and Qatar. The strike in Qatar, carried out in September 2025, targeted Hamas leaders in Doha and drew international condemnation for violating Qatari sovereignty.

“There is a great gap between the military picture and the strategic picture, which is one of overall defeat and collapse of Israel’s strategy,” Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli national security adviser and currently a professor at Tel Aviv University and Columbia University, told The Media Line.

Despite that military prowess, Israel is far from reaching its goals.

“It did not succeed in destroying Hamas or unseating it from power, Hezbollah is coming back despite downgrading its capabilities greatly, and Iran believes with good reason that it won the war by surviving an attack by the world’s superpower and greatly out-negotiated the US, coming ahead on the diplomatic level as well,” Freilich added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to overthrow Hamas in Gaza, destroy all of Hezbollah’s military capabilities, and remove Iran’s nuclear threat over the Jewish state.

Still, budding alliances between Israel and several Arab states under the Abraham Accords survived the war, despite initially seeming fragile. Relations with Saudi Arabia, long coveted by Netanyahu and pursued by several American administrations, remain out of reach.

“All of Israel’s enemies are significantly weaker; there is wider interest in the Abraham Accords because of the threat from Iran, but Israel’s diplomatic and political situation internationally is much worse, particularly in the United States,” Prof. Jonathan Rynhold, a senior researcher at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, told The Media Line. “Israel has been far more isolated than this during its history.”

Israel’s war fronts remain complex

The picture across Israel’s main fronts remains complex.

For decades, Israel has viewed Iran as its most significant strategic threat and the driving force behind the network of armed groups that surround it. Israel entered the latest confrontation determined to degrade Iran’s nuclear program and military capabilities. Tehran sought to demonstrate resilience and preserve its regional posture.

The joint American-Israeli strikes inflicted significant damage on Iranian military infrastructure and reportedly set back elements of Tehran’s nuclear program. Yet the conflict ended without the collapse of the Islamic Republic, perhaps amplifying its nuclear ambitions, and without a broader regional realignment in Israel’s favor.

Iranian officials and state media quickly declared victory, arguing that Tehran had survived direct attacks by both Israel and the US while maintaining its regime and much of its strategic posture.

“Iran believes that it won the war, doing so by withstanding a major American and Israeli operation,” said Freilich. “They come out feeling stronger and invigorated. Israel and the US helped them achieve progress towards their goal of being a regional hegemon.”

The memorandum of understanding with Iran, announced by Washington, demonstrated Israel’s dependence on American diplomatic backing while also revealing differences between Netanyahu and President Donald Trump over the desired endgame. While Israel views Iran as an unresolved threat requiring continued pressure, Washington has sought to prevent a wider regional war, reopen maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and stabilize the situation.

For now, neither side appears to have achieved a decisive outcome. Iran emerged weakened militarily but intact politically, while Israel demonstrated unprecedented military reach without fully removing the threat it sought to eliminate.

“Israel faces a real problem,” said Rynhold. “If Iran is not limited in its conventional missile stockpile, Israel will want to attack, and it will be constrained by the US.”

The future of sanctions against Iran is also unclear, as the sides have agreed on a 60-day period to negotiate the final terms of a deal.

“From Israel’s perspective, the worse the Iranian dilemma between survival and building military power is, the better,” Rynhold continued. “Sanctions relief would be a strategic failure if it becomes part of any future agreement between the US and Iran.”

The shock of October 7

When Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel was shocked. Thousands of terrorists stormed across its southern border, and Netanyahu vowed to retaliate, promising to release all 251 hostages Hamas took and remove the terrorist group from power. Israel launched a major offensive, which also resulted in significant international backlash. Critics, including some close allies, accused Israel of excessive force and war crimes—claims Israel categorically denies.

More than two and a half years later, a fragile ceasefire is in place, and all of the hostages, including the bodies of those killed in captivity or taken to Gaza after they were killed, have been returned. Israel controls more than half of the Gaza Strip, with Hamas still controlling the other half. The next phase of the ceasefire, which is meant to see an Israeli withdrawal, is conditioned on Hamas’ disarmament, something the terrorist group refuses to do. Netanyahu has said Israel will continue to maintain a presence in Gaza and has implied that the military will inch deeper into Palestinian territory.

The US administration mediated the ceasefire while backing Israeli moves in the Palestinian territory.

“Hamas’ military capabilities are a fraction of what they were,” said Freilich. “They no longer constitute a military threat, but they constitute a threat to the forces in Gaza, and they are still in power politically. Israel will be forced to withdraw from Gaza sooner or later, whether it likes it or not.”

Israel’s leadership has vowed to move further into Gaza to complete its mission of removing Hamas from power and destroying all of its capabilities.

“This may be done because there are no longer hostages in Gaza,” Freilich continued. “It’s also possible that Trump will try to compensate Netanyahu a little by giving him some free rein in Gaza for a while, especially before an election.”

Netanyahu, who leads a far-right government, has support from within his coalition to intensify military pressure on Hamas, while the international community has become increasingly critical. From allegations brought by South Africa that Israel is committing acts of genocide to growing cultural, academic, and weapons embargoes, the Jewish state is increasingly isolated.

“Any Israeli government will not move in a hurry,” said Rynhold. “There are a number of reasons for this—psychologically for the Israeli public, it keeps Hamas further away from the border and also because withdrawal is a hard thing to do.”

Senior members of the current government favor resettling Gaza with a Jewish population. Netanyahu has pushed back on that desire, but the voices from within his coalition are dominant and loud, drawing international attention and outcry.

“As long as Israel won’t allow settlers in, Israel has the ability to shape what goes on there—possibly keeping military control but giving other Palestinian factions civilian control,” said Rynhold.

Israel is scheduled to hold national elections by late October, and the outcome will have a major impact on the future of Gaza.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization was once seen as Israel’s most immediate and substantial threat. The group joined Hamas days after the October 7 attack. Israel retaliated, and Lebanon became another arena in the multifront war that engulfed the Middle East. Israel believed it had nearly defeated Hezbollah at the end of 2024, only to see the strategic equation between the two rivals shift again. Iran is now using the group as a deterrent, not only through Hezbollah’s own force but also by threatening to attack Israel if Israel attacks its most prized proxy.

“Israel cannot allow itself to live with that equation,” said Freilich. “This is another failure of its strategy.”

Yet Hezbollah is also reeling from more than two years of war with Israel.

“Hezbollah is infinitely militarily, financially, and politically weaker than it was before October 7,” said Rynhold.

Hezbollah began firing at Israel two days after the joint American-Israeli attack against Iran began in March of this year, prompting an Israeli campaign in Lebanon that lasted into June. Fighting has eased since the US-Iran memorandum was announced, but Israeli forces remain in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah has said its position on the ceasefire depends on Israeli compliance. Israel has continued to strike Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, further cementing its presence in an area Hezbollah says should be covered by earlier ceasefire understandings.

“Hezbollah now has a partial shield, by virtue of the agreement between the US and Iran; whether it becomes more or less, is another matter,” Rynhold said.

Iran’s threats have made the Dahieh neighborhood in Beirut, Hezbollah’s strategic stronghold, more difficult for Israel to target. President Trump made it clear to Netanyahu that Israeli action there would threaten attempts to reach a broader arrangement with Iran. Analysts say Hezbollah and Iran may emerge from the situation with greater leverage, even as both have absorbed heavy blows.

In the almost three years since October 7, Israel stands in a paradoxical position. It has showcased extraordinary military capabilities and weakened its enemies. Yet many of the political and strategic objectives that justified the war remain unresolved. Hamas remains a force in Gaza, Hezbollah continues to challenge Israel from Lebanon, and Iran has survived and, according to Freilich, may feel emboldened, while Israel faces growing international isolation. As Israelis prepare to head to the polls again, the country finds itself confronting a question that military victories alone cannot answer: how to translate battlefield achievements into a lasting, sustainable, and favorable regional order.

This post was originally published on here.

Israel’s Chief Rabbis delivered a strong message about the central role of Torah values in law enforcement and public security during a high-level working session this week with the Police Rabbinate and Border Police religious leadership.

The meeting, first reported by the Police Rabbinate, focused on the launch of a new volume in the Hifkadeti Shomrim series, a unique collection of halachic writings addressing the complex religious questions that arise in police work and public security operations.

The newly released volume contains articles authored by police rabbis dealing with the unique challenges faced by officers in the field. It also includes halachic responsa on wartime issues from leading poskim, including Harav Asher Weiss and Harav Yitzchok Zilberstein, addressing difficult questions that have emerged during operational activities.

Particular attention is given to dilemmas that arose during the Swords of Iron War, reflecting the extraordinary circumstances under which police officers and security personnel have operated while safeguarding the public. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Yaakov Gross, zt”l, the former Chief Rabbi of the Israel Police, who devoted more than fifty years to harbotzas Torah. The book was edited by his son, Rabbi Shimon Gross.

During the meeting, Rishon Letzion Harav Dovid Yosef emphasized the importance of combining halachic scholarship with professional expertise when rendering rulings on operational matters.

“Halachic rulings on professional matters require a deep understanding of reality,” Rav Yosef said. “Just as a rav relies on the expertise of a physician in medical matters, so too must he rely on the expertise of police officers regarding operational issues. Only a thorough understanding of the facts allows one to reach correct halachic conclusions.”

Participants noted that his remarks reflected a longstanding principle of halachic decision-making: that accurate rulings require a clear and detailed understanding of the practical circumstances involved. In the fast-paced world of law enforcement, where officers are often required to make split-second decisions under pressure, such understanding is especially critical.

Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Harav Kalman Meir Bar, said the new publication demonstrates that Torah guidance extends to every aspect of life.

“It accompanies a person in every decision and operational activity,” Rav Bar said. He also praised Israel Police Chief Rabbi Rav Rami Berachyahu, describing him as “a living example of a scholar whose character and conduct reflect his Torah values.”

Rav Berachyahu concluded the gathering by highlighting the role of the Police Rabbinate in bringing Torah guidance into the daily work of law enforcement personnel.

“Our role is to bring the world of Torah and spirituality into the sacred work of the police,” he said. “Even during challenging times, we draw strength from our connection to the gedolei Torah, with the goal of strengthening the bond between the values of our nation and the security of the public.”

Observers noted that the meeting reflects a broader trend of increasing cooperation between Israel’s spiritual leadership and its security and law-enforcement institutions. The Hifkadeti Shomrim series has become a practical resource for religious police officers seeking to navigate the intersection of professional responsibilities and halachic obligations, offering guidance on the many questions that arise in the course of their duties.

Catskills Hatzalah officially dedicated its new Bauer Family Kiamesha Garage on Thursday afternoon with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Hatzolah leadership and members, elected officials, emergency services representatives, community leaders, and supporters from across Sullivan County and beyond.

Located at the intersection of Fraser Road and Anawana Lake Road, the state-of-the-art facility will serve as a key emergency response hub for the Catskills year-round, with a particular focus on serving the region during the busy summer months. Its central location provides quick access to Liberty, Ferndale, Fallsburg, and major highways, helping volunteers respond more rapidly to emergencies throughout the area.

A standout feature of the new building is a fully equipped apartment for volunteer paramedics who come to the Catskills to serve 24-hour shifts throughout the year, particularly during the nine months outside the summer season, when dedicated volunteers relocate to the area to ensure advanced emergency medical coverage remains available year-round. The comfortable accommodations allow on call Paramedics to remain strategically close to emergency equipment and respond immediately when lifesaving care is needed.

Hatzolah officials thanked the Town of Thompson for its assistance in helping bring the project to fruition and offered special recognition to the Bauer family, whose generosity made the facility possible. The family not only funded the project but was deeply involved in its construction, with Mr. Dovy Bauer personally overseeing countless details from the earliest planning stages through completion.

The new Bauer Family Kiamesha Garage is expected to significantly enhance Hatzolah’s emergency medical capabilities and strengthen service to the tens of thousands of residents and visitors who rely on the organization throughout the year.

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(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Communities across New Jersey are observing Juneteenth today, marking the federal and state holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.

Juneteenth, officially known as Juneteenth National Independence Day, honors June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed the last enslaved African Americans that they were free — more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 and is also recognized as an official state holiday in New Jersey.

As a result, many government services and financial institutions are closed today throughout New Jersey.

Closed Today:

• New Jersey state government offices
• Most county and municipal government offices
• New Jersey courts and federal courts
• U.S. Post Offices and regular USPS mail delivery
• Most banks and credit unions
• The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq markets

Open Today:

• Most retail stores and shopping centers
• Grocery stores and supermarkets
• Restaurants
• UPS and FedEx delivery services
• Parks and recreational facilities in many municipalities

Residents planning to visit local government offices are encouraged to check with their municipality before heading out, as holiday schedules may vary. Most government offices and courts are expected to resume normal operations on Monday.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Police charged a third suspect on Friday with an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue that was allegedly directed by Iran.

The 20-year-old man was one of three masked offenders who broke into the Adass Israel Synagogue, doused the interior with flammable liquid then set it alight in the early hours of Dec. 6, 2024, a police statement alleged.

The fire caused extensive damage to the synagogue and a worshipper sustained minor injuries.

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which brings together federal and state police with a spy agency, charged the man, who has not been named, with offenses including arson.

He was charged in a Melbourne jail where he was already being held in custody on unrelated offenses. Police declined to elaborate on those offenses.

His co-accused Giovanni Laulu, 21, was arrested in July last year and another suspect, Younes Ali Younes, 20, was arrested a month later.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of directing the synagogue fire and an arson attack two months earlier at a Sydney kosher eatery, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen.

Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the nation’s main domestic spy agency, said the Revolutionary Guard used a “complex web of proxies to hide its involvement” in both antisemitic attacks.

Iran’s ambassador to Australia and another three Iranian diplomats were expelled. Tehran has denied Australia’s allegations.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier told reporters on Friday that investigators were working with international partners in the continuing investigation.

Police were also investigating whether the three alleged arsonists knew who ordered the attack.

“They may not actually be aware of the people who are directing or the principals of these investigations. That remains a key line of inquiry for us,” Crozier said.

Victoria Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul O’Halloran said police had informed the local Jewish community of the third arrest before the news was made public.

“Our heart goes out to them. Again, this brings back this terrible incident,” O’Halloran said.

“People deserve the right to feel safe and be safe in their community and particularly at their place of worship. Today’s charges are a strong testament to this,” he added.

The latest suspect will make his first court appearance on the new charges next week.

The Australian government has established a public inquiry to investigate a rise in antisemitism across the country, including the killing of 15 people when two gunmen opened fire on a Sydney Hanukkah celebration in December.

A new academic study has found that some of the world’s leading Artificial Intelligence models consistently reproduce centuries-old antisemitic stereotypes.

‘From Myth to Model: Representation of “The Jew” in Generative AI’, by Israeli academics Michael Gilead and Gal Gutman, found that historical antisemitic tropes appear embedded in modern AI systems.

The researchers employed a novel approach intended to identify underlying representations of “the Jew” by forming chains of associations that allow the LLM to reveal implicit biases. They focused specifically on ChatGPT-4 Turbo, which they instructed to create a list of names for Jewish and non-Jewish Americans, aged 18 to 80. The list included one male and one female name for each of the two categories, resulting in a total of 252 names.

Examples of Jewish names include Ethan Katz, Noah Weiss, and Gabriel Horowitz; non-Jewish examples include Tyler Johnson, Kyle White, and Dylan Wilson.

For each of the 252 names, the LLM was prompted to write a short, 100-word biography, with the LLM imagining itself as a novelist adept at selecting names that correspond with specific character traits.

Religious identity markers were then removed, and the AI systems then evaluated personality and social traits of each character.

LLM-generated content stereotypes Jews as low on warmth-related traits

The researchers found that characters associated with Jewish names were consistently rated as more competent, more privileged, more dominant, and more obsessive. At the same time, they were rated as less likable, less collectivist, and lower in perceived warmth.

The findings were then replicated on DeepSeek-V3 and Mistral.

The researchers’ analysis found that Jews in LLM-generated content are consistently stereotyped within the high-competence, low-warmth quadrant, alongside groups such as East Asians. Biographies generated from Jewish names were rated consistently high on competence-related traits (e.g., intelligent, efficient, assertive) and notably low on warmth-related traits (e.g., friendly, likable).

Historical antisemitic discourse portrays Jews as agents of social disruption

In terms of the relevance of these findings, the researchers noted that historical antisemitic discourse has frequently portrayed Jews as agents of disruption, undermining traditional order, and social cohesion. Instead of being relegated to the past, this historical association between Jews and “the ailments of modern subjectivity […] persists and may now be encoded in LLMs,” the researchers explained.

They also predicted that increases in anti-modernization sentiment, such as backlash against the consequences of industrialization, capitalism, and technology, including AI itself, could co-occur with increases in antisemitic discourse.

“Our analysis reveals how an ancient prejudice persist in modern technological systems through complex patterns of trait association and cultural coding,” the researchers concluded, adding that, in order to address bias in AI systems, one must pay attention not only to explicit stereotypes but also to the “subtle ways in which seemingly neutral traits combine to reproduce traditional prejudices.”

This post was originally published on here.

A one-year-old infant who had not received routine childhood vaccinations was hospitalized in critical condition at Shaare Zedek Medical Center after developing a rare and potentially fatal illness that doctors say has become exceedingly uncommon in the modern era due to widespread immunization.

The child arrived at the Yerushalayim hospital struggling to breathe and in immediate danger. Medical staff initially suspected that he may have swallowed a foreign object, but rapid testing and evaluation revealed a far more serious diagnosis.

Doctors determined that the infant was suffering from epiglottitis, a severe inflammation of the epiglottis, the flap of tissue that covers the airway during swallowing. The condition, which can obstruct breathing within a matter of hours, is most commonly caused by Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), a bacterium largely controlled in developed countries through routine vaccination programs.

Medical teams in Shaare Zedek’s pediatric department quickly recognized the severity of the situation and initiated emergency treatment. Thanks to the prompt diagnosis and intensive care, physicians were able to stabilize the child and save his life.

The infant was admitted to the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, where he received advanced treatment for several days. After showing significant improvement, he was later transferred to the general pediatric ward for continued care.

Doctors said the child is expected to remain hospitalized for several more days but that the immediate danger has passed.

The case has drawn attention because epiglottitis was once considered one of the most dangerous childhood illnesses, frequently causing life-threatening airway obstruction. Since the introduction of the Hib vaccine into Israel’s national immunization program decades ago, the disease has become exceptionally rare.

Medical experts noted that the dramatic decline in cases is directly attributable to widespread vaccination. While epiglottitis has nearly disappeared in countries with high vaccination rates, isolated cases continue to occur among unvaccinated individuals.

Hospital officials said the incident serves as a stark reminder of the importance of routine childhood immunizations. Physicians emphasized that the Health Ministry’s vaccination schedule is based on extensive scientific research and is designed to protect children from potentially deadly diseases.

According to Shaare Zedek, the infant continues to improve and remains under close medical supervision. Doctors are optimistic that he will be able to return home within the coming days.

{Matzav.com}

This post was originally published on this site.

Four IDF soldiers were killed during combat operations in southern Lebanon early Friday morning when a strike hit a tank operating near the village of Kfar Tebnit. The military cleared for publication the name of one of the fallen: LTC Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, 32, of Beit HaShita, commander of the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Brigade.

The names of the three additional soldiers killed in the incident have not yet been released. Their families have been informed, and their identities will be published once military authorization is granted.

According to a preliminary IDF investigation, the deadly incident occurred at approximately 12:20 a.m. while a tank from the 52nd Battalion was operating under the Givati Brigade Combat Team in Kfar Tebnit. Military officials believe the vehicle was struck by either an explosive drone or an anti-tank missile, killing all four soldiers inside.

Several hours later, at around 4:00 a.m., a separate attack took place in the Beaufort region near Tebnit. An explosive-laden drone struck troops from the Commando Brigade, wounding five soldiers. One of the injured troops was listed in serious condition.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed sorrow over the losses, stating: “This is a very difficult and painful morning. With profound grief, we learned of the terrible news that four of our nation’s sons fell in battle in Lebanon, including LTC Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, the Commander of the 52nd Battalion, 401st Brigade.”

He continued, “About two months ago, after the Battalion Commander, LTC Y., was severely wounded in combat, Dor took command upon himself, and from that point led his soldiers at the front with determination and responsibility.

“LTC Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon and the additional three fallen soldiers, whose names have not yet been cleared for publication, join a long and unbearably painful list of the daughters and sons who have fallen in defense of our homeland and people. Each one was an entire world, with dreams, hopes, and aspirations cut down in their prime.

“Together with the whole of the people of Israel, we embrace their beloved and precious families and send them our heartfelt condolences at this difficult moment. We pray for the recovery of the wounded and for the well-being of all IDF soldiers and security forces. May the memory of our heroes be blessed,” Herzog concluded.

Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu also conveyed condolences to the bereaved families and offered prayers for the recovery of those wounded in the fighting.

Addressing Israel’s military response, Netanyahu said that “following the heinous attack by Hezbollah, which is a flagrant violation of the ceasefire, I instructed the IDF last night to strike Hezbollah with force. The IDF struck over 80 terror targets and eliminated dozens of terrorists. Subsequently, the IDF struck Hezbollah command posts in the Beqaa Valley this morning.”

He further stated: “This morning, I held a situation assessment with the Minister of Defense and the Chief of General Staff. My directive is clear: Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks. The IDF will act to thwart any threat to our forces and our territory.”

LTC Ben Simhon assumed command of Battalion 52 on April 20, 2026, shortly after the unit’s previous commander was seriously wounded in battle. Taking over during an intense period of operations, he led the battalion through two months of combat activity on the northern front.

A career officer in the Armored Corps, Ben Simhon spent much of his military service in the 401st Brigade, advancing through a variety of command positions. Widely regarded for his leadership and operational abilities, he later served as chief of staff to the commander of the Northern Command during Operation “Northern Arrows,” remaining in that role until residents of the north were able to return home. After completing the position in August, he attended the Command and Staff Course before returning to frontline service this spring as commander of Battalion 52.

Ben Simhon is survived by his wife and two daughters. He came from a family deeply rooted in military service: he and four of his brothers served in the 401st Brigade, while another brother enlisted in the Golani Brigade. His wife serves as a combat officer in the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps and Border Defense Corps.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that federal student loan borrowers who use automatic payments will receive a full one-percentage-point cut on their interest rate starting July 1, a temporary break designed to pull millions of people back into steady repayment.

The reduction runs through June 30, 2028. Borrowers already enrolled in auto pay do not need to act — their servicer will apply the lower rate automatically. Those not yet enrolled have until September 30, 2026 to sign up and still qualify.

The math is simple and lands directly in household budgets. Auto pay has long carried a small discount of a quarter percentage point. An undergraduate borrower paying the current 6.39% rate would see it fall to 5.39% under the new, larger break. For a borrower already enrolled, the servicer adds another 0.75 percentage points on top of the existing quarter-point cut to reach the full one percent.

Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent tied the move to repayment behavior, not relief.

“The Trump Administration is making student loan repayment easier than ever, and borrowers should not wait to take advantage of this temporary interest rate reduction,” Kent said, adding that the department expects the incentive to raise repayment rates and improve the health of the federal loan portfolio.

That portfolio is the real reason behind the announcement. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 80 percent of borrowers in active repayment used auto pay. After millions opted out during the long repayment pause — some making no payments for years — that share has fallen, and the federal student debt load has swelled past $1.7 trillion. The department now puts auto-pay enrollment at roughly 40 percent. Getting borrowers back on automatic monthly payments lowers default risk and keeps money flowing into the system.

The interest cut arrives alongside a broader overhaul of how Americans repay college debt. Two new repayment plans open July 1 under President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts Act: an income-driven plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan, known as RAP, and a new Tiered Standard plan.

Each works differently. Under RAP, a borrower’s monthly bill is based on income and number of dependents, and borrowers who make full, on-time payments are shielded from runaway interest while their balance steadily declines. The Tiered Standard plan sets fixed terms of 10, 15, 20, or 25 years based on total balance, giving borrowers with larger debts smaller monthly payments stretched over more time.

Enrolling in auto pay is straightforward but does require action for those not signed up. Borrowers who are not enrolled must log in to their loan servicer account, select auto pay, and enter their bank account details. Borrowers in default must first log in to StudentAid.gov, consolidate their eligible loans, and apply for a new repayment plan before they can enroll.

There is a catch worth noting for anyone weighing the offer. The discount only lasts as long as the borrower stays in auto pay; drop out, and the reduction disappears. The benefit applies to federal Direct Loans originated after July 1, 2012, and reaches both student and parent borrowers, including those who were enrolled in the now-defunct SAVE plan once they choose a new repayment option.

For households, the practical takeaway is a lower monthly interest charge in exchange for committing to automatic withdrawals. The timing matters as federal student debt approaches $2 trillion and the administration looks to restart repayment in earnest. A one-point cut will not erase anyone’s balance, but on a typical undergraduate loan it trims real dollars off interest every month for two years — and for borrowers juggling rent, groceries, and car payments, that is money that stays in the checking account.

The deeper bet is behavioral. By making auto pay the cheapest way to carry a federal loan, the department is nudging borrowers toward the one habit that most reliably prevents missed payments and default. Whether the incentive moves the 60 percent currently sitting outside auto pay will become clear over the next two years.

JBizNews Desk | New York & Washington

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A new report on the U.S. housing sector finds that activity remains subdued through the first part of the year as high costs suppress demand.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its annual “State of the Nation’s Housing” report on Wednesday, which found that existing home sales remain near the lowest level in three decades that was first reached in 2023.

Sales of new homes remained relatively unchanged, while rental retention rates rose and new occupancies declined. New construction starts dipped 1% over the last year, driven by a 7% decline in single-family starts.

“Although supply shortages are still a major concern, depressed demand became a headline in housing over the past year,” the report said, noting slower growth in the number of homeowner households as well as the number of renters compared with a year ago. 

MEDIAN US HOME PRICE PROJECTED TO HIT $1 MILLION BY 2050 – RIGHT AS MILLENNIALS RETIRE

The rate of growth of homeowner households declined by half and caused homeownership rates to decline for the second straight year. Additionally, the year-over-year increase in the number of renters in the first quarter of 2026 was less than half of what it was a year earlier.

Economic uncertainty has weighed on housing demand, with employment growth slowing from a gain of 1.5 million in 2024 to just 116,000 in 2025.

Consumer confidence dropped by more than 20 percentage points in 2025 and fell further in the first part of 2026 due to the Iran war, reaching an all-time low in April.

MORTGAGE RATES TICK HIGHER, BUT BUYERS SHOW SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE

“Without a job, graduates are less likely to form a new household or move to a new region,” the report said. “Without confidence in employment, families are less likely to move or make a big purchase like a house.”

High costs and the lack of affordable housing options is also contributing to the weaker demand, as households are struggling with high home prices and interest rates.

MIDWEST AND SOUTHERN STATES DOMINATE HOUSING REPORT CARDS: SEE HOW YOURS SCORED

The report said that the median prices for new and existing homes are both over $400,000 and that existing home prices have risen 54% since 2020 and are about 5-times the median income – a level well above the ratio of 3-times that prevailed in the 1990s.

Mortgage rates are over 6%, which makes the payment on a median-priced home $3,100 in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from $1,700 in early 2020. That has pushed the income needed to afford that payment to more than $120,000 – a significant increase from $66,000 in 2020.

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Mojtaba Khamenei issued a rare public statement portraying the newly signed memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States as a victory for Tehran, while ridiculing President Donald Trump and claiming Washington was the driving force behind the deal.

Addressing what he called the “enthusiastic and faithful nation of Iran,” Khamenei confirmed that an agreement had been reached between Tehran and Washington and asserted that, despite extensive efforts by senior Iranian officials, it was Trump who pushed hardest to bring the deal to fruition.

“It was this American president who, out of desperation, employed various levers to achieve this matter,” Khamenei wrote, in remarks widely interpreted as a direct jab at the U.S. president.

Khamenei acknowledged that he had initially held reservations about the agreement but ultimately approved it after receiving assurances from the Iranian president, who chairs the Supreme National Security Council, that Iran’s national interests and the so-called “Axis of Resistance” would be protected.

According to Khamenei, the Iranian president explicitly pledged that Tehran would reject any excessive demands from Washington if such demands were raised during the implementation of the agreement.

“From this moment onward,” Khamenei wrote, “we—the proud nation and this humble servant—will await the fulfillment of the declared conditions.”

The Iranian leader also sought to reassure hardliners within the regime that direct negotiations with the United States do not represent a shift in Iran’s ideological stance toward America.

“Face-to-face negotiations that may take place in the future do not mean acceptance of the enemy’s worldview,” he wrote.

Khamenei concluded by framing the agreement within the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary and religious ideology, expressing hope that “good prayers” would help bring additional victories to the Iranian nation in the future.

The statement comes amid ongoing debate within Iran and abroad over the significance of the memorandum and whether it represents a genuine diplomatic breakthrough or merely the beginning of a longer and more difficult negotiating process.

ROME (AP) — The Italian government on Friday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit, a pushback that suggested the longtime U.S. ally had had enough of Trump’s boasting.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy.

For her part, Meloni posted a video calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated,” which she concluded with: “Italy and I do not beg.”

Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday morning on the La7 network. The La7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and the conversation turned to their meeting, caught on video, during the just-concluded G7 meeting in Evian-les-Bains, France. Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several points, including alone on a small sofa.

According to La7, Trump said Meloni had “begged” him for a photo-op. Trump said he wasn’t obliged to do it but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said. The broadcaster has a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio.

In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump’s claims because “certain things deserve an immediate response.”

“Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,” she said. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn’t the first time this has happened.”

It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April in which he criticized Meloni’s refusal to back the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. Meloni didn’t respond publicly at the time.

By Friday, it appeared she had had enough of his boasts and broadsides.

“I can only say that it’s a shame he doesn’t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West, toward the enemies of the United States — toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating,” Meloni said Friday. “But there’s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.”

Meloni had initially sought to build on longstanding strong U.S.-Italian ties when Trump began his second mandate, and had positioned herself as a “bridge” between Washington and the European Union. She was the lone EU head of state to attend his inauguration.

But relations have frayed over the U.S. war in Iran, which Meloni has said was illegal, and Trump’s position on Ukraine, which Italy strongly supports. Trump’s tariffs and strong U.S. support of Israel over its war in Gaza have been other points of contention.

In addition to Meloni and Tajani, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto also rebuked Trump’s claims, saying he didn’t believe Meloni would ever beg someone for a photo, “not even under threat.”

“I can, however, imagine how much it cost her to set aside what Trump had said weeks ago, to serve the interests of Italy, of Europe, and of the West,” Crosetto posted on X. “Jokes of this kind do no good to anyone: neither to the USA, nor to Italy, nor to the alliance.”

LONDON (AP) — A British court sent two men to prison Friday for setting fire to property linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a plot orchestrated by a mysterious Russian-speaking figure.

Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Stanislav Carpiuc, a 27-year-old Romanian citizen, were jailed for 7 years and 2 years, respectively, after being found guilty of conspiracy to damage property by fire.

The men targeted a car and two properties linked to Starmer over three nights in May 2025 on the orders of a Russian-speaking figure going by the name of “El Money,” according to prosecutors. El Money communicated on the messaging app Telegram with Lavrynovych. Their identity was never revealed and they were not charged.

The court heard how Carpuic was a middleman tasked with facilitating payment — which never came — and recruiting someone to film the fires.

Addressing Lavrynovych in the dock, Judge Justice Neil Garnham said he agreed to carry out this “mindless piece of arson for money.”

Lavrynovych was to El Money a “useful idiot, a fool who could be manipulated to his advantage,” Garnham said.

The plot fits the description of Russian state-backed sabotage, Cmdr. Dominic Murphy has said previously. He oversaw the initial investigation into the fires as head of the counterterrorism team at the Metropolitan Police before retiring in March.

He said evidence gathered by police showed that El Money spoke Russian and is “likely to be in Russia.” El Money’s methods were “very similar” to those known to be used by Russian intelligence services acting in the U.K. Such plots, he said, often have “very senior sign-off.”

Western officials say Russia is carrying out a sabotage campaign against European countries that support Ukraine. The Associated Press has tracked at least 192 attacks across Europe since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that include arson and cyberattacks as well as attempted assassinations.

When asked by AP in June if Russia is waging a covert war against the West, President Vladimir Putin brushed the allegations off.

Speaking in court Friday, Lavrynovych’s defense lawyer James Scobie said his client was “low-hanging fruit” used by El Money to deliberately target the prime minister. Lavrynovych, he said, had brought shame on his family in Ukraine where his father worked with the military before he died.

“You are not a man of great principle. And you were easily bought,” Garnham said. He told the court that Lavrynovych is a man of “significantly low level intellectual functioning,” and was therefore vulnerable to manipulation.

The U.K. Home Office called the fires an “abhorrent attack” and said those responsible have been brought to justice. It did not respond to requests for comment about whether the British government planned to attribute the fires to Russia.

Lavrynovych was tasked with setting and filming the fires over several days in May 2025, according to evidence presented during his six-week trial.

El Money recruited him online and sent detailed instructions, including the locations of the targets and how to mix flammable liquids from a hardware store.

The attacks did not cause injuries or major damage, but the prime minister’s sister-in-law, Judith Alexander, said she was left “struggling to breathe” after smoke filled her house in the third attack. She and her family were staying at the residence, which had been Starmer’s home before he became prime minister.

Messages recovered from Lavrynovych’s phone showed he discussed other vandalism he conducted for money, such as painting the windshields of cars black and putting up anti-Islam posters in Muslim areas of London.

He was not charged with that activity and it will be investigated, said Cmdr. Helen Flanagan, the current head of the Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism team.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans continue to disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling Iran, while his overall presidential approval holds steady, according to a new AP-NORC poll that was conducted as he suggested a deal with Iran had been reached.

The poll points to just how unpopular the war, which began Feb. 28, has been with Americans even as the Republican president turned abruptly from threatening Iran to reopening negotiations. Support for his handling of the war remains lopsidedly partisan. About two-thirds, 65%, of U.S. adults disapprove of how Trump is handling issues with Iran. But while the vast majority of Democrats and independents view Trump’s actions negatively, only 28% of Republicans are unhappy.

Americans’ views on how the president is handling Iran are roughly in line with his overall job approval, which stands at 37%, unchanged from an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in May.

The new survey was conducted June 11-17, just after Trump called off threats to escalate the war with Iran. The poll was fielded as Trump announced a deal with Iran and authorized an end to the U.S. naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, concluding just before the deal was signed Wednesday.

Approval of Trump’s actions on Iran has been low over the past few months. But in interviews, some Republicans also weren’t pleased with the outcome of this week’s agreement, which gives Iran an immediate benefit, allowing it to sell its oil freely again.

The deal also reopens the strait without tolls for two months, restarts talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program and calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

David Farrington, a 79-year-old Republican-leaning independent in Fort Worth, Texas, “doesn’t have any love lost” for Iran, but he’s frustrated the agreement focused on the strait and didn’t deliver more on the country’s nuclear weapons program.

“Any agreement regarding the strait is hardly what I would consider a recognizable concession on the part of Iran,” Farrington said. “So, I consider that some fluff that attempts to make this agreement look better when it’s not.”

Trump’s approval on Iran remains flat
Only about one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling Iran in the new poll, in line with May.

Donald McBride, a 28-year-old independent in Plano, Texas, is frustrated that Trump has not maintained his campaign promise to keep America out of foreign wars. McBride voted for Trump but he opposed going to war with Iran.

“I would like the war to end,” he said. “The original objective of the war was to end the Iranian regime, and that’s just not possible. I don’t really know why we’d continue fighting.”

The poll suggests most Americans want action in Iran to wrap up. Even with an agreement on the horizon, 53% of U.S. adults said American military action against Iran had “gone too far,” only a slight decline from 59% in March.

About 4 in 10 Republicans, though, said in the latest poll that action has been “about right,” and 37% said it had not gone far enough.

Joan Jones, a 64-year-old independent in northwest Florida, believes the United States’ actions in Iran have been necessary to address the threat Iran posed.

“Those attacks are ultimately to protect us from nuclear attacks,” Jones said. “I think we have to go through that … and eliminate that worry so we don’t have that hovering over us.”

Few approve of Trump’s approach on Israel
About one-third, 34%, of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling Israel.

Tensions have been rising between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump as the president criticizes recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which jeopardized negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

James Huffman, a 69-year-old Republican in Medway, Ohio, thinks Trump is taking the wrong strategy when it comes to Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu is not going to do everything Trump wants. He’s going to do what he wants,” Huffman said. “I just don’t think it’s effective.”

Only about one-third approve on the economy
About one-third of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s approach to the economy. That’s in line with last month, and continues a challenging stretch for Trump on the issue.

Jones, the Florida independent, is more optimistic than most. She said she can hardly leave the house some hours without getting stuck in the traffic of tourists headed to the beach on vacation. She also spots lines around the block for Starbucks, McDonalds and Chick-fil-A in her community — all signs to her that the economy is doing well overall.

“I think President Trump’s policies are contributing to a better economy,” Jones said.

Other Republicans are more skeptical, a troubling sign for a president who prides himself on his business acumen. Only 69% of Republicans approve of how he’s handling the economy, slightly lower than the 78% who approve of how he’s handling the presidency overall.

Patricia Bailey, a 42-year-old Republican in Parkersburg, West Virginia, sees an economy where prices have gotten out of control. “I just said the other night, ordering pizza is for rich people,” she said. Bailey voted for Trump but added, “He’s kind of let me down a little bit.”

Even if high prices preceded Trump, Bailey doesn’t think he’s lived up to his pledge to improve the economy.

“I think he got so distracted with the war that he forgot some old promises,” she said.

The empty nest is filling back up.

Millions of young adults are delaying life on their own as high housing costs keep them living with mom and dad. In 2025, 25.2 million adults under 35 lived with a parent, according to new data from Realtor.com. That amounts to roughly one in three people in that age group.

The numbers point to a housing market that remains difficult to break into, even for young adults with jobs and college degrees, the outlet reported.

“The adults living with their parents today are largely employed, and many hold college degrees,” Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement. “What’s holding them back isn’t a lack of qualifications, but rather, at least in part, a lack of housing they can actually afford. This is a supply story, not an employment story.”

GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS ADD NEARLY $132K TO COST OF NEW HOME, BUILDERS SAY

That supply problem has been years in the making. The U.S. is short roughly 4 million homes, with entry-level properties especially scarce. The gap has widened since construction slowed following the 2008 financial crisis, Realtor.com reported. 

About 70% of 25- to-34-year-olds living with their parents have jobs. In 2000, about one in nine employed adults in their late 20s lived at home. By 2025, that share had climbed to nearly one in seven.

For many young Americans, moving out has become increasingly expensive.

The national median home listing price is $430,000, up 34.4% from 2019, while the median asking rent has climbed to $1,673, up 17.9% over the same period, according to Realtor.com.

MEDIAN US HOME PRICE PROJECTED TO HIT $1 MILLION BY 2050 — RIGHT AS MILLENNIALS RETIRE

The delayed move into independent living could eventually translate into a wave of future housing demand.

As affordability improves or more homes are built, millions of young adults who postponed renting or buying could enter the market, Realtor.com reported.

“Twenty-five million adults living with their parents represents a generation of latent demand the market hasn’t absorbed,” Jones said. “Every adult still in a childhood bedroom is a household not formed, a lease unsigned, a starter home unpurchased. The typical first-time buyer is now 40 — that’s not a coincidence, it’s the math of a market that hasn’t built enough.”

The delay can also have long-term financial consequences.

Each year spent living at home can delay a young adult’s ability to build housing equity, Realtor.com noted.

MIDWEST AND SOUTHERN STATES DOMINATE HOUSING REPORT CARDS: SEE HOW YOURS SCORED

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The outlook is not getting easier. According to new projections from National Association of Realtors (NAR) chief economist Lawrence Yun, the national median home price is on track to hit $1 million by 2050 — just as millennials reach the traditional retirement age.

“Essentially, in about 25 years the national median home price will be a million dollars,” Yun said at a conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. “It may be hard to envision that, but back in 1990, the national median price was $90,000.”

FOX Business’ Kristen Altus contributed to this report.

A unique and educational Torah event will take place this Sunday morning, June 21, when the Agudath Israel of America Torah Projects Commission presents a special shiur featuring Rav Amitai Ben-David, acclaimed author of Sichas Chulin and a renowned expert in the practical and halachic aspects of shechitah.

The program will begin at 10:00 a.m. at Khal Zichron Yechezkel, located at 1871 Old Freehold Road in Toms River, New Jersey, and is expected to attract Daf Yomi participants, bnei Torah, rabbanim, and members of the broader community seeking a deeper understanding of one of the most fascinating and practical areas of halachah.

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

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

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

The shiur, as mentioned, will take place this Sunday, June 21, at Khal Zichron Yechezkel, 1871 Old Freehold Road in Toms River, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

{Matzav.com}

The legal battle surrounding two veteran mohelim in Antwerp took another turn after Belgium’s Court of Appeals postponed a decision on whether to bring them to trial, following a request by the complainant for additional investigative steps and new evidence to be examined.

The case centers on two mohelim accused of performing circumcisions on 98 infant boys without authorization from the public health system between December 2023 and March 2025. Prosecutors are seeking to bring the men to trial on allegations of assault, causing bodily harm to minors, and engaging in the unauthorized practice of medicine.

Earlier in the investigation, authorities had also considered charges related to violence against minors. However, the public prosecutor’s office later dropped those allegations, citing insufficient evidence. The complaint that triggered the investigation was filed by a man who was once part of Antwerp’s Jewish community and claimed that the circumcisions were being performed in violation of Belgian health regulations.

The probe into the mohelim began in October 2024. During the investigation, authorities reportedly monitored their telephone conversations, reviewed emails, examined financial records, and conducted a number of searches connected to the Jewish community.

The two mohelim declined to answer investigators’ questions regarding the circumcisions themselves. Instead, both submitted identical written statements asserting that bris milah is an ancient religious and cultural practice observed throughout the world and cannot be classified as a medical procedure.

The matter has now been returned to the investigating judge, who must determine whether the requests for additional investigative measures are relevant and should be carried out before the case proceeds further.

The defendants are 76-year-old Rabbi Aharon Eckstein and 47-year-old Rabbi Dovid Moshe Landau, both highly experienced mohelim who are well known in Jewish communities across Europe. Prosecutors allege that they performed dozens of circumcisions on eight-day-old infants during the period covered by the investigation and are seeking to charge them with intentional assault, bodily injury, and the illegal practice of medicine.

A ruling on whether the case will move to trial has now been postponed indefinitely after the complainant submitted a request seeking further investigation. He claims to possess additional evidence against the mohelim and is demanding that authorities question several individuals whom he alleges are involved in coordinating circumcisions within the Jewish community.

At the same time, the two mohelim have filed their own petition challenging the complaints against them, arguing that the allegations are baseless. That petition will be addressed before any decision is made regarding possible criminal charges.

The case has generated significant concern within Antwerp’s Jewish community and has revived memories of previous European campaigns targeting bris milah. Community members and advocates have long argued that efforts to restrict circumcision under the banner of protecting children have, in some instances, been driven by hostility toward Jewish religious practice and attempts to limit the ability of Jews to observe their faith.

{Matzav.com}

The IDF announced on Thursday the death of Naveh Havshush, who was killed during a Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon overnight.

As news of his death spread, a message from his father captured both the immense pain of a family shattered by loss and the enduring spirit that has carried Israel through generations of sacrifice.

“Dear friends, IDF officers came to inform us tonight of the bitterest news of all,” he wrote. “Our sweet and precious son, Naveh, was killed tonight in Lebanon.”

Despite the overwhelming grief, Naveh’s father asked the public not to stop living the life his son fought to protect.

“We would be very happy to see everyone continue to go on trips and try to continue their routine as much as possible,” he wrote. “For this, our Naveh was killed. So that we could continue to live in this land — safely, happily, and peacefully.”

His words served as a powerful reminder of the price paid by Israel’s soldiers and their families, who bear unimaginable burdens so that millions of others can continue their daily lives in freedom and security.

As Israel mourns another fallen son, the nation stands with the Havshush family in their sorrow and honors Naveh’s sacrifice.

🕯️ May the memory of Naveh Havshush be for a blessing.
🇮🇱 Am Yisrael Chai.

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

Among the many tragic episodes recorded in the Torah, few are as perplexing as the story of Korach. Korach was no ordinary man. Chazal tell us that he was exceptionally wealthy, exceptionally wise, and among the distinguished leaders of Klal Yisroel. He witnessed the greatest revelations in history. He stood at Har Sinai, accepting the Torah and hearing Hashem’s voice call out. He experienced Yetzias Mitzrayim. He lived among a generation that saw open miracles daily.

We learn the parsha and wonder how a person such as he could fall so low.

The Mishnah in Pirkei Avos teaches that any dispute conducted lesheim Shomayim, for the sake of Heaven, will endure, while one that is not for the sake of Heaven will not endure. The Mishnah then presents the ultimate example of a dispute not for the sake of Heaven: “The dispute of Korach and his congregation.”

What was the root of Korach’s rebellion?

The Torah hints at the answer. Korach could not accept the position that had been given to others. Moshe Rabbeinu was chosen as the leader of Klal Yisroel. Aharon had been selected for the kehunah. Elitzofon ben Uziel was appointed nosi. Korach looked around and saw honor bestowed upon others, and he was sickened.

People possess many different types of taavos and desires. Some are relatively harmless, while others can be profoundly destructive. The Mishnah in Pirkei Avos teaches, in the name of Rav Elazar Hakappar, that “hakinah v’hataavah v’hakavod, jealousy, lust, and the pursuit of honor, remove a person from the world.”

Of the three, the pursuit of honor is often the most destructive. A person recognizes physical temptations and understands the dangers they pose, but the desire for honor is so blinding that it often disguises itself as virtue. People convince themselves that they seek leadership for the sake of a worthy cause, to enable them to influence for the public good, or recognition to advance an important goal. In reality, it is the craving for honor that becomes all-consuming, blinding a person to reason and driving him to sacrifice everything in its pursuit.

Korach is a perfect illustration. He possessed virtually everything a person could desire, yet he could not accept that the honor he coveted was instead bestowed upon others. His obsession with attaining a position that was not his clouded his judgment and led him to challenge Moshe Rabbeinu. The honor he sought became the cause of his destruction, dragging him down along with his followers and leaving Korach as the Torah’s enduring symbol of how the lust for power can consume even the greatest of men.

Korach convinced himself that his rebellion was noble. He spoke in the language of equality and justice. “For the entire congregation is holy,” he declared. Yet, beneath the lofty rhetoric was a personal grievance. He wanted the position that had been given to someone else.

The Torah demonstrates how destructive this impulse can become. Korach did not merely challenge Moshe. He turned people against one another. Ultimately, the earth itself opened and swallowed him and his followers.

Chazal ask, “Korach, who was wise, what did he see to pursue this foolish endeavor?” The question itself is telling. His downfall was not due to ignorance. It was due to desire. Once a person’s ambitions take control, wisdom becomes powerless, and the desire becomes all-consuming.

The Mesillas Yeshorim addresses this taavah in the eleventh chapter, where he discusses the trait of nekiyus, the obligation to cleanse ourselves of subtle character flaws that ensnare people without them realizing it. Among the most dangerous of these flaws, he writes, is the pursuit of honor.

At first glance, honor seems harmless. Unlike wealth or physical pleasures, it appears noble and refined. A person may convince himself that he seeks a position of influence only to help others, leadership only to serve a worthy cause, or prominence only to advance a noble goal. Yet, the Mesillas Yeshorim warns that the desire for honor possesses extraordinary power to distort judgment and destroy people.

He writes that countless people have been destroyed by their quest for authority and recognition. The craving for honor can be so overwhelming that a person will sacrifice wisdom, relationships, principles, and even his spiritual wellbeing in order to satisfy it.

The Mesillas Yeshorim states that the desire for honor can never be satisfied. No matter how much a person possesses, he focuses on what remains beyond his reach. Instead of appreciating his blessings, he becomes consumed by the success of others. Instead of serving Hashem with joy, he becomes preoccupied with status and recognition. He says that a person can overcome his yeitzer hora for money or other enjoyments, but someone who desires honor can never overcome the awful feeling he experiences when he sees someone else possessing more than he does.

To illustrate the point, the Mesillas Yeshorim cites Korach. He had everything a person could want, yet it wasn’t enough. There was someone with a higher position than his, and that drove him past the breaking point.

The Mesillas Yeshorim’s words are as relevant today as they were when they were written centuries ago. Careers, families, communities, and institutions have been fractured because individuals became more concerned with prominence than purpose. The desire to be important becomes more important than doing what is right—or anything else.

Moshe fled from honor. Korach pursued it. Moshe became the greatest leader our nation has ever known. Korach became a symbol of the destruction that results when ambition is allowed to eclipse humility.

The person who seeks honor rarely finds satisfaction, while the person who seeks to serve Hashem discovers a greatness far beyond anything honor can provide.

There is a well-known, oft-repeated story about the Chofetz Chaim that captures the Torah’s perspective on leadership and greatness.

A visitor once came to Radin and entered the humble home of the Chofetz Chaim. Looking around, he was astonished. The furnishings were sparse. There was little evidence that one of the most revered Jews in the world lived there.

“Rebbe,” the visitor asked, “where is your furniture?”

The Chofetz Chaim responded with a question of his own.

“And where is yours?”

The man explained that he was merely traveling and had only temporary accommodations.

The Chofetz Chaim smiled and replied, “I, too, am only traveling.”

The Chofetz Chaim understood something that Korach had forgotten. This world is temporary. Positions are temporary. Titles are temporary. Influence is temporary. A person can spend his life fighting for honor and authority only to discover that both disappear with the passage of time. The only lasting achievements are the Torah, mitzvos, and maasim tovim that accompany a person into eternity.

The Chofetz Chaim fled from honor, viewing it as a poison that must be avoided. So many of our gedolim were exceedingly humble, and many stories are told of their remarkable humility.

Nations have been plunged into war because leaders could not relinquish authority. Families have been torn apart over questions of status and inheritance. Communities have been divided because individuals sought positions of prominence.

The pursuit of honor has toppled countless people who otherwise possessed remarkable talents and virtues.

Chazal teach that honor pursues those who flee from it and flees from those who pursue it. The more desperately a person seeks recognition, the more elusive it becomes. The less he thinks about himself, the more genuinely respected he becomes.

Moshe Rabbeinu embodied this principle. No one ever sought leadership less than Moshe. When Hashem appeared to him at the sneh, he repeatedly resisted accepting the role. He viewed himself as unworthy and begged Hashem to send someone else. Yet, no leader in history attained greater stature than Moshe. Because he did not seek greatness for himself, Hashem entrusted him with the greatest responsibility imaginable.

Korach was the exact opposite. He pursued greatness relentlessly, subjecting all of Klal Yisroel to a bitter machlokes in his bid for honor. In the end, not only did he fail to attain honor, but he lost everything.

Every person has a unique mission in this world that only he can fulfill. Hashem provides each individual with the talents, strengths, and abilities necessary to accomplish that mission.

Rav Yisroel Bunim Schreiber, whom we featured in these pages several weeks ago, is currently visiting the United States on behalf of Keren Olam HaTorah. Wherever he goes, he captivates bnei Torah with his remarkable shiurim, delivered with astonishing mastery and clarity, seemingly without preparation and often without opening a single sefer.

Following one such shiur last week, Rav Schreiber shared a powerful message of chizuk. He said that if every person would focus on becoming the best version of himself, everyone would succeed. The problem, however, is that people spend their lives trying to become someone else. Since they can never truly be that other person, they end up frustrated and disappointed.

To illustrate the point, Rav Schreiber related a story about the Chazon Ish.

Someone once approached the Chazon Ish and remarked that it was well-known that the Vilna Gaon slept only two hours a day, taking a series of brief naps of fifteen minutes each over the course of twenty-four hours. The man then asked, “If that was the case, how much did the great Amoraim Abaye and Rava sleep?”

To most of us, that sounds like a reasonable question.

The Chazon Ish’s response, however, was profound.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Maybe they slept eight hours a day.”

The point is that every person is given the particular strengths, abilities, and circumstances he needs in order to fulfill his unique purpose in life. One person’s path is not another’s. One person’s strengths are not another’s. Success comes not from imitating someone else, not from trying to be someone else, but from developing the gifts Hashem has given us and using them to accomplish our own mission.

Korach’s mistake was that he stopped focusing on his own mission and became consumed with Aharon’s mission. Instead of appreciating the extraordinary role that Hashem had given him, he obsessed over the role that had been given to someone else.

A person receives Hashem’s brachos but cannot enjoy them because he is focused on what someone else has. He is blessed with wealth, but it’s not enough, because the person down the block has more than he does. The person down the block isn’t happy with his wealth because further down the block is someone with even more money, a bigger house, and a nicer car. And it never ends, because that person also isn’t happy. He can’t get over the fact that Elon Musk is worth a trillion dollars and he only has fifty million.

Hashem blessed each of them with more success than they ever dreamed they could achieve, but they aren’t happy because they covet someone else’s prominence. A person has unique gifts, but fixates on talents that belong to someone else.

Comparison is too often the thief of contentment.

Perhaps this is why the Torah places such emphasis on humility. Humility does not mean that a person denies his talents. It means recognizing that every gift, every position, and every opportunity comes from Hashem. A humble person is able to celebrate another person’s success because he understands that every individual has a unique mission. He does not view life as a competition, but rather as a lifelong mission to maximize the strengths Hashem gave him in pursuit of the proper purpose.

Korach could not accept that lesson. He saw another person’s appointment as his own demotion. He measured his worth by comparing himself to others. Once he adopted that perspective, resentment became inevitable.

This challenge is not limited to leaders or public figures. It exists within everyone who doesn’t study mussar and whose life doesn’t revolve around Torah. People seek recognition, honor, and respect. People compare themselves to neighbors, colleagues, relatives, and friends.

The story of Korach reminds us that such thinking is spiritually dangerous. Happiness begins when a person embraces the role Hashem has assigned him rather than coveting the role assigned to someone else.

The greatest people in Jewish history were not those who sought power. They were those who sought purpose. They were willing to lead when necessary, but they never confused leadership with personal honor and glory.

The gedolei hador throughout the generations have demonstrated this. Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach became the gadol hador after spending decades cocooned in the bais medrash, struggling over sugyos of Shas. Similarly, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv spent his days and nights learning in a small locked bais medrash in Meah Shearim. The furthest thing from their minds was assuming power and control or seeking kavod and recognition for their Torah greatness.

As we learn Parshas Korach, we are reminded that the desire for power can blind even the wisest of men. It can transform talent into destruction and potential into tragedy. The antidote is humility, gratitude, and the recognition that every person has a place uniquely designed for him.

Korach wanted someone else’s position and lost his own. Moshe accepted his mission with humility and became Moshe Rabbeinu.

The earth swallowed Korach, but his message remains buried beneath the surface of every human heart. Whenever we feel jealousy at another’s success, resentment at another’s prominence, or frustration that we have not received the recognition we think we deserve, the challenge of Korach reappears.

And whenever we respond with humility, gratitude, and faith that Hashem has given us what we need for the role we are meant to play, we achieve what Korach never could.

May we all be zoche to fulfill our missions in life, to help others pursue theirs, and thereby find success and happiness in our lives while helping prepare the world for the coming of Moshiach, speedily in our day.

The wave of investor withdrawals that rattled the private credit industry this spring appears to be receding. The Oaktree Strategic Credit Fund told shareholders in an update dated Wednesday that requests to cash out fell to about 4.5% of its shares, back below the 5% ceiling the fund offers each quarter when its latest tender expired on June 12, allowing it to honor every redemption request in full.

That marks a sharp turnaround from three months ago. During the first quarter, redemption demand at the same fund surged to 8.5%, representing roughly $400 million, well above the standard cap. To meet the unusually high demand, Oaktree repurchased approximately 6.8% of the fund’s shares while its parent company, Brookfield, purchased another 1.7%. The fund also reduced its monthly distribution from 18 cents per share to 16 cents, and its net asset value had declined from its original $25 offering price to approximately $22.64.

The latest tender paints a calmer picture. About 8.9 million shares were offered for redemption, and because requests remained below the 5% threshold, every investor who wanted to sell was able to do so without restrictions.

To understand why investors were paying close attention, it helps to understand the structure. The Oaktree Strategic Credit Fund is a non-traded business development company (BDC), a vehicle that lends directly to companies and distributes interest income to investors. These funds have become popular among retirees and income-focused investors seeking higher yields than traditional fixed-income products. However, unlike a bank account or publicly traded stock, investors can generally redeem only during designated quarterly windows and are often subject to a 5% redemption cap.

That structure came under pressure earlier this year as concerns spread across the rapidly growing $2 trillion private credit industry. The bankruptcies of First Brands and Tricolor shook confidence in parts of the market, while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that additional problems could emerge within the sector. At the same time, concerns that advances in artificial intelligence could disrupt certain software companies that rely on private credit financing added to investor unease.

The result was a rush for liquidity across multiple funds.

Oaktree was not alone. Redemption requests exceeded 10% of shares outstanding at funds managed by Morgan Stanley, Apollo, and Ares during the first quarter, while Blue Owl reportedly faced approximately $5.4 billion in withdrawal requests. Some managers limited redemptions to the contractual 5% cap. Others, including Oaktree and Blackstone, elected to satisfy all requests in an effort to reassure investors and prevent broader concerns from spreading through the market.

Recent developments suggest the pressure may be easing. Blackstone reported that withdrawal requests slowed during the latter portion of its most recent quarter and said investor sentiment had begun to stabilize as fresh capital started returning. Oaktree’s own portfolio metrics also remain relatively strong. According to the fund, it has met every redemption request since launching in June 2022, generated an annualized net return of approximately 8.8% over three years, and continues to report minimal levels of non-performing loans.

For individual investors, the events of the past several months may ultimately serve as a reminder about the nature of these products. Much of the concern stemmed from a misunderstanding of liquidity. Many investors were attracted by the steady income streams but did not fully appreciate that access to their capital could be limited during periods of market stress.

In many respects, the funds performed exactly as designed. Redemption gates functioned as intended, and firms backed by large, well-capitalized parent companies were able to satisfy elevated demand without being forced into distressed asset sales. Still, the episode highlighted that investments offering attractive income can behave very differently from traditional savings accounts when markets become unsettled.

The decline in redemption requests below the 5% threshold does not settle the broader debate surrounding private credit. Regulators, investors, and analysts continue to scrutinize how private loans are valued and how liquidity risks are managed during periods of stress. Yet for income investors watching the sector closely, Oaktree’s latest filing offers an encouraging signal: redemption pressure has eased, confidence appears to be improving, and for now, the line at the exit is getting shorter.

JBizNews Desk
New York

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Violent clashes erupted overnight in Yerushalayim’s Meah Shearim neighborhood during a protest against the arrest of draft resisters and their imprisonment in military detention facilities. Police said two demonstrators were arrested as security forces moved to restore order near Kikar HaShabbos.

According to police, officers from the Yerushalayim District, Border Police personnel, and special patrol units were dispatched to the area after protesters blocked major intersections, set fires, and disrupted traffic.

Police stated that “a disturbance of public order developed overnight in the Kikar HaShabbos area of Yerushalayim, when violent rioters began blocking traffic routes while attempting to damage vehicles and disrupt public order.”

Authorities said a police commander formally declared the gathering an unlawful disturbance and instructed participants to disperse. However, according to police, demonstrators refused to comply with the orders.

Police alleged that protesters began throwing objects at security forces while continuing to block the roadway. In response, Yerushalayim District officers, Border Police troops, and special patrol units moved to clear the area using force and crowd-control measures, including a water cannon and stun grenades.

The operation was aimed at freeing vehicles trapped by the protest, reopening roads to traffic, and restoring public order, police said.

Video footage from the scene showed chaotic confrontations between protesters and police, including the arrest of one demonstrator. Additional footage circulated from the protest appeared to show loudspeakers collapsing into the crowd during the disturbances.

In a statement, police emphasized that they support the right to protest but argued that the events crossed the line into unlawful conduct.

“Israel Police respects and allows freedom of expression and protest for every person in accordance with the law,” the statement said. “However, in this case, this was not freedom of expression or a legitimate protest, but rather a blatant disruption of public order, the blocking of major transportation arteries, and direct and severe harm to the daily lives of city residents and the general public.”

Police added that they would continue to act “with determination, zero tolerance, and professionalism” against acts of violence, vandalism, and violations of the law.

The two arrested protesters were taken into custody and transferred to a police station for questioning. Authorities did not immediately release additional details regarding possible charges.

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Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has revealed new details about some of the most daring covert operations attributed to Israel, including the pager operation against Hezbollah, the theft of Iran’s nuclear archive from Tehran, and sabotage efforts targeting Iran’s supply chains.

In a wide-ranging interview with the French magazine Le Point, Cohen, who led the Mossad from 2016 to 2021, said he was involved in the long-term planning of the pager operation, in which devices used by Hezbollah were allegedly designed to become a vulnerability inside the terror group’s communications network.

According to Cohen, the devices were built to alert users to an encrypted message that could only be opened by pressing two buttons at the same time, forcing the user to hold the device with both hands near the face or chest — increasing the impact when activated.

Cohen also discussed Israel’s 2018 operation to steal Iran’s nuclear archive from Tehran, calling it one of the most important missions of his tenure. He said the Mossad learned after the 2015 nuclear deal that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, considered the father of Iran’s military nuclear program, had gathered sensitive documents from across Iran and moved them to a secret location.

After becoming Mossad chief in 2016, Cohen said he ordered the agency to locate the archive, study the site, and bring the original documents and disks to Israel. The operation was carried out in January 2018.

Cohen said the archive exposed previously unknown nuclear sites, enrichment activities outside declared facilities, and information about enriched uranium, fundamentally changing the world’s understanding of Iran’s nuclear program. He added that President Donald Trump relied in part on the archive when withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018.

Asked whether the archive operation was his idea or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Cohen said plainly: “The idea was mine.”

Cohen also revealed details about Mossad penetration of Iranian supply chains, saying the agency operated front companies or took control of existing companies that sold sensitive equipment to Iran. Once ordered by the Iranians, the systems could be modified, sabotaged, rigged with explosives, and activated at a time chosen by Israel.

He cited the April 2021 attack at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, saying a system connected to centrifuge operations had been sold to the Iranians after explosives were embedded inside it. Cohen said he personally approved the activation of the charge, which caused major damage to the facility.

The former Mossad chief also described his working relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the two developed a professional understanding due to their shared intelligence backgrounds. Cohen said Putin made clear during their first meeting that he knew Cohen’s personal history and intelligence career.

Turning to the October 7 massacre, Cohen sharply criticized Israel’s intelligence failure in Gaza, saying the collapse did not surprise him entirely because he had warned for years that Israel’s intelligence capabilities in the Strip were deteriorating.

Cohen said that during his time as national security adviser and later as Mossad chief, he sought responsibility for Gaza intelligence, or at least part of it, arguing that Israel’s ability to operate inside the Strip had weakened since the 2005 disengagement.

“I know exactly what intelligence they had on Gaza,” Cohen said. “Nothing.”

Cohen said Israel’s years of covert operations inside Iran — from sabotage missions and supply chain penetration to the nuclear archive raid — helped prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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A growing mountain of soured household loans is becoming one of the biggest threats to China’s economy, and the country’s own banks are showing the strain. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) — the world’s largest bank by assets — reported that its bad-loan ratio on personal consumer loans climbed to 2.51% by the middle of last year, while its credit card delinquency rate hit 3.75%. That consumer bad-loan ratio stood at just 1.34% two years earlier.

Those are the figures at China’s strongest lender. At weaker regional banks, the picture is far uglier. Bohai Bank’s consumer bad-loan ratio jumped to 12.37% in 2024 from 4.44% a year earlier, and Harbin Bank’s rose to 5.51%. When more than one in eight consumer loans goes bad, a bank is in real trouble.

The rot is spreading fast enough that Beijing’s regulator has stepped in. The National Financial Regulatory Administration extended a program through the end of 2026 that lets banks bundle their bad personal loans and sell them to asset managers — a pressure valve to get the debt off bank books. Sales of these distressed personal loans more than doubled in the first half of 2025 from a year earlier. By the end of 2024, banks had packaged some 1.18 trillion yuan — roughly $165 billion — of troubled retail loans into securities, most of it tied to credit cards and unsecured consumer borrowing.

Here is the alarming part: this debt is being dumped at fire-sale prices. In early 2025, bad personal loans were selling for only about four cents on the yuan, meaning banks were recovering pennies on what they were owed. With no personal bankruptcy law in China and courts buckling under millions of retail debt cases, lenders would rather take a deep loss than chase borrowers who cannot pay.

How did the world’s second-largest economy get here? It starts with the property crash, which wiped out household wealth as apartments lost value. Then came deflation: China has been stuck in falling prices for roughly ten straight quarters, which makes every debt harder to repay because borrowers pay back loans with money that buys more than it used to. Layer on wage cuts across finance, manufacturing, and government jobs, plus worry over tariffs and incomes, and you get households that are tapped out and scared.

Scared people stop spending. A central bank survey found that 61.4% of Chinese households now want to boost their savings — nearly 20 percentage points higher than before the pandemic. Hoarding cash is rational for any one family, but for the economy it is poison: weak spending feeds more deflation, which sours more debt, which makes everyone more cautious still.

It is worth keeping perspective. By global standards, Chinese household debt is not extreme — about 60% of economic output, below the roughly 70% in the United States and far below South Korea — and economists worry less about the total than about how fast the bad loans are climbing. As ING economist Lynn Song put it, “Income growth-driven consumption would be strongly preferable” to a recovery propped up by more borrowing — but raising incomes is the harder path, and Beijing has leaned on lending instead.

The consumer mess sits inside a far bigger problem. Estimates suggest China’s banking system is carrying trillions of dollars in hidden bad debt, masked by policies that allow struggling borrowers to defer payments rather than default — keeping official bad-loan rates relatively stable while avoiding a broader banking panic. The tradeoff is that capital remains tied up in struggling borrowers and unproductive sectors rather than flowing to healthier parts of the economy. As Victor Shih, a China finance expert at the University of California San Diego, observed, “There’s no financial crisis, but there’s no free lunch in economics. The price is just growth, inefficiency and low productivity.”

For Americans, this is not a far-off story. A weak Chinese consumer pushes Beijing to lean harder on exports, flooding global markets with cheap goods and squeezing manufacturers elsewhere. And a China that cannot get its own people to spend buys less from everyone else. The pile of bad consumer debt is President Xi Jinping’s problem first — but in a connected world, a stalled Chinese consumer eventually shows up in everyone’s economy.

JBizNews Desk
Hong Kong

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The IDF on Thursday unveiled new data highlighting the scope of its counterterrorism operations across Judea and Samaria, reporting more than 11,500 offensive operations since the beginning of the year, alongside thousands of arrests, weapons seizures, and efforts to dismantle terrorist infrastructure.

The figures were presented during a briefing at Central Command, where military officials outlined the security situation in Judea and Samaria, ongoing counterterror operations in northern Shomron, and preparations along Israel’s eastern front.

According to the IDF, more than 1,770 wanted suspects have been arrested since the beginning of the year, approximately 570 weapons have been confiscated, and over NIS 7.8 million earmarked for terrorist activity has been seized. Forces also destroyed about 40 workshops used to manufacture weapons and confiscated more than 420 drones.

Military officials said intensive operations have continued under Operation Iron Wall, launched following the establishment of terrorist infrastructure in the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur al-Shams. The IDF says it has achieved operational control in those areas while significantly degrading terrorist networks through arrests and targeted operations.

The military noted that areas that once served as major hubs for terrorist activity have undergone significant changes, with forces continuing to operate there to preserve security gains, locate explosive devices, and prevent terrorist organizations from reestablishing themselves.

Officials also highlighted force-building efforts implemented following the lessons of the October 7 attack. These include the establishment of the 96th Division, designed to strengthen defenses along the eastern front and provide additional operational capabilities.

Over the past year, the IDF established five new reserve brigades, known as “Lightning Brigades,” with more than 15,000 reservists joining the units. Many of those reservists returned to active service on a voluntary basis.

As part of the initiative, 25 new battalions were formed and underwent training and operational exercises, with some already participating in security missions throughout Judea and Samaria. The IDF said several battalions demonstrated the ability to reach their assigned sectors in less than two hours while maintaining exceptionally high mobilization rates.

Central Command also released updated terror attack statistics, reporting 34 shooting, stabbing, and vehicular attacks in 2021, 84 in 2022, 50 in 2023, 25 in 2024, and 57 in 2025.

Military officials said the focus remains on maintaining pressure on terrorist organizations while continuing to strengthen operational readiness, expand force structure, and improve rapid-response capabilities in the face of evolving security threats.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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Meta has lobbied U.S. lawmakers for legal immunity from lawsuits alleging child harm from its social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, according to a report.

This comes as Meta faces a wave of youth-safety litigation, including thousands of similar claims consolidated in California state courts and separate lawsuits brought by states and school districts. Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, were hit with a combined $6 million in damages after a Los Angeles jury found them negligent in a bellwether case alleging Instagram and YouTube were designed in ways that harmed a young user. Both companies have said they plan to appeal.

If language like Meta’s proposal is adopted by lawmakers and signed into law as part of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) under consideration in the Senate, the provision could undermine pending and future complaints against Meta and other social media platforms regarding child safety.

Lawmakers have not said they would be open to adopting the language, but the lobbying effort shows the kind of legal protections Meta is seeking amid government attempts to regulate online platforms.

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The proposed language would make online companies “immune from suit or liability under state law with respect to all claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the safety or privacy of individuals under the age of eighteen online or otherwise related to the provisions” of KOSA, according to Reuters.

The proposal appears alongside language that seeks to have the federal measure overrule state laws on children’s online safety and privacy.

Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway told Reuters that the provision “does not extinguish existing lawsuits, nor does it represent blanket immunity.”

“Instead, it establishes uniform national standards for online youth safety, ensuring these critical issues are governed by comprehensive federal legislation, not plaintiffs’ lawyers or patchwork state legislation,” she said.

But Julia Duncan of the American Association for Justice, a group that represents trial lawyers, said that if the provision were to be adopted, it would kill any lawsuits pending when the law took effect.

“The language is pretty clear-cut immunity against every parent, every school district, that is seeking to hold any AI or social media company accountable for harm” to children, Duncan said. “There is no other way to read this language.”

Meta has proposed the language in exchange for dropping its efforts to oppose KOSA, a source told Reuters.

KOSA, sponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., would require social media companies to take steps to prevent certain harms to minors, including compulsive use of their platforms.

The measure is now the subject of negotiations between Blackburn and the White House to package child online safety bills with a provision that would preempt some state laws regarding AI.

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“We have not seen that proposed language and would never consider it,”  a spokesperson for the GOP senator told Reuters.

Under the bill, tech companies would need to use care in adding specific features such as infinite scrolling, activity notifications and appearance-changing photograph filters. 

A woman won at trial earlier this year against Meta and Google, which owns YouTube, after her lawyers successfully argued the companies were aware these features were addictive and harmful to young people. The tech companies plan to appeal the ruling.

KOSA passed in the Senate in 2024 before failing in the House. The measure was reintroduced this year with support from both Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Reuters contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Apple has agreed to work with Intel on designing and producing chips in the U.S.

“When I won my Second Term, it was clear America needed its Semiconductor Industry to come back to the U.S.A. We design everything, but we need to BUILD it here, NOW! So I decided to help Intel because we need to design and build our Chips right here in America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The partnership could help Apple diversify its manufacturing base as it looks for additional chip capacity. The tech giant relies heavily ​on the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has advanced production ​lines in ⁠high demand from AI chipmakers such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

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Intel shares rose in premarket trading following the announcement from the president.

“The Technology the World relies on was invented in America. We all remember ‘Intel Inside.’ Stupid Presidents took our Economy for granted, and let Taiwan and others steal our Semiconductor Factories,” Trump said.

Intel reportedly reached a preliminary agreement to make some chips for Apple after more than a year of talks. Apple and Intel have not publicly detailed which chips or products would be involved.

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An Apple contract would give Intel steady demand from a top consumer electronics company after its reputation and manufacturing business fell behind TSMC in recent years.

Earlier this week, Intel announced that a new generation of its manufacturing technology, 18A-P, had entered initial production, as the chipmaker works to meet demand for advanced processors.

Last year, the Trump administration took a roughly 10% stake in Intel and announced plans to invest billions of dollars in the chipmaker to build or expand factories in the U.S.

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The Trump administration took a roughly 10% stake in Intel last year and announced plans to invest billions of dollars in the chipmaker to build or expand factories in the U.S.

Trump previously said he “should have asked for more” of a stake in Intel after the value of the federal government’s Intel position rose sharply.

“When was the last time a President made America money??” Trump wrote on Thursday.

The administration has been boosting efforts to secure U.S. supply chains for critical minerals and semiconductors, including by taking equity stakes in companies as part of an effort to cut reliance on China.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Dozens of rabbonim, roshei yeshiva, and community leaders from the Sephardic Torah world gathered Thursday night in Bnei Brak for an emergency conference protesting the ongoing draft crisis and the arrests of yeshiva bochurim. The gathering concluded with a dramatic decision to hold a massive public demonstration in the city on Motzoei Shabbos Parshas Balak.

The emergency meeting took place at the Halichos Moshe shul in the Ramat Aharon neighborhood and was hosted by the area’s rov, Rav Shabtai Levi. The event was led by Rav Nissim Ben Shimon and Rav Shlomo Machpud, a member of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah.

Organizers said the purpose of the conference was to present a firm and united response from the Sephardic Torah community to what participants described as severe government measures against the Torah world, including the arrests of yeshiva bochurim and avreichim.

Throughout the evening, rabbonim, heads of institutions, and roshei yeshiva addressed the audience, emphasizing the supreme importance of preserving the status and honor of Torah learning. Speakers expressed deep pain over what they described as a sustained and deliberate disrespect toward lomdei Torah and called for unity and a strong public outcry.

The keynote address was delivered by Chacham Nissim Ben Shimon. During his remarks, he quoted the Talmudic teaching, “כל המבזה תלמידי חכמים אין רפואה למכתו” (“Whoever degrades Torah scholars has no cure for his affliction”). He then referred directly to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and said that as early as next week she would feel unwell and come to regret her actions. He concluded by urging the public to strengthen itself spiritually and awaken to the gravity of the moment, declaring: “על כולנו להתחזק וכולנו ביחד להתעורר” (“We must all strengthen ourselves, and all of us together must awaken”).

At the conclusion of the gathering, participants adopted a joint resolution calling for a large public rally in the streets of Bnei Brak on Motzoei Shabbos Parshas Balak. According to organizers, the event is expected to draw rabbonim, roshei yeshiva, roshei kollel, and many of the city’s leading Torah figures.

Organizers said the rally will feature significant public statements and announcements, and may include what they described as “far-reaching steps” that could shape the future public response of the Sephardic Torah community. The stated goal is to bring attention to what participants view as the ongoing “dishonor of Torah.”

Sources involved in the planning said logistical preparations are already underway and that widespread participation is expected from Torah institutions and communities throughout Bnei Brak.

{Matzav.com}

Coalition officials are voicing sharp opposition to the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, which entered into effect overnight, arguing that the agreement comes at the expense of Israel’s security interests.

Speaking to Kan Reshet Bet on Thursday morning, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer said, “There is no one in Israel who wakes up in the morning happy with this agreement.” While emphasizing that the alliance between Israel and the United States remains strong and rooted in shared values, Sofer said Israel must be prepared to stand firm even when it disagrees with its closest ally.

“Sometimes it is our obligation to say ‘no,’ and I think our friends will respect that when it comes to something essential,” Sofer said.

Sofer stated that he does not see any scenario in which Israel withdraws from its security zone in southern Lebanon and argued that the U.S.-Iran agreement undermines and effectively collapses efforts to reach a diplomatic arrangement with the Lebanese government. He said the lessons of October 7 demonstrated that border defenses can be breached and that a military presence in a security zone free of terrorists and terror infrastructure remains essential to protecting northern communities.

“The peace and the new Middle East we were once promised is still not here,” Sofer said, adding that Israel must continue shaping its security reality through strength.

Addressing Iran’s nuclear program, Sofer said Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure were “dramatic and significant,” targeting both key facilities and supporting infrastructure.

Earlier, Likud MK Avichai Boaron also expressed strong opposition to the agreement, saying Israel opposes it “completely and absolutely.” He said Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly conveyed Israel’s position directly to President Trump and warned that the agreement represents a strategic mistake by the American administration.

Boaron sharply criticized the terms of the deal, saying, “The American interest prevailed over our national interest and over the international interest.” He argued that while the world had been on the verge of dismantling Iran’s terror and nuclear infrastructure, the concessions being granted to Tehran in the early stages of the agreement are “high and absurd.”

Boaron specifically highlighted provisions concerning the withdrawal of U.S. allies from Lebanon and insisted that Israel would not agree to such a move.

“The Prime Minister informed President Trump that we do not intend to withdraw from Lebanon and return the situation to what it was before,” Boaron said.

Despite his criticism of the agreement, Boaron stressed that he still considers Trump a friend of Israel.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The newly exposed Hamas files have forced Israel to confront one of the most painful truths of the October 7 massacre: Hamas caught Israel off guard by studying it, feeding it the signals it wanted to see, and turning its wish for quiet into part of the battlefield.

Yonah Jeremy Bob’s exclusive report in The Jerusalem Post, based on documents provided by the Military Intelligence Directorate to the Meir Amit Terrorism and Intelligence Research Institute, shows a calculated deception effort that began long before the massacre.

A Hamas document from September 2022 addressed the need to build a “strategic deception” plan for a surprise attack. Another, from September 25, 2023, shortly before the invasion, described calibrated border pressure, mediated demands, and the use of Jewish festivals as tactical opportunities.

That is the horror of these documents. They show planning, patience, and confidence.

Hamas understood that Israel had come to see Gaza through a management doctrine: More work permits. More Qatari money. More indirect messages through mediators. More rounds in which Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired, and Hamas sat on the sidelines.

Quiet became evidence. Restraint became analysis. Economic distress became deterrence.

The documents suggest Hamas understood all of this and weaponized it. This deepens Israel’s self-indictment. A serious country expects enemies to lie. Terrorist organizations deceive. Intelligence exists because hostile actors conceal intentions, simulate routine, and exploit assumptions.

The question is why so many warnings, patterns, drills, border incidents, and signals were forced into a theory that said Hamas wanted calm more than war.

The answer begins with the old “conceptzia,” the preconceived notion that the enemy is deterred because our logic says he should be.

Israel has known this failure before. In 1973, it believed Egypt and Syria would refrain from launching war under conditions Israel considered irrational.

In 2023, it believed Hamas would prioritize its rule, its money, and its economic arrangements over a catastrophic confrontation. Hamas read that arrogance and built a trap around it.

The Saudi-normalization context makes the lesson wider. Hamas saw a regional order forming that could push the Palestinian issue aside and strengthen Israel’s place in the Middle East. It chose mass violence to blow up diplomacy.

Israel’s enemies may sabotage peace initiatives

Israel must remember that its enemies may view peace initiatives as strategic threats, and they may try to sabotage them with bloodshed.

There is another lesson here for today’s Israel. Negotiations are necessary. Humanitarian arrangements can be necessary. Mediators can be useful. But none of them can substitute for skepticism.

A message passed through Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, or any other channel may be true, partial, manipulative, or all three at once. The purpose of Israeli statecraft is to test every message against action on the ground.

That means every future policy toward Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the Houthis, and other enemies must be built around a harder assumption: Our adversaries are studying us as closely as we study them.

They watch our politics. They watch our festivals. They watch our public debates, fatigue over reserve call-ups, diplomatic priorities, American pressures, and hunger for normal life. They know when Israeli attention moves elsewhere. They know when Israel wants to believe a problem has been contained.

Israel needs accountability for October 7

The Hamas files should also sharpen the public demand for accountability. Israel still needs a full, fearless reckoning for the October 7 massacre.

Military, intelligence, and political leaders all owe the country answers. The purpose is repair, because without accountability, the same culture rebuilds itself with new slogans and old instincts.

The security establishment must reward dissenting analysis. Junior warnings must move upward instead of dying in bureaucracy. Border intelligence must be treated as strategic intelligence. Technology must support human judgment. Decision-makers must be forced to ask the question that was asked too softly before October 7: What if the quiet is the warning?

Hamas’s documents show an enemy that was cruel, patient, and strategic. Israel’s response must be moral, disciplined, and equally strategic. The country cannot live forever in suspicion, but it also cannot afford innocence. It must protect life while remembering that in this region, calm can be real, and calm can be staged.

The October 7 massacre was also a lesson in deception. Israel’s duty now is to make sure that lesson changes doctrine, culture, and leadership before the next enemy tries to teach it again.

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Senior Israeli police officers are reportedly expressing outrage at National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir after he announced an urgent review of police use of stun grenades during demonstrations, following the violent clashes between police and chareidi protesters on Route 4 earlier this week.

According to a report by i24News, police officials sharply criticized Ben Gvir’s decision, arguing that officers are being blamed for actions carried out in the field.

“They’re throwing us under the train because Ben Gvir got angry,” one officer was quoted as saying. “I don’t remember him being this angry when stun grenades were thrown at Kaplan. Suddenly it’s convenient to place all the responsibility on the officers on the ground? We’re taking a step back. Whoever wants to carry out forcible evacuations can do it himself.”

The officers indicated that the move could affect future enforcement efforts, expressing frustration over what they see as a double standard.

“As far as we’re concerned, let them shut down the country,” they said. They added, “When it comes to chareidim, you’re not allowed to use batons, mounted police, or stun grenades.”

The controversy erupted after police used force against demonstrators during the protest on Route 4, prompting criticism and renewed scrutiny of crowd-control tactics.

Shortly after the disturbances began, Ben Gvir issued a public statement expressing concern over the increasing use of stun grenades against civilian demonstrators.

“Recently there has been an increase in incidents in which stun grenades were used against a civilian population not in accordance with procedures. Therefore, I will hold an urgent discussion on the matter in order to ensure that the use of stun grenades is carried out only in exceptional cases and in accordance with police regulations. If their use is not limited to those cases, there will be no stun grenades in the police force.”

The minister’s comments have now triggered a growing backlash within police ranks, with officers warning that restrictions on crowd-control tools could hamper their ability to respond to future protests.

{Matzav.com}

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman) At first glance, the Memorandum of Understanding that President Trump signed this week to end the war with Iran appears to be an unmitigated disaster—for Israel and, in a different way, for the United States as well.

Israel, by most accounts, was not even shown the document before it was finalized. The agreement extends the ceasefire, lifts the American blockade of Iranian ports, and commits Tehran only to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, while leaving the ballistic-missile question and Iranian support for its proxies to a future round of negotiations that may never bear fruit.

The President himself, even as he defended the document, has spent the week publicly deriding Prime Minister Netanyahu and criticizing Israeli operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon as overly aggressive. To an observer who is concerned for the safety of the residents of  Israel, it is difficult to read the news of recent days without a sinking heart.

And yet there is a way of looking at these events that yields a more hopeful conclusion. The argument that follows does not deny the immediate pain. It suggests, rather, that in the longer arc of history, this seemingly disastrous agreement may prove to be in Israel’s genuine interest. The reasoning rests on three observations.

The Shifting Ground in America

The first observation concerns the changing temperature of American politics. The United States has, over the past several years, taken a pronounced turn toward the left on the question of Israel, and both antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment now stand at heights not seen in many decades.

This is not a partisan claim so much as a sociological one; it can be measured in campus encampments, in polling, and in the rhetoric that has migrated from the fringes toward the center of public discourse. A relationship that was once treated as a fixed point of American foreign policy is, for the first time in living memory, genuinely contested terrain.

When a friendship is unconditional, a single bad agreement is a wound; when a friendship has grown conditional and brittle, the dynamics that produce agreements—and the personalities who negotiate them—take on outsized importance. Which brings us to the second observation.

The Cost

The war with Iran was not free, and Americans have felt its price most directly at the gasoline pump. With roughly a fifth of the world’s oil normally passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the disruption sent prices soaring well above four dollars a gallon—more than a dollar higher than before the war, and in some states considerably more than that. Independent estimates of the added burden on the average American household have ranged from several hundred dollars to projections approaching a thousand dollars over the course of the year if elevated prices persist.

Whatever the precise figure, the political reality is unambiguous: the war imposed a real and resented cost on ordinary voters, and that resentment has consequences.

A public that associates a Middle Eastern war with pain at the pump is a public whose patience for further such ventures is thin. This is the uncomfortable backdrop against which the succession to President Trump will play out—and it is in that succession that the third, and most consequential, observation lies.

Vance, Rubio, and the Republican Succession

Vice President Vance is widely regarded as the heir apparent to the President as the Republican standard-bearer. On the question of Israel, however, his reputation is, to put it gently, not the warmest. He has long been associated with a more restrained, less interventionist posture, and it was Vance who took the lead in negotiating the very Memorandum of Understanding now under discussion. Whatever one thinks of the deal, its paternity is his.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, by contrast, has been one of the most consistent and full-throated supporters of Israel in American public life for the better part of two decades. And the political ground has been shifting with remarkable speed.  He is also Hispanic and a very likable fellow – to the extent that even Democrats would vote for him rather than a hyper-liberal.

Polling that not long ago showed Vance running away with the 2028 Republican field now shows a genuine two-horse race, with several surveys placing Rubio ahead—in one national poll by a margin approaching sixteen points, a swing of dramatic proportions in a matter of months. The contest that once looked settled is settled no longer.

If the MOU comes to be seen by Republican primary voters as a flawed bargain—negotiated by Vance, leaving Iran’s missiles and proxies intact, and sidelining a close ally—it may sharpen precisely the challenge that Rubio would mount.

A primary in which the Vice President must defend an unpopular agreement against a rival with impeccable pro-Israel credentials is, in the long run, a primary whose outcome could serve Israel’s interests far better than the present moment would suggest. The document that wounds Israel today may help elevate, tomorrow, the candidate most committed to its security.

And the truth is that the Trump 2.0 administration was the best one in recent history for the safety of those living in Israel.  But what would have happened if Biden did not win?  It could very well have turned out that President Trump would not have assisted Israel so strongly in 2020.

A Word of Caution—and of Faith

Let it be said plainly: this article does not suggest that any of this is the President’s strategy in signing the agreement. To attribute so intricate a design to any human actor would be to claim a knowledge no observer possesses.

The point is rather the opposite.

Human beings act for their own reasons, in their own moment, with their own limited sight—and yet the consequences of their actions are woven into a larger pattern they did not author and cannot see.

As the wisest of all men taught in Mishlei (21:1), Palgei mayim lev melech b’yad Hashem—“Like channels of water is the heart of a king in the hand of Hashem; He turns it wherever He wishes.” The hearts of kings and presidents, of vice presidents and secretaries of state, are not beyond the reach of Hashgachah. What looks from below like a setback may be, from above, a turning of the channel. We are not granted the vantage point to see the whole design.

We are granted only the obligation to act rightly, to judge favorably where we can, and to trust that the One who directs the hearts of the powerful has not removed His hand from history.

The MOU may indeed be a bitter document. But bitterness in the present and benefit in the long run are not contradictions—they are, more often than we like to admit, the same event seen at two different distances. For those who are concerned for the safety of our brethren in Israel, the counsel of the hour is neither despair nor naiveté, but the patient confidence of Bitachon Bashem. 

The author can be reached at [email protected]

Thousands of current and former bochurim of Yeshivas Be’er HaTalmud from across Israel gathered Thursday evening outside Prison 10 at the Beit Lid military base to protest the imprisonment of yeshiva alumnus and yungerman Rabbi Ariel Cohen.

The yeshiva’s rosh yeshiva, Rav Yehuda Cohen, a member of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, traveled to the protest and was accompanied by his son, Rav Chanoch Cohen, who serves as the yeshiva’s rosh yeshiva. The demonstration was organized by the Chayei Olam organization, which has been assisting Rabbi Cohen since his arrest.

Also participating in the rally were Knesset members Michael Malkieli, a graduate of the yeshiva, and Yoni Mashriki.

Participants recited Selichos with intense emotion, and Rav Chanoch Cohen addressed the crowd, lamenting what he described as the persecution of yeshiva bochurim and the imprisonment of bnei Torah in military detention facilities.

On the sidelines of the gathering, Rabbi Aviel Cohen, the imprisoned avreich’s father, received a brocha from Rav Yehuda Cohen.

During the event, organizers from Chayei Olam informed attendees that Rabbi Ariel Cohen was expected to be released before Shabbos. The announcement sparked spontaneous dancing and celebrations among the crowd.

The Shas movement later stated that, through the efforts of Shas chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri, Rabbi Cohen would be freed before Shabbos. The party added that MK Yoav Ben Tzur had spoken with the family and informed them that, through Deri’s intervention, his sentence had been eased and he would be released from prison before the onset of Shabbos. Family members expressed gratitude to Shas and Rabbi Deri for their persistent efforts on his behalf.

Shas subsequently clarified that the work leading to Rabbi Cohen’s release had in fact been carried out by the Chayei Olam organization, which has been operating with dedication to assist and defend yeshiva bochurim who are arrested, and that the earlier statement attributing the effort solely to Shas had been issued in error.

{Matzav.com}

Senior IDF officials have warned Israel’s political leadership that the coming two weeks are critical for advancing legislation to extend mandatory military service, cautioning that failure to do so could create a manpower gap equivalent to an entire draft cycle.

The IDF is currently facing a shortage of approximately 12,000 personnel, including about 7,500 combat soldiers, while reserve forces continue to face growing strain.

During a recent Cabinet discussion, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir delivered a stark warning to ministers.

“I am raising 12 red flags,” Zamir said. “The army will collapse into itself.”

The urgency stems from the fact that mandatory service is scheduled to revert to 30 months in January 2027. Military officials warn that without legislation extending service to 36 months, the IDF could lose the equivalent of an entire enlistment cycle.

Military officials say extending service is not merely a recommendation but an operational necessity, intended to reduce pressure on reserve forces, strengthen regular army units, and provide relief to conscript soldiers who have spent extended periods in continuous operational activity.

The IDF reportedly views the next two weeks as a final opportunity to advance the legislation. Officials are concerned that if the Knesset is dissolved and new elections are called, the legislative process could be frozen for an extended period, further worsening the manpower shortage.

The proposal to extend mandatory service to 36 months is currently before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee after passing its first reading in July 2024. The bill would apply to all future draft cycles and also includes a financial compensation plan for soldiers required to serve the longer term.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The parents of two young girls who were hospitalized after consuming a baby fruit puree product say they endured a harrowing ordeal that included police questioning as suspected child abusers, despite repeatedly warning authorities that they believed the product itself was responsible.

The case came to light after Israel’s Health Ministry announced that laboratory testing of certain jars of “Prinok” baby fruit puree detected the presence of clonazepam and lorazepam, prescription medications from the benzodiazepine family commonly used as sedatives.

Speaking to Radio 103FM, Yael Biton recounted the terrifying moments after her daughters consumed the puree.

“It was a serious nightmare,” she said. “I ran home and found my daughters unconscious. The older one was in my husband’s arms, and the baby was in my daughter’s arms. All the children in the house were crying and screaming because they didn’t understand what had happened. They ate three spoonfuls and collapsed onto the floor.”

The girls were rushed to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, where doctors conducted extensive testing.

“They discovered benzodiazepines in their urine—very powerful sedatives—and in an enormous quantity,” Biton said. “The moment we arrived, I asked if the girls were okay. They told me they were stable. I immediately said, ‘Take the jar that’s in my bag. This jar is poisoned. There is something wrong with it. It cannot be a coincidence that they collapsed immediately afterward.’”

According to Biton, the puree had been fed to the girls by her 11-year-old daughter, who has since struggled with intense emotional trauma.

“She suffered a real shock,” Biton said. “She started vomiting and kept saying, ‘I gave it to them. Why did I give it to them?’ She felt tremendous guilt. I had to explain that feeding baby food is a completely normal thing to do. No one could have imagined something like this.”

Biton also said the jar’s unusual seal raised suspicions from the outset.

“My daughter told me it was very difficult to open. She didn’t hear the usual popping sound when it opened, but because it was sealed so tightly she didn’t think anything of it. Looking back, it seems very unusual.”

Adding to the family’s distress, Biton said she and her husband were later taken in for police questioning.

“Two days later, my husband and I were brought in for questioning as suspects in child abuse,” she said. “Our daughters were hospitalized, and at the same time investigators were treating us as suspects. It was extremely traumatic.”

She said she repeatedly urged investigators to examine the baby food jar and even suggested the possibility of criminal tampering.

“I told the investigator from the beginning that someone may have interfered with these jars,” Biton said. “Whether it was criminal or nationalistic in nature, I said the first thing they needed to do was test the puree.”

Biton noted that another similar case was reported last week and that she has spoken with the affected family.

“They described the exact same symptoms,” she said. “They also said the jar was sealed unusually tightly. That only strengthened the suspicion that someone may have tampered with the product and then resealed it.”

Israeli authorities continue to investigate how the medications found their way into the baby food products and whether the contamination was accidental or the result of deliberate tampering.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

A federal judge ruled Thursday that legal challenges to President Trump’s executive order on election procedures can proceed as they relate to the 2026 midterm elections, while declining to consider broader objections tied to future elections that have yet to take shape.

The lawsuits, filed separately in April by Democratic-led states and voter advocacy organizations, seek to block Trump’s executive order, which includes new requirements for verifying voter citizenship and places additional restrictions on mail-in voting.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani rejected the administration’s request to throw out the lawsuits entirely, concluding that concerns surrounding the upcoming midterms are ripe for judicial review.

“In light of the EO’s specific deadlines over the next three months, and the reality that elections will be occurring throughout this period with the November 3, 2026 midterm occurring in just five months, postponing judicial review is impracticable and may inflict significant hardship on Plaintiffs,” Talwani wrote in a 17-page consolidated order.

The judge, however, drew a line when it came to challenges involving elections beyond 2026, noting that significant questions remain about how federal agencies will ultimately carry out the order.

Talwani wrote that there were “many uncertainties” surrounding implementation and said it would be premature to evaluate claims involving future election cycles.

The judge was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, which is leading the multistate lawsuit, welcomed the decision.

“We are pleased that the Trump Administration’s attempt to dismiss our lawsuit as premature was rejected with respect to the upcoming November midterm elections,” a spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) told The Hill in a statement.

“The case will now move forward to a decision on the remaining disputed issues, and we remain confident that the law is on our side,” the spokesperson added.

Since returning to office, Trump has pushed for significant changes to federal election procedures, arguing that mail-in voting and instances of noncitizens casting ballots have undermined election integrity, though evidence supporting widespread fraud remains limited.

Trump himself has voted by mail in several elections, including a recent special election in Florida.

Signed in March, the executive order directs Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to coordinate with the Social Security Administration to create a database of verified U.S. citizens eligible to vote. Under the order, the U.S. Postal Service would be prohibited from sending ballots to individuals not included on that list.

The directive also instructs the attorney general to prioritize investigations and prosecutions involving allegations that ballots were distributed to individuals deemed ineligible to vote.

“The Trump Administration will continue to fight for the agenda the President was elected on – which includes the safety and security of our nation’s elections,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said on Thursday. “This very campaign pledge from the President is why millions of Americans sent him back to the White House. Election security is common sense, and Democrats owe it to the American people to support the President’s mission to secure our elections.”

The executive order quickly triggered a wave of legal challenges from nearly two dozen states, the District of Columbia, and several voting-rights organizations, all of which contend that the measure exceeds presidential authority and could prevent eligible citizens from voting.

The plaintiffs argue that states—not the federal government—hold primary authority over election administration. They also maintain that complying with the order would require substantial expenditures of time and resources while creating confusion among voters and election officials.

“We are grateful the court recognized the urgency and stakes of this case and allowed our lawsuit to proceed with respect to this year’s elections,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other plaintiffs said in a joint statement on Thursday.

“The court will now move to consider our preliminary injunction and other pending motions. And we will continue to fight to protect the millions of people who rely on mail-in voting and to ensure that every eligible voter is able to fairly cast their ballot.”

The ruling comes just weeks after another federal judge in Washington declined to block the same executive order in a separate lawsuit brought by Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, the NAACP, and the League of United Latin American Citizens.

That decision is currently being appealed.

{Matzav.com}

Chobani is bringing a Dubai chocolate-inspired coffee creamer to Costco stores nationwide, becoming the latest food and beverage company to capitalize on consumer demand for the viral flavor combination.

The yogurt maker’s new Pistachio Chocolate Coffee Creamer joins a growing list of Dubai chocolate-inspired products that have emerged as the trend expands beyond candy into coffee, shakes and other beverages. Companies including Starbucks, Shake Shack and Pepsi have all introduced products tied to the pistachio-and-chocolate flavor profile that gained popularity on social media.

Dubai chocolate typically refers to chocolate bars filled with pistachio cream and crispy kataifi pastry. The confection gained widespread attention on social media before inspiring a growing number of spin-off products across the food and beverage industry.

COSTCO SHOPPERS STOCK UP ON CULT-FAVORITE COOKIES AS DEMAND SURGES NATIONWIDE

The new creamer is part of Chobani’s limited-run Flavor Drop line and will be sold exclusively at Costco. The company said the product features flavors of roasted pistachio and milk chocolate and is made with farm-fresh milk and real cream.

Retail exclusives and limited-time offerings have become increasingly common tools for consumer brands looking to generate buzz and drive sales. The strategy can also help companies test consumer demand for new products before considering a wider rollout.

The launch comes as food and beverage companies increasingly look to limited-edition products and viral food trends to drive consumer engagement and retail sales. Industry brands have moved quickly to introduce Dubai chocolate-inspired offerings as consumers continue to seek out products tied to the trend.

COSTCO SAYS ITS GAS STATIONS SET ALL-TIME VOLUME RECORDS AS CONSUMERS SEEK LOWER-PRICED FUEL

Chobani has expanded its creamer lineup in recent months with several seasonal and limited-edition flavors, including S’mores, Cookies and Cream and Cookie Butter. Earlier this year, the company also introduced an American Blueberry Flavor Drop tied to the upcoming America250 celebration.

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The Pistachio Chocolate creamer is arriving at Costco warehouses nationwide. Chobani said the suggested retail price is $7.49 for a 52-ounce bottle, though pricing may vary by location.

The product’s release underscores the staying power of the Dubai chocolate trend, which has evolved from a social media sensation into a broader consumer packaged goods opportunity as brands compete for shoppers’ attention in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

The Interior Department drew attention Thursday after using a comparison to the Iranian navy while celebrating progress in cleaning the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool following a costly renovation project.

In a post on X, the department highlighted the success of a new algae-fighting system installed at the historic Washington landmark.

“The advanced nanobubbler technology very effectively killed the algae that has plagued every Lincoln Reflecting Pool reopening—most infamously [former President] Obama’s reopening—since 1922,” the department’s press team wrote on social platform X.

Officials then took the comparison a step further, likening the dead algae at the bottom of the pool to Iranian naval vessels destroyed during recent military operations.

“The Reflecting Pool water is crystal clear, and our National Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the Reflecting Pool—just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” the department added.

The remark comes after extensive U.S. and Israeli military strikes against Iran. Earlier this year, U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper stated that more than 60 Iranian vessels had been struck during the opening stages of the conflict.

The Reflecting Pool’s latest problems emerged only days after completion of a renovation project that cost more than $13 million. Shortly after the work concluded, the water turned green because of an algae bloom.

In Thursday’s update, the Interior Department said the vacuuming process represents “is the final maintenance step” after the pool was refilled and noted that the work “will be complete in a few days.”

The agency also released a photograph showing noticeably clearer water and pointed to the appearance of the pool’s bottom surface.

“Already, the section of the Reflecting Pool closest to the Lincoln Memorial has been vacuumed up, and the beautiful American Flag Blue coating on the bottom of the pool can be seen clearly.”

A department spokesperson told The Hill that crews are using hydrogen peroxide treatments to eliminate the algae and said the process carries “no harmful side effects” for aquatic life or the surrounding environment.

“The nanobubble technology has been tested and validated by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), The Ohio State University and The University of Florida,” the spokesperson added.

According to a federal contract worth more than $1.7 million between the Interior Department and Green Water Solutions, the nanobubble system is designed to reduce algae growth by depriving it of the nutrients it needs to thrive.

The technology works by injecting ozone-filled nanobubbles into the water. Those bubbles react chemically to generate oxidizing agents that attach to contaminants, toxins, and organic material, breaking them down.

Algae have long been a recurring challenge at the Reflecting Pool. The problem has persisted since the memorial opened in 1922 and has resurfaced after previous restoration efforts, including renovations completed during the Obama administration.

{Matzav.com}

A first-year bochur at Yeshivas Grodna in Be’er Yaakov claims he was violently assaulted and wrongfully arrested by police after inadvertently finding himself near a recent anti-draft demonstration, according to reports in the Chareidi media.

The bochur, a minor, reportedly sat down on a nearby sidewalk after encountering the demonstration and insists he took no part in the protest. Despite this, he alleges that a police officer suddenly attacked him, twisting his arm while he repeatedly cried out that he had done nothing wrong.

According to the report, the officer continued using force before taking the bochur into custody.

The yeshiva student was allegedly held overnight in a detention cell alongside criminal suspects accused of serious offenses. The report claims he was forced to remain in the cell throughout the night despite not being suspected of any crime.

The following morning, police reportedly acknowledged in court that the bochur was not a suspect in any offense, and the court ordered his immediate release.

The incident comes amid growing scrutiny of police conduct during recent anti-draft protests. Footage circulated this week from demonstrations on Route 4 appeared to show officers using force against Chareidi protesters, including one officer who was later suspended after being filmed kicking a demonstrator lying on the ground.

The allegations have fueled renewed calls from Chareidi public figures for an independent review of police conduct during demonstrations.

Israel Police has not publicly responded to the specific allegations involving the Grodna yeshiva bochur.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Iran will invite the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency to inspect its nuclear sites and begin work on identifying enriched material sites, US envoy Steve Witkoff told US officials in a private briefing on Thursday, The Associated Press reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. 

Witkoff clarified that although the US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) did not include any “side deals,” a “side letter” had been drafted between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

The letter, said Witkoff, extended an invitation to IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi and would allow him to bring US nuclear inspectors to Tehran, added AP.

The MoU signed this week between US President Donald Trump and Iranian officials outlines only a general path toward curbing Iran’s nuclear activities, with no specific commitments from Tehran other than to discuss nuclear issues in the 60-day window.

Enriched material not to be removed, but diluted

In a leaked version of the text, Washington and Tehran agreed that Iran’s enriched nuclear material will not be removed from the country, but rather be diluted inside of Iran under the supervision of the IAEA. 

The memorandum also establishes limits on US forces in the region and states that negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear program will be conducted during the period following the signing of the agreement.

The final resolution of the MoU is set to be endorsed by a binding resolution made by the UN Security Council. 

Reuters, Amichai Stein, and Tobias Holcman contributed to this report. 

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